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By Deborah Wei
Traffic drives down 10th Street in the Chinatown neighborhood of Philadelphia in July. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Debbie Wei, a member of Asian Americans United, is a Philadelphia educator and community activist.
Having to repeatedly fight for your community’s right to exist can exact an emotional toll. But over the past 50 years, the residents of Philadelphia’s Chinatown have had to do just that. We have watched our neighborhood get bisected by a highway, dug up for a commuter rail tunnel and invaded by a convention center that led to the destruction of hundreds of homes. More recently, we have had to organize to fend off a federal prison, a baseball stadium and a casino.
But now a new threat looms: a proposed $1.3 billion, 18,500-seat basketball arena mere steps from our doors.
The new home for the Philadelphia 76ers would replace a portion of the struggling Fashion District mall next door to Chinatown. The plan for the rest of the mall is to turn it into “a world class sports & entertainment hub to complement the arena.” So, the developers insist, they are just replacing one mall and entertainment complex with another. But this anodyne refrain hardly tells the whole story. The reality is that Chinatowns across the country have been decimated by sports arenas: the Kingdome in Seattle, Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis, the Capital One Arena in D.C.
Our Chinatown looks at those sister communities and sees the outlines of our future if development of this arena and its attendant dining and entertainment components proceeds. Consider Washington’s Chinatown. There was a time when it was home to some 3,000 Chinese residents. But after the arena arrived in 1997, bringing gentrification and rising rents, that number dwindled to just around 300 — in 2015. According to the 2020 Census, only about 18 percent of D.C.’s Chinatown residents identify as Asian American.
What proposed development projects like the 76ers arena ignore is the unique and historic nature of our ethnic enclaves. Chinatowns have existed across the United States for nearly 200 years, created out of necessity by Chinese immigrants who retreated into self-contained districts in search of safety from the beatings, lynchings and massacres that were often their lot in the highly segregated cities of our nation’s past. Excluded from most jobs as a threat to White laborers, the Chinese undertook “women’s work” — running laundries and providing food service — to survive. From the fruits of this bitter history, Chinese Americans slowly fashioned a life and a future as part of the diverse American tapestry. Chinatowns became havens of linguistic and cultural security and familiarity.
Though it’s often regarded, frustratingly, as little more than a tourist site, Philadelphia’s Chinatown is the cultural heart of the city’s Asian American community. It’s where Asian Americans go to shop, to socialize, to study, to worship. To feel at home. Real people and real families live in Chinatown — the elderly, the young, parents and grandparents. When people say things like, “We will encourage people to walk through your community and shop there on the way to a game,” they are confusing our community with a zoo or Disney World. We are not Epcot Center. We don’t fight to preserve our culture to provide a commodity for others’ consumption.
We fight because it is our home. And in Philadelphia, we have built our Chinatown into one of the city’s most vibrant neighborhoods. Today, it has more than 4,000 residents, scores of small businesses, two elementary schools, a senior citizens’ home, three Christian churches and a Buddhist temple. Where the once-proposed baseball stadium would have stood, there is now a church annex, a community center, new affordable housing, an Asian arts organization, a park, and a nationally recognized blue-ribbon charter school.
But now our success is once again under threat of encroachment by a project that is bound to disrupt the neighborhood. It’s hardly likely that the arena would be used only for basketball games; the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, for instance, hosts more than 250 events, including a large number of nonsporting events, each year. It will increase traffic, raise rents and drive away elderly and lower-income residents.
Is a new downtown sports arena really the best idea for Philadelphia? Considering the dead zones around arenas and stadiums in urban centers nationally, is this the best road to revitalization? Just walk past the Capital One Arena in D.C. when there are no events and you’ll see what happens to the street life that is a marker of a vibrant community. Is our best vision for our cities’ futures limited to chain restaurants, megaproject architecture and corporate-owned entertainment experiences?
Communities like Chinatown, built on the relationships and memories created there, nurture a commitment to cities that spans generations. When you attack the fragile ecosystem of urban life and disrupt that commitment, and destroy the diversity that is a hallmark of thriving cities, there is no going back. That is why we say no to this arena, and why we will fight, yet again, for Chinatown’s right to exist. | 2022-08-24T19:05:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Philadelphia's Chinatown faces existential threat of basketball arena - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/24/chinatown-philadelphia-basketball-arena-threat/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/24/chinatown-philadelphia-basketball-arena-threat/ |
Marine Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews is a double amputee. (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post)
In the last days of the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, a suicide bomber set off a blast at Kabul airport. It killed an estimated 170 Afghans and more than a dozen U.S. troops. Today, one year after the withdrawal, Pentagon reporter Dan Lamothe takes a closer look at the days leading up to that devastating blast and what happened in its aftermath.
From a Marine in a scout-sniper team, to the top military commander who planned and directed the operation, today’s episode shares the stories of the U.S. service members who lived through the violent evacuation process. Some of these never-before-heard accounts offer a different and more nuanced picture than the story the U.S. government tells. | 2022-08-24T19:05:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What really happened as the U.S. left Afghanistan - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/post-reports/what-really-happened-as-the-us-left-afghanistan/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/post-reports/what-really-happened-as-the-us-left-afghanistan/ |
A web of interconnected accounts linked to a U.S. government messaging campaign violated the platforms rules against coordinated inauthentic behavior
Bangkok, Thailand - October 29, 2021: Meta logo is shown on a device screen. Meta is the new corporate name of Facebook. Social media platform will change to Meta to emphasize its metaverse vision. (iStock)
Facebook and Twitter disrupted at least two covert influence campaigns that targeted users in the Middle East and Asia with pro-western perspectives about international politics, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to a new report from social media analytics firm Graphika and Stanford University.
The campaigns — one of which has been linked to the U.S. government — relied on a web of interconnected accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and five other social media giants to promote narratives supporting the interests of the United States and its allies while opposing countries including Russia, China, and Iran, according to the report.
The covert influence campaigns are being taken down at a time when social media giants have been trying to crack down on disinformation campaigns about the war in Ukraine. But much of that work has been focused on fighting efforts by Russian authorities to promote propaganda about the war, including false claims about Ukrainian military aggression in the region or blaming Western nations’ complicity in the war.
This particularly crackdown by the social media giants is notable because one of the campaigns was linked to a U.S. government messaging campaign called the Trans-Regional Web Initiative, the report said.
Margarita Franklin, a spokeswoman for Facebook’s parent company, Meta, confirmed in a statement that the company and Twitter recently removed a network of accounts that originated in the United States for violating the platforms’ rules against coordinated inauthentic behavior. Franklin said it’s the first time the company has removed a foreign-focused influence network based in the United States. A Twitter spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The network of accounts shared news articles from U.S. government-funded media outlets, such as Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, and links to websites sponsored by the U.S. military to criticize the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. The campaigns promoted the narrative that Russia was responsible for the deaths of innocent civilians and other atrocities just so it could pursue its "imperial ambitions,” the report said.
The covert campaigns often mimicked the strategies deployed by other countries such as Russia when seeking to influence the public perception of world events in other countries. For instance, accounts identified by Twitter and Facebook created fake personas with digitally-created photos, posed as independent media outlets and attempted to start hashtag campaigns, the report said.
In the wake of the war, social media apps such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube banned or throttled Russian state media accounts, restricted advertising and bolstered their fact-checking operations during the war. Traffic to Russian government-backed media channels on social media spiked in the early days of the invasion and then plummeted as the companies cracked down, according to a Washington Post analysis.
Since then, Ukrainian officials have flagged thousands of tweets, YouTube videos and other social media posts as Russian propaganda or anti-Ukrainian hate speech but many of the companies have failed to keep up, according to a recent report | 2022-08-24T19:07:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Facebook and Twitter take down u.s. influence campaign about Ukraine - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/08/24/facebook-twitter-us-influence-campaign-ukraine/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/08/24/facebook-twitter-us-influence-campaign-ukraine/ |
Super Smash Bros. creator launches educational YouTube channel
Masahiro Sakurai’s new channel delivers bite-sized videos on game design for a general audience.
(Washington Post illustration; Bob Riha, Jr./Getty)
The creator of Super Smash Bros. wants you to smash that subscribe button.
Nintendo’s Masahiro Sakurai is best known as the father of the beloved Super Smash Bros. and Kirby series. But Tuesday, the Japanese game designer announced a whole new venture: not a game itself, but a YouTube channel about game design. Sakurai teased the news a day before, after announcing the end of a nearly three year streak of posting daily screenshots from “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate” on Twitter.
In the channel’s introductory video, Sakurai explained that he decided to start the channel in response to being asked to lecture at schools. With his new YouTube channel, the designer said he hoped to teach elementary game design principles to a wide audience.
Sakurai also noted that traditional venues for knowledge-sharing in the industry, such as the Game Developers Conference, tend to focus on the technical aspects of game design rather than theory. To that end, the YouTube channel’s content will be simple and geared toward aspiring game developers and neophytes, mostly covering design principles that are commonplace in every video game studio. Seasoned veterans might get some value from the videos as well, though Sakurai acknowledged some viewers might come away disappointed in the paucity of highly technical or advanced game development insights.
“Every dev environment is vastly different and trade secrets must be kept,” Sakurai said with a grin in the introductory video, translated from Japanese. “So I’d appreciate it if you don’t come down on me too hard over the technical stuff.”
Each video will be a quick, 2 to 5 minute piece on a particular aspect of game design. The channel’s first lecture, for example, focuses on the “hit stop,” a pause in action after an impact lands which is used to heighten the drama. In fighting game franchises such as Super Smash Bros. and Street Fighter, hit stops are commonly used to depict decisive attacks such as a killing blow, sometimes with the camera zoomed in to intensify the visual effect.
Sakurai emphasized that his YouTube channel is a personal project. Although Nintendo approved the disclosure of certain design documents the designer produced while developing Super Smash Bros., Sakurai said that his employer is not involved with the channel. As such, he’s paying the channel’s video editors and translators out of his own pocket. He is also committed to keeping the channel ad free.
“I think of it as an investment in the games industry,” Sakurai said in the introduction video.
Ultimately, Sakurai wants his channel to broaden participation in the gaming space, inspiring and educating future generations of creators. And even if you have no interest in pursuing a career in the video game industry, learning the basics of game development will still enrich your enjoyment of games as a player — at least, that’s what Sakurai hopes.
“Niche as they may be, these videos should hopefully offer unique value for years to come,” Sakurai said.
Sakurai is one of Nintendo’s most visible designers, appearing frequently as a presenter and spokesperson for the company. But now, he’s starting a new journey as a YouTube creator — and in true YouTuber fashion, he ended his introductory video by asking viewers to subscribe.
“That was a very YouTube thing of me to ask,” he said. “I promise I won’t be doing it again in future videos.” | 2022-08-24T19:07:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai launches YouTube channel - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/08/24/super-smash-bros-sakurai-youtube/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/08/24/super-smash-bros-sakurai-youtube/ |
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in suit and tie, speaks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, right, during Johnson's unannounced visit to Kyiv on Wednesday. (Genya Savilov/AFP/Getty Images)
LONDON — So Boris Johnson popped up in Ukraine on Wednesday.
The unannounced appearance shocked — but it didn’t really surprise.
Wartime Ukraine has offered a kind of respite for the embattled British prime minister, who has only a few weeks left as head of government. The visit to Kyiv, to celebrate Ukraine’s independence day, was his third to Ukraine since Russia invaded six months ago.
In comments made next to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Mariyinksy Palace, Johnson said Ukraine “can and will win this war.” Russian President Vladimir Putin had been “insane” to invade, he said, and added: “If we’re paying in our energy bills for the evils of Vladimir Putin, the people of Ukraine are paying in their blood.”
Back in London, Downing Street marked the moment with an arch of blue and yellow flowers, the colors of Ukraine’s flag, outside its famous black door.
Johnson has been an outspoken supporter of Ukraine. Not only was he one of the first world leaders to visit Ukraine in person, but his government moved quicker than many in providing antitank weapons and financial support.
What’s behind Boris Johnson’s boast he’s leading the West on Ukraine
Perhaps unsurprisingly, when things soured on the home front, Johnson could still count on being lauded in Ukraine. A street on the outskirts of Odessa was relabeled “Boris Johnson Street.” A bakery in Kyiv named a pastry after him. Ordinary Ukrainians reportedly call him “Borisjohnsonuk” and his picture pops up frequently in WhatsApp chats.
While his opponents back home were accusing him of leading a zombie government that’s failing to address a cost-of-living crisis, Johnson on Wednesday was awarded Ukraine’s “Order of Liberty” medal, the highest honor the country bestows on non-Ukrainians.
Even his critics would concede that he was having a good war — until he lost his job. After a string of scandals, dozens of Conservative lawmakers said they had lost confidence in Johnson, leading him to resign as prime minister after three years (he’ll remain a member of parliament for Uxbridge and South Ruislip). He leaves office on Sept. 6, the day after the Tories choose his replacement.
Ukraine will be a major part of Johnson’s legacy.
Conservative leadership race makes many Tories miss Boris Johnson
“His legacy in office? Brexit and then vaccinations. But Ukraine plays a big part too,” said biographer Andrew Gimson, who has a book coming out next month on Johnson’s rise and fall. Gimson expects Johnson to continue to play some kind of role on Ukraine, whether it’s speeches in Parliament, newspaper columns, social media posts or surprise visits to Kyiv, possibly in ways that upstage or annoy his successor.
“Johnson has a habit of inserting himself into the conversation,” Gimson said. “He likes to show that anything the prime minister is doing, he can do better.” During the David Cameron years, for instance, Johnson regularly upstaged the prime minister at the Conservative Party’s annual conferences, delivering colorful speeches that delighted the party faithful and sparked speculation about his leadership ambitions.
Johnson and President Zelensky also appear to have a personal affinity for each other. In a statement after news of Johnson’s resignation, Zelensky said: “We all heard this news with sadness. Not only me, but also the entire Ukrainian society, which is very sympathetic to you.
“We have no doubt that Great Britain’s support will be preserved, but your personal leadership and charisma made it special,” he said. When Zelensky addressed Britain’s House of Commons, his speech included a line that echoed a refrain from Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Johnson’s hero.
Zelensky receives standing ovation, calls for more support in address to U.K. Parliament via video
Critics accuse Johnson of promoting his trips to Ukraine and conversations with Zelensky to distract from partygate and other scandals back home. Downing Street has repeatedly denied any connection.
Gimson disagrees. “Ukraine was for him an opportunity to talk about a very important defense and foreign policy question that had nothing to do with whether a bottle of Prosecco had been drunk at the end of a long day in Downing Street,” he said. “Like many leaders, Johnson tries to deal with difficult conversations by changing the subject.” | 2022-08-24T19:38:56Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Boris Johnson makes surprise visit to Ukraine President Zelensky in Kyiv - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/24/boris-johnson-kyiv-ukraine/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/24/boris-johnson-kyiv-ukraine/ |
Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton star in a long-winded fable about a djinn who grants a lonely academic three wishes
Idris Elba, left, and Tilda Swinton in “Three Thousand Years of Longing.” (Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures)
Thanks to his self-possession and towering presence (even when his character is human-sized), Elba comes through “Three Thousand Years of Longing” with his dignity and star power intact. So does Swinton, whose character could so easily be made to seem ridiculous and pathetic. If they were placed inside a more involving movie, their chemistry would be truly magical. Instead, like the recent “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris,” Miller’s “Three Thousand Years of Longing” seems to have been engineered for a moment that demands tenderness and hope above all else. If the audience is nodding off by the end, it’s due as much to the story’s comforting contours as to its inertia.
R. At area theaters. Contains some sex, graphic nudity and brief violence. 108 minutes. | 2022-08-24T19:56:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | ‘Three Thousand Years of Longing’: All talk and no magic - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/movies/2022/08/24/three-thousand-years-of-longing/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/movies/2022/08/24/three-thousand-years-of-longing/ |
North Carolina justices offer a liberal roadmap for overturning elections
Outside a polling location in Durham, N.C., on Nov. 3, 2020. (Gerry Broome/AP, File)
If American states are laboratories of democracy, they’re also laboratories of democratic decay. North Carolina — close to the median state by party vote share — is offering a grim lesson in how polarization can lead to the partisan nullification of democratic outcomes. This time, it’s Democrats striking while they have the chance.
There’s no violent mob involved in North Carolina’s election nullification; the process is far more respectable than that. Last Friday, a four-justice Democratic majority on North Carolina’s Supreme Court (justices in the state are elected in partisan contests) invented a new constitutional theory that could allow for the invalidation of two Republican-supported constitutional amendments that passed in 2018.
Both amendments were approved by the requisite 60 percent of the state legislature. One, a voter-identification measure, was then ratified by voters with more than 55 percent of the state’s popular vote; another, a limit on the state’s top income-tax rate, was ratified with more than 57 percent support.
How could amendments passed according to the process prescribed in the North Carolina Constitution violate that same constitution? North Carolina’s Supreme Court majority claims in NAACP v. Moore that because the state legislature was gerrymandered in 2011, it likely lacked the authority to submit one or both amendments to voters. Legislators “can only exercise the sovereign power that the people have transmitted to the legislature if they validly hold legislative office,” the majority says.
But North Carolina’s legislators did validly hold their offices. A federal lawsuit filed in 2015 established that the state impermissibly took race into account in redistricting, with the U.S. Supreme Court weighing in twice (in 2017 and 2018). The resulting remedy was to put in place new district lines for the 2018 elections. The elections for representatives in the 2011 districts were never invalidated, and North Carolina officials “hold their positions,” the state constitution says, “until their successors are chosen and qualified.”
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 1962 redistricting case, wrote that “a legislature, though elected under an unfair apportionment scheme, is nonetheless a legislature empowered to act.” North Carolina’s liberal justices are creating a novel exception — that legislatures adjudicated to contain gerrymanders can pass ordinary legislation, but not advance certain constitutional amendments.
This is an arbitrary distinction with extraordinary implications. “The door has been opened,” the three-justice dissent notes, “for judicial dissolution of legislative authority in the future.” Gerrymandering has been a feature of American politics since the founding. What other laws, in North Carolina or elsewhere, might be called into question if lawyers can excavate a role for redistricting mischief in their passage?
If governors or presidents misbehave, they can be voted out of office — and if legislatures are gerrymandered, they can be redrawn. But Americans need to have confidence that the institutions that govern them do so legitimately. The certification of elections is an important process because it confers authority on elected officials.
Confidence in that authority is declining as Donald Trump attacks Joe Biden’s election and progressives denigrate the Constitution as undemocratic. Now partisan judges in a key swing state have announced that legislatures elected under the rules in place when votes were cast may be retroactively deemed to not have been real legislatures at all. We don’t want to keep pulling on this thread.
The events in North Carolina show the complexity of majority rule in America’s federal system. Some progressives celebrated the result of Kansas’s 59 percent vote to maintain abortion rights, but worried that in certain states, gerrymandering will prevent the “true” will of the people from being expressed. Maybe so, but in North Carolina, the voting and tax measures were subject to an up-or-down plebiscite. They won convincing victories even in a strong Democratic election year.
So who is frustrating small-d democracy in America’s ninth-most-populous state: the 170-member legislature, which put the measures on the ballot, or the seven-member North Carolina Supreme Court, which may set the results aside? The answer should be clear to everyone involved.
One of the most unshakable convictions of intellectuals in Washington and the academy is that any “backsliding” of America’s democratic political system is the product of Republican norm-breaking and radicalism. But there is rarely only one mover in the dialectic process of polarization, as North Carolina’s experience shows.
At the beginning of the last decade, the legislature drew district lines aggressively to give the GOP an advantage, and in 2016 it tried to limit the powers of the incoming Democratic governor, Roy Cooper. The Democratic court’s latest usurpation of the legislature is best understood as another partisan escalation that is straining the foundations of state government.
As Princeton’s Keith E. Whittington notes, the dissent “practically begged the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn this case.” But Democrats might lose their one-vote majority on the North Carolina Supreme Court in November’s election, and a Republican-controlled court could reverse the decision. Pressure is building in American democracy’s North Carolina “laboratory” — but Washington, rather than stepping into the breach, may be wiser to step back and let the experiment proceed. | 2022-08-24T20:31:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | North Carolina justices offer a liberal roadmap for overturning elections - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/24/north-carolina-supreme-court-overreach/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/24/north-carolina-supreme-court-overreach/ |
Montgomery’s Elrich wins county executive recount; poised for 2nd term
Marc Elrich at a June 29 public forum for county executive candidates in Silver Spring. (Craig Hudson/For the Washington Post)
Incumbent Marc Elrich retained his lead in the Democratic primary for Montgomery County executive, defeating Potomac business executive David Blair after a recount in the race to lead Maryland’s most populous county.
Just 32 votes separated the two candidates, a change of three from earlier this month when the Montgomery Board of Elections certified Elrich the winner with a 35-vote margin. Blair filed for a manual recount of all ballots in a near-repeat of 2018, when the men were last locked in a protracted contest for the seat.
Blair received three votes after five days of counting and auditing certified by the local board on Wednesday, narrowing the margin but affirming Elrich’s victory in a contest that included heavy spending, pointed attacks and debates over development.
“I’ve sort of detached myself in a way, because you can’t just constantly hope the result is different or hope it’s over. It gets really frustrating,” Elrich said during a news conference Wednesday afternoon. “My philosophy has been: It’s going to happen when it happens, and we’ll know what we know. And then we move on from there.”
Elrich will face Republican Reardon Sullivan in November, though this deep-blue jurisdiction has not elected a Republican county executive since the 1970s, and the winner of the Democratic primary almost always secures the seat in November.
In his first four years as county executive, Elrich was lauded for his response to the coronavirus pandemic and Montgomery County’s leading vaccination rates. He also drew critics for his slow-growth development approach, and clashed with the County Council over issues such county vaccine mandates and tax breaks for developers. Heading into a second term, Elrich said he hopes to make progress on affordable housing, transportation and climate change, among other issues.
A former elementary school teacher, Elrich began his work in local politics on the Takoma Park City Council in 1987 before serving on the County Council for 12 years. He won the executive race by 77 votes in 2018, on a platform that in part embraced growth plans to offset school overcrowding and traffic congestion associated with rapid development.
While on the council, he was a driving force behind the county’s adoption of the $15 minimum wage in 2017. He gained support from dozens of labor unions and organizations in his bids for executive. He had backing from high-profile liberal leaders and groups such as Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.), Pro-Choice Maryland and CASA in Action.
The Sierra Club endorsed Blair, as did The Washington Post’s editorial board (which is separate from its news operation).
Blair, a Montgomery native and father of six who made millions by running a prescription-drug-benefits company, gained a following in 2018 by vowing to cut taxes and grow the county’s economy. This year he positioned himself as the main alternative to Elrich for voters who were looking for change. He made his case with a hefty war chest, pouring millions into his campaign just as he did in 2018. According to the most recent campaign finance reports, Blair loaned his campaign $4.8 million. Elrich raised just over $1 million through the county’s public financing program, which allows candidates to receive matching funds for donations of $250 or less from county residents.
The recount comes at the end of an unprecedented primary election cycle that included extended delays, staffing shortages and criticism over a state law prohibiting election workers from counting ballots until two days after the election. The end of the recount also wraps up more than a month of waiting for a final winner in the county executive primary.
Under Maryland law, Blair had until three days after local certification of the results to file a petition for a recount, and the state would conduct the recount at no cost to the candidate if the margin between the two candidates is 0.25 percentage points or fewer. Elrich was up by 0.03 percent — well within the margin for a state-funded recount.
Earlier this month, the Montgomery elections board delayed certification after officials discovered 102 uncounted provisional ballots. Before the ballots were discovered, the initial count had Elrich leading by 42 votes. Blair gained seven votes from the additional ballots, narrowing the margin to 35 votes.
Term-limited County Council member Hans Riemer (D-At Large) and Gaithersburg resident Peter James also competed in the primary race. Riemer conceded after Election Day, and James received only a small fraction of the votes.
In the weeks leading up to Election Day, attack ads dominated the airwaves. At least two super PACs against Elrich popped up to influence the race. In the days following the July 19 primary, Elrich pointed to the ads and Blair’s funding as the reason the race was so tight — and why, as an incumbent, his win was narrow.
“It’s one of those hypotheticals. If there had been no advertising and Blair didn’t spend $5 million, would Elrich have won by more?” said Steve Silverman, a political consultant and former council member who advised one of PACs in the race. “Probably, but that didn’t happen.”
Silverman said Elrich spent much of his first term dealing with the pandemic and that a second term would give the Elrich administration a chance to address issues such as affordable housing, job growth and education. It’s an opportunity for Elrich to set the pace and decide the county’s direction, he said.
“If Elrich perceives the pandemic as mostly behind us, what does he want to leave as a legacy in the next four years?” Silverman said.
In an interview, Elrich agreed that the pandemic affected the county’s ability to tackle other issues. He said he plans to address affordable housing, make progress on bringing a graduate-level research center to the county and reopen mental health clinics, among other initiatives, next term.
He’s poised to govern alongside a County Council with two new districts and six new faces shifting the dynamics he encountered in his first term, when he disagreed with members over issues such as affordable housing and business development in Silver Spring.
At-large incumbents Gabe Albornoz, Will Jawando and Evan Glass won the Democratic nomination, and were joined by newcomer Laurie-Anne Sayles, who won the Democratic nomination for the council’s fourth at-large seat.
District 1 incumbent Andrew Friedson, who ran uncontested, and District 3 incumbent Sidney Katz won Democratic nominations in their respective districts. They are likely to be joined by five other Democratic newcomers: Marilyn Balcombe, Kate Stewart, Kristin Mink, Natali Fani-González and Dawn Luedtke. All candidates must prevail in November.
Larry Stafford, executive director of Progressive Maryland, said he was looking forward to seeing Elrich work with organizations that have supported him and with the new council to take on issues such as economic growth, policing reform, affordable housing and the environment.
“I want to see a greater relationship with the council,” Stafford said. “I think Marc can always work to be more collaborative.”
Elrich said he’s looking forward to working with a new council, which he thinks can help advance progressive issues.
David Lublin, American University professor and Department of Government chair, said that either candidate would have faced long-term challenges related to previous decisions and leaders.
Elrich’s victory, he said, can be viewed two ways: either as a weak victory for an incumbent, or as an impressive feat of public financing against Blair’s wealth.
Either way, “Marc Elrich won,” Lublin said. “And a win is a win.” | 2022-08-24T20:35:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | After recount, Marc Elrich leads David Blair in primary rematch - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/24/elrich-wins-primary-recount/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/24/elrich-wins-primary-recount/ |
Live updates:Russia-Ukraine war live updates: Ukraine marks Independence Day after 6 mon...
Ukrainian troops prepare to hoist their national flag during a ceremony in Kryvyi Rih, the home town Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. (Heidi levine/FTWP)
President Biden on Wednesday announced the United States’ largest single commitment of weapons and ammunition for Ukraine, in what his administration called a symbol of Washington’s long-term support for efforts to repel Russia’s invasion.
The $2.98 billion package, unveiled on Ukraine’s Independence Day, includes more artillery, drones, radar and air defenses. It commits six additional surface-to-air missile systems, quadrupling the supply committed to Ukraine plus hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition for the howitzers and mortars currently in use on the battlefield.
“The United States of America is committed to supporting the people of Ukraine as they continue the fight to defend their sovereignty,” Biden said in a statement. “Today and every day, we stand with the Ukrainian people to proclaim that the darkness that drives autocracy is no match for the flame of liberty that lights the souls of free people everywhere.”
Wednesday’s announcement is unlikely to fuel a major or immediate escalation in the volume or rate of military assistance flowing into Ukraine. Colin Kahl, the undersecretary of defense for policy, said these weapons are not intended to affect “today’s fight” but to underscore “our commitment to supporting Ukraine for the long term.”
The package is categorized under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, through which the United States contracts with the defense-production industry to fulfill orders for foreign clients. Much of the previous U.S. security assistance has come from existing stocks, meaning it could ship out immediately.
The Pentagon has boasted in recent months about the speed with which it has transferred military aid to the government in Kyiv, noting that in some cases it was mere days between security-assistance announcements and the weapons crossing into Ukrainian territory. It will be months or years before some of the equipment in this package reaches the battlefield, Kahl said.
It is “the beginning of a contracting process to provide additional priority capabilities to Ukraine in the mid- and long-term to ensure Ukraine can continue to defend itself as an independent, sovereign and prosperous state,” Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement.
Such a drawn-out delivery window, observers say, appears to signal that the United States is bracing for Ukraine’s war with Russia to last for years.
“Independent of what happens in coming months, the U.S. likely anticipates it could be protracted conflict,” said Michael Kofman, the director of Russia studies at CNA, a think tank in Virginia.
In a call with reporters, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby affirmed that Ukrainian troops may wait on some weapons longer than others, depending on what U.S. contractors have readily available. Some items, such as artillery ammunition, could be issued more quickly than complex systems such as radar and drones, he said, declining to put specific timelines on any items in the aid package.
Administration officials said that the United States will likely send additional aid that draws from existing weapons stocks while orders in the new $3 billion package are being fulfilled.
“This may be our largest security assistance package to date, but let me be clear, it won’t be our last,” Kahl said.
That leaves unresolved questions about whether the United States may arm Ukraine with more aggressive weaponry in the future. Officials in Kyiv have appealed to Washington to send fighter jets and long-range missiles that, to date, the United States has resisted supplying.
Such hardware was not a part of the long-term package announced Wednesday. When asked about them, Kahl noted that “fighter aircraft remain on the table” but that no final decisions had been made. He had a similar response when asked about Army Tactical Missile Systems, which can travel nearly 186 miles: “It’s our assessment,” Kahl said, that the Ukrainians “don’t currently require” them.
Ukrainian officials have been frustrated by Washington’s reluctance to provide those types of arms, saying Russian commanders have adapted by moving their positions out of range.
Ukraine has appealed to its allies for bigger and more powerful weapons as it tries to avert a stalemate on the battlefield, with both Ukrainian and Russian forces struggling to gain or reclaim territory in the country’s east and south.
Ukrainian officials recently have touted plans to launch a counteroffensive to retake the city of Kherson — but there is little evidence they are prepared to execute such an operation, with Russia having reinforced its military positions in the area.
A separate U.S. aid package for Ukraine, announced late last week, appeared to anticipate a potential counteroffensive, favoring weapons that would allow Ukrainian troops to be more nimble on the battlefield and operate in closer proximity to Russian forces than the distant artillery duels that have defined the last few months of fighting.
Both sides have been exhausted by six months of combat, Kofman said. Ukrainian officials may be contemplating whether to delay the operation, evaluating whether their forces can continue to wear down Russia’s position through sabotage attacks on its logistics lines and missile strikes deep within their territorial strongholds, thus degrading their ability to amass troops and supplies.
Russian forces, though drained by their bloody capture of Severodonetsk in the east, would likely benefit from a later start to any Ukrainian counteroffensive, as the delay would create an opportunity to rest personnel, train fresh troops and further reinforce positions in the south.
Kahl noted Wednesday that the latest military assistance package is “agnostic” and “does not presume any particular outcome” of the fight between Ukraine and Russia, or who might prevail. | 2022-08-24T20:35:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Biden pledges $3 billion in long-term military aid for Ukraine - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/24/biden-ukraine-3-billion-weapons/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/24/biden-ukraine-3-billion-weapons/ |
National Security Council official John Kirby speaks at the White House on Aug. 4, 2022. (Michael Reynolds/Pool/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
The Biden administration has completed its review of the proposed “final” text of a revived Iran nuclear deal, and of Iran’s response to the proposal, and sent its answer to European Union negotiation coordinators, the State Department said Wednesday.
Iran said it has begun its own “detailed review” of the U.S. reply, according to Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani.
The trading of response documents marked the latest step in an apparent endgame after nearly a year and a half of negotiations over a return to the 2015 agreement — lifting sanctions on Iran in exchange for its submission to strict curbs on its nuclear program and international monitoring — with no guarantee that a new deal will be reached.
“We are closer now than we were just a couple of weeks ago,” National Security Council communications coordinator John Kirby told reporters. “Gaps remain. We’re not there yet.”
The U.S. move came as Israel, whose national security adviser has been consulting in Washington this week, renewed its opposition to the deal. Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, speaking to reporters Wednesday in Jerusalem, said his government was “not against any agreement. We are against this agreement, because it is a bad one. Because it cannot be accepted as it is written right now.”
U.S. officials have said the terms of the new text are largely an update of the original agreement. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the deal in 2018, reimposing lifted sanctions and adding many more. In response, Iran resumed its pre-deal nuclear program and speeded it up, increasing the quantity and quality of its uranium enrichment far beyond the prescribed limits that it had previously adhered to and blocking some inspection measures.
Israel, and opponents of a new deal in Congress, have said that the lifting of nuclear-related sanctions will provide Iran with hundreds of billions of dollars to finance terrorist activities, and the early expiration of some of its provisions will quickly allow Iran to revive plans to manufacture a nuclear weapon. Administration officials dispute the dollar calculations and say that the reinstatement of limits on the Iranian nuclear program, even with some expiration dates, will provide several years’ relief from an imminent nuclear threat and room for further negotiations.
Iran has said that its program is only for peaceful purposes and that it has no plans to build a weapon.
State Department spokesman Ned Price announced the dispatch of the U.S. reply to E.U. foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, but provided no details on its contents. Borrell, in charge of orchestrating the negotiations, compiled the final text last month, saying that all possible compromises had already been reached. Iran transmitted a response early last week that Borrell characterized as “reasonable,” but with some proposed “adjustments.”
Kirby also declined to provide details of the U.S. reply. “We’re not going to want to negotiate this thing in public,” he said. “I don’t have a response to speak to today, and I don’t know that we ever will.”
Kirby acknowledged that Iran had previously “acceded to some concessions that has allowed us to get to where we are in the process,” including dropping its demand that the United States remove a terrorist designation against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a part of the Iranian military.
Most of Iran’s proposed adjustments involve which of thousands of U.S. sanctions the administration is prepared to lift and when, according to people familiar with the issue, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive diplomacy. That leaves the center of the dispute where it has been from the beginning — between the United States and Iran — with other parties to the original deal, including Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China, largely as bystanders.
As in the initial agreement, the United States has said it would lift only those sanctions related to Iran’s nuclear program. “It’s important for people to remember that what we’re talking about here is a return to the JCPOA,” shorthand for the original Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Kirby said. Iran must “stop spinning centrifuges” used to enrich uranium, “get rid of its enriched uranium” and agree to inspections, he said.
“Yes, there’s sanctions relief,” but “this deal is about their potential weapons capability. That’s where it was in 2015, that’s where it is today,” he said. As written, it does not eliminate or reduce “ample sanctions in place today that will stay in place … or preclude us from imposing others.”
Russia and China have indicated they would support the final text as written. Following a telephone call between President Biden and his British, French and German counterparts last weekend, the administration has said the Europeans agree with the U.S. response. Throughout the talks, Iran has refused direct negotiations with the United States, and the Europeans have acted as go-betweens.
Iran has also continued to demand that the International Atomic Energy Agency drop its investigation of radioactive traces found several years ago at several undeclared sites within the country. While a separate issue from the JCPOA, Iran has indicated it will not implement a new nuclear deal unless the investigation is dropped. Iran’s refusal to cooperate with the IAEA investigation led to a censure resolution this year from the agency’s board of governors.
“No deal will be implemented before the IAEA Board of Directors PERMANENTLY closes the false accusations file. Iran’s nuclear program will not be dismantled,” Seyed Mohammad Marandi, part of Iran’s negotiating team, said on Twitter on Tuesday.
Earlier in the week, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said that the investigation would continue. “So far, Iran has not given us the technically credible explanations that we need to explain the origin of many traces of uranium,” he told CNN. “Let us have an explanation. If there was nuclear material there, where is it now?”
Biden campaigned on a pledge to revive the original agreement. Start-and-stop negotiations began in April 2021, only to be halted after a few months for Iranian elections, which brought hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi to office. Amid lengthy haggling over which U.S. sanctions would be lifted, talks that resumed toward the end of the year included an Iranian demand that Biden guarantee that no subsequent U.S. administration would withdraw from a revived deal — something that it was impossible for him to deliver.
Iran is still asking for some sort of guarantee, according to the people familiar with the talks.
Shira Rubin in Jerusalem contributed to this report. | 2022-08-24T20:36:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | U.S. responds to Iran's latest demands on reviving nuclear deal - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/24/iran-nuclear-deal-biden-administration/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/24/iran-nuclear-deal-biden-administration/ |
The Transportation Department has announced several new accessibility measures, but advocates say progress is too slow
Jessica Dalonzo was worried the first time she flew with her power wheelchair last month. She’d heard horror stories from other travelers, and her manual chair had been damaged on previous flights.
But the 22-year-old trusted the customized device — with careful instructions attached — to Delta when she flew from New York to Orlando for a Disney World vacation. It was damaged upon arrival, but fixable in about an hour. Things got much worse on the way home, she said.
“They told me it never made it on the plane with me,” she said. While she flew back to New York, the chair ended up in California. Once it reached Dalonzo the next day, she said, it was broken again — and, more than a month later, still is. She said Delta will pay for it to be fixed or replaced, as required by the Air Carrier Access Act. Until then, she can only use the chair for short distances.
A post shared by Jessica Dalonzo (@jessica.dalonzo)
“We know our customers with disabilities rely on Delta for their travel needs, and while the majority of wheelchairs and scooters enplaned by Delta are not mishandled, we understand the frustration that comes when we fall short,” the airline said in a statement. “We sincerely apologize for this customer’s experience and are affirmatively working with the customer to make things right via repairs and compensation.”
Dalonzo’s experience — though unique for its repeated bad luck — is far from a one-off. Since the Transportation Department started tracking in December 2018 through May of this year, travelers have reported nearly 26,000 instances of wheelchairs or scooters being mishandled.
Passengers with disabilities have also described long waits for check-in help; bungled security screenings; clumsy assistance transferring onto planes, which can result in injuries; delays while waiting for wheelchairs after flights; slow and lax DOT enforcement; and a lack of recourse to hold airlines accountable.
“Practically everyone who uses a wheelchair and flies, including colleagues of mine here at the DOT, has a troubling story about an airline experience,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said during an event marking the anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act on July 26. “Many have far more than one.”
Airlines have lost or damaged more than 15,000 wheelchairs since late 2018
Travelers who spoke to The Washington Post said they’ve noticed preexisting issues get worse this summer as labor shortages and frequent disruptions continue. Disability-related complaints to the Transportation Department hit 158 in May alone, more than double the number in 2019.
Airlines, industry groups and federal authorities say they’re taking the problem seriously.
“U.S. airlines are committed to offering a high level of customer service and providing a positive and safe flight experience for all passengers, especially those in need of additional assistance or traveling with mobility aids,” Airlines for America, a trade group, said in a statement. “We are committed to continuing to work with the disability community, aircraft and mobility aid manufacturers and safety regulators to explore safe and feasible solutions that reduce barriers to air travel.”
Advocates say they want to see more progress.
“I have seen a lot of airlines communicating statements that they want to become the most accessible and the most inclusive airline,” said Alvaro Silberstein, co-founder and chief executive of Wheel the World, a booking platform for accessible travel experiences. “But I haven’t seen like real actions behind those statements.”
The Transportation Department has taken steps so far this year to address some major concerns involving accessible bathrooms on planes, allowing travelers to bring their own mobility devices on board, wheelchair handling and more. But some of those moves might not result in meaningful action for years — or even decades. And a recently unveiled bill of rights for passengers with disabilities is just a summary of laws already on the books.
“They’re working on all this stuff ... but unfortunately it’s still baby steps toward getting to truly equitable travel,” said Alex Elegudin, president of New York City-based Wheeling Forward, which offers services to people with disabilities.
He and three other travelers and advocates for people with disabilities said there is more airlines and the government could — and should — do.
Make airlines pay more
Carriers must cover the cost of repairs or replacement if a wheelchair is damaged or destroyed. But John Morris, founder of the accessible travel site Wheelchair Travel, who has been on more than 50 flights this year, said they would have a greater incentive to improve if they were held more accountable.
Morris says that should happen in two ways: greater enforcement by the Transportation Department and private civil action by passengers under the Air Carrier Access Act.
One big problem: Travelers can’t sue airlines for breach of the act, aviation attorney Tom Stilwell said in an email, although they can use the law to define what an airline owes them if they sue under other state laws.
Morris said Congress would need to spell out the ability for travelers to sue under the law. Travelers who have a wheelchair that gets destroyed could lose mobility for months, he said, and may face a loss of wages, health complications or other ramifications that would not be covered by an airline.
“I think that something that would make airlines take the Air Carrier Access Act more seriously is if they could find themselves in a court of law being challenged for their failure to deliver on their obligations,” he said.
The typical recourse for a traveler is to file a DOT complaint; the department warns that its response “will likely take some time” and that if it levies fines, those penalties are paid to the government, not to the person who filed the complaint. Often, an enforcement action will not include a fine but rather a demand that an airline stop some behavior. Morris said the DOT has “failed miserably” in this area.
The department did not respond to a request for comment about its enforcement of disability complaints. Its website lists six enforcement orders since 2017, including dismissals, with penalties against four airlines that total $975,000.
Proposed rule would improve airplane restroom access for the disabled
Make bathrooms accessible on more planes
In March, the Transportation Department announced a proposed rule to make at least one lavatory on single-aisle planes — which fly the majority of domestic routes — large enough to be accessible to wheelchair users. Planes with more than one aisle already need to have an accessible restroom.
“Travelers with disabilities shouldn’t have to choose between dehydrating themselves or avoiding air travel altogether,” Buttigieg said. “And yet to date there is no federal rule requiring accessible lavatories on single-aisle aircraft, and we know that it’s time to change that.”
The effort has been underway for several years and appeared to make progress in 2016 with an agreement among advocates, airlines, plane manufacturers and others. But the momentum stalled, prompting a lawsuit from a veterans group.
The rule is far from immediate: Under the agreement reached in 2016, it would apply to new planes ordered 18 years, or delivered 20 years, after the rule was finalized. Older planes would not have to be retrofitted. The department said it could adjust that timeline and is looking for ways improvements could be made more quickly.
Traveling with a disability: How I’ve explored 13 countries in a wheelchair
Allow wheelchairs on board
Every traveler The Post spoke to said it would be a game changer if they could board the plane with their chair and keep it in the cabin. Most have to be transferred to a small chair that fits in an airplane aisle, usually with assistance, and then moved to their seat while their wheelchair goes under the plane. That increases the risk of both damage to the chair and injury while being transferred.
“No other form of transportation — trains, buses, boats — forces you to give up your mobility device when you board. The same ought to be true of airlines,” Buttigieg said last month. “So in the months and years ahead we plan to work toward a new rule that will allow passengers to stay in their personal wheelchairs when they fly. We know this won’t happen overnight, but it is a goal that we have to work to fulfill.”
Dalonzo said being able to bring her chair on a plane — and sit on it during a flight — would make a big difference.
“Just sitting on the regular airline seat is so uncomfortable for me,” she said. “So if I could have my own chair, I could go further; I don’t really travel far.”
Even if travelers would still need to move to an airplane seat once on the plane, they said the experience would be far better than it is now, because transferring to a seat on the plane could be easier if they boarded using their own chair, and their device would be less likely to get damaged.
“I think that that is a tremendous opportunity not only for airlines, but it would dramatically improve the independence and self-determination of disabled people,” Morris said.
He said systems for securing wheelchairs would still need to be approved and regulated — steps that should be taken quickly.
“What I don’t want to see is sort of a cautious or delayed regulatory process, like we’ve seen with accessible toilets,” Morris said. “This is not something that people should have to wait four or five decades to see become a reality.”
How 3 travelers with disabilities or chronic illness navigate the world
Improve training
Travelers also said that people who handle wheelchairs and assist wheelchair users should get more training. Dalonzo said she explained to workers how to use her chair and drive it.
“And it’s still broken,” she said.
Elegudin said he’s watched baggage handlers flip his chair on its side and upside down.
“I’ve literally sat in my seat, looking outside the window and seeing them handling my chair and getting both furious and about to cry because I see what they’re doing,” he said. “And there’s no way that the chair’s going to survive.”
He said workers need better training in transferring people with disabilities. He believes many are expecting older passengers who may just need to be pushed in a wheelchair because they can’t walk a long distance through the airport.
Make assistance jobs more attractive
Silberstein said that even in pre-pandemic times, he did not get the sense that people who provided wheelchair assistance were happy in their jobs, whether because of low pay, insufficient training or other work conditions. Those workers are typically employed by companies that are contractors for airlines and depend on tips to make up for low wages.
Morris said improving working conditions — and paying more — would also help address the staffing shortage.
“Make the role more attractive to workers and you’ll see demand for the roles,” he said.
Today, 17 days after my last chair was destroyed, my new temp chair (for which I paid thousands and purchased with the intent to keep long-term as a back-up), was returned badly damaged. It’s bent in multiple places and will never be the same again. I’m so tired of this airline.
— John Morris | Wheelchair Travel (@WCTravelOrg) July 26, 2022
Prioritize wheelchair users
Travelers interviewed by The Post said they frequently end up waiting on the plane for their chair, or being moved from the plane to wait in an airline-provided chair until their own device is brought up.
Elegudin describes it as a “temporary rinky-dink airport wheelchair that’s not made for me.”
“And I’m sitting in that for a half an hour to 40 minutes waiting for my actual chair to show up from wherever it’s supposed to show up from,” he said.
He said he’s traveled in other countries where wheelchairs are quickly returned to the disembarkation area — a much better scenario.
Find an airline leader
Silberstein, who typically travels with an electric device attached to his manual wheelchair, said travelers need one airline to decide to differentiate itself and take actions that are more friendly to passengers with disabilities.
“That will allow the rest of the industry to follow,” he said.
Elegudin said the community needs champions — both in the political sphere and in the industry.
“I wish there was a way where one airline would do it and people would say, you know what, that’s the airline I’m going to fly,” he said. “I’m going to make that the airline of my choice because they’ve chosen to go the equitable route.” | 2022-08-24T20:38:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How flying could be improved for passengers who use wheelchairs - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/08/24/wheelchair-flying-airlines-disability/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/08/24/wheelchair-flying-airlines-disability/ |
‘Charismatic’ dugong sea mammal declared functionally extinct in China
Dugongs swim together in the area of Thailand's Chao Mai Beach in this image taken from a video provided by Thailand's Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation on April 22, 2020. (AP)
A giant, gentle sea creature that belongs to the manatee family is now “functionally extinct” in China with no sightings recorded since 2008, a new study said Wednesday.
But according to conservationists from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the number of dugongs in waters near mainland China has dwindled significantly since 1970 — due in large part to human activity.
Saving the manatees — rescue by rescue, rehab by rehab
The scientists’ research was published Wednesday in Britain’s Royal Society of Open Science. In a press release announcing the findings, the report’s authors said there are “strong indications that this is the first functional extinction of a large mammal in China’s coastal waters,” where they have been spotted for hundreds of years.
“Our new study shows strong evidence of the regional loss of another charismatic aquatic mammal species in China — sadly, once again driven by unsustainable human activity,” said Samuel Turvey, a professor and researcher at ZSL’s Institute of Zoology.
The authors recommended that the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which keeps a global conservation “Red List,” reassess the dugong species’ regional status as critically endangered (possibly extinct) across the entirety of Chinese waters.
Fishing, ship strikes and human-caused habitat loss were the main drivers of extinction, the authors said. Sea grass is a specific marine habitat that is being “rapidly degraded by human impacts,” according to the release.
China has made sea-grass restoration and recovery efforts “a key conservation priority,” but the researchers say the efforts may be too little too late.
“Dugongs stay in waters up to 10 meters and are constantly grazing,” said Heidi Ma, a postdoctoral researcher at ZSL’s Institute of Zoology and co-author of the report. “But there is a lot of competition for resources in these areas,” she said, adding that seagrass contains a high level of carbon and is an essential source of food and shelter for fish.
Since 1988, China has classified the dugong as a “Grade 1 National Key Protected Animal,” a designation that technically affords it the highest level of protection. | 2022-08-24T20:38:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Dugong sea mammal functionally extinct in China, scientists say - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/24/dugong-sea-mammal-extinct-china/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/24/dugong-sea-mammal-extinct-china/ |
Peiter Zatko will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee next month pursuant to a subpoena
Peiter Zatko, who is also known as Mudge, poses for a portrait. He is scheduled to testify before Congress next month. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
The hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 13, and Zatko, Twitter’s former security chief, will appear pursuant to a subpoena. The hearing was announced one day after The Washington Post reported on Zatko’s whistleblower complaint to federal regulators, which alleges “extreme, egregious deficiencies” in its defenses against hackers, as well as its meager efforts to fight spam.
“Mr. Zatko’s allegations of widespread security failures and foreign state actor interference at Twitter raise serious concerns. If these claims are accurate, they may show dangerous data privacy and security risks for Twitter users around the world,” said Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), the chair and top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The lawmakers said in a statement that in addition to the hearing, they would "take further steps as needed to get to the bottom of these alarming allegations.”
The hearing signals the mounting political and regulatory headwinds for the social network in the wake of Zatko’s complaint, which has prompted bipartisan concerns about privacy and national security among lawmakers on Capitol Hill. The allegations became public as lawmakers have pledged to pass legislation to protect Americans’ data privacy and hold powerful social media companies accountable.
Twitter declined to comment on the hearing. The company has pushed back on Zatko’s allegations. Company spokeswoman Rebecca Hahn said the company has long prioritized security and also said that Zatko’s disclosures appeared to be “riddled with inaccuracies.”
The Judiciary Committee announced the hearing a day after Zatko had three meetings on Capitol Hill, according to his lawyer, John Tye, the founder of Whistleblower Aid. Grassley and Durbin’s offices confirmed that Zatko met with Judiciary Committee staff but declined to say what was discussed in those meetings.
“We’re encouraged the U.S. Congress is taking this so seriously,” said Tye during a Twitter Spaces event hosted by The Washington Post.
Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) sent letters to federal regulators, including the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice, calling on them to investigate Zatko’s allegations.
The FTC, SEC and DOJ have received the complaint, and Tye says he has been in touch with agency investigators. | 2022-08-24T21:10:17Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Twitter whistleblower Peiter Zatko to testify in Congress - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/08/24/twitter-whistleblower-senate-hearing/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/08/24/twitter-whistleblower-senate-hearing/ |
Quarterback Carson Wentz is getting ready to start his first season with the Commanders. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post)
The final preseason game of the summer is Saturday. The regular season starts two weeks later. It’s almost NFL season — the first in which the local entry will be known as the Washington Commanders.
Coach Ron Rivera’s third season begins with a new quarterback in Carson Wentz, without injured defensive end Chase Young — and with plenty of issues in between.
To help provide much better answers than I could on my own, I’ve enlisted ace beat writer Nicki Jhabvala to lead the way. We’ll start answering at 1 p.m. on Thursday, but please feel free to get your questions in well before that.
Looking for more? Catch up on The Post’s coverage of the Commanders: | 2022-08-24T21:36:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Q&A: Ask Barry Svrluga about the Washington Commanders - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/25/washington-commanders-preseason/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/25/washington-commanders-preseason/ |
Secret Service and Mar-a-Lago security members at the entrance of former president Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Fla., on Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022. (Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg)
About two dozen boxes of presidential records stored in then-president Donald Trump’s White House residence were not returned to the National Archives and Records Administration in the final days of his term even after Archives officials were told by a Trump lawyer that the documents should be returned, according to an email from the top lawyer at the record-keeping agency.
The previously unreported email — sent about 100 days after the former president left office with the subject line “Need for Assistance re Presidential Records” — shows just how early Archives officials realized that many documents were missing from the Trump White House. It also illustrates the myriad efforts Archives officials made to have the documents returned over an 18-month period, culminating with an FBI raid earlier this month at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.
“'We just want everything back’ was his message,” according to one Trump adviser.
After extensive interviews with Trump aides, FBI officials raided Mar-a-Lago Aug. 8 and seized an additional 11 sets of classified records after executing a search warrant — adding to the large volume of secret government documents recovered from the former president’s home.
Trump and advisers have claimed that there was a standing declassification order for all documents taken to the residence, but multiple senior former administration officials have said they knew of no such order. Trump has also lamented to friends that he did not give the documents back because they were his personal property and did not belong to the U.S. government. | 2022-08-24T21:36:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Archives asked for records after Trump lawyer agreed they should be returned, email says - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/24/trump-records-archives-2021/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/24/trump-records-archives-2021/ |
James Webb Telescope reveals striking images of Jupiter
The planet’s rings, moons and polar haze are among the images’ highlights.
An artificially colored photo from the James Webb Space Telescope shows Jupiter's rings and some small moons. (NASA/AP)
Scientists released images Monday of the solar system’s biggest planet.
“We’ve never seen Jupiter like this. It’s all quite incredible,” said planetary astronomer Imke de Pater, of the University of California at Berkeley, who helped lead the observations.
NASA scientist explains the importance of the James Webb Space Telescope
NASA and the European Space Agency’s $10 billion successor to the Hubble Space Telescope launched at the end of last year and has been observing infrared light in the cosmos since summer. Scientists hope to behold the dawn of the universe with Webb, peering all the way back to when the first stars and galaxies were forming 13.7 billion years ago. | 2022-08-24T21:40:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | James Webb Telescope reveals striking images of Jupiter - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost/2022/08/24/james-webb-images-jupiter/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost/2022/08/24/james-webb-images-jupiter/ |
Battles near nuclear site are a treaty violation
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear complex on Aug. 15. (Heidi Levine for The Washington Post)
I read with great interest the Aug. 16 front-page article, “Conditions deteriorate at Ukraine nuclear site,” about artillery fire being exchanged between Ukrainian and Russian forces in and around Europe’s largest nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. This dangerous situation is addressed in Protocol I of 1977, an extension of the Geneva Conventions of 1949:
“Works or installations containing dangerous forces, namely dams, dykes and nuclear electrical generating stations, shall not be made the object of attack, even where these objects are military objectives, if such attack may cause the release of dangerous forces and consequent severe losses among the civilian population … The Parties to the conflict shall endeavour to avoid locating any military objectives in the vicinity of the works or installations [containing dangerous forces].”
The Post article stated that Russian forces occupy the nuclear power plant. They have placed artillery near the plant and are launching attacks from that location. And Ukrainian forces are firing back at the Russian artillery. Both sides appear to be in violation of Protocol I. Both Russia and Ukraine have ratified the Protocol.
Unfortunately, the United States, which played a major role in drafting Protocol I between 1974 and 1977, has never ratified the treaty. U.S. ratification would help substantially in bringing greater visibility and respect for the Protocol and its important protections for civilians in war zones and beyond.
Tom McMahon, Reston | 2022-08-24T22:06:59Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Battles near nuclear site are a treaty violation - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/24/battles-near-nuclear-site-are-treaty-violation/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/24/battles-near-nuclear-site-are-treaty-violation/ |
There’s a difference between liberal and radical feminism
Kate Cohen attempted to define the difference between feminism and sexism in her Aug. 19 op-ed, “Sorry, but these choices aren’t ‘feminist.’ They’re sexist.,” but she was just defining the difference between liberal and radical feminism.
She brought up the example of women shaving their legs. Sexism says that women must shave their legs to conform to men’s ideal of female beauty. Liberal feminism says that women should be free to decide whether to shave their legs. But radical feminism, as expressed by Ms. Cohen, says that a woman must never shave her legs, regardless of what she thinks she wants, because “the reasons she wants to shave are deeply compromised.”
Like all radicalism, radical feminism replaces one form of conformity (one must accept all existing norms) with another (one must reject all existing norms). Only liberalism trusts people to make up their own minds.
John Shea, Ellicott City
Whether any woman changes her name or shaves under her arms is really no one’s business. But Kate Cohen tried to make it our business by saying that if women don’t model what she considers to be true feminist behavior, other women won’t be empowered to take a similar stance. If a woman is so swayed by what other women do, if a woman does not have the courage or strength or confidence to do what she wants without reference to what other women are doing, then that woman has a lot of work to do. It has nothing to do with feminism.
If a woman wants to be treated equally, she must first figure out how to be her own person and to not be influenced by what other women think or by standards set by others. As an example, some women like to wear three-inch heels. I don’t. I could argue they are a vestige of men’s views on what women should look like and akin to foot binding. Whether I believe that or not, I don’t wear those shoes because they are uncomfortable. If others want to mangle their feet and suffer back problems, that is their business.
Let’s get to that point for all women. Have confidence in your choices. Do what you want — not because you are role modeling but because you are doing what is best for you. Then we can talk about what to do about being treated equally to men.
Marsha Kostura Schmidt, Burtonsville | 2022-08-24T22:07:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | There’s a difference between liberal and radical feminism - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/24/liberal-vs-radical-feminism/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/24/liberal-vs-radical-feminism/ |
Incumbent Marc Elrich speaks during a public forum for Montgomery County executive candidates in Silver Spring, Md., on June 29. (Craig Hudson for The Washington Post)
Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich has fended off challengers for his job in the Democratic primary, all but guaranteeing him a second term as the top local elected official in Maryland’s most populous locality. He won by a gossamer margin, beating his closest rival, businessman David Blair, by fewer than three dozen votes out of more than 141,000 cast. His victory was hard-fought and legitimate — it took election officials more than a month, including a recount, to tally the ballots.
Nonetheless, the result was not exactly a ringing endorsement; it’s fair to see it as a chastening. Despite a major name-recognition advantage and a big lead in early polls, Mr. Elrich was the choice of slightly fewer than 4 in 10 Democrats who cast a vote. The best that can be said is that he did better than in 2018, when, in a crowded party primary field, fewer than 3 in 10 Democrats backed him. (Active registered Democrats outnumber Republicans in Montgomery by nearly 10 to 1.)
The question now is whether Mr. Elrich will alter course in a second term: to improve his toxic relations with the county council; to juice Montgomery’s sluggish performance in building affordable housing; and to upgrade the county’s also-ran regional status in attracting new businesses and employers, a precondition for supporting better local services and public schools. Those are opportunities for Mr. Elrich to up his game over the coming four years. He should grab them.
There is no denying his intelligence, encyclopedic knowledge of the county or appeal to a certain type of voter. Although he is undoubtedly a liberal, many of those voters admire what could be interpreted as his essential conservatism — defined as a resistance to development of all kinds and, more broadly, change in the physical landscape.
Like him or not, Mr. Elrich has built his popularity and his brand as a champion for countless community groups that have opposed building new things — from roads to transit lines to businesses to housing to athletic fields. He even opposed bringing the Fillmore concert hall, a popular first-class venue, to Silver Spring.
But standing against things will not give Montgomery what it needs, or create for Mr. Elrich much of a legacy. It’s time for him to forge a fresh start, and the building blocks for one are visible. They include a new governor — Mr. Elrich has feuded bitterly with the term-limited incumbent, Republican Larry Hogan — as well as new county council, on which six first-termers are likely to compose a majority of the 11 seats.
The chief metric of success for Mr. Elrich starts with a more robust employment base in a county which, despite broad affluence and a deep well of highly educated people, has lost thousands of high-paying jobs to neighboring jurisdictions for much of the past 15 years. The county has underperformed even in life sciences, which Mr. Elrich himself has identified as a key area for strategic growth.
Mr. Elrich deserves congratulations for his victory. Montgomery deserves a better performance from him in a second term. | 2022-08-24T22:07:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Elrich won in Montgomery County. He must do better in his second term. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/24/marc-elrich-montgomery-county-second-term/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/24/marc-elrich-montgomery-county-second-term/ |
Post columnists discuss 5 takeaways from Tuesday’s primaries
By The Washington Post Staff
Campaign signs for Charlie Crist and Nikki Fried outside a polling station in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Aug. 23, (Saul Martinez/Getty Images)
The impact of Dobbs
The role of young voters
All politics are local
A failing progressive strategy
A playbook for Democrats in Florida
The results of Tuesday night’s primaries in New York and Florida held important lessons for November’s midterm elections and beyond.
Post columnist James Hohmann hosted a conversation on Twitter Spaces with fellow columnists Perry Bacon Jr., E.J. Dionne Jr., Helaine Olen, Henry Olsen and Jennifer Rubin to ditwitter-spaces-8253scuss the biggest takeaways from Tuesday’s results and what they could mean for the future of the Democratic Party.
Here are five key points from their discussion, edited for length and clarity. You can listen to the full conversation above or on our Twitter page.
Hohmann: Let’s start with the special election in Upstate New York’s 19th Congressional District, where Democrat Pat Ryan unexpectedly won. It was a district that Joe Biden had carried by 1½ points, I think, in 2020. What were your biggest takeaways from last night?
Rubin: I think this is part of a pattern that we’ve seen post-Dobbs where Democrats are really overperforming in these special elections. And there are a lot of data out there, some of which I’ve written about, that show that post-Dobbs, we’ve had a big upswing in women registering and Democrats registering, and this pattern seems to be a backlash to the abortion decision. Democrats clearly turned out in New York’s 19th District. Ryan was the Democrat who ran on the abortion issue and it looks like he’ll win by about three points. So that gives Democrats some hope that this red wave may be a red trickle or maybe even a blue trickle.
Olsen: Democrats should listen to Larry David: “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” Let’s look at New York’s 23rd Congressional District. Almost the entire shift came in Cornell University’s Tompkins County, which went for Biden by 40-something points and went last night by 71 for Max Della Pia. Most of the rest of the district was in line with the Trump/Biden numbers. The reason Pat Ryan won is because, again, a White college-dominated area, Ulster County, had significantly higher turnout than the rural parts of the district. And if you take a look at the overall primary turnout in the nation, you are still seeing Republicans doing better.
Dionne: I think Henry made a point that can be read in a very different way. He noted these big turnouts in college towns, for example, and the big reaction among college-educated voters. Just a few months ago, Democratic enthusiasm, particularly among younger people, was very, very low. And to me, the biggest threat the Democrats face in these elections is that the younger people who were key to their victories in 2018 and 2020 just wouldn’t turn out. In all these special elections, you’re seeing college-educated people and young people starting to turn out. I think that’s a real threat to Republicans.
Hohmann: Let’s talk about the competitive primaries that we saw in New York. We’ve been talking about the post-Dobbs energizing of women. Carolyn Maloney pushed really hard on abortion and the Equal Rights Amendment, but lost by a pretty surprising margin to Jerry Nadler, another committee chairman, in the battle of upper Manhattan. Sean Patrick Maloney, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, beat Alessandra Biaggi, his state senator primary challenger who had Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s endorsement, by about two to one. In his speech last night, he said, the “mainstream won.” And then in New York [District] 10, Dan Goldman, who was the lead counsel for Democrats during the first impeachment, and he narrowly won with about 26 percent of the vote. He was the more moderate candidate, with the left sort of fragmented.
Olen: I joked last night on Twitter that the real winner of the New York primary was the New York Times editorial board, which endorsed several of the winners, including Sean Patrick Maloney, Daniel Goldman and Jerry Nadler. The story you can take away from this is to me that all politics is local.
I think a piece that got lost in a lot of this was that Jerry Nadler was the last of the Jewish representatives in New York City. When I was a child, it was about a 50 percent Jewish delegation. I think the Jewish vote actually turned out to be a big deal in both the New York 10th District and New York’s 12th District, especially because the progressive champion in New York 10, Yuh-Line Niou, was a BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] supporter, and there was a significant Orthodox Jewish population in that district as there is in Nadler’s district. So I think there were all these little local things that got kind of ignored.
Bacon: If you look at the suite of primaries the last few months, the last two years, on some level, the Biden wing is beating the AOC wing in a lot of the key races. And I think you’re seeing a lot of different manifestations of that. That’s in part because often the more moderate candidate spends more money, or has more money, in Goldman’s case. But I also think it’s because the progressives often are not particularly well-organized. If you don’t choose one person in the race to coalesce around, you’re not going to win. If Goldman is running as the only mainstream candidate, for example, you need to choose someone else. And that hasn’t happened in a lot of these primaries. The progressives don’t choose someone, and therefore their vote is split. I think you have to look at the Democratic voter as we saw in the 2020 [presidential] primary. The left wing of the party probably has to think about how to move voters toward its views and not to the more moderate views. I agree that most voters are not thinking about this in terms of an ideological clash, but at the top level of party, there is an ideological fight. And the insurgents who did well in 2018 and 2020 are losing right now.
Hohmann: In Florida, Charlie Crist beat Nikki Fried in the Democratic primary to take on Ron DeSantis. There were a bunch of primaries there on both sides. Redistricting means Republicans will probably pick up a couple of House seats in Florida. Any reactions from anyone on the Florida numbers?
Rubin: Crist’s margin of victory was a big surprise to a lot of people who thought it would be a very, very competitive race. He gave a stemwinder of a speech in his acceptance remarks, really laying into DeSantis and I think kind of laying out the road map for how Democrats are going to run against these MAGA-friendly candidates. He essentially said that [DeSantis is] taking away our freedoms, which is a very clever way of phrasing it, that would appeal not only to the hardcore Democratic base, but independents and even some Republicans. Talk to me about [DeSantis’s] moves to, for example, silence Disney and his moves to silence a district attorney who spoke out in favor of abortion rights. So I think [Crist] is going very hard and he is phrasing that attack not so much in ideological terms that [DeSantis is] too conservative for the state, but rather that he’s taking away freedoms. He’s trying to turn back the clock in the state. And we’ll see how effective that is. DeSantis has a boatload of money, and the state is definitely trending red. So I don’t expect that ultimately Crist will be successful. But it’s going to be really interesting to see how much damage he does and whether he kind of lays out a playbook that could be effective down the road in other races for Democrats. | 2022-08-24T22:07:13Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Post columnists discuss 5 takeaways from Tuesday’s primaries - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/24/post-columnists-discuss-5-takeaways-tuesdays-primaries/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/24/post-columnists-discuss-5-takeaways-tuesdays-primaries/ |
Studying the past has rewards
The logo for the Salem Police Department in Massachusetts bears an image of a witch. (Lisa Poole/AP)
There’s hope. Fourteen-year-old Sarina E. Miller’s Aug. 20 op-ed on the Salem Witch Trials, “My 8th-grade class helped exonerate the last Salem ‘witch’,” was well-written and much-needed at a time when hate and strident demagoguery are on the rise.
Wrote Ms. Miller: “But I was taught that we study history to understand our past mistakes.” Unfortunately, those textbooks that mention our past mistakes are regarded as anathema in many school districts. Howard Zinn, a historian who has a penchant for documenting the nation’s mistakes in his text “A People’s History of the United States,” saw his book banned in Tucson’s public schools. Post contributing columnist Mitch Daniels, the former governor of Indiana and now president of Purdue University, requested that the Zinn text be removed from public schools, citing, “It is a truly execrable, anti-factual piece of disinformation that misstates American history on every page. Can someone assure me that it is not in use anywhere in Indiana?”
Studying the past has its pitfalls, but, as writer William Faulkner observed, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”
Otts Laupus, Elkridge | 2022-08-24T22:07:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Studying the past has rewards - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/24/studying-past-has-rewards/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/24/studying-past-has-rewards/ |
This coach is fortunate to have such a great support system
St. John's College High School boys' basketball head coach Patrick Behan talks with a player Aug. 15 at a voluntary lift session at St. John's College High School in D.C. (Caitlin Buckley for The Washington Post)
The Aug. 20 Sports article about coach Patrick Behan’s fight against amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, “'I’m still your coach': Off court, fighting ALS head-on,” was excellent. Mr. Behan is a brave man. And he is very fortunate that he has such a great support system. Not everyone does.
Gerry O’Brien, Arlington | 2022-08-24T22:07:38Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | This coach is fortunate to have such a great support system - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/24/support-system-coach-who-needs-one/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/24/support-system-coach-who-needs-one/ |
Children play at a symbolic cemetery of cars shot by Russian troops, some of which are painted by local artists, in Irpin, Ukraine, earlier this month. (Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images)
Aug. 24 marked the date, 31 years ago, on which Ukraine declared its independence from a collapsing Soviet Union and secured its national sovereignty. Doing his part to celebrate what has ever since been known as Independence Day in Ukraine, President Biden announced that the United States would send nearly $3 billion worth of weaponry and other materiel to the embattled country. Drawn from a $40 billion aid program Congress passed in May, this is the largest such package yet.
The day also marked six months since Russia invaded its next-door neighbor, throwing the entire world into turmoil for the sake of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s dreams of extinguishing Ukrainian democracy and restoring Russian power — and in flagrant violation of international law. The fact that Ukraine has survived, preserving most of its territory, that long — defying initial expectations of swift victory for Russia’s much larger military — is a tribute first and foremost to its people. Yet it could not have happened without support from international friends, including not only Mr. Biden but also a bipartisan coalition in Congress.
The war has reached the end of its beginning. What comes next, though, is uncertain. Ukraine has all but announced its intent to launch a counteroffensive aimed at retaking the strategic southern city of Kherson. It has made progress toward that objective in the form of daring, successful drone and sabotage attacks deep behind Russian lines in Crimea. This further shows the already demonstrated utility of U.S. equipment such as the HIMARs artillery system. All such results vindicate those who argued for overcoming fears of provoking Russia and pushing the boundaries on arms shipments by the United States.
Still, Russia remains entrenched in 20 percent of Ukraine’s territory, and Ukraine appears to lack enough troop strength to oust the invaders. Crippled as its economy has been by sanctions, Russia has managed to maintain relatively normal economic conditions, partly by sustaining grain and energy sales worth billions of dollars each month. Mr. Putin’s regime may yet develop internal fissures or face unrest over the war’s terrible human cost. For now, what’s impressive is how firm his hold on power remains, bolstered by systematic repression of dissent. The most recent example was the arrest Wednesday of Yekaterinburg, Russia’s former mayor, Yevgeny Roizman, apparently for referring to the war as “an invasion” rather than the officially approved “special military operation.”
It might be too much to label the war a stalemate; yet Ukraine’s best chances for major advances probably lie months, not days, away, after its troops have received further equipment and training. That implies that its supporters in the West must adjust their plans accordingly. While Europe has maintained admirable solidarity in the face of economic pain related to reducing dependence on Russian energy, France and Germany have lagged the United States, Britain, Poland and even Norway in terms of aid to Ukraine relative to their total economic output, according to the Ukraine Support Tracker database at Germany’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy. If the U.S.-led Western alliance has a weakness, “burden sharing” is it. If Ukraine is to have any chance of success, the alliance must solve that chronic problem, once and for all. | 2022-08-24T22:07:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The Ukraine war could be long. The U.S. and allies must keep helping. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/24/ukraine-war-length-us-aid-europe/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/24/ukraine-war-length-us-aid-europe/ |
Drone firm announces Virginia expansion and college partnership
A shopper loads items into her car in the parking lot of a Walmart in Willow Grove, Pa. Walmart is set to begin delivering packages by drone in connection with a Virginia Beach company. (Matt Rourke/AP)
RICHMOND — A Virginia Beach company slated to whisk Walmart deliveries to millions of households by drone announced on Wednesday that it is expanding its headquarters and establishing a center for testing, training, research and development at a public junior college.
DroneUp will invest $7 million to expand its Virginia Beach headquarters, creating 510 jobs at that location, and invest $20.2 million to establish a testing, training and R&D center for drone operators at Richard Bland College of William & Mary, on the outskirts of metropolitan Richmond, creating 145 jobs there.
Walmart announced in May that it was partnering with DroneUp to bring drone deliveries to 4 million households by the end of the year, with packages sent aloft from delivery hubs based at local stores, then gently lowered by cable to the customer’s yard. Packages, which are limited to 10 pounds, arrive in as little as 30 minutes for a $3.99 air delivery fee. In early tests, Walmart found the most popular item ordered this way has been Hamburger Helper.
DroneUp initially plans to establish 34 delivery hubs, three of them in Virginia.
DroneUp founder Tom Walker stood beside Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) at the Executive Mansion to unveil the plans at a ceremony that showed off the technology by having a drone deliver a cardboard box containing a state flag for the governor to present to the executive. The drone operators seemed eager to take no chances of accidentally hitting the dignitaries, having the buzzing drone set the box down several yards from where Youngkin and Walker stood.
“We started what is now the largest drone technology services company in the United States … and today we celebrate further expansion and the opening of the world’s first and most advanced specialized drone pilot training facility,” Walker said. “And we’ve done it all right here in Virginia.”
Youngkin touted the plans as a coup for high-tech higher education at Richard Bland as much as an economic development win.
“Together they will deliver a state-of-the-art drone pilot training program to expand the unmanned aircraft systems workforce in Virginia,” Youngkin said, describing the partnership to a large crowd of DroneUp officials and state employees. “It’s a new model for higher education and economic development coming together in the Commonwealth of Virginia and Petersburg.”
Richard Bland is a public two-year college affiliated with William & Mary in Williamsburg. Its campus straddles Petersburg, and Prince George and Dinwiddie counties. DroneUp’s center would be located in the Dinwiddie portion.
The announcement built on one Youngkin made Monday, when he unveiled an unusual partnership between the state and city, civic, faith and education leaders in Petersburg, an economically distressed city south of Richmond. During that event, Education Secretary Aimee Rogstad Guidera touted a plan for Richard Bland and Virginia State University to create a K-12 “lab school” in Petersburg in partnership with the local school system.
While supporters promote lab schools as a way for colleges and universities to bring innovation to K-12 classrooms, the partnership between Richard Bland and DroneUp is intended to help the college and its graduates by more closely aligning the school’s courses to the needs of industry.
“DroneUp’s work complements ongoing efforts of Richard Bland College to develop a curriculum for an unmanned aviation program,” said Harrison A. Moody, chairman of the Dinwiddie County Board of Supervisors.
Debbie L. Sydow, president of Richard Bland, said the college and company “share the vision of delivering a world-class drone pilot training program to expand the [unmanned aircraft systems] workforce in Virginia and across the nation.”
Youngkin said Virginia successfully competed with Arizona, New York, North Carolina and Texas for the projects, which received a number of incentives to locate in the commonwealth. Youngkin approved a $928,000 grant from the Commonwealth Opportunity Fund and a $4 million Virginia Economic Development Incentive Grant. The Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission also approved a $111,000 grant.
“Virginia is our home and we are proud to be able to continue to bring new innovation, talent and economic opportunities to our great state,” said Walker, who founded DroneUp as a start-up in 2016. “This investment and expansion will not only bring new career opportunities to our region, but also allow us to tap into the brightest minds around unmanned aircraft system development and design.” | 2022-08-24T22:08:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Drone firm announces Virginia expansion and college partnership - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/24/virginia-drone-delivery-walmart/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/24/virginia-drone-delivery-walmart/ |
FILE - Savannah Bananas owner Jesse Cole emcees a pregame parade and performance for the fans before the gates opened Tuesday, June 7, 2022, in Savannah, Ga. The Savannah Bananas, who became a national sensation with their irreverent style of baseball, are leaving the Coastal Plains League to focus full attention on their professional barnstorming team. Owner Jesse Cole made the announcement in a YouTube video, saying “we’ll be able to bring the Savannah Bananas to more people in Savannah and around the world.”(AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton, File) | 2022-08-24T22:09:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Savannah Bananas leaving college league for full-time antics - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/mlb/savannah-bananas-leaving-college-league-for-full-time-antics/2022/08/24/6b3e25d2-23ec-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/mlb/savannah-bananas-leaving-college-league-for-full-time-antics/2022/08/24/6b3e25d2-23ec-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html |
Amazon to shut down its telehealth offering
The tech giant will shutter Amazon Care, the in-person and virtual health service it initially built for employees, by the end of the year.
Amazon logo in 2020. (Michel Spingler/AP)
Amazon will shutter Amazon Care, the virtual and in-home health service it initially created for its employees, by the end of this year.
People who work at Amazon Care learned the news in a meeting on Wednesday, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they signed nondisclosure agreements.
Amazon Care is available to the employees of half a dozen corporate customers including Hilton, Silicon Labs, Precor, and Amazon-owned Whole Foods, as well as its own workforce. Workers were told the service was shutting down because those customers did not see the value in the service, one of the people said. Dozens of employees will lose their jobs at the end of the year, according to the people.
Amazon spokeswoman Christina Smith confirmed the decision and shared a memo announcing it with The Washington Post.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Post. Amazon first provided the letter announcing the closure to GeekWire and Fierce Healthcare.
Amazon’s health ambitions sometimes clashed with best health practices
The decision to shutter Amazon Care is a surprise given Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s commitment to expanding Amazon’s health-care investment. It follows Amazon’s $3.9 billion acquisition of concierge health care start-up One Medical last month, a deal that could still face antitrust scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission.
In his 2021 letter to shareholders, Jassy named Amazon Care as an example of the “type of iterative innovation” that is “pervasive across every team at Amazon.”
Amazon Care is currently available virtually nationwide, and was supposed to expand to 20 cities for in-home care delivered by mobile health nurses by the end of this year.
Last week, The Post reported on tensions between Amazon Care and the clinical staff the company brought on to treat patients. Those medical professionals work for an independent company called Care Medical that is also being shut down. Six former employees told The Post that the two sides clashed over Amazon’s fast and frugal approach to expanding Amazon Care, which some former employees felt prioritized the business over best medical practice.
A former Amazon Care executive told The Post at the time that Amazon was going to “try to do what they do in every other line of business: They’re going to try and make it better than everyone else, make it less expensive and get crazy adoption because of convenience. But health-care is different. It’s hard.”
In response, Amazon’s Smith told The Post in an email that Amazon prioritized patient and employee safety and that “Amazon Care has evolved and improved for both patients and clinicians since the days of our pilot program.”
In his email, Lindsay said Amazon Care employees could be placed in other jobs within Amazon, and that the company would “support employees looking for roles outside of the company.”
Lindsay — an Amazon veteran who took over the firm’s new health services department in December 2021 — emphasized in his letter that Amazon remains committed to its health-care businesses.
“Our vision is to make it easier for people to access the health care products and services they need to get and stay healthy. We know accomplishing this won’t be easy or fast, but we believe it matters,” he wrote.
This is the second major health-care investment Amazon has wound down. A health-insurance venture called Haven that it co-created with finance firms Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase shuttered last year.
High-profile health-care venture backed by Amazon, JPMorgan and Berkshire Hathaway shutters
The company continues to operate Amazon Pharmacy, a prescription ordering and delivery service it spun out from its 2018 acquisition of Pillpack. Its cloud computing division, Amazon Web Services, also has a significant presence in healthcare, where it uses machine learning to analyze health-care data for large health organizations, among other enterprises.
In the year after taking the helm as CEO, Jassy has tried to focus Amazon’s business, shuttering some of its retail operation and slowing growth in its logistics division. | 2022-08-24T22:10:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Amazon Care is shutting down - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/08/24/amazon-care-telehealth-shutting-down/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/08/24/amazon-care-telehealth-shutting-down/ |
The Washington Commanders have shifted from a fun, training camp atmosphere into the seriousness of preparing for the season. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post)
“We're pointing him in the right direction,” Heinicke said. “Hopefully, by the end of the year, he has a good little collection.”
Over time, he realized he needed breaks from the relentless intensity. He didn’t like that he held things in and let them build to the point that he snapped at the same people who were trying to support him as he chased his dreams. He started giving himself time to decompress between practice and film study, and when he did have to cram, he listened to his favorite music. This year, Stribling tried meditation, which he said, “isn’t really my thing ’cause I don’t like quiet,” but it has helped him appreciate his journey.
Marken Michel, a 29-year-old receiver who’s a long shot in a competitive room, said he’s shared a similar sentiment with the younger players, including McGowan. Michel tries not to do too much — “They’re pretty bright guys, and they understand how this thing works,” he said — but if he sees a player overwhelmed, he’ll remind him it’s not bad to be nervous.
“You understand how serious this is, that this is our livelihood,” Michel said. “But I’ve learned over the years … whenever a guy's relaxed and he's having fun, that's when he plays his best.” | 2022-08-24T23:20:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Final preseason game looms for Commanders still clawing for roster spots - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/24/washington-commanders-preseason/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/24/washington-commanders-preseason/ |
Because of a lack of support, the children won’t be starting school on time, and some will struggle to attend at all, advocates say
A migrant child housed at the Hampton Inn on New York Avenue in D.C. passes the time by coloring. (Courtesy of Mariel Vallano)
When D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser announced that the city was about to end its use of local hotels to shelter unhoused families, she spoke of “giving all families the support they deserve.”
“What we know from this experience is that when we build citywide solutions to citywide challenges, we can build a fairer, more equitable DC — a DC that provides better opportunities to more families,’’ she said in a news release that lauded the phasing out of the city’s reliance on the hotels as “a major milestone” in the District’s plan to end homelessness.
That statement was made on Aug. 13, 2020, and afterward, the city followed through with moving the remaining families out of the Days Inn on New York Avenue, a place that parents and advocates repeatedly described as unfit for raising children. It is also the hotel where a homeless 8-year-old girl named Relisha Rudd was last seen with her abductor.
Two girls went missing from the same D.C. shelter 8 years ago. One came back. The other was Relisha Rudd.
Two years later, the city is again housing children at that hotel. This time, they are the children of migrants who were bused to the nation’s capital from Texas and Arizona in a political stunt that has created a local humanitarian crisis, according to mutual aid volunteers who have been helping the families.
Those volunteers describe the children as caught in the middle of partisan plays and lacking support from a city that doesn’t want to claim them.
On Wednesday, following an announcement from Bowser that children who arrived on the migrant buses would be able to attend the city’s schools, Chancellor Lewis D. Ferebee said about 40 migrant children are expected to enroll in schools and would need access to services.
But volunteers with the mutual aid network that has been working closest with the families describe having to fight to make that happen and say that come Monday, when schools across the District welcome back students, the children at the hotels won’t be among them. They say the city’s delay in allowing the students to enroll and a lack of support from city agencies has left the families facing challenges that won’t allow the students to start school on time or attend regularly. The say they worry about families who don’t have case managers, access to medical care, identifying documents, an address they can put on paperwork or transportation to and from the isolated hotels.
Mariel Vallano, a D.C. middle school ESL teacher who has been helping the families, said school officials worry every year that some children might go unseen and unenrolled if outreach is not done, but that is not the case with the young people at the hotels. The city knows they exist because it has been housing them, she said.
“All of the children’s birthdates and full names are documented,” Vallano said. She said the mayor and other city officials can’t say, “Oh, I didn’t know that these kids needed to enroll in school.”
Madhvi Bahl, an organizer for Sanctuary DMV and Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network, said the city’s failure to provide support for the families is not an “oversight.”
“This is a policy choice, and not people slipping through the cracks,” she said. “It’s kind of like a starve-them-out tactic. If we don’t let them have access to education or health care, and make them live in hotels without clean anything, they will choose to leave eventually. It’s definitely all planned.”
On Monday, the Defense Department denied a second request from Bowser to deploy the National Guard to help the city deal with the thousands of asylum seekers who have been bused from Texas and Arizona so far. More than 7,000 migrants have reportedly come from Texas alone after Gov. Greg Abbott (R) began sending the buses in April. In May, buses also started arriving from Arizona.
Those displays were meant as a statement to the Biden administration, but they’ve also provided a test for a mayor who had vowed to get people off the streets and out of shelters. The migrants, many of whom have fled death threats and other dangers, have added to the city’s homeless count.
City leaders may not have asked for this problem, but it is now theirs to address, and they have the resources and ability to do so. The children who have arrived on those buses — and who will inevitably come on the next round of them — may stay for one week or one year or longer. But while they are here, they are the city’s children. They are our children. And they need help, not politics.
Bowser was right when she said, “When we build citywide solutions to citywide challenges, we can build a fairer, more equitable DC — a DC that provides better opportunities to more families.” But doing that requires taking action.
After the Defense Department’s recent refusal to help, Bowser released a series of tweets addressing the situation.
“We are going to move forward with our planning to ensure that when people are coming through DC on their way to their final destination that we have a humane setting for them,” she tweeted.
Their final destination. Those words were not lost on the mutual aid volunteers who have been handling, to the point of exhaustion, the needs of the arriving asylum seekers.
Bahl said city leaders want people to believe the migrants are passing through the area, but many are staying.
Volunteers described dozens of families living at the Hampton Inn on New York Avenue, which is also used to quarantine people who test positive for the coronavirus or monkeypox and have nowhere to go. They said plans call for those families to join others already at the Days Inn, but that setting is also not ideal for children. The conditions are confining, and the area is isolating for families.
The District decided to do right by homeless children — but only after pleas, worries and questions
When I last wrote about the hotels on New York Avenue, hundreds of homeless children were living there and struggling to get to and from school. They were having to cross busy lanes of traffic to reach the closest bus stop and take several forms of public transportation to schools spread across the city. As a solution, the city started providing a shuttle to take the families to the closest Metro stations.
Vallano said a shuttle would be “extremely helpful” for the families, but more support is also needed. Many of the families had their personal documents destroyed when they entered the country, and they arrived with few belongings.
“Our main ask is that unhoused migrant families receive the same level of support as other unhoused families,” Vallano said. “These families have chosen to remain here and need long-term support like any other family.”
She said the oldest of the children at the hotels is 17 and the youngest is less than a month old. She was at the hospital when that baby was born.
She helped the mother by filling out paperwork, talking to doctors and pediatricians, and driving her and the newborn home from the hospital. And then, because the families have been told not to use the hotel address on any paperwork, Vallano provided her own home address so that a Social Security card for the child could be mailed.
“We get very involved because we have to,” she said. “There is no one else helping them.” | 2022-08-24T23:25:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Migrant children brought by bus to D.C. need help, not politics - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/24/migrant-children-school-dc/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/24/migrant-children-school-dc/ |
Mom of child who shot himself asked dad to remove guns, documents say
Legend Wheeler, 1, died after he found his father’s gun and accidentally shot himself, police say. JD Wheeler, 23, faces a second-degree murder charge.
Legend Wheeler. (Image from Criminal Complaint filed Superior Court of the District of Columbia)
The mom of the 1-year-old boy who accidentally shot himself in D.C. had repeatedly warned the child’s father not to have firearms in the apartment, according to charging documents released Wednesday.
Police said JD Wheeler left his gun in the living room anyway, and his son fatally shot himself with the weapon on Nov. 24.
Wheeler, 23, is facing a second-degree murder charge in the death of Legend Wheeler. He denied to police that the handgun was his, according to the documents.
On the day of the shooting, Wheeler was in court for hearings related to two previous firearms-related offenses, according to the documents. His attorney could not be immediately reached.
As of 2015, as many as 4.6 million children lived in homes with at least one loaded and unlocked firearm. Researchers estimate that the number of gun-related accidental deaths and suicides among children and teenagers would drop by as much as a third if everyone in the country locked up their firearms.
The shooting occurred around 12:45 p.m. inside a residence in the 2300 block of Chester Street SE. Legend’s mother, in interviews with police, said she was in the kitchen while her son and another child were playing in the living room, according to charging documents. She heard a loud bang and thought Legend had knocked over a computer. But when she rushed into the room, the documents say, she saw Legend unconscious, with a gunshot wound to his face.
Surveillance images which police put in the charging documents show the mother, who was not named, crying in the stairwell of the building, while holding her son. The footage shows Wheeler going in and out of the apartment — at one point holding Legend.
When police arrived on the scene, they said they did not find a firearm inside the apartment.
They linked the gun used in the shooting to Wheeler, according to the documents, through interviews with witnesses and a review of his Instagram account. One video, filmed by the mother, showed Wheeler sitting on a chair and talking to the camera, with Legend near him. Authorities wrote in the charging documents that when Wheeler pulled out a firearm, the mother’s “facial expression changes and the video cuts off.”
In interviews with police, the mother said she had told Wheeler not to have firearms in the house before Legend was born. Another witness said Wheeler “had to be corrected on a previous occasion about leaving a weapon out and accessible.” A third witness said they had seen Wheeler acting “reckless” with the firearm — leaving it out on the dining room table or in the bedroom he at times shared with the mother and Legend.
The Wheeler family could not be reached for comment.
John Woodrow Cox contributed to this report. | 2022-08-24T23:25:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Mom of 1-year-old who shot himself asked dad to keep guns out of house - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/24/mom-dad-infant-gun-unsecured/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/24/mom-dad-infant-gun-unsecured/ |
Kim Cheatle takes over at a time when the storied agency has faced mishaps and a less-than-flattering spotlight
Secret Service agents stand guard as former president Donald Trump appears for a deposition in New York earlier this month. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
President Biden on Wednesday announced that he had selected a new director for the U.S. Secret Service, an agency that has been under increasing scrutiny in recent months and faced a dramatic spotlight in the hearings of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Biden said in a statement that he had selected Kim Cheatle, who rose through the ranks during 27 years with the agency and had served on his security detail when he was vice president. Cheatle, currently an official with PepsiCo, will become the agency’s second female chief in its 157-year history.
“Jill and I know firsthand Kim’s commitment to her job and to the Secret Service’s people and mission,” Biden said. As she served on his detail, Biden said, “We came to trust her judgment and counsel.”
Cheatle rose to become the first woman to serve as the agency’s assistant director of protective operations, one of the most prominent jobs in the Secret Service.
The announcement came several weeks after Secret Service Director James Murray announced he was stepping down to accept a job as chief security officer for California-based Snap Inc., owner of the Snapchat social media site.
The move also came after high-profile, often unwelcome incidents for the agency, which is charged with protecting top U.S. officials, including former presidents, as well as visiting foreign dignitaries.
Two Secret Service employees who had been dispatched to South Korea for Biden’s trip there in May were involved in conduct that ended in a confrontation with South Korean citizens. The incident happened while the agents were off-duty, but they returned to the United States and were placed on administrative leave.
A month earlier, agency leaders acknowledged that four Secret Service employees — including an agent assigned to protect first lady Jill Biden — had allegedly been hoodwinked by two men impersonating federal agents who plied them with gifts.
In recent weeks, Secret Service agents have featured in dramatic testimony before the House Jan. 6 committee.
Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified that she was told that President Donald Trump lashed out at his protective detail when agents would not take him to join his supporters marching toward the Capitol, at one point lunging for the steering wheel of the presidential vehicle.
Jan. 6 showed two faces of the Secret Service
Officials have said on the condition of anonymity that the Secret Service agents take issue with some details of Hutchinson’s account — and are prepared to do so under oath — although they do not dispute the notion that Trump was angry and wanted to be taken to the Capitol.
When Murray announced his departure last month, White House officials said it was not connected to the congressional hearings.
The only other woman to head the Secret Service was Julia Pierson in 2013-2014, who resigned after security lapses eroded President Barack Obama’s confidence in her.
Cheatle has held a number of roles in the agency, including her job as part of the Vice Presidential Protective Division, and in 2021 Biden awarded her with a Presidential Rank Award. She is currently a senior director at PepsiCo North America overseeing facilities, personnel and business continuity. | 2022-08-24T23:33:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Biden names first woman to head the Secret Service - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/24/biden-first-woman-secret-service/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/24/biden-first-woman-secret-service/ |
Creed Taylor, producer who made bossa nova a global sensation, dies at 93
He was also instrumental in the careers of John Coltrane and George Benson, among other jazz performers
Creed Taylor circa 1970. (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Creed Taylor, an innovative force in the evolution of jazz who worked with John Coltrane, Ray Charles and many others and a popularizer of Brazilian music who oversaw the recording of such classics as “The Girl from Ipanema” that helped make bossa nova a worldwide phenomenon, died Aug. 22 in Winkelhaid, Germany. He was 93.
The cause was complications from a stroke, said his son John W. Taylor.
Mr. Taylor had a broad musical impact: as a packager who helped introduce laminated covers and gatefold sleeves for LPs; as a producer with an ear for emerging talent and new trends; and as the founder of Impulse and CTI Records. He helped discover Herbie Mann, produced early music by George Benson, Quincy Jones and Grover Washington Jr. and produced or released albums by Coltrane, Charles, Bill Evans and Wes Montgomery, among hundreds of artists.
Commercially, he had his greatest success recording bossa nova, the softened, upscale variation of samba, which had emerged in Rio de Janeiro in the late 1950s. Mr. Taylor was lead producer at Verve Records when he got a phone call in 1961 from the jazz guitarist Charlie Byrd, who had been on tour in Brazil for the State Department and wanted Mr. Taylor to hear some tapes of the new sound. Mr. Taylor contacted his friend Stan Getz, the jazz saxophonist, and suggested he and Byrd work on an album together.
Jazz guitarist Charlie Byrd dies at 74
Their collaboration became the landmark “Jazz Samba,” produced by Taylor and featuring two contributions from the gifted Brazilian songwriter and musician, Antônio Carlos Jobim: “Desafinado” and “Samba de Uma Nota Só.” Recorded in a few hours at a church in D.C., the album came out in 1962 and kept gaining attention, topping the Billboard pop chart the following year and selling more than 1 million copies. Getz won a Grammy for best jazz performance on “Desafinado.”
In 1964, Mr. Taylor produced one of the decade’s most acclaimed and influential records, “Getz/Gilberto,” another million seller that stayed on the Billboard charts for nearly two years and confirmed bossa nova’s appeal. “Getz/Gilberto” featured Getz, Jobim and Brazilian guitarist João Gilberto, and included such bossa nova standards as “Só Danço Samba” and “Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars).”
“Getz/Gilberto” received four Grammys, including album of the year and record of the year, for its most famous track, “The Girl from Ipanema,” the spare, wistful ballad featuring Jobim singing in Portuguese and a deadpan, English-language cameo by a little-known Brazilian performer, Astrud Gilberto, João’s wife.
“Including her vocal on ‘The Girl from Ipanema’ was an afterthought by Stan,” Mr. Taylor told JazzWax. “No female vocal had been planned. I didn’t even know who she was until Jobim introduced me to her at the session. I think at the time, Jobim and João may have been against her singing. She was viewed simply as João’s wife and not a trained singer. I think they were afraid she was going to bring the session down or something. But Stan pushed.”
“Stan treated a lot of people not well,” he said of the troubled and unpredictable Getz, who died in 1991. “[But] there was no tension in the studio that day whatsoever. At the end of the session, Stan said, ‘Astrud, you’re going to be famous.’ ”(A shortened version of “The Girl from Ipanema,” with only Astrud Gilberto’s vocals, became a Top 10 hit.)
Mr. Taylor worked with numerous labels, beginning with Bethlehem Records in the 1950s, and eventually formed his own. He started Impulse in 1960 as a subsidiary of ABC-Paramount Records, and reached deals with Coltrane and Charles among others before leaving for Verve a year later. Impulse would eventually release Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” (1965), one of the top-selling jazz albums of all time.
In 1967, Mr. Taylor launched CTI, initially in partnership with A&M Records, then as an independent company. He released albums including Freddie Hubbard’s soul-jazz favorite “Red Clay” and George Benson’s commercial breakthrough “Bad Benson,” and records by Jobim, Montgomery, Herbie Hancock, Nina Simone, Milt Jackson and Chet Baker. CTI was not only a leader in establishing “smooth jazz,” blending jazz with soul and funk and other sounds, but was recognizable for its album covers by photographer Peter Turner, often using silhouettes, moody close-ups and stark color designs.
Mr. Taylor struggled after the mid-1970s, especially after a distribution deal with Motown ended with his filing for bankruptcy. He did resurrect the label in the late 1980s and had some success with Larry Coryell’s “Fallen Angel” album. More recently, he presided over the reissue of dozens of CTI albums, including releases by Benson, Ron Carter and Esther Phillips.
Creed Taylor, a mill owner’s son, was born in Lynchburg, Va., on May 13, 1929. He played trumpet in two jazz groups while majoring in psychology at Duke University. Upon graduation, in 1951, he was drafted into the Marine Corps and served in combat as an artilleryman in the Korean War.
After his discharge, he settled in New York City to pursue what had long been his passion: jazz. Even as he grew up around bluegrass and country music, he was moved by the sounds he had discovered through listening to New York jazz DJ Sidney Torin, a.k.a. “Symphony Sid,” on radio.
“Everything he talked about was so cool and clear in my head, not just about the music but also the social surroundings of the jazz players,” he told JazzWax. “All I could think of was, ‘Wow, this music is something else.’ I couldn’t wait to get up to New York and start meeting the people Symphony Sid was talking about.”
Mr. Taylor was married twice, most recently to Harriet Schmidt, and had four children. | 2022-08-24T23:38:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Producer Creed Taylor dies at 93 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/08/24/creed-taylor-jazz-producer-dead/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/08/24/creed-taylor-jazz-producer-dead/ |
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has announced his long-awaited plan to deliver on his campaign promise to provide $10,000 in student debt cancellation for millions of Americans — and up to $10,000 more for those with the greatest financial need. Biden announced in a Wednesday tweet that borrowers who earn less than $125,000 a year, or families earning less than $250,000, would be eligible for the $10,000 loan forgiveness. For recipients of Pell Grants, which are reserved for undergraduates with the most significant financial need, the federal government would cancel up to an additional $10,000 in federal loan debt. Biden is also extending a pause on federal student loan payments through the end of 2022.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sephora Inc. has settled a lawsuit claiming the company sold customer information without proper notice in violation of the California’s landmark consumer privacy law. Attorney General Rob Bonta said Wednesday that the large cosmetics retailer agreed to pay $1.2 million and fix the problem. State officials say Sephora failed to tell customers that it was selling their personal information, failed to allow customers to opt out and didn’t fix the problem within 30 days as required. Sephora says in a statement that it respects consumers’ privacy and used the information to improve their shopping experience. The settlement is the state’s first such enforcement action under the California Consumer Privacy Act.
DETROIT — U.S. securities regulators are questioning Twitter about how it calculates the number of fake accounts on its platform. The Securities and Exchange Commission in June asked the company about its methodology and “the underlying judgments and assumptions used by management.” The agency’s Division of Corporation Finance made the request in a June 15 letter, shortly before Tesla CEO Elon Musk raised the issue as grounds to back out of a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion. Such questions can be routine, and it wasn’t clear whether the SEC has opened a formal investigation into Twitter’s fake accounts.
SYDNEY — Fox Corp. chief executive Lachlan Murdoch is suing Australian news website Crikey in a Sydney court for defamation over an opinion piece about last year’s storming of the U.S. Capitol. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s son filed a statement of claim Tuesday after Crikey publisher Private Media’s chairman Eric Beecher and managing editor Peter Fray put their names to media ads inviting Lachlan Murdoch to sue. Murdoch claims he was defamed by a column about the U.S. congressional investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection. Crickey said it welcomed the suit and would not be silenced. No court hearing date has yet been set. Murdoch has not proposed a monetary sum should he win damages in court.
BERLIN — Germany says it will keep exporting electricity to neighboring France despite calling on citizens to help fend off winter shortages by saving energy at home. Problems at French nuclear plants have driven up electricity prices there in recent months. That has prompted power companies in neighboring countries to sell their excess energy to France. Even precious natural gas which Germany is trying to conserve for winter in case Russia cuts of supplies entirely is being burned in large volumes to produce electricity for export to France. A German government spokesman said Wednesday that there were no plans to stop the practice.
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has named Kim Cheatle, a veteran Secret Service official, as the agency’s next director. Her appointment comes as the agency faces controversy over missing text messages around the time thousands of supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol. Cheatle left the Secret Service in 2021 for a job as a security executive at PepsiCo. She takes over as congressional committees and the Homeland Security’s internal watchdog are investigating the missing messages, which the Secret Service has said were purged during a technology transition. Cheatle worked at the Secret Service for 27 years and was the first woman to be named assistant director of protective operations. That division provides protection to the president and other dignitaries. | 2022-08-24T23:38:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Business Highlights: Student loans, SEC questions Twitter - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/business-highlights-student-loans-sec-questions-twitter/2022/08/24/6cc6099c-23fb-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/business-highlights-student-loans-sec-questions-twitter/2022/08/24/6cc6099c-23fb-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html |
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is set to push not just for the restart of operations including Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, the largest nuclear power facility in the world — he’s also looking to reverse a decade of policy and mull the building of new nuclear plants. The country will also consider extending the lifespan of existing reactors beyond the current 60 years.
But the about-face is striking nonetheless. Just last year, the energy ministry’s basic plan called for “reducing dependency on nuclear as much as possible.” While Kishida has previously embraced restarting existing units, building new ones presents entirely different challenges. For a premier whose popularity is already plummeting, Kishida won’t find it easy to convince the public to stop worrying and love nuclear power again.
Japan was previously a staunch, if initially unlikely, proponent of nuclear power, viewing it as the solution to reducing its dependency on foreign energy. In the space of just 20 years, nuclear became the country’s primary source of electricity generation, helping to fuel the post-oil-crisis stage of its economic miracle. By the turn of the millennium, it provided more than a third of the nation’s power.
The 1999 criticality accident (a limited self-sustained nuclear chain reaction) at the Tokaimura plant and the 2007 earthquake that shook Kashiwazaki-Kariwa beyond its design specifications had already muted enthusiasm for nuclear power. Then came the tsunami and meltdown at Fukushima Dai-ichi. Naoto Kan, the left-leaning prime minister at the time, ordered the abrupt shutdown of the distant Hamaoka nuclear plant. Tens of thousands marched against nuclear power in Tokyo in the biggest protests the country had seen for decades; the likes of SoftBank Group Corp. founder Masayoshi Son lined up to join the anti-nuclear movement.
In a little over a year, all of Japan’s nuclear plants were offline. Nuclear’s share of the energy mix collapsed to zero, and the use of liquefied natural gas and coal surged; thermal power made up nearly 90% of generation in 2014. Today just six of the nation’s 33 operable reactors are running.
Behind Kishida’s change of heart lies a mix of public opinion and geopolitics. Russia’s war on Ukraine has thrown into doubt the future of the Sakhalin-2 natural gas venture, critical to Japan’s LNG supply. Amid the resulting rising cost of electricity, fears of blackouts and concern over climate change, voters have started to shift. Earlier this year, a majority polled by the Nikkei newspaper said they supported nuclear restarts for the first time since Fukushima.
Opposition may be weakening, but recently there’s been little to oppose. Until this week, Japan’s ruling party expressed scant willingness to do more than restart the nation’s stalled fleet. Japan hasn’t built a new reactor since before Fukushima: Three are in theory currently under construction, with another six in the planning stages, but work seems stalled with operators giving no timeline for when any of them might come online.
Japan won’t be able to match that frenetic pace, but it will be determined not to repeat the folly of Germany, where politicians are now attempting to back out of a nuclear exit ahead of an energy crunch this winter. With no neighbor it can borrow energy from, Japan’s options are limited.
But the challenges are immense. Both national and local support are required. Public opinion might back restarting reactors that have gone through the arduous approval process, but extending the lifespan of current ones will require an entirely separate debate. Is the public really ready to trust Tepco with operating a nuclear plant so close to a fault line? Getting support for new reactors will be the biggest challenge of all, with finding communities to host one already a challenge even before Fukushima.
Kishida should be applauded for taking these challenges on. As the most prominent politician from Hiroshima, the first city to suffer attack by an atomic bomb, he’s an unlikely face for the nuclear movement. But just as with his support for increased defense spending, his background gives him cover for an idea that other politicians would find a hard sell. Now the difficult part begins.
• Ukraine Is a Wake-Up Call in Faraway Japan: Gearoid Reidy | 2022-08-24T23:38:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Can Japan Learn to Love Nuclear Power Again? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/can-japan-learn-to-love-nuclear-power-again/2022/08/24/e8481eaa-23f8-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/can-japan-learn-to-love-nuclear-power-again/2022/08/24/e8481eaa-23f8-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html |
FILE - This Sept. 26, 2018, file photo provided by the National Park Service shows a 4-year-old female gray wolf emerges from her cage as it is released at Isle Royale National Park in Michigan. Scientists reported Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2022, that the wolf population at Isle Royale National Park has reached 28, a dramatic comeback for the predator species that had nearly disappeared from the Lake Superior island chain a few years ago. Park officials airlifted wolves to the park in recent years to rebuild their numbers. (National Park Service via AP, File) (Uncredited/National Park Service) | 2022-08-24T23:39:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Isle Royale wolf population surges after nearly dying off - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/isle-royale-wolf-population-surges-after-nearly-dying-off/2022/08/24/b8455d16-23fe-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/isle-royale-wolf-population-surges-after-nearly-dying-off/2022/08/24/b8455d16-23fe-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html |
This photo provided on Aug. 14, 2022, by the North Korean government, Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, delivers a speech during the national meeting against the coronavirus, in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022, Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP) (Uncredited/KCNA via KNS) | 2022-08-24T23:42:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | N. Korea sees suspected COVID-19 cases after victory claim - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/n-korea-sees-suspected-covid-19-cases-after-victory-claim/2022/08/24/c2be2f14-2400-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/n-korea-sees-suspected-covid-19-cases-after-victory-claim/2022/08/24/c2be2f14-2400-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html |
D.C. schools expected to enroll migrant children
Migrants who boarded a bus in Texas step off within view of the Capitol in Washington this month. (Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images)
About 40 migrant children could enroll in D.C. public schools, the District’s chancellor said Wednesday following an announcement from the city’s mayor that school-aged children who arrive on buses from the southern border can attend classes in the fall.
“We will ensure that students have access to the services needed, and if they reside in a particular area, we will ensure that they have access to their neighborhood school,” Chancellor Lewis Ferebee said during a news conference. Public school districts cannot bar students from enrolling based on citizenship or immigration status.
He added DCPS has a “strong welcoming center” that will support migrant families who decide to enroll in the school system. The district enrolls more than 49,000 students, about 15 percent of whom are English learners, according to data from the D.C. Office of the State Superintendent of Education.
Pentagon denies local request for National Guard help for migrants
More than 7,000 migrants from countries including Venezuela and Nicaragua have arrived in the nation’s capital since April, when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) started offering free bus rides as a way to criticize the Biden administration’s border enforcement policies. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) made a similar offer to migrants in May.
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said the buses, which arrive in the city unannounced, “are a politically motivated stunt.” Migrants, in many cases, have fled death threats or other dangers in their home countries and are in the United States seeking asylum.
Local aid groups have stepped in to receive the new migrants and have placed many of them in temporary shelters and hotels. This month, D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine, who is elected independently from the mayor and controls his office’s spending, announced a $150,000 grant program for nonprofits that are helping migrants.
But many of these groups are strained. With some migrants sleeping outside Union Station and in parking lots, Bowser has called the situation a humanitarian crisis.
This week, the U.S. Department of Defense for the second time denied her request for help from the National Guard to receive the influx of migrants. “We struggle with a broken immigration system in our country, and we know that cities alone cannot fix it,” she wrote on Twitter.
Immigrant families are leaving local public schools. Will they return?
Mariel Vallano, a D.C. middle school English language teacher who is helping the migrant families through a mutual aid network, said the children are not yet formally enrolled. The enrollment papers have been passed out to families, but none of them have been completed, she added.
Staff with the Language Acquisition Division for the school system plan to help the families fill out the paperwork on Thursday and will start collecting the forms at that time.
Madhvi Bahl, an organizer with the Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network and Sanctuary DMV, said it has been a struggle up to this point to get students enrolled in school. Migrants living in hotels have not been receiving the same services from the D.C. Department of Human Services as other unhoused people in the city, Bahl added.
“It doesn’t give them case managers. It doesn’t give them any of the other things that you would need to help get them enrolled,” Bahl said. Moving forward, she added, the school district will need to help kids adjust to life in the classroom. “One of the most important things is, of course, making sure they have access to language services.”
Ferebee said he is confident the school system has the resources to help new migrant children settle into classrooms, including Spanish-speaking teachers and staff that can assist families with needs such as housing. | 2022-08-25T00:56:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Migrant studetns could be enrolled in DC public schools - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/08/24/dc-schools-enroll-migrant-students/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/08/24/dc-schools-enroll-migrant-students/ |
The Florida governor waded into the usually nonpartisan races, which have turned increasingly contentious
A DeSantis supporter interacts with protesters outside the Metro-Dade Firefighters Local 1403, where the governor spoke at an event for school board candidates he endorsed in Doral, Fla., on Aug. 21. (Carl Juste/Miami Herald/AP)
MIAMI — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis saw big wins Tuesday night in nearly two dozen school board races where he endorsed conservative candidates backing his education agenda, underscoring his influence as he uses local races to build his voter base and showcase his national platform.
After a summer of testy campaigns that centered around race, LGBTQ rights, school textbooks and even abortion, at least 20 of the 30 DeSantis-backed school board candidates won their races in Tuesday’s primary. Conservatives say they now have new majorities on school boards in Miami-Dade, Duval, Sarasota and Brevard counties, potentially reshaping policies for more than half a million students and thousands of teachers.
“Just as Trump is doing nationwide, DeSantis is doing in Florida,” Verdugo said, comparing DeSantis to the former president, who has been flexing his political influence in this year’s Republican primaries — with mixed results.
The Republican governor has seized on parental rights as a key part of his messaging on education as he gears up for a reelection race against U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist (D), and potentially a 2024 presidential bid. Some Florida Democrats said Wednesday the party must quickly figure out how it can more effectively challenge DeSantis, who they fear is succeeding in building his political brand by turning nonpartisan local races into America’s latest ideological battlefield.
“We have to focus on these local races,” said Max Frost, the 25-year-old liberal activist who was elected Tuesday as the Democratic nominee for an Orlando-area congressional seat. “DeSantis is someone who worries me more than Trump because if you look at what he’s done here, he’s going out and stumping for these school board candidates … He’s building power.”
Yet despite DeSantis’s success in helping some school board candidates, there were also signs that the governor’s platform focused on weeding out so-called anti-woke ideas from schools faces resistance in key pockets of the state.
Joe Saunders, senior political director for Equality Florida, a group that advocates for LGBTQ rights, said more moderate candidates backed by his organization defeated candidates endorsed by Moms for Liberty, a conservative parental rights group, in more than two dozen school board races. Saunders said victories in the Tampa and Orlando regions were a sign that there are limits to conservatives’ political appeal.
“When voters were given a choice, between the extremism of Moms for Liberty and a pro-equality candidate, a majority of the time voters still chose that pro-equality candidate,” he said.
Some voters, like Jose Perez in Miami, said they were put off by DeSantis’s decision to wade so heavily into a nonpartisan school board race. In the run-up to the election, Perez said he was inundated with negative — and often false — advertisements including accusing Marta Perez, the longtime incumbent up against DeSantis’s candidate, of supporting “transgender ideology.”
“I like DeSantis, but why is he spending so much political capital, and money, going after a fellow Republican?” asked Jose Perez, who was wearing a “Reagan-Bush” hat and is not related to Marta. “I and a lot of people are scratching our heads. Why is he doing this?”
In Alachua County, which includes the University of Florida in Gainesville, voters even elected a woman who had been removed from the board by DeSantis a year earlier when reports surfaced she lived just 300 feet outside the district’s boundaries. Diyonne McGraw defeated the minister that DeSantis had appointed to replace her.
“People continue to play politics, but this is about the children,” McGraw said. “It’s also about democracy.”
Susan MacManus, a Florida political analyst and professor emerita at the University of South Florida, said DeSantis’s endorsements in local races highlight the growing skill of his political organization, providing the campaign with a test run of its November get-out-the-vote operation.
“He’s very savvy at figuring out how to get out votes,” MacManus said. “Between the end of early voting and Election Day, he has these huge news conferences to show his support for these candidates he selected. At that point, a lot of Republicans had yet to vote, and maybe they hadn’t been paying a lot of attention to school board races. But suddenly he’s in town saying, ‘These are my people, we need this.’ He’s very savvy in understanding the timing of pushing political issues.”
The conservative victories, several of which occurred in counties that have been highly competitive in statewide elections, come as Democrats on Wednesday started rallying behind Crist as the Democratic nominee to take on DeSantis.
Within minutes of Crist winning the nomination, both he and DeSantis set the tone for a divisive contest that is expected to further political and cultural divisions within the state. The battle over school and health-care issues is expected to remain at the forefront in the general election campaign.
“Our state is worth fighting for,” DeSantis told his supporters in Miami on Tuesday night. “I am calling on all Floridians to put on the full armor of God as we will fight tooth and nail to protect Florida.”
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday morning, Crist suggested he doesn’t need or want the votes of those who support DeSantis. Crist is expected to shape his platform around countering DeSantis’s notion of “freedom” — arguing that it’s only freedom for some in a state with soaring housing costs and contentious battles over topics like race and gender identity.
“Those who support the governor should stay with him and vote for him,” said Crist, as he raised his voice and swung his hand. “I don’t want your vote. If you have that hate in your heart, keep it there.”
During the final days of the campaign, several of the school board races turned especially contentious. In Sarasota, some outside groups sent out mailers accusing left-leaning candidates of being “Planned Parenthood baby killers” and supporting “pornography in schools.” The DeSantis-endorsed candidates swept three school board races to secure a 4-to-1 conservative majority. Lisa Schurr, a Sarasota education activist, said Democrats were simply outvoted on Tuesday.
“The bottom line is there are 150,000 of them, and 100,000 of us,” said Schurr, a Democrat. “We didn’t get out the vote, and they had a much better ground game.”
But Bridget Ziegler, an incumbent Sarasota County school board member who was reelected Tuesday and helped organize the conservative slate, said the election results are a sign of the parental rights movement’s growing strength. Ziegler, a close political ally of DeSantis, said schools have become too “woke” and parents need to have more control over school lesson plans and textbooks.
“This is how you preserve our republic,” said Ziegler, who also helped launch Moms for Liberty. “So I think it is very important for people across the country to see what happened in Florida, and this will have a ripple effect in a lot of different states where people are already frustrated.”
There was another notable conservative victory in Sarasota on Tuesday night: Voters also elected three candidates to the board of the county’s flagship hospital who had campaigned as skeptics of the coronavirus vaccine and some other scientifically based medical policies. The victories were a major boost for the growing “medical freedom” movement, which argues patients should have more control over their medical decisions.
In Miami-Dade, Verdugo, of the Christian Family Coalition, said conservatives became angry with incumbent Marta Perez in 2021, after she supported an extension of classroom mask policies to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The final straw for many conservatives came last year, he said, after she voted to designate October as “LGBTQ History Month.” Perez did not return calls seeking comment.
“Marta is someone who is more of a Bush Republican, a moderate, and the ground has shifted and the times have changed,” Verdugo said.
In Jacksonville, April Carney won a Duval County School Board seat after DeSantis endorsed her. Carney was also supported by Moms for Liberty, and she appeared on Fox News and Stephen K. Bannon’s podcasts in the weeks leading up the election.
Duval County was at the center of school district fights over mask mandates and more recently over how to implement DeSantis’s new parental rights laws. With Carney’s victory, conservatives now have a 4-3 majority on the board.
Katie Hathway, a Jacksonville mother who campaigned for Carney’s opponent, said the results on Tuesday have left her rattled and fearful about the future of public education in Florida.
“I’ve literally been crying since last night,” Hathaway said. “I’m beyond disappointed. I’m also terrified.”
Hathaway and others opposed to DeSantis’s preferred school board candidates have started a group in Jacksonville called Public School Defenders to organize against policies they see as harmful, including banning books. She is also turning her focus to the November election, hoping voters upset over the governor’s meddling in local education races will turn up in big numbers for his Democratic challenger.
“I think this election really opened a lot of people’s eyes,” she said.
Ziegler, meanwhile, said it’s precisely DeSantis’s strong opinions on polarizing issues like how sex education and racial inequality are taught in the classroom that she believes will draw his supporters to the polls in November.
“Ron DeSantis is straightforward. He takes on issues that he believes are important,” Ziegler said. “And he knows what he is fighting for.”
David Weigel contributed to this report. | 2022-08-25T00:56:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Florida governor Ron DeSantis nets big wins in school board races - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/24/florida-desantis-schools-election/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/24/florida-desantis-schools-election/ |
Ruling in Biden administration lawsuit says doctors can’t be punished for terminating pregnancies that pose significant health risks
Vice President Harris delivers remarks as Attorney General Merrick Garland and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas look on, with President Biden on screen at a virtual event on securing access to reproductive and other health care services in the Indian Treaty Room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on Aug. 3. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)
The Biden administration on Wednesday scored its first legal victory since the Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade, convincing a judge to block the portion of an Idaho law that criminalizes performing an abortion on a woman to protect her health.
The law, which was set to take effect on Thursday, bans abortions except in cases involving rape, incest or when a woman’s life is in danger — and does not contain an exception for when a pregnant person’s health is at risk. The law would allow authorities to arrest a health-care professional involved in performing an abortion, putting the onus on that person to prove in court that the abortion met the criteria for one of the exceptions..
U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill said the statute violates a federal act that requires hospitals participating in the federally funded Medicare program to provide medical care when a person’s life or health is at stake. The “trigger” law was written by Idaho state lawmakers long before the Supreme Court struck down Roe V. Wade in June, with the expectation that it would automatically go into effect soon after the court made the landmark ruling.
Idaho can still have a strict abortion law in place, but Winmill ruled that a doctor cannot be punished if he or she performs an abortion to protect the health of a pregnant patient.
“It’s not about the bygone constitutional right to an abortion,” the judges ruling states. “This Court is not grappling with that larger, more profound question. Rather, the Court is called upon to address a far more modest issue—whether Idaho’s criminal abortion statute conflicts with a small but important corner of federal legislation. It does.”
The ruling sets up a potential clash in the federal court system, with a Texas ruling Tuesday that the federal statute in question does not require states to allow abortions in instances when it could protect a pregnant patient’s health. With many states passing increasingly stringent abortion bans, legal experts expect the litigation over the health-exception issue to continue, potentially reaching the Supreme Court.
Still, the crux of Idaho’s abortion law will remain intact, with the state continuing to ban abortion in most circumstances. The narrow scope of the decision underscores just how few legal tools the Biden administration has to significantly shape abortion rights in the country since Roe was struck down, upending the right to terminate a pregnancy that had been enshrined in federal law for nearly 50 years.
Here's the latest abortion-law action across the United States
Idaho accused the Justice Department of federal overreach since the Supreme Court ruled that states can set their own abortion restrictions under Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
Winmill seemed skeptical on Monday of the Idaho lawyers’ arguments that in the “real world” a Idaho lawyer would never prosecute a doctor for performing an abortion on a severely ill patient. “The concern is that real world events are very hard to predict, but the text of the law is very clear,” he said.
While this is the first time the Biden administration has argued in court that EMTALA protects a right to an abortion in certain instances, the federal government attempted last month to require hospitals that receive Medicare funds to perform abortions that would protect a patient’s health.
In July, shortly after the Dobbs ruling, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — the federal office charged with enforcing EMTALA — issued guidance to hospitals saying that the statute preempts any state law that bans performing an abortion when a woman’s health is at risk.
The state of Texas, in response, sued the secretary of Health and Human Services, saying that the state’s verreach. On Tuesday, a federal judge agreed with Texas, ruling that requirements set forth in EMTALA do not conflict with the state’s strict abortion laws.
Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University, said he expects circuit courts across the country to be split on whether access to abortions in health emergencies is part of EMTALA. He said the public should anticipate many appeals in the coming months.
“When EMTALA was enacted, did Congress intend to preempt state law that bans certain medical procedures? My view is, absolutely,” Gostin said. “If EMTALA stands for anything, it stands for any person in America, in any place in America, being able to walk into an emergency department expecting that doctors will do everything possible to save their lives and prevent a deterioration of their health.”
Sinec Roe was overturned, Justice Department officials and abortion rights advocates have also been weighing other legal strategies to protect abortion rights, including protecting women who are traveling to states where the procedures are legal and ensuring that people have access to pills that can induce abortions. | 2022-08-25T00:56:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Idaho abortion ruling: doctors can't be punished in abortions based on health risks - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/24/idaho-abortion-ruling/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/24/idaho-abortion-ruling/ |
Mariners right fielder is unable to haul in Ildemaro Vargas's ninth-inning home run that was the difference in the Nationals' 3-1 win at Seattle. (Stephen Brashear/AP)
SEATTLE — The score was tied until Mitch Haniger ran out of room in right-center, forcing him to stop short of the wall and watch Ildemaro Vargas’s go-ahead homer sneak beyond it. The two-run shot, off a 1-2 fastball from Paul Sewald in the ninth, put the Washington Nationals up for good in a 3-1 win at T-Mobile Park on Wednesday.
It wan unlikely source of power, late innings or otherwise. But it was just enough to complement another strong showing from Washington’s pitching staff.
“This whole road trip they were outstanding, really,” Manager Dave Martinez said of his arms, which helped the team to a 3-3 run through San Diego and Seattle. “From the starters to the relievers, they pitched really well. … We got to make some more opportunities to try to drive in runs.”
Start to finish, the finale was a full-on pitchers’ duel. Mariners right-hander George Kirby began his outing with 24 consecutive strikes. Within those pitches, he yielded five singles and the Nationals’ only run off him, courtesy of Nelson Cruz’s RBI single in the first. When Kirby exited after seven, he had struck out nine and been matched by Aníbal Sánchez, Hunter Harvey and Victor Arano.
Sánchez, 38, blanked Seattle for 4⅓ innings and threw 81 pitches. Over his past two outings, he has pitched 9⅓ frames, yielding three hits and four walks while striking out six. Behind him Wednesday, Harvey stranded an inherited runner on third, pumping 100-mph fastballs to strike out back-to-back hitters. Arano followed and recorded four outs without a hitch. Then Carl Edwards Jr. entered and almost recorded four outs, too, trying to bridge the lead to Kyle Finnegan. Then Edwards made a critical mistake to Julio Rodríguez.
Before the hanging curveball, Rodríguez was 0 for 7 with four strikeouts in the two-game series. But then that 0-1 curveball landed well beyond the left-center wall at T-Mobile Park. That put Rodríguez, a 21-year-old star, in the 20/20 club with 20 homers and 20 steals. He became the 12th rookie in history to accomplish the feat.
But Vargas and Finnegan had the last word. Vargas’s homer was the second of a fairly productive road swing for the 31-year-old utility man. And Finnegan, having helped Edwards out of the eighth, continued to be Washington’s most reliable arm. To cap this one, though, he allowed a double, a walk and weathered Cal Raleigh lining the final out to the warning track in center.
Updates on the Nationals’ sale process? David Rubenstein, co-founder of the Carlyle Group and chairman of the Kennedy Center, is joining forces with Ted Leonsis to bid on the Nationals, according to a person familiar with the situation. Leonsis announced Tuesday that he had acquired full ownership of NBC Sports Washington, the network that broadcasts games played by two of his other notable assets: the Capitals and Wizards.
Together, he and Rubenstein have the most local ties of any of the handful of serious bidders who have confirmed their sincerity by signing nondisclosure agreements and looking through the team’s financial records. Other confirmed suitors include South Korean billionaire Michael B. Kim and Stanley Middleman, who had previously pursued a purchase of the Cleveland Guardians.
What stands out with the 2023 schedule release? Washington will open the season against the Atlanta Braves at Nationals Park on March 30. And with Major League Baseball’s new scheduling format — 15 games with each divisional opponent instead of 19, at least one matchup with every club — the Nationals will travel to play the Los Angeles Angels, Minnesota Twins, Kansas City Royals, Houston Astros, Seattle Mariners, New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles (as always). The rest of the American League teams will visit D.C. | 2022-08-25T01:01:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Nationals end trip on high note with ninth-inning heroics in Seattle - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/24/nationals-mariners-ildemaro-vargas-homer/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/24/nationals-mariners-ildemaro-vargas-homer/ |
Vanessa Bryant was awarded $16 million in damages stemming from her lawsuit against the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. (Jae C. Hong/AP)
LOS ANGELES – A federal jury awarded Vanessa Bryant, widow of Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, $16 million on Wednesday, finding that Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies and fire officials had violated the civil rights of the loved ones of Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and other victims of a 2020 helicopter crash by taking and circulating macabre photos of the accident that killed nine.
The jury also ordered that the county pay Chris Chester, Bryant’s fellow plaintiff in the suit whose wife Sarah and daughter Payton were also killed in the crash, $15 million.
Laurie Levenson, a professor of law at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, called it a “significant verdict” in a case in which the county struggled with embarrassing trial revelations and the task of cross-examining the widow of one of the city’s most beloved sports stars. “Emotional distress doesn’t have calculator,” Levenson said in reference to the jury’s job in determining an award in this case. “The county would love to argue that the harm wasn’t that bad. That might fly if you don’t have Vanessa Bryant testifying.”
The verdict was a rejection of the the defense advanced by county attorneys and officials, who argued in court that deputies and firefighters who used cell phones to take photos of the accident scene and then shared them – including at a bar, and a gala – did so as part of their official duties.
Vanessa Bryant’s civil suit, which cited emotional distress, negligence and invasion of privacy, stated that L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva “did not conduct a standard investigation” into the photos “or collect, inspect or search the offending deputies’ cellphones to determine how many existed, whether and how they had been transmitted or whether they were stored” on the internet. | 2022-08-25T01:01:13Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Vanessa Bryant awarded $16 million over photos from Kobe Bryant crash site - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/24/vanessa-bryant-lawsuit-damages/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/24/vanessa-bryant-lawsuit-damages/ |
As in years past, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un has vociferously condemned the exercises, depicting them as rehearsals for an invasion, and making them the centerpiece in defending his illegal nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. But the US also has other reasons beyond Kim’s bluster to signal its ironclad commitment to its treaty ally. This year’s version of the exercises comes at a particularly fraught time. In East Asia, US-China tensions are peaking over Taiwan, and new governments have taken office in US allies Japan, South Korea and Australia. That is happening against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and in the aftermath of the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan, which has raised questions about US credibility and willingness to stand by its commitments.
Kim had been relatively quiescent over the two years of the pandemic, which also coincided with a downgrading of the US-ROK live-fire exercises by the administration of President Donald Trump, whose attempts at personal diplomacy produced no concrete results in terms of the North’s denuclearization. Now, not only does Kim likely miss the international prominence he had achieved during those years, but North Korea also faces increasingly dire pressures from a combination of international sanctions, the pandemic and global inflation.
Speculation is therefore growing in Washington and Seoul that Kim may use the exercises to justify another nuclear test, something he has not done since the sixth such event in Sept. 2017. Kim is also seeking to ingratiate himself with the Kremlin by pledging military support and guest workers to the Russian invasion forces in Ukraine. In response, the South Koreans will showcase a civil defense training program that will feature educating civilians in responding to an attack and providing logistics support to their military.
Ulchi Freedom Shield will also use the lessons that militaries worldwide are drawing from events in Ukraine: the importance of advanced drones, civilian-military cooperation, air defense against attacks launched at critical infrastructure and the vulnerabilities of tanks and other armored vehicles if deployed without sufficient combined arms support. Above all, both the US and South Korea want to test their logistical capabilities, which have been so lacking on the part of Russian forces in Crimea.
In the past, these exercises had included 200,000 South Korean troops and a significant portion of the nearly 30,000 US troops based on the peninsula. Significant elements of the US 7th Fleet, homebased in Japan, and associated amphibious ships from nearby Sasebo, Japan, will deploy for the war games.
Two other recent developments also raise the importance and profile of the exercises. The first is the election of the most conservative and pro-defense government in recent South Korean history, led by the just-inaugurated President Yoon Suk Yeol. The new administration in Seoul has pledged strong defense increases, acquisition of new military technologies and greater military cooperation with the US and other western allies in the region.
The second important element is the abrupt rejection by Kim of a peace feeler from Seoul. The South Koreans had offered a sweeping proposal of economic benefits in return for denuclearization (not entirely unlike the package Washington put forth under President Trump). The South promised food, agriculture assistance, health infrastructure and other benefits – but did not address the crippling sanctions under which the North Koreans chafe. In her role as North Korea’s public spokeswoman, Kim’s sister Kim Yo Jong scornfully denounced the offer as “stupid.” She went on to blame the Covid-19 outbreaks in the north on South Korea and promised “deadly retaliation.”
The DPRK continues on a record pace with major missile tests — over 30 and rising, more than in any other year. Of particular note is North Korea’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time in five years. North and South Korea are on a collision course, and the spark that may increase already high tensions are both the exercises, but also the potential nuclear test.
The US must thus continue to strongly support the South Koreans, and not just as a matter of upholding its treaty obligations. Although US support for Ukraine has mitigated some of the damage done to US credibility by its Kabul withdrawal, its behavior is being closely watched. Our NATO partners are following events in the Pacific as they decide how strongly to support US leadership on Ukraine in the cold winter ahead. So will President Xi Jinping of China, as he calculates his next move on Taiwan. A lot is riding on the successful execution of these exercises — with consequences that will ripple far beyond the peninsula.
• China Has Started Making the Same Mistakes as the Soviets: Hal Brands | 2022-08-25T01:10:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | US-South Korea War Games Have a Global Audience - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/us-south-korea-war-games-have-a-global-audience/2022/08/24/011b37ae-2409-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/us-south-korea-war-games-have-a-global-audience/2022/08/24/011b37ae-2409-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html |
By Arelis R. Hernández
Texas Department of Safety troopers stand at an Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Board meeting on Aug. 24 in Texas. (Eric Gay/AP)
The Uvalde school board voted unanimously to fire Pedro “Pete” Arredondo three months after a massacre that claimed the lives of 19 students and two teachers in late May.
The decision came after more than an hour of discussion behind closed doors and a written plea from Arredondo’s attorneys that he be reinstated.
Community members have been calling for the embattled school district police chief’s firing since learning he delayed directing officers to confront the gunman — instead spending more than an hour requesting gear and trying to get a key to the room, which is believed to have been unlocked.
The Uvalde native had led the district’s six-member police force since March 2020 and wrote the district’s active shooter protocols. Per those guidelines, Arredondo should have appointed himself incident commander, but on May 24, he failed to assume that role, a Texas House committee probe into the massacre concluded. He also mistakenly assessed the situation as a barricaded subject, rather than an active shooter who needed to be immediately confronted.
The Texas House report noted there were nearly 400 officers at the scene — including 149 from U.S. Border Patrol and 91 from the Texas Department of Public Safety — any of whom could have taken the lead but did not. Nineteen students and two teachers were killed in the worst U.S. school shooting since the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary massacre in Newtown, Conn. | 2022-08-25T01:10:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Uvalde school board fires embattled police chief Pete Arredondo - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/24/uvalde-shooting-police-chief/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/24/uvalde-shooting-police-chief/ |
Yoga chain that didn’t charge also didn’t pay taxes, authorities say
Yoga to the People leaders Gregory Gumucio, 61, Michael Anderson, 51, and Haven Soliman, 33, are each charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the IRS and five counts of tax evasion. (PhonlamaiPhoto/iStock)
The leaders of a popular donation-funded yoga studio chain could find themselves namastaying behind bars for tax fraud, according to the Justice Department.
Yoga to the People leaders Gregory Gumucio, 61; Michael Anderson, 51; and Haven Soliman, 33, were arrested Wednesday for failure to file and pay individual or business tax returns for at least seven years, the U.S. Southern District of New York alleges. They are each charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the IRS and five counts of tax evasion.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement that the trio had earned more than $20 million from their now-defunct yoga enterprise, affording themselves lavish lifestyles and concocting ways to avoid paying Uncle Sam.
“The defendants perpetrated their scheme in various ways, including paying employees in cash and off the books, refusing to provide employees with tax documentation, not maintaining books and records, paying personal expenses from business accounts, and using nominees to disguise their connection to various entities,” Williams said.
The arrest and charges are added stains to the legacy of the shuttered franchise, which began offering yoga classes in Manhattan’s Lower East Side around 2006 to everyone regardless of the amount of money they could afford to pay for classes. Gumucio, founder of Yoga to the People and former apostle of sullied yogi Bikram Choudhury, has faced allegations of sexual misconduct, unsavory management practices along with alleged racial discrimination and other misdeeds, brought by an Instagram account known as YttP Shadow Work in July 2020. That same year, Vice News reported that he has a decades-long history of preying on vulnerable women, accusations of rape and felony convictions.
In an email obtained by Vice News, Gumucio told yoga students that the messages about him felt malicious, professed that harm was never inflicted intentionally and made clear that the company didn’t tolerate any form of abuse.
Yoga to the People closed its doors in 2020, blaming the coronavirus pandemic, but the charges against its leaders have shed new light on spurious business practices.
Thomas Fattorusso, Internal Revenue Service criminal investigations special agent in charge, said in a statement that the seemingly noble practice of offering yoga to all was nothing more than a “decade-long cash cow that relied on a sophisticated network of tens of millions of dollars in unreported income and free labor to fund the leaders’ lavish lifestyles.”
The yoga company grew from a studio from its early days to about 20 yoga studios or affiliated locations throughout New York City and other areas, such as California, Colorado, Arizona, Florida and Washington state. Although it didn’t require payment from its class attendees, the company earned a substantial amount of money from a yoga teacher training program, grossing more than $20 million without ever filing a corporate tax return, according to the complaint.
Between 2015 and 2020, Gumucio had unreported income directly from Yoga to the People of more than $1.6 million and owed the IRS an estimated $431,000, prosecutors say.
Anderson, an owner in the company and its functional chief financial officer, earned $2.1 million in unreported income, owing the IRS an estimated amount of more than $603,000, according to the Justice Department. Soliman, chief communications officer and director of teacher education program, pulled in more than $961,000 in unreported income, according to the agency.
The trio relished in their unreported riches by taking frequent extravagant trips abroad, spending large sums on fine dining and purchasing NFL season tickets, according to federal prosecutors.
Gumucio allegedly abused his power by targeting and grooming typically young women and others to become nominee “owners” of studios, the complaint states. He would then entice them with the title of studio owner while he continued to make business decisions, taking a cut of their proceeds while the nominees faced financial risk. He also allegedly manipulated his employees into provided free services, such as teaching classes or cleaning yoga studios, to maximize his take-home unreported income.
Over the years, Yoga to the People paid its teachers in cash, forbade yoga instructors from counting money from class attendees only to have cash transported to Gumicio’s apartment, and did not maintain corporate headquarters to keep their books and records, using business accounts to pay for personal expenses, according to investigators.
All three face up to 10 years in prison for their charges. Legal representation for them could not be immediately located. | 2022-08-25T01:10:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Yoga To The People Leaders arrested for tax fraud - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/24/yoga-leaders-tax-fraud/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/24/yoga-leaders-tax-fraud/ |
The majority of Americans remain immune to the industry’s sales pitches, Pew survey finds
Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and chief executive officer of FTX, a crypto trading platform. Despite a blitz of media attention and marketing spots, the number of people who've invested in crypto over the last year hasn't grown. (Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg News)
Over the past year, crypto companies like FTX, Coinbase and Crypto.com have shelled out tens of millions of dollars to attract new customers. “Fortune favors the brave,” Matt Damon famously said in a Crypto.com TV spot as he tried to induce Americans to open their digital wallets.
Now a study of how successful they were has been returned, and experts say it’s an eye-opening one: Not successful at all. The number of people who invested in crypto has not expanded since last September before the push began, according to the study, led by Pew Research Center.
The results, released Tuesday, build off an initial survey in September. Back then, Pew researchers asked 10,371 Americans if they have “ever invested in, traded, or used a cryptocurrency.” Some 16 percent of Americans said they had.
Last month, the nonprofit asked another sample group — slightly smaller, at 6,034 Americans — the same question. And again, 16 percent said they had invested or traded in the alternate currency.
The results suggest that, despite numerous splashy campaigns by crypto interests, the great majority of Americans remain immune to their sales pitches.
“It’s pretty striking that for all the spectacular commotion around crypto in the last year, the number of people who invest or trade in crypto didn’t budge,” said Lee Rainie, Pew Research Center’s director of internet and technology research, who spearheaded the study. “Attempts to bring in new buyers to the market didn’t seem to move the needle at all.”
The end of 2021 and beginning of 2022 saw a flurry of recruitment efforts as crypto firms attempted to draw retail investors into the fold. The market’s long-term health in large part relies on new players willing to sign up for exchanges and buy digital coins.
Several weeks after Damon’s commercial debuted in October, Crypto.com announced a naming-rights deal for Los Angeles’s Staples Center. By February the push was in full effect. Three trading platforms — Crypto.com, FTX and Coinbase — each bought Super Bowl airtime that was reportedly going for $6.5 million per 30 seconds.
The ads were aimed at a broad swath of Americans — FTX, for instance, encouraged the game’s approximately 100 million viewers not to “be like Larry,” referring to the techno-skeptic star of the spot Larry David, and to instead invest in crypto.
The survey’s results validate crypto-skeptics’ criticisms that currencies lack inherent value and rely unduly on bringing in new investors to enrich the old ones.
“That the cryptocurrency space, despite a ton of advertising, has run out of new suckers is not all that surprising to me,” said Nicholas Weaver, a computer-security expert from the University of California at Berkeley, who has often raised both a financial and ethical case again crypto investment. “Although there is a sucker born every minute, that is still a limited pool of suckers.”
The Pew study notes that “this lack of overall change comes despite strong attention to crypto in the news.”
Not all analysts, however, were embracing Pew’s findings. “I question the research,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at crypto trading and research company Oanda. “What I’ve seen over the last year is a very diverse group of people — lawyers, nurses, doctors, professors — showing extreme interest in crypto, especially at the beginning of 2022, when many of them bought in for the first time.”
Crypto enthusiasts say that studies can underrepresent crypto investors because not everyone wants to tell a questioner they have invested and because studies don’t seek out pockets of those most likely to invest. Rainie said that Pew took rigorous steps to achieve proportional representation across various racial, gender and economic groups.
Industry leaders are warning that new pools of investors could be even harder to find in the coming months. On an earnings call this month, the publicly traded crypto exchange Coinbase, which ended 2021 with 11.4 million monthly active users, said it expected to finish the year with between 7 million and 9 million monthly active users.
Moya said that even if retail investors drop off in the wake of the recent crash, the crypto markets could be fueled by institutional investors, who are more likely to buy in after a crash.
The Pew study also examined demographic data and found that it hadn’t changed much over the past year either. As in September, adults over 50 were only about one-fourth as likely to invest in crypto as adults under 30, while men were 2.5 times more likely than women to put money in crypto.
The study also found that all the marketing campaigns didn’t do much to heighten general crypto awareness. Last September, the percentage of those who said they’ve heard “nothing at all” abut cryptocurrency was at 14 percent. By this summer, after all the media attention, the ranks of the crypto-ignorant had shrunk by just one percentage point, to 13 percent. | 2022-08-25T02:06:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Crypto’s massive marketing efforts have drawn few new investors - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/24/cryptos-massive-marketing-efforts-have-drawn-few-new-investors/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/24/cryptos-massive-marketing-efforts-have-drawn-few-new-investors/ |
People stand next to a house destroyed by a Russian military strike in Chaplyne, Ukraine, on Wednesday. (Reuters)
Ukraine had been bracing for strikes in the capital and other major cities on Wednesday, which was also the six-month anniversary of Russia’s invasion. The contours of the conflict have changed drastically since Feb. 24, when Moscow’s troops stormed into the country expecting to depose the government in short order. Instead, the war has become a costly, grinding affair full of momentum swings as Kyiv has galvanized international support and attracted unprecedented weapons aid from Western countries.
“This is our life every day,” he said. “This is how Russia got prepared for this U.N. session.”
Timoshenko said an earlier strike on the town leveled a resident’s home, trapping a woman and two children beneath the wreckage. One of the children, an 11-year-old boy, was killed, he said.
In Kyiv, authorities banned mass gatherings and the sounds of air raid sirens were heard throughout. Communities around Dnipro and in the eastern Donbas region reported strikes throughout the day.
Sammy Westfall and David Stern contributed to this report. | 2022-08-25T02:41:13Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Russian attack on train station in Ukrainian town of Chaplyne leaves more than 20 dead - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/24/russia-ukraine-train-station-strike/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/24/russia-ukraine-train-station-strike/ |
My reply was, “I'm not 6 years old. I have to urinate and defecate.”
One does have to wonder about a clinic that is afraid to use clinical terms.
No doubt they thought they were being sensitive to patients’ psychological discomfort, but they would do better to stick to what they know. Miss Manners agrees that this cure — infantilizing patients — is worse than the disease. Had you omitted the petulant “I’m not 6 years old,” your response would have been perfectly proper in the setting.
You are right that you cannot renege after accepting an invitation, absent a very good reason — among which Miss Manners does not count “because I got a better offer.” | 2022-08-25T04:12:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Miss Manners: Why do medical professionals talk to me like I’m a child? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/08/25/miss-manners-clinical-terms-medical/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/08/25/miss-manners-clinical-terms-medical/ |
Few countries understand the risks posed by nuclear energy like Ukraine. Just a couple of hours’ drive from Kyiv is the now-decommissioned Chernobyl power plant, the site of perhaps the worst-ever nuclear accident and certainly the most notorious.
Yet despite the Chernobyl disaster, Ukraine never gave up on nuclear energy. The country has four separate nuclear power plants operating 15 different reactors. It is one of the most nuclear-reliant countries on earth. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, these plants provided 51 percent of Ukraine’s electricity in 2020 — a vital source for a middle-income country.
The paradox of risk and reward from nuclear power has been brought to the fore again by the war in Ukraine. Earlier this year, Russia’s invasion had led many countries to reconsider nuclear power, given the geopolitical reality of fossil fuels. Germany, now mulling a delay to the planned shutdown of its nuclear plants to enable it to ween itself off Russian gas, is just the latest.
In many ways, these countries are following a pattern that Ukraine itself set. A decade ago, concerns about Moscow again shutting off gas supplies to Ukraine coincided with plans to spend billions on new nuclear plants.
But Russia’s invasion shows the immense danger nuclear power can pose in conflict. The largest nuclear power plant in Europe, Zaporizhzhia, lies in southeastern Ukraine. It has been held by Russian forces since March, but amplified fighting over recent weeks has led to an unprecedented fear of a nuclear catastrophe coinciding with a brutal war.
Russia has been accused of using the plant, which is still functioning and producing power, as a staging ground for war. This week, an employee of the power plant and his driver were killed in a mortar explosion outside the facility, showing how close it is to the front line. The plant is already running on a skeleton crew, less than 10 percent of its usual workforce.
Russia has its own motives for occupying the plant. Ukraine says Russia is trying to link the plant to its own power grid — effectively stealing as much as a fifth of Ukraine’s electricity in one swoop if it is successful, despite the risks posed by the procedure. But that risk itself may be the second strategy, allowing Russian troops a degree of protection and presenting an implicit threat to attackers.
Russia has appeared willing to risk nuclear catastrophe throughout the conflict. Early in the war, it occupied the now-decommissioned Chernobyl site. When it pulled out, Ukraine reported that safety equipment had been looted and buildings defaced. One official told The Post the cost of the damage was more than $135 million, if not more given some irreplaceable software was taken.
The country has also alluded to the use of nuclear weapons repeatedly, alarming many in the West.
The fighting near Zaporizhzhia poses a threat to countless outside Ukraine. On Tuesday, a U.N. Security Council meeting was unanimous in its concern about fighting near the Zaporizhzhia power plant. A U.N. expert who briefed the council made clear the global stakes.
“We must be clear that any potential damage to Zaporizhzhia, or any other nuclear facilities in Ukraine, leading to a possible nuclear incident would have catastrophic consequences, not only for the immediate vicinity, but for the region and beyond,” said Rosemary DiCarlo, U.N. under-secretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs.
The IAEA, the world’s top nuclear watchdog, is hoping to visit the site within days.
The main risk is not necessarily that a reactor will be struck, but that a series of events could cut off the plant’s electricity supply — meaning that cooling systems would no longer be able to keep the nuclear power plant within acceptable temperatures. Though there are backup generators, there are no guarantees in a bitter and often brutal conflict.
“Nuclear power plants are simply not designed to be in war zones,” James Acton, co-director of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told my colleague Claire Parker.
Surprisingly, nuclear energy gained momentum after the invasion of Ukraine. Though groups like Greenpeace and others had warned of the potential threat to nuclear sites during a conflict, to some governments the threat posed by energy insecurity was far more urgent.
Even Germany, which had pledged to end nuclear energy by the end of the year, is now quietly debating whether it can temporarily keep some of its nuclear power plants operational to avoid being at the whims of Moscow’s gas supply this winter.
In theory, European countries that make widespread use of nuclear energy are less vulnerable to Russian restrictions. When Boris Johnson announced plans to build up to eight new nuclear plants by 2050, the British prime minister said it was so his country could not be “subject to blackmail, as it were, by people like Vladimir Putin.”
The reality is more complicated, however. France, the most nuclear-reliant country on earth, is struggling with rising energy prices anyway amid multiple problems at the nation’s nuclear power operator.
The situation in Ukraine, meanwhile, shows that nuclear power plants cannot be assumed safe from conflict. As Mark Hibbs, a nonresident senior fellow in Carnegie’s Nuclear Policy Program, said during testimony to Britain’s House of Commons in April, “until Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, no nuclear power plant has ever been attacked, overrun and occupied by an invading army.”
Now two have. And the threat may not be limited to Ukraine, nor to physical conflict: In March, the United States unsealed charges on four Russian officials of carrying out a series of cyberattacks targeting U.S. infrastructure. One apparent target? A nuclear power plant in Kansas. | 2022-08-25T04:14:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Zaporizhzhia: Threat of nuclear catastrophe in Ukraine adds to global energy chaos - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/25/nuclear-energy-threat-ukraine-war/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/25/nuclear-energy-threat-ukraine-war/ |
An employee carries planks of wood through the main tunnel at the Thames Tideway Tunnel super sewer construction project in London, U.K., on Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021. The 25-kilometer sewer is designed to take overflow from London’s existing Victorian system, designed by engineer Joseph Bazalgette after the “Great Stink” of 1858. (Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg)
August is prime time for enjoying Britain’s rivers and coastal areas, but not so much this year. Pristine waterways have been polluted with raw sewage, yielding photos of gray-brown sludge andthousands of dead fish killed by toxic waste. It’s a brave person who orders oysters right now.
There is nothing new about the twin problems that have been making headlines lately — water leakages and sewage dumps. But heavy rainfall after a period of drought led to overflows from a system that wasn’t built for either today’s population size or the effect of dramatic climate change.
The real question is why regulators have done such a poor job of policing private companies. Back in 2012, the European Commission took the UK to court over the level of sewage that water companies were allowed to dump into rivers. The court ruled that overflows should only happen in “exceptional” circumstances, such as following unusually heavy rainfall.
The water companies decided “exceptional” applied to a lot of events. There were more than 400,000 discharges of untreated sewage in 2020 alone. Analysis by two researchers at the University of Brighton found that pollution incidents have been trending upwards since 2018, with over 9.4 million hours spent dumping raw sewage between 2016 and 2021. It’s likely much worse than that since it seems the devices installed to track sewage discharge, which the industry was forced to adopt following the European court ruling, don’t work most of the time.
Even hefty fines don’t seem to deter polluters. Last year, water companies were charged penalties for 62 serious pollution incidents. The most egregious violator, Southern Water, was fined £90 million ($106 million) after pleading guilty to knowingly dumping raw sewage into rivers and seas for nearly six years.
Liz Truss , the probable next prime minister, has batted away revelations that she oversaw plans to reduce surveillance of water companies dumping raw sewage when she was environment secretary between 2014 and 2016. The example serves as a reminder that while sometimes needed, slashing regulations can have unintended consequences and costs. But blaming Truss is too easy.
There is a stronger case for arguing that the current problems are a legacy of privatizing the water companies. England and Wales are almost alone in the world (along with Chile) in having fully privatized water companies. And yet it doesn’t follow that reversing that decision is the right solution, as the Labour Party has argued.
It’s easy to see the appeal when you look at the mess (and the perennial leakage problems along with it). Water and sewage suppliers have a captive customer base and prices set by the regulator which provide plenty of room for profits. Their bosses are also handsomely rewarded. Thames Water boss Sarah Bentley was given a £3.1 million “golden hello” for taking on the job at the UK’s largest water provider. That’s in contrast to Scotland’s water company, which is under public control and better regarded. Its chief executive earns about £270,000 a year.
And yet nationalization would come at a hefty price – some £90 billion, by some estimates – to taxpayers at a time when public debt has been rising and public-sector resources are hugely stretched. It’s also easy to forget that as a publicly owned industry, complaints about polluted rivers and beaches and poor water quality were common then, too.
Investment went up dramatically after privatization and remains ahead of other European countries, notes Robert Colvile, director of the Centre for Policy Studies, which has close ties with the Conservative Party. Leakages have been reduced, drinking water is high quality and bills have been kept reasonable. On water quality, customer service and other measures, water companies in England and Wales compare favorably to many in Europe. Most importantly, any renationalized industry would have to compete for scarce public funds with sexier causes such as education and health care and likely lose out.
The problem isn’t so much ownership structure as weak regulation and distorted incentives. The water companies (where ownership is often complex and includes private equity and infrastructure funds) have often put shareholders ahead of customers. Since the early 1990s, most of their after-tax profits had been paid out as dividends, with capital expenditure financed by piling on debt. Instead of using their balance sheets to finance investment, as intended, they leveraged it to pay dividends. Net debt topped £56 billion last year, prompting regulator Ofwat to warn of a potential collapse akin to what has been seen in the energy sector.
There are some signs of increased responsiveness more recently. The regulator challenged dividend policies and companies have been told to link executive pay to performance. Thames Water has sought £1.5 billion in new equity funding to help fund an additional £2 billion (on top of £9.6 billion previously planned) of spending to improve performance to 2025.
Getting to grips with the problem, as Truss has promised, will require more than the obvious — increasing financial transparency, setting tougher targets, higher levels of investment and better oversight. There will need to be more competition and there are likely to be higher customer water bills at a time when energy costs are soaring. If the new government cannot clean up the mess, it will quickly become a metaphor for the Conservatives inability to manage the structures they once set in place.
• Iowa’s Water Crisis Offers a Glimpse of the Future: Adam Minter
• The Scars Run Deep in France’s Giant Waste Deal: Lionel Laurent | 2022-08-25T05:44:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Stink Over Britain’s Sewage - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/the-stink-over-britains-sewage/2022/08/25/97acb20e-2433-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/the-stink-over-britains-sewage/2022/08/25/97acb20e-2433-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html |
HARRISBURG, Pa. — If Dr. Mehmet Oz is elected to the U.S. Senate this fall, he’ll be the first Muslim ever to serve in the chamber. It’s something he hardly brings up while campaigning, his Democratic opponent isn’t raising it and it’s barely a topic of conversation in Pennsylvania’s Muslim community. | 2022-08-25T05:44:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Oz's Senate bid could be a Muslim first but is 'complicated' - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ozs-senate-bid-could-be-a-muslim-first-but-is-complicated/2022/08/25/7c93785e-2433-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ozs-senate-bid-could-be-a-muslim-first-but-is-complicated/2022/08/25/7c93785e-2433-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html |
2022 may be remembered as the year when living standards in the US truly pulled away from those in Western Europe. One concrete piece of evidence is the collapse of the euro to parity with the dollar, or lower yet, but there is also a more general sense that the gap is widening.
The old narrative was simple: Per capita incomes in the US might range 30% higher or more, but Western European lifestyles are less stressful and more relaxing. European health care systems, and their near-universal coverage, are also superior.
That narrative now lies in tatters.
The major disruptor has been energy markets. The US really does seem to have energy independence. Americans complain about high gasoline prices, but the American way of life has barely been affected. This summer Americans took to the road in record numbers. Energy supplies to homes and businesses have continued, though rising prices have created some pressure.
But the situation in Europe is far worse. Much of Western Europe, dependent on gas supplies from the East, faces serious questions about how it will get through the winter. In Germany, Google searches for “firewood” have risen sharply. Even the French, with their heavy reliance on nuclear power, now face very high prices and serious shortages; they did not invest enough in the maintenance of their nuclear power system.
Germany still seems to be shutting down its remaining nuclear power plants. It is hard to regard European energy policy as anything other than a huge unforced error. Keep in mind that energy supplies are far more important than their percentage of GDP might suggest. Energy is the lifeblood of modern civilization.
The price of energy shows just how bad the European situation is, and winter is still months away. Germany right now is paying about 600 euros per MWh for electricity; as recently as 2020, a price of 100 euros would have been considered very high.
And it’s not just the high prices. The stress about the future availability of energy belies one of the fundamental motivations behind the social welfare state: to make a citizenry feel secure and taken care of.
Geopolitics have added to these problems. It seems unlikely that Russia will move militarily against the major nations of Western Europe. Still, there is the risk of a nuclear accident in Ukraine, the possible outbreak of a war in the Balkans, and a modest chance of the conflict embroiling the Baltic nations of NATO, risking a much larger escalation. It is hard to predict such matters — and that’s partly the point. There is no comparable geopolitical nervousness facing the US, and it is not clear when the European risks will go away, if ever.
A traditional trump card for Western Europe has been the quality of its health-care systems. But the boasting here is not nearly as justified as it used to be.
The pandemic revealed years of capital underinvestment in many of European health-care systems. Many Americans used to admire the UK’s National Health Service, but right now the whole system is ailing. There has been a labor and capital shortage, and a collapse of emergency health care services, which may be costing up to 500 excess (non-Covid) deaths a week. Similar problems exist throughout Europe, though they seem to be worst in the UK.
The American hospital and health care system long has been good — too good — at making expensive, long-term investments in care and technology. Often this meant excess prices and not much of an improvement in basic care. But in the pandemic and post-pandemic environment, that feature of the system has kept US health care up and running. All that capital investment turns out to have been pretty useful in a major crisis.
The longstanding charge that the US does not have universal health care now is less relevant. Obamacare is highly imperfect along a variety of dimensions, but US health care coverage has never been higher — the percentage of the uninsured population is now 8%. Keep in mind that many of those uninsured may have decided not to purchase health insurance, instead preferring to spend their money in other ways. That might be a personal mistake, but that is not the same thing as a systemic failure of the entire US health care regime.
America actually has something pretty close to universal coverage, at least as an option. And remember that some of the European systems, most notably in Switzerland, also require significant out-of-pocket expenditures. Other parts of those systems are paid through relatively regressive systems of a value-added tax, so they are not as “free” as they might seem.
As the world emerges from its current chaos, it will be increasingly obvious that the US has pulled away from the pack.
• Paris Faces an Even Colder, Darker Winter Than Berlin: Javier Blas
• Putin’s New Weapon of Mass Disruption Is Kazakh Oil: Julian Lee | 2022-08-25T07:15:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Life Is Good in America, Even by European Standards - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/life-is-good-in-america-even-by-european-standards/2022/08/25/fbf3024c-243b-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/life-is-good-in-america-even-by-european-standards/2022/08/25/fbf3024c-243b-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html |
(Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
“Counting Democrats’ lies surrounding the hiring of 87,000 new IRS agents, @RepKevinBrady said: ‘This is a new claim: “There’s no new IRS agents, we’re just replacing the ones that leave.” But the existing budget can replace them. These are all new.’ ”
— Tweet by the Republican staff of the House Ways and Means Committee, Aug. 18
We recently disputed the GOP claim that the bill designed to bolster the Internal Revenue Service would result in the hiring of “87,000 new agents.” As part of that analysis, we quoted a Treasury Department official as saying that over half of the IRS staff — 50,000 — is eligible for retirement in the next five years and so many of the new hires would replace those workers. The official estimated that after 10 years, the agency would grow only about 25 to 30 percent from its current size of about 80,000.
Since we wrote that article, several readers have urged a reassessment. They made a case like Brady’s point — that any attrition due to retirement or other factors would be covered by annual appropriations passed by Congress. In other words, the theory goes, the 87,000 people who could be hired under the legislation would indeed be new workers — and the size of the agency’s staff would more than double.
The source of the 87,000 figure
As a reminder, the administration has not yet provided details on how it will implement the new funding. The 87,000 figure was plucked from a Treasury report released in May 2021 about how the administration hoped to address the “tax gap” — the difference between what is owed to the government and what is actually paid. That figure was thought to be at least $381 billion a year, with most of it because of underreporting of income, according to the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation.
On Page 16 of the Treasury report, a chart shows that almost $80 billion in new resources over 10 years would allow for the hiring of 86,852 full-time employees in the next decade. The report says the new staff would conduct audits, improve information technology and enhance customer service.
The bill that President Biden signed into law provides nearly $80 billion. But what is important to understand is that most of the money in the bill is mandatory spending — meaning it is not easily subject to the whims of Congress.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) recently issued an “open letter” to potential job applicants claiming that “these new positions at the IRS will not offer you the long-term job stability you may expect from a position with the federal government. Put another way: This will be a short-term gig. Republicans will take over the House and Senate in January, and I can promise you that we will immediately do everything in our power to defund this insane and unwarranted expansion of government into the lives of the American people.”
But to “defund” this money, Congress would need to pass a new law that reversed the one signed by Biden. That’s not as easy as Scott suggests.
Ordinarily, a government agency would be funded through what is known as discretionary spending — annual appropriations bills that must be approved year after year. Congress has trouble even accomplishing that task, so agencies are often funded via continuing resolutions, which generally just provide spending at the previous level.
IRS budget cuts over time
How has Congress been doing on replacing IRS employees who have left? We reviewed a decade of the budget justifications that the IRS has submitted to lawmakers explaining the rationale behind its budget request. For many years, the IRS simply could not replace the staff that had quit — and so the number of employees kept dropping.
Ten years ago, in fiscal 2012, the budget justification shows that the IRS had 95,519 full-time employees and the Barack Obama administration sought an increase of about 5,000, including nearly 3,000 in enforcement, for a total of about 100,000. Without sufficient funding from Congress, the agency had already instituted a hiring freeze and began offering buyouts for early retirement.
By fiscal 2013, after more continuing resolutions, the number of IRS employees had dropped to 91,555. This time, the administration requested an increase to about 97,000.
It didn’t happen. In fiscal 2014, Congress only allowed for the hiring of 85,692 employees. In fiscal 2015, the administration sought to increase that to nearly 93,000. Instead, Congress provided funding for 82,203 employees.
So the administration in fiscal 2016 pressed for a boost of about 9,000 employees to get the numbers back up over 90,000. Congress had agreed to add about 1,500 employees in fiscal 2015, but because of attrition the number of employees had fallen about 1,400 during the year. In the end, the enacted 2016 budget allowed for around 83,000 IRS employees.
Notice how the numbers kept dropping even as the administration asked for additional hires? The downward trend did not stop.
There was more attrition, and more continuing resolutions, so the total IRS staff stood at about 78,000 in fiscal 2017, when Donald Trump became president. His administration sought to reduce staffing even more — about 4,000 fewer people in taxpayer services and 1,300 fewer people in enforcement. Trump’s budget justification refers to attempting to reduce costs and streamline operations as money was shifted to update aging hardware systems and outdated software.
The cuts proposed by Trump were not entirely embraced by Congress, but staffing still fell to about 75,000 in 2018. The next year, fiscal 2019, Trump sought to cut staff by about 3,500, including another reduction of more than 2,000 people in taxpayer services, even as the IRS struggled to implement the new tax law passed by Congress.
Staffing dropped to about 74,500 in 2019. Then there was a slow increase to 75,612 in fiscal 2020 and 75,923 in fiscal 2021. But that’s still about 20,000 fewer people than 10 years earlier.
The IRS budget justification for fiscal 2022 tells a tale of woe.
“The IRS lost more than 33,378 full-time personnel between FY 2010 and FY 2020, including more than 13,388 key enforcement personnel,” the document says. “These losses included revenue agents and revenue officers, who audit tax returns and perform collection activities, as well as special agents who investigate tax-related crimes and other issues. The number of examining revenue agents, who handle complex enforcement cases, fell by 35 percent, and field collection revenue officers, who manage difficult collections cases, dropped by 48 percent.”
Indeed, in a May report, the Government Accountability Office said audit rates have declined dramatically for the super rich. In 2010, more than 21 percent of tax returns reporting more than $10 billion in income were audited — and that dropped to 3.9 percent by 2019, GAO said.
“Appropriations for the IRS have fallen by a total of about 20 percent in real (inflation-adjusted) dollars between 2010 and 2018,” the Congressional Budget Office said in a 2020 report. “With the exception of 2016, real appropriations have consistently fallen below the previous year’s level over that period.”
Whether the staff would really double
On the face of it, adding 87,000 employees to an existing staff of nearly 80,000 would double the size of the IRS. But officials say that simple math is wrong.
Natasha Sarin, Treasury counselor for tax policy and implementation, told the Fact Checker that more than half of the IRS staff — 50,000 — is eligible for retirement in the next five years.
Not all of those may choose to retire, but a 2019 IRS report, issued during the Trump administration, said the agency “anticipates up to 31 percent of its current workforce (about 19,719 full-time employees) will retire within the next five years, creating a significant risk of a large knowledge and experience gap for the nation’s tax agency.” In congressional testimony in 2021, IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig said the agency will need to “replace more than 50,000 workers lost through attrition over the next six years.”
Sarin said the IRS workforce is so old because there is essentially a missing generation since the agency has not been able to hire for the past 10 years. Even with new hiring, there will be a steep learning curve. According to the GAO, “it takes 4 to 5 years to train a new hire to become an experienced senior or expert revenue officer.”
Ways and Means staff explain Brady’s comment as a simple observation that the money appropriated each year by Congress is for a particular staff level, so if a person retires, money still exists to fill that job. But as we have shown, Congress can be fickle with funding — or late to provide it.
The IRS until recently has not been able to know whether the funding would exist from year to year for replacement hires. The mandatory spending in the bill would provide the assurance that people could be hired for the long term.
Sarin, in interviews, has said that once attrition is taken into account, the IRS workforce will grow 25 to 30 percent. That suggests a total workforce in 2031 of 100,000 to 105,000 employees — roughly the level that the Obama administration had sought in 2011.
Yet there has been some confusion over that estimate because the 2021 Treasury report says: “Because the expansion in the IRS’s budget is phased in over a 10-year horizon, each year the IRS’s workforce should grow by no more than a manageable 15%.” Certainly 15 percent growth every year would lead to more than doubling of the workforce.
Treasury officials explained that the line means that the growth would not exceed 15 percent in any given year. During many years, especially in the second half of the decade, growth would be lower than that, with annual increments ranging from about 7,000 to 12,000 people. A chart in the report shows that a 15 percent increase would take place only in 2023.
Meanwhile, CBO Director Phillip L. Swagel in September wrote a blog post that explained how $80 billion in new spending for the IRS was estimated to raise an additional $200 billion in revenue over 10 years. The estimate, he said, assumed that the proposal “would more than double the IRS’s staffing.”
The CBO declined to say what it assumed the head count would be in 2031. But Swagel refers to the agency’s baseline projections. If the CBO assumed that staffing would continue to fall in the next 10 years, as it had in the past 10 years, that would suggest a doubling from a base of 60,000 in 2031 — or 120,000.
That’s higher than the numbers suggested by the administration — but not as high as the figures used by congressional Republicans. Moreover, the CBO says the bill that was enacted differs from what was analyzed previously, so estimates in the blog post may not be consistent with estimates that the CBO may produce in the future. | 2022-08-25T07:15:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The IRS retirements wave — and whether current funding would cover it - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/25/wave-irs-retirements-whether-current-funding-would-cover-them/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/25/wave-irs-retirements-whether-current-funding-would-cover-them/ |
BARCELONA, Spain — More than a year after the Taliban takeover that saw thousands of Afghans rushing to Kabul’s international airport amid the chaotic U.S. withdrawal, Afghans at risk who failed to get on evacuation flights say they are still struggling to find safe and legal ways out of the country. | 2022-08-25T07:16:29Z | www.washingtonpost.com | One year on, Afghans at risk await evacuation, relocation - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/one-year-on-afghans-at-risk-await-evacuation-relocation/2022/08/25/bb0500a4-2441-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/one-year-on-afghans-at-risk-await-evacuation-relocation/2022/08/25/bb0500a4-2441-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html |
Japan police chief resigns over security lapses in Abe assassination
National Police Agency Chief Itaru Nakamura in Tokyo on July 12. Nakamura on Thursday said he would resign over security lapses in the fatal shooting of former Japanese leader Shinzo Abe. (AP)
TOKYO — Top Japanese police officials on Thursday said they would resign after an investigation identified security lapses at a political campaign event last month where former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was slain by a gunman who approached him from behind.
Itaru Nakamura, the commissioner of Japan’s National Police Agency, took responsibility for the failures and announced his departure, marking a rare move by a national law enforcement official to step down in the aftermath of a local agency’s lapses. The cabinet is expected to accept Nakamura’s resignation Friday.
Tomoaki Onizuka, chief of prefectural police in Nara, the city near Osaka where Abe was killed, also announced his resignation but did not say when it would be effective. Three other executives in Nara police will face disciplinary measures, including a pay cut.
What are Japan’s gun laws? Abe killing shocks nation with few shootings.
The resignations underscored the depth of horror at Abe’s killing and its global reverberations. The shooting rocked a country with strict firearms laws where gun violence is almost unheard of. World leaders who had worked closely with Abe expressed shock at his assassination and praised his efforts over a long period to increase his country’s international influence.
On July 8, a man wielding a crude homemade gun fired two shots at Abe while he was stumping for a political candidate ahead of a national election. The bullets hit Abe in his neck area, near his chest, and he died of blood loss less than five hours after arriving at the hospital without vital signs.
According to the National Police Agency’s investigative report released Thursday, Nara police officials had prepared a lax security plan ahead of the event and failed to properly guard Abe. Onizuka had previously said Nara police were informed of Abe’s appearance just a day before — shorter notice than usual for a campaign event. Onizuka had approved the security plan on the day of the event and had no concerns with it at the time.
The investigation found problems with the plan that Onizuka approved, and with security on the ground the day of the shooting. It found a member of the security team, tasked with guarding Abe from behind, was moved last-minute to a different position. Ultimately, there was heavy security in front of Abe but no one to protect him from behind.
“There were clear inadequacies in the security plan, and security personnel were not deployed properly, leading to a gap in security from behind," the report read. “It was clear that there were security risks, but these risks were overlooked in the process of developing the security plan which was clearly inadequate.”
Japan probes Abe assassination motive as police chief admits ‘problems’
The National Police Agency said it will now be more heavily involved in security plans prepared by local police forces and create a new division tasked with vetting security plans for major public events.
The suspect in Abe’s killing, Tetsuya Yamagami of Nara, was arrested immediately on the scene. He is now detained and undergoing psychiatric evaluations until late November, when prosecutors will decide whether to press formal murder charges.
Yamagami, 41, told investigators he wanted to attack Abe because he believed Abe was connected to a group that destroyed his family financially. Police have not named the organization, but Yamagami’s statements and other evidence suggest it was the Unification Church, which has confirmed that Yamagami’s mother was a member and had made donations.
Abe, like many politicians, had appeared at Unification Church events as a guest speaker. His party, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), has long enjoyed support from conservative-leaning members of the church.
Since Abe’s shooting, LDP members have worked to distance themselves from the organization. But Japan’s Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, has faced plummeting poll numbers as he struggles to disentangle ties between the group and his party. | 2022-08-25T08:12:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Japan police chief resigns over security lapses in Abe assassination - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/25/japan-police-shinzo-abe-assassination/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/25/japan-police-shinzo-abe-assassination/ |
Ukraine live briefing: Death toll in Chaplyne rail attack rises to 25; Bide...
Ukraine live briefing: Death toll in Chaplyne rail attack rises to 25; Biden to call Zelensky
A strike wiped out a house in Chaplyne, in Ukraine's southeast. (Dmytro Smolienko/Reuters)
Search and rescue operations have been completed in the village of Chaplyne, where the death toll from the shelling of a train station and residential area rose to 25, including two children. A day after announcing almost $3 billion in additional military aid to Ukraine, President Biden is expected to have a telephone call with President Volodymyr Zelensky to reaffirm U.S. support. Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
Victims of the Russian missile attack on Chaplyne include an 11-year-old who died under the rubble of a house and a 6-year-old caught in a car fire, Kirill Timoshenko, a Ukrainian presidential aide, said on Telegram. He said 31 people were injured. Zelensky promised to make the Russians pay for “everything they have done.” He said in his nightly address that “Chaplyne is our pain today” but added “there will never be such missiles that can break the will of the people.” The attack came exactly six months into the war and on Ukraine’s Independence Day.
Biden is expected to call Zelensky on Thursday to discuss the almost $3 billion military aid package. Biden said he was “proud to announce our biggest tranche of security assistance to date,” which will include air defense systems, artillery systems and munitions. Since January 2021, the Pentagon said, the United States has committed more than $13.5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine.
Russian rockets targeted the Vyshgorod area directly north of Kyiv early Thursday, but there were no casualties reported, regional governor Oleksiy Kuleba said on Telegram. “There were no casualties or injuries among civilians. There were no fires or destruction of residential buildings or infrastructure,” Kuleba said. Russia’s military largely avoided Kyiv on Independence Day, despite warnings of strikes and air raid sirens in the capital. Instead, they targeted front lines such as Kharkiv, Mykolaiv and Dnipro with artillery attacks, Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said.
Tensions continue to mount around the Zaporizhzhia power plant, with Russia maintaining “an enhanced military presence at the site,” according to a daily intelligence briefing from Britain’s Defense Ministry. It added that while Russia occupies the facility, the principal risks include “disruption to the reactors’ cooling systems, damage to its back-up power supply, or errors by workers operating under pressure.” It added that Moscow would also seek to “exploit” any Ukrainian military activity near the plant “for propaganda purposes.”
The Washington Post’s visual forensics team has analyzed and catalogued a database of 251 videos since the war began, exposing the horrors of the conflict. Russia’s invasion is one of the most documented wars ever. Citizens, public officials and soldiers have regularly posted videos that show bodies in neighborhoods, trails of missiles streaking through the skies and smoldering ruins.
Moscow has “instructed officials to begin preparing” for staged referendums in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine that “could begin in a matter of days or weeks,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. Ukrainian officials have for months warned that Moscow is planning to hold rigged elections and use the results as a pretext to illegally annex more of Ukraine’s territory.
Threat of nuclear catastrophe in Ukraine adds to global energy chaos: Few countries understand the risks posed by nuclear energy like Ukraine. Just a few hours’ drive from Kyiv is the now-decommissioned Chernobyl power plant, the site of perhaps the worst ever nuclear accident and certainly the most notorious.
Yet despite the Chernobyl disaster, Ukraine never gave up on nuclear energy. The country has four nuclear power plants operating 15 reactors. It is one of the most nuclear-reliant countries on earth. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, these plants provided 51 percent of Ukraine’s electricity in 2020 — a vital source for a middle-income country.
The paradox of risk and reward from nuclear power has been brought to the fore by the war. Earlier this year, Russia’s invasion had led many countries to reconsider nuclear power, given the geopolitical reality of fossil fuels. Germany, now mulling a delay to the planned shutdown of its nuclear plants to enable it to ween itself off Russian gas, is just the latest. | 2022-08-25T08:12:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Russia-Ukraine war latest updates - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/25/russia-ukraine-war-chaplyne/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/25/russia-ukraine-war-chaplyne/ |
Taiwan to boost defense spending to deter China military threat
Alicia Chen
Taiwanese soldiers take part in a drill at an army base in Kaohsiung in January this year. Taipei plans to bolster military spending as it faces the threat of a Chinese invasion. (Sam Yeh/AFP/Getty Images)
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan on Thursday announced a record jump in defense spending for next year as the self-governing democracy eyes new fighter jets and anti-ship missiles to deter a Chinese military invasion.
The Executive Yuan, Taiwan’s cabinet, proposed a record 13.9 percent increase in defense spending. When including a special fund for military hardware purchases, the total will be about $19.4 billion, or 2.4 percent of projected gross domestic product. The announcement did not include details of specific expected purchases.
The rise from about 2.2 percent of GDP last year comes after China, which claims the islands of 23 million as part of its sovereign territory, escalated military exercises in retribution for visits to Taipei by U.S. lawmakers. Beijing responded with live-fire drills and fury to a 19-hour stop over by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier this month, including shooting missiles into the waters around Taiwan’s main island for the first time since the 1990s.
Because Taiwan is in a period of needing to strengthen and upgrade its military hardware, there is likely to be a few years of double-digit growth in military spending before leveling off, said Wang Kun-Yih, president of Taiwan International Strategic Study Society. Taiwan’s current strategy to defend against Chinese threats means the main things it needs are new fighter jets, more missiles, and larger warships — all of which are expensive. As such, the jump in defense spending is “directly related to China’s incessant military threats,” he said.
Faced with Chinese saber-rattling, some have called for Taiwan to raise defense spending further. During a July visit, former U.S. Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper suggested that Taipei match U.S. defense expenditure as a proportion of GDP at above 3 percent.
He also called on Taiwan’s military to purchase lightweight Javelin antitank and Stinger anti-air missile systems. This would allow for a defensive strategy of asymmetric warfare, with the emphasis on imposing steep costs on the Chinese military as they attack.
Taiwan has traditionally focused more on large-ticket conventional weaponry designed to repel an initial Chinese invasion. However, some analysts fear China’s rapid military buildup is making this strategy increasingly untenable. Beijing set its defense budget for the year at $211.6 billion in March.
Taiwan’s proposed defense budget will be formally adopted, with possible though usually minor alterations, after a vote by parliament in January. Recent Chinese drills make it much easier for the administration of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen to pass the significant increase in spending, according to Yujen Kuo, president of the Institute for National Policy Research, a think tank.
Not only have Chinese drills increased operational costs for the Taiwanese military, they have spurred efforts to further asymmetric warfare strategies, the cornerstone of which is 1,000 Taiwanese-made, extended-range anti-ship missiles, including the Hsiung Feng III, he said.
Kuo added that it will be harder to maintain similarly high increases in spending from next year as Taiwan enters campaign season ahead of the 2024 presidential election. “Military budget has no attraction to voters. It’s going to be difficult to keep increasing at this rate,” he said.
After four days of large-scale drills around Taiwan immediately after Pelosi’s visit, the Chinese air force has continued a high frequency of incursions deep into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone and often sends fighter jets briefly across the median line of the Taiwan Strait, which had for years been an unofficial maritime boundary.
On Wednesday, Taiwan verified images circulating on Chinese social media showing Taiwanese soldiers in camouflage looking up at a Chinese military drone and then throwing rocks as it apparently flew close over Kinmen, a Taiwan-controlled island just over 17 miles from the Chinese coast, earlier this month.
Pei Lin Wu and Vic Chiang contributed to this report. | 2022-08-25T08:16:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Taiwan set to boost defense budget to deter Chinese military - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/25/taiwan-defense-budget-china-military-invasion/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/25/taiwan-defense-budget-china-military-invasion/ |
The alligator gar is a fish that many scientists consider a threat to local ecosystems. (Nithesh Rai/EyeEm/Getty Images)
A furtive “monster” fish caught national attention in China this week as millions of people tuned in to a multiday effort to capture it.
The giant fish, estimated to be at least 27½ inches long, was first spotted in mid-July by a resident in Ruzhou, a landlocked central Chinese city. Local authorities identified it as an alligator gar — a torpedo-shaped freshwater fish with razor-sharp teeth — and launched an operation to capture it. Officials fear the fish, whose origin is traced back some 100 million years by fossil records, would attack humans.
“I am starting [a] fire to cook it,” said one commenter on the livestream. Others brainstormed ideas for the search team, with one person proposing the use of Go-Pro-equipped remote-control cars and others suggesting luring it out with a laser pen pointer.
The livestreaming marathon continued Wednesday and Thursday, with gar-related hashtags trending on the Weibo microblogging service. Government officials told local media that the gar could be hiding in a roughly 200-yard-long U-shaped pipeline leading to the lake.
Alligator gars, native to the Americas, were introduced to China as pet fish. They were prized for their quirky look, but many were later abandoned or released into the wild after growing too big. Despite Chinese scientists lobbying for the gar to be added to an inventory of invasive species, it remains readily available in pet stores and on e-commerce sites for as little as a few dollars.
The fish poses a threat to local ecosystems because of its voracious appetite, experts said. It also has few natural predators.
In the United States, where the alligator gar population appears to be in decline, transport and trade of the fish is regulated by federal law. Washington state law allows the unauthorized release of alligator gar into state waters to be charged as a felony.
“When a gar gets released into a river, lake or fish farm here, it will start to devour everything, which can be a great threat to local ecosystems,” said Gu Dang’en, an aquatic ecosystems expert at the Pearl River Fisheries Research Institute who has studied invasive fish species.
The gar can grow up to 10 feet and prefers sluggish water bodies such as the artificial lake in Ruzhou, he said. The fish may attack humans if it feels threatened, though such incidents are “extremely rare," Gu added.
A 27-inch, 22-pound gar was caught in an eastern Chinese city last week after a boy was bitten, according to a television network in Jiangsu province.
“With all this fanfare, one would think this was about catching the Loch Ness Monster,” one user commented on Weibo.
Gu, the invasive species scholar, said that local officials meant well but may have overreacted.
“Economically, of course it’s not worth it. Are we going to drain every lake when we spot gars there?” he asked. | 2022-08-25T08:38:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Chinese ‘monster’ fish still missing after city drains lake - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/25/china-monster-fish-alligator-gar-lake/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/25/china-monster-fish-alligator-gar-lake/ |
How the Pandemic Darkens the Picture on Women’s Pay
Analysis by Olivia Fletcher and Lucy Meakin | Bloomberg
The UK became the biggest country to zoom in on the explosive topic of the pay gap between women and men when it began mandatory reporting on wage differences in 2018. Since then, more jurisdictions have introduced or considered pay-transparency rules, including the 27-nation European Union. Some of those efforts involve the sort of blunt, aggregate data that Britain provides, though there are also other metrics in use.
1. What do the UK numbers show?
In the first five years of the UK exercise, the differential barely changed. Men were paid a median of 9.7% more than women for the year ended April 2022 across more than 10,000 companies, compared with 9.2% in 2017. (Data collection was suspended in 2020 for the pandemic and delayed in 2021.) The figure is a crude measure of what men and women earn on average across the workforce, not a direct comparison of like-for-like roles, so the data have highlighted how women are under-represented in higher-paying jobs. Every organization with 250 employees is required to report, and some critics have said the requirement is too onerous on small firms. While the annual release has provided a drumbeat of disclosure and discussion, there’s been little government action or widespread change. One 2020 study showed that the transparency increases the probability that women are employed in above-median-wage occupations by 5%.
2. What about other metrics?
There are various ways to compile figures on the gender wage gap. Reporting on an “adjusted basis” -- taking into account job title, seniority, location and other factors -- is more complicated and may create opportunities for firms to skew the data. That method is more popular among US companies, some of which have disclosed their figures under pressure from activist shareholders. In January 2021, Citigroup Inc., one of the few big US companies to disclose an unadjusted pay gap, said female employees make 26% less than males, an improvement from 27% a year ago. Mastercard Inc. said in 2020 that its female employees worldwide make 7.8% less than the men. Citigroup and many of the bank’s competitors also offer an adjusted figure; on that basis, women globally are paid on average more than 99% of what men are paid at Citigroup.
3. What are other governments doing?
Australia requires firms with more than 100 employees to report annually, collecting data on more than 40% of the workforce (it reported an unadjusted gap of 13.8%). Germany, which has one of the worst pay gaps in Europe, implemented rules in 2018 to give workers the right to compare their pay with groups of colleagues of the opposite sex who have comparable jobs. However, a study showed that the regulations -- which put the onus on individual employees to step forward and request the information -- were not widely used and were barely effective. An EU employment body said few companies have reviewed their pay structures as a result. More recently, the EU has backed a proposal for broad, binding salary transparency legislation to help close an unadjusted bloc-wide pay gap of 13% in 2020, a figure that’s barely budged over the past decade. In the US, several states as well as New York City have moved to require some form of salary transparency to narrow the gender pay gap. A law making its way through the California legislature would require companies to publicly disclose pay data for the first time.
4. Why are women paid less?
The UK’s Office of National Statistics says the gap is partly caused by more women working part-time, clustering in occupations with lower pay and taking time out to have children. The discrepancy widens with age, with little difference in pay between working men and women in their 20s and 30s before a larger gap emerges for employees in their 40s. The debate is colored by the fact that a disproportionate share of household work and childcare tends to fall on women, meaning they are more likely to work part time or drop out of the workforce after having children.
5. How are the data being used?
Supporters of greater equality say transparency on wage data is key to addressing discrepancies and monitoring results. It could also provide ammunition for legal action. In January 2022, a broker at BNP Paribas SA in London was awarded 2 million pounds ($2.7 million) by an employment judge who chastised the bank’s “opaque pay system” and ordered a first-of-its-kind equal-pay audit to reveal if men get paid more than women at the lender. The EU legislation, meanwhile, would prevent prospective employers from quizzing candidates on their current earnings. The rule -- meant to prevent a new hire from being locked into a rate that might be unfairly low due to discrimination by prior employers -- is already in place in at least 17 US states. In Ireland, new mandatory reporting rules also require companies with more than 250 employees to explain why they have a gender pay gap and the measures they are taking to reduce it.
6. At what point does a wage gap violate the law?
That remains to be seen. In the UK, women and men have the legal right to equal pay for equal work, and there’s a framework for comparing jobs by effort, skill or decision making. In January 2021, US lawmakers reintroduced legislation to guarantee women and men are paid equally for the same jobs, one of several gender equity efforts backed by President Joe Biden. In early 2019, thousands of women employed by Glasgow City Council in Scotland reached a financial agreement over pay discrimination after fighting for more than a decade and staging what was believed to be the UK’s biggest-ever strike over equal wages. Tesco Plc, Britain’s largest retailer, lost a legal fight over claims from thousands of female workers that they were denied pay that’s equal to their mostly-male colleagues in warehouses and distribution centers. Female shop floor workers at Asda, another retailer, were also a step closer to getting equal pay with their male counterparts after the Supreme Court ruled in March 2021 that the pay of male and female distribution workers could be compared.
7. What’s driving more disclosure?
While many of the new disclosure rules are driven by a sense of fairness, politicians often point out that equal pay could boost economic growth and reduce poverty. A study by the European Institute for Gender Equality forecast that closing the gap between the share of women and men working could lead to an increase of 3.5 million to 6 million jobs by 2050. The UK is also considering mandatory pay reporting by ethnicity to expose the pay gap for citizens of “Black, Asian and minority ethnic,” or “BAME,” origin. A public consultation ended in January 2019 but reporting is still only voluntary, with some firms, such as Deloitte, KPMG and broadcaster ITN, releasing their numbers. In 2022, the UK Parliament’s Women and Equalities Committee recommended that the government introduce mandatory ethnicity reporting by April 2023. | 2022-08-25T08:46:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How the Pandemic Darkens the Picture on Women’s Pay - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-the-pandemic-darkens-the-picture-on-womens-pay/2022/08/25/b61c8d74-2445-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-the-pandemic-darkens-the-picture-on-womens-pay/2022/08/25/b61c8d74-2445-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html |
SEATTLE — Mariners right-hander George Kirby set a major league record by throwing 24 straight strikes to start the game and fellow Seattle rookie Julio Rodriguez reached a new level, but Ildemaro Vargas hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning that lifted the Washington Nationals to a 3-1 win.
LOS ANGELES — Andrew Heaney struck out 10 in his first win in four months, Austin Barnes drove in four runs, and the Los Angeles Dodgers pummeled the Milwaukee Brewers for the second straight game, winning 12-6.
PITTSBURGH — Kyle Wright allowed two hits over seven efficient innings, Matt Olson hit a grand slam that found the Allegheny River and the Atlanta Braves drilled the sloppy Pittsburgh Pirates 14-2 to complete a three-game sweep.
ATLANTA — The PGA Tour made its boldest response yet to the rival Saudi-funded league with a plan for the best players to commit to a 20-tournament schedule in which they will compete against one another up to 17 times for average purses of $20 million.
ARLINGTON, Texas — DeWanna Bonner scored 21 points, Alyssa Thomas had 13 points and eight rebounds, and the No. 3 seed Connecticut Sun eased past the short-handed Dallas Wings 73-58 to advance to the semifinals. | 2022-08-25T08:46:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Wednesday's Sports in Brief - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/wednesdays-sports-in-brief/2022/08/25/107c5116-2449-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/wednesdays-sports-in-brief/2022/08/25/107c5116-2449-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html |
A fishing boat in the state of Kerala, where the first case of tomato flu was identified in May. (Rebecca Conway/Getty Images)
At least 82 children under age 5 had been infected by late July in the southern state of Kerala, after the first patient was identified there in May. Infections have now been recorded in three other states — including 26 children between the ages of 1 and 9 in Odisha — the Times of India reported Thursday.
Tomato flu could also be a new variant of hand, foot and mouth disease, which is common among children under age 5, the Lancet article said. It added that the new infection is a self-limiting illness — one that tends to resolve spontaneously without treatment — for which no specific drug is available.
Young children appear to be at increased risk because of the use of diapers, their tendency to touch unclean surfaces and their propensity to put things into their mouths.
“Given the similarities to hand, foot, and mouth disease, if the outbreak of tomato flu in children is not controlled and prevented, transmission might lead to serious consequences by spreading in adults as well,” the authors of the Lancet article wrote.
Its primary symptoms include high fever, rashes and intense joint pain — similar to those of chikungunya. Other symptoms include fatigue, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and common influenza-like symptoms, akin to a dengue infection.
Although tomato flu and covid-19 have similar symptoms, the virus that causes the new disease is not related to the coronavirus, the Lancet article said. Tomato flu is diagnosed after tests have ruled out dengue, chikungunya, Zika, chickenpox and herpes. | 2022-08-25T09:47:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What is tomato flu, the new viral infection spreading in India? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/25/tomato-flu-outbreak-symptoms-india/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/25/tomato-flu-outbreak-symptoms-india/ |
(Rafael Elias/Moment RF/Getty Images)
The unprecedented case has cast light on Spain’s controversial euthanasia law, which allows patients suffering from chronic pain to undergo assisted suicide regardless of their legal standing, according to court documents.
“I am paraplegic. I have 45 stitches on my hand. I can’t move my left arm well. I have screws and I can’t feel my chest,” Sabau said in a statement from the prison hospital that was released to local media outlets, according to the Spanish daily newspaper El Pais.
Originally from Romania, Sabau said he had been the victim of racism and that his bosses had made his life “a living hell,” the paper reported. In an email to his superiors before the shooting, he threatened to “take the law into my own hands,” adding, “Lessons learned in blood are not easily forgotten.”
“He has the right to a dignified death, of course, but what about the compensation of the victims?” Mireia Ruiz, a lawyer for one of the wounded, told local journalists.
Spain’s euthanasia law, passed in March 2021, says adults with conditions that cause “unbearable suffering” can choose to end their lives through physician-assisted suicide. It makes no exceptions for people in the middle of legal proceedings.
Lawyers for the victims of the December attack appealed to the court to halt Sabau’s death until after the trial, but Judge Sonia Zapater Torres rejected their request.
“One could say that there is a clash of fundamental rights here,” Zapater Torres said in her ruling. The right to dignity and personal autonomy is a fundamental right that trumps the victims’ right to a fair trial, she concluded. | 2022-08-25T10:09:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Spain lets man die by assisted suicide before trial - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/25/spain-assisted-suicide-euthanasia-murder-trial/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/25/spain-assisted-suicide-euthanasia-murder-trial/ |
Yeganeh Torbati
Jacqueline Culbreth, 61, an Air Force veteran formerly enrolled at the Future Tech Career Institute, said she "jumped" at the chance to take classes there after being laid off from a well-paying job, hoping she could increase her earning power. (Thomas Simonetti/For The Washington Post)
Schedules were disorganized and courses did not follow a set syllabus. School-provided laptops couldn’t run critical software. And during long stretches of scheduled class time, students were left without instruction, according to interviews with Culbreth and 10 other veterans who attended the school.
Lawmakers didn’t address VA’s long struggle to police for-profit schools that engage in deceptive practices, as they set up a program that attracted many for-profit entities. Future Tech had been barred from receiving VA tuition payments for several courses in 2012 after Illinois officials concluded that the school — then doing business under a different name — had submitted false reports and misled veterans. The school regained its eligibility in 2017, Future Tech said in a statement. Under VRRAP, it charged VA more than $25,000 per student per year, according to a tuition statement seen by The Post — just under the federal cap of $26,000 and about $7,000 higher than other computer boot camps approved by the program.
There were other issues. The narrowly drawn legislation limited tuition support to veterans who were not eligible for other educational benefits and were not receiving unemployment insurance or enrolled in any other federal or state jobs program — which risked leaving very few eligible applicants.
Meanwhile, the Veterans Benefits Administration, which oversees employment and training programs, did little to market the initiative, according to congressional aides and veterans’ advocates.
“Collectively, we feel like it was too big of a program [for VA] to quickly launch without understanding the space they were entering into,” said Alicia Boddy, chief operations and development officer at Code Platoon, a Chicago computer coding boot camp, who meets monthly with a group of other school administrators.
Future Tech grabbed an opportunity. Biden’s signature on the legislation was barely dry when the school began trumpeting the new benefit to veterans. In one May 2021 email, the school advertised a “12-month program to fully utilize the 12 months of eligibility awarded you by VA.”
Opened in 2006 as the Computer Training Institute of Chicago, the school operates from a high-rise office building across Michigan Avenue from the Art Institute of Chicago. In a 2012 interview with one of its alumni, then the host of a local TV show on technology, program director Paul Johnson touted the school’s track record of connecting students with high-paying jobs.
In 2012, the school received approval from Illinois officials to provide VA-funded courses to veterans. (VA authorizes officials in each state to vet local educational institutions.) Within 10 months, however, the state had stripped Future Tech’s eligibility for federal funding for the courses after concluding that administrators were submitting false reports and misleading veterans about costs.
“We’d be in the middle of something, maybe in the third week of the program, and then someone would enter the program brand new and then just be thrown into the third week’s content,” White said. The instructor “would have to teach them on the break everything that was presented to us on week one.”
Two days a week, students were assigned to “lab time,” White said, when they were supposed to work independently with access to instructors to ask questions. But instructors were usually teaching an entirely different course and therefore unavailable, White said.
While illness caused staffing shortages that forced instructors to take on extra classes, this was done “for the shortest time possible,” the statement said. Book delays were “isolated cases, not the norm.” Like the problems with laptops, they were caused by “supply chain issues we are all sadly familiar with.”
“I’m drowning here,” said Culbreth, who has been staying with a friend. “I’m so disappointed. I would have finished. I would have gotten my certifications. I wouldn’t have let anything stop me.”
In May, a senior VA Education Service official objected to Levin’s suggestion to boost enrollment by adding four-year colleges to VRRAP’s roster of schools, saying the change would cause “new administrative burdens” months before the program expires. Levin fired back: “The status quo is entirely unacceptable.”
Ruhlman predicted VA officials would “put that application … under extreme scrutiny.” | 2022-08-25T10:13:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Congress approved $386 million to retrain veterans. Only 397 benefited. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/25/covid-veterans-retraining-program-school/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/25/covid-veterans-retraining-program-school/ |
San Francisco’s Diego Rivera exhibition is the largest in 20 years
The engrossing ‘Diego Rivera’s America’ celebrates the Mexican muralist’s influence, but also shows his slide into political peril — and kitsch
Review by Sebastian Smee
Diego Rivera, “The Flower Carrier,” 1935. (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art/Banco de México Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)
SAN FRANCISCO — Spend too much time with the art of Diego Rivera, and you may find yourself quietly tiptoeing over into the art-for-art’s-sake camp. That happened to me, anyway, while navigating “Diego Rivera’s America,” an engrossing new show at San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art.
Not cool, right? The doctrine of art for art’s sake is for decadent aesthetes, oozing privilege. Art is supposed to serve some bigger moral purpose. The doctrine was doubtless even more untenable in the 1920s and 1930s, when Rivera — responding to revolutions in Mexico and Russia, to the Great Depression and to the rise of fascism — made his immensely influential murals. A man like Rivera — just look at him — wasn’t about to sit on the sidelines like some wasted flâneur.
But let’s at least try to remember the point of art for art’s sake. It wasn’t to insist (implausibly) that art exists apart from society. It was to say to politicians, collectors, ideologues: Keep your hands off! Let art be an arena for play, for spontaneously arising truth — not for cliches, commerce, propaganda. Art for art’s sake recognized that if you subordinate art to an idea like “the greater good,” you traduce it. You cauterize its deeper human potential, and end up with kitsch.
All star show at the National Gallery of Art doubles down on identity
As I read it, the doctrine also acknowledged that, in making art that serves a political ideal, serious artists — the ones who aren’t dilettantes — more often find themselves serving naked power. That was the risk run by Diego Rivera (1886-1957), a very serious artist.
The SFMOMA show, which was delayed by the pandemic, is the largest exhibition of Rivera’s work in 20 years. It displays his murals (most of them immovable but brilliantly shown in situ as video footage on giant screens), surrounded by studies and large-scale cartoons, alongside some of his finest easel paintings, from the early 1920s to the mid-1940s.
The show’s capstone is Rivera’s vast mural, more than 70 feet wide and 22 high, that he painted in front of audiences at the 1940 Golden Gate International Exposition. The 10-panel work, known as “Pan American Unity,” was the last of several murals Rivera made in San Francisco. Intended for the City College of San Francisco, it wasn’t installed there (imperfectly) until 1961. More than half a century later, it was deinstalled and conserved over a four-year period. Last summer, it was moved to SFMOMA, where it is displayed in a ground-floor gallery. It will be returned to the City College of San Francisco in 2023.
“Diego Rivera’s America” celebrates the artist’s desire, as guest curator James Oles puts it in the catalogue, to “wield his art as an essential weapon — sometimes blunt, sometimes subtle or seductive — in the utopian struggle for greater racial and social equality, security and justice.”
This is rousing, and not out of tune with our times. But it’s also fraught. Art wielded as any kind of weapon — let alone a blunt one — is almost always doomed to long-term irrelevance, no matter how “seductive” it may seem in the moment.
In that century’s first, convulsive half, Rivera had a massive and generally under-acknowledged influence on art up and down the Americas. He went to Europe in 1907 and, as part of Paris’s burgeoning avant-garde, had a front-row seat at the birth of cubism, whose taut and taciturn spatial language he quickly mastered, later adapting it to his own, more loquacious, loose-belted ends.
Until the outbreak of World War I, according to Oles, “aesthetic theories, exhibition reviews and love affairs were all that mattered” to Rivera (as if that weren’t already a lot!). But by 1921, when he was lured back to Mexico by the post-revolutionary government of Álvaro Obregón, everything had changed.
Charged by newfound political convictions and inspired by the Renaissance frescos he had seen in Italy, Rivera began painting murals. He proved himself (as his biographer Bertram Wolfe put it) “one of those monsters of fecundity,” working long days on giant scaffoldings. He and his fellow muralists — most notably José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros — were attempting to forge a new Mexican identity and to promote new ambitions for Mexico, for the Americas, for the workers of the world.
A trip to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in southern Oaxaca in 1922 set Rivera on a new course: No longer would he paint compositions loaded with abstruse symbolism. Instead, he would favor everyday Mexican subjects, focusing on labor, family life, festivals and marketplaces. There is much to love about these works showing men and women making tortillas, grinding cornmeal, scavenging, selling flowers and corn cobs, carrying baskets of fruit or flowers, and washing clothes. Their rounded forms are almost complacently generalized, like the sculptures of Aristide Maillol. But Rivera keeps us engaged with odd compositions, amusing expressions and fabulously rich colors.
Still, his most ambitious and influential works were his murals. Between 1923 and 1929, Rivera completed more than 200 fresco panels for government institutions in Mexico. There was something quixotic about the enterprise, which — for all its art world impact — seemed destined to be received with a kind of anticipatory nostalgia. That’s because public, propagandistic art was being superseded — trounced, really — by the movies.
By the end of the 1920s, Hollywood was the fifth-largest industry in the United States, and in the 1930s, the “Big Eight” studios were releasing hundreds of feature-length movies a year. Art that didn’t move — that was tethered, what’s more, to concrete walls — didn’t stand a chance against cinema’s almost indecent seductiveness and potential for mass persuasion.
More immediately, when Obregón’s term as president came to an end, mural commissions in Mexico dried up, forcing Rivera and his colleagues to seek patrons in the United States. Many Americans were already under the spell of Mexico’s much-discussed cultural efflorescence, so Rivera found a receptive audience.
When he came to the United States with his wife, Frida Kahlo, in November 1930, it was not only to fulfill mural commissions and find patrons. It was also to be feted at New York’s newly established Museum of Modern Art, where Rivera was only the second artist to be given a solo exhibition (the first was Henri Matisse).
Was it a problem that Rivera was a known communist? Yes and no. He had made his first trip to the Soviet Union in 1927, staying nine months. By the time he arrived in America, Wall Street had tanked. The country was convulsed by massive labor protests. The Great Depression was deepening like a coastal shelf. In this context, even powerful Americans were willing to tolerate, if not embrace, the famous Mexican’s politics. But Rivera had to walk a fine line, and the first murals he completed avoided overt political statements, focusing instead on the wonders of America’s dynamic technological, industrial and agricultural sectors.
It’s too complicated to rehearse here the crazed cotillion Rivera subsequently performed with America’s wealthy industrialists (including Edsel Ford and Nelson Rockefeller); the Soviets (who had sent Rivera home from Russia in 1929); the Mexican government (which banned the Mexican Communist Party); the Mexican Communist Party (which kicked him out for being a Trotskyite); American Marxists (who heckled him for working with capitalist imperialists); and art critics (who claimed he was too much of a Marxist to understand America).
All one can ask is: What chance did sincere art stand, entangled in this web of political jeopardy, temptation and compromise? Rivera could do only, perhaps, what he was good at: working, fulfilling commissions, and organizing human types and platitudinous dogma into impressively complex, large-scale compositions.
Don’t get me wrong — they are impressive, both technically and as historic documents. But if Rivera provided a model for what America had until then been missing — a tradition of artist activism — he also provided a cautionary tale. His influence on a generation of American artists, including all those employed painting murals for the Works Progress Administration during the Depression, was enormous. Thomas Hart Benton, Jackson Pollock and Philip Guston were just three among hundreds of American artists who spent periods in thrall to the Mexican muralists.
But most of them eventually recoiled from the influence. The issue wasn’t so much Rivera’s too-towering example or Stalin’s murderousness or America’s increasingly hysterical anti-communism. In the end, it was kitsch. It was Rivera’s need to appeal to “the people,” to find “publicly significant meanings” (Benton’s phrase), which meant statements so generalized they barely applied to anyone.
In 1932, Rivera published an essay titled “Mickey Mouse and American Art,” in which he extolled the Disney character and his cartoon pals as “the genuine heroes of American art in the first half of the 20th Century.” He predicted that, after the revolution, cartoons — with their standardized drawing, clear messaging and predetermined meanings — would be the people’s most beloved medium. It was a classic Rivera provocation — designed to keep you wondering where his loyalties lay. But it revealed a lot about his own ambitions.
If it means trying to insulate art from society and politics, art for art’s sake is a flawed, not to say ridiculous doctrine. But subordinating art to political imperatives, as Rivera did, is equally absurd and leads directly to kitsch. Instructively, Frida Kahlo set out to do something much more private, idiosyncratic and psychologically charged. She was not only better artistically, but also — as a feminist trailblazer — more potent politically. | 2022-08-25T10:18:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | San Francisco's Diego Rivera exhibition is the largest in 20 years - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/08/25/san-francisco-hosts-largest-diego-rivera-exhibition-20-years/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/08/25/san-francisco-hosts-largest-diego-rivera-exhibition-20-years/ |
Kyiv’s Brutalist legacy comes alive through Zoom tours by a native son
Dmytro Soloviov makes a passionate case for appreciating and preserving Soviet-era modernist buildings and mosaics
Dmytro Soloviov has been giving real-world tours since 2019 and recently started giving tours on Zoom. (Ruslan Synhaievski)
On a warm July afternoon in Kyiv, Ukraine, Dmytro Soloviov strolls past pink and green facades on a bustling boulevard, in search of a passageway.
“In Kyiv, it is important to enter every door you see, and sometimes, you can find some very unexpected treasures,” he says. He opens a white gate to a pedestrian tunnel and follows it into a desolate courtyard. “Nobody comes here unless they are on business, visiting a friend or know about the mural.”
The 32-year-old architecture enthusiast and Kyiv resident isn’t talking to himself — he has a captive audience on Zoom that has tuned in from around the world to watch him explore his city. Equipped with a smartphone, a selfie stick and an irrepressible spirit, Soloviov, who runs the Instagram @ukrainianmodernism and has been giving real-world tours since 2019, is taking us on his first virtual tour. From early on, it’s clear he is not showing the guidebooks’ greatest hits.
Soloviov walks toward the center of the courtyard to a small building that boasts a blue mosaic mural — a trace of its history as a children’s art school. He talks us through the mural, which was made by students, and its details: the nation’s signature sunflowers, a chestnut symbolizing Kyiv, a bird from Ukrainian folklore and a rainbow. As he moves his phone closer, we can see that the mosaic was crafted from broken kitchenware and shattered tiles — a kaleidoscope of fragmented colors fill the screen.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, we’ve heard a lot about the capital city of Kyiv. About missile attacks and bombed-out apartments. About political figures making surprise visits and President Volodymyr Zelensky’s courage to stay there. But for those who have never stepped foot in the Eastern European metropolis, it remains an abstraction. Too often, it’s reduced to images of rubble or discussed only as a target in the war — a place from which people are trying to flee. Soloviov reveals a different Kyiv — the city lived in and loved by many. He brings Kyiv up close, from afar.
They’ve been protesting pro-Putin artists for years. Now Signerbusters are finally being heard.
For over two hours, the Zoom tour goes from hidden courtyards to imposing Soviet-era structures that seem to soar with renewed pride, seen through Soloviov’s lens. When it comes to architecture, he is not one to hide his emotions: He strokes the wall of the Kyiv Metro headquarters, admiring the rough natural stone. Stopping outside another futuristic-looking building, which was once a Soviet fashion house, he laments how it has “suffered” in recent years (it has been covered with a digital billboard). A simple geometric light fixture is cause for celebration. “Amaaaazing,” he says. “I love this. They’re like candies. I want to lick them.
“Well,” he adds, inspecting the globes more closely, “I’ll have to dust them first.”
Soloviov traces his fascination with architecture to a 2014 trip to Poland. He had seen Warsaw’s Palace of Culture and Science on television, but in person, its scale blew him away. From that day on, he says, he stopped seeing buildings as mere “decorations” but as artworks with profound political, social and psychological effects. He traveled around Europe to learn about different building styles — art deco in Lisbon, constructivism in Moscow. But he found his passion back home in late Soviet modernism, which is embodied by Kyiv’s famous flying saucer building and crematorium, and commonly described as “brutalist.”
Brutalist buildings aren’t unlovable. You’re looking at them wrong.
“It has a kind of brave, intellectual beauty,” Soloviov says of brutalism on a later Zoom call, which he admires both for its aesthetic — exposed concrete and strong geometric shapes — and for the way it broke with tradition, pioneering progressive ideas about how architecture can serve citizens.
But Soloviov quickly learned that he was in the minority — that these modernist masterpieces are often dismissed as eyesores and routinely demolished. To fight back, he started giving in-person architecture tours — in Kyiv and elsewhere — with hopes of convincing more people that his brutalist beaus are worth keeping.
Recent events have not stopped him. Just two weeks after the Feb. 24 invasion, he decided to start tours in the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk, where he had sought refuge. A group of 40 — half locals and half fellow displaced people — showed up to the first one to admire the Carpathian mountain region’s distinctive modernist architecture (think, concrete meets log cabin). Attendees told him the tour was the first time since the war had begun that they thought of anything else.
Soloviov’s virtual tours, which he announces on his Instagram page, have also become a way of coping with present circumstances. He says that during the pandemic and now the war, he has missed meeting visiting foreigners, some of whom were his most inquisitive tour participants. Now, he’s meeting them in their living rooms.
There is a disarming sincerity to Soloviov that makes it work. He speaks off the cuff — scorning Stalinist architecture (he finds it “fake”) and critiquing the city’s commercialization. When he stops on a corner to marvel at a view of five modernist buildings from four different decades, he suggests we take a screenshot or visit the spot on Google Earth to remember it. As he passes the crowded Come and Stay cafe, he says, “I wish you could join me for a coffee here, perhaps one day.”
Tina Ferrari, 44, watching from Italy, said after the tour that at times, she forgot that other people were watching. “I almost felt like I was on a Zoom call with a friend who was taking me with him through his city,” she said. “It felt very intimate.”
While the war comes up occasionally — at one point, Soloviov stops talking to avoid suspicion from a police officer — it is certainly not the focus. Asked whether giving tours in wartime feels any different, Soloviov says, “No, it’s the same. And I think that’s the point, too — to bring some sense that life goes on.”
At times, that sense can be hard won. Soloviov grew up in Zaporizhzhia, an eastern region of Ukraine now partially occupied by Russia and where his father still lives. A few weeks ago, Soloviov lost his job as a video game copy writer because of wartime cutbacks — making tours his primary source of income (there is a $30 fee). In the coming weeks, he plans to return to Ivano-Frankivsk for a few months, during which he hopes to give virtual tours of the city he discovered in those early days of the invasion.
Some of Soloviov’s followers have suggested tours of the buildings Russia has destroyed, but he’s against it. “Everyone knows about the destruction. There’s no need to do tours,” he says. “My job is different. My job is to educate people, especially when biases against Soviet modern architecture are strengthening.” To Soloviov, it is public opinion — not missiles — that is the biggest threat to the modernist buildings he treasures.
For such a concrete connoisseur, Ukraine is a gold mine. “It’s quite rare to see so many pieces of modernism at such a great scale in one place,” says Ashley Bigham, an Ohio State University professor who studies Soviet architecture. Bigham points to Ukraine’s sprawling civic structures — theaters, sport complexes, schools — which she says are remarkable for balancing expressive, grand forms (many have complicated roofs that allow for huge, open floor plans) with functionality.
Convincing others to appreciate these behemoths, though, is no easy task. “Sometimes, it’s hard to get the public to understand what is worth saving about these buildings,” she says. “Sometimes, people don’t understand how groundbreaking they were or their architectural significance.”
The war hasn’t helped. Even though Ukrainian identity existed throughout the Soviet Union (present-day Ukraine was known as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic), Soloviov says some Ukrainians are conflating “Soviet” with “Russian” and making a case for expunging any trace of that past — including buildings.
And as Russia seeks to erase Ukrainian culture, it disturbs him that some Ukrainians want to erase parts of it themselves. “What will our descendants know of the 20th century in Ukraine if we demolished it all?” he asks. “What will they think? That we did nothing?”
So, tour by tour, Soloviov is making a case for remembering. “All those buildings and mosaics, they are products of Ukrainian architects and artists,” he says, “products of their labor, their skill, their creativity, their soul.” | 2022-08-25T10:18:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | This tour of Kviv architecture is a passion project by a native son - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/08/25/ukraine-architecture-virtual-tours/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/08/25/ukraine-architecture-virtual-tours/ |
The central issue at this year’s Jackson Hole Economic Symposium will be one that hits close to home for thousands of local workers
The Teton mountains and Jackson Hole are seen from Snow King Mountain on Aug. 14 in Jackson Hole, Wy. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
But like all major events, the conference couldn’t happen without thousands of workers — cabdrivers, cooks, cashiers — in and around Jackson, Wyo. And they are finding it tougher to make a living in the area, as costs for housing, gas and food become painfully out of reach.
The small yet sought-after town has always been a tough place to live affordably. But inflation has put everything further out of reach, making Jackson, in particular, a pinnacle of inequality in the U.S. economy. The median price for a home in Jackson topped $2 million last year, due to wealthy households and investors scooping up homes. Local rent is up 12.4 percent. That has left many workers critical to the area’s hospitality and tourism industries clamoring for affordable apartments, commuting from hours away, or working multiple jobs to make ends meet.
“I don’t think the economy works for me right now,” said Jesus Montiel, who lives 90 minutes outside of Jackson and works at a toy store in town. “I can’t even find a home for sale anywhere near Jackson that’s less than million dollars. And that’s for a one bedroom.”
U.S. policy makers misjudged inflation threat until it was too late
Starting Thursday, Federal Reserve officials and many others will descend upon the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium, hosted by the Kansas City Fed, to discuss the same inflationary forces plaguing so many of those who work behind the scenes to ensure this charming mountain town continues to shine for tourists.
When Ricky Kairos moved to Jackson four years ago, his first home was a small room, no kitchen, shared with a fellow employee at the Four Seasons Resort. Kairos shared a bathroom with multiple other workers, and lived directly across the hall from the hotel restaurant where he worked as a cook. The employee housing cost him $750 a month.
“That was pretty high up in my monthly budget, considering I was making $18-something an hour,” Kairos, 28, said. “It didn’t really leave me a lot of options. It was my first time coming to the area … But pretty quickly, I figured out I wasn’t going to be able to save anything.”
— Ricky Kairos
Kairos left his Four Seasons job after four months to finish culinary school, then returned to Jackson, seeking a job in a local restaurant. But steady work was hard to find: Tourism booms during the summer and winter. In the off seasons, tourism and hospitality industries scale back, leaving many workers either without jobs, or with significantly reduced hours, for weeks or months on end.
“The job stability — ‘am I going to have this job 52 weeks a year?’ — is really hard,” Kairos said. “As somebody who wants to make this their home and be here over the long term, it was really hard to ride that wave.”
For Kairos, the best thing to come from his stint at the Four Seasons was meeting his fiance, Irwing Bernal. When they couldn’t find affordable housing, the couple moved in with Bernal’s mother in Victor, Idaho, 25 miles away. The town is home to many Jackson commuters.
What is causing inflation: the factors pushing prices high each month
Now, Kairos and his fiance have more stable jobs, both working for Jackson’s public school system. On $25 an hour, the only way Kairos can imagine moving closer is if the school system or local government makes more employee housing available. Sixty-one people who worked for the school district resigned last year, overwhelmingly because they couldn’t find places to live, according to local officials.
“I would love to stay, but our biggest fear is they don’t raise our wages, and the price for a two-bedroom apartment in Jackson is $600,000,” Kairos said. “There’s no physical way I would ever be able to pay that off.”
The drive from Jesus Montiel’s mobile home to his job as a sales manager at Teton Toys takes 90 minutes. On slushy winter mornings, or at the end of a 14-hour workday, he relies on energy drinks to stay alert on the winding canyon roads.
“I don’t think the economy works for me right now. I can’t even find a home for sale anywhere near Jackson that’s less than million dollars. And that’s for a one bedroom.”
— Jesus Montiel
Montiel, 22, pays $950 a month for the trailer that’s home to his family, including his wife and 2½-year-old daughter in Afton, Wyo., some 70 miles away. His uncle owns the mobile home park, which is part of the reason the family decided to live far outside of town.
But sometimes, Montiel doesn’t make it home. To save on gas and commuting time, Montiel will often crash on a friend or co-worker’s couch if that means he can sleep closer to the toy shop in Jackson.
Inflation eased in July from a year ago as energy prices fell
Montiel earns $25 an hour — a good wage, but with the cost of gas and food so high, he’s been taking on as many extra shifts as possible to make his budget work. The grocery tab for his family runs around $400 a month. Montiel’s wife, Krista Mason, stays home with their daughter, because child care is so expensive.
“I’m working a lot of overtime,” Montiel said. “It’s the only way I’m able to afford everything that I need to.”
Five years since moving to the area, Montiel said the exhausting commute is ultimately worth it. He estimates that his job in Jackson pays double what he’d make in Afton, where he said “a lot of the jobs are more for entry level [workers] or high-schoolers.” He takes pride in his work, helping customers find exactly what they’re looking for and keeping the store looking tidy.
Badillo, 37, lives in a Habitat for Humanity home, not too far from her job serving food in a high school cafeteria. Her three-bedroom, two-bathroom townhouse is a far cry from the hotel room where she and her four children once lived when they had no where else to go.
“It’s tiny, but it’s my house. And I don’t have to worry that the owner is going to sell the house, or about where we’re going move. Even if it’s tiny, we’re so grateful because we have a place to call home.”
— Marcela Badillo
About seven years ago, Badillo said she made enough to cover her family’s expenses working as a breastfeeding counselor and a house cleaner. But then her landlord abruptly decided to sell her rental home, she said, and put her in a frantic search for affordable rent. As she scoured for apartments in Jackson, she found that a handful of rentals accepted pets — but had unusual rules barring children. So her family crammed into a hotel room with two small beds, one bathroom and a kitchenette.
When Badillo applied to build and own a Habitat for Humanity home in 2017, she was nervous her paperwork wouldn’t even be considered. When she immigrated at age 17 from Mexico, she was an illegal resident. Years later, she secured a worker visa, but was still waiting for her resident card when she sent in her application to Habitat, a nonprofit which helps homeowners build their own homes and secure an affordable mortgage.
It was accepted, and Badillo and her loved ones put in 500 hours helping construct her new townhouse. Her family moved in one year later.
“It’s tiny, but it’s my house,” Badillo said. “And I don’t have to worry that the owner is going to sell the house, or about where we’re going move. Even if it’s tiny, we’re so grateful because we have a place to call home.”
Badillo said she’s especially relieved to own her own home as the cost of living strains every other part of her budget. Groceries, gas and clothes are more expensive than ever. Her children range in age from 10 to 18 years, and, Badillo said, “it’s impossible to keep them in the same shoes for a long time.”
Monteith started working at the lodge after meeting his girlfriend, Emily Claassen, who planned events at the lodge. For more than a decade, Claassen helped put on the Fed’s conference, setting up rooms and planning menus for the three-day symposium. Monteith drove guests to scenic float trips on the nearby Snake River, and later worked as a bellman. Through work, they got year round employee housing.
“I lived in New York City for 30 years, and moved around from apartment to apartment. I thought I could always find something in a month. How wrong I was.”
— Jeff Monteith
When Monteith and Claassen left their jobs at the lodge, they also lost their guaranteed housing. They started looking last year, and it quickly became clear they couldn’t afford to buy a home in town. Even the competition for rentals stunned Monteith.
“I lived in New York City for 30 years, and moved around from apartment to apartment,” he said. “I thought I could always find something in a month. How wrong I was.”
This summer, gas prices hit Monteith hard, especially as it hovered around $5.25 per gallon in Jackson. Higher prices at the pump meant he got paid less for each ride. Summers are already tighter for drivers, Monteith added, as more tourists rent cars than during the winter ski season.
“We have set prices, and those prices have not changed since gas prices have gone up,” Monteith said. “I definitely make more money in the winter, so like everyone, we’re just tightening our belts. We’ll probably take one or two or three fewer trips this year.”
Even with stable, successful jobs, the couple’s ability to stay depends on whether Jackson’s booming tourism industry can survive inflation. Claassen runs her own events company, and is putting on 21 weddings this year, plus a handful of corporate events. But even in a place like Jackson, Claassen said bookings depend on hotel or airline prices not escalating out of control — and on people wanting to keep coming back and spend.
“Jackson, the way it’s defined, needs tourism, and I personally love showing off my backyard to people, and I want them to have a great time,” Monteith said. “On the other side, you have friends working in the hotel and restaurant industry, and they’re not all fully staffed, so they may have to work extra shifts. And that means they may not get to enjoy the mountain life that they moved out here for.” | 2022-08-25T10:18:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Fed in Jackson Hole as inflation hurts workers - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/25/federal-reserve-jackson-hole-inflation/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/25/federal-reserve-jackson-hole-inflation/ |
New apartments leasing at the Parks at former Walter Reed site
Residents can access amenities throughout the Parks, the 66-acre redevelopment of the historic former Walter Reed Army Medical Center site, which has 20 acres of outdoor space, including a 10,000-square-foot dog park. (The Hartley)
The mixed-use planned development on the former site of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Northwest Washington continues to grow with new residential and retail options, the latest of which is a 323-unit apartment building.
The Hartley includes 58,000 square feet of retail space, with a 42,000-square-foot Whole Foods Market. The apartment building is a focal point for the Parks Marketplace, which is the retail and community plaza that faces Georgia Avenue and will include a total of 90,000 square feet of dining, shopping and entertainment venues.
Located at 7150 12th St. NW, the Hartley includes a double-height lobby with a smart entry system, 24-hour concierge services, refreshments and seating areas. A second-floor lounge overlooks the plaza and is near a co-working space with private meeting and call rooms, a fitness center with a yoga room, and a clubroom with a catering kitchen, games and large-screen TVs. The sixth floor includes an indoor lounge and terrace. The residence also includes two courtyards. One has a swimming pool with cabanas, an outdoor fitness area and grilling stations. The other courtyard has a meditation garden and fountain. Other amenities include parking, a pet spa, bike storage and a guest suite.
Residents can also access amenities throughout the Parks, the 66-acre redevelopment of the historic former Walter Reed Army Medical Center site, which has 20 acres of outdoor space, including a 10,000-square-foot dog park. Community programs and events take place close to the Hartley on the Great Lawn, Arts Plaza and Marketplace Plaza.
Residences at the Hartley range from studios to three-bedroom units in six townhouses and 317 apartments, with 32 of the apartments designated as affordable housing. The residences have contemporary-style kitchens with modern cabinets, quartz countertops and islands, and a porcelain tile backsplash. The units also have nine-foot-high ceilings, home automation, including smartphone locks and smart thermostats, energy efficient appliances and a washer and dryer. Most units have a balcony or terrace.
Developers are Hines, Triden Development Group and Urban Atlantic, along with joint venture partner Bridge Investment Group and Bozzuto. The building was designed by architects Torti Gallas Urban.
Rents range from $1,862 per month for a 478-square-foot studio to $4,587 for a two-bedroom townhouse with two bathrooms and 1,318 square feet.
The Hartley is now leasing with move-ins starting in early October. For more information, visit thehartley.com. | 2022-08-25T10:18:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | New apartments leasing at the Parks at former Walter Reed site - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/25/new-apartments-leasing-parks-walter-reed/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/25/new-apartments-leasing-parks-walter-reed/ |
A warmer climate is driving precipitation to higher extremes in both flooding and drought
Kasha Patel
A duck swims into White Rock Lake from a flooded sidewalk in Dallas on Aug. 22. (Emil Lippe for The Washington Post)
On Monday morning, the Dallas-Fort Worth area awoke to disaster. Rain was pouring down at the rate of 2 to 3 inches per hour. Highways became lethal lagoons, brooks became basins, and thousands of people scrambled to higher ground.
Just a day earlier, the city had been facing one of its worst droughts on record, with farmers forced to thin their herds as reservoirs rapidly shrank. Twenty-nine percent of the Lone Star State was encapsulated within a top-tier level 4 out of 4 “exceptional” drought. Very dry conditions took a heavy toll on crops and forced widespread water restrictions.
The extreme case of atmospheric caprice highlighted a growing issue plaguing communities across the United States and the world: weather whiplash.
This summer, several locations around the United States have experienced these wild, rapid swings from one weather extreme to another. About half of the country has undergone at least a moderate drought this summer. Parts of the West, the Midwest and Texas have experienced exceptional and historic drought conditions.
Then the storms came. On July 26 in St. Louis, a shocking 8.65 inches of rain fell to mark the city’s wettest day on record. The next day, in eastern Kentucky, rainfall rates topped 2 inches per hour and took the lives of 38 people. In August, eastern Illinois, Death Valley and Dallas also experienced significant or record-breaking rainfall. On Wednesday, flash flooding across central Mississippi swept away roads and prompted rescues.
“It is unusual, especially on the extreme precipitation [and] flash flood side,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California at Los Angeles. “They’re not just beating a historical record by a marginal amount, but just completely blowing right past it and then some.”
Yet he isn’t surprised: A warmer climate is driving precipitation to higher extremes in both flooding and drought.
“The increase in both extreme precipitation events and in these wild swings between extreme precipitation and extreme aridity — this is how most people and most ecosystems on Earth are experiencing climate change,” Swain said.
How can both drought and high-rain events result from climate change? Simple.
Warmer air can hold more water. In fact, for every degree Fahrenheit the atmosphere warms, the air can hold about 4 percent more water. Where there is moisture available, such as along the Gulf or East coasts, more moisture can be transported and dropped, leading to flooding and high-end precipitation totals.
But where moisture is scarce, such as in the West, warmer air sucks humidity out of the ground. This desiccated landscape reinforces extreme heat, leading to drought and extreme wildfire behavior.
The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change highlighted this issue in a recent assessment report, writing that “aridification” and “extreme precipitation events that lead to severe flooding” are both byproducts of the warming climate.
There has also been a tendency for weather patterns to become “stuck,” stalling for longer. That may be why Dallas faced drought for months and was 11 inches behind for the year before this week’s flooding. Now, such precipitation extremes are more feast or famine.
It may have to do with a wavier jet stream, which is believed to be shifting weather features west to east (in the Northern Hemisphere) more slowly. That allows for systems to stall. If a heat dome becomes entrenched in place, weeks of sunshine and dry weather can prevail. In all instances of thousand-year rain events this summer, a stalled frontal boundary was responsible for the deluges.
Make no mistake — when it comes to weather, getting a perfectly average day is atypical. Averages are just found by smoothing over the dips and crests in a random chaotic system. But when heat energy and entropy, or a bit of extra chaos, is added to that system, the dips and crests become much more extreme.
Flash flooding won’t cure a drought
Record flooding should fix a record drought, right? Not quite.
Water during a drought can help, but how fast and how much water falls matters.
During a drought, the ground dries and becomes less permeable. Top soils harden, which make it easier for water to run off. Drought also kills plants and leaves the ground bare, which further limits how much water the soil can absorb. When it rains, much of the water immediately runs off and doesn’t replenish the soils, aquifers or river flow beyond the initial burst.
“You get more instantaneous runoff, higher flashy flood flows on rivers and streams, but less of that water is soaking into the ground,” Swain said. “So you’re getting less soil moisture from the same amount of water.”
In fact, drought can actually lead to a greater risk of flooding. The dry ground hit with the rapid rainfall can promote runoff and trigger widespread flooding.
For instance, in Dallas, while the rainfall was desperately needed, most of what fell didn’t benefit the greater metro area. The event caused deadly flash flooding, but also almost all of the water that came down washed into a watershed that flows into Lake Livingston and eventually toward Houston. The National Weather Service in Fort Worth summed it up by writing “heavy rain, but wrong watershed.”
And last week, about 200 people were trapped for several hours in New Mexico’s Carlsbad Caverns National Park amid heavy flooding.
Swain said weather whiplash also means there are more dry days between the few rainy days — providing more opportunities for the water to evaporate back into the atmosphere. Even the water that does stick around may evaporate quickly, especially in a warming world.
“The soil moisture and the vegetation is still going to be responding in the long run as if there’s a severe drought, because in the long run, there still is,” Swain said. | 2022-08-25T10:18:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How climate change is pushing weather whiplash to new extremes - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/08/25/weather-climate-drought-flooding-dallas-whiplash/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/08/25/weather-climate-drought-flooding-dallas-whiplash/ |
‘I had to at least put in the effort,’ said Lou Asci, who slept in his car to get an early start searching for the heirloom
Francesca Teal’s diamond ring, which is her great-grandmother’s white gold wedding band and engagement ring, soldered together. She lost it in the ocean on Aug. 6. (Courtesy of Francesca Teal)
Wearing a wet suit and headlamp, Asci searched for several hours in the 65-degree water. He had no luck, though he did discover a man’s wedding band, which he is trying to reunite with its owner. Still, he was not about to give up on finding Teal’s ring.
“I’ve returned a bunch of rings before, but this one really hit me,” he said. “I was just very overwhelmingly happy that I was able to do something.”
“I actually got a little teary-eyed,” said Asci.
“It’s amazing that it’s his hobby that he can use for such good and give back to someone who is really searching for something,” Teal said.
“It was a very meaningful gift to me,” added Asci, who has already moved on to his next ring rescue mission.
“There is nothing more rewarding,” he said. “It’s just something that I love doing.” | 2022-08-25T10:18:59Z | www.washingtonpost.com | A diamond ring fell in an ocean. Lou Asci found it with metal detector - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/08/25/diamond-ring-found-detector-asci/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/08/25/diamond-ring-found-detector-asci/ |
The FDA’s new hearing aid won’t solve the bigger problems in the market
The new rule could help millions of Americans get better hearing aids for less, but fundamental flaws still lurk in the system
Perspective by Jaipreet Virdi
Jaipreet Virdi is a historian of medicine, technology and disability at the University of Delaware, and author of "Hearing Happiness: Deafness Cures in History."
On Aug. 16, the Food and Drug Administration issued a final rule creating a new category of over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids, which will take effect as soon as mid-October.
Under this rule, adults with mild to moderate hearing loss can buy hearing aids without a prescription from any seller for approximately $600 to $800 a pair. That will save millions of Americans thousands of dollars. Traditional hearing aids average between $5,000 to upward of $14,000 a pair, including fitting and follow-up professional services. The FDA guidelines also ensure patient safety — like ensuring hearing aids aren’t so loud they cause further damage to the ears — and other technical specifications to ensure good device performance.
Once OTC hearing aids hit the market, they will offer consumers affordable, accessible and technologically sophisticated options for improving hearing.
Yet, they won’t benefit all Americans with hearing loss. Without proper exams and individualized fitting, OTC hearing aids won’t target someone’s specific hearing loss, which requires an evaluation and calibration for maximum sound benefits. Indeed, experts are advising consumers to consider getting a hearing assessment by a certified audiologist before purchasing a device. Moreover, since hearing aids are considered consumer products rather than essential medical devices, they are not covered by insurance.
In short, while these new devices offer great promise, they leave in place problems that have plagued Americans with hearing loss for over a half-century. While Congress has grappled with how to deal with the gap between the medical and consumer sides of hearing loss and high costs since the 1960s, legislators have taken no action. Absent fundamental legal changes, however, these flaws probably will linger.
Beginning in the 1920s, five companies controlled the market for hearing aids. Industry salesmen, not medical professionals, guided consumers’ selections of devices with few guardrails to guarantee quality. Doctors regularly accused salesmen of encroaching on their territory, but the truth was that salesmen monopolized this space because most medical experts found the fitting of hearing aids to be time-consuming — and often unnecessary — for their practice.
This structure began to change in 1943, when the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology created the Committee on the Conservation of Hearing. This committee played a major role in establishing standards for hearing acuity and defining the principles of audiometry that would later improve hearing aid designs. It also addressed the technical specifications of hearing aids, evaluating the boasting of manufacturers in advertisements to determine whether claims met AMA standards.
As a result of the committee’s work and wartime technological innovations such as the printed circuit and transistor, postwar hearing aids were more powerful and reliable than their early counterparts. Yet, although costs barely rose for manufacturers, the prices consumers paid skyrocketed. Rising prices ignited bitter competition between the top hearing aid manufactures, prompting the AMA, in conjunction with the Federal Trade Commission and the Better Business Bureau, to outline fair trade practices for the industry in an attempt to regulate prices and ensure consumer choice.
But despite these guidelines, a 1962 Public Health Survey reported that at least 54 percent of the millions of hearing aid users did not receive proper audiometric or medical examinations before purchase.
The byzantine market for hearing aids was especially difficult for seniors. There were over 300 models available, which varied in cost from $100 to $400 (approximately $980 to $3,900 in today’s dollars). Elderly Americans were most vulnerable to unscrupulous salesmen, who pressured them to purchase devices that weren’t suitable for their hearing loss. This led customers to reject their hearing aids and scorn the industry for victimizing deafened people.
The problem wasn’t misdiagnosis. Instead, customers were being sold devices that weren’t fitted to their range of hearing loss. Industry leaders and medical professionals alike insisted that no hearing aid should be prescribed or purchased without a proper hearing test.
Despite these concerns, the classification of hearing aids as consumer goods — as opposed to medical devices with strict standards — meant that when Congress enacted Medicare in 1965, the devices were excluded.
Three years later, in July 1968, the Senate held hearings on the sales practices of the hearing aid industry and the inadequate involvement of the medical profession. Dr. Eldon L. Eagles of the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Health, for one, testified that the lack of proper medical attention was a major reason for consumer dissatisfaction and eventual abandonment of hearing aids. He emphasized: “Just as we no longer buy spectacles on the basis of trying on a few pairs until we feel that we notice some improvement,” neither was deafness “a simple mechanical situation,” with a one-size-fits-all solution. In short, people needed the right hearing aid — not just any hearing aid.
But legislators also heard from industry experts who claimed it took consumers, on average, five years to seek out technological assistance for hearing loss. When they did look for help, they confronted a confusing marketplace full of both medical professionals and salesmen offering potential options. Some experts even testified that the solution was educating consumers to understand that hearing aids were essential medical devices that needed proper fitting, not stigmatized products for concealing deafness.
Due to this muddied picture, Congress took no action, though legislators did encourage medical professions to become more involved in hearing assessments — eventually enabling the profession of audiology to dominate.
In 1973, the Retired Professional Action Group, a subsidiary of the consumer group Public Citizen, released a 300-page report, “Paying Through the Ear,” which denounced the monopolistic character of the hearing aid industry, in which four companies accounted for half of all sales and the FTC cited nearly every major manufacturer for anticompetitive practices. The report also criticized medical experts for not working hard enough to protect their patients, and it recommended greater regulation to reduce costs and mandatory hearing tests for all hearing aid prescriptions.
The Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Interests of the Elderly responded with another hearing. This time, senators heard that while it cost approximately $15 to $35 to manufacture a hearing aid ($100 to $233 today), manufacturers marked up the devices a whopping $200 to $600 ($1,335 to $4,000) — a gap that has only increased in the ensuing half century.
Again, however, conflicting testimony made legislators reticent to act. Instead, the FTC recommended that prospective buyers refrain from purchasing hearing aids without a prescription, or at least waiving their right to one in writing. Congress held further hearings in the 1980s, but they too produced no legislative action to ease the plight of consumers, as the FTC argued the evidence compiled in the previous decade was outdated and a new survey was required.
But without categorizing hearing aids as essential medical devices, reducing prices proved difficult without increased competition. In the 1980s and 1990s, inexpensive alternatives to traditional hearing aids hit the market, but they were fundamentally different — branded as “personal sound amplification products” (PSAPs). These unregulated devices were a poor — albeit cost effective — stand-in for prescription hearing aids. Variations of “self-fitting hearing aids” — or “hearables” — such as Bose’s SoundControl Hearing Aids, which cost $850 per pair, have also hit the market, as have direct-to-consumer hearing aids, ranging in costs from $150 to $3,000 per pair.
But none of these market innovations addressed the most fundamental problems plaguing Americans with hearing loss — the difficulty of getting a high-quality hearing aid matched to someone’s needs for an affordable price. The hope is that the OTC hearing aids that emerge from the new FDA rule will be better-regulated alternatives to PSAPs and hearables. Industry experts suggest that OTC hearing aids might drive down the costs of traditional hearing aids, or at least force manufactures to offer low-cost alternatives to their expensive models.
Even so, the gap between the sale of hearing aids and the medical evaluation required to properly fit them will remain, and the government will still classify hearings aids as consumer goods, not medical devices, meaning insurers won’t pay for them. So long as those flaws persist, it will be hard for consumers to receive proper hearing health care at reasonable prices. | 2022-08-25T10:19:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The FDA’s new hearing aid won’t solve the bigger problems in the market - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/08/25/fdas-new-hearing-aid-wont-solve-bigger-problems-market/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/08/25/fdas-new-hearing-aid-wont-solve-bigger-problems-market/ |
The Virginia history its state board doesn’t want students to know
Our racial history is complex and important, but debates today are eliding entire chapters of it.
Perspective by Kevin M. Levin
Kevin M. Levin is a historian and educator based in Boston and is the author of "Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth."
A vintage public school history books. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)
The Virginia Board of Education has delayed its review of state standards for history and social studies — a process that it is required to undertake every seven years. The nine-member board is now dominated by appointees of Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who campaigned on rooting out critical race theory from schools and offering parents an anonymous tip line to report anything they deem to be suspicious taking place in the classroom.
This politicization of history education and the demonization of history teachers will probably have a profound impact on the now-delayed review. The 2022 History and Social Science Standards of Learning (SOLs) will shape what Virginia students learn about their Commonwealth’s past.
Regardless of what the board approves as the final version, it won’t include one of the most important chapters in Virginia’s history. Just after Reconstruction, between 1879 and 1883, Virginia was governed by a biracial party known as the Readjusters. During this brief period, African Americans assumed positions of significant political power at every level of local and state government decades before the legal restrictions and violence of Jim Crow slammed the doors shut for decades. This history offers an important reminder during our own time of deep political division that political coalitions that transcend class, race and political party are possible even during the most tumultuous times.
Reconstruction came late to Virginia. It did not arrive as a result of an invasion of “carpetbaggers” from the North or military occupation, as Virginians were taught throughout much of the 20th century, but as an unlikely result of the leadership of a former Confederate general and native Virginian.
William Mahone was born in 1826 to tavernkeepers in Southampton County. One of his earliest memories was the bloodshed and violence that erupted as a result of Nat Turner’s failed slave rebellion in 1831. In 1847 Mahone graduated from the Virginia Military Institute with a degree in civil engineering. By 1860 he was living in Petersburg and serving as the chief engineer of the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad. Mahone also counted seven enslaved people as his personal property.
At the start of the Civil War, Mahone was commissioned a captain in the Confederate army and gradually rose in rank, though he failed to distinguish himself on the battlefield. That changed early on the morning of July 30, 1864, after the U.S. Army detonated 8,000 pounds of powder under a Confederate salient just outside of Petersburg.
During the Battle of the Crater, four Union divisions, including one made up entirely of Black soldiers, poured into the breech in an attempt to break the Confederate line and take possession of the city. But Mahone and his division secured a decisive victory. Thousands of men lay dead and dying in the sweltering heat, including upward of 200 Black soldiers, who were massacred by the Confederates. These men were executed as “slaves in rebellion” by Mahone’s men rather than treated as soldiers or prisoners of war.
After the war, Mahone remained involved in Confederate veterans’ activities all the while taking steps to expand his railroad interests. He cultivated political allies in Richmond to manage what became known as the Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad. Following the financial collapse of 1873 and the loss of the railroad, Mahone entered state politics.
The central political question for Virginian leaders at this time was what to do about the state’s massive debt, incurred even before the war. Conservative elements proposed paying it off in full, but Mahone and others advocated “readjustment downward” or paying off part of the debt, which would leave state funds for public schools and other projects. In the 1879 state elections, Mahone helped to steer his Readjuster Party to victory, winning 56 out of 100 seats in the House of Delegates and 24 of 50 senators. With a majority of Readjusters in the General Assembly, Mahone was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he caucused with the Republican Party. In the process, Mahone helped forge a powerful biracial coalition that controlled the state for the next four years.
With Mahone in the Senate and Readjusters in control of the General Assembly and the governorship, this coalition easily passed legislation. Virginia’s state debt was readjusted downward to $21 million with enough funds left to fulfill campaign promises that benefited poor White and especially African American communities. In 1882 the General Assembly passed legislation supporting the Literary Fund with an appropriation of $379,000, plus an additional payment to public schools; schools with Black teachers were also given support. Not surprisingly, more-conservative Whites perceived this legislation as a threat to established racial and social hierarchies.
Black political leaders such as Dr. Daniel M. Norton, Alfred M. Harris and the Rev. William Troy demanded a significant share of the patronage within the Readjuster Party. Norton and Harris were both formerly enslaved. At the height of Readjuster control, African Americans made up 27 percent of Virginia’s employees in the Treasury Department, 11 percent in the Pensions Bureau, 54 percent in the Secretary’s Office, 38 percent in the Post Office and 28 percent in the Interior Department (including two Black women). With Mahone’s support, African Americans also found jobs as clerks and copyists in Washington — an accomplishment unparalleled in other Reconstruction-era states.
The visibility of African Americans in state government constituted a radical change in the distribution of political power and was seen by many as a threat to White political rule in Virginia. Readjusters also changed the makeup of public schools. The changes they enacted increased the number of Black teachers and students, and the establishment of the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute (Virginia State University) opened up avenues of upward mobility. The number of Black teachers soared from 415 in 1879 to 1,588 in 1884, and Black enrollment in schools went from 36,000 to 91,000 between those years.
Mahone and the Readjusters abruptly lost power following a racial riot in Danville on Nov. 3, 1883.
Two decades later, Virginians passed a state constitution that cut into what little remained of any Black political influence. Mahone died in 1895, leaving a conflicting legacy. White Virginians praised his service to the Confederacy, but many were unwilling to forgive his attempt to overturn its deeply-engrained racial hierarchy. The desire to move on from a brief period in which Black Virginians enjoyed full political rights and the need to justify a return to White control guaranteed that Mahone and the Readjusters would be banished from school textbooks and public memory.
Students today learn nothing about this important chapter of Virginia history.
Even the proposed 2022 SOLs, which have been revised to “incorporate diverse perspectives,” do not cover it. As it stands, the state’s SOLs on Reconstruction ask students to consider the important work of the federal Freedmen’s Bureau as well as the significance of the three constitutional amendments that ended slavery, guaranteed birthright citizenship and awarded Black men the right to vote. As for important people of the era, students are expected to be able to explain the “lasting impacts” of Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee and Frederick Douglass “on the nation.” Nothing in the state’s SOLs gives students a sense of the importance of Virginia’s experiment with biracial democracy.
This episode offers an important reminder that the end of Reconstruction and the beginning of legalized segregation during the Jim Crow era were not inevitable across the postwar South. Interracial cooperation was not only possible, it was a reality for a few short years in Virginia.
The political posturing and fearmongering that has come to dominate the conversation surrounding history and social studies education over the past few years will probably shape the debate over the next set of SOLs for history and social studies in Virginia. Efforts to censor the teaching of American history will deprive students in Virginia and elsewhere of a complex and challenging historical narrative, the chance to find meaning in the past and the opportunity to engage difficult questions about race and inequality. | 2022-08-25T10:19:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Virginia history its state board doesn’t want students to know - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/08/25/virginia-history-its-state-board-doesnt-want-students-know/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/08/25/virginia-history-its-state-board-doesnt-want-students-know/ |
Date Lab: He invited her up — before her long drive home
Adam is 27 and a director of development at a nonprofit. He is seeking a “bubbly and warm woman with a big personality.” Emma is 26 and an outreach coordinator at a nonprofit. She is looking for someone who is “funny,” “intelligent, kind and adventurous.” (Daniele Seiss)
While some fear the unknown, one of our daters this week relishes it. This gave Adam, a 27-year-old director of development at a nonprofit, the perfect disposition for being set up on a totally blind date. He explained his Date Lab outlook this way: “I thought, ‘Okay, this will be a great story and it’ll be an opportunity to meet somebody new, which I really like. Who knows what’ll happen?’ ” The world — at least for a few hours at a designated location — was his oyster.
His date, Emma, a 26-year-old outreach coordinator at a nonprofit, said she applied for Date Lab after reading the column once because she was “just interested in the experience.” As for her dating life, she goes back-and-forth on apps, deleting them and re-downloading them. Though her enthusiasm for dating is a notch or two below Adam’s, she is still “pretty much open to whatever.”
They were both nervous walking up to Établi in Bloomingdale. “I’m like, ‘What if this person just thinks I’m terrible or rude?’ It was a lot of irrational thinking.” Emma could sense his nerves, but hers dissipated upon shaking his hand. She immediately felt comfortable with him, as he projected friendliness. She also thought he was cute.
“I was very attracted to her attitude and personality,” said Adam. Minutes into their conversation, he found himself relaxing as they discovered they have a few things in common: They both work for nonprofits and served in AmeriCorps. When it came time to order, they discovered another commonality: Neither one is a drinker. Mocktails it was.
Because alcohol wasn’t sapping their $150 allotment they ordered a legit spread: burrata, hummus, the patata pesto pizza and an artichoke pasta dish. Adam described their vibe as “jovial and fun.” Emma said their three hours together contained not a lick of awkwardness. They discussed Emma’s love of hiking and her recent time at the Bonnaroo music festival. Adam, meanwhile, described being a spectator at golf tournaments. “I was like, ‘Aren’t golf courses huge?’ ” said Emma. “He was like, ‘Yeah, you just walk behind [the golfers].’ It blew my mind.”
She shared some dating horror stories, including one in which a guy attempted to touch her throughout a movie, only to be rebuffed every time. “The credits rolled and he leaped, literally jumped out of the chair, and sprinted out the back of the theater,” she recalled. That’s “only the tip of the iceberg,” said Emma, who has developed her dating chronicles into a podcast called “Waste My Time.” And wouldn’t you know? Adam has a mental health podcast titled “We Will Break the Stigma.”
Emma was facing an hour-long ride back to Baltimore, so she wrapped things up earlier than she was inclined to. As she plotted her exit, Adam joked that if he asked her for a ride home she’d put him on blast in the write-up. Emma responded: “Do you want a ride home?” He did, indeed. After all, he lives about a mile away from the restaurant. “I had loafers on. I didn’t want to walk home or Uber,” explained Adam.
Outside Adam’s place, he invited Emma upstairs. “I could not get the vibes,” she said. “Part of me was like, ‘Oh he just wants me to see the place,’ ” as they’d been discussing their apartments earlier. “But then another part of me was like, ‘Is he trying to put on moves?’ ” She continued, “I wasn’t entirely sure, but at that point in the night it wasn’t a question for me. I needed to get home.”
Adam said he invited her up in case she wanted coffee, water or to use his bathroom before her long drive back. He said he was not trying to put a move on. “If anything, it would have been polite and a way to continue a nice evening,” he explained. He asked for her number and they parted with a car hug.
When asked if he was leaning more toward keeping things friendly with Emma or pursuing romance, Adam said with security: “I don’t know!” He elaborated by denouncing the dating world’s imperative to decide right away. “I’m not in the business of being like no and yes immediately,” he said. At the time of his interview, he was open to hanging out again.
So was Emma, who called Adam “one of the kindest people I’ve ever met.” Still, she was daunted by how far they live from each other. “I don’t think it was a strong enough connection to be like, ‘Okay, yes, this is it,’ ” she said. A few days after the date, she had already re-downloaded Hinge.
Adam: 4.5 [out of 5].
Emma: 5.
They have communicated, but haven’t gotten together again.
Rich Juzwiak is a writer in New York. | 2022-08-25T10:19:17Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Date Lab: He invited her up — before her long drive home - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/08/25/date-lab-he-invited-her-up-before-her-long-drive-home/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/08/25/date-lab-he-invited-her-up-before-her-long-drive-home/ |
How long covid reshapes the brain — and how we might treat it
The good news is that, at least in some patients, long covid’s effects on the brain may not be permanent or progressive
Perspective by Wes Ely
Wes Ely is the co-director of the Critical Illness, Brain Dysfunction and Survivorship (CIBS) Center at Vanderbilt University and the Nashville Veteran’s Administration Hospital and author of "Every Deep-Drawn Breath."
The young man pulled something from behind both ears. “I can’t hear anything without my new hearing aids,” said the 32-year-old husband and father. “My body is broken, Doc.” Once a fireman and emergency medical technician, he’d had covid more than 18 months before and was nearly deaf. He was also newly suffering from incapacitating anxiety, cognitive impairment and depression. Likewise, a 51-year-old woman told me through tears: “It’s almost two years. My old self is gone. I can’t even think clearly enough to keep my finances straight.” These are real people immersed in the global public health catastrophe of long covid, which the medical world is struggling to grasp and society is failing to confront.
As such stories clearly indicate, covid is biologically dangerous long after the initial viral infection. One of the leading hypotheses behind long covid is that the coronavirus is somehow able to establish a reservoir in tissues such as the gastrointestinal tract. I believe the explanation for long covid is more sinister.
The science makes it increasingly clear that covid-19 turns on inflammation and alters the nervous system even when the virus itself seems to be long gone. The virus starts by infecting nasal and respiratory lining cells, and the resulting inflammation sends molecules through the blood that trigger the release of cytokines in the brain. This can happen even in mild covid cases. Through these cell-to-cell conversations, cells in the nervous system called microglia and astrocytes are revved up in ways that continue for months — maybe years. It’s like a rock weighing down on the accelerator of a car, spinning its engine out of control. All of this causes injury to many cells, including neurons. It is past time we recognized this fact and began incorporating it into the ways we care for those who have survived covid.
For too long, the mysteries of long covid led many health-care professionals to dismiss it as an untreatable malady or a psychosomatic illness without a scientific basis. Some of this confusion comes down to the stuttering cadence of scientific progress. Early in the pandemic, autopsy findings from patients who died of covid “did not show encephalitis or other specific brain changes referable to the virus” as one report noted. Patients with profound neurological illnesses resulting from covid-19 had no trace of the virus in the cerebrospinal fluid encasing their brains.
These studies left most medical professionals mistakenly convinced that the virus was not damaging the brain. Accordingly, we narrowed our focus to the lungs and heart and then scratched our heads in wonder at the coma and delirium found in more than 80 percent of covid ICU patients. A robust study from the Netherlands showed that at least 12.5 percent of covid patients end up with long covid three months afterward, yet because “brain fog” wasn’t identified until later in the pandemic, these investigators didn’t include cognitive problems or mental health disorders in the data they collected. Thus, this otherwise beautifully executed study almost certainly underestimated the rate of long covid.
Since the early days of the pandemic, we’ve learned a great deal about the neurological effects of SARS-CoV-2. Earlier this year, the UK Biobank neuroimaging study showed that even mild covid can lead to an overall reduction in the size of the brain, with notable effects in the frontal cortex and limbic system. These findings help explain the profound anxiety, depression, memory loss and cognitive impairment experienced by so many long-covid patients.
A new study published in the Lancet of more than 2.5 million people matched covid-19 patients with non-covid patients to determine the rate of recovery from mental health complaints and neurological deficits like the depression and brain fog in my own patients. What it revealed is partly encouraging and partly devastating: The anxiety and mood disorders in long covid tend to resolve over months, while serious dementia-like problems, psychosis and seizures persist at two years.
Now, researchers are assembling the science to piece together what happens on a cellular level with long covid, using animal models. As in the lungs, the blood vessels of mammalian brains are lined with endothelial cells, which have angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors, a protein that the coronavirus “hooks” onto. Once infected, these cells become inflamed, leading to problems with blood flow and a loss of integrity in the brain’s protective fortress, the blood-brain-barrier. When this barrier is damaged, inflammatory cells and fluid leak, beginning a process of swelling and brain injury that can be hard to turn off. The hamsters and mice in these studies don’t dream up symptoms and tissue changes, and our patients don’t either.
How to calculate risk in the era of long covid
Medical researchers have recently learned that the coronavirus can also infect cells called astrocytes, the glue that holds the brain together. Instead of using the ACE2 receptor, it appears SARS-CoV-2 attacks astrocytes through completely different types of glycoprotein receptors. When the virus directly damages astrocytes and other cells in the nervous system, the supportive and nourishing environment for our 100 billion neurons breaks down. Even though neurons are not directly infected, the brain’s cell-to-cell relationships are so intimate that infection of other types of cells creates a cascade of brain injury.
Corroborating evidence of brain dysfunction in long-covid patients comes from abnormal PET scans that show “cold” spots in the olfactory and limbic systems as well as the brainstem and cerebellum — as if these areas went from being vibrant to wilted. The way the machinery of the brain slows down aligns with patients’ problems involving smell, memory, cognitive abilities, chronic pain and sleep disorders.
Long-covid patients face hardships as they attempt the tasks associated with their jobs. When we test them at Vanderbilt University’s Critical Illness, Brain Dysfunction, and Survivorship Center many months after their initial infection, they demonstrate profound memory deficits and executive dysfunction — problems finishing daily chores and task lists, meeting schedules, controlling emotions, analyzing data, and processing information. In other words, they have a hard time living life. In fact, their symptoms are similar to mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease, or the type of brain injury seen in cancer patients after chemotherapy and in ICU survivors with post-intensive care syndrome. Clinically, there is also a lot of overlap between long-covid-related brain fog and the cognitive dysfunction found in patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.
Long covid could change the way researchers study chronic illness
The bad news is that this neurological injury is occurring most frequently in younger long-covid patients (20 to 50 years old) who were never hospitalized for covid. The good news is that, at least in some patients, it may not be permanent or progressive. Both our clinical experience and clinical trials have shown that cancer patients and ICU survivors with newly acquired dementia-like brain injury can get mentally sharper after several months of exercising their brains with computer programs as well as word and number games. We recently completed, in a a paper currently in submission, the analysis of a 10-year neuropsychological follow-up of our large cohort study of ICU survivors and found that about a third stay the same, a third get better, and a third suffer inexorable decline.
So, what do we do now?
First, we physicians must validate our patients’ stories and complaints. They are not making this up. I often feel the need to apologize to my patients for not having enough answers and treatment options. Then I assure them that I will not leave them while we gain more knowledge and options to improve their health in the coming months and years.
Second, there is a need for well-designed, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials of medications and other treatment approaches for patients with long covid. Too many people are losing hope. A study of 150,000 covid survivors showed a 10-to-15-fold higher risk of considering suicide compared with 11 million control patients. Many medications are being proposed, and trials should target specific symptoms like brain, heart or lung problems to make progress faster in specific areas of need.
In addition, patients should know that the brain has an immensely powerful ability to remodel itself. Its 1,000 trillion synapses are constantly being modified every second of every day. It is too early to know if this neuroplasticity can be harnessed for long-covid patients. But our lab at Vanderbilt and other investigators are studying whether computerized cognitive rehabilitation programs will help patients recover brain function.
Lastly, a heaping dose of compassion and empathy will help begin the healing process for those who feel alone in the haunted house of their own body, lighting a candle toward recovery. | 2022-08-25T10:19:29Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How long covid reshapes the brain — and how we might treat it - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/08/25/long-covid-brain-science-fog-recovery/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/08/25/long-covid-brain-science-fog-recovery/ |
As Climate Week begins, Africans want action, research finds
Among those who have heard of climate change, most say their governments – and the world – aren’t doing enough
Analysis by Carolyn Logan
Kelechi Amakoh
Cyclone-related flooding near Beira, Mozambique, in 2019. (Max Bearak/The Washington Post)
Climate change is wreaking havoc across Africa. Increasingly severe droughts are striking the Sahel; East African glaciers are melting; Cyclone Idai in 2019 and deadly floods in KwaZulu Natal have devastated southern Africa.
Next week in Gabon, Africa Climate Week (ACW 2022) will bring together representatives from governments, civil society, businesses and financial institutions to “take the pulse of climate action in the region” in anticipation of the United Nations 2022 Climate Change Conference COP27 in November. They’ll grapple with the fact that although the continent contributes least to global greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change, it is bearing a disproportionate share of the impact.
According to the Mo Ibrahim Foundation’s 2022 Forum Report, which aims to “make Africa’s case” at COP27, the 10 countries most vulnerable to climate change are in Africa. While three-quarters of African countries have achieved the climate-action targets set out under U.N. Sustainable Development Goal 13 (SDG13), no country in North America or the European Union has done the same.
What would ordinary Africans tell ACW 2022 participants about how they perceive the threat of climate change, who is responsible, and who should act? New Afrobarometer findings from more than 24,000 face-to-face interviews offer some answers.
The first challenge: Awareness
When Afrobarometer asked about climate change in 34 African countries in Round 7 (2016-2018), we found that 58 percent of respondents had heard of the phenomenon. Climate-change literacy, a combined measure of awareness and understanding of the human-driven causes and negative effects of climate change, ranged from just 12 percent in Mozambique to 57 percent in Mauritius.
Findings from the first 17 countries in our Round 9 surveys (2021-2022, still underway) suggest somewhat less awareness, at 51 percent, as you can see in the figure below. Awareness of climate change ranges from just 22 percent in Tunisia to 74 percent in Malawi.
Across the 16 countries included in both rounds, familiarity with climate change decreased by 9 percentage points. This may reflect a still-emerging understanding of climate change on the continent, with awareness that fluctuates in response to where media attention currently focuses. Building public support for prevention and mitigation efforts may require targeted interventions to increase citizens’ awareness of climate change.
The second challenge: Understanding
Among those who have heard about climate change, most understand that it is hurting their countries: 76 percent say it is making life “somewhat worse” or “much worse.” Across the 14 countries where this question was asked in both rounds, this perception has increased by four percentage points.
But do citizens understand what causes climate change and what can slow it? When we asked 2016-2018 survey respondents who had heard of climate change about its causes, 52 percent attributed climate change to human activity, 27 percent to natural processes, and 16 percent to both.
In our current survey, we ask respondents familiar with climate change who should have primary responsibility for trying to “limit climate change and reduce its impact.” As you can see in the figure below, a plurality (42 percent) cite their government, and another 30 percent identify citizens like themselves. Just 13 percent say that rich or developed countries bear the primary responsibility, while 8 percent say that belongs to business and industry. More education on the causes of climate change might change these perceptions.
The third challenge: Taking action
Africans believe in the power of their own engagement: 76 percent of those who have heard of climate change say citizens in their country can play a role in limiting it. This includes majorities in all 17 countries, reaching 80 percent or more in eight countries.
But people also demand action from their governments, even if it comes at a price. Nearly 3 in 4 (74 percent) of those who’ve heard of climate change “agree” or “strongly agree” that “it is important for our government to take steps now to limit climate change in the future, even if it is expensive or causes some job losses or other harm to our economy.” This suggests that ordinary citizens powerfully understand how serious the problem is, as you can see in the figure below.
To leaders who say they are already taking action, the people’s response is clear: It’s not enough. Fully 93 percent of those familiar with climate change say their governments should be doing more to limit it, and 92 percent say the same about business and industry. Nearly as many think that developed countries (88 percent) and even ordinary citizens (86 percent) are not yet doing enough.
Not surprisingly, Africans give their governments poor marks for their efforts on climate change up to now. On average across 17 countries, just 33 percent of respondents say their governments are doing “fairly well” or “very well” on this issue, while 52 percent rate their performance as poor.
Through SDG13, the United Nations calls for “urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.” Africans who are familiar with the problem clearly agree.
The challenges — of building popular climate change awareness and literacy and translating them into policies and initiatives — are real. But so is this citizens’ demand for greater engagement, by all stakeholders, now.
Carolyn Logan (@carolynjlogan) is the director of analysis for Afrobarometer and an associate professor in the department of political science at Michigan State University.
Kelechi Amakoh is a data analyst for Afrobarometer and a PhD student in political science at Michigan State. | 2022-08-25T10:19:42Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What do Africans want the world to do about climate change? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/25/afrobarometer-climate-week/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/25/afrobarometer-climate-week/ |
By David Rising and Grant Peck | AP
Acting Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan attends a meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022. Thailand’s government held its first official meetings Thursday under an acting prime minister, after the suspension of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha was ordered by a court while it considered if he had violated the post’s term limits. (Thailand Government Spokesman’s Office via AP) (Uncredited/AP) | 2022-08-25T10:20:06Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Political uncertainty in Thailand with PM's suspension - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/political-uncertainty-in-thailand-with-pms-suspension/2022/08/25/d185547c-2456-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/political-uncertainty-in-thailand-with-pms-suspension/2022/08/25/d185547c-2456-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html |
New Carrollton train hall will unite transit lines, bike lanes, retail
Prince George’s busiest transit stop braces for pedestrian enhancements amid growing development
A rendering of the planned train hall in New Carrollton, Md., that will connect transit services in the county. (Urban Atlantic)
The construction of a train hall, sidewalks and bike lanes planned for next year at New Carrollton will mark a major milestone in the long-planned transformation of Prince George’s County’s busiest transit hub.
The $47 million project, which this month received a $20.5 million federal grant, will help create a seamless space between all the modes of transportation in the area and aims to bind together the ongoing development featuring offices, housing and shops at the easternmost terminus of Metro’s Orange Line in central Prince George’s.
County and private development officials say they hope the investment, along with other efforts to boost housing and transit, will spur the kind of growth needed to create a vibrant urban place in an area now mostly known as a transportation hub.
Already, New Carrollton is home to the county’s largest cluster of employers, with nearly 12,000 public- and private-sector jobs and at least another 4,000 projected to be added in coming years as new office buildings open, including Metro’s new Maryland headquarters.
“Literally what used to be just flat surface parking lots is now an explosion of growth,” said Angie Rogers, the county’s deputy chief administrative officer for economic development.
Besides a new Metro headquarters, construction is now underway on a 291-unit apartment complex and an 1,800-space parking garage that will house bus operations. Amtrak is also planning a $75 million overhaul of its facilities.
Officials hope the pedestrian and bike enhancements will create better connections for transit users and those who live and work there amid the ongoing growth. Plans are to begin construction next year and have all features, including the train hall, built by 2026.
“New Carrollton, as a transit-oriented development area, has been envisioned as something that is walkable and bikeable, that is multimodal,” Rogers said. “That federal grant is going to allow us to get some of those connections.”
The train hall will be built in what is now open space leading to the Metro, creating covered spaces for the escalators and opportunities for retail, officials said, while offering transit users a seamless way to connect between the multiple modes of transportation.
New Carrollton has a Metro station as well as stops for MARC and Amtrak trains and local, regional and intercity bus lines. It also is where Maryland is building the easternmost stop for the proposed Purple Line between Prince George’s and Montgomery counties.
The commitment to improving public infrastructure is an essential piece in supporting the ongoing redevelopment around New Carrollton, said Cheryl Cort, policy director at the Coalition for Smarter Growth, a regional advocacy group.
“It’s going to create a place that is pedestrian friendly … an urban place rather than just a collection of buildings,” Cort said.
Metro General Manager Randy Clarke said this month that the proposed changes, which also include plaza space, will enhance connectivity to the Metro station and will help attract Metro customers, businesses and additional housing at New Carrollton.
The project is a collaboration between Prince George’s, Metro and the private developer Urban Atlantic, which will lead the construction.
Metro, which owns property around the station, has separately signed a joint agreement with Urban Atlantic for a 2.3-million-square-foot, mixed-use development project around the station — one that includes developing 40 acres of surface parking lots into more than 1,500 residential units, a hotel, 1 million square feet of office space and more than 150,000 square feet of retail. As part of that agreement, Metro’s new Maryland headquarters is expected to open later this year.
Vicki Davis, co-founder and managing partner at Urban Atlantic, said the pieces are coming together to create a downtown-like space in an area that has been underdeveloped and underutilized and, for too long, a place people passed through rather than a destination.
“The county set the vision for this to become a very important economic center,” Davis said. The area bounded by the Capital Beltway on the east side, Route 50 on the south side and the railroad tracks on the northwest was rezoned more than a decade ago to allow multiuse development.
“Parking lots are having a second life,” said Davis. “We raise the density overall, and it becomes a tremendous economic engine — a place where people live and work.”
As Starbucks exits, Union Station struggles with safety, empty stores
In the past decade, New Carrollton has added major employers such as the Maryland Department of Housing and Economic Development and Kaiser Permanente. A 282-apartment building opened last year.
Metro is wrapping up a platform-improvement project at the station, and Amtrak is kicking off construction of a high-level platform and the restoration of an unused one. Plans also call for modernizing ticket counters and employee offices. Amtrak said their project, expected to be completed in 2025, will help facilitate growth and is part of a larger plan to relieve congestion and allow for greater operational flexibility and service expansion between Baltimore and Washington.
Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks (D) this month welcomed the news of the $20.5 million grant, which the county got under the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) program. Alsobrooks said the funding would support the improvements around the New Carrollton transit station, covering nearly half the cost of the pedestrian and bike enhancements.
The project is among five in the greater Washington region receiving nearly $60 million in total in federal funding under RAISE, which is receiving an infusion of $7.5 billion over five years from last year’s infrastructure law.
“This is yet another symbol of rising opportunity for all Prince Georgians,” Alsobrooks said in a statement. “We are excited about this project because it will transform the largest employment cluster in the County into a true ‘downtown’ area and help ensure that New Carrollton becomes the premier transit hub on the eastern seaboard.”
County leaders have sought to lure more commercial and residential development to New Carrollton for more than a decade. The changes in New Carrollton, some say, are a sign the county is on the right track to meet long-held goals of developing their Metro stations.
“For years we have seen growth concentrated on the west side of the Beltway. And we really didn’t have these job centers in Prince George’s County,” Rogers said. “We didn’t see the same type of development around our Metro stations that we’ve seen around others. But now we’re seeing it.” | 2022-08-25T10:20:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | New Carrollton Metro station to get train hall in a PG County boost - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/08/25/new-carrollton-metro-train-hall/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/08/25/new-carrollton-metro-train-hall/ |
Why does paint look good in stores but bad on your wall? It’s science.
By Dan Hurley
You went to the paint store, looked at the color charts and even tested hues in a virtual 3D display with your favorite trim. So why did your living room look so awful once the paint dried?
Maybe you should have consulted a color scientist.
“We study the science of everything involved in capturing, reproducing and perceiving color,” said Mark Fairchild, a professor at the Munsell Color Science Laboratory at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
“Think of an iPhone: Its camera has to detect color stimuli, the software has to process and store that information, and the display has to re-create those stimuli for the observer. Color science touches on all those steps.”
Science helps to explain why colors seen at a paint store or on a paint chip can look so different at home. The size of a color sample, the lighting in which you view it, and the colors of other walls and objects nearby all have an effect, Fairchild said.
“The two big issues are lighting and context,” he said. “Painting a 3-foot-by-3-foot patch on your wall and letting it dry will tell you a lot more than just looking at a color wheel in a paint store. At least then you have the right lighting and some of the context and geometry of the surroundings.”
Normally a study in contrasts, paint companies' 2022 colors of the year are all pretty much the same
Science also explains why the time of day has such an effect on a room’s colors, Fairchild said.
“In the morning and evening, with low sun angles, the sunlight is passing through a greater length of atmosphere,” he said. “Since the atmosphere scatters blue light more than red light, the farther the light passes through the atmosphere, the redder it gets. So early and late day generally have redder illumination than midday.”
Lighting, in fact, is fundamental to the perception of color, he said.
“Take an apple,” he said. “The apple is red, but that does not mean that it only reflects red light. It reflects light of all wavelengths. It is just that it reflects red light more strongly than, say, blue or green light. As the balance of the illumination changes through the day, the relative amounts of red, green and blue light reaching our eyes after reflecting off the apple will also change.”
He offered an example from his own home: One evening, when his family sat down for dinner by candlelight, which emits a yellowish tone, their young daughter began crying, because her beloved yellow mac and cheese looked white. He switched on the electric lights, which emit a whiter tint, and voilà: The mac and cheese looked yellow again.
One of the trickiest parts of the perception of wall paint colors, he said, is accounting for how they are affected by the lighting and paint colors of an adjoining wall or room.
“Inter-reflections across neighboring walls have a big effect,” Fairchild said. “Let’s say you pick a slightly yellowish off-white paint that looks pretty neutral in the store. When you paint a room in that color, that yellow tint will illuminate an adjacent wall, making it look more yellow. The effect is amplified as you look into a corner with both of those yellowish walls reflecting off each other. It’s the same reason that the petals of a red rose look so colorful in the center.”
Although the appearance and perception of color are indeed a science, our preferences for and reactions to different shades are primarily subjective, Fairchild said. There is no scientific explanation for why your neighbors think their magenta and apple-green dining room looks fabulous, but it makes you cringe.
“Colors and combinations of colors that are pleasing or jarring are not universal,” Fairchild said. “One of my former students used to like to say, ‘Those colors make my teeth hurt!’ But a color that infuriates me might calm you, because we might have different historical or cultural contexts for it.”
Interior designers who specialize in color selection agree that subjective preferences play a major role in the perception of colors.
“Color is science, but it’s also math, it’s art, it’s psychology,” said Peggy Van Allen. She worked for Sherwin-Williams in color design and marketing before becoming an independent color consultant, and she now serves as the president of the Color Marketing Group, which releases annual color trend forecasts. “You shouldn’t be intimidated by the science. Choosing colors should be fun.”
Her pet peeve, Van Allen said, is how the newer lightbulbs affect the color of a room “The LED bulbs are made to last longer, but they often have a cold, blue tone that almost looks fluorescent,” she said. “That will make all the colors in your room look different. You have to pay attention to it when choosing lights.”
Additionally, Laura Rugh of Rugh Design, a color-consulting firm, cautioned against relying solely on displays shown on computer programs when choosing a color.
“There is a disconnect from what you see online to what you will see in your home,” she said. “Adobe renderings are really not an accurate presentation of how a room will look. Once you introduce lighting, it can change everything.” Seeing a given color choice in an actual room, whether in person or from photographs, can offer a more realistic perspective, she said.
Fairchild agreed that relying on computer imaging — or even on the lessons of science alone — can be limiting.
“3D graphic imaging can be quite accurate, but it’s not perfect,” he said. “A combination of computer imaging and an actual patch of paint on your wall is probably best. And adding the advice of a designer or painter who has lots of experience will also help.”
Still, he said, don’t leave the science behind. For instance, the supposed emotional influence of certain colors — calming blues or invigorating reds, for example — is mostly based on hearsay.
“There is a small amount of scientific evidence to support some of the affective influence of colors,” Fairchild said, “but if anyone tries to tell you that it’s absolute, that is hooey. The effects are quite small and very dependent on the individual.”
For example, a bright tone of pink known as either “Baker-Miller Pink” or “Drunk Tank Pink” has been touted for decades as having a calming effect on prisoners or psychiatric patients.
“The claims made about it have been thoroughly debunked,” he said. “Despite that, it is still used in some institutions to this day.”
Dan Hurley is a freelance writer in New Jersey. | 2022-08-25T11:10:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Why paint looks different in different lighting - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/home/2022/08/25/science-behind-paint-color-variations/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/home/2022/08/25/science-behind-paint-color-variations/ |
Alabama’s midwives are on the front lines in the fight for women’s autonomy
Stephanie Mitchell, Alabama's first Black certified professional midwife in nearly 50 years, in Montgomery, Ala on Aug. 18. On Aug. 24, she and other birthing advocates spoke out against proposed regulations regarding birthing centers in Alabama. (Karen Attiah)
Stephanie Mitchell’s life’s work was at stake when she spoke last week at a meeting convened by Alabama’s Department of Public Health in Montgomery.
In 2019, Mitchell, who is Black, became Alabama’s first professional midwife in a half-century. A former labor and delivery nurse from Boston, Mitchell wants to open Birth Sanctuary Gainesville, a free-standing birthing center for those who don’t want to have their child in a hospital. But her plans are now at risk because the state health board is considering reintroducing 1980s-era rules that critics say are overly burdensome and medically ill-informed — and would effectively prevent certified professional midwives from delivering babies in centers such as hers.
In this hard political moment, we need to pay close attention to all the ways our freedoms are being attacked. The assault on abortion rights was always going to be just the start of a bigger fight to control women’s bodies.
As red-state legislatures move against abortion, and possibly even contraception, advocates fear that women’s birthing choices will be the next target. And that’s why, unfortunately, it didn’t surprise me to see birthing centers and birth-care workers such as Mitchell, especially those who cater to women of color, get pulled into an all-out fight in Alabama.
It’s a fight worth having. Because if Alabama adopts rules that effectively close off women’s options outside of hospitals, women could be at higher risk for maternal mortality — especially Black women and those in rural areas who live far from large health-care facilities.
Outside the RSA Tower in downtown Montgomery, where the meeting was held, Mitchell was met with hugs from others in the midwife and doula community. “It’s all just so much,” she said tearfully, embracing Justina Nazario, a Colorado-based student midwife and activist who started a petition drive against the rules. “We are now up to 1,982 signatures,” Nazario told Mitchell.
And, indeed, the meeting room was packed with opponents, some from out of state, of the new-but-old rules. If reinstated, the restrictions, which were repealed in 2010, can only serve to enforce a status quo that is badly failing women. Even in a country that has one of the worst maternal mortality rates among industrialized nations, Alabama consistently ranks at or near the bottom for pregnancy-related deaths. The national maternal mortality rate is 17.4 deaths per 100,000 — Alabama’s is 36.4.
These are dedicated health-care workers. They don’t oppose sensible government regulation and standards meant to ensure women’s safety. But they argue that the state’s old rules are antiquated, and will severely curtail alternative birthing solutions in the state just as more pregnant women are seeking out options. They are particularly frustrated that the Department of Public Health didn’t consult with midwives as it moved forward. They seek — and they should have — a seat at the table.
Their exclusion is part of an old and shameful story. Here in the South, midwifery and maternal mortality simply cannot be separated from race and patriarchy. In the era of slavery, Black “granny midwives” delivered both White and Black babies. Beginning in the early 20th century, White doctors and nurses chased Black midwives out of the profession, criminalizing their work.
To the Black birthing advocates I spoke to, that dark past seems very present right now.
“I’m the first Black midwife in this state in nearly 50 years,” Mitchell said in her remarks. People in the room began to clap, but she cut them off. “No!” she said. “That is embarrassing!”
Heather Skanes is a Black OB/GYN who also plans to open a free-standing birth center in Alabama this fall. “Black women are defying the odds, getting venture capital to do this, and now you are effectively closing our business,” Skanes told the board.
“It’s an attack on Black women,” she told me afterward. “[Midwifery] is steeped in traditions and African American culture here.”
Some of the advocates I talked to, who formerly worked in hospitals, said they left the traditional medical system to become midwives and doulas precisely because they were haunted by feeling as if they were participating in systems that harm pregnant women. They know that the tangible manifestations of medical racism, such as higher rates of complications from interventions such as C-sections, all contribute to high maternal mortality rates for Black women.
Why should they be denied the opportunities to use their knowledge and experience to help women and their families through the birthing process?
On top of all of this, just as more women are forced to give birth, many states are already facing health-care worker shortages. If we cared about keeping mothers alive and well — and medical burnout low — we would give women more options for giving birth, not fewer.
Sadly, caring for mothers is not one of America’s priorities.
Alabama’s public health board is supposed to vote on the rules next month. Skanes still plans to open her birth center. “We will move forward,” she told me. Stephanie Mitchell isn’t giving up on her birth center either. “They will just,” she said, “have to put me in jail.” | 2022-08-25T11:19:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | In post-Dobbs Alabama, midwives fight for women’s autonomy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/25/alabama-midwives-abortion-control-womens-bodies/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/25/alabama-midwives-abortion-control-womens-bodies/ |
MoviePass is back. So is the idea that’s killing movies.
Movie Pass debit cards and used movie tickets in New York on Aug. 23, 2018. (Richard Drew/AP)
There are few business ideas in the past decade or so that have been as radically idiotic as MoviePass. That’s exactly why none of us should be surprised the service is mounting a comeback. But the persistence of this terrible, money-losing idea reveals a lot about why the entertainment industry is in trouble: It has devalued its own product.
For those who never experienced it, MoviePass was a classic example of something that is too good to be true. In its early incarnation, customers paid $10 a month for a card they could redeem for one movie ticket a day, with the tickets purchased in bulk by MoviePass itself. Given the average cost of movie tickets is, you guessed it, right around $10, this was a steal. How could MoviePass afford such largesse? Did they have deals with movie theaters? Were they cutting bargains with distributors?
No, they were just losing money. Enormous amounts of money.
If you used your card to secure a ticket that cost MoviePass $16 to buy from the theater, the company lost $6 — and then another $16 every time you bought a ticket after that until the next month started, when they’d lose a mere $6 on the first ticket and so on. As part of a last-ditch effort to make up the losses by increasing the number of customers that were incurring those losses, MoviePass reduced the price of the service further. Sure, they were losing money on every ticket sold, but they were making it up in volume!
It’s hard to describe this state of affairs as anything other than a scam — but it’s not clear who was getting scammed. Cui bono is always the question, and the answer in this case is whatever the Latin is for “shrug emoji.”
One way to think of it was that MoviePass was just emulating the hottest player in the entertainment industry: Netflix.
Netflix was, for years, a money-losing beast, accumulating subscribers by amassing piles of debt, all while offering people a deal that was, honestly, a little too good to be true. For $9.99 a month they could stream hundreds — nay, thousands — of movies and TV shows at any time in high definition. The core idea of Netflix was, and remains, that the people demand a content buffet and if you get enough of them to stick their snouts in the streaming trough, you’ll be profitable eventually.
The problem with this theory isn’t that it’s wrong — Netflix has a lot of subscribers and a lot of subscription revenue — so much as that it radically devalued the worth of any individual piece of art, reducing films and prestige TV and reality shows to the sludge of hashtag-content. Perhaps Netflix is merely the apotheosis of cable or HBO On Demand or any other number of precursors, but what set it apart was its scope (enormous) and cost to customers (low).
Of course, MoviePass and Netflix are premised on fundamentally different business models. Netflix pays a flat fee for the content it makes and licenses from other studios, rather than paying artists for each stream they generate. MoviePass has to pay a per-unit cost for every ticket its subscribers take advantage of.
The MoviePass model makes no sense for MoviePass, but it does make some sense for theater owners. Those businesses control the price of their own tickets, and negotiate with the distributors and studios over what gets shown and where. Subscription services can be a reliable way for them to get butts in seats, and the people attached to those butts spending money on concessions. In fact, AMC, Regal and the Alamo Drafthouse chain have adopted similar plans offering monthly fees for access to everything in the theaters. I myself have an Alamo Season Pass: for $19.99 a month, I can see a movie a day if I feel like it. (Whether there’s enough in theaters worth seeing is a separate question.) If MoviePass failed as a business and is likely to fail again, the company still changed the world of filmgoing.
Perhaps theaters are hoping to serve as a sort of prestreaming streamer service: charging customers one flat fee that grants you big-screen access to everything released theatrically during the (sadly shrinking) theatrical window, saving you the money and effort of subscribing to a dozen different services hoping to catch everything when it hits your screen at home.
But that change may be catastrophic for the world of theaters in the long run. By accepting MoviePass and Netflix’s content-trough model, theater owners are tacitly suggesting to audiences that the theater auditorium is similar to your living room, with the downside that you not only have to drive there but also pay $20 for popcorn and a soda.
Either what’s happening in movie theaters is special, or it’s not. Theaters, and the larger entertainment industry, can’t have it both ways. | 2022-08-25T11:19:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | MoviePass is back, and ready to kill movie theaters - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/25/moviepass-netflix-kill-movie-theaters/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/25/moviepass-netflix-kill-movie-theaters/ |
Even we must admit PredictIt is about gambling, not political science
By Jon Kimball
David Rees
(Washington Post illustration; images by iStockphoto/Getty Images)
Jon Kimball and David Rees host the Election Profit Makers podcast.
As two more or less normal people who don’t know much about the government regulation of finance, we never expected to be emotionally invested in the repeal of a no-action letter by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). However, when the CFTC announced this month that they were withdrawing their 2014 agreement allowing the operation of PredictIt.org, the online political prediction market, we were shaken. We owe a lot to PredictIt: It rekindled our friendship, allowed us to forge a community of fellow enthusiasts and made us thousands of dollars.
Nevertheless, we are glad it is dying, and we thank the CFTC for saving us from certain doom.
Like many other high-minded online experiments, PredictIt’s descent into madness seems inevitable in retrospect. A project of Aristotle, a data company, and the Victoria University of Wellington, it launched in 2014. It was pitched as a not-for-profit scientific study about the wisdom of crowds, which enabled it to skirt online gambling laws. The theory was that people’s political predictions would be more accurate if they were financially invested in them. In practice, this means you could buy into markets such as “Which party will win the N.C. Senate race” at anywhere from 1 to 99 cents, depending on how it is currently favored by your fellow gamblers — ahem, investors — and then ride the market, if you want, all the way to its conclusion, when you get a payout or lose your stake.
At a time of unprecedented capital in politics, you can see a sort of populist appeal to being able to intervene in elections another way, for as little as a few cents. PredictIt was half investment vehicle, half wishing well, combining the social cachet of playing the market with the exhilaration of acting on one’s political prejudices. As such, it proved irresistible to know-it-alls, haters and (mostly) males, which we are.
We’ve been using PredictIt since the summer of 2016, when Jon started betting against die-hard Trump supporters who were convinced Hillary Clinton would go to jail. Jon won big shorting Donald Trump in the Iowa Caucus and basically felt like he had discovered a money-printing machine. David, his friend since the seventh grade, suggested we start a PredictIt-themed podcast, because he knew it was the only way he could get Jon to answer his calls. We believed that discussing politics via our PredictIt portfolios would prove our integrity: Unlike most pundits, we were literally putting our money where our mouths were.
PredictIt had markets in everything from which candidate would win a given primary to which words would be uttered during the presidential debates. At its most frenzied and debased, there were actually markets in how many times Trump would tweet in a given week. (You could argue this was where PredictIt started to go off the rails as scientific research, since that was one step up from guessing the number of jelly beans in a jar.)
The markets that nearly broke us, however, were about politicians’ approval ratings. PredictIt used polling averages from the RealClearPolitics site for these markets. Jon would spend hours trying to figure out which polls would be included in the RCP average. He would set his alarm for early morning hours when new polls were released, sometimes maxing out his investment at the PredictIt-mandated limit of $850, buying as high as 90 cents to squeeze out an 8 percent return (after fees), only to have everything come crashing down when an unscheduled poll was released.
This speaks to one of PredictIt’s shortcomings as a study of political wisdom: lots of profitable trades were simply knee-jerk reactions to breaking news. One sign of PredictIt addiction is feeling your political event horizon shrink down to the few seconds before you hit refresh on Twitter for the 10 thousandth time since breakfast. At the height of his mania, Jon was spending 16 hours a day reading Twitter while trading on PredictIt, powered only by gas-station energy drinks and avarice.
PredictIt rewarded not just avarice, but also schadenfreude. Because you’re betting against other traders, every time we made money it came at the expense of those idiots on the other side of the political aisle, poor slobs who lacked our decency, our humanity and our genius. We loved taking their money.
Turns out they loved taking our money, too. On election night 2016, when Jon’s all-or-nothing investment in a Clinton victory evaporated in a matter of hours, MAGA PredictIt traders delighted in our trauma — financial and otherwise. As we wept into our microphones, they laughed all the way to the bank. We recorded what we thought was the last episode of our podcast the morning after Trump’s upset victory. We were bitter. We were broken. We were broke. We swore we would never log on to PredictIt again.
But then the 2020 election cycle geared up. The old itch came back. We turned to the better angels of our nature, and heard only a demonic chorus screaming “Revenge!” Sure enough, Jon won enough money betting on Joe Biden that he was able to lease a new car. David calls it the PredictItMobile, a literal investment vehicle.
Even so, we have to admit that the CFTC is right to call PredictIt’s bluff. We’d probably feel sadder about PredictIt’s demise if we still took it seriously as an academic endeavor, or if we were some of the “whales” who made hundreds of thousands of dollars trading on it. As it is, we’re grateful for the hundreds of hours of podcast conversation it inspired, as well as what it taught us about ourselves: Namely, that we should never, ever try actual gambling. | 2022-08-25T11:19:13Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Jon Kimball, David Rees: PredictIt is gambling, not political science - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/25/predictit-gambling-political-prediction-markets/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/25/predictit-gambling-political-prediction-markets/ |
Demonstrators hold signs at a student-loan forgiveness rally near the White House on April 27. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
President Biden’s decision to cancel $10,000 of college debt for virtually all Americans with student debt and $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients was a major victory for activists who have long been pushing for debt cancellation. It was an even bigger win considering that many prominent left-leaning figures, most notably Biden himself, have long been lukewarm about debt cancellation. So how did the debt cancellation advocates succeed? Through a combination of grass-roots organizing, smart messaging, the actions of a few politicians and a once-in-a-generation pandemic.
While canceling student debt and other kinds of debt, such as medical bills, has long been touted on the left, today’s movement really sprang from the Occupy Wall Street protests of 2011. Activists there rallied around the idea that the U.S. government had bailed out Wall Street after the 2008 financial crisis, but did little for everyday Americans, including young people who had limited job prospects after the Great Recession and tens of thousands of dollars in college debt.
After those protests, activists at first focused on actions that didn’t require major government action, such as buying millions of dollars of student and medical debt from private collectors and then forgiving it. They then pressed the federal government to cancel the loans of people who attended for-profit colleges that had defrauded students by grossly overstating how easily they would get jobs after graduation. They also worked hard to build their coalition beyond the left-wing types who had been part of the Occupy protests. In particular, an organization called the Debt Collective not only helped Americans get their loans canceled but also encouraged debtors to speak to the media and elected officials and to become debt relief activists themselves.
By 2018, debt cancellation activists had concluded that, in their view, the U.S. Education Department had the authority to forgive the more than $1.6 trillion in loans owed by students to the federal government. (This is a contested position, and conservative lawyers are almost certain to challenge Biden’s debt relief proposal in court.) They even wrote a sample executive order canceling student loans and posted it online.
Here’s where the politicians came in. The 2020 Democratic primaries were a turning point in the debt relief movement. Competing for left-wing support, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), both rolled out major plans on the issue. Sanders proposed to forgive all student debt; Warren, up to $50,000.
Sanders and Warren also became the most prominent voices for two key arguments: that widespread student debt was caused by the states and the federal government reducing public funding for education and instead steering people to loans; and that the debt problem disproportionately affected Black people. These arguments resonated in a Democratic Party that was becoming more liberal on economic and racial issues.
Then, the pandemic hit. Amid economic upheaval, congressional Democrats called for a pause on student loan repayments. Somewhat surprisingly, congressional Republicans such as then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) also backed the idea. Pushed by that unusual bipartisan consensus, President Donald Trump suspended student loan repayments in March 2020 — and they have never restarted.
Astra Taylor of the Debt Collective told me (and I agree) that a Democratic administration in office in 2020 probably wouldn’t have done such a broad student loan pause, terrified it would make the party seem too liberal and tied to college graduates. But in April 2020, Biden was looking to unify the Democratic Party for the general election by wooing liberal and younger Democrats who had backed Warren and Sanders in the Democratic primary. And Trump, his general election opponent, had already taken action on student loans.
So Biden called for an immediate forgiveness of $10,000, explicitly citing Warren’s support of that idea, and pledged as president to forgive all debt accrued from public colleges for people making less than $125,000 a year. (To be clear, Biden never formally committed to student debt forgiveness via executive branch action. Progressives have pressed for that since it became clear early in Biden’s term that there was no legislative path for this policy.)
Perhaps Biden should not have made that campaign promise, because he and his aides are reportedly both skeptical that broad-based cancellation is a good policy and worried it will annoy voters who didn’t attend college or have already repaid their loans. (Polls show people without college degrees have about the same level of support for debt cancellation as those with degrees.)
But Biden entered office with high unemployment, Trump having paused student loan payments and his own campaign promises of debt relief. There was no way to unring this bell. Whenever his administration floated the idea of restarting the loan payments, it was sharply criticized by the party’s left wing.
Meanwhile, the cancellation movement kept gaining momentum. More centrist figures in the party, including Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.) and much of the Congressional Black Caucus, started urging Biden to cancel some student debt, often emphasizing the benefits to Black borrowers in particular. Prominent left-leaning advocacy groups, most notably the AFL-CIO and the NAACP, joined the cause. A particularly important voice in favor of debt relief this year has been Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D-Ga.). His strong support of the idea while being up for reelection in a swing state has buttressed those who argue debt cancellation is either good or at least not bad electorally for Democrats.
By last spring, more than 80 percent of Democratic voters, key leaders throughout the party and basically every prominent Black Democrat were all in favor of canceling at least some student debt. The question became not whether Biden would cancel student loans but when and by how much. It’s still not clear whether Biden really supports debt cancellation or was forced into this week’s step by the force of the movement within his party. In either case, this was a true activist triumph: Within 10 years, the idea went from pipe dream to policy. | 2022-08-25T11:19:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | How the student debt movement forced Biden's hand - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/25/student-debt-relief-biden-activists/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/25/student-debt-relief-biden-activists/ |
Man fatally shot in Suitland, police say
A man was shot and killed early Tuesday in Suitland, Md., police said.
Just before 5 a.m., patrol officers were called to the 4000 block of Silver Hill Road for a report of a shooting. Officers found 32-year-old Marcos Sawyer of Capitol Heights unresponsive and suffering from gunshot wounds.
Sawyer was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead a short time later.
Prince George’s County homicide unit detectives are working to identify a suspect and motive. | 2022-08-25T11:36:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Man from Capitol Heights shot and killed in Suitland - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/25/suitland-pg-fatal-shooting/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/25/suitland-pg-fatal-shooting/ |
(Catherine McQueen/Moment RF/Getty Images)
Classes started Monday for the 1,900 students in Cassville R-IV School District, about an hour west of Branson and some 15 miles from the Arkansas border. During open house, families were notified that the school board had adopted a policy in June allowing “use of physical force as a method of correcting student behavior.” Parents were handed forms to specify whether they authorize the school to use a paddle on their child, the Springfield News-Leader reported.
Formally known as corporal punishment, the disciplinary measure usually involves striking students on the buttocks with a wooden paddle. In Cassville, staff members will employ “reasonable physical force” — without a “chance of bodily injury or harm” — in the presence of a witness, according to the new policy. A teacher or principal must also send a report to the superintendent explaining the reasoning behind the punishment.
What exactly constitutes “reasonable physical force” is unclear. Superintendent Merlyn Johnson declined an interview request from The Washington Post, saying, “At this time we will focus on educating our students.” However, he told the News-Leader that younger students could receive one or two paddle swings, while older students could get up to three. Parents, Johnson said, had thanked the district for approving the practice that has mostly been in decline across the country.
“Parents have said ‘why can’t you paddle my student?’ and we’re like ‘We can’t paddle your student, our policy does not support that,’ ” Johnson told the outlet. “There had been conversation with parents and there had been requests from parents for us to look into it.”
Corporal punishment is not new in American schools. For centuries, students have been whipped or struck by rulers and paddles. In 1867, New Jersey became the first state to ban the practice in public schools, but it was over 100 years before other states followed suit. Even so, a 1977 Supreme Court decision — Ingraham v. Wright — deemed corporal punishment at public schools to be constitutional and left it up to the states to decide what to do.
The punishment is still legal in public schools across 19 states — including Missouri. In almost all states — except for New Jersey and Iowa — it’s also allowed in private schools.
Study of twins links spanking to antisocial behavior
The United Nations considers corporal punishment to be a human rights violation. The international organization’s Convention on the Rights of the Child urges countries to ban the practice.
“In any other context, the act of an adult hitting another person with a board … would be considered assault with a weapon and would be punishable under criminal law,” researchers Elizabeth T. Gershoff and Sarah A. Font wrote of corporal punishment in a 2016 study.
Florida principal caught on video paddling 6-year-old student won’t face charges
“One of the suggestions that came out was concerns about student discipline,” he told the station. “So we reacted by implementing several different strategies, corporal punishment being one of them.”
Johnson said the disciplinary action will be used only as a last resort when punishments like suspensions or detentions aren’t working.
“The positive reinforcement, we love it. That works with a lot of kids,” Johnson told the News-Leader. “However some kids play the game and their behaviors aren’t changing.”
“We live in a really small community where people were raised a certain way and they’re kind of blanketed in that fact that they grew up having discipline and swats,” Waltrip told the outlet. “And so, for them, it’s like going back to the good old days but it’s not because it’s going to do more harm than good at the end of the day.” | 2022-08-25T11:40:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Cassville school district in Missouri is bringing back corporal punishment - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/25/corporal-punishment-missouri-school-spanking/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/25/corporal-punishment-missouri-school-spanking/ |
Higher mortgage rates, tight inventory and fluctuating prices create a storm of uncertainty
By Troy McMullen
Starr Davis, her husband Devin and their children David and Parker in front of their new home in Coral Springs, Fla., on Aug. 14. They were outbid on several listings before finding the three-bedroom property. (Saul Martinez/For The Washington Post/for The Washington Post )
It started to feel like all of these factors were creeping in at the same time,” says Davis, 38, who runs a nonprofit aimed at protecting children from child sexual abuse and exploitation. The couple relocated to Florida from Atlanta last year where they had been homeowners for years and viewed extending their rental lease as “just throwing money away,” Davis says.
“There were definitely moments when we thought this wouldn’t happen,” says Davis. “But I’m really glad we stuck it out and eventually found a home that fit our budget and our family.”
The median rent across the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas rose by 23.9 percent year-over-year in June to $1,876, a new record level for Realtor.com data for the 16th consecutive month. The inflation rate in the United States, meanwhile, reached 8.5 percent in July, a slight dip from the four-decade high of 9.1 percent in June, Labor Department data show.
“Many of these buyers are on the economic margins to start with,” says Gary Acosta, chief executive of National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP), an industry group aimed at advancing Hispanic homeownership.
The Latino homeownership rate increased to 48.4 percent in 2021, up from 47.5 percent in 2019, the highest level since the mid-2000s, according to data by NAHREP. The Black homeownership rate reached 43.3 percent in 2020, up from 42.1 percent in 2019, census data shows.
Advocates push nationwide movement for land return to Blacks after victory in California
“They’ve already been threatened by higher home prices and unusually tight supply in many expanding markets for minority buyers,” Acosta says. “So rising interest rates and higher rental costs will certainly add more challenges and hurdles at a time when many of them are looking to own their first home.”
Despite a recent cooling in property prices - and a dip in the overall number of sales across the country - the cost of a home is still up 20 percent since August 2020 and up 36 percent since 2019, Redfin data shows.
While price growth is slowing in some pricey markets — with home sellers increasingly cutting asking prices — economists are split on whether prices will drop on a nationwide basis by year’s end.
The median sales price of an existing home reached $416,000 in June, up 13.4 percent on the year and the highest since records began in 1999, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). While price growth is slowing in some markets — with home sellers increasingly cutting asking prices — median home prices in the United States are still up 30 percent since July 2020 and up 39 percent since 2019, Redfin data show. Many economists think prices are unlikely to drop on a nationwide basis.
“The same dynamics that existed for many first-time buyers, particularly buyers of color, during the pandemic are essentially still in place,” says Jessica Lautz, vice president of demographics and behavioral insights at NAR.
She says because younger, minority buyers typically carry more student loan debt than their White counterparts and lack the kind of intergenerational wealth that could help with things like a down payment, the current landscape is more challenging for millennial buyers of color. “And when we add rising rates and affordability issues into this mix, it creates hurdles for all home buyers, but it’s particularly challenging for first-time minority buyers."
Odeta Kushi, deputy chief economist for real estate data and title company First American Financial Corporation, says millennial home buyers across all demographics are facing a unique set of headwinds that could dampen the house-buying power of a group that’s crucial to the overall housing market.
“These are people in their prime home-buying years that are in a market that’s been undersupplied for years and that’s particularly acute at the starter stage,” says Kushi. “So even if they’re seeing their incomes rise, as many are, rising rates and higher prices will still erode affordability and that could keep them on the sidelines.”
But she says many of her clients started looking for homes earlier in the year when rates were at 3.5 percent. But now, as rates hover near or above 5 percent, some of them have decided to wait for the market to shift.
“Home prices were already high in this market, so for many of my clients, especially the younger ones, watching rates go higher means the overall cost of the home gets more expensive,” says Boston, a bilingual agent who caters to the Twin Cities’ growing number of Hispanic home buyers. “The higher monthly payments that come with rising mortgage rates means that more buyers are willing to wait until they find something within their budget.”
That’s what Martha Hernandez and her husband, Gustavo, decided to do. The couple began the year searching for a home in the Twin Cities with Boston’s help. But navigating rising rates as home prices remained high amid tight supply got increasingly more difficult. Median home prices in the Twin Cities reached a record $380,000 in June, up 8.6 percent from a year earlier, according to data from Minneapolis Area Realtors.
“It means the house we thought we could afford in February or March is no longer really affordable,” says Hernandez, 55, who works for a housekeeping and cleaning services company. Her husband is a manager at a painting and drywall company.
“Each time the rates went up it meant it was a little more expensive to buy a home,” she says. “So even though we decided to wait for now we are still hoping to find something in our budget. | 2022-08-25T11:49:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | For buyers of color, the housing market can be particularly troubling - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/25/buyers-color-housing-market-can-be-particularly-troubling/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/25/buyers-color-housing-market-can-be-particularly-troubling/ |
Warren Buffett Backs Driverless Trucks. Now They’re Real.
A cardboard cut out in the likeness of Warren Buffett, chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., sits in the driver’s seat of a truck on display during the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, U.S., on Saturday, May 6, 2017. Buffett said during the Berkshire investors gathering that he’s more inclined than usual this year to sell some assets because the tax advantage could soon diminish for divesting securities at a loss. (Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg)
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. didn’t gain fame for investing in startups. The venerated investor has a predilection for buying time-tested businesses like an oil company, a railroad or an insurer that are bets on the steady and profitable growth of the US economy.
Embark Technology Inc., Aurora Innovation Inc., TuSimple Holdings Inc. and others are all testing autonomous truck technology on the highway. Aurora has said it expects to operate without a driver on board as early as next year. Aurora and Embark went public through special purpose acquisition companies while TuSimple did a tradition initial public offering. All three have performed dismally and are down more than 75% since first trading.
The driverless truck companies all contend their technology will make big rigs much safer for US highways. It’s a low bar considering that 159,000 people were injured in crashes involving large trucks in 2019, and 5,600 were killed in such accidents in 2021, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The market need is also there. The American Trucking Associations estimates the US is short 80,000 truck drivers, and the shortage is concentrated in long-haul trucking that keeps drivers away from their home for days and even weeks. Those long hauls are the low-hanging fruit for autonomous trucks to pick.
If one of Buffett’s companies is taking the plunge into this new technology, don’t be surprised that in a decade or two driverless trucks will also be a mainstay of the US economy.
• Driverless Trucks Can Be Both Safe and Efficient: Thomas Black | 2022-08-25T11:49:42Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Warren Buffett Backs Driverless Trucks. Now They’re Real. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/warren-buffett-backs-driverless-trucks-now-theyre-real/2022/08/25/62e25994-2469-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/warren-buffett-backs-driverless-trucks-now-theyre-real/2022/08/25/62e25994-2469-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html |
Free Trading Isn’t Free, But We’re Still Better Off
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - DECEMBER 07: Artist Nelson Saiers installs his latest “Cheap Money No. 2” sculpture at “The Wall Street Bull” in response to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s actions & inflation on December 07, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Nelson Saiers) (Photographer: Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images North America)
Does the quality of trade execution matter in the equities market? University of California at Irvine finance professor Christopher Schwarz and four of his colleagues set out to answer that question with a series of experiments last year. Over a period of more than five months, they executed 85,000 trades with discount brokers in 128 different stocks. What they found was that execution quality varied greatly across not just brokerage firms, but even within the same brokerage. The most shocking finding was their estimate that $34 billion a year is lost to execution costs for small retail investors.
Sure, $34 billion is a lot of money, but is it really? The US had a total equity market value of $53.8 trillion as of the end of 2021, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. If the total market value of US companies turned over one time over the course of the year, which is approximately the case, it would mean that 6.4 basis points (0.064%) would be lost in execution costs. To, that seems reasonable. But what I think the researchers touched on is that there is a cost to execute a stock trade. It is not an explicit cost, but an implicit cost.
When the discount brokerages collectively eliminated commissions on stock trades in 2019, the move was heralded by many as a boon for retail investors. I was not so sure. As most now know, brokerage firms outsource the execution of those orders to electronic market-making firms, which are for-profit entities. In most cases, retail orders are profitable to trade against, and market making firms are willing to pay brokers to receive those orders. That practice, known as payment for order flow, is now under scrutiny by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The brokerage that gained the most from these arrangements is Robinhood Markets Inc., and it also stands to lose the most if those arrangements are prohibited.
In the old days, a customer would place an order with a brokerage, pay a large commission and the order would be routed directly to the New York Stock Exchange, where it would be received by a specialist. The specialist is a for-profit entity as well, except with the duty to maintain an orderly market during times of stress, and the explicit costs of the brokerage commission was added to the implicit cost of trading with the specialist. Investors were really paying two commissions: a transparent one to the brokerage and an invisible one to the specialist. Now that we have done away with explicit commissions, investors are, on balance, better off.
The interesting thing is that nobody had any problems with trading costs when they were explicit. Investors willingly paid billions of dollars a year in commissions and nobody had any issues with the arrangement. But people think there is something unseemly about a shadowy market-making firm taking the other side of investors’ trades and profiting, even if it reduces transactions costs significantly. There is this perception that the market making firms might be “ripping off” investors. But that isn’t really true. The dealer profit on 25 shares of Coca-Cola Co. is next to nothing, and the vast majority of retail trades are unprofitable or minimally profitable anyway. For the most part, the market-making business is quite boring. The vast majority of profits come from market dislocations, like the meme stocks frenzy in 2021 or the early days of the pandemic. Market makers thrive during periods of volatility.
The market-making firms have a bad reputation, which is mostly unearned. They are the main liquidity providers in the absence of exchange trading floors and specialists. If payment for order flow is eliminated, would we go back to the days of big commissions and specialists? Probably not, but the brokerages and specialists would find a way to make the economics work. I don’t know what that would look like, but it would probably not be superior to the system we have now, where investors enjoy transaction costs of just 6 basis points.
I’m not even sure why we have this obsession over trading costs and frictionless trading, because high transactions costs can be a good thing, forcing people to buy and hold. Inevitably, saving people money on commissions may cost them later in returns in one of the great paradoxes of finance. People waste a lot of time arguing about equity market microstructure. The US has the deepest, most liquid capital markets in the world, but we might not if regulators start getting too involved. As long as competition exists, things will get better and trading costs will come down even further. More From Other Writers at Bloomberg Opinion:
• Abandoning Value Now Takes Some Dubious Assumptions: Aaron Brown
• Matt Levine’s Money Stuff: Meme-Stock Vacation Is Over | 2022-08-25T11:49:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Free Trading Isn’t Free, But We’re Still Better Off - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/free-trading-isnt-free-but-were-still-better-off/2022/08/25/e9c05852-2465-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/free-trading-isnt-free-but-were-still-better-off/2022/08/25/e9c05852-2465-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html |
Saturday’s MegaFest, which marks Soul Mega’s third anniversary, pairs beer tasting with party-rocking DJs.
(Daniela Martín del Campo for The Washington Post)
Late summer and early fall are prime season for beer festivals, which can become a blur of tiny tasting glasses, pretzel necklaces and Oktoberfest-inspired oompah bands. The Soul Mega Megafest, coming Saturday to the Parks at Walter Reed, is trying to break the mold. “Usually, the people who come to beer festivals are beer people who are coming to try different brands. The music isn’t as diverse,” says Elliott Johnson, the co-founder and CEO of D.C.’s Soul Mega brewing, which is producing the festival with veteran events group the Usual Suspectz. But with Megafest, “the goal is really to kind of merge the block party culture with the beer festival culture. We don’t normally see those two commingled.”
So, yes, there will be unlimited pours from six Black-owned brewing companies and a lineup of food trucks, but leave the lederhosen T-shirts at home: Megafest features a lineup of party-rocking DJs you might find in the city’s coolest clubs, including Mathias and Bri Mafia. And the ubiquitous giant Jenga or cornhole? Probably not. “This is really more of a dance party, in my mind,” Johnson says. “I mean, if you’re sitting down playing games, that’s cool. But we want you feeling the vibes.”
Let’s back up. The reason for the celebration is Soul Mega’s third anniversary. Despite being unveiled less than a year before the pandemic, Soul Mega beers, led by the crisp, orange-forward Worldwide American Pale Ale, have established a foothold in the D.C. market. The flagship Worldwide is on the menu at neighborhood beer-and-a-shot bars as well as restaurants with Michelin nods, and 16-ounce cans are sold at stores as disparate as Trader Joe’s and Craft Beer Cellar.
But when planning their anniversary party, Soul Mega’s founders chose not to hog the spotlight and invited other Black-owned brewers to join them at the party: two others from D.C., plus three from Maryland. “Although we’re celebrating our three-year anniversary, we want to make sure we put everybody else on, too,” Johnson says. “And so what we’re trying to do is level the playing field, and get everyone an equal opportunity to let their brand shine.”
Soul Mega is the middle child of D.C.’s three Black-owned beer brands: younger than Sankofa, which debuted in 2017 and went into production the following year, and older than Urban Garden Brewing, D.C.’s first Black woman-owned brand, which released its first canned beer in 2021. None of these companies owns a brewery; Soul Mega’s beers are brewed under contract at Calvert, in Upper Marlboro; Sankofa’s come from Black Flag, in Columbia; and Urban Garden’s flagship Chamolite was made at DC Brau, though founder Eamoni Tate-Collier has also brewed with Right Proper and City-State.
Of the Maryland breweries appearing at Megafest, only Patuxent Brewing has its own facility, which is located in Waldorf. Montgomery County’s Black Viking and Baltimore’s Joyhound are both produced at Oliver Brewing in Baltimore.
Not having a physical space can be a problem for beer brands trying to raise awareness about their latest offerings. Craft-beer nerds and casual beer consumers alike have come to see brewery taprooms as another form of bar, with pinball machines, live music and special events encouraging them to hang out and sample beers. When a new IPA or limited-edition sour drops, all the brewery has to do is encourage people to visit for a taste. Without a built-in outlet, contract brewers have to be more creative. For Soul Mega, that has meant exposure through events like the Trill Grill Fest, headlined by Rick Ross at Gateway D.C. in Congress Heights in 2019, or the Black Beer Garden at the annual Black Greek Fest. “It is part of our model to make sure that we do experiential marketing and give people an idea of our brand outside of just seeing it on the label,” Johnson says. “Our business model is multitiered. We consider ourselves a lifestyle brand as well as a producer and distributor of craft beer.”
Others take different approaches. “We’ve got a small but passionate following,” says Kofi Meroe, the co-founder of Sankofa. So Sankofa likes to host pop-up happy hours and events at bars that already carry its beers. One event at Metrobar, for example, featured DJs spinning Afrobeats and West African cuisine from the Petit Afrik food truck — a perfect pairing for Sankofa, reflecting its origin story: The founders met as elementary school students in Nigeria, and their beers embrace flavors from African ingredients such as hibiscus and cocoa. They’ve also appeared at events at the National Museum of African Art. But Meroe doesn’t just think local: Sankofa has collaborated with some of the biggest names in craft brewing, including Allagash and Brooklyn, and he’s a fixture at festivals such as Barrel and Flow, which brought Black-owned breweries together in Pittsburgh earlier this month, and Blacktoberfest, which returns to the Atlanta area in October.
Urban Garden’s Chamolite, a refreshing blonde ale with honey and chamomile notes, made its debut at the Black Beer Garden, an outdoor pop-up in Shaw during the 2021 D.C. Beer Week, and Tate-Collier says those sorts of events, whether a happy hour at Serenata or a pairing event with the roving Bite Club pop-up, are key. “Festivals and events allow Black-owned breweries to be introduced to a broader audience, and enable consumers to experience the brand directly,” she says. “I’ve participated in events where many people are surprised to see Black brewers and owners, and sometimes even more baffled to see Black women behind a brand.”
That sort of interaction is key to Megafest, Soul Mega’s Johnson says. “I think it’ll be a good chance for consumers to connect with the people that actually create the brands. They can ask whatever questions they want, if they’re not familiar with our brand.” The Black Brew Movement, which organizes tastings and events to introduce craft beer to diverse audiences, is also going to have a table at the festival, “and they’ll have some interactive stuff going on, for people to be educated about craft beer in general,” Johnson says. Saturday also provides a chance to sip some beers that aren’t at local shops: Urban Garden’s AllHomage, a pale ale produced in collaboration with the local clothing brand Eat, sold out earlier this summer, but “we saved a little AllHomage beer just for the Megafest,” Tate-Collier says.
Brandon Miller, the festival’s co-producer with the Usual Suspectz, met Johnson a few years ago, and they bonded over their shared experiences — both are from Chicago, both Howard alumni — as well as a love of beer. They had begun planning a festival before the pandemic hit, “focused on Black beers and Black breweries,” but everything was pushed back. However, when a friend recommended they check out the lawn at Walter Reed, things began to fall into place. “The importance is the opportunity for people to experience cultural events in settings that they wouldn’t normally interact with,” Johnson says. Whether beer or music, “it’s important to bring that to people, because a lot of times people don’t go out and seek that if they’re not familiar with it.”
People might not be familiar with all the breweries pouring this weekend, or the DJs, or the food trucks. But the opportunity to discover something new is right in front of them.
Saturday from 1 to 6 p.m. The Parks at Walter Reed, 1010 Butternut St. NW. theparksdc.com. $50.
Where to find these beers around town
This weekend puts D.C.’s Black beer producers front and center, but there are other chances to find their beverages around town. While each producer offers a “beer locator” guide on its website, these are some highlights. Craft Beer Cellar on H Street NE sells cans of Sankofa, Soul Mega and Urban Garden, as well as Maryland’s Black Viking and Joyhound, both of which will be at Saturday’s festival. If you’d like to try them at a bar, Edgewood’s Metrobar, which has hosted happy hours for Urban Garden and Sankofa, generally has all three D.C. producers available in cans. 1921, the beer garden behind the historic Heurich House, also frequently stocks those breweries, as well as Black Viking, and Serenata, the bar inside the La Cosecha market, makes a point of having Black-owned breweries available.
Sankofa generally sells its beers in cans at bars, but it can also sometimes be found on tap. The most probable location is the Midlands Beer Garden in Park View. “Midlands was our very first account,” co-founder Kofi Meroe says. “Midlands is like family to us, and Midlands gets most of our kegs.” The others are Shaw’s Lost and Found, which Meroe says is “one of my favorite craft beer destinations in the city,” and Free State, Lost and Found’s sister bar in Penn Quarter, which is focused on drinks from the Mid-Atlantic. Hypebiscus pale ale is on shelves now. Cocoa Coast, a chocolate milk stout, could return this fall.
Soul Mega’s beers are widely available. The Rhythm & Beauty black lager was on tap at the Passenger in Shaw last week, and co-founder Elliott Johnson says the rich, toffee-and-coffee-accented beer will return in cans “probably in the next six weeks or so.” Favorite spots for drinking Worldwide include Sandlot Southeast, near Nationals Park; Lydia on H; and Mount Vernon Triangle’s Bar Chinois. It can also be found at multiple Trader Joe’s locations.
Urban Garden has “a couple of new beers in the pipeline,” says founder Eamoni Tate-Collier. To mark the brand’s first anniversary, she worked with City-State Brewing to brew a sorrel saison called Solar Return, which will be released at the Edgewood brewery on Sept. 23. She adds: “I’m also working on releasing an IPA this fall.” In the meantime, try Chamolite while listening to a band at Union Market’s Songbyrd or checking out Addis Paris Cafe, an Ethiopian-meets-French restaurant in Mount Pleasant. | 2022-08-25T11:50:13Z | www.washingtonpost.com | D.C.'s Black-owned breweries take center stage at a new festival - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/25/dc-black-owned-breweries-festival/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/25/dc-black-owned-breweries-festival/ |
1Public Service Loan Forgiveness
2Teacher Loan Forgiveness
3Perkins Loan Forgiveness
4State-based Loan Repayment Programs
5Federal Employee Student Loan Repayment
6Income-Driven Repayment Plans
7Military Service
8AmeriCorps
9Total and Permanent Disability Discharge
10Borrower Defense to Repayment
President Biden’s decision to cancel up to $10,000 in federal student debt for individuals earning $125,000 or less — and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients — could clear the ledger for millions of people. But for those who still have remaining balances or will not benefit at all, there are other paths to loan forgiveness.
The federal government, states and the private sector have programs that will erase some, if not all, education debt held by borrowers based on where they work and for how long.
Here are some of the options available:
This federal program is designed to entice college graduates to go into teaching, law enforcement and other public sector jobs with the promise of debt forgiveness after years of service.
To qualify, people must make 120 on-time monthly payments for 10 years to have the remaining balance canceled. They must work for the government or certain nonprofits. They must have loans made directly by the federal government. And they must be enrolled in specific repayment plans, primarily those that cap monthly loan payments to a percentage of their income.
The rules are complex. And people have complained of receiving bad advice from loan servicing companies hired by the Education Department, leading them to believe they were making qualifying payments when they were not. As a result, Congress and the department created temporary fixes so payments made in the wrong plan could be credited toward forgiveness. The department’s waiver is set to end Oct. 31.
Learn more: https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service
Educators have a few options to alleviate the burden of student debt. In addition to Public Service Loan Forgiveness, elementary and secondary school teachers are eligible for the federal Teacher Loan Forgiveness program. That program aims to address the shortage of educators in high-need schools and subject areas.
In exchange for up to $17,500 in federal student loan cancellation, teachers must first work five consecutive years in a low-income school or educational service agency. Math, science and special education teachers who are considered highly qualified — meaning they hold a bachelor’s degree and state certification — are eligible for the full amount of relief. Other teachers can receive up to $5,000.
Teachers typically can’t receive credit toward both Teacher Loan Forgiveness and PSLF for the same period, but the Public Service waiver temporarily relaxes the restriction.
Learn more: https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/teacher
Nearly 2 million Americans have about $6 billion in education debt from the now-defunct Federal Perkins Loan Program. The program ended in 2017 amid concerns that it was poorly structured and no longer served a purpose, but the outstanding debt remains.
Perkins loans are ineligible for PSLF and the Teacher Loan Forgiveness program. But teachers, nurses, firefighters, speech pathologists and other public servants can still have those loans canceled.
The Education Department will forgive a portion of Perkins loans for each year of service. Fifteen percent of the loan can be canceled in the first and second year of service, 20 percent in the third and fourth years, and 30 percent after the fifth year of service for most eligible professions.
Learn more: https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/perkins
State-based Loan Repayment Programs
Every state and the District has at least one student loan repayment program. Some states, like Texas, have nearly a dozen. The perk is typically used to recruit public sector employees, especially teachers and health care workers, and requires some type of service commitment.
Maryland, for instance, awards up to $25,000 annually for a two-year commitment from primary care physicians and physician assistants in pediatrics, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology.
Several websites have compiled a list of existing programs, including Investopedia, Student Loan Hero and the College Investor. You can also check out your local state agencies to inquire.
Federal Employee Student Loan Repayment
Government agencies can repay federal student loans as a recruitment or retention incentive for candidates or current employees. Not every agency takes advantage of the program, but the perk is readily used by the Defense and Justice departments, according to the last federal data.
Agencies will pay off as much as $10,000 a year in debt or a total of $60,000 per employee. In exchange, employees must agree to remain at the agency for at least three years.
Learn more: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/student-loan-repayment/
There are four plans that tie your monthly federal loan payments to how much you earn, and those in the plans can have their balance canceled after 20 or 25 years. About half of the more than $1.6 trillion in outstanding federal student loans made directly by the government is being repaid through these plans.
Income-driven repayment plans vary in eligibility requirements, payment calculation and the required number of qualifying payments borrowers must make before any remaining loan balances can be wiped away.
It may take longer to hit the forgiveness threshold if a borrower spends any months in delinquency, default, forbearance or certain types of deferment of their loan payments.
But poor record-keeping and misleading information have resulted in people repaying their loans for much longer than needed, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report. As a result, the Education Department is giving borrowers a better chance of having their debt canceled faster, with a one-time adjustment of their accounts slated to commence this fall.
Learn more: https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/repayment/plans/income-driven
Service to the country comes with a host of educational benefits, including various student loan repayment programs. Active duty soldiers in the Army, for instance, are eligible for up to $65,000 in cancellation if they agree to three years of service. The same is true for those who enlist in the Navy.
Members of the military are also eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
People who complete a term of national service through an AmeriCorps program — AmeriCorps VISTA, AmeriCorps NCCC, or AmeriCorps State and National — are eligible for loan forgiveness.
The Segal AmeriCorps Education Award, which is granted to participants, can be used to repay state and federal student loans. The award is equivalent to the maximum value of the federal Pell Grant in a given year ($6,896 for the 2022-23 academic year).
Learn more: https://americorps.gov/members-volunteers/segal-americorps-education-award
Anyone who is declared by a physician, the Social Security Administration or Department of Veterans Affairs to be totally and permanently disabled is eligible to have their federal student loans discharged. The benefit has never been widely publicized, so few have taken advantage. And when they do, many are met with tedious paperwork and requirements.
There is a three-year monitoring period in which borrowers must submit annual documentation verifying their income does not exceed the poverty line. The requirement routinely trips up people who wind up having their loans reinstated.
To ease the burden, the Biden administration waived the paperwork requirement during the coronavirus pandemic. The Education Department recently proposed rules that would eliminate the monitoring period and expand the types of documentation borrowers may submit to demonstrate eligibility.
Learn more: https://www.disabilitydischarge.com/
This federal statute clears the debts of students whose colleges used illegal or deceptive tactics to persuade them to borrow.
Although the law has been on the books since 1994, few claims were filed until the for-profit chain Corinthian Colleges collapsed in 2014. Since then, the Education Department has been inundated with applications, primarily from former students of for-profit colleges.
Claims piled up at the department, but the Biden administration has cleared the backlog and proposed new regulations to streamline the process.
Learn more: https://studentaid.gov/borrower-defense/ | 2022-08-25T11:50:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 10 student loan forgiveness programs beyond Biden's debt cancellation - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/08/25/student-loan-forgiveness-programs/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/08/25/student-loan-forgiveness-programs/ |
Thursday briefing: Student loan forgiveness; abortion trigger laws; Vanessa Bryant; California’s future gas car ban; and more
President Biden announced a huge student loan forgiveness plan.
The basics: Anyone earning under $125,000 a year, or $250,000 for married couples filing taxes together, will qualify for up to $10,000 in forgiveness. Pell Grant recipients can get up to $20,000.
How it will work: Most people will need to fill out a form with the Education Department. Expect more information on that soon.
Last but not least: The student loan payment pause will be extended through Dec. 31. It would have expired next week.
More restrictive abortion laws take effect today in Idaho, Tennessee and Texas.
In Idaho and Tennessee: Almost all abortions will now be banned, with few exceptions, though a judge yesterday blocked a part of Idaho’s law that added punishments for doctors.
In Texas: Most abortions are already banned, but doctors could now get a life sentence for performing the procedure.
What’s happening in your state? We’re tracking the latest laws here.
Uvalde schools’ police chief was fired yesterday.
Who is he? Pedro “Pete” Arredondo. He played a big role in law enforcement’s flawed response to the shooting that killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary in Texas three months ago.
The latest: The Uvalde school board voted unanimously to end his contract immediately, and community members broke into applause.
Russia launched a deadly missile attack on Ukraine’s Independence Day.
What happened? At least 25 people were killed yesterday in a strike on a train station in the eastern village of Chaplyne, officials said. Dozens more were injured.
The big picture: People were warned to expect attacks as the country celebrated 31 years of freedom from the Soviet Union, but there were fewer than anticipated.
Vanessa Bryant will get $16 million over photos of husband Kobe Bryant’s crash.
Why? Los Angeles County deputy sheriffs and fire officials took and shared pictures of the 2020 helicopter crash that killed the NBA legend, their daughter and seven others.
A federal jury found yesterday that the officials had violated the civil rights of all nine victims’ loved ones.
California is moving closer to banning new gasoline-powered cars.
The plan: Only zero-emission cars, pickup trucks and SUVs — and some plug-in hybrids — would be sold in the state by 2035 under a policy expected to be adopted today.
It’s a big deal: California has considerable influence over the auto industry, and this sends a clear signal that much of the nation’s markets will soon be closed to many gas guzzlers.
The newest Fitbit wants to keep tabs on your stress all day long.
How it works: A model coming out this fall will monitor your heartbeat, skin temperature and sweat, then check in after what it thinks is a stressful moment.
This is the latest in a trend: Other smartwatches are tackling mental health, too. Experts say the tech can be helpful, but it’s not a replacement for therapy or other treatment.
And now … you should probably tighten your Twitter privacy settings: Here’s how. Plus, there’s a new type of online celebrity: Welcome to the world of “nimcels.” | 2022-08-25T11:50:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The 7 things you need to know for Thursday, August 25 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/the-seven/2022/08/25/what-to-know-for-august-25/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/the-seven/2022/08/25/what-to-know-for-august-25/ |
A voter casts her vote at a polling station in Luanda, Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2022. President Joao Lourenco is running for a second five-year term while his party, the Peoples’ Movement for the Liberation of Angola, known by its Portuguese acronym MPLA, is campaigning to extend its 47-year run as the country’s ruling party. (AP Photo) (Uncredited/AP) | 2022-08-25T11:50:56Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Angola anxiously watches vote counting in national election - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/angola-anxiously-watches-vote-counting-in-national-election/2022/08/25/b3f4eef2-2467-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/angola-anxiously-watches-vote-counting-in-national-election/2022/08/25/b3f4eef2-2467-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html |
Israel’s Arab citizens, key to Netanyahu’s fate, debate worth of voting
Mansour Abbas, leader of the Raam party, attends a Knesset session in Jerusalem on June 13. (Ariel Schalit/AP)
HAIFA, Israel — The breakthrough in Israel’s seemingly endless political deadlock came last year when an Arab party made the unprecedented move of joining a coalition spanning the Israeli political spectrum to oust Benjamin Netanyahu after 15 years in power.
It didn’t last, and as the country gears up for another election in November, the big question for many is whether Netanyahu will make a comeback — and the role Israel’s long-marginalized Arab voters may play in blocking or facilitating his return.
It’s a rare moment in the electoral spotlight for Israel’s Palestinian citizens. Many, however, are frustrated at being viewed just in the context of Netanyahu’s political fortunes while their grievances and discrimination continue to be unaddressed.
Long overlooked, Israel’s Arab citizens are increasingly asserting their Palestinian identity
Instead, in the year since Mansour Abbas’s Raam party joined the governing coalition, there’s been a growing divide among Arab citizens over whether being part of the government helped by getting long-neglected communities more money or hurt by giving legitimacy to a system they say doesn’t really represent them — or whether in that period nothing changed at all.
“The center and left say the most important thing is to not have Netanyahu because he incites against the Supreme Court, academics, journalists, the media, the police,” said Ayman Odeh, who heads the Joint List, a union of several Arab parties, and strongly opposes Abbas. “But what about the Palestinian people? What about the Arab citizens inside Israel?”
Israel’s election season is ramping up ahead of the Nov. 1 contest. Parties have just completed their primaries and are finalizing their lists for September. What the landscape for the Arab parties will look like, and whether they will once again make a difference in the nation’s politics, is still very unclear moving forward.
A recent poll found that about 69 percent of Arabs in Israel said they were worse off than last year, according to pollster Yousef Makladeh, the head of the Statnet research institute based in Carmel City, Israel. Another 80 percent said they didn’t care if Netanyahu returned to power.
This month’s Israeli strikes on Gaza, in which 47 Palestinians died, confirmed for many that, when it comes to security and the occupied territories, “there is little difference” in who is prime minister, according to the pollster.
Amir Milad, a 53-year-old farmer from Ramla in central Israel, voted for Abbas last election and will again, even though he knows that any changes will be limited to roads and infrastructure.
“I face racism every day,” he said. “In the media. In the streets … I don’t have the right to marry whom I want,” he said, referring to a law approved this year that bars Palestinian citizens of Israel from passing on their citizenship to noncitizen spouses, including those from the occupied territories.
Last May, just before Raam joined the coalition, Israel faced its worst communal violence and largest Arab protests in two decades during the 11-day Gaza war. Lod and nearby Ramla were the center of some of the worst upheaval.
People went out because of the injustice, said Milad, describing how a group of Jewish Israelis stoned his car. “So we must fight [for our rights] from all places,” he added, explaining his support for Abbas.
After Arab-Jewish violence erupts inside Israeli towns, a divided country may never be the same
Israel’s Arab citizens number about 2 million, or 20 percent of the population. Most are descendants of families that remained in Israel after many Palestinians fled or were expelled following Israel’s creation in 1948. They have Israeli citizenship, but have long faced discrimination. Some have also risen to high places within Israeli society and do not identify as Palestinians.
For most of Israel’s history, these communities have either not voted or opted for one of several Arab-led parties that have refused to take part in any government. Some, though, vote for other parties, including Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud.
These dynamics had started to slightly shift when Abbas decided to join the governing coalition, but the coalition only held for a year and left a sour taste in many Palestinian Israelis’ mouths. This time around, many believe the percentage of Arab voters participating could fall to 40 percent, compared to last election’s 45 percent and the high of 65 percent in 2015.
By contrast, Makladeh said he expected around 70 percent of Jewish Israeli voters to turn out.
Abbas justifies his readiness to participate in the government on pragmatic grounds to meet the needs of Arab communities. “We decided to enter the coalition because the burning issues of the Arab community cannot be solved from outside the circle of influence,” he wrote on Facebook in early August.
He declined repeated requests for an interview.
Abbas said he pushed for $8.6 billion in Israel’s latest five-year plan to go to neglected Arab communities, while another $722 million was allocated to fighting the gun violence epidemic in Arab communities.
Israeli policies toward the Palestinians, however, have repeatedly hurt Abbas’s standing with voters. While he pushed in the Knesset for the state to recognize several unauthorized Bedouin villages, critics said he wasn’t supportive enough of weeks of highly policed Bedouin protests over land issues. There have also been a rising number of house demolitions over the past year.
In April, he symbolically suspended his participation in the government over Israeli raids on Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque, though said he would not leave the coalition.
Abbas has responded to criticism about Israeli assaults on Palestinians — most recently with the violence in Gaza — by emphasizing that he has no control over these decisions as part of the trade-off.
“The truth is that Arab parties have no actual influence on everything regarding security and foreign decisions in the country,” Abbas wrote in the same post. “We have said from the beginning that there is no difference between the right and the left in Israel.”
But for Khalid Anabtwai, 35, Abbas being part of the governing coalition counts as “active support.”
Anabtwai, a member of the nationalist Balad party, said Arab representation in the Knesset was important “to use it as part of the Palestinian movement to build our community and to build up an alternative to the Zionist parties.”
Odeh, who heads Hadash, Israel’s Arab-led communist party, and many other Palestinians in Israel were also extremely angered by Abbas’s statement in December calling Israel a Jewish state — a term that, they say, negates the Palestinian claim to the land and relegates them to second-tier citizens.
To make matters worse for Abbas and his pragmatic argument about increased budgets, many of the Arab communities have yet to receive the money he fought for, in part because of extra red tape put on the use of funding in Arab communities, said Salam Irsheid, a lawyer with Adalah, a legal center in Haifa.
In the end the debate has little appeal for potential voters such as 29-year-old Shireen Amira, who works at a clothing store in a small mall in Lod near Tel Aviv and said she had not voted in any of the recent elections.
“It goes nowhere,” she said with a wave of her hand.
She said her key issues were violence against women, rising prices, and tensions between Jews and Arabs.
Voting or joining the government “will not change anything,” she said. “They ask us to vote and then are racist to us.” | 2022-08-25T12:55:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ahead of elections, Israeli Arab parties question joining the next government - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/25/israel-arab-palestinian-election-abbas/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/25/israel-arab-palestinian-election-abbas/ |
David Povich, prominent defense lawyer, dies at 87
Against seemingly impossible odds, he won an acquittal for an assistant U.S. attorney seen on videotape taking bribe money from undercover agents
David Povich (Williams & Connolly)
David Povich, a partner at the premier Washington law firm of Williams & Connolly who once won an acquittal for an assistant U.S. attorney seen on videotape taking bribe money from undercover agents — an entrapment case in which he warned prosecutors against prematurely assuming they had caught their “big fish,” died Aug. 19 at his home in the District. He was 87.
The cause was mantle cell lymphoma, said his sister, Lynn Povich, an author and former Newsweek journalist.
Mr. Povich, whose father was Washington Post sports columnist Shirley Povich, joined Williams & Connolly in 1962 and became a specialist in white-collar criminal defense, federal criminal investigations, government contracts, corporate disputes and personal-injury lawsuits. He occasionally handled divorces of prominent Washingtonians, including the stormy alimony battle between Sen. John G. Tower (R-Tex.) and his second wife, Lilla, who was Mr. Povich’s client.
His most notable case began with a massive 1975 sting operation, a joint endeavor of local police and federal agents, to clamp down on millions of dollars in stolen goods, including government-office machinery, credit cards and other hot items.
Undercover agents posed as Italian American gangsters running a warehouse in Northeast Washington, where they began a fake business in office-equipment supply that would serve as a fence for purloined merchandise and videotape the transactions. Customers rolled in, including addicts and thieves as well as prostitutes. One prostitute mentioned an assistant U.S. attorney who had been her client and, perhaps inclined to take bribes, had thrown a case involving her friend in return for sex.
While the matter was not related to the initial undercover mission, it piqued the interest of law enforcement officials. They asked the prostitute to act as a middleman between the federal prosecutor, Donald E. Robinson Jr., and agents posing as organized-crime figures who wanted to make a “business deal” for inside information about grand juries.
Robinson accepted and later said that he did not tell his bosses, fearing embarrassment about his private life. And he claimed his wife received threatening phone calls at home, which persuaded him to return to the purported “Mafiosos” and try to make a deal. Robinson was subsequently seen on videotape accepting $700 in bribes. The recordings also seemed to depict him weighing whether the money was sufficient.
“This case involves a crime that was never contemplated until the police decided they would go out and try to corrupt an assistant U.S. attorney,” Mr. Povich said during Robinson’s trial. The government, he said, “induced” his client to commit the crime.
A federal jury in 1976 acquitted Robinson of bribery and obstruction of justice. Mr. Povich used his client’s relationship with the prostitute as part of the defense, arguing that Robinson, a 32-year-old married father of three, “wasn’t hiding corruption” by accepting the apparent the bribe, but instead “hiding his association” with a sex worker. Mr. Povich said Robinson feared gangsters who claimed to have knowledge of his carousing and seemed intent on harming his family, perhaps violently, if he did not carry out their wishes.
“Beware of police when they think they’ve got the big fish,” Mr. Povich said at the time. “When the temptation becomes too great, the methods become drastic.”
Robinson, who subsequently moved to New York, was disbarred in that state in 1979 for what a New York State Supreme Court called violations of his “oaths and obligations as an attorney and public officer” stemming from the legal battle.
The high-profile case, won against seemingly impossible odds, burnished Mr. Povich’s reputation. When representing defendants nabbed in sting operations, he counseled, lawyers should use the word “enticement” rather than “entrapment” and present their clients as momentarily greedy opportunists rather than hardened criminals. “They could go through the rest of their life without committing an unlawful act,” he told The Post.
Even when Mr. Povich was unable to win an acquittal, he often succeeded in reducing a client’s prison sentence.
He represented Rep. Charles C. Diggs Jr., a Michigan Democrat and Congressional Black Caucus founder convicted in 1978 of running a payroll kickback scheme in his office. Mr. Povich argued that Diggs should not go to prison because he had suffered the tarnishing of his reputation and the diminishment of his finances. “There is no necessity to further punish him,” he argued. Diggs served seven months of a three-year prison term.
Nathan David Povich was born in Washington on June 8, 1935. He graduated in 1954 from the private Landon School in Bethesda, Md., then from Yale University in 1958 and from Columbia University’s law school in 1962. He retired from Williams & Connolly in 2014.
In 1959, he married Constance Tobriner, whose father, Walter, became the last president of the D.C. Board of Commissioners. In addition to his wife, of Washington, and sister, of Manhattan, survivors include four children, Douglas Povich of Chantilly, Va., Johanna McDonough of Washington, Judith Noglows of Little Silver, N.J., and Andrew Povich of Montclair, N.J.; a brother, TV talk-show host Maury Povich of Manhattan; and 10 grandchildren.
He was a member of Adas Israel Congregation in Washington and served on Landon’s board. In their father’s honor, he and his siblings helped create the Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism at the University of Maryland’s journalism school and Shirley Povich Field, a baseball stadium in Rockville, Md.
Mr. Povich restored a 1950 Jaguar roadster and was a judge at Jaguar antique-car shows. With one of his law partners, he also owned sailboats, including one named Confrontation. | 2022-08-25T13:03:38Z | www.washingtonpost.com | David Povich, prominent defense lawyer, dies at 87 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/08/25/david-povich-lawyer-dead/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/08/25/david-povich-lawyer-dead/ |
The White House has finalized the senior ranks of its press and communications office, months after Jen Psaki’s departure led to an internal shuffling.
The moves elevate several people with ties to SKDK, the Washington public affairs firm, though all of them have longstanding ties with Biden that predate their work for SKDK.
Olivia Dalton, who most recently served as the communications director at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, will join the White House press office as principal deputy press secretary, filling the job Karine Jean-Pierre held before she was elevated to press secretary.
Dalton worked for then-Sen. Joe Biden for two years before he became vice president and then served in the Obama administration. She worked on the Biden transition and served as press secretary to first lady Michelle Obama during the 2012 campaign.
In selecting Dalton, Jean-Pierre passed over at least two internal candidates for the job. Both Andrew Bates and Chris Meagher, who serve as deputy press secretaries, were in contention for the job. As the principal deputy press secretary, Dalton will likely conduct White House press briefings on occasion.
"Olivia is a seasoned communications strategist with experience at the highest levels of government, national campaigns and leading non-profits,” Jean-Pierre said in a statement. “She is smart, savvy and a true pro. She will be a tremendous addition to the press team and true asset for the entire Biden Harris Administration.”
Herbie Ziskend, who currently works as a senior adviser for communications to Vice President Harris, will move to the West Wing to work as a deputy communications director. He worked for Biden as vice president and on Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. He has worked for Harris since she took office.
As part of the changes, Kate Berner will also be promoted to principal deputy communications director. Berner, who worked on Biden’s campaign, has served as a deputy communications director in the White House since the start of the administration. She also worked for Biden when he was vice president.
"Kate and Herbie are longtime pillars of the Biden-Harris communications operation through the campaign, the convention, the transition and now the Administration,” Kate Bedingfield, the White House communications director, said in a statement. "They bring insight, passion and great judgment to their work and we are excited that they will continue to be critical leaders on this team as we continue to make progress for the American people.”
Dalton, Berner and Ziskend also all worked at SKDK, a public affairs firm co-founded by Anita Dunn, a senior adviser to Biden. Dunn has played a central role in the personnel decisions.
SKDK’s ties can be found throughout the Biden’s orbit: More than a dozen officials who worked on Biden’s campaign, transition or White House had ties to the firm, and at least eight officials who have served in the Biden administration subsequently joined or rejoined the firm. Dunn is no longer with the firm.
Dunn and her firm are a powerful force in Biden’s Washington, straddling the line between the private and public worlds to help staff the administration, steer the presidency and shape the Democratic Party. At the same time, the firm has served a sprawling roster of high-powered clients in recent years, including Fortune 500 companies like AT&T and Pfizer.
“It’s exciting to add Olivia and Herbie to such a great group of communicators, and Kate Berner’s promotion is appropriate recognition of the invaluable role she plays," Dunn said in a statement. | 2022-08-25T13:03:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | White House moves staffers to finalize makeover of press operation - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/25/white-house-moves-staffers-finalize-makeover-press-operation/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/25/white-house-moves-staffers-finalize-makeover-press-operation/ |
Biden DOJ’s reluctance to pursue Zinke undercuts Trump’s ‘weaponized’ claim
Then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke attends an event at the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial in November 2017. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
Ever since we learned that the FBI executed a search warrant at former president Donald Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago earlier this month, the refrain on the right has been that the Justice Department has been “weaponized” against Trump. Despite us knowing next to nothing about the evidence behind the search, hard-and-fast conclusions were reached almost immediately that President Biden’s DOJ was grasping at legal straws in an effort to target Trump and his allies.
The Justice Department’s handling of a former Trump cabinet secretary, Ryan Zinke, paints quite a different picture. Indeed, it suggests a real reluctance to pursue even what would seem to be a strong case for prosecution.
On Monday, a long-awaited report from the Interior Department’s inspector general found that Zinke lied and misled his way through an inquiry into potential misdeeds during his time as secretary of that department.
Crucially, this is the second time the IG has reached such a conclusion about Zinke, who is favored to win a congressional seat in Montana this fall. And also crucially, it’s the second time the Biden Justice Department has declined to prosecute the case.
The new report lays out the ways in which Zinke allegedly lied and hid the truth about his handling of a casino operating matter in 2017. Zinke ultimately declined to make a decision, returning proposed amendments that the would-be operators needed to declare that their plan to jointly operate the casino wouldn’t violate existing gaming agreements. He did so after extensive lobbying against the project — lobbying that Zinke downplayed to the point of burying the truth, inspector general Mark Greenblatt found.
And the evidence is compelling:
Zinke claimed he and an unnamed U.S. senator — apparently then-Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) — hadn’t discussed the project in detail and that, to the extent they did, the senator didn’t ask him to take a position on the subject. It turns out the senator told investigators that he was clear that he opposed the project and that they spoke at length. “There was no confusion in our conversations," the senator said.
Zinke claimed he hadn’t met with lobbyists and casino representatives who opposed the project, but emails and other documents showed these people had regular contact with Zinke as part of an effort to get him to deny the application.
Zinke claimed he based his decision not on the feedback of that U.S. senator or those opposed to the project, but on advice from attorneys at the Interior Department. But the attorneys said they didn’t advise him on the matter or approve his ultimate action.
Despite Zinke downplaying the role of others besides attorneys in the Interior Department, the evidence showed a lobbyist attended a dinner with Zinke at the White House the night before Zinke returned the amendments and told a casino executive that Zinke “thinks he helped us.” The senator also recounted a lengthy conversation the day the decision was made, in which he “directly” told Zinke he shouldn’t approve the amendments. Zinke also doubled down when confronted with the evidence contradicting him.
The inspector general concluded this wasn’t just a matter of a faulty memory, either.
“In short, Secretary Zinke was contacted repeatedly, personally, and directly in the days leading up to and the day of the final decision, and it strains credulity to conclude that Secretary Zinke simply forgot or misspoke when he was interviewed by OIG investigators less than 1 year after the events in question,” the report said. “This is particularly true here, as Secretary Zinke was expressly given the opportunity to correct his statements during his second interview with the OIG.”
It might not be surprising that the Trump Justice Department didn’t act on these findings when the inspector general referred it for potential prosecution in 2018 — given its handling of legal matters involving other Trump allies. But the Biden Justice Department also formally closed the matter last summer after reviewing it for six months.
And notably, it’s the second time the Biden DOJ has passed on pursuing Zinke for allegedly lying to investigators. Another IG report released earlier this year found Zinke had allegedly lied about his involvement in a land deal in his hometown of Whitefish, Mont., which he stood to benefit from personally. Zinke claimed his role was minimal and that a meeting he held with the project’s developers at the Interior Department’s headquarters was “purely social.”
The evidence, again, showed something else entirely, as The Post’s Anna Phillips and Lisa Rein reported in February:
Email and text message exchanges show he communicated with the developers 64 times between August 2017 and July 2018 to discuss the project’s design, the use of his foundation’s land as a parking lot, and his interest in operating a brewery on the site.
“These communications, examples of which are set forth below, show that Secretary Zinke played an extensive, direct, and substantive role in representing the Foundation during negotiations with the 95 Karrow project developers,” Inspector General Mark Greenblatt’s office wrote.
Zinke “was not simply a passthrough for information,” the report said. “He personally acted for or represented the Foundation in connection with the negotiations.”
Not only had Zinke allegedly misled investigators, the inspector general found, but his involvement in the project itself broke federal ethics rules. Zinke had told federal officials he would resign from the foundation and not do work on its behalf.
Prosecutors declined to press charges in this case around the same time — last summer.
Zinke has so far escaped legal jeopardy for these and other ethics investigations that dogged his tenure as secretary and ultimately forced his resignation in December 2018. He’s now running for Congress and narrowly won the GOP nomination for one of Montana’s two House seats, thanks in part to Trump’s endorsement.
To the extent the Biden Justice Department is hellbent on taking town the Trump team, Zinke would seem like relatively easy pickings. But proving someone lied to investigators is a high bar, and the Biden Justice Department has apparently determined that pursuing Zinke isn’t worth it.
Not that it’s stopping Zinke from claiming persecution. In response to the report, he called it a “political hit job” by the Biden administration, citing the report’s proximity to the 2022 midterms. He did so even though Greenblatt was a Trump appointee, and even though the delay in releasing the report was in large part because the Trump Justice Department spent more than two years reviewing Greenblatt’s criminal referral.
Greenblatt said he followed all relevant procedures and argues that more than 60 days before an election is plenty of time. He also said that withholding the report would itself be political.
Of course, if the Biden administration really wanted to hit Zinke, they could’ve gone quite a bit further. | 2022-08-25T13:03:50Z | www.washingtonpost.com | As Trump claims 'weaponized' DOJ, agency passes on prosecuting Zinke - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/25/zinke-doj-trump/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/25/zinke-doj-trump/ |
Accounting giant PwC’s boozy U.K. event ends with coma and lawsuit
Michael Brockie went into a coma and had part of his skull removed after participating in the company event that encouraged ‘excessive’ drinking, according to the lawsuit
PricewaterhouseCoopers offices in London. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)
An auditor at PricewaterhouseCoopers in England is suing the company over severe injuries he sustained at a work event that “made a competitive virtue” of “excessive” drinking, the lawsuit alleges.
In April 2019, Michael Brockie participated in a PwC “pub golf” event, in which attendees were supposed to visit nine bars, each representing a hole, according to the Financial Times, which first reported on the case. Employees were supposed to finish their drinks in as few sips as possible to get the lowest score.
Brockie says he became drunk enough to black out and lose his memory of the night after 10 p.m.; he was later found lying in the street with a severe head injury. Brockie was in a coma for several weeks and had part of his skull removed as a result of his injuries. He returned to work after six months, but he still suffers “persistent cognitive symptoms” and is at risk of developing epilepsy, according to the Financial Times.
“Doctors and the police came to the conclusion that I fell over and didn’t use my hands to break the fall so I ended up hitting my head on the floor,” Brockie told ITV after the incident. “The next thing I remember was four weeks later.”
A spokesperson for PwC said that the company could not comment “on a matter that is subject to ongoing legal proceedings.”
“As a responsible employer we are committed to providing a safe, healthy and inclusive culture for all of our people,” PwC said in a statement to The Washington Post. “We also expect anyone attending social events to be responsible and to ensure their own safety and that of others.”
The case, filed in London’s High Court, is among the latest to highlight the entrenchment of drinking in the United Kingdom’s white-collar professional culture. In March, insurance market Lloyd’s of London fined member firm Atrium Underwriters a record 1 million pounds for “serious failures,” including a “boys’ night out” where employees, including two senior executives, “took part in inappropriate initiation games and heavy drinking, and made sexual comments about female colleagues,” the Guardian reported.
In 2021, a partner at Ernst & Young resigned after he was fined thousands of pounds for sexually harassing a female colleague during a firm ski trip on which employees had been drinking. And in the wake of #MeToo, some firms introduced “booze chaperones” or “sober supervisors” at company events in hopes of cutting down on misconduct and creating cultures where alcohol is not a focal point.
Peter Bamberger, vice president at the Academy of Management and a professor at Tel Aviv University and Cornell University’s Smithers Institute, has studied the use of alcohol in and around the workplace for decades.
People perceive alcohol as being a social lubricant, Bamberger said, which motivates them to drink in hopes of interacting more comfortably with co-workers — regardless of whether alcohol actually makes things better. And in some industries, drinking is baked into the culture of dealmaking.
We need to talk about pandemic drinking
“In a lot of professional workplace interactions, drinking is a way of establishing a trusting relationship,” Bamberger said. With salespeople, for example, “very often the sales process begins with episodes of drinking where everybody puts themselves at risk.”
Employees were under “heavy pressure” to attend the PwC pub golf event, a celebration for the end of “busy season” that was organized by Brockie’s manager at the company’s Reading office, according to reporting from the Guardian.
“I expect absolute attendance from all of those who attended last year’s invitational,” the emailed invitation read, according to the Guardian. “Nothing short of a certified and countersigned letter by an accredited medical practitioner will suffice as excuse.”
The manager “failed to take reasonable care for the safety of co-workers” at the event, the suit alleges, noting that another PwC employee suffered a serious injury in 2016. The company ended the event, which had been going on for several years, after Brockie’s injury in 2019, the Guardian reported
Brockie is seeking damages of 200,000 pounds (about $235,000) as well as an order that would entitle him to more payments in the future, according to the Financial Times.
Boyes Turner LLP, the legal firm representing Brockie, did not respond to The Post’s requests for comment. | 2022-08-25T13:21:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | PwC auditor sues over head injury from work "pub golf" event - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/25/pwc-excessive-drinking-lawsuit-pub-golf/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/25/pwc-excessive-drinking-lawsuit-pub-golf/ |
In Pakistani politics, nothing gets done by halves. A few weeks ago, one of ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan’s former cabinet ministers, Shahbaz Gill, warned lower-ranking military officers against following “illegal orders” from their superiors. The remarks were taken as an attempt to divide the country’s all-powerful army and Gill was promptly arrested.
This, as well as Gill’s subsequent claims about his treatment in prison, infuriated Khan, who last week warned various policemen and judges they would face consequences for their involvement in the case. An Islamabad magistrate complained that Khan’s statements counted as threats and the police registered a case against him under draconian anti-terror laws. He faces hearings on those and possible contempt of court charges next week.
(Updates Khan’s legal proceedings in second paragraph. An earlier version of this story corrected the timing of Gill’s statements in the first paragraph.) | 2022-08-25T13:21:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Pakistan Can’t Afford Another Political Crisis - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/pakistan-cant-afford-another-political-crisis/2022/08/25/dd2adda4-246c-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/pakistan-cant-afford-another-political-crisis/2022/08/25/dd2adda4-246c-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html |
Getting rid of your stuff helps beat inflation. (Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images North America)
US consumers are reeling from inflation, but they still want to spend. Goodwill Industries, the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit thrifting giant, is helping them do it.
On a recent weekday, Nick Adams, senior director of retail for Goodwill-Easter Seals Minnesota , the St. Paul-based affiliate of Goodwill Industries, showed me around the organization’s brightly painted, two-story local flagship store. “Our average price is under $4,” he said, pausing by a bundle of back-to-school items, including a book bag, rugby shirt, jeans and hiking boots. “Have you seen what the price of a new backpack is these days?”
It’s typically a lot more than $3.99 , and that’s one reason Goodwill Industries, with 3,200 stores in the US and Canada, is booming. In 2021, those stores and a growing e-commerce platform generated revenues of $5.47 billion from donated goods, according to Bill Parrish, a senior consultant at Goodwill Industries International.
The St. Paul-based retail operation, which includes 48 stores as well as an e-commerce facility, earned net retail revenues of $47 million in 2021 . So far in 2022, revenues are up in Minnesota and elsewhere, with no sign of the slackening that’s hurt other retailers.
It’s been a long journey. For modern consumers, secondhand has long been associated with second best. That image was the natural outgrowth of a consumer culture that markets the value and status of new and upgraded.
But it also developed, in part, due to a long association between used clothing and donations for the poor. Goodwill, founded in 1902, started out collecting clothes to teach Boston’s underprivileged the art of mending.
In time, the flood of stuff — not just clothes — flowing from middle-class homes became so great that Goodwill and other charities shifted into selling used goods outright. But Goodwill’s focus on preparing people for employment didn’t change.
These days, according to the company’s 2020 annual report, its retail revenue funds a sprawling social-service network responsible for placing one of every 600 US hires. The St. Paul-based affiliate, one of 156 local Goodwill organizations in North America, was responsible for 725 job placements in 2021 .
The operation isn’t cheap, and keeping it running is what motivates Goodwill’s management to innovate, boost efficiency and outcompete other discount retailers. “We really rely upon proceeds from retail to support our programs,” Adams said. “If retail drops off, it makes things harder.”
Transforming yesterday’s thrift shops into attractive, hyper-efficient, omnichannel retailers required time and experienced retail managers. Before he came to Goodwill, Adams was director of sales operations for the Richfield, Minnesota-based Best Buy Co. Inc., where he oversaw retail at the company’s big-box and mobile-specialty stores. As he walks through the St. Paul flagship store, he speaks fluent retail.
“DVDs and books are super hot,” he said as we pass shelves full of media. So are kids’ shoes during the back-to-school season. The proof is a half-full rack of them. “I hate empty racks,” Adams said. But he brightens at the sight of a Halloween costume stashed in the boys’ clothes. Halloween is the thrift industry’s biggest holiday. “A costume at a pop-up shop from another retailer will run fifty to seventy bucks. Here, it’s fifteen.”
Making that low price happen isn’t easy. For starters, Goodwill needs donations. So long as Americans continue buying stuff, that shouldn’t be a problem. During the 2020 lockdowns, Goodwills around the country were so overwhelmed by goods excavated during home cleanouts that many stores rented extra space to stow it all.
Adams said there’s been no drop-off since. Donations also surged after each of the Covid relief payouts, likely from consumers looking for room to put their new purchases. Goodwill also experienced a jump in sales.
Of course, charitable donations aren’t the only way people can lessen the burden of excess stuff. Garage sales, eBay and a growing ecosystem of apps like the RealReal, Poshmark and Mercari offer the opportunity to monetize rather than donate.
But Adams said he’s not threatened since Goodwill, unlike most of the online secondhand market, doesn’t rely on higher-end brands that sell for more on the apps. It can survive and thrive on lower-end items, such as used private-label Target apparel that sells for $1.99 and isn’t worth the trouble to list on Poshmark. “The focus is turning product, all things being equal,” Adams explained. “It’s not squeezing out the extra dollars from a Lululemon top.”
As a nonprofit, Goodwill isn’t publicly traded. But it has a bigger impact on the online secondhand market than any of the public companies that seek to displace it. In part, that impact can be measured in the volume of donated goods that it handles.
Goodwill diverts around 3 billion pounds of goods from landfills into retail and recycling annually. That’s roughly 3% of the furniture, apparel and other durables that Americans tossed out in 2018 (the last year for which data is available).
At just the Minnesota-based Goodwill-Easter Seals, the volume of product to turn is extraordinary: over 75 million donated items in 2021 alone. “The more donations we receive, the better quality of product we put out,” Adams said. It doesn’t all have to be put on sale immediately, either. Halloween costumes are received all year long, but are stored until after back-to-school ends.
To manage these inventory challenges, the charity employs teams of sorters experienced in everything Americans buy, from apparel to video games. Much of that merchandise hits the retail floor, but that isn’t Goodwill’s only sales channel anymore.
For example, goods that don’t sell there are typically diverted to outlets colloquially known as the “ the bins ,” where they’re sold by the pound. Goodwill-Easter Seals operates three outlets in the Twin Cities area, where they’ve become popular with younger customers who flip their finds via online apps.
Elsewhere, collectibles, jewelry and other high-end branded items are sent to a centralized e-commerce facility where they’re priced and listed on shopgoodwill.com. The online platform was created in 1999 by the Goodwill of Orange County, California; according to data provided to me by the charity, it currently manages around 14,400 transactions per day for 139 regional Goodwill affiliates.
At Goodwill-Easter Seals, e-commerce sales have grown 134% over the last three years, and will represent roughly 14% of overall retail revenue in 2022. Business is good enough that the charity recently opened a new 100,000-square-foot facility for goods listed on shopgoodwill.com. It’s the final piece to transforming Goodwill into an omnichannel sales force capable of competing against any discount retailer, especially in the secondhand sector.
Younger consumers keen to embrace lower-cost and — if it’s priced right — more sustainable consumer models have known about Goodwill’s shift for a while now. “Gen Z shops different,” Adams told me. “This younger generation saves money first.”
Now, because of inflation, they’re not alone. Older consumers, families and anyone else strapped due to rising prices have a reason to at least consider the thrift store’s racks. A generation ago, that might’ve been a much less attractive and fruitful visit. “Inflation is a way to tell our story,” Adams told me as the day’s first customers begin browsing the St. Paul apparel racks.
But it’s not the only story, or even the most important one.
There’s a classroom where students are repairing automobiles on lifts and an area where the plywood-framed structures are in various states of construction. There are also offices for counselors and computer labs.
Recently, the facility started offering training for the Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) exam, a gateway into the finance industry. “Some of the first students are starting to take their exams and have offers,” said Avery, who has worked for 14 years at Goodwill. She has no formal association with the retail operation, but as she walked me through the facility, she emphasized the connection: “We get grants, but retail is more reliable. It’s consistency and reliability in our funding.”
It isn’t cheap to do what the charity does. Last year, 4,819 people received services from St. Paul-based Goodwill-Easter Seals, at a cost of $35.6 million . To give strapped individuals and families incentives to get job training, the charity often helps out with wages, assistance in securing child care and even gas money to ensure the training is completed. The results are worth it: The average participant saw a $26,452 boost in earnings last year.
This outcome isn’t the reason that inflation-savvy consumers are shopping at America’s most-overlooked retail chain. But it is precisely the kind of long-term solution to squeezed family budgets that Goodwill represents.
• Don’t Let Congress Slash Exports of Used Gadgets: Adam Minter
• To Solve the Fertilizer Crisis, Just Look in the Toilet: Adam Minter
• Plastic Recycling Is Working, So Ignore the Cynics: Adam Minter | 2022-08-25T13:21:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Why Goodwill Is the Now and Future King of Thrift - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/why-goodwill-is-the-now-and-future-king-of-thrift/2022/08/25/73c25cc4-2472-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/why-goodwill-is-the-now-and-future-king-of-thrift/2022/08/25/73c25cc4-2472-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html |
TOB and TCB — shown performing at the 2019 Go-Go Awards at Ballou High School — are among the groups featured at the Moe World Order concert at the Howard Theatre on Friday. (Kyle Gustafson for The Washington Post)
DCBX Latin Dance Festival at the Renaissance Marriott Hotel: The 14th edition of this festival — equal parts dance university, party, and celebration of music and culture — is so big that the official events stretch over four days. Thousands of dancers descend on the city for an intensive weekend of movement: Days bring more than 100 workshops covering salsa, bachata, mambo, zouk, kizomba and lambada, among other styles, tailored for multiple experience levels and taught by instructors from around the world. By night, multiple ballrooms pulse with live music, DJs, and dance performances by champion couples and teams, with the dance floors open until 8 a.m. Saturday and Sunday mornings. Tickets are available just for the parties or workshops, or combinations of both. Through Sunday, with optional Monday after-party. $69-$599.
‘The Empire Strikes Back’ outdoor screening at the Kennedy Center: Bring blankets and lawn chairs to the enjoy a showing of “The Empire Strikes Back” outdoors at the Kennedy Center’s Reach video wall, beginning at dusk. Registration is not required, and outside food is permitted, so feel free to bring a picnic as you watch Luke journey to faraway planets to train with Jedi master Yoda. In the event of rain, the showing will be moved to the (indoor) Family Theater. 8 p.m. Free.
‘In the Heights’ outdoor screening at Audi Field: What better way to watch Lin-Manuel Miranda’s larger-than-life musical than on a jumbotron screen? Enjoy almost 2 ½ hours of singing, dancing and pining for a $96,000 lottery ticket at Audi Field’s latest installment of Movies on the Pitch. Chairs, animals (besides service animals), and outside food or alcohol are prohibited, but the event is first-come, first-served, and concessions will be available for purchase. Doors at 5:30 p.m.; movie begins at 7 p.m. Free.
Moe World Order at the Howard Theatre: Go-go is the official sound of the city. It’s the most endangered sound of the city, too. The latest attack on D.C.’s born-and-bred music happened in June at go-go event Moechella, when gunfire erupted afterward and resulted in the death of 15-year old Chase Poole. D.C. police criticized Moechella organizers for lacking a permit, even though city officials were aware of the festival beforehand and a deputy mayor had promoted the event in an interview. On top of that, Moechella lost the rights to its name two months later after a trademark dispute with the popular California festival Coachella. Not to be deterred by the string of bad news, Long Live GoGo is hosting a show at the Howard Theatre that’s meant to be entertaining and healing, featuring go-go locals TCB, TOB, Reaction Band and more. 8 p.m. $30-$75.
Hoodie Allen at Union Stage: Machine Gun Kelly shedding his rap persona for pop-punk sensibilities is one of the most successful transformations in recent music memory. Can Hoodie Allen follow suit? On the 10-year anniversary of his debut rap EP, “All American,” Steven Adam Markowitz is heading back on tour with a new sound that feels like his most earnest record to date. “All American” was an anticlimactic introduction for Markowitz that earned a lot of internet buzz but had little substance lyrically or musically. After a decade of fine-tuning his sound, the Plainview, N.Y., native released “Call Me Never,” a head-bobbing pop-punk song that takes a page straight from the playbook of New Found Glory and Simple Plan. It’s on this track that everything seems to click for Markowitz, as his melodic vocals shine more crystal-clear than ever. 8 p.m. $29.50.
‘The Lost Record’ at AFI Silver: The debut film from musician and writer Ian Svenonius — famous for his work fronting D.C. bands including the Nation of Ulysses and the Make-Up — posits a future world where only one song remains legal. A would-be artist discovers a talking vinyl record, voiced by Svenonius, and must decide whether to share it with the world. The promotional blurb describes the film’s influences as “everything from the French New Wave to Italian giallos”; AFI helpfully classifies “The Lost Record” as “avant-garde.” The film’s premiere is at AFI on Friday and Saturday nights; Svenonius and co-director Alexandra Cabral (his partner in the band Escape-Ism) are hosting Q&As after both screenings, alongside cinematographer Eric Cheevers. 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday. $8-$13.
Megafest at the Parks at Walter Reed: D.C.’s newest beer festival celebrates the third anniversary of Soul Mega, whose flagship Worldwide pale ale is found across the city, from neighborhood beer-and-a-shot joints to Michelin-approved restaurants. But Megafest has a larger vision: It celebrates the region’s burgeoning scene of Black-owned beer brands. D.C.’s Sankofa and Urban Garden Brewing join Maryland’s Black Viking, Joyhound and Patuxent to pour unlimited samples of their beer at the Parks at Walter Reed, while a diverse lineup of DJs, including Mathias and Bri Mafia, provide the soundtrack. Food comes from JetSet BBQ, J&J Mex-Taqueria and Chefit. The goal, says Soul Mega co-founder Elliott Johnson, is to “merge the block party culture with the beer festival culture.” 1 to 6 p.m. $50.
Around the World Cultural Food Festival at Oronoco Bay Park: This free waterfront festival in Old Town Alexandria goes beyond international eats. In addition to restaurants selling dishes from across the globe, the Around the World Cultural Food Festival includes a stage for folk music, with singing and dancing from countries including Brazil, Scotland, Egypt and India; a fashion show with performers wearing traditional clothing; and merchants selling an array of goods. 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Free.
Grilled Cheese Social at Sandlot Anacostia: The Rock Creek Social Club is used to setting standards in D.C.: The crew’s Good Life Tuesday parties at Recess, a pretense-free space where DJs spun an unpredictable and mind-bogglingly brilliant mix of hip-hop, electro, go-go and moombahton, was one of the city’s most essential parties until it shut down in 2012. In 2014, Rock Creek launched the Grilled Cheese Social day party on Marvin’s rooftop deck, and the simple formula of clued-in DJs and a menu of gooey, delicious sandwiches made for amazing and memorable Saturday vibes. Marvin may no longer be with us, but the Grilled Cheese Social lives on. This time, the action moves to the new Sandlot Anacostia, the first east-of-the-river outdoor bar and music venue from the team behind Sandlots in Navy Yard, Tysons and Georgetown. Expect a variety of sounds from the Rock Creek Social Club DJs, a special menu of grilled cheese and a crowd that’s ready to party while the sun is still up. 4 to 10 p.m. $20-$30.
Open Streets in Brookland: Anacostia and Shaw have enjoyed days of car-free streets in recent months, thanks to the city’s Open Streets program, and now it’s Brookland’s turn. A half-mile stretch of 12th Street NE between Monroe and Franklin streets turns into a playground on Saturday morning. Look for rollerblading and e-scooter lessons, double Dutch and hula hooping zones, face painting, music, and family activities, while local restaurants and businesses extend their outdoor footprints onto the pavement. (Primrose and Brookland’s Finest are among the favorites on that stretch.) 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Free.
Amulet at Pie Shop: Brooding and theatrical, Amulet earned a Washington Area Music Award nomination and a spot headlining H Street joint Pie Shop with its hard-driving rock ballads. The D.C. duo — bassist MJ Phoenix and vocalist Stephanie Stryker — creates cinematic, melodic and bass-heavy tunes that sound like a feverish dream. At its Pie Shop show, Amulet promises a night of “faerie dancers, tarot reading [and] group rituals,” with three other musical acts that cross the dark side: Talking to Shadows, the Neuro Farm and DJ Johnny Panic. 8 p.m. $15-$20.
Maryland Renaissance Festival: Witches and wenches, knights and jesters — Renn Fest is back and ready to entertain with live brawls, massive smoked turkey legs, old-timey ale and hand-smithed knickknacks. Dress in a princess’s gown or a rogue’s rags for this year’s theme: 1536. King Henry VIII is betrothed (for the third time), but waiting on the execution of his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Thomas Cromwell conducts the courtiers’ proceedings as the regime begins to slip. And a nearby village prepares to welcome the king and his court. Events vary each weekend through late October, but expect professional performances and lots of lutes and lyres. Huzzah! 10 a.m. $24 for adults through Sept. 11; $30 from Sept. 12 through Oct. 23.
Dupont Circle Back-to-School Pop-up: Kids aren’t the only ones who need new looks and accessories at this time of year. Dupont Circle Main Streets’ seasonal pop-up market brings more than 50 vendors selling jewelry, ceramics, art, soap and other goods to the sidewalks of Connecticut Avenue and P Street. An info booth at the north exit of the Dupont Circle Metro Station offers maps and directions. Noon to 5 p.m. Free.
Girls Pint Out Summer of Seltzers at DC Brau: Girls Pint Out is a national group for women who love craft beer and want to get together with other beer-loving women for a few pints without dealing with men who can’t fathom that some women enjoy piney, not fruity, IPAs, or feel the need to mansplain the science of brewing. The local chapter — D.C. Metro Girls Pint Out — regularly organizes happy hours and brewery tours, and this month’s featured tasting is … hard seltzer? An afternoon at DC Brau includes a tour of the seltzer-making process, a tasting of the full hard seltzer lineup and “a few other surprises.” The tour and tasting, available for pre-purchase on DC Brau’s website, are open to women only, but there will be a meetup in the brewery for everyone afterward. 4 to 6:30 p.m. $15.
The Caribbean Crawl on U Street NW: U Street is home to many of D.C.’s most-loved bars and clubs, and this crawl takes guests on a journey to hit six of them in just eight hours. Catch international DJs playing the latest Afrobeats, reggae, Latin and kompa music at themed stops in locations like Cloak & Dagger and Amsterdam Lounge. At the event, which kicks off at nightclub Elements, expect discounted drinks, which vary depending on the stop’s theme, and giveaways. 2 to 10 p.m. $10-$20.
Fairwood Music Festival at Fairwood Community Park: The culmination of Prince George’s County Parks’ annual Fairwood Community Park concert series, the Fairwood Music Festival has been a fixture in Bowie since 2013. It returns to the park’s amphitheater after a two-year hiatus with four performers: smooth jazz artist Kevin Jackson, R&B singer Elyscia, and cover bands D.C. Fusion and the Exclusives. 1 to 6 p.m. Free.
Makers Market and Plant Swap: Silver Spring’s nursery and plant rental location Plants Alive! is asking guests to trade in their houseplants — for someone else’s. At this plant swap, though, visitors can pick up more than a new potted plant or small seedling: A concurring outdoor Makers Market features art from local vendors, including jewelry, body care, vintage clothing and handmade candles, all available for purchase. Noon to 4 p.m. Free.
Hilarious Colombian Americans at the D.C. Comedy Loft: The five stand-up comics behind Hilarious Colombian Americans — three born in Colombia, two from the United States, all based in New York City — first joined forces at the 2019 New York Comedy Festival. It went so well that they’re now on a national tour and have roped in Antonio Sanint, a veteran Colombian actor seen on telenovelas such as “Alicia en el País de las Mercancías,” who has also been doing stand-up for more than a decade. The sextet takes over the Comedy Loft and advises that “this show is in English with a tiny bit of Spanish,” in case your Spanish is slightly rusty. There’s a two-item minimum (food or drink) per person. 7 p.m. $28.
‘Art Pop: Visual Remembrance’ at the National Portrait Gallery: The After Five happy hours at the American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery have an advantage over the usual after-work destinations: You might discover a new creative outlet. Illinois artist Donna Castellanos hosts this workshop in the Kogod Courtyard. Castellanos’s portrait of her grandmother, dubbed “Bertha, I’d Like to Know Where You Got the Notion” and constructed from zippers, buttons, needles and other notions attached to fabric, was selected to hang in the museum as part of the “Outwin 2022: American Portraiture Today” exhibition. Over drinks, Castellanos will help participants shape their own portraits of loved ones, using similar materials. All supplies and two drink tickets are included in the ticket price. 5 to 7 p.m. $20.
DC Jazz Festival Opening Night at the Howard Theatre: The headlining events of the annual DC Jazz Festival fill the Wharf over the weekend of Sept. 3 and 4, but the music actually begins Wednesday. The lauded vocalist Kurt Elling uses his four-octave range in surprising ways, dramatically twisting and extending familiar melodies or confidently peppering them with vocalese, never losing an innate sense of swing. He headlines the Howard Theatre with his funky new group, SuperBlue. D.C.’s own Christie Dashiell and her quartet open. 8 p.m., $39.
Tarot Night at Dew Drop Inn: As we begin to transition from summer to autumn, this might be the perfect time to re-center yourself with tarot and cocktails. “A chill and witchy night” at the Dew Drop Inn promises readings, a tarot deck swap for those who are looking for a new set, a raffle and a special menu of “witchy” drinks. 7 p.m. Free.
Sicilian Wine Tasting at DCanter: As the largest wine-producing region in Italy, with 240,000 acres of vineyards, Sicily yields wines marked by high elevation and exposure to volcanoes like Mount Etna. The island, known for its indigenous grape varieties, is quickly gaining attention as a leading wine producer in a changing climate. At this date-night-ready tasting, six wines will be served with artisanal cheeses. Space is limited, and proof of coronavirus vaccination is required. 7 to 8 p.m. $45. | 2022-08-25T13:21:59Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Festivals, outdoor movies, concerts and events in the D.C. area - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/25/best-things-do-dc-area-week-aug-25-31/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/25/best-things-do-dc-area-week-aug-25-31/ |
Serena Williams to retire as greatest women’s tennis player of all time
She didn’t set a record for major tournament wins, but she dominated the sport for nearly 20 years
Serena Williams, a powerhouse in international tennis for nearly two decades, may have her last professional match at the U.S. Open tournament. (Chris Young/Canadian Press/AP)
The greatest player in the history of women’s tennis will probably take her final bow at the United States Open next week.
Serena Williams’s status as the best ever is rock solid. I know that Margaret Court won 24 major singles titles and that Williams has won only 23 (Wimbledon and the Australian, French and United States opens are the four major tennis championships). But this is where knowing sports history helps.
Court, who was a great player during the 1960s and ’70s, won 11 Australian Opens at a time when fewer players made the long trip to that continent. Court won some of her major titles against easier competition.
Williams took on the best in the world and won again and again. She beat 14 players in major finals matches from 1999 to 2017 to establish her incredible record. Williams beat her older sister Venus seven (!) times in major championship finals.
Venus beat Serena twice in major finals, but anyone who has a younger brother or sister has to feel bad for Venus losing so many times to a younger sibling. The sisters, however, teamed up to win 14 major doubles championships over the years.
All this means Serena Williams was at the absolute top of women’s tennis for almost 20 years. She even made it into four major finals but lost during 2018 and 2019.
Williams may have lasted so long because she seemed to have interests outside of tennis. She has invested in dozens of businesses, especially supporting companies run by women. Williams is also a part owner of Angel City FC, a team in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), as well as the Miami Dolphins in the National Football League (NFL).
That is a good reminder for kids (and their parents and coaches) who think you have to concentrate on one sport 100 percent of the time to succeed.
I doubt we will ever see another female player who will dominate the sport as Williams has for so long. These days there are lots of terrific young players such as Iga Swiatek (of Poland), Emma Raducanu (Britain) and Coco Gauff (United States). However, it seems players win a title or two and then slip back into the pack.
Fourteen players have won the 21 major titles since Williams won her last major at the Australian Open in 2017. Naomi Osaka has won four, but she has struggled with injuries, anxiety and depression. Ashleigh Barty won three majors but retired at age 25.
So tune in next week to see Williams play her final match (or matches), accept the fans’ applause and wave to the crowd.
You will be watching the greatest of all time say goodbye.
3-pointer rules basketball, but kids should work up to the long ball
If you could be a pro athlete, which sport would you choose? | 2022-08-25T13:22:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Serena Williams to retire as greatest women’s tennis player of all time - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost/2022/08/25/serena-williams-retire-greatest-womens-tennis-player-all-time/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost/2022/08/25/serena-williams-retire-greatest-womens-tennis-player-all-time/ |
The No. 1-ranked women’s tennis player in the world says the tighter-weaved balls are ‘horrible’
Iga Swiatek returns a shot during the Western and Southern Open on Aug. 17 in Cincinnati. (Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
Iga Swiatek is the women’s player to beat at this year’s U.S. Open Tennis Championships. The world-ranked No. 1 player is eyeing a third career Grand Slam trophy to boost a sterling year — but something about the upcoming tournament might cramp her style.
It’s the “horrible” balls, she said.
Men and women use different tennis balls at the New York tournament, the Polish player noted last week. The women’s version feels lighter and moves faster.
“I don’t know why they are different than men’s ones,” she said.
Women indeed use a more aerodynamic ball than the men at the U.S. Open — and it is the only Grand Slam where that is the case. Top-ranked players on the women’s tour have complained that the ball, with a different weave of felt, is difficult to control and may wear out quicker.
Swiatek, whose forehand is arguably one of the tour’s most powerful, said the balls may put her at a disadvantage. On top of the control issues, she said, she cannot buy them in Europe, where she practices.
“I don’t know, like, 15 years ago probably women had some elbow injuries because the balls were heavier and they changed them to women’s balls, but right now we are so physically well prepared that I don’t think it would happen,” she said.
The discontent among Swiatek and other top female players over the balls highlights ongoing criticism that professional tennis is rife with double standards. At the sport’s four most prestigious tournaments — the “Grand Slams” — women play shorter matches than men. While the Grand Slam tournaments offer equal prize money, other elite competitions still pay women significantly less. That’s in addition to comments female tennis players face from players, commentators and officials about their athletic ability, clothing and entertainment value.
French Open director Amélie Mauresmo: Women’s matches are less compelling
A Women’s Tennis Association spokeswoman told The Washington Post that the organization will “continue to monitor” the ball complaints and discuss them with “our athletes and our sport science team.”
“The WTA has always utilized regular felt balls for hard-court play, and we have now begun to hear from a select number of our athletes that they would like to consider a change to using the extra-duty ball,” she added, referencing the ball men use. “The basis behind using the regular felt ball was that it limited the potential of arm, shoulder, elbow and wrist injuries.”
The balls used by men and women at the U.S. Open are identical in size, weight and bounce, said Jason Collins, a senior director of global product at Wilson Sporting Goods, which manufactures the balls used in the tournament. He told The Post that the only difference lies in the felt covering.
The men’s “extra-duty” ball is fluffier, creating a thicker surface, he said. The felt on the “regular-duty” women’s version has a “tighter weave,” which makes the ball more aerodynamic, Collins said.
“The balls play faster,” he said, “therefore they feel lighter on the stringbed.”
For Swiatek, that means her performance is hindered, and she is worried about injuries, she told reporters last week. “Right now we play powerful, and we kind of can’t loosen up our hands with these balls,” she said. “I know that there are many players who complain, and many of them are top 10.”
One of those players is Paula Badosa, the world-ranked No. 4 player from Spain, who posted a photo of a regular-duty ball can next to the extra-duty ball canister. The regular-duty canister notes that those balls are “ideal for clay and indoor surfaces,” while the extra-duty are “ideal for longer play on hard court surfaces.”
The U.S. Open is an outdoor hard-court event.
“Very unfavourable conditions for the players and for the spectacle,” she wrote on Instagram, punctuating the statement with a poop emoji, according to comments translated by Reuters.
“Then we complain that there are a lot of errors and there’s a loss of tactics and intelligence on points,” she wrote, adding, “faster courts and balls impossible to control.”
After Ashleigh Barty won the Australian Open this year, her coach, Craig Tyzzer, told reporters that the faster U.S. Open balls would dampen her success at the tournament. Barty, then ranked No. 1, announced her retirement shortly after winning the major tournament in her home country.
“The U.S. Open really needs to change … the fact they still use a different ball for guys and girls. It’s a terrible ball for someone like Ash,” Tyzzer said, adding: “If they keep that ball the same, no one like Ash will win that tournament.”
But not every player wants change. Madison Keys, an American ranked No. 20, who defeated Swiatek at last week’s Cincinnati tournament, told reporters during a news conference that the regular-duty ball was her “favorite.”
“I mean, it’s what we practice with all of the time,” she said, adding that she also liked them because they “don’t get as fluffy.”
Exactly when and why the rule went into effect is unclear. The WTA spokeswoman declined to specify. A WTA representative told the Wall Street Journal in 2019 that the rule went into effect in the early 1980s at the request of players who said the extra-duty balls were tough on their arms.
Collins said that “nothing is preventing us from providing any particular ball in our assortment” as long as the WTA permitted it. “We will always work closely with our partners to make the best ball chosen for that respective event,” he added.
Jessica Pegula, an American ranked No. 8 in the world, told reporters last week that she’s also “not a fan” of the regular-duty balls. As a member of the WTA players council, she said she would “get something together and maybe make it more consistent.”
Laura Hills, a sports sociologist at Brunel University London, told The Post that she’s not surprised some players are protesting the ball difference. Even a small disparity — like a seemingly lighter ball — can have a negative effect on both professional and aspiring players.
“For many players, something like that can be demoralizing as women increasingly come up against practices that create a sense that men’s sport is better,” she said in an email. “Women are consistently having to battle to get a foothold in sport and to be perceived as legitimate, so each double standard is another barrier that has to be addressed.”
Nancy Spencer, a professor of sport management at Bowling Green State University, said she wanted to play high school tennis when she was younger, but there was no team for women at the time. She eventually played in college and became a tennis instructor.
Despite how far tennis has come in recent years, she said the sport can be resistant to change, citing the contentious fight up until 2007 to pay men and women equal prize money at Wimbledon. The faster balls, she said, is yet another obstacle.
“All taken together,” she said, “it shows that we still have a ways to go.” | 2022-08-25T13:22:23Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Women use faster balls than men at U.S. Open. Some players are over it. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/25/women-tennis-balls-us-open/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/25/women-tennis-balls-us-open/ |
I was carrying a dead, growing baby
Awaiting my abortion, I attended Mass
All of us are accidents of fate
Basically, she poisoned herself
I inherited a strong faith. I also inherited a genetic blood-clotting disorder.
I was a child conceived out of rape
You can have another child, they told her
By Rachel Manteuffel
Op-ed administrator
I’m the first reader of articles submitted to The Post’s op-ed department — and part of my job is rejecting the many we are unable to publish. The task is hardest when the pieces are personal and painful, and my professional response can feel inadequate. When we get so many personal stories on one subject, it threatens to numb us to their power. But the outpouring is itself significant. Below are excerpts, along with audio of the authors, from some of the hundreds of abortion stories we received after Roe v. Wade was overturned this summer. About 1 in 3 American women age 15 to 44 have largely lost access to abortion.
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Awaiting my abortion,
I attended Mass
Deanna Giersmann, Midlothian, Va.
When I was 21, the condom broke. A few weeks later, my period was late. When my pregnancy test came out positive, I immediately called to see about scheduling an abortion. I was told that it was too early and my uterus could be damaged. So I waited, and contemplated.
During that time, I attended Mother’s Day Mass. The sermon was about the importance of mothers. I recognized how deeply I identified with that. I knew that when I brought a child into the world, I wanted to be the one responsible for leading them through life, for educating them, for loving and providing for them.
I had an abortion. Even in the room where I had the procedure, I waited and contemplated, knowing that other women changed their minds. I didn’t.
That choice, among myriad others, is essential to the mother I’ve become.
All of us are
accidents of fate
Anonymous (Name withheld at the writer’s request under The Post’s policy to generally avoid identifying victims of sexual violence.)
Yes, if my mother had had the option for a safe abortion and she had chosen to take it, I would not exist. But also: If my mother had not gone on a date with that college classmate’s brother who smilingly and charmingly pretended he didn’t understand her English as she turned him down, I wouldn’t have existed. If she had made it out of his apartment before he penetrated her and ejaculated, whether he kept her there with seductive words or with force, I wouldn’t have existed. That’s life. Very literally, that is how life works.
All of us are accidents of fate. Do I identify with that clump of cells in my mother’s uterus in the fall of 1958? Not particularly. It was no more than a possibility, just like so many clumps of multiplying cells that are washed out of wombs for a multitude of natural causes every minute across the world.
I love my life, and I’m happy I’m alive. But would I have supported forcing my mother to bear me against her will, if I had been able to influence this? No. Not in a million years. No more than I would have directed her feet down the hallway to my future father’s apartment or locked that door to keep her inside.
Basically,
she poisoned herself
Erin R. Jbour, Troy, Ill.
With three children to feed and unstable income from my grandfather, my grandmother made the decision to illegally terminate the pregnancy. She saw no other choice. She couldn’t feed another child, and felt it wrong to bring a life into the world that she couldn’t provide for.
The method she employed was an old wives’ tale that amounted to concocting and ingesting a mixture of chemicals. Basically, she poisoned herself; it nearly killed her. When she became pregnant again, the scare of having nearly died and leaving her three children motherless was enough to convince her that she needed to carry the new baby to term and try to find a way to raise it with little money or resources.
That baby, Mary, was never robust. My grandmother thought she had damaged her prenatal environment through her self-induced abortion, and that was the reason Mary failed to thrive. In reality, a lack of nutrition stability and access to health care were likely to blame for her lack of hardiness.
The saddest thing I have ever heard was my mother telling me that my grandmother went to her grave believing that God took Mary from her for the sin she committed by terminating the pregnancy of a child she could not provide for. She carried that sin within herself for decades. She lived with it every day while bringing up her six remaining children. She sat with it every Sunday at church.
I inherited a strong faith.
I also inherited a
genetic blood-clotting disorder.
Melanie McCoard, Provo, Utah
As a fifth-generation member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I inherited a strong faith in the tenets of my religion. I also inherited a genetic blood-clotting disorder that causes what is called a “missed abortion” — intrauterine death without subsequent miscarriage.
Following the deaths of three babies, at 24, 20 and 16 weeks, without my body actually “miscarrying” the fetuses, I was familiar with the symptoms when, again, I simply stopped feeling pregnant. An ultrasound confirmed that I had lost another child. I had a same-day hospital procedure to remove the remains from my body. Then I went home to mourn.
A few days later, I got a phone call from a man employed by the system that provided my health insurance. He proceeded to question me — about my menstrual cycle, my sexual activity, my family relationships and my mental health. I wondered aloud what right he had to ask me these extremely personal questions. He suggested that if I had participated in a voluntary abortion, my coverage could be terminated. In tears and horror, I hung up.
Despite my condition, I was able to bear three healthy children. Decades later, the memory of the strong feeling of injustice that man’s questions caused within me still affects my stance on the current debate. The right to make the decision about whether or not to bear children is given to a woman by nature itself, and cannot be taken from her by bureaucrats with power.
I remain a firm adherent to my faith’s position on abortion; I am against it. I object to using my taxpayer dollars to fund a practice that I oppose. But above all else, I adhere to my religion’s devotion to the principle of free agency — that we each are responsible for the choices we make.
I was a child
conceived out of rape
Brenna Horner, Washington
My mother became pregnant as a result of long-term sexual abuse. But my identity extends far beyond how I got here, and I have never once wished that I was aborted.
And that’s because I was chosen.
Had my mom not been up to raising a child conceived out of rape — which, to be clear, I wouldn’t in a million years do myself — she would have had the choice not to. That she decided to have me is the reason I can sleep at night. If I walked through life knowing she did not want me but was forced to have me, the pain and confusion and self-loathing would, I speculate, be endless. It stands to reason her parenting would have looked a lot different, too, the resulting impact of which would have been far-reaching.
I was carrying
a dead, growing baby
inside me
Amanda Shapiro, Alexandria
One of the babies in my identical twin pregnancy was essentially dead — she was missing limbs and had no heart of her own to sustain life outside of my uterus — but she was growing. I was carrying a dead, growing baby inside me. The other twin was pumping her own blood into the non-living baby, which caused it to grow. This “perfusion” of blood put a strain on my living baby’s heart that put her at risk for heart failure and death or intense heart surgeries in utero or after birth. She was also at an increased risk for genetic abnormalities, some of which she could live with and others she could not.
I was told that I would eventually have in-utero surgery to ablate the veins connecting the twins, which would stop the perfusion. They didn’t want to do it too early, as it would have almost certainly killed the healthy twin. At the point of surgery they would also perform genetic testing through amniocentesis, and we were offered the choice of abortion if the baby would be born with a condition that would make her incompatible with life.
I spent most of the next few weeks immobile from grief. I cannot describe the feeling of growing a baby inside me who I already knew could not live, nor the grief I felt about potentially losing the living baby. This pregnancy was the culmination of six cycles of IVF.
But then we had the extremely rare luck that the perfusion of blood between the fetuses spontaneously stopped. This almost never occurs. The non-living twin stopped growing, and eventually its tissue mostly got absorbed. We decided not to do the genetic testing, since things generally looked good. So I was spared the abortion decision in the end, but came close enough to intimately understand how necessary having access to such a decision can be.
The viable twin, born at 37 weeks, turned 2 on July 1. She is completely healthy!
You can have
another child,
they told her
Andrew Fedynsky, Cleveland
At age 7, I was puzzled when my mother told me that she had bribed an aid worker at the post-World War II refugee camp where I was born to not give me immunization shots. The puzzle was solved 31 years later, as my mother was dying of cancer, and I sat at her bedside in a Cleveland hospice. It was my birthday, and I asked her about the day I was born.
Oh, I was so happy, she said, but also terribly scared. Scared? I asked. Why? “I was afraid they would do away with you,” she said, explaining that when she became pregnant, officials at the camp had pressured her to have an abortion. You’re a refugee, they had said, with an uncertain future, but you’re also young. Once your family establishes a stable home, you can have another child. After my birth, my mother — having endured Nazi and Soviet atrocities in war-ravaged Ukraine — did not trust authorities to stick a needle in her baby.
Rootless, destitute and pregnant, my mother chose life and for that I am eternally grateful. The point is, she had a choice.
Editing by Rachel Manteuffel and Nancy Szokan. Audio production by Julie Depenbrock and Charla Freeland. Design and production by Danielle Kunitz and Yan Wu. Design editing by Chris Rukan. Copy editing by Chris Hanna and Lydia Rebac.
Rachel Manteuffel works in the Editorial department and writes op-eds and features. Twitter Twitter | 2022-08-25T13:22:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Readers share abortion stories for the Washington Post - Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/interactive/2022/readers-abortion-stories-roe/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/interactive/2022/readers-abortion-stories-roe/ |
Good morning and welcome to The Climate 202! Our colleague Theodoric Meyer, a co-author of The Early 202, helped report and write the top of the newsletter today. (Unfortunately, Maxine's cat, Ollie, didn't get a byline.)
As a scheduling note, The Climate 202 won't publish on Friday or next week in observance of the congressional recess. We'll be back in your inbox on Sept. 5. But first:
To gain the centrist senator's vote for an ambitious law to tackle climate change and lower the deficit, top Democrats and the White House promised to pass a separate bill this fall to speed up the permitting process for new energy projects, an important issue for Manchin's home state.
“It either keeps the country open, or we shut down the government. That’ll happen Sept. 30, so let’s see how that politics plays out,” he told West Virginia MetroNews this week.
For one thing, liberal House Democrats have said they have serious concerns about potentially undermining the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires federal agencies to assess the environmental effects of their proposed actions.
And GOP lawmakers might be loath to help Democrats pass the legislation weeks after Manchin angered Republicans by announcing that he’d negotiated a secret deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to pass a climate package that GOP leaders thought was dead.
The bill would need the votes of at least 10 Republican senators — or more if any Democrats refuse to support it — to overcome a filibuster. Whether Republicans ultimately agree to support it could depend on whether the bill is as aggressive as they want.
If the final bill is similar to a recently leaked draft, “it’ll be hard to get Republican votes,” said one GOP lobbyist, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid. “It doesn’t really have any teeth.”
The leaked draft of the bill, which bears the watermark of the American Petroleum Institute, would shorten environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act and require President Biden to designate 25 energy projects of “strategic national importance,” among other provisions. (API didn't draft the bill, according to a person familiar with the matter; the draft was shared with API and other trade groups for comment.)
A second person familiar with the matter confirmed the authenticity of the leaked draft and said it was about a month-and-a-half old.
A new draft has been circulating in recent days among Manchin, Schumer and a small number of others, according to three people familiar with the matter. A two-page summary of the legislation obtained by The Washington Post has also made the rounds among Senate Democrats.
Meanwhile, the permitting proposal has put environmental groups in a tough spot. While many environmentalists have voiced serious concerns about the side deal, others privately concede that it was necessary to secure Manchin's vote for the biggest climate bill in U.S. history.
“There's a misconception right now that we won't be able to build out the clean energy infrastructure we desperately need unless we roll back environmental laws,” said Earthjustice President Abbie Dillen.
But Heather Zichal, a former White House climate adviser who is now the chief executive of the American Clean Power Association, said the permitting proposal will play an essential role in realizing the benefits of the climate bill, dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act.
“There are so many terrific new opportunities for clean energy deployment within the Inflation Reduction Act,” Zichal said. “If you don't have a parallel call to modernize the way these projects are permitted, it's hard for me to see that these projects will come online in a timely manner.”
Sen. Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.), the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, said in a statement that agreeing to overhaul permitting rules was essential to passing the climate package.
Temperatures in India soared for months this spring and summer, marking the most persistent, widespread and severe heat event in the country’s recorded history and causing the deaths of at least 90 people. The sweltering conditions have taken a particular toll on outdoor laborers, who make up half of India’s workforce and see little relief from the sun during the day and nights at home without air conditioning, The Post's Gerry Shih, Sarah Kaplan, Ruby Mellen and Anu Narayanswamy report.
To depict how summer has become a season of peril amid the warming climate, forcing society’s most vulnerable members to live and work in conditions that are tough on the human body, The Post spent two of the hottest days in New Delhi in June following delivery driver Mohammad Hussain and bricklayer Ganesh Shaw as they worked, measuring the surrounding temperature indexes.
The team found that the consequences of extreme heat are unequal, with those living in low-income countries or communities who contribute the least to global warming facing the most dangerous climate effects. Both Hussain and Shaw worked for hours each day in broiling heat that was considered too much for professional athletes to endure, often without consistent access to drinking water, because they had no other option from their employers and needed to earn money for their families.
The Indian heat wave was made 30 times more likely by human-caused climate change, according to the World Weather Attribution Network. In the next 30 years, the number of extremely hot days in India is on track to triple. If humanity does not drastically reduce planet-warming emissions, experts say, some places may become too hot for workers to make a living outside without putting their cardiovascular health at risk.
Former Interior secretary Zinke lied to investigators in casino case, watchdog finds
Trump-era Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke lied to investigators on multiple occasions about conversations he had with federal officials and lobbyists about a petition from two Indian tribes to operate an off-reservation casino in New England, the department’s watchdog said in a report released Wednesday, Lisa Rein and Anna Phillips report for The Post.
The report from Interior's inspector general comes six months after the same office accused Zinke of lying about his role in negotiations over a land deal in his hometown of Whitefish, Mont. In that case, the department found that Zinke had violated an ethics agreement after communicating with project developers 64 times to discuss the project’s design, the use of his foundation’s land as a parking lot, and his interest in operating a brewery on the site.
An attorney for Zinke, who is poised to win a new House seat in Montana this fall, criticized the department's findings as “misleading and inaccurate” and said the former secretary was “completely candid in his interview” with investigators.
California to ban new gas-powered cars by 2035
California is moving closer to blocking the sale of new cars that run only on gasoline by 2035, a major step in the state's fight against climate change that could have far-reaching effects on the auto industry, The Post's Dino Grandoni and Evan Halper report.
The proposed regulation, which comes after Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) set a goal in 2020 to electrify California’s fleet, would force automakers to boost the production of cleaner vehicles starting in 2026. However, the move does not ban the sale of any used vehicles, so old-fashioned gas guzzlers will still be allowed on California’s roadways. The state’s Air Resources Board is expected to approve the measure during a meeting Thursday.
The Golden State has considerable sway over the nation's environmental agenda and the auto industry because of a waiver under the Clean Air Act that allows it to impose stricter tailpipe emission standards than the federal government. The state’s regulations could send a signal to the auto industry and buyers that the car market will soon be closed to gas-powered vehicles, helping speed up provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act that invest in the nationwide transition to electric vehicles.
Record rain is hitting drought-stricken areas. That’s not good news. — Matthew Cappucci and Kasha Patel for The Post
Forest fires burn twice as many trees as two decades ago, report finds — Zach Rosenthal for The Post
‘Charismatic’ dugong sea mammal declared functionally extinct in China — Karina Tsui for The Post
BlackRock, European firms face Texas pension ban over energy policies — Ross Kerber and Pete Schroeder for Reuters
This also helps them regulate body temperature and keeps their extremities dry when close to water. | 2022-08-25T13:22:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Manchin delivered for Democrats. Can they return the favor? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/25/manchin-delivered-democrats-can-they-return-favor-2/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/25/manchin-delivered-democrats-can-they-return-favor-2/ |
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