The Neediest Cases: Medical Bills Crush Brooklyn Man’s Hope of Retiring

Andrea Mohin/The New York Times

John Concepcion and his wife, Maria, in their home in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. They are awaiting even more medical bills.

Retirement was just about a year away, or so John Concepcion thought, when a sudden health crisis put his plans in doubt.

For the past 100 years, The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund has provided direct assistance to children, families and the elderly in New York. To celebrate the 101st campaign, an article will appear daily through Jan. 25. Each profile will illustrate the difference that even a modest amount of money can make in easing the struggles of the poor.

Last year donors contributed $7,003,854, which was distributed to those in need through seven New York charities.

2012-13 Campaign

Previously recorded:

$6,865,501

Recorded Wed.:

16,711

*Total:

$6,882,212

Last year to date:

$6,118,740

*Includes $1,511,814 contributed to the Hurricane Sandy relief efforts.

“I get paralyzed, I can’t breathe,” he said of the muscle spasms he now has regularly. “It feels like something’s going to bust out of me.”

Severe abdominal pain is not the only, or even the worst, reminder of the major surgery Mr. Concepcion, 62, of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, underwent in June. He and his wife of 36 years, Maria, are now faced with medical bills that are so high, Ms. Concepcion said she felt faint when she saw them.

Mr. Concepcion, who is superintendent of the apartment building where he lives, began having back pain last January that doctors first believed was the result of gallstones. In March, an endoscopy showed that tumors had grown throughout his digestive system. The tumors were not malignant, but an operation was required to remove them, and surgeons had to essentially reroute Mr. Concepcion’s entire digestive tract. They removed his gall bladder, as well as parts of his pancreas, bile ducts, intestines and stomach, he said.

The operation was a success, but then came the bills.

“I told my friend: are you aware that if you have a major operation, you’re going to lose your house?” Ms. Concepcion said.

The couple has since received doctors’ bills of more than $250,000, which does not include the cost of his seven-day stay at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan. Mr. Concepcion has worked in the apartment building since 1993 and has been insured through his union.

The couple are in an anxious holding pattern as they wait to find out just what, depending on their policy’s limits, will be covered. Even with financial assistance from Beth Israel, which approved a 70 percent discount for the Concepcions on the hospital charges, the couple has no idea how the doctors’ and surgical fees will be covered.

“My son said, boy he saved your life, Dad, but look at the bill he sent to you,” Ms.  Concepcion said in reference to the surgeon’s statements. “You’ll be dead before you pay it off.”

When the Concepcions first acquired their insurance, they were in good health, but now both have serious medical issues — Ms. Concepcion, 54, has emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and Mr. Concepcion has diabetes. They now spend close to $800 a month on prescriptions.

Mr. Concepcion, the family’s primary wage earner, makes $866 a week at his job. The couple had planned for Mr. Concepcion to retire sometime this year, begin collecting a pension and, after getting their finances in order, leave the superintendent’s apartment, as required by the landlord, and try to find a new home. “That’s all out of the question now,” Ms. Concepcion said. Mr. Concepcion said he now planned to continue working indefinitely.

Ms. Concepcion has organized every bill and medical statement into bulging folders, and said she had spent hours on the phone trying to negotiate with providers. She is still awaiting the rest of the bills.

On one of those bills, Ms. Concepcion said, she spotted a telephone number for people seeking help with medical costs. The number was for Community Health Advocates, a health insurance consumer assistance program and a unit of Community Service Society, one of the organizations supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. The society drew $2,120 from the fund so the Concepcions could pay some of their medical bills, and the health advocates helped them obtain the discount from the hospital.

Neither one knows what the next step will be, however, and the stress has been eating at them.

“How do we get out of this?” Mr. Concepcion asked. “There is no way out. Here I am trying to save to retire. They’re going to put me in the street.”

Read More..

The Neediest Cases: Medical Bills Crush Brooklyn Man’s Hope of Retiring

Andrea Mohin/The New York Times

John Concepcion and his wife, Maria, in their home in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. They are awaiting even more medical bills.

Retirement was just about a year away, or so John Concepcion thought, when a sudden health crisis put his plans in doubt.

For the past 100 years, The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund has provided direct assistance to children, families and the elderly in New York. To celebrate the 101st campaign, an article will appear daily through Jan. 25. Each profile will illustrate the difference that even a modest amount of money can make in easing the struggles of the poor.

Last year donors contributed $7,003,854, which was distributed to those in need through seven New York charities.

2012-13 Campaign

Previously recorded:

$6,865,501

Recorded Wed.:

16,711

*Total:

$6,882,212

Last year to date:

$6,118,740

*Includes $1,511,814 contributed to the Hurricane Sandy relief efforts.

“I get paralyzed, I can’t breathe,” he said of the muscle spasms he now has regularly. “It feels like something’s going to bust out of me.”

Severe abdominal pain is not the only, or even the worst, reminder of the major surgery Mr. Concepcion, 62, of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, underwent in June. He and his wife of 36 years, Maria, are now faced with medical bills that are so high, Ms. Concepcion said she felt faint when she saw them.

Mr. Concepcion, who is superintendent of the apartment building where he lives, began having back pain last January that doctors first believed was the result of gallstones. In March, an endoscopy showed that tumors had grown throughout his digestive system. The tumors were not malignant, but an operation was required to remove them, and surgeons had to essentially reroute Mr. Concepcion’s entire digestive tract. They removed his gall bladder, as well as parts of his pancreas, bile ducts, intestines and stomach, he said.

The operation was a success, but then came the bills.

“I told my friend: are you aware that if you have a major operation, you’re going to lose your house?” Ms. Concepcion said.

The couple has since received doctors’ bills of more than $250,000, which does not include the cost of his seven-day stay at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan. Mr. Concepcion has worked in the apartment building since 1993 and has been insured through his union.

The couple are in an anxious holding pattern as they wait to find out just what, depending on their policy’s limits, will be covered. Even with financial assistance from Beth Israel, which approved a 70 percent discount for the Concepcions on the hospital charges, the couple has no idea how the doctors’ and surgical fees will be covered.

“My son said, boy he saved your life, Dad, but look at the bill he sent to you,” Ms.  Concepcion said in reference to the surgeon’s statements. “You’ll be dead before you pay it off.”

When the Concepcions first acquired their insurance, they were in good health, but now both have serious medical issues — Ms. Concepcion, 54, has emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and Mr. Concepcion has diabetes. They now spend close to $800 a month on prescriptions.

Mr. Concepcion, the family’s primary wage earner, makes $866 a week at his job. The couple had planned for Mr. Concepcion to retire sometime this year, begin collecting a pension and, after getting their finances in order, leave the superintendent’s apartment, as required by the landlord, and try to find a new home. “That’s all out of the question now,” Ms. Concepcion said. Mr. Concepcion said he now planned to continue working indefinitely.

Ms. Concepcion has organized every bill and medical statement into bulging folders, and said she had spent hours on the phone trying to negotiate with providers. She is still awaiting the rest of the bills.

On one of those bills, Ms. Concepcion said, she spotted a telephone number for people seeking help with medical costs. The number was for Community Health Advocates, a health insurance consumer assistance program and a unit of Community Service Society, one of the organizations supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. The society drew $2,120 from the fund so the Concepcions could pay some of their medical bills, and the health advocates helped them obtain the discount from the hospital.

Neither one knows what the next step will be, however, and the stress has been eating at them.

“How do we get out of this?” Mr. Concepcion asked. “There is no way out. Here I am trying to save to retire. They’re going to put me in the street.”

Read More..

DealBook: Morgan Stanley's $481 Million 4th-Quarter Profit Beats Estimates

8:23 a.m. | Updated

Morgan Stanley reported adjusted earnings for the fourth quarter on Friday that beat analyst estimates, driven by gains in wealth management and stock trading.

Including charges, the firm had a fourth-quarter profit of $481 million, or 25 cents a share. That compares with a per-share loss of 15 cents in the year-ago period. The results seem to please investors. Morgan Stanley shares are up 6.4 percent in premarket trading.

The results, however, were affected by one-time accounting charges related to the firm’s credit spreads. Excluding those charges, the firm had a profit of 45 cents a share. That handily beat the estimates of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, which had estimated a profit of 27 cents a share.

Morgan Stanley’s revenue came in at $7 billion in the fourth quarter, up 23 percent from the year-ago period.

Morgan Stanley’s chief executive, James P. Gorman, said in a release that Morgan Stanley had reached a “pivot point” in its turnaround strategy, which has been underway since the financial crisis when the firm’s operations were badly damaged. “Our firm is now poised to reach the returns of which it is capable on behalf of our shareholders,” he said.

The results are good news for Mr. Gorman, who has been working since the financial crisis to retool Morgan Stanley by shifting its focus away from potentially riskier businesses like trading and into steadier less capital-intensive areas like wealth management. While he has notched some successes, the company still faces challenges.

Notably, the firm has reduced the size of its fixed department in the wake of ratings downgrades and new regulatory requirements, both of which have forced it to hold more capital against riskier trading activities, reducing profitability. This month, it laid off 1,600 employees, many of them in fixed income.

Excluding the debt charge, institutional securities, which included fixed income and banking, had revenue of $3.5 billion, compared with $1.9 billion in the same quarter in 2011. The fixed income sales and trading unit reported adjusted revenue of $811 million, compared with a loss of $493 million in the year-ago period.

This week Morgan Stanley and other Wall Street firms notified employees of their 2012 compensation. Morgan Stanley set aside $15.62 billion for compensation, or about 60 percent of its 2012 revenue. This compares with 2011, when just 51 percent of revenue was allotted for compensation and benefits.

The high ratio of compensation as a percentage of revenue could raise eyebrows on Wall Street. In 2010, Mr. Gorman said that Morgan Stanley’s compensation rate of 62 percent that year was a “historic high” that no one on his management team “will ever see again.” He indicated that the rate should be no higher than 50 percent.

Earlier this week, Goldman Sachs posted profit of $5.60 a share, which outpaced analyst expectations. Citigroup, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase have also recently reported stronger year-over-year earnings.

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IHT Rendezvous: Is Something Toxic Buried in China's Financial System?

BEIJING — China’s economy, whizzing ahead as the West struggles, seems quite remarkable. Perhaps a little too remarkable? Like many things too good to be true, is it all a little, well, too good to be true?

There will be the yea- and nay-sayers in any debate, and China’s economy provokes plenty of both. So here’s the “yea” side: the forces of urbanization and industrialization unleashed here in the 1970s after the death of Mao Zedong represent a historically singular phase that still has a way to go.

Here’s the “nay” side: that’s true, but we need to look at what’s actually happening in China’s financial system — is it safe? The trouble is, that system is mostly hidden from the outside world by a combination of language difficulty and the pitch-dark opacity that envelops much important business here. What’s interesting about the “nay” argument is that increasingly, it’s Chinese media and some prominent Chinese economists who are making it.

And of course all of this matters to the world because China is by now deeply part of the global economy, so what happens here affects everyone.

A Hong Kong online magazine that follows the Chinese-language debate closely recently presented a clear argument: among key concerns about China’s financial system are wealth management products offered by “trust companies,” part of the shadow banking system that operates outside the official banking sector but is entwined with it.

As Week in China wrote recently: “Analysts worry that the trust firms (and their wealth management products) could provide an explosive element to China’s financial landscape — much as toxic CDO’s made the American system vulnerable.”

CDO’s, of course, are collateralized debt obligations, those complicated financial tools that spurred unhealthy debt and lending in the United States, causing shocks that spread around the world when the system collapsed in 2007. (This graphic makes them as simple as possible.)

For some time, Chinese-language media have been looking at the scene, with outlets such as the 21st Century Business Herald and the National Business Daily leading the way.

Spurring concern was a recent remark by Xiao Gang, the chairman of the Bank of China, that the way trust companies were run was, potentially, “fundamentally a Ponzi scheme.” (The report is in English.)

It is difficult to measure the amount and value of wealth management products in circulation in China, wrote Mr. Xiao. (Mr. Xiao has been a proponent of Chinese banks vigorously investing overseas.)

“KPMG reports that trust companies will soon overtake insurance to become the second-largest sector in the Chinese financial industry. According to a report by CN Benefit, a Chinese wealth-management consultancy, sales of WMP’s soared 43 percent in the first half of 2012 to 12.14 trillion yuan,” or $1.9 trillion, he wrote.

Either way, there are now “more than 20,000” wealth management products in circulation, “a dramatic increase from only a few hundred just five years ago.”

“Given that the number is so big and hard to manage, China’s shadow banking sector has become a potential source of systemic financial risk over the next few years,” wrote Mr. Xiao. “Particularly worrisome is the quality and transparency of WMP’s. Many assets underlying the products are dependent on some empty real estate property or long-term infrastructure, and are sometimes even linked to high-risk projects, which may find it impossible to generate sufficient cash flow to meet repayment obligations.”

The details are complex. But Week in China’s conclusion is this: “WiC suspects — along with swathes of the Chinese press — that the trusts and their wealth management products have now intertwined to become the weakest link in the Chinese financial system. In recent weeks it’s become clearer that these obscure institutions have waded into some wayward financial positions,” with certain companies, such as Zhongrong Trust and Shangdong International Trust, particularly involved.

“The question now is whether this might lead to a broader crisis,” the magazine wrote.

“On balance that may still be a way off,” it wrote.

As long as the economy expands at close to 8 percent a year, “the trusts may be able to ‘grow’ out of their bad assets. But if one of the major players collapses, the dynamic may be much more explosive. As Charles Ponzi well understood, confidence is everything,” it concluded.

Last week, several Chinese-language media reported the big four state banks had stopped selling trust company products to clients in Beijing and were scaling back in Guangzhou. “The official clampdown on the trusts might already have begun,” wrote Week in China.

Read the story and see what you think: Is China veering towards a U.S.-style financial crisis, or will it take action and avoid one? Or is the concern overblown?

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Gadgetwise Blog: Q&A: Moving from Hotmail to Outlook.com

I want to switch my Hotmail account to an Outlook.com account, but will I have to change my e-mail address?

Even if you switch your Hotmail account to the newer mail system at Outlook.com, Microsoft says you can still keep the old @hotmail.com address. (Users with the @live.com or @msn.com accounts can also switch to Outlook.com and keep their original addresses.) You also have the option of adding an @outlook.com address, as Microsoft outlines here.

To make the move from Hotmail to Outlook.com, log into your Hotmail account, click Options and choose “Free Upgrade to Outlook.com.” Your Hotmail account page should convert to the white Outlook.com page. In addition to keeping the same address, your password and old mail are saved after you switch.

The Outlook.com site should work with recent versions of most browsers, including Internet Explorer 8 and later, Mozilla Firefox 10 and later, Google Chrome 17 and later, and Safari 5.1 and later for the Mac. Older browsers may not display the site properly, or will not work with it at all. (You can also continue using your account with a standalone mail program, as long as you have the correct settings.)

Microsoft plans to automatically move all Hotmail accounts over to Outlook.com. The company describes the process as “gradual,” but says Hotmail users due for the upgrade will be notified in advance.

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The New Old Age Blog: Officials Say Checks Won't Be in the Mail

The jig is up.

Two years ago, the Treasury Department initiated its Go Direct campaign to persuade people still receiving paper checks for their Social Security, Veterans Affairs, S.S.I. and other federal benefits to switch to direct deposit.

“At that point, we were issuing approximately 11 million checks each month,” or about 15 percent of the total, Walt Henderson, director of the campaign, told me.

After putting notices in every monthly check envelope, circulating public service announcements and putting the word out through banks, senior centers, the Red Cross, AARP and other organizations, the Treasury Department has since shrunk that number to five million monthly checks.

That means 93 percent of those getting federal benefits are using direct deposit or, if they prefer or lack a bank account, a Direct Express debit card that gets refilled each month and can be used anywhere that accepts MasterCard.

“So people have been getting the word and making the switch,” Mr. Henderson said. Now, federal officials are pushing the last holdouts to convert to direct deposit by March 1.

Although officials say the change is not optional, the jig isn’t entirely up. If you or your older relative does not respond to their pleading, “we’re not going to interrupt their payments,” Mr. Henderson said. But the department will start sending letters urging people to switch.

The major motive is financial: shifting the last paper checks to direct deposit or a debit card (only 2 percent of recipients go that route) will save $1 billion over the next decade, the department estimates.

But safety enters the picture, too. One reason some beneficiaries resist direct deposit, Mr. Henderson said, is that they fear their electronic deposits can be hacked or diverted. Having grown up in a predigital age, perhaps they feel safer with a check in their hands.

But they probably aren’t. In 2011, the Treasury Department received 440,000 reports of lost or stolen benefits checks. With direct deposit, “there’s no check lingering unattended in a mailbox,” Mr. Henderson noted.

The greater reason for sticking with paper is probably simple inertia. “It’s human nature to procrastinate,” he said.

But unless you or your relatives want a series of letters from the Treasury Department, it is probably time for the last fence-sitters to get with the program.

They don’t need to use a computer. People can switch to direct deposit, or get the debit card, at their banks or the local Social Security office. More simply, they can call a toll-free number, (800) 333-1795, and have agents walk them through the change. Or they can sign up online at www.GoDirect.org.

They will need:

1. Their Social Security number.
2. The 12-digit federal benefit number found on their checks.
3. The amount of the most recent check.
4. And, for direct deposit, a bank or credit union routing number, usually found on the front of a check. They can have direct deposit to a savings account, too.

A caution for New Old Age readers: If you think your relative has not switched because he or she is cognitively impaired and can no longer handle his finances, you can be designated a representative payee and receive monthly Social Security or S.S.I. payments on your relative’s behalf. This generally requires a visit to your local Social Security office, documentation in hand.

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Paula Span is the author of “When the Time Comes: Families With Aging Parents Share Their Struggles and Solutions.”

Read More..

The New Old Age Blog: Officials Say Checks Won't Be in the Mail

The jig is up.

Two years ago, the Treasury Department initiated its Go Direct campaign to persuade people still receiving paper checks for their Social Security, Veterans Affairs, S.S.I. and other federal benefits to switch to direct deposit.

“At that point, we were issuing approximately 11 million checks each month,” or about 15 percent of the total, Walt Henderson, director of the campaign, told me.

After putting notices in every monthly check envelope, circulating public service announcements and putting the word out through banks, senior centers, the Red Cross, AARP and other organizations, the Treasury Department has since shrunk that number to five million monthly checks.

That means 93 percent of those getting federal benefits are using direct deposit or, if they prefer or lack a bank account, a Direct Express debit card that gets refilled each month and can be used anywhere that accepts MasterCard.

“So people have been getting the word and making the switch,” Mr. Henderson said. Now, federal officials are pushing the last holdouts to convert to direct deposit by March 1.

Although officials say the change is not optional, the jig isn’t entirely up. If you or your older relative does not respond to their pleading, “we’re not going to interrupt their payments,” Mr. Henderson said. But the department will start sending letters urging people to switch.

The major motive is financial: shifting the last paper checks to direct deposit or a debit card (only 2 percent of recipients go that route) will save $1 billion over the next decade, the department estimates.

But safety enters the picture, too. One reason some beneficiaries resist direct deposit, Mr. Henderson said, is that they fear their electronic deposits can be hacked or diverted. Having grown up in a predigital age, perhaps they feel safer with a check in their hands.

But they probably aren’t. In 2011, the Treasury Department received 440,000 reports of lost or stolen benefits checks. With direct deposit, “there’s no check lingering unattended in a mailbox,” Mr. Henderson noted.

The greater reason for sticking with paper is probably simple inertia. “It’s human nature to procrastinate,” he said.

But unless you or your relatives want a series of letters from the Treasury Department, it is probably time for the last fence-sitters to get with the program.

They don’t need to use a computer. People can switch to direct deposit, or get the debit card, at their banks or the local Social Security office. More simply, they can call a toll-free number, (800) 333-1795, and have agents walk them through the change. Or they can sign up online at www.GoDirect.org.

They will need:

1. Their Social Security number.
2. The 12-digit federal benefit number found on their checks.
3. The amount of the most recent check.
4. And, for direct deposit, a bank or credit union routing number, usually found on the front of a check. They can have direct deposit to a savings account, too.

A caution for New Old Age readers: If you think your relative has not switched because he or she is cognitively impaired and can no longer handle his finances, you can be designated a representative payee and receive monthly Social Security or S.S.I. payments on your relative’s behalf. This generally requires a visit to your local Social Security office, documentation in hand.

---

Paula Span is the author of “When the Time Comes: Families With Aging Parents Share Their Struggles and Solutions.”

Read More..

Claims for Jobless Benefits Drop

WASHINGTON — The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits tumbled to a five-year low last week, while housing starts surged, the government said Thursday in a pair of new economic reports.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 37,000 to a seasonally adjusted 335,000, the lowest level since January 2008 and the largest weekly drop since February 2010, the Labor Department said.

The previous week’s figure was revised to show 1,000 more applications than previously reported.

While last week’s decline ended four straight weeks of increases, it is probably not the start of a new trend or a sign of a material shift in labor market conditions as claims tend to be volatile around this time of the year because of large swings in the model used by the department to iron out seasonal fluctuations.

A Labor Department analyst said the model had expected a large increase in claims last week, but the actual number of filings only showed a modest increase, leading to a big decline in the seasonally adjusted figure.

The four-week moving average for new claims, a better measure of labor market trends, fell 6,750 to 359,250, suggesting some improvement in underlying labor market conditions.

The claims data covered the survey week for January’s nonfarm payrolls. Job growth has been gradual, with employers adding 155,000 new positions in December. The unemployment rate held steady at 7.8 percent last month.

The claims report showed the number of people still receiving benefits under regular state programs after an initial week of aid increased 87,000 to 3.21 million in the week ended Jan. 5. The four-week average of the so-called continuing claims was the lowest since July 2008.

In a separate report, the Commerce Department said Thursday that groundbreaking to build new homes surged 12.1 percent last month to a 954,000-unit annual rate.

It was the fastest pace since June 2008, supporting the view that housing is poised to provide a substantial boost to the U.S. economy. But data for housing starts can be volatile and is sometimes subject to large revisions. The government revised downward its estimate for November housing starts, for example, to a 851,000-unit rate from the originally reported 861,000.

Some of the strength in December’s reading for starts came from a 20.3 percent surge in multi-unit construction; that component is especially volatile.

Thursday’s report nonetheless builds on a trend in growth that has led many analysts to expect residential construction bolstered the economy last year for the first time since 2005.

Permits for future home construction edged higher to a 903,000-unit rate, the quickest since July 2008. Groundbreaking for single-family homes, the largest segment of the market, climbed 8.1 percent last month to a 616,000-unit pace.

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Defense Secretary Leon Panetta Meets Pope

Francesco Sforza/Osservatore Romano

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta met with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on Wednesday.

ROME — On what is likely his last trip as defense secretary, Leon E. Panetta had an audience on Wednesday morning at the Vatican with Pope Benedict XVI, who told him, Mr. Panetta said, “Thank you for helping to protect the world.” Mr. Panetta said he replied, “Pray for me.”

Mr. Panetta, the son of Italian immigrants who attends Mass every Sunday, is halfway through a weeklong trip to Europe meant as a goodbye tour of American allies. Later on Wednesday he is to meet with the Italian prime minister, Mario Monti, as well as the president of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano.

Mr. Panetta’s audience with the pope was far from private, although he had a close-up view. Mr. Panetta sat in the front row of the Pope Pius VI Audience Hall, where some 7,000 others had gathered for the pope’s weekly audience. After an hour-long service, Mr. Panetta filed up with several dozen people, including a bride, to receive a blessing from the pope, who spoke to him at that time.

Defense officials said that Mr. Panetta previously had an audience with Pope John Paul II when Mr. Panetta, who was a budget director and a chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, accompanied Mr. Clinton to Rome. He also had an audience with Pope John Paul II in Washington.

Mr. Panetta is to be succeeded by Chuck Hagel, who is preparing for Senate confirmation hearings later this month or early next month. After 28 months as defense secretary and many decades in government, Mr. Panetta plans to return to his walnut farm in Carmel Valley, California.

He has also visited Spain and Portugal during the trip. On Tuesday, in Lisbon, Mr. Panetta restated the administration position that the United States would not send ground troops to Mali, where militants were pushing toward one of Mali’s largest cities as France continued with airstrikes and pledged more troops.

“There is no consideration of putting any American boots on the ground at this time,” he said.

Later on Tuesday in Madrid he reiterated that the United States would offer France air and logistical support but declined to be more specific. He said that France faced a difficult task in trying to rout extremists from a vast area in northern Mali and that the Pentagon remained in talks with the French over what kind of military aid the United States would provide.

At a news conference in Madrid, Mr. Panetta deflected a question asking him to assess any progress the French had made against the extremists, who overran a central village on Monday only hours after the French foreign minister said confidently that France had blocked “the advance of the terrorists.” Mr. Panetta said the United States was “still trying to get a read” on French efforts and strategy.

“I can’t really give you a full analysis as to just exactly what they’re targeting and how successful or not successful they may be in that effort as of this moment,” Mr. Panetta said at a joint news conference with the Spanish defense minister, Pedro Morenés. But Mr. Panetta added that “any time you confront an enemy that is dispersed and that is not located necessarily in one area makes it challenging, and the ability to go after that enemy and be able to stop them from moving forward represents a difficult task.”

 

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Gadgetwise Blog: Tip of the Week: Monitor Your Memory

If your computer seems to be running slowly and acting as if it does not have enough memory installed, you can use software that comes with the operating system to see what is going on under the hood.

On a Windows system, open the Task Manager program by right-clicking on the Windows task bar and choosing Start Task Manager. (You can also use the keyboard shortcuts of Control-Alt-Delete or Control-Shift-Escape to summon the Task Manager.) In the Task Manager window, you can see all the programs, services and processes currently running on the computer. You can also use the Task Manager to close an application that is not responding; Microsoft has a demonstrations video online.

On a Mac, open the Activity Monitor program. Go to the Applications folder, then to the Utilities folder and double-click on the Activity Monitor icon. On Macs with the Launchpad feature, just click the Launchpad icon in the Dock, click the Other icon and open Activity Monitor. Here, you can see the amount of system memory being used, what programs and processes are currently running and other system information. Apple has more information about using the Activity Monitor and steps for quitting a frozen or memory-hogging program on its site.

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