THE CAMPAIGNER At a westernPennsylvania rally, the presidentwas vintage 2016: rambling andfiery, boastful and jocular. PAGE 19

C M Y K Nxxx,2018-03-11,A,001,Bs-4C,E2

PORT FOURCHON, La. — A dozenmiles off the coast, on a rusty, aging plat-form, workers in hard hats and overallsspend their days extracting oil and gasfrom the ocean floor before retreating atnight into tiny weather-beaten steelcubes that act as dorms.

The platform, owned by a Houston-based energy company that until re-

cently was bankrupt,has none of thegrandeur — or profits— of the deep-seastructures over 100miles offshore that

are operated by international giants likeExxon Mobil and Chevron.

But the company, Energy XXI, andother struggling operators in the shallowwaters of the Gulf of Mexico are benefi-ciaries of the Trump administration’s ef-forts to increase offshore productionhere — in large part by upending finan-cial, environmental and safety regula-

measures put in place after the explosionand sinking of the Deepwater Horizonrig in 2010, a disaster that killed 11 peopleand resulted in the largest marine oilspill in drilling history.

Smaller oil and gas companies, manybacked by Wall Street and private equityfirms, say they need the relief to survivefinancially, and the top safety official atthe Interior Department appointed byMr. Trump has appeared to be an enthu-siastic ally.

“Help is on the way, help is on the way,”the official, Scott Angelle, said in Sep-tember at a gathering in Lafayette, La.,of oil and gas executives from so-calledindependent companies, which focus ondrilling alone rather than the extendeddrilling-to-gas-station operations of big-ger competitors.

But an analysis of federal inspectiondata by The New York Times found thatseveral of the independent companiesseeking the rollback, including Energy

tions that the companies oppose.While attention has been focused on

President Trump’s disputed decision inJanuary to reverse drilling restrictionsin nearly all United States coastal wa-ters, the administration has also pursueda rollback of Obama-era regulations inthe Gulf. Those rules include safety

An Energy XXI platform in the Gulf of Mexico south of Port Fourchon, La. The company until recently was bankrupt.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHRIS CARMICHAEL FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Targeting Rules ‘Written With Human Blood’After Deadly Gulf Disaster, Drillers See Administration as Ally

Laborers boarding a platform at sea,where they often live and work.

Continued on Page 16

By ERIC LIPTON

TRUMP RULES

Offshore Safety

LONG BRANCH, N.J. — JaredKushner’s family company re-cently began construction on anoceanfront development in thisJersey Shore city, a project thathas the strong backing of local of-ficials, who agreed to support itwith $20 million in bonds.

But unknown to Long Branchofficials, the Kushners have beenin talks to team up with anotherfamily-run company that has aneven bigger presence in the WhiteHouse: the Trump Organization.

The Kushners are in private dis-cussions to have PresidentTrump’s company manage at leastone hotel at the center of the de-velopment known as Pier Village,according to people briefed on thepreviously unreported talks. TheKushner Companies and theTrump Organization have signeda letter of intent, though no deal isfinal and the Kushners are not re-quired to inform city officials.

The long-running talks blur the

line between family, business andpolitics in ways that lack prece-dent: Both Mr. Trump and Mr.Kushner, the president’s senioradviser and son-in-law, retain fi-nancial interests in their familybusinesses. The Trump Organiza-tion’s outside ethics adviser hasraised questions about a potentialdeal — one reason the two-year-long discussions have not beencompleted.

The talks are underway as theWhite House role of Mr. Kushnerhas become increasingly strainedbecause of his business dealings.Mr. Kushner lost his top-secret se-curity clearance last month, inpart because of worries that for-eign governments might try togain influence by doing businesswith him.

While Mr. Kushner has soldsome holdings in Kushner Compa-nies, he has held on to a majorityof his stake, including an owner-ship interest in the recent $283million expansion of Pier Village.

Out of Public View, the KushnersAnd the Trumps Talk Business

This article is by Ben Protess,Steve Eder and Jesse Drucker.

Continued on Page 14

SHOEBURYNESS, England —Educators in Britain, after dec-ades spent in a collective effort tominimize risk, are now, cautiously,getting into the business of pro-viding it.

Four years ago, for instance,teachers at the Richmond AvenuePrimary and Nursery Schoollooked critically around theircampus and set about, as one ofthem put it, “bringing in risk.”

Out went the plastic playhousesand in came the dicey stuff: stacksof two-by-fours, crates and loosebricks. The schoolyard got a mudpit, a tire swing, log stumps andworkbenches with hammers andsaws.

“We thought, how can we bringthat element of risk into your ev-eryday environment?” said LeahMorris, who manages the earlyyears program at the school inShoeburyness in southeast Brit-ain. “We were looking at, O.K., sowe’ve got a sand pit, what can weadd to the sand pit to make it morerisky?”

Now, Ms. Morris says proudly,“we have fires, we use knives,

saws, different tools,” all used un-der adult supervision. Indoors,scissors abound, and so do sharp-edged tape dispensers (“they nor-mally only cut themselves once,”she says).

Limited risks are increasinglycast by experts as an experienceessential to childhood develop-ment, useful in building resilienceand grit.

Outside the Princess DianaPlayground in Kensington Gar-dens in London, which attractsmore than a million visitors a year,a placard informs parents thatrisks have been “intentionallyprovided, so that your child candevelop an appreciation of risk ina controlled play environmentrather than taking similar risks inan uncontrolled and unregulated

wider world.”This view is tinged with nostal-

gia for an earlier Britain, in whichchildren were tougher and moreself-reliant. It resonates both withright-wing tabloids, which see itas a corrective to the cosseting ofa liberal nanny state; and withprogressives, drawn to a freer andmore natural childhood. It is alsosupported by a growing list of gov-ernment officials, among themAmanda Spielman, the chief in-spector of Ofsted, the powerfulagency that inspects Britishschools.

Ms. Spielman has poked fun atschools for what she considers ex-cessive risk aversion, describingas “simply barmy” measures likesending schoolchildren out on cityfield trips in high-visibility jack-ets. Late last year, she announcedthat her agency’s inspectorswould undergo training that willencompass the positive, as well asthe negative, side of risk.

“Inspections will creep into be-ing a bit more risk-averse unlesswe explicitly train them to get amore sophisticated understand-ing of the balance between bene-

In Britain, Learning to Accept Risk, and the Occasional ‘Owie’By ELLEN BARRY

A school in Shoeburyness, England, where bricks are for play.TOM JAMIESON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page 12

WASHINGTON — Summonedto the Oval Office on the spur ofthe moment, the South Korean en-voy found himself face-to-facewith President Trump one after-noon last week at what he thoughtmight be a hinge moment in his-tory.

Chung Eui-yong had come tothe White House bearing an invi-tation. But he opened with flattery,which diplomats have discoveredis a key to approaching the vola-tile American leader. “We couldcome this far thanks to a great de-gree to President Trump,” Mr.Chung said. “We highly appreci-ate this fact.”

Then he got to the point: TheUnited States, South Korea andtheir allies should not repeat their“past mistakes,” but South Koreabelieved that North Korea’s mer-curial leader, Kim Jong-un, was“frank and sincere” when he saidhe wanted to talk with the Ameri-cans about giving up his nuclearprogram. Mr. Kim, he added, hadtold the South Koreans that if Mr.Trump would join him in an un-precedented summit meeting, thetwo could produce a historicbreakthrough.

Mr. Trump accepted on the spot,stunning not only Mr. Chung andthe other high-level South Kore-ans who were with him, but alsothe phalanx of American officialswho were gathered in the Oval Of-fice.

His advisers had assumed thepresident would take more time todiscuss such a decision with themfirst. Defense Secretary Jim Mat-tis and Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster,the president’s national security

Continued on Page 10

WITH SNAP ‘YES,’TRUMP ROLLS DICE

ON NORTH KOREA

DISREGARDING WARNINGS

Dose of Flattery Opens the Door to a Historic

Meeting With Kim

By PETER BAKERand CHOE SANG-HUN

Late Edition

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WASHINGTON — The legisla-tive blitz that rocketed the$1.5 trillion tax cut through Con-gress in less than two months cre-ated a host of errors and ambigu-ities in the law that businesses bigand small are just now discover-ing and scrambling to address.

Companies and trade groupsare pushing the Treasury Depart-ment and Congress to fix the law’sconsequences, some intended andsome not, including provisionsthat disadvantage certain farm-ers, hurt restaurateurs and retail-ers and could balloon the tax billsof large multinational corpora-tions.

While Treasury can clear up un-certainty about some of themurky provisions, actual errorsand unintended language can besolved only legislatively — at atime when Democrats seem disin-clined to lend votes to shoring up alaw they had no hand in passingand are actively trying to disman-tle.

On Thursday, the U.S. Chamberof Commerce sent the TreasuryDepartment 15 pages of detailedrequests for clarification on howthe law affects multinational cor-porations, mutual fund investorsand mom-and-pop pass-throughentities.

It was a public display of thelobbying that businesses are wag-ing primarily behind the scenes tochange or shape enforcement ofthe law, most notably its byzan-tine new provisions intended tocrack down on multinationalssheltering profits abroad for taxpurposes.

“The question is whether oursystem is set up today in a way todo little midcourse corrections astime goes on, or is it not,” saidDana Trier, who left the TreasuryDepartment last month afterserving as deputy assistant secre-

TAX LAW’S ERRORS UPSET EMPLOYERSAS LEADERS FEUD

A RUSH CAUSED MISTAKES

Democrats Are Reluctantto Help Fix Overhaul

They Opposed

By JIM TANKERSLEYand ALAN RAPPEPORT

Continued on Page 15

How were 12 of the most famous wom-en of their eras ignored by The NewYork Times upon their deaths? Finally,they have the obituaries they deserve.

SPECIAL SECTION

Overlooked No LongerIn a picturesque Indiana town hit hardby the national opioid crisis, youngathletes are in peril. A coroner said, “I’venever seen anything like this.” PAGE 1

SPORTSSUNDAY

Suicides, Drugs and FootballThe cement giant Lafarge stayed inSyria when other companies left. Now,it is accused of paying off ISIS militantsand putting its workers at risk. PAGE 1

SUNDAY BUSINESS

The Price of Profit in Syria

U(D547FD)v+#!z!/!=!:

Susan Chira PAGE 1

SUNDAY REVIEW

China’s attempts to drive tens of thou-sands of migrant workers out of bigcities have inspired a backlash of paint-ings, songs and poetry. PAGE 6

INTERNATIONAL 4-12

Protest Art for China’s Migrants

Today, sunshine and patchy clouds,high 45. Tonight, mostly clear, sea-sonably cold, low 33. Tomorrow,variably cloudy, a chilly day, high 43.Weather map appears on Page 20.

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