Yxxx,2017-03-18,A,001,Bs-4C,E2
CMYK
National Edition
Clouds, then some sunshine east.
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VOL. CLXVI . . . No. 57,540
SATURDAY, MARCH 18, 2017
© 2017 The New York Times Company
Printed in Chicago
$2.50
DeVos Adviser BRITAIN FURIOUS
Is Tied to Firm AS TRUMP PUSHES
Under Scrutiny
CLAIM OF SPYING
Hiring Stokes Fears of
Bias on For-Profits
NO APOLOGY IS OFFERED
By PATRICIA COHEN
TODD HEISLER/THE NEW YORK TIMES
The Bagpipe District
A formation of pipers marched among the shadows of Fifth Avenue during the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Manhattan on Friday.
Nerves Frayed As U.S. Shifts on Korea, China Holds Cards, Too
“They have been ‘playing’ the
As Cuts’ Import
States for years. China has
Tillerson Could Press United
done little to help!”
— Secretary of State
Grows Clearer RexBEIJING
The Chinese leadership is likely
the North’s Top Ally
W. Tillerson signaled on FriBy JANE PERLEZ
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
and TRIP GABRIEL
Regina Feltner, a retired nurse,
was recovering from side effects
of radiation therapy when she got
the notice that her heat would be
cut off. It was a bone-cold January
day. The snow was so high that her
daughter had to come over to take
the dog out.
“I have lung cancer and it’s the
dead of winter,” she remembers
thinking. “What am I going to
do?”
Help came in the form of a heating subsidy: money from the federal government, delivered by the
Highland County Community Action Organization, a small nonprofit in rural southern Ohio,
where Ms. Feltner lives.
Now, that program is on the
chopping block. It is one of many
cuts in President Trump’s new
budget proposal that would inflict
the deepest pain on the most vulnerable Americans — a great
number of whom voted for him.
“I understand what he’s trying
to do, but I think he’s just not stopping to think that there are people
caught in the middle he is really
going to hurt,” said Ms. Feltner, 57,
who was a nurse for 25 years and
voted for Mr. Trump. “He needs to
make some concessions for that. I
was a productive citizen. Don’t
make me feel worthless now.”
As news of Mr. Trump’s budget
begins to sink in across the country, Americans are trying to parse
what the changes to the government’s spending plan might mean
for them. It is only a proposal, an
opening bid in what is likely to be a
protracted public argument over
national priorities. But it is important because it signals what the
new president is thinking, his
wish list for the size and shape of
government.
In two days of interviews with
beneficiaries of programs at risk
in 11 states, many people said they
did not see themselves reflected
in Mr. Trump’s vision for the government. And some felt surprise
at what has been left out.
Ms. Feltner said that without
the heating subsidy she would
probably have to move in with her
daughter and two teenage grandchildren. “I’d still like to have a little dignity left, and not have to
move in with someone else,” she
said. “I used to be the one packing
up the food in the food pantry for
people. Now I’m the one in line.”
Continued on Page A9
day that the Trump administration was prepared to scrap nearly
a decade of United States policy
toward North Korea in favor of a
more aggressive effort to eliminate the country’s nuclear
weapons program. Whether that
means pre-emptive action, which
he warned was “on the table,” will
depend a great deal on how China
responds.
North Korea relies on Chinese
trade and aid to keep its economy
afloat, and China has long been
unwilling to withdraw that support. Up to 40 percent of the
North’s foreign currency — essential for buying goods abroad —
comes from a network of about
600 Chinese companies, according to a recent study by Sayari
Analytics, a Washington financial
intelligence firm.
Mr. Tillerson will be in China on
Saturday, a day after saying in
Seoul, South Korea, that the
United States would not negotiate
with North Korea on freezing its
nuclear and missile programs. His
interactions with his hosts in Beijing, and whether he takes a hard
line with China over its support
for North Korea, will be closely
watched — as will be China’s response.
A sign of the administration’s
stance came on Friday as President Trump criticized both North
Korea and the Chinese government. “North Korea is behaving
very badly,” he said on Twitter.
to bristle at such criticism, but it
may be reviewing its options, given the collision course that North
Korea and the United States seem
to be on.
Last month, Beijing showed a
new willingness to punish its longtime ally when it suspended imports of North Korean coal, saying
Continued on Page A7
As chief compliance officer for a
corporate owner of for-profit colleges, Robert S. Eitel spent the
past 18 months as a top lawyer for
a company facing multiple government investigations, including
one that ended with a settlement
of more than $30 million over deceptive student lending.
Today, Mr. Eitel — on an unpaid
leave of absence — is working as a
special assistant to the new secretary of education, Betsy DeVos,
whose department is setting out
to roll back regulations governing
the for-profit college sector.
The Education Department
says Mr. Eitel has conferred several times with its ethics officer to
avoid conflicts. But it says he is
not precluded from having a voice
on general issues and regulations
that affect the for-profit college
sector.
Ethics experts said Mr. Eitel’s
position, which has not been announced publicly, could nonetheless bump up against federal rules
involving conflicts of interest and
impartiality, particularly given his
position as a vice president for
regulatory legal services at
Bridgepoint Education Inc., an operator of for-profit colleges, during federal investigations into the
company.
“It raises considerable red
flags, especially due to the fact
that this company was under investigation,” said Scott H. Amey,
general counsel at the Project on
Government Oversight, a nonpartisan investigative group.
Mr. Eitel, an Education Department lawyer under President
George W. Bush, has been a stalwart critic of federal regulation of
both for-profit colleges and K-12
education under the Obama administration.
A department spokesman, who
requested anonymity, said Mr. Eitel is part of a “beachhead” team,
paid staff members who are temporarily helping to lead federal
agencies as the Trump administration gets up and running but do
not require Senate confirmation.
The spokesman said Mr. Eitel
Continued on Page A14
Strained Relations With
Europe as German
Chancellor Visits
By PETER BAKER
and STEVEN ERLANGER
WASHINGTON — President
Trump provoked a rare public dispute with America’s closest ally
on Friday after his White House
aired an explosive and unsubstantiated claim that Britain’s spy
agency had secretly eavesdropped on him at the behest of
President Barack Obama during
last year’s campaign.
Livid British officials adamantly denied the allegation and
secured promises from senior
White House officials never to repeat it. But a defiant Mr. Trump refused to back down, making clear
that the White House had nothing
to retract or apologize for because
his spokesman had simply repeated an assertion made by a
Fox News commentator. Fox itself
later disavowed the report.
The rupture with London was
Mr. Trump’s latest quarrel with an
ally or foreign power since taking
office. Mexico’s president angrily
canceled a White House visit in
January over Mr. Trump’s proposed border wall. A telephone
call with Australia’s prime minister ended abruptly amid a dispute over refugees. Sweden bristled over Mr. Trump’s criticism of
its refugee policy. And China refused for weeks to engage with
Mr. Trump because of his postelection call with Taiwan’s president.
Mr. Trump’s strained relations
with Europe, which has viewed
his ascension to power with trepidation, were fully on display on
Friday, not just in the British spy
flap but also in the venue in which
it was addressed. The president
was hosting for the first time
Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who is seen by many Europeans as the most important
champion of the liberal internaContinued on Page A13
‘NO EVIDENCE’ Fox disavowed the claims of a former judge, who on
Fox News said the British were spying on President Trump. PAGE A13
SYMBOLIC MEETING Angela Merkel of Germany and the president,
POOL PHOTO BY LEE JIN-MAN
In South Korea on Friday, Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson,
center, said dealings with the North might get more aggressive.
with little common ground on key issues, met face to face. PAGE A14
A MEDICAID OVERHAUL Concessions were made to conservatives that
could place work requirements on able-bodied beneficiaries. PAGE A11
Ambulance Turns Fatal Weapon,
Caribbean’s Lyrical Voice and Nobel Laureate Baring Dangers of E.M.T. Work
DEREK WALCOTT, 1930-2017
He had first attracted attention
on St. Lucia with a book of poems
that he published himself as a
teenager. Early on, he showed a
remarkable ear for the music of
English — heard in the poets
whose work he absorbed in his
Anglocentric education and on the
lips of his fellow St. Lucians — and
a painter’s eye for the particulars
of the local landscape: its beaches
and clouds; its turtles, crabs and
tropical fish; the sparkling expanse of the Caribbean.
In the poem “Islands,” from the
collection “In a Green Night,” he
wrote:
By WILLIAM GRIMES
Derek Walcott, whose intricately metaphorical poetry captured the physical beauty of the
Caribbean, the harsh legacy of colonialism and the complexities of
living and writing in two cultural
worlds, bringing him a Nobel
Prize in Literature, died early Friday morning at his home near
Gros Islet in St. Lucia. He was 87.
His death was confirmed by his
publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux. No cause was given, but he
had been in poor health for some
time, the publisher said.
Mr. Walcott’s expansive universe revolved around a tiny sun,
the island of St. Lucia. Its opulent
vegetation,
blinding
white
beaches and tangled multicultural
heritage inspired, in its most famous literary son, an ambitious
body of work that seemingly embraced every poetic form, from
the short lyric to the epic.
With the publication of the collection “In a Green Night” in 1962,
INTERNATIONAL A4-7
Justice for Large Blue
A British man was found guilty of capturing, killing and possessing the rare
Large Blue butterfly after stalking the
species in nature preserves.
PAGE A6
JILL KREMENTZ, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Derek Walcott in 1986.
critics and poets, Robert Lowell
among them, leapt to recognize a
powerful new voice in Caribbean
literature and to praise the sheer
musicality of Mr. Walcott’s verse,
the immediacy of its visual images, its profound sense of place.
I seek,
As climate seeks its style, to
write
Verse crisp as sand, clear as
sunlight,
Cold as the curled wave,
ordinary
As a tumbler of island water.
He told The Economist in 1990:
“The sea is always present. It’s always visible. All the roads lead to
Continued on Page A20
This article is by Benjamin Mueller, Emily Palmer and Al Baker.
They lived on the same Bronx
block, but on opposite ends of the
city’s system for treating the sick
and emotionally disturbed.
He was an occasional patient, a
25-year-old
Bloods
member
whose family said he showed
symptoms of schizophrenia and
depression and received psychiatric treatment after run-ins with
the police. She was a caregiver
who had worked for 14 years as an
emergency medical technician
with the New York Fire Department and had two sons who hoped
to follow her into the profession.
Around sunset on Thursday,
four miles from their block, they
met at the back of an ambulance.
The man, Jose Gonzalez, who appeared heavily intoxicated in cellphone videos recorded a short
while before, had hopped on the
back bumper of an ambulance for
a joy ride, riding three blocks before someone flagged down
NATIONAL A8-14
SPORTSSATURDAY B9-14
BUSINESS DAY B1-7
Help for At-Risk Heart Patients
Science Behind the Squeak
As Fed Acts, Foreigners Cringe
A study shows that people who took the
drug Repatha were significantly less
likely to have heart attacks or strokes.
But it’s not cheap.
PAGE A14
To try to understand why basketball
games are so noisy, consider the California spiny lobster.
PAGE B9
Rising interest rates in the United
States are driving money out of many
developing countries, straining governments and pinching consumers. PAGE B1
Marines Tackle Online Abuse
Dismayed by an uncertain response by
top generals, veterans are moving on
their own to stop harassment in online
groups like Marines United.
PAGE A8
NEW YORK A15-16
Dispute on U.S. Airstrike
A Lesson Learned . . . or Not
Countering charges that an airstrike in
Syria had killed civilians, the Pentagon
released an aerial photo.
PAGE A5
Mayor Bill de Blasio said his fundraising practices were vindicated. That
may not entirely be the case. PAGE A15
Yadira Arroyo, the emergency
medical technician, who was driving, the police said.
Ms. Arroyo, 44, was working
overtime and on her way to help a
pregnant woman. She stopped the
ambulance and got out to figure
out what was happening.
Mr. Gonzalez had just thrown a
teenage boy against a fence and
stolen his backpack, a criminal
complaint said, pretending to be a
police officer and telling the boy
he was arresting him. Now, Mr.
Gonzalez was saying that he had
hurt his hand and needed help.
Ms. Arroyo, who was familiar with
the strange and sometimes scary
encounters that emergency medical workers endure, told him to return the backpack.
Instead, Mr. Gonzalez took a
few steps, then spun around and
ran into the open driver’s side
door, Deputy Chief Jason Wilcox,
commanding officer of Bronx detectives, said. Ms. Arroyo tried to
pull him out. From the passenger
seat, her partner fought him, but
Continued on Page A16
THIS WEEKEND
Michigan Keeps Rolling
In the N.C.A.A. tournament, Michigan
won a high-scoring game against Oklahoma State, below, and Arkansas
knocked off Seton Hall.
PAGE B11
ARTS C1-6
Dave Chappelle Tells All
In a wide-ranging interview, the comic
talks about his blockbuster deal with
Netflix, the Bill Cosby scandal and the
election of Donald J. Trump.
PAGE C1
EDITORIAL, OP-ED A18-19
Gail Collins
PAGE A19
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