– Yesterday's horrifying car crash near the Bronx zoo occurred at the Bronx River Parkway's "Bermuda Triangle," where accidents have happened before, a lawyer tells the New York Daily News. In fact, Eric Buckvar sued New York state and city for some of the six people who died in 2006 after hitting the median and barreling into oncoming traffic. And just last June, another car struck the median and went airborne, landing at street level—but both driver and passenger survived. “We did a lot of discovery of state records, and we found there was a problem," said Buckvar. "Traffic would slow down very quickly, and sometimes cars would lose control." Officials thought about putting in a new lane, the lawyer said, but other plans interfered. Seven people died in yesterday's crash when an SUV hit the median and plunged off the freeway. But police say the driver, Maria Gonzalez, was speeding when she hit the median, doing 68 mph in a 50-mph zone, the AP reports.

Expand this summary.

A lawyer called the treacherous southbound stretch of Bronx River Parkway where seven people died on Sunday cursed — and blamed authorities for not widening it.

 “I think it would be fair to say that this is the Bermuda Triangle of the Bronx River Parkway,” attorney Eric Buckvar said.

 Buckvar sued the city and state on behalf of some of the six people killed in a horrific 2006 accident near the Bronx Zoo between exits 5 and 6 — the same location as Sunday’s catastrophe.

 Police investigate a multiple car accident with 5 DOA's and 12 injuries at Bronx River Pkwy near 177th Street in the Bronx on Sunday 07-09-06. [Photo by Anthony DelMundo] (Anthony DelMundo for New York Da)

 In both cases — and in other accidents there over the years — cars have hit the median and gone out of control.

 THREE GENERATIONS OF BRONX FAMILY WIPED OUT IN HORRIFIC BRONX ZOO PARKWAY CRASH

 Family members mourn outside Jacobi Hospital after a car accident killed 7 people on the Bronx River Parkway. (Andrew Theodorakis/Daily News)

 Buckvar said traffic tends to slow suddenly there, and that officials have considered adding a new lane.

 “We did a lot of discovery of state records, and we found there was a problem. Traffic would slow down very quickly, and sometimes cars would lose control,” he said.

 Police investigate a multiple car accident with 5 DOA's and 12 injuries at Bronx River Pkwy near 177th Street in the Bronx on Sunday 07-09-06. [Photo by Anthony DelMundo] (DelMundo, Anthony freelance NYDN/Anthony DelMundo)

 “They considered putting a new lane, but they didn’t do it because they were considering replacing the whole viaduct,” Buckvar said.

 FAMILY OF VICTIMS IN TRAGIC BRONX ZOO PARKWAY CRASH STRUGGLE AFTER LOSING 7

 Police investigate a multiple car accident with 5 DOA's and 12 injuries at Bronx River Pkwy near 177th Street in the Bronx on Sunday 07-09-06. [Photo by Anthony DelMundo] (DelMundo, Anthony freelance NYDN/Anthony DelMundo)

 State officials could not be reached at press time.

 In the 2006 case, six members of one family, including a 6-year-old girl, were killed when their Acura Legend went out of control, went over the concrete median and into oncoming traffic.

 Investigator examine car that flipped over the wall on the North bound Bronx River Parkway at 177 street where a fatal accident that killed four people in the same car. Photo by Robert Stridiron. 07/09/06 (Freelance/Robert Stridiron)

 SEE THE GALLERY: TOUCHING SHOTS FROM FAMILY'S PHOTO ALBUMS

 Buckvar said that after settlements in that 2006 case, the city replaced the troublesome median barrier — but it hasn’t stopped the mayhem there.

 Investigator examine car that flipped over the wall on the North bound Bronx River Parkway at 177 street where a fatal accident that killed four people in the same car. Photo by Robert Stridiron. 07/09/06 (Theodorakis, Andrew/Theodorakis, Andrew)

 Last June, a car hit the median and sailed into the air, landing on E. 180th St. Both the driver and passenger survived.

 “For the second time in a year, an accident on the Bronx River Parkway has led to a car falling off the highway to the streets below,” Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz said in a statement.

 “In the coming weeks, my office will reach out to the appropriate agencies to examine the safety issues on the Bronx River Parkway and to discuss potential solutions.”

 hkennedy@nydailynews.com ||||| A speeding driver clipped a highway divider and damaged a tire before her SUV plunged off a highway and into a ravine on the grounds of the Bronx Zoo, killing three generations of a family, including three children, police said Monday.

 Skid marks and a scraped concrete barrier mark the spot where a van carrying seven occupants plunged off the highway to a wooded area below, Sunday April 29, 2012, in New York. Authorities say the out-of-control... (Associated Press)

 Seven candles are lit Monday, April 30, 2012, in the Bronx borough of New York, in a memorial to the seven family members who died the previous day in a horrifying when the SUV carrying three generations... (Associated Press)

 Police investigate the destroyed van that plunged over the Bronx River Parkway, Sunday April 29, 2012, in New York. Authorities say the out-of-control van plunged off a roadway near the Bronx Zoo, killing... (Associated Press)

 Maria Gonzalez was believed to have been driving 68 mph in a 50 mph zone when she bumped the concrete barrier between the two directions of the highway and the left front tire went off kilter. Police said she was likely going with the flow of traffic on the Bronx River Parkway, which is often faster.

 The SUV skittered Sunday across three lanes of traffic, hit a concrete curb on the right and went airborne over a 4-foot-tall fence. The vehicle flipped in midair and landed about six stories below in an unoccupied part of the Bronx Zoo. All seven people on board were killed.

 The medical examiner's office on Monday ruled the deaths accidental. Autopsies showed that all seven died from blunt force trauma. Police have said all the occupants were wearing seatbelts.

 There's no evidence to suggest Gonzalez was texting or on the phone, said New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne.

 "There's no evidence of a mechanical failure, but the investigation is ongoing," Browne said.

 The crash came as the victims drove to a family party with a set of grandparents who were visiting from the Dominican Republic.

 Juan Ramon Rosario, who lost his wife, Maria Nunez, and two children, made comments Monday outside his late sister-in-law's house as he left for a funeral home. He was working at a car wash when he heard of the accident.

 "It's terrible for him and the whole family," said Andres Fulgencio, a cousin translating for the 34-year-old father of two, who speaks Spanish.

 "Right now he can't think. He can't feel," Fulgencio said. "His feelings are deep inside."

 The accident was the second in the past year in which a vehicle fell off the same stretch of road. In June, an SUV hit a divider, bounced across two lanes of traffic and fell 20 feet over a guardrail, landing on a pickup truck in a parking lot. The two people in the SUV were injured.

 Killed Sunday were Jacob Nunez, 85, and Ana Julia Martinez, 81, both from the Dominican Republic; their daughters, driver Maria Gonzalez, 45, and Maria Nunez, 39; and grandchildren Jocelyn Gonzalez, 10, the daughter of the driver, and Niely Rosario, 7, and Marly Rosario, 3, both daughters of Nunez.

 The grandparents had arrived from the Dominican Republic three days earlier, relatives said. They had 13 children, six of whom live in the United States. The SUV had just picked up the grandparents to take them from one home to another for family festivities.

 "This was supposed to be a time of great happiness," said Isabelle Morel, a cousin of two of the victims, also speaking in Spanish through a translator.

 On Monday, relatives and friends gathered in front of Maria Gonzalez's home, a two-story white clapboard house in a middle-class neighborhood of the South Bronx. Gonzalez worked at nearby Fordham University in maintenance.

 "I don't want to live anymore. I want to die," her husband, Juan Gonzalez, said Monday.

 Two flower bouquets and seven tall religious candles lined the sidewalk near the stoop. Behind a grate of a windowsill sat photographs of three young girls, one in pink overalls and a white blouse, another sporting a pixie haircut.

 The grandparents' bodies are being flown to the Dominican Republic for their funeral, and the other victims were being prepared for funerals in the Bronx.

 The family has opened a bank account and is asking for donations because the cost of burying everyone at once is more than they can afford. A viewing was scheduled for Thursday.

 Ronald Werner, deputy chief of the Fire Department of New York, said the crash scene, less than 5 miles from Gonzalez's home, was difficult to see, with contents of the SUV, including a pink schoolbag, strewn about.

 "When you see young kids that have been hurt or injured or lose their life, it's always harder than if you find someone that's an elder age," Werner said. "It affects all our units."

 ___

 Associated Press writers Colleen Long and Jim Fitzgerald contributed to this report. |||||


Article:
Jared Leto's take on the Joker made his first appearance via David Ayer's Twitter. (Photo: twitter.com/DavidAyerMovies)

 If you're going to play the Joker, you might as well look as nutty as humanly possible.

 Oscar winner Jared Leto has been teasing the look of his take on the Clown Prince of Crime on social media recently, but Suicide Squad director David Ayer gave fans the first look at the actor in full Joker mode Friday via Twitter.

 "The Suicide Squad wishes you a Happy Anniversary Mr. J!" Ayer wrote, celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Batman supervillain's first appearance. (Batman No. 1 came out in April 1940.)

 Leto's appearance is suitably frightening for the first time on screen since the late Heath Ledger's Oscar-worthy performance in 2008's The Dark Knight.

 In addition to neon green hair, the actor is sporting pale skin, silver teeth, one purple glove and red lipstick. The tattoos are iconic of the Joker as well, from the playing cards and many uses of "Ha" all over his left side to the toothy grin on his right arm and harlequin skull on his chest — most likely an ode to his Suicide Squad girlfriend Harley Quinn, played by Margot Robbie. (Also interesting: the script "Damaged" on his forehead.)

 In theaters Aug. 5, 2016, Suicide Squad began filming earlier this month and also stars Will Smith as Deadshot, Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Cara Delevingne as Enchantress, Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang and Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flagg.

 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1z2P89F ||||| In collaboration with the University of Manitoba Libraries, the National Centre of Truth and Reconciliation, and the Library and Archives of Canada, the University of Winnipeg Library has curated and captured a selection of webpages, blogs, news coverage, and PDF files that pertain to Manitoba's ongoing involvement with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This growing collection covers a diverse range of topics, which include survivors’ stories, apologies, responses, cultural events, and more. This is an ongoing web-archiving project that will continue to grow as we witness new ways that reconciliation and healing take place in our province. We gratefully acknowledge the financial assistance of Manitoba Tourism, Culture, Heritage, Sport and Consumer Protection, and the Government of Canada in the creation of this collection. ||||| Tweet with a location

 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more |||||Summary:

– Marking an anniversary by sharing a photo on Twitter is a pretty routine thing to do, but Suicide Squad director David Ayer did just that in a pretty atypical way yesterday. He marked the Joker's April 25, 1940, comic book debut by tweeting the first image released of Jared Leto as Joker, the role he's playing in the film. It's a Joker complete with green hair, crimson lips, nasty teeth, and a tattoo-heavy body. Among the ink: "HA" repeated over and over, and a cursive "Damaged" on the forehead. Rolling Stone reports the look was inspired by Batman: The Killing Joke, and points out that it's not the first time Ayer has referenced Alan Moore's graphic novel. That leads the magazine to speculate that Leto's turn as the Joker in the film—due Aug. 5, 2016—will hew closer to Moore's Joker, a bust-of-a-stand-up comic who is disfigured and goes crazy in the span of a single day. USA Today also calls out a harlequin skull tattoo on Leto's chest, which it sees as "most likely an ode to his Suicide Squad girlfriend Harley Quinn." She's played by Margot Robbie. The rest of the big-name cast includes Will Smith as Deadshot, Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Cara Delevingne as Enchantress, and Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flagg. What they'll be doing, per the IMDB description: "A secret government agency recruits imprisoned supervillains to execute dangerous black ops missions in exchange for clemency."


Article:
Dow Jones Reprints: This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, use the Order Reprints tool at the bottom of any article or visit www.djreprints.com ||||| Australian Rugby Union CEO Bill Pulver. (Photo: Stefan Postles, Getty) Story Highlights Report finds doping is 'widespread'

 Organized-crime syndicates involved

 No individuals named

 A lengthy investigation into the use of doping in Australian sports has found that the practice is "widespread."

 The Australian Crime Commission issued a report Thursday in which it said "peptides and hormones are being used by professional athletes in Australia, facilitated by sports scientists, high-performance coaches and sports staff."

 The commission, which did not name specific individuals, said that the drugs were being used by multiple players across different sports disciplines and that in some instances the banned substances were being supplied though the help of organized-crime groups.

 "Organized crime has been found to have a tangible and expanding footprint in this market," the commission concluded.

 "There are clear parallels between what has been discovered in Australia and the USADA investigation into Lance Armstrong," the report said. "The difference is that the Australian threat is current, crosses sporting codes and is evolving."

 MORE: FDA investigating aspects related to Armstrong case

 The Australian Football League (Aussie Rules) and the National Rugby League are the two sports "codes" that are under the most scrutiny.

 "This is not a black day in Australian sport, this is the blackest day in Australian sport," said Richard Ings, the former head of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority, speaking on Australia's ABC TV. |||||Summary:

– Australian sports are besieged by performance-enhancing drugs and organized crime, according to a year-long government investigation, reports the Wall Street Journal. The report didn't name names, but it indicated illegal hormones and other performance enhancers are widespread in Australian sports, facilitated by coaches and trainers. "The findings are shocking and will disgust Australian sports fans," said Australia's Justice and Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare. "It's cheating, but it's worse than that. It's cheating with the help of criminals." The probe also found criminal networks growing increasingly involved in Australian sports, partially because of the PEDs and partially because of the growing popularity of betting, especially in rugby and Australian rules football, with at least "one occasion" of match fixing. "This is not a black day in Australian sport, this is the blackest day in Australian sport," the former head of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority told USA Today.


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As far as basehead mayor memorabilia goes, the tie Rob Ford wore when he admitted to smoking crack cocaine is hardly a museum piece. It is, however, something you can actually buy and own, one of several personal items Ford put on eBay Wednesday night.

 Under the less-than-inspired handle "torontorobford," the former mayor also put some moose print jammie pants, a size 4XL football jersey and a poster that looks like it came from Spencer's Gifts up for auction.

 Each item, it seems, has a special connection to the Ford administration. The listing for the pants, for instance, boasts, "These are the print patterned pants that Councillor Rob Ford was seen wearing on a shopping trip to Wal-Mart."

 But caveat emptor, eager Rob Ford collectors: torontorobford currently has a feedback score of 0.

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– You can buy many things on the Internet, and one of them is now the garish tie Rob Ford wore to the press conference in which he confessed he might be more than abstractly familiar with a substance we like to call crack cocaine, albeit only in a "drunken stupor." The former Hizzoner, who is battling an aggressive cancer, has as of yesterday listed various such treasures on eBay, including aforementioned tie, which is currently going for nearly $2,600. Per the listing: "You are bidding on an original piece of memorabilia from former Toronto Mayor, and current Toronto Councillor Rob Ford." It comes with a "Certificate of Authenticity from Councillor Rob Ford himself." Also up for grabs: Some kind of weird moose-print jammies Ford apparently "was seen wearing on a shopping trip to Wal-Mart"; a "Keep Calm and Carry On" sign that Ford "added as a decoration to the Mayor's Office in January, 2014"; and a Saskatchewan Roughriders jersey that "he got while attending a game in July of 2013 (Size 4XL)." But as Gawker notes: "Caveat emptor, eager Rob Ford collectors: torontorobford currently has a feedback score of 0."


News article:

During Charles Darwin’s journey to the Galápagos in the 1830s, he noted the existence of “a curious group of finches” found only on the islands. The story that those birds inspired the theory of evolution has long been doubted. But the finches still bear Darwin’s name and are prized by biologists as one of the best examples of speciation—the process by which new species arise.

 Now, research suggests that at least some of Darwin’s famous finches might soon be driven to extinction by parasitic flies introduced to them by humans in the 1960s. A paper published this week in the Journal of Applied Ecology blames the parasitic nest fly Philornis downsi for the threat to Geospitza fortis, also known as the medium ground finch.

 While adult P. downsi flies are not themselves parasitic, they lay their eggs in bird nests. The eggs hatch into maggots, which feed on both brooding adult finches and their babies. The adult birds are unaffected, but it’s another story with the tiny nestlings. P. downsi kills huge numbers of baby birds among Darwin’s finches and other land birds. The flies can be found on every island in the Galápagos.

 “This is like a really bad horror flick,” senior author Dale Clayton, an ecologist and parasite specialist at the University of Utah, says with a rueful laugh. “The babies can’t withstand even one night with these parasites.” The susceptibility of the baby finches has something to do with their size—Clayton compares the newly-hatched birds to peanut M&M's—and their immune responses.

 The sight of a parasite-infested G. fortis isn’t just alarming because of the tiny bird’s anemic looks and bulging lesions. It is also a harbinger of the species’ coming extinction. Clayton and his team used five years of field data to predict the species’ long-term viability and found that, in two out of three scenarios, medium ground finches could be gone within the next century.

 The team first manipulated the parasite load in actual nests, studying only the medium ground finches, which are the most abundant and have the most accessible nests. They created a control group of nests that they sprayed with plain water, while a second set of nests was sprayed with permethrin, an insecticide that is also used to kill mosquitoes, lice and ticks. The use of treated and untreated nests allowed the team to determine the direct effects of the flies on the birds. They then used that data in models of good, bad and neutral years for the birds’ reproduction and ultimate survival.

 The team predicts that if the finches were to run into a series of bad reproductive years in which extreme weather cuts off their food supply, they’d go extinct in about 50 years. A model weighted toward neutral years indicates they’d be extinct within about 80 years. Unsurprisingly, a run of good reproductive luck would spell longer survival for the species: about 100 years. Reducing the number of flies could help the birds hold on even longer, or even prevent them from going extinct at all.

 While Clayton’s team focused on medium ground finches, given that there are at least 14 species of Darwin's finches in the Galápagos—and that they are so closely related—the problem likely extends to other species.

 For instance, a cousin of the ground finch, the mangrove finch, has already become one of the rarest birds on Earth due to the flies and other predators. If any species is lost, it will be a disaster not just for biodiversity, but for researchers who see the finches as an example of real-time evolution due to their rapid adaptations.

 Since the Galápagos so far has its entire native population of birds intact, its importance to biologists is unparalleled. But for Clayton, it goes further than that. “If Darwin’s finches go extinct, it will be because people brought this fly to the islands,” he says. “If the fly had gotten to the island more gradually, perhaps, maybe the birds would have had more time to adapt. But at this point, it’s just an arms race.”

 Luckily, there are ways that the finches could beat both P. downsi and time. The team estimates that if nest fly infestations were reduced by just 40 percent, the birds won’t go extinct. Scientists are batting around ideas such as flooding the island with sterile male flies or allowing birds to fumigate their own nests with permethrin.

 And don’t underestimate evolution, either: Clayton says there’s an outside chance the finches could still develop their own defenses against the flies. In the meantime, can humans stave off the finches’ untimely demise? “Maybe not. But we’re hopeful.” ||||| An even more compelling mystery concerns a common sight in springtime—bright blue eggs in a robin’s nest. To human eyes, they are beautifully unmistakable. They stand out from both the nest and the parent birds, so why are they bright blue? No one yet knows for sure. Biologists do know that pigment glands in the mother bird’s body deposit the blue coloration onto the eggs, so it must have a critical function. Perhaps the dark color camouflages the eggs when the eggs are at the bottom of a dark nest, or the blue might blend in with the sky for some viewers. Some researchers have even speculated that the striking color helps mother birds to find their own eggs. For now, however, the case of the mysteriously blue robin’s egg has yet to be cracked.

 This Adelie penguin laid a speckled egg that matches its environment. The matching phenomenon could lead to a twist to the old riddle: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? In this case, the teaser could be: Which came first, the egg color and pattern, or the choice of nesting site?

 By itself, the egg of a swan is just as visible as a bright white egg on a breakfast plate. Under the mother swan, however, the egg disappears.

 This cockatiel, with its proud expression, has a right to boast. Its egg not only matches the mother bird’s coloration, but it also matches the environment. In the wild, a hunter would have a hard time finding such an egg.

 A mother cowbird must have worked hard to find this perfect spot for her eggs. “Interestingly, all birds seem more concerned in minimizing the mismatch between nest and the darker speckles on their eggs than the mismatch between nest and the underlying, predominant egg color, but particularly so for birds with more dark speckling,” Cuthill said. Lovell and his team speculate that the dark and light markings serve as a disruptive camouflage, breaking up the outline of the otherwise revealing oval shape. That shape, for humans and countless other predators, serves as a visual signal for good eats.

 Sometimes avian parents enjoy the best of both worlds: camouflage for their eggs as well as fooling other birds. Cuckoo finches can be deadbeat parents, matching their eggs (seen in the inner circle) to those of the tawny-flanked prinia (outer circle). The prinia parents are sometimes fooled into caring for the cuckoo finch eggs and later hatchlings.

 Brown with speckles is just one egg color/pattern combo, as these reed warbler eggs reveal. Their greenish hue, set off by the green leaves surrounding the nest, would make them less visible to predators scanning the area from a distance. This nest also includes a, slightly larger, common cuckoo egg. Demonstrating another bit of bird trickery, common cuckoo mothers frequently match the appearance of their eggs to those of reed warblers, which wind up caring for the hatchlings.

 Japanese quail themselves are brown and speckled, like their eggs. The bodies of many birds appear to match their eggs. A parent bird could then likely better shield the egg when resting upon it. Speckles appear to be key to camouflage, at least for eggs. Avian expert Innes Cuthill of the University of Bristol’s School of Biological Sciences, told Discovery News, “Alfred Russel Wallace concluded that the brown and speckled colors of many eggs had evolved as camouflage against nest predators and that the ancestral color of white only persisted in species whose eggs were laid in well-protected cavities, were covered by nest material or, in birds such as ostriches, could be defended by their parents.”

 Yet another Japanese quail egg matches its environment, but the egg is not invisible to us. “Some have asked why they can still see the eggs if they are camouflaged,” Lovell said. “It’s important to remember that the eggs are less visible, not invisible…The photographs are taken quite close up to the egg, and a predator wouldn’t necessarily be that close. It would be scanning an area, rather than staring straight at the egg.”

 Close-ups of the individual Japanese quail eggs really show how well the bird moms can match their eggs to the environment. One of the first scientists to theorize that coloration and speckles evolved for camouflage against predators was Alfred Russel Wallace, who gained fame as Charles Darwin’s co-discoverer of the principle of natural selection.

 Eggs come in a multitude of colors and patterns, from subtle pastels to vivid bright hues. Now a new study, published in Current Biology, supports a centuries-old theory that shell variation, at least for some birds, helps to camouflage eggs. The masters of egg disguise turn out to be Japanese quail. This photo amazingly features eggs just from this one species. Mother quails somehow learn the patterning of their own eggs and choose laying spots to hide them best. “We currently do not know the mechanisms by which the (mother) bird learns its own egg patterns,” lead author P. George Lovell of Abertay University and the University of St. Andrews, told Discovery News. Nevertheless, the ground-nesting birds often perfectly match the eggs to substrate, helping to prevent the precious contents from being some hungry predator’s dinner.

 A species of Darwin’s finch could face extinction in as little as four decades because of a parasitic fly, new mathematical models show.

 In a study that will be published December 18 in the Journal of Applied Ecology, University of Utah researchers forecast turbulent flying ahead for the medium ground finch (Geospiza fortis), one of the most common of the dozen-plus species of Darwin's finch. (They're named for the man who first collected them, naturalist Charles Darwin, who used observations of the finches' adaptations to inform his work on natural selection. They're also known as Galapagos finches, for the islands they call home.)

 The fly in question is the nest fly Philornis downsi, first documented in birds’ nests in the Galapagos in 1997. It lays its eggs in finches' nests, the larvae infesting the area and feeding, to a fatal degree, on new nestlings.

 Eggs Say ‘Hey Mom We Match’: Photos

 This medium ground finch has nostril and abdomen lesions caused by a nest infested with parasitic fly larvae. Jennifer Koop, University of Utah

 The researchers gathered five years’ worth of data from the island of Santa Cruz, documenting the harm the fly was causing to the finch’s reproductive success. Then they used those results to help fuel mathematical models of different long-term outcomes for the finch species.

 The team ran simulations based around three broad future scenarios: “good” years likely to come, where conditions such as weather and food supply were conducive to successful breeding; “bad” years ahead; and neutral years, where both bad and good conditions were equally likely.

 Two of the three model runs -- "bad" and neutral -- predicted the medium ground finch's extinction. Only the "good" model showed the species able to survive.

 The "bad" model predicted extinction in anywhere from 43 to 57 years, while the "neutral" model had the bird disappearing in 65 to 95 years.

 Video Shows Birds Having An Argument

 Worse still, the problem may not just apply to the medium ground finch. Study lead author Dale Clayton, a University of Utah biology professor, pointed out that the bird's other Galapagos cousins could be at risk as well.

 If a species of Darwin's finch as common as the medium ground finch can face extinction because of the nest fly, "then the less common species, which have the same fly problem, are likely at risk as well," Clayton said in a release.

 Pretty Plumage Sets These Shimmering Birds Apart: Photos

 Glum scenarios aside, there is still hope. The bird's extinction risk is closely tied to the fly infestation problem, so there's no mystery, and the scientists have a clear target.

 “Even though these guys may be going locally extinct, the model also shows that if you can reduce the probability of infestation, then you significantly alleviate the risk of extinction,” said study co-author Jennifer Koop, a professor of biology now teaching at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. She said extinction could be avoided if nest infestation could be reduced by 40 percent.

 World's Oldest Known Bird: Photos

 To tackle the problem, the scientists suggested several tactics to fight the fly and rescue the finch. Use of insecticides, introduction of fly-parasitizing wasps, breeding of sterile male nest flies to suppress egg production, and even the hand-rearing of at-risk chicks could each help improve matters, the scientists said.

 Other good outcomes might come from the birds themselves. Clayton said a “rapid evolutionary response” by the birds could spur their immune systems to figure out how to defeat the fly.

 “That happens in other animals,” he said. “The question is: Will these finches have enough time to develop effective defenses before they are driven to extinction by the fly? It’s an arms race.” |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Charles Darwin's finches of the Galapagos Islands—renowned as a poster child for speciation (that's "the process by which new species arise," explains Smithsonian)—may not be able to evolve fast enough to stave off extinction, according to a study published last week in the Journal of Applied Ecology. The medium ground finches of Santa Cruz Island are having their newly hatched babies decimated by Philornis downsi, a parasitic nest fly humans brought to the islands half a century ago. The flies lay their eggs inside the birds' nests, and the hatching maggots feed on the young birds. "This is like a really bad horror flick," study author Dale Clayton says. "The babies can't withstand even one night with these parasites." According to Discovery News, the flies were first spotted in the finches' nests in 1997. Since then, the population has been growing, and none of the Galapagos Islands is free of the flies. Researchers looked at five years of field research on the medium ground finches specifically on Santa Cruz and came up with three scenarios—good, bad, and neutral—based on breeding, weather, and food supplies, Discovery News reports. In both the bad and neutral scenarios, the finches have less than 100 years before they're extinct. According to Smithsonian, the same fate is likely facing some of the other 14 species of Darwin's finches. "If Darwin's finches go extinct, it will be because people brought this fly to the islands," Clayton says. "If the fly had gotten to the island more gradually, perhaps, maybe the birds would have had more time to adapt." Researchers believe a 40% reduction of nest infestations could save the finches and are looking at options to accomplish that, Discovery News reports. (A frog named for Darwin has already gone extinct.)


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View in browser Presented By Bank of America Axios AM By Mike Allen · Jan 09, 2017 Good morning — again; 11 days to President Trump. Welcome to the debut edition of Axios AM: Mike's Top 10, a pre-dawn quick read from Axios, our new media company covering the collision and convergence of business, tech, media and politics. We're pioneering some clever ways to bring you smarter, more efficient coverage. Jim VandeHei, Roy Schwartz and I started building Axios after our nearly decade-long run at Politico, and we now have more than 50 colleagues getting ready for our big launch.

 The WSJ this morning has some details on our plans, and Vanity Fair last week broke the news of two top political insiders (Tim Berry and Evan Ryan) joined as EVPs.

 If you enjoy Axios AM, we hope you'll urge your friends, relatives and colleagues to sign up here so they can be part of the conversation. This is a beta version (come the 19th, every item in AM will be shareable and savable), so I'd love your suggestions, leaks and thoughts: mike@axios.com. I look forward to breakfast together each morning. The 1 thing: Trump's battle plan On the sixth floor of an unmarked federal office building in downtown D.C., the Trump transition team has built a Hollywood-worthy stage set so Cabinet nominees can practice confirmation hearings, which begin tomorrow and will dominate Washington's week.

 A chandelier hangs above the wood-paneled rostrum. Photos of the real senators are tacked beneath the volunteers who play questioners during the "murder boards" — 30 so far, lasting a total of 70 hours, with an average of 120 questions apiece. Fake "Code Pink" demonstrators occasionally interrupt a "hearing." Trump's nominees face an unusual hurdle: They don't just have to defend themselves — they'll be barraged with questions about their boss's tweets and campaign statements. The hearings are the highest profile chance Democrats have had to bash the president-elect, and they plan to take advantage.

 People prepping the nominees tell me that the strategy is to answer the topic not the question, and let Trump fight his own fights. On the border wall, for example, nominees are coached to say they understand the role Congress has to play, "and we look forward to working with you."

 The one absolute rule: Don't say anything bad about Trump.

 The one absolute rule: Don't say anything bad about Trump. Republicans are proudly "flooding the zone" — two hearings tomorrow and four on Wednesday, when coverage of Trump's news conference in New York will distract from the hearings. "You can't kill four people in one day," a transition team member said. Democrats can't stop the hurry-up hearings, but say they'll drag their feet when the nominees are ready for a floor vote. 2. Food for thought Candidate Trump was wildly unpredictable, often reckless and won bigly; Transition Trump has been wildly unpredictable, sometimes reckless, and done more than any POTUS-elect ever. So the early betting among Republicans on the Hill is he will be wildly unpredictable, episodically reckless and perhaps MORE successful in terms of legislative wins than Bush or Obama were with full party control of Washington. 3. An announcement is coming… … that lawyers have worked out a way for Jared Kushner, who turns 36 tomorrow, to serve in the West Wing. He'll be named "senior adviser," and is already seeking applicants for his own staff.

 Quick: Name a couple with more juice in a White House than Kushner and Ivanka Trump will have. You can't. And you can't overstate their power.

 Name a couple with more juice in a White House than Kushner and Ivanka Trump will have. You can't. And you can't overstate their power. New York mag last night popped an eye-catching cover of Kushner as "President In-Law." The most interesting part of the article explores the tight alliance between Kushner and Steve Bannon, the intellectual architect of Trumpism: "Kushner found in Bannon a strategist just as disdainful as he was of the traditional campaign playbook. 'He threw the whole thing out,' Bannon says. 'That's why I bonded with him.''

 last night popped an eye-catching cover of Kushner as "President In-Law." The most interesting part of the article explores the tight alliance between Kushner and Steve Bannon, the intellectual architect of Trumpism: "Kushner found in Bannon a strategist just as disdainful as he was of the traditional campaign playbook. 'He threw the whole thing out,' Bannon says. 'That's why I bonded with him.'' A priceless passage: "Some of the same Manhattan liberals who ostracized [Kushner] during the campaign were rattled afterward, and they sent him emails, trying to offer healing words of congratulations and conciliation. These went right in the trash."

 A priceless passage: "Some of the same Manhattan liberals who ostracized [Kushner] during the campaign were rattled afterward, and they sent him emails, trying to offer healing words of congratulations and conciliation. These went right in the trash." SOUND SMART: The Kushner/Bannon/Stephen Miller (head of policy) faction is building the intellectual architecture of Trump Nationalism — and it's certain to shake up the GOP as profoundly as '16 did. A Message From Bank of America Responsible Growth At Bank of America, we have a responsibility to grow by improving the financial lives of our customers and having a positive, lasting impact on the communities we serve. We call this “Responsible Growth,” and it means we are: Driving the economy in real and sustainable ways

 Helping create jobs, develop communities, foster economic mobility and address society’s biggest challenges

 Managing risk and providing a positive return to our customers, clients and our business From being the leader in clean energy financing to increasing our small business loans by 12% year over year, we are growing responsibly and creating tangible value for the customers we serve and the communities we live in. To learn more, visit bankofamerica.com/responsiblegrowth. 4. Trumpland One of the changes Sean Spicer is contemplating for the daily White House briefing is using technology to include more outlets that aren't D.C.-based.

 WSJ front-pages a four-byline feature on the Mercers: "Armed with data on an alienated electorate, a hedge-fund magnate and his family shun the GOP establishment to support the winning campaign; advising on cabinet selections."

 Reince Priebus will be a guest on Greta Van Susteren's debut show on MSNBC, at 6 tonight. 5. Facebook goes on the offensive … … after stepping into two big, persistent controversies at the end of '16: fake news and faulty data. Zuckerberg is mobilizing: He hired Campbell Brown, former NBC News star, to head news partnerships. Watch for her to work closely with another former journalist, Anne Kornblut, who has emerged as one of the most important advisers to Sheryl Sandberg. And look for Facebook to add more communication talent soon.

 I'm told the hiring of Brown (someone the industry knows and can give feedback to) is the leading edge of a plan by Facebook to develop stronger ties with publishers, with other announcements coming soon.

 (someone the industry knows and can give feedback to) is the leading edge of a plan by Facebook to develop stronger ties with publishers, with other announcements coming soon. A Facebook official said: "We want to demonstrate that we want to be a strong partner to the news industry, a little more deliberately than we have in the past."

 "We want to demonstrate that we want to be a strong partner to the news industry, a little more deliberately than we have in the past." Elsewhere in media trends … Breitbart, hoping to capitalize on the attention that has come with Trump's election, this week will launch a financial vertical, including markets coverage and commentary. Contributors include Larry Kudlow. 6. "The last party" At 4 a.m. Saturday, 100 people were still hanging out at President Obama's farewell White House bash for alumni, celebrities (Springsteen, McCartney, Seinfeld, Paltrow, Wonder), donors — and random friends of the show like New Yorker editor David Remnick. One former administration official's husband tried to pull her away at 2, just after the chicken and waffles had been brought out. But she said: "We can't leave. This is the end. This is it."

 Dems say fewer people — especially the Hollywood crowd — would have made the trip if Hillary had won: "Now, we don't know when we'll be back."

 Bill and Hillary Clinton got several rounds of applause on Broadway yesterday when they attended the last of 482 performances of "The Color Purple." 7. Trending in business: Car talk Notes from the Detroit Auto Show, which opens to the public next Saturday: Something many in Trump's cabinet can afford: Aston Martin and Lamborghini are planning electric models.

 And for you potheads, past or present: Volkswagen will unveil its I.D. Microbus, a modern, battery-powered take on its '60s-era hippie van.

 SOUND SMART: The Ford F-150 was best-selling vehicle for 35th straight year. The last time it wasn't top, Elon Musk was 10 and Zuckerberg wasn't alive.

 The Ford F-150 was best-selling vehicle for 35th straight year. The last time it wasn't top, Elon Musk was 10 and Zuckerberg wasn't alive. Google's self-driving car — spun off as Waymo — hits the street this month. It's a Chrysler Pacifica Minivan. 8. Tops in tech: Uber data Uber yesterday released "Movement," an online portal for accessing anonymized data about more than 2 billion Uber trips -- at first, accessible for government officials and city planners; eventually, to the public. Kia Kokalitcheva, a Silicon Valley reporter for Axios, emails: "This is a seemingly good (friendly) first step from Uber, but it could also be a way for the company to placate governments … while retaining control over what it divulges."

 The WashPost, from India, looks at how Trump/Sessions plan to curtail H-1B, high-skilled labor visas could be a boon for India. Top tech execs tell us they fear Trump might restrict the program in first 100 days, and pressure them in other ways to hire and fund U.S. talent. They are right to think this … 9. Out tomorrow: 2 hot books Hugh Hewitt, the conservative radio host, banged out a post-election policy manual for Trump, "The Fourth Way" — "absorbing most of the traditional Reagan agenda … while adding an emphasis on improvements in infrastructure and modernized delivery of those parts of government that cannot be replaced by the private sector." Hewitt confesses: "I voted for him … but I was still certain he was doomed."

 the conservative radio host, banged out a post-election policy manual for Trump, "The Fourth Way" — "absorbing most of the traditional Reagan agenda … while adding an emphasis on improvements in infrastructure and modernized delivery of those parts of government that cannot be replaced by the private sector." Hewitt confesses: "I voted for him … but I was still certain he was doomed." CFR President Richard Haass, warns in "World in Disarray": "[W]holesale, frequent reversals [in foreign policy] run the risk of unnerving friends and emboldening adversaries. Disarray at home is thus inextricably linked to disarray in the world. The two together are nothing short of toxic." 10. 1 fun thing: Trump calling Trump, "early Monday morning … in a brief telephone interview" with the NYT, called Meryl Streep "a Hillary lover" after she gave a Golden Globes speech denouncing him. He said he's "not surprised" to be under attack from "liberal movie people." Full text of Streep. WHAT'D I MISS? Drop me your rants, tips and links: mike@axios.com . A Message From Bank of America Our Business At Bank of America, responsible growth means we are focusing on advancing the work that contributes to real economic growth and prosperity – from simplifying mortgages to providing support for small businesses to financing large scale companies that drive state and national economies. Key to growing responsibly are internal governing policies that ensure we are providing transparency in our products and business practices, and helping clients access the capital they need to achieve their goals without taking on unnecessary risk. As a result: Business loans are up 12% year over year

 We’ve increased the number of Bank of America customers who secure a mortgage with us by 50%

 Improved our strength and stability as a global financial institution That’s what responsible growth means for us and for the more than 50 million customers and communities we serve. To learn more, visit bankofamerica.com/responsiblegrowth. Axios, 3100 Clarendon Blvd, Suite 200, Arlington VA 22201

 Change your preferences or unsubscribe here. You received this email because you signed up for newsletters from Axios. Share this newsletter: View in browser at # ||||| Until very recently, and to all outward appearances, Jared Kushner was just another socially striving young businessman with inoffensively Bloombergian political values. But over the past year, something seems to have changed — in his beliefs, in his manner, in his relationship to his peers among New York City’s elite. On a frigid day in December, Kushner visited the Times Square headquarters of Morgan Stanley to address a private meeting that the Partnership for New York City, which represents the interests of the business community, convened to discuss the outcome of the presidential election. More than 400 executives, many of them CEOs of major corporations, crowded into the bank’s wood-paneled dining hall to hear first from Charles Schumer, soon to be the Democratic leader in the Senate, and then from Kushner, representing his father-in-law, Donald Trump, soon to be the most powerful man in the world.

 “Jared Kushner is the man,” said Stephen Schwarzman, the private-equity billionaire, as he introduced Trump’s emissary. (This account is based on interviews with multiple attendees.) Kushner, the 35-year-old husband of Ivanka, Trump’s favorite child, sat in a director’s chair, wearing a gray sweater and blazer over an open-collared shirt and a pair of gleaming white sneakers. He still has a boyish mien and a polite, ingratiating manner. But these days, he carries himself with the assurance of a man who just received the ultimate validation.

 Jared Kushner at a press conference shortly after Donald Trump won the New York presidential primary. Photo: Mark Peterson/Redux

 Many of the assembled magnates had lunched with him or chatted with him at parties, having known Kushner as the proprietor of a successful Manhattan real-estate firm and the publisher of a less-successful Manhattan newspaper. Some even considered him a protégé. It’s safe to say none, however, had foreseen this scenario. With little experience, and against all predictions to the contrary, Kushner had managed Trump’s way to the White House, and was now poised to be his most trusted adviser and enforcer in the West Wing. This left many of the staid business leaders in the audience confused about whether Kushner really shared their values and worldview — indeed, whether he had ever really belonged to their world at all.

 Many were hoping — perhaps desperately — that Trump, a formerly unthinkable president, might at heart be a pragmatic dealmaker. If that were true, then maybe he could be moved by Kushner’s quiet advice, and maybe all his maximalist stances — build the wall, ban the Muslims, bring on the nuclear-arms race — were negotiable. After the election, the financial markets were buoyed in part by this (still unproven) theory. Three days before Kushner’s appearance, the Dow had closed at a record high. He had come to offer a message to his old friends: Be unafraid.

 “I thought I would need to explain to the business community what a Trump presidency means,” Kushner began. “But the markets seem to have figured it out.” He told the audience about his own process of figuring out Trump’s appeal, saying that he had once lived in a “bubble” on the Upper East Side. He thought about immigration in terms of Silicon Valley’s needs, about education the way Robin Hood Foundation philanthropists did, about climate change in terms of carbon emissions, not mining jobs. Then, about a year ago, Kushner said, he had started traveling the country with Trump, going to rallies where thousands of ordinary Americans shouted in fury about government regulations and the Common Core curriculum. (And torturing terrorists and locking up his opponent, though Kushner didn’t mention those lines.) The gilded scales fell from his eyes.

 David Zaslav, the chief executive of the Discovery cable networks, asked Kushner how it would be possible in the future to have a national discussion based on facts. Kushner replied that it was the media that was deluded about America, claiming his own computer models told him the morning of the election that Trump would capture more than 300 electoral votes. Recognizing that outlets like CNN and the Times were implacably against Trump, Kushner said, the campaign cut a deal to grant softball interviews to a local broadcast chain with a strong presence in the Midwest. Sympathizers on Facebook spread their own news through their social networks. The result, he said, was a campaign by alternative means. Kushner believes Trump’s victory was a repudiation of the media and both political parties — the entire governing Establishment. He said he was “proud” Trump had won only 4 percent of the vote in Washington, D.C.

 Kushner acknowledged that Trump was “easy to hate from afar,” but he claimed his father-in-law was different once he got down to business in the privacy of the boardroom. He predicted the administration would take a “rational” position on immigration and would join with Democrats to invest in infrastructure, which he said could mean not only roads and bridges but high-speed internet and driverless cars. He said Trump had asked Elon Musk why the aerospace industry couldn’t make planes that fly faster, like the Concorde used to, and Musk replied that most CEOs preferred incremental improvements to moon-shot risks. “Trump will not be afraid to fail,” he said.

 Kushner at Donald Trump’s campaign launch. Photo: Christopher Gregory/Getty Images

 If you forgot the context, the handsome, reed-thin young man might as well have been giving a TED Talk about an ambitious start-up, instead of a government soon to be led by a right-wing populist whom his opponents called the “chaos candidate.” Ten blocks to the north, in his golden tower, Trump was nominating a climate-change skeptic for Interior secretary and tweeting gleefully about Russian hacking, even as his son-in-law said America needed to take a long-term view of the “warfare of the future.” Kushner imagines his role as managerial, not policymaking. “I’m not political,” he told the audience, not entirely credibly. In D.C., as Reagan’s adage goes, “People are policy,” and no person, other than Trump himself, has been as politically instrumental in advancing the new president’s ambitions.

 During the latter stages of the presidential race, when all the so-called smart people in politics and media were preparing to shunt Trump rudely from the stage, he relied on Kushner the most. “He prefers the soothing, whispery voice of his son-in-law,” the Times reported in a prematurely funereal dispatch on November 6. Two nights later, as Mr. Trump learned he would soon be President Trump, it was Kushner’s voice that was screening the calls to his suddenly all-important cell phone. When Trump paid his first postelection visit to the White House, Kushner accompanied him, taking photos of the Oval Office with his iPhone and strolling with President Obama’s chief of staff. Now he and Ivanka were preparing to move to Washington, where they reportedly are set to occupy a $5.6 million mansion with their three children. “I’m hoping that he’s our Valerie Jarrett,” says Kathy Wylde, the Partnership’s chief executive, “the last person to speak to the president on matters that are important to New York.”

 Kushner’s influence appears to be one hard truth at the center of the transition’s chimerical swirl of intrigue. “I think the bottom line is he believes in Donald, and he believes in the opportunity to rethink the way our Executive branch conducts itself,” says Strauss Zelnick, a media investor who is close with Kushner and attended the Partnership event. Kushner has thrown himself into the role of recruiter, exploiting his network in the real-estate industry and finance. He’s gotten advice from everyone, even a rabbi he was close to at Harvard. Kushner’s business dealings, like Trump’s, involve numerous partners and lenders from around the globe, even immigrants investing via a controversial cash-for-visa program, and are likely to come under great scrutiny. He has spent much of the transition period trying to figure out how to remove himself from potential conflicts of interest. Trump seems unconcerned. Kushner flattered the Partnership audience by saying the president-elect was happy to be bringing so many billionaires to D.C., asking, “Who else do you want to see cutting deals?”

 Kushner’s impact can be seen in the centrist tilt of Trump’s economic team, which is heavy on Goldman Sachs guys. For secretary of State, he preferred Mitt Romney and, later, Rex Tillerson over bomb-throwers like John Bolton and Rudy Giuliani. At the same time, he has been an internal supporter of Steve Bannon, the former Breitbart chairman, now Trump’s polarizing senior counselor. “For a guy who was a progressive,” Bannon says, “he really gets this grassroots populist movement in a huge way.”

 Trump doesn’t really appear to listen to anyone, but he likes to hear a lot of advice. “We have no formal chain of command around here,” Trump said at a December boardroom audience with Jeff Bezos, Sheryl Sandberg, and other tech-industry leaders. Yet everyone knew who had played the biggest role in arranging the meeting: Kushner, who sat with his back to the cameras, directly facing the president-elect. During the campaign, Trump hired and fired many aides, but Kushner was frequently the last person he consulted before making major decisions. He so far has no official White House title, and he may never have one. But it will scarcely matter if Kushner has a formal job, so long as he maintains his position within the family. “There were three campaign managers,” says a political consultant who knows Kushner. “There was only one son-in-law.”

 With Steve Bannon. Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Getty Images

 Throughout the campaign, the depth of Kushner’s commitment to Trump’s reactionary agenda was surrounded by a bit of what Henry Kissinger — a Kushner admirer — would call constructive ambiguity. He didn’t grant on-the-record interviews or give a speech expressing his beliefs at the Republican National Convention. His decision to leave behind his business, his prior political affiliations, and quite a few friendships in order to serve Trump remains mystifying to many people who thought they knew him. True, he had always been quick to champion Trump to his many detractors and expressed admiration for his knack for self-promotion and his impish ability to play the press for suckers. But Kushner never gave the impression that he had anything more than a grudging son-in-law’s level of tolerance for Trump’s more radical positions. Back when Trump was spinning birther conspiracy theories, which were lapped up by gullible Republicans, one person who talked to Kushner says he offered assurances that his father-in-law didn’t really believe that stuff.

 Yet Trump and Kushner have more in common than surface appearances might suggest. They are both bridge-and-tunnel guys — Trump is from Queens, Kushner from Livingston, New Jersey — who made their names in Manhattan and lived through tumultuous periods of tabloid fire and financial adversity. As a developer, Trump took big risks in the 1980s and faced bankruptcy in the 1990s; Kushner took big risks before the 2008 financial crash and flirted with losing his family’s flagship building, 666 Fifth Avenue. Both came back. Kushner is often called “soft-spoken,” in contrast to his bombastic father-in-law, but people who have worked with him say that’s deceiving: His voice is just literally soft. His opinions are anything but deferential. “He’s very aggressive,” says Zelnick, who says that once Kushner makes up his mind, “it may look like he’s barreling down a path.” Above all, he and Trump share a clannish outlook on life, business, and politics. Trump prizes loyalty, especially when it flows upward, and no defender has been more steadfast during his turbulent struggle than Kushner. Neither forgets when he’s been wronged. They both appear to enjoy the metallic taste of payback, although of the two, Trump may be the more forgiving.

 In October, the Observer, Kushner’s news organization, asked prominent figures in the real-estate industry, including Kushner himself, “Hillary or Donald?” Kushner replied: “Family first.” To some, the endorsement sounded obligatory. They misunderstood Kushner. In fact, “family first” is his paramount value, a personal principle instilled in him through bitter history. He currently works on the 15th floor of 666 Fifth Avenue, where his corner office is steps from those of his parents, Charlie and Seryl, along with his sister Nicole. (Jared’s brother, Josh, has his own venture-capital firm, while another sister, Dara, lives quietly in Livingston.) When Jared was 24, Charlie was sent to prison for a sordid crime with political overtones, a searing episode that sealed their bond in life and business. But the fierce family ethic predates that experience. Its origins can be found in a hardbound book that sits in the Kushner Companies reception area entitled The Miracle of Life.

 The book narrates the almost unimaginably difficult immigrant story of Kushner’s grandparents. Rae Kushner, the family’s matriarch, was born in Novogrudek, in what is now Belarus. When the Nazis arrived in 1941, they executed the town’s Jewish doctors, lawyers, and intellectuals on the square, as an orchestra played. Rae, a teenager, was one of 50 girls selected to scrub their blood from the cobblestones. The Nazis forced tens of thousands of Jews into a ghetto, which served as a labor camp, periodically culling the population. Rae’s mother and a sister were killed. By the middle of 1943, the 500 or so remaining Jews had concluded that they would all die unless they did something desperate, so they decided to tunnel out. At night, the excavators would work using crudely fashioned instruments, passing back bags of soil via a human chain that ran up to a hiding place in an attic.

 The residents of the ghetto had heard that a farmer named Tuvia Bielski had gathered an armed group of Jewish partisans, which was hiding out in the nearby forests. One stormy night, several hundred Jews, including Rae, her father, a sister, and a brother, crawled the several hundred feet to the tunnel’s exit. The Germans soon detected the escape and opened fire. Rae’s brother ran in the wrong direction and was never seen again. The remaining family made it to the Bielski camp, where they lived a rough existence, sleeping on beds of straw in earthen bunkers, until the Soviets arrived.

 After the war, Rae married another survivor of the woods, a carpenter named Yossel, and became an illegal immigrant, traveling on foot to Italy. They ended up in a displaced-persons camp, where they spent three and a half years while the family waited for a visa to immigrate to the United States. “Nobody wanted to take us in,” Rae said in The Miracle of Life. At the time, the United States had immigration quotas based on ethnicity. “For the Jews, the doors were closed. We never understood that. Even President Roosevelt kept the doors closed.”

 In America, Yossel became Joseph Kushner. He lived with Rae and their children in Brooklyn while working construction in New Jersey. His nickname was “Hatchet Joe.” With the brothers Harry and Joe Wilf, he bought three lots in Union County and went into home-building. The Kushners moved to New Jersey, where Joe became part of a cohort, many of them Holocaust survivors, who built the postwar suburbs and left behind dynasties. (The Wilf family now owns the Minnesota Vikings.)

 Joe Kushner specialized in building and renting garden apartments — a good, if unglamorous, business. One real-estate veteran who knows the Kushners quoted an old proverb: “You cater to the masses, you eat with the classes.” Joe had two sons, Murray and Charlie. Charlie had just gone to work with his father when Joe died suddenly in 1985. “Charlie basically learned how to be a builder very quickly,” says Alan Hammer, an attorney who has long worked with him. Charlie expanded his portfolio to around 25,000 apartments and got into commercial real estate, hotels, and banking.

 The Kushners became a prominent force in Jewish philanthropy, opening an Orthodox school named for Joe. Rae was a founder of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Her story of resistance has become central to the Kushner-family identity. When the story of the Bielski partisans was made into a movie called Defiance, starring Daniel Craig, the Kushners staged a screening party attended by Holocaust survivors. The Kushners are financial supporters of AIPAC, and Jared stage managed Trump’s primary-season speech to the lobbying group. He has also served as a bridge to the government of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has known the Kushners for years. Last summer, when Trump tweeted a Photoshopped image of Hillary Clinton many saw as anti-Semitic, Kushner hastened to his defense in a rare column in the Observer, citing his own family history and maligning “the speech police.”

 When critics question Trump’s relationships with people like Bannon, the purported Svengali of the alt-right, Jared and Ivanka, who converted to Judaism, note that Trump wore a yarmulke at their wedding and has Jewish grandchildren. “Donald hired somebody who’s an anti-Semite, even though his son-in-law is a practicing Orthodox Jew?” developer Richard LeFrak, one of Trump’s few close friends in New York real estate, said incredulously. “A lot of his best friends are Jewish! Come on, really. What does this all stem from, this hysteria?”

 On Election Day. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

 Jared, born in 1981, grew up in a tight-knit environment structured around family and faith. His many aunts, uncles, and cousins would often descend on their home for Shabbos dinner. Some of the Kushners’ business associates lived in the neighborhood, within walking distance of an Orthodox shul. Through Jared’s teenage years, his father became increasingly involved in politics, becoming a top Democratic Party donor. Politicians with national aspirations, including Hillary Clinton, would regularly pay visits to the Kushners.

 In July 2000, Vice-President Al Gore descended on Livingston to attend a fund-raiser for his presidential campaign. There were police on every corner, shutting down rush-hour traffic, as the vice-president’s motorcade climbed the hill to the Kushner home. “It was a big to-do in Livingston that day,” recalls Miles Berger, a business partner of Kushner’s who attended. What people remember now, though, is the 19-year-old who introduced the candidate. “Charlie put Jared up there to do the talking,” says Pat Sebold, a Democratic officeholder from Livingston. “I was impressed that he was a young guy and handled himself so well.”

 To all appearances, Charlie was grooming his son to understand how power worked. All the New Jersey builders donated to politicians to smooth the way for their projects, but Charlie wanted more than just zoning approvals. He aspired to be a kingmaker. He was the financial force behind Jim McGreevey, a suburban Democratic mayor who won the New Jersey governorship in 2001. After his victory, McGreevey nominated Kushner for chairmanship of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. In retrospect, the cynics said, that was Charlie’s flaw: his craving for a public role.

 The much-chronicled fall of Charlie Kushner began as a dispute with his brother Murray over the real-estate business, which triggered an epic family feud. A series of civil lawsuits uncovered evidence that piqued the interest of Chris Christie, the ambitious U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, who appeared to relish the idea of pursuing Governor McGreevey’s patron.

 In July 2004, four months after his mother’s death, Charlie was indicted. Along with campaign-finance violations, investigators had discovered that he had staged a vicious retaliation plot against his sister Esther’s husband, luring him into an encounter with a prostitute that he taped for use as blackmail. The scandal contributed to the resignation, a month later, of McGreevey, who confessed he’d been having an affair with a former Israeli naval officer who had ties to Kushner.

 The episode had a formative effect on Jared, whose life to that point had followed a glide path through Harvard — to which his father was a major benefactor — and prestigious internships. Whereas Christie, perhaps to his subsequent regret, righteously denounced Charlie’s “vile and heinous acts,” Jared saw his father as a victim of injustice. “It’s an outrage that Charlie’s brother and sister cooperated with the government against him; that’s the lowest thing a Jew can do in my book,” says Ken Kurson, the current editor of the Observer, who is a longtime friend of the family. “Whatever ill-advised decisions Charlie may have made, it was a family spat and it was not a criminal affair.” (Murray’s side of the family did not respond to requests for comment, but some members have been vociferously critical of Jared’s role in Trump’s campaign.)

 Charlie served nearly a year in an Alabama prison, where Jared and his mother visited him weekly. The Kushners were still wealthy, from their rental income, but their social status had evaporated. Jared was living in New York, where there were other routes to influence besides politics. The media had contributed to his father’s problems by digging into his relationship with McGreevey. So it is perhaps understandable, in retrospect, that Jared’s first move was to buy a newspaper.

 In Indianapolis. Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Getty Images

 During the summer of 2006, Kushner canceled a planned trip to Germany to watch the World Cup in order to make a $10 million offer for the New York Observer. He had moved in, almost impetuously, just as another bidder was about to close a deal. But Kushner soon discovered that journalism was a strange business. The youthful staff at the Observer made subsistence wages, but the writers didn’t seem bothered about money. They competed instead for the fickle approval of the paper’s charismatic editor, Peter Kaplan, who cultivated an air of intellectual eccentricity punctuated by sarcastic exclamation points. The culture of the office, where I worked under the prior ownership, could be belittling to anyone judged a rube. If Kushner, then 25, was seeking to confirm a suspicion that the media was made up of socially insecure smartasses who glory in the human failings of the rich and powerful, he couldn’t have picked a better place to educate himself.

 Kushner spent time around the newsroom — at least at first — where he listened politely as Kaplan tried to excite him about the romantic ideals of journalism. To the Times, Kaplan cited a scene from Citizen Kane, saying every young man should think it would be “fun to run a newspaper.” Privately, though, he made a different cultural reference. Kaplan told friends that Kushner’s favorite book was The Count of Monte Cristo, the story of a wronged man who escapes prison, becomes rich, and uses his wealth to stealthily visit vengeance upon his unsuspecting enemies.

 “It is very helpful to him that he’s constantly underestimated,” says Kurson, the last of several successors to Kaplan as editor. Kurson, an author and former political consultant, met Charlie Kushner before prison and would sometimes crash at Jared’s apartment on nights he worked late on Rudy Giuliani’s 2008 presidential campaign. “We were doing then what we do now,” Kurson says, “which is bullshit about politics and talk about the media.” Kushner had an enthusiastic interest in the dark arts of campaign operatives. The Observer acquired a website that published New Jersey insider political gossip, run anonymously by a former GOP consultant named David Wildstein. In 2009, it persistently attacked Christie as he ran for governor.

 Later, Wildstein was hired by Christie and engineered the politically retributive traffic jam at the George Washington Bridge. After the scheme came to light, Kushner sent an email to Wildstein, who had resigned amid the investigation. “That’s another thing we have in common I guess with my Dad having done the same,” he wrote. “For what its worth, I thought the move you pulled was kind of badass.”

 Under Kurson, the Observer became more combative, inveighing against Obama’s Iran policy on the editorial page and producing pointed investigations of everyone from the Wilfs, the Kushners’ original business partners, to New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman, who was then investigating Trump University. When the Observer published a negative front-page article about Schneiderman in 2014, illustrated with a caricature of the prosecutor in the guise of the protagonist of A Clockwork Orange, it caused an uproar. (Kurson says it was “a great test run for how delusionally unfair the press was” during the 2016 campaign.) For the last few years, though, Kushner has had little day-to-day involvement in the Observer. It discontinued its print edition right after the election.

 The newspaper served its purpose, though, as Kushner’s foothold in New York, where he made strategic friendships with older media moguls, like Rupert Murdoch and Barry Diller, who understood the workings of power in the city. “There is a model we know well,” says one of Kushner’s friends. “I think he saw himself in this role, as somebody who would have a successful real-estate business but who also would want to have a voice.”

 “I always thought of him as being a smart young man, an up-and-comer, obviously,” says Ray Kelly, the former NYPD commissioner, who got to know Kushner as a donor to the New York City Police Foundation, which subsidized his department’s overseas intelligence operations. He says he saw Kushner as a “law-and-order person” who was supportive of the Bloomberg administration’s technocratic approach to government. Kushner was also close to Joel Klein, the schools chancellor, who influenced his views on education reform. He was friendly with Newark mayor and charter-school proponent Cory Booker, now a Democratic senator. (Kushner urged Trump to consider two controversial Democratic charter advocates, Michelle Rhee and Eva Moskowitz, for Education secretary.) Kushner found a signature Bloomberg-era cause, pressing the city to rate the quality of broadband in office buildings. The initiative was called WiredNYC.

 He’s very uncluttered in his mind. I think that simplicity allows him to filter some things out.

 As Kushner wired the city, he was also advancing his family’s business interests. In 2006, Jared negotiated the purchase of 666 Fifth Avenue for $1.8 billion, a record sum for a Manhattan office building at the time. The transaction was financed by an onerous amount of debt. The following year, the Kushner Companies liquidated its apartment portfolio for $1.9 billion. The shift was akin to trading a fleet of taxicabs for a single Formula 1 race car. “It wasn’t my idea to buy a New York building,” says Hammer, who was chairman of the company during Charlie’s absence. “That was really the idea of a very aggressive, ambitious young man.” The Fifth Avenue purchase quickly ran into problems. Kushner’s loans were premised on the assumption that office rents would rise; instead, the economy crashed. Vulture investors bought the debt, threatening foreclosure. Kushner felt besieged, with few friends and no leverage. But he fought his way out, refinancing the loans, selling equity stakes to partners, and exploiting its retail space via a complex series of deals that resulted in a stabilizing cash windfall. “They lived through turbulent times, and not only did they live, they thrived,” says Jonathan Mechanic, a real-estate attorney who was involved in the retail-space negotiations. Kushner didn’t forget who had been unkind to him along the way. In one much-discussed episode, he later pushed the Observer staff to pursue a shaky tip about supposed malfeasance committed by one of his debt holders. (No story was ever published.)

 Kushner emerged from the crisis with a reputation as a gutsy dealmaker. He was soon buying again with backing from institutional investors like the CIM Group, an aggressive private-equity firm co-founded by a pair of former Israeli paratroopers. He acquired the troubled retail space in the old New York Times Building from Lev Leviev, a diamond magnate who is reportedly friendly with Vladimir Putin. He bought up rent-stabilized apartment buildings in the East Village and made a bold move into Dumbo, persuading the Jehovah’s Witnesses to sell him a coveted set of properties.

 “He’s very uncluttered in his mind,” says Asher Abehsera, who has partnered with Kushner in his Brooklyn redevelopment projects. “I think that simplicity allows him to filter some things out.” In the case of the Dumbo deals, Kushner managed to tune out the doubts of those who thought the prices he and his partners had paid, more than $1 billion in all, were hard to justify. One day in December, Abehsera, a 33-year-old in a black motorcycle jacket and matching baseball cap, showed me around the first phase of the project, called Dumbo Heights. The church’s former pamphlet-printing plant has been converted into office space, for which the owners are charging Manhattan-level rents.

 The project is being marketed to the tech industry, to which Kushner has developed ties, partly through his brother, Josh, who runs the VC firm Thrive Capital. Jared was involved early on in Josh’s health-insurance start-up, Oscar, which has backing from Peter Thiel and is valued at $2.7 billion. (Oscar currently competes on the Obamacare health exchanges that Trump has pledged to abolish, though the company is shifting its business model, for instance, by selling plans to small businesses. Before the election, Josh said he was voting for Clinton.) Standing on a Dumbo street corner, across from a location of the tech-oriented office provider WeWork and the new headquarters of Etsy, Abehsera pointed out a bike bay, which is visible through large windows from the street. “That was Jared’s idea,” he said. Kushner personally interviewed the owners of more than a dozen coffee shops, he added, before settling on the right tenant. When I asked whether he expected Kushner to pay similar attention to future phases, he answered quickly. “He’s not going to be involved,” he said. “Given the weight of what he’s involved in, his interests will be elsewhere.”

 Kushner married Ivanka in October 2009, after an archetypically difficult courtship, involving a daunting obstacle (his parents’ religious objections), a magical reconciliation (staged by Wendi Deng aboard the Murdoch yacht), and an arduous test (Ivanka’s conversion, overseen by an eminent Modern Orthodox rabbi). Kushner’s public identity underwent its own conversion. In the newspapers, he was no longer inevitably identified as a felon’s son — he was Ivanka’s husband, an auxiliary Trump. Every marriage is a mystery to the world outside it, but the Kushner-Trump union is particularly well guarded. One thing at its core, especially today, is their allegiance to the domineering patriarch. “Donald relies heavily on his family,” says LeFrak. “I would say that Jared, he’s part of the mosaic. He fits into the family very well.”

 The alliance crosses into business. In early November, a few days before the election, the Trump Organization began leasing apartments at Trump Bay Street, a new 50-story building in Jersey City’s waterfront district. Kushner and a local partner developed the building on a site they bought out of foreclosure in 2011. As is his practice, Trump lends his name via a branding and management deal, while Kushner’s partnership owns and financed the development. The partnership raised about a third of its projected $193 million cost via the federal EB-5 program, which offers green cards to foreign investors. Bloomberg News reported that it was marketed to would-be Chinese immigrants with a video set to the theme from The Sopranos. The visa program will soon face a contentious renewal debate in Congress, but the Kushner Partnership is rumored to be considering whether to use the same method for another Jersey City project. As Kushner distances himself from the family business, his father will likely play a higher-profile role.

 In recent years, the Kushner Companies has also gotten back into the original family business: renting to the masses. In 2011, it began buying up portfolios of distressed apartment complexes around Rust Belt towns like Pittsburgh, Toledo, and Indianapolis. The turnaround strategy was simple, Jared told the publication Multifamily Executive: “a lot of construction and a lot of evictions.” The following year, he acquired more than 5,500 apartments in Maryland, mainly in the blue-collar suburbs of eastern Baltimore County. The area has been depressed by factory closures, and Trump ran very strong there.

 Between 2012 and 2016, a Kushner-affiliated corporate entity called JK2 Westminster LLC filed hundreds of tenant lawsuits in Maryland courts. One defendant was Robert Bolen, a 64-year-old former Honeywell employee with a documented history of alcoholism and mental illness. He was a disruptive resident of a bland brick complex called Carroll Park. Kushner’s management company evicted him in the summer of 2015. That August, a few days before the first Republican debate, Bolen allegedly walked into the complex’s rental office, said “Good morning,” and opened fire with a shotgun, wounding two employees.

 With Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abe. Photo: Jiji Press/Cabinet Public Relations Office/Newscom

 As Trump would say, something was going on in America. Kushner spent a substantial portion of 2016 on the trail with his father-in-law, witnessing the anger of the American electorate — or at least the subset of it that turned up at Trump rallies. Then he would return to New York, which was dwelling in its comfortable delusions. “Nobody has less credibility than the people in this town,” he recently told an associate. “If you want to talk with yourselves all day and convince yourselves that you’re right, that’s what people in this town do all day.” Trump was giving voice to authentic grievances, Kushner thought, but many of the people he knew considered him a deranged demagogue. He fumed about CNN, complaining it covered Trump’s campaign events as if they were the Nuremberg rallies. “People say he’s unhinged,” Kushner told the associate. “I think he unhinged everyone else.”

 The consequences of Kushner’s decision to enlist in Trump’s campaign have reverberated through his life, business, even his synagogue, Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, where last summer there were protests over the rabbi’s plans to give the invocation at the Republican National Convention. (The rabbi canceled his participation.) One real-estate executive who knows Kushner told me he doesn’t know if he will be able to shake his hand after the campaign. Another said: “I cannot be in business with Jared Kushner at the moment, because my wife would divorce me.” One of Kushner’s partners in the Dumbo Heights project, the German-born developer Aby Rosen, erected a giant billboard reading VOTE YOUR CONSCIENCE — a blatant dig at Trump — on one of his buildings before the election. In September, the Real Deal reported that Rosen’s company had pulled out of a second deal with Kushner amid rumors of political tensions, though the primary reason appeared to be financial. (Rosen did not respond to a request for comment.)

 For all the criticism he has encountered, though, Kushner has displayed supreme confidence in his own judgment. Sir Martin Sorrell, the chief executive of the advertising conglomerate WPP and a friend of Kushner’s, recalls running into him one Saturday morning on Park Avenue as he was walking with his children to synagogue. “This was way before the election, even before the nominating process,” Sorrell says. “He said with great conviction that he thought his father-in-law would win, and at that stage there were very few people who thought that would be the case.” After the election, Sorrell ran into Kushner and Ivanka at a party and the adman told him, “Mazel tov.”

 Kushner’s involvement in the campaign began as a family commitment, helping out with tasks whenever Trump would ask. But as primary season wore on, Kushner’s ad hoc assistance deepened into a managerial role. His presence at campaign meetings went from occasional to constant. “If the campaign was proof of anything, it was that neither prior campaign experience nor, perhaps especially, presidential-campaign experience was required,” says Rick Reed, a veteran consultant who made ads for Trump. Like the technology entrepreneurs he admires, Kusher looked at the business of campaigns and saw a complacent industry ripe for disruption. “Pollsters are total thieves,” he said in his speech to the Partnership. Kushner pushed the campaign to use direct-marketing strategies employed by private tech companies.

 Arthur Mirante, who brokered the original sale of 666 Fifth, says that during the campaign he occasionally sent quizzical emails about Trump’s more outrageous statements. “Why did he have to do it that way, why did he say it this way? Et cetera,” he says. “And I would always get a typical Jared response from him that was, ‘Look, there’s a bigger picture here, you know, I know what he said maybe didn’t look good, but he really didn’t mean it that way.’ There was always the typical Jared explanation, totally devoid of politics. Just that there are things happening here that you don’t understand, and this is going to work out, trust me.”

 Kushner received more scorching emails, too, some of them from people he respected. He viewed these as useful data points — he now knew who his loyal friends were. “I call it an exfoliation,” Kushner told Forbes in his only on-the-record interview since the election. The criticism seemed to trigger a practiced defense mechanism. In private conversations, he would return to the prior experience of his father’s arrest and his brush with financial ruin at 666 Fifth. “I’ve been in quite a few foxholes in my life,” he told one associate. “I think I’ve always found my way out.” This time, though, he was fighting next to people like Steve Bannon.

 Trump cycled through two campaign managers, Corey Lewandowski and Paul Manafort, before Kushner found in Bannon a strategist just as disdainful as he was of the traditional campaign playbook. “He threw the whole thing out,” Bannon says. “That’s why I bonded with him.” Though their politics differed, Kushner arguably has more in common with Bannon — an insurgent attitude, a disdain for the GOP Establishment, a background in digital media — than with anyone in Trump’s orbit besides Ivanka. “Two different worlds, yet they seem to get along and work well together,” says a Republican who knows Kushner and Bannon. “I think he sees Bannon as a valuable resource in the advancement of Trump. It’s not about what he thinks, it’s about getting Trump what he needs.”

 With Mike Pence. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

 Kushner, as a family member, was often the person called on to broach difficult conversations with Trump, such as firing Lewandowski or talking him out of offering the vice-presidency to Governor Chris Christie. Christie’s early endorsement was a watershed moment for Trump, but Kushner argued presciently that the looming Bridgegate trial would be a damaging distraction. When, in its final days, the campaign needed $10 million to buy advertising in several key states, which analysts gave Trump little chance of winning, Kushner made the ask. “He appealed to him by saying, ‘I know this is family money and personal wealth, I get it, and I also know that you can win and we need that extra infusion,’ ” says Kellyanne Conway, the final campaign manager, who will serve as a White House counselor. “Mr. Trump trusts Jared’s business instincts as well as his political acumen.”

 Right now, what Trump needs is a government. Kushner has been essential in assembling it for him. Along with Mike Pence, he moved within days of the election to assert control over the transition, reportedly playing the key role in neutralizing Christie, who had previously been in charge of the process. Christie had been doing a shoddy job, Kushner thought, was politically wounded by his scandal, and had shown soft commitment during the campaign’s low moments. Kushner also hadn’t forgotten his father’s imprisonment. Christie’s loyalists were purged, while Kushner recruited Bill Stepien, the ruthless campaign manager that Christie fired for his role in the bridge plot, to be Trump’s political director. After floating a series of leaden trial balloons — Republican National Committee chair? Homeland Security? — the diminished governor slunk home to Jersey. The Count of Monte Cristo couldn’t have plotted it better.

 When Bannon’s appointment came under fire, on the other hand, from groups like the Anti-Defamation League, Kushner tried to rally support from Jewish organizations. “If you’re in a foxhole with him, and fighting with him, you’re a brother, and he will defend you nonstop,” Bannon says. More recently, during the December dustup over John Kerry’s reproachful parting shot at Israel’s commitment to a two-state solution, Bannon and Kushner were said to be working back channels to Netanyahu’s government. Trump’s statements on Israel have been wildly inconsistent: During the primary campaign, he suggested he would maintain a “neutral” stance, then he nominated his bankruptcy attorney, a hard-line settlement supporter, as ambassador. He also has suggested he may put Kushner in charge of peace negotiations.

 If Trump’s administration is anything like his campaign, or the rest of his life, it is likely to be split along lines of clan, with the conservative Republicans — Pence, Conway, and chief-of-staff Reince Priebus — competing for influence with the cadre of outsiders who are loyal to Trump, foremost among them Kushner and Ivanka. Already the factions are whispering and jockeying for influence. It would be a mistake, though, to view Kushner as an ideological counterweight. He is earnest, in that sense, when he says he is “not political.” He has lived a life surrounded by politics, in which Democratic candidates frequently dropped by for dinner, but his liberalism was cultural, reflecting community values. Now he has a new community.

 Some suggest that Kushner could be a force for moderation, if not in terms of ideology, then at least in managing Trump’s incendiary tendencies. “Certainly a president needs someone to say, ‘Look, this isn’t helpful to you, this isn’t helpful to the country,’ ” Reed says. “I think Jared will play that role.” Still, there’s little evidence that anyone can moderate Trump, other than Trump himself, and there is little doubt where Kushner’s ultimate loyalties lie. “I’m sure that he voices his opinions with Donald, and I think Ivanka has got her own set of opinions,” says LeFrak. “That family is not a family of robots. But at the end of the day, they’re going to line up behind the president-elect.”

 If the campaign estranged Kushner from the privileged world he once inhabited, the election represented a conclusive break. Some of the same Manhattan liberals who ostracized him during the campaign were rattled afterward, and they sent him emails, trying to offer healing words of congratulations and conciliation. These went right in the trash. Kushner is in no mood to offer comfort — not to this town. He’s going to Washington.

 *This article appears in the January 9, 2017, issue of New York Magazine. |||||

– Donald Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner is expected to end up with an influential White House role, and pundit Mike Allen's new Axios newsletter says lawyers have figured out a way around nepotism rules that will result in a title as "senior adviser." The latest cover of New York magazine has a different title: "President In-Law." The story provides perhaps the most in-depth look so far at Ivanka Trump's 35-year-old husband, and it throws a bit of cold water on the notion that Kushner will act as a "force for moderation" on the new president's most controversial ideas. While Kushner has become one of Trump's most trusted advisers, "there’s little evidence that anyone can moderate Trump, other than Trump himself, and there is little doubt where Kushner’s ultimate loyalties lie," writes Andrew Rice. As Kushner himself has put it: "family first." The story details what seems to have been a profound change in Kushner over the past year, as he surprised those in New York's elite circles who knew him, or thought they knew him, by embracing his father-in-law's campaign so strongly. "Some of the same Manhattan liberals who ostracized [Kushner] during the campaign were rattled afterward, and they sent him emails, trying to offer healing words of congratulations and conciliation," writes Rice. "These went right in the trash." And while Kushner is described as soft-spoken, that is true only in the most literal sense: His voice is, in fact, soft, but Kushner himself is described as aggressive and driven. In fact, he "is more like father-in-law than anyone imagines," declares the piece. Read it in full here.