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I lost mysisterbrotherfathermotherdaughtersongrandparentsfriend

One-third of Americans have lost someone to thecoronavirus. They have coped with sudden pain

and immeasurable sorrow. We spoke to the peoplethe pandemic left behind. PAGES A4-17

MINNEAPOLIS — Late lastyear, a 14-page questionnaire be-gan to arrive in mailboxes acrossMinneapolis and its suburbs. Itasked if the recipient had watchedthe video of George Floyd dyingunder a police officer’s knee. Whatabout the protests against policebrutality, it wanted to know — didyou go? How do you feel aboutBlack Lives Matter?

It asked respondents to listtheir education level, any martialarts training, even their favoritepodcasts. And then there was theessay prompt, followed by adaunting expanse of blank paper:Tell us everything you have heardabout the death of Mr. Floyd.

The questionnaire went out topotential jurors for the trial ofDerek Chauvin, the white formerpolice officer accused of murder-ing Mr. Floyd, who was Black. Thecase has touched the lives of mil-lions and sparked the largestmovement for racial justice inAmerica since the 1960s, but thetrial will ultimately decide theguilt or innocence of one man.

Jury selection is set to begin onMonday, in a courtroom built tocomply with pandemic protocols

Hurdle for TrialIn Floyd Killing:Find a Fair Jury

By TIM ARANGOand SHAILA DEWAN

Continued on Page A15

ALBANY, N.Y. — In a poten-tially crippling defection in Gov.Andrew M. Cuomo’s efforts tomaintain control amid a sexualharassment scandal, the powerfulDemocratic leader of the NewYork State Senate declared onSunday that the governor shouldresign “for the good of the state.”

The stinging rebuke from theSenate leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins — along with a similarsentiment from the Assemblyspeaker, Carl E. Heastie, whoquestioned the “governor’s abilityto continue to lead this state” —suggested that Mr. Cuomo, athird-term Democrat, had lost hisparty’s support in the State Capi-tol, and cast doubt on his ability towithstand the political fallout.

Once hailed as a pandemic heroand potential presidential con-tender, the governor has seen hispolitical future spiral downwardover eight perilous days in thewake of a New York Times reportabout Charlotte Bennett, a formeraide to Mr. Cuomo.

In a series of interviews withThe Times, Ms. Bennett, 25, saidthat Mr. Cuomo, 63, had asked herinvasive personal questions lastspring about her sex life, includ-ing whether she had slept witholder men, and whether shethought age made a difference inrelationships.

Ms. Bennett is one of five wom-en who have come forward in re-cent days with allegations of sexu-al harassment or inappropriatebehavior against Mr. Cuomo, withone predating his tenure as gover-nor.

Mr. Cuomo, however, was ada-mantly resisting calls for his res-ignation, arguing he was electedby the people, not “by politicians.”

“I’m not going to resign be-cause of allegations,” the gover-nor said, calling the notion “anti-democratic,” and a violation of thedue process clause of the Consti-tution. “There is no way I resign.”

The governor’s statements onSunday afternoon came not long

after Ms. Stewart-Cousins had in-formed Mr. Cuomo in a phone callthat she was about to call for himto step down, according to a per-son with knowledge of the conver-sation; the governor then quicklyconvened his own news confer-ence to pre-empt her announce-ment.

He told reporters that his re-marks were directed at “some leg-islators who suggest that I re-sign.”

Undeterred, Ms. Stewart-Cous-ins fired back, releasing her state-

ment not long after Mr. Cuomoconcluded his news conference.

“We need to govern withoutdaily distraction,” said Ms. Stew-art-Cousins, citing the allegationsof sexual harassment and a “toxicwork environment,” and his han-dling of the state’s nursing homesduring the pandemic. “GovernorCuomo must resign.”

Ms. Stewart-Cousins is themost prominent New York Stateofficial to call for Mr. Cuomo’s res-ignation, and her statement car-ries significance: Her Senatewould be the jury for any im-peachment trial of the governor, ifsuch an action were passed by theAssembly.

It also carries symbolic weight:

STATE DEMOCRATSTURN UP PRESSURE

ON CUOMO TO EXITGovernor Defiant as Senate Leader Says

He ‘Must Resign’ Over Allegations

By JESSE McKINLEY and J. DAVID GOODMAN

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo hasresisted all calls to resign.

PETER FOLEY/EPA, VIA SHUTTERSTOCK

Continued on Page A14

BIRCH CREEK, Alaska — Asthe turboprop plane rumbled to ahalt at the edge of a frozen landingstrip, Vennessa Joseph and herfellow villagers were racing tomeet it, their snowmobiles kickingup a flurry of powder behindthem.

Within minutes, six residents ofBirch Creek, bundled in parkasand gloves in the 25-below-zero af-ternoon, had piled into the frayingseats, and the engine was roaringagain. As the plane lifted off to thenorth, headed toward Fort Yukon,Ms. Joseph looked out across thevast wetlands, where stuntedspruce trees cast long shadows inthe winter sun.

Vaccination day had arrived.With a population of about two

dozen that relies on a subsistencelife, fishing pike in the summerand hunting moose in the fall,

Birch Creek operates like numer-ous villages in Alaska, with noroad access, no running water andno neighbors for miles. But de-spite the natural isolation — morethan 100 miles from Fairbanksand on the edge of the Arctic Cir-cle — the coronavirus had stillmanaged to find its way in. In thefall, Ms. Joseph was laid up fordays with illness. People in two ofthe nearest villages died.

In a state where the Indigenouspopulation has been ravaged byglobal disease outbreaks for gen-erations, the coronavirus pan-demic has killed Alaska Natives atquadruple the rate of white resi-dents. The virus has taken hold inremote communities, setting upan urgent race between infectionsand vaccinations during a seasonin which weather can limit travel,

From left, Winston James, Vennessa Joseph and Isaac James on a charter flight home to Birch Creek, Alaska, after being vaccinated.ASH ADAMS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Covid Infiltrates Deep Alaska;Now So Must Crucial Vaccines

By MIKE BAKER and SERGE F. KOVALESKI

Continued on Page A8

WASHINGTON — A year ago,Anique Houpe, a single mother insuburban Atlanta, was working asa letter carrier, running a sidebusiness catering picnics and set-tling into a rent-to-own home inStone Mountain, Ga., where shethought her boys would flourish inclass and excel on the footballfield.

Then the pandemic closed theschools, the boys’ grades col-lapsed with distance learning, andshe quit work to stay home inhopes of breaking their fall. Ex-pecting unemployment aid thatnever came, she lost her utilities,ran short of food and was recover-ing from an immobilizing bout ofCovid when a knock brought mar-shals with eviction papers.

Depending on when the snap-shot is dated, Ms. Houpe might ap-pear as a striving emblem of up-

ward mobility or a mother on theverge of homelessness. But in ei-ther guise, she is among the peo-ple Democrats seek to help with amold-breaking plan, on the vergeof congressional passage, to pro-vide most parents a monthlycheck of up to $300 per child.

Obscured by other parts ofPresident Biden’s $1.9 trillionstimulus package, which won Sen-ate approval on Saturday, thechild benefit has the makings of apolicy revolution. Though framedin technocratic terms as an expan-sion of an existing tax credit, it isessentially a guaranteed incomefor families with children, akin tochildren’s allowances that arecommon in other rich countries.

The plan establishes the benefitfor a single year. But if it becomespermanent, as Democrats intend,

With $300 Monthly, Relief BillUshers Revolution in Child Aid

By JASON DePARLE

Continued on Page A6

Amy Sherald wanted her portrait, above,of the woman killed by the police to beseen in the city where she died. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-6

Honoring Breonna TaylorBruce Meyers said inventing the DuneBuggy “was just about having fun.” Hisvehicle ignited the off-road craze of the1960s. He was 94. PAGE B7

OBITUARIES B7-8

Beach Boy at Heart

Senator Kyrsten Sinema angered somefellow Democrats by voting against aminimum-wage increase. PAGE A13

NATIONAL A13-17

Thumbs-Down Rankles Left

Mara Gay PAGE A18

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A18-19Kathryn Hahn discussed playing thepowerful, malevolent Agatha Harknessin the “WandaVision” TV series. PAGE C1

She’s a Good Bad Witch

When a healthy 41-year-old died a yearago, an autopsy blamed heart disease.But his family wants to know whether itwas really the coronavirus. PAGE A4

TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-9

A Family Seeks Answers

Senator Joe Manchin III said he wouldnot kill off a tool that supports biparti-sanship, but would reform it. PAGE A7

Open to Filibuster Tweaks

Mindful of the pandemic, thousands offreshly minted Silicon Valley million-aires are opting to be conservative withtheir money. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-6

Millionaires Go Slow

Figures throughout sports recalled theuncertainty and scrambling they facedlast March 11 to 13 as the reality of thepandemic set in. PAGES D4-5

SPORTSMONDAY D1-7

When the Clock Stopped

Those who know Senator Josh Hawley hear a change in tone.ERIN SCHAFF/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Most Republicans who spoke atthe recent Conservative PoliticalAction Conference in Orlando,Fla., avoided acknowledging theevents of Jan. 6. But less than 30seconds into his speech, SenatorJosh Hawley confronted themhead on.

That day, Mr. Hawley said, hadunderscored the “great crisis mo-ment” in which Americans cur-rently found themselves. Thatday, he explained, the mob hadcome for him.

The “woke mob,” that is. In the

weeks since, they had “tried tocancel me, censor me, expel me,shut me down.” To “stop me,” Mr.Hawley said, “from representingyou.”

“And guess what?” he went on,his tempo building, the audienceapplauding: “I’m here today, I’mnot going anywhere, and I’m notbacking down.”

The appeal from Missouri’s ju-nior senator reflected what hasbecome standard fare in a Repub-lican Party still in thrall to Donald

Voices From Hawley’s HistoryWonder, Why So Angry Now?

By ELAINA PLOTT and DANNY HAKIM

Continued on Page A16

A year after Meghan Marklemarried Prince Harry in a fairy-tale wedding, she said in an ex-traordinary interview broadcaston Sunday night, her life as amember of the British royal fam-ily had become so emotionallydesolate that she contemplatedsuicide.

At another point, members ofthe family told Harry and Me-ghan, a biracial former actressfrom the United States, that theydid not want the couple’s unbornchild, Archie, to be a prince orprincess, and expressed concernsabout how dark the color of thebaby’s skin would be.

An emotional but self-pos-sessed Meghan said of her suicid-al thoughts: “I was ashamed tohave to admit it to Harry. I knewthat if I didn’t say it, I would do it. Ijust didn’t want to be alive any-more.”

Meghan, 39, made the disclo-sures in an eagerly anticipated,and at times incendiary, interviewon CBS with Oprah Winfrey thataired in the United States in primetime. In describing a royal life thatbegan as a fairy tale but quicklyturned cruel, her blunt answersraised the combustible issues of

Depth of PainFrom Royal LifeSpills Into View

By MARK LANDLER

Continued on Page A12

The first pope ever to visit Iraq, Francisvoiced sorrow and hope for a shrunkenChristian community. PAGE A11

INTERNATIONAL A10-12

Pope Soothes a War-Torn Flock

As the Biden administration prepares tocounter Russian hacking, it also consid-ers confronting China. PAGE A11

Cyberthreats on 2 Fronts

Late Edition

VOL. CLXX . . . No. 58,991 © 2021 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, MONDAY, MARCH 8, 2021

Today, sunshine, more seasonable,high 44. Tonight, partly cloudy, low36. Tomorrow, sunshine, patchyclouds, noticeably milder, high 60.Weather map appears on Page D6.

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