VOL. CLXIII . . . No. 56,368 + © 2014 The New York Times NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 1, 2014

Late EditionToday, clouds and periodic sun,high 32. Tonight, cloudy, a flurry,low 29. Tomorrow, snow, steadiestlate, an inch or two during the day,high 33. Weather map, Page D8.

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By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM

Liberals across the country arelooking to Bill de Blasio, who wassworn in as mayor early Wednes-day, to morph New York City’smunicipal machinery into a close-ly watched laboratory for popu-list theories of government thathave never before been enactedon such a large scale.

The elevation of an assertive,tax-the-rich liberal to the nation’smost prominent municipal officehas fanned hopes that hot-buttoncauses like universal prekinder-garten and low-wage workerbenefits — versions of whichhave been passed in smaller cit-ies — could be aided by the impri-matur of being proved workablein New York.

“The mayor has a remarkableopportunity to make real manyprogressive policies and provetheir merit,” said Gavin Newsom,the lieutenant governor of Cali-fornia, who as mayor of SanFrancisco introduced a form ofuniversal health care and allowedsame-sex couples to wed.

“De Blasio matters,” Mr. New-som said. “A lot of us are count-ing on his success.”

New York has long been a lode-star for urban governments theworld over. The avant-garde po-licing pioneered by former May-or Rudolph W. Giuliani trans-formed the way major munici-palities fight crime. Mayor Mi-chael R. Bloomberg’s corporate-minded approach to educationand feats of social engineering,like the ban on smoking in bars,quickly gained global traction.

In Mr. de Blasio, a wily, image-conscious strategist who hadlagged far behind in polls justweeks before the Democratic pri-mary, advocates on the left see aunique aligning of the stars: achampion of their values who isalso a shrewd and cunning practi-tioner, stepping into office at atime when the national debateover inequality and social justicehas reached a fever pitch.

His administration could be aredemptive moment for a nation-al left whose policies were oftenblamed for the crumbling of ur-ban centers in the 1960s and

DE BLASIO DRAWSALL LIBERAL EYESTO NEW YORK CITY

LAB FOR POPULIST IDEAS

A Tax-the-Rich Mayor

Gives America’s Left

a Rallying Point

Continued on Page A16

By ROBERT PEAR and ABBY GOODNOUGH

WASHINGTON — Millions ofAmericans will begin receivinghealth insurance coverage underthe Affordable Care Act onWednesday after years of conten-tion and a rollout hobbled by de-lays and technical problems. Thedecisively new moment in the ef-fort to overhaul the country’shealth care system will test thelaw’s central premise: that ex-tending coverage to far moreAmericans will improve the na-tion’s health and help many avoidcrippling medical bills.

Starting Wednesday, health in-surance companies can no longerdeny coverage to people withpre-existing conditions and can-not charge higher premiums towomen than to men for the samecoverage. In most cases, insurersmust provide a standard set ofbenefits prescribed by federallaw and regulations. And theycannot set dollar limits on whatthey spend on “essential healthbenefits” for a policyholder.

Though this is a milestone forthe law, it is unlikely to end theconstant partisan battles that be-gan even before its passage near-ly four years ago. Late Tuesday,Justice Sonia Sotomayor tempo-rarily blocked the Obama admin-istration from forcing some reli-gious-affiliated groups to providecoverage of birth control or facepenalties. [Page A13.]

Doctors, hospitals and phar-macists say consumers could ini-tially experience some delaysand difficulties as they try to usetheir new insurance.

“I feel a huge sense of relief,”said Katie R. Norvell, 33, a musictherapist in St. Louis, who hasbeen uninsured for three and ahalf years and has a pre-existinggynecological condition, endome-triosis. She signed up Dec. 22 fora midlevel silver plan offered by

MILLIONS GAININGHEALTH COVERAGETODAY UNDER LAW

TEST OF CENTRAL TENET

Milestone Is Unlikely to

Put End to Constant

Partisan Battles

By MONICA DAVEY

DETROIT — For some whohave been around this city thelongest, expectations for a newmayor have by now become un-derstandably low: Turn somestreetlights on. Do not get in-dicted. Wait for the lawyers to getDetroit out of bankruptcy.

Yet Mike Duggan, a brash, fre-netic former hospital executiveand prosecutor who often talkshis voice into a husky croak bylate afternoon, has anything butmodest plans as he steps into un-certain and politically fraught cir-cumstances unprecedentedamong major American cities.

On Wednesday, Mr. Dugganwill become Detroit’s first whitemayor in 40 years, presiding overa mostly black, bankrupt city thathas seen more residents leave —more than a million since 1950 —than are left. He inherits a city oftens of thousands of abandonedbuildings, darkened streets and ashrunken, demoralized workforce whose members worryabout what will become of theirpensions. Though he has a man-date to make things better, Mr.Duggan also starts his termyoked to an agreement in whichhe must share control with apowerful, appointed emergencymanager, Kevyn D. Orr, a Wash-ington bankruptcy lawyerbrought here by Michigan’s gov-ernor to help resolve the city’s$18 billion in debt.

While Mr. Orr will direct thecity’s finances, including the like-ly future of the pensions, it is Mr.Duggan who will be left to sortout some of the most politicallyvexing long-term questions aboutthe fate of Detroit. Do servicesand infrastructure designed forall of this city’s 139 square milesstill make sense with a popula-tion of 700,000 and stretches ofblocks where only a few housesremain occupied? Or must thecity shrink to survive?

Many people say Detroit must,at last, come to terms with thecontinuing exodus, but Mr. Dug-gan says he has no plans to re-treat. He plans, he says, to re-verse the trend of half a century.

“Everything that we are doing,from the time we get up in themorning, we’re thinking about:How are we going to build thecity where the population isgrowing again?” Mr. Duggansaid. “And that’s ultimatelywhat’s going to define this: Do

Power Curbed,Detroit Mayor

Faces Big Job

Offers Ambitious Plan

for Bankrupt City

Continued on Page A3

CHANG W. LEE/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Revelers packed a chilly Times Square in Manhattan for the traditional New Year’s celebration.

Eyes, Lots of Them, on the Ball

By THOMAS KAPLAN

A federal judge ruled on Tues-day that New York’s strict newgun laws, including an expandedban on assault weapons, wereconstitutional, but struck down aprovision forbidding gun ownersto load more than seven roundsinto a magazine.

The ruling offered a victory togun control advocates at the endof a year in which efforts to passnew legislation on the federal lev-el suffered a high-profile defeat inCongress, although some new re-strictions were approved in statecapitals.

The judge, William M. Skretnyof Federal District Court in Buffa-lo, said expanded bans on assaultweapons and high-capacity mag-azines were legally sound be-cause they served to “further thestate’s important interest in pub-lic safety.”

The new laws in New York, en-acted in January 2013, are among

the most restrictive in the coun-try. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, aDemocrat, pushed for the state tobe the first to take action afterthe mass school shooting in New-town, Conn.; gun rights groupsaccused him of ramming throughnew gun restrictions they calledill-conceived, poorly understoodand unconstitutional.

In a 54-page ruling, JudgeSkretny struck down a well-known but troubled portion of thelaw, which prohibited gun ownersfrom loading more than sevenrounds into a magazine. Hecalled the limit “an arbitrary re-striction” that violated the Sec-ond Amendment.

But, saying that “whether reg-ulating firearms is wise or war-ranted is not a judicial question;it is a political one,” he found thatMr. Cuomo and lawmakers hadacted within their bounds whenthey drafted the gun laws, andspecifically cited the Bushmasterrifle and 30-round magazine usedin the Newtown shooting.

“Of course, this is only one inci-dent,” Judge Skretny wrote. “Butit is nonetheless illustrative.Studies and data support NewYork’s view that assault weaponsare often used to devastating ef-fect in mass shootings.”

He said that the gun law “ap-plies only to a subset of firearmswith characteristics New YorkState has determined to be par-ticularly dangerous and unneces-sary for self-defense; it does nottotally disarm New York’s citi-zens; and it does not meaning-fully jeopardize their right to self-

U.S. Judge Upholds Most New York Gun Limits

Continued on Page A15

By NICHOLAS KULISH

JUBA, South Sudan — Fewmoments conjure as much fear inSouth Sudan as the massacre ofBor.

Long before South Sudan be-came a nation, while it was still inthe throes of one of Africa’s long-est civil wars, fighters tied to aleader named Riek Macharstormed through the city of Borin 1991, killing 2,000 fellow south-erners in an attack that would laybare the deep divisions in this im-poverished land.

Since then, the people of SouthSudan have had periods of peace,compromise and even shared ju-bilation at the birth of their na-tion in 2011. Mr. Machar himselfbecame vice president, apologiz-ing for the massacre.

But there was never a real andlasting reconciliation betweenthe factions threatening to pullthis new nation apart, and onTuesday fighters allied with Mr.Machar charged into Bor onceagain.

“This was a fire waiting to be

ignited,” said John Prendergastof the Enough Project, a nonprof-it antigenocide organization. “Itwas just when and not if.”

When leaders from around theworld pressed South Sudan intoexistence — seeing its creation as

the best way to end decades ofwar with its neighbor to thenorth, Sudan — they were wellaware that the bitter internal ri-valries in the south had never

Old Rivalries Reignited a Fuse in South Sudan

BEN CURTIS/ASSOCIATED PRESS

A displaced girl carrying water to a United Nations compoundin South Sudan. Violence there has uprooted 180,000 people.

Continued on Page A8

By SARAH LYALL

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — In thesummer of 2011, 19 undergradu-ates at the University of NorthCarolina signed up for a lecturecourse called AFAM 280: Blacksin North Carolina. The professorwas Julius Nyang’oro, an inter-nationally respected scholar andlongtime chairman of the Africanand Afro-American studies de-partment.

It is doubtful the studentslearned much about blacks,North Carolina or anything else,though they received grades forpapers they supposedly turned inand Mr. Nyang’oro, the instruc-

tor, was paid $12,000. Universityand law-enforcement officials sayAFAM 280 never met. One of doz-ens of courses in the departmentthat officials say were taught in-completely or not at all, AFAM280 is the focus of a criminal in-dictment against Mr. Nyang’orothat was issued last month.

Eighteen of the 19 students en-rolled in the class were membersof the North Carolina footballteam (the other was a formermember), reportedly steeredthere by academic advisers whosaw their roles as helping ath-letes maintain high enoughgrades to remain eligible to play.

Handed up by an Orange Coun-ty, N.C., grand jury, the indict-

ment charged Nyang’oro with“unlawfully, willfully and feloni-ously” accepting payment “withthe intent to cheat and defraud”the university in connection withthe AFAM course — a virtuallyunheard-of legal accusationagainst a professor. 

The indictment, critics say,covers just a small piece of one ofthe biggest cases of academicfraud in North Carolina history.That it has taken place at ChapelHill, known for its rigorous aca-demic standards as well as anathletic program revered acrossthe country, has only made itmore shocking.

Two reports on the activities of

A’s for Athletes, but Charges of Tar Heel Fraud

Continued on Page B9

VIRGINIE DRUJON-KIPPELEN

FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

William Hannah has been un-insured for the past 20 years.

Continued on Page A3

With his deadline of April for a peacedeal approaching, Secretary of StateJohn Kerry will be seeking a basic ac-cord to keep talks going. PAGE A8

INTERNATIONAL A4-8

Kerry to Step Up Mideast Effort

Mark Bittman offers recipes and sug-gestions for the new year, from cookingbig pots of grains and beans once aweek, to buying half as much meat andmaking it better meat. PAGE D1

DINING D1-7

Palatable Resolutions

A federal judge ruled that a Florida lawrequiring welfare applicants to undergomandatory drug testing was unconstitu-tional. PAGE A10

NATIONAL A10-13

Drug Testing Law Struck DownCritics for The Times list the shows, con-certs, books and films (including PawelPawlikowski’s “Ida,” starring AgataTrzebuchowska) that they’re most an-ticipating in the new year. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-12

Coming AttractionsBefore Stanford and Michigan squareoff in the 100th Rose Bowl, a look athighlights of the previous 99, amongthem Texas’ wild victory over SouthernCalifornia for the national title in 2006and Northwestern’s improbable trip tothe 1996 game. PAGES B10-11

SPORTSWEDNESDAY B7-13

Tournament of Memories

Roger Cohen PAGE A19

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A18-19

A move to release dozens, includingcommitted insurgents who had attackedAmericans, angers the West. PAGE A6

Afghans Plan to Free PrisonersKillings have slowed in the city, whichdrew national notice in 2012 for its highnumber of homicides. PAGE A10

Fewer Killings in Chicago

Despite some worries, the stock marketjust kept rising, with the S.&P. 500 post-ing its best year since 1997. PAGE B1

BUSINESS DAY B1-6

A Stellar Year for StocksThe band’s concerts at Madison SquareGarden have led to more than 200 ar-rests or summonses. PAGE A14

NEW YORK A14-17

Crackdown on Phish’s Fans

C M Y K Nxxx,2014-01-01,A,001,Bs-BK,E2_+