1. Art and Diseño

CMYK
Nxxx,2015-01-30,A,001,Bs-BK,E2
Late Edition
Today, cloudy, occasional snow and
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VOL. CLXIV . . . No. 56,762
$2.50
NEW YORK, FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 2015
© 2015 The New York Times
MEDICARE BILLS
RISE FOR STENTS
PUT INTO LIMBS
China Further
Tightens Grip
On the Internet
Loss of Access Is Called
an Economic Threat
UNPROVED MEDICAL NEED
In-Office Treatment Is
Questioned by U.S.
and Many Doctors
By ANDREW JACOBS
BEIJING — Jing Yuechen, the
founder of an Internet start-up
here in the Chinese capital, has
no interest in overthrowing the
Communist Party. But these days
she finds herself cursing the nation’s smothering cyberpolice as
she tries — and fails — to browse
photo-sharing
websites
like
Flickr and struggles to stay in
touch with the Facebook friends
she has made during trips to
France, India and Singapore.
Gmail has become almost impossible to use here, and in recent weeks the authorities have
gummed up Astrill, the software
Ms. Jing and countless others depended on to circumvent the Internet restrictions that Western
security analysts refer to as the
Great Firewall.
By interfering with Astrill and
several other popular virtual private networks, or V.P.N.s, the
government has complicated the
lives of Chinese astronomers
seeking the latest scientific data
from abroad, graphic designers
shopping for clip art on Shutterstock and students submitting
online applications to American
universities.
“If it was legal to protest and
throw rotten eggs on the street,
I’d definitely be up for that,” Ms.
Jing, 25, said.
China has long had some of the
world’s most onerous Internet restrictions. But until now, the authorities had effectively tolerated
the proliferation of V.P.N.s as a
lifeline for millions of people,
from archaeologists to foreign investors, who rely heavily on lessfettered access to the Internet.
But earlier this week, after a
number of V.P.N. companies, including StrongVPN and Golden
Frog, complained that the ChiContinued on Page A6
By JULIE CRESWELL
and REED ABELSON
MERIDITH KOHUT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Thousands waited last week to buy basic goods at subsidized prices in Caracas. Those who cheat on rationing risk arrest.
Oil Cash Waning, Venezuelan Shelves Lie Bare Drones Spotted
But Not Halted
Raise Concerns
By WILLIAM NEUMAN
CARACAS, Venezuela — Mary
Noriega heard there would be
chicken.
She hated being herded “like
cattle,” she said, standing for
hours in a line of more than 1,500
people hoping to buy food, as soldiers with side arms checked
identification cards to make sure
no one tried to buy basic items
more than once or twice a week.
But Ms. Noriega, a laboratory
assistant with three children,
said she had no choice, ticking off
the inventory in her depleted refrigerator: coffee and corn flour.
Things had gotten so bad, she
said, that she had begun bartering with neighbors to put food on
the table.
“We always knew that this
BY THE BARREL
Running Out of Basics
year would start badly, but I
think this is super bad,” Ms. Noriega said.
Venezuelans have put up with
shortages and long lines for
years. But as the price of oil, the
country’s main export, has
plunged, the situation has grown
so dire that the government has
sent troops to patrol huge lines
snaking for blocks. Some states
have barred people from waiting
outside stores overnight, and
government officials are posted
near entrances, ready to arrest
shoppers who cheat the rationing
system.
Because Venezuela is so de-
pendent on oil sales to buy imports of food, medicine and many
other basics, the drop in oil prices
means that there is even less
hard currency to buy what the
country needs.
Even before oil prices tumbled,
Venezuela was in the throes of a
deep recession, with one of the
world’s highest inflation rates
and chronic shortages of basic
items.
One of the nation’s most prestigious public hospitals shut down
its heart surgery unit for weeks
Continued on Page A12
Black Gold, Red Ink
The big drop in the price of oil
means big quarterly losses for
America’s oil giants. Page B1.
In Lotteries for New York Housing, Long Odds Grow Ever Longer
By MIREYA NAVARRO
Sitting in the back pew of a
packed church in Fort Greene,
Brooklyn, William Jamieson
hoped to learn winning tips from
a workshop on how to play New
York City’s housing lotteries.
The lotteries, which the city
uses to distribute subsidized
apartments in new buildings, can
be hard to navigate, and Mr. Jamieson had applications pending
for lotteries in two buildings.
But surrounded by hundreds of
other hopefuls at the church, he
was not feeling particularly
lucky.
“I probably have a better
chance playing the Lotto,” said
Mr. Jamieson, 46, a warehouse
worker who rents a room in a sixbedroom house and was hunting
for a studio or a one-bedroom.
The odds of winning the New
York Lotto jackpot are, of course,
worse (one in 22 million on a $1
play), but the housing lotteries
have daunting odds of their own.
Last year, a new building in
Greenpoint,
Brooklyn
drew
58,832 lottery applications for 105
affordable units. Not far behind
was the Sugar Hill development
in Upper Manhattan, which drew
more than 48,000 applicants for
98 apartments.
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
and MICHAEL D. SHEAR
WASHINGTON — As Major
League Baseball’s top players
took the field at the All-Star
Game in Minneapolis in July, a
covert radar system scanned the
sky above the 40,000-seat stadium for what security experts
said was an emerging threat to
public safety: drones.
Using finely tuned detection
programs brought in by the Department of Homeland Security,
“Operation Foul Ball,” as it was
known, identified several small,
commercial drones flying in the
area. Some were similar to the
quadcopter that crashed on the
White House lawn Monday.
But the drone detection system, which was considered one of
the most advanced in the country
and cost several hundred thousand dollars to operate for just
that night, had no way of actually
Continued on Page A19
At a time of increasing scrutiny
of procedures to open blocked
heart arteries, cardiologists are
turning to — and reaping huge
payments from — controversial
techniques that relieve blockages
in the arms and legs.
Unlike
heart
procedures,
which must be done in a hospital
or outpatient facility, where oversight is typically more intense,
the opening of the peripheral arteries and veins of the arms and
legs can be done in a doctor’s office.
Medical experts are questioning the necessity of some of these
treatments, and many believe the
condition is more safely treated
with drugs and exercise. Nonetheless, some of the nation’s most
highly reimbursed cardiologists
are making millions of dollars
from Medicare for performing
these procedures, as payments
for relieving blockages in the
heart have fallen.
The Justice Department said it
joined two whistle-blower lawsuits accusing one of these doctors of performing unnecessary
procedures, including placing a
stent in the leg of a patient who
later died of complications.
The cardiologist in question,
Dr. Asad Qamar of Ocala, Fla.,
was paid $18 million by Medicare
in 2012, making him the top-billing cardiologist in the country,
according to an analysis by The
New York Times of Medicare
data. Dr. Qamar was also the
leader in billing for procedures to
treat peripheral blockages.
Nationwide, the shift in doctors’ emphasis is significant. The
number of procedures to open
blockages in heart vessels fell by
about 30 percent from 2005 to
2013, to 323,000 for patients covered under Medicare. Over the
same time, the number of similar
Continued on Page B2
Shake Shack, Born in a Park,
Goes Public With Big Dreams
By MICHAEL J. de la MERCED
and KIM SEVERSON
VICTOR J. BLUE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Oluwashina Alaka, with his friend Onicka Oxford, at the Brooklyn apartment he got in a lottery.
And topping both was the
drawing this month for 38 units at
59 Frost Street in Williamsburg.
With rents ranging from $640 for
a studio to $1,395 for a two-bedroom, the Brooklyn property attracted more than 80,000 applications, said Martin Dunn, whose
Dunn Development Corporation
built the project. That is one unit
for every 2,110 applications.
“It really shows how desperate
the need is for affordable housing,” Mr. Dunn said.
As the city tries to address a
housing crisis, many New York-
ers are becoming all too familiar
with the lotteries used to dole out
apartments that poor and working-class residents can afford.
Even as such lotteries proliferate in pockets of the city where
new mixed-income developments
Continued on Page A23
NATIONAL A13-19
INTERNATIONAL A4-12
BUSINESS DAY B1-10
College Tries to Curb Drinking
Deadly Bombings in Sinai
Battle Line for Online Privacy
Philip J. Hanlon,
the president of
Dartmouth College, announced
that hard liquor
would be banned
as part of an overhaul of campus life.
He has warned of
the damage done
to the college and its reputation by alcohol-driven misconduct. Other campuses
are not expected to follow suit. PAGE A13
At least 26 people were killed in a wave
of bombings in the Sinai Peninsula, stirring fears that the Egyptian government’s campaign of home demolitions,
curfews and sweeping arrests had failed
to halt a budding insurgency. PAGE A8
A Pittsburgh law firm is working with
victims of so-called revenge porn, helping them sue online harassers for violatPAGE B1
ing their privacy.
Keystone Vote Sets Up Clash
The Senate passed a bill to force approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, which
President Obama is to veto in a clash
PAGE A16
with a G.O.P.-led Congress.
Greece Backs Russia Sanctions
Two Popular Writers Die
European officials, weighing expanded
sanctions against Russia, worried that
Greece’s new leftist government would
not go along. In the end, they were able
PAGE A9
to present a united front.
Rod McKuen, whose gentle poetry and
lyrics had immense commercial, if not
critical, success,
was 81. And Colleen McCullough,
whose “Thorn
Birds” became a
best seller and a
blockbuster miniseries, was 77.
WEEKEND C1-34
Twelve Theaters in Two Days
A reporter indulges a longtime fancy,
and spends a Friday — and a Saturday
— at the movies.
PAGE C27
NEW YORK A20-24
Hurdles as Murder Trial Opens
The trial over the disappearance of
6-year-old Etan Patz may swing on the
reliability of a defendant’s confession
about events that took place in ManhatPAGE A20
tan more than 35 years ago.
OBITUARIES A24-25
SPORTSFRIDAY B11-16
Scientific Support for Patriots
A mechanical engineer’s experiments
showed that atmospheric conditions
might have reduced air pressure in footPAGE B11
balls used by New England.
PAGES A24 AND A25
EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27
Joseph R. Biden Jr.
PAGE A27
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Nearly 14 years ago, on something of a lark, the restaurateur
Danny Meyer opened a Chicagostyle hot dog cart in Manhattan’s
Madison Square Park, hoping to
draw crowds to the park and give
summer jobs to the staff at one of
his nearby high-end restaurants.
That stand has morphed into
Shake Shack, a burger-and-crinkle-fries empire with outposts in
London, Dubai, Istanbul and Las
Vegas. On Friday, it will begin
trading on the New York Stock
Exchange with a valuation of
about $745 million, and will increase Mr. Meyer’s net worth by
about $155 million.
Conceived as a homage to the
friendly Midwestern fast-food
joints of Mr. Meyer’s childhood,
ANDREW BURTON/GETTY IMAGES
A Shake Shack cheeseburger.
Shake Shack has become one of
the most prominent purveyors of
fast-casual food. That sector,
dominated by the likes of Chipotle, has fundamentally reshaped
the fast-food industry with its
emphasis on using fresh ingredients. In short, Americans seem
willing to pay more for fast food
Continued on Page B2