By KATE TAYLOR and DALIA SUSSMAN

With Bill de Blasio’s inaugura-tion less than a month away, NewYorkers are highly optimisticabout his mayoralty — but theyremain skeptical that he canachieve major changes on someof the core issues that defined hiscandidacy, like the widening gapbetween the rich and poor andthe scarcity of affordable hous-ing, according to a New YorkTimes/Siena College poll.

Despite his four years as thecity’s public advocate, Mr. de Bla-sio — who surged from behindlate in the primary season to cap-ture the Democratic nomination,and then coasted to a landslidevictory in November — remainsunfamiliar to many New Yorkers.More than half of city residentssaid they did not yet knowenough about the mayor-elect,who takes office on Jan. 1, to forman opinion of him.

Still, 73 percent of city resi-

Poll Finds Hope

Is Running High

For Next Mayor

Continued on Page A32

VOL. CLXIII . . . No. 56,349 © 2013 The New York Times NEW YORK, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2013

Late EditionToday, periodic sun and clouds,windy, cold, high 30. Tonight, partlycloudy, low 24. Tomorrow, snow,around 3 inches, a mix at night,high 32. Weather map, Page A30.

$2.50

U(D54G1D)y+,!z!,!#!@

By ANDREA ELLIOTT

AMOB of spectators presses in, trying to

see the tiny girl. Rap stars circle. The

cameras roll. The crowd chants her

name.

“Da-Sa-Neee!”

Her heart is racing. She looks up at the

sky and extends her fingers, but cannot reach

high enough to grasp the metal bar. A power-

ful man hoists her up by the waist.

In an instant, she is midair, pulling and

twisting acrobatically as the audience gasps at

the might of this 12-year-old girl.

“She’s a giantess,” the man had an-

nounced to the audience. “She’s tomorrow’s

success, I’m telling you right now.”

Dasani blinks, looking out at the smiling

faces. She cannot make sense of the ser-

endipity that has brought her here to Harlem,

on this sparkling July day, to make her debut

as a member of an urban fitness group

teamed up with Nike.

But there is her beaming mother, Chanel;

her father, Supreme; and all seven siblings.

They are cheering and clapping as well.

“I thought it was a dream — make be-

lieve — like this wasn’t happening,” she says.

“You know, like in movies, people pinch them-

selves like this ain’t real.”

It was only two months earlier that Dasa-

ni stood at the bus stop as her mother wept in

the rain. Summer was fast approaching, a sea-

son that, in this family, always brings change.

The markers of Dasani’s life — her first

months in the care of Grandma Joanie, the

day her family moved into their first real

Continued on Page A34

Amid Repressed Hopes, Reasons to Dream

DASANI WITH HER

FAMILY IN HARLEM.

INVISIBLE CHILD

Last in a series.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY

RUTH FREMSON

By JEREMY W. PETERS

WASHINGTON — If there is arock bottom in the frayed rela-tionship between Senate Repub-licans and Democrats, it seemeduncomfortably close as the finaldays of 2013 on Capitol Hill de-generated into something like anendurance contest to see whocould be the most spiteful.

Thursday brought the week’ssecond late-night session —called by Democrats as a way ofretaliating for Republicans’ de-laying tactics on confirmations —and before the senators headedin for the votes, they were chug-ging Red Bull or sleeping in theiroffices, and angrily assigningblame.

“I think it resembles fourthgraders playing in a sandbox,and I’ll give the majority leader,Harry Reid, 99 percent of the re-sponsibility for it,” said SenatorLamar Alexander, Republican ofTennessee and usually one of themore reserved members.

“He’s going to have ‘The Endof the Senate’ written on histombstone,” Mr. Alexander com-plained.

Senator Richard Blumenthal,Democrat of Connecticut, calledthis week “chaotic and confusing,and a shameful waste of time.”

“I am loath to cast partisanblame,” he added, before doingjust that. “But the plain fact isthat there is a faction of the Re-publican Party that is essentiallyinsisting on burning through allof these time deadlines.”

Republicans, furious that Dem-ocrats last month stripped away

TEMPERS FLAREAS NEW RULES

STRAIN SENATE

SESSIONS GO ALL NIGHT

Democrats Call for Votes

and G.O.P. Bemoans

Filibuster Change

Continued on Page A22

By DAVID E. SANGER

WASHINGTON — A presiden-tial advisory committee chargedwith examining the operations ofthe National Security Agency hasconcluded that a program to col-lect data on every phone callmade in the United States shouldcontinue, though under broadnew restraints that would be in-tended to increase privacy pro-tections, according to officialswith knowledge of the report’scontents.

The committee’s report, the of-ficials said, also argues in favor ofcodifying and publicly announc-ing the steps the United Stateswill take to protect the privacy offoreign citizens whose telephonerecords, Internet communica-tions or movements are collectedby the N.S.A. But it is unclearhow far that effort would go, andintelligence officials have arguedstrenuously that they should beunder few restrictions when tap-ping the communications of non-Americans abroad, who do nothave constitutional protectionsunder the Fourth Amendment.

The advisory group is also ex-pected to recommend that seniorWhite House officials, includingthe president, directly review thelist of foreign leaders whose com-munications are routinely mon-itored by the N.S.A. PresidentObama recently apologized toChancellor Angela Merkel of Ger-many for the N.S.A.’s monitoringof her calls over the past decade,promising that the actions hadbeen halted and would not re-sume. But he refused to make thesame promise to the leaders ofMexico and Brazil.

Administration officials say theWhite House has already takenover supervision of that program.“We’re not leaving it to Jim Clap-per anymore,” said one official,referring to the director of na-

Obama Panel Said to UrgeN.S.A. Curbs

Finds Vast Call Logging

Should Continue

Continued on Page A3

By SABRINA TAVERNISE

Tobacco companies are push-ing back against a worldwide risein antismoking laws, using a lit-tle-noticed legal strategy to delayor block regulation. The industryis warning countries that their to-bacco laws violate an expandingweb of trade and investmenttreaties, raising the prospect ofcostly, prolonged legal battles,health advocates and officialssaid.

The strategy has gained mo-mentum in recent years as smok-ing rates in rich countries havefallen and tobacco companieshave sought to maintain access tofast-growing markets in develop-ing countries. Industry officialssay that there are only a fewcases of active litigation, and thatgiving a legal opinion to govern-ments is routine for major play-ers whose interests will be af-fected.

But tobacco opponents say thestrategy is intimidating low- andmiddle-income countries fromtackling one of the gravest healththreats facing them: smoking.

They also say the legal tactics areundermining the world’s largestglobal public health treaty, theW.H.O. Framework Conventionon Tobacco Control, which aimsto reduce smoking by encourag-ing limits on advertising, packag-ing and sale of tobacco products.More than 170 countries havesigned it since it took effect in2005.

More than five million peopledie annually of smoking-relatedcauses, more than from AIDS,malaria and tuberculosis com-bined, according to the WorldHealth Organization.

Alarmed about rising smokingrates among young women, Na-mibia, in southern Africa, passeda tobacco control law in 2010 butquickly found itself bombardedwith stern warnings from the to-bacco industry that the new stat-ute violated the country’s obliga-tions under trade treaties.

“We have bundles and bundlesof letters from them,” said Na-mibia’s health minister, Dr. Rich-

Tobacco Industry TacticsLimit

PoorerNations’ Smoking Laws

Continued on Page A16

By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD and ELISABETH MALKIN

CIUDAD DEL CARMEN, Mex-ico — Every gas station in Mex-ico is stamped with the green-and-white logo of the state-ownedoil monopoly, the economic life-blood of the government. Oil Ex-propriation Day, commemoratingthe day Mexico seized control ofthe industry from foreign compa-nies in 1938, is celebrated withspeeches and even parades insome towns. An old song, “TheOil Worker Hymn,” credits oilwith “saving our fatherland.”

But now, in what could be thebiggest economic change in twodecades, President Enrique PeñaNieto is on the verge of rewritingthe Constitution to open Mexico’soil, gas and electricity industry toprivate investment — a provoca-tive move expected to lure in-ternational oil companies and ex-pand North America’s energysupply while testing the grip oilhas on Mexico’s soul.

“We must defend our oil,”Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, a three-time presidential candidate andson of the president who nation-alized the oil industry, declared ina television advertisement. The

state oil company, he said, be-longs “to all Mexicans, and wemust not allow it to go private.”

The legislation, which won fi-nal congressional approval onThursday afternoon, declaresthat Mexico still owns its oil. Butit allows private businesses todrill for oil and natural gas inpartnership with the state mo-nopoly, called Pemex, or on theirown, returning international oilcompanies to territory they werekicked out of 75 years ago.

“They have been waiting for along time for a true opportunity,”Jeremy M. Martin, director of theenergy program at the Instituteof the Americas, said of the oilcompanies.

In a country where oil is oftenequated with sovereignty and na-tional pride, the plan has set offfurious debate. But while demon-strations helped thwart a moretepid attempt to open the indus-try in 2008, they were not ef-

Mexico’s Pride, Oil, May Be Opened to Outsiders

REUTERS

Antonio García, a leftist politician, stripped down to his under-wear to protest a move to end 75 years of nationalization.

Continued on Page A10

North Korea said that it had executedJang Song-thaek, the uncle and pre-sumed mentor of its leader, Kim Jong-un, for plotting a military coup. PAGE A14

INTERNATIONAL A6-19

An Execution in North Korea

The materials of classical Chinese artare overlaid by contemporary points ofview in a show at the Metropolitan Mu-seum, Holland Cotter writes. PAGE C29

WEEKEND C1-40

Brush, Ink and a Leap in Time

The Transportation Department is con-sidering banning the use of cellphonesfor voice calls onboard airplanes. Still,consumers are likely to soon be able totext and check email in flight. PAGE B1

BUSINESS DAY B1-8

Push for More Peaceful Flight

Hilton’s public offering shows how aloss becomes a gain in the topsy-turvyworld of private equity math. PAGE B1

Blackstone’s Payday on HiltonThe Belgian Senate voted to extend toterminally ill minors a 2002 law that le-galized the practice for adults. PAGE A6

A Vote on Child Euthanasia

The United Nations has identified fivechemical attacks in Syria. PAGE A12

Chemical Warfare in Syria

“American Hustle” and “12 Years aSlave” were the front-runners as theawards season begins. PAGE C1

Golden Globe Nominations

Michael C. Skakel produced paintings,murals and drawings while in prison af-ter being convicted in the 1975 murder ofMartha Moxley. PAGE A29

NEW YORK A29-36

An Inmate’s Artistic Touch

The Obama administration moved togive people more time to sign up andpay for health insurance under the newhealth care law. PAGE A22

NATIONAL A20-28

More Leeway in Health Law

Paul Krugman PAGE A39

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A38-39

A flat tax in Tennessee on visiting proathletes hurts lower-paid players, whosometimes earn less per game than theyare charged in taxes. PAGE B9

SPORTSFRIDAY B9-14

Athlete Tax Is Called Unfair

As John D. Podesta becomes a seniorWhite House adviser, his career offers ahint of lobbying’s blurry lines. PAGE A28

Links of a White House Aide

C M Y K Nxxx,2013-12-13,A,001,Bs-BK,E2