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An oral history of Bed Bath & Beyond’splus-size mailer, known as Big Blue,which has made it to TV, eBay, even amobster’s kitchen drawer. PAGE 1

SUNDAY BUSINESS

The World’s Biggest CouponViola Davis and members of the cre-ative team discuss what it took to adaptAugust Wilson’s play “Ma Rainey’sBlack Bottom” for Netflix. PAGE 6

ARTS & LEISURE

Chadwick Boseman’s Last BowA ceramic Nativity scene at the Vatican,complete with a torpedo-shaped Josephand Mary, has prompted both criticismand head-scratching. PAGE 12

INTERNATIONAL 12-18

Not Your Average Manger BJ Miller PAGE 4SUNDAY REVIEW

CHICOPEE, Mass. — The tenants inthe third-floor apartment had 30 minutesto leave.

Deputies from the Hampden CountySheriff’s Department — in black uni-forms, with bulletproof vests and goldstar badges — had climbed the backstairs with an eviction notice.

The tenants — 22 and 23, in matchingTommy Hilfiger sweatshirts and Crocs— were exhausted and dazed. They hadstuffed some of their possessions intotrash bags and suitcases, but much ofwhat they owned would be left behind, inmounds on the floor.

“I’m sorry it’s so messy,” said one ofthe women. In those last moments beforebecoming homeless, she stood at thesink, carefully washing out the baby bot-tles they used to feed their puppy.

As they stepped back to give the wom-en room, the officers talked among them-selves, considering what it means toevict tenants in December 2020. Theyfelt uneasy about it.

“I really don’t think people should bedisplaced, certainly during a pandemic,”said one of the officers, Lt. Michael Gold-berg. “Five months ago we stopped evic-

tenants.The coronavirus struck in a country al-

ready chronically short of affordablehousing. Now, after a summer of cata-strophic job loss, 6.7 million adults arelikely to face eviction or foreclosure inthe next two months, according to theCensus Bureau’s Household Pulse Sur-vey.

But evictions are resuming under un-precedented scrutiny. If displacinghouseholds was considered unsafe inSeptember, when contagion rates werelower than they are now, is it an accept-able risk at this point? Won’t the virusjust spread faster if evicted tenants endup in shelters?

One person grappling with these ques-tions is Nicholas Cocchi, the sheriff ofHampden County, in western Massachu-setts.

Sheriff Cocchi, who has the gleamingscalp and tree-trunk neck of a central-casting lawman, presides over Spring-field, a city where nearly 27 percent ofthe population lives below the povertyline. His predecessor was a former socialworker, and Sheriff Cocchi has carried onthat progressive tradition, branching out

tions because of what was going on in theworld, and now we’re moving forwardwith evictions, when it’s still going on, ifnot worse.”

With a federal moratorium set to lapseon Dec. 31, America’s vast eviction ma-chine is gradually coming back online, al-lowing landlords to get rid of nonpaying

A deputy in Sheriff Nicholas Cocchi’s department in Hampden County, Mass., placing a notice to quit in an apartment door.BRYAN ANSELM FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

When It’s Time for the Tenants to GoAs Evictions Resume, a Massachusetts Sheriff Tries to Soften the Blow

Sheriff Cocchi has worried about re-suming evictions, seeking ways tomake them “respectful and humane.”

JILLIAN FREYER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page 6

By ELLEN BARRY

WASHINGTON — The Trumpadministration is rushing to ap-prove a final wave of large-scalemining and energy projects onfederal lands, encouraged by in-vestors who want to try to ensurethe projects move ahead even af-ter President-elect Joseph R. Bi-den Jr. takes office.

In Arizona, the Forest Service ispreparing to sign off on the trans-fer of federal forest land — consid-ered sacred by a neighboring Na-tive American tribe — to allowconstruction of one of the nation’slargest copper mines.

In Utah, the Interior Depart-ment may grant final approval assoon as this week to a team of en-ergy speculators targeting a re-mote spot inside an iconic nationalwilderness area — where new en-ergy leasing is currently banned— so they can start drilling intowhat they believe is a huge under-ground supply of helium.

In northern Nevada, the depart-ment is close to granting final ap-proval to construct a sprawlingopen-pit lithium mine on federalland that sits above a prehistoricvolcano site.

And in the East, the ForestService intends to take a key stepnext month toward allowing a nat-ural gas pipeline to be builtthrough the Jefferson NationalForest in Virginia and West Vir-ginia, at one point running under-neath the Appalachian Trail.

These projects, and othersawaiting action in the remaining

TRUMP UNLOCKSFEDERAL LANDSIN A FINAL RUSH

FOR ENERGY AND MINING

Projects Facing ProtestsFrom Environmental

and Tribal Groups

By ERIC LIPTON

Continued on Page 22

WASHINGTON — His eco-nomic and environment teams area little left of center. His foreignpolicy picks fall squarely in theDemocratic Party’s mainstream.His top White House aides areWashington veterans.

Taken together, the picture thatemerges from President-elect Jo-seph R. Biden Jr.’s personnelchoices is a familiar, pragmaticand largely centrist one.

That fits with the implicit dealthe former vice president and sen-ator offered Democrats during the2020 primaries — that he was nei-ther as progressive as SenatorsBernie Sanders of Vermont andElizabeth Warren of Massachu-setts, nor a product of Wall Streetlike Republican-turned-DemocratMichael Bloomberg.

Still a work in progress, Mr. Bi-den’s cabinet is designed to be anextension of his own ideology,rooted in long-held DemocraticParty principles but with a great-er focus on the plight of working-class Americans, a new sense ofurgency about climate changeand a deeper empathy about theissues of racial justice that he hassaid persuaded him to run for thepresidency a third time.

His nominees are a reflection ofthe image that his campaign con-veyed and that powered his defeatof President Trump. They are di-verse in ways that appeal to liber-als, young voters and people ofcolor. And they are moderate likethe swing voters who helped himwin in states like Wisconsin, Penn-sylvania and Michigan.

“That’s him,” said Bill Daley,who was a White House chief ofstaff for President Barack Obama.“That’s his whole campaign.”

For his cabinet, Mr. Obama as-sembled outsize personalities likeSecretary of State Hillary Clintonand Robert M. Gates, the defensesecretary who was a holdoverfrom the George W. Bush adminis-tration.

Mr. Biden’s cabinet so far has noone likely to draw the same kind ofhigh-octane attention. His choiceshave decades of quiet, behind-the-scenes policymaking experience,matching Mr. Biden’s pledge to re-turn basic competence to the gov-ernment after four years of Mr.

On Philosophy,Biden CabinetLeans Centrist

Picks Have Left SomeLiberals Frustrated

By MICHAEL D. SHEARand MICHAEL CROWLEY

Continued on Page 24

In the early hours of Feb. 7, Chi-na’s powerful internet censors ex-perienced an unfamiliar anddeeply unsettling sensation. Theyfelt they were losing control.

The news was spreadingquickly that Li Wenliang, a doctorwho had warned about a strangenew viral outbreak only to bethreatened by the police and ac-cused of peddling rumors, haddied of Covid-19. Grief and furycoursed through social media. Topeople at home and abroad, Dr.Li’s death showed the terrible costof the Chinese government’s in-stinct to suppress inconvenient in-formation.

Yet China’s censors decided todouble down. Warning of the “un-precedented challenge” Dr. Li’spassing had posed and the “but-terfly effect” it may have set off,

officials got to work suppressingthe inconvenient news and re-claiming the narrative, accordingto confidential directives sent tolocal propaganda workers andnews outlets.

They ordered news websitesnot to issue push notificationsalerting readers to his death. Theytold social platforms to graduallyremove his name from trendingtopics pages. And they activatedlegions of fake online commentersto flood social sites with distract-ing chatter, stressing the need fordiscretion: “As commenters fightto guide public opinion, they mustconceal their identity, avoid crudepatriotism and sarcastic praise,

‘Be Sleek and Silent’: How ChinaCensored Bad News About Covid

This article is by Raymond Zhong,Paul Mozur, Jeff Kao and AaronKrolik.

Continued on Page 14

Hours after Secretary of StateMike Pompeo told a conservativeradio show host that “we can saypretty clearly that it was the Rus-sians” behind the vast hack of thefederal government and Ameri-can industry, he was contradictedon Saturday by President Trump,who sought to muddy the intelli-gence findings by raising the pos-sibility that China was responsi-ble.

Defying the conclusions of ex-perts inside and outside the gov-ernment who say the attack was acybersecurity breach on a scaleWashington has never experi-enced, Mr. Trump also playeddown the severity of the hack, say-ing “everything is well under con-trol,” insisting that the news me-dia has exaggerated the damageand suggesting, with no evidence,that the real issue was whetherthe election results had been com-promised.

“There could also have been ahit on our ridiculous voting ma-chines during the election,” hewrote on Twitter in his latest itera-tion of that unfounded conspiracytheory. He tagged Mr. Pompeo,the latest cabinet member to an-ger him, in his Twitter post.

With 30 days left in office, Mr.Trump’s dismissive statements

Trump ShiftsHack Blame

From RussiaBy DAVID E. SANGER

and NICOLE PERLROTH

Continued on Page 28

DIEGO IBARRA SANCHEZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

An inquiry into a deadly blast that shook Lebanon’s capital has become mired in politics. Page 18.Rebuilding in BeirutLONDON LOCKDOWN A rampantstrain of the virus has prompted

severe restrictions. PAGE 10

Ohio State lurched to the Big Ten titleand Clemson pummeled Notre Dame,further jumbling the virus-plaguedCollege Football Playoff. PAGE 34

SPORTS 32-35

A Messy Season Nears Its End

Late Edition

VOL. CLXX . . . No. 58,913 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2020

Today, mostly cloudy, passing show-ers, high 37. Tonight, rain or snowshowers, cloudy, low 33. Tomorrow,clouds and sunshine, high 40.Weather map appears on Page 26.

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