Many States Say Cuts Would Burden Fragile Recovery

States are increasingly alarmed that they could become collateral damage in Washington’s latest fiscal battle, fearing that the impasse could saddle them with across-the-board spending cuts that threaten to slow their fragile recoveries or thrust them back into recession.

Some states, like Maryland and Virginia, are vulnerable because their economies are heavily dependent on federal workers, federal contracts and military spending, which will face steep reductions if Congress allows the automatic cuts, known as sequestration, to begin next Friday. Others, including Illinois and South Dakota, are at risk because of their reliance on the types of federal grants that are scheduled to be cut. And many states simply fear that a heavy dose of federal austerity could weaken their economies, costing them jobs and much-needed tax revenue.

So as state officials begin to draw up their budgets for next year, some say that the biggest risk they see is not the weak housing market or the troubled European economy but the federal government. While the threat of big federal cuts to states has become something of a semiannual occurrence in recent years, state officials said in interviews that they fear that this time the federal government might not be crying wolf — and their hopes are dimming that a deal will be struck in Washington in time to avert the cuts.

The impact would be widespread as the cuts ripple across the nation over the next year.

Texas expects to see its education aid slashed hundreds of millions of dollars, which could force local school districts to fire teachers, if the cuts are not averted. Michigan officials say they are in no position to replace the lost federal dollars with state dollars, but worry about cuts to federal programs like the one that helps people heat their homes. Maryland is bracing not only for a blow to its economy, which depends on federal workers and contractors and the many private businesses that support them, but also for cuts in federal aid for schools, Head Start programs, a nutrition program for pregnant women, mothers and children, and job training programs, among others.

Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia, a Republican, warned in a letter to President Obama on Monday that the automatic spending cuts would have a “potentially devastating impact” and could force Virginia and other states into a recession, noting that the planned cuts to military spending would be especially damaging to areas like Hampton Roads that have a big Navy presence. And he noted that the whole idea of the proposed cuts was that they were supposed to be so unpalatable that they would force officials in Washington to come up with a compromise.

“As we all know, the defense, and other, cuts in the sequester were designed to be a hammer, not a real policy,” Mr. McDonnell wrote. “Unfortunately, inaction by you and Congress now leaves states and localities to adjust to the looming threat of this haphazard idea.”

The looming cuts come just as many states feel they are turning the corner after the prolonged slump caused by the recession. Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland, a Democrat, said he was moving to increase the state’s cash reserves and rainy day funds as a hedge against federal cuts.

“I’d rather be spending those dollars on things that improve our business climate, that accelerate our recovery, that get more people back to work, or on needed infrastructure — transportation, roads, bridges and the like,” he said, adding that Maryland has eliminated 5,600 positions in recent years and that its government was smaller, on a per capita basis, than it had been in four decades. “But I can’t do that. I can’t responsibly do that as long as I have this hara-kiri Congress threatening to drive a long knife through our recovery.”

Federal spending on salaries, wages and procurement makes up close to 20 percent of the economies of Maryland and Virginia, according to an analysis by the Pew Center on the States.

But states are in a delicate position. While they fear the impact of the automatic cuts, they also fear that any deal to avert them might be even worse for their bottom lines. That is because many of the planned cuts would go to military spending and not just domestic programs, and some of the most important federal programs for states, including Medicaid and federal highway funds, would be exempt from the cuts.

States will see a reduction of $5.8 billion this year in the federal grant programs subject to the automatic cuts, according to an analysis by Federal Funds Information for States, a group created by the National Governors Association and the National Conference of State Legislatures that tracks the impact of federal actions on states. California, New York and Texas stand to lose the most money from the automatic cuts, and Puerto Rico, which is already facing serious fiscal distress, is threatened with the loss of more than $126 million in federal grant money, the analysis found.

Even with the automatic cuts, the analysis found, states are still expected to get more federal aid over all this year than they did last year, because of growth in some of the biggest programs that are exempt from the cuts, including Medicaid.

But the cuts still pose a real risk to states, officials said. State budget officials from around the country held a conference call last week to discuss the threatened cuts. “In almost every case the folks at the state level, the budget offices, are pretty much telling the agencies and departments that they’re not going to backfill — they’re not going to make up for the budget cuts,” said Scott D. Pattison, the executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers, which arranged the call. “They don’t have enough state funds to make up for federal cuts.”

The cuts would not hit all states equally, the Pew Center on the States found. While the federal grants subject to the cuts make up more than 10 percent of South Dakota’s revenue, it found, they make up less than 5 percent of Delaware’s revenue.

Many state officials find themselves frustrated year after year by the uncertainty of what they can expect from Washington, which provides states with roughly a third of their revenues. There were threats of cuts when Congress balked at raising the debt limit in 2011, when a so-called super-committee tried and failed to reach a budget deal, and late last year when the nation faced the “fiscal cliff.”

John E. Nixon, the director of Michigan’s budget office, said that all the uncertainty made the state’s planning more difficult. “If it’s going to happen,” he said, “at some point we need to rip off the Band-Aid.”

Fernanda Santos contributed reporting.

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In Drought-Stricken Heartland, Snow Is No Savior

Matthew Staver for The New York Times

Thin mountain snow in Colorado and across the West could signal another summer of drought and wildfire.

DENVER — After enduring last summer’s destructive drought, farmers, ranchers and officials across the country’s parched heartland had hoped that plentiful winter snows would replenish the ground and refill their rivers, breaking the grip of one of the worst dry spells in American history. No such luck.

Across the West, lakes are half full and mountain snows are thin, omens of another summer of drought and wildfire. Complicating matters, many of the worst-hit states now have even less water on hand than a year ago, raising the specter of shortages and rationing that could inflict another year of losses on struggling farms.

Reservoir levels have fallen sharply in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada. The soil is drier than normal. And while a few recent snowstorms have cheered skiers, the snowpack is so thin in parts of Colorado that the government has declared an “extreme drought” around the ski havens of Vail and Aspen.

“We’re worse off than we were a year ago,” said Brian Fuchs, a climatologist at the National Drought Mitigation Center.

This week’s blizzard brought a measure of relief to the Plains when it dumped more than a foot of snow. But it did not change the basic calculus for forecasters and officials in the drought-scarred West. Ranchers are straining to find hay — it is scarce and expensive — to feed cattle. And farmers are fretting about whether they will have enough water to irrigate their fields.

“It’s approaching a critical situation,” said Mike Hungenberg, who grows carrots and cabbage on a 3,000-acre farm in northern Colorado. There is so little water available this year, he said, that he may scale back his planting by a third, and sow less thirsty crops, like beans.

“A year ago we went into the spring season with most of the reservoirs full,” Mr. Hungenberg said. “This year, you’re going in with basically everything empty.”

National and state forecasters — some of whom now end phone calls by saying, “Pray for snow” — do have some hope. An especially wet springtime could still spare the western plains and mountains and prime the soil for planting. But forecasts are murky: They predict warmer temperatures and less precipitation across the West over the next three months but say the Midwest could see more rain than usual.

Water experts get more nervous with each passing day.

“We’re running out of time,” said Andy Pineda of the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District. “We only have a month or two, and we are so far behind it’s going to take storms of epic amounts just to get us back to what we would think of as normal.”

Parts of Montana, the Pacific Northwest and Utah have benefited from a snowy winter. But across Colorado, the snowpack is just 72 percent of average as of Feb. 1, which means less water to dampen hillsides and mountains vulnerable to fire, less water for farms to use on early season crops and less to fill lakes and reservoirs that ultimately trickle down into millions of toilets, taps and swimming pools across the state.

Heavy rains and snow have recently brought some hope to the parched states of Iowa, Minnesota and Missouri, where the drought is easing. But 55.8 percent of the United States remains locked in drought, according to the government’s latest assessments. And states like Nebraska and Oklahoma are facing precipitation deficits of as much as 16 inches. Without damp soil, many wheat crops will have trouble growing come March and April when they should be in full bloom, and corn and soybeans could be stunted after they are planted this spring. In a year when farmers are planning another record planting, some might be forced to sow fewer seeds because there is not enough soil moisture to go around.

In southwestern Kansas, Gary Millershaski said the wheat on his 3,000 acres was as dry as it had ever been after two years of drought. But as snow fell around him, he was smiling, a guarded optimist for this year’s planting. “If we get above average rainfall from here on, we’re going to raise a wheat crop,” he said. “But what are the odds of that?”

Senator Mark Udall, Democrat of Colorado, put it this way: “Mother Nature is testing us.”

But Washington is also posing a challenge.

Mr. Udall, Senator Michael Bennet, a Democrat, and other members of Colorado’s Congressional delegation are seeking $20 million in emergency funds to help restore watersheds in Colorado ravaged by last year’s wildfires. So far, there has been little action on the measure. Western politicians are also urging the Forest Service to move more quickly to modernize the shrinking and aging fleet of tanker planes it uses to douse wildfires.

John Eligon contributed reporting from Kansas City, Mo.

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Diane Lane signed divorce doc on Valentine's Day

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Court records show Diane Lane signed her filing to divorce Josh Brolin on Valentine's Day.

Lane's petition to end the actors' marriage after eight and a half years was filed on Feb. 15.

Her filing released Friday lists irreconcilable differences for the couple's breakup and lists Feb. 13 as their separation date. It does not indicate they have a prenuptial agreement.

The actors have no children together. It was a second marriage for both when they tied the knot in August 2004.

Lane received an Oscar nomination for her performance in the 2002 film "Unfaithful" and co-stars in the upcoming Superman film "Man of Steel."

Brolin was Oscar-nominated for his performance in 2008's "Milk" and recently starred in "Gangster Squad."

A representative for the couple confirmed the divorce on Thursday.

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Question Mark: Acne Common in Baby Boomers Too

Pimples are no surprise on babies and teenagers, but boomers?

You no longer have to gaze over a school lunchroom, hoping to find a seat at a socially acceptable table. You don’t rush to get home at night before your junior license driving restrictions kick in. And you men no longer have to worry that your voice will skip an octave without warning.

But if adolescence is over, what is that horrid protuberance staring at you in the mirror from the middle of your forehead? Some speak of papules, pustules and nodules, but we will use the technical term: zit. That thing on your forehead now is the same thing that was there back in high school, or at least a close relative. Same as it ever was (cue “Once in a Lifetime”).

We get more than the occasional complaint here from baby boomers who want to know about this aging body part or that. So you would think people would be happy with any emblem of youth — even if it is sore and angry-looking and threatening to erupt at any second. But oddly, there are those who are not happy to see pimples again, and some have asked for an explanation.

Acne occurs when the follicles that connect the pores of the skin to oil glands become clogged with a mixture of hair, oils and skin cells, and bacteria in the plug causes swelling, experts say. A pimple grows as the plug breaks down.

According to the American Academy of Dermatology, a growing number of women in their 30s, 40s, 50s and even beyond are seeking treatment for acne. Middle-age men are also susceptible to breakouts, but less so, experts say.

In some cases, people suffer from acne that began in their teenage years and never really went away. Others had problems when they were younger and then enjoyed decades of mostly clear skin. Still others never had much of the way of pimples until they were older.

Whichever the case, the explanation for adult acne is likely to be the same as it is for acne found in teenagers and, for that matter, newborns: hormonal changes. “We know that all acne is hormonally driven and hormonally sensitive,” said Dr. Bethanee J. Schlosser, an assistant professor of dermatology at Northwestern.

Among baby boomers, the approach of menopause may result in a drop in estrogen, a hormone that can help keep pimples from forming, and increased levels of androgens, the male hormone. Women who stop taking birth control pills may also see a drop in their estrogen levels.

Debate remains over what role diet plays in acne. Some experts say that foods once thought to cause pimples, like chocolate, are probably not a problem. Still, while sugar itself is no longer believed to contribute to acne, some doctors think that foods with a high glycemic index – meaning they quickly elevate glucose in the body — might. White bread and sweetened cereals are examples. And for all ages, stress has also been found to play a role.

One message to acne sufferers has not changed over the years. Your mother was right: don’t pop it! It can cause scarring.

Questions about aging? E-mail boomerwhy@nytimes.com

Booming: Living Through the Middle Ages offers news and commentary about baby boomers, anchored by Michael Winerip. You can follow Booming via RSS here or visit nytimes.com/booming. You can reach us by e-mail at booming@nytimes.com.

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Iglo and Birds Eye Pull Meals After Finding Horse Meat

LONDON — Another big food producer was ensnared in the scandal over horse meat in beef products Friday when the company that owns the Iglo and Birds Eye brands withdrew a dozen types of prepared meals from stores in four European countries.

Iglo Foods Group, the parent company, said it took the action after a chilli con carne dish, produced by a Belgian company called Frigilunch and on sale in Belgium, was found to contain about 2 percent horse meat.

“As a precautionary measure, we will withdraw all other beef products produced for us by Frigilunch,” Iglo Foods said. “Whilst this is not a food safety issue, it is clearly unacceptable.”

In addition to the chilli con carne, seven more Iglo products were removed from Belgian supermarkets, and one from stores in the Netherlands. Meanwhile, three Birds Eye meals — spaghetti Bolognese, shepherd’s pie and lasagne — were withdrawn in Britain and Ireland.

The announcement came as the Food Standards Agency in Britain released updated figures for tests conducted by the food industry in that country, showing that just 1 percent of beef products sampled contained 1 percent or more of horse meat.

With food suppliers and regulators stepping up their monitoring, new cases of beef products tainted with horse meat, which is significantly less expensive than beef, are being found almost every day.

This past week, Nestlé, one of the best-known food companies in the world, said it was removing pasta meals from store shelves in Italy and Spain. Already most of the big supermarket chains in Britain have withdrawn products, including millions of hamburgers. About a dozen European countries have been touched by the scandal.

In Britain there was growing concern about the contents of school meals. On Friday, local governments in Scotland were urged by the procurement agency, Scotland Excel, “not to use any current stocks they hold of frozen beef products, including frozen beef mince, or order any new stocks, until the outcome of further, detailed investigations.”

That announcement followed the discovery of traces of horse DNA in a frozen burger taken from a school kitchen in North Lanarkshire.

There was more reassuring news Friday from the Food Standards Agency, which said it had now received 3,634 test results from manufacturers, retailers, caterers and wholesalers. These results showed an additional six products containing horse DNA since the first set of industry tests was announced last week.

Over all, the agency said, “35 results, representing 13 products, contained horse DNA at or above the 1 percent threshold. These products have already been named and withdrawn from sale.”

While the horse meat crisis has revolved around issues of fraud and mislabeling, there are worries that a powerful equine painkiller, phenylbutazone, or bute, may have entered the food chain.

Eight horses slaughtered for food in Britain tested positive for the drug, according to reports this month. Six of those carcasses had already been exported to France for human consumption.

But the Food Standards Agency said Friday that tests on samples containing horse DNA so far had not found traces of phenylbutazone.

“The overwhelming majority of results, over 99 percent, have come back negative for the presence of horse DNA above the threshold of 1 percent, which is reassuring for consumers,” said Catherine Brown, the agency’s chief executive. She said the agency’s work “is far from done,” with other testing being carried out by the local authorities on behalf of the agency already “well under way.”

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15 G.O.P. Senators Ask Obama to Withdraw Hagel Nomination

WASHINGTON — A group of 15 Republican senators is calling on President Obama to withdraw the nomination of Chuck Hagel to be defense secretary, the latest move in a contentious battle to block the confirmation of their former colleague.

But even as Republican senators tried to throw up another obstacle, Senate Democrats were pushing ahead with plans to hold a vote on Mr. Hagel’s nomination by Tuesday.

While Mr. Hagel seems likely to be confirmed, Republicans signaled in a letter to Mr. Obama on Thursday that they would not let the issue die quietly.

Saying that Mr. Hagel’s confirmation would be “unprecedented” because of near-unanimous opposition from Republicans, the senators urged Mr. Obama to pick another candidate.

“Over the last half-century, no secretary of defense has been confirmed and taken office with more than three senators voting against him,” they wrote. “The occupant of this critical office should be someone whose candidacy is neither controversial or divisive.”

Signing the letter were John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican; Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott of South Carolina; Roger Wicker of Mississippi; David Vitter of Louisiana; Ted Cruz of Texas; Mike Lee of Utah; Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania; Marco Rubio of Florida; Dan Coats of Indiana; Ron Johnson of Wisconsin; James E. Risch of Idaho; John Barrasso of Wyoming; and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.

Members of the group cited a litany of objections, including Mr. Hagel’s unimpressive showing at his confirmation hearing, which drew criticism from members of both parties, and what they said was his “dangerous” posture toward dealing with Iran.

The level of derision directed at Mr. Hagel from Republicans has been striking not just because defense secretaries are usually confirmed on a simple up-or-down vote, but also because Mr. Hagel, a Republican, served with many of them in the Senate until 2008.

“Senator Hagel’s performance at his confirmation hearing was deeply concerning, leading to serious doubts about his basic competence to meet the substantial demands of the office,” they said.

Senate Republicans narrowly blocked a vote on Mr. Hagel’s confirmation last week, forcing Democrats to put the matter off until senators return from recess next week.

Republicans have been using the filibuster to prevent final consideration of his nomination by refusing to end debate on it, a procedural step that requires 60 senators to vote in the affirmative.

But some Republicans, including two of Mr. Hagel’s most outspoken critics, Mr. Graham and Senator John McCain of Arizona, have since said that they will drop their objections and allow a final vote.

Because Mr. Hagel has the support of Senate Democrats, who control 55 seats, he is likely to clear a final vote.

Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama on Thursday became the third Republican to state publicly that he would vote to confirm Mr. Hagel, joining Senators Thad Cochran of Mississippi and Mike Johanns of Nebraska.

If Senate Democrats move ahead with a vote as planned, and no further obstacles surface, Mr. Hagel could be confirmed as early as Tuesday. If Democrats get the votes they need to end debate, Republicans could still delay the vote until Wednesday.

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Ben Foster replaces Shia LaBeouf on Broadway

NEW YORK (AP) — Shia LaBeouf is out. Ben Foster is in.

A day after LaBeouf stepped away from the play that would have marked his Broadway debut, he was replaced by Foster.

Foster, whose film roles include "3:10 to Yuma" and "The Messenger" and who was on TV in "The Laramie Project" and "Six Feet Under," had auditioned for the revival of Lyle Kessler's play "Orphans" but had lost the role to the star of the "Transformers" franchise.

After LaBeouf left the production on Wednesday due to creative differences, Foster was picked. After the change was announced, LaBeouf tweeted: "Ben Foster is a beast. He will kill it," in all capital letters. Foster will be making his Broadway debut.

The play, which premiered in 1983, tells the story of two orphaned brothers living in a decrepit Philadelphia row house who decide to kidnap a wealthy man. LaBeouf was to play one brother and and Tom Sturridge the other; Baldwin will be the target.

The switch in actors hasn't delayed the show. Producers said "Orphans" will still open March 19 at the Schoenfeld Theatre.

LaBeouf apparently stepped away from the play without burning too many bridges — at least according to the messages he's posted on Twitter. The actor published email messages between him, Baldwin and director Daniel Sullivan that indicated a somewhat amicable, if anguished, split.

"Sorry for my part of a dis-agreeable situation," he wrote to Baldwin in an email posted on LaBeouf's Twitter feed. LaBeouf also posted his audition video.

Baldwin apparently wrote to the younger actor: "I don't have an unkind word to say about you. You have my word."

As for Sullivan, the director apparently wrote to LaBeouf after the decision was made that the actor leave the show: "This one will haunt me. You tried to warn me. You said you were a different breed. I didn't get it."

A press representative for the show said the messages were legitimate.

LaBeouf seemed still somewhat shaken by the whole experience Thursday, writing on Twitter a series of slogans with opaque meanings.

"The theater belongs not to the great but to the brash. acting is not for gentlemen, or bureaucratic-academics. what they do is antiart," he wrote in one tweet.

He also posted an image of a commiserative email apparently from Rick Sordelet, a veteran fight director, who said, "It was obvious you were going to turn in a fantastic performance." In the same message, Sordelet wrote: "It must have been difficult for others in the room to be schooled by someone who's raw talent and enthusiasm out matched theirs." It was likely a note not intended for the rest of the company to see.

LaBeouf, whose other films include "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" and "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps," was also recently seen in John Hillcoat's crime drama "Lawless."

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Online: http://www.orphansonbroadway.com

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Follow Mark Kennedy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

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Living With Cancer: Arrivals and Departures

After being nursed and handed over, the baby’s wails rise to a tremolo, but I am determined to give my exhausted daughter and son-in-law a respite on this wintry evening. Commiserating with the little guy’s discomfort — gas, indigestion, colic, ontological insecurity — I swaddle, burp, bink, then cradle him in my arms. I begin walking around the house, swinging and swaying while cooing in soothing cadences: “Yes, darling boy, another one bites the dust, another one bites the dust.”

I kid you not! How could such grim phrases spring from my lips into the newborn’s ears? Where did they come from?

I blame his mother and her best friend. They sang along as this song was played repeatedly at the skating rink to which I took them every other Saturday in their tweens. Why would an infatuated grandma croon a mordant lullaby, even if the adorable one happily can’t understand a single word? He’s still whimpering, twisting away from me, and understandably so.

Previously that day, I had called a woman in my cancer support group. I believe that she is dying. I do not know her very well. She has attended only two or three of our get-togethers where she described herself as a widow and a Christian.

On the phone, I did not want to violate the sanctity of her end time, but I did want her to know that she need not be alone, that I and other members of our group can “be there” for her. Her dying seems a rehearsal of my own. We have the same disease.

“How are you doing, Kim?” I asked.

“I’m tired. I sleep all the time,” she sighed, “and I can’t keep anything down.”

“Can you drink … water?” I asked.

“A little, but I tried a smoothie and it wouldn’t set right,” she said.

“I hope you are not in pain.”

“Oh no, but I’m sleeping all the time. And I can’t keep anything down.”

“Would you like a visit? Is there something I can do or bring?” I asked.

“Oh, I don’t think so, no thanks.”

“Well,” I paused before saying goodbye, “be well.”

Be well? I didn’t even add something like, “Be as well as you can be.” I was tongue-tied. This was the failure that troubles me tonight.

Why couldn’t I say that we will miss her, that I am sorry she is dying, that she has coped so well for so long, and that I hope she will now find peace? I could inform an infant in my arms of our inexorable mortality, but I could not speak or even intimate the “D” word to someone on her deathbed.

Although I have tried to communicate to my family how I feel about end-of-life care, can we always know what we will want? Perhaps at the end of my life I will not welcome visitors, either. For departing may require as much concentration as arriving. As I look down at the vulnerable bundle I am holding, I marvel that each and every one of us has managed to come in and will also have to manage to go out. The baby nestles, pursing his mouth around the pacifier. He gazes intently at my face with a sly gaze that drifts toward a lamp, turning speculative before lids lower in tremulous increments.

Slowing my jiggling to his faint sucking, I think that the philosopher Jacques Derrida’s meditation on death pertains to birth as well. Each of these events “names the very irreplaceability of absolute singularity.” Just as “no one can die in my place or in the place of the other,” no one can be born in this particular infant’s place. He embodies his irreplaceable and absolute singularity.

Perhaps we should gestate during endings, as we do during beginnings. Like hatchings, the dispatchings caused by cancer give people like Kim and me a final trimester, more or less, in which we can labor to forgive and be forgiven, to speak and hear vows of devotion from our intimates, to visit or not be visited by acquaintances.

Maybe we need a doula for dying, I reflect as melodious words surface, telling me what I have to do with the life left to be lived: “To love that well, which thou must leave ere long.”

“Oh little baby,” I then whisper: “Though I cannot tell who you will become and where I will be — you, dear heart, deliver me.”

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Ramping Up U.S. Production, Ford Expands in Ohio

DETROIT — Ford Motor Company is adding 450 jobs and expanding an engine plant in Ohio to feed the growing demand for more fuel-efficient cars and S.U.V.'s in the American market.

Ford, the nation’s second largest automaker after General Motors, said Thursday it would spend $200 million to renovate its Cleveland engine plant to produce small, turbocharged engines for use in its top-selling models.

The move is the latest by automakers to expand production in the United States, where sales have increased 14 percent so far this year compared with 2012.

Last month, G.M. announced plans to invest $600 million in its assembly plant near Kansas City, Kan., one of the company’s oldest factories. And Chrysler, the smallest of the Detroit car companies, is adding a third shift to its Jeep plant in Detroit.

The expansions are another tangible sign of the steady recovery in the American auto market, which fell to historic lows during the recession.

Both G.M. and Chrysler were forced to declare bankruptcy in 2009 in exchange for big government bailouts. While Ford survived the industry’s financial crisis without help, it still cut thousands of jobs and shuttered several factories to reduce costs and bring production more in line with shrinking sales.

But the tide has turned in car showrooms across the United States, prompting automakers to strategically increase output in their remaining plants.

In Ford’s case, the company added about 8,000 salaried and hourly jobs last year, and has said it plans to hire about 2,200 white-collar workers in 2013. Ford is also moving some vehicle production from Mexico to a Michigan plant, where it will add 1,200 jobs.

The investment in Cleveland is indicative of how Ford and other carmakers have trimmed labor costs in the United States and improved productivity since the recession.

Just a few years ago, the company was forced to consolidate two engine plants into one in northern Ohio and to close a major component operation.

“No question we have been through a lot in northern Ohio,” said Joe Hinrichs, the head of Ford’s Americas region, in an interview. “But now our North American business is very competitive with the best in the world.”

Ford plans to centralize production of its 2-liter, EcoBoost engine — used in popular models such as the Fusion sedan and Explorer S.U.V. — at the Cleveland facility by the end of next year. Currently, the company makes the engines at a plant in Spain and ships them to America.

While Ford is adding jobs and production domestically, it is racing to reduce costs in its troubled European division. Workers who previously built the small engines in Spain will be moved to a nearby assembly plant that is taking on work from a plant to be closed in Belgium.

Mr. Hinrichs said that a new agreement with the United Automobile Workers union local in Cleveland paved the way for the expansion there. The plant now employs about 1,300 workers.

“This is about servicing more demand in the U.S.,” Mr. Hinrichs said. “And with our competitive labor agreements, we can bring business to the U.S. from Spain and Mexico.”

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Pistorius Defense Undermines Police Testimony at Bail Hearing

PRETORIA, South Africa — What began on Wednesday as a day for the prosecution to solidify what it had described as an irrefutable case of premeditated murder against Oscar Pistorius, the Paralympic champion, turned into a near-rout by the defense, which attacked the testimony of the state’s main witness, the chief police investigator.

It was the second full day of a hearing to decide whether Mr. Pistorius, the double amputee nicknamed Blade Runner who made Olympic history by running with able-bodied athletes in the 2012 Games in London, should be given bail as he awaits trial for shooting his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, in the early morning hours last Thursday. Mr. Pistorius claimed in an affidavit read in court on Tuesday that he had mistaken Ms. Steenkamp for a burglar and had shot her out of fear.

But what was supposed to be merely a bail hearing took on the proportions of a full-blown trial, with sharp questions from the presiding magistrate, Desmond Nair, and a withering cross-examination that left the prosecution’s main witness, Detective Hilton Botha, grasping for answers that did not contradict his earlier testimony.

At first, Detective Botha’s testimony seemed to go well. He explained how preliminary ballistic evidence supported the prosecution’s assertion that Mr. Pistorius had been wearing prosthetic legs when he shot at the bathroom door, behind which hid Ms. Steenkamp. Mr. Pistorius claimed in his affidavit that he had hobbled over from his bedroom on his stumps, and felt extremely vulnerable to an intruder as a result.

As Detective Botha described how bullets had pierced Ms. Steenkamp’s skull and shattered her arm and hip bones, Mr. Pistorius sobbed with his head in his hands.

“A defenseless woman, unarmed, was gunned down,” Detective Botha said.

Using a schematic diagram of the bedroom, the prosecutor, Gerrie Nel, asked Detective Botha to walk Magistrate Nair through the crime scene. The detective explained that Ms. Steenkamp’s slippers and overnight bag were on the left side of the bed, next to the sliding balcony door that Mr. Pistorius claimed he got up in the middle of the night to close. He also said the holster of Mr. Pistorius’s 9-millimeter pistol was found under the left side of the bed, next to where Ms. Steenkamp would have been sleeping. That called into question Mr. Pistorius’s statement that he thought Ms. Steenkamp was still in bed when he heard the sound of a burglar, the detective said.

“If the girl was on the bed, that is where the holster was found,” Detective Botha said.

Detective Botha said investigators had found two boxes of testosterone along with syringes and needles in Mr. Pistorius’s bedroom. Testosterone is a banned substance for most professional athletes, and is known to increase aggression in people who take supplements of it.

Asked by Mr. Nel what he would have done had he suspected that an intruder was in his bedroom, Detective Botha replied, “I would get my girlfriend and try to get her out of the room.”

He said he had interviewed witnesses who said that they heard shouting in the house, and that the lights were on, contradicting Mr. Pistorius’s statement that it had been too dark to see anything in the bedroom.

A neighbor, he said, heard “two people talking loud at one another, it sounded like a fight,” between 2 and 3 a.m.

Other witnesses spoke about hearing two or three shots, then a woman’s scream, followed by more shots, Detective Botha said.

He also described previous violent incidents involving Mr. Pistorius. He had threatened to assault a man in an altercation about a woman at a racetrack, Detective Botha said. He told another man that he would “break his legs,” Detective Botha testified.

Detective Botha also testified that Mr. Pistorius had foreign bank accounts and a house in Italy, which made him a flight risk.

“I believe he knew that she was in the bathroom,” said Detective Botha. “And that he shot four shots through the door.”

Barry Roux, a lawyer for Mr. Pistorius, cross-examined Detective Botha, seeking to poke holes in his account.

The substance found, Mr. Roux said, was not testosterone at all but a herbal supplement called testocomposutim coenzyme, which is used by many athletes and not banned by anti-doping agencies. Asked if the substance had been tested, Detective Botha said tests had not yet been completed.

“I didn’t read the whole name” on the container, Detective Botha admitted.

He acknowledged that the witness who claimed to have heard the two arguing, he said, had lived almost 2,000 feet away, possibly out of earshot. Under questioning by the prosecutor, he later revised the estimate to 1,000 feet.

Detective Botha also acknowledged that there were no signs that Ms. Steenkamp had defended herself against an assailant, and that the police had no evidence that the couple’s relationship was anything but loving.

Mr. Roux accused the prosecution of selectively taking “every piece of evidence and try to extract the most possibly negative connotation and present it to the court.”

Detective Botha was forced to admit that the police forensic team had missed a shell casing that the defense lawyers later found in the toilet bowl, and that he had entered the crime scene without covering his shoes because the police had run out of shoe covers.

Eventually, Detective Botha conceded that he could not rule out Mr. Pistorius’s version of events based on the existing evidence.

Magistrate Nair seemed skeptical that Mr. Pistorius was a flight risk.

“Do you subjectively believe that he would take the option, being who he is, using prostheses to get around, familiar as he is, to flee South Africa if he were granted bail?” Magistrate Nair asked Detective Botha.

“Yes,” he replied.

The court was adjourned, and final arguments in the bail hearing are to be heard Thursday morning.

Alan Cowell contributed reporting from London.

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