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U(D54G1D)y+&!&!@!?!" OAKLAND, Calif. — In 1978, a Los Angeles businessman named Howard Jarvis led an insurgent campaign to pass Proposition 13, a ballot measure that limited Cali- fornia property taxes and inspired a nationwide tax revolt. The law has been considered sacrosanct ever since, something California governors and legislators chal- lenge at their peril. Now, as a pandemic tears through local budgets, a well-fi- nanced campaign backed by teachers’ unions has mounted a serious challenge to a major por- tion of the law: its application to commercial property. If voters approve the effort next week, they will give labor and pro- gressive groups a striking victory in raising the low tax rates that longtime property owners enjoy. If it fails, the campaign will have spent tens of millions of dollars only to affirm that Proposition 13 is untouchable. The new initiative, Proposition 15, would amend the state’s Con- stitution so that properties like of- fices and industrial parks would no longer be protected by Proposi- tion 13. By creating a “split roll” system, in which residential prop- erty would continue to be shielded from tax increases but commer- cial property would not, backers hope to capitalize on Democratic energy to raise taxes on large cor- porations without alarming home- owners. “We can’t afford to continue to New Challenges Push Californians to Rethink Tax Revolt of 1978 By CONOR DOUGHERTY Once Thought Sacred, a Measure Is Tested Continued on Page A23 ERIC THAYER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES As a pair of rapidly growing wildfires threatened homes across Orange County, officials told 90,000 people to evacuate. Page A22. Thousands Flee California Blazes The financial crisis was in full swing when Donald J. Trump trav- eled to Chicago in late September 2008 to mark the near-completion of his 92-floor skyscraper. The fortunes of big companies, small businesses and millions of Americans — including the Trumps — were in peril. But the family patriarch was jubilant as he stood on the terrace of his gleaming glass tower. “We’re in love with the build- ing,” Mr. Trump gushed. “We’re very, very happy with what’s hap- pened with respect to this building and how fast we put it up.” He and his family hoped the Trump International Hotel & Tower would cement their compa- ny’s reputation as one of the world’s marquee developers of luxury real estate. Instead, the skyscraper became another disappointment in a port- folio filled with them. Construc- tion lagged. Condos proved hard to sell. Retail space sat vacant. Yet for Mr. Trump and his com- pany, the Chicago experience also turned out to be something else: the latest example of his ability to strong-arm major financial insti- tutions and exploit the tax code to cushion the blow of his repeated business failures. The president’s federal income tax records, obtained by The New York Times, show for the first time that, since 2010, his lenders have forgiven about $287 million in debt that he failed to repay. The vast majority was related to the Chi- cago project. How Mr. Trump found trouble in Chicago, and maneuvered his way out of it, is a case study in doing business the Trump way. When the project encountered problems, he tried to walk away from his huge debts. For most in- How Trump Wriggled Out of Trouble in Chicago This article is by David Enrich, Russ Buettner, Mike McIntire and Susanne Craig. A Faltering Skyscraper, Defaults, Lawsuits and Tax Dodges Continued on Page A14 BRITAIN Health workers are facing a second wave, but this time with less support. PAGE A7 MILWAUKEE — The patient who died on Tuesday morning at Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center was rolled out of her room under a white sheet. One nurse, fighting back tears, stood silently in the hall as the outline of the body passed by — one more death in an eight-month-old pandemic that has no end in sight. “Those moments, they hit the soul,” said Jodie Gord, a nurse manager who oversees a team of about 120 people at the hospital in Milwaukee. Aurora St. Luke’s is far from alone in coming under strain. Hos- pitals around the United States are reeling from the rampaging spread of the coronavirus, many of them in parts of the country that initially had been spared the worst. Approaching the eve of the elec- tion, President Trump has down- played the steep rise in cases, at- tributing much of it to increased testing. But the number of people hospitalized for the virus tells a different story, climbing an esti- mated 46 percent from a month ago and raising fears about the ca- pacity of regional health care sys- tems to respond to overwhelming demand. The exploding case numbers point to a volatile new phase in the pandemic, coming after earlier waves hit large cities such as New York, then Sun Belt states like Florida and Arizona. While some of those places have begun to bring the virus under control, the surge of hospitalizations is crip- pling some cities with fewer re- sources. In El Paso, where the number of people hospitalized with Covid-19 has more than tripled over the last three weeks, doctors at University Medical Center have started air- lifting some patients to hospitals as far away as San Antonio while treating others in a field hospital in a nearby parking lot. Across the border in Mexico, the mayor of Ci- udad Juárez, himself hospitalized after testing positive for the virus for the second time, is urging a temporary ban on U.S. citizens crossing into his city. “We have never seen this in El Paso,” said Dr. Joel Hendryx, chief medical officer at University Med- ical Center, one of the largest hos- pitals along the border. Citing the need for field hospitals, Dr. Hendryx drew a sharp contrast to the city’s earlier surge in July, when mitigation measures drove case numbers down. Dr. Hendryx’s hospital had 195 inpatient coronavirus cases as of Tuesday compared with about 30 CRUSHING NEEDS STRAIN HOSPITALS AMID VIRUS SURGE BEDS IN SHORT SUPPLY An Explosive New Phase Hits Regions Spared by Earlier Waves This article is by Giulia McDon- nell Nieto del Rio, Simon Romero and Mike Baker. Continued on Page A7 Fungie, who for 37 years has powered an Irish town’s tourist industry, is feared to have left for good. PAGE A10 INTERNATIONAL A8-11 Beloved Dolphin Goes Missing Even amid food insecurity, and with limited ingredients, chefs on the island cook in ways that are soul-nourishing. Above, arroz con pollo. PAGE D1 FOOD D1-8 Puerto Rican Comfort Food “Swirling,” the group’s first album of new recordings in 20 years, is an affir- mation of how vital the band remains under the direction of the 96-year-old saxophonist Marshall Allen. PAGE C1 ARTS C1-8 Sun Ra Arkestra’s Journey The home rental company is racing to address the risks that rowdy guests pose before it goes public. PAGE B1 BUSINESS B1-6 Airbnb’s ‘Party House Problem’ Astor Place Hairstylists, a beacon of New York cool for decades, could not recover from the pandemic and will close before Thanksgiving. PAGE A4 TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-7 An East Village Casualty U.S. drones and allies killed several top Qaeda operatives in the past week. But the group isn’t going away. PAGE A9 Al Qaeda’s Staying Power A law that Republicans say lets Face- book and Twitter mute conservative views is likely to take center stage at a Senate hearing on Wednesday. PAGE B1 Targeting Tech’s Legal Shield Despite the continued shutdown of movie houses throughout New York City, indie theaters just may survive: They are less reliant on Hollywood and have a loyal audience. PAGE C1 Resilience of Small Cinemas Pfizer’s chief executive said that much- anticipated results from its clinical trial wouldn’t be coming this month. PAGE A6 Tamping Down Vaccine Hopes Thomas L. Friedman PAGE A24 EDITORIAL, OP-ED A24-25 A Russian biathlete was stripped of his Olympic medals as the doping scandal showed no signs of abating. PAGE B9 SPORTSWEDNESDAY B7-9 Tarnished Olympic Gold Feeling that the nation is destabilized and fearful of unrest, more people are beginning to arm themselves. PAGE A12 NATIONAL A12-23 American Arsenal WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has recently re- moved the chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmos- pheric Administration, the na- tion’s premier scientific agency, installed new political staff who have questioned accepted facts about climate change and im- posed stricter controls on commu- nications at the agency. The moves threaten to stifle a major source of objective United States government information about climate change that under- pins federal rules on greenhouse gas emissions and offer an indica- tion of the direction the agency will take if President Trump wins re-election. An early sign of the shift came last month, when Erik Noble, a former White House policy advis- er who had just been appointed NOAA’s chief of staff, removed Craig McLean, the agency’s act- ing chief scientist. Mr. McLean had sent some of the new political appointees a message that asked them to ac- knowledge the agency’s scientific integrity policy, which prohibits manipulating research or presenting ideologically driven findings. The request prompted a sharp response from Dr. Noble. “Re- spectfully, by what authority are you sending this to me?” he wrote, according to a person who re- ceived a copy of the exchange af- ter it was circulated within NOAA. Mr. McLean answered that his role as acting chief scientist made him responsible for ensuring that the agency’s rules on scientific in- tegrity were followed. The following morning, Dr. No- ble responded. “You no longer serve as the acting chief scientist for NOAA,” he informed Mr. Mc- Lean, adding that a new chief sci- entist had already been ap- pointed. “Thank you for your service.” It was not the first time NOAA President Acts To Undermine Science Agency A New Staff Questions Climate Change By CHRISTOPHER FLAVELLE and LISA FRIEDMAN The National Oceanic and At- mospheric Administration. STEFANI REYNOLDS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES Continued on Page A15 WARM SPRINGS, Ga. — Jo- seph R. Biden Jr. reached for polit- ical history on Tuesday as he swept into a red-state town with deep Democratic resonance and made a direct pitch to voters who flocked to President Trump in 2016, urging them to give him a chance to “heal” the country after a year of crippling crises. One week from Election Day, Mr. Biden chose to expend pre- cious political time and capital on Georgia, a state that has not voted for a Democratic presidential can- didate since 1992, but where pub- lic and private polling indicate he can win if he assembles a coalition of staunch Democrats, Black vot- ers, white suburban women and enough white voters in rural areas like Warm Springs to put him over the top. Delivering a speech intended to be part of his closing argument to voters in the homestretch, Mr. Bi- den traveled to the onetime re- treat of Franklin D. Roosevelt, making a let-us-come-together appeal that evoked the sort of common purpose that sustained the country during the Great De- pression and World War II and that Mr. Biden said was needed to overcome the coronavirus. With language that at times sounded more like that of a presi- Biden Reaches Across a Divide And All the Way Back to F.D.R. By JONATHAN MARTIN and KATIE GLUECK Continued on Page A16 The Supreme Court decision on Monday barring the counting of mail-in ballots in Wisconsin that arrive after Election Day was not a surprise for many Democrats, who had pressed for it but expected to lose. But a concurring opinion by Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh set off alarms among civil rights and Democratic Party lawyers, who viewed it as giving public sup- port to President Trump’s argu- ments that any results counted after Nov. 3 could be riddled with fraudulent votes — an assertion unsupported by the history of elections in the United States. The decision also unnerved Democrats and local election officials in Pennsylvania, where Republicans are asking the Su- preme Court to weigh in again on whether the state can accept ballots received up to three days after Election Day. While Demo- crats in Wisconsin had been appealing for an extension, the current rules in Pennsylvania allow for ballots to arrive three days after the election. Any change could threaten the more than 1.4 million absentee ballots Justice Echoes Trump’s View On Balloting By JIM RUTENBERG and NICK CORASANITI NEWS ANALYSIS Continued on Page A13 TOM PENNINGTON/GETTY IMAGES Los Angeles beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 3-1, to end a 32-year World Series title drought. Page B7. Dodgers Are Back on Top Late Edition VOL. CLXX . . . No. 58,860 + © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2020 Today, mostly cloudy, morning rain, high 59. Tonight, mostly cloudy, low 50. Tomorrow, cloudy, rain much of the day, heavy in the afternoon, high 54. Weather map is on Page A26. $3.00
