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Reconsider the
Chicken
An
Unserious
Look
At the
Year
Ahead
REVIEW
OFF DUTY
VOL. CCLXIV NO. 151
WEEKEND
*******
HHHH $3.00
SATURDAY/SUNDAY, DECEMBER 27 - 28, 2014
Solemn Goodbye to a Fallen New York City Police Officer
What’s
News
i
i
WSJ.com
i
World-Wide
G
OP lawmakers are preparing a variety of bills
that would make substantial
changes to the immigration
system, suggesting that interest in addressing immigration law remains alive. A4
 The Chamber of Commerce,
which helped Republicans in
the midterm election, called on
the GOP to enact a vigorous
legislative program. A4
n The U.S., Japan and South
Korea agreed to sign an intelligence-sharing pact aimed
at improving defenses against
North Korean missiles. A8
n South Asian communities
held services to mark the 10year anniversary of a tsunami
that killed 228,000 people. A9
n Civics instruction is making a comeback after years
on the back burner of the nation’s educational agenda. A3
i
Business & Finance
n Oil and gas companies are
cutting capital budgets and
service companies are weighing layoffs after a roughly
50% drop in crude prices. A1
n Finra doesn’t make public
all the regulatory red flags it
has about brokers, prompting
calls from state regulators for
more expansive disclosure. A1
n The SEC plans to fix a
flaw in its electronic distribution of corporate regulatory
filings that gives rapid-fire
traders a time advantage. B1
n Sony’s PlayStation Network
remained offline Friday, while
Microsoft had restored Xbox
Live, after outages a hacker
group said were its doing. B1
n The Dow industrials and
S&P 500 notched records,
with the blue chips gaining
23.50 points to 18053.71. Energy prices slipped. B2
n Japan plans to sell part of
its state-owned postal service,
Japan Post, to the public as
soon as August, and plans to
list its financial units. B2
n Aereo can auction off its
TV streaming technology after
it struck a deal with broadcasters over the sale process,
a bankruptcy judge said. B3
n Ferrari’s chairman wants
to expand production, arguing
a surge in emerging-market
wealth justifies an increase. B1
n Singapore’s exchange is
pushing into riskier markets
to stay competitive as stocktrading volume falls. B2
Inside
BY MARIA ABI-HABIB
Jomah, a 17-year-old Syrian
who joined Islamic State last
year, sat in a circle of trainees
for a lesson in beheading, a
course taught to boys as young
as 8.
Teachers brought in three
frightened Syrian soldiers, who
were jeered and forced to their
knees. “It was like learning to
chop an onion,” Jomah said.
“You grab him by the forehead
and then slowly slice across the
neck.”
A teacher asked for volunteers and said, “Those who behead the infidels will receive
gifts from God,” recalled Jomah,
who didn’t want his full name
revealed. The youngest boys
shot up their hands and several
were chosen to participate. Afterward, the teachers ordered
the students to pass around the
severed heads.
“I’d become desensitized by
that time,” said Jomah, who has
since defected to Turkey with
his family. “The beheading videos they’d shown us helped.”
The enrollment of hundreds
of boys in such militant training
camps is another tragic facet of
Syria’s nearly four-year-long
civil war—and its impact could
trouble the Middle East for years
to come. Parents worry their
boys will be forever lost to the
indoctrination of Islamic State.
The militant group, which has
seized large swaths of Syria and
Iraq, has remade the secular education system in territory under its control, leaving families
to choose between a radical Islamist education or nothing.
PROFIT MOTIVE
Parents Struggle to Cure
Loved Ones, and Make Money
BY AMY DOCKSER MARCUS
identify A-T treatments. His work
may lead to answers for his boys’
Bitter Pill
For years, Brad Margus has
disease, he says, but “I may not
Less than 10% of the roughly
juggled two goals as chief execumake it in time for my own kids.”
5,300 diseases known by
tive: Make money, and find cures
Not long ago, this dilemma
molecular basis have treatments.
for his children.
was unusual. Enterprising parHe just co-founded a startup,
ents wanting to speed drug deApproximately 500 are treatable
Exigence Neurosciences Inc., in
velopment for a child typically
part to seek treatments for his
formed foundations to raise
two sons who have ataxia-telanmoney for someone else’s regiectasia, or A-T, a rare progressearch.
sive and eventually fatal neuroThere are roughly 5,300 hulogical disease.
man diseases known by molecuApproximately 4,800
There is no effective drug for
lar basis and about 500 have
have no known
it, and the 54-year-old Mr. Martreatments,
says the National Intreatment
gus, of Boca Raton, Fla., says his
stitutes of Health. Rare ailments
goal is to find one. His new comoften don’t have medicines, in
pany will also need to stay in
part because many drug compaSource: National Institutes of Health
The Wall Street Journal
business, which means plowing
nies don’t want to make risky
money and time into projects
bets on the small markets they
that promise profits.
represent.
His dilemma: The most promising revenues are
Now, there is a small cadre of parents like Mr.
in brain diseases more common than A-T, such as Margus starting for-profit ventures to make those
Alzheimer’s. So he plans to focus there first, as he bets. Nonprofits have limitations, they say, because
Please turn to page A10
did in a previous company he also hoped might
Islamic State religious schools
in the Syrian provinces of
Aleppo and use Deir Ezzour—
where, for example, chemistry
has been replaced by religious
studies—have become a conduit
for recruiting boys to the fighting ranks, five former child soldiers and several adult militants
told The Wall Street Journal in
Turkey, where they are refugees.
One of them, 17-year-old Ismail, said he was ordered this
summer by his Islamic State superiors to help behead every
Please turn to page A5
National Records Miss
Many Brokers’ Red Flags
BY JEAN EAGLESHAM
AND ROB BARRY
Wall Street’s own national
watchdog doesn’t make public all
the regulatory red flags it has
about brokers, prompting calls
from state regulators for more
expansive disclosure.
Investors checking disciplinary records from the Financial
Industry Regulatory Authority,
or Finra, can see that in Bennett
Broad’s 35-year career as a
stockbroker, he has faced 25 customer complaints involving alleged trading abuses, and that 15
ended in payouts to clients.
What they won’t see is that a
i
i
Glut Ripples Through Pricey Eateries; Only $900 a Pound
A Parishioner’s
Plea: Spare
This Church
Opinion.....................A11-13
Sports.............................A14
Stock Listings..............B9
Style & Fashion......D2,3
Travel.............................D6,7
Weather Watch........B12
Weekend Investor B5-7
>
s Copyright 2014 Dow Jones & Company.
All Rights Reserved
former employer, UBS AG,
launched an internal investigation into Mr. Broad’s business
practices back in 2003 and then,
according to state regulators,
“permitted” him “to resign.” At
least eight of his 25 complaints
involved conduct after that investigation.
Finra, an industry-funded
overseer of brokers, encourages
investors to check its BrokerCheck Web page to look for
regulatory red flags about individual brokers, including complaints, regulatory actions, terminations for cause and personal
bankruptcies. Mr. Broad’s BroPlease turn to the next page
Gastronomes Foraging for Bargain Truffles Are In Luck
i
NOONAN A13
CONTENTS
Books..........................C5-10
Corporate News........ B3
Eating & Drinking D1,4,5
Heard on Street.......B12
In the Markets...........B4
Letters to Editor......A12
Boys Who Escape Islamic State Recount Horrors; ‘Like Learning to Chop an Onion’
BY ALEXANDRA WEXLER
A white-truffle glut is ruffling
the expensive-restaurant scene.
Locanda Verde, an Italian restaurant in Manhattan’s Tribeca
neighborhood, is now serving
white truffles shaved over pasta
for the bargain price of $50, down
from $100 last year.
“We call it truffles for the people,” says chef Andrew Carmellini.
The restaurant has also expanded an event called Trufflepalooza, which features three courses
of white-truffle indulgence. It used
to be a one-night affair. This year,
Trufflepalooza ran for two months
and truffles will be offered on
New Year’s Eve.
A wet, warm summer in North-
Composite
i
The Child Soldiers of Syria
ern Italy, where the
at the Chefs’ Wareworld’s most desirhouse, a specialty
able white truffles
food distributor in
are dug up, has proRidgefield, Conn. He
duced a bumper
said
wholesale
fungi crop. That
prices are the lowpushed prices down
est he has seen in
about 50% from last
about 15 years. He’s
year, according to
selling truffles for
White truffles
chefs, dealers and
just below $1,000 to
restaurant operaabout $2,400 a
tors.
pound depending on their size,
The steep drop sparked an un- down from $4,000 to $7,000 a
precedented frenzy as truffle pound in 2006. Larger truffles typhunters, brokers and chefs have ically cost more.
scrambled to move the delicate
“The biggest ones aren’t necesmerchandise. That has led to some sarily the best ones, but they look
unheard-of contortions in pricey really cool,” Mr. Carmellini said, as
dining rooms.
he shaved a generous portion
“They’re like diamonds,” said from a fig-sized truffle over poPlease turn to page A8
John Magazino, import specialist
BREGUET BOUTIQUES
NEW YORK BEVERLY HILLS BAL HARBOUR LAS VEGAS
T O L L F R E E 8 77- 8 91- 127 2
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i
BLUE LINE: Colleagues carried the coffin of Officer Rafael Ramos to a Queens church, a week after he was shot along with Officer Wenjian Liu.
U.S. oil and gas companies
have been an engine of growth
through much of an otherwise
lackluster economic expansion,
providing steady employment,
solid wages and fierce competition for workers across wide
swaths of the country.
Now, after a roughly 50%
plunge in oil prices, exploration
and production companies are cutting capital budgets, service companies are weighing layoffs and
nonenergy firms that popped up
to support the industry are bracing for a protracted slowdown.
One company caught in the industry downturn is Hercules Offshore Inc. The Houston-based
firm is laying off 324 employees,
roughly 15% of its workforce, because oil companies aren’t renewing contracts for its offshore
drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico
while crude prices are depressed.
“It’s been breathtaking,” said
Jim Noe, executive vice president
of Hercules, which was founded
in 2004. “We’ve never seen this
glut of supply and dislocation in
oil markets. So we’re not surprised to see a significant decline
in demand for our services.”
Lower oil prices are still expected to provide an overall
boost to the U.S. economy. Consumers are spending less on gasoline and more at retailers and
restaurants, while many companies are benefiting from cheaper
costs for energy and raw materials—giving a boost to hiring outside the energy sector. Money
that would have gone to imported oil—the U.S. remains a
net importer—will remain at
home.
The U.S. Energy Information
Please turn to the next page
Classique Hora Mundi
n Chinese anticorruption
agents are investigating a
senior official at a government agency that has probed
foreign companies. A8
BY JEFFREY SPARSHOTT
Kevin Hagen for The Wall Street Journal
n Ukraine cut off electricity
and train and bus services to
Crimea, moves that could raise
tensions with Russia. Visa and
MasterCard are suspending
operations in Crimea. A9
n Facebook, Twitter and
Google have started resisting
Russian government orders
to remove information about
a rally next month in support
of an opposition leader. A9
Oil Jobs
Squeezed
As Prices
Plummet
MAGENTA
BLACK
CYAN
YELLOW