Articles On Information

President Vladimir Putin’s Dangerous Moves

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President
 Vladimir Putin of Russia has added new, chilling nuclear threats to his
 aggression in Ukraine, where 6,000 people have been killed in a war 
with Russian-backed separatists. Mr. Putin wants to expand his country’s
 influence and standing, but his alarming behavior has estranged Russia 
from most other major powers, damaged its economy and narrowed its 
future options.</div>
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Even
 for Mr. Putin, the recent nuclear threats have set a new benchmark for 
hostility in the conflict he has ignited with the West. Two weeks ago, 
The Times of London <a href="http://news.err.ee/v/International/cbe4d3fa-960c-4331-8b4f-2fec20ac70d5">reported</a>
 on a meeting between Russian generals and American officials in which 
the Russians threatened a “spectrum of responses from nuclear to 
non-military” if NATO moved more military forces into the Baltic States.</div>
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Last month, the Russian ambassador to Denmark, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/22/us-denmark-russia-idUSKBN0MI0ML20150322" title="reuters">Mikhail Vanin</a>,
 warned that Danish warships “will be targets for Russia’s nuclear 
weapons” if Denmark follows through on its expressed interest in joining
 NATO’s missile defense system.<br />
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<a href="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" class="media-viewer-candidate" data-mediaviewer-caption="Vladimir Putin" data-mediaviewer-credit="Mikhail Klimentyev/RIA Novosti" data-mediaviewer-src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/16/opinion/16thu1web/16thu1web-superJumbo.jpg" height="278" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/16/opinion/16thu1web/16thu1web-master315.jpg" itemprop="url" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/16/opinion/16thu1web/16thu1web-master315.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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                <span class="caption-text">Vladimir Putin</span>
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            <span class="visually-hidden">Credit</span>
            Mikhail Klimentyev/RIA Novosti        </span>
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And in remarks aired on March 15, Mr.<a href="http://time.com/3745522/vladimir-putin-russia-nukes-crimea-ukraine/" title="time"> Putin</a>
 said he was ready to bring nuclear weapons into a state of alert last 
year when Russia was in the process of invading and annexing Crimea. 
Some Russian officials have also hinted at the possibility of 
reintroducing nuclear weapons to Crimea, which has been free of them for
 two decades.</div>
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American
 officials say they have seen no evidence that Russia has actually begun
 to reposition or make ready a nuclear arsenal that still contains 
thousands of weapons. But even if the Russian threats are loose talk to 
intimidate adversaries or curry favor with nationalists at home, they 
reflect a cynical disregard for Russia’s post-Cold War role as a partner
 with America in arms control treaties designed to discourage the spread
 of nuclear weapons. These threats inevitably raise tensions and could 
increase the chances of deadly miscalculations.</div>
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Mr.
 Putin has crossed other lines, including sending military aircraft 
unannounced into international airspace over Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia,
 Poland and the North Sea. On April 7, a Russian fighter jet intercepted
 an American spy plane over the Baltic Sea north of Poland; the Pentagon
 complained the Russians acted in an “unsafe and unprofessional manner.”</div>
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There
 have been scores of similar episodes over the past year as NATO 
increased its air patrols in response to Russia’s invasion of Crimea.</div>
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The Russian leader’s decision to proceed with the long-delayed sale
 of an S-300 missile defense system to Iran was another bad choice. 
Experts say the system does not threaten Israel, which has nuclear 
weapons and the best military arsenal in the Middle East, but the move 
could make it harder for the Obama administration to get congressional 
support for a nuclear agreement with Iran.</div>
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Mr.
 Putin’s aggression is rooted in intense nationalism, which plays very 
well to his people and fuels the war against Ukraine. Despite a 
cease-fire agreement signed in Minsk in February, Russia has continued 
to arm, train and direct separatist rebels. Fighting has<a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32296796" title="bbc"> surged</a> and there are grave concerns that Mr. Putin is planning an offensive to seize more territory in eastern Ukraine.</div>
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Russia’s
 bellicose behavior is a serious test for NATO, which has sometimes 
shown disturbing divisions. The Europeans and the United States have to 
stay united in maintaining sanctions on Russia and in continuing air 
patrols and training exercises, as it becomes increasingly difficult to 
predict Mr. Putin’s next move.</div>
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President Vladimir Putin’s Dangerous Moves

President Vladimir Putin of Russia has added new, chilling nuclear threats to his aggression in Ukraine, where 6,000 people have been killed in a war with Russian-backed separatists. Mr. Putin wants to expand his country’s influence and standing, but his alarming behavior has estranged Russia …

16Apr2015

At Marathon in North Korea, Curiosity Goes a Long Way

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                <span class="caption-text">North Korean runners mixed briefly with foreigners before Sunday’s races, and some posed for a picture.</span>
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            Jeré Longman/The New York Times        </span>
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As
 we flew in by the hundreds on Saturday, the arrival hall at Sunan 
International Airport grew cramped and cold. After examining countless 
laptops, smartphones and passports, a security official gave the 
international smile of exasperation, caught my eye and said, “Tourists.”</div>
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By
 Sunday, the mood at Kim Il-sung Stadium was one of throbbing, if 
rehearsed, enthusiasm. I warmed up along a curve of the track where 
backboards had been set up on an outdoor basketball court. Others jogged
 on the artificial surface of the soccer field inside the track. Almost 
everyone seemed to take photographs of the crowd, a huge one for the 
start of a marathon outside the Olympics.</div>
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A
 tone sounded, and race officials in red hats and white coats marshaled 
us for the start. There was some confusion about whether to exit the 
stadium down the backstretch or the homestretch. We faced one direction,
 then the other.</div>
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“If this was easy, it wouldn’t be North Korea,” the runner next to me said.</div>
<h4 class="story-subheading story-content" data-para-count="11" data-total-count="2184" id="subhead-1" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Muted Logos</h4>
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The
 white coats of the officials suggested some sort of athletic and social
 experiment. In February, Sunday’s races were abruptly closed to 
foreigners as North Korea cited continuing concerns about the spread of Ebola. Then, in March, with little explanation, the door opened again.</div>
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Tour
 operators and Korean guides offered several possible explanations: 
North Korea desperately needed hard currency from expanded tourism. It 
was attempting to generate mass interest in recreation. It was using 
sport to try to rehabilitate an “axis of evil” image of nuclear 
antagonism and widespread human rights abuse that, according to a 2013 
United Nations report, included secret prison camps, torture, forced 
starvation and a paucity of free thought.</div>
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“Many
 people see our country as military development and poor people,” said O
 Ryong-jong, an official in the North Korean sports ministry who was a 
guide on my marathon tour bus. “We want them to come and see for 
themselves.”</div>
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North
 Korean runners mixed briefly with foreigners before Sunday’s races. 
Some posed for photographs while others shyly looked away. One young 
local runner held up his arms in Rocky-style determination; another 
hugged a teammate from behind and flashed the peace sign.</div>
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The
 international runners started first, dressed in our casual 
fluorescence, while the North Koreans followed an hour later, the 
fastest of them in singlets and racing flats, some of the women and 
girls with white ribbons around their waists. As many as 800 would run 
the race, according to a generous estimate by state-run news media, some
 competing unofficially without racing bibs.<br />
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<figure class="media photo embedded has-adjacency layout-large-horizontal media-100000003630308 ratio-tall" data-media-action="modal" id="media-100000003630308" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/16/sports/NORTHKOREAweb3/NORTHKOREAweb3-articleLarge.jpg" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" role="group"><div class="image">
            <a href="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" class="media-viewer-candidate" data-mediaviewer-caption="Race officials, wearing red hats and white coats, marshaled runners for the start of the race." data-mediaviewer-credit="Jeré Longman/The New York Times" data-mediaviewer-src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/16/sports/NORTHKOREAweb3/NORTHKOREAweb3-superJumbo.jpg" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/16/sports/NORTHKOREAweb3/NORTHKOREAweb3-articleLarge.jpg" itemprop="url" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/16/sports/NORTHKOREAweb3/NORTHKOREAweb3-articleLarge.jpg" /></a><div class="media-action-overlay">

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                <span class="caption-text">Race officials, wearing red hats and white coats, marshaled runners for the start of the race.</span>
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            Jeré Longman/The New York Times        </span>
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Another
 guide on my tour bus, Pak Un-gyong, had carefully examined each of our 
running outfits. It was forbidden to depict flags of the United States, 
South Korea or Japan. And the logos of the apparel companies had to be 
muted. Last year, one runner was reported to have run in jeans because 
of a violation.</div>
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If
 the logos were obtrusive, Ms. Pak said the day before, “You must pay 
some money to the I.A.A.F.” This was a reference to track and field’s 
world governing body, which sanctioned the race, officially known as the
 Marathon Amateurs’ Running Race Celebrating the Day of the Sun.</div>
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Everybody
 in our group seemed to have passed sartorial muster. And with a roar we
 headed out of the stadium and past the 197-foot Arch of Triumph, a 
symbol of resistance to the Japanese occupation of the Korean Peninsula 
from 1910 to 1945.</div>
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“Have you been to France?” Ms. Pak had asked on a prerace tour of the course. “I hear this one is 11 meters taller.”</div>
<h4 class="story-subheading story-content" data-para-count="25" data-total-count="4798" id="subhead-2" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Stopwatches and Bathrooms</h4>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="257" data-total-count="5055" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
We
 could not leave the loop course, but we could leave our minders for an 
hour or two or four. Maybe we could make a personal connection that 
seemed less scripted than the opening ceremony: a brief smile, a wave, a
 hello, a thank you, a small encouragement.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="229" data-total-count="5284" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Or
 would it all be staged, a Potemkin race in an authoritarian capital for
 the elite and loyal, where Kim Jong-il was said to have scored a 
perfect 300 in his first bowling match and five holes in one on his 
maiden round of golf?</div>
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An
 early uphill stretch carried us past modest but encouraging crowds 
along a wide street of apricot blossoms. A police officer high-fived a 
few runners. A woman waved from the window of her apartment building. 
Other women in red jackets poured water into cups at small hydration 
tables.</div>
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The
 6.2-mile loop brought us back and forth across the Taedong River via 
bridge and tunnel, the roads decorated with clusters of North Korean 
flags, their red star and red field meant to symbolize the spilled blood
 of liberation in a military-first nation.</div>
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Because
 Ebola concerns had disrupted planning of the race, only the Korean 
runners were issued computer chips for timing. The rest of us were timed
 with stopwatches every five kilometers, or 3.1 miles.<br />
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<figure class="media photo embedded layout-large-horizontal media-100000003630358 ratio-tall" data-media-action="modal" id="media-100000003630358" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/16/sports/SUB-NORTHKOREAweb4/SUB-NORTHKOREAweb4-articleLarge.jpg" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" role="group"><div class="image">
            <a href="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" class="media-viewer-candidate" data-mediaviewer-caption="A North Korean police officer waved to a runner." data-mediaviewer-credit="Jeré Longman/The New York Times" data-mediaviewer-src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/16/sports/SUB-NORTHKOREAweb4/SUB-NORTHKOREAweb4-superJumbo.jpg" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/16/sports/SUB-NORTHKOREAweb4/SUB-NORTHKOREAweb4-articleLarge.jpg" itemprop="url" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/16/sports/SUB-NORTHKOREAweb4/SUB-NORTHKOREAweb4-articleLarge.jpg" /></a><div class="media-action-overlay">

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                <span class="caption-text">A North Korean police officer waved to a runner.</span>
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            <span class="visually-hidden">Credit</span>
            Jeré Longman/The New York Times        </span>
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The
 portable toilets familiar at most marathons were also absent. Discreet 
signs directed runners to bathrooms near the course. One was on the 
second floor of a building, another through a sundry shop, a restaurant 
and a karaoke bar.</div>
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“Last
 year, we had a guy who went to all the bathrooms because he couldn’t 
get into the buildings otherwise,” said Tori Cook, a guide with Koryo 
Tours, a British-run company in Beijing that brought 270 foreign runners
 to Sunday’s race.</div>
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Cameras
 were officially off limits to runners on the course, but the rule 
essentially seemed unenforced. No one rushed to confiscate them or 
seemed to object to being photographed.</div>
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“It
 feels looser, less controlled,” said Zahlen Titcomb, 32, of Seattle, 
who traveled to Pyongyang in 2011 for an ultimate Frisbee competition.</div>
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Tourists
 bowed to their guides then, Mr. Titcomb said, and it would have been 
all but unthinkable to take a photograph without permission or to whoop 
and holler while running through a tunnel or to jump in the air to take a
 silly picture in front of a stadium or a monument.</div>
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“Nobody at the Vatican takes a photo pretending to hold Jesus in your hand,” he said.</div>
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An Air Kiss and a Sly Wink</h4>
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On
 my second lap of Sunday’s race, the crowd seemed to thin. For 
stretches, the only sounds came from bells on passing bicycles, martial 
music or a helicopter dropping parachutists to entertain the spectators 
in Kim Il-sung Stadium. Women in traditional dresses appeared as bright 
as lanterns against a backdrop of drab Stalinist apartment blocks that 
were as drained of color as some of the runners.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="215" data-total-count="7837" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Children
 along the course seemed to grow bolder. Dressed in tracksuit jackets, 
or the red scarves and blue uniforms of young pioneers, they eagerly 
slapped hands with passing runners and often called out in English:</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="23" data-total-count="7860" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
“Nice to meet you.”<br />
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<figure class="media photo embedded layout-large-vertical media-100000003630310" data-media-action="modal" id="media-100000003630310" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/16/sports/NORTHKOREAweb5/NORTHKOREAweb5-blog427.jpg" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" role="group"><div class="image">
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<a href="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" class="media-viewer-candidate" data-mediaviewer-caption="Runners approached the Arch of Triumph, which is modeled after the Arc de Triomphe in Paris." data-mediaviewer-credit="Jeré Longman/The New York Times" data-mediaviewer-src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/16/sports/NORTHKOREAweb5/NORTHKOREAweb5-superJumbo.jpg" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/16/sports/NORTHKOREAweb5/NORTHKOREAweb5-blog427.jpg" itemprop="url" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/16/sports/NORTHKOREAweb5/NORTHKOREAweb5-blog427.jpg" /></a></div>
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                <span class="caption-text">Runners approached the Arch of Triumph, which is modeled after the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.</span>
                        <span class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder">
            <span class="visually-hidden">Credit</span>
            Jeré Longman/The New York Times </span></figcaption><div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="199" data-total-count="8128" id="story-continues-8" itemprop="articleBody">
During
 his half-marathon, Hank Mannen, 36, of the Netherlands, was startled to
 see a young woman blow him a kiss. He said he reciprocated, then 
thought for a moment, “She’s in big trouble now.”</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="218" data-total-count="8346" itemprop="articleBody">
On
 the first of two laps of the half-marathon, Richard Friedman, 67, of 
Manhattan, patted his heart when he passed one of the austere women who 
direct traffic in Pyongyang. On the second lap, he patted his heart 
again.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="190" data-total-count="8536" itemprop="articleBody">
“I
 swear she winked at me,” Friedman said later. A friend, Martin Rojahn, 
57, of Tasmania, remained unconvinced, suggesting with a laugh that “she
 probably had something in her eye.”</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="382" data-total-count="8918" itemprop="articleBody">
Just
 after I reached 13.1 miles, the elite North Koreans began to pass me in
 swift groups. I could barely hear their whispering strides. Meanwhile, I
 was stuck in a kind of no-man’s land, no amateur runner visible in 
front or behind. A man in a suit must have sensed the heaviness in my 
legs or the struggle in my face. He clapped softly on the sidewalk and 
said, “Very good.”</div>
<h4 class="story-subheading story-content" data-para-count="18" data-total-count="8936" id="subhead-4" itemprop="articleBody">
A Four-Hour Cutoff</h4>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="190" data-total-count="9126" id="story-continues-9" itemprop="articleBody">
Looming
 above the other monuments to the Kim cult of personality was a 
triangular building on the gauzy horizon, the 105-story Ryugyong Hotel, 
under construction since 1987 but never opened.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="297" data-total-count="9423" itemprop="articleBody">
In
 2013, Kim ordered that North Korea increase its yearly total of foreign
 tourists to a million from 200,000 within three years, Andrei Lankov, a
 North Korea expert at Kookmin University in Seoul, South Korea, wrote 
in “The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist 
Utopia.”<br />
    </div>
<figure class="media photo embedded has-adjacency layout-large-horizontal media-100000003630311 ratio-tall" data-media-action="modal" id="media-100000003630311" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/16/sports/NORTHKOREAweb6/NORTHKOREAweb6-articleLarge.jpg" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" role="group"><div class="image">
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<a href="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" class="media-viewer-candidate" data-mediaviewer-caption="The top two North Korean professionals, Ri Yong-ho and Ra Hyon-ho, pushed each other toward the finish in about 2 hours 14 minutes." data-mediaviewer-credit="Jeré Longman/The New York Times" data-mediaviewer-src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/16/sports/NORTHKOREAweb6/NORTHKOREAweb6-superJumbo.jpg" height="265" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/16/sports/NORTHKOREAweb6/NORTHKOREAweb6-articleLarge.jpg" itemprop="url" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/16/sports/NORTHKOREAweb6/NORTHKOREAweb6-articleLarge.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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</div>
</div>
<figcaption class="caption" itemprop="caption description">
                <span class="caption-text">The top two North Korean 
professionals, Ri Yong-ho and Ra Hyon-ho, pushed each other toward the 
finish in about 2 hours 14 minutes.</span>
                        <span class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder">
            <span class="visually-hidden">Credit</span>
            Jeré Longman/The New York Times</span></figcaption></figure><div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="259" data-total-count="9682" id="story-continues-10" itemprop="articleBody">
To
 that end, North Korea is building a new airport terminal, inviting 
foreigners to Pyongyang’s marathon and international film festival and 
trying to entice jet-setters with a ski resort, perhaps a reflection of 
Kim Jong-un’s school years in Switzerland.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="284" data-total-count="9966" itemprop="articleBody">
“It
 appears,” Mr. Lankov wrote, that Kim “hopes to make his realm into an 
East Asian Switzerland, where crowds of rich Westerners will rush with 
pockets full of cash. This dream is highly unrealistic, especially given
 the sorry state of tourist infrastructure in the country.”</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="437" data-total-count="10403" itemprop="articleBody">
Of
 more immediate concern late Sunday morning was the sorry state of my 
running. I am 60, and this was my fourth marathon in 12 months. My body 
was rebelling. I needed a cortisone shot in my left hip. My left knee 
crackled like a wood fire. I reached 30 kilometers, 18.6 miles, in 3 
hours 5 minutes, feeling exhausted with seven and a half miles 
remaining, facing a four-hour cutoff when the doors to Kim Il-sung 
Stadium would be closed.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="135" data-total-count="10538" itemprop="articleBody">
“If you can’t finish in four hours, there’s no punishment, right?” Lucy Guo, 36, of China, had asked nervously before the race.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="73" data-total-count="10611" itemprop="articleBody">
No, Richard Beal, a guide, assured her. Race officials would pick her up.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="58" data-total-count="10669" itemprop="articleBody">
“They’re not going to make you keep going,” he said.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="231" data-total-count="10900" itemprop="articleBody">
I
 would never have another chance to take a lap around a full stadium, so
 I called it quits, pausing outside to see the top two North Korean 
professionals, Ri Yong-ho and Ra Hyon-ho, push each other toward the 
finish in about 2:14.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="331" data-total-count="11231" itemprop="articleBody">
A
 match involving the North Korean soccer league was underway as I 
entered the stadium. The crowd was cheering, prompted by yell leaders. I
 waved but did not see anyone waving back. Later, at dinner, I laughed 
to myself when I overheard another runner say of the victory lap: “Sure,
 it was staged, but who cares? It was great.”</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="261" data-total-count="11492" itemprop="articleBody">
After
 the marathon, medalists at various distances were celebrated at a 
closing ceremony. Sitting in the stands, Mr. Mannen, the Dutch runner 
who had been blown a kiss, considered what he would tell his friends at 
home. Some would insist it had all been a fake.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="162" data-total-count="11654" itemprop="articleBody">
Not
 everyone’s reaction could have been staged on the course, said Roeland 
Loof, 33, a fellow Dutch runner. Especially the children. Children do 
what they want.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="85" data-total-count="11739" id="story-continues-11" itemprop="articleBody">
“In the U.S. and Europe, we’re as brainwashed as they are here,” Mr. Loof said.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="279" data-total-count="12018" itemprop="articleBody">
After
 finishing third in the half-marathon for international amateurs, 
Filippo Nicosia, a diplomat at the Italian Embassy in Beijing, spoke in 
Korean to a group of female students. He tossed them his bouquet of 
flowers. The woman who caught it seemed surprised. Everyone laughed.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“This
 is just a slight opening up, not a structural change,” said Mr. 
Nicosia, 39, who was formerly based in Seoul. “Like when the New York 
Philharmonic came in 2008. A small drop in an ocean. It doesn’t really 
change anything, but it gives curiosity a chance to turn into warmth.”</div>
</figure></div>
</div>

At Marathon in North Korea, Curiosity Goes a Long Way

PYONGYANG, North Korea — By 8:30 a.m. Sunday, the 50,000 seats in Kim Il-sung Stadium were nearly filled with men in Mao suits and coats and ties, women in dresses and heels, and police officers in olive-drab hats with crowns as wide as a discus. Students carried paper megaphones and silver …

16Apr2015

Legal Battle Begins Over Obama Bid to Curb Greenhouse Gases

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" class="media-viewer-candidate" data-mediaviewer-caption="The two largest coal companies in the United States, along with 14 coal-producing states, have challenged a bill to curb carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants." data-mediaviewer-credit="Jim Cole/Associated Press" data-mediaviewer-src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/17/world/17Climate-web/17Climate-web-superJumbo.jpg" height="425" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/17/world/17Climate-web/17Climate-web-master675.jpg" itemprop="url" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/17/world/17Climate-web/17Climate-web-master675.jpg" width="640" /></a> </div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="287" data-total-count="287" id="story-continues-1" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
WASHINGTON — President Obama’s most far-reaching regulation to slow climate change
 will have its first day in court on Thursday, the beginning of what is 
expected to be a multiyear legal battle over the policy that Mr. Obama 
hopes to leave as his signature environmental achievement.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="645" data-total-count="932" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
In
 two separate but related cases to be jointly argued in the United 
States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the 
country’s two largest coal companies, along with 14 coal-producing 
states, have challenged a proposed Environmental Protection Agency regulation, which the agency issued under the authority of the Clean Air Act,
 to curb planet-warming carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants. 
If put in effect as E.P.A. officials have proposed, the rule is intended
 to fundamentally transform the nation’s power sector, shuttering 
hundreds of coal plants and expanding renewable energy sources such as 
wind and solar.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="284" data-total-count="1216" id="story-continues-2" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Thirteen
 states and the District of Columbia are backing the Obama 
administration’s proposal. No matter the outcome of the case, it is 
widely expected that it will be appealed, and that more lawsuits will 
follow — and that its fate will ultimately end up before the Supreme 
Court.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="230" data-total-count="1446" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
In
 the two cases, Murray Energy v. E.P.A. and West Virginia v. E.P.A., the
 plaintiffs contend that the E.P.A. lacks the authority to issue the 
rule in the first place, and so should stop working on the rule before 
making it final.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="271" data-total-count="1717" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Among
 the lawyers arguing on behalf of the coal companies is Laurence H. 
Tribe, a renowned Harvard scholar of constitutional law, who was also a 
mentor to Mr. Obama when he attended law school. Republicans who opposed
 the rule have cheered Mr. Tribe’s role in the case.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="195" data-total-count="1912" id="story-continues-3" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Legal
 experts say it is also possible that the judges could throw the case 
out, since the rule has only been proposed and thus contains language 
that could change when released in the final form.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="366" data-total-count="2278" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
“Is
 industry right that the agency lacks the authority to regulate? The 
challenge is extremely unusual, since the rule is proposed, and not 
final,” said Jody Freeman, the director of Harvard University’s 
environmental law program and a former senior counselor to Mr. Obama. 
“For a court to entertain that would go against decades and decades of 
precedent.”</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="526" data-total-count="2804" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
If
 the court does entertain the case, it will enter into more unusual 
legal territory. The coal companies and the E.P.A. dispute the 
interpretation of ambiguously worded amendments to the Clean Air Act 
passed in 1990. Under those amendments, legal experts say, it is not 
clear whether the E.P.A. has the authority to use one section of the 
Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gas pollution from power plants, 
since the agency has already used a different section of the law to 
regulate different pollutants from power plants.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="239" data-total-count="3043" id="story-continues-4" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
When
 the 1990 legislation was passed, the House version of the law appeared 
to prohibit such “double regulation,” experts say, but the Senate 
version appeared to allow it. The final version of the legislation left 
the question unclear.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="244" data-total-count="3287" id="story-continues-5" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
In
 arguing that it has the authority to regulate different pollutants from
 the same sources, the E.P.A. will point to the 1990 Senate language. In
 arguing that the agency lacks the authority, the coal companies will 
point to the House language.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="226" data-total-count="3513" id="story-continues-6" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
“It’s
 an extremely technical argument about how the statute was put into the 
U.S. code 25 years ago — it’s basically a clerical error,” said Kevin 
Desharnais, an expert on environmental law with the firm Mayer Brown.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="449" data-total-count="3962" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Patrick
 Morrissey, attorney general of West Virginia, which is leading the 
states’ petition against the E.P.A., said the agency is trying to 
exploit the ambiguity in a law to enact sweeping regulations that could 
transform the American energy economy. “They are trying to bring life to
 a clerical error,” he said. “Now it’s being used to put forth a major 
transformation to American energy policy — and to cause harm to West 
Virginia.”</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="228" data-total-count="4190" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Opponents
 of the rule say they are optimistic about the outcome in part because 
of the judges presiding over the case. All three were appointed by 
Republican presidents — two by President George W. Bush, and one by his 
father.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Typically,
 a rule is proposed by the E.P.A., which then takes public comment on 
the proposal. The E.P.A. may then adapt the rule before issuing the 
final version. The Obama administration proposed the coal plant rule 
last June, and is expected to release the final version this summer.</div>
</div>

Legal Battle Begins Over Obama Bid to Curb Greenhouse Gases

WASHINGTON — President Obama’s most far-reaching regulation to slow climate change will have its first day in court on Thursday, the beginning of what is expected to be a multiyear legal battle over the policy that Mr. Obama hopes to leave as his signature environmental achievement. In two se…

16Apr2015

Dean Skelos, New York Senate Leader, and His Son Are Said to Be Focus of Corruption Inquiry

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="228" data-total-count="228" id="story-continues-1" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Federal
 prosecutors have begun presenting evidence to a grand jury considering a
 case against the leader of the New York State Senate, Dean G. Skelos of
 Long Island, and his son, according to people with knowledge of the 
matter.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="236" data-total-count="464" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" border="0" class="media-viewer-candidate" data-mediaviewer-caption="A grand jury is weighing evidence in a case against State Senator Dean G. Skelos, at the Capitol in March." data-mediaviewer-credit="Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times" data-mediaviewer-src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/16/nyregion/16INQUIRY-1y/16INQUIRY-1y-superJumbo.jpg" height="266" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/16/nyregion/16INQUIRY-1y/16INQUIRY-1y-master675.jpg" itemprop="url" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/16/nyregion/16INQUIRY-1y/16INQUIRY-1y-master675.jpg" width="400" /></a>Investigators
 have served a number of subpoenas in recent weeks, including several to
 state senators on Long Island, and federal prosecutors have interviewed
 people who have had dealings with Adam Skelos, the Republican senator’s
 son.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="247" data-total-count="711" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
News of the investigation follows the arrest this year of Assemblyman Sheldon Silver,
 a Manhattan Democrat, and his resignation as speaker; any criminal case
 against Senator Skelos, the majority leader, would throw the Capitol 
into further tumult.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="192" data-total-count="903" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Prosecutors
 and the F.B.I. have focused on at least two areas in their 
investigation, zeroing in on Adam Skelos’s business dealings, according 
to several people with knowledge of the matter.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="388" data-total-count="1291" id="story-continues-2" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
One
 focal point has been Adam Skelos’s hiring by an Arizona company, AbTech
 Industries, as well as a storm-water treatment contract that AbTech was
 awarded by Nassau County — the senator’s political backyard — even 
though the company was not the low bidder. Another area of inquiry has 
been a $20,000 payment to Adam Skelos from a title insurance company 
that he never worked for.<br />
    </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<figure class="media photo embedded has-adjacency has-lede-adjacency layout-large-horizontal media-100000003631272 ratio-tall" data-media-action="modal" id="media-100000003631272" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/16/nyregion/16INQUIRY-2y/16INQUIRY-2y-articleLarge.jpg" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" role="group"><div class="image">
            <div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" class="media-viewer-candidate" data-mediaviewer-caption="Mr. Skelos being sworn in this year, with his wife, Gail, and his son, Adam, who is also part of the investigation." data-mediaviewer-credit="Mike Groll/Associated Press" data-mediaviewer-src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/16/nyregion/16INQUIRY-2y/16INQUIRY-2y-superJumbo.jpg" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/16/nyregion/16INQUIRY-2y/16INQUIRY-2y-articleLarge.jpg" itemprop="url" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/16/nyregion/16INQUIRY-2y/16INQUIRY-2y-articleLarge.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="media-action-overlay">

</div>
</div>
<figcaption class="caption" itemprop="caption description">
                <span class="caption-text">Mr. Skelos being sworn in this year, with his wife, Gail, and his son, Adam, who is also part of the investigation.</span>
                        <span class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder">
            <span class="visually-hidden">Credit</span>
            Mike Groll/Associated Press        </span>
            </figcaption>
    </figure></div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="490" data-total-count="1781" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
According
 to people familiar with the questions being asked by federal 
authorities, investigators are seeking to determine whether Senator 
Skelos exerted any influence in matters involving AbTech. They are also 
examining whether his son’s hiring as a consultant was part of a scheme 
in which the senator, in exchange, would take official action that would
 benefit AbTech or another company, Glenwood Management, a politically 
influential real estate developer that has had ties to AbTech.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="294" data-total-count="2075" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Any
 such action could pose a conflict of interest or potentially violate 
federal corruption statutes. It is unclear what actions, if any, Senator
 Skelos has taken in connection to his son’s business dealings, or how 
they relate to state government; neither man has been accused of 
wrongdoing.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="135" data-total-count="2210" id="story-continues-3" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
All
 of the people who spoke about the investigation did so on the condition
 of anonymity because of the delicate nature of the subject.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="454" data-total-count="2664" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
The investigation is being conducted by the office of Preet Bharara,
 the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, who 
has embarked on an assault against graft and other political misdeeds in
 Albany, describing the capital as a “caldron of corruption.” His 
critics have accused him of grandstanding, and say his unusually blunt 
public condemnations of how business is done in Albany have crossed the line for a federal prosecutor.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="339" data-total-count="3003" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Glenwood Management, one of the state’s largest campaign donors, also surfaced in the criminal case
 against Mr. Silver, who is accused of steering Glenwood and another 
developer to a law firm that gave him a cut of their fees. Glenwood has 
not been accused of wrongdoing in the Silver case or in the 
investigation involving the Skeloses.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="275" data-total-count="3278" id="story-continues-4" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Adam
 Skelos, 32, when asked about the investigation during a brief interview
 outside his house, said he was surprised to learn he was the focus of a
 federal inquiry. “I had no idea that this was even an issue,” he said. 
“I got to tell you, this is really unexpected.”</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="93" data-total-count="3371" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Senator Skelos, 67, and his son did not respond to written questions from The New York Times.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="201" data-total-count="3572" id="story-continues-5" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
The
 inquiry into the senator and his son comes at a chaotic time in Albany.
 In January, state government was rocked when Mr. Silver was arrested on
 corruption charges brought by Mr. Bharara’s office.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="406" data-total-count="3978" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
The case against Mr. Silver and the investigation of Mr. Skelos grew in some measure out of the Moreland Commission,
 an anticorruption panel that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo created in 2013. The 
governor, a Democrat, abruptly disbanded the panel last year as part of a
 budget deal he negotiated in large part with Mr. Skelos and Mr. Silver;
 Mr. Bharara’s office then opened a criminal inquiry into the shutdown.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="423" data-total-count="4401" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
As
 with Mr. Silver’s, Mr. Skelos’s outside income as a lawyer has come 
under federal scrutiny. In the senator’s case, his law firm, Ruskin 
Moscou Faltischek, received a federal grand jury subpoena in 2014. In January, <a href="http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/dean-skelos-investigation-state-senate-leader-albany-290259821.html">WNBC-TV</a>
 reported that federal investigators were looking into Mr. Skelos’s 
outside income, with a focus on his ties to the real estate industry. 
The law firm has not been accused of any wrongdoing.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="83" data-total-count="4484" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Mr. Bharara’s office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation declined to comment.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="293" data-total-count="4777" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Adam
 Skelos, who lives blocks from his father in a well-kept neighborhood in
 Rockville Centre in Nassau County, is involved in an array of 
businesses stretching from Long Island to Albany, according to a review 
by The Times. In recent years, he has held positions at title insurance 
companies.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="187" data-total-count="4964" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
But
 it is his connection to AbTech Industries, which sells spongelike 
filters to remove pollutants from storm water, that brings him in 
particular proximity to state and local government.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="142" data-total-count="5106" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
For
 a small business in Arizona, AbTech would seem unlikely to be 
associated with Glenwood, which develops rental apartments in New York 
City.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="241" data-total-count="5347" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Glenwood’s
 link to AbTech is buried in the regulatory filings of AbTech’s publicly
 traded parent company. In 2011, one of its largest investors was a 
company that shared an address on Long Island with Glenwood’s corporate 
headquarters.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="482" data-total-count="5829" id="story-continues-6" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Two
 men with close ties to the real estate company — Charles Dorego, a top 
Glenwood executive, and Steven Swarzman, a grandson of Glenwood’s 
longtime principal, Leonard Litwin — have signed public records filed by
 the company that invested in AbTech’s parent company, Abtech Holdings. 
Mr. Swarzman became friends with AbTech’s founder in Arizona, and, 
impressed by the environmental sponge, became AbTech’s East Coast 
distributor, according to a 2006 article in Newsday.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="348" data-total-count="6177" id="story-continues-7" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
AbTech’s sponge has met with limited commercial success. In fact, the parent company is not profitable and trades
 at roughly 30 cents a share. But AbTech got what appeared to be a big 
break in 2013, when it secured a contract worth up to $12 million from 
Nassau County for the design, installation and operation of a 
storm-water treatment system.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="345" data-total-count="6522" id="story-continues-8" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Adam
 Skelos introduced officials at the Nassau Department of Public Works to
 AbTech, said Mary Studdert, a spokeswoman for the agency. Ms. Studdert 
said Mr. Skelos had roughly a dozen meetings and phone calls with a 
senior public works official; that person was a member of the committee 
that evaluated the proposals for the storm-water project.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="215" data-total-count="6737" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
The
 contract was awarded to AbTech, even though another company submitted a
 substantially lower bid. County officials at the time contended that 
AbTech would ultimately provide the best value, county documents show.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="262" data-total-count="6999" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
But
 the low bidder, Newport Engineering, seemed mystified by the process. 
Nicholas J. DeSantis, the company’s president, said that the Public 
Works Department never acknowledged receiving his bid and that he was 
not notified that the contract had been awarded.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="449" data-total-count="7448" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
So
 far, AbTech has been paid only a small amount of the potential value of
 the contract, according to the county comptroller’s office. In an 
unusual arrangement for a local public works project in New York, the 
contract calls for AbTech to oversee both design and construction, 
requiring Nassau to secure state legislative approval for the contract 
to go forward as intended. No lawmaker has sponsored the necessary 
legislation, Ms. Studdert said.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="181" data-total-count="7629" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
The
 Nassau County executive, Edward P. Mangano, a Republican who held a 
news conference in 2014 to publicize the AbTech contract, did not 
respond to questions sent to his spokesman.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="155" data-total-count="7784" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
AbTech
 has not been accused of wrongdoing and did not respond to written 
questions from The Times. A lawyer for Glenwood, Alan Levine, declined 
to comment.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="248" data-total-count="8032" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
In
 addition to AbTech’s effort to solicit government contracts, a 
subsidiary of its parent company has lobbied in Albany on several 
matters, including engineering issues, although it is unclear whether 
those activities are under federal scrutiny.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="288" data-total-count="8320" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Federal
 investigators have also focused on a one-time $20,000 signing bonus 
paid to Adam Skelos by American Land Services, a title insurance firm, 
according to people with knowledge of the matter. Mr. Skelos never went 
to work at the company and did not return the money, the people said.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="515" data-total-count="8835" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
American
 Land Services also has at least one indirect link to Glenwood, although
 it is not known whether that is under scrutiny by federal authorities. 
Property records show that in June 2014, a senior executive at American 
Land Services paid $330,000 for an undeveloped South Carolina vacation 
property along a golf course on Kiawah Island. The executive, Tom Dwyer,
 the company’s chief operating officer, bought the parcel from Mr. 
Dorego, the Glenwood executive, who personally financed Mr. Dwyer’s 
mortgage.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="192" data-total-count="903" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Neither
 Mr. Dwyer nor other executives at American Land Services responded to 
requests for comment by phone and email. Mr. Dorego declined to answer 
questions, telling a reporter, “I have nothing to say.”</div>
</div>

Dean Skelos, New York Senate Leader, and His Son Are Said to Be Focus of Corruption Inquiry

Federal prosecutors have begun presenting evidence to a grand jury considering a case against the leader of the New York State Senate, Dean G. Skelos of Long Island, and his son, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Investigators have served a number of subpoenas in recent weeks, …

16Apr2015

Big Money From Super PACs Is Eroding the Power of Parties

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<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="213" data-total-count="213" id="story-continues-1" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Six months ago, I would have told you that April 15, the date when campaigns report their first-quarter fund-raising <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/upshot/political-fund-raising-how-candidates-are-doing.html?abt=0002&abg=1">tallies</a>, could be one of the most interesting early milestones of the Republican primary season.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="183" data-total-count="396" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
I
 think I even told my boss, admittedly with hyperbole, that the Q1 
report of a year preceding a presidential election was the most 
important fund-raising report in American politics.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="302" data-total-count="698" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
In 2007, it was when <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/04/04/obama.fundraising/index.html?iref=newssearch">we learned</a>
 that Barack Obama could match the supposedly inevitable Hillary Rodham 
Clinton in fund-raising, and that John McCain wasn’t a real front-runner
 for the Republican nomination (although he managed to claw back to win 
it), despite his second-place <a class="meta-org" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/republican_party/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about Republican Party">G.O.P.</a> showing in 2000.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="67" data-total-count="765" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
But this year, April 15 has come and gone without much news at all.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="286" data-total-count="1051" id="story-continues-2" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Rather than exploratory committees and campaigns, top Republican candidates like Jeb Bush and Scott Walker have started <a class="meta-classifier" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/campaign_finance/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about Super PACs.">super PACs</a>
 and other groups allowing them to solicit unlimited contributions. None
 will have to file disclosure forms with the Federal Election Commission
 until July.<br />
    </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<figure class="media photo embedded has-adjacency has-lede-adjacency layout-large-horizontal media-100000003630924 ratio-tall" data-media-action="modal" id="media-100000003630924" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/16/upshot/17UP-Funds/17UP-Funds-articleLarge.jpg" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" role="group"><div class="image">
            <div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" class="media-viewer-candidate" data-mediaviewer-caption="Ted Cruz at a National Rifle Association event in Nashville last week. A network of super PACs aligned with Mr. Cruz said it raised $31 million in the weeks after he announced his candidacy." data-mediaviewer-credit="Justin Sullivan/Getty Images" data-mediaviewer-src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/16/upshot/17UP-Funds/17UP-Funds-superJumbo.jpg" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/16/upshot/17UP-Funds/17UP-Funds-articleLarge.jpg" itemprop="url" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/16/upshot/17UP-Funds/17UP-Funds-articleLarge.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="media-action-overlay">

</div>
</div>
<figcaption class="caption" itemprop="caption description">
                <span class="caption-text">Ted Cruz at a National Rifle 
Association event in Nashville last week. A network of super PACs 
aligned with Mr. Cruz said it raised $31 million in the weeks after he 
announced his candidacy.</span>
                        <span class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder">
            <span class="visually-hidden">Credit</span>
            Justin Sullivan/Getty Images        </span>
            </figcaption>
    </figure></div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="466" data-total-count="1517" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
The
 uneventful passing of April 15 is only the most subtle indication of 
the way super PACs are transforming the presidential nominating process.
 They have given candidates the ability to raise colossal sums from 
small but wealthy bases of support. Along with Internet fund-raising, 
super PACs are helping to form an alternative campaign finance model 
that is eroding party control over the primary process. Which types of 
candidates will benefit remains to be seen.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="239" data-total-count="1756" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
The
 primary season is just underway, but the early super PAC tallies appear
 to be an order of magnitude beyond what we saw the last time, when Mitt
 Romney’s super PAC “Restore Our Future” raised $12 million in the first
 half of 2011.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="165" data-total-count="1921" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/jeb-bush-fundraising-right-to-rise-116108.html">Some speculate</a>
 that Jeb Bush could raise $100 million in the first quarter and $500 
million by June. Anything near those sums would smash Mr. Romney’s 
performance.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="253" data-total-count="2174" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Ted Cruz more than doubled Mr. Romney’s tally in three weeks. A network of super PACs aligned with Mr. Cruz said it raised $31 million in the weeks after he announced his candidacy, which is more than Mr. Obama did in the entire first quarter of 2007.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="513" data-total-count="2687" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
There is no precedent for the fund-raising success of Mr. Cruz, a candidate with virtually no support from party elites. My colleague Nicholas Confessore wrote
 that “the size of the contributions is likely to force backers of other
 candidates to rethink their budgets for the primary season,” and one 
can only wonder what the effect might be in another four years. Will the
 incumbent president raise $4 billion? How much is the presidency really
 worth? At this point, perhaps we shouldn’t rule out anything.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="269" data-total-count="2956" id="story-continues-3" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Money
 doesn’t buy presidential nominations. At least it hasn’t yet. A 
candidate who raises the most money, as Phil Gramm did in 1996, can fall
 flat. A competitive fund-raising effort doesn’t even guarantee 
competitiveness, as Ron Paul or Rudy Giuliani can attest.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="332" data-total-count="3288" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Typically,
 broad support from party elites is a much better predictor of which 
candidate will win the nomination. Elites not only help raise money, but
 they also shape public opinion by promoting or playing down candidates 
on television or to reporters, or offering public endorsements. They 
form the staff of an effective campaign</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="466" data-total-count="3754" id="story-continues-4" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Money
 alone isn’t enough to hand victory to a candidate like Mr. Cruz, whom 
many party elites view as unelectable and unpresidential. They would 
rally against him if he ever seemed as if he could win. The Republican 
primary electorate — which is more moderate than it looks — would 
probably follow the elites’ lead in such circumstances, though this is 
as much a judgment about the preferences of Republican primary voters as
 it is about the power of elites.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="286" data-total-count="4040" id="story-continues-5" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
But
 even if money can’t buy the presidency, fund-raising is a big part of 
the reason that elite support is important. Lack of resources resulting 
from insufficient elite support has hurt many campaigns, even those of 
mainstream candidates like Gary Hart in 1984 or Mr. McCain in 2000.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="532" data-total-count="4572" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
There’s
 no way to rerun the 1984 Democratic or 2000 Republican primaries to 
figure out how they might have gone differently under 2016 conditions. 
Perhaps Walter Mondale or George W. Bush would have benefited so much 
from unlimited contributions that their super PACs would have buried all
 challengers. Maybe 2004 and 2008 would have been better opportunities 
for candidates like Mr. McCain or Mr. Hart after the rise of Internet 
fund-raising but before super PACs allowed their establishment-backed 
rivals to raise millions more.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="620" data-total-count="5192" id="story-continues-6" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Either
 way, there’s no question that the new combination of unlimited super 
PAC contributions and online fund-raising has eroded the control of 
party elites over the last two decades. It’s especially the case in 
today’s factionalized G.O.P., where even the party elite is fractured 
along regional, religious and ideological lines. Each faction has a star
 candidate in this year’s race — not just Mr. Cruz, but also Rand Paul, 
Chris Christie and Mike Huckabee. Despite their big flaws, they have 
natural bases of support and considerable political talent. They also 
have real paths to win Iowa or New Hampshire.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="390" data-total-count="5582" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Fifteen
 years ago, candidates such as these would have had virtually no shot of
 winning the nomination. It took broad support from party donors to 
build a large war chest — there was no way around it. Today, all it 
takes is Internet star power or the right wealthy benefactors. These 
candidates still don’t have a great shot at winning, but they can’t be 
completely ruled out anymore.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="115" data-total-count="5697" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Nor can we rule out the possibility that the right elite-backed candidate, like Jeb Bush, will steamroll the field.</div>
</div>

Big Money From Super PACs Is Eroding the Power of Parties

Six months ago, I would have told you that April 15, the date when campaigns report their first-quarter fund-raising tallies, could be one of the most interesting early milestones of the Republican primary season. I think I even told my boss, admittedly with hyperbole, that the Q1 report of a yea…

16Apr2015

Dozens Arrested During Brooklyn Bridge Protest Against Police Violence

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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" class="media-viewer-candidate" data-mediaviewer-caption="Demonstrators protesting police violence crossing the Brooklyn Bridge on Tuesday. Dozens were arrested, several assaults on officers were reported and traffic was disrupted for several hours." data-mediaviewer-credit="Michael Appleton for The New York Times" data-mediaviewer-src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/15/nyregion/15PROTESTFLOATER/15PROTESTFLOATER-superJumbo.jpg" height="424" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/15/nyregion/15PROTESTFLOATER/15PROTESTFLOATER-master675.jpg" itemprop="url" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/15/nyregion/15PROTESTFLOATER/15PROTESTFLOATER-master675.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="198" data-total-count="198" id="story-continues-1" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Dozens
 of participants in a march intended to protest police violence were 
arrested on Tuesday as the demonstration crossed the Brooklyn Bridge and
 caused major delays there during the evening rush.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="212" data-total-count="410" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Stephen
 Davis, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, said 34 people had been
 arrested by 6:40 p.m. That number was expected to rise overnight as 
precincts in Brooklyn and Manhattan reported arrests, he said.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="287" data-total-count="697" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
There
 were also reports of assaults on police officers, including one 
involving an off-duty police sergeant who was punched in the face when 
he got out of his car, Mr. Davis said. The officer was treated at Lower 
Manhattan Hospital, and the assailant has not been caught, Mr. Davis 
said.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="110" data-total-count="807" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
The police said they were also investigating a report of an officer being struck in the head by a beer bottle.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="100" data-total-count="907" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
In a statement, Mayor Bill de Blasio said the violence against the police officers was unacceptable.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="289" data-total-count="1196" id="story-continues-2" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
“And
 any other person who might use the right to peaceful protest as cover 
to initiate violence, cause mayhem or incite disorder — whether against 
the police, the people or property of our great city — should consider 
themselves on notice that New York City will not stand for it.”</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="216" data-total-count="1412" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Witnesses and <a href="https://twitter.com/KeeganNYC/status/588091170611404801" title="Twitter posting">accounts on social media</a> described protesters being <a href="https://twitter.com/JamesFTInternet/status/588092102057324545" title="Twitter posting">rounded up</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/KeeganNYC/status/588092305657176065" title="Twitter posting">put in police vans</a>. There were also reports of objects being thrown at police officers and scuffles between officers and demonstrators.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="282" data-total-count="1694" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
The
 Stop Mass Incarceration Network organized the march, one of several 
across the country. About 400 people participated in the early part of 
the demonstration, which began at Union Square at 2 p.m. and wound down 
Broadway toward Police Department headquarters in Lower Manhattan.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="191" data-total-count="1885" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Around
 4:15 p.m., some of the protesters split off and went to the Brooklyn 
Bridge, where they broke through a police barricade. Some jumped over a 
fence and onto the westbound traffic lanes.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="55" data-total-count="1940" id="story-continues-3" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Traffic in those lanes was disrupted for several hours.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="72" data-total-count="2012" id="story-continues-4" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Some protesters <a href="https://twitter.com/KeeganNYC/status/588099664139984897" title="Twitter posting">continued on Flatbush Avenue</a> toward the Barclays Center.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="104" data-total-count="2116" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
The demonstration follows the most recent in a string of fatal police encounters with unarmed black men.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="297" data-total-count="2413" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Walter
 Scott, 50, of North Charleston, S.C., was shot and killed by a police 
officer on April 4. A cellphone video showed the officer, Michael 
Slager, firing eight shots as Mr. Scott ran away, and later dropping his
 service <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/stun_guns/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about stun guns.">Taser</a> next to the body. Mr. Slager was fired and was charged with murder.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="233" data-total-count="2646" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Before the march, <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/cornel_west/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Cornel West.">Cornel West</a>,
 a prominent black scholar, spoke at Union Square about what he said was
 his frustration with black leaders’ inability to produce charges and 
convictions against the officers involved in the shootings.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="171" data-total-count="2817" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
“Don’t
 be confused by some black faces in high places,” he said. “For seven 
years, there have been black and brown brothers and sisters shot down by
 the police.”</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="161" data-total-count="2978" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
He
 noted that the president, the attorney general and the secretary of 
homeland security were all black. “And not one policeman sent to jail,” 
Mr. West said.</div>
</div>

Dozens Arrested During Brooklyn Bridge Protest Against Police Violence

Dozens of participants in a march intended to protest police violence were arrested on Tuesday as the demonstration crossed the Brooklyn Bridge and caused major delays there during the evening rush. Stephen Davis, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, said 34 people had been arrested by 6:4…

14Apr2015

In Closing, Prosecutor in Etan Patz Case Says Suspect’s Many Confessions Ring True

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="330" data-total-count="330" id="story-continues-1" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
A former store clerk accused of murdering 6-year-old <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/etan_patz/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Etan Patz.">Etan Patz</a>
 first confessed to the crime in 1979 to a prayer group and has admitted
 to the killing more than a half-dozen times — to his family, to the 
police, to a prosecutor and, finally, to several psychological experts, a
 prosecutor said in her closing argument on Tuesday.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="425" data-total-count="755" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
In
 a four-and-half-hour summation, the prosecutor, Joan Illuzzi-Orbon, 
told a jury in State Supreme Court in Manhattan that the defendant, 
Pedro Hernandez, had never retracted any of those confessions, the 
details of which she argued have the ring of truth. And some of his 
admissions, she noted, occurred decades before he was interviewed by the
 police. “The defendant never took any of it back,” Ms. Illuzzi-Orbon 
said.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="239" data-total-count="994" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
The
 prosecutor hammered away at the defense argument that Mr. Hernandez had
 invented a false confession under police pressure because of his low 
I.Q. and a personality disorder that made it hard for him to distinguish
 fantasy from reality.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="317" data-total-count="1311" id="story-continues-2" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Instead,
 Ms. Illuzzi-Orbon painted a picture of Mr. Hernandez as a quiet, 
observant and canny man who watched Etan when he went alone to a store 
where Mr. Hernandez worked or waited at a nearby school bus stop. She 
asserted that the motive for the killing was sexual, though Mr. 
Hernandez has denied he molested Etan.<br />
    </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<figure class="media photo embedded has-adjacency has-lede-adjacency layout-small-vertical media-100000003628869" data-media-action="modal" id="media-100000003628869" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/15/nyregion/15PATZ-JP/15PATZ-JP-master180.jpg" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" role="group"><div class="image">
            <div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" class="media-viewer-candidate" data-mediaviewer-caption="Stanley Patz, the father of Etan, in court during a break Tuesday. The jury is expected to begin deliberating Wednesday." data-mediaviewer-credit="Brian Harkin for The New York Times" data-mediaviewer-src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/15/nyregion/15PATZ-JP/15PATZ-JP-superJumbo.jpg" height="400" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/15/nyregion/15PATZ-JP/15PATZ-JP-master180.jpg" itemprop="url" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/15/nyregion/15PATZ-JP/15PATZ-JP-master180.jpg" width="267" /></a></div>
<div class="media-action-overlay">

</div>
</div>
<figcaption class="caption" itemprop="caption description">
                <span class="caption-text">Stanley Patz, the father of Etan, in court during a break Tuesday. The jury is expected to begin deliberating Wednesday.</span>
                        <span class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder">
            <span class="visually-hidden">Credit</span>
            Brian Harkin for The New York Times        </span>
            </figcaption>
    </figure></div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="276" data-total-count="1587" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
“He
 was sullen, observing, abusive and abused, and day after day, he saw 
this beautiful little boy alone,” Ms. Illuzzi-Orbon said. “One day he 
acted on his impulse and did something terrible to this little boy. And 
spent the rest of his life waiting to be discovered.”</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="334" data-total-count="1921" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Etan
 vanished on the morning of May 25, 1979, as he walked from his parents’
 loft on Prince Street to a school bus stop two blocks away. His 
disappearance shocked the city, forever changing what New York parents 
considered safe for their children, and eventually led to a national 
movement to raise awareness about child abductions.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="207" data-total-count="2128" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Mr.
 Hernandez, 54, was arrested in May 2012 after a tip from his 
brother-in-law, who said Mr. Hernandez had talked to a prayer group in 
1979 about killing a child in New York City when he worked at a bodega.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="404" data-total-count="2532" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
After more than <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/19/nyregion/in-etan-patz-case-detective-says-lengthy-interview-preceded-a-confession.html?action=click&contentCollection=N.Y.%20%2F%20Region&module=RelatedCoverage&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article" title="Times article">six hours of interrogation</a>,
 Mr. Hernandez, living in Maple Shade, N.J. at the time, broke down in 
tears and said he had lured Etan into the basement of the bodega in SoHo
 where he worked and strangled him. He said he had put the boy’s body in
 a plastic bag and a box, then left it in a subterranean passageway a 
block away. Later, he repeated the confession to a prosecutor three 
times.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="195" data-total-count="2727" id="story-continues-3" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Defense
 experts say Mr. Hernandez has an I.Q. of about 70 and schizotypal 
personality disorder, which not only leads him to confuse fact and 
fiction, but also sometimes causes him to hallucinate.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="417" data-total-count="3144" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
After testimony that lasted 10 weeks, Mr. Hernandez’s lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/14/nyregion/in-closing-argument-in-etan-patz-trial-defense-says-confession-was-imagined.html?ref=nyregion" title="Times article">argued on Monday</a>
 that Mr. Hernandez’s mind was so suggestible and weak that he came to 
believe he had committed the crime when the police used psychological 
ploys, like appealing to his deep religious faith and telling him the 
Patz family would thank him, to get him to talk. “He wanted to be part 
of the team,” Mr. Fishbein said.</div>
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<a class="visually-hidden skip-to-text-link" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/15/nyregion/in-closing-at-etan-patz-trial-prosecutor-says-multiple-confessions-ring-true.html?ref=nyregion#story-continues-4">Continue reading the main story</a>
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<a class="visually-hidden skip-to-text-link" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/15/nyregion/in-closing-at-etan-patz-trial-prosecutor-says-multiple-confessions-ring-true.html?ref=nyregion#story-continues-4">Continue reading the main story</a>
</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="239" data-total-count="994" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Mr. Fishbein also presented evidence pointing to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/24/nyregion/defense-at-patz-trial-presents-jury-with-alternate-suspect-via-an-old-video.html" title="Times article">another possible culprit</a>: Jose A. Ramos, a convicted child molester who was a suspect in the case for years but was never charged.</div>
</div>

In Closing, Prosecutor in Etan Patz Case Says Suspect’s Many Confessions Ring True

A former store clerk accused of murdering 6-year-old Etan Patz first confessed to the crime in 1979 to a prayer group and has admitted to the killing more than a half-dozen times — to his family, to the police, to a prosecutor and, finally, to several psychological experts, a prosecutor said in…

14Apr2015

New York State Erases Fees Seen as Nuisances to Business

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<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="262" data-total-count="262" id="story-continues-1" itemprop="articleBody">
ALBANY
 —  It’s a good day to be a potato fan in New York. Ditto for supporters
 of antique and miniature boilers, animal rendering plants, and 
operators of ski lifts. And for anyone with a career in lasers or food 
salvage, put your hands together in applause.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="205" data-total-count="467" itemprop="articleBody">
The
 reason for the rejoicing is the elimination of dozens of so-called 
“nuisance fees” as part of the state budget package, which quietly wiped
 away a variety of tiny charges and more painful payments.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="283" data-total-count="750" itemprop="articleBody">
The repeals were officially signed this week by Gov. <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/andrew_m_cuomo/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Andrew M. Cuomo.">Andrew M. Cuomo</a>,
 who has made cutting taxes a priority in his more than four years in 
office. And on Tuesday, the governor called attention to such 
now-extinct fees, framing their elimination as part of a larger 
pro-business push.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="164" data-total-count="914" itemprop="articleBody">
“This
 action will eliminate unnecessary costs and paperwork, helping to allow
 these businesses to reinvest and grow in New York,” Mr. Cuomo said in a
 statement.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="528" data-total-count="1442" id="story-continues-2" itemprop="articleBody">
According
 to the New York State Division of the Budget, the fees that were 
eliminated generated about $3 million in revenue, but were imposed on 
about 300,000 individuals and entities in the state. They included a $9 
filing fee paid by hundreds of thousands of companies and businesses 
across the state when they filed biennial statements. The information in
 those statements, like the names and business addresses of chief 
executives, can now be included on the company’s corporate tax return, 
according to the budget office.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="434" data-total-count="1876" itemprop="articleBody">
Many
 of the other newly repealed fees involved more precise fields, 
admittedly not ones overly populated. Take, for example, the two dozen 
owners of antique steam engines and other boilers who will no longer pay
 a $25 fee for inspections, or the six or so owners of miniature boilers
 who are now free of a $50 inspection charge. Some 40 organizations that
 operate lasers no longer have to pay a $600 regulatory fee every three 
years.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="219" data-total-count="2095" itemprop="articleBody">
The fee rollback was a happy surprise for some business owners like Ralph Barocas, a co-founder of <a href="http://rdny.com/" title="company’s website">RDNY.com</a>, an apartment information vendor in Manhattan, who will no longer be required to pay a $400 annual license fee.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="132" data-total-count="2227" id="story-continues-3" itemprop="articleBody">
“I’m not sure the motivation,” Mr. Barocas said when informed of the fee elimination. “But that’s fine. I’ll take it.”</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="302" data-total-count="2529" id="story-continues-4" itemprop="articleBody">
Many
 of the repealed charges came in agriculture, including in some rather 
unappetizing industries like food salvage (whose dealers are now exempt 
from a $100 license fee) and animal rendering (whose proprietors are no 
longer liable for fees dealing with disposal and transportation of 
animal remains).</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="209" data-total-count="2738" itemprop="articleBody">
But
 perhaps the most salt-of-the-earth repeal came in the fields 
themselves, where the state eliminated a $34 annual fee for the 
inspection of both seed potato plants and — no kidding — seed potato 
tubers.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="187" data-total-count="2925" itemprop="articleBody">
Such
 a change was welcome news for longtime potato men like Steve Tucker, 
the president of Tucker Farms, an Adirondack outpost in Gabriels, N.Y., 
which grows a variety of colorful tubers.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="124" data-total-count="3049" itemprop="articleBody">
Mr. Tucker said he welcomed any reduction in fees for his farm, saying that the cost of getting inspected could be annoying.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="89" data-total-count="3138" itemprop="articleBody">
“You want them to inspect,” he said. “But you don’t want to pay them to do it.”</div>
</div>

New York State Erases Fees Seen as Nuisances to Business

ALBANY — It’s a good day to be a potato fan in New York. Ditto for supporters of antique and miniature boilers, animal rendering plants, and operators of ski lifts. And for anyone with a career in lasers or food salvage, put your hands together in applause. The reason for the rejoicing is the…

14Apr2015

Anger Over Reports of D.E.A. Agents’ Parties, and Bewilderment at Mild Penalties

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WASHINGTON —  Lawmakers expressed outrage on Tuesday at the punishments imposed on <a class="meta-org" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/d/drug_enforcement_administration/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S.">Drug Enforcement Administration</a> agents who were accused of participating in sex parties with prostitutes while stationed in Colombia.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="327" data-total-count="545" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Representative
 Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House 
Oversight Committee, said in a hearing that the panel had begun an 
investigation into a report by the Justice Department’s inspector 
general that detailed allegations of sexual misconduct and the misuse of
 government funds by 10 D.E.A. agents.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="124" data-total-count="669" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Seven of the agents admitted to participating in the sex parties, and those involved received suspensions of two to 10 days.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="229" data-total-count="898" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
The
 report was released last month, but the committee disclosed new 
information showing that the misconduct had occurred as early as 2001. 
Mr. Cummings said the report portrayed “a D.E.A. agency as completely 
out of control.”</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="131" data-total-count="1029" id="story-continues-2" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
During
 the hearing, lawmakers asked Michele Leonhart, the D.E.A. 
administrator, why the offenses had not merited harsher penalties.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="279" data-total-count="1308" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
“When
 we have bad apples who repeatedly do the same type of behavior, 
compromise our national security, then they need to lose their national 
security clearances and they need to be fired,” said Representative 
Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican and the committee’s chairman.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="185" data-total-count="1493" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Ms.
 Leonhart told the committee that she did not have the power to fire 
agents or revoke their security clearances over what Mr. Cummings called
 “a truly breathtaking recklessness.”</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="223" data-total-count="1716" id="story-continues-3" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
“Honestly,
 what power do you have?” asked Representative Trey Gowdy, Republican of
 South Carolina. “You have to work with agents over whom you can’t 
discipline and have no control. What the hell do you get to do?”</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="316" data-total-count="2032" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
The
 Justice Department reviewed allegations of sexual misconduct and 
harassment within its law enforcement branches — the D.E.A.; the <a class="meta-org" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/f/federal_bureau_of_investigation/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about the Federal Bureau of Investigation.">Federal Bureau of Investigation</a>;
 the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the 
Marshals Service — and found “some significant systemic issues” in all 
four.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="434" data-total-count="2466" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
The
 report described accusations from foreign police officers that D.E.A. 
agents had attended “loud” parties with prostitutes over several years, 
paid for by local drug cartels. The parties reportedly took place in 
locations leased by the government where agents’ laptops and other 
electronic devices were present. The foreign officers also said they had
 watched over the agents’ weapons and other property during the parties.</div>
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Three agents were also accused of receiving money, expensive gifts and weapons from drug cartel members, the report said.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="385" data-total-count="2972" id="story-continues-5" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
On
 one occasion, an assistant regional director reportedly solicited 
prostitutes for a farewell party in his honor, an allegation he denied 
during an investigation by the agency’s Office of Professional 
Responsibility; he was not disciplined because of a lack of evidence, 
the investigation found. The party and the prostitutes were said to have
 been paid for using government money.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="282" data-total-count="3254" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
According
 to the report, local D.E.A. supervisors were aware of these parties 
because of letters of complaint that they received from building 
managers. They warned those involved to stop but did not report the 
allegations to the agency’s headquarters, judging them a local issue.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="344" data-total-count="3598" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
The
 report described another case involving a deputy marshal who received 
only a verbal admonishment for allegedly soliciting prostitutes in 
Thailand. Accusations of sexual harassment, including against a D.E.A. 
official who was said to have used vulgar language and to have asked an 
assistant to watch pornographic movies, were also described.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="209" data-total-count="3807" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
In
 response to the report, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. issued a 
memo on Friday reminding employees of the department’s firm stance 
against soliciting prostitutes, even in countries where it is legal.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="195" data-total-count="4002" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
“I
 want to reiterate to all department personnel, including attorneys and 
law enforcement officers, that they are prohibited from soliciting, 
procuring or accepting commercial sex,” he wrote.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="190" data-total-count="4192" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
The
 Justice Department report came after a separate prostitution scandal 
involving the Secret Service in 2012, which moved Congress to call for a
 closer look at officials stationed overseas.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="229" data-total-count="898" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>

Anger Over Reports of D.E.A. Agents’ Parties, and Bewilderment at Mild Penalties

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers expressed outrage on Tuesday at the punishments imposed on Drug Enforcement Administration agents who were accused of participating in sex parties with prostitutes while stationed in Colombia. Representative Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House …

14Apr2015

Senate Approves a Bill on Changes to Medicare

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WASHINGTON —  The Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved sweeping changes in the way <a class="meta-classifier" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/medicare/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="Recent and archival health news about Medicare.">Medicare</a>
 pays doctors, clearing the bill for President Obama and resolving an 
issue that has bedeviled Congress and the Medicare program for more than
 a decade.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="322" data-total-count="572" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
The 92-to-8 vote in the Senate, following <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/27/us/house-passes-bill-changing-medicare-fee-formula-and-extending-childrens-insurance.html" title="New York Times article">passage in the House</a>
 last month by a vote of 392 to 37, was a major success for Republicans,
 who devised a solution to a complex policy problem that had frustrated 
lawmakers of both parties. Mr. Obama has endorsed the bill, saying it 
“could help slow health care cost growth.”</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="218" data-total-count="790" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
The
 bill, drafted in the House in negotiations between Speaker John A. 
Boehner and Representative Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader, also 
extends the Children’s Health Insurance Program for two years, through 
2017.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="259" data-total-count="1049" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Without
 action by Congress, doctors would have faced a 21 percent cut in 
Medicare fees on Wednesday or Thursday. Senate leaders cleared the way 
for final passage by allowing votes on several amendments sought by 
liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="330" data-total-count="1379" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Medicare
 spent $70 billion last year under the fee schedule used to pay doctors 
and some other health care professionals. That accounts for about 12 
percent of all Medicare spending. Ninety-eight percent of people 
enrolled in the traditional fee-for-service Medicare program receive at 
least one physician service during the year.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="368" data-total-count="1747" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
The
 legislation moves Medicare in a direction espoused by Mr. Obama and 
many health policy experts, toward payment based on the quality and 
value of care, rather than just the volume of services. Organized 
medicine now accepts that change in principle, and the American Medical 
Association lobbied strongly for the bill, demanding that Congress “fix 
Medicare now.”</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="221" data-total-count="1968" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Congress
 has passed 17 short-term bills since 2003 to block cuts in Medicare 
doctors’ fees that were called for under the existing law. Such cuts 
would most likely prompt some doctors to accept fewer Medicare patients.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="191" data-total-count="2159" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
The
 Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, said 
the bill taken up Tuesday was “designed to ensure that seniors on 
Medicare don’t lose access to their doctors.”</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="354" data-total-count="2513" id="story-continues-2" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
“It’s
 a solution to a broken Medicare payment system that has vexed 
congressional leaders of both parties for years,” he said. “It would 
mean an end to the annual exercise of Congress passing a temporary fix 
to the problem one year and then coming right up to the very same cliff 
the next year, without actually solving the underlying problem.”</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="258" data-total-count="2771" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Senator
 Ron Wyden of Oregon, the senior Democrat on the Finance Committee, 
called the bill “a milestone for Medicare.” But he and other Democrats 
said it would have been better to extend the children’s insurance 
program for four years, rather than two.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="152" data-total-count="2923" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Mr.
 Wyden said the current formula for paying doctors was “horrendously 
flawed” but had “dominated much of the discussion” in the last 18 years.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="402" data-total-count="3325" id="story-continues-3" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Before
 passing the bill, the Senate rejected a half-dozen proposed amendments 
on Tuesday night. Democrats, for example, wanted to provide more money 
for women’s health care. Republicans wanted to repeal a provision of the
 Affordable Care Act that requires most Americans to have <a class="meta-classifier" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/health_insurance_and_managed_care/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="Recent and archival health news about health insurance and managed care.">health insurance</a>, and they tried to force Congress to pay for the Medicare bill so it would not increase budget deficits.</div>
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<a class="visually-hidden skip-to-text-link" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/15/us/politics/senate-approves-a-bill-on-changes-to-medicare.html?ref=us#story-continues-4">Continue reading the main story</a>
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</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="304" data-total-count="3629" id="story-continues-4" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
The
 current payment formula, set by Congress in 1997, links Medicare 
spending on doctors’ services to growth of the overall economy. Medicare
 spending has regularly exceeded the targets. Under the law, the excess 
is supposed to be recouped in subsequent years through cuts in payment 
rates for doctors.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="195" data-total-count="3824" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
The
 bill would repeal that formula. Fiscal conservatives object because 
only one-third of the cost would be offset. The rest, $141 billion from 
2015 to 2025, would add to <a class="meta-classifier" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/f/federal_budget_us/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="Recent and archival news about the federal budget.">federal budget</a> deficits.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="84" data-total-count="3908" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
“This bill is not paid for,” said Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="307" data-total-count="4215" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
New
 spending would total $211 billion over 10 years, the Congressional 
Budget Office estimated. Higher-income Medicare beneficiaries would pay 
additional premiums totaling nearly $35 billion, and Medicare would save
 a similar amount by trimming payments to hospitals, <a class="meta-classifier" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/nursing_homes/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="Recent and archival health news about nursing homes.">nursing homes</a> and home health agencies.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="198" data-total-count="4413" id="story-continues-5" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Senator
 Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, said the bill “doubles down on Medicare’s
 broken price control model” and “inflates the administration’s power as
 regulator and compliance officer.”</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="180" data-total-count="4593" id="story-continues-6" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
“The
 principal change proposed in this bill is to move from a Medicare 
payment system based on volume to one based on bureaucratic measures of 
quality and value,” Mr. Lee said.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="248" data-total-count="4841" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
The
 votes against the bill came from Republicans: Mr. Sessions and Mr. Lee,
 along with Senators Ted Cruz of Texas, David Perdue of Georgia, Marco 
Rubio of Florida, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Tim Scott of South Carolina and
 Richard C. Shelby of Alabama.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="191" data-total-count="5032" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
For
 a few hours on Tuesday, it seemed senators might also be close to an 
agreement to vote on Mr. Obama’s nomination of Loretta E. Lynch to be 
attorney general, but the prospect evaporated.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="293" data-total-count="5325" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican, offered a plan to overcome an impasse over <a class="meta-classifier" href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/surgery/abortion/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="In-depth reference and news articles about Abortion.">abortion</a>
 restrictions in a sex-trafficking bill, but Democrats quickly rejected 
it. Republican leaders have held up a vote on Ms. Lynch until the Senate
 finishes work on the trafficking bill.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="283" data-total-count="5608" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Democrats
 on Tuesday repeated their opposition to the abortion restrictions and 
denounced the delay of Ms. Lynch’s nomination. “They can stall her for 
157 days; she is going to be attorney general of the United States,” 
said Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="156" data-total-count="5764" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Commenting
 on the Medicare bill, federal officials welcomed its emphasis on the 
quality of care but said it would probably not provide a permanent 
solution.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="191" data-total-count="2159" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Paul
 Spitalnic, the chief actuary of the Medicare program, said the bill 
could lead to “a payment reduction for most physicians” after 2025. “If 
not addressed by subsequent legislation,” he said, “we expect that 
access to and quality of physicians’ services would deteriorate over 
time for beneficiaries.”</div>
</div>

Senate Approves a Bill on Changes to Medicare

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved sweeping changes in the way Medicare pays doctors, clearing the bill for President Obama and resolving an issue that has bedeviled Congress and the Medicare program for more than a decade. The 92-to-8 vote in the Senate, following passa…