FBI Listed Prize-Winning Author as a Unabomber Suspect

Monica Almeida/The New York Times William T. Vollmann in 2009.

William T. Vollman probably expected to find something worth writing about in his F.B.I. file. But he did not expect to discover that he’d been listed as a suspect in the case of the Unabomber. The National Book Award winning author, known for his many works of fiction and reportage, wrote about the F.B.I.’s surveillance of him in this month’s issue of Harper’s.

The file, portions of which Mr. Vollman was able to view through a suit filed under the Freedom of Information Act, runs hundreds of pages, revealing that the government gathered information on him for years, and also considered him as a suspect in the anthrax investigations of 2001, in part because they had looked at him in connection with the Unabomber case.

“I guess I can’t blame them” for following leads, Mr. Vollman said in an NPR interview on Thursday.

“Everybody is probably guilty of something,” he told the radio host David Greene. But, he added, “The main thing that I have to hide is that I don’t have anything to hide.”

Mr. Vollman said the F.B.I. ought to have cleared him and ceased surveillance when the Unabomber was caught, in 1996.

“If we’re not allowed to know what they’re doing with this information,” he said, “I can’t help but think that we are headed for really serious trouble.”

Brooklyn Bowl to Open Sister Clubs in London and Las Vegas

Emily Berl for The New York Times Crowds outside Brooklyn Bowl in January 2011.

Brooklyn Bowl, one of the city’s most popular music nightspots, is expanding to two other cities, establishing clubs in London and Las Vegas, the owners said.

The partners behind the nightclub in Brooklyn â€" a converted bowling alley on Wythe Avenue that features food and live music â€" say they have signed deals to lease large spaces adjacent to the O2 Arena in London and at the base of a giant ferris wheel in a new outdoor mall in Las Vegas.

Both clubs will be built to resemble the Brooklyn performance space, with bowling lanes, elaborate video screens, a music stage and food provided by Blue Ribbon Restaurants, the culinary company headed by Eric and Bruce Bromberg, the club owners said. “It will feel like you are in Brooklyn,” said Peter Shapiro, one of the partners.

The Las Vegas club will be 78,000 square feet with two levels, big enough to hold 2,000 people. Madison Square Garden Entertainment is a minority investor in the project, having contributed about $25 million to the project, which will include a “high energy bar and restaurant,” according to the company’s earning call this week.

“Peter and his team at Brooklyn Bowl have put together an innovative model that has made Brooklyn Bowl a favorite for fans of live music,” Melissa Ormond, president of MSG Entertainment, said in a statement. “We are thrilled to partner with them to take the Bowl to Las Vegas.”

Chad Batka for The New York Times Kanye West performing at Brooklyn Bowl in 2010.

Mr. Shapiro â€" who owns Brooklyn Bowl with Charley Ryan, Jim Woods and Alex Cornfeld â€" said the London club will have a closed circuit connection to video cameras and the main sound board inside the 02 Arena, allowing the club to show live concerts in the arena as they happen. The club will also book its own bands some nights and serve as a forum for after-concert parties and shows, he said.

Mr. Shapiro said the partnership that controls Brooklyn Bowl â€" the Bowls L.L.C. â€" had signed a 15-year lease with the concert giant AEG, which owns the 02 Arena. He expects that club to open before Christmas.

Jay Marciano, the president and chief executive of AEG Europe, said his company will be more than a landlord. AEG has entered an equal partnership with Brooklyn Bowl to build the club in a 28,000-square-foot exhibition space in the arena complex and will share in its profits.

Mr. Marciano said he became an admirer of Brooklyn Bowl during his tenure in New York as the head of Madison Square Garden Entertainment, noting it was popular among musicians as well as fans. About a year ago, having taken the helm of AEG Europe, Mr. Marciano approached Mr. Shapiro and proposed converting the exhibition space at the O2 into a similar club. “I figured that was the best use of the space,” he said in an interview.

AEG has also entered a partnership with Brooklyn Bowl to handing the booking of acts at the Las Vegas club, which is scheduled to open in March, Mr. Shapiro said.

Not only have Mr. Shapiro and his partners enticed both AEG and Madison Square Garden to invest in their new venture, but they have entered a 15-year lease agreement with Caesars Entertainment, the casino and resort company developing The Linq, an open-air mall on the Las Vegas Strip. The mall will feature the High Roller, one of the largest Ferris wheels in the world, and the new Brooklyn Bowl is being built at its base.

“I feel good about it,” Mr. Shapiro said. “Some of the biggest names in the entertainment business are coming together on a venue that then will be owned by an independent company.”

Mr. Shapiro declined to say how much he and his partners are investing in the two new clubs, nor how it is being financed, saying only the group has “committed several million dollars.” The partners also have been searching for a space in the West Loop of Chicago for a fourth club, he said.

The owners are hoping their rapid expansion, just four years after opening the club in Brooklyn, pays off. In London, they are betting people shut out of sold-out concerts at the arena will pay to see the shows in their club. In Las Vegas, they note, most nightclubs are offering electronic dance music, and, aside from the big casinos, performance spaces devoted to live bands are few.

The Brooklyn club offers an eclectic mix of performers, from emerging indie bands to old-time funk groups like the Meters. “Being in a place that’s lifting off - and you’re a part of it,” Mr. Ryan said. “That’s a feeling everybody wants.”

Found After Decades, a Forgotten Tape of King ‘Thinking on His Feet’

George Tames/The New York Times The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963.

There are hundreds of thousands of carefully preserved manuscripts and recordings that chronicle every speech, interview and public appearance made by one of America’s greatest orators, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. At least one of his appearances, however, seems to have slipped through the cracks of time, only to be discovered nearly 50 years later in the archives of the New School.

And it still seems as relevant today as it was back then.

“I think America, somehow, must face her moment of atonement.” Dr. King said, in response to a question about “preferential treatment” for African-Americans. “Not just atonement for atonement’s sake, but we must face the fact that we’re going to pay for it somehow. If we don’t do it, we’re going to pay for it with the welfare rolls, we’re going to pay for it in many other ways.”

On Feb. 6, 1964, Dr. King delivered a speech at the New School, inaugurating a series of lectures called “The American Race Crisis.” While no audio record of the speech has been found, the school has recovered an audiotape containing 15 minutes of a question-and-answer session that had followed. Experts dedicated to the study of Dr. King said they had never heard of the speech or the follow-up discussion before.

“I was dazzled,” said Steve Klein, director of communications at the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta. “Dr. King made a lot of preparation for all his speeches, but what’s particularly interesting about this Q. and A. is he’s thinking on his feet.”

Like many such finds, the discovery of the long-lost audiotape happened by chance. Two years ago, Chris Crews, a graduate student in politics, noticed that a photo of Dr. King standing at a podium in the New School’s Tishman auditorium was included in an e-mail from the school about coming events. Intrigued, Mr. Crews started digging. It took about six months, but with the help of a school librarian, a tape labeled “Crisis King PT 2’’ was discovered in a box at the New School. (Presumably there was a “Crisis King PT 1,” and the hunt for that continues.)

In his remarks at the New School, Dr. King spoke about a conversation he had with Jawaharlal Nehru, the prime minister of India at the time. He compared the lot of African-Americans in the United States to the untouchables in India, a community that was treated as inferior and ostracized, and made a moral and economic argument in favor of affirmative action.

“It is a part of the social consciousness of our great democracy,” Dr. King said. “We have many things that we do; if we deprive somebody of something, we do give something special to make up for that deprivation.”

Dr. King’s appearance occurred days before the landmark Civil Rights bill passed in the House of Representatives and less than five months after he delivered what is perhaps his most famous speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington. With the 50th anniversary of that speech approaching, some civil rights leaders say the gains that have been made by blacks are threatened by recent Supreme Court rulings on affirmative education in higher education and on the Voting Rights Act.

Fredrick Harris, director of the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University, said the audiotape of Dr. King’s remarks at the New School was “an incredible find because our image of Dr. King and the civil rights movement is seen only through the lens of the great moments of the movement.” He added, “What this demonstrates is how he was engaged in the day-to-day struggles and conversations and thinking about policies that are still living with us today.”

Miles Kohrman, a graduate of the New School who still spends most of his days at the school’s archive, has unearthed nine additional reel-to-reel tapes from the Race Crisis series.

“This is an incredible lineup of civil rights activists that totally disappeared off the face of the map,” Mr. Kohrman, 22, said. The series included lectures by Charles Abrams, founder of the New York City Housing Authority; Roy Wilkins, the director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; and Melvin Tumin, a Princeton sociologist who specialized in race relations.

Since the discovery of the Race Crisis series, the school has slowly made a more conscientious effort to preserve its past.

“There had never been a sustained attempt to really get a handle on all the material, or make it widely known and accessible,” said Wendy Scheir, director of the New School archives and special collections last year.

Pointing to thousands of newspaper clippings that had been kept in crumbling and poorly organized scrapbooks, Ms. Scheir added, “You would open them up and find this mountain of flakes on your feet.”

Mr. Kohrman is busy organizing an exhibition for the Race Crisis series that will take place in February, marking its 50th anniversary. One feature will be an audio stand where visitors can listen to the timeless voice of Dr. King.

“It will bring America to that great day, when all of us will have a sort of moral balance,’’ Dr. King tells his New School audience at one point, “where everybody can know that we can sit on or under our own vine and fig tree and not be afraid, knowing that we do live in a country where equality of opportunity is a reality.”

New York Film Festival Will Honor Cate Blanchett and Ralph Fiennes

Film Society of Lincoln Center Cate Blanchett and Ralph Fiennes

She plays the disgraced socialite moviegoers love to hate, and he plays the noseless villain whose name you’re not supposed to say, but they’ll both be honored at the New York Film Festival. Cate Blanchett, the star of “Blue Jasmine,” and Ralph Fiennes, who portrayed Lord Voldemort in the “Harry Potter” films, will each be the subject of a gala tribute in October, the Film Society of Lincoln Center said  Thursday.

Ms. Blanchett and Mr. Fiennes (who starred together in the 1997 romantic drama “Oscar and Lucinda”) are among the artists “who have made significant artistic contributions to film culture in the past and will continue to do so in the future,” the Film Society said in a news release. Previous recipients of its tributes have included Pedro Almodóvar, David Cronenberg and Nicole Kidman.

Ms. Blanchett, an Academy Award winner for “The Aviator,” will be honored with a dinner and tribute screening on Oct. 2. Mr. Fiennes, an Oscar nominee for “Schindler’s List” and “The English Patient,” and whose new film “The Invisible Woman” will be presented at this year’s New York Film Festival, will be honored  Oct. 9.

New York Film Festival Will Honor Cate Blanchett and Ralph Fiennes

Film Society of Lincoln Center Cate Blanchett and Ralph Fiennes

She plays the disgraced socialite moviegoers love to hate, and he plays the noseless villain whose name you’re not supposed to say, but they’ll both be honored at the New York Film Festival. Cate Blanchett, the star of “Blue Jasmine,” and Ralph Fiennes, who portrayed Lord Voldemort in the “Harry Potter” films, will each be the subject of a gala tribute in October, the Film Society of Lincoln Center said  Thursday.

Ms. Blanchett and Mr. Fiennes (who starred together in the 1997 romantic drama “Oscar and Lucinda”) are among the artists “who have made significant artistic contributions to film culture in the past and will continue to do so in the future,” the Film Society said in a news release. Previous recipients of its tributes have included Pedro Almodóvar, David Cronenberg and Nicole Kidman.

Ms. Blanchett, an Academy Award winner for “The Aviator,” will be honored with a dinner and tribute screening on Oct. 2. Mr. Fiennes, an Oscar nominee for “Schindler’s List” and “The English Patient,” and whose new film “The Invisible Woman” will be presented at this year’s New York Film Festival, will be honored  Oct. 9.

‘I’ll Send You to Belize’: Stars of ‘Breaking Bad’ Offered Free Vacations

AMC Bryan Cranston as Walter White and Bob Odenkirk as Saul Goodman in a scene from “Breaking Bad.”

Nothing on “Breaking Bad” is quite what it seems: a mild-mannered chemistry teacher is a powerful drug lord; a run-of-the-mill car wash is a sophisticated money-laundering operation. And a darkly comic proposal of mortal violence has led, at least, to offers of a relaxing tropical vacation for the creators and stars of this AMC drama.

On Thursday, the Belize Tourism Board said that it would offer free vacations to Vince Gilligan, the “Breaking Bad” creator and show runner, and eight of its stars, including Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, following an offhand and not entirely flattering reference to that Central American nation on Sunday’s broadcast of the show.

In that episode, Saul Goodman, the unsavory lawyer played by Bob Odenkirk, asks meth-cooking kingpin Walter White (Mr. Cranston) if he has considered sending the nosy D.E.A. agent Hank Schrader (Dean Norris) “on a trip to Belize.” Goodman gingerly reminds White of a former colleague already said to have relocated there - White in fact murdered this person - and an incensed White replies, “I’ll send you to Belize.”

The scene was widely noted on social media, with many commenters wondering if “Breaking Bad” had just turned off audience members who might have been contemplating a (legitimate) trip to Belize.

“Some people may have perceived that to be somewhat of a crisis,” Alyssa Carnegie, the director of marketing and industry relations for the Belize Tourism Board, said in a phone interview,  “but we really thought of it as an opportunity.”

Following Sunday’s episode, the Belize Tourism Board used its Twitter account to post humorous invitations to the “Breaking Bad” actors and characters, asking them to check out the country.

Now it has extended offers to Mr. Gilligan and his cast for each of them to enjoy a four-day, three-night stay in Belize, including airfare, hotel, meals and other activities.

“Many of us are big fans of the show and can’t wait to see what happens over the last six episodes,” the tourism board wrote in its invitation. “While we hope that some of our favorite characters don’t get ‘sent on a trip to Belize’ in the show, we do hope you will take us up on the following offer - we’d like to send all of you on an ACTUAL trip to our country after the season is over.

Speaking from Belize City, Ms. Carnegie said that her country drew about 1 million tourism visitors annually, and often finds itself competing with Mexico and Costa Rica for potential vacationers. (Belize, however, does not follow Walter White’s cutthroat strategies for dealing with rivals.)

“We’re a small tourism destination and our competitors are pretty large,” Ms. Carnegie said. “They have huge tourism dollars, so our challenge with that is really trying to make sure that we move a lot with very little. We saw this as a great opportunity to spin the story and introduce a new audience to Belize as a potential vacation destination.”

In addition to Mr. Gilligan, Mr. Cranston, Mr. Paul, Mr. Norris and Mr. Odenkirk, the other “Breaking Bad” stars offered the vacations are Anna Gunn, Betsy Brandt, R. J. Mitte and Jonathan Banks, whose character  was sent on the metaphorical “trip to Belize” last year.

Click here to see the invitation from the Belize Tourism Board to the stars of “Breaking Bad” in its entirety.

Belize Tourism Board The invitation from the Belize Tourism Board to the stars of “Breaking Bad.”

Aug. 22: Where the Candidates Are Today

Planned events for the mayoral candidates, according to the campaigns and organizations they are affiliated with. Times are listed as scheduled but frequently change.

Jonah Bromwich and Nicholas Wells contributed reporting.

Event information is listed as provided at the time of publication. Details for many of Ms. Quinn events are not released for publication.Maps of all campaign events since April »

Events by candidate

Albanese

De Blasio

Liu

McDonald

Quinn

Thompson

Weiner

Group event

Bill de Blasio
Democrat

10:15 a.m.
Holds a news conference on the City Council’s likely vote later in the day to override Mayor Bloomberg’s veto of the Community Safety Act, on the steps of City Hall in Lower Manhattan.

12 p.m.
After first visiting on July 16, Mr. de Blasio returns to meet with seniors at the Caribbean-themed St. Gabriel’s Senior Center, alongside former Councilwoman Una Clarke, on Hawthorne Street in Brooklyn.

2:15 p.m.
After getting into a heated exchange with the other candidates at a mayoral debate on Wednesday, most notably Mr. Thompson, about how to pay for expanding pre-kindergarten classes throughout New York, Mr. de Blasio visits the Friends of Crown Heights Pre-Kindergarten, on Prospect Place in Brooklyn.

3 p.m.
Greets afternoon commuters at the Nostrand Avenue 2 train subway station, on the corner of Nostrand Avenue and Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn.

6 p.m.
Participates in the Russian Community Mayoral Forum, sponsored by Davidzon Radio, one of America’s largest Russian language radio stations, on issues of importance to the Russian community, at National Restaurant in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn.

8:45 p.m.
Delivers remarks after Mr. Liu at the Manhattan Young Democrats’ fifth annual “Youth Gets It Done” awards event at Finale, a nightclub on the Bowery.

John C. Liu
Democrat

7 a.m.
Greets morning commuters at the 168th Street subway station, in Upper Manhattan.

11 a.m.
Makes the first of two small-business tours on the day, starting at West 231st Street and Broadway in the Bronx.

11:30 a.m.
Makes the second of two small-business tours on the day, starting at Riverdale Avenue and West 236th Street in the Bronx.

5 p.m.
Participates in the Russian Community Mayoral Forum, sponsored by Davidzon Radio, one of America’s largest Russian language radio stations, on issues of importance to the Russian community, at National Restaurant in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn.

7 p.m.
Greets voters at the Tracey Towers, one of the largest rental complexes in the Bronx.

8 p.m.
Delivers remarks at the Manhattan Young Democrats’ fifth annual “Youth Gets It Done” awards event at Finale, a nightclub on the Bowery.

Christine C. Quinn
Democrat

7:30 a.m.
Greets morning commuters at the Forest Hills-71st Avenue subway station with Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz, in Forest Hills, Queens.

1:30 p.m.
Presides over a stated meeting of the New York City Council, at which the Council will most likely hold a vote to override Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s veto of the Community Safety Act, legislation which would create an independent inspector general for the Police Department, at City Hall.

Some of Ms. Quinn’s events may not be shown because the campaign declines to release her advance schedule for publication.

William C. Thompson Jr.
Democrat

12 p.m.
Accepts an endorsement for his candidacy and plans for education from Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who made headlines in February for dressing up in blackface at a Purim party, at Amnon’s Kosher Pizza in Brooklyn.

1 p.m.
Accepts an endorsement for his candidacy and for his plans on education, from Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, who also endorsed him in 2009, in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

Anthony D. Weiner
Democrat

11:45 a.m.
Meets with senior citizens at the United Jewish Council of the East Side Adult Luncheon Club, on Willett Street on the Lower East Side.

12:30 p.m.
Continues with the fourth day of his “Delivering for New York” tour â€" part of his larger “Keys to the City” tour â€" to talk about tax-reform issues, at Red Apple Child Development Center, which has faced issues in the past, in Lower Manhattan.

5 p.m.
Participates in the Russian Community Mayoral Forum, sponsored by Davidzon Radio, one of America’s largest Russian language radio stations, on issues of importance to the Russian community, at National Restaurant in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn.

Sal F. Albanese
Democrat

9 a.m.
Helps with Rosh Hashanah food distribution, at the office of the Bensonhurst Council of Jewish Organizations, in Brooklyn.

11 a.m.
Hosts representatives from Campaign for Children, a coalition of child care providers that came together in 2012 to fight proposed budget cuts, to discuss issues surrounding early childhood education, at the Albanese campaign headquarters in Brooklyn.

5 p.m.
Participates in the Russian Community Mayoral Forum, sponsored by Davidzon Radio, one of America’s largest Russian language radio stations, on issues of importance to the Russian community, at National Restaurant in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn.

7 p.m.
Addresses supporters at a fund-raiser hosted by Peter Hayden, a retired chief of the New York Fire Department, at Bungalow Bar in Far Rockaway, Queens.

George T. McDonald
Republican

11:15 a.m.
Visits with seniors at the Woodside Senior Center, on Newtown Road in Queens.

6 p.m.
Attends the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce’s Political Action Cocktail Networking Reception, on West 44th Street in Midtown Manhattan.

The Late Unpleasantness

Librado Romero/The New York Times

Dear Diary:

Reading the article Aug. 11 about the Sherman Monument by Saint-Gaudens reminded me of another summer day some years back. I was standing on the Fifth Avenue sidewalk, looking at the heroic golden equestrian statue of General Sherman.

Just then, a man declaimed to his wife and kids, with a trace of Georgia in his voice, “That man was a war criminal!”

Read all recent entries and our updated submissions guidelines. Reach us via e-mail diary@nytimes.com or follow @NYTMetro on Twitter using the hashtag #MetDiary.

New York Today: Water Weather

Bryan Thomas for The New York Times Remember this? You may need to find novel ways on Thursday to shade from a blistering sun.

Today the temperature continues to climb.

It is expected to reach 87 degrees, still a far cry from that scorching stretch of July.

When it gets hot, New Yorkers get soaked. Behold, the beloved park spray shower.

Back in 1926, kids cooled off in grand fashion: they dove off a City Hall statue into the fountain below.

But their high dives were officially banned after one boy hit his head in the shallow pool, according to a  New York Times article from that year.

Women of old New York seemed to have an even harder time cooling off.

An 1889 Times article described their favored (and likely sweltering) swimming get-up: a bodysuit with a blouse and a skirt over top.

Or, perhaps, a flannel top and a skirt, the writer said, complete with “equestrian tights, made with feet, the latter being of extra heavy weave.”

Here’s what you need to know for your Thursday.

TRANSIT & TRAFFIC

- The City Council will be voting on an override of mayoral vetoes of two police-related bills: one calling for the creation of an inspector general for the Police Department and the second making it easier for people who believe they have been racially profiled to sue the agency.

- The City Council will also be voting on a package of legislation to make city vehicles cleaner and greener, and reducing harmful emissions.

- President Obama heads to Buffalo to deliver remarks at the University at Buffalo, the State University of New York.

- Tonight there are a lot of outdoor movies. One, “West Side Story,” will be shown in Central Park’s Sheep Meadow at 8 p.m. There’s free popcorn! [Free]

- In fact, there are so many outdoor movies tonight, you might want to click here for a round up of what’s showing this y night and beyond.

- Get an education on education at a discussion of New York’s school testing scores, teacher evaluations, and contract negotiations. At 8:00 a.m. at 101 Park Avenue. Speakers include top officials and educators. R.S.V.P. [Free]

- Learn Citibiking street skills at this class that comes with a free 24-hour bike pass. Click here for locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn, 7 p.m. [Free]

- Meet “The Girls in the Band,” in a documentary about female jazz instrumentalists through history. At the New School 55 W. 13th St., 5th Floor at 6:30 p.m. There’s a discussion afterwards. [Free]

- A free screening of “Amélie” surrounded by French â€" wines that is. At Brooklyn Winery in Williamsburg at 7 p.m. [Free]

- Check out an art installation on the High Line and get a sneak peak of the new final section of the park, so you can say you knew it before it was cool. Registration required. [Free]

- It’s baaaack “Drinks to Die For,” a cocktail party at Green-wood Cemetery in Brooklyn at 6 p.m. [Free]

IN THE NEWS

- If you need to make a call about animal abuse you can now call the New York Police Department. [New York Times]

Long Island College Hospital, which was stayed from a shutdown by a judge, is looking for new operator. [Brooklyn Paper]

The Rockaway ferry will have its run extended until the end of January [NY1]

5Pointz, the city’s de facto museum of graffiti is really over this time. Condos have been approved to take its place. [The Real Deal]

Queens Highway Patrol launches “Operation Cold Sober” through Labor Day [Queens Gazette]

http://www.qgazette.com/news/2013-08-21/Features/NYPD_Launches_Labor_Day_Zero_Tolerance_Enforcement.html

Flying in the face of yesterday’s poll indicating New Yorkers are less than awesome, three strangers help a family drive from Detroit to New York to make a father’s funeral. [Huffington Post]

The cronut king gets book deal. [Grubstreet]

AND FINALLY…

The day, like today, was August 22. The year was 1966. The Beatles were young and famous and in New York City.

The entire week before they faced news media questions on such unmusical topics as war and austerity measures.

And in the then-Warwick Hotel in Manhattan, they met with about 75 children, winners of a radio contest. It was a junior press conference, of sorts.

(The interview and many others are transcribed at wwwBeatlesInterviews.org.)

The questions, such as one for George Harrison, were similarly obtuse:

“George, do you have a cousin named Maggie?”

But perhaps more answerable:

“No.”

Nicole Higgins DeSmet contributed reporting.

We’re testing New York Today, a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till about noon.

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