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Photographs of the First Snow of the Season on Twitter

By JENNIFER PRESTON

An early-season snowstorm blanketed northwestern Minnesota and parts of North Dakota on Thursday, shutting schools, pulling down power lines and making trouble for farmers already struggling to salvage crops from the worst drought in 50 years.

As my colleague Timothy Williams reports, the heaviest snow fell on the small town of Roseau, Minn., 10 miles from the Canadian border. It got 14 inches.

Daryl Ritchison, a meteorologist for television and radio stations in Fargo, N.D., said that snow this time of year was unusual, even for North Dakota.

On his Twitter feed, Mr. Ritchison shared photos from viewers showing the effects of the storm, including two submitted by Douglas Langer from Thief River Falls, Minn.

In northwestern Minnesota, snow continued falling Friday morning. The official Twitter account for Sgt. Jesse Grabow, the Northwestern Minnesota State Patrol public information officer, reported at least one fatality related to the storm.

The wintry weather meant classes were canceled or delayed for many students.

For some farmers, including those in the fertile Red River Valley, the snow and sudden drop in temperature made a difficult harvest even more challenging as it raised concern about soybeans and late-maturing corn.

In Denver, people woke up on Friday to find the first snow of the season, inspiri ng some to snap photos of the layer covering their windshields, patios and backyards - or an image of a snow-covered football field, which is what Brock Osweiler, the backup quarterback for the Denver Broncos, shared on Twitter.

In Colorado, ski resorts quickly got out the message that they had snow, sending photos of ski runs and a hashtag, #WinterIsBack

As the snow and strong cold front continued to move east, promising below-normal temperatures for the East Coast this weekend, the updates on Twitter continued, including posts expressing dismay that yes, #WinterIsHere.



Campaign Over, Venezuelans Are Left to Tensely Wait (and Tweet)

By ELIAS E. LOPEZ
Supporters of President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela at a campaign rally this week.

There were no debates but plenty of vitriol, and now Venezuela's intense and sometimes surreal presidential campaign is officially over.

The two candidates in the oil-rich country, President Hugo Chávez and Henrique Capriles Radonski, ended their campaigns on Thursday with huge rallies and one final pitch during televised interviews before the polls open on Sunday.

Supporters of Henrique Capriles Radonski, the opposition candidate in Sunday's presidential election in Venezuela.

After nearly 14 years in charge, Mr. Chávez is facing his strongest political challenge in Mr. Capriles as his government struggles with rampant crime, food shortages and high inflation. He still enjoys strong backing among many of the poor who have benefited f rom his social programs, but with that support somewhat eroded, the fate of his 21st century socialist revolution may hang in the balance.

As my colleague William Neuman reports today, polls give no clear winner and many Venezuelans are “anxious about casting their ballot out of fear that voting against the president can mean being fired from a government job, losing a government-built home or being cut off from social welfare benefits.”

“There is wide agreement that Mr. Chávez is vulnerable as never before,” he writes. “Handicapping the election is complicated by the angst felt by many Venezuelans that a simple vote for the opposition could bring retaliation.”

But over the last several months, Mr. Chávez, 58, and Mr. Capriles, 40, engaged in a fierce battle and now the country is ready to vote.

On Thursday, under an unrelenting rain in Caracas, Mr. Chávez addressed thousands of his supporters, most dressed in the red of his political m ovement, and urged them to turn “this Bolivarian avalanche that has traveled the country” into an “avalanche of votes next Sunday.”

“We'll give a beating to the bourgeoisie,” Mr. Chavez roared.

Ever the master showman, he then led the crowd with a traditional song dedicated to Venezuela. “I feel your light and your aroma in my skin” he sang.

Hugo Chávez sang to his supporters in Caracas on Thursday.

His campaign came under attack after the rally, with the opposition charging that most people in attendance had been bused in from all over the country. A Capriles supporter on Twitter sought to drive the point home with the help of Photoshop.

But Mr. Chávez waged a strong campaign despite a fight with cancer, although ques tions still remain about his health. He did follow a lighter schedule than in past elections, choosing his appearances strategically and keeping his famously lengthy speeches in check. He also never mentioned his opponent by name, opting to taunt him with insults like “imperialist” and “majunche,” which roughly translates to slob or loser.

Mr. Capriles, on the other hand, avoided confronting the president directly, saying Venezuelans were tired of Mr. Chávez's insults and ready for someone to unite the deeply polarized country. The young governor of Miranda, one of the country's most populous states, also visited hundreds of cities and small towns in a campaign that began “casa por casa” â€" or house by house â€" and succeeded in siphoning support from Chavista strongholds.

An annotated Google map produced by the newspaper El Universal shows the sites visited by Mr. Capriles in blue, and by Mr. Chavez in red.


View Recorrido de los candidatos presidenciales in a larger map

Though the opposition this time is united under the young and vibrant Mr. Capriles, Mr. Chávez still has vast advantages, including tight control over a state apparatus that includes the coffers of the national oil company PDVSA.

During an interview Thursday night with an opposition channel, Mr. Capriles looked directly at the camera and, with a hoarse voice, said, “I want you to think about the life that you have and the life that you could have. We all know that we can do better.”

Interview with Henrique Capriles Radonski on the last day of the campaign in Venezuela.

Mr. Capriles wore his signature baseball cap with the colors of the Venezuelan flag â€" an accessory that earned him a rebuke from election officials for violating campaign laws that forbid candidates from using national symbols. As Francisco Toro, who blogs at Caracas Chronicles, explai ned in a post on our Latitude blog in August, the cap became a symbol of its own among the opposition and even got its own account on Twitter.

Ironically, an update to that account on Friday reminded voters to respect campaign rules and not to wear the popular cap to the polls.

Social networks have become useful tools for political activism in Venezuela, where Mr.Chávez's government has been gradually dismantling more independent outlets and building a state-run media empire, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

But the government has also embraced Twitter and Facebook to counter opponents and rally supporters. In June, Mr. Chavez even awarded a young woman a new home for becoming the three millionth follower of @chavezcandanga.

So even if the presidential campaign is officially over in the physical world, the battle rages online, where many vent, speculate and argue while they tensely wait for the outcome.



Romney\'s Attack on Big Bird Sows Confusion Abroad, and Feeds It at Home

By ROBERT MACKEY
Video from Le Monde of Mitt Romney's promise to cut the federal subsidy for public broadcasting during Wednesday's debate.

Mitt Romney's promise, during Wednesday debate, to cut into America's debt by ending the federal subsidy for public broadcasting generated an Internet backlash, and at least one popular new Twitter account, largely because the former management consultant appeared to suggest that the beloved “Sesame Street” character Big Bird was surplus to requirements.

Mr. Romney's decision to run against Big Bird gladdened American conservatives, who have long complained of a liberal bias on public television and radio channels, but puzzled many viewers abroad, where local versions of the educational program are po pular and well-respected. In France, Le Monde reported that the slight against le Gros Oiseau threatened to spiral into “l'affaire Big Bird,” after President Barack Obama - experiencing a certain esprit d'escalier - came up, a day late, with the retort: “Thank goodness somebody is finally getting tough on Big Bird. It's about time. We didn't know that Big Bird was driving the federal deficit.”

The German magazine Der Spiegel explained to readers that Mr. Romney's threat to the character viewers of “Sesamstrasse” know as Bibo generated a Twitter-Sturm during the debate that reached maximum intensity in just 20 minutes.

A sad day for Bibo, the German version of Big Bird.

In a useful round-up of the comic images of an unemployed Big Bird circulating on social networks, the Brazilian newspaper O Globo reported, somewhat inaccurately, that Mr. Romney had tried to soften the blow by first telling viewers, “I love Garibaldo,” which is the name the character goes by in “Vila Sésamo.”

Garibaldo, star of the funkier Brazilian version of “Sesame Street.”

At least some of the confusion among viewers watching the debate from outside the United States centered on the question of how Mr. Romney expected to get votes by pledging to eliminate state support for televised educational programming, and news, which is taken for granted in much of the developed world.

As Joshua Keating explained in a post for Foreign Policy, scholars at NYU reported last year that Americans spend far less per capita on public broadcasting than a representative sample of 13 other nations, includ ing France, Britain, Germany, Japan, Australia and Canada.

Even factoring in money provided by states and local governments, American pay less than $4 a year for the television and radio programming they get from PBS and NPR. Canadians and Australians pay about 8 times more per capita; the French and Japanese 14 times more; Britons 24 times more; Germans 41 times more.

In a statement decrying Mr. Romney's comments, PBS noted, “The federal investment in public broadcasting,” about $500 million a year, “equals about one one-hundredth of one percent of the federal budget.”

In the context of the debate, though, what is probably more important than the fact that Americans actually pay a relatively small amount of money for public broadcasting is evidence that they are convinced they are paying a lot more.

As Politico reported, “Most Americans think public broadcasting receives a much larger share of the federal budget than it actually does,” according to a poll conducted for CNN last year. The results of that survey, which asked respondents to estimate what share of the federal budget was spent on certain programs, found that just 27 percent of Americans knew that the money for PBS and NPR was less than 1 percent of government spending. Remarkably, 40 percent guessed that the share was between 1 and 5 percent and 30 percent said it was in excess of 5 percent - including 7 percent who said that more than half of the federal budget was spent on television and radio broadcasts.

Asked if the spending on PBS and NPR should change, 53 percent called for it to be increased or stay the same, while just 16 percent said it should be eliminated entirely.

It might seem strange for anyone who knows that the federal government spends so little on PBS to begin a discussion of necessary cuts there, but perhaps Mr. Romney has calculated that the undecided voters he is chasing might be among the three-quarters of the American population that thinks the subsidy is far, far larger than it is.

A spokeswoman for PBS, Anne Bentley, told USA Today that the Congressional subsidy does not go to PBS, or NPR, but to local stations around the U.S. that pay fees in exchange for broadcast rights to their programs, which are produced with donations and revenue from other sources. Ms. Bentley added that Congressional support accounts for up to 50 percent of the operating budgets for some local stations in rural areas. “They're really in jeopardy of going dark if they don't receive funding.”

The producers of “Sesame Street,” offered a comic tweet in the voice of Big Bird the morning after the debate, and a statement explaining that while they are “a nonpartisan, nonprofit, educational organization,” they are also “dependent on PBS to distribute our commercial-free educational programming to all children in the United States.”

Without support from the public, educational programming would be interrupted by commercials and need to take the concerns of advertisers for higher ratings into account.

As Alyssa Rosenberg noted on the liberal Web site Think Progress, Mr. Romney has been talking about Big Bird on the campaign trail. In an exchange with a voter concerned about the federal debt caught on camera by CNN in Iowa last December, he said: “I'm going to see PBS is going to have to have advertisement. We're not going to kill Big Bird, but Big Bird's going to have advertisements.”



Gandhi Family Member Accused of Illegal Land Deals

October 5, 2012, 11:25 am
By HARI KUMAR

Anti-corruption activists on Friday accused Robert Vadra, the son-in-law of the Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi, of being involved in illegal land deals with a major real estate company.

Arvind Kejriwal of India Against Corruption said in a news conference that Mr. Vadra's five companies received an unsecured, interest-free loan of 650 million rupees ($12.5 million) from the real estate firm DLF, even though the companies were valued at only 5 million rupees. Mr. Kejriwal also alleged that the money was used to buy properties from DLF at below-market rates.

The activist provided a list of properties that he said were owned by Mr. Vadra and the balance sheets of his c ompanies, alleging that Mr. Vadra was able to buy properties worth 3 billion rupees even though his companies were worth much less as collateral.

“Prima facie, the facts above show commission of offenses under the Prevention of Corruption Act, as well offenses under the Income Tax Act. Why are these ostensible offenses not being investigates?” said a statement from Mr. Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan, another India Against Corruption activist.
Sandeep Dikshit, a Congress spokesman, told CNN-IBN, a private news channel, “I am sure wherever his properties are, he will be able to give his clarification.”

Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari called the allegations “baseless, misconceived and utterly irresponsible” Friday evening, and local news reported that Mr. Vadra's mother-in-law defended him.

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, spokesman of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, said, “This is a serious matter, and it should be investigated thoroughly.”



Image of the Day: October 5

October 5, 2012, 11:28 am
By THE NEW YORK TIMES

In Kashmir, Rahul Gandhi Talks Business, But Disappoints Students

October 5, 2012, 11:10 am
By BETWA SHARMA

Rifat Mohidin, a journalism student, was disappointed after her first interaction with Rahul Gandhi, Congress Party's general secretary, at Kashmir University on Friday. Ms. Mohidin, 19, wanted to ask Mr. Gandhi about providing security to Kashmiris when they traveled to other parts of India.

“But I was not allowed to ask any of my questions,” she said. “I went there with a lot of hope, but my hopes were shattered.” (Read Ms. Mohidin's full opinion of the discussion here.)

Mr. Gandhi's two-day visit to Kashmir this week reiterated his message made during a visit in September 2011: he said he wanted to understand the pain of violence-stricken Kashmiris, as well as connect the Kashmiri youth wi th economic opportunities.

Shreen Hamdani, a 21-year-old journalism student, said that the interaction was only an hour long because it started late, and teachers stopped students from asking any political questions.

“When people came out, they said it was a waste of time,” she said. “But once Rahul himself said instability was the cause of lack of investment here - I wish they had allowed the interaction to be more natural like that.” (Read Ms. Hamdani's full opinion here.)

Much of Mr. Gandhi's rhetoric these past two days has emotional underpinnings. On Thursday, the 42-year-old politician, accompanied by Omar Abdullah, Jammu and Kashmir's chief minister, laid the foundation of the Z-Morh Bridge between Kashmir and Ladakh. In his address to Kashmiris, the heir apparent of the Congress Party reminded them that his family also hailed from the valley.

Observers said he struck a shrewd chord by presenting himself as youth leader instead of a politician. Many people in Kashmir blame the Congress Party for denying the region autonomy after India's independence, when Mr. Gandhi's grandfather, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, was leading the country.

“There has been too much political manipulation over the years by Congress,” said Gul Mohammed Wani, who teaches political science at Kashmir University. “It would be good if Rahul said that ‘our record in the past has not been good but I'm here for the youth and to listen to their concerns.' ”

For Friday's session with students, Mr. Gandhi invited Ratan Tata, Tata Group's chairman; Kumar Mangalam Birla, Aditya Birla Group's chairman; Rajiv Bajaj, managing director of Bajaj Auto, and Deepak Parekh, HDFC chairman.

Students said these industrialists talked about offering internships in their companies as well as training programs on the college campus, but they did not mention any concrete plans to invest in the valley .

Some local business experts, however, said they thought the session was a futile exercise.

Nisar Ali, a prominent economist and director of J&K Bank, said that such promises had been made before but not fulfilled. Mr. Ali explained that big improvements would come not by recruiting a handful of Kashmiri youths in other states but through investing in Kashmir, especially in the manufacturing of consumer goods.

“The youths don't have to be motivated. They are already so eager to take up any opportunity because there is so little here,” he said. “But investment will not happen unless the government can solve the huge power crisis we have here.”

While appealing for peace during violent protests in 2010, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised that his government would help Kashmiri youths find jobs in both the public and private sector. In March of this year, P. Chidambaram, then the home minister, created Udaan, a Web site that aims to connect K ashmir's unemployed youth with corporations.

Currently, the number of unemployed youth in Jammu and Kashmir state is estimated to be 700,000, with 370,000 in the valley alone, which has a population of 7.2 million.

Kashmir students on Friday seemed divided between those who were willing to give Mr. Gandhi a chance, like Ms. Hamdani and Ms. Mohidin, and those who opposed his presence on campus.

In the morning, about 100 students held a small protest near the campus library, at a distance from the convention center. “Rahul, go back!” the crowd shouted. The protesters said that the presence of heavy security prevented any larger demonstrations.

But near 12:30 pm, the students moved closer the convention center where the session was being held. A college student, who said he did not want to be identified to avoid any attention from the government, said the group was shouting slogans praising Osama bin Laden and the Taliban chief Mullah Muhammad Omar.< /p>

“By the time they reached the convocation hall, Rahul had left from the back,” the student said. “But I think Rahul may have heard the slogans because it was very loud.” The protestors also booed their classmates who attended the discussion.

Protesting students said they thought Mr. Gandhi's visit was a sham because the university authorities handpicked the student audience, after carrying out background checks on their political leanings. “They doctored the questions, they coached students, they did not allow students with beards to go in, they controlled everything,” said Ahmed, a student protester who requested that his full name not be used to avoid being identified by government authorities.

Ahmed said he and other protesters were concerned that India's central government was furthering its agenda of Kashmir's integration under the guise of economic opportunities. “We are not against Ratan Tata, Aditya Birla or anyone so the university ca n invite them,” he said. “We are not antidevelopment, but why is the university bringing in Indian politicians again and again?”

Students said they were also angry that Kashmir's University Students Union, or K.U.S.U., was banned from campus by university authorities, but political party-backed student groups, including the Congress Party's National Students Union of India, or N.S.U.I., were allowed to operate.

“Allowing Rahul Gandhi and N.S.U.I. in the campus while the ban of K.U.S.U. continues is absolutely pathetic and smacks of obnoxious prejudice,” read a press release issued by Kashmir union.

 



What I Thought Of Rahul Gandhi\'s Visit to Kashmir

By SHREEN HAMDANI

Everybody in the Kashmir University auditorium was excited, as I was, to interact with Rahul Gandhi and other business tycoons accompanying him on Friday.

Mr. Gandhi, an eminent business leader himself, felicitated the panel of guests on the dais. He seemed so courteous, filling glasses of water for his counterparts. I liked his attitude, because he behaved as a host rather than guest. The interactive session, though, began an hour later than it was scheduled.

Mr. Gandhi has kept his promise of being in communication with Kashmir for the long run, which he made during a 2011 visit. He said Friday he believes that the youth in J&K state are dynamic and they should explore their talents in different sectors. He also said he believes there should not be a trust deficit among people. He wants to build truthful relations and strong bonds with the youth of the state, he said.

Ratan Tata, A ditya Birla and other members of the panel also expressed their views. They shared excellent remarks from youths they interacted with, and said they believe in the past two and a half years many opportunities have proliferated in India. Mr. Gandhi said the reason the Kashmir youth lack opportunities is because of the instability and context of Kashmir.

Though, I fail to understand how we are supposed to trust people who in turn do not trust us.

Being a journalism student, I felt especially upset when I was not allowed to carry a simple pen with me to the interaction. I cannot reckon how a pen can create insecurity for these leaders.

I wanted to exchange my views and thoughts, as did many others, but there was a lack of freedom. The session seemed geared towards specific questions, not one about politics but those related only to business.

Apart from posing queries, the audience also shared some relevant suggestions. They included investments in the c orporate sector and software companies in the state.

Mr. Gandhi and other members paid heed to these suggestions.

When wrapping up, Mr. Gandhi again showed his courteous behavior by saying it was time to wrap up the session for Friday prayers.

The session lasted for an hour. I believe it would have been much better if the interaction lasted for a bit longer and was less biased towards business.

Shreen Hamdani is a 21-year-old journalism student at the Government College for Women in Srinagar.



What I Thought of Rahul Gandhi\'s Visit to Kashmir

By RIFAT MOHIDIN

I saw Rahul Gandhi in an earlier televised speech, during which he said that he wants to hear the deep voices of Kashmiri youth and wants to solve their problems. I was a bit interested. I wanted to tell him what my heart says.

Rahul said that he wanted to construct bridges. And that exactly was the title of the conference on Friday â€" “Building Bridges.” I had thought that the young leader of India was in the Himalayan region of Kashmir to answer the questions of Kashmiri youth, to build a long bond with them, to resolve all the differences, because his speech a day before had given this impression to me.

I was at the interaction, hoping that Rahul would construct a new bridge in Kashmir - a bridge of trust that would be constructed by sincerely answering our questions, the questions for which the people of Kashmir have been seeking answers over the past six decades.

But there I came to know that he is in the valley only to promise us the economic opportunities.

I, being a youth of Kashmir, had many questions in mind. I wanted to ask Rahul Gandhi, who seemed so polite while interacting: Why did the government ban SMS services in Kashmir? Why they arrest Kashmiri youth and children under draconian laws like the Public Safety Act? Why is the Internet blocked in the valley, and, yes, why don't we feel secure in India? I wanted ask what's wrong here that people seek freedom.

When I was moving toward the conference hall, I thought many of these questions would be answered today. But I didn't get answers. I got disappointment.

All of us students were strictly told by our teachers who were accompanying us not to ask any questions related to the politics of Kashmir. We were ordered only to ask questions about jobs in “our India” for “us.” I was least interested in jobs and left quietly when the discussion ended.

I was not th e only one who left the conference with a heavy heart. There were many like me, and the bridge that Rahul wanted to build remained unconstructed. I liked Rahul's way of talking, his politeness as a leader, but I didn't get answers to my questions.

Jobs and development are not our only problem. They are all subsidiaries to a bigger problem - the Kashmir issue. Yes, we need jobs; we need development. But we also want to live like humans with a life of dignity and honor.

Like others, Rahul also praised the picturesque view of Kashmir and praised its people. But is that enough to make this relationship last long? No.

Next time when you want to make a bridge with us, Rahul - and I am sure you will have to make another try because the bridge you tried to build today collapsed even before it was built - please make sure that you hear all the voices, especially the real deep voice.

Rifat Mohidin is a 19-year-old communications student at the Government Colleg e for Women in Srinagar.



Your Suggestions for Renaming the \"Hitler\" Store in Gujarat

By MALAVIKA VYAWAHARE

Last month, India Ink called for suggestions for new names for “Hitler,” a clothing store in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Our readers sent in dozens of ideas, ranging from serious to funny.

Many thought replacing the Nazi dictator's name with a Gujarat native best known for his commitment to nonviolence, Mohandas K. Gandhi, would be appropriate. Others picked popular historical figures like Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela and even dictators like Julius Caesar, the Roman general and statesman. (The store owners themselves said they considered the name of the French dictator Napoleon.)

Cheeky suggestions included “Bunker Mentality,” “Bush Clothing,” “Comrade Modi” for the Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, and “Oy Vey,” a Yiddish expression that means, loosely “Oh, woe.”

“Oy vey” might be the reaction to the store's co-owner Manish Chandnani's current positi on on the name change. Last month, bowing to increasing pressure from international and domestic citizens and officials, including the Israeli consul general, who brought up the issue with Gujarat state officials, the owners said they would change the name.
But the store is still called “Hitler,” which the owners now say they won't remove until they're paid to do it. In an interview last week, Mr. Chandnani said, “There was a lot of pressure on us then, so we had announced that we would change the name, but now there is no pressure, so why should we change the name?”

It all makes one wonder whether  “Publicity Stunt,” as suggested by Denis C. from Montreal, might indeed the most appropriate new name.

However, we picked a different winner: “Mercy,” a name proposed by “friend for life” from the United States. Its meaning, “compassionate or kindly forbearance shown toward an offender,” is what the owners of the Hitler store might want t o hope for. “Friend for life,” please send us your address at IndiaInk@nytimes.com and we will send you a copy of Mr. Gandhi's autobiography, “The Story of My Experiments With Truth.”



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