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We got a party going on
Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012
Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.
Nicaragua’s OAS Envoy Blasts His Own Government as Dictatorship
In dramatic speech, ambassador to Organization of American States becomes first top official to publicly quit Ortega regime since 2019
Arturo McFields, Nicaragua’s ambassador to the Organization of American States, said he was speaking out against the Ortega regime on behalf of those who fear doing so.
PHOTO: ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
MEXICO CITY—Nicaragua’s ambassador to the Organization of American States denounced his own country as a dictatorship Wednesday in a dramatic and unprecedented speech during an online conference at the Washington, D.C.-based hemispheric organization. He then apparently quit his post.
Ambassador Arturo McFields, who last year was named envoy to the OAS, said he was speaking on behalf of thousands of public servants in Nicaragua who are afraid to speak their minds for fear of losing their jobs. He also invoked the nearly 200 political prisonersand more than 350 people killed, most by state security forces, since massive protests in 2018 that shook the government of President Daniel Ortega.
“To denounce my country’s dictatorship is not easy, but to keep silent and defend the indefensible is impossible,” said Mr. McFields, a former journalist. “I must speak although I have fear. I must speak although my future and that of my family are uncertain.”
In perhaps Mr. McFields’s last act as ambassador, his delegation sent a note to the OAS asking to be included as a co-sponsor of the organization’s recent resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Ortega government, a close ally of PresidentVladimir Putin, has defended the invasion and didn’t support the resolution backed by 25 countries.
The consequences of harsh economic sanctions against Russia are already being felt across the globe. WSJ’s Greg Ip joins other experts to explain the significance of what has happened so far and how the conflict might transform the global economy. Photo Illustration: Alexander HotzTHE WALL STREET JOURNAL INTERACTIVE EDITION
In a subsequent letter to the OAS, Nicaragua’s Foreign Ministry disavowed Mr. McFields’s action.
The ambassador is the first high-ranking Nicaraguan government official to publicly quit the Ortega government since 2019. Mr. Ortega, a former Sandinista guerrilla, was re-elected to Nicaragua’s presidency last November in elections widely condemned as a sham. Mr. McFields didn’t respond to a request for comment.
“It’s a dramatic development and shows that even senior regime officials can’t stomach the regime’s abuses,” said Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Americas Society, a Washington-based think tank. “It’s very clear that the regime is losing a lot of support even among its own officials and that the only way to stay in power is further crackdowns
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