Police have detained two American men as part of an investigation into the strangling death of an Irish exchange student in Tokyo, local authorities said Sunday.

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Japan: Americans held in Irish death

Say at the end of 2012, Congress can’t strike a budget deal and we reach the dread “fiscal cliff.” Taxes go up, spending gets slashed. Would the U.S. economy fall into recession? The Congressional Budget Office sure thinks so . But Ryan Avent wonders why the Federal Reserve couldn’t just step in. Read full article > >

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Why can’t the Fed just prevent the ‘fiscal cliff’?

Chefs with Issues is a platform for chefs and farmers we love, fired up for causes about which they're passionate. Michael Anthony is the chef-partner at New York City's Gramercy Tavern . Last week, he received the James Beard Award for Best Chef NYC – but he almost didn't live to see that day. In late October of last year, I underwent open heart surgery. There was no warning, no history of disease, no serious abuse that led the inner lining of my ascending aorta to tear. Sometimes things just break. While attending a signing for the Eleven Madison Park Cookbook , I began experiencing chest pain. As I think anyone else my age (early 40s) would feel in that moment, I was in complete disbelief. I was both embarrassed that I might pass out and concerned that whatever I was experiencing might keep me from celebrating my colleagues’ big moment. After a quick exit, I returned to Gramercy Tavern. I knew something was seriously wrong. I was rushed to Beth Israel Hospital. Within a few hours of arriving, it was determined that I needed emergency open heart surgery. There was very little time to spend with my wife, no chance to see my children and no second option. Strange how a lifetime is ultimately translated into only minutes – clarified, distilled, precise and yet unfair. There was just enough time to gather what was wrong with my heart and who was sent to fix it: Dr. Charles Geller . In times like this we can feel thankful for competent, well-trained, extremely disciplined professionals like him. Yet what I was most struck with was his warm and confident smile. Maybe because I was introduced to him while lying on my back, it seemed clear by his build that Dr. Geller was no stranger to the pleasures of the table. He asked me about my profession and seemed to shudder with excitement when I told him about being a chef. He allowed me, despite the intensity of the moment, to believe that he was on my side. He explained calmly what we were about to experience together. In an instant, I became indebted to him forever. I woke up a day later with many questions swirling through my head. The immediacy of the surgery hadn’t allowed me to contemplate what this might mean for my career as a chef. There had been more pressing issues at hand. Now that I had made it through and was starting to wrap my head around what happened, I wondered if my body, the body that had just betrayed me, would recover enough to allow me to return to the kitchen. I also wondered why this had happened to me. Why now? I have always felt proud of my diet and the health-conscious cooking that we serve at the restaurant. I lead a balanced lifestyle, but wondered if this condition was at all related to my being a chef. While some of my larger questions have remained unanswered, I have since been told by a number of doctors that it does not seem likely that my diet or lifestyle had much of an effect on my condition. What I did learn from this experience was what I took away from the hospital staff, who left me feeling the same as Dr. Geller did, which was deeply cared for. The optimism and warmth I received from them was overwhelming and powerful. Of course, these folks were carefully trained to perform the technical aspects of their jobs, but what stood out to me was how they listened to me and responded with thoughtful and gracious gestures. They rose above the call of duty to be encouraging, which stiffened my resolve to bounce back. When I returned home from the hospital, I didn’t know where to start. Would I have a different outlook on life? On cooking? How would this experience change me? Eventually, I realized that at the core of this powerful exchange was hospitality – the very same force that distinguishes what we do every day at Gramercy Tavern. It is all of the caring things the staff did to make me feel they were genuinely on my side that I will remember long after the memory of the names of the drugs and the details of my surgery fade. After my surgery and homecoming, the gestures of encouragement poured in: get well cards, concerned emails, thoughtfully chosen books and poems, inspirational movies and carefully packed handmade food. I appreciated everyone who reached out during this time, but it dawned on me that the cooks had a special ability to connect and communicate by the food they shared . Some simply nourished and others dazzled but everyone told a story. With the help of these restaurant folk and their deliveries, I eased my way back in to being myself again by tasting each expression: barley and basil brought solidarity in tough times, kale and beet salad reconnected me with the garden, chicken fricassee invoked nostalgia, parsnip soup acted like a familiar handshake, poached lemon char sparked dreams, chocolate chip cookies felt just like a pat on the back. Each bite made me feel a profound sense of thanks to those who lent a hand or a meal when I needed it most. Through the careful choices and deliberate styles, informal gestures and intricate work, whether immediately consumed or painstakingly preserved, we communicate so much with those who are at the receiving end of a thoughtful meal. Their gestures pushed me to develop enough strength to return to the kitchen to reenter this dialogue, and this generosity of spirit made me feel unbelievably proud to belong to the restaurant industry. While we work day in and day out to provide for our guests, my experience reminded me why taking care of each other comes first. Previously – Serving up gratitude in troubled times What have food-based gestures of kindness in troubled times mean to you? We'd love to hear your story in the comments below.

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Chefs with Issues: Food for the heart

ISTANBUL — After three decades of persecution that virtually eradicated its presence, the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood has resurrected itself to become the dominant group in the fragmented opposition movement pursuing a 14-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. Read full article > >

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Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood is gaining influence over anti-Assad revolt

To court the Latino, LGBT vote in NYC.

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Ricky Martin to Host Obama Fundraiser

A House committee has approved a bill to allow federal employees to phase into retirement by continuing to work part-time while collecting a partial annuity, while a Senate panel has brought out a budget plan that calls for making federal retirement benefits less generous. Read full article > >

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Phased retirement plan for federal employees advances

GOP has rallied behind Mitt.

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Poll: Obama, Romney in Dead Heat

President Obama said Sunday that he wants the investigation of the prostitution scandal that led 11 U.S. Secret Service agents to be returned home from Cartagena, Colombia, where they had been sent to provide protection for him, to be thorough and rigorous. Read full article > >

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Obama calls for thorough inquiry in Secret Service prostitution scandal

COLUMBUS, Ind. — The lead story in the morning paper had delivered just the latest kick in the shins to Richard G. Lugar in the hottest Senate primary in the country. “Like many Senate Republicans who have spent a few decades in Washington,” it said, “U.S. Senator Richard Lugar was for the individual health mandate before he was against it.” Read full article > >

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Richard Lugar: Too mild to be memorable?

COLUMBUS, Ind. — The lead story in the morning paper had delivered just the latest kick in the shins to Richard G. Lugar in the hottest Senate primary in the country. “Like many Senate Republicans who have spent a few decades in Washington,” it said, “U.S. Senator Richard Lugar was for the individual health mandate before he was against it.” Read full article > >

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Richard Lugar: Too mild to be memorable?

I worried about my back. It went into spasm just a week before the scheduled start of a three-day trek through the Ten Thousand Islands on the Florida Everglades’ WildernessWaterway. Even sitting at my computer for long stretches aggravated the tightness in my muscles. How would they hold up to hours of tough paddling while seated in the cramped cockpit of a kayak, followed by nights separated from the hard ground by nothingmore than a thin sleeping pad? Read full article > >

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Kayaking the Florida Everglades, if you dare

From almost being hit by NYC taxi.

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Woman: Ryan Gosling Rescued Me

Nobody in 1895 would have thought that a difference of just two feet might one day influence more than 40,000 jobs in the 21st century. The final spike in the transcontinental railroad had been hammered down just 26 years earlier, and with railroad companies in hot competition, a tunnel was built under the heart of Baltimore to serve one of them. Read full article > >

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Aging Baltimore tunnel a threat to shipping economy for the city and Maryland

After 18 months of waiting, an average of 3.5 million people tuned in Sunday to watch “Mad Men’s” fifth-season debut. That’s a series best for the show — and about 600,000 more people than watched the fourth-season debut in July 2010. “Mad Men” had been off the air since October 2010, following the fourth-season finale, as the studio, the network and the creator wrangled over this and that — product placement within the show, adding another ad break, creator’s salary, blah, blah, blah. Read full article > >

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The TV Column: ‘Mad Men’ season five premiere draws 3.5 million viewers

Click to watch video Previously – Bagels, water and an urban legend and Schmeary-eyed fans mourn closing of iconic NYC bagel shop

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Brouhaha after bagged bagels nab top slot