News Qualified Private Activity Bonds Come Under New Scrutiny

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Qualified Private Activity Bonds Come Under New Scrutiny
Mar 4th 2013, 17:09

The last time the nation's tax code was overhauled, in 1986, Congress tried to end a big corporate giveaway.

But this valuable perk — the ability to finance a variety of business projects cheaply with bonds that are exempt from federal taxes — has not only endured, it has grown, in what amounts to a stealth subsidy for private enterprise.

A winery in North Carolina, a golf resort in Puerto Rico and a Corvette museum in Kentucky, as well as the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and the offices of both the Goldman Sachs Group and Bank of America Tower in New York — all of these projects, and many more, have been built using the tax-exempt bonds that are more conventionally used by cities and states to pay for roads, bridges and schools.

In all, more than $65 billion of these bonds have been issued by state and local governments on behalf of corporations since 2003, according to an analysis of Bloomberg bond data by The New York Times. During that period, the single biggest beneficiary of such securities was the Chevron Corporation, which last year reported a profit of $26 billion.

At a time when Washington is rent by the politics of taxes and deficits, select companies are enjoying a tax break normally reserved for public works. This style of financing, called "qualified private activity bonds," saves businesses money, because they can borrow at relatively low interest rates. But those savings come at the expense of American taxpayers, because the interest paid to bondholders is exempt from taxes. What is more, the projects are often structured so companies can avoid paying state sales taxes on new equipment and, at times, avoid local property taxes.

Budget analysts say these bonds amount to a government subsidy, in the form of forgone tax revenue. While it is difficult to calculate the precise dollar amount of the subsidy, given the number and variety of these bonds, experts say the annual cost to federal taxpayers could run into the billions.

"The federal government doesn't cut a check for this, but it costs the government in terms of lower tax revenue," said Lisa Washburn, a managing director at Municipal Market Advisors, an independent municipal research firm in Concord, Mass., that assisted The Times with its analysis. "If these companies were to issue taxable bonds instead, then the federal government would receive tax revenues on them."

Ms. Washburn added that the gain to companies, and bond buyers, can be big and long-lasting.

Chevron used most of its federally tax-free borrowings to expand a refinery in Pascagoula, Miss. Archer Daniels Midland, the agribusiness giant, used about $180 million in tax-exempt bonds to improve its grain-processing facilities in Indiana and Iowa. Alcoa raised $250 million to renovate an aluminum plant in Iowa.

Such financing arrangements are now worrying some state and local officials. Many are concerned that the budget battles in Washington will mean less federal money for them, and that the federal government might try to limit the scope of their own tax-free financing.

Some of the subsidized business projects are almost indistinguishable from public works. American Airlines, for instance, another big user of tax-exempt bonds over the last decade, used $1.3 billion of these securities to finance a new terminal at Kennedy International Airport. That terminal is owned by the City of New York; American is the builder, the borrower and a tenant.

As political controversy over the federal deficit has mounted, some fiscal experts have taken aim at this sort of tax-exempt borrowing. The team at the Bipartisan Policy Center led by Alice M. Rivlin, a former member of the Federal Reserve, and Pete V. Domenici, the former Republican senator, has called for ending it. A spokeswoman for the center said that such a change could bring in $50 billion for the federal government over 10 years.

The Obama administration would take a different approach, capping the value of the tax break that wealthy bond buyers enjoy, whether they buy private activity bonds or conventional municipal bonds.

It was Ms. Rivlin who, as founding director of the Congressional Budget Office, issued one of the first major reports on private activity bonds, which the report said were invented by local officials in Mississippi who were eager to attract business during the Great Depression. In a 1981 report, Ms. Rivlin found that the bonds were in much wider use than previously understood. Companies were using the federal subsidy to build Kmarts, McDonald's restaurants, private golf courses and tennis clubs — even a topless bar and an adult bookstore in Philadelphia.

"These trends have cast into sharp relief the questions concerning the public purpose" of the subsidy, Ms. Rivlin wrote at the time. "So far, federal legislation has left the definition of 'public purpose' to state and local governments."

Finally, in 1986, in a sweeping tax reform signed by President Ronald Reagan, Congress set limits on private activity bonds, giving each state a yearly allotment. Some projects, like airports and wharves, were not subject to the yearly limits. Others could not be financed with tax-exempt bonds at all, including golf courses, stadiums, hotels, massage parlors and tanning salons.

But over time, Reagan-era concerns about budget deficits faded, and so did some of the limits on tax-exempt private activity bonds. The Government Accountability Office reported in 2008 that use had risen to a record high and that once-forbidden projects like stadiums, hotels and golf courses were back.

"It is not clear whether facilities like these provide public benefits to federal taxpayers," the G.A.O. stated in its report.

In the years since 1986, Congress had lifted the caps on some states' or cities' allotments, often in response to natural disasters and other emergencies.

After the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, for example, Congress approved $8 billion worth of tax-exempt Liberty Bonds, which were in addition to New York State's normal allotment and could be used to keep companies from moving out of the neighborhood near ground zero. Goldman Sachs used around $1.6 billion of tax-exempt bonds under the program to help pay for its headquarters in Lower Manhattan. In a related program, Goldman agreed to a goal to keep 8,900 jobs in the city but has not met that level for the last three years, according to public records.

A spokesman for Goldman Sachs did not dispute that its jobs levels have been below 8,900 but said the bank was meeting its obligations.

The Liberty Bond program allowed for a limited amount of tax-exempt financing for projects beyond Lower Manhattan. That's how One Bryant Park L.L.C. was able to use $650 million of tax-exempt bonds to build the Bank of America Tower in Midtown.

In 2005, Congress created a similar program to spur rebuilding in areas of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi that were ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. The Times's data show that much of the bond proceeds went to the oil and gas industry, or to showcase projects like hotels or the Superdome. In 2008, Congress passed the Heartland Disaster Tax Relief Act, a bond program to help 10 Midwestern states hit by flooding and tornadoes. The goal was to help businesses rebuild their destroyed property. But by the time the program was set to expire at the end of last year, the criteria had been expanded to include new businesses.

One of those businesses was Orascom Construction Industries of Egypt, which raised $1.2 billion of tax-exempt bonds to build a fertilizer plant in Iowa. Another was the Fatima Group of Pakistan. In December, a Fatima subsidiary raised $1.3 billion, tax exempt, to build a fertilizer plant in Mount Vernon, Ind.

But weeks later, Indiana received alarming news: Pentagon officials said that fertilizer from Fatima's operations in Pakistan had been turning up in Afghanistan, in homemade bombs used against American troops. Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana has delayed the project while the Defense Department investigates. The $1.3 billion is now sitting in escrow, and will have to go back to the bond buyers if the project is rejected.

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News On Eve of China’s Party Congress, Vows of Change

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On Eve of China's Party Congress, Vows of Change
Mar 4th 2013, 16:56

BEIJING — China's new Communist Party leaders are hoping that their annual legislative meeting, which begins Tuesday, will help persuade a skeptical public that they are serious about cleaning up pollution and a political elite stained by corruption.

The two weeks of tightly controlled political theater known as the National People's Congress rarely strays from a stolid procession of speeches, news conferences and invariably pro-government votes, all devised to present a united and untroubled public face.

Last year, however, the script was challenged by a divisive scandal surrounding Bo Xilai, the combative party chief of Chongqing, whose fall unleashed months of revelations about murder, corruption and political infighting. Mr. Bo was pilloried by his foes during a news conference at the meeting and then publicly censured by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. A day after the congress ended, Mr. Bo was dismissed from his Chongqing post.

Most analysts agree that the proceedings this year will ignore the plight of Mr. Bo, who sits in a Beijing jail awaiting prosecution on charges of corruption, abuse of power and obstruction of justice.

This year, the party's new top leaders, Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang, have paved the way for the 13-day session with vows to end flagrant privileges and self-enrichment by officials and their families. They have also vowed to create a more efficient government, and reduce the acrid smog that has enveloped Beijing and other northern Chinese cities for weeks this winter.

"They've already taken many steps that have raised hopes among ordinary people — now we're looking for signs that the hopes can be satisfied," said Deng Yuwen, an editor for The Study Times, a weekly newspaper published by the Central Party School in Beijing. "The congress won't have any breakthroughs, but it can indicate where and how fast the leaders want to take things."

This congress will be the last for President Hu Jintao and Mr. Wen, the prime minister, who both retire at its end after a decade in their jobs. Mr. Wen will give his final work report to the congress on Tuesday.

On the final day of the congress, delegates will vote in a new government leadership dominated by Mr. Xi as president and Mr. Li as prime minister. The transfer of party leadership posts took place in November, when Mr. Xi became general secretary.

The nearly 3,000 congress delegates at the annual gathering are selected through a process that rewards loyalists; about 70 percent of the delegates are Communist Party members, and many are officials. Few dare defy the leadership's will by voting against proposals or abstaining from ballots, and the congress has never voted down a proposal put before it.

The meeting is likely to approve a modest restructuring of government ministries and agencies. Over past months, analysts and well-connected businesspeople have said that Mr. Li wanted a drastic reorganization, to create enlarged ministries for financial regulation, environmental protection and other areas.

But recent Chinese news reports have described a more limited plan that is likely to include folding the scandal-laden and deeply indebted Ministry of Railways into the Ministry of Transport, and strengthening food and drug safety regulators to bring greater oversight of industries that are constantly hit by consumer safety concerns.

The apparent scaling back of the plans for administrative changes reflects how difficult it will be for the leadership to deliver on promises to free up the economy from state-owned enterprises and fight corruption, while still preserving single-party rule, said Zheng Yongnian, director of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore. "In all these issues, there's the same basic problem of deep distrust between the people and the government," Mr. Zheng said. "Because there is so much distrust, the government is reluctant to make deep reforms. What they call reforms turns out be reassigning powers within government, not giving up powers to society. That's not real reform — and then people feel increasingly frustrated."

Reformists have been hoping that the new leadership would demonstrate a greater commitment to China's Constitution, and would promote a more independent judiciary. They have also been agitating for an end to the country's notoriously abusive re-education-through-labor system, which allows the police to imprison drug addicts, prostitutes and political offenders for up to three years without trial.

"The reeducation-through-labor system, to a certain extent, makes citizens live in fear," Dai Zhongchuan, a delegate and law professor, told a government-run news portal on Monday.

Many analysts, however, say such initiatives are unlikely to be embraced by China's new leaders, any time soon.

Party insiders have said that some officials likely to be promoted at the congress include Zhang Gaoli as executive deputy prime minister, and Li Yuanchao, a former party organization chief, as vice president. Wang Yang, the former head of Guangdong Province in southern China, is likely to succeed Wang Qishan as a deputy prime minister in charge of financial policy.

Mr. Bo was seen until last year as a contender for promotion into the central leadership, but his prospects capsized after the police chief of Chongqing fled to a U.S. consulate and then surrendered to Chinese investigators, raising allegations that Mr. Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, had murdered a British businessman and then sought to cover up the crime.

Ms. Gu was jailed in August for the murder. Mr. Bo is likely to face trial and conviction over the cover-up and other misdeeds.

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News Syrian Rebels Reported to Take Key City After Heavy Fighting

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Syrian Rebels Reported to Take Key City After Heavy Fighting
Mar 4th 2013, 16:58

Khalil Ashawi/Reuters

Damaged areas in Deir al-Zour, an eastern city, on Sunday.

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syrian rebel fighters seized much of the contested north-central city of Raqqa on Monday after days of heavy clashes with government forces, smashing a statue of President Bashar al-Assad's father in the central square and occupying the governor's palace, according to activist groups and videos uploaded to the Internet.

Map

If the insurgents manage to gain and retain control of Raqqa, capital of Raqqa Province, it would signify a potentially important turn in the two-year-old Syrian conflict. Raqqa, a strategic city on the Euphrates River, would be the first provincial capital completely taken over by the armed resistance to President Assad. For the government, the loss of Raqqa would diminish the prospects that Mr. Assad's military, now fighting on a number of fronts, could retake a vast swathe of northern and eastern Syria from the rebels.

The Raqqa news coincided with reports from Iraq that at least 40 Syrian soldiers who had taken temporary refuge from rebels on the Iraqi side of the border on Sunday were killed on Monday as the Iraqi military was transporting them back into Syria on a bus. Iraqi officials said the bus was damaged by bombs and that unidentified gunmen killed most of the occupants. If confirmed, it would be the most deadly case of cross-border violence between Iraq and Syria since the Syrian conflict began.

Rebel videos posted on YouTube about the Raqqa takeover included the destruction of a statue of Hafez al-Assad, the former president and father of Bashar, whose family's four-decade-old control of the country is now threatened by the insurgency. Footage showed anti-Assad activists pulling the statue down, its head smashing in the fall.

The Local Coordination Committees, a network of anti-Assad activists in Syria, said the governor's palace in Raqqa had been seized by insurgents. An activist reached by phone in Raqqa, Abu Muhammad, said he also believed that the palace had been "completely liberated." The whereabouts of its loyalist occupants was not clear.

"The only place still under control of the regime, in the entire province of Raqqa, is the military security building," the activist said. "Clashes are raging there right now between the heroes of the free army and regime forces."

Raqqa had been under insurgent siege for days, but a breakthrough came Saturday when government forces abandoned the city's central prison. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based anti-Assad group with a network of observers inside Syria, said fighters from Al Nusra Front and other insurgent units seized the prison and released hundreds of inmates.

Earlier Monday, anti-Assad activists reported heavy fighting was raging between rebels and government forces backed by tanks and warplanes in Homs, the central Syrian city that had been relatively quiet recently.

Details of the clashes were imprecise, but the Syrian Observatory said fighting flared in several neighborhoods of Homs after government forces had launched an offensive to dislodge rebels on Sunday.

An activist in Homs, contacted via Skype, who identified himself as Abu Bilal, said there had been a successions of "explosions that shook the entire city" on Monday and clouds of black smoke blanketed some neighborhoods. The Local Coordination Committees said there had been "fierce and continuous shelling from heavy artillery and rocket launchers" directed at insurgents in several areas.

The clashes seemed to shift attention from Aleppo, where fighting had swirled for days around the Khan al-Asal police academy in Aleppo, Syria's most populous city and once regarded its economic heart, after months of attempts by the insurgents to storm it.

Both sides in the civil war, which started as a peaceful uprising almost two years ago and has now claimed an estimated 70,000 lives, acknowledged relatively high death tolls in the fighting for Khan al-Asal.

The pro-government Al-Watan newspaper in Syria on Monday accused opposition fighters of massacring 115 police officers and wounding 50 there.

On Sunday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 200 government soldiers and rebels died in the fighting. With other fatalities elsewhere, the Observatory said, the tally for the day stood at 260, among them 115 government troops, 104 rebels and 45 civilians.

The fighting coincided with new efforts by outsiders, including the United States, Britain and their allies, to support the rebels with nonlethal aid. The British foreign secretary, William Hague, has hinted, however, that Britain might consider arming the insurgents — a stance that prompted Mr. Assad to say in an interview published on Sunday that Britain was seeking to "militarize" the conflict.

In an interview published in The Sunday Times of London, Mr. Assad also restated his terms for peace talks that seemed likely to preclude any negotiations with rebels who are pressing the Obama administration to go beyond the $60 million in nonlethal aid promised by Secretary of State John Kerry last week.

"How can we ask Britain to play a role while it is determined to militarize the problem?" Mr. Assad said. "How can we expect them to make the violence less while they want to send military supplies to the terrorists?" The Syrian authorities call their armed adversaries terrorists.

Mr. Hague responded by saying: "I think this will go down as one of the most delusional interviews that any national leader has given in modern times."

Britain plans to announce a new package of aid for the rebels this week, but Mr. Hague has declined to specify what it contains.

In the interview with The Sunday Times of London, Mr. Assad said he was "ready to negotiate with anyone, including militants, who surrender their arms."

Hania Mourtada reported from Beirut, Lebanon; Alan Cowell from London; and Rick Gladstone from New York. Reporting was contributed by an employee of The New York Times from Baghdad, and an employee of The Times from Damascus, Syria.

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News Oberlin Cancels Classes After Series of ‘Hate-Related Incidents’

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Oberlin Cancels Classes After Series of 'Hate-Related Incidents'
Mar 4th 2013, 16:36

Oberlin College canceled classes on Monday and convened a "day of solidarity" instead, after a person wearing a robe and hood appeared near its Afrikan Heritage House early Monday morning, the latest in a string of what it described as hate-related incidents and vandalism in the last month.

That event and a number of others are being investigated by the college's security staff and the Oberlin city police.

The sighting of the person on Monday, "in addition to the series of other hate-related incidents on campus, has precipitated our decision to suspend formal classes and all nonessential activities for today, Monday, March 4, 2013, and gather for a series of discussions of the challenging issues that have faced our community in recent weeks," according to a statement issued by Marvin Krislov, Oberlin's president, and three college deans.

In the last month, a number of racist and antigay messages have been left around campus, a jarring incongruity in a place with the liberal political leanings and traditions of Oberlin, a school of 2,800 students in Ohio, about 30 miles southwest of Cleveland. Guides to colleges routinely list it as among the most liberal, activist and gay-friendly schools in the country.

"I'm not sure why anyone is doing it, but those actions have made people uneasy and say we need to come together and discuss this," said Scott Wargo, an Oberlin spokesman.

Founded in 1833, Oberlin was one of the first colleges in the nation to educate women and men together, and one of the first to admit black students. Before the Civil War, it was an abolitionist hotbed and an important stop on the underground railroad.

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News Baby Whose Parents Were Killed in Crash Also Dies

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Baby Whose Parents Were Killed in Crash Also Dies
Mar 4th 2013, 14:18

A baby who was delivered prematurely after his young parents were killed in a car crash in Brooklyn has died, the police said on Monday.

The parents, Raizy and Nathan Glauber, both 21, were on their way to see a doctor after midnight Sunday when the livery cab they were riding in was hit by a BMW sedan. The parents were taken to different hospitals, where they were pronounced dead, and the baby boy was delivered prematurely, intubated, and was said to be in serious condition.

But on Monday the baby was pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital Center, a police spokesman said.

When the crash happened, Ms. Glauber was 24 weeks pregnant, and she was rushing to seek medical attention because she could no longer feel the baby, a family member said.

She and her husband were newlyweds, looking forward to the joy of having their first child, when their livery cab, headed through Williamsburg, Brooklyn, was struck broadside by the gray sedan, whose driver and passenger abandoned their own wrecked car and vanished into the night.

The baby's initial survival was hailed by friends and family as a precious gift.

In the aftermath of the horrifying accident, friends rushed to the hospital to visit the newborn tenaciously clinging to life, then on to the synagogue for the funeral of his parents.

Even for a community accustomed to burying its dead quickly, it was a shattering avalanche of events.

The crash happened at Kent Avenue and Wilson Street. The police said the livery cab, a black 2008 Toyota Camry, was traveling west on Wilson Street when it was struck on the driver's side by the 2010 BMW, which had been going north on Kent.

It was not clear if one or both of the drivers was at fault, the police said; the crash was still under investigation. The driver of the BMW is expected to face an eventual charge of fleeing the scene of the accident.

Mr. Glauber was taken to Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan and was pronounced dead on arrival at 12:41 a.m., a spokesman for the hospital said.

His wife was taken a few blocks farther to Bellevue Hospital Center, a major trauma center skilled at tackling the most challenging emergencies, where the baby was delivered, according to the police. The police said Ms. Glauber also had been pronounced dead on arrival.

The livery driver, Pedro Nuñez Delacruz, 32, was taken to Bellevue and released. "Show your face," his wife, Yesenia Perdomo, who is pregnant with their fourth child, said Sunday, addressing the BMW driver, who, with the passenger, was still being sought by the police.

Mr. Delacruz's application to use the Toyota as a livery cab was pending, and the car should not have been sent to pick up passengers, according to the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission. He declined to comment after speaking to the police.

Neighbors in the couple's tight-knit Orthodox Jewish community said the couple were part of the Satmar Hasidic sect and had been paired by a matchmaker before marrying about a year ago. "They were a special couple," said a young woman who lived near Ms. Glauber's parents, two blocks from the accident, and saw them out walking almost every day.

Ms. Glauber was from a rabbinical family and worked at a hardware distribution store, a relative said. Mr. Glauber grew up in Monsey, N.Y., and came from a prominent family that founded the G&G clothing chain, a major supplier of suits and other garments to the Orthodox community. Mr. Glauber was studying Jewish texts, a traditional pursuit before going on to a career.

A photograph shows the couple smiling shyly in wedding clothes — she in a high-necked white lace gown holding a matching white bouquet, he in a long, belted ceremonial coat and an elaborate fur toque.

Hours later, a solid river of black-hatted, black-coated men packed most of Rodney Street from curb to curb, as the two coffins draped in black velvet were carried from the synagogue after the funeral. Women filled the sidewalk and brownstone stairs on the south side of the street.

Those who spoke at the funeral included Zalman Teitelbaum, a grand rabbi of the Satmar sect, and relatives of the young couple. All wept and wailed as they addressed the mourners.

"It's very hard for me," Ms. Glauber's father, Yitzchok Silberstein, told the mourners. "But I have to say that whatever God does is right, even if I do not understand, he has a plan."

Her brother, Nuchemyoel Silberstein, said the couple had dinner Saturday night, as usual, at her parents' house, about a block from their own home.

"We were sitting just last night together, and now they are gone," Nuchemyoel Silberstein said. "How can she be gone?"

Ms. Gluck, a cousin of Mr. Glauber's, said the couple had been thrilled to be starting a family. But she said that in a harsh coincidence, Mr. Glauber's parents had given birth to another boy a few days ago, and will now bury his big brother.

One of the first people to arrive after the crash, Yisroel Altman, 24, a salesman who lives in South Williamsburg, rushed to the corner of Wilson Street and Kent Avenue when he heard there had been an accident. He said he saw emergency responders use metal cutters to pull Mr. Glauber, unconscious, from the back passenger door of the smashed Toyota and perform CPR on him.

Ms. Glauber, who had been sitting behind the driver, was thrown from the vehicle and came to rest lying down underneath a tractor-trailer parked on the west side of Kent Avenue, Mr. Altman said. On Sunday morning, there was debris, including a car bumper and blue medical gloves, still underneath the tractor-trailer.

Mr. Altman said paramedics had told him that Ms. Glauber had been able to speak to them when she was first placed into the ambulance.

The driver, Mr. Altman said, was standing, talking to the police, and "looked O.K."

Mr. Altman said another witness had told him that the driver of the BMW walked away from his wrecked car, then doubled back for a female companion in the passenger seat. The BMW is registered to a woman in the Bronx who was not in the car when it crashed, the police said.

The witness told Mr. Altman that he tried to ask the BMW driver if he was all right, but that he and the woman ignored the question and kept walking.

Anemona Hartocollis and Nate Schweber contributed reporting.

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News Baby Born After Parents Killed in NYC Crash Dies

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Baby Born After Parents Killed in NYC Crash Dies
Mar 4th 2013, 13:34

NEW YORK (AP) — A baby delivered after his parents were killed in a Brooklyn hit-and-run accident died early Monday, a community spokesman said.

Isaac Abraham, who serves as a spokesman for the family's Orthodox Jewish community, said the child died around 5:30 a.m.

Police were searching for the driver of a BMW and a passenger who fled on foot after slamming into a livery cab, killing the young pregnant woman and her husband.

"This guy's a coward and he should pay his price," said Abraham, adding that the community wants a homicide prosecution.

Nachman and Raizy Glauber, both 21, were looking forward to welcoming their first child into their tight-knit community of Orthodox Jews.

The horrific crash happened in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn as the couple headed to a hospital.

The engine of the livery car ended up in the backseat, where Raizy Glauber, who was seven months pregnant, was sitting before she was ejected, Abraham said. Her body landed under a parked tractor-trailer, said witnesses who raced to the scene after the crash. Nachman Glauber was pinned in the car, and emergency workers had to cut off the roof to get him out, witnesses said.

The Glaubers both were pronounced dead at hospitals, and the medical examiner said they died of blunt-force trauma. Doctors had delivered the baby by cesarean section.

Neighbors and friends said the boy weighed only about 4 pounds. The Glaubers' livery cab driver was treated for minor injuries at the hospital and was later released. Both the driver of the BMW and a passenger fled and were being sought, police said.

Meanwhile, police said the registered owner of the BMW, who was not in the car, was charged with insurance fraud. Police said Takia Walk, 29, was arrested Sunday. They did not have any details regarding the charge.

On Saturday, Raizy Glauber "was not feeling well, so they decided to go" to the hospital, said Sara Glauber, Nachman Glauber's cousin. Abraham said the Glaubers called a car service because they didn't own a car, which is common for New Yorkers.

The Glaubers were married about a year ago and had begun a life together in Williamsburg, where Raizy Glauber grew up in a prominent Orthodox Jewish rabbinical family, Sara Glauber said.

Raised north of New York City in Monsey, N.Y., and part of a family that founded a line of clothing for Orthodox Jews, Nachman Glauber was studying at a rabbinical college nearby, said his cousin.

Brooklyn is home to the largest community of ultra-Orthodox Jews outside Israel, more than 250,000. The community has strict rules governing clothing, social customs and interaction with the outside world. Men wear dark clothing that includes a long coat and a fedora-type hat and often have long beards and ear locks.

Jewish law calls for burial of the dead as soon as possible, and hours after their deaths, the Glaubers were mourned by at least 1,000 people at a funeral outside the Congregation Yetev Lev D'Satmar synagogue.

Afterward, the cars carrying the bodies left and headed to Monsey, where another service was planned in Nachman Glauber's hometown.

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News Obama to Nominate New Heads for Energy Department and E.P.A.

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Obama to Nominate New Heads for Energy Department and E.P.A.
Mar 4th 2013, 13:06

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday will nominate new leaders for the Energy Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, filling out his second-term team to tackle energy and climate issues.

Ernest J. Moniz, the director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Energy Initiative, is set to take over for Steven Chu at the Energy Department. Gina McCarthy, the assistant administrator in charge of air and radiation at the E.P.A., is set to replace the departing administrator, Lisa P. Jackson. Both are subject to Senate confirmation.

The choice of Ms. McCarthy is likely to generate considerable opposition because she is identified with several of the Obama administration's most ambitious clean air regulations, including proposed greenhouse gas regulations for new power plants. Mr. Obama has pledged to address climate change in his second term, and he is expected to use the authority granted to the E.P.A. under the Clean Air Act to reduce climate-altering emissions from power plants and other major sources.

The nominations will be announced Monday morning at the White House, where Mr. Obama will also name Sylvia Matthews Burwell to be the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.

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