VOL. CLXIII . . . No. 56,399 + © 2014 The New York Times NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2014

Late EditionToday, mostly cloudy skies, milder,high 43. Tonight, some clouds, low37. Tomorrow, variably cloudy, scat-tered showers, breezy and mild,high 49. Weather map, Page C8.

$2.50

SUPER BOWL GUIDE A look at allthings related to Super BowlXLVIII, including where you caneat and drink, along with somealternatives that have nothing to

do with pigskin. PAGE A18

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SEATTLE’S SPORTS MOGUL Paul Allen, a Microsoftfounder, has helped the Seahawks become a perenni-al N.F.L. power since he bought the franchise. Knownto keep a low profile, Allen is emerging as a more vis-ible leader of his hometown team. PAGE D1

TRYING TO BEAT THE SPREAD While some watch theSuper Bowl for the celebratory touchdown dances,one group of sports devotees prefers the Las VegasHotel & Casino SuperContest, the world’s biggestfootball-betting contest. MAGAZINE

METROPOLITAN MEETS METLIFE The soprano RenéeFleming will sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at theSuper Bowl on Sunday evening, a first for an operastar. Yet blurring the boundaries between opera andpopular culture has a long, proud tradition in theUnited States. PAGE C1

JULIO CORTEZ/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Eight lanes of Super Bowl Boulevard? A toboggan run in Times Square was popular this week.

By CORAL DAVENPORT

WASHINGTON — The StateDepartment released a report onFriday concluding that the Key-stone XL pipeline would not sub-stantially worsen carbon pollu-tion, leaving an opening for Pres-ident Obama to approve the polit-ically divisive project.

The department’s long-await-ed environmental impact state-ment appears to indicate that theproject could pass the criteria Mr.Obama set forth in a speech lastsummer when he said he wouldapprove the 1,700-mile pipeline ifit would not “significantly ex-acerbate” the problem of green-house gas emissions.

Although the pipeline wouldcarry 830,000 barrels of oil a dayfrom Canada to the Gulf Coast,the report appears to indicatethat if it were not built, carbon-heavy oil would still be extractedat the same rate from pristine Al-berta forest and transported torefineries by rail instead.

The report sets up a difficultdecision for Secretary of StateJohn Kerry, who now must makea recommendation on the inter-national project to Mr. Obama.Mr. Kerry, who hopes to make ac-tion on climate change a key partof his legacy, has never publiclyoffered his personal views on thepipeline. Aides said Mr. Kerrywas preparing to “dive into” the11-volume report and would givehigh priority to the issue of globalwarming in making the decision.His aides offered no timetable.

“He’ll deliberate and take thetime he needs,” said Kerri-AnnJones, the assistant secretary ofstate for oceans and internationalaffairs.

Environmentalists said theywere dismayed at some of the re-port’s conclusions and disputedits objectivity, but they also saidit offered Mr. Obama reasons toreject the pipeline. They said

FEDERAL REPORTREMOVES HURDLEFOR OIL PIPELINE

POLLUTION IS ADDRESSED

Impact Statement HintsKeystone Could Meet

Obama’s Criteria

Continued on Page A13

By KATE ZERNIKE

The former Port Authority offi-cial who personally oversaw thelane closings at the GeorgeWashington Bridge, central tothe scandal now swirling aroundGov. Chris Christie of New Jer-sey, said on Friday that “evi-dence exists” that the governorknew about the closings whenthey were happening.

A lawyer for the former official,David Wildstein, wrote a letterdescribing the move to shut thelanes as “the Christie administra-tion’s order” and said “evidenceexists as well tying Mr. Christieto having knowledge of the laneclosures, during the period whenthe lanes were closed, contrary towhat the governor stated pub-licly in a two-hour press confer-ence” three weeks ago.

During his news conference,Mr. Christie specifically said hehad no knowledge that trafficlanes leading to the bridge hadbeen closed until after they werereopened. “I had no knowledge ofthis — of the planning, the execu-tion or anything about it — andthat I first found out about it afterit was over,” he said. “And eventhen, what I was told was that itwas a traffic study.”

The letter, which was sent aspart of a dispute over Mr. Wild-stein’s legal fees, does not specifywhat the evidence is. Nonethe-less, it marks a striking breakwith a previous ally. Mr. Wild-stein was a high school classmateof Mr. Christie’s who was hiredwith the governor’s blessing atthe Port Authority of New Yorkand New Jersey, which controlsthe bridge.

Mr. Christie’s office respondedlate in the day with a statementthat backed away somewhatfrom the governor’s previous as-sertions that he had not knownabout the closings in September,which appeared to have been car-ried out as political reliationagainst the Democratic mayor ofFort Lee, until they were report-ed in the news media. Instead, itfocused on what the letter did notsuggest — that Mr. Christie knewof the closings before they oc-

Christie LinkedTo KnowledgeOf Shut Lanes

Lawyer for Former AllySays Proof Exists

Continued on Page A3

By SIMON ROMERO and JONATHAN GILBERT

BUENOSAIRES — AsArgentinesstew over acurrency cri-sis that hasshaken mar-kets aroundthe world,many resi-dents hereare askingthe same

question: Where is the presi-dent?

President Cristina Fernándezde Kirchner spoke in public justonce in the six weeks before thecurrency plunge last week thatset off global concerns about thefragility of developing econo-mies. As her country’s currencybegan its slide, she spoke about asubsidy for schoolchildren in-stead.

Then, after the steepest dropin the Argentine peso since thecountry’s economy collapsedover a decade ago, Mrs. Kirchnersteered clear of the turmoil yetagain, flying to Cuba for a sum-mit meeting. Once there, sheavoided mentioning the simmer-ing crisis almost entirely, optingto send Twitter messages aboutmeeting Fidel Castro’s grand-children. Only later did she posta few Twitter messages attribut-ing Argentina’s market upheavalto “speculative pressures” by un-named economic groups andbanks.

“The president does not feelshe owes any explanation to thecitizenry as a whole,” said Federi-co Finchelstein, an Argentine his-torian at the New School for So-cial Research in New York.

The problems in Argentina

Cash Crisis: Silence in Argentina, Vague Signals in TurkeyAs Peso Falters, President’s Absence Is Noted

ANIBAL ADRIAN GRECO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Reacting to the instability of the peso in Argentina, people lined up outside a bank in Buenos Aires on Friday to buy dollars.

Continued on Page A11

Kirchner

By TIM ARANGO

ISTAN-BUL — First,Prime Minis-ter RecepTayyip Erdo-gan criticizedthe boldmove by Tur-key’s centralbank thisweek to raiseinterest ratessharply to

halt the decline in the country’scurrency, telling reporters thathigher borrowing costs wouldlead to inflation — an argumentthat contravenes accepted eco-nomic logic.

Mr. Erdogan’s economic advis-er, Yigit Bulut, then did little toreassure skittish investors, sug-gesting that the prime ministerwould do something that wouldbe “very positive for the mar-

kets,” but did not say exactlywhat Mr. Erdogan’s plans were.

The remarks only added to jit-ters in financial markets, whichhave battered the Turkish stockmarket and in recent weeks sentthe currency, the lira, to historiclows. While Turkey has sufferedalong with other developing na-tions from the “tapering” of bondpurchases by the United StatesFederal Reserve and the threat ofrising global interest rates, itsproblems go beyond that to basicquestions about the stability ofthe government and its ability tograpple with the economy’s prob-lems.

To some extent, Turkey andMr. Erdogan are victims of theirown success, having created anattractive investment climatethat brought in billions in dollar-denominated lending, particular-

A Leader Shows Vulnerability in Istanbul

Continued on Page A11

Erdogan

By JOHN SCHWARTZDUXBURY, Mass. — The

snowy owl seemed almost com-placent, showing the confidenceof a top predator whose brightyellow eyes suggested she mightbe sizing you up as a weakercombatant — or perhaps a largesnack.

She had been where no birdshould safely be — Logan In-ternational Airport in Boston —and now, regal and imposing inbrief captivity, she representedthe latest of her kind to arrive ina remarkable and growing win-ter’s wandering to the Lower 48.

Not only is the Boston areaseeing the largest number of

snowy owls ever recorded, theyare popping up in territory farfrom their usual habitat near theArctic Circle. Ecstatic bird watch-ers have spotted them perchedatop the Chesapeake Bay Bridgeand in Washington (where onemade headlines for being struckby a bus), in Little Rock, Ark.,and northern Florida — even inBermuda.

“This year’s been bizarre,”said Dan Haas, a birder in Mary-land. “The numbers have beenunprecedented. Historic.”

No one is sure why so many

GRETCHEN ERTL FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Snowy owls have been observed far south of their usual habitat.

Continued on Page A15

A Bird Flies South, and It’s News

By JACK HEALY

DENVER — All day long, cus-tomers at LoDo Wellness Center,one of Colorado’s new recreation-al marijuana stores, reach intothe refrigerator and pull out tastyways to get high. They buy spar-kling peach and mandarin elixirs,watermelon Dew Drops, andsleek silver bags of chocolatetruffles, each one packed withmarijuana’s potent punch.

“The stuff just flies off theshelves,” said Linda Andrews,the store’s owner.

As marijuana tiptoes furthertoward the legal mainstream,marijuana-infused snacks havebecome a booming business, withvarieties ranging from chocolate-peppermint Mile High Bars topeanut butter candies infusedwith hash oil.

Retail shops see them as a non-threatening way into the shallowend of the marijuana pool, idealfor older customers, touristsstaying in smoke-free hotels oranyone who wants the effectwithout the smoke and coughing.

But the popularity of ediblemarijuana has alarmed parents’

Snacks LacedWith Marijuana

Raise Concerns

Continued on Page A16

An immigration overhaul with tough se-curity measures put forth by SpeakerJohn Boehner could create tough trade-offs for President Obama. PAGE A14

NATIONAL A12-16

An Immigration Dilemma

The first round of Syrian peace talksended without achieving even its mostmodest goal: easing the government’sblockade on delivery of food and medi-cine to besieged communities. Above, arescued boy in Aleppo. PAGE A10

INTERNATIONAL A4-11

Syria Talks Fail on Initial Goal

Microsoft appears to be close to namingone of its own executives, Satya Nadel-la, its head of corporate software cloudcomputing, to be its next C.E.O. PAGE B1

BUSINESS DAY B1-8

Familiar Face for Microsoft

Antiquities restorers, including the en-gineer above, hope to recover works atthe Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo,which was devastated by a truck bombattack last month at police headquartersacross the street. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-7

Salvaging a Museum’s Trove

Through the latest research and inter-views with a handful of families who areneither typical nor extraordinary, Jen-nifer Senior offers a bracingly honestexamination of modern parenthood. Herbook has flashes of authentic wisdom,Andrew Solomon writes in a review.

BOOK REVIEW

THIS WEEKEND

‘All Joy and No Fun’

In a drought, 29 agencies will have tofind other sources for 25 million peopleand 750,000 acres of farmland. PAGE A12

California Cuts Off WaterBank of America’s $8.5 billion paymentover bad mortgages was approved, butits headaches are not over. PAGE B1

Bank’s Persistent Problem

New York’s police leader indicated hewould change a program that sent rook-ie officers to high-crime areas. PAGE A17

NEW YORK A17-20

New Strategy in Policing EffortUnder its new manager, ManchesterUnited is struggling to keep pace inEngland’s Premier League. PAGE D5

SPORTSSATURDAY D1-6

Shaky Soccer Reign in EnglandGail Collins PAGE A23

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23

XLVIII

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