VOL. CLXIII . . . No. 56,326 © 2013 The New York Times NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

Late EditionToday, mostly sunny with somewind, chilly, high 44. Tonight, clearto partly cloudy skies, low 37. To-morrow, sunshine and some clouds,high 50. Weather map, Page A22.

$2.50

By ROBERT PEAR

WASHINGTON — Members ofCongress like to boast that theywill have the same health careenrollment experience as constit-uents struggling with the balkyfederal website, because the lawthey wrote forced lawmakers toget coverage from the new insur-ance exchanges.

That is true. As long as theirconstituents have access to “in-person support sessions” like theones being conducted at the Capi-tol and congressional office build-ings by the local exchange andfour major insurers. Or can log onto a special Blue Cross and BlueShield website for members ofCongress and use a special toll-free telephone number — a “ded-icated congressional health in-surance plan assistance line.”

And then there is the fact thatlawmakers have a larger menu of“gold plan” insurance choicesthan most of their constituentshave back home.

While millions of Americanshave been left to fend for them-selves and go through the frus-trating experience of trying tonavigate the federal exchange,members of Congress and theiraides have all sorts of assistanceto help them sort through theiroptions and enroll.

Lawmakers and the employeeswho work in their “official of-fices” will receive coverage nextyear through the small-businessmarketplace of the local insur-ance exchange, known as D.C.Health Link, which has staffmembers close at hand for guid-ance.

“D.C. Health Link set up shopright here in Congress,” said El-eanor Holmes Norton, the dele-gate to the House from the na-tion’s capital.

Insurers routinely offer “mem-ber services” to enrollees. But onCapitol Hill, the phrase has spe-cial meaning, indicating con-cierge-type services for membersof Congress.

If lawmakers have questionsabout Aetna plan benefits andprovider networks, they can calla special phone number that pro-vides “member services formembers of Congress and staff.”

On the website run by the Oba-ma administration for 36 states, itis notoriously difficult to see theprices, deductibles and other de-tails of health plans.

It is much easier for membersof Congress and their aides to seeand compare their options onwebsites run by the Senate, theHouse and the local exchange.

Lawmakers can select from 112

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By ROD NORDLAND

KABUL, Afghanistan —Months of fraught negotiationsand public posturing over how along-term American militaryforce could remain in Afghani-stan have suddenly come down toa demand for a single personalgesture: a display of contritionby President Obama for militarymistakes that have hurt Afghans.

Afghan officials said Tuesdaythat in return for such a letterfrom Mr. Obama, PresidentHamid Karzai would end his ve-hement opposition to Americancounterterrorism raids on pri-vate Afghan homes — one of themost contentious issues betweenallies over a costly dozen-yearwar — clearing the way for anagreement to keep a smallerAmerican troop force in the coun-try past the 2014 withdrawaldeadline.

As described by Mr. Karzai’sspokesman, Aimal Faizi, the let-ter would be tantamount to anapology, though he did not usethat word. But not even thatwould be enough to ensure the fi-nal passage of a security agree-ment the United States hadpressed to have in hand beforenext year. The Afghans havemade final approval subject to anAfghan grand council of elders, aloya jirga, that is to begin meet-ing on Thursday, and aspects ofthe security deal remain deeplyunpopular with the public.

The White House spokesman,Jay Carney, would not confirmdetails on Tuesday, but he noddedto the potential deal-breaking po-tential of the meeting. “There areongoing negotiations,” he said. “Iwould simply say this agreementis not reached until it goesthrough the loya jirga.”

The 11th-hour discussions werethe latest lurch in a start-and-stop negotiation process that hasexposed raw feelings between al-lies, and has also highlighted Mr.Karzai’s taste for public brink-manship.

Just two days ago, Afghan offi-cials said that the raid issue hadcreated a stubborn impasse.

Afghan and American officials

AFGHANS DEMANDTHAT U.S. ADMITMILITARY ERRORS

SEEK LETTER BY OBAMA

Gesture Sought in Deal

for American Troop

Presence After ’14

Continued on Page A4

By ALISON LEIGH COWAN

STAMFORD, Conn. — SinceMichael C. Skakel’s conviction in2002 in the 1975 murder of hisGreenwich neighbor MarthaMoxley when they were both 15,Mr. Skakel and his family havespared no expense in their effortsto clear his name.

They hired expensive lawyers,private investigators and expert

witnesses, one at $250 an hour.They fired Mickey Sherman, thedefense lawyer who failed to winhis case in 2002, and hired HubertJ. Santos, a prominent Hartfordlawyer. They brought in Theo-dore B. Olson, a solicitor generalof the United States under Presi-dent George W. Bush, to petitionthe Supreme Court. They trackeddown witnesses in Tampa, Fla.,and Spain. They hired lawyers tomount an offensive on news or-ganizations that broadcast misin-formation about Mr. Skakel andsued the celebrity news person-ality Nancy Grace for libel.

The family’s perseverance anddeep pockets — Mr. Skakel’sgrandfather was an industrialmagnate — have brought Mr.Skakel to a pivotal moment: Lastmonth, a judge in Superior Courtin Rockville, Conn., overturnedthe 11-year-old verdict. On Thurs-day, when Mr. Skakel appears in

Family’s Tenacity and Wealth

Put Skakel at Cusp of Freedom

Continued on Page A27POOL PHOTO BY FRED BECKHAM

Michael C. Skakel this month.

This article is by Anne Bar-nard, Thomas Erdbrink and RickGladstone.

BEIRUT, Lebanon — A doublebombing struck the Iranian Em-bassy compound in Beirut onTuesday, in the deadliest assaulton Iran’s interests since itemerged as the most forcefulbacker of the Syrian governmentagainst an armed insurgency.The frontal attack struck a sym-bol of the country’s powerful in-fluence in Lebanon and neigh-boring Syria.

The Abdullah Azzam Brigades,an offshoot of Al Qaeda that oper-ates in Lebanon, claimed respon-sibility for the bombings, whichkilled at least 23 people, includingan Iranian diplomat. Syria, Iranand Hezbollah, the Lebanese mil-itant organization, pointed fin-gers at Israel and Saudi Arabia,and officials said it was unclearwho had carried out the attack.Regardless, it was quickly seenas retaliation against Iran andHezbollah, Iran’s ally, for sup-porting the Syrian government.

The double bombing highlight-

Beirut BombsStrike at IranAs Assad’s Ally

Continued on Page A10

By JOHN ELIGON

ST. LOUIS — The unmistak-able pop of a gunshot ricochetedthrough the park in the humid air,and Montez Wayne could onlyhope that the bullet did not havehis name on it. He sprang fromhis seat beneath a sprawling baldcypress, ready to make his move.

Was today the day?He had seen it play out too

many times before: the blast ofgunfire, the blood, the body. InMr. Wayne’s neighborhood andothers on the North Side of St.Louis, drugs, poverty and strug-gle go hand in hand with gun vio-lence. He barely knows his father.His mother died when he was 14,around the time he started sellingdrugs. His list of dead friendsgrows each year.

Mr. Wayne lives in a poor,mostly black community, where,as in similar neighborhoodsacross America, residents are fedup with persistent gun violence.Victims die one by one, or in clus-ters. In Chicago, 23 people wereshot in a matter of hours in Sep-tember, 13 of them in a park in agang-related attack. Three died.

Last month in North St. Louis,a 16-year-old was fatally shot in apark as he was waiting for aschool bus — a month after hisfriend was shot to death. And last

week, a 17-year-old boy was shotin the face walking to his schoolbus stop on the city’s North Side.He survived.

Even as St. Louis and manyother cities celebrate significantdecreases in crime over the pasttwo decades, concentrated pock-ets of violence remain, and some-times grow, a cruel imbalancethat criminologists and police de-partments nationwide are strug-gling to correct.

In the 27th Ward in North St.Louis, for example, there were 17murders last year, up from five in2009. This, even as homicidescitywide have dropped nearly 60percent (113 last year) sincepeaking at 267 two decades ago.

Mr. Wayne, 23, is hardly an in-nocent, with repeated arrests fordrug possession or trafficking.

Safer Cities? Try Telling This Neighborhood

DAN GILL FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

The aluminum siding was stolen from Shelia Pargo’s home on the North Side of St. Louis, where drugs and poverty are prevalent.

In Places Like North

St. Louis, Gunfire

Still Rules Night

Continued on Page A18

DAVID GUTTENFELDER/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Survivors of Typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban, the Philippines. The sight of children playing is an en-couraging sign of resiliency after trauma, yet many challenges remain for the region. Page A12.

Finding Fun Amid Their Troubles

By BEN PROTESSand JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG

When Tony West arrived in aJustice Department conferenceroom to put the finishing toucheson a lawsuit against JPMorganChase, he saw a familiar numberflash on his cellphone.

Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan’schief executive, was calling toseek a rare face-to-face meeting

with Mr. West, a top Justice De-partment official with close tiesto President Obama. Mr. Dimonhoped the meeting would avertthe lawsuit, which threatened tospotlight the bank’s questionablemortgage practices before the fi-nancial crisis.

Mr. West, 48, a soft-spoken butimposing presence, resisted theoverture. Pacing around theroom with the phone pressed

against his ear, people at themeeting later recalled, he toldMr. Dimon that the Justice De-partment would meet only if thebank came with a more generousoffer than the $3 billion it hadproposed to settle a narrow win-dow of cases.

“We don’t want you to wasteyour time and we don’t want towaste the attorney general’stime,” he told the bank chief, ac-

cording to people in the room.Mr. Dimon agreed to raise his

offer, prompting the governmentto postpone the lawsuit. Twodays later, on Sept. 24, he arrivedat the Justice Department inWashington, where the two sidesworked toward a $13 billion set-tlement that was announced onTuesday. [Page B1.]

The settlement amounts to

In Extracting Deal From JPMorgan, U.S. Aimed for Bottom Line

Continued on Page B8

Continued on Page A20

The United States is considering puttingcomponents of Syria’s chemical weap-ons on a barge to dissolve or incineratethem, American officials said. PAGE A10

INTERNATIONAL A3-12

Disposal Plan for Syria’s ArmsAt the insider trading trial of an SACCapital employee, one insider stands outby not being charged. PAGE B1

BUSINESS DAY B1-14

Loose End at an Insider TrialWhen it comes to dying, doctors under-stand their choices and can show theway for others. Also, guideposts to thenew landscape of health care. SECTION F

SPECIAL TODAY

Your Money

The Supreme Court allowed Texas to re-quire abortion doctors to have privi-leges at a nearby hospital. PAGE A13

NATIONAL A13-20

Bid to Stop Abortion Law Fails

Painters have blanketed the walls of5Pointz, a series of Queens warehouses,with whitewash, covering years of workby street artists and wrapping up a bat-tle between the buildings’ owners andartists who fought to save the propertyas a graffiti shrine. PAGE A23

NEW YORK A23-28

Years of Graffiti, Gone

Senator Harry Reid prepared to seekcurbs on the minority party’s power tofilibuster presidential choices. PAGE A14

Facing a Senate Logjam

Returning art confiscated as “degener-ate” is complicated by a 1938 Germanlaw that is unlikely to change. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-8

A Nazi Law Still Holds Sway

She wrote and edited children’s books ofrare emotional honesty. PAGE A29

OBITUARIES A28-29

Charlotte Zolotow Dies at 98

Sports locker rooms have become morelike Hollywood wardrobes, crammedwith multiple uniform options in a riot ofcolors and fabrics. PAGE B15

SPORTSWEDNESDAY B15-19

Team Colors? Anybody’s Guess

Maureen Dowd PAGE A31

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A30-31

How to build the menu, with room foryour mother’s creamed onions. PAGE D1

DINING D1-14

The Essential Thanksgiving

Many states that will allowconsumers to renew canceledhealth care plans have opposedthe new health law. Page A19.

Unlikely State Allies

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