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frigid tonight.Details, A8

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INDEXVol. 127 · No. 16

Five sections48 pages

WPIALPLAYOFFS Penn-Traffordgirls defeatSenecaValleywithbuzzer-beater C9

WEDNESDAY,FEBRUARY18, 2015HH

Worthy ofWestern Pennsylvania

PRICEMAYVARYOUTSIDEPRIMARYMARKET50¢

HUNGRYFORMOREOSCARNOMINE

ES

INSPIRECULINARY

CREATIONS D1

DRESSEDFOR EXCESSThe Zulu Social Aidand Pleasure Clubparades down St.Charles Avenue duringMardi Gras in NewOrleans. News thatat least 19 peoplewere killed duringCarnival celebrationsin Haiti and Brazil casta dark cloud over FatTuesday. Story, A2

REUTERS

Pirates pitcher A.J. Burnett greetscenterfielder Andrew McCutchen uponMcCutchen’s arrival at Pirate City on Tuesdayin Bradenton, Fla. Although pitchers andcatchers are to report Wednesday, most ofthe team, including the all-star outfielder, arein camp for an early start.

Pirates second baseman Neil Walker worksout during defensive drills. “This organizationis all I’ve known and, hopefully, it will be theonly one I ever know,” said Walker, whosecontract had to be settled by a three-personboard of arbiters. Story, C3

PHOTOS: CHRISTOPHER HORNER | TRIB TOTAL MEDIA

PITCHERS AND CATCHUPS

Carnegie Mellon Univer-sity is retracting a red-carpetwelcome this week for about800 applicants who receivedacceptance notices by mis-take.The prestigious Oakland-based school issued a rarepublic apologyTuesday to theaffected students, who soughtadmission to a graduatecomputer science program.Carnegie Mellon sent themacceptance letters via emailMonday, a flub the schoolblamed on “serious mistakesin our process for generating”the letters.“Once the error was discov-ered, the university movedquickly to notify affected ap-plicants,” the school said ina statement. “We understandthe disappointment createdby this mistake and deeplyapologize to the applicantsfor this miscommunication.”SpokesmanKenWalters de-clined to elaborate, althoughthe school said it is reviewinganotification process “to helpensure this doesnothappen inthe future.”Higher education consul-tants called the error the lat-est in a string of high-profileacceptancemix-ups at schoolsacross the country. The trou-ble at CarnegieMellon standsout because it happened atthe graduate level, said MikeReilly, executive director attheWashington-basedAmeri-can Association of CollegiateRegistrars and AdmissionsOfficers.“Usually you see it in cen-tral admissions operations,usually at the undergraduatelevel”whereadmissionswork-ers deal with thousands of

by ADAM SMELTZ

800mistakenly receiveacceptance emailsto graduate program

HopesofCMUdegreedashed

CMU · A4

WASHINGTON — The Obama administrationwill permit the widespread sale of armed dronesfor the first time, a step toward providing alliednationswithweapons that have become a corner-stone of America’s counterterrorism strategybut whose remotely controlled power to kill isintensely controversial.The policy, announced Tuesday at the conclu-sion of a long internal review, is a significantstep for the nation’s arms policy as allied nationsfrom Italy to Turkey to the Persian Gulf region

clamor for the aircraft. It is a nod to defense firmsscrambling to secure a greater share of a growingglobal drone market.“The technology is here to stay,” a senior StateDepartment official said, speaking on the condi-tion of anonymity. “It’s to our benefit to have cer-tain allies and partners equipped appropriately.”But inareflectionof thesensitivitysurrounding

THE WASHINGTON POST

U.S. to allow sale of armed dronesAllies who receive weapons must agreeto monitoring, among other strict rules Horrifying revelation

» Islamic State terrorists have burned todeath 45 people in the western Iraqi town ofal-Baghdadi, an official says. A2

DRONES · A5

His guilt established,Rob McCord’s next legalbattles will be over howmuch time and money theformer state treasurerwilllose to the federal govern-ment.McCord pleaded guiltyTuesday to two federalcounts of attempted ex-tortion for shaking downtwo state contractors for

campaign money duringthe Democratic primaryfor governor. Legal expertssay it’s unlikely his sen-tencewill beanythingnearthe maximum penalty of40 years in prison and a$500,000 fine.U.S. District Judge JohnE. Jones III scheduled apre-sentencing conferencefor June 29.“This is one of thosetimes when things aresupposed to be very wideopen, and the judge takeseverything into account,”said Bruce Antkowiak, aformer federal prosecu-tor and law professor atSt. Vincent College nearLatrobe.Whether McCord coop-erated with investigators,the damage to public con-fidence ingovernment andthe amount of money in-volved will factor into thesentence, Antkowiak said.State law requires em-ployees to forfeit their pen-sions if convicted of theftby extortion, using theiroffice to commit crimesor using their official

McCord could getslap or smackdown

by MIKE WERESCHAGINAND NATASHA LINDSTROM

Ex-treasurer pleadsguilty; acts might betreated as seriousbreach or brief lapse

MCCORD · A4

AP

Bank of New York Mellon Corp. said itis close to resolving federal lawsuits ac-cusing the bank of defrauding clients inforeign exchange transactions, likely at acost of several hundred million dollars.The world’s largest custody bank dis-closed late Tuesday that it expected to pay$598million to resolve outstanding issues,including “all of the foreign exchange-related actions.”The announcement proved to be a blowto the bank’s previously released fourth-quarter profit. A settlement would let itmove on from allegations that the govern-ment has been investigating since at least2009, said Marty Mosby, an analyst withVining Sparks in Memphis.“It’s just another one of the boxes thatgets checked off as theywork through theoverhanging issues that are left over fromthe financial crisis,” Mosby said.BNY Mellon spokesman Kevin Heinedeclined comment beyond a news release,whichdidnot specify theother issues closeto resolution.The foreign exchange casewas a signifi-cant headwind facing the bank as it facespressure fromWall Street to cut costs andimprove profitability.The government sued the New York-basedbank in late 2011, seekingmore than$1.5 billion in damages over claims thatBNY Mellon misled institutional clientsby offering the most advantageous mar-ket price of the day during trades but notdelivering the best price for them. Severalstates filed similar lawsuits, but many ofthosehave since been settled. BNYMellonhas denied the allegations.“This was probably their biggest legalissue,” said Paul Gulberg, an analyst atPortales Partners in New York. “They’reputting that behind them.”The charge slashed the bank’s fourth-quarter profit to a quarter of what it origi-nally reported. Fourth-quarter earnings

by CHRIS FLEISHER

BNYMellon: Fraudsuits resolution near

Bankexpectsto pay$598M

BNY MELLON · A4

WASHINGTON — TheWhite House will suspendplans to begin giving morethan 4 million illegal immi-grants work permits as itpursues an appeal of a Texasfederal judge’s ruling thattemporarily blocks PresidentObama’s executive action onimmigration.

The ruling late Monday byU.S. District Judge AndrewHanen throwsmillions of im-migrants into limbo. The in-junction allows a coalition of26 states more time to pursuea lawsuit to permanently stopObama’s Nov. 20 executive or-der, which would shield fromdeportation more than 4 mil-lion immigrants living in theUnited States illegally.

Citizenship and Immigra-tionServiceshadbeen expect-ed to begin accepting applica-tions Wednesday for a part ofthe program that would deferdeportation for an estimated270,000 immigrants brought tothe country as children.Other parts of the programwere set to begin in May, butHomelandSecurity SecretaryJeh Johnson said the admin-istration had no choice butto conform to the ruling andwouldn’t be accepting appli-cations.

“Wemust comply,” Johnsonsaid in a statement.Many Republican leadersissued news releases to praisethe ruling. Senate MajorityLeader Mitch McConnell ofKentucky said the decisionunderscored the contentionofmany that thepresident didn’thave the authority tounilater-ally change immigration laws.Hanen based his temporaryinjunctiononhis findings thatat least one plaintiff, Texas,

TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

Court rulingputsObama immigrationplanonholdDecision could provide Republican legislatorscover to approveHomeland Security funding

IMMIGRATION · A4