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It was only a few weeks into therollout of New York City’s much-heralded contact-tracing pro-gram, a vital initiative in the effortto contain the coronavirus and toreopen the local economy. But inprivate messaging channels, thenewly hired contact tracers werealready expressing growing mis-givings about their work.

One said the city was “puttingout propaganda” about the pro-gram’s effectiveness.

Another wrote, “I don’t thinkthis is the type of job we shouldjust ‘wing it,’ and that’s the senseI’ve been getting sometimes.”

A third tracer said, “The lack ofcommunication and organizationis crazy.”

The authorities around theworld — especially in East Asiaand Western Europe — have rap-

idly enacted contact-tracing pro-grams, which are used to identifyand then isolate groups of peoplewho may be infected with the co-ronavirus.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has de-

clared that the city’s new Test andTrace Corps, which has hiredabout 3,000 contact tracers, casemonitors and others, will make adifference in curbing the virusnow that the outbreak that devas-tated New York in the spring haswaned.

But contact-tracing programshave presented an array of chal-lenges to government officials ev-erywhere, including difficulties

New York City Hailed Contact-Tracing Corps; Workers Saw ChaosBy SHARON OTTERMAN

Continued on Page A6

Mayor Alters ProjectAfter a Rocky Start

TAMIR KALIFA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Covid-19 has funeral homes in South Texas fighting to keep up. Above, in Brownsville. Page A5.An Overwhelming Toll

A newly developed blood testfor Alzheimer’s has diagnosed thedisease as accurately as methodsthat are far more expensive or in-vasive, scientists reported onTuesday, a significant step towarda longtime goal for patients, doc-tors and dementia researchers.The test has the potential to makediagnosis simpler, more afford-able and widely available.

The test determined whetherpeople with dementia hadAlzheimer’s instead of anothercondition. And it identified signsof the degenerative, deadly dis-ease 20 years before memory andthinking problems were expectedin people with a genetic mutationthat causes Alzheimer’s, accord-ing to research published inJAMA and presented at theAlzheimer’s Association Interna-

tional Conference.Such a test could be available

for clinical use in as little as two tothree years, the researchers andother experts estimated, provid-ing a readily accessible way to di-agnose whether people with cog-nitive issues were experiencingAlzheimer’s, rather than anothertype of dementia that might re-quire different treatment or havea different prognosis. A blood testlike this might also eventually beused to predict whether someonewith no symptoms would develop

Blood Test Is ‘Big Step Forward’In Early Detection of Alzheimer’s

By PAM BELLUCK

Continued on Page A20

Giving Accurate ResultsWith Low-Cost Tools,

a Longtime Goal

WASHINGTON — From theearliest days of the recent pro-tests against police brutality andracism, some top federal law en-forcement officials viewed thedemonstrators with alarm andcalled for an aggressive federalresponse that two months latercontinues to escalate.

A memo from the deputy direc-tor of the F.B.I., dated June 2, de-manded an immediate mobiliza-tion as protests gathered afterGeorge Floyd’s death while in po-lice custody a week earlier. DavidL. Bowdich, the F.B.I.’s No. 2, de-clared the situation “a national cri-sis,” and wrote that in addition toinvestigating “violent protesters,instigators” and “inciters,” bureauleaders should collect informationwith “robust social media ex-ploitation teams” and examinewhat appeared to be “highly orga-nized behavior.”

Mr. Bowdich suggested that thebureau could make use of theHobbs Act, put into place in the1940s to punish racketeering in la-bor groups, to charge the pro-testers.

“When 9/11 occurred, our folksdid not quibble about whetherthere was danger ahead for them,”he wrote, telling aides that thecontinuing coronavirus pandemicshould not hold them back. “Theyran head-on into peril.”

The memo came after a week-end in which protests gave way tolooting in some cities and the dayafter federal agents forciblycleared peaceful protesters fromthe White House so PresidentTrump could walk through La-fayette Square. Since then, thefederal response has become a fo-cal point of the Trump administra-tion and of Mr. Trump’s re-electioncampaign. The Bowdich memo

At Start, F.B.I. Saw ProtestersAs Threatening

Memo Talks of ‘Inciters’and ‘Instigators’

This article is by Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Sergio Olmos, Mike Bakerand Adam Goldman.

Federal agents outside a courthouse in Portland, Ore., on Tuesday.MASON TRINCA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Attorney General William P. Barr defended the government’s protest response on Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee.POOL PHOTO BY CHIP SOMODEVILLA

Continued on Page A14

Attorney General William P.Barr vigorously defended the fed-eral response to nationwide pro-tests and civil unrest in a combat-ive congressional hearing onTuesday where Democrats ac-cused him and other Trump ad-ministration officials of suppress-ing protesters’ rights in an overlyviolent crackdown.

The attorney general also in-sisted that he intervened in thecriminal cases of PresidentTrump’s allies Roger J. Stone Jr.and Michael T. Flynn to uphold therule of law, not to do Mr. Trump’sbidding.

Mr. Barr’s defenses punctuatedan outright hostile election-sea-son oversight hearing before theHouse Judiciary Committee.Democrats tried to portray him asa dangerous errand boy for thepresident. But Mr. Barr insistedhe was trying to enforce the lawagainst what he characterized asrioters using demonstrations ascover to commit crimes. He alsosaid of the criminal cases thatgrew out of the Russia investiga-tion that he wanted to be fair toMr. Trump’s former advisers.

“The president’s friends don’tdeserve special breaks, but theyalso don’t deserve to be treatedmore harshly than other people,”he said. “And sometimes that’s adifficult decision to make, espe-cially when you know you’re goingto be castigated for it.”

The five-hour hearing, Mr.Barr’s first on Capitol Hill in morethan a year, grew increasinglyheated as Democrats spoke overhis attempts to respond to their

UNDER FIRE, BARRDEFENDS ACTIONSAGAINST PROTESTS

HEARING TURNS HOSTILE

House Democrats AccuseAttorney General of

Abusing Power

By NICHOLAS FANDOSand CHARLIE SAVAGE

Continued on Page A15

WASHINGTON — The MarbleCollegiate Church on Fifth Ave-nue in Manhattan was packedwith developers, politicians andNew York celebrities, more than600 in all, for the funeral of Fred C.Trump, the builder whose no-frillsbrick rental towers transformedBrooklyn and Queens.

Three of his four living children,who had grown up listening to thesermons of the church’s most fa-mous minister, Norman VincentPeale, offered loving eulogies totheir father. Then it was DonaldTrump’s turn.

He began by talking about him-self.

He had learned of his father’s

death, he told the crowd that dayin June 1999, just moments afterreading a front-page New YorkTimes article about his biggest de-velopment to date, Trump Place.

“Donald started his eulogy bysaying, ‘I was having the greatestyear of my business career, and Iwas sitting having breakfastthinking of how well things weregoing for me,’” when he learned ofhis father’s death, said Alan Mar-cus, a former public-relations con-

sultant for the Trump Organiza-tion. “Donald’s eulogy was allabout Donald, and everybody inVincent Peale’s church knew it.”

Gwenda Blair, a Trump familybiographer, also attended the fu-neral. She, too, could not help buttake note of the eulogy, which shedescribed in her book “TheTrumps.”

“Was it surprising?” Ms. Blairsaid in an interview. “No. Was itstunning? Yes.”

Whether he is dealing with theloss of a family member, thedeaths of nearly 150,000 Ameri-cans in a surging pandemic, morethan 30 million people out of workor the racial unrest brought on bythe killings of African-Americansby white police officers, President

Trump Family Legacy: Empathy Is for the WeakBy ANNIE KARNI

and KATIE ROGERS

Continued on Page A18

Nation’s Crises Are MetWith an Inability to

Feel Others’ Pain

WILMINGTON, Del. — JosephR. Biden Jr. unveiled wide-rang-ing plans on Tuesday to addresssystemic racism in the nation’seconomy, saying this year’s elec-tion was about “understandingpeople’s struggles” and pledgingto tear down barriers for minor-ity-owned businesses.

In an address near his home inWilmington, Mr. Biden made theargument that racial justice iscentral to his overall policy visionin areas like housing, infrastruc-ture and support for small busi-nesses, while aiming to draw astark contrast with a presidentwho has regularly inflamed racialtensions.

“This election is not just aboutvoting against Donald Trump,”Mr. Biden said, standing beforefour American flags in a commu-nity center gym. “It’s about risingto this moment of crisis, under-standing people’s struggles andbuilding a future worthy of theircourage and their ambition toovercome.”

Mr. Biden’s plan is the fourthpiece of his “Build Back Better”proposal, an economic agendathat also encompasses manufac-turing, climate and infrastructure,and caregiving plans, and takesaim at Mr. Trump’s stewardship ofthe economy and his impact onworking families, a potential vul-nerability that has emerged dur-ing the coronavirus crisis.

The speech on Tuesday camewith just under 100 days untilElection Day, amid a searing na-tional debate over racism inAmerican society. Mr. Biden con-tinues to hold a substantial lead

Biden Marries Racial EquityTo a Recovery

By THOMAS KAPLANand KATIE GLUECK

Continued on Page A19

Netflix garnered 160 nominations, arecord, while HBO’s “Watchmen,”above, received 26; Disney+ and AppleTV+ got their first nods. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-6

Emmy Nominees AnnouncedAlong with charred scallions andcreamy raw pistachios, use cherries tobuild a savory salad. PAGE D3

FOOD D1-8

Cherry Pie, Step AsideA White House push to finish the countearly could disproportionately omit thepoor and people of color. PAGE A21

NATIONAL A12-21

Fears of a Botched Census

The leaders of Amazon, Apple, Face-book and Google will appear togetherbefore Congress for the first time tojustify their business practices. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-7

Tech’s ‘Big Tobacco Moment’Within hours, social media companiespulled the film filled with misleadingvirus claims. By then, it had beenviewed tens of millions of times. PAGE A5

TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-7

Trumps Promote False Video

The Miami Marlins now have 17 con-firmed virus cases. The situation hasaffected the schedules of several otherMajor League Baseball teams. PAGE B8

SPORTSWEDNESDAY B8-10

An Outbreak Chain Reaction

Emily Oster PAGE A23

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23A backyard grill can easily produce thespicy, smoky slabs that for many arebarbecue’s ultimate prize. PAGE D1

Six Steps to Great RibsThe House passed a bill to create aNational Museum of the AmericanLatino on the National Mall. PAGE A13

Latino Museum Clears Hurdle

The technique, which can make one testas powerful as five, is especially usefulwhen the infection rate is low. PAGE A7

Benefits of Pooled Testing

A former prime minister was sentencedto 12 years in prison, but some doubtthe conviction will stick. PAGE A8

INTERNATIONAL A8-11

Guilty of Graft in Malaysia

VOL. CLXIX . . . No. 58,769 © 2020 The New York Times Company WEDNESDAY, JULY 29, 2020 Printed in Chicago $3.00

Sunshine and clouds. Showers orthunderstorms. Highs mostly in the80s. Partly cloudy tonight. Eveningshowers. Lows in the 60s to thelower 70s. Weather map, Page A17.

National Edition