1. Art and Diseño

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METRO MONEY A16 | CITY NEWS A17 | HEARD & SCENE A19 | ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT A19 | SPORTS A20
BRUNCHBOX TRANSLATION OF BRAZIL A16
WSJ.com/NY
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OPEN HOUSE A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT A18
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
Saturday/Sunday, January 31 - February 1, 2015 | A15
Ethics Panel Under Fire
BY MIKE VILENSKY
AND JOSH DAWSEY
When New York Gov. Andrew
Cuomo helped create the Joint
Commission on Public Ethics in
2011, he hailed it as part of his
plan to clean up Albany, calling it
“a true independent monitor to
investigate corruption.”
In the halls of the Capitol,
however, some Democratic and
Republican legislators refer to it
as “J-Joke,” a derisive play on its
acronym, JCOPE.
Shaken by last week’s corruption charges against Assembly
Speaker Sheldon Silver, as well
as other high-profile arrests in
recent years, many lawmakers
have become critical of the
agency, questioning whether it
has been effective or indepen-
dent. Mr. Silver has denied
wrongdoing and said he would
be vindicated.
“Really, the last thing on
Earth you want your ethics commission for state government to
have is the nickname ‘J-Joke,’ ”
said state Sen. Liz Krueger, a
Manhattan Democrat. “You need
this to be taken seriously in order to ensure it can do its job.”
JCOPE was created by Messrs.
Cuomo and Silver, both Democrats, and Republican Senate
President Dean Skelos early in
the governor’s first term as part
of the “Clean Up Albany Act.” A
14-member, full-time, taxpayerfunded commission, JCOPE is
tasked with rooting out public
corruption in state government.
Lawmakers said that JCOPE
has assisted them with basic
questions about ethics and legality. And the agency has mounted
a few major investigations, most
notably a report that was critical
of how Mr. Silver handled sexualharassment accusations against
an assemblyman, though the report was itself criticized by some
watchdogs as not aggressive
enough.
Blair Horner, a government
watchdog who has criticized
JCOPE, said it at least deserves
praise for setting up a program
to train lobbyists to act ethically.
JCOPE spokesman John Milgrim defended the agency’s
work, saying it has resulted in
more than $500,000 in fines and
penalties. “The commission has
been instrumental in implementing the new disclosures of lawmakers’ outside incomes and
sources of funding behind lobbying activities, providing unprecedented information to the public
about government,” he said.
In the past, Mr. Cuomo has
defended JCOPE.
The agency is responsible for
reviewing annual ethics disclosure forms from lawmakers, but
JCOPE first learned of a federal
investigation into Mr. Silver’s
outside income from media reports, members said.
The agency has been embarrassed, one member said. “I
don’t think we’re satisfied we’ve
done a good job.”
Some in Albany said the
agency from the start has been
hamstrung by its structure,
which calls for the governor and
legislative leaders to appoint
Please turn to page A17
Pedro Hernandez, center, and his attorney, Harvey Fishbein on Friday
Etan Patz Trial
Opens 35 Years
De Blasio and the Groundhog After Boy’s Death
TODAY’S
HIGH
SUNNY,
BREEZY
Weather
Real Feel
9 a.m. -9°
5 p.m. 8°
Record Low
-1° (1920)
Sunrise/Sunset
7:07 a.m./5:12 p.m.
Sunday’s High
34°
N.Y. Sports Lineup
7 p.m. Saturday
Panthers @ Devils
2 p.m. Sunday
Lakers @ Knicks
For N.Y. sports coverage, see A20
whether the ceremony should be
changed.
Dr. Gracelyn Santos, a former
Please turn to page A18
 For a video on suggestions for
a safer Groundhog Day, visit
WSJ.com/NY.
BY LILIT MARCUS
In many ways, Pin Lu is a typical UberX driver.
He uses his own car, complete
with a crocheted owl dangling
from the rearview mirror, to
ferry passengers who hail him
via the popular ride-sharing app.
He often works long hours,
saving to start his own business
someday.
And he takes pride in his user
ratings, saying he has earned
4.63 out of a possible 5 stars.
But when New Yorkers step
into Mr. Lu’s green 2011 Honda
Accord, many are surprised to be
handed a note asking them to
type a destination into the GPS.
Mr. Lu, the note explains, is
deaf.
“Let me know if you have a
preferred route by using your
hand motion as direction,” it
reads. “If you have any questions, knock your hand to my
shoulder. Write/type note to me
as communication.”
Uber Technologies Inc. estimates it has about 40 deaf
“driver-partners” across the U.S.
and predicts that number is
likely to grow as the company
expands into new markets.
Mr. Lu, a spokeswoman said,
is one of its first in the New York
area.
Mr. Lu, 29 years old, was born
without hearing in Fuzhou,
China, and immigrated to Queens
with his family when he was 10.
After earning an accounting
degree from the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at the
Rochester Institute of Technology in 2011, he spent about two
Please turn to the next page
“There is no evidence,” he
said. “You know what there is,
there’s the words and the story,
as told by Pedro Hernandez. That
is what this case is about.”
The prosecutor said Mr. Hernandez kept the crime a secret
for three decades, except on a
few occasions when he spoke of
his involvement in Etan’s disappearance and death to people
close to him. Ms. Illuzzi-Orbon
said jurors would hear testimony
from those people, and watch
video of Mr. Hernandez confessing to investigators.
She said Etan was small for
his age, “known for his infectious
smile and bright eyes.” He
longed to be a “big boy” and
walk to his school bus stop by
himself, she said.
“Etan achieved that longwanted goal on the same day
that he had his beautiful little
life snuffed out by the defendant,” Ms. Illuzzi-Orbon said.
She suggested the motive was
sexual. “Why did the defendant
do this?” she said. “You can
imagine choking is not the first
thing that happened to Etan. It is
the second.”
The defense attorney told jurors that Jose Ramos, a convicted child molester currently
serving time in a Pennsylvania
prison on unrelated charges,
could be a viable suspect.
Mr. Ramos was found responsible for Etan’s death in a 2004
civil judgment. He was never
criminally charged in Etan’s case.
Mr. Fishbein said Mr. Hernandez is mentally unstable, sees visions and hears voices.
“He’s inconsistent and unreliable yet he’s the only witness
against himself,” the defense attorney said.
The Weekend Profile
Pin Lu
UberX driver
 Born 29 years ago in
Fuzhou, China, and
immigrated to Queens when
he was 10
 Graduated from the
National Technical Institute
for the Deaf at the Rochester
Institute of Technology
 Did accounting work for
the Defense Department in
Rome, N.Y.
Keith Bedford for The Wall Street Journal
24°
In 2009, former Mayor
Michael Bloomberg was bitten
on the finger by Chuck while trying to coax the furry celebrity
out of his burrow with a corncob.
A
spokesman
for
Mr.
Bloomberg said the former
mayor didn’t have a view on
Driving for UberX,
Not Hearing a Honk
Composite
NEED TO KNOW
groundhog’s death and were concerned about negative publicity.
“They’re prepping for the absolute worst,” said Mark Russo, a
former zoo trustee and Staten Island insurance broker who added
that he talks frequently with current officials.
Mr. de Blasio joked Friday
that he had assembled a “task
force of emergency preparedness
officials” to ensure the ceremony
was safe. He wouldn’t say
whether he planned to attend.
The Staten Island event hasn’t
always been easy on the city’s
mayors.
 Has earned 4.63 out of 5
stars from his passengers
P2JW031000-7-A01500-1--------NS
For decades, Groundhog Day
at the Staten Island Zoo has
given an oft-forgotten borough
its moment in the spotlight.
This year, no one seems to
want to talk about it.
Zoo officials have declined to
comment, and aides to New York
City Mayor Bill de Blasio won’t
say whether he will attend this
year’s annual rite, scheduled for
Monday.
“Ask Staten Island Zoo,” an
administration spokesman said
in an email.
The sense of intrigue comes a
year after the ceremonial rodent
known as Staten Island Chuck
died not long after being
dropped by Mr. Blasio.
Deepening the mystery over
the mayor’s potential role Monday is a finding by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that the
zoo violated the federal Animal
Welfare Act in 2014. The agency
cited the use of an “untrained
person” to handle the groundhog.
The USDA found Chuck also
had fallen from the arms of a
handler during a visit to a school
about a week after the mayor’s
fumble.
The agency’s inspection report, dated Oct. 8, said the zoo
needed to ensure “only trained
personnel
handle
animals
so…there is no stress or physical
harm.”
Officials with the Staten Island Zoo didn’t respond to a request for comment about the
USDA report. The zoo issued a
news release this week promising “a few fun changes” to the
2015 ceremony.
The zoo has said the mayor
had nothing to do with the demise of the groundhog, who was
a female but was known as
Chuck.
The zoo didn’t make Chuck’s
death public until September,
when it said the rodent likely
died of internal injuries from a
fall unrelated to being dropped
by the mayor. Zoo officials also
said then that they didn’t know
how the groundhog fell.
Former members of the zoo’s
board of trustees said officials
there were disturbed by the
Rob Shepperson
BY MARA GAY
A man who confessed to
strangling 6-year-old Etan Patz
went on trial for murder Friday,
35 years after the boy disappeared while on his way to
school.
Lawyers for Pedro Hernandez
told jurors in Manhattan Supreme Court that the 53-year-old
has an IQ of 70 and has difficulty
telling fact from fiction.
Assistant District Attorney
Joan Illuzzi-Orbon said she
would prove Mr. Hernandez
lured Etan into the bodega where
he worked, strangled the boy in
the basement and then disposed
of the body.
“You’ll find a person who
committed a horrible, unspeakable act and then covered his
tracks, always waiting and wondering when the day would come
and the dark secret would come
out. Today is that day,” the prosecutor said.
On the morning of May 25,
1979, Etan vanished after leaving
his family’s home in Manhattan’s
SoHo neighborhood.
The case led to changes in the
way missing-child cases are handled. May 25 later was named
National Missing Children’s Day,
and Etan was among the first
missing children to appear on
the side of a milk carton.
Mr. Hernandez, of Maple
Shade, N.J., was arrested in 2012
and later told law-enforcement
officials he had enticed Etan into
the bodega and killed him. The
case centers on his confession,
which his defense team says was
false.
Wearing a striped shirt, a patterned tie and gray slacks, Mr.
Hernandez sat motionless during
nearly three hours of opening
statements in Judge Maxwell Wiley’s packed courtroom.
Stanley Patz, Etan’s father, sat
with his daughter, Shira, in the
public gallery. Etan’s mother, Julie Patz, wasn't in court Friday
but is expected to testify.
Seated just a few feet away
were Mr. Hernandez’s wife, Rosemary, and their daughter, Becky.
The women held hands as they
watched the proceedings.
Defense attorney Harvey Fishbein asked jurors to consider
that many police officers investigated Etan’s disappearance in
1979 and couldn’t find a crime
scene, let alone Etan’s body.
NYPD/Reuters, Reuters
Mayor’s Fumble of ‘Chuck’ and USDA Report Cast Intrigue Over This Year’s Day
BY THOMAS MACMILLAN
MAGENTA
BLACK
CYAN
YELLOW