CMYK

Nxxx,2016-04-04,A,001,Bs-BK,E2

Late Edition
Today, cloudy, periods of rain, less
windy, high 54. Tonight, mostly
cloudy then clearing, low 27. Tomorrow, partly sunny, colder, high
41. Weather map is on Page A16.

VOL. CLXV . . . No. 57,192

$2.50

NEW YORK, MONDAY, APRIL 4, 2016

2016 The New York Times

EARLY MISSTEPS
SEEN AS A DRAG
ON SANDERS BID

Court Nominee
Pushes Ahead
Despite Fracas
A Strategy to Ignore
G.O.P. Intransigence

LATE-STAGE MOMENTUM
Senator Now Needs
Landslide Victories
to Catch Clinton

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR

WASHINGTON Merrick B.
Garland, chief judge of the United
States Court of Appeals here, has
been sequestered in a kind of alternate reality in a small conference room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to
the White House, cramming for
questions from senators as if
hearings on his nomination to the
Supreme Court will happen this
year.
The preparations described
by top aides as businesslike
are part of a deliberate White
House strategy to ignore the fact
that Republicans have refused to
even consider his nomination.
Mr. Obamas aides and Judge
Garlands allies have concluded
that acting as if the Supreme
Court nomination is going ahead
is the best way to maximize pressure on their adversaries.
That means maintaining a
brisk schedule of one-on-one
courtesy meetings with senators
for the next month, a period that
White House officials consider
phase one. This week, Judge
Garland will meet privately with
two Republican senators, and on
Thursday, Mr. Obama will travel
to the University of Chicago,
where he taught constitutional
law, to press for more Republicans to meet with his nominee.
Also this week, liberal groups
are flying in about 40 constituents of Republican senators from
Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire,
Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin to lobby their lawmakers and
hold a news conference on Capitol Hill. The Republican constituents include two former staff
members of Senator Charles E.
Grassley of Iowa, the Republican
chairman of the Judiciary Committee, who would oversee confirmation hearings if they ever
took place.
White House officials say they
remain optimistic. Despite initial
reports that Republican senators
were united in their opposition to
even talking to Judge Garland, 16
Republican senators have said
they are willing to at least meet
with him in person. Mr. Obamas
advisers and his allies on Capitol
Hill view that as an early victory.
They also point to polling that
suggests that the majority of the
population believes that Republicans should treat Mr. Obamas
nominee as the way they have
previous court picks with a
hearing and a vote.
We are making steady but significant progress, Senator Chuck
Schumer, Democrat of New York,
Continued on Page A10

By PATRICK HEALY
and YAMICHE ALCINDOR

How Web
Of Corruption
Ensnared Brazil
TOMAS MUNITA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

EMBATTLED PRESIDENT Dilma Rousseff faces calls for impeachment. Below, a protest in So Paulo.

Senators Tales of Bribery,

Back-Room Deals and
Desperate Cover-Ups
By SIMON ROMERO

BRASLIA The silver-haired senator

from Brazils western frontier was still in
his pajamas when federal police agents
banged on the door of his suite at the Royal
Tulip, the futuristic luxury hotel that
serves as a bastion for much of Brazils political elite. It was 6 a.m.
The agents were armed with a secret recording that sounded like the plot for a
Hollywood thriller. The senator, Delcdio
do Amaral, had been caught detailing an
elaborate plan for an oilman ensnared in
Brazils spiraling graft scandal to flee the
country on a private plane.
Mr. Amaral, 61, was until his arrest in
Braslia that morning in late November
the governing partys most powerful leader in the Senate. He quickly sought a plea
agreement, but prosecutors let him fester
in prison for weeks, making a deal only after the disgraced senator provided one
stunning disclosure after another that betrayed his former comrades and brought
the government of President Dilma Rousseff ever closer to collapse.
I felt like I had just crashed into a wall
after a high-speed chase, recalled Mr.
Amaral, who was freed in February. I
messed things up, so I figured I needed a
chance to make them right again. You need
Continued on Page A6

MIGUEL SCHINCARIOL/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE GETTY IMAGES

LALO DE ALMEIDA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

A SENATOR Delcdio do Amaral

worked with authorities.

LALO DE ALMEIDA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

FORMER PRESIDENT Luiz Incio Lula

FLORIDA Democrats are working

da Silva likened himself to Nero.

hard to capture Marco Rubios

Senate seat. PAGE A9

A JUDGE Sergio Moro, right, has

helped jail powerful figures.

WISCONSIN Senator Ted Cruz and

SEBASTIAO MOREIRA/
EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY

Donald J. Trump try to outmaneuver each other. PAGE A13

Capitals Metro, Creaking at 40,

Is Staring Down a Midlife Crisis

Pointing to Cash, Not Health,

To Make a Soda Tax Palatable

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and NICHOLAS FANDOS

By MARGOT SANGER-KATZ

Mayor Jim Kenney was elected

in Philadelphia last year after
promising to bring the city universal prekindergarten, but he
needed a way to pay for it.
Enter the soda tax. As part of
his budget, introduced this
month, Mr. Kenney has proposed
taxing sugar-sweetened beverages at 3 cents an ounce, the
highest soda tax proposed anywhere in the country.
The idea of a soda tax was introduced about a decade ago by
public health researchers who
were aiming to reduce consumption of sugary drinks, which they
argued were causing increases in
obesity and diabetes. But the
message has been a tough political sell. Soda tax proposals,
fought by the soda industry as

The morning after he lost the

Nevada caucuses in February,
Bernie Sanders held a painful
conference call with his top advisers.
Mr. Sanders expressed deep
frustration that he had not built a
stronger political operation in the
state, and then turned to the worrisome situation at hand.
His strategy for capturing the
Democratic presidential nomination was based on sweeping all
three early-voting states, and he
had fallen short, winning only
New Hampshire to the consternation of his wife, Jane, who
questioned whether he should
have campaigned more in 2015.
Without that sweep, his aides
thought at the time, Mr. Sanders
had little hope of overcoming his
vast problems with black voters
in the Southern primaries. And
he had no convincing evidence to
challenge Hillary Clintons electability.
If Clinton had lost Iowa, New
Hampshire and Nevada, it would
have been a devastating series of
defeats that would have called
into question her entire campaign, said Tad Devine, one of
several Sanders advisers who described the Feb. 21 conference
call. We had to shift our strategy. But no matter what, the
nomination became tougher to
win.
Mr. Sanders is now campaigning more effectively than many
expected, exposing Mrs. Clintons weaknesses as a candidate,
and is positioning himself to win
contests like the Wisconsin primary on Tuesday. But allies and
advisers of Mr. Sanders say they
missed opportunities to run an
aggressive political operation in
2015 that would have presented
more of a challenge to Mrs. Clinton. She has now firmly built a
big lead in delegates needed to
clinch the nomination a margin that would be smaller if Mr.
Continued on Page A12

nanny-state excess, have failed in

New York State, San Francisco
and Philadelphia, twice. So far,
the only American city to pass a
soda tax is Berkeley, Calif.
Mr. Kenney is taking a different political tack. Instead of the
usual eat-your-vegetables pitch
of public health reformers, he is
offering Philadelphians something delicious: a giant pot of
money to fund popular city
projects. He says his soda tax
could raise more than $400 million over five years, enough to
fund not just universal preschool,
but also renovations to local libraries, parks and recreation
centers; community schools
Continued on Page A3

INTERNATIONAL A4-8

Lake Scene, Canal Dream

A canal project, shrouded in mystery,
raises questions about the future of sites
PAGE A4
like Lake Nicaragua, above.

MICHAEL BRYANT/THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

Investigators at the site of a derailment

in Chester, Pa., on Sunday that killed two people. Page A9.
AMTRAK TRAIN CRASHES

WASHINGTON Jack Evans

was a summer intern here in
1976, the year Metro, the capital
regions subway system, opened
to rave reviews. It was an architectural triumph, with escalators
that plunged into clean, well-lit
stations a mass transit marvel
like The Jetsons, he says a
far cry from the graffiti-scarred,
decrepit system of that era in
New York.
Now Mr. Evans, 62, is the
chairman of the transit agency
that oversees Metro perhaps
the citys least enviable job. Last
week, at a conference examining
Metro on its 40th birthday, he
said out loud what Washingtonians had known for years: The
capitals once-glorious subway
system, the nations second busi-

NATIONAL A9-13

SPORTSMONDAY D1-8

BUSINESS DAY B1-7

An Executive Tech Upgrade

The Yankees Odd Couple

Gawker Tests Limits of Gossip

President Obama will leave the White

House with information technology in
much better shape than he found it.
PAGE A10
White House Letter.

General Manager Brian Cashman and

Manager Joe Girardi have a long tenure
together despite distinct styles. PAGE D1

The Florida jurys decisive ruling

against the website Gawker for posting
a celebritys sex tape may signal that
our appetite for gossip does have limits,
PAGE B1
Jim Rutenberg writes.

NEW YORK A14-17

More Room for Ex-Offenders

Bans on renting to people with criminal
records violate the Fair Housing Act,
federal officials warned.
PAGE A14

Discontent Preceded a Tragedy

Skelos and Sons Risky Request

A highway project in Kolkata, India,

made residents lives miserable for
years before it collapsed.
PAGE A4

Despite their convictions on corruption

charges, Dean G. Skelos and his son
have asked for no prison time. PAGE A17

UConn Nears 4th Title in Row

The Huskies, led by Breanna Stewart,
below, beat Oregon State and will meet
Syracuse in the N.C.A.A. final. PAGE D1

est, is short on cash and a terrible

mess.
Its a system thats maybe
safe, somewhat unreliable, and
that is being complained about by
everybody, declared Mr. Evans,
who estimates that Metro could
face a $100 million budget shortfall next fiscal year.
Then he dropped a bombshell.
He warned that whole lines may
have to be closed for months for
repairs, adding, If we do nothing, 10 years from now the system wont be running.
At a time of deepening concern
over aging infrastructure and rail
safety around the nation on
Sunday, an Amtrak train struck a
backhoe on the tracks outside
Philadelphia, killing two people
Continued on Page A11

PCs Aim to Be Cool Again

ARTS C1-7

As people gravitate to small screens,

personal computer makers are pumping
money into the design of desktop computers, hoping to regain the consumer
excitement they once enjoyed. PAGE B1

A Delicate Question at the Met

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A18-19

Charles M. Blow

PAGE A19

When should a great artist retire?

James Levine conducted Plcido Domingo, above, on Friday. Both are in
PAGE C1
their 70s. An opera review.

U(D54G1D)y+#!\!#!#!]