The Wall St.Journal 28Feb2020

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Friday, February 28, 2020 |A

U.S. NEWS

WASHINGTON—The U.S.
health system is falling short
in addressing the serious pub-
lic health threat of loneliness
and social isolation among
America’s seniors, according
to a new report by an influen-
tial advisory group.
The National Academies of
Sciences, Engineering and
Medicine said Thursday that
nearly one-quarter of Ameri-
cans aged 65 and older who
live in community settings
have few relationships or in-
frequent social contact. It con-
cluded that four decades of re-
search have produced robust
evidence that social isolation
is associated with a signifi-
cantly increased risk for early
death from all causes.
“This is a major problem in
our country that tends to go
unrecognized,” said Dan
Blazer, chairman of the com-
mittee that produced the re-
port and a professor emeritus
of psychiatry at Duke Univer-
sity. In treating these condi-
tions, “there just is no evi-
dence base in terms of what
works and what does not,” he
added.
The report calls for the De-
partment of Health and Hu-
man Services to start a na-
tional resource center to treat
the phenomenon, and for more
research into what treatments
work. It also encourages doc-
tors and other health-care
providers to periodically as-
sess patients for signs of lone-
liness and social isolation,
particularly after the death of
a spouse or a move, and in-
clude their findings in pa-
tients’ electronic health re-
cords.
The report also suggested
that existing Medicaid and pri-
vate insurance programs that
target so-called social deter-
minants of health be reworked
to address loneliness and so-
cial isolation.
The authors cautioned
about relying on newer tech-
nologies, such as social media
and robots, to address the
problem because they may in
fact exacerbate it.
“The fear we had on the
committee is that we’re seeing
a rapid advance in things like
robotic animals that would
substitute a real animal,” Dr.
Blazer said. “We don’t know
what that does to the rest of
the social environment.”
Another concern is that
many existing programs to
combat loneliness and isola-
tion rely on volunteers, grants
and donations. “This is an un-
sustainable financing model,”
the report said.
Two years ago, the U.K. ap-
pointed a minister for loneli-
ness, a move that caught the
attention of the report’s au-
thors. Dr. Blazer said they
didn’t recommend creating
that position in the U.S. be-
cause “I’m not sure that type
of thing works very well in the
United States.”
The National Academies are
independent nonprofits. This
report was sponsored by the
AARP Foundation.

BYJANETADAMY

Isolation

Risk High

Among

Seniors

ator in fall 2018.

In motions on Wednesday

and Thursday, lawyers for

some of the defendants argued

that the government should

have handed over the notes

earlier, and that the notes

show the Federal Bureau of In-

vestigation encouraged Mr.

Singer to lie to parents.

Lawyers for the parents are

expected to use the disclosures

as a basis to file motions to dis-

miss the indictment, to sup-

press evidence or for sanctions.

Mr. Singer called parents

beginning that September, re-

hashing details of prior deals

and finalizing ongoing ones.

He has admitted to arranging

to fraudulently boosting

teens’ test scores or having

them flagged as recruited

athletes, nearly guaranteeing

their admission to certain

colleges, and pleaded guilty

to four felony charges.

Mr. Singer wrote on Oct. 2,

2018, of a “loud and abrasive

call” with agents, in which

“they continue to ask me to tell

a fib” about where his clients’

money was going. “It was a do-

nation,” he wrote, “and they

want it to be a payment.”

Judge Gorton ordered the

parties to submit briefings on

the import of the notes next

month. He said the defense

lawyers raised potentially

“very serious Brady viola-

tions,” referring to prosecu-

tors’ requirement to disclose

potentially exculpatory evi-

dence, “and charges of prose-

cutorial misconduct.”

On Thursday, Assistant U.S.

Attorney Eric Rosen said Mr.

Singer’s notes, taken very

early in his cooperation, con-

tain nothing that would exon-

erate his clients who have

been criminally charged.

Prosecutors reiterated on

Thursday they didn’t release

the information earlier be-

cause they were concerned the

notes, taken by Mr. Singer on

his phone for his lawyer, were

covered under attorney-client

privilege. The lawyer waived

privilege this week.

Don Heller, Mr. Singer’s

lawyer, said the federal au-

thorities on the case never

pressured his client to say

anything untruthful.

In legal filings, lawyers for

some of the parents argued

that the new disclosures could

exonerate their clients.

Parents generally paid Mr.

Singer or his charity for his

services, and some also wrote

checks to the University of

Southern California, directed

to an account controlled by an

athletic department adminis-

trator who has also been

charged in the case.

The notes highlight one of

the core arguments being

made by defense lawyers: Pay-

ments made to Mr. Singer, his

charity and universities were

donations and not bribes.

The government argues that

the payments, often accompa-

nied by phony athletic profiles

used to sell children as athletic

recruits, were quid pro quos. A

dozen of the 21 parents who

have pleaded guilty admitted

to engaging in the illicit athlet-

ics-related deals.

Mr. Heller said it doesn’t

matter whether the funds

were called payments or dona-

tions, what matters is what

they were intended to be.

“Remember, this is a pay-

ment to guarantee the admis-

sion of a child to the school,”

Mr. Heller said, noting the

agreement Mr. Singer had

with parents was that the par-

ents would pay a certain

amount if the child was admit-

ted. “That’s a bribe.”

In his notes, Mr. Singer al-

luded to federal agents’ partic-

ular focus on one parent, who

began working with the college

counselor in June 2018. He

commented that federal agents

wanted to “nail Gordon at all

costs,” referring to Gordon Ca-

plan, the former co-chairman of

law firm Willkie Farr & Gal-

lagher LLP. Mr. Caplan pleaded

guilty in April to paying Mr.

Singer $75,000 to have a proc-

tor fix his daughter’s ACT

score, and was sentenced in Oc-

tober to one month in prison.

BOSTON—A federal judge
determined that the first trial
for parents in the Varsity Blues
college-admissions cheating
case will begin in October, even
as a side battle over newly dis-
closed evidence brews between
lawyers for the government
and for defendants.
U.S. District Judge Nathan-
iel Gorton said he expects each
trial to last about a month.
Actress Lori Loughlin and her
husband, designer Mossimo
Giannulli, will be in the first
grouping. He set trial dates for
October and January despite
requests by defense attorneys
to not begin trials for the 15
parents who have pleaded not
guilty until at least early next
year.
The trial timeline was set a
day after the federal govern-
ment handed over to defense
lawyers 309 pages of notes the
fraud scheme’s ringleader,
William “Rick” Singer, took on
his iPhone while beginning his
work as a government cooper-

BYMELISSAKORN
ANDJENNIFERLEVITZ

College-Admissions Cheating Case Trials to Begin in October

Lori Loughlin and her husband will be in the first group of trials.

STEVEN SENNE/ASSOCIATED PRESS

ven’t been raised since 1986.

Immigration advocates say

the plan is designed to make

fighting deportation prohibi-

tively expensive and say it

would raise due-process con-

cerns that could form the basis

of lawsuits, should the higher

fees take effect.

The increased costs would

likely have a particularly sig-

nificant impact on immigrants

detained by Immigration and

Customs Enforcement for the

duration of their deportation

cases, along with the more

than 60,000 immigrants the

Trump administration has re-

quired to live in Mexican bor-

der cities while their cases

move through the court sys-

tem, a process that typically

takes months.

“The proposal is like a poll

tax for voters, but here the

failure to overcome the barrier

isn’t the loss of franchise but

banishment from the country,”

said Tom Jawetz, the vice

president of immigration pol-

icy at the Center for American

Progress, a left-leaning Wash-

ington research organization.

The move follows a similar

effort by U.S. Citizenship and

Immigration Services, which

handles legal immigration, to

nearly double the cost of the

citizenship application and at-

tach fees to renewals under the

Deferred Action for Childhood

Arrivals program. That rule,

which also hasn’t been final-

ized, would also for the first

time attach a fee of $50 to ap-

plications for asylum, making

the U.S. one of just four coun-

tries in the world to charge for

an asylum application.

The proposal comes as Pres-

ident Trump has sought not

just to reduce illegal immigra-

tion but to curb access to the

legal U.S. immigration system

as well.

Last month, a divided Su-

preme Court allowed the ad-

ministration to begin imple-

menting rules that apply a

wealth test to immigrants

seeking green cards, making it

easier for the government to

reject those who officials be-

lieve might use public-assis-

tance programs.

The proposed rule, pub-

lished Thursday in the Federal

Register, now has a 30-day

public comment period and

could be amended before it

takes effect.

The immigration court sys-

tem, unlike most other U.S.

courts, operates under the um-

brella of the Justice Depart-

ment and the attorney general,

and other top political officials

have authority to overturn

some opinions immigration

judges reach.

WASHINGTON—The Justice

Department is proposing to

dramatically increase the cost

of appealing deportation or-

ders, according to a federal

regulatory filing on Thurs-

day, a move critics say would

effectively limit access to the

legal system to more affluent

immigrants.

The government is propos-

ing to raise the fee required to

file appeals in the immigration

court system to $975 from

$110, a nearly 800% increase.

The Justice Department says

the move is necessary to keep

pace with inflation, as fees ha-

BYMICHELLEHACKMAN

Deportation Appeal Fees to Climb

A Mexican asylum seeker and his family waited in December in Matamoros, Mexico, at a bridge to the U.S.

JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES

Before learning her punish-

ment, Ms. Pugh expressed re-

morse and asked the judge for

leniency. “No one is more dis-

appointed than me,” she said

in court, her voice breaking at

times. “I apologize for all that

has led me here.”

Her lawyers released a

video Wednesday in which Ms.

Pugh apologizes several times

for her actions, as soft music

plays. “I really messed up, I’m

so sorry,” she said.

Ms. Pugh resigned last May

under pressure, following re-

ports that she grossed about

$800,000 selling the books to

companies, nonprofits and

foundations, some of which

benefited from her official ac-

tions. The top buyer of books

was the state-funded Univer-

sity of Maryland Medical Sys-

tem, on whose board of direc-

tors she sat at the time of the

no-bid deals.

Federal prosecutors said

they began investigating Ms.

Pugh in early 2017. She was in-

dicted on 11 counts last fall and

pleaded guilty to four: conspir-

acy to commit wire fraud, con-

spiracy to defraud the U.S. and

two counts of tax evasion.

The “Healthy Holly” fraud

spanned more than seven

years, authorities said, starting

in 2011 when Ms. Pugh was a

state senator. She and an aide

failed to deliver some books

after taking payment and dou-

ble-sold some copies, unbe-

known to buyers, prosecutors

said. They diverted thousands

of books from a city warehouse

after the books, which promote

healthy eating and exercise,

were donated to city public

schools.

Ms. Pugh illegally used

some of the book-related pro-

ceeds to help finance her 2016

campaign for mayor, prosecu-

tors said. Her former aide,

Gary Brown Jr., pleaded guilty

last fall to charges including

conspiracy to commit wire

fraud.

BALTIMORE—Former Balti-

more Mayor Catherine Pugh

was sentenced to three years

in federal prison for a years-

long criminal scheme in which

she illegally profited from the

sale of her self-published

“Healthy Holly” children’s

books.

U.S. District Judge Deborah

Chasanow handed down the

sentence Thursday, three

months after Ms. Pugh, 69

years old, pleaded guilty to

conspiracy and tax-evasion

charges.

“The crimes committed are

very serious,” Judge Chasanow

said, and represent an abuse of

the public trust. She ordered

Ms. Pugh to pay more than

$400,000 in restitution and to

forfeit about $670,000.

Prosecutors had asked for a

sentence of four years and nine

months. Ms. Pugh’s lawyers re-

quested one year and a day.

The sentencing punctuates

the downfall of a longtime

Democratic politician who

served a decade in the Mary-

land Senate before her election

in 2016 as mayor of Baltimore.

BYSCOTTCALVERT

Ex-Baltimore Mayor Sentenced to 3 Years

Former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh after her sentencing on Thursday. She resigned last May.

STEVE RUARK/ASSOCIATED PRESS