The New York Times - 12.09.2019

VOL. CLXVIII... No. 58,448 © 2019 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

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BRITTAINY NEWMAN/THE NEW YORK TIMES

With pain undiminished since Sept. 11, 2001, families gathered in New York, above, and Washington and Pennsylvania. Page A31.

Grief and Remembrance, 18 Years Later

WASHINGTON — The Trump

administration said on Wednes-

day that it would ban the sale of

most flavored e-cigarettes, at a

time when hundreds of people

have been sickened by mysteri-

ous lung illnesses and teenage va-

ping continues to rise.

Sitting in the Oval Office with

the government’s top health offi-

cials, President Trump acknowl-

edged that there was a vaping

problem and said: “We can’t allow

people to get sick. And we can’t

have our kids be so affected.”

Alex M. Azar II, the health and

human services secretary, said

the Food and Drug Administra-

tion would outline a plan within

weeks for removing flavored e-

cigarettes and nicotine pods from

the market, excluding tobacco fla-

vors. The ban would include mint

and menthol, popular varieties

that manufacturers have argued

should not be considered flavors.

The White House and the F.D.A.

have faced mounting pressure

from lawmakers, public health of-

ficials, parents and educators,

who have grown alarmed by the

popularity of vaping among teen-

agers but have felt powerless to

keep e-cigarettes away from stu-

dents and out of schools.

This summer’s reports of vap-

ing-related respiratory illnesses,

which now near 500 cases in

nearly three dozen states and

have possible links to six deaths,

have amplified concerns and re-

newed calls for a total ban on the

largely unregulated pipeline of e-

cigarette and cannabis vaping

products.

Last week, Michigan became

the first state to prohibit the sale

of flavored e-cigarettes. Gov. An-

drew M. Cuomo of New York also

U.S. PLANS TO BAN

FLAVORED TYPES

OF E-CIGARETTES

CONCERNS ABOUT VAPING

President Says He Wants

to Combat Popularity

Among Teenagers

By SHEILA KAPLAN

Mysterious lung illnesses have

heightened fears over vaping.

ANDREW KELLY/REUTERS

Continued on Page A

Thousands of municipal gov-

ernments nationwide and nearly

two dozen states that sued the

pharmaceutical industry for the

destructive opioid crisis have ten-

tatively reached a settlement with

Purdue Pharma and its owners,

members of the Sackler family.

The deal is a landmark moment

in the long-running effort to com-

pel Purdue, the company whose

signature opioid, OxyContin, is

seen as an early driver of the epi-

demic, and its owners, the Sack-

lers, to face a reckoning for the

deaths of hundreds of thousands

of people from overdoses and the

calamitous systemic costs.

Specifics of the settlement have

yet to be hammered out, but ac-

cording to two people involved in

the negotiations, the broad con-

tours of the deal would involve

Purdue filing for Chapter 11 bank-

ruptcy. The company would be

dissolved, and a new one would be

formed to continue selling Oxy-

Contin and other medicines, with

the profits used to pay the plain-

tiffs. Purdue Pharma also would

donate drugs for addiction treat-

ment and overdose reversal, sev-

eral of which are in development.

Under the deal, the Sackler fam-

ily would pay $3 billion in cash

over seven years.

The settlement does not include

an admission of wrongdoing.

The tentative deal emerged af-

ter at least a year of talks, which

had been intensifying in recent

weeks.

The agreement must still be ap-

proved by Purdue’s board as well

as a bankruptcy court judge.

In a statement, the company

said, “Purdue Pharma continues

to work with all plaintiffs on

reaching a comprehensive resolu-

tion to its opioid litigation that will

deliver billions of dollars and vital

opioid overdose rescue medicines

to communities across the coun-

try impacted by the opioid crisis.”

But the agreement does not ap-

pear to put to rest claims by a ma-

jority of the nation’s states, whose

attorneys general quickly de-

nounced the proposal. They

vowed to pursue the Sackler for-

tune to try to recover vast sums

that their governments spent in

treatment, care and enforcement

as the drug scourge ensued for

years and years. Their resistance

casts a shadow over whether a

bankruptcy judge will sign off on

the plan.

The tentative deal was reached

scarcely six weeks ahead of the

start of the first federal trial in the

sprawling opioid litigation before

a federal judge in Cleveland, in

which Purdue was a defendant.

Opioid Moguls

Poised to Settle

Over Epidemic

Sacklers Pay Billions in

Landmark Proposal

By JAN HOFFMAN

Continued on Page A

On June 9, 2018, a colt named

Justify thundered home to the full-

throated cheers of a capacity

crowd to win the 150th running of

the Belmont Stakes and claim

horse racing’s Triple Crown, one

of the most storied achievements

in sports.

It was the perfect ending to an

improbable journey for a talented

horse, his eclectic ownership

group and his Hall of Fame

trainer, Bob Baffert.

Only a few people, however,

knew the secret that Baffert car-

ried with him into the winner’s cir-

cle that day: Justify had failed a

drug test weeks before the first

race in the Triple Crown, the Ken-

tucky Derby. That meant Justify

should not have run in the Derby,

if the sport’s rules were followed.

They were not, according to

documents reviewed by The New

York Times. Instead of the failed

drug test causing a speedy dis-

qualification, the California Horse

Racing Board took more than a

month to confirm the results.

Then, instead of filing a public

complaint as it usually does, the

board made a series of decisions

behind closed doors as it moved to

drop the case and lighten the pen-

alty for any horse found to have

the banned substance that Justify

tested positive for in its system.

By then, Justify had become

just the 13th Triple Crown winner

in the last 100 years, and his own-

ers had sold his breeding rights

for $60 million.

Only a handful of racing offi-

cials and people connected to Jus-

tify knew about the failed drug

test, which occurred April 7, 2018,

after Justify won the Santa Anita

Derby. He tested positive for the

drug scopolamine, a banned sub-

stance that veterinarians say can

enhance performance, especially

in the amount that was found in

the horse.

Justify was undefeated at the

time, but he still needed to finish

first or second in the Santa Anita

Derby to qualify for the Kentucky

Justify Failed Drug Test Before Triple Crown Run

By JOE DRAPE

Continued on Page A

Horse Was Allowed to

Race While Inquiry

Was on Slow Track

Maria Davila lay mute in a nurs-

ing home bed, an anguished ex-

pression fixed to her face, as her

husband stroked her withered

hand. Ms. Davila, 65, suffers from

a long list of ailments — respira-

tory failure, kidney disease, high

blood pressure, an irregular

heartbeat — and is kept alive by a

gently beeping ventilator and a

feeding tube in her neck.

Doctors recently added another

diagnosis to her medical chart:

Candida auris, a highly conta-

gious, drug-resistant fungus that

has infected nearly 800 people

since it arrived in the United

States four years ago, with half of

patients dying within 90 days.

At least 38 other patients at Ms.

Davila’s nursing home, Palm Gar-

dens Center for Nursing and Re-

habilitation in Brooklyn, have

been infected with or carry C. au-

ris, a germ so virulent and hard to

eradicate that some facilities will

not accept patients with it. Now, as

they struggle to contain the patho-

gen, public health officials from

cities, states and the federal gov-

ernment say that skilled nursing

facilities like Palm Gardens are fu-

eling its spread.

“They are the dark underbelly

of drug-resistant infection,” said

Dr. Tom Chiller, who heads the

fungal division at the Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention,

speaking about skilled nursing fa-

Nursing Homes Foster Spread

Of Virulent, Often Fatal Fungus

By MATT RICHTEL

and ANDREW JACOBS

Continued on Page A

DEADLY GERMS, LOST CURES

A Weak Link in Health Care

MARY F. CALVERT

Paul Lloyd, with his wife, Rachel, is among the men who have been raped in the military. Page A26.

‘It’s Hell, and There’s No Escape’

Even some backers of Benjamin Netan-
yahu are skeptical of his vow to annex
the Jordan Valley. PAGE A

INTERNATIONAL A4-

Israelis Question Leader’s Vows

Wondering who created that painting?

There’s a new digital know-it-all that is

eager to give you an answer. PAGE C

ARTS C1-

This App Knows Art

T. Boone Pickens, who made big energy

companies quake by threatening take-

overs and cast himself as a defender of

shareholder rights, was 91. PAGE B

OBITUARIES B11-

A Swashbuckling Oil Magnate

The age you feel, as opposed to how

many years you’ve lived, affects how

you think about your money, as well as

the way you plan for financial fitness

in your retirement years.

SPECIAL SECTIONS

Retirement

Most refugees landing at Lesbos are
Afghan, but Turkey’s president threat-
ened to start a flood of Syrians.PAGE A

More Migrants Reach Greece

The former first couple ran into a prob-

lem trying to trademark the name

“Higher Ground Productions.” PAGE C

Businesswoman vs. Obamas

With an assist from the internet, poli-

ticians have become pop icons, and

citizens their superfans (or stans).

And the president has become the

content creator in chief.

The Stanning of Democracy

David Axelrod PAGE A

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A34-

WASHINGTON — The Su-
preme Court on Wednesday al-
lowed the Trump administration
to bar most Central American mi-
grants from seeking asylum in the
United States, while the legal fight
plays out in the courts.
The Supreme Court, in a brief,
unsigned order, said the adminis-
tration may enforce new rules
that generally forbid asylum ap-
plications from migrants who
have traveled through another
country on their way to the United
States without being denied asy-
lum in that country.
The court’s order was a major
victory for the administration, al-
lowing it to enforce a policy that
will achieve one of its central
goals: effectively barring most
migration across the nation’s
southwestern border by Hon-
durans, Salvadorans, Guatema-
lans and others. Mexican mi-
grants, who need not travel
through another country to reach
the United States, are not affected
by the new policy.
It was the second time in recent
months that the Supreme Court
has allowed a major Trump ad-
ministration immigration initia-
tive to go forward. In July, the
court allowed the administration
to begin using $2.5 billion in Pen-
tagon money for the construction
of a barrier along the Mexican
border. Last year, the court upheld
President Trump’s ban on travel
from several predominantly Mus-
lim countries.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined
by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg,
dissented, saying the court’s ac-
tion will “upend longstanding
practices regarding refugees who
seek shelter from persecution.”

Justices Permit

U.S. to Exclude

Asylum Claims

By ADAM LIPTAK

Continued on Page A

WASHINGTON — President
Trump, seeking to justify his claim
of a hurricane threat to Alabama,
pressed aides to intervene with a
federal scientific agency, leading
to a highly unusual public rebuke
of the forecasters who contra-

dicted him, according to people fa-

miliar with the events.

In response to the president’s

request, Mick Mulvaney, the act-

ing White House chief of staff, told

Wilbur Ross, the commerce secre-

tary, to have the National Oceanic

and Atmospheric Administration

publicly correct the forecasters,

who had insisted that Alabama

was not actually at risk from Hur-

ricane Dorian.

A senior administration official,

who asked not to be identified dis-

cussing internal matters, said Mr.

Trump told his staff to have NOAA

“clarify” the forecasters’ position.

NOAA, which is part of the Com-

merce Department, then issued

an unsigned statement saying the

Birmingham, Ala., office of the

National Weather Service was

wrong to refute the president’s

warning so categorically.

But the statement only intensi-

fied the uproar over Mr. Trump’s

storm prediction as critics ac-

cused his administration of politi-

cizing the weather. The Com-

merce Department inspector gen-

eral has opened an investigation,

At Odds With Scientists, Trump Intervened to ‘Clarify’ Forecasts

This article is by Peter Baker, Lisa
Friedmanand Christopher Flavelle.

Continued on Page A

California moved to protect independ-

ent contractors. Uber says key provi-

sions don’t affect its drivers. PAGE B

Turmoil Over Gig Labor Law

Lawmakers limited annual rent in-

creases statewide to 5 percent after

inflation and put up new barriers to

eviction. PAGE A

NATIONAL A15-

California Caps Rent

The president said he would delay the

next planned tariff increase on China as

“a gesture of good will.” PAGE B

BUSINESS B1-

Trump Delays Tariff Increase

Late Edition

Today,cloudy, showers, afternoon

thunderstorms, not as warm, high

78. Tonight,mostly cloudy, evening
    rain, low 63. Tomorrow,sunshine,
    high 70. Weather map, Page A28.

$3.