Obama Urges Speed on Immigration Plan, but Exposes Conflicts

Jason Reed/Reuters

President Obama, in Las Vegas, said he would propose his own immigration bill if Congress did not move "in a timely fashion."

LAS VEGAS — Seizing an opening to rewrite the nation's immigration laws, President Obama challenged Congress on Tuesday to act swiftly to put 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States on a clear path to citizenship.

But his push for speedy action and his silence on proposals to defer the opportunity for legal residency until the country's borders are deemed secure provoked criticism from a Republican leader on the issue. The response suggests that reaching consensus on immigration law changes remained difficult despite a new bipartisan push since the November elections.

Speaking at a high school here in a state that has seen rapid growth in its Hispanic population, the president praised a bipartisan group of senators who proposed their own sweeping immigration overhaul a day earlier, saying their plan was very much in line with his own proposals.

Mr. Obama warned, however, that "the closer we get, the more emotional this debate is going to become." He said that if Congress did not move forward "in a timely fashion" on its own legislation, he would send up a specific measure — something the White House has put off for now — and demand a vote.

The president's speech immediately exposed potential fault lines in the coming debate. He said, for example, that there must be a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants "from the outset," a statement that would seem at odds with the assertion by some senators that citizenship must be tied to tighter border security.

Senator Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican seen as an influential party voice on an issue that cost Republicans in last year's voting, said he was "concerned by the president's unwillingness to accept significant enforcement triggers before current undocumented immigrants can apply for a green card."

"Without such triggers in place," he went on, "enforcement systems will never be implemented, and we will be back in just a few years dealing with millions of new undocumented people in our country."

Although Mr. Obama did not say it in his speech, the White House is also proposing that the United States treat same-sex couples the same as other families, meaning that people would be able to use their relationship as a basis to obtain a visa — another element likely to be resisted by some conservative Republicans.

Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Speaker John A. Boehner, said in a statement that House Republicans "hope the president is careful not to drag the debate to the left and ultimately disrupt the difficult work that is ahead in the House and Senate."

A senior administration official said the speech was the start of a concerted campaign to force Republicans to follow through on the bipartisan proposal. He predicted that given the president's popularity with Hispanic voters, they would find it hard vote down a bill with his name on it.

Mr. Obama offered a familiar list of proposals: tightening security on borders, cracking down on employers who hire illegal immigrants and temporarily issuing more visas to clear the huge backlog of people applying for legal status in the country.

His speech, on the heels of the bipartisan Senate proposal, sets the terms for one of the year's landmark legislative debates. These are only the opening steps in a complicated dance, and both the politics and the policy can be treacherous ground, as shown by the failed effort to overhaul immigration laws in the George W. Bush administration.

But the flurry of activity underscores the powerful new momentum behind an overhaul of the system, after an election that dramatized the vulnerability of Republicans on the issue, with Mr. Obama piling up lopsided majorities over Mitt Romney among Hispanic voters.

"Most Americans agree that it's time to fix a system that's been broken for way too long," Mr. Obama said to an audience of about 2,000 high school students, many of them Hispanic. They applauded loudly when he mentioned the Dream Act, which offers amnesty to children of immigrants who are in the United States illegally.

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Egyptian Army Chief Warns of Collapse Amid Chaos

Tara Todras-Whitehill for The New York Times

A protester threw a tear gas canister in clashes with the police in Cairo. Several Egyptian cities were in open rebellion on Tuesday.

CAIRO — As three Egyptian cities defied President Mohamed Morsi's attempt to quell the anarchy spreading through their streets, the nation's top general warned Tuesday that the state itself was in danger of collapse if the feuding civilian leaders could not agree on a solution to restore order.

Thousands of residents poured into the streets of the three cities, protesting a 9 p.m. curfew with another night of chants against Mr. Morsi and assaults on the police.

The president appeared powerless to stop them: he had already granted the police extralegal powers to enforce the curfew and then called out the army as well. His allies in the Muslim Brotherhood and their opposition also proved ineffectual in the face of the crisis, each retreating to their corners, pointing fingers of blame.

The general's warning punctuated a rash of violent protests across the country that has dramatized the near-collapse of the government's authority. With the city of Port Said proclaiming its nominal independence, protesters demanded the resignation of Mr. Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president, while people across the country appeared convinced that taking to the streets in protests was the only means to get redress for their grievances.

Just five months after Egypt's president assumed power from the military, the cascading crisis revealed the depth of the distrust for the central government left by decades of autocracy, two years of convoluted transition and his own acknowledged missteps in facing the opposition. With cities in open rebellion and the police unable to tame crowds, the very fabric of society appears to be coming undone.

The chaos has also for the first time touched pillars of the long-term health of Egypt's economy, already teetering after two years of turbulence since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. While a heavy deployment of military troops along the Suez Canal — a vital source of revenue — appeared to insulate it from the strife in Port Said, Suez and Ismailia, the clashes near Tahrir Square in Cairo spilled over for the first time into an armed assault on the historic Semiramis InterContinental Hotel, sending tremors of fear through the vital tourism sector.

With the stakes rising and no solution in sight, Gen. Abdul Fattah el-Sisi, the defense minister, warned Egypt's new Islamist leaders and their opponents that "their disagreement on running the affairs of the country may lead to the collapse of the state and threatens the future of the coming generations."

"Political, economic, social and security challenges" require united action "by all parties" to avoid "dire consequences that affect the steadiness and stability of the homeland," General Sisi said in an address to military cadets that was later relayed as a public statement from his spokesman. And the acute polarization of the civilian politics, he suggested, has now becoming a concern of the military because "to affect the stability of the state institutions is a dangerous matter that harms Egyptian national security."

Coming just months after the military relinquished the power it seized at the ouster of Mr. Mubarak, General Sisi's rebuke to the civilian leaders inevitably raised the possibility that the generals might once again step into civilian politics. There was no indication of an imminent coup.

Analysts familiar with General Sisi's thinking say that unlike his predecessors, he wants to avoid any political entanglements. But the Egyptian military has prided itself on its dual military and political role since Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser's coup more than six decades ago. And General Sisi insisted Tuesday that it would remain "the solid mass and the backbone upon which rest the Egyptian state's pillars."

With the army now caught between the president's instructions to restore order and the citizens' refusal to comply, he said, the "armed forces are facing a serious dilemma" as they seek to end the violence without "confronting citizens and their right to protest."

The attack on the Semiramis Hotel, between the American Embassy and the Nile in one of the most heavily guarded neighborhoods of the city, showed how much security had deteriorated. And it testified to the difficult task that the civilian government faces in trying to rebuild public security and trust.

Kareem Fahim and Mayy El Sheikh contributed reporting from Cairo.

Kareem Fahim and Mayy El Sheikh contributed reporting from Cairo.

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Report Links Rodriguez and Others to Clinic and P.E.D.’s

Investigators for Major League Baseball created an improvised war room in the commissioner's Park Avenue offices in Manhattan in recent months, mapping out potential evidence that would tie an anti-aging clinic in Coral Gables, Fla., to the possible use of performance-enhancing drugs by some of baseball's more prominent players. 

But because the investigators cannot compel witnesses to talk, they could do nothing more than scrutinize the clinic. As a result, they found themselves mere spectators Tuesday as a weekly Miami newspaper reported that it had obtained medical records from the clinic that tied a half-dozen players — Alex Rodriguez, Melky Cabrera, Gio Gonzalez, Bartolo Colon, Nelson Cruz and Yasmani Grandal — to the use of banned substances like human growth hormone.

The newspaper, Miami New Times, said it had received the records from an unnamed former employee of the clinic, which is now closed, and that they included handwritten notations listing various drugs that were allegedly distributed to various players. At least some of those documents were displayed online by the newspaper. However, the documents have not been independently authenticated, and Rodriguez, the Yankees slugger, and Gonzalez, a standout pitcher for the Washington Nationals, both issued statements denying they had been patients at the clinic.

Anthony Bosch, the operator of the clinic, known as Biogenesis of America, also issued a statement of denial through his lawyer, saying the Miami New Times article was "filled with inaccuracies, innuendos and misstatements in fact."

"Mr. Bosch vehemently denies the assertions that MLB players such as Alex Rodriguez and Gio Gonzalez were treated or associated with him," the statement added.

Despite the denials, Major League Baseball, long suspicious of the clinic's actions, will proceed in the belief that the assertions in the article have merit. Two of the players cited — Gonzalez and Cruz, an outfielder for the Texas Rangers — have not previously been linked to performance enhancers. Three others — Colon, who pitches for the Oakland A's; Cabrera, an outfielder with the Toronto Blue Jays; and Grandal, a catcher with the San Diego Padres — were suspended last year for positive drug tests.

And then there is Rodriguez, who admitted in 2009 that he used performance enhancers from 2001 to 2003, when he was with the Rangers, but who has denied in several meetings with baseball's investigators that he has done so since. Baseball officials have remained uneasy about those denials, and the Miami New Times article gives them something new to work with. But it is unclear what they can do about Rodriguez or anyone else cited in the article.

For one thing, the documents described in the article will not necessarily become available to Major League Baseball. Nor do they involve failed drug tests, which is the easiest evidence for baseball to act on. As a result, baseball may again find itself stuck, seeking perhaps to punish players without having the necessary means to do so.

In the case of the Biogenesis clinic, baseball's investigators traveled to Florida to meet with members of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, who were taking a close look of their own at the facility. But it is uncertain if federal authorities would share with baseball any evidence they develop on the clinic. That has not happened in other instances over the last decade.

"If the feds are not going to prosecute this case, it would be much better for us for them to give us some usable evidence like the documents, so we can do our job and suspend the players," a baseball official said. "We could be in discipline hell if that doesn't happen."

But even if it obtained the documents, and they were authenticated, Major League Baseball would still be dealing with the fact that it has had little success in suspending players when they have not tested positive. Of the roughly 40 players who have been suspended for violating the testing program since 2005, only a handful have been punished based on evidence developed by baseball's investigators or from medical records or court documents.

The most high-profile instance of a suspension without a drug test occurred in 2006, when reliever Jason Grimsley was barred for 50 games after the federal authorities unsealed court documents that showed he had admitted to a federal agent that he had used human growth hormone.

The Florida clinic has been on the radar of both baseball and the federal government since at least 2009, when investigators uncovered evidence that the slugger Manny Ramirez had received a banned drug from the facility. Ramirez was ultimately suspended 50 games for that infraction.

Steve Eder and Alain Delaquérière contributed reporting from New York, and Lizette Alvarez from Miami.

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Boeing Was Aware of 787 Battery Problems Before Failure

Toru Hanai/Reuters

All Nippon Airways, the biggest operator of 787s, is holding jets at Haneda airport in Tokyo.

Even before two battery failures led to the grounding of all Boeing 787 jets this month, the lithium-ion batteries used on the aircraft had experienced multiple problems that raised questions about their reliability.

Officials at All Nippon Airways, the jets' biggest operator, said in an interview on Tuesday that it had replaced 10 of the batteries in the months before fire and smoke in two cases caused regulators around the world to ground the jets.

The airline said it had told Boeing of the replacements as they occurred but was not required to report them to safety regulators because they were not considered a safety issue and no flights were canceled or delayed. National Transportation Safety Board officials said Tuesday that the replacements were now part of their inquiry.

The airline also, for the first time, explained the extent of the previous problems, which underscore the volatile nature of the batteries and add to concerns over whether Boeing and other plane manufacturers will be able to use the batteries safely.

In five of the 10 replacements, All Nippon said that the main battery had showed an unexpectedly low charge. An unexpected drop in a 787's main battery also occurred on the All Nippon flight that had to make an emergency landing in Japan on Jan. 16.

The airline also revealed that in three instances, the main battery failed to operate normally and had to be replaced along with the charger. In other cases, one battery showed an error reading and another, used to start the auxiliary power unit, failed. All the events occurred from May to December of last year. The main battery on the plane that made the emergency landing was returned to its maker, GS Yuasa, and that 10 other batteries involved in mishaps were sent to the airline's maintenance department.

Kelly Nantel, a spokeswoman for the National Transportation Safety Board, said investigators had only recently heard that there had been "numerous issues with the use of these batteries" on 787s. She said the board had asked Boeing, All Nippon and other airlines for information about the problems.

"That will absolutely be part of the investigation," she said.

Boeing, based in Chicago, has said repeatedly that any problems with the batteries can be contained without threatening the planes and their passengers.

But in response to All Nippon's disclosures, Boeing officials said the airline's replacement of the batteries also suggested that safeguards were activated to prevent overheating and keep the drained batteries from being recharged.

Boeing officials also acknowledged that the new batteries were not lasting as long as intended. But All Nippon said that the batteries it replaced had not expired.

A GS Yuasa official, Tsutomu Nishijima, said battery exchanges were part of the normal operations of a plane but would not comment further.

The Federal Aviation Administration decided in 2007 to allow Boeing to use the lithium-ion batteries instead of older, more stable types as long as it took safety measures to prevent or contain a fire. But once Boeing put in those safeguards, it did not revisit its basic design even as more evidence surfaced of the risks involved, regulators said.

In a little-noticed test in 2010, the F.A.A. found that the kind of lithium-ion chemistry that Boeing planned to use — lithium cobalt — was the most flammable of several possible types. The test found that batteries of that type provided the most power, but could also overheat more quickly.

In 2011, a lithium-ion battery on a Cessna business jet started smoking while it was being charged, prompting Cessna to switch to traditional nickel-cadmium batteries.

The safety board said Tuesday that it had still not determined what caused a fire on Jan. 7 on a Japan Airlines 787 that was parked at Logan Airport in Boston. The fire occurred nine days before an All Nippon jet made its emergency landing after pilots smelled smoke in the cockpit.

Federal regulators said it was also possible that flaws in the manufacturing process could have gone undetected and caused the recent incidents.

The batteries' maker X-rays each battery before shipping to look for possible defects.

Matthew L. Wald contributed reporting.

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Super Bowl: At Media Day, Spotlight on Head Injuries Grows

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

Coach Jim Harbaugh arranged his 49ers for a Super Bowl photo at the Super Dome.

NEW ORLEANS — It has become a staple of Super Bowl week, as much a part of the pregame to the N.F.L.'s biggest event as the annual media day: a discussion of how football is being affected by head injuries and the mounting evidence that long-term brain damage can be linked to injuries sustained on the field.

Years ago, players rarely spoke about the issue and league officials dismissed suggestions that on-field injuries could lead to life-altering health problems. Now, however, the league is facing lawsuits from thousands of former players, rules are being instituted in an attempt to diminish injuries on the field and even President Obama has said that the way football is played will have to change. This week, Bernard Pollard, a hard-hitting safety for the Baltimore Ravens, created a stir by saying that the N.F.L. would not exist in 30 years because of the rules changes designed with safety in mind, but that he also believed there would be a death on the field at some point.

At media day Tuesday, players reacted to the comments made by Pollard and Obama, with some agreeing with Pollard that recent rules changes would change the sport to such an extent that it would be less entertaining and lead to a loss of popularity. Pollard stood by his comments. He added, however, that while he was comfortable with the physical risk he was taking by playing football, he was not sure he would want future generations, including his 4-year-old son, to follow his example.

"My whole stance right now is that I don't want him to play football," Pollard said. "Football has been good to me. It has been my outlet. God has blessed me with a tremendous talent to be able to play this game. But we want our kids to have things better than us."

He said he did not want his son to go through the aches and pains caused by the physicality of the game.

"You keep playing football, you're going to have your injuries, no one is exempt from that," he said. "You're going to have concussions. You're going to have broken bones. That's going to happen. But I think for the most part, we know what we signed up for."

The sentiment was echoed by Baltimore quarterback Joe Flacco. "I play the game and I understand that I'm going to get hit," Flacco said. "Just because they fine the guys is not going to stop them from hitting me. I find it tough to fine people who are doing their job."

In a recent interview with The New Republic, Obama expressed concern about on-field injuries, though he added that N.F.L. players were grown men who are "well-compensated for the violence they do to their bodies."

The president added: "I think that those of us who love the sport are going to have to wrestle with the fact that it will probably change gradually to try to reduce some of the violence. In some cases, that may make it a little bit less exciting, but it will be a whole lot better for the players, and those of us who are fans maybe won't have to examine our consciences quite as much."

While many current players seem focused on rules changes and how they will affect the nature of the game, more than 4,000 former N.F.L. players have filed a lawsuit against the league, contending that it knew hits to the head could lead to long-term brain damage but did not share that information with players. The judge in the case said Tuesday that she would hear oral arguments April 9 regarding the league's motion to dismiss the lawsuit. The family of Junior Seau, a former star linebacker who shot and killed himself last year, has also sued the N.F.L., claiming it failed to inform players about the risks of brain injury.

Pollard's counterparts on the San Francisco 49ers, safeties Dashon Goldson and Donte Whitner, considered one of the hardest-hitting tandems in the N.F.L., thought the key was not removing big hits, but making sure the hits that are delivered are legal.

"You can be vicious and you can hit people hard, but do it the right way," Whitner said. "For the most part, you know what you can and cannot do. Do you want to go out there and do the right things or do you want to make that big hit to gain a big name? That's what it comes down to."

Ravens guard Marshal Yanda said he thought the topic was so personal for Pollard because of the unique nature of being a hard-hitting defensive back, one of the positions most affected by the league's attempts to increase player safety.

"I think Bernard is frustrated because he plays a tough position where it's a bang-bang play and he's getting fined," Yanda said. "That's a tough deal as far as him playing football his whole life knowing how to play one way and then all of a sudden you have to change."

One of the few people to disagree entirely with Pollard's view that skewing the rules to protect offensive players would harm the league was Warren Sapp, a retired defensive tackle who at one point went by the Twitter handle @QBKilla. He said a desire for points would always result in defenses being limited.

"They like points," Sapp said. "I like it too. You're going to have to make some key stops here and there but it's an offensive game, no doubt about it."

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Congress Faces Deep-Seated Resistance to Immigration Plan

Doug Mills/The New York Times

Senator Marco Rubio, at lectern, and other members of a bipartisan group of lawmakers offered an immigration plan on Monday.

GREENVILLE, S.C. — At Tommy's Country Ham House, a popular spot downtown for politics and comfort food, not much has changed since 2007, the last time conservatives here made it crystal clear to politicians how they felt about what they see as amnesty for people who entered the country illegally.

"What we need to do is put them on a bus," said Ken Sowell, 63, a lawyer from Greenville, as he ate lunch recently at the diner. "We need to enforce the border. If they want to apply legally more power to them. I don't think just because a bunch of people violate the law, we ought to change the law for them."

Six years ago, the intensity of that kind of sentiment was enough to scuttle immigration overhaul efforts led by President George W. Bush and a bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Senators John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, both Republicans.

Now, as a new bipartisan group of eight senators, including Mr. Graham and Mr. McCain, try again — this time with President Obama as their partner in the White House — members of Congress will have to overcome deep-seated resistance like that expressed in the restaurant if they are to push legislation forward.

Republicans are betting that opposition from Tea Party activists and the party's most conservative supporters will have less impact because of the dire electoral consequences of continuing to take a hard line regarding immigrants. The senators on Monday released a blueprint for a new immigration policy that opens the door to possible citizenship ahead of a Tuesday speech on the subject by Mr. Obama in Las Vegas.

There is some evidence that the politics of immigration may be changing. Sean Hannity, the conservative host at Fox News, said days after the 2012 presidential election that he has "evolved" on immigration and now supports a comprehensive approach that could "get rid of" the issue for Republicans. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a rising star in the Republican Party, is pushing his own version of broad immigration changes — and getting praise from conservative icons like Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed.

But the Republican-controlled House remains a big hurdle. Speaker John A. Boehner on Monday was noncommittal about the emerging proposal, with a spokesman saying that Mr. Boehner "welcomes the work of leaders like Senator Rubio on this issue, and is looking forward to learning more about the proposal."

Representative Lamar Smith, Republican of Texas and a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, said that "when you legalize those who are in the country illegally, it costs taxpayers millions of dollars, costs American workers thousands of jobs and encourages more illegal immigration."

And if the lunch rush conversation at Tommy's is any indication, many Republican lawmakers will soon return home to find their constituents just as opposed to the idea as they were before. Concern about immigration varies regionally. But in many Congressional districts around the country, the prospect of intense opposition carries with it the threat of a primary challenger if Republican lawmakers stray too far from hawkish orthodoxy on the issue.

"The people who are coming across the border — as far as I'm concerned, they are common criminals," said Bill Storey, 68, a retired civil engineer from Greenville. "We should not adopt policies to reward them for coming into this country illegally. I have all the regard for them in the world if they come through the legal system, but not the illegal system."

Charlie Newton, a construction worker in the Greenville area, praised the work ethic of Hispanic co-workers, but said he opposes any laws that would provide benefits to illegal immigrants, including help becoming citizens.

"I think we need to help our own people before we keep helping somebody else," he said.

The president's proposals are expected to include more border enforcement, work site verification systems that allow employers to check the status of their employees online, and a road map to citizenship for the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants now living in the country. Democratic senators could begin work on a bill in the next couple of weeks.

In the Fourth Congressional District in South Carolina, which includes Greenville, the formal arrival of such a plan is likely to anger the constituents of Trey Gowdy, a Republican House member who was elected in the 2010 Tea Party wave and is now the chairman of a key subcommittee that will deal with immigration.

Mr. Gowdy has already taken a hard line, signing on last year to the "Prohibiting Backdoor Amnesty Act," which aimed to reverse Mr. Obama's plans to delay deportations for some young illegal immigrants. The congressman will be under pressure to change his mind from the White House and its allies, including groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. But when he goes home to Greenville, Mr. Gowdy may find that his constituents want him to hold firm in his opposition.

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Media Decoder Blog: After Staff Reductions, New Appointments at The Times

9:06 p.m. | Updated The New York Times announced on Monday a restructured masthead and some significant newsroom appointments, while also saying that the staff reductions the company was seeking had been accomplished primarily through voluntary buyouts.

In a memo to the staff, Jill Abramson, the executive editor, outlined many of the coming changes at the paper, saying she hoped they would help The Times continue "to meet the challenges of remaking ourselves for the digital age."

Ms. Abramson acknowledged in her memo that this round of staff reductions seemed different from previous ones, because it resulted in the loss of some of the most prominent editors at the paper. Among those choosing to take buyout packages were John M. Geddes, a managing editor; Jim Roberts, an assistant managing editor; and Jonathan Landman, the head of the culture department.

William E. Schmidt, the deputy managing editor, is also leaving.

Ms. Abramson also presented plans for a transformed masthead. Larry Ingrassia, the former business editor, will become an assistant managing editor for new initiatives, which includes the expansion of The Times's international coverage. Janet Elder will become an assistant managing editor with responsibility for overseeing newsroom resources, including the budget, as well as for dealing with compensation and staff development. Ian Fisher will become an assistant managing editor for content operations, with responsibility for overseeing the continued integration of the digital and print sides of The Times.

Jason Stallman, a deputy sports editor, will be the new sports editor, succeeding Joe Sexton, who announced last week he was moving to ProPublica. Ms. Abramson said she would announce the new culture editor in the next two weeks.

Rick Berke, currently an assistant managing editor, will now focus on video, an area the company has been trying to expand. Glenn Kramon, another assistant managing editor, will join the business department to oversee technology coverage.

"The changes under way are part of the journey that we've been on for years," Ms. Abramson wrote in her memo. "Integrating our print and digital operations, expanding our reporting, deepening our ways of telling stories, innovating in ways that make our journalism the literal envy of our profession and the joy of our readers."

In early December, Ms. Abramson said the newsroom needed to contribute to the company's cost-cutting efforts, and announced she was seeking 30 managers who were not union members to accept buyout packages. The company also allowed employees represented by the Newspaper Guild to volunteer for buyout packages. Employees had until Thursday to decide.

Ms. Abramson had said that if the paper did not get the required number of volunteers the company would have to resort to layoffs. But her note to the staff on Monday indicated that layoffs were kept to a minimum.

Here is Ms. Abramson's memo to the staff:

Colleagues,

I wanted to let you know quickly that we are through the process of offering voluntary buyouts and cutting staff. In the end, we had to lay off far fewer people than we anticipated, having achieved most of our savings through the voluntary process.

We will continue to reposition ourselves, to meet the challenges of remaking ourselves for the digital age. The changes under way are part of the journey that we've been on for years: integrating our print and digital operations, expanding our reporting, deepening our ways of telling stories, innovating in ways that make our journalism the literal envy of our profession and the joy of our readers.

This means that some colleagues are changing roles. Rick Berke will now focus on video as it becomes an even bigger part of our news report. Glenn Kramon will steer our technology coverage when it is at the heart of how the world turns. These are urgent assignments requiring leaders who know the full panoply of what the newsroom is capable of doing.

We will be naming a new culture editor in the next two weeks. Jason Stallman will be our new sports editor.

Our operational needs will continue to be handled by those on the masthead, which will now include some new names. Larry Ingrassia will be the assistant managing editor for new initiatives. In this role he will spearhead our many new ventures and revenue projects. There are several already in the works, including our expansion of international coverage.

Janet Elder will be assistant managing editor for newsroom administration. She will oversee newsroom resources, including managing our budget and dealing with compensation, staffing, career development and training.

Ian Fisher will be assistant managing editor for content operations. He will manage the deepening integration of our digital and print news reports, working closely with interactive news, engagement, mobile and technology.

In the coming days and weeks we will have time to pause and express our affection and boundless gratitude for our departing colleagues. Some of the longest-serving leaders in the newsroom are leaving, people who have given The Times so much of themselves and are responsible for so much of our excellence. Among them is John Geddes, whose smarts, ability to seamlessly get us through all manner of crises from hurricanes to blackouts and of course his ability to make us laugh at ourselves, will be sorely missed. Jon Landman is leaving too. He epitomizes the integrity and ingenuity of this place. Bill Schmidt, whose charm and grace symbolize the fundamental humanity of our newsroom, is planning to leave as well.

The very tread of Jim Roberts's cowboy boots means: "We have this covered." He will be moving on, as will Joe Sexton, fresh off the glory of the Avalanche project

But just as these inspiring leaders stood on the shoulders of those who came before, we are shored up by the accomplishments of our departing colleagues and challenged to reach even higher. As we start a new chapter, we are more resolved in our purpose and more committed to our standards.

Let us settle into this new world order. Then fire away with questions and criticisms.

Thanks to all of you for your patience.

Fondly,
Jill

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Biotech Firms, Billions at Risk, Lobby States to Limit Generics

In statehouses around the country, some of the nation's biggest biotechnology companies are lobbying intensively to limit generic competition to their blockbuster drugs, potentially cutting into the billions of dollars in savings on drug costs contemplated in the federal health care overhaul law.

Genentech, via Associated Press

The biological drug Avastin for cancer from Genentech.

The complex drugs, made in living cells instead of chemical factories, account for roughly one-quarter of the nation's $320 billion in spending on drugs, according to IMS Health. And that percentage is growing. They include some of the world's best-selling drugs, like the rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis drugs Humira and Enbrel and the cancer treatments Herceptin, Avastin and Rituxan. The drugs now cost patients — or their insurers — tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

Two companies, Amgen and Genentech, are proposing bills that would restrict the ability of pharmacists to substitute generic versions of biological drugs for brand name products.

Bills have been introduced in at least eight states since the new legislative sessions began this month. Others are pending.

The Virginia House of Delegates already passed one such bill last week, by a 91-to-6 vote.

The companies and other proponents say such measures are needed to protect patient safety because the generic versions of biological drugs are not identical to the originals. For that reason, they are usually called biosimilars rather than generics.

Generic drug companies and insurers are taking their own steps to oppose or amend the state bills, which they characterize as pre-emptive moves to deter the use of biosimilars, even before any get to market.

"All of these things are put in there for a chilling effect on these biosimilars," said Brynna M. Clark, director of state affairs for the Generic Pharmaceutical Association. The limits, she said, "don't sound too onerous but undermine confidence in these drugs and are burdensome."

Genentech, which is owned by Roche, makes Rituxan, Herceptin and Avastin, the best-selling cancer drugs in the world Amgen makes Enbrel, the anemia drugs Epogen and Aranesp, and the drugs Neupogen and Neulasta for protecting chemotherapy patients from infections. All have billions of dollars in annual sales and, with the possible exception of Enbrel, are expected to lose patent protection in the next several years.

The trench fighting at the state level is the latest phase in a battle over the rules for adding competition to the biotechnology drug market as called for in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.

A related battle on the federal level is whether biosimilars will have the same generic name as the brand name product. If they did not, pharmacists could not substitute the biosimilar for the original, even if states allowed it.

Biosimilars are unlikely to be available in the United States for at least two more years, though they have been on the market in Europe for several years. And the regulatory uncertainty appears to be diminishing enthusiasm among some companies for developing such drugs.

"We're still dealing with chaos," said Craig A. Wheeler, the chief executive of Momenta Pharmaceuticals, which is developing biosimilars. "This is a pathway that neither industry nor the F.D.A. knows how to use."

Biotech drugs, known in the industry as biologics, are much more complex than pills like Lipitor or Prozac.

That makes it extremely difficult to tell if a copy of a biological drug is identical to the original. Even slight changes in the cells that make the proteins can change the drug's properties.

The 1984 law governing generics does not cover biologicals, which barely existed then. That is why it was addressed in the 2010 law.

One reason generic pills are so inexpensive is that state laws generally allow pharmacists to substitute a generic for a brand-name drug unless the doctor explicitly asks them not to. That means generic drug manufacturers need not spend money on sales and marketing.

The bills being proposed in state legislatures would expand state substitution laws to include biosimilars. So Amgen and Genentech say the bills support the development of biosimilars.

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Super Bowl — Jerome Boger’s Probable Pick as Referee Is Questioned

NEW ORLEANS — In many ways, it is fitting. Four months after the N.F.L. began its season with replacement officials — who struggled to complete a coin toss, confused which city a team hailed from and incorrectly identified whether the offense or defense had caught a critical pass in the end zone — another referee controversy is looming as the Super Bowl approaches.

That is because, while the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens clearly earned their way to the Super Bowl, questions have been raised about whether the top referee this season will be joining them.

The league is expected to announce this week that Jerome Boger, an N.F.L. referee for seven years, will lead the crew of officials here Sunday. Historically, that means Boger scored the highest among referees during the standard postgame evaluations — a notion that some observers and, privately, several other on-field officials find hard to comprehend.

"What's happening right now is that the best officials are not working the best games," said Jim Daopoulos, who worked 11 years as an on-field official and 12 years as a supervisor of officials before becoming an officiating analyst for NBC. Daopoulos added that he believed that the grading of some officials, including Boger, was altered because the league had a predetermined assignment in mind.

"I'm looking at the seven guys who are working in the Super Bowl, and to be quite honest, several of them should not be on the field," Daopoulos said.

Michael Signora, a spokesman for the N.F.L., disputed that, writing in an e-mail, "There is no merit to the suggestion that Jerome Boger's grades were treated differently from those of any other official."

Signora added, "Claims to the contrary are both inaccurate and unfair."

Still, some elements of the appointment seem strange. Ben Austro, the founder of FootballZebras.com, a Web site that focuses on news and analysis of officials in the N.F.L., first reported the Boger assignment several weeks ago. Austro said in an interview Monday that he was immediately struck by something unusual about the choice, noting that every official is graded by league observers following each game worked, with every call made being deemed correct or incorrect.

This season, according to Austro, there were approximately eight instances in which Boger was initially given what officials call a ding, or markdown, for a particular call, only to have those negative grades later overturned. In other words, Austro said, if Boger earned the best grades among referees this season, he did so with the help of significant after-the-fact revisions from those doing the grading.

Although it is not clear which grades were changed, Boger did have some unusual moments this season, most notably a sequence in Week 16 when he announced a penalty against Carolina quarterback Cam Newton for "bumping" him while protesting the officiating but did not eject Newton, as the rules require. Boger later said that he misspoke and that the penalty against Newton was only for "disrespectfully addressing" an official.

According to Daopoulos, the standard procedure is for one of several league supervisors to first review a game on his own. The supervisors then get together as a group to go over the downgrades detected, and generally, Daopoulos said, "the majority or consensus rules" when it comes to overturning a downgrade.

This season, however, Daopoulos — and several officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly — said Carl Johnson, the league's vice president for officiating, unilaterally overturned a number of Boger's downgrades.

Neither Johnson nor Ray Anderson, the league's executive vice president for football operations, were made available for comment. But Signora, the spokesman, said, "No downgrade is removed unless there is a consensus among the supervisors and the head of the department."

Regardless, while appealing a grade is not unusual — 14 of 18 referees did so successfully this season, according to Signora — the fact that Boger had eight reversals is odd, according to Gerry Austin, who officiated in three Super Bowls from 1982 to 2008 and is now an ESPN contributor.

"Based on my past experience, if you could get two downgrades changed in the course of the year, you've done real well," Austin said.

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Brown Looks at Reshaping California’s Higher Education

Lennox McLendon/Associated Press

Jerry Brown, left, with his parents, former Gov. Edmund G. Brown of California and Bernice Brown, celebrates his reelection as governor of California in 1978.

LOS ANGELES — During a 1960s renaissance, California's public university system came to be seen as a model for the rest of the country and an economic engine for the state. Seven new campuses opened, statewide enrollment doubled, and state spending on higher education more than doubled. The man widely credited with the ascendance was Gov. Edmund G. Brown, known as Pat.

Decades of state budget cuts have chipped away at California's community colleges, California State University and the University of California, once the state's brightest beacons of pride. But now Pat Brown's son, Gov. Jerry Brown, seems determined to restore some of the luster to the institution that remains a key part of his father's legacy.

Last year, he told voters that a tax increase was the only way to avoid more years of drastic cuts. Now, with the tax increase approved and universities anticipating more money from the state for the first time in years, the second Governor Brown is a man eager to take an active role in shaping the University of California and California State University systems.

Governor Brown holds a position on the board of trustees for both Cal State and UC. Since November, he has attended every meeting of both boards, asking about everything from dormitories to private donations and federal student loans. He is twisting arms on issues he has long held dear, like slashing executive pay and increasing teaching requirements for professors — ideas that have long been met with considerable resistance from academia. But Mr. Brown, himself a graduate of University of California, Berkeley, has never been a man to shrink from a debate.

"The language we use when talking about the university must be honest and clear," he said in a recent interview. "Words like 'quality' have no apparent meaning that is obvious. These are internally defined to meet institutional needs rather than societal objectives."

California's public colleges — so central to the state's identity that their independence is enshrined in its Constitution — have long been seen as gateways to the middle class. Mr. Brown said his mother had attended the schools "basically free." Over the last five years tuition at UC and Cal State schools has shot up, though the colleges remain some of the less costly in the country.

Governors and legislatures are trying to exert more influence on state colleges, often trying to prod the schools to save money, matters that some say are "arguably best left to the academic institution," said John Aubrey Douglass, a senior research fellow of public policy and higher education at Berkeley. So far, Mr. Brown has not taken such an aggressive approach, but half of the $250 million increase for the university systems is contingent on a tuition freeze.

"He's creating stability, but basically he's looking at cost containment with an eye on the public constituency," Mr. Douglass said. "But the system has been through a very long period of disinvestment, and this may meet an immediate political need, but it is not what is going to help in the long term."

Over all, the University of California receives 44 percent less from the state than it did in 1990, accounting for inflation. The governor's proposed increase still leaves the schools with about $625 million less than they received in 2007. At the same time, a record number of students applied for admissions to the system's 10 campuses for next fall. While the California State University system has capped freshman enrollment, administrators at the UC system, which has about 190,000 undergraduate students, have been reluctant to formally do so, in part to prevent limiting access to in-state students.

Spurred by grumbling from voters, legislators have repeatedly complained that too many out-of-state students are enrolling in the University of California, arguing that they take spots away from talented local students. But others argue that without the out-of-state students, who make up less than 9 percent of undergraduates and pay much more in tuition, the university would have to make even deeper cuts.

Timothy White, the newly appointed chancellor for California State University and the former chancellor at UC Riverside, said the systems were facing a fundamental dilemma over access.

"Our budget is not going to allow us to grow enrollment at all, so I'm concerned that we are going to disappoint a lot of people in a lot of communities," he said.

So far, the governor has focused his attention on whether the universities should be offering more courses online, requiring faculty to teach more classes and cutting administrators' pay.

His plea that faculty members, particularly at the University of California, teach more undergraduate classes has been met with resistance, with one trustee fretting that doing so would "turn this place into a junior college in about 15 years." Faculty members say that requiring more teaching would take away from crucial research areas, which will bring in roughly $5 billion this year.

"You can talk abstractly about faculty teaching more, but that begs the question of what you give up by requiring them to teach more," said Daniel Dooley, the senior vice president for external relations for the University of California. Mr. Dooley, who worked in Mr. Brown's first administration in the 1970s, has had several conversations with the governor about the state colleges.

Even before he began attending the board of trustee meetings, Mr. Brown repeatedly criticized high salaries for university administrators, arguing that they should serve as "public servants" and be willing to accept smaller paychecks. During his last term he famously remarked that professors derived "psychic income" from their jobs. When the University of California board of trustees voted to approve the new chancellor at Berkeley, in November, Mr. Brown voted in favor of his appointment, but voted against his $486,000 salary.

Some see the governor's new focus as a sign that there could be major improvements afoot, but others are less optimistic.

"The old days of the social compact with the state is gone," Mr. Douglass said. "It seems clear that it will not come back."

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Morsi Declares Emergency in 3 Egypt Cities as Unrest Spreads

Tara Todras-Whitehill for The New York Times

An Egyptian man threw a tear-gas canister back at the police in Port Said on Sunday.

PORT SAID, Egypt — President Mohamed Morsi declared a state of emergency and a curfew in three major cities on Sunday, as escalating violence in the streets threatened his government and Egypt's democracy.

By imposing a one-month state of emergency in Suez, Ismailia and here in Port Said, where the police have lost all control, Mr. Morsi's declaration chose to use one of the most despised weapons of former President Hosni Mubarak's autocracy. Under Mubarak-era laws left in effect by the country's new Constitution, a state of emergency suspends the ordinary judicial process and most civil rights. It gives the president and the police extraordinary powers.

Mr. Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president and a leader of the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, took the step after four days of clashes in Cairo and in cities around the country between the police and protesters denouncing his government. Most of the protests were set off by the second anniversary of the popular revolt that ousted Mr. Mubarak, which fell on Friday.

Here in Port Said, the trouble started over death sentences that a court imposed on 21 local soccer fans for their role in a deadly riot. But after 30 people died in clashes on Saturday — most of them shot by the police — the protesters turned their ire on Mr. Morsi as well the court. Police officers crouching on the roofs of their stations fired tear gas and live ammunition into attacking mobs, and hospital officials said that on Sunday at least seven more people died.

Tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Port Said on Sunday demanding independence from the rest of Egypt. "The people want the state of Port Said," they chanted in anger at Cairo.

The emergency declaration covers the three cities and their surrounding provinces, all on the economically vital Suez Canal. Mr. Morsi announced the emergency measures in a stern, finger-waving speech on state television on Sunday evening. He said he was acting "to stop the blood bath" and called the violence in the streets "the counterrevolution itself."

"There is no room for hesitation, so that everybody knows the institution of the state is capable of protecting the citizens," he said. "If I see that the homeland and its children are in danger, I will be forced to do more than that. For the sake of Egypt, I will."

Mr. Morsi's resort to the authoritarian measures of his predecessor appeared to reflect mounting doubts about the viability of Egypt's central government. After decades of corruption, cronyism and brutality under Mr. Mubarak, Egyptians have struggled to adjust to resolving their differences — whether over matters of political ideology or crime and punishment — through peaceful democratic channels.

"Why are we unable to sort out these disputes?" asked Moattaz Abdel-Fattah, a political scientist and academic who was a member of the assembly that drafted Egypt's new Constitution. "How many times are we going to return to the state of Egyptians killing Egyptians?" He added: "Hopefully, when you have a genuine democratic machine, people will start to adapt culturally. But we need to do something about our culture."

Mr. Morsi's speech did nothing to stop the violence in the streets. In Cairo, fighting between protesters and the police and security forces escalated into the night along the banks of the Nile near Tahrir Square. On a stage set up in the square, liberal and leftist speakers demanded the repeal of the Islamist-backed Constitution, which won approval in a referendum last month.

Young men huddled in tents making incendiary devices, while others set tires on fire to block a main bridge across the Nile.

In Suez, a group calling itself the city's youth coalition said it would hold nightly protests against the curfew at the time it begins, 9 p.m. In Port Said, crowds began to gather just before the declaration was set to take effect, at midnight, for a new march in defiance.

"We will gather every night at 9 at Mariam's mosque," said Ahmed Mansour, a doctor. "We will march all night long until morning."

He added: "Morsi is an employee who works for us. He must do what suits us, and this needs to be made clear."

Mayy El Sheikh contributed reporting from Port Said, and Kareem Fahim from Cairo.

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Fire Sweeps Through Brazil Nightclu; Hundreds Dead

RIO DE JANEIRO — A fire ignited by a flare from a band's pyrotechnics spectacle swept through a nightclub filled with hundreds of university students early on Sunday morning in Santa Maria, a city in southern Brazil, killing at least 233 people, officials said.

Health workers hauled bodies from the club, called Kiss, to hospitals in Santa Maria all through Sunday morning. Some of the survivors were taken to the nearby city of Porto Alegre to be treated for burns. Valdeci Oliveira, a local legislator, told reporters that he saw piles of bodies in the nightclub's bathrooms.

Col. Guido Pedroso de Melo, the commander of the city's Fire Department, said in televised remarks that security guards had blocked the exit, which intensified the panic as people in the club stampeded to the doors.

Survivors described a frenzied and violent rush for the main exit. Murilo de Toledo Tiecher, 26, a medical student at the University of Caxias do Sul who was at the club, said he and his friends had to push through a crush of people to get around a metal barrier that was preventing the crowd from spilling out into the street. He said some people became trapped after they rushed into the bathroom near the exit, thinking it was a way out. Once he was outside, he said, he tried to pull others to safety.

"If we saw a hand or a head, we'd start pulling the person out by the hair," he said in a telephone interview. "People were burned; some didn't even have clothes."

The disaster ranks among the deadliest of nightclub fires, comparable to the 2003 blaze in Rhode Island that killed 100 people, one in 2004 in Buenos Aires in which 194 were killed, and a fire at a club in China in 2000 in which 309 people died.

The disaster in Santa Maria, which is in the relatively prosperous state of Rio Grande do Sul, shocked the country. President Dilma Rousseff canceled appointments at a summit meeting in Chile to travel to Santa Maria, a city of about 260,000 residents that is known for its cluster of universities.

The circumstances surrounding the blaze, including the use of pyrotechnics and the reports of the blocked exit, are expected to raise questions about whether the club's owners had been negligent. While it was not clear why patrons were initially not allowed to escape, it is common across Brazil for nightclubs and bars to have customers pay their entire tab upon leaving, instead of on a per-drink basis.

More broadly, the blaze may focus attention on issues of accountability in Brazil and point to the relaxed enforcement of measures aimed at protecting citizens, even with the economy on solid footing.

The nation's civil service has grown significantly over the past decade, tax revenues are soaring and there is no shortage of laws and regulations governing the minutiae of companies large and small. Yet preventable disasters still commonly claim lives in Brazil, as illustrated by Rio de Janeiro's building collapses, manhole explosions and trolley mishaps.

"Bureaucracy and corruption also cause tragedies," said André Barcinski, a columnist for Folha de São Paulo, one of Brazil's largest newspapers.

Some of the survivors' criticisms pointed to a heated argument over who was responsible. "Only after a multitude pushed down the security guards did they see" what they had done, Mr. Tiecher, the medical student, said in comments posted on Facebook.

In an interview, he said that security guards had blocked the club door and initially prevented people from escaping because they thought a fight had broken out inside, and that customers would use the opportunity to leave without paying their bar tabs. Only after they realized that a fire was raging inside did the security guards let the crowd go, Mr. Tiecher said.

Witnesses said the fire started about 2 a.m. after a rock band, Gurizada Fandangueira, began performing for an audience made up mostly of students in the agronomy and veterinary medicine programs at a local university. Mr. Tiecher said the band's singer lighted a kind of flare and held it over his ahead, accidentally setting the ceiling on fire. Members of the band were seen trying to douse the flames.

At least one member of the five-person band, which is based in Santa Maria and had advertised its use of pyrotechnics, was said to have been killed. Many of the victims died of smoke inhalation, officials said.

"The smoke spread very quickly," Aline Santos Silva, 29, one of the survivors, said in comments to the Globo News television network. "Those who were closest to the stage where the band was playing had the most difficulty getting out."

Human rights officials focused Sunday on the grief in Santa Maria. "How many families are now searching for their young one?" asked Maria do Rosário Nunes, a cabinet minister who is Ms. Rousseff's top human rights official.

Brazilian television stations broadcast images of trucks carrying corpses to hospitals where family members were gathering. Photographs taken shortly after the blaze and posted on the Web sites of local news organizations showed frantic scenes in which people on the street outside the nightclub pulled bodies from the charred debris.

Parents and other family members wandered through Santa Maria on Sunday searching for their loved ones. "I still think she hasn't died," Cibela Focco, 35, whose daughter was in the nightclub and still had not been heard from, told reporters Sunday evening.

The tragedy took place in a region of Brazil where Ms. Rousseff spent much of her early political career before rising to national prominence as a top aide to the former president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and running for president herself. Before leaving the meeting in Chile, she appeared distraught, crying in front of reporters as she absorbed details of the blaze.

"This is a tragedy," she said, "for all of us."

Jill Langlois contributed reporting from São Paulo, Brazil, and Michael Schwirtz from New York.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: January 27, 2013

A picture of a hallway strewn with shoes that accompanied a previous version of this online article was used in error. It showed the aftermath of a fire in Buenos Aires in 2004, not Saturday night's fire in Santa Maria, Brazil.

Also, a credit from Agence France-Presse for two photographs that appeared with earlier versions of this story misidentified the photographer. The photographs were taken by Ronald Mendes, not by Lauro Alves.

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Eric Cantor, the G.O.P. Majority Leader, Looks Beyond Debt

WASHINGTON — With House Republicans gathered behind closed doors this month at a resort in Williamsburg, Va., Representative Eric Cantor hushed the crowd with a long slide presentation on the prospects of a government default.

The federal debt was climbing quickly. The Treasury Department was using "extraordinary measures" to keep paying the nation's debts, even if, technically, the government had blown past its borrowing limit. President Obama, he said, would set the day the government would go into default, and Republicans balking at raising the debt limit had no real idea when that day would be. The Republican Party was not in control of the situation.

For Mr. Cantor, the majority leader, the goals during the ensuing week — from Williamsburg to the House vote last Wednesday to suspend the debt limit until May — were to make sure the government did not default on its debt in the coming weeks and to get House Republicans beyond an endless, and politically fruitless, discussion about debt, deficits and green-eyeshaded austerity.

"We are in a town run by Democrats, and we cannot win the hearts and minds of Americans if we are just talking about numbers, day in and day out," said a Cantor aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss his boss's plans. "There are a lot of things Republicans care about."

After lying low for several months, Mr. Cantor is reasserting his presence in the Capitol, even as Speaker John A. Boehner continues his struggles to maintain Republican unity. In the coming weeks, the majority leader plans to lay out a second, softer track for his party beyond the constant cycle of budget showdowns and deficit talks.

Notably, that track will include a new push for private-school vouchers for underprivileged children, health care options beyond the old fight over the president's health care law, new work force training initiatives and a renewed push for science, technology and engineering visas for would-be immigrants.

After successfully engineering the latest debt ceiling vote last week, Mr. Cantor flew to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he road-tested those themes as the lone House Republican leader rubbing elbows with the international elite.

Citing a struggling single mother with a gifted child in a poor city neighborhood, he told Davos attendees, "We need to create some type of competitive mechanisms" to help her escape the bad schools she is stuck with. Between meetings with King Abdullah II of Jordan; President Shimon Peres of Israel; the International Monetary Fund director, Christine Lagarde; and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations, he spoke of "sane immigration policies," unemployed youths and a German model for economic output.

Mr. Cantor is expected to lay out his domestic vision on Feb. 5 at the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right research group.

His latest moves follow two episodes this month that attracted wide notice and new questions about Republican unity. He publicly broke with the speaker early this month over the deal to avert the so-called fiscal cliff, voting against the agreement even as Mr. Boehner voted for it. He then deftly maneuvered to secure passage of a Hurricane Sandy disaster relief package that Mr. Boehner had initially been cool to, bowing to pressure from financial donors in New York and engineering a complex process that satisfied both Northeastern Republicans and fiscal conservatives.

On the train ride to the House Republican retreat in Williamsburg, Mr. Cantor, who represents a district in Virginia, walked the aisles and worked the back bench, asking members about their legislative interests and promising attention.

Mr. Cantor's actions lack what many saw in 2011, the first year of Republican House control, as overt disloyalty to Mr. Boehner. Instead, lawmakers and aides say, his eye may be on an emerging potential rival for the speakership, Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the party's 2012 vice-presidential nominee.

Mr. Ryan has given no sign that he wants the job, but House Republicans say that if anyone can challenge Mr. Cantor for the job, it is Mr. Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman. Mr. Cantor appears to be shoring up his power before Mr. Boehner's retirement, which many believe will come in four years, if not two.

"I have never felt that there was any real reason to believe Eric is plotting and scheming against the speaker," said Vin Weber, a former Republican House member who remains close to the leadership. "But when you're in the leadership, you're always looking over your shoulder, using your peripheral vision to see who might be coming up on you. That's the nature of leadership."

Mr. Cantor's supporters say his moves have nothing to do with leadership intrigue and everything to do with leadership — and with shaping the direction of the party after last year's electoral defeats.

After more than two years of budget fights, the majority leader, more than anyone else in the leadership, is said to want to broaden the discussion. His mantra behind closed doors is "How do we make life work better?" aides say, and he would like the next two years to be at least as much about job creation and economic opportunity as about spending cuts and changes to entitlement programs.

Mr. Cantor's votes — against the fiscal cliff deal but for $60 billion in disaster aid — may have lacked ideological consistency, but they do contain a common thread. All have been good for Mr. Cantor.

The work he did for the aid package put him in a small minority of his party. The bill passed 241 to 180, but only 49 Republicans voted yes; 179, including Mr. Ryan, voted no. But its passage pleased rich New York donors like the venture capitalist Kenneth G. Langone and the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd C. Blankfein, who pushed him hard for a vote after the speaker backed off the bill on the last day of the 112th Congress.

Those donors, in turn, help keep Mr. Cantor's two political action committees, the YG Action Fund and the Every Republican Is Crucial PAC, flush so he can spread largess to the young House Republicans who make up the core of his support. Goldman Sachs was the second-largest donor to ERIC PAC in the 2012 political cycle.

"I certainly asked a good number of people in New York who he has relationships with to call him and ask for his support," said Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York.

Alison Smale contributed reporting from Davos, Switzerland.

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St. Brigid’s Church, on Lower East Side, Celebrates a New Beginning

Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan consecrated and dedicated St. Brigid's Roman Catholic Church, on Avenue B and Eighth Street, on Sunday.

For more than 160 years, St. Brigid's Roman Catholic Church has borne witness as transformation after transformation has cascaded through the Lower East Side.

Yet conflict, drama and wrenching change occurred within its walls, too: In the church founded by Irish immigrants who fled the famine of the 1840s, the pews were in turn occupied by Poles, Ukrainians and Puerto Ricans. The church played a role in the clashes in nearby Tompkins Square Park in the late 1980s and in this century was nearly demolished itself before a mystery donor stepped forward with millions of dollars to rescue it.

On Sunday, worshipers, including descendants of some of the original Irish parishioners, gathered as Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan consecrated and dedicated the newly renovated building. After 12 years and nearly $15 million, the church, on Avenue B and Eighth Street, was once again a parish church.

"You don't believe in miracles, and then something like that happens," said Peter Quinn, an author whose grandparents were married at St. Brigid's in 1899. "It seemed so hopeless."

From the altar, Cardinal Dolan praised his predecessor, Cardinal Edward M. Egan, who also took part in the Mass, for making the decision to restore the church.

"It was your dream, your trust, your daring at a time when so many dioceses were cutting back and closing," he said. "You wanted something brand-spanking new." 

But in 2001, the parishioners and the Archdiocese of New York were on opposite sides when the archdiocese announced that it would close the church because of structural defects.

"The back wall was literally pulling away from the rest of the building," said Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the archdiocese. "The back wall was six inches from the floor and walls. We had engineers in there who said: 'Literally, the roof can fall at any moment. You cannot have people in this church.' "

Masses were moved to the church school. Parishioners formed a committee to restore the building, which was built in 1848, and raised about $100,000 of what they believed was the $300,000 cost.

"A ridiculous number, which I think was made up," Mr. Zwilling said of that estimate, adding that the archdiocese's estimate was closer to $8 million.

Then one day in 2006, demolition crews arrived. A painted glass window was smashed, pews were removed and an eight-foot-by-eight-foot hole was punched through a wall.

"We had to change the Committee to Restore St. Brigid to the Committee to Save St. Brigid," said Edwin Torres, the committee's leader.

Mr. Torres said parishioners felt that the archdiocese had strung the congregation along, letting it raise money knowing all along that a wrecking crew was coming: "I kept thinking: If we lived on Park Avenue or Madison Avenue, they would not be treating us like this."

Mr. Zwilling insists that the archdiocese had no choice but to close the church, because the price tag to keep it open was too steep. With 375 parishes, he added, the archdiocese simply could not pour so much of its resources into one.

Undaunted, the committee hired lawyers and went to court, where it lost.

Then in 2008, the anonymous donor appeared and offered $20 million to restore St. Brigid and start a fund to help the parish school.

"We had lost at every step of the way, and now we're going to the 5 p.m. Mass," said Marisa Marinelli, a lawyer who handled the case on a pro bono basis. "Usually when you lose, you lose. We lost, but in the process kept the church standing."

The archdiocese hired Michael F. Doyle of the Acheson Doyle Partners architecture firm to supervise the renovations. He said he found daunting structural problems.

He explained that St. Brigid's, like much the rest of the neighborhood, was built on marshland, and with each flood over the years, the wood pilings it stood on had deteriorated.

"We had to underpin the entire church," he said.

"The architecture and engineering that went into it is mind-boggling. People say: 'How could you spend $15 million?' We had to do all that work, otherwise it would have come down."

The pews were replaced and the exterior restored to resemble the original brownstone. Stained glass windows were brought from St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Harlem, which closed in 2003.

Mr. Doyle also restored an elaborate inscription along the top of the east wall that had been painted over in the 1960s, although there was not enough money to put the original bell back in the tower.

The parish has been merged with St. Emeric's nearby, and the parish and the church are now known as St. Brigid and St. Emeric.

"It's so gorgeous, I hardly recognize it," said Sister Theresa Gravino, who taught at St. Brigid's school from 1955 to 1959 and had not seen the church in half a century. "It was Puerto Rican and Polish children who were very poor, whose parents sacrificed a lot to send them here. There was something special here, something they felt willing to donate money to fix."

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Ariel Sharon Brain Scan Shows Response to Stimuli

JERUSALEM — A brain scan performed on Ariel Sharon, the former Israeli prime minister who had a devastating stroke seven years ago and is presumed to be in a vegetative state, revealed significant brain activity in response to external stimuli, raising the chances that he is able to hear and understand, a scientist involved in the test said Sunday.

Scientists showed Mr. Sharon, 84, pictures of his family, had him listen to a recording of the voice of one of his sons and used tactile stimulation to assess the extent of his brain's response.

"We were surprised that there was activity in the proper parts of the brain," said Prof. Alon Friedman, a neuroscientist at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and a member of the team that carried out the test. "It raises the chances that he hears and understands, but we cannot be sure. The test did not prove that."

The activity in specific regions of the brain indicated appropriate processing of the stimulations, according to a statement from Ben-Gurion University, but additional tests to assess Mr. Sharon's level of consciousness were less conclusive.

"While there were some encouraging signs, these were subtle and not as strong," the statement added.

The test was carried out last week at the Soroka University Medical Center in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba using a state-of-the-art M.R.I. machine and methods recently developed by Prof. Martin M. Monti of the University of California, Los Angeles. Professor Monti took part in the test, which lasted approximately two hours.

Mr. Sharon's son Gilad said in October 2011 that he believed that his father responded to some requests. "When he is awake, he looks at me and moves fingers when I ask him to," he said at the time, adding, "I am sure he hears me."

Professor Friedman said in a telephone interview that the test results "say nothing about the future" but may be of some help to the family and the regular medical staff caring for Mr. Sharon at a hospital outside Tel Aviv.

"There is a small chance that he is conscious but has no way of expressing it," Professor Friedman said, but he added, "We do not know to what extent he is conscious."

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Former Mayor Edward Koch Is Released From New York Hospital

Former Mayor Edward I. Koch was released from a hospital in Manhattan on Saturday, one week after he sought care for a lung ailment, a spokesman for Mr. Koch said.

As he left NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia hospital on a cold and bright day, Mr. Koch, 88, said he was feeling much better and planned to be back in his law office on Monday, according to the spokesman, Fred Winters.

It was the third time that the former mayor had been hospitalized in recent months.

Mr. Koch, who led New York for 12 years beginning in 1978 after serving in Congress and the City Council, was told to limit the amount of salt in his diet, something of a challenge for a man who said that the two staples of his diet were garlic and salt.

Nevertheless, he seemed in good spirits.

At a lunch with former aides on Jan. 19, Mr. Koch complained of swollen ankles and breathing problems. That night, a physician friend told the former mayor that he should get medical attention, and Mr. Koch headed uptown to the hospital. Tests showed he had fluid on the lungs.

Mr. Koch was last hospitalized in December, when he was treated for a lung infection. In September, he was admitted for treatment of anemia.

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French Capture Gao Airport in Move to Retake North Mali

Eric Gaillard/Reuters

Charred pickup trucks on Friday lined the road to Konna, which was overrun by rebels before the French unleashed airstrikes.

KONNA, Mali — French special forces took control of the airport in the Islamic rebel stronghold of Gao, the French government said Saturday, meeting "serious resistance" from militants even as they pressed northward.

Gao is one of three main northern cities in Mali that has been under rebel control for months, and the capture of the main strategic points in Gao represents the biggest prize yet in the battle to retake the northern half of the country.

French airstrikes have been pounding the city since France joined the fight at Mali's request on Jan. 11. French troops also took control of a bridge over the Niger River on Saturday, and the capture of the airport allowed a company of French soldiers to be airlifted in on Saturday afternoon, according to Col. Thierry Burkhard, the French military spokesman.

Another French company was on the road to Gao from Sévaré on Saturday night, and Malian and other African forces had begun to arrive, he said.

He stepped back from an earlier statement by the French Defense Ministry that declared the city freed by French forces, acknowledging that the statement was "a bit overdone." Noting Gao's 70,000 inhabitants, he added, "it's not with a detachment of special forces that you take over a city."

But with reinforcements streaming in, the battle for Gao appeared imminent.

Soldiers from Chad and Niger are expected to arrive soon, the French defense minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said in a statement. They will be part of a contingent of 1,900 African troops who have already arrived in Mali, fighting alongside the 2,500 French soldiers deployed here.

Gao's mayor, who had fled to Bamako, the capital, returned to his city on Saturday, Mr. Le Drian said.

In Washington, the Pentagon said Saturday that the United States would provide aerial refueling for French warplanes. The decision increases American involvement, which until now had consisted of transporting French troops and equipment and also providing intelligence, including satellite photographs.

Gao, 600 miles northeast of the capital, had been under the control of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, a splinter group of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

Al Jazeera broadcast a statement from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in which the group said it had withdrawn temporarily from some cities it held, but would return with greater force.

Little information has come from the other two main cities under rebel control — Timbuktu, the fabled desert oasis, and Kidal, northeast of Gao — for the past 10 days because mobile phone networks have been down.

Konna was overrun by Islamic fighters on Jan. 10, prompting France to intervene, and a clearer picture has begun to emerge of the fighting. Residents and officials here said that at least 11 civilians had been killed in French airstrikes.

Charred husks of pickup trucks lined the road into the town, and broken tanks and guns littered the fish market, where the rebels appeared to have set up a temporary base.

Because of France's sudden entry into the fray, the United Nations and the regional trade bloc known as Ecowas, the Economic Community of West African States, have been scrambling to put together an African-led intervention force that has been in the planning stages. The Mali Army, which has struggled to fight the Islamist groups, has been accused of serious human rights violations.

From Konna, it is easy to see why the Malian government pleaded for French help after the Islamist fighters took control of the town. Just 35 miles of asphalt separate Konna from the garrison town of Sévaré, home to the second-biggest airfield in Mali and a vital strategic point for any foreign intervention force.

Residents said their town fell to the rebels when 300 pickup trucks of fighters, bristling with machine guns, rolled in and pushed back the Malian Army troops who had been guarding the town after a fierce battle.

Lydia Polgreen reported from Konna, and Scott Sayare from Paris. Elisabeth Bumiller contributed reporting from Washington.

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New Hampshire Police Group Raffles Guns for a Youth Program

NEWPORT, N.H. — When the New Hampshire Association of Chiefs of Police was looking to raise money for an annual cadet training program, it sold raffle tickets for $30 apiece. The drawing was scheduled for May, but by Jan. 12 all 1,000 tickets had been sold.

The prize: 31 guns, with a new winner drawn each day of the month.

The fund-raiser, sponsored by the association in partnership with two New Hampshire gun makers, Sig Sauer and Sturm, Ruger & Company, has prompted a chorus of protests from lawmakers and gun-control advocates questioning why the police are giving away guns, even in the name of a good cause.

Some in law enforcement have also raised questions. When Chief Nicholas J. Giaccone Jr. of Hanover pulled up information about the raffle on the Internet, he said, he was flabbergasted.

"I looked at the first weapon and Googled that one," said Chief Giaccone, who recalled using an expletive when he pulled up information about the Ruger SR-556C, a semiautomatic weapon. "It's an assault rifle."

In a letter to the editor of The Eagle-Tribune, which covers southern New Hampshire, Richard J. O'Shaughnessy of Salem wrote, "People who should know better are adding to the glorification of the gun culture in this state."

And referring to the shootings last month at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, State Representative Sharon L. Nordgren, a Hanover Democrat, said, "They're just the same kind that were used in Newtown."

The Ruger that caught Chief Giaccone's attention is an AR-15-style rifle, which is the most popular style of gun in America, according to dealers, and was the type used by Adam Lanza to kill 20 children and six adults at the elementary school. Another gun in the raffle, the Sig Sauer P226 handgun, was also carried by Mr. Lanza, according to the Connecticut State Police.

"It's just ironic that that would be their choice of the kind of gun that they're raffling," Ms. Nordgren said.

Organizers of the raffle are standing firm. In a statement released this month, Chief Paul T. Donovan of Salem, the president of the association, defended the fund-raiser, saying that all winners would be required to meet all applicable rules for gun ownership.

"While this raffle falls on the heels of the recent tragedy in Newtown, Conn., the New Hampshire Association of Chiefs of Police extends their deepest sympathies to the families and first responders," Chief Donovan wrote. "New Hampshire Chiefs of Police feel the issues with these tragic shootings are ones that are contrary to lawful and responsible gun ownership."

The proceeds from the raffle go toward a cadet program involving participants ages 14 to 20 who are given instructions in various kinds of police skills and procedures. Some of them go on to pursue careers in law enforcement.

The guns will be distributed through another raffle partner, Rody's Gun Shop, a windowless outpost here in Newport, a town that comes to life when employees of Ruger, which is one of its main employers, leave work for the day.

"Around here, most people are into guns," said Michael Gaffney, an employee of a nearby hardware store who won a rifle in a raffle years ago. "You get a chance to win a free gun! It's like any raffle, very much akin to trailer raffles, snowmobile raffles or turkey raffles."

On a recent weeknight, the Rody's parking lot was filled with idling cars, their occupants waiting for the store to open at 6 o'clock. The store filled up immediately. Customers, some with their children in tow, browsed the shotguns and rifles on the walls and discussed the possibility of gun bans. While the shop's owner would not comment on the raffle, his customers were nonchalant.

"Honestly, I don't see what the big deal is — they're just talking about it because of Sandy Hook," said Lorraine Peterson of Litchfield. "I don't mean to sound insensitive. This is New Hampshire. This is a sport."

Gun raffles are business as usual here and in many other parts of the country — frequently used by hunting clubs and sometimes by athletics booster clubs to raise money and anchor galas.

"We host raffles like this all the time," said Richard Olson Jr., the president of the New Hampshire Wildlife Federation and the Londonderry Fish and Game Club. "Anybody that's speaking up is using the Newtown massacre as a pretext to poke at the issue negatively."

Mr. Olson said that he once planned a gun raffle to raise money for a fishing derby and that he was considering using one to raise money for the wildlife federation's conservation efforts on New England cottontail rabbits.

Shifting economic and political conditions have spread gun raffles to other spheres, too. Josh Harms, a Republican state representative in Illinois, intends to raffle three guns in March to raise money for his campaign treasury.

Greg Hay, a firefighter from Quincy, Ill., said his union decided last January to hold a gun raffle to replenish its accounts after a drawn-out arbitration. He said the sluggish economy had limited fund-raising from the union's annual country music concert.

"We didn't really want to have any more assessments, so we needed to start looking at better moneymakers," said Mr. Hay, who expects the union, Quincy Firefighters Local 63, to take home about $25,000 from the raffle, which started last June and awards one gun per week for a year.

The fund-raiser has been so successful that the union had planned to sponsor a second one until a recent increase in gun prices — fueled by increased demand amid fears of gun bans in the wake of the Newtown shooting — made the effort less promising.

"Maybe we'll hold off until gun prices go down and start to go back to a decent level," Mr. Hay said.

Opponents of the raffle in New Hampshire are quick to say it is not the guns they oppose, but the fact that the police are conducting it.

"I think in some respects it shows the wrong message," said State Representative Stephen Shurtleff, Democrat of Merrimack. "For law enforcement, normally they're dealing with firearms in a negative way. For that reason, it's just not an appropriate thing. We're trying to get guns off the street."

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