Aurelia Butler

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    NYT Crossword Answers for Feb. 18, 2025

    Erik Agard extends his regards.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesTUESDAY PUZZLE — You may come across the odd entry in the New York Times Crossword (or any crossword, for that matter) that doesn’t seem to be a real word. That’s valid! While we don’t need to argue over whether specific words do or don’t “exist” — in certain scholarly arguments, none of them do — it’s reasonable to wonder why some words appear in the crossword but not in the dictionary.With that said, I hope you’ll understand why Erik Agard decided to include 66-Across in today’s crossword. I think you’ll understand why the word had to be used … even if it is a bit of a stretch.Today’s ThemeThere’s no revealer in this theme, but it does feel as though each themed entry builds on the previous one as you move down the grid. Four identical clues at 17-, 36-, 44- and 66-Across read: [“Seriously?!”]. The answers are distinct, albeit tonally similar, but one of them stands out.I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU (17A) leads to WHO DOES THAT? (36A) and THE AUDACITY! (44A). Then it’s just WOOOOOOOOOOOOOW (66A).The joke dawned on me when I noticed that I had some kind of grid-spanning entry that ended in -OOW. What kind of expression of disbelief was this? I filled the row with O’s, half-joking at the notion. Only once several Down entries crossed the O’s successfully did I realize what was going on. “Ooooooooooohhhh,” you might say.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Prison Boss Elevated by Hochul Was Accused of Rape by 2 Former Inmates

    The attacks occurred years earlier when Bennie Thorpe worked at a state women’s prison, his accusers said. Now he runs a prison where an inmate was fatally beaten by guards.After guards at the Marcy Correctional Facility in central New York beat a handcuffed prisoner to death late last year, Gov. Kathy Hochul promised immediate reforms to turn the troubled prison around.One of her first directives was to install a new leader, Bennie Thorpe, who had recently run another correctional facility and had experience with security operations and rehabilitation programs. Mr. Thorpe, she said, had “expertise and a fresh perspective on what must be done.”He also had a record of being accused of rape and sexual assault by inmates at one of his former workplaces, records and interviews show.In lawsuits filed in 2023, two women who had been incarcerated at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester County accused Mr. Thorpe of sexual abuse when he was a captain there.One said he summoned her to an office, groped her breasts and raped her in December 2018.Another said he raped her three times in the spring of 2019 in a room near the prison’s medical unit.Neither of the allegations has been previously reported. Both lawsuits are still pending in the New York State Court of Claims.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Judge Dale Ho Faces Demands to Continue Eric Adams’s Prosecution

    As Judge Dale E. Ho considers the Justice Department’s request to stop the corruption case against New York’s mayor, former U.S. attorneys are asking him to investigate.Judge Dale E. Ho, who is overseeing the foundering corruption case against Mayor Eric Adams of New York City, is facing a storm of demands that he look deeply into the federal government’s reasons for seeking to drop the prosecution.On Monday night, three former U.S. attorneys from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut filed a brief asking the judge to conduct an extensive inquiry into whether the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss the Adams case was in the public interest or merely a pretext for securing the mayor’s cooperation with the administration’s anti-immigration policies.Earlier Monday, Common Cause, the good-government advocacy group, filed a letter with the judge asking that he deny the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss the Adams case, which the group called part of a “corrupt quid pro quo bargain.” The organization also asked the judge to consider appointing an independent special prosecutor to continue the case in court.And the New York City Bar Association, which has more than 20,000 lawyers as members, said Monday that the order by a top Justice Department official, Emil Bove III, to Danielle R. Sassoon, who was the interim U.S. attorney in Manhattan, to dismiss the case “cuts to the heart of the rule of law.” The organization called for a “searching inquiry” into facts of what happened.The legal and political crisis encompasses both New York’s City Hall and the U.S. Department of Justice, calling into question Mr. Adams’s future as well as the independence and probity of federal prosecutions.Mr. Adams was indicted last year on five counts, including bribery, fraud and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations. He pleaded not guilty and was scheduled for trial in April. But last week, Mr. Bove caused a cascade of resignations — including Ms. Sassoon’s — as prosecutors in Manhattan and Washington refused to comply with his order. On Friday, Mr. Bove himself signed a formal request that Judge Ho will now consider.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Who Are the 4 Key Officials Leaving City Hall?

    Four deputy mayors in the Eric Adams administration — all respected veteran public servants — are resigning.On Monday, four of Mayor Eric Adams’s eight deputy mayors announced they would resign.In a City Hall tarnished by accusations of cronyism and corruption, the four departing deputy mayors stood out as well-regarded technocrats with decades of public service experience.It is unclear if their departures will lead to an exodus of the commissioners serving under them. Nor is it clear how Mr. Adams will replace them, or govern, moving forward.Here is a look at the four officials who resigned.Maria Torres-Springer, First Deputy MayorMaria Torres-Springer was named first deputy mayor last fall.Dave Sanders for The New York TimesWhen Mr. Adams named Maria Torres-Springer, 48, as first deputy mayor in October, longtime city government hands breathed a sigh of relief.In a City Hall racked by upheaval, Ms. Torres-Springer’s long, distinguished résumé promised managerial competence. Her prior positions included deputy mayor for housing, economic development and work force; commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development; and president and chief executive of the New York City Economic Development Corporation.She played a pivotal role in developing the City of Yes zoning proposal, which the City Council passed in December, and which is designed to create up to 80,000 units of new housing in a city desperately short of it.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Top Social Security Official Leaves After Musk Team Seeks Data Access

    The departure of the acting commissioner is the latest backlash to the Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts to access sensitive data.The top official at the Social Security Administration stepped down this weekend after members of Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency sought access to sensitive personal data about millions of Americans held by the agency, according to people familiar with the matter.The resignation of Michelle King, the acting commissioner, is the latest abrupt departure of a senior federal official who refused to provide Mr. Musk’s lieutenants with access to closely held data. Mr. Musk’s team has been embedding with agencies across the federal government and seeking access to private data as part of what it has said is an effort to root out fraud and waste.Social Security payments account for about $1.5 trillion, or a fifth, of annual federal spending in the United States. President Trump has pledged not to enact cuts to the program’s retirement benefits, but he has indicated that he is willing to look for ways to cut wasteful or improper spending from the retirement program that pays benefits to millions of Americans.An audit produced by the Social Security Administration’s inspector general last year found that from 2015 to 2022, the agency paid almost $8.6 trillion in benefits and made approximately $71.8 billion, or less than 1 percent, in improper payments that usually involved recipients getting too much money.Mr. Musk’s team at the Social Security Administration was seeking access to an internal data repository that contains extensive personal information about Americans, according two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation. The agency’s systems contain financial data, employment information and addresses for anyone with a Social Security number.“S.S.A. has comprehensive medical records of people who have applied for disability benefits,” said Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, a group that promotes the expansion of Social Security. “It has our bank information, our earnings records, the names and ages of our children, and much more.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Can the Federal Reserve Look Past Trump’s Tariffs?

    Top officials are grappling with how to handle potential price increases caused by the administration’s policies.As President Trump’s efforts to restructure the global trade system with expansive tariffs begin to take shape, one question continues to dog officials at the Federal Reserve: How will these policies impact the central bank’s plans to lower interest rates?One influential Fed governor made clear on Monday that he did not expect Mr. Trump’s policies to derail the Fed’s efforts to get inflation under control, suggesting instead that fresh interest rate cuts are still in play this year.“My baseline view is that any imposition of tariffs will only modestly increase prices and in a nonpersistent manner,” Christopher J. Waller, the official, said in remarks at an event in Australia Monday evening. “So I favor looking through these effects when setting monetary policy to the best of our ability.”Economists are concerned that tariffs, which are essentially taxes on American consumers, will increase prices in the United States, at least temporarily, and over time slow economic growth.Mr. Waller acknowledged that the economic impact of the tariffs could be larger than anticipated depending on how they are structured and later put in place. But he suggested that any uptick in prices from tariffs could be blunted by other policies, which could have “positive supply effects and put downward pressure on inflation.”Mr. Waller’s views matter given that he is one of the seven officials who make up the Board of Governors and votes at every policy meeting.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Education Dept. Gives Schools Two Weeks to Eliminate Race-Based Programs

    The department’s Office for Civil Rights warned that it would penalize schools that consider race in scholarships, hiring and an array of other activities.The Education Department warned schools in a letter on Friday that they risked losing federal funding if they continued to take race into account when making scholarship or hiring decisions, or so much as nodded to race in “all other aspects of student, academic and campus life.”The announcement gave institutions 14 days to comply. It built on a major Supreme Court ruling in 2023 that found that the use of race-conscious admissions practices at colleges and universities was unlawful. But it went far beyond the scope of that decision by informing schools that considering race at all when making staffing decisions or offering services to subsets of students would be grounds for punishment.The letter was the latest step in the Trump administration’s push to recast programs intended to level the playing field for historically underserved populations as a form of racial discrimination. It also appeared to be an extension of the broadsides President Trump has delivered to purge diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives from the federal government, which critics have assailed as veiled racism.Craig Trainor, the Education Department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said related programs and scholarships, many of which have historically sought to help Black and Latino students attain college degrees or find community, had come at the expense of “white and Asian students, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds.”“At its core, the test is simple: If an educational institution treats a person of one race differently than it treats another person because of that person’s race, the educational institution violates the law,” Mr. Trainor wrote.“Put simply, educational institutions may neither separate or segregate students based on race, nor distribute benefits or burdens based on race,” he said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Russia Frees American Prisoner Before Talks With U.S.

    The release of Kalob Byers Wayne, who was arrested on drug charges on Feb. 7, came on the eve of talks about the war in Ukraine.Russia released another American held on drug charges on Monday, in what the Kremlin acknowledged was a good-will gesture on the eve of talks between senior Russian and U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia.The American, Kalob Byers Wayne, 28, was arrested on Feb. 7 at a Moscow airport on charges of carrying a small amount of marijuana.In response to a question about Mr. Wayne’s release, Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, told reporters that the talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday would be about restoring relations between Moscow and Washington, and “so certain events can be viewed in this context.”It is not clear how broad the talks will be, but they will focus on the war in Ukraine. The U.S. team is led by officials that President Trump has named to negotiate an end to the war.Mr. Wayne’s arrest came as U.S. and Russian officials were making the final negotiations to free Marc Fogel, an American teacher who was arrested in August 2021 on marijuana charges. Mr. Wayne’s detention complicated those talks and may have delayed Mr. Fogel’s release, at least by a few days, according to a person briefed on the talks.In exchange for Mr. Fogel’s release, the United States released Alexander Vinnik, who was serving a sentence in connection with a cryptocurrency exchange that prosecutors said had been used to launder money.But representatives of Mr. Wayne said he was not traded but released unconditionally, as Russian officials sought to remove any potential irritants with the Trump administration before talks on the war in Ukraine.Martin De Luca and Andrew Smith, lawyers who represented Mr. Fogel, were asked to help with Mr. Wayne’s case not long after he was arrested. In a statement, they credited Mr. Trump’s recent diplomatic outreach with securing the release of both Mr. Fogel and Mr. Wayne.“Under President Trump, we are witnessing a shift in diplomatic strategy — one that prioritizes American citizens and engages directly to resolve wrongful detentions with urgency and strength,” the statement said.The release was reported earlier by The Associated Press, which identified the American as Kalob Byers.While Mr. Fogel was tried and spent years in a Russian prison, the Trump administration secured Mr. Wayne’s release just 10 days after his arrest, at Vnukovo International Airport.Mr. Wayne was traveling to Moscow with his Russian fiancée, Naida Mambetova. Both Ms. Mambetova and Mr. Wayne were questioned, and Mr. Wayne was taken into custody.Mr. Wayne’s lawyers said he had only a small amount of medically prescribed marijuana. Still, he was charged with a drug offense that carries a potential prison sentence of up to 10 years. More