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RISK OF GETTING COVID-19, BY COUNTY, ON JAN. 26 LOW MEDIUM HIGH VERY HIGH EXTREMELY HIGH

INSUFFICIENT DATA

People in a great majority of U.S. counties are at very high or extremely high risk of getting the coronavirus, despite cases falling from record levels this month and an accelerating vaccination campaign.

A new assessment of risks and how they have changed since September. Page A6.

Nearly Everyone Remains at High Risk of Getting Covid-19

Source: Risk level assessment by The New York Times and Resolve to Save Lives, based on reported cases and test positivity data. ELEANOR LUTZ AND CHARLIE SMART/THE NEW YORK TIMES

The crimes were heinous, thepunishments severe: A Latinoman was sentenced to 40 years tolife for murdering two people at anightclub in 1993. A Black manwas given 25 years to life forshooting a police officer two yearslater.

But in both men’s trials, officialsnow acknowledge, a prosecutorfrom the Queens County districtattorney’s office illegally excludedwomen and people of color fromthe juries — the kind of miscon-duct that both defense lawyersand some of the office’s formerprosecutors say was long over-looked.

The acknowledgment repre-sented a marked shift: After docu-ments revealed the discrimina-tion last year, the first new district

attorney in Queens in nearly 30years, Melinda R. Katz, signed onto a motion to vacate the convic-tions and made plans to retry thecases. The move signaled a turn-ing point within the office, long

known among lawyers for its re-luctance to admit mistakes andmisbehavior.

“Queens was always way be-hind. There was very little youcouldn’t get away with,” saidBarry Scheck, a prominent crimi-nal defense lawyer who is co-founder of the Innocence Project,an influential nonprofit that worksto exonerate wrongfully con-victed prisoners. “She’s sent a sig-nal to lawyers across the city thatshe’ll change things.”

In her first year on the job, Ms.Katz has established a review unitfor potential wrongful convictionsin the borough, supported a totalof four exonerations and stoppedheavily prosecuting several cate-gories of low-level, nonviolentcrimes. She has garnered supportfrom those who say that she has

In Queens, New D.A. Confronts Her Office’s PastBy TROY CLOSSON

Continued on Page A22Melinda Katz, sworn in a yearago as Queens district attorney.

SARAH BLESENER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

WASHINGTON — PresidentBiden on Wednesday signed asweeping series of executive ac-tions — ranging from pausing newfederal oil leases to electrifyingthe government’s vast fleet of ve-hicles — while casting the movesas much about job creation as theclimate crisis.

Mr. Biden said his directiveswould reserve 30 percent of fed-eral land and water for conserva-tion purposes, make climate pol-icy central to national security de-cisions and build out a network ofelectric-car charging stations na-tionwide.

But much of the sales pitch onemployment looked intended tocounteract longstanding Republi-can attacks that Mr. Biden’s cli-mate policies would inevitablyhurt an economy already weak-ened by the pandemic.

Mr. Biden argued instead thattechnological gains and demandsfor wind and solar infrastructurewould create work that wouldmore than make up for job losseseven in parts of the country relianton the fracking boom. Using thegovernment’s purchasing powerto buy zero-emissions vehicles,Mr. Biden said, would help speedthe transition away from gasoline-powered cars and ultimately leadto “one million new jobs in theAmerican automobile industry.”

Overall, the text of his executiveorder mentions the word “jobs” 15times.

And in a clear echo of formerPresident Barack Obama’s claimsthat his climate policies would cre-ate millions of “green jobs,” Mr. Bi-den also said his agenda wouldcreate “prevailing wage” employ-ment and union jobs for workersto build 1.5 million new energy-ef-ficient homes, to manufacture andinstall a half-million new electric-vehicle charging stations, and toseal off one million leaking oil andgas wells.

“Today is climate day in theWhite House which means todayis jobs day at the White House,”Mr. Biden said.

Taking on another Republicanrefrain, Mr. Biden reiterated hislongstanding position that hewouldn’t ban fracking, saying hispolicies would in fact “protect jobsand grow jobs” by putting peopleto work capping leaky oil and gas

Biden PitchesClimate PolicyAs a Jobs Plan

This article is by Lisa Friedman,Coral Davenport and ChristopherFlavelle.

Continued on Page A20

A real estate salesman in Val-paraiso, Ind. A former line cookfrom the Bronx. An evangelicalpastor and his wife in HuntingtonBeach, Calif. A high school studentin the Milwaukee suburbs.

They are among the millions ofamateur traders collectively tak-ing on some of Wall Street’s mostsophisticated investors — and, forthe moment at least, winning. Pro-pelled by a mix of greed and bore-dom, gleefully determined toteach Wall Street a lesson, andturbocharged by an endless flowof get-rich-quick hype and ideasdelivered via social media, theseinvestors have piled into tradesaround several companies, push-ing their stock prices to strato-spheric levels.

Some of the names are from anearlier business era. BlackBerry’sshares are up nearly 280 percentthis year. Stock in AMC, the movietheater chain, has surged nearly840 percent. But the trade thatcaptures the David-versus-Goliath nature of the moment in-volves GameStop, the troubledvideo game retailer that was oncea fixture in suburban malls.

On Wall Street, individual in-vestors are often derided as“dumb money,” destined to loseagainst the highly compensatedanalysts and traders who buy andsell stocks for a living. But in re-cent days, individual investors —many of them followers of a popu-lar, juvenile, foul-mouthed Redditpage called Wall Street Bets —

have upended that narrative bybanding together to put thesqueeze on at least two hedgefunds that had bet thatGameStop’s shares would fall.

While the hedge funds andother professional money manag-ers had been shorting GameStop’sshares, betting that its stock wasdoomed to further decline, the re-tail investors — online traders,mom-and-pop investors, smallbrokers and others — have beenpushing the other way, buyingshares and stock options. Thatcaused GameStop’s market valueto increase to over $24 billion from$2 billion in a matter of days. Itsshares have risen over 1,700 per-cent since December. BetweenTuesday and Wednesday, the mar-ket value rose over $10 billion.

The tribal framing online, as akind of team sport pitting pluckyupstarts against well-heeled WallStreeters, has been especiallyhelpful in motivating more invest-ors to participate. This week, Tes-la’s chief executive, Elon Musk, fu-eled the trading by posting aboutthe Reddit page on Twitter. Andspeculation is growing that otherinvestors are seeing fresh oppor-tunities to push the stock evenhigher.

Ben Patte, 16, a high school stu-dent in Wisconsin who said hemade $750 off GameStop stock,said the campaign felt like vindi-cation for himself and fellowyoung traders. “It’s a good oppor-tunity to make money and stick itto the hedge funds,” he said. “Bybuying GameStop, it’s kind of like

The ‘Dumb Money’ Outfoxing Wall Street TitansBy MATT PHILLIPS

and TAYLOR LORENZDriven by Social Media,

Amateurs Rush In to Squeeze Top Funds

Continued on Page A23Source: FactSet THE NEW YORK TIMES

GameStop Share Price

Wednesday’s close:$347.51

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Jan. 27Jan. 21Jan. 14

LOS ANGELES — Maria ElenaHernandez recently retrieved aflowery box tucked in her closetand dusted it off. For more than adecade, she has used it to store taxreturns, lease agreements andother documents that she has col-lected to prove her family’s longyears of residence in the UnitedStates.

“We have been waiting for theday when we can apply for legalstatus. In this box is, hopefully, allthe evidence we’ll need,” said Ms.Hernandez, 55, an undocumentedimmigrant from Mexico who ar-rived in this country with threesmall children in 2000.

She had just learned of Presi-dent Biden’s plan to offer a path-way to U.S. citizenship for nearly11 million undocumented people,announced as part of a sweepingproposal to overhaul the nation’simmigration system.

The bill would allow undocu-mented immigrants who were inthe United States before Jan. 1 toapply for temporary legal statusafter passing background checksand paying taxes. As newlyminted “lawful prospective immi-grants,” they would be authorizedto work, join the military and trav-el without fear of deportation. Af-

Immigration Plan Raises Hope,But Reality Cools Expectations

By MIRIAM JORDAN

Maribel Ramirez and her sons, Eusebio and Jesus Gomez.JENNA SCHOENEFELD FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A21

WASHINGTON — When Presi-dent Biden swore in a batch of re-cruits for his new administrationin a teleconferenced ceremonylate last week, it looked like thecountry’s biggest Zoom call. Infact, Mr. Biden was installingroughly 1,000 high-level officialsin about a quarter of all of theavailable political appointee jobsin the federal government.

At the same time, a far less visi-ble transition was taking place:the quiet dismissal of holdoversfrom the Trump administration,who have been asked to clean outtheir offices immediately, what-ever the eventual legal conse-quences.

If there has been a single defin-ing feature of the first week of theBiden administration, it has beenthe blistering pace at which thenew president has put his mark onwhat President Donald J. Trumpdismissed as the hostile “DeepState” and tried so hard to dis-mantle.

From the Pentagon, where 20senior officials were ready tomove in days before the Senateconfirmed Lloyd J. Austin III asdefense secretary, to the Voice ofAmerica, where the Trump-ap-pointed leadership was replacedhours after the inauguration, theBiden team arrived in Washing-ton not only with plans for eachdepartment and agency, but thespreadsheets detailing who wouldcarry them out.

A replacement was even in theworks for the president’s doctor:Dr. Sean P. Conley, who admittedto providing a rosy, no-big-deal de-scription of Mr. Trump’s Covid-19symptoms last year, was told topack his medical kit. While allpresidents eventually bring in

PRESIDENT’S TEAMOUSTS HOLDOVERSFROM TRUMP ERA

A BLITZ OF APPOINTEES

Cleaning House andPutting Own Stamp

on Government

By DAVID E. SANGER

Continued on Page A19

WASHINGTON — Warningthat the deadly rampage of theCapitol this month may not be anisolated episode, the Departmentof Homeland Security said pub-licly for the first time on Wednes-day that the United States faced agrowing threat from “violent do-mestic extremists” emboldenedby the attack.

The department’s terrorismalert did not name specific groupsthat might be behind any futureattacks, but it made clear thattheir motivation would includetheir anger over “the presidentialtransition, as well as other per-ceived grievances fueled by falsenarratives,” a clear reference tothe accusations made by Presi-dent Donald J. Trump and echoedby right-wing groups that the2020 election was stolen.

“These same drivers to vio-lence will remain through early2021,” the department said.

The warning contained in a“National Terrorism AdvisorySystem Bulletin” was a notabledeparture from a Department ofHomeland Security accused of be-ing reluctant during the Trumpadministration to publish intelli-gence reports or public warningsabout the dangers posed by right-wing conspiracists and white su-premacist groups for fear of an-gering Mr. Trump, according tocurrent and former homeland se-curity officials.

Starting with the deadly extre-mist protest in Charlottesville,Va., in 2017, when Mr. Trump saidthere were “very fine people onboth sides,” he played down anydanger posed by extremistgroups. When racial justice pro-tests erupted nationwide lastyear, his consistent message wasthat it was the so-called radicalleft that was to blame for the vio-lence and destruction that punctu-ated the demonstrations.

Even after the Department ofHomeland Security singled out

U.S. ExtremistsPose a Threat,Agency Warns

Shift in Policy and ToneAfter Change at Top

By ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGSand DAVID E. SANGER

Continued on Page A18

The celebrated men’s wear designerKim Jones makes his women’s weardebut at Fendi this week. PAGE D1

Stepping Into Lagerfeld’s ShoesPost-Brexit trade rules have imposeddaunting paperwork requirements forexports to E.U. countries. PAGE A11

Truckers Shun British Ports

A New York bill to get manufacturers topick up the tab could offer a solution,Michael Kimmelman writes. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-6

Recycling in America Is a MessThe Fed said the economic outlook was“highly uncertain” and would dependon the path of the virus. PAGE B3

BUSINESS B1-7

Interest Rates Stay Near ZeroMontages of Black historical figureswatching over successful Black Ameri-cans serve as heroic folklore. PAGE D1

THURSDAY STYLES D1-6

Stories of American Blackness

Mitch McConnell, the minority leader,opened the door for Republicans topush aside the former president, butfew were willing to do it. PAGE A16

Not Ready to Abandon Trump

The death of a beloved educator inHouston has deepened the conflict overin-person instruction. PAGE A9

TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-10

Teacher Worried to the End

After losing use of an arm in a motocrosscrash, she turned to the slopes. PAGE B8

SPORTSTHURSDAY B8-10

A Snowboarder’s Salvation

Keegan-Michael Key’s podcast mixeshistory, memoir, analysis and perform-ance, Jason Zinoman says. PAGE C1

A Case for Sketch Comedy

Nicholas Kristof PAGE A26

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27

Cloris Leachman was best known fordrawing laughs on “Mary Tyler Moore”and “Phyllis.” She was 94. PAGE A25

OBITUARIES A24-25

Oscar Winner and Comedy Star

A bankruptcy judge cleared the way fordozens of women to claim a share of a$17 million victims fund. PAGE A23

NATIONAL A15-23

Deal for Weinstein AccusersThe United States will review majorarms sales between the Trump adminis-tration and Gulf Arab states. PAGE A12

INTERNATIONAL A11-14

Weapons Deals Get Fresh Look

Late Edition

VOL. CLXX . . . . No. 58,952 © 2021 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 2021

Today, clouds and sunshine, windy,feeling colder, high 34. Tonight,clear, windy, colder, low 16. Tomor-row, partly sunny, very cold, windy,high 23. Weather map, Page B12.

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