C M Y K Nxxx,2021-11-07,A,001,Bs-4C,E2

U(D547FD)v+&!,!_!$!=Binyamin Appelbaum PAGE 6

SUNDAY REVIEW

“Attached,” which was published in2010, analyzes relationship styles andhas people firmly in its grip. PAGE 12

SUNDAY STYLES

Dating, by the Book

An Atlanta district attorney is movingto call a special grand jury in her crimi-nal investigation of election interfer-ence by the former president. PAGE 14

NATIONAL 13-25

Grand Jury Looms for Trump

The boldest experiment in democracythe world has ever seen could use afew new bold ideas. We’ve got some.

SPECIAL SECTION

Snap Out of It, America!

What the film season holds, includingBenedict Cumberbatch as a tough-guyrancher and Meryl Streep as president.

ARTS & LEISURE

Holiday Movies

Boston set a goal for a racially diverseconstruction work force. But its bench-marks have proved difficult to meet.Are unions for the building trades stillthe main impediment? PAGE 1

SUNDAY BUSINESS

Who Gets to Rebuild the U.S.?

NFT.NYC, a conference that attracted5,000 enthusiasts of nonfungible tokens(with a waiting list of 3,000), offered ataste of what a cryptocurrency-filledfuture might have to offer. PAGE 1

The Metaverse in Manhattan

The Indigenous Enterprise troupe caresabout tradition, but also embraces thefootwork and attitude of hip-hop. PAGE 8

A New Kind of Tribal DancePrairie View A&M, a historically Blackuniversity, is warily buoyant over adonation of $50 million. PAGE 1

A Big Gift Energizes a Campus

An artist and an innkeeper have en-listed the help of a burro in an effort torescue the ancient traditions of Spain’spilgrimage route, Camino de Santiago,from mass tourism (and selfies). PAGE 4

INTERNATIONAL 4-12

On the Camino, With Donkey

Americans are, by many meas-ures, in a better financial positionthan they have been in manyyears. They also believe the econ-omy is in terrible shape.

This is the great contradictionthat underlies President Biden’spoor approval ratings, recent Re-publican victories in state elec-tions and the touch-and-go negoti-ations over the Biden legislativeagenda. It presents a fundamentalchallenge for economic policy,which has succeeded at lifting thewealth, incomes and job prospectsof millions of people — but has notmade Americans, in their ownself-perception, any better off.

Workers have seized the upperhand in the labor market, attain-ing the largest raises in decadesand quitting their jobs at recordrates. The unemployment rate is4.6 percent and has been fallingrapidly. Cumulatively, Americansare sitting on piles of cash; theyhave $2.3 trillion more in savingsin the last 19 months than would

have been expected in the prepan-demic path. The median house-hold’s checking account balancewas 50 percent higher in July ofthis year than in 2019, according tothe JPMorgan Chase Institute.

Yet workers’ assessment of theeconomy is scathing.

In a Gallup poll in October, 68percent of respondents said theythought economic conditions

America’s Economy Is Strong,Even if It Doesn’t Feel That Way

By NEIL IRWIN

Jobs are available, but infla-tion is making people uneasy.

KENDRICK BRINSON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page 18

WASHINGTON — Anothershowdown day over President Bi-den’s ambitious domestic agendadawned Friday full of optimism,even after the drubbing that Dem-ocrats took in the off-year elec-tions on Tuesday. But by after-noon, lawmakers again seemedstuck when leaders of the Con-gressional Black Caucus enteredSpeaker Nancy Pelosi’s office.

Seeking to bridge the gap be-tween a resolute clutch of balkingDemocratic moderates and amuch larger group of liberals de-manding that the president’s $1trillion infrastructure plan onlypass concurrently with his $1.85trillion social welfare and climatechange bill, the Black lawmakersproposed a plan that initiallyseemed far too timid and convo-luted: pass the infrastructure billimmediately, then hold a good-faith procedural vote on the largerbill that would have to suffice be-fore its final vote in mid-Novem-ber.

Ms. Pelosi agreed to the dealand then, tellingly, sent the low-key chairwoman of the Black Cau-cus, Representative Joyce Beattyof Ohio, out to waiting reporters totell the world. In effect, thespeaker had harnessed one fac-tion of her unruly Democrats towin over two others, and she un-derstood that the soft-spoken Afri-can American lawmaker mighthave had more influence at thatpoint than she did.

Nine hours later, at 11:20 p.m.,House Democrats, with help froma few Republicans, sent to Mr. Bi-den the largest public works billsince President Dwight D. Eisen-hower created the Interstate Sys-tem. They also took a major steptoward approving a stalled sweep-ing social safety net measure, pro-

HOW BILL TO FIX INFRASTRUCTURE SURVIVED BRAWL

PRESIDENT HAILS A WIN

Black Caucus Opens Pathfor Factions to Agree

on $1 Trillion Plan

By JONATHAN WEISMANand CARL HULSE

Continued on Page 19

HOT SPRINGS, Va. — The in-creasingly liberal politics of Vir-ginia had been a sore spot for resi-dents of this conservative town of499 people nestled in the Alleghe-ny Mountains. But this past week,as Republicans stormed tomarquee victories powered inpart by turnout in rural areas likeBath County, local voters cheered.

“We got our Virginia back,” saidElaine Neff, a 61-year-old resi-dent. “And we haven’t had a win ina long time.”

Ms. Neff said she cried from amix of happiness and relief afterthe election. She does not want totake the coronavirus vaccine andbelieves Glenn Youngkin, the win-ning Republican candidate forgovernor, will relax state man-dates. Outside a nearby grocerystore, Charles Hamilton tauntedthe Democrats.

“We’re a county of old countryfolk who want to do what theywant,” said Mr. Hamilton, 74.“They found out the hard way.”

In the jigsaw puzzle that is elec-toral politics, Democrats have of-ten focused their energy onswingy suburbs and voter-richcities, content to mostly ignoremany white, rural communitiesthat lean conservative. The beliefwas, in part, that the party had al-ready bottomed out there, espe-cially during the Trump era, whenRepublicans had run up the num-bers of white voters in rural areasto dizzying new heights.

Virginia, however, is proof: Itcan get worse.

In 2008, there were only foursmall Virginia counties where Re-publicans won 70 percent or moreof the vote in that year’s presiden-tial race. Nowhere was the partyabove 75 percent. This year, Mr.Youngkin was above 70 percent in45 counties — and he surpassed80 percent in 15 of them.

“Look at some of those ruralcounties in Virginia as a wake-upcall,” said Steve Bullock, the Dem-ocratic former governor of Mon-tana who made a long-shot 2020presidential run, partly on a mes-sage that his party needed to com-pete in more conservative parts ofthe country. “Folks don’t feel likewe’re offering them anything, orhearing or listening to them.”

Mr. Youngkin not only won lesspopulated areas by record mar-gins — he was outpacing former

In Rural Areas,Prospects SinkFor Democrats

Bottom May Be ‘Zero’ Among White Voters

By ASTEAD W. HERNDONand SHANE GOLDMACHER

Continued on Page 25

RINCÓN, P.R. — The turtle, pre-sumably, had no way of knowing itwould become a symbol of protestthis summer when it got stuck forhours in a construction site on abeach in western Puerto Rico, un-able to return to the sea.

But the endangered hawksbillhad wandered onto the site of aswimming pool being built soclose to the ocean’s edge that aswimmer could practically step

from the pool into the waves. Aphoto of the struggling turtle, itsfront flippers digging out of thesand, spoke emphatically forPuerto Ricans alarmed at what ishappening to their beloved coast.

Erosion and overdevelopmentthreaten Puerto Rico’s beautifulbeaches. On an island that hasstruggled with bankruptcy, crum-bling infrastructure and the emi-gration of a substantial part of itspopulation, the pristine sand andabundant wildlife that have madePuerto Rico’s beaches famous

around the world are both a pointof pride and an important tourismdraw.

Concerns over their future aredecades old but have been exacer-bated in recent years by climatechange, hurricanes and a frenzy ofbuilding and rebuilding that is re-shaping the island’s oceanfront.Gone, many Puerto Ricans fear,will be the last modest familyhomes and uncrowded stretchesof habitat for hawksbill andleatherbacks. In their stead: lux-

Can a Lone Turtle Save Puerto Rico’s Beaches?By PATRICIA MAZZEI

Continued on Page 14

JOHNNY MILANO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Two reporters take a spin on the sprawling, new 750-mile Empire State Trail. Metropolitan, Page 1.

Crossing New York on Two Wheels

PHENIX CITY, Ala. — On a Sunday inMay 2017, a patrol car sat outside the city’soldest public housing project, waiting foranyone acting suspiciously. The two policeofficers heard Cedric Mifflin before theysaw him, blasting music from a silver Mer-cury Grand Marquis. Then they tried to pullhim over: He wasn’t wearing a seatbelt.

Mr. Mifflin, a 27-year-old Black man, keptdriving. What happened next is disputed,but how it ended is certain. Officer MichaelSeavers leapt out of the patrol car, drew hisgun and fired 16 times at the moving car. Hethought Mr. Mifflin intended to run himover, he said later.

“I had never felt the fear that I had at thatmoment,” Officer Seavers, who is white,

told investigators in a statement. He said hethought of what a vehicle can do “to a hu-man body and how I would die if I didn’t re-act.”

The officer’s defense of killing Mr. Mifflin,who wielded neither a gun nor a knife, is onerepeated over and over across the country:The vehicle was a weapon. In a New YorkTimes investigation of car stops that leftmore than 400 similarly unarmed peopledead over the last five years, those wordswere routinely used to explain why policeofficers had fired at drivers.

When asked in a deposition whether aman he had fatally shot in 2017 had used aweapon, an officer in Forest Park, Ill., an-swered, “Other than a moving vehicle, no.”

Minutes after sheriff’s deputies near SanLeandro, Calif., killed a shoplifting suspect

and injured a passenger in an S.U.V. in early2019, an officer asked what weapons theyhad been armed with. “A vehicle,” one depu-ty replied.

And a lawyer for a sheriff’s deputy whoshot a driver in Wichita, Kan., in late 2019said the motorist had used “a 4,500-poundvehicle as a weapon.”

In about 250 of the 400 seemingly avoid-able deaths, The Times found that police of-ficers had fired into vehicles that they laterclaimed posed such a threat. Relative to thepopulation, Black motorists were overrep-resented among those killed.

Like Mr. Mifflin, the other drivers hadbeen pursued for nonviolent offenses, manyof them minor. A seatbelt ticket in PhenixCity that would have cost $41. A cracked tail-

A Times investigation found that some officers had put themselves in danger when they shot. Others appeared to face no peril.KENNY HOLSTON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

When Police Call a Car a WeaponA Common Defense in Fatal Shootings, but Officers Often Aren’t at Risk

This article is by Kim Barker, Steve Eder,David D. Kirkpatrick and Arya Sundaram.

Continued on Page 22

CLIMATE STRIDES The bill in-cludes $47 billion to prepare forthe effects of warming. PAGE 19

STATES’ TO-DO LISTS Fix riskybridges and update aging watersystems and airports. PAGE 13

HOUSTON — Panic and thendesperation spread through thecrowd of 50,000 mostly young peo-ple just as the popular hometownrapper they had come to see, Trav-is Scott, took the stage Fridaynight. It came like a wave, an un-stoppable movement of bodiesthat could not be held back.

Some collapsed. Others foughtfor air. Concertgoers lifted up theunconscious bodies of friends andstrangers and surfed them overthe top of the crowd, hoping tosend them to safety. Othersshouted out for help with CPR andpleaded for the concert to stop.

It kept going.In the end, eight people died,

ranging in age from 14 to 27, ac-cording to city officials. Hundredsmore were treated for injuries at afield hospital at the concert venue,the NRG Park in Houston, or at lo-cal hospitals. Among thosetreated at a hospital was a 10-year-old child.

By Saturday, officials in Hous-ton were at a loss to explain howthe concert, part of the two-dayAstroworld music festival orga-nized by Live Nation and Mr.Scott, had transformed in an in-stant from a celebration to a strug-gle for life. So too were those whohad been at the outdoor concert,who described a thrust of thecrowd that would not let up as Mr.Scott took the stage around 9 p.m.

Texas Concert Ends in Chaos

And 8 Deaths

By J. DAVID GOODMAN and MARIA JIMENEZ MOYA

Continued on Page 20

There’s a stark gender and age differ-ence at the Glasgow summit. Youngwomen are taking the lead on protestsand the two sides have different viewson what “urgent” action means. PAGE 12

Generations Clash on Climate A federal appeals panel has blocked fornow the Biden administration’s vaccinemandate for large businesses. PAGE 24

Vaccine Mandate Put on Hold

Late Edition

VOL. CLXXI . . . No. 59,235 © 2021 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2021

Today, mostly sunny skies, chilly,high 55. Tonight, clear to partlycloudy skies, low 42. Tomorrow,mostly sunny skies, windy, high 60.Weather map appears on Page 24.

$6.00