Milestones

DIED

Toots Thielemans, 94, Belgian jazz harmonica player who collaborated with music greats from Benny Goodman to Paul Simon. His playing was featured on the opening theme of Sesame Street and on the soundtracks for Midnight Cowboy (1969) and The Getaway (1972).

Lou Pearlman, 62, former manager of boy bands like ‘N Sync, Backstreet Boys and LFO. He died in jail, having spent his final years incarcerated for a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors of an estimated $300 million.

CLOSED

The website Gawker, after its parent company was sold to Univision. The site was created in 2002 as a media gossip blog and became known for its mixture of salacious tittle-tattle and in-depth reporting. Its parent company, Gawker Media, declared bankruptcy in June after the site lost a $140 million privacy lawsuit over a sex tape it published featuring former wrestling star Hulk Hogan.

ANNOUNCED

By the Obama Administration that the federal government would phase out the use of privately operated prisons. A memo from the Justice Department said the 13 private prisons contracted by the government “do not provide the same level of correctional services, programs and resources” as those in the public sector.