Oct 25, 2013 ... change the dynamics of the race, given the wide lead of the .... and JACKIE
CALMES. WASHINGTON ... By MARY PILON. By this time of year, ...
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Late Edition Today, partly sunny, breezy, cool, high 54. Tonight, clear to partly cloudy, chilly, low 42. Tomorrow, sun and clouds, quite breezy, high 56. Weather map is on Page B10.
VOL. CLXIII . . . No. 56,300
$2.50
NEW YORK, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2013
© 2013 The New York Times
F.D.A. Urging COURT LIFTS LIMIT A Tighter Rein ON CONTRIBUTING On Painkillers
TO PRO-LHOTA PAC
Move Aimed at Abuse of Common Narcotic IMPACT BEYOND ’13 RACE By BARRY MEIER
ANDREA BRUCE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Long lines form outside the shrinking number of government bakeries operating in Damascus, Syria, where inflation is soaring.
Capital Career Hardships Mounting for Refugees Inside Syria and according to Save the Chil- crees saying it is religiously perTwitters Out dren a fifth of Syrian families go missible. By ANNE BARNARD
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER and JACKIE CALMES
WASHINGTON — Until his Twitter adventures under the handle @NatSecWonk ended his career this week, Jofi Joseph embodied all the elements of a Washington cliché, down to the security card around his neck. His degree in foreign service was earned at Georgetown, which propelled him to his first job as an analyst in the Congressional Budget Office, the ultimately anonymous D.C. gig. A Harry S. Truman and Rotary International scholar, he clocked his time on Capitol Hill, working for both Senator Bob Casey, the Democrat from Pennsylvania, and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Then he was off to the executive branch, where he found a perch at the State Department before moving to the White House as a junior staff member on loan to the National Security Council, buried in the deepest weeds of nuclear proliferation. He liked cycling: check. He Continued on Page A16
DAMASCUS, Syria — Some five million Syrians are now refugees in their own country, many living hand-to-mouth in vacant buildings, schools, mosques, parks and the cramped homes of relatives. Others are trapped in neighborhoods isolated by military blockades, beyond the reach of aid groups. Already desperately short of food and medicine as winter closes in, they could begin to succumb in greater numbers to hunger and exposure, aid workers say. The long civil war has forced two million Syrians outside the country‘s borders, but more than twice that number face mounting privations at home, and the toll keeps rising. The deepening humanitarian crisis threatens to set the country’s development back decades and dwarfs any aid effort that could conceivably be carried out while the conflict continues, aid workers and analysts say. The cost of replacing damaged homes and infrastructure alone is estimated at more than $30 billion, and the ruin mounts daily. More than half of the country’s hospitals are destroyed or closed,
without food one week a month. Syria’s economy has shrunk by half. Even in relatively safe areas, a closer look at bustling streets reveals the displaced spilling from every corner. Thousands of people live in the gyms and hallways of a sports complex turned staterun shelter in the coastal city of Latakia. In the capital, Damascus, newcomers crowd ramshackle hotels, half-finished buildings, offices and storefronts. Long lines form outside the shrinking number of government bakeries still operating. In some of the suburbs, people have confessed to eating dogs and cats, and imams have even issued de-
Outside the Umayyad Mosque in the heart of old Damascus, Nasreen, 25, cradled her baby in her lap one recent evening. She and her siblings, husband and parents, who declined to give their family name for fear of reprisals, were cramped into a single room nearby, having fled the suburb of Daraya after their home was damaged. With rising rent depleting their savings, and the shop they relied on for income now sealed off behind a government blockade, they accept occasional handouts from neighborhood organizations. But what weighs on them most are thoughts of the future: Continued on Page A8
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday recommended tighter controls on how doctors prescribe the most commonly used narcotic painkillers, changes that are expected to take place as early as next year. The move, which represents a major policy shift, follows a decade-long debate over whether the widely abused drugs, which contain the narcotic hydrocodone, should be controlled as tightly as more powerful painkillers like OxyContin. The drugs at issue contain a combination of hydrocodone and an over-the-counter painkiller like acetaminophen or aspirin and are sold either as generics or under brand names like Vicodin or Lortab. Doctors use the medications to treat pain from injuries, arthritis, dental extractions and other problems. The change would reduce the number of refills patients could get before going back to see their doctor. Patients would also be required to take a prescription to a pharmacy, rather than have a doctor call it in. Prescription drugs account for about three-quarters of all drug overdose deaths in the United States, with the number of deaths from narcotic painkillers, or opioids, quadrupling since 1999, according to federal data. Drugs containing hydrocodone represent a huge share — about 70 percent — of all opioid prescriptions, and the looser rules governing them, some experts say, have contributed to their abuse. Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the agency’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said she expected the new regulations Continued on Page A3
State’s Donation Cap for Independent Groups Is in Jeopardy By THOMAS KAPLAN
It looks as though the “super PAC” era is coming to New York. A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled that a conservative group supporting Joseph J. Lhota, the Republican nominee for mayor of New York City, can immediately begin accepting contributions of any size because New York State’s limit on donations to independent political committees is probably unconstitutional. The ruling, 12 days before the mayoral election, is not likely to change the dynamics of the race, given the wide lead of the Democratic candidate, Bill de Blasio, and a presumed reluctance by many potential big donors to donate to an underdog candidate this late in the game. But an end to limits on contributions to independent political groups could have a much bigger impact next year, when voters will decide whether to re-elect Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat, and will determine which party controls the State Senate — a long-running battle in which independent spending could make a significant difference. “This could usher in an era where super PACs call the shots in campaigns all over the state, not just in the city,” said David Donnelly, the executive director of the Public Campaign Action Fund, which advocates public financing of elections. Mr. Donnelly called the lawsuit Continued on Page A3
In the Skakel Case, 2 Women On 2 Sides in an Endless Vigil JACK MANNING/THE NEW YORK TIMES
By WINNIE HU
For more than a decade, they have driven themselves to court hearings, sat a few feet apart through countless hours of harrowing testimony, and exchanged cordial greetings, if not quite warm ones. Dorthy Moxley comes for her daughter, Martha Moxley, who was just 15 in 1975 when she was beaten to death with a golf club outside their home in Greenwich, Conn., in a sensational murder case that captivated the public with its trappings of wealth and dysfunction. Ann Skakel McCooey comes for Michael C. Skakel, the man who was convicted of the killing.
He is her nephew — her brother’s son — whom she remembered fondly as a skinny boy with an infectious laugh and whom she grew to love as one of her own as she opened her home to him, then began visiting him in prison on a regular basis and became, with his parents gone, his staunchest defender. These two mothers once lived in the same town, came from similar privilege, and could easily have been friends under different circumstances. Instead, they have spent years holding parallel vigils over the case, and after a Continued on Page A24
NATIONAL A14-19
Portal’s Designers Take Heat Days before the government’s health care Web site went live, executives from the private companies that designed it were raving about its prospects. Above, a grilling of those involved at a CongresPAGE A14 sional hearing.
Anthony Caro, Who Took Sculpture Off Its Pedestal, Dies at 89 The artist on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s roof in 1988 for installation of “After Olympia,” his 15-ton sculpture. Page A25.
Hitting the Wall: For Marathon Charities, Numbers Are Slowing By MARY PILON
By this time of year, the height of fall marathon season, the e-mails have long piled up: marathon aspirants seeking charitable donations from family and friends to help them secure a spot in a particular race. On race days, charity logos on runners’ gear
INTERNATIONAL A4-12
SPORTS FRIDAY B10-15
Choice for Obama on Spying
Cardinals Even Series
Germany’s angry accusation that the National Security Agency monitored Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone may force President Obama into a PAGE A10 choice he has long avoided.
David Ortiz of the Red Sox hit another home run, but St. Louis took advantage of an error and rallied to beat Boston, 4-2, tying the World Series at one game PAGE B11 each.
BUSINESS DAY B1-9
WEEKEND C1-30
Twitter Is Cautious on I.P.O.
A Byzantine Treasure Show
The social media company is approaching its initial public offering cautiously, seeking to raise about $1.3 billion. All told, Twitter is projected to have a value PAGE B1 of $10 billion or more.
“Heaven and Earth: Art of Byzantium From Greek Collections,” at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, depicts centuries of iconography.
NEW YORK A20-24
Due Process and Guantánamo A Race Notable for Negativity
have become as ubiquitous as mile markers, an integral part of an event’s feel-good message of fitness and philanthropy. But some race and nonprofit organizers are worried that after years of booming, the charityrunning industry may be wheezing like a runner at Mile 25. Consider YAI, a nonprofit focused on helping those with de-
The bitter tone of the race continued as the candidates for Virginia governor met to debate. PAGE A17
A federal appeals panel ruled that the government’s long detention of a terrorism suspect did not deprive him of his PAGE A21 right to a speedy trial.
Fines for Masking Donations
Met’s Admission Fee, in Writing
A secretive group with ties to the billionaire Koch brothers admits campaign finance violations in California. PAGE A19
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s lease now spells out that it can charge a suggested admission fee. PAGE A20
PAGE C21
EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27
Paul Krugman
PAGE A27
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velopmental disabilities that raised nearly $113,000 tied to the New York City Marathon last year with more than 30 runners registered. This year, despite the group’s repeated outreach through Facebook and community recruitment events, only $16,000 has been raised and a mere five runners will wear bibs for the organization.
“It’s been a tough year, to say the least,” said Alyssa Franklin, YAI’s manager of individual giving and donor communications. She added, “I’m worried we could actually lose money this year.” The fund-raising juggernaut Team in Training has 432 runners in the New York City Marathon, Continued on Page B13
