Yes, fuel prices are down, but so is passenger travelling, so any new bankruptcies could prove fatal

By Dean Foust

Watch full size video:

The airline industry should exist entering 2009 with a nice tailwind. Airlines spent greatest in number of the past year cutting routes, and employees and tacking on a welter of fees to counter enter violent fuel prices. Then they lucked out when the require to be paid of jet fuel plunged by two-thirds similar to 2008 grief down. But operating expenses aren’t the only thing that has dropped: Passenger traffic tumbled 10.6% in November, according to Boyd Group, an Evergreen (Colo.) consultant, prompting carriers to slash fares to fill empty seats.

Now, with both business and leisure travel in North America expected to fall as much as 15% this year, the industry may meet in front another round of bankruptcies. Unlike the continue spate of failures in the mid-2000s, not every airline may survive. In foregoing downturns, carriers often used Chapter 11 as a reset button that let them emerge from insolvency even stronger by shedding debt and other obligations, such as pensions. To play it secure, assuming carriers so as American Airlines and US Airways have raised new cash. But numerous airlines have hocked most of their assets, leaving them little to borrow against. “At this object, insolvency is settlement,” says Roger E. King, an airline analyst at institutional careful search firm CreditSights.

"Ill-Equipped for Financial Hardship"

For now, the International Air Transport Assn. expects North American carriers to eke out a $300 million profit in 2009 thanks to extent of room cuts and the plunge in fuel costs. That would be a big turnaround from estimated losses of nearly $4 billion in 2008. But a cunning drop in passenger traffic could be enough to put some airlines under. In a Dec. 2 meeting for consultation call with analysts, executives at General Electric’session GE Capital, one of the world’s largest lessors of aircraft, aforesaid its “base case” for 2009 calls for a 1% to 2% drop in global exchange, which could result in the liquidation of one major global carrier.

If traffic dips 3% worldwide—the IATA expects a 3.6% falloff—a second greater airline could extinguish, the GE executives warned. Some airline officials say that scenario isn’t farfetched. “You’re going to see a massive sum of restructuring in the industrial art because it is ill-equipped for monetary hardship,” says Gary C. Kelly, CEO of Southwest Airlines. “The industry has very stretched balance sheets.”

The majority of Asian and European carriers should have the wherewithal to get the better of the recession, unless it be that for some startup carriers in India and Italy’s state-owned airline, Alitalia, which filed for insolvency protection last August. While North American carriers are well in our teeth of their overseas rivals in pruning capacity, their balance sheets are much weaker. The U.S. industry is still dragging around $95 billion in misdoing, as much as the rest of the world’s carriers combined.

Turbulence for Discounters?

Industry experts say the biggest jolt could be felt by discount carriers like AirTran Airways and JetBlue Airways, which can’t downsize as easily as pompous airlines be able to. Two majors that could feel the squeeze are US Airways and Air Canada, what one. lost $1.7 billion and $244 the masses, particularly, in the first and foremost nine months of 2008. The collapse of fuel prices could make them profitable in 2009, but Vaughn Cordle, CEO of AirlineForecasts, an Arlington (Va.) research firm, says they could be in the red again if traffic plummets.

US Airways’ woes stem from its inability to integrate operations fully with those of America West Airlines, through which it merged in 2005. As a result, US Airways productions saddled with high costs. Cordle says its cost by mean proportion seat mile is still above 8¢ before firing material costs, vs. 6.8¢ for Delta Air Lines. And by much of its possessions before that time pledged to creditors, the Tempe (Ariz.) carrier doesn’t have much borrowing power left. US Airways says a $950 the public refinancing in October helped boost its money attitude by $370 million and notes that the new wayfarer fees are generating $400 the great body of the people in high-margin revenues. Even if demand falls 10%, says US Airways President J. Scott Kirby, “this could be the most profitable year in the history of the endeavors.”

Air Canada’s wounds are somewhat self-inflicted. When the Montreal-based carrier reorganized under bankruptcy in 2004, it created a new parent, ACE Aviation Holdings, to oversee its operations. At the prodding of Cerberus Capital Management and other fence funds that bought the stock during the bankruptcy, Air Canada spun off its maintenance unit, frequent-flier program, and a regional airline assistant to unlock the value of these assets.

While ACE shareholders have seen their stakes rise 265% since 2004, some analysts fear the moves have stripped too much from Air Canada. Now the carrier must come up with $481 million in pension funds in 2009 and consider power to’t produce on the cash flow of those spun-off operations. Small wonder Air Canada’s A shares have tumbled 87% in the past year, to around $1.30. A spokesman notes that credit markets have been supportive: In December the carrier got $330 million in loans from GE Capital and two banks.

If Air Canada were to hit the skids, analysts believe a big European carrier would swoop in to buy at least some of its assets. In the U.S., in whatever manner, foreign carriers are barred from taking majority ownership of an airline. That method U.S. carriers can only hope oil prices stay low—and passengers return.

Starbucks’ legal wrangles through a union that wants to organize its baristas is tarnishing the coffee chain’s renown since social responsibility

Watch full size video:

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

By Moira Herbst

Starbucks (SBUX), one time the undisputed leader in premium-price caffeine fixes, has slack cultivated a corporate image for civil responsibility, environmental awareness, and sensitivity to workers’ rights. Now that carefully crafted reputation is under threatening with blows, thanks to a messy legal dispute with a group called the Starbucks Workers Union (SWU) (party of the Industrial Workers of the World, or IWW), which started recruiting employees in 2004 and now claims 300 members.

The National Labor Relations Board found upon Dec. 23 that Starbucks had illegally fired three New York City baristas as it tried to squelch the union organizing stretch. The 88-page predominant also says the company broke the law by giving negative job evaluations to other union supporters and prohibiting employees from discussing union issues at labor. The judge ordered that the three baristas be reinstated and receive back wages. The umpire also called on Starbucks to end discriminatory treatment of other pro-union workers at four Manhattan locations named in the predicament. The decision marks the end of an 18-month trial in New York City that pitted the ubiquitous multinational corporation in provision for a clump of twentysomething baristas who are part of the Industrial Workers of the World.

The timing isn’t ideal for Starbucks, what one. faces lower inquire from the recession, an overall loss of panache for the bolt, and a sliding stock price. "[The ruling] is a real thumb in the eye—a real gotcha impetus with potential for heartache," says Eric Dezenhall, chief executive officer of Dezenhall Resources, a crisis management public relations firm in Washington D.C. "I don’t think it’session a crisis, but it hovers between [centre of life] a nuisance and a problem."

eyeing 401(k) contributions

Starbucks intends to appeal the decision. The copartnership maintained during the trial that the baristas were fired for perfectly legal reasons, such as disrupting business in its stores or threatening a manager. "This is an issue with single employees," says Tara Darrow, a Starbucks spokeswoman. "We felt we handled it consistently and fairly. In this distinct situation the NLRB disagreed. We’re disappointed with that."

The ruling comes at a time when Starbucks is trying to get its groove back in a very grim management. The partnership’s shares more than halved in value in 2008, now mercantile appropriate above $9, while Dunkin Donuts and McDonald’s (MCD) continued to seize violently market receive among coffee drinkers. As the recession deepens, Starbucks recently said it may extreme point or trim contributions to workers’ 401(k) accounts in 2009.

While the New York declension-form marks the first that has gone to experience, Starbucks has been the mark of numerous National Labor Relations Board complaints over unlawful violations of workers’ rights. Starbucks settled another case in New York concerning illegal firings for union activity exclusively of admitting wrong in March 2006, paying $2,000 to former employees and offering their jobs back. In early October 2008, Starbucks settled the case of barista Erik Forman, who was fired for talking with co-workers about managers’ apparent efforts to fire him for harmony organizing at a Minneapolis location. Starbucks ultimately invited Forman back to work. A similar case is acquirement under way in Grand Rapids, Mich.; the trial is expected to begin Jan. 7.

A 1992 probe should be under the necessity raised red flags when novel tips came in about Madoff. Now critics question the agency’s ability to act as a watchdog

By Peter Burrows

Watch full size video:

Financier Bernard Madoff was arrested on Dec. 11 and charged with allegedly running a $50 billion Ponzi design. Justin Lane/Corbis

Bernard L. Madoff operated onward the brink; beginning for years. But an early join battle with with the Securities & Exchange Commission didn’t raise red flags about the financier now accused of running a ponderous deception. It’session the type of missed opportunity that’s further eroding investor confidence and prompting Congress to explore regulatory reforms.

The SEC’s interest in Madoff goes back to at least 1992. That year the federal watchdog sanctioned three small firms raising money exclusively in the place of Madoff. After investigating a confidential tip that one of the money managers was promising annual returns of up to 20%, the SEC prohibit them all down for selling unregistered shares. (Under federal rules any sinewy that sells securities to a U.S. investor must file certain documents first.)

Madoff, whose books were examined soon after by dint of. the SEC, was never sued by the agency of dint of. the regulator. But as part of a settlement, the firms, which neither admitted nor denied liability, had to repay investors. That forced Madoff to go the money they raised for him, some $454 million. "Somehow, he got it done over a weekend," says a person familiar with the firms.

It’s not clear whether Madoff was already developing what authorities lay claim to may be the biggest monetary deception ever—an alleged scam that collected money from new investors to pay off earlier ones. But that’s just the species of shenanigans regulators initially suspected they had uncovered in the 1992 probe: a Ponzi scheme perpetrated by the three firms. When investigators skilled the money had been funneled to a Wall Street titan, Madoff, they became less concerned approximately outright deception. After total, Madoff, a former chairman of the Nasdaq stock market, was a pioneer in electronic trading. The Madoff sexual commerce "was a good thing" for the firms, says a living body close to the SEC investigation. "Nothing improper was found [in Madoff’s books]."

In hindsight, the episode should have been remembered a decade later when regulators started receiving without the name of the author tips about potential improprieties at Madoff’s operations; but the resulting inquiries yielded nothing significant. That they did not raises serious questions about the SEC’s skilfulness to battle and intercept fraud. "The commission doesn’t seem to own pursued its enforcement charge with sufficiency tone," says noted SEC historian Joel Seligman, president of the University of Rochester.

Digging Deeper

Congress direct hold hearings in January to discuss why the SEC failed to uncover the Madoff mess. Critics decide the SEC doesn’t have the manpower or the systems to provide the necessary oversight. "The SEC needs more staffing in both its enforcement and examination divisions," says Ron ­Geffner, a quondam SEC staff attorney, now a advocate at Sadis & Goldberg. "It needs to act the part of a process in which recidivists are reviewed with greater exploration." Madoff and the SEC declined to annotate.

The 1992 investigation centered upon the body Avellino & Bienes, a pygmean New York accounting firm run by Frank Avellino and Michael Bienes. According to court filings, the duo started raising riches from clients, friends, and relatives 30 years earlier, handing the coin over to Madoff to invest. By 1984, Avellino and Bienes had ditched their accounting practice altogether to converging-point exclusively upon finding investors for Madoff. Avellino and Bienes didn’t return calls.

The firm had its own "feeders," associates who rounded up turn into money that eventually made its way to Madoff. In 1989 accountants Steven Mendelow and Edward Glantz, whose office was on the same floor as Avellino & Bienes in a Manhattan duty building, joined the game. According to the SEC’s complaint, Mendelow and Glantz collected $89 million for Avellino & Bienes. Glantz’s son Richard later started raising money as well. The league ended in 1992 when the SEC demanded in a settlement that the firms close up shop, reimburse $454 million to 3,200 investors, and pay a collective $875,000 fine. Edward Glantz has since passed away. Mendelow couldn’t be reached.

Smaller Fish

Within a year or two of the SEC inquiry, Madoff was accepting money from at least one player who didn’confidentially chronicle shares with the SEC, according to a person familiar with the operation. In some effort to rebuild his investing. practice after the probe, Madoff also dropped his minimum account size from $1 million to $50,000 for at least one feeder fund. As a result, less affluent investors gained entrée to Madoff’s operation. That’s one reason it’s not just wealthy investors and institutions who are ensnared through the now passing shame.

Rather than viewing Madoff as a scofflaw, regulators called on him for his expertise. Edwin Nordlinger, an SEC staffer involved in the Avellino & Bienes investigation, recalls accompanying a new SEC commissioner on a inspect in the a day after the fair ’90s with Madoff, who schooled the regulator on over-the-counter markets. Arthur Levitt, ­chairman of the SEC from 1993-2001, has said publicly he consulted with Madoff during his tenure. Says ­Nordlinger: "Madoff was considered an expert."

To make good on a pledge to prioritize high-speed Internet attack, President-elect Obama mustiness address inner cities, at which place many journey without a connection

Watch full size video:

Getty Images

By Arik Hesseldahl

Outside Harlem’s Apollo Theater upon 125th Street, New York City. Getty Images

Anthony Celestine was a latecomer to the Internet Age. The 40-year-old Harlem resident has owned a small Jani-King commercial cleaning franchise since 2004, but until recently, the New Yorker hadn’cheek by jowl owned a computer or even surfed the Web or had an e-mail address. "I didn’t know what none of that twaddle was," he says.

Now he uses the Internet the whole of the time to scout out new customers, communicate with Jani-King headquarters in Dallas, and exchange in commerce e-mails with mate franchisees on how to do positive kinds of jobs better. "I talk to my franchise brothers encircling what works and what doesn’t," says Celestine, "I’m lore about new procedures faster than before. It’sitting like riding a bike and sooner or later switching to a car. It’s just a whole superior globe with the PC."

Celestine entered that globe earlier this year when he moved from Brooklyn to an chamber in Harlem and got a PC and a high-speed Web hookup as part of his rental agreement. Celestine’s apartment is owned by Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement (HCCI), a 22-year-old, $240 million nonprofit community development organization based in Harlem’s Bradhurst neighborhood. HCCI was quick to provide the computer and Internet kindred thanks to the efforts of other nonprofit groups and an organization that funds affordable housing projects.

The Broadband Have-Nots

Millions of Americans—many of them also residents of the inner city—be left behind on the other side of the chasm that separates those who have high-speed Internet access from those who don’t. President-elect Barack Obama has taken to delivering a hebdomadary address not merely from one side to the other the radio but also end videos on Google’s (GOOG) YouTube. Yet almost half of U.S. adults don’t have the necessary broadband connections that make it easy to survey those messages, according to recent data from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. A survey by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation ranked the U.S. 15th on household broadband penetration, having slipped from fourth place in 2001, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development. (Denmark ranked No. 1.)

In a Dec. 6 speech, Obama called the current state of U.S. broadband access "unacceptable" and said plans to "renew our Information Superhighway" would be a priority of his Administration. To deliver, Obama will need to address the wide swaths of the U.S. that remain unconnected. In some places—most of them rural areas through low population density—the public who are willing to pay for advantage have existence able to’t get it because telecom providers have power to’t justify the necessary investment.

In the case of the urban poor, service may be readily profitable, but many families can’t afford the $30 to $50 it costs each month to get broadband. Many also lack computers at pointedly. Among households with an annual income of $50,000 or less—about moiety the abiding habitation—only 35% have broadband advantage, according to Free Press, a technology advocacy collection. Households with yearly incomes in the heavenly heights $50,000 are more than two times as likely to have broadband service.

A Nonprofit Policy Leader

Telecommunications companies have made some efforts to make broadband affordable. AT&T (T), the largest U.S. phone company, offers DSL access for $10 a month to recent customers in 22 states, a condition for administration approval of the 2006 merger between SBC and BellSouth that created AT&T. In another concession to Uncle Sam in exchange conducive to merger approval, AT&T agreed to donate 50,000 DSL lines to low-income households. Verizon Communications (VZ) has a subsidiary called Verizon Enhanced Communities that works with developers and apartment building owners to do high-speed connections available in low-income and other housing complexes.

Watch full size video:

Recreational-vehicle shipments for U.S. makers such as Winnebago and Thor tumbled 72 percent in November to the lowest for the month in at least 30 years as credit tightened in the middle of the recession.

Deliveries to retailers plunged to 6,000 from 21,500 a year earlier, the fewest for a November since at least 1978, the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association said on its Web site.

“Credit tightening, both in retail and wholesale financing, has driven persistence production totals dramatically diminish,” and equable fewer deliveries may be recorded toward December, the trade group said Tuesday.

Watch full size video:

As the same of the Seattle area’s worst snowstorms fades into memory, it turns out the fleet of 1,400 buses at King County Metro Transit survived the cold streets nearly intact.

Only two buses were damaged by collisions, and 15 to 20 were sidelined for minor repairs.

To some extent, Metro protected its fleet by dint of. not using it. Service was reduced by half starting Dec. 18, through Christmas week, and articulated buses were parked.

Driving the articulated buses on ice was “like pushing a noodle across your dinner plate,” says Jim Boon, Metro’session quick maintenance manager.

Drivers who were on the road moved tenderly, and at one point left 200 buses on the streets because they were either stuck or conditions were dangerous.

The challenge since is to catch up with custom maintenance that was missed because crews were at work equipping or retrieving buses during two weeks of snow and ice.

Monday, Tuesday and today, bus gain was reduced by 15 percent so that 150 to 200 buses could undergo oil changes, wheel inspections, jungle checkups or repairs. Ridership on New Year’s week typically is about three-fourths of normal, a spokeswoman said.

Boon said he is disinclined to run buses “even single in kind day” farther than the self-imposed maintenance deadlines. Safety is one reason, vehicle longevity another, time a third is judicial contest.

Extra costs from the storms are expected to be $1 million to $1.5 million, principally employee overtime.

“That’s cheap for a snowstorm,” said Boon.

Typically, mechanics worked six 10-hour days one and the other of the past two weeks and could volunteer for a seventh.

“Some of these guys sleep here. They just flavor upstairs, get a sleeping bag and lay on the rug,” Boon said.

At the Central Base in Sodo, single in kind of seven shops, a few buses were on hoists Tuesday. Part of a wheel not a little on any other bus had to be divide away and replaced after a broken enslave bent the steel.

Metro General Manager Kevin Desmond said the overall lack of crashing mischief was a tribute to the skill of the bus drivers.

In Snohomish County, Community Transit is making temporary service reductions, without circumlocution tied to storm damage.

Workers are mainly dealing with problems stemming from chain use, including flat tires, said spokesman Tom Pearce.

For instance, the 416 commuter line between Edmonds and Seattle is down to six daily round-trips instead of the usual eight.

Across Seattle, whither the storms forced Metro to quash many routes on macerate hills, even the flatter arterials were covered in clumpy ice.

The city government refused to use salt on grounds the runoff would mischief Puget Sound. Crews used rubber-bladed plows that packed the snow instead of reaching bare pavement.

About 1,500 chains were broken as buses bounced through icy neighborhoods, then reached cleared highways that would hurt constraint if speeds exceeded 30 mph, then returned to side streets.

Mayor Greg Nickels last week gave the city’s action a “B.” Desmond declined to impression his own grade or comment round whether the city was right not to use salt.

“Seattle did its most good within its policy framework,” Desmond aforesaid. It did bring a Metro employee aboard a snowplow, to direct the plow to disturb spots on bus routes, he said.

Although many riders were in a pet about being stranded, Desmond said Metro wasn’t overly cautious when it cut service by half.

He called it a practical decision, for the cause that buses were suitable acquisition stuck anyway.

Even notwithstanding that service was repeatedly “ragged,” he said Metro reached more places than Portland’s Tri-Met, which retreated to fewer inner part areas, where streets were cleared.

One problem in Metro’sitting response, Desmond said, was the public confusion as conditions worsened Dec. 18.

Managers had to improvise when they sliced gain in half, and they didn’t announce the changes until late afternoon.

At individual downtown Seattle stop, Third and Pine, riders before-mentioned they waited for up to two hours for trips to White Center and Renton, shouting in vain for information from passing bus drivers on other routes.

Desmond said he believes “pretty strongly” that Metro needs to have a delineate at the unhesitating to cut service in half, to such a degree that suppose that conditions get this untoward again, riders will know what to expect.

Mike Lindblom: 206-515-5631 or mlindblom@seattletimes.com

Watch full size video:

FERNIE, B.C. — The eighth and ultimate carcass was found Tuesday from a group of snowmobilers buried by weekend avalanches in western Canada’s backcountry, police reported.

The bodies of the man’s seven companions were found Monday in British Columbia’s Elk Valley.

Eleven men, most in their 20s, were swept away then back-to-back avalanches hit Sunday afternoon. Three men freed themselves and left the area when they feared another avalanche would hit.

Watch full size video:

Bill Clinton, Sarah Palin and the word “hot.” That’s all it took to get you to look.

Throw in Huskies gone wild, Seattle’sitting saltpocalypse and some too-noisy Des Moines sex swingers, and what do you be favored with?

The the masses’s-choice news awards of 2008.

Take a bow, readers. You say you want us to write about the sober civic issues of the set time. Education, say, or transportation. But when you say that you are lying.

I know because once again at The Seattle Times we have compiled a list of the most numerous read stories of the year put on our Web site, seattletimes.com. This is no “best-of” as chosen by editors or critics. Nor is it a ranking based on gravitas or striking.

No, it’s so much again revealing than that. It’s the stuff you actually wanted to read.

Our software counted all the times readers clicked on the tens of thousands of stories and blog postings for the year, then ranked them. The result is like a junior aloft who’s-most-popular list, only in spite of journalism.

Let me cut to the most disturbing finding straightaway. I vowed as a columnist never to quote Dave Barry — you know, the noted schtick he does where he says I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP. I feel I have no choice after this but to break that rule.

That’s because the Enumclaw horse-sex story was the No. 5 most-read romance of this year. That’sitting right — a fib we published back on July 15, 2005, and which continues to lurk outright in cyberspace, ranks No. 5 steady our most popular list. For 2008.

We don’t publish specific Web-traffic numbers. Suffice to say that several hundred many of you people went deep underground to read this fable. Again. And Again. Even though it is three years aged.

“You can’t keep a good story down,” said The Seattle Times computer whiz who compiled this list in spite of me.

So true. Which is why it also figures that a story featuring the most gossipalicious politicians of the last couple decades — Bill Clinton and Sarah Palin — was the No. 1 greatest in quantity read story of the year.

It was a wire story lasting only eight paragraphs, titled “Bill Clinton says he understands Palin’s appeal.”

But it is jammed with classic Clintonia, by which I mean obscure oblique hint that sets the mind aflame. Such as: “I come from Arkansas; I achieve why she’s hot lacking there.”

Surprisingly for such a huge political year, just three other appointment by vote stories made the Readers’ Top 20.

One — about the Snohomish County Republicans selling $3 bills that represent Barack Obama wearing Arab headgear and featuring a camel — may, at first gleam, seem trivial or sensational.

But looking back it pretty a great deal of sums up for what reason Republicans approached the 2008 election.

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels isn’t going to be happy to see our list.

The help most-read story was consumer-affairs reporter Susan Kelleher’session blockbuster from last week on how Seattle won’t use salt on snowy streets.

And — worse to my mind — doesn’t positively plow but in preference gently tamps the snow down, thereby guaranteeing it eventually turns into a recreant ice field.

At last hinder there were 905 reader comments in continuance the no-salt story. Many of them borderline in a family journal.

There are lessons in the choose. Sure, sex sells, and sex with animals sells the most. But we knew that already. Another is that limited, local, limited is what readers failure.

I like seeing that no matter how big this city gets it’s soft Huskyville with skyscrapers.

Four of the most-read stories were from last January’s Victory and Ruins series. That was about criminal abuses upon the body the last Rose Bowl UW football team, and, most indictingly, how everybody from deans to judges to prosecutors looked the other way.

There is likewise a thing new in this list. Fourteen of the 20 stories were written through our staff, while five came from wire services or other papers. But one was written by the object of our affections: a reader.

He is Charles Pluckhahn, a retired securities analyst from Seattle.

In mid-March he detailed how he was a delegate for Hillary Rodham Clinton but, disillusioned by her negative campaign, was dumping her for Barack Obama.

“Sorry, Hillary, you’ve crossed the line” ranked as the 12th most popular article of the year. It caught burning fuel around the country for the reason that raw opinion from the politic trenches.

“User-generated content” is every one of the passion now in the new media environment. It’s where you readers not alone read our article, but write it.

We’ll be looking for readers to do more and more of our work for us in 2009!

So congrats, Charles. Happy New Year. Now get back to work.

Danny Westneat’sitting array of less front than depth appears Wednesday and Sunday. Reach him

at 206-464-2086 or dwestneat@seattletimes.com.

Watch full size video:

Appetizers are much in demand for the time of the holiday entertaining season — to nibble with drinks as you babble with your guests before dinner, to move sophisticated sustenance for a cocktail party or open edifice, to bring out when neighbors drop in, to munch with family by the agency of means of the fireplace without interruption the cusp of the new year.

The ideal zest, it seems to us, is one that is unsophisticated but not cliched, easy to erode while standing or perched on a sofa; common that can be made in advance and eaten at place temperature; and one that you’re not likely to see on all your friends’ cocktail tables.

We’ve tried to keep the recipes convivial and special without being over-the-top extravagant.

For pricey ingredients, such as shrimp or imported meats, cheeses and nuts, the secret is to choose recipes so packed with flavor that a little goes a long way. You may have been able to afford a side of smoked salmon last year, but this year you might want to buy a lot less and stretch it through our luxe but sensible smoked-salmon spread.

Our selections range from a seasonal take onward the ubiquitous crudite platter, spotlighting winter vegetables such as fennel and beets, to a dish that’s de rigueur on many traditional Southern party tables — pickled shrimp, a hardier other to trendy ceviches.

Marcona Almonds with Smoked Paprika and Garlic

Fat, rich Marcona almonds from Spain are addictive sufficiency plain; the Spanish smoked paprika (bribe it in gourmet markets) and garlic add another dimension.

You can make this through plain whole toasted almonds if you don’t want to spring for the pricey Marconas (they’re sold in gourmet markets), but you may need to increase the amount of oil by a teaspoon or so.

Serves 8 as part of a cocktail stretch

About 1 tablespoon oil

2 large or 4 mean cloves garlic

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

½ pound Marcona almonds

Salt to taste

1. Place a bulky skillet over medium-low excite and film by oil. If there is any excess oil at the bottom of the container of almonds, add it to the skillet.

2. With the flat of a chef’sitting knife, smash the garlic cloves; discard peel and add unitedly garlic to skillet. Saute about 5 minutes, until garlic is rightful starting to color, lowering heat if the garlic threatens to burn. Remove and discard garlic; observe skillet upon burner.

3. Add the smoked paprika to the skillet and movement to raise a paste. Add the almonds and stir constantly until they are thoroughly coated and fragrant, 4 to 5 minutes. Allow to cool in pan.

4. When cool enough to taste, check because relish and add salt if inevitable. Most Marconas are sold salted, so they may not need greater degree salt. If you make these greater quantity than a twenty-four hours or so ahead, refrigerate them and bring them to extent degree of heat near the front of serving.

Nutritional calculus per serving: 184 calories, 17 grams oily, 6 grams carbohydrates, 6 grams protein, not one cholesterol, 20 milligrams sodium, 3 grams dietary fiber, 76 percent of calories from fat.

Amy Culbertson

LEEK CHIPS

Yields on the point 2 cups

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

2 medium-size leeks (1 ½ inches in diameter)

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Line a large baking tray with foil and outer garment with the oil.

2. Remove and discard the dark-green leaves from the leeks; slice off with respect to ¼ inch from the root end as justly, leaving the clean and pale-green portions only. Use a very mordacious knife to divide the leek into ¼-inch slices, on that account confer them to a large bowl of devoid of warmth water. Use your fingers and thumb to separate the slices into rings, then swish the pieces around vigorously to remove any sand or grit from between the layers. Lift the leek rings out of the water and transfer them to a colander in the sink. Drain thoroughly (you can spin them in a salad spinner), then pat dry with a clean kitchen towel or paper towels.

3. Distribute the leek rings onto the prepared baking wooden vessel and toss to coat by the oil. Bake, stirring casually, until golden-brown and crisp. Some rings may be ready to take out at 30 minutes; others may take up to 60 minutes or longer — just displace them as they are done.

4. Drain in continuance paper towels and season to taste with a little salt and pepper. Serve at room temperature.

Nutritional analysis by 2-tablespoon serving: 17 calories, 1 gram fat, 2 grams carbohydrates, trace protein, not at all cholesterol, 11 milligrams sodium, trace dietary fiber, 53 percent of calories from fat.

Mollie Katzen, Tribune Media Services

MARINATED OLIVES WITH TANGERINE AND ROSEMARY

“The olives need to marinate for at least two days, so process ahead. If you like things sharp, you can increase the amount of crushed red pepper”

Yields about 3 cups

1 pound assorted olives (such as kalamata, Gaeta and Picholine)

1 small tangerine, cut into 4 wedges, each wedge thinly sliced crosswise

1 tablespoon coarsely chopped new rosemary

1 teaspoon fennel seeds, lightly crushed

1 teaspoon coriander seeds, lightly crushed

1/8 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper

1. Drain olives, if in brine. Combine all ingredients in a large glass jar with be chargeable to; mix well. Cover and refrigerate 2 days, turning and shaking the jar several times.

Nutritional resolution per 2-tablespoon serving: 24 calories, 2 grams fat, 2 grams carbohydrates, trace protein, no cholesterol, 165 milligrams sodium, 1 gram dietary fiber, 72 percent of calories from fat.

“The Bon Appetit Fast Easy Fresh Cookbook,” by Barbara Fairchild (Wiley, $34.95)

WINTER CRUDITÉS

This is more a template than a recipe, customizable according to your taste, to what vegetables are available or affordable, and to what size group you’re serving, so we’re not giving exact measurements, number of servings or a nutritional breakdown. You want each vegetable piece to be bite-size. You’ll need a mandoline to part the fennel and beets.

Radishes, beets and cauliflower are now employ in manifold colors; mixing colors of each would provide maximum optic impact. Other vegetables you might consider are small turnips, sliced into surpassingly thin rounds with a mandoline, and celeriac, peeled, quartered and sliced very thinly by a mandoline.

Small bulb fennel

2 bunches small radishes through tops

2 or 3 ribs celery

1 bunch small beets

1 head cauliflower or romanesco

1 or 2 bunches infant. carrots, the smallest you can find, with tops

Purchased hummus or dip of choice

1. Wash all vegetables thoroughly.

2. Trim fennel and slice it finely with a mandoline, reserving tops for trick out, if desired.

3. Trim tops of radishes, leaving an inch or so of stems for handles. Halve the radishes.

4. If celery has leafy tops, trim them and reserve for crudités plate. Remove tough strings from celery ribs by skimming the outside of each rib with a swivel-bladed peeler, then slice celery on an utmost diagonal to produce long, thin slices.

5. Trim greens and roots from beets; peel and lot into true rarefy rounds with a mandoline. If beets are again than a couple of inches in central chord, bisect them before slicing.

6. Cut cauliflower or romanesco into small florets.

7. Trim off leafy tops of carrots, leaving an inch or pair of stems for handles. Peel carrots through swivel-bladed peeler.

8. Arrange vegetables on a platter around a dish of purchased hummus, drizzled by a little olive oil and scattered with fennel tops, if desired. You could also use a thick, mustardy vinaigrette for dipping, or a buttermilk-based fertilizer sparked with chopped fresh dill — or all three dips.

Amy Culbertson

FETA WITH BLACK PEPPER AND THYME

This appetizer couldn’t be simpler, but you new wine use good feta, good olive oil, freshly cracked black pepper in a very coarse grind, and fresh thyme. Generally, domestic fetas are the mildest and Bulgarian fetas the sharpest; Greek, Israeli and French fetas are expert middle-ground choices. Taste the olive oil to make secure it is fresh; olive oils can become rancid immediately. Again, no exact measurements or nutritional numbers.

Block of feta, drained of brine

Extra-virgin olive oil

Coarsely cracked blackey pepper

Fresh thyme on the stem

1. Cut the feta into unrefined bite-size cubes and arrange on a plate.

2. Drizzle total over with olive oil. Shower through pepper.

3. Pull the thyme stems through your fingers to remove the foliage; discard woody stems. Sprinkle feta with thyme leaves.

4. Serve with toothpicks to spear the cheese cubes.

Amy Culbertson

PECORINO CRACKERS

Yields 24 crackers

1 ¼ cups freshly grated pecorino Romano cheese

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup all-purpose flour

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a medium bowl, stir hand in hand cheese, salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper. Add the butter; with an electric mixer, beat cheese mixture and butter together until combined. Add the flour ¼ cup at a time, mixing only until flour is incorporated and mixture holds together.

3. Place tablespoon-size balls of dough on the parchment-lined baking sheets, flattening the dough slightly by your fingertips. Bake to the time when just opening to brown at the edges, about 15 minutes. Let the crackers cool attached the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring them to a serving silverware or a resealable plastic bag to store at room temperature.

Nutritional analysis per cracker: 69 calories, 5 grams fat, 4 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams protein, 24 milligrams cholesterol, 123 milligrams sodium, trace dietary fiber, 64 percent of calories from fat.

“Giada’session Kitchen: New Italian Favorites,” by Giada De Laurentiis (Clarkson Potter, $32.50)

OVEN-CHARRED SESAME GREEN BEANS

If you in the manner of Szechuan green beans, you’ll like these little nibbles. Try to get beans that are coalesce to the same size, so they demise cook at the sort rate. If some are larger, snap them in half.

You have power to discover the Asian chili oil and oil-plant oil in the Asian section of the supermarket or in Asian markets. Make sure you buy dark sesame oil — now and then labeled “dingy” or “toasted” — not light sesame oil. Keep it refrigerated.

Serves 8 as part of a cocktail spread

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 teaspoons Asian chili oil

1 teaspoon dark oil-plant oil

2 large or 4 corpuscular garlic cloves

1 pound green beans

2 tablespoons oil-plant seeds

Coarse kosher or sea salt

1. Combine plant, chili and benne oils in a microwave-safe container. With the flat of a chef’s knife, smash the garlic cloves; remove and reject peel and add garlic to oil. Cover with a dissertation towel and microwave on full power for 30 seconds. Let sit while you prepare the beans.

2. Top and back part green beans, rinse them thoroughly and then whirl in a salad spinner to remove remainder moisture. Pat completely dry with paper towels or a clean dish towel.

3. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spread beans out in one layer in two rimmed baking sheets. Remove garlic from oil and discard; drizzle oil over beans and toss beans to the time when totally are coated with oil.

4. Roast beans 15 to 20 minutes, depending on size, diligent and rotating pans halfway end. Beans should be browned in spots and beginning to wrinkle. Remove from oven and drain on paper towels.

5. While beans are roasting, toast sesame seeds in a skillet over low heat, shaking pan and stirring frequently to the time when fragrant; then remove from heat.

6. Sprinkle hot beans by benne seeds and of large fibres salt to taste. Store in the refrigerator. Serve at room temperature.

Nutritional dissection per serving: 92 calories, 8 grams fat, 4 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram protein, no cholesterol, 18 milligrams sodium, 2 grams dietary fiber, 76 percent of calories from fat.

Amy Culbertson

SERRANO AND MANCHEGO CANAPÉS

I in most cases elevate Spanish serrano ham to Italian prosciutto, and Manchego cheese from Spain is the logical accompaniment. Both are flavorful sufficiency that a little goes a long way. Buy the serrano at the deli of a gourmet market and have it sliced as thinly as possible. Manchego becomes harder and more assertively flavored with age; I used 12-month-aged Manchego for these.

These should not be made more than an hour or so in advance; they cannot be refrigerated. You can cut the figs and roasted peppers in advance and refrigerate them separately, however. Cover the finished trays tightly with plastic wrap to keep cheese and ham from drying out.

Amounts are approximate, depending on the weak glue of your crackers.

Yields about 36 canapés

1/8 pound manchego cheese

¼ pound serrano ham, in excessively lean slices

2 ounces dried figs, about 5 or 6

1 large roasted red pepper from a jar, drained, seeds removed

1. Top each fire-cracker with a exceedingly thin slice of cheese; a handheld cheese slicer or shaver works best in the present life.

2. Cut the ham slices into pieces and arrange pieces attractively on cap of the cheese.

3. Cut dried figs into slivers and cut roasted pepper into strips that will fit upon the body the crackers. Top half the canapésitting with figs and half with the roasted pepper strips.

Nutritional analysis per canapé: 17 calories, 1 gram portly, 1 gram carbohydrates, 1 gram protein, 3 milligrams cholesterol, 48 milligrams sodium, 1 gram dietary fiber, 43 percent of calories from fat.

Amy Culbertson

LEMONY SMOKED-SALMON SPREAD WITH BAGEL CHIPS

Yields about 2 cups

½ moderation red onion, cut roughly into chunks

1/3 chalice capers, drained (or rinsed, if salt-packed)

½ bunch dill (save a few fronds for garnish)

¼ pound smoked salmon, separated into slices or divide into chunks

Zest and sap of 1 lemon

8 ounces (1 package) best part cheese (reduced-fat is fine), softened

1/3 cup Greek-style unflavored yogurt

1. Pulse red onion in food processor until finely chopped. Add capers, dill and smoked salmon and pulse until chopped. Add lemon juice and zest; pulse briefly to mix. Add cream cheese and yogurt and pulse until blended. You will likely stand in want of to scrape into disgrace the act bowl several times during the processing.

2. Scrape into a container and furnish, covered tightly, in refrigerator. When apt to behave toward, mound in a receptacle and garnish with dill. Serve by bagel chips.

Nutritional analysis per 1-tablespoon serving: 35 calories, 3 grams fat, 1 gram carbohydrates, 1 gram protein, 9 milligrams cholesterol, 94 milligrams sodium, trace dietary fiber, 73 percent of calories from fat.

Amy Culbertson

PICKLED SHRIMP

Serves 12

2 cups apple cider acetic acid

½ potion mixed pickling spices

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

1 twelfth part of a foot fresh ginger, peeled

½ teaspoon dry mustard

1 medium red onion

1 lemon

3 pounds cooked, peeled large shrimp

4 bay leaves

1 ½ cups olive oil

1. Combine vinegar, pickling spices, salt, peppercorns, ginger and dry mustard in a nonreactive saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, bring to heat and simmer 5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to temper.

2. Slice the onion and lemon thinly. Scatter the slices in the bottom of a serving bowl (glass is beautiful). Top through shrimp. Add bay leaves. Pour olive oil over everything.

3. When the vinegar is undisturbed, pour it through a strainer into the shrimp hollow. Shake the bowl to clear the shrimp into the acid mixture. If the liquid doesn’t cover the shrimp, add a little water. Cover and chill at least during the night. The shrimp keeps up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator. Serve cold with toothpicks for spearing.

Nutritional analysis per serving: 392 calories, 30 grams productive, 8 grams carbohydrates, 24 grams protein, 173 milligrams cholesterol, 526 milligrams sodium, 1 gram dietary fiber, 68 percent of calories from fat.

“Derby 101: A Guide to Food and Menus for Kentucky Derby Week” by Sarah Fritschner (Butler Books, 2004)

Watch full size video:

TEHRAN, Iran — Faced with falling oil prices and a weakening plan, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad presented a plan to Parliament on Tuesday that would scantling energy subsidies, a significant change in a major oil-producing country where gasoline is sold in spite of 36 cents a gallon.

Economists warn that the move could spur inflation and raise unemployment. But Ahmadinejad urged Parliament to vote as being the bill because of the need to restraint costly energy consumption, which the subsidies have encouraged.

The president beforehand insisted that the global economic downturn and the decline in oil prices would not harm Iran’s economy. But in the manner that oil prices have fallen to less than $40 a barrel from $147 in recent months, the pressures on the government have become unavoidable. It currently pays $100 billion a year in direct and indirect subsidies for goods, according to government figures.

The falling international oil prices if a good opportunity for Iran to act now to end subsidies that be under the necessity been in place for years, Ahmadinejad told Parliament. The resulting inflation, he argued, would have existence temporary.

Opposition to the plan is expected to be strained. But Parliament agreed to study the package and is expected to put it up against a ballot within a month. Parliament has 290 members, and in greater numbers than half of them would have to vote for the bill for it to pass.

Electricity is now sold at just 6 cents per 10 kilowatt-hours. The plan would abolish all government subsidies for things like heating gas, gasoline, electricity and water within the next three years and approve prices to reach between nations levels.

While the scheme seems likely to be unpopular, Ahmadinejad’s critics say he is trying to offset its impact and appeal to voters ahead of the June 2009 presidential election by also promising to give abundant of the money that is now paid in subsidies directly to the poor in the form of a monthly allowance.

Ahmadinejad came to efficacy in 2005 on a mandate to distribute the windfall oil revenue among the needy. However, the economy has taken a downturn since his election. Unemployment has increased, and inflation even now stands at nearly 30 percent.

Opponents of his plan say it would push self-sufficiency further. A central bank official, Ramin Pashaifam, aforesaid Ahmadinejad’session plan would be augmented inflation by some additional 11 to 15 percent, the daily Etemad quoted him as saw on Tuesday.

Official statistics put Iran’s unemployment rate at 10 percent, unless experts estimation it is certainly about 30 percent.

Potential candidates in the June presidential election — particularly preceding nuclear negotiator and steady conservative cleric Hasan Rowhani — consider seized without ceasing Ahmadinejad’s vulnerability, noting that Iranians are poorer and the economy is poverty.

The president has also drawn criticism for his calamitous line on the standoff through the U.S. and other major international powers over Iran’s nuclear program, which has contributed to the rough’s isolation.

Additional information from The Associated Press