VOL. CLXV . . . No. 57,148 © 2016 The New York Times NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2016

Late EditionToday, intervals of clouds and somesunshine, high 59. Tonight, patchyclouds, low 43. Tomorrow, somesunshine, then turning cloudy, high54. Weather map is on Page D7.

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By GEETA ANANDDEORIA, India — The young

man, having skipped school, wasthere to plead his case, but ManojMishra was having none of it.When the truant offered a letterfrom a relative of a governmentminister pleading for leniency,Mr. Mishra grabbed it and, with afrown, tore it in half and droppedit to the floor.

Similar scenes played out re-peatedly in Mr. Mishra’s fluores-cent-lit office recently, as one tru-ant after another appeared be-fore him, trying to explain an ab-sence from school.

But these were not studentswho had been pulled in for tru-ancy. They were teachers.

Mr. Mishra, a district educa-tion officer in India’s most popu-lous state, Uttar Pradesh, is fight-ing one of the biggest obstacles toimproving the largest primary

school system in the world: ab-sent teachers. His tough punish-ments and refusal to back down,chronicled in the local newspa-pers, have turned him into a folkhero. As he walks along the dustystreets of the wheat-farming vil-lages a couple of hours’ drivefrom Nepal, older people touchhis feet in a sign of respect.Young women pull out theirphones and take selfies by hisside.

When Mr. Mishra arrived inDeoria in 2014, 40 percent of thedistrict’s teachers were absenton any given day from its 2,700schools, he said in a recent inter-view. Nationwide, nearly 24 per-cent of rural Indian teacherswere absent during random vis-its for a recent study led by Kar-

Continued on Page A6

THE SATURDAY PROFILE

Truant India Teachers,

Meet Your Nightmare

DOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Pallbearers carried Justice Antonin Scalia’s coffin on Friday into the building where he helped shape American law. Page A12.

Farewell at the Supreme Court

By AMY CHOZICK

LAS VEGAS — In a storefronton this city’s heavily Latino eastside, the civil rights leader Dolo-res Huerta rallied a dozen volun-teers for Hillary Clinton onWednesday night, relating inSpanish a Mexican saying aboutpeople who go near a cactus onlywhen it is bearing fruit.

“Bernie hasn’t been around,”Ms. Huerta said, referring to Sen-ator Bernie Sanders of Vermont,Mrs. Clinton’s opponent in Neva-da’s Democratic caucuses on Sat-urday. “He came to see the Lati-nos when they had the fruit.”

Fifteen minutes away, theMexican actor and game-showhost Marco Antonio Regil stoodin the backyard of a suburbanhome, urging on volunteers forMr. Sanders and his vow to fightincome inequality.

He recalled growing up in Ti-juana, with its wide gap betweenthe rich and the poor. “We cannotallow that extreme social dispar-ity to happen in America,” Mr.Regil said.

The dueling pep rallies pointedto how hotly contested the racehere has become — particularlyamong Latino voters. Nevadawas once supposed to be a fire-wall for Mrs. Clinton, its large mi-nority population primed to ac-celerate her drive to the Demo-cratic nomination. But since hernarrow victory in Iowa andcrushing defeat in New Hamp-shire, it has turned into yet an-other tight and unpredictablecontest, in which Mr. Sandersstands to gain more from a vic-tory and Mrs. Clinton stands to

Continued on Page A10

Clinton TeamFinds NevadaIs Now in Play

Early Test of Strength

Among Hispanics

By ASHLEY PARKERand MATT FLEGENHEIMER

SPARTANBURG, S.C. — TheRepublican presidential candi-dates hurtled across South Caro-lina on Friday, one day before thestate’s primary, as polls showedthe race tightening after an often

nasty week ofcampaigning.Across thecountry in Ne-vada, BernieSanders andHillary Clin-ton tried tolock downsupporters inthe fiercelycontested cau-cuses there.

The vote onSaturday is a critical test of or-ganization and strength for bothparties. Saturday’s Republicanprimary in South Carolina comesas Donald J. Trump’s rivals areclosing in on him after he enjoyedcomfortable leads in the pollshere. A new NBC/Wall StreetJournal/Marist poll showed himjust 5 points ahead, down fromhis 16-point lead in the state amonth ago.

The poll had Senator Ted Cruzof Texas in second place with 23percent, followed by SenatorMarco Rubio of Florida in thirdplace with 15 percent, and Jeb

KEY VOTING TODAYFOR BOTH PARTIESIN LONG CAMPAIGN

CONTESTS MORE BITTER

Last Pitches as Nevada

and South Carolina

Head Into Polling

Continued on Page A11

Marco Rubio

FORAY INTO FOOTBALL Mr. Trump’s ownership of the short-lived NewJersey Generals in the 1980s was rocky, Joe Nocera writes. PAGE D1

REVERSAL ON HEALTH CARE After saying he likes the mandate to havehealth insurance, Donald Trump says he was misunderstood. PAGE A10

This article is by Declan Walsh,Ben Hubbard and Eric Schmitt.

CAIRO — American warplanesbombed a seaside town in Libyaearly Friday aiming to kill a mil-itant commander linked to at-tacks on Western tourists. Butthe mission also highlighted thewidening gap between Americanmilitary operations and diplomat-ic efforts to bring peace and sta-bility to a tumultuous region.

The airstrikes on a trainingcamp in Sabratha, targeting a Tu-nisian militant associated withplanning two major attacks onWestern tourists in Tunisia lastyear, did demonstrate the UnitedStates’ growing concern overLibya as a new base for the Is-lamic State and its willingness touse air power against militantcommanders and infrastructure.

Yet every terrorist strike alsounderscores the limits of theAmerican approach to the coun-tries where the Islamic State isstrongest, as the focus on mil-itary action has not beenmatched by diplomatic efforts toresolve the core political issuesthat allow jihadists to prosper.

In Libya, efforts to build a uni-ty government have made littleprogress. In Iraq, there has beenlittle success in easing Sunni re-sentment. And in Syria, an an-

nounced “cessation of hostilities”has not materialized.

Secretary of State John Kerryinsists that there are politicalprocesses in place in each ofthose countries, and thatprogress is possible. But he ac-knowledges that for different rea-sons all are quite fragile.

In Syria, the United States mil-itary efforts have proved modest-ly successful in degrading the Is-lamic State. A combination of

American and allied airstrikes, aswell as military support for fight-ers on the ground, has caused thegroup, also known as ISIS orISIL, to lose territory. On Friday,American-backed Kurdish-ledforces seized the eastern Syriancity of Shadadi, important for itsnearby oil and gas fields.

But Friday was also the daythat a “cessation of hostilities”announced by the United States,Russia and more than a dozenother countries, was to take ef-fect. Instead, a scheduled meet-ing of a cease-fire task force wascanceled and violence continuedacross Syria.

The picture is similar in Iraq,where military support by a Unit-ed States-led coalition has helped

U.S. Bombing in Libya Reveals Strategy’s Limits

Airstrikes on Camp

Show Fears About

Rise of ISIS

Continued on Page A3

WASHINGTON — For years,President Obama has struggled toreconcile a civil libertarian’s beliefin personal privacy with a com-mander in chief’s imperatives forthe nation’s security.

This week, security won.The decision by Mr. Obama’s

Justice Department to force Appleto help it breach an iPhone usedby one of the San Bernardino ter-rorists has ended, at least for now,the president’s attempts to strad-dle the feud over encryption be-tween Silicon Valley and law en-forcement. [Page B1.]

Asked about the president’sbacking of the Federal Bureau ofInvestigation’s inquiry into SanBernardino, one of the worst ter-ror attacks in the United Statessince Sept. 11, 2001, Mr. Obama’spress secretary declared onWednesday that “the F.B.I. cancount on the full support of theWhite House.”

TORN, BUT OBAMANODS TO SECURITY

Privacy Takes 2nd Placein iPhone Dispute

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR

Continued on Page B5

Harper Lee, whose first novel, “To Kill a Mock-ingbird,” about racial injustice in a small Alabamatown, sold more than 40 million copies and becameone of the most beloved and most widely taughtworks of fiction ever written by an American, diedon Friday in Monroeville, Ala., where she lived. Shewas 89.

Hank Conner, a nephew of Ms. Lee’s, said thatshe died in her sleep at the Meadows, an assistedliving facility.

The instant success of “To Kill a Mockingbird,”which was published in 1960 and won the PulitzerPrize for fiction the next year, turned Ms. Lee into aliterary celebrity, a role she found oppressive andnever learned to accept.

“I never expected any sort of success with‘Mockingbird,’” Ms. Lee told a radio interviewer in1964. “I was hoping for a quick and merciful death atthe hands of the reviewers, but, at the same time Isort of hoped someone would like it well enough togive me encouragement.”

The enormous popularity of the film version ofthe novel, released in 1962 with Gregory Peck in thestarring role of Atticus Finch, a small-town Southernlawyer who defends a black man falsely accused ofraping a white woman, only added to Ms. Lee’s fameand fanned expectations for her next novel.

But for more than half a century a second novelfailed to turn up, and Ms. Lee gained a reputation asa literary Garbo, a recluse whose public appear-ances to accept an award or an honorary degreecounted as important news simply because of their

NELLE HARPER LEE, 1926-2016

‘Mockingbird’ Author, Elusive Voice of the Small-Town South

By WILLIAM GRIMES

Harper Lee on a visit to her hometown of Monroeville, Ala., in 1961.DONALD UHRBROCK/THE LIFE IMAGES COLLECTION, VIA GETTY IMAGES

Continued on Page A14

AN APPRAISAL Harper Lee’s novels tackle differentmyths on race, Michiko Kakutani writes. PAGE A15

FIRST TAKE The New York Times review of “To Kill aMockingbird” when it was published in 1960. PAGE C1

Since a deadly explosion last year, NewYork City has increased the number ofinspectors and inspections. PAGE A16

NEW YORK A16-17, 20

More Scrutiny of Gas Plumbing

The struggling Internet company for-mally lays the groundwork for selling allor parts of its business. PAGE B2

Steps Toward Sale of Yahoo

The Italian scholar of semiotics, whowrote the medieval mystery “The Nameof the Rose,” was 84. PAGE B7

OBITUARIES A14-15, B7

Umberto Eco Is Dead

Albert Woodfox, who spent nearly 40years in solitary and faced a retrial for amurder, is free in a plea deal. PAGE A8

End to Decades in 6-by-9 Cell

A British supermarket is rejecting thetraditional curved croissant in favor ofstraight ones, appalling some. PAGE A4

INTERNATIONAL A3-7

The Taming of the Twist

New health guidelines aim to safeguardblood supplies from the virus. PAGE A5

Zika and Blood Donations

The Mets are still working out how tohandle David Wright, who missed muchof last season with a degenerative backcondition. PAGE D6

SPORTSSATURDAY D1-6

Mets Wonder About Captain

The venerable museum’s new logo isbig and red and has a whiff of the Tem-ple of Dendur about it. PAGE C1

Can the Met Be in All Caps?

The creators of Germany’s newest sub-way line seek to transform commuterdrudgery into art appreciation. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-6

3-D Magic in a Subway Ride

A father and son rely on the buddy sys-tem and learn to connect on an adven-turous excursion through an exotic un-derworld off Thailand. Their experienceincluded following colorful fish, peeringunder boulders and pointing out hiddencreatures. TRAVEL

THIS WEEKEND

A Dive in the Andaman Sea

Gail Collins PAGE A19

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A18-19

China’s top securities regulator, XiaoGang, has been replaced, the state newsagency said, brought down by turbu-lence in the stock market. PAGE B1

BUSINESS DAY B1-6

China Securities Chief OustedThe Supreme Court declined to stay aruling that ordered North Carolina to re-draw congressional districts to avoid ra-cial gerrymandering. PAGE A9

NATIONAL A8-13

Carolina District Fight

C M Y K Nxxx,2016-02-20,A,001,Bs-BK,E2_K