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Daniel Craig, above, is the Iago to Da-vid Oyelowo’s Othello in a breathlessinterpretation of Shakespeare’s tragedy.A review by Ben Brantley. PAGE C1
ARTS C1-8
Jealousy and Lies in ‘Othello’
The school district in Morristown, N.J.,created for racial balance in 1971, has a“remarkable can-do attitude” and is amodel of “diversity and togetherness,” areport concluded. PAGE A25
Making Integration Work
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The siegein Aleppo is almost over.
Advances by Syrian govern-ment forces and their allies havesqueezed the fighters and civil-ians remaining in rebel-held partsof the city into a sliver of territory,spokesmen for the governmentand the opposition forces said onMonday. The last civilians caughtin the shrinking antigovernmentenclave issued panicked calls forhelp.
Late Monday, several residentsreported via text and voice mes-sages that they were crowded intoabandoned apartments and rainystreets, exposed to shelling andafraid they would be killed or ar-rested if pro-government forcesreached them, as antigovernmentactivists circulated reports ofscores of summary killings in re-taken areas.
The United Nations secretarygeneral, Ban Ki-moon, said in astatement on Monday that he wasalarmed by reports of atrocitiesagainst a large number of civil-ians, including women and chil-dren.
It appeared increasingly likelythat the government would gaincontrol of the whole of Aleppo, thelargest city in Syria, within days, ifnot hours. Videos from govern-ment-held districts showed peo-ple celebrating in the streets, wav-ing flags and honking horns.
That would be a turning point inthe civil war, cementing govern-ment control over all of Syria’smost important cities and forcingthe opposition and its backers to
Rebels on Run,Aleppo Is CloseTo Syrian Rule
Pleas for Help FromTrapped Civilians
By ANNE BARNARD
A man fleeing to rebel-held areas of Aleppo, Syria, on Monday, carrying a child with an IV drip.ABDALRHMAN ISMAIL/REUTERS
Continued on Page A10
WASHINGTON — Long beforeLt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn becameDonald J. Trump’s choice for na-tional security adviser, he be-lieved that the Central Intelli-gence Agency had become a poli-tical tool of the Obama adminis-tration — a view now echoed bythe president-elect in his mockingdismissals of C.I.A. assessmentsthat Russia sought to tip the elec-tion in Mr. Trump’s favor.
“They’ve lost sight of who theyactually work for,” Mr. Flynn saidin an interview with The NewYork Times in October 2015. “Theywork for the American people.They don’t work for the presidentof the United States.” He added,speaking of the agency’s leader-ship: “Frankly, it’s become a verypolitical organization.”
Mr. Flynn’s assessment that theC.I.A. is a political arm of theObama administration is notwidely shared by Republicans orDemocrats in Washington. But ithas appeared to have been inter-nalized by the one person whomatters most right now: Mr.Trump.
In the past few days, Mr. Trump
Trump AdviserIs Harsh JudgeOf C.I.A.’s Role
Flynn’s Sway Is Seen inDerision of Leaders
By MATTHEW ROSENBERG
Continued on Page A18
DOTHAN, Ala. — It was a run-of-the-mill keg party in an openfield, until one guest, HarveyDrayton Burch III, objected topaying for his beer. Witnesses saidMr. Burch fired a gun over thecrowd and began spraying Mace.With partyers fleeing, Mr. Burchjumped into the back seat of a caras it drove away.
The driver had a name wellknown in Henry County: Douglas
A. Valeska II, the son of the localdistrict attorney. When the carwas stopped, a deputy found aloaded magazine and knife in Mr.Burch’s pocket, a gun and pepperspray in a backpack, and a pinkpill on the floorboard. After Mr.Burch admitted to firing his weap-on, he was arrested. The districtattorney arrived to take his sonand two other passengers home.
Mr. Burch, then 28, was chargedwith gun and drug possession, butnot with firing a weapon or spray-ing Mace. He did not face prosecu-tion. Instead, District AttorneyDouglas A. Valeska granted himpretrial diversion, an alternativeto court that is usually reservedfor nonviolent offenses. After Mr.Burch paid $2,396 in fees andstayed out of trouble for two years,the case was dismissed in 2011.
The same year, Mr. Valeskagave the Henry County Sheriff’sOffice $2,300 from his pretrial di-version fund to pay for scuba gear.The department’s dive team wasled by Lt. Troy Silva, the arrestingofficer in the Burch case. Lieuten-ant Silva said in an interview thatthe money was not related to thecase and that Mr. Valeska rou-tinely allocated diversion fundsfor police equipment.
Diversion was created nation-wide to spare first-time or low-risk defendants the harsh conse-quences of a criminal record andto give prosecutors more time togo after dangerous offenders. Butthings have played out differentlyin places like southeast Alabama’sWiregrass Country, where an in-vestigation by The New YorkTimes found that diversion resem-bles a dismissal-for-sale scheme,available only to those withmoney and, in some cases, favor.
Mr. Valeska has proved exceed-ingly adept at using diversion,generating more than $1 millionfor his office in the last five years.
The money has helped him con-solidate his singular power overthe justice system in Houston andHenry Counties, where he haspresided as the chief prosecutorfor three decades.
Dothan, the seat of HoustonCounty and, with 70,000 residents,
the regional hub, can feel like it iscaught in a Southern time warp,immune to change and defined byracial division. Dothan, where onein three residents is black, hasnever had a black mayor, policechief, circuit judge or school su-perintendent. Meetings of the citycommission are held in a roomadorned with 28 portraits of cityleaders, all of them white men. Anold photograph shows police offi-cers, including the current chief,posing beside a Confederate flag.
Many black residents say theyare at a significant disadvantagein the criminal justice system,complaining of nearly all-white ju-ries and harsher sentences. Last
year, two-thirds of those arrestedin Dothan were black.
In the 1990s, Mr. Valeska had astring of convictions overturnedfor illegally striking blacks fromthe jury pool — a practice criticssay continues to this day. He re-ferred to one black defendant as“the yard boy.” He has never hireda black prosecutor.
“If you take Doug Valeska per-sonally, I don’t think he’s racist — Idon’t agree with that,” said theRev. Kenneth Glasgow, a black ex-convict and longtime advocate forcriminal justice reform. “But herepresents and endorses and en-forces and upholds a racist sys-tem.”
Mr. Valeska declined repeatedrequests for an interview.
Though he is a prodigious userof diversion, he has shown little in-clination toward its goals of mercyand rehabilitation. At 65, with a
An Alabama Prosecutor Sets the Penalties and Fills the CoffersBy SHAILA DEWAN
and ANDREW W. LEHREN
For Jarvis Bracy (with his wife, Khadijah Ross), pretrial diversion was priced out of reach.WILLIAM WIDMER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
With Criminal Justicein One Man’s Grip,Many Pay Dearly
NO MONEY, NO MERCY
Justice in the Wiregrass
Continued on Page A14
WASHINGTON — The top twoRepublicans in Congress said onMonday that they supported in-vestigations into possible Russiancyberattacks to influence theAmerican election, setting up apotential confrontation with Pres-ident-elect Donald J. Trump in hisfirst days in office.
“Any foreign breach of ourcybersecurity measures is dis-turbing, and I strongly condemnany such efforts,” said SenatorMitch McConnell, Republican ofKentucky and the majority leader,adding, “The Russians are not ourfriends.”
Mr. McConnell’s support for in-vestigating American intelligencefindings that Moscow intervenedin the election on Mr. Trump’s be-half could presage friction be-tween the Republicans who con-trol Congress, and who have longtaken a hard line against Russia,and the president-elect, who hasmocked the findings.
Mr. McConnell also went out ofhis way to address Mr. Trump’sclaim that the C.I.A. could not betrusted because of flawed intelli-gence before the Iraq war.
“Let me say that I have thehighest confidence in the intelli-gence community,” Mr. McConnellsaid, “and especially the Central
G.O.P. FEUD LOOMSAS LEADERS BACKRUSSIA INQUIRIES
DIFFERING WITH TRUMP
McConnell and RyanDenounce PossibleElection Breaches
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
Continued on Page A18
Researchers have come up with usefuladvice for gift giving, and it may soundtoo good to be true. Namely, you don’thave to worry much because mostpeople aren’t hard to please. PAGE D1
How to Choose the Perfect Gift
Obesity and being overweight can’t betreated as a single disease, researcherssay, which makes treatment difficultand results wildly variable. PAGE D1
SCIENCE D1-6
Obesity Presents a Challenge
As the anti-establishment Five StarMovement, led by Beppe Grillo, above,gains in popularity, some membersworry that it may be drifting away fromits founding ethos. PAGE A4
INTERNATIONAL A4-10
Challenge for Italian Populists
David Leonhardt PAGE A31
EDITORIAL, OP-ED A30-31
The Supreme Court denied a request toreview the agreement, meaning retiredplayers with brain ailments can beginreceiving up to $5 million. PAGE B8
SPORTSTUESDAY B8-11
N.F.L. Concussion Settlement
As the opioid epidemic sweepsthrough rural America, an ever-greater number of drug-depend-ent newborns are straining hospi-tal neonatal units and drainingprecious medical resources.
The problem has grown morequickly than realized and showsno signs of abating, researchersreported on Monday. Their study,published in JAMA Pediatrics,concludes for the first time thatthe increase in drug-dependentnewborns has been dispropor-tionately larger in rural areas.
The rising rates are due largelyto widening use of opioids amongpregnant women, the researchersfound.
From 2004 to 2013, the propor-tion of newborns born dependenton drugs increased nearly sev-enfold in hospitals in rural coun-ties, to 7.5 per 1,000 from 1.2 per1,000. By contrast, the uptickamong urban infants was nearlyfourfold, to 4.8 per 1,000 from 1.4per 1,000.
“The problem is accelerating inrural areas to a greater degreethan in urban areas,” said Dr.Veeral Tolia, a neonatologist whoworks at Baylor University Medi-cal Center in Dallas and was notinvolved in the new report.
Other recent studies have un-
Tiniest VictimsOf Opioids TaxRural HospitalsBy CATHERINE SAINT LOUIS
Continued on Page A22
A visualization of the contributingfactors that made the blaze at the GhostShip warehouse one of the worst struc-ture fires in the United States in over adecade. PAGE A12
NATIONAL A12-22
Inside the Deadly Oakland Fire
The leader of the city’s Administrationfor Children’s Services departed afterseveral deaths had renewed concernsabout vulnerable children. PAGE A25
NEW YORK A25-29
Child Welfare Head Leaving
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump settledMonday on Rex W. Tillerson, thechief executive of Exxon Mobil, tobe his secretary of state, transi-tion officials said. In naming him,the president-elect is dismissingbipartisan concerns that Mr.Tillerson, the globe-trotting lead-er of an energy giant, has a too-cozy relationship with Vladimir V.Putin, the president of Russia.
Mr. Trump planned to announcethe selection on Tuesday morning,bringing to an end his public andchaotic deliberations over the na-tion’s top diplomat — a processthat at times veered from reward-ing Rudolph W. Giuliani, one of hismost loyal supporters, to musingabout whether Mitt Romney, oneof his most vicious critics, mightbe forgiven.
Instead, Mr. Trump has decidedto risk what looks to be a bruisingconfirmation fight in the Senate.
In the past several days, Repub-
Chief of ExxonIs Trump’s PickFor State Dept.
By MICHAEL D. SHEARand MAGGIE HABERMAN
Continued on Page A19
Donald J. Trump pledged thatthere would be no new deals by hisreal estate business while he waspresident. Page A20.
No Deals for a Deal Maker
Late Edition
VOL. CLXVI . . . No. 57,445 © 2016 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016
Today, some sun, increasing clouds.High 42. Tonight, cloudy, snow early.Little or no accumulation. Low 34.Tomorrow, clouds and sun. High 40.Weather map appears on Page A28.
$2.50
