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MINNEAPOLIS — The bur-gundy Oldsmobile sped throughan intersection in a tree-lined resi-dential neighborhood on Minne-apolis’s North Side, and LisaWilliams shook her head in dis-gust.

“Look at this,” she said, sur-rounded by four of her young

grandchildren on the short stoopof her home. “They ride as fast asthey can right down through herewith no regard for the children.”

It is in such moments — whenshe is reminded of the many dan-gers in her community, fromspeeding cars to gunshots — thatMs. Williams, 50, would welcomethe presence of the police.

But then she recalls the time

several years ago when she andher husband arrived home to findseveral police vehicles parked ontheir front lawn. Officers toldthem to mind their own businesswhen they asked what was goingon, leading to an argument thatended with her husband beinghandcuffed and taken to jail.

Minneapolis’s North Side, witha majority Black population, has

decidedly mixed opinions on theCity Council’s effort, following thepolice killing of George Floyd, tosignificantly reduce the size andscope of Minneapolis’s policeforce.

Residents complain of rampantpolice mistreatment, but also ofout-of-control crime and violence.That reality has left many Black

In Black Areas of Minneapolis, Some Doubt Calls to Defund PoliceBy JOHN ELIGON

Continued on Page A19

JUSTIN LANE/EPA, VIA SHUTTERSTOCK

High winds hit Manhattan, above, as a powerful storm unleashed floods and tornadoes. Page A20.Atlantic Coast Battered

An American Airlines flighttook off from La Guardia Airportin New York last Wednesdaymorning, carrying 100 pouches ofblood plasma donated by Covid-19survivors for delivery to Rio de Ja-neiro.

American scientists are hopingCovid-19 patients in Brazil willhelp them answer a century-oldquestion: Can this golden serum,loaded with antibodies against apathogen, actually heal the sick?

The truth is that no one knows ifit works.

Since April, the Trump adminis-tration has funneled $48 millioninto a program with the MayoClinic, allowing more than 53,000Covid-19 patients to get plasma in-fusions. Doctors and hospitals

desperate to save the sickest pa-tients have been eager to try atherapy that is safe and mightwork. Tens of thousands morepeople are now enrolled to get thetreatment that’s been trumpetedby everyone from the president tothe actor Dwayne Johnson, betterknown as The Rock.

President Trump on Mondaypromoted its promise: “You hadsomething very special. You hadsomething that knocked it out. Sowe want to be able to use it,” hesaid, calling on Covid-19 survivorsto donate their plasma, which he

called a “beautiful ingredient.”But the unexpected demand for

plasma has inadvertently under-cut the research that could provethat it works. The only way to getconvincing evidence is with a clin-ical trial that compares outcomesfor patients who are randomly as-signed to get the treatment withthose who are given a placebo.Many patients and their doctors— knowing they could get thetreatment under the governmentprogram — have been unwilling tojoin clinical trials that might pro-vide them with a placebo insteadof the plasma.

The trials have also beenstymied by the waning of the virusoutbreak in many cities, compli-cating researchers’ ability to re-cruit sick people. One of those clin-ical trials, at Columbia University,

Rush to Treat With Plasma Undermines StudiesBy KATIE THOMAS

and NOAH WEILANDShifting Outbreaks and

U.S. Program Shrinkthe Patient Pool

Continued on Page A9

LOS ANGELES — In 2008, asCalifornia confronted its most se-vere fiscal crisis since the GreatDepression, the center of power inthe state capital was a tent.

It was set up in the courtyardoutside the office of Gov. ArnoldSchwarzenegger, an invitation-only retreat with folding chairs, afake grass floor and ashtrays. Mr.Schwarzenegger, his aides andthe state’s most influential players— mostly white men — went thereto smoke expensive cigars andtalk politics and legislative deals.

But not Karen Bass.Newly elected as the speaker of

the State Assembly, Ms. Bass feltapart from that club the momentshe stepped through the canvasflaps at the invitation of Mr.Schwarzenegger, a Republican.

“‘I guess you probably don’twant to be doing business here,’”the governor told her, as Ms. Bassrecalled in a recent interview. “Hedidn’t know what to do. And that

was right. I didn’t want to be in thetent.”

Here she was, a liberal Demo-crat and the first Black woman tolead a statehouse in the nation’shistory, one of the three most pow-erful elected leaders of Californiain a moment of fiscal peril, and awholly different kind of player

Contender to Run With BidenIs in Many Ways His Opposite

By ADAM NAGOURNEYand JENNIFER MEDINA

Karen Bass of California.ERIN SCHAFF/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A18

New York City’s health commis-sioner, Dr. Oxiris Barbot, resignedon Tuesday and voiced her “deepdisappointment” with Mayor Billde Blasio’s handling of the pan-demic, renewing scrutiny of hisleadership during the crisis just asthe city faces pressing decisionsabout how quickly to reopenschools and businesses.

Dr. Barbot’s departure came af-ter escalating tensions betweenCity Hall and top city health de-partment officials, which had be-gun at the start of the coronavirusoutbreak in March, burst into pub-lic view and raised concerns thatthe feuding was undermining cru-cial public health policies.

“I leave my post today withdeep disappointment that duringthe most critical public health cri-sis in our lifetime, that the healthdepartment’s incomparable dis-ease control expertise was notused to the degree it could havebeen,” Dr. Barbot said in her resig-nation email sent to Mr. de Blasio,a copy of which was shared withThe New York Times.

“Our experts are world re-nowned for their epidemiology,surveillance and response work.The city would be well served byhaving them at the strategic cen-ter of the response not in the back-ground.”

The mayor on Tuesday morningimmediately announced a re-placement for Dr. Barbot, and lat-er pushed back against any sug-gestion that she had resigned inprotest.

After a day of news coveragehighlighting her departure, themayor’s office abruptly released astatement at 8:30 p.m., sayingthat Dr. Barbot had been told overthe weekend that “the administra-tion was moving in a different di-rection.”

At a hastily called news confer-ence after her resignation earlierin the day, Mr. de Blasio had de-fended his handling of the out-break, saying that the city hadmade ”extraordinary progress.”

The virus took a devastating tollin the spring, killing more than20,000 residents, but it has largelyebbed in recent weeks. On Mon-day, for example, only 316 peoplein the city tested positive out ofmore than 30,000 tested.

Still, the turnover in the Depart-ment of Health and Mental Hy-giene comes at a pivotal moment:Public schools are scheduled to

Chief DoctorFor City Quits After Disputes

Increasing Scrutiny ofde Blasio’s Record

By J. DAVID GOODMAN

Continued on Page A8

WASHINGTON — With theTrump administration’s decisionto end the 2020 census count fourweeks early, the Census Bureaunow has to accomplish what offi-cials have said it cannot do: accu-rately count the nation’s hardest-to-reach residents — nearly fourof every 10 households — in justsix weeks.

The result is both a logisticalchallenge of enormous propor-tions that must take place in themiddle of a pandemic, and yet an-other political crisis for the cen-sus, historically a nonpartisan en-terprise. The announcement,which came Monday evening, im-mediately generated sharp criti-cism.

On Tuesday, four former direc-tors of the Census Bureau issued astatement warning that an earlierdeadline would “result in seri-ously incomplete enumerations inmany areas across our country,”and urged the administration torestore the lost weeks. The direc-tors, who served under Democrat-ic and Republican presidents, alsourged Congress to assemble atrusted body of experts to developstandards for assessing the qual-ity of the bureau’s population to-tals.

The Census Bureau, which hadearlier set and planned on an April2021 deadline because of the coro-navirus pandemic, said thechange was needed to meet a fed-eral deadline to get the numbersto President Trump by the end ofthe year. But Democratic lawmak-ers said the change reflected a de-liberate attempt to undercountgroups that tend to support theirparty.

Representative Carolyn B. Ma-loney of New York, the Democrat-ic chairwoman of the HouseOversight Committee that has ju-risdiction over the census, said ina letter sent Tuesday to StevenDillingham, the Census Bureau di-rector, that she would summon ca-reer Census Bureau experts totestify about the impact of thechange.

Representative Steny H. Hoyer,Democrat of Maryland and the

CURTAILED CENSUSADDS TO WORRIES OF SKEWED COUNT

ENDING A MONTH EARLY

Fears of Political Motives — A Sprint to Tally the Hard to Reach

By MICHAEL WINESand RICHARD FAUSSET

Continued on Page A17

Daniel Hunter PAGE A23

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23

For even better flavor and texture in hismasa, J. Kenji López-Alt borrowed atechnique from the chef Carlos Gaviria:milling popcorn. PAGE D1

FOOD D1-8

Make Your Empanadas PopTaking shots at just about everyone, thecomic Sam Jay, 38, is on the cusp ofbreaking out, thanks to Netflix. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-6

A Late BloomerFood entrepreneurs like Holly Shep-pard, above, are finding creative waysto stay afloat in the pandemic. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-6

Caterers Try Something New

A tiny hospital in Starr County had noI.C.U., and only one doctor on duty foreach shift. Then the pandemic arrivedin the Rio Grande Valley. PAGE A8

TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-10

Overwhelmed in South Texas

A new venture is trying to reinvent howworks of art are shown by offering aseries of “experiential” centers. PAGE C1

Immersed in ArtistryHotel chains are putting on overt showsof sanitation to win over travelers wor-ried about the coronavirus. PAGE B1

Fear of Fluffy Pillows

The defending men’s champion citedconcerns about traveling on the sameday tennis officials outlined safetyprotocols for the players. PAGE B8

SPORTSWEDNESDAY B7-9

Nadal Won’t Play the OpenA shortage of chemicals needed to testfor the virus is part of what is slowingturnaround times. PAGE A10

Long Testing Lag Persists

Facing discrimination and a sputteringeconomy, some people are essentiallyconverting to survive. PAGE A12

INTERNATIONAL A12-14

Pakistani Hindus Turn to Islam

BEIRUT, Lebanon — The blastscame within seconds of eachother.

First, an explosion in Beirut’sport, possibly from a fireworkswarehouse, sent a plume of smokebillowing over the capital skylineearly Tuesday evening.

Then a much larger explosionfrom a building nearby shot achrysanthemum of orange andred smoke into the air followed bya massive shock wave of whitishdust and debris that rose hun-dreds of feet and spread out forblocks.

The seaside capital rocked likean earthquake. Cars tumbled up-side down and bricks rained downfrom apartment buildings. Glassflew out of windows miles awayand roofs collapsed.

The wounded stumbledthrough debris-choked streets tohospitals, only to be turned awayin some cases because the hospi-tals, already reeling from the coro-navirus pandemic, were over-whelmed.

By late evening, the HealthMinistry said, more than 70 peo-ple were dead and at least 3,000wounded in the worst carnage tohit the city in more than a decade.For many of Lebanon’s 5.2 millionpeople, the images that ricochetedthrough social media recalled thescenes of urban destruction fromthe long-troubled country’s dec-ades of war.

It was unclear exactly whatcaused the explosions, but PrimeMinister Hassan Diab said an esti-mated 2,750 tons of highly explo-sive ammonium nitrate, com-monly used in fertilizer andbombs, had been stored in a depotat the port for six years.

“As head of the government, Iwill not relax until we find the re-sponsible party for what hap-

2 ExplosionsRain Carnage

Upon BeirutBy BEN HUBBARD

Continued on Page A14

Carrying away the wounded after an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, on Tuesday. At least 3,000 were reported injured, and over 70 dead.HASSAN AMMAR/ASSOCIATED PRESS

VOL. CLXIX . . . No. 58,776 © 2020 The New York Times Company WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5, 2020

Kansas Republicans rebuffed the Sen-ate bid of Kris W. Kobach, who partyleaders feared would jeopardize theseat in the general election. PAGE A17

NATIONAL A15-21

Trump Ally Loses Primary

Printed in Chicago $3.00

Partly to mostly sunny with after-noon temperatures in the upper 70s.Clear tonight with light wind. Sun-shine and a bit warmer tomorrow.Weather map appears on Page B12.

National Edition