VOL. CLXIII . . . No. 56,459 + © 2014 The New York Times NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 2014

Late EditionToday, clouds and periodic sun, ashower in spots, high 63. Tonight,mostly cloudy, low 46. Tomorrow,mostly cloudy, rain at times, cooler,high 54. Weather map, Page B18.

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By MICHAEL PAULSON

The archbishop of Atlanta hada plan to resolve the spacecrunch at his cathedral: Hewould move out of his residenceso priests could move in, andthen he would build himself anew house with donated moneyand land.

It was not just any house. Itwas a $2.2 million, 6,000-square-foot mansion, with plenty of roomto host and entertain, on land be-queathed by Joseph Mitchell, awealthy nephew of the author of“Gone With the Wind,” MargaretMitchell.

But as Pope Francis seeks “achurch which is poor and for thepoor,” expectations for Catholicleaders are changing rapidly. Soon Monday night, ArchbishopWilton D. Gregory apologized,saying that laypeople had toldhim they were unhappy with hisnew house, and promising toseek guidance from priests andlaypeople and to follow their ad-vice about whether to sell it.

“What we didn’t stop to consid-er, and that oversight rests withme and me alone, was that theworld and the church havechanged,” he wrote in the arch-diocesan newspaper, The Geor-gia Bulletin. He added, “The ex-ample of the Holy Father, and theway people of every sector of oursociety have responded to hismessage of gentle joy and com-

Bishops Follow

Pope’s Example:

Opulent Is Out

Continued on Page A14

By FERNANDA SANTOS and ERICA GOODE

ALBUQUERQUE — JamesBoyd, a homeless man campingin the Sandia Foothills here,could hear the commands of thepolice officers who were trying tomove him out.

The problem was that Mr.Boyd, 38, had a history of mentalillness, and so was living in a dif-ferent reality, one in which hewas a federal agent and notsomeone to be bossed around.

“Don’t attempt to give me, theDepartment of Defense, anotherdirective,” he told the officers. Ashort while later, the police shotand killed him, saying he hadpulled out two knives and threat-ened their lives.

The March 16 shooting, cap-tured in a video taken with an of-ficer’s helmet camera and re-leased by the Albuquerque PoliceDepartment, has stirred protestsand some violence in Albuquer-que and prompted the FederalBureau of Investigation to beginan inquiry into the death. But ithas also focused attention on thegrowing number of people withsevere mental disorders who, inthe absence of adequate mentalhealth services, are coming incontact with the criminal justicesystem, sometimes with deadlyconsequences.

In towns and cities across theUnited States, police officers find

Police Confront

Rising Number

Of Mentally Ill

Continued on Page A19

This article is by Jodi Rudoren,Michael R. Gordon and MarkLandler.

JERUSALEM — The MiddleEast peace talks verged on abreakdown Tuesday night, afterPresident Mahmoud Abbas of thePalestinian Authority defied theUnited States and Israel by tak-ing concrete steps to join 15 in-ternational agencies — a move togain the benefits of statehoodoutside the negotiations process.

Mr. Abbas’s actions, which ap-peared to catch American and Is-raeli officials by surprise,prompted Secretary of State JohnKerry to cancel a planned returnto the region on Wednesday, inwhich he had expected to com-plete an agreement extending ne-gotiations through 2015.

In that emerging deal, theUnited States would release anAmerican convicted of spying forIsrael more than 25 years ago,while Israel would free hundredsof Palestinian prisoners and slowdown construction of Jewish set-tlements in the West Bank.

Mr. Abbas, who had vowed notto seek membership in interna-tional bodies until the April 29 ex-piration of the talks that Mr. Ker-ry started last summer, said hewas taking this course becauseIsrael had failed to release afourth batch of long-serving Pal-estinian prisoners by the end ofMarch, as promised.

Israeli officials say they are notbound by their pledge because nomeaningful negotiations havetaken place since November.

American officials, while rat-tled, said the Palestinians ap-peared to be using leverageagainst Israel rather than tryingto scuttle the negotiations. Mr.Abbas, they noted, did not movetoward joining the InternationalCriminal Court, a step Israelfears most because the Palestin-ians could use the court to con-test Israel’s presence in the West

Bank.Still, a senior American official

said Mr. Kerry’s decision not toreturn to the region immediatelyreflected a growing impatience inthe White House, which believesthat his mediating efforts havereached their limit and that thetwo sides need to work their wayout of the current impasse.

In announcing the moves, Mr.Abbas said, “This is our right.”He has been under pressure fromother Palestinian leaders and thepublic to leverage the nonmem-ber observer-state status theywon at the United Nations in 2012to join a total of 63 internationalbodies.

“We do not want to use thisright against anybody or to con-front anybody,” he said, as hesigned the membership applica-tions live on Palestinian televi-sion. “We don’t want to collidewith the U.S. administration. Wewant a good relationship withWashington because it helped usand exerted huge efforts. But be-cause we did not find ways for asolution, this becomes our right.”

The United States votedagainst the Palestinians’ 2012 bidin the United Nations GeneralAssembly, and it blocked a simi-

Abbas Takes Defiant Step,

And Mideast Talks Falter

Kerry Cancels Trip — Palestinian Authority

Seeks to Join International Agencies

MAJDI MOHAMMED/ASSOCIATED PRESS

President Mahmoud Abbas ofthe Palestinian Authority.

Continued on Page A12

BRYAN DENTON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Afghan women cheered for Habiba Sarobi, a candidate for vice president in Saturday’s election, as she spoke in Kabul on Monday.

By ROD NORDLAND

KABUL, Afghanistan — Ma-riam Wardak is one of thoseyoung Afghans with her feet intwo worlds: At 28, she has spentmuch of her adult life in Afghani-stan, but she grew up in the Unit-ed States after her family fledthere. She vividly remembers theculture shock of visits back to herfamily’s village in rural WardakProvince a decade ago.

“A woman wouldn’t even showher face to her brother-in-law liv-ing in the same house for 25years,” she said. “People wouldjoke that if someone kidnappedour ladies, we would have to findthem from their voices. Nowwomen in Wardak show theirfaces — they see everybodyelse’s faces.”

Ms. Wardak’s mother, Zakia, isa prime example. She used towear a burqa in public, but nowhas had her face printed on thou-sands of ballot pamphlets for theprovincial council in Wardak. Shecampaigns in person in a district,Saydabad, that is thick with Tali-ban.

She has plenty of company inthis year’s elections, scheduledfor Saturday. Another 300 womenare running for provincial councilseats around the country, morethan ever before. And for the first

time, a woman — Habiba Sarobi,the former governor of BamianProvince — is running for vicepresident on a leading nationalticket.

There is finally the sense here,after years of international aidand effort geared toward improv-ing Afghan’s women’s lives, thatwomen have become a signifi-cant part of Afghan political life,if not a powerful one.

But their celebratory momentis also colored by the worry thatthose gains could so easily be re-versed if extremists come backinto power, or if Western aiddwindles. Those concerns haveadded urgency to this campaignseason for women who are fight-ing to make their leadershipmore acceptable in a still deeply

Afghan Women Seeing Hope in the Ballot Box

Continued on Page A8

But Many Fear Loss of

Rights if the Taliban

Regain Influence

GABRIELLA DEMCZUK/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Mary T. Barra, the General Motors chief executive, told lawmakers on Tuesday that the companywas considering paying damages to victims of accidents in cars with flawed switches. Page B1.

G.M. Chief Offers Apology, and May Put Money Behind It

This article is by Kirk Johnson,Jack Healy and Ian Lovett.

OSO, Wash. — The words, re-corded by the Snohomish Countyemergency response system inthe frantic minutes after a giantwall of earth slid down the moun-tain here on the morning ofMarch 22, were breathy and la-bored. “All the homes on Steel-head Drive are gone,” a man saidwith long pauses between his

words.Those eight words proved

bleakly authoritative. Thoughthere were victims from else-where in the narrow Stillaguam-ish River Valley among the 28confirmed dead by the medicalexaminer and 20 others still miss-ing, Steelhead Drive is the namethat rolls out again and again,like the chorus of a dirge.

The Ruthvens and the Sattler-lees, the Spillers and the Hal-steads — among many other fam-

ilies missing and now presumeddead by responders who continueto search the one-square-mile de-bris field where 49 homes weredestroyed that day — did not justlive on Steelhead Drive. They de-fined it with their lives.

It was not the fanciest locale.Oso, in the Cascade Mountainsnortheast of Seattle, did not at-tract people for its night life orgourmet restaurants — it hadneither — but for the view ofsnow-capped Mount Higgins, or

the fishing, or the hiking trailsthat beckoned from Mount BakerNational Forest. And when themountain slipped, and an esti-mated 15 million cubic yards ofsoil and rock and spiraling top-pled trees came down, SteelheadDrive caught the landslide’ssurging brunt.

Place, in a few shattering sec-onds, became placelessness.Now, on the broken plain of de-

Steelhead Drive Is Gone, Along With So Many Lives Lived on It

Continued on Page A14

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR and ROBERT PEAR

WASHINGTON — PresidentObama declared victory Tuesdayin the government’s aggressivepush to enroll seven million peo-ple in private health insuranceplans under the Affordable CareAct, even as his senior aidesbraced for an escalated politicalbattle over the law ahead of thefall’s crucial midterm elections.

The milestone may be moresignificant politically than forwhat it says about the law’s po-tential impact on the Americanhealth system, which remainsunclear. But officials said it wasunlikely to have much of an im-pact on public perception of thelaw, and the announcement didlittle to deflect immediate crit-icism from its Republican oppo-nents.

In an afternoon Rose Gardenceremony, Mr. Obama announcedthat a late surge of customers toHealthCare.gov before Monday’sdeadline had pushed insurancesignups to 7.1 million, slightlymore than the administration’soriginal goal. The achievementwas somewhat remarkable con-sidering the bureaucratic andtechnical nightmare that sur-rounded the website’s debut lastOctober.

“Armageddon has not arrived,”the president said to an audienceof White House staff membersand supporters who greeted theannouncement with an extendedstanding ovation. “Instead, thislaw is helping millions of Ameri-cans, and in the coming years itwill help millions more.”

Having endured months ofscathing criticism for the botchedrollout of the law, White House of-ficials embraced the news, post-

Obama ClaimsVictory in Push

For Insurance

Continued on Page A18

Foreign ministers pledged stronger mil-itary forces in Eastern Europe. PAGE A12

NATO Responds to Russia

Marine Le Pen has positioned her far-right National Front party to addresswidespread worries. PAGE A4

INTERNATIONAL A3-12

Moderation Pays Off in FranceA reimagined National Civil Rights Mu-seum is to be unveiled this week. A re-view by Edward Rothstein. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-8

Retelling History in Memphis

A filmmaker and subject play cat andmouse. A review by A.O. Scott. PAGE C1

A Rumsfeld Documentary

Representative Paul D. Ryan laid out aG.O.P. budget with more for defense,steep cuts to Medicaid and the repeal ofthe Affordable Care Act. PAGE A19

NATIONAL A13-19

A G.O.P. Budget BlueprintBitcoins, mobile wallets, online paymentmethods and other new technologiesare all vying to represent the future ofmoney. It remains to be seen which oneswill succeed in winning over consumers,thwarting thieves and displacing papermoney. SECTION F

SPECIAL TODAY

DealBook

Thomas L. Friedman PAGE A27

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27

Lobbyists once championed an effort tolower corporate tax rates. Now they aredoing all they can to stop it. PAGE B1

BUSINESS DAY B1-11

Now Lobbying for Status Quo

A report traces the agency’s strugglesto a decaying business model. PAGE A20

NEW YORK A20-24

Troubles for the Port AuthorityC. C. Sabathia was shelled for six runsas the Yankees lost their season opener,6-2, to the Astros in Houston. PAGE B12

SPORTSWEDNESDAY B12-18

Sour Start for the Yankees

The financier, who went to prison forfraud and symbolized the 1980s savings-and-loan crisis, was 90. PAGE A25

OBITUARIES A25

Charles H. Keating Jr. DiesMuriel E. Bowser beat Mayor Vincent C.Gray in the Democratic primary, in arace with integrity at issue. PAGE A13

Upset for Washington Mayor

C M Y K Nxxx,2014-04-02,A,001,Bs-BK,E2_+