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In this image taken from Parliament TV on Sept. 8, 2022, Britain's Prime Minister Liz Truss opens a debate on energy costs. (-/AFP/Getty Images)
LONDON — Britain’s new prime minister, Liz Truss set out her plan in parliament on Thursday to help households deal with astronomical energy costs this winter, saying bills would be capped at $2,875 per household per year for the next two years.
For a leader who has decried the “tax and spend” policies of her own government, Truss was acknowledging how crippling the mounting energy bills could be — not only on low-income families, but small businesses such as pubs.
Truss did not say how the government would pay for these costs — which could rise to $150 billion.
But the leader of the opposition Labour Party Keir Starmer rose in the House of Commons to confront Truss, saying these bills will ultimately be paid for by the taxpayers.
This is, in part, is because Truss has ruled out imposing a windfall profits tax on energy companies, which stand to reap billions.
And so the debate in the House of Commons clearly laid out the economic battles to come, not only in Britain but Europe, over who shoulders the soaring cost of energy in the coming year.
Truss squarely put most of the blame for energy spikes on Russian President Vladimir Putin and his war in Ukraine.
“Putin is exploiting this situation by weaponizing energy supplies as part of his illegal war in Ukraine,” Truss told the lawmakers.
But Truss also conceded that Britain — and her Conservative Party which has been in power for 12 years — is partly responsible and vowed to boost domestic energy supplies.
She vowed to push forward construction of nuclear power stations — including faster-to-build smaller plants — and to open up more of the North Sea to more drilling for oil and gas.
Truss also said that Britain should again allow fracking for shale gas, a technique banned in 2019. | 2022-09-08T12:27:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Liz Truss pledges price cap on soaring UK household energy bills - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/08/uk-liz-truss-energy-price-cap/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/08/uk-liz-truss-energy-price-cap/ |
Will a new name and new quarterback turn around Washington football?
Carson Wentz can’t do it on his own, but playmakers and a favorable schedule may help the team to a winning season.
Washington Commanders quarterback Carson Wentz (11) may end a weakness the team has had at that important position during the past few seasons. He is a strong-armed thrower, but he needs time to get rid of the ball. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post)
This season Washington’s National Football League team has a new name (Commanders), new uniforms (still burgundy and gold) and a new quarterback (Carson Wentz).
The question is whether the Commanders will be the same old team?
During the past 20 NFL seasons, Washington has enjoyed only five winning records and has won only one playoff game. Even worse, in 10 of those seasons Washington has lost 10 or more games, a sign of a bad NFL team.
Will the 2022 Commanders be new and improved? Let’s take a look.
In the past four seasons, Washington has started 10 quarterbacks, including the forgettable Garrett Gilbert, Josh Johnson and Mark Sanchez. The Commanders traded for Wentz to stop this revolving door at the game’s most important position.
Wentz is a strong-armed thrower who was an All-Pro five years ago. Since then, he has had his ups and downs. Two teams — the Philadelphia Eagles and Indianapolis Colts — gave up and traded him. Still, he should be an improvement on last year’s starter, Taylor Heinicke.
Wentz will have some talent around him. The Commanders have three exciting wide receivers in Terry McLaurin, speedy Curtis Samuel and rookie Jahan Dotson. It would also help if tight end Logan Thomas gets healthy.
Washington has talent at running back too. Antonio Gibson is a threat to break away for big plays if he can stop fumbling. Sadly, impressive rookie Brian Robinson is out for a while after he was wounded in what appears to be an attempted robbery.
A big question is whether the Commanders’ revamped offensive line will block well enough to give Wentz time to find his receivers. Wentz tends to hold on to the ball too long. In 2020, he was sacked (tackled behind the line of scrimmage) 50 times in just 12 games.
The key to a possible winning season may not be the offense but the defense. Last year, Washington’s defense slipped from being the second best of 32 NFL teams at giving up yards (304.6 yards per game) in 2020 to the 22nd best (359.3 yards).
It won’t help that defensive end Chase Young will be on the sidelines with a knee injury for at least the first four games. The Commanders need to put pressure on their opponent’s passer because the team’s linebackers and defensive backs can be shaky.
The team’s secret for success may be its schedule. Based on their opponents’ 2021 records, the Commanders should have the easiest schedule of any NFL team.
With a little luck and if they avoid injuries, the Commanders should squeeze out a winning season.
That would be something new. | 2022-09-08T12:36:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Commanders aim for winning season with new quarterback, exciting receivers - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost/2022/09/08/commanders-new-quarterback/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost/2022/09/08/commanders-new-quarterback/ |
Solution for a growing family: Make two townhouses into one home
The goal was to make one seamless home from two -- to ‘create something that looks like it was always like this’
A steel and wood staircase winds to the second and third levels. (Alan Karchmer)
Sharon Russ, who has been living in the District’s Logan Circle neighborhood for 20 years, had a vision for how she and her husband, David Rubin, could take two adjacent townhouses and make them into one home for their family.
Rubin and Russ were walking in the neighborhood in 2006 when they saw an open house for a three-level townhouse. Intrigued, the couple ventured inside. The townhouse, dating to approximately 1880, had been renovated and was move-in ready. At the time, they were living in a two-bedroom apartment just two blocks away.
“We were having a baby, and needed a little bit more room,” said Rubin, a managing director with Deloitte. “We ended up buying the house.”
A few years later with a growing family — two sons now 15 and 14 — the couple realized they needed more space, and particularly wanted more closet space and a dining room. Most of the closets in the townhouse had been removed by the previous owner.
“And we needed places where we could all be together,” Russ said.
They also wanted an outdoor grill on the back deck, a bigger living room, an office for Rubin and a larger kitchen.
“I like to cook,” said Russ, a consultant.
After buying the rowhouse next door in 2014, they began thinking about how they could combine the two.
“I was the one who wanted to do it, as daunting as it was,” she said.
Renovating amid the pandemic with the must-haves to suit their needs
Before they closed on the second townhouse, they showed it to architect Salo Levinas, a principal with Shinberg Levinas Architects. They spent a year working with the city on permits and compliance to building codes. In addition to meeting the building codes, there were historic requirements and budget considerations.
“It’s historic so we couldn’t change the facade,” Rubin said. The stone and brick exterior of both townhouses was restored.
The couple wanted to create space where their family would be able to spend time together, especially around meals.
“How will they congregate as a family, how will they be together, and spend a lot of time together, and not be isolated,” Levinas said. “That was very important to them.”
Before he started designing the space, Levinas had a long conversation with the homeowners.
“I try to understand the way that they live, their relationship with their kids, entertaining,” he said. “Then, you start proposing things.”
Levinas challenged Russ to think about how the family would use the new space. He asked her, “What do you want here? What do you envision there?”
“We met all the time,” she said of their collaboration. “We had a lot of meetings.”
Whenever challenges arose with building and fire codes and how to configure the spaces, Levinas had the answers.
“He’s a problem-solver,” Russ said.
The two side-by-side structures were in different states. One had been renovated some years before, while the other was “in very bad shape,” Levinas said. The goal was to join the houses seamlessly.
“To create something that looks like it was always like this,” he said. “When you are inside to forget that you are in two townhouses.”
Levinas designed the new combined space of 6,500 square feet so that the couple would have the option to sell one of them, if they chose in the future. The townhouses are separately deeded properties so the adaptation had to include two staircases to meet the fire code.
“We wanted the ability to put Humpty Dumpty back together again and have two separate houses,” Russ said.
High-end redux for a Georgetown pied-a-terre
“The flow is continuous,” Levinas said. “You can go from one place to another easily. You can walk and continue walking and not feel trapped in one corner.”
A dining room can seat 10 and the island in the kitchen accommodates the family of four and their entertaining needs. Two skylights and sliding-glass doors at the back of the home bring in natural light.
“When you start working, when you open the structure and the walls, you discover what you really have,” Levinas said.
The floors on the first level were not uniform and had to be leveled. Two-thirds of a load-bearing wall was removed on the first level, necessitating the addition of a steel beam to maintain structural integrity.
Aiming to stay within a client’s budget is an essential part of any project. Russ and Rubin declined to say how much they spent combining the townhouses.
“To me, it’s extremely important to respect the budget,” Levinas said.
Choosing where to spend more money and where to spend less was essential to the project, such as less expensive bathroom tiles but splurging on the flooring in the main living area. Closet interiors were finished with a less expensive material.
“The construction took 10 months,” Levinas said. “And they moved out for a year.”
Living in the house is the reward for the time and effort it took to complete.
“It’s a really big project,” Russ said. “You have to really love where you are to engage in the entire project.”
Rubin added: “It just is very calming. Sharon had a vision and they got to a shared vision.” | 2022-09-08T12:36:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Couple merges two Logan Circle townhouses into one home - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/09/08/solution-growing-family-make-two-townhouses-into-one-home/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/09/08/solution-growing-family-make-two-townhouses-into-one-home/ |
A Red-Hot Job Market Supports a Soft Landing
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JULY 26: A ‘Now Hiring’ sign is posted at a Verizon store on July 26, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. As the Federal Reserve continues to increase interest rates, the labor market is starting to show signs of slowing down. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images) (Photographer: Mario Tama/Getty Images North America)
Friday’s strong jobs report won’t dissuade the Federal Reserve from the view that the labor market remains too hot to be consistent with its 2% inflation target. Over the past six months, the US economy has created an average of 381,000 jobs a month, compared with a pre-pandemic monthly pace of fewer than 200,000.
But given some of the other shifts happening in the economy, adding jobs this fast actually makes a soft landing in the labor market more likely than if growth had already decelerated. It gives the Fed more of a cushion to slow things down without the economy falling apart.
Let’s start by thinking about what kind of labor market environment would be consistent with a soft landing. Though this would depend on a host of factors — global events like the war in Ukraine, supply chain issues and labor productivity — monthly job growth of around 175,000 a month and wage growth under 4% would be pretty close to the pre-pandemic trend.
According to the jobs report, year-over-year wage growth was 5.2% in August. So if our framework is correct, achieving a soft landing would require reducing the pace of monthly job growth by around 200,000 and reducing wage growth by around 1.25%.
That’s a significant amount of slowing given the recent trend, but if you’re a policy maker, you should find it encouraging. It allows a fair amount of room for things to slow before we’d be falling into a recession. And that gives the Fed plenty of time to change course if things take a turn for the worse. It’s a better place to be than if job growth had already decelerated a lot but with wage growth staying strong at current levels.
For an analogy, consider the 1990s action movie “Speed.” In the film, there’s a bomb on a bus that will explode if the bus drops below 50 miles per hour. If you were a passenger on that bus and the driver needed to tap the brakes for whatever reason, you’d rather be going 85 mph than 55 mph — you’d want that extra margin of breathing room to slow things down without flirting with triggering the bomb. If you were only going 55 mph to start with, there might not be enough margin for error to pull it off.
Right now we have a labor market moving at that theoretical 85 mph. That 381,000 jobs added per month would be an annualized pace of 4.5 million — faster job growth than the US economy has ever sustained in history. It could decelerate by 200,000 per month — arguably the Fed’s goal — and we’d still be left with a labor market adding jobs as quickly as we were pre-pandemic. And it would still leave measures of labor utilization like the percentage of prime-age people who are employed at generational highs.
There are, of course, some question marks associated with this scenario. We still need wage growth to slow down as well, and we don’t know how that will go. Though we have already begun seeing signs of slowing in some of the industries that were first to see wage growth last year. Wage growth for workers in the leisure and hospitality industry peaked at more than 13% and has already fallen back to 8.6% on a year-over-year basis, and even slower than that on shorter time horizons. We’ve seen a similar deceleration in wage growth for workers in the transportation and warehousing industry as e-commerce companies no longer struggle with labor shortages like they did last year. While it’s not assured, it stands to reason that as labor market conditions slow more broadly we’ll see more signs of wage growth abating.
There’s also a big question about productivity growth, which has been awful this year and contributed to the mix of high inflation and weak output growth that we’ve seen. One explanation is that companies have struggled to onboard the millions of workers they’ve hired over the past year — it takes time for new workers to get up to speed. The hope is that this is just a cohort effect. The US economy has an unusually high percentage of inexperienced workers at the moment, and over time they’ll become just as productive as workers have always been.
If so, getting back to pre-pandemic labor market conditions should be enough to achieve a soft landing in the economy. (If something really has fundamentally changed in the labor market then perhaps that wouldn’t be enough, and more onerous scenarios need to be considered.)
This is all a story for 2023. For now, labor market momentum remains strong, even after all the increases in interest rates and tightening of financial conditions this year. The Fed clearly has more work to do. But there’s plenty of room for the labor market to slow down before worrying about a recession, and no reason to think that a soft landing is an insurmountable task.
Some Employees Can’t Afford to ‘Quiet Quit’: Kami Rieck
An Anomaly in the Job Market Begins to Correct: Justin Fox
Subtle Shift Exposes Cracks in the Labor Market: Jonathan Levin | 2022-09-08T12:36:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | A Red-Hot Job Market Supports a Soft Landing - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/a-red-hot-jobmarket-supports-a-soft-landing/2022/09/08/31707cee-2f66-11ed-bcc6-0874b26ae296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/a-red-hot-jobmarket-supports-a-soft-landing/2022/09/08/31707cee-2f66-11ed-bcc6-0874b26ae296_story.html |
Senate Republicans Have Put a Stranglehold on Nominations
WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 11: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) walks back to his office after giving remarks on the Senate Chambers in the U.S. Capitol Building on May 11, 2022 in Washington, DC. Later today the U.S. Senate will hold a procedural vote on the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2022 which would make abortion legal throughout the United States. Due to the filibuster, a sixty-vote threshold is required for it to pass, meaning it will likely fail with the Senate Democrats’ small majority. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) (Photographer: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images North America)
By the end of this week, Joe Biden will have been president for 600 days. During that time, the Senate has confirmed 442 of his nominees for key jobs in the top echelons of government and 78 federal judges, or well under one per day. The problem? There are an additional 140 executive branch nominations and 62 judicial nominations either before the Senate or on their way there. That’s 202 pending nominations, and there are only about 120 days remaining until the 118th Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3.
And that isn’t even counting the combined 119 vacancies for which no one has even been nominated.(1)Those jobs remain unfilled in part because Biden hasn’t moved as aggressively as he could. But a bigger reason is the Senate confirmation process itself, which knocks a lot of perfectly good candidates out of the nominee pool because they aren’t willing to subject themselves to intrusive vetting or to suffer through ever-increasing amount of time nominees spend in limbo before finally being able to start the new job.
Since 2013, the minority party can no longer use a traditional Senate filibuster — a tactic requiring 60 votes to end debate and proceed to a vote — to defeat a single nomination. But Senate Republicans have managed to bog down the process by requiring individual votes on most nominees, rather than approving them in batches, as used to be customary. Other unnecessary procedural votes further gobble up scarce Senate time, a collection of methods that I think of as a blanket filibuster.(2)
It used to be the case that the Senate would quickly confirm all remaining non-controversial nominations before beginning an extended recess. That meant that when the Senate returned from its August recess in 2002, during President George W. Bush’s second year in the White House, there were fewer than five full pages of nominations (with about five to eight nominations per page) ready for a floor vote on the Senate executive calendar, even with a slim Democratic majority in the Senate. But when the Senate returned this week, there were 18 pages of nominations.
Which gets to Schumer and the Democrats. Republicans deserve the blame for the floor logjam, but Schumer has been content to just confirm the most urgent picks and to let the rest wait. He has apparently let people know, for example, that the Senate is going to act on judges right up to the election recess, and let executive branch nominees wait until the post-election lame-duck session.
Headline: Author
(1) Nor is it counting the handful of administrative judicial positions and the much larger number of less-important executive branch nominations that need Senate confirmations but don’t qualify for the Partnership for Public Service’s list of the 800 or so most important positions.
(2) The basic definition of a filibuster is any procedure by a minority of a legislative chamber to use delay to defeat something. Traditional Senate filibusters use delay that can be overcome by a supermajority vote - currently, needing 60 Senators - but other forms of obstruction have been used in both chambers and in other legislatures. | 2022-09-08T12:36:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Senate Republicans Have Put a Stranglehold on Nominations - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/senate-republicans-have-put-a-stranglehold-on-nominations/2022/09/08/235f89e0-2f72-11ed-bcc6-0874b26ae296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/senate-republicans-have-put-a-stranglehold-on-nominations/2022/09/08/235f89e0-2f72-11ed-bcc6-0874b26ae296_story.html |
The Fed Has Learned Its Money-Market Lessons
Now that the US Federal Reserve has gone into full quantitative tightening mode, reversing an asset-buying program that had expanded its balance sheet to nearly $9 trillion, a worry is emerging: Could a disruptive cash crunch ensue, along the lines of what happened in money markets a few years ago?
Don’t be too concerned. This time around, the Fed is much better prepared.
True, the Fed has ramped up the asset runoff to its maximum rate of $60 billion of Treasuries and $35 billion of agency mortgage-backed securities each month. As intended, this will drain liquidity that had been added to support the economy during the Covid pandemic, gradually reducing the more than $3 trillion in cash reserves that commercial banks are holding at the Fed.
Doomsayers argue that reserves will eventually fall below the banking system’s needs, causing interest rates to spike in the crucial repo market, which hedge funds and other institutions depend upon to finance securities – a repeat of the September 2019 turmoil that forced the Fed to abandon abruptly its previous effort at quantitative tightening. They point out that almost $3 trillion in reserves have already been siphoned off: more than $2 trillion to the Fed’s reverse repo facility, which takes cash in from money market mutual funds, and another $600 billion in the form of the Treasury’s large cash balance at the Fed.
Let’s start with the reverse repo facility. Institutions such as money-market funds are using it heavily now, because the Fed pays a higher interest rate (2.3%) than what they can earn by lending money in private markets. This removes reserves from the banking system, parking the money directly at the Fed. But as quantitative tightening drains excess liquidity, private market rates will firm, and banks will increase deposit rates to lure customers away from money-market funds. Together, this will reduce usage of the Fed’s facility and boost reserves, postponing the moment when they become inadequate.
The Fed has also acted on the lessons of the last money-market disruption in two crucial ways. For one, it has set up a standing repo facility to limit any interest-rate spikes: If reserves become unduly scarce for any reason, banks can replenish them by borrowing at a slightly elevated rate, against the collateral of Treasuries and other government-guaranteed debt.
Beyond that, the Fed intends to shrink reserves more carefully this time around, in three distinct phases. We’re now in the first stage, where reserves decline relatively quickly along with the runoff of the Fed’s assets. In the second and third stages — when reserves fall to 10% and 9% of gross domestic product, respectively — the asset runoff will slow and then cease. The final target will be 8% of GDP, which the Fed will maintain by managing its holdings of securities. That target, of course, can change: The ultimate aim is to ensure that the supply of reserves is always slightly above banks’ underlying demand.
Quantitative tightening might not prove quite as boring as “watching paint dry,” as Janet Yellen suggested in 2017, but it’s unlikely to cause any major disruptions. As the Fed’s balance sheet shrinks and the amount of Treasuries in private hands increases, bond yields should rise modestly. That’s about it.
(Corrects rate of Treasury runoff in third paragraph.) | 2022-09-08T12:36:59Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Fed Has Learned Its Money-Market Lessons - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-fed-has-learned-its-money-market-lessons/2022/09/08/e3686c66-2f6d-11ed-bcc6-0874b26ae296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-fed-has-learned-its-money-market-lessons/2022/09/08/e3686c66-2f6d-11ed-bcc6-0874b26ae296_story.html |
Figures show barely 1 in 10 overdose victims died after using heroin this year, compared to more than half of them in 2017
By Peter Jamison
A man holds a bag of newly purchased heroin in D.C. in 2014. The drug has all but vanished from the nation's capital. (Amanda Voisard for The Washington Post)
For decades, it brought fleeting euphoria and permanent loss. It was the basis of commerce in neighborhoods that had lost their foothold in America’s economy and a poison that destroyed those same neighborhoods block by block. It was an addictive salve for the lives it had broken.
Now heroin, synonymous with illicit drug use in Mid-Atlantic cities since the 1960s, is close to vanishing from the streets of the nation’s capital.
D.C.’s latest opioid overdose statistics, released by city officials in August, show that heroin was detected in only 15 of the 166 opioid deaths recorded in the first five months of 2022. That means barely 1 in 10 overdose victims died after using heroin — either by itself or with other substances — so far this year, compared to more than half of them in 2017.
They’d battled addiction together. Then lockdowns became a ‘recipe for death.’
In D.C., Baltimore and other cities, such declarations once looked premature, as users — frequently older, Black men who had been injecting intravenously for decades — clung tenaciously to heroin and sought to avoid fentanyl, which many hoped would be a temporary contaminant in the drug supply.
But it is heroin, not fentanyl, that is now obsolescent. The trend can also be seen in neighboring Maryland, where heroin, as recently as 2016, contributed to more fatal overdoses than any other drug. In the most recent figures published by that state’s health officials, which cover the 12 months ending in April, it not only was involved in far fewer deaths than fentanyl, but also was less deadly than cocaine, alcohol and prescription opioids.
Daniel Ciccarone, a heroin expert and a professor at the University of California at San Francisco School of Medicine, cautioned that toxicology reports on overdose victims don’t necessarily provide a complete picture of drug-use patterns. For example, those who manage to find relatively pure heroin — which carries a lower risk of death than fentanyl — might not be captured by overdose statistics.
“Instead of saying, ‘I hate this stuff,’ they’re saying, ‘I’ve kind of gotten used to it,’” Ciccarone said.
In 2018, Sam Rogers and Renee Howell spoke about living in fear of the next drug overdose as fentanyl sent the African American death rate skyrocketing. (Video: Whitney Shefte/The Washington Post)
In D.C., where opioid overdose deaths have for years outnumbered homicides, the disappearance of heroin is more than a curiosity. Experts say public health strategies should be tailored to opioid markets now occupied almost exclusively by fentanyl.
Some previous approaches — such as the distribution of fentanyl test kits for heroin users — may no longer be as effective. Others, such as needle-exchange services, need to be redoubled, since fentanyl has shorter-lasting effects than those of heroin and usually spawns more frequent drug injection.
Barbara Bazron, the director of the D.C. Department of Behavioral Health, said the city was pushing ahead with its existing responses to the opioid crisis, which focus on averting deaths and connecting patients with long-term treatment. She said test strips are still valuable for users seeking to avoid fentanyl, and that city officials continue to actively distribute naloxone, a lifesaving overdose antidote.
“The goal is to keep people alive so that they can get the care that they need,” she said.
“If you have a market that rapidly shifts away from heroin to fentanyl, you’re going to have a lot of deaths initially,” Pardo said. “Those that stay in the market and don’t die become tolerant to it — and then start demanding it.”
“There’s a lot of labor involved with heroin — from the poppy cultivation standpoint, from the heroin extraction standpoint, from the standpoint of moving it from the hinterlands of Mexico up to the border,” Pardo said. “You can make fentanyl in the bathroom of your apartment.”
Heroin has not been supplanted everywhere. The dark, gummy form of the drug most common in Western states — unlike the pale powder heroin sold east of the Mississippi River — is harder to substitute with fentanyl, which in the West is often consumed in tablet form. According to federal drug-seizure data from 2020, mixtures of heroin and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl remained common in some states — including New Jersey and Pennsylvania — even as pure synthetic opioids became dominant in Kentucky, Maryland, New Hampshire, Ohio and West Virginia.
That shift has been especially consequential in cities such as D.C., where many of those at risk of overdosing are older African Americans who had learned to use heroin in relative safety over decades of use. Most of D.C.'s overdose deaths are among those aged 40 to 69, and 84 percent of victims since 2017 have been Black, according to the city’s most recent statistics.
“It’s all fentanyl now,” said John, a 62-year-old District resident who said he began using heroin when he was 16. “People be OD’ing. They be falling out. Men die. It’s just crazy out here.”
Earlier this year, John — who is being identified by first name only to avoid the stigma of longtime heroin use — entered treatment with Edwin Chapman, one of the city’s most prominent addiction doctors. Chapman, who has long criticized city public health officials’ response to the opioid crisis as inadequate, said he is still struggling against local policies that impede care to his patients. He cited insurance rules that don’t consistently permit the higher doses of buprenorphine — a prescription medication that reduces opioid cravings — needed to effectively treat fentanyl users.
D.C. Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Wayne Turnage, who also directs the District’s Department of Health Care Finance, said he has asked his staff to look into local insurers’ rules on buprenorphine dosing.
When he does use, he knows he is likely to get fentanyl. He said it is a terrible replacement for heroin — which, for all it took from him over decades, was far less likely to take his life.
“Heroin worked better,” he said. | 2022-09-08T12:37:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | D.C. heroin overdoses plunge as fentanyl use soars - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/08/heroin-overdoses-dc-fentanyl/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/08/heroin-overdoses-dc-fentanyl/ |
Democrats are finally running a full-on campaign against Trumpism
President Biden speaks outside the United Steelworkers of America Local Union 2227 hall in West Mifflin, Pa., on Sept. 5. (Justin Merriman/Bloomberg)
President Biden and the Democrats are running a markedly more progressive and partisan campaign than they did in 2018 and 2020. They are casting Republican officials as radical and anti-democratic, and they’re embracing liberal priorities like gun control, abortion rights and getting rid of the Senate filibuster. They may not win the midterms this way. But if they do, the party will be much better set up than it was at the start of Biden’s presidency not only to confront Trumpism but also to pass a bold agenda.
In the 2018 and 2020 campaign cycles, Democratic candidates, particularly Biden and those in key swing districts and states, emphasized their opposition to left-wing policies like Medicare-for-all and defunding the police as much as they touted policies that they supported. They constantly distanced themselves from the party’s progressives. They described then-President Donald Trump as the singular problem in American politics, essentially absolving the broader Republican Party. And the party’s congressional candidates in particular emphasized their ability to work across party lines and campaigned almost solely on economic issues like health care, trying to sidestep race, abortion, democracy and other concerns.
Democrats won in 2018 and 2020. It’s not clear if they won because of those centrist, cautious campaign approaches — or simply because a majority of Americans opposed Trump. Either way, that style put the Democrats in a poor position to govern in 2021. There wasn’t a real consensus on what legislation Democrats should push, leading to the almost never-ending negotiations over what should be included in the Build Back Better Act.
With narrow margins on Capitol Hill, Democrats needed nearly all members on board to pass bills. But centrist House Democrats, who had emphasized on the campaign trail that they weren’t left-wing, did not want to then enthusiastically back legislation that members like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) also supported. So some House centrists slowed down the BBB process to make a public showing of their centrism and distance from progressives.
When state-level Republicans started passed aggressive limits on abortion, voting access and teaching about racism in public schools, Biden and Democrats seemed caught off-guard and unsure of how to respond. They appear to have not anticipated the GOP getting even more radical after Trump left office. So Biden and his team pushed national voting rights legislation but in a half-hearted way, annoying both progressive activists who wanted aggressive action on the issue and centrist Democrats who didn’t.
Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) have been the biggest barriers to the Democrats passing bills over the past two years. But the party had plenty of other centrists, including the president at times, who were either unwilling or unable to adjust to a reality where state-level Republicans were a big problem and “the Squad” was not.
Heading into the 2022 midterms, it’s not as if Biden or Democrats running in swing states and districts sound like Ocasio-Cortez. Many are touting the party’s bipartisan accomplishments, like the infrastructure bill. They are still taking some swipes at the party’s left wing, most notably in calling for more police funding and attacking the “defund the police” slogan. The party is still overly cautious on many issues, particularly in not calling for any reforms of the judiciary, which is currently dominated by conservative judges eager to defend Republican Party priorities and obstruct Democratic ones.
And some Democrats still sound like they are running in 2018 or 2020, wary of progressive policies and partisan rhetoric. Rep. Tim Ryan, the party’s U.S. Senate candidate in Ohio, recently slammed Biden’s cancellation of student loans. Sen. Maggie Hassan, running for reelection in New Hampshire, has criticized the president for his use of the term “semi-fascism” to describe the actions of some Republicans.
But in general, the president and Democrats have a new campaign tone. It is hard to imagine Biden two years ago using the term MAGA repeatedly or swing-district Democrats emphasizing their support of abortion rights.
This might not work electorally. Democrats could lose the House, Senate or both because of the traditional backlash against the incumbent president in midterm elections. Or because of high inflation and low approval of Biden. Or perhaps because some voters are turned off by progressive policies like student debt cancellation or the more partisan language Democrats are using.
But if the Democrats keep their congressional majorities, the way they have campaigned would give the party a cohesion and focus in 2023 and 2024 that it has not had during the first two years of the Biden administration. Protecting democracy and abortion rights are now two of the defining goals of the party. Any Democrat elected to Congress in 2022 knows that the party base would expect action on those issues.
The party has now clearly described Trumpism, not just Trump, as an existential threat, so it will be hard for centrist members to continue to bash the left and triangulate between left-wing members like Ocasio-Cortez and Trump-aligned Republicans. Biden’s forays into bipartisanship may be over, as Republicans in Congress will likely be more wary of working with him after he cast the GOP as being dominated by anti-democratic forces.
Also, several of the Democratic candidates in key Senate races are open to changing the filibuster rules, which would clear the way to pass legislation on a number of issues. The Democrats could control 52 seats after November’s elections, enough to override the objections of Manchin and Sinema to such a change.
All that said, it’s likely that Democrats will lose the House and perhaps the Senate as well, because of anti-incumbent sentiment and Biden’s unpopularity. And even if they do keep their majorities, Democrats could certainly repeat their behavior of 1993, 2009 and 2021, by being too cautious and divided to really push their agenda.
But at least right now, the Biden-era Democrats are no longer suggesting they can cut deals with Republicans like it’s 1986, punching at the party’s left wing like it’s 1996 or treating the Republicans as a traditional party led by a normal figure like it’s 2006. They are adjusting to the realities of U.S. politics in 2022. Finally. | 2022-09-08T12:37:23Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The Democrats are running a progressive, partisan campaign. Finally. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/08/democrats-midterm-message-progressive-perry-bacon/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/08/democrats-midterm-message-progressive-perry-bacon/ |
Evan McMullin is showing how to fight rabid Trump sycophancy
Senate candidate Evan McMullin in Provo, Utah, on July 23. (Rick Bowmer/AP)
Evan McMullin, the conservative, independent candidate for the U.S. Senate in Utah, is determined to prove there is a pro-democracy coalition of traditional Republicans, Democrats and independents who can team up to defeat a rabid MAGA incumbent, Sen. Mike Lee. Lee, you might recall, eagerly lent his services to Donald Trump’s coup effort, working to engineer the defeated president’s second term in defiance of the will of voters.
Utah Democrats are cooperating with McMullin, endorsing him in lieu of putting forth their own candidate (who would have no chance in the deeply red state). In a state that went for Trump by a 20-point margin, McMullin’s campaign is an uphill climb. Nevertheless, Lee remains an unpopular figure whom McMullin has skewered as so extreme as to be useless to his state.
A Deseret News poll released in July showed Lee with a surprisingly small lead, 41 percent to 36 percent. A internal McMullin campaign poll memo from Impact Research shared exclusively with me reports, “Among likely voters in Utah, McMullin receives 47% of the vote while Lee gets 46%, and just 7% of the vote remains undecided.” Moreover, the McMullin pollsters found that “Lee’s job rating has dropped a net 11 points since June and it is now underwater by a 3-point margin (47% positive / 50% negative).” When accounting for other minor candidates in the race, McMullin winds up with 44 percent and Lee with 45 percent.
In remarks prepared for a speech in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, McMullin, who previously served as a CIA officer in the Middle East, observed that the threat from foreign authoritarian regimes is not the only danger we face. “Here at home, America has itself reached another crossroads. And now a great decision requires our urgent attention,” he said. “The choice is between the path of shared liberty or the false promise of authoritarianism.” He urged voters to consider the choice between “the path defined by our founding truths towards a more perfect union or [one] to succumb to those who — for cynical self-interest — now promote a dark alternative to democracy in America.” And he warned against “the purveyors of chaos, conspiracism and division who seek to dismantle our system of self-government in pursuit of unchecked power for themselves.”
McMullin then lit into his opponent, pointing out that, like so many other hypocritical right-wingers, Lee once campaigned against and denounced Trump, only to become “a loyal sycophant for the aspiring authoritarian, trading away his oath to the Constitution to serve the unconstitutional ambitions of that one man.” McMullin noted that Lee has gone so far as to compare Trump to “revered Book of Mormon leader, Captain Moroni, a most disgraceful and false comparison.”
McMullin also traced a series of emails after the 2020 election between Lee and then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows revealing Lee’s involvement in the coup attempt. As McMullin put it, although “Mike Lee has lied about his involvement, we now know ... that Mike Lee was at the center of the plot to overturn our republic — one of the most egregious betrayals of our nation.” Just two days before the violent insurrection, “Mike Lee informed Trump’s team that he was ‘spending 14 hours a day,’ on the effort to recruit fake electors and overturn the will of the people.” McMullin argued that Lee "didn’t just support the effort to end American democracy, he used his power as a United States senator to help plan, coordinate and execute the plot. By his own admission, he worked overtime to see it through.”
McMullin declared that Lee “betrayed” Utah voters and is “no constitutional conservative.” McMullin added, “For him, the Constitution is a theater prop, something to pull from his suit pocket and wave in the air when politically convenient, but quickly abandon when it serves his personal ambitions.” The Utah independent sounds an awful lot like Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who might consider endorsing a fellow conservative running against a Trump collaborator.
McMullin is running on a high-minded message of unity in defense of democracy and finding “common sense” solutions to problems. That he is competitive in a state such as Utah is a remarkable sign that traditional conservatives — after weeks of watching the House Jan. 6 select committee’s hearings and hearing about Trump’s apparent purloining of top-secret documents — might be tiring of the anti-democratic vitriol. If McMullin pulls off a shocking upset, or even comes close to beating an incumbent Republican in Utah, his campaign will provide a way forward for a coalition to displace the MAGA forces with principled patriotic Republicans. | 2022-09-08T12:37:29Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Utah's Evan McMullin is showing how to fight rabid Trump sycophancy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/08/evan-mcmullin-lee-senate-race-trump-utah/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/08/evan-mcmullin-lee-senate-race-trump-utah/ |
Biden blasted ‘MAGA Republicans.’ Are they a distinct group?
Here’s what our research found
Analysis by Christopher Cooper
Scott Huffmon
Gibbs Knotts
Seth C. McKee
A Trump supporter holds up a MAGA hat with pins during former president Donald Trump's “Save America” rally in Perry, Ga., on Sept. 25, 2021. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
In a recent and much-discussed prime-time speech last week, President Biden took aim at “an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.” According to Biden, these extremists “do not respect the Constitution,” “do not recognize the will of the people” and “refuse to accept the results of a free election.” The name he offered for the people who threaten U.S. democracy: MAGA Republicans.
But how do you identify MAGA Republicans? They are not an interest group, a political party or an organization with a membership list. Unless they are wearing the conspicuous red hat festooned with the words “Make America Great Again,” it’s difficult to know who identifies as MAGA and who are the traditional Republican adherents that Biden was “very clear, very clear” he did not associate with the MAGA Republicans’ rhetoric and actions.
As part of a larger project, we examined survey data from the South to answer that question, reasoning that the base of Republican strength in the United States lies in that region.
In August, the Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at Winthrop University conducted an online poll of 2,256 adults in the 11 states of the old Confederacy. Respondents were drawn from a curated panel purchased from online survey company Marketing Systems Group and weighted by race, gender and age based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau to more closely match the population of those states. Participants were asked a variety of questions about politics and government.
The 698 self-identified Republicans in the sample were asked to “tell us how well the following terms describe you, where 1 = not at all and 10 = completely describes me.” Participants were then provided with separate prompts for “MAGA Republican,” “America First Republican” and “Traditional Republican.” Independents who lean Republican did not receive those questions.
This wording allows for the possibility that an individual may have overlapping identities. Just because someone identifies more with the MAGA Republican label than the traditional Republican label does not mean they reject the traditional Republican description entirely. And, indeed, that is exactly what we find. Approximately 3 out of every 4 self-identified Republican respondents selected a six or higher for more than one Republican label.
How many Southern Republicans identify as MAGA Republicans?
As you can see in the figure below, the strongest identification was with the “Traditional Republican” label, followed by “America First Republican.” The smallest proportion identified as MAGA Republicans, with just shy of a quarter of the Southern Republican respondents indicating a 10 for MAGA Republican. However, 58 percent ranked it a six or higher, suggesting that just over half of the Southern Republicans in our sample think the term MAGA Republican describes them more than it does not.
Altogether, this suggests that MAGA Republicans are a sizable proportion of the Southern Republican electorate, but not the dominant one.
What types of Southerners identify as MAGA Republicans?
Next, we examined which types of Southerners were most likely to identify with each of the three labels. Older Southerners were most likely to identify as “Traditional Republicans” or “America First Republicans”; age was unrelated to MAGA identification.
Self-identified males were more likely to describe themselves as MAGA Republicans or “America First Republicans,” whereas gender had no influence on the likelihood that someone would describe themselves as a “Traditional Republican.”
When we asked about political attitudes, we found that approximately 80 percent of the respondents who answered with 10 on the MAGA identification scale did not believe the results of the 2020 election were fair and accurate, compared with 75 percent who identified most strongly with “America First Republican” and 66 percent who had the strongest possible identification as “Traditional Republicans.” Not surprisingly, the strongest MAGA Republican identifiers (at 91 percent) are also more likely than most ardent “Traditional Republicans” or “America first Republican” identifiers (both 85 percent) to believe Donald Trump should not be charged with a crime for his involvement in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Republican candidates are increasingly sharing misinformation, research finds.
The future of partisan identification
In his Sept. 1 speech, Biden differentiated between MAGA Republicans, who he argued are a threat to democracy, and “mainstream Republicans” who do not “embrace their extreme ideology.” Our findings suggest that these groups are not entirely distinct. Many Republicans in our sample believe all three terms — “Traditional Republican,” “MAGA Republican” and “America First Republican” — accurately describe them.
Nonetheless, MAGA Republican identifiers do stand apart. They are mostly men, less likely to believe that Trump should be prosecuted for the events of Jan. 6 and less likely to believe that the 2020 election was fair and accurate.
Political scientists have long argued that identifying with a particular party shapes how someone sees political events and helps structure their world views. Perhaps we should also consider the possibility that intraparty identification has a similar effect on important political attitudes. According to our data on Southern Republican affiliates, Biden was not off the mark in identifying MAGA Republicans as the main culprits in denying the legitimacy of the 2020 election. Further, because other Republican subgroups identify at least somewhat with their MAGA brethren, the MAGA faction may well have even more influence on the modern Republican Party than Biden suggested.
Professors, check out TMC’s newly indexed, improved and ever-expanding list of classroom topic guides.
Christopher A. Cooper (@chriscooperwcu) is the Madison distinguished professor of political science and public affairs and director of Western Carolina University’s Public Policy Institute in Cullowhee, N.C., and co-author (with H. Gibbs Knotts) of “The Resilience of Southern Identity: Why the South Still Matters in the Minds of its People” (UNC Press, 2017).
Scott Huffmon (@HuffmonPolitics) is professor of political science and director of the Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C.
Gibbs Knotts (@GibbsKnotts) is professor of political science and dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the College of Charleston in Charleston, S.C., and co-author (with Jordan M. Ragusa) of “First in the South: Why South Carolina’s Presidential Primary Matters” (University of South Carolina Press, 2019).
Seth C. McKee is professor of political science at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Okla., and author, most recently, with M.V. Hood III, of “Rural Republican Realignment in the Modern South: the Untold Story” (University of South Carolina Press, 2022). | 2022-09-08T12:37:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How are 'MAGA Republicans' different from other Republicans? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/08/biden-maga-republicans-democracy/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/08/biden-maga-republicans-democracy/ |
Happy Thursday, where this morning we’re reading about streaming TV’s existential crisis. Tips on show recs or otherwise to rachel.roubein@washpost.com.
Today’s edition: A federal judge ruled that Obamacare can’t require coverage for some HIV drugs and other preventive services, a decision with sweeping implications if it goes into effect. A Michigan judge struck down the state’s 1931 near-total ban on abortion. But first …
FDA advisors have given thumbs-up to a second controversial drug
The Food and Drug Administration got a critical greenlight to approve a hotly debated experimental treatment for the debilitating disease ALS.
In a stunning reversal yesterday, the agency’s independent advisers recommended approval of the drug despite uncertainties about its effectiveness. Less than six months ago, the panel took a different tact, narrowly voting against FDA signing off on the medication, our colleague Laurie McGinley reports.
But the final call is ultimately up to agency staff, who are expected to make a decision by Sept. 29. It’s the second time in roughly 15 months where the FDA has been tasked with deciding whether to approve a controversial drug for a devastating illness.
Holly Fernandez Lynch, of the University of Pennsylvania:
Prior vote was 6-4 in the opposite direction. Big change. https://t.co/RIGRgjXLG3
— Holly Fernandez Lynch (she/her) (@HollyLynchez) September 7, 2022
ALS — sometimes referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease — destroys nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Roughly 30,000 Americans have the disease, which can kill people within three to five years after symptoms first appear. As of now, there are two FDA-approved drugs on the market, but they have limited effectiveness.
Enter Amylyx. The Cambridge-based company is seeking approval for a treatment called AMX0035. As Laurie explains, the drug has amassed support from an array of patients, who deluged the FDA with thousands of emails and personal testimonies in a plea for approval.
The FDA previously expressed skepticism about the drug’s effectiveness. And so did its panel of expert advisers, who in late March concluded evidence from a single clinical trial with just 137 patients and some additional data wasn’t proof enough that the drug worked.
But the agency convened a rare second meeting yesterday. After hours of debate, the panel ultimately voted 7-2 to recommend the FDA approve the drug. Here’s what advisers said changed their minds:
Compelling patient testimony
Additional analyses submitted by the drugmaker
And an unusual move by a top federal regulator
That move was made by Billy Dunn, director of the FDA’s Office of Neuroscience. The drug manufacturer is conducting a large trial slated to wrap up late next year or in early 2024. Dunn asked company officials if they would voluntarily withdraw the treatment if it was approved now but the bigger trial later failed to show the drug worked. A top Amylyx official said they would “do what is right for patients, which includes withdrawing the product from the market,” Laurie reports.
But some experts expressed alarm at the move. It gave “false reassurance” to the advisory committee that the drugmaker would abide by a “gentleman's promise,” Reshma Ramachandran, an assistant professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine, told The Health 202.
Stat's Adam Feuerstein:
$AMLX - Fascinating opening remarks by FDA's Billy Dunn, focused mostly on the agency's legal authority to apply "broadest regulatory flexibility" for drugs that treat fatal neurological diseases like #ALS.
— Adam Feuerstein (@adamfeuerstein) September 7, 2022
The ghost of Aduhelm
The deliberations are reminiscent of the controversy over a new Alzheimer’s drug called Aduhelm.
Last summer, the FDA approved the drug amid intense pressure from patient groups. But the move sparked backlash from some health experts who expressed concern the drug wasn’t safe or effective. The decision even prompted several members of the agency’s advisory committee to resign in protest and for Medicare to decline to cover the costly medication for most patients.
But there are several key differences. For one, the experimental ALS drug is considered safe. And the diseases can affect different patient populations, said Rachel Sachs, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law.
“There wasn't a significant safety problem observed here, in the way that there was for Aduhelm,” Sachs said. “One of the big issues [with Aduhelm] was this really significant question about the potential harm to patients, and here that just doesn't seem to have been part of the analysis.”
A federal judge agreed with a Christian-owned company that parts of the Affordable Care Act mandating private insurance plans cover certain preventive drugs and services at no cost to patients are unconstitutional, The Post’s Mark Johnson reports.
The ruling could threaten access to certain care for more than 150 million working Americans who receive health care through their employer. The federal government is likely to appeal the decision, though a Biden administration official said the decision was under review.
U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth, Texas, ruled that the requirement that employers cover HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Plaintiffs in the case had previously argued that the mandate made them “complicit in facilitating homosexual behavior” contrary to their faith and personal values.
Also: O’Connor found that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force cannot decide what services are required to be fully covered under the ACA because it violates the Constitution’s Appointments Clause. Mandates that insurers cover contraceptives, vaccines and some children’s services still stand for now.
Next steps: It remains to be seen whether the ruling will apply only to the Texas-based Christian for-profit corporation Braidwood Management Inc. or have greater consequences across the country. O’Connor has yet to issue a nationwide injunction or vacate the rule, but has requested both sides file supplemental briefings by Friday.
The ruling is the latest in a series of challenges to the ACA. O’Connor himself ruled the entire law unconstitutional in late 2018 — a decision that didn’t stand after the Supreme Court upheld the law 7-2 last year, the third time the justices had considered a challenge to the Obama administration’s most significant domestic policy.
Karine Jean-Pierre, White House press secretary:
Michigan judge strikes down 1931 abortion ban
Michigan’s 1931 near-total ban on abortion violates the tenets of the state’s constitution, a judge ruled yesterday after temporarily suspending the law earlier this year, the Detroit Free Press reports.
Michigan Court of Claims Judge Elizabeth L. Gleicher ruled that enforcing the law would violate the right to bodily integrity and equal protection afforded to pregnant women. The decision will almost certainly be appealed to a higher court that has already weakened Gleicher’s previous abortion rulings.
The ruling doesn’t change access to the procedure in the state. Prosecutors haven’t been able to enforce the pre-Roe ban, which criminalizes abortion unless it is necessary to save the patient’s life.
A decision in the shadow of a deadline: The state Supreme Court has until Friday to decide whether to place a constitutional amendment enshrining abortion access into law on the November ballot.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat:
Today, the courts ruled once again Michigan women have the right to make medical decisions for themselves.
However, this decision is likely to be challenged, and we know that there are extremists who will stop at nothing to ban abortion even in cases of rape and incest.
New York drops 28-month-old mask mandate on public transportation
Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) announced yesterday that public transit riders will no longer be required to wear face coverings in New York, effectively ending one of the country’s longest-standing coronavirus mask mandates.
The announcement puts the state in line with many public transit systems nationwide, which overwhelmingly moved to drop their own face covering requirements after a federal judge overturned the nationwide mask mandate for transportation in April.
Masks will still be required at many health-care facilities across the state, but are now also optional in for-hire vehicles, airports, homeless shelters, correctional facilities and detention centers. The new rule took effect immediately.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority:
Transgender residents sue Florida over new Medicaid rule
A group of LGBT and health advocacy organizations sued Florida yesterday seeking to block a new rule excluding the state's Medicaid program from covering costs associated with gender-affirming care, our colleague Anne Branigin reports.
The lawsuit filed in Tallahassee federal court argues that Florida’s new policy, which went into effect last month, violates the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights and federal nondiscrimination statutes because it denies them treatment on the basis of their gender identity.
The state’s Medicaid exclusion comes amid a larger effort underway to roll back access to gender-affirming care, particularly for transgender youth. Florida is among nine states that explicitly exclude residents from using Medicaid to pay for the services, which can include voice therapy, hormone-blocking medication and, in some instances, surgery.
Florida officials defended the policy. “Under our rules, only treatments that are found to be safe, effective, and that meet medical necessity criteria may be covered,” Brock Juarez, a spokesperson for the state Agency for Health Care Administration, wrote in an email to Anne. “That is precisely what the Agency has done here.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra signed a declaration yesterday permitting the FDA to issue emergency use authorizations for in vitro monkeypox diagnostics in an effort to expand the availability of tests.
The reproductive health-care start-up Choix announced that it will start offering advanced provision abortion pills to people who aren’t pregnant so that they can stockpile them for potential future use.
On the move: Families USA, a liberal consumer health lobby, announced it promoted Cheryl Fish-Parcham to serve as its new director of private coverage. Arielle Kane will also join the organization as its new director of Medicaid initiatives. She most recently served as director of health-care policy at the Progressive Policy Institute.
Postpartum women never lost Medicaid coverage during the pandemic. But the state told them they did. (By Isabelle Taft | Mississippi Today )
Organ Transplants Are Up, but the Agency in Charge Is Under Fire (By Blake Farmer | Nashville Public Radio and Kaiser Health News )
A suicidal son, an iconic bridge and the struggle to keep people from jumping (By William Wan | The Washington Post) | 2022-09-08T12:37:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The debate over a new ALS drug harkens back to the Aduhelm controversy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/08/debate-over-new-als-drug-harkens-back-aduhelm-controversy/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/08/debate-over-new-als-drug-harkens-back-aduhelm-controversy/ |
Ask Sahaj: My mom won’t stop venting to me about my dad
Hi Sahaj: My mom keeps venting to me about her arguments with my dad and how he makes her feel bad — but I feel like she’s putting me in the middle or like I’ll start to resent my dad. I don’t live at home, and my parents moved back to their hometown in Mexico now that my dad has retired. I talk to my mom on the phone twice a week, and I talk to my dad most weekends. When my mom vents, I try to give her advice that I would give to any friend. My siblings also hear the same things from my mom, and we vent to each other, but we don’t know how to solve it.
I feel like I’m in the middle of a problem with my parents. How do I deal with this and get her to stop sharing these details with me?
— Stuck in the middle
Stuck in the middle: You are in a difficult position. You’ve been responding to and providing for your mom’s emotional needs but at the expense of your own.
If this is a recent development, it may be as simple as having to set some boundaries with your mom. However, I sense that this may be a deeper seated issue that has been around for much longer. A consistent lack of boundaries, overreliance and confusion in roles can indicate enmeshment in a family. This makes it difficult for the children to develop a strong sense of self, and it can lead them to feel responsible for their parents well-being.
If there is concern for your mom’s safety, then intervening may be necessary; however, it seems like you and your siblings have been standing in and providing the emotional intimacy your mom is not getting from your dad. And while it may not be conscious on her part, by expecting you to listen and oversharing about your dad, she is releasing her emotional burdens onto you.
I can sense how bonded you are with your mom, and how much you love her, but even if you feel close to her, she is still your mother and your relationship should look different from a friendship. The goal is not necessarily pulling away, but instead, figuring out what you need and what you’re not okay with so you can redirect the relationship to a healthier place.
Two people contribute to a relationship dynamic and since you’ve been giving her advice, you’ve been encouraging her vent about your dad to you.
Your mom may not be aware of how this is impacting you, so I'd encourage you to tell her. Start with: I love you, and I know this is hard for you. I want to be there for you but I’m realizing that when you talk to me about Dad, it has a negative impact on me.
You may deal with pushback, so you can also set explicit parameters around how long she has to vent about your dad, before changing the topic. I’m happy to listen for the next 15 minutes but then I’d really like to tell you about my week.
I’d suggest also having a frank conversation with your siblings to discuss how you can navigate this together. This can help you feel supported as you explore how your relationship with your mom needs to change and your role in initiating that.
You may feel guilt because you want to be supportive, but remember that being emotionally supportive of your mom is vastly different from being emotionally responsible for your mom.
Support can look like helping her find resources for therapy or encouraging her to talk to your dad. It can look like motivating her to connect with new or old friends or nudging her to pick up a hobby so she can have something for herself. Support is not managing her emotions for her, resolving conflict on her behalf, or rejecting your own mental health to be there for her.
It can be hard to witness people we love experiencing hardships and not want to step in and fix it. You want to “solve” this, indicating a level of responsibility that you are burdened with that is in fact, not yours.
No matter how much you love or care for your mom, you cannot do any of the work for her. You can only control how you support her and how involved you are in discussing these issues with her. | 2022-09-08T13:15:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ask Sahaj: My mom won't stop venting to me about my dad - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/09/08/ask-sahaj-mom-venting-dad-boundaries/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/09/08/ask-sahaj-mom-venting-dad-boundaries/ |
A 19-year-old man has been arrested in Memphis after four people died in multiple shootings that spread fear across the city and a live-streamed video appeared online showing someone entering an auto-parts store and shooting a man.
The suspect, whom police identified as Ezekiel D. Kelly, is in custody hours after shootings in at least eight locations prompted a citywide alert. Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis confirmed the four fatalities at a news conference early Thursday, calling the day’s events a “mobile mass shooting.” She said three others were wounded, including an employee of an AutoZone who was critically injured and is in the hospital, and one person was uninjured. The shooting at the AutoZone was filmed on Facebook Live, she said.
Police investigate the scene of a reported carjacking reportedly connected to a series of shootings. Court records show the suspect has been charged with first-degree murder. He was released from prison this year after serving 11 months of a three-year sentence for aggravated assault, according to the records.
Police investigate the scene of a reported carjacking reportedly connected to a series of shootings. Police didn’t release the identities of Wednesday’s victims and didn’t immediately respond to calls and emails Wednesday night.
Memphis police officers work at one of multiple crime scenes they believe were committed by a man driving around shooting in Memphis. Video of a shooting has been deleted from a Facebook page appearing to be Kelly’s, and a related Instagram account appeared to have been taken down Wednesday night.
In the live-streamed Facebook video The Post viewed before it was removed, a man appears to walk into an auto-parts store, aim a gun at another man and pull the trigger. He also claims to have shot five people.
Onlookers watch Memphis Police officers work an active shooter scene on Poplar Avenue.
A news crew reports as police investigate the scene.
Police investigate the scene of a reported carjacking reportedly connected to a series of shootings.
Memphis Police officers work an active shooter scene on Poplar Avenue. Police warned residents to shelter in place as a man drives around the city shooting at people on Wednesday night.
Patrick Lantrip/AP
The suspect crashed a Dodge Challenger before being cornered by police in the city’s Whitehaven area. He was uninjured in the crash, police said.
“It is certainly an anomaly for us to experience so much in such a short period of time,” Chief Davis said at the news conference. Wednesday’s shootings came days after the abduction and death of teacher Eliza Fletcher. Last week, a police officer was shot in the city.
Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy bows his head at a midnight news conference. | 2022-09-08T13:59:13Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The scene after multiple shootings in Memphis kills 4 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/photography/interactive/2022/photos-memphis-shootings/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/photography/interactive/2022/photos-memphis-shootings/ |
Liz Truss, UK prime minister, departs 10 Downing Street to attend her first weekly questions and answers session in Parliament in London, UK, on Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2022. Truss promised a major package of support this week to tackle soaring UK energy bills, in her first national address as leader that was dominated by a cost-of-living crisis likely to make or break her premiership. (Bloomberg)
The Conservative Party has got into the habit of discarding prime ministers in much the same way that vulgar plutocrats dismiss nannies: two sacked in the past six years (Theresa May and Boris Johnson) and one embarrassed into resigning (David Cameron). Political scientists note that the British prime minister’s job is becoming increasingly presidential given the concentration of power in Number 10. But Liz Truss is a president who was chosen by an electorate of just 172,000 people — a number that would make America’s electoral college, an 18th century franchise, look positively democratic.
Why is Britain’s ruling party going through such agonies? There are many obvious reasons: the Brexit madness, the addictive nature of backbench revolt, the effect of 12-years of power. But the most important is that Tories are suffering from a profound crisis of identity. The world’s oldest political party doesn’t really know what it is or what it’s for.
The Conservatives don’t know whether they’re a Thatcherite party or something radically different. David Cameron (2010-2016) replaced Thatcher’s social conservatism with metropolitan liberalism, or what his supporters would call “compassionate conservatism.” His signature themes were supporting gay marriage and “hugging huskies” (shorthand for his climate-change initiatives). Theresa May (2016-2019) replaced Thatcher’s free market fervor with support for state intervention. Her themes were industrial policy and helping the “just-about-managing.” May was prevented from putting her convictions into practice by the party’s civil war over Brexit but Boris Johnson (2019-2022) not only forged her policy into a fully-fledged national conservatism but reaped a massive electoral dividend in 2019. His signatures were “levelling up” and “building stuff.”
Liz Truss, by contrast, is a true-blue Thatcherite — unashamedly pro-markets, business and entrepreneurship — as are her two most important economic lieutenants, Kwasi Kwarteng, her chancellor, and Jacob Rees-Mogg, her business secretary. In place of hugging huskies, we have “frack, baby, frack,” and in place of “levelling up,” we have shrinking the state.
Has Truss got any chance of solving her party’s identity crisis and producing a new Tory settlement? Or is “Trussonomics” just another identity the Tories will put on for a moment before discarding it? Truss will get a grace period and her authority in the party will be strengthened by the next election, which is only two-and-a-bit years away. All but the most wild-eyed Tories understand the adage “Five minutes in power is worth five years in opposition.”
On Wednesday, there was a timely conference on the future of conservatism put on by the Centre for Policy Studies, a think tank set up by Margaret Thatcher and her guru Keith Joseph. It suggested that the conservative intelligentsia is excited, perhaps even elated, by Truss’s arrival. Johnson never had much interest in policy but Truss is a policy wonk who started her career at a think tank. She’s already recruiting people from the CPS and similar organizations. Reviving Thatcherism is popular with a broad swath of MPs who are now in their prime but who grew up during the 1980s.
Yet Truss has big obstacles, including an immediate collision between ideology and reality. Her first act as prime minister may be the one that defines her entire tenure: a giant spending package to cap the price of electricity for consumers at public expense. This could easily end up costing the Treasury as much as £200 billion ($230 billion) over 18 months, at a time when she’s also talking about cutting taxes. Even if most people accept the logic of doing this — and governments across Europe are adopting similar policies regardless of ideological complexion — it puts the onus on her to demonstrate her Thatcherite credentials by delivering some serious free-market reforms.
Her second challenge is the problem of “delivery”: The party has a dismal record of making big promises only to fail to deliver them. Johnson even created a delivery unit in Downing Street under Tony Blair’s “deliverology” guru, Michael Barber. Truss has promised to deliver growth by, among other things, improving education and challenging Treasury orthodoxy. UK governments of all complexions have been promising to do this for decades without succeeding.
Truss has also promised to govern as a “conservative.” But, as Johnson discovered, the public-sector establishment — what party eminence Michael Gove called “the blob” — has an unblemished record of resisting change. Governing as a Conservative at a time when the public sector is dominated by the left is rather like running up a down escalator. Truss hasn’t helped herself by appointing a cabinet of cronies (particularly from her Norfolk roots) rather than talents. Ministers with a proven record of actually delivering things such as Gove and Jeremy Hunt have been left on the backbenches.
The third is the next general election, which will be upon us with remarkable speed. James Frayne, the founder of Public First, a political consultancy with deep Tory connections, argues that the voting groups that delivered Johnson’s 2019 victory — older affluent voters in the south and poorer working-class voters in the north — is fraying. Perhaps half the working-class voters have abandoned the party, driven away by the standard-of-living crisis and the general sense that the country is “falling apart” (The promised improvements in the health service and law and order haven’t materialized). Truss needs to demonstrate that her revived Thatcherism can make an appreciable improvement to the lives of the “just-about managing” even though, unlike Thatcher, she has no council houses to sell or industries to privatize.
It’s not impossible that she can win the election. Labour leader Keir Starmer does remarkably badly when pollsters ask voters whether he looks like a prime minister in waiting. The upside of the Conservative Party’s identity crisis is that Truss’s administration has something of the flavor of a new government. Nor is it impossible that she can do something about the growth rate — or at least persuade the public that she’s addressing the right problem, even if she hasn’t had enough time to make the needed changes.
But it will be tough sledding on both fronts: The economic outlook is grim, with the pound sinking to new lows against the dollar and inflation feeding on itself. Truss can’t afford to be what one speaker at the CPS conference called “weird politicians,” a reference to the low public tolerance for both Gordon Brown and Theresa May. The latest YouGov poll shows the Conservatives trailing Labour — in spite of Starmer — 28% to 43%.
The likelihood is that Truss will be the last of a succession of short-lived Conservative prime ministers, but this time she will kicked out by the people at large rather than by her fellow MPs. The consequence of her ouster — and the end of the Conservatives more than dozen years in power — will be a full-scale war over the party’s identity: A war that will make the scuffles of the past decade look tame and civilized by comparison.
Liz Truss’s High-Wire Plan Could Actually Avert a UK Recession: Tara Lachappelle
Truss, the Iron Weather Vane, Faces Chilly EU Wind: Lionel Laurent | 2022-09-08T14:08:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Truss and the Battle for the Soul of Conservatism - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/truss-and-the-battle-for-the-soul-of-conservatism/2022/09/08/75f860ca-2f7a-11ed-bcc6-0874b26ae296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/truss-and-the-battle-for-the-soul-of-conservatism/2022/09/08/75f860ca-2f7a-11ed-bcc6-0874b26ae296_story.html |
BOWLING GREEN, OH - MAY 17: A Wal-Mart greeter waits to welcome new customers to the new 2,000 square foot Wal-Mart Supercenter store May 17, 2006 in Bowling Green, Ohio. The new store, one of three new supercenters opening today in Ohio, employs 340 people with 60 percent of those working full-time. (Photo by J.D. Pooley/Getty Images) (Photographer: J.D. Pooley/Getty Images North America)
Back when Webster was doing his defining, 70% of white men over the age of 65 worked for a living. Official rates for women were lower, but probably only because their work — which often took place within the home — wasn’t counted the same way. In reality, women didn’t “retire” any more than men did.
The toil-until-you-die mentality was arguably a necessity, particularly on the hardscrabble family farms where most Americans lived and worked at the time. Historians have also argued that it reflected respect for the elderly, who accumulated useful knowledge about farming over the course of their lives.
The small-scale industrial enterprises that were just beginning to transform the nation’s economy also employed the old, but for different reasons. These firms often depended on family and community connections to recruit and retain workers. Owners and managers realized that putting older relatives to work would help them hire younger laborers as well.
Factories grew ever larger, but managers kept graying workers on the payroll. Some did so out of compassion, but others believed that older employees were more conservative and consequently less likely to succumb to radicalism and strikes. They could also be employed as “scabs” during times of labor unrest.
Beginning in the 1890s, though, men over 65 began to “retire” from the workforce. This shift arguably began when late-19th century unions and progressives pushed to reduce the length of the working day, which often lasted between 10 and 12 hours. They demanded an eight-hour day, and eventually, a five-day work week.
As reformers made inroads, companies became increasingly sensitive to productivity issues: They now needed to produce the same amount as before, but with far fewer hours. Inefficiencies that might have been acceptable in the past now became intolerable.
This spelled trouble for older workers. As the historian William Graebner explained, “employers who could neither pass their costs on to consumers nor reduce wages sought to lower operating expenditures” by eliminating less-efficient employees. Most employers, convinced that productivity declined with age, targeted the elderly.
That development went hand in hand with a significant change in attitudes toward the elderly. A growing number of doctors, economists and advocates of “scientific management” began to disparage the elderly as sand in the gears of progress, though they rarely offered objective evidence to buttress their claims.
Typical of the new orthodoxy was Johns Hopkins University physician Willian Osler, who gave a widely read and endlessly quoted address where he described the “comparative uselessness of men above forty years of age,” and the unequivocal “uselessness of men above sixty years of age,” arguing that the latter should not be permitted to work beyond that point.
That belief created two big problems that played out across American society. The first was that older workers didn’t want to leave the workforce. Some may have simply feared poverty, but more than a few workers expressed unease that by abandoning their vocation, they would be giving up on life itself.
The second problem was that these retirements created a growing class of indigent elderly who essentially became wards of the state. In 1912, the first full-length study of the problem, Lee Squier’s “Old Age Dependency in the United States,” brought overdue attention to the issue.
While some companies and public employers offered pensions to support workers in their old age, many did not, just cutting employees loose at age 60 or 65. The poverty of worn-out workers, already a serious problem in the 1920s, become a full-blown crisis in the 1930s.
Many accounts of Social Security portray this New Deal program as the cornerstone of a new, more humanitarian approach to old age. But its origins suggest that other motivations played a role.
Barbara Armstrong, one of the first female law professors in the nation, helped write key provisions. She later recalled how President Franklin Roosevelt, eager to drive down the stubbornly high unemployment rate among the nation’s youth, seized on retirement as a way to achieve this end. “The interest of Mr. Roosevelt was with the younger man,” Armstrong later recalled.
The debate in Congress reflected this bias. Senator Robert Wagner argued that the new program would provide an incentive to the retirement of older workers that would “improve efficiency standards [and] make new places for strong and eager…”. The unusual stipulations of Social Security — old-age benefits in exchange for a total exit from the workforce — reflected this bias.
Pushing older workers out of jobs to open up opportunities for the next generation became an unspoken dogma in the postwar era. The growth of private pensions, which supplemented Social Security, made retirement increasingly easy to sell as a new, desirable stage of life.
As Americans internalized the idea of retiring, they lost touch with its problematic origins. This amnesia made it difficult to imagine alternatives to retirement that did not involve a full-scale separation from the workplace, such as part-time work or other flexible arrangements.
And now that leaves the United States in an increasingly untenable position as it confronts a persistent labor shortage, with the workforce participation rate for people over the age of 65 stuck at 23%. In fact, many of the unfilled positions are in professions that are likely to continue seeing high demand even in a recession — teachers, for example.
There is a solution. Greater acceptance of flexible or “phased” retirement would enable older workers to retain an income while still spending more time on leisure. This approach can help alleviate shortages of workers, and it may also lessen the burden on the social safety net by keeping seniors engaged and active.
Companies and public agencies should put more effort into extending such part-time opportunities to their older workers instead of thinking of retirement as being either an all-or-nothing stage of life. We’ve moved beyond a strategy that was intended to solve the economic problems of a century ago. It’s no longer what the nation needs — nor what many older workers want.
Retirement Expenses Are Too Hard to Predict: Teresa Ghilarducci
A Raise for Seniors Won’t Help Curb Inflation: Jonathan Levin
How Are Those Retirement Plans Going Now?: Allison Schrager | 2022-09-08T14:08:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ready to Work Until You Die? America Needs You - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/ready-to-work-until-you-die-america-needs-you/2022/09/08/7595ef30-2f7a-11ed-bcc6-0874b26ae296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/ready-to-work-until-you-die-america-needs-you/2022/09/08/7595ef30-2f7a-11ed-bcc6-0874b26ae296_story.html |
The best things to do in the D.C. area the week of Sept. 8-14
The Rosslyn Jazz Fest celebrates its 30th anniversary by returning as an in-person concert for the first time since 2019. (Josh Brick Photography)
Prince George’s County Fair at Show Place Arena: The Prince George’s County Fair bills itself as “the oldest running fair in Maryland,” as it was first held in 1842. While it looks a little different today, with a midway, rides, live music and other attractions, animals are still an important part of the fair, with livestock — including goats, cattle, swine and sheep — still being judged as part of a 4-H competition. Keeping up with the times, the fair’s competitions also include dozens of other categories, from quilts and paintings to preserves and pies, as well as the ever-popular Beautiful Baby Contest, held on the final day of the fair. Through Sunday. Admission $6; $5 for anyone younger than 13 or 55 and older. Additional costs for rides and games.
Kid Cudi at Capital One Arena: Ever since debuting at the tail end of the aughts, Kid Cudi has left an outsize imprint on hip-hop. With a lonely stoner attitude; a lyrical focus on internal strife and mental health; and a taste for productions that incorporate elements from pop, rock and electronic music, Cudi has served as a more earnest and authentic counterpart to Drake, an artist whose moody outsider persona has always seemed like a put-on. Rather than chasing trends, Cudi has created them by remaining true to his M.O. After capping off his Man on the Moon trilogy with another operatic conceptual album in 2020, the multi-hyphenate — the rapper-singer is an actor-model-fashionista — is touring in advance of “Entergalactic,” an album and animated show for Netflix that represents his latest giant leap. 7 p.m. $39.50-$159.50.
GLDN+ Cinema in Farragut Square: Most outdoor movie series have ended or are winding down at this point, but Farragut Square’s GLDN+ Cinema shows a different film every Thursday in September. The series begins this week with “Spider-Man: No Way Home”; “The Mummy,” “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” and “Respect” follow in subsequent weeks. A selection of nearby restaurants, including Luke’s Lobster and Bubbie’s Plant Burgers, offer carryout deals for those who want to create a picnic. (Full details are on the website.) Movies begin at sunset. Free.
Willett Hour at Jack Rose: You might have heard of National Margarita Day or National IPA Day, but of all the alcoholic drinks in America, only bourbon demands to be celebrated for a full month instead of a single month. (You can thank the U.S. Senate, which declared September 2007 to be National Bourbon Heritage Month. The designation has stuck around every September after, at least in Kentucky.) The next few weeks bring tastings and big-ticket special events — a bourbon-pairing dinner and cigar tasting with Victoria Eady Butler, the master blender from Uncle Nearest, at the Fairmont Hotel? — but there are lower-key options, too. Jack Rose is starting with Willett Hour, showcasing one of the best independent distilleries in the country. Four rare barrel picks are available for $12 per ounce during happy hour in the Saloon bar. Sample two rye whiskeys, the six-year-old Voyage of the Beagle and seven-year-old Eau de Vie, and a pair of straight bourbons, eight-year-old Porch Swing and nine-year-old Brand New Bag, which regularly sell for $18 to $26 per ounce. Whether you’re new to Willett or not, it’s a deal. 5 to 7:30 p.m. $12 per pour.
‘La Revoltosa’ at the GALA Hispanic Theater: This “zarzuela,” or lyric drama, debuted in Madrid more than 100 years ago, but its themes remain as relevant as ever. Its title, which translates roughly to “troublemaker,” refers to its lead: a vociferous woman who disrupts traditions and, along the way, entangles herself with the lives of several couples in different stages of life. Presented jointly by the theater and the Embassy of Spain’s Cultural Office, the production opens Thursday and runs four shows per week through early October. 8 p.m. $20 opening night, then $25-$48.
Spiritualized at 9:30 Club: With Spiritualized, Jason “J. Spaceman” Pierce has explored the outer reaches of intergalactic, psychedelic rock for three decades. Completing the Kurt Vonnegut quote, this year’s “Everything Was Beautiful” serves as a companion piece to “And Nothing Hurt.” Pierce has described the new album as less claustrophobic and more expansive than the last one, a sense of space that Spiritualized will attempt to inhabit in concert after reconvening for the first time in three years. “I was thinking it was going to be difficult; you know, they’re big songs and big recordings,” he told Consequence of Sound. “But when I got back together with the band … suddenly, we just made the sound. I was nearly in tears; it was just this very simple thing.” 7 p.m. (doors open). $38.
D.C. Walls Festival Kick-Off Party at Alethia Tanner Park: The streetscape in NoMa is getting a fresh new look, thanks to the annual D.C. Walls Festival. Eighteen artists from around the globe are working on more than a dozen murals throughout the neighborhood, including transforming the Wendy’s in Dave Thomas Circle into a work of public art. At the official kickoff party, watch artists working on pieces along the Metropolitan Branch Trail before browsing a maker’s market, listening to DJs and getting snacks from food trucks. Once the sun sets, “D.C. Walls @ NIGHT” features digital projections, LED art, glow-in-the-dark hula hoops, glow lights and other neon-hued activities. 3 to 10 p.m. Free.
Arte Agave at the Schuyler: The draw of Arte Agave, a full-on celebration of the fruit of the agave plant, is the opportunity to sample more than 100 spirits, ranging from neat tequila and mezcal tastings to stations pouring ranch water cocktails, blood orange margaritas or smoky old-fashioneds. Local restaurants, including Compass Rose and Maydan, show off draft cocktails. Beyond the drinks, try tostadas from Taqueria Habanero, tacos from Taqueria Picoso, taquitos from El Rey and even a nacho bar. Watch traditional Mexican dance from Ballet Folklórico, or explore pop-up art exhibitions. VIP tickets allow for early admission and extra sampling. 6 to 10 p.m. $75-$90.
Frass Green at DC9: Just when it seems the world wants to forget about the covid-19 pandemic, Frass Green wants to remember. Its album “Buried,” dropping Sept. 9, aims to reconnect with the disconnection that, for so many, defined 2020. Singer Joe Antoshak said the goal of the D.C.-based band’s new LP — written in part on a trip to a West Virginia cabin two years ago — is “to capture a point in time. I was trying to make things sound like that trip, which was wonderful and beautiful,” Antoshak said. “It was also super intense and kind of terrible at times.” Formed in 2018, the quartet has released two breezy albums with fuzzy vocals, melody-driven music evocative of summer road trips and indie coming-of-age movies. But the band’s self-produced “Buried” veers into folk, garage rock and shoegaze — an ode to the complexities of the time in which it was created, and to the maturing of a band with a scatological name. 7:30 p.m. $15.
Interview: Frass Green captures the pandemic feelings we’re all trying to forget
Art on the Rocks at Waterfront Park: Cocktail Week is back in Old Town Alexandria, and it’s kicking off with a friendly competition among local restaurants to create the most artistic drink and appetizer pairing. Art on the Rocks organizers have challenged chefs and mixologists to replicate a piece of art by a member of the local Art League. A panel of experts will judge restaurants like Hank’s Oyster Bar and Chadwicks, but guests can try each of the creations. The evening features live music and art for a 21-and-older crowd at Waterfront Park behind the Torpedo Factory Art Center on the Strand, but don’t fret if you can’t make it — Old Town Cocktail Week runs through Sept. 18 with themed events, programs and specialty cocktails at participating restaurants. 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. $65.
Rosslyn Jazz Fest at Gateway Park: The D.C. Jazz Festival was held over Labor Day weekend. This Saturday, it’s the suburbs’ time to shine at two major outdoor festivals. The Rosslyn Jazz Fest marks its 30th year with a diverse quartet of artists. Headliner Cimafunk’s wide-ranging funk sound draws on Afro-Cuban grooves, and his 2021 album “El Alimento” features guest turns from George Clinton, Chucho Valdés and Lupe Fiasco. The schedule at Gateway Park also includes Mwenso & the Shakes, the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio and Groove Orchestra. Picnics and lawn chairs are welcome, and the park offers food vendors and multiple bars. 1 to 7 p.m. Free.
Silver Spring Jazz Festival: Across the Potomac, there’s more music at the Silver Spring Jazz Festival, which features two stages on Veterans Plaza downtown. The headliner is Delfeayo Marsalis and his 14-piece Uptown Jazz Orchestra, a swinging, brass-driven ensemble that channels a classic New Orleans sound. Locals on the bill include pianist Marcus Johnson’s jazz and go-go mash-up Crank and Flo and Afrobeat favorites Chopteeth. New this year: a beer garden with Silver Spring’s own Astro Lab, Denizens and Silver Branch breweries, and a pre-festival party with live music on Ellsworth Drive. 3 to 10 p.m. Free.
DC Bike Ride: Cruise along 20 miles of car-free roads from West Potomac Park to the U.S. Capitol building during the DC Bike Ride, surrounded by thousands of other bicyclists of all ages and cycling abilities. The route goes through downtown D.C.’s prettiest sights, twice crossing the Potomac River and going as far north as the Key Bridge. While 20 miles might seem like a lot to some riders, there are rest stops, live music, selfie stations and ice cream along the way, followed by a big party at the finish line featuring a DJ and food trucks. If you don’t have a bike, there’s an option to rent a Cannondale to join in the fun. 8 a.m. $37-$190. Ages 3 to 7 ride along free with an adult.
Dogs in swimming pools: As kids return to school and summer slips into the rearview mirror, it’s time for a cherished tradition: dogs taking over public swimming pools for dog-only parties, with no humans allowed in the water, before the pools close for the season. Leesburg’s Ida Lee Park hosts the first of several events this weekend, with two sessions at the AV Symington Aquatic Center. Dogs must be at least 6 months old, licensed and vaccinated. Preregistration is required, with no more than two dogs per person. (9 to 10:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. $5 per person.) P.G. County’s Doggy Dive-In invites all pups to the Glenn Dale Splash Park. Owners can bring up to two dogs, and must show that their canine companions have up-to-date vaccinations. (10 a.m. to noon. $5 per dog.) Of note: Fairfax County had announced a “Dog Daze” at the Water Mine water park, but it was canceled due to maintenance problems at the park.
Union Market 10th Anniversary: It’s been a decade since Union Market took over the former market building on Neal Place NE, becoming D.C.’s flagship food hall and spurring the redevelopment of the larger neighborhood, once known as Florida Avenue Market. The day-long celebration of Union Market’s 10th anniversary begins with story time on the rooftop, sponsored by the D.C. Public Library, and includes live brass and go-go music along Neal Place between noon and 6 p.m., a DJ at the rooftop Hi-Lawn bar, a tasting of woman-owned wines at Vitis inside the market, and discounts at local vendors such as Salt & Sundry and the Suburbia cocktail garden. 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Free.
Sounds of Africa at the National Museum of African Art: This concert series brings musicians to the Enid A. Haupt Garden once per month. September’s concert features Sahel, a local ensemble known for playing Afro-Caribbean styles such as zouk and mbalax, and Amadou Kouyate, a griot who performs West African music on the kora, a long-necked 21-string instrument fashioned from a gourd, fusing traditional Manding songs with modern influences. 6:30 to 10 p.m. Free.
Fairweather at the Black Cat: Fairweather released its first album, “If They Move … Kill Them,” in 2001. In the two decades since, the D.C.-based band took an eight-year hiatus, released two albums and two EPs, and extensively toured. Its latest EP, “Deluge,” which dropped in June, is a dark, deep and expansive 21-minute project that lives in the “after the flood” world — as in, after the chaos, either public or personal. This makes sense for an album recorded during the most chaotic of times, the thick of the coronavirus pandemic. Fairweather is asking and trying to answer big, existential questions, and the group doesn’t hold back musically. The opener, “Untethered,” is a more-than-six-minute song that crushes the listener with its blunt observations of a crumbling society. Vocalist Jay Littleton hauntingly sings, “All these words will burn in time / promises of holding the line.” On “Pass the Redress,” Littleton sings through heavy and grungy guitars, “Disbelief cannot help dissipate the distress or this shameful ache.” Fairweather is looking straight into the soul of society. 8 p.m. $15-$20.
Melt at 9:30 Club: Melt’s sound is inherently nostalgic. The septet probably fits best into the retro pop subgenre, with its singer, Veronica Stewart-Frommer, having a singing style reminiscent of old times. With members on the trumpet and saxophone, their horns — playful sometimes and soul-stirring at others — add a fulfilling dimension to their songs. On “Waves,” Stewart-Frommer sings about a relationship that didn’t work without hostility. She sings, “I know I’m not coming back,” with a palpable confidence, and the happy horns follow her lead. Melt’s debut single, “Sour Candy,” was a viral hit when it was released in 2017. It’s another song about a sad situation that the band refuses to let feel sad: When the horns drop low and the sax creeps in for an instrumental, it makes you feel as if you’re listening to the could’ve-been lovers’ dance. “Sour Candy” is like almost every song Melt has released in that it begs the listener to ask, “imagine how this would sound live?” 7 p.m. (doors open). $25.
DC State Fair at Gateway DC: It might not have a midway or livestock exhibits, but the District boasts its own state fair with plenty of wholesome trappings. The festivities are back in person this weekend after two years of virtual content, and include dozens of contests. Some are traditional — best heirloom tomato, best berry jam or jelly — and some have a decidedly D.C. bent, including best mumbo sauce, best sewn face mask and best tattoo. Beyond the competitions, there are musical performances, a pet parade, line dancing lessons from the D.C. Rawhides, beekeeping and gardening workshops, crafts for children, a sports zone with games, a clothing swap, food trucks, a cocktail garden and a vendor marketplace. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free.
Adams Morgan Day: Adams Morgan has been in the headlines for its pilot program that closes 18th Street to automobile traffic one Sunday each month. Sadly, that schedule doesn’t include Adams Morgan Day, the 44-year-old celebration of the neighborhood’s arts and culture. There is still plenty to see, hear and do: The Crush Funk Brass Band is among the musical acts performing from noon to 7 p.m. in Kalorama Park. Kids are invited to soccer and flag football clinics on the fields at Marie Reed Elementary. Dance groups of all stripes — including Jamaican, Irish, Bollywood, Cuban and D.C. hand dancers — turn Marie Reed’s basketball courts into a party. A walking tour reveals “400 Years of History” throughout the area. Local vendors sell clothing, accessories, pottery and prints at a pop-up marketplace. The restaurants and bars lining the main drag are in party mode, with live music and food and drink specials. 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Free.
Takoma Park Folk Festival: “Regroovinate” is the theme of this year’s Takoma Park Folk Festival, which is returning in person after two years of virtual events. The entire festival is outdoors at Takoma Park Middle School: four stages of music, a craft market with more than 30 vendors, and children’s’ activities. While “folk” is in the name, the artists performing offer a wide range of styles, from country to Django-inspired jazz, and sea shanties to New Orleans blues. 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Free.
Doggie Day Swim D.C.: To follow from Saturday’s dog swim events, D.C. turns five pools over to the dogs: Upshur and Hearst pools in Northwest, Langdon Pool in Northeast, Ridge Road Pool in Southeast and Randall Pool in Southwest. While admission is free, dogs must have a D.C.-issued dog license to participate, be up to date on vaccinations, and be spayed or neutered. Dog licenses can be issued on the spot if the dog doesn’t have one. (Don’t worry, Alexandria: Your chance is next week.) 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Free.
Profs and Pints: The Six Wives of Henry VIII at Little Penn Coffeehouse: So you’ve seen “Six” at the National Theatre. Now you might be wondering how accurately it portrayed the 16th century women King Henry VIII claimed as wives and the troubles that followed. (Spoiler: There was no rock band at the Tower of London.) Amy Leonard, an associate professor of history at Georgetown University and scholar of modern period women, is revisiting Tudor history at Little Penn Coffeehouse. Guests are invited to grab a coffee or cocktail and settle in to learn more about these women so often remembered for their tragic demise. 6 to 8:30 p.m. $12-$15.
Arlo Parks at 9:30 Club: British singer-songwriter Arlo Parks added a second night in D.C. after selling out her first 9:30 Club show. The 21-year-old Gen Z heroine takes an almost novelistic approach to songwriting, with lyrics that create characters and stir emotion. It’s appropriate, then, that her dreamy debut album, “Collapsed in Sunbeams,” borrows its name from a Zadie Smith turn of phrase. 7 p.m. (doors open). $36.
Ivy Sole at Union Stage: Ivy Sole effortlessly bounces from their soft and gleaming singing voice to their tight rap verses. This neo-soul singer/rapper tells their stories in both a blunt and a tender way. It’s this ability that makes a song like “The Ways” from their second album, “Candid,” released in February, work. The production is breezy and characteristically unfussy, allowing Sole’s voice to flourish. With an assist from Kingsley Ibeneche, the song tells a sad story of a deep love that couldn’t work because of various circumstances: “What is addiction but the urge for the familiar/ what is commitment but forgoing something new.” Sole’s lyrics are usually introspective but often stop short of full confession. They switch things up on “Chico,” where Sole raps so fast they dramatically lose a breath halfway through while contemplating how unsustainable capitalism is. On “Bamboo,” they sing, “I wasn’t scared to say it but I was scared to shout it.” Sole sings enough about their mind-set for you to know where they’re coming from — but also leaves enough out for you to place yourself in their shoes. 8 p.m. $16.
‘Opening the Infrared Treasure Chest with the James Webb Space Telescope’ at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: You don’t have to be a cosmologist to be impressed, even blown away, by the pictures sent back to Earth by the James Webb Space Telescope. Massive distant galaxies! Incredibly detailed infrared images of Jupiter! But what are the reports actually telling us, and what are scientists looking forward to discovering? Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist John C. Mather, a senior project scientist for the Webb telescope, talks about the telescope’s mission and the how the first rounds of data have changed what we know about space and the formation of galaxies. There is a wait list for the in-person event, but you can watch the stream from the Udvar-Hazy Center through the museum’s YouTube channel. 8 p.m. Free.
Related: Webb telescope is already challenging what astronomers thought they knew | 2022-09-08T14:08:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Festivals, concerts, family events and things to do in the D.C. area - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/08/best-things-do-dc-area-week-sept-8-14/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/08/best-things-do-dc-area-week-sept-8-14/ |
FILE - Former NBC “Today” show co-host, Tamron Hall, poses for a portrait at Ruby’s Vintage Harlem in New York to promote the launch of her self-titled syndicated talk show on Aug. 8, 2019. The “Tamron Hall” show is in its fourth season. (Christopher Smith/Invision/AP, File)
NEW YORK — Two sparkly golden trophies gleam behind Tamron Hall on the set of her nationally syndicated talk show. But despite entering its fourth season, the “Tamron Hall” show is not a well-oiled machine — and that’s intentional. | 2022-09-08T14:08:56Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Tamron Hall hopes to inspire women while staying in her lane - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/tamron-hall-hopes-to-inspire-women-while-staying-in-her-lane/2022/09/08/09b24da0-2f79-11ed-bcc6-0874b26ae296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/tamron-hall-hopes-to-inspire-women-while-staying-in-her-lane/2022/09/08/09b24da0-2f79-11ed-bcc6-0874b26ae296_story.html |
Running back Antwain Littleton had a strong start to his redshirt freshman season at Maryland. (Gail Burton/AP)
Antwain Littleton II had finished another football practice at the University of Maryland when he returned to his College Park apartment to devour shrimp for dinner.
As he sat to eat in early-May, Littleton scrolled through his Instagram feed and paused on a post. It was a video created by someone chronicling their depression after multiple sports injuries, including one that caused them to leave football.
Littleton had stuffed away his guilt, but it resurfaced as he watched the video.
Growing up in New Carrollton, Littleton developed his identity around football. Youth coaches put the massive kid at defensive tackle, but when Littleton returned a kickoff 50 yards as a 10-year-old, they experimented him at other positions. On Littleton’s first play as quarterback, he ran on a read-option for an 80-yard touchdown. He moved to running back and earned the nickname “Baby Bus” as a seventh-grader.
He carried on that reputation at St. John’s, where he grew to 285 pounds and generated widespread attention for bulldozing through high school defenders; a highlight run in a nationally televised game in September 2019 prompted rapper Wale to tweet about him.
Two months later, on another run, Littleton collided with a DeMatha defensive back in a play that has continued to impact both people.
That defensive back, a couple years later, produced a 32-minute video to inspire others. When Littleton saw it, he exited his kitchen and called his mother to express his sorrow. He had lost his appetite.
A football upbringing
As children, Cole Donaldson and his older brothers would play football from their knees on the living room rug, resulting in bruises and a passion for the sport.
At birthday parties, Donaldson’s father, Cliff, spray-painted lines on their backyard for two-hand touch clashes. Every Friday night in the fall, Donaldson and his family attended games at the local high school, Queen Anne’s County, where Donaldson sprinted around the track with friends.
During one of his first games for the Upper Queen Anne’s Lions as an 8-year-old, Donaldson declared to a family friend on the sideline: “When I touch the ball for the first time, I’m going to run for a touchdown.” On the first play from scrimmage, Donaldson received a handoff and broke free for a 70-yard score.
He went on to play at DeMatha, and on the morning of Nov. 16, 2019, he awoke to the fall breeze from outside his window. He showered, ate breakfast and hopped into his dad’s Honda for the 90-minute commute to Hyattsville, where the Stags would meet in their parking lot for a walkthrough before heading over to St. John’s for a Washington Catholic Athletic Conference semifinal game.
Donaldson, a sophomore who had received interest from a Power Five program, asked himself that Saturday while roaming his school’s hallways, “When I look at myself in the mirror [after the game], can I be proud of myself?”
After the team’s 25-minute drive to Northwest Washington, Donaldson exited the bus last, ready for the biggest game of his life.
As Donaldson took deep breaths and taped his wrists on the visitors’ sideline, Littleton practiced receiving handoffs on the field.
St. John’s got out to a 10-0 lead, and with 6:19 remaining in the first half, it lined up at the 19-yard line. The Cadets called an outside running play for Littleton; the Stags called a zone defense. Littleton took the handoff and ran about 11 yards to his right as Donaldson stuck with an opposing wide receiver.
When Donaldson, 5-foot-11 and 165-pounds, saw Littleton running toward him, he stopped and crouched. Before Donaldson could get in a proper tackling position, Littleton stumbled over his back and struck it with his knee. Donaldson heard a pop and fell to the turf.
Teammates told Donaldson to stand up, but he couldn’t. DeMatha trainer Wendy Norris ran onto the field, felt Donaldson’s back and told fellow trainers to call an ambulance.
“Hold on,” Donaldson recalled telling Norris. “What do you mean call the ambulance? Ms. Wendy, I’m not getting on the ambulance. I can’t do that.”
As reality set in, Donaldson erupted in tears. He believed his sports career was over.
Littleton watched from the opposite sideline as he and teammates discussed what had gone awry. As the ambulance drove on the turf, DeMatha’s players huddled around Donaldson. His mother, Susan, sprinted toward him.
“Are you okay?” she asked. “Yeah, mom,” Donaldson responded through tears. “I’m good.” Donaldson’s mother preached toughness after growing up on a Virginia farmhouse, and for the first time, Donaldson saw her cry.
Trainers removed Donaldson’s helmet and jersey and strapped him to a stretcher. Paramedics raised Donaldson into the ambulance; DeMatha and St. John’s players kneeled near him for an Our Father prayer.
Littleton refocused and rushed for a seven-yard touchdown with 3:54 remaining in the half in the Cadets’ eventual 34-20 victory. Meanwhile, paramedics rushed Donaldson 20 minutes to MedStar Washington Hospital Center.
‘What am I doing with my life?’
Donaldson couldn’t sleep that night as he listened to the heart monitor and watched his dad doze off in a recliner chair. Donaldson’s feet were warm, so he shuffled his legs to try to remove his socks; after 20 minutes of failed attempts, he cried.
“What am I doing with my life?,” Donaldson asked himself. “I feel so useless and so helpless. I might as well just be dead.”
The next day, Donaldson learned he broke three lumbar vertebrae that support his spine. Doctors said returning to sports might someday be possible. Donaldson had been diagnosed with Lyme disease at age 9 and endured five serious injuries since then, including to his femurs, collarbone, shoulders and knees. He wasn’t prepared for another long rehabilitation.
Littleton felt a different type of discomfort as he watched film the ensuing Monday afternoon in the St. John’s auditorium. After the screen displayed the play, he couldn’t stop replaying the sequence in his mind.
He watched a YouTube video of the play each day that week as the Cadets prepared for that weekend’s WCAC championship game. He contemplated how he could’ve approached Donaldson differently. He spoke with coaches about his guilt. They told Littleton the injury wasn’t his fault.
At the hospital, Donaldson limped on his third day and returned home, where he lay in a bed with a half-dozen pillows. He felt apathetic toward the schoolwork friends delivered.
A week later, Donaldson told his dad he would leave sports. He had commuted across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge each day to attend school and receive recruiting exposure, but he didn’t want to return to DeMatha. After he completed the fall semester, Donaldson attended Chesapeake College, where he later received a high school diploma and associate’s degree.
Spending most of his time in bed, Donaldson became enamored with movies and studied actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Ryan Reynolds and Matthew McConaughey. Donaldson told his dad he now wanted to fulfill a childhood dream of becoming an actor.
As he pursued new endeavors, Donaldson often viewed the YouTube video of the semifinal game. To this day, he cries every time he watches it.
‘There’s no hate in my heart’
In February 2020, Donaldson received his first acting gig to play a United States Marine in a series about the 1983 Beirut barracks bombings. The same month, Littleton committed to Maryland. When the coronavirus consumed the U.S. in March of that year, both lost some structure to their lives.
Scrolling through Instagram in November 2020, Littleton saw Donaldson had posted photos to acknowledge the day he was injured. Littleton believed Donaldson hated him, but failing to contain his regret, he messaged Donaldson.
“I think about that play all the time,” Littleton wrote. “I never meant for any of that to happen.”
“Bro, listen,” Donaldson responded. “There’s no hate in my heart for you.”
While Donaldson’s response provided relief, Littleton changed his playing style, learning when his aggression may not be worth the cost. He became quicker and more adept on outside running plays, and he scored his first collegiate touchdown in Maryland’s Pinstripe Bowl win last year.
Around the same time, Donaldson tried to improve his mood by visiting his brother Grant in Tampa while he acted in an upcoming film. Donaldson felt worthless seeing friends obtain football scholarship offers and commit to Division I programs.
One day, he was up until 3 a.m. sobbing. Donaldson looked at his reflection in the bathroom mirror and accepted his circumstances. “I’m depressed,” he admitted. “I need to do something about it.”
Donaldson has searched for an activity that’ll provide the excitement and fulfillment of football. The 19-year-old has dabbled in acting, modeling, videography and photography, dancing, coaching (both football and taekwondo), insurance sales and car washing.
“Sports was a huge part of my heart,” Donaldson said. “And now it’s a void.”
In the past eight months, Littleton has moved past thoughts he isn’t fit for football by jump-roping in his free time and cutting his meals, resulting in losing 60 pounds. Littleton often views a tattoo on his right arm — a clock with hands that display the time 9:21 — to remember his meaning. It’s in honor of the Sept. 21 birthday of his cousin, Reginald Lockard, who taught Littleton football before he was murdered in July 2008 in Southeast Washington.
In April, Littleton suffered a left ankle sprain in practice after tripping on turf. As the 20-year-old lay on Maryland’s field, he thought he would miss the season. Then, he realized his pain couldn’t match what Donaldson endured.
“I told him that anytime you need anything, I’m a phone call away and vice versa,” Littleton said he messaged Donaldson. “We don’t talk every day, but we know we got each other.”
In late-June, Donaldson organized a youth football camp at Queen Anne’s County High in Centreville, featuring his former coaches and teammates. As Donaldson posed for photos and reminisced with people from his former life, he felt an urge to return to sports. That has become a possibility in recent months.
After returning from Tampa, Donaldson began treatment to disperse his Lyme disease. He has gained energy and is exercising daily. His dream of playing for a Division I program endures.
At Maryland, meanwhile, Littleton has benefited from name, image and likeness to create and sell merchandise, including shirts that read “BABY BUS” on the back.
On the first carry of his redshirt freshman season Saturday, Littleton rushed up the middle for a 21-yard gain in the Terps’ win over Buffalo. After he scored the first of his two touchdowns on the ensuing play, Littleton spread his arms and listened to the cheers in College Park as an offensive lineman lifted him.
Back in Centreville over the summer, Donaldson explained to his college-bound friends he was focusing on acting this fall. He encouraged camp participants while taping them with his Canon camera. After the two-hour clinic, about 50 children huddled near a painted Lion at midfield and raised an arm.
“Family on three,” his father yelled.
As the players counted, Donaldson stood alone a few feet from the group, raising his camera to capture the inside of the huddle.
After returning home — where Donaldson wrote “I AM A CHAMPION!!!” on his bedroom door and framed his jerseys — he powered on Beat Saber, a virtual reality dancing game.
“I’m going to have to kick my shoes off for this one,” Donaldson said to a few family and friends as he set the game on difficult mode and removed his white Vans. After succeeding in a nearly three-minute song, Donaldson removed the VR headset and sighed. “Dang, that’s a shoulder workout,” he said. “I’m out of breath.”
Donaldson sunk into the couch. As he and friends discussed the game, Donaldson grabbed a football and twirled it in his hands. | 2022-09-08T14:47:13Z | www.washingtonpost.com | One injury, two struggles: How a football play left lasting impacts - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/08/one-injury-two-struggles-how-football-play-left-lasting-impacts/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/08/one-injury-two-struggles-how-football-play-left-lasting-impacts/ |
Queen Elizabeth II live updates Royal family gathers at Balmoral Castle
Scottish and Welsh leaders share concern and wish queen well
Britain ‘deeply concerned’ about queen’s health, Truss says
BBC reporter mistakenly announces queen’s death on Twitter
Last time the queen was seen by the public was with new Prime Minister Truss
Post reporters provide updates as the British royal family gathers at the bedside of Queen Elizabeth II, who is under medical supervision at Balmoral Castle in (Video: The Washington Post)
LONDON — The royal family is gathering at the bedside of Queen Elizabeth II, who is under medical supervision at Balmoral Castle in Scotland.
“Following further evaluation this morning, the Queen’s doctors are concerned for Her Majesty’s health and have recommended she remain under medical supervision. The Queen remains comfortable and at Balmoral,” a statement from Buckingham Palace said.
Heir Prince Charles and the queen’s children were all either with the monarch or on their way. Among them were Edward, Andrew and Anne. Prince William, Prince Harry and Meghan are en route to Balmoral.
In photos: Here’s a look at the queen and 13 presidents of the United States.
Liz Truss, the new prime minister of the United Kingdom, tweeted, “The whole country will be deeply concerned by the news from Buckingham Palace.”
The queen has been planning for her succession for some time. Charles, the longest-ever king-in-waiting, has been increasingly stepping in for the queen.
LONDON — Political leaders from across the United Kingdom’s union have sent their well wishes to Queen Elizabeth II as the nation learns of her ill health Thursday.
First minster of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party Nicola Sturgeon said everyone was “feeling profoundly concerned” about reports of the queen’s health. The queen, who has had a lifelong love affair with Scotland, has been taken ill in her Balmoral estate in Aberdeenshire.
The first minster for Wales, Mark Drakeford, also offered his concern and sent his “best wishes” to the monarch.
Britain’s new prime minister, Liz Truss, expressed concern Thursday about the health of Queen Elizabeth II, whose family members rushed to gather at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where she was under medical supervision.
“The whole country will be deeply concerned by the news from Buckingham Palace this lunchtime,” tweeted Truss, who has just taken office and who met with the queen Tuesday. “My thoughts — and the thoughts of people across our United Kingdom — are with Her Majesty The Queen and her family at this time,” she said.
By Claire Parker and Adam Taylor
The BBC changed its online logo from red to black, and its anchors donned black apparel Thursday as the family of Queen Elizabeth II gathered by her bedside in Scotland amid reports of her failing health.
To members of the British media and public in the know about “Operation London Bridge,” the not-so-secret official plan for the queen’s death, the change in color scheme portended the worst — signaling that the British public broadcaster considered the monarch’s death to be imminent.
Many people around the world look to the BBC to break the news when a royal dies, and the broadcaster has drawn up detailed plans for reporting on the queen’s death.
LONDON — A frail-looking Queen Elizabeth II was last seen by the British public on Tuesday in a well-furnished and fire-lit living room in her Scottish Balmoral estate, as she welcomed new British Prime Minister Liz Truss.
In her ceremonial role as head of state, the queen bid farewell to outgoing leader of Britain’s Conservative Party Boris Johnson after he was ousted by his own party and next invited Truss to form a new government.
Queen Elizabeth II has played an important constitutional role in the transition of power. On Tuesday, she invited Liz Truss, her 15th prime minister, to form the next British government. Her first prime minister was Winston Churchill, who was born in 1874.
During her 70-year reign, the queen met with her prime ministers for weekly private “audiences.” Still, snippets from their meetings leak out, in conversations, biographies and embarrassing hot-mic moments. | 2022-09-08T15:13:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Queen Elizabeth II live updates: Royal family gathers at Balmoral Castle - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/08/queen-elizabeth-ii/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/08/queen-elizabeth-ii/ |
‘Clerks’ sequel reveals a well that long ago ran dry
The third installment in Kevin Smith’s convenience-store trilogy wallows in unhealthy nostalgia for the first film
Brian O’Halloran, left, and Jeff Anderson return as Dante and Randal in “Clerks III.” (Lionsgate)
As “Clerks III” gets underway, with the franchise’s trademark blend of amateurish acting, sophomoric humor and inane, pop-culture-riffing dialogue to get the game going, Randal (Jeff Anderson) is having a massive heart attack, just as Smith did in 2018. That close call inspires him to make a no-budget, black-and-white film memoir based on the retail experiences of Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and him. That movie turns out to be very “Clerks”-like, with actual footage from the first film passed off as footage shot in this film. (It’s a little weird and hard to swallow that the now-middle-aged O’Halloran and Anderson somehow look 28 years younger whenever the camera is on them. Perhaps that’s the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia.)
It’s all quite meta, in a lazy, half-baked way, with auditions for the film-within-a-film taking place at the same New Jersey “dessert theater” where Smith actually held auditions for “Clerks”: the First Avenue Playhouse in Atlantic Highlands. This gives Smith the opportunity to show a semi-amusing montage of tryouts by movie stars pretending to be nobodies: Ben Affleck, Fred Armisen and others.
I said the water in this well had long run dry, and that’s true. But the movie is actually drowning in something else: sentimentality. And when it manages to extricate itself from that goop — best exemplified by the reappearance of an actor from the second movie, whose character shows up here in ghost form — it wallows in raw mushiness about friendship and the good old bygone days of youth, with nary a thought of wringing out one single insight about life that isn’t cliched or insipid. The best moment in the film is when, unexpectedly, Silent Bob speaks.
There may be a reason “Clerks III” isn’t being released conventionally, with a traditional, open-ended run starting on a Friday. Rather, it’s playing Sept. 13-18 only, through Fathom Events, a company known for offering limited theatrical screenings of such live offerings as comedy, opera, Broadway shows, sporting events and other niche offerings. The “live” part is ironic. “Clerks III” is a movie for die-hard fans and die-hards only.
R. At area theaters. Contains pervasive coarse language, crude sexual material and drug references. 115 minutes. | 2022-09-08T15:21:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 'Clerks III' is a movie for die-hard fans of 'Clerks,' and no one else - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/movies/2022/09/08/clerks-3-movie-review/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/movies/2022/09/08/clerks-3-movie-review/ |
TV legend Dick Ebersol on SNL, Atlanta Olympics and personal tragedy
For Dick Ebersol's 50th birthday, his wife planned a celebration that included Muhammad Ali reenacting his Olympic torch moment. (Courtesy of the author)
Broadcast TV legend Dick Ebersol’s memoir, “From Saturday Night to Sunday Night: My 40 Years of Laughter, Tears and Touchdowns,” which comes out Sept. 13, is brimming with the thrill of victories and the heartbreak of family tragedy.
On Nov. 28, 2004, a plane crash took the life of Ebersol’s youngest son, Teddy, along with those of the pilot and crew. Ebersol and his son Charlie were seriously injured. Ebersol spent decades putting his stamp on NFL football and Olympics television coverage, telling inspiring stories about what made competitors and champions tick, but his own story is as moving as any he ever broadcast.
Ebersol, a lifetime achievement Emmy recipient, began his career as a researcher on ABC’s iconic “Wide World of Sports” and later worked as assistant to the legendary Roone Arledge at ABC. He transformed NBC’s sports and comedy programming as the head of NBC Sports and co-creator with Lorne Michaels of what was originally called “Saturday Night.” He also hired Brandon Tartikoff, who greenlit such “must-see” sitcoms as “The Cosby Show” and “Cheers.”
Ebersol spoke with The Washington Post about career highs (including Muhammad Ali’s surprise appearance at the Atlanta Games) and how his wife, actress Susan Saint James, whom he met when she hosted “SNL” in 1981, held their family together after their son’s death.
The interview has been edited lightly for clarity and length.
Q: You open the book with an epigram by your late son, Teddy — “The finish line is only the beginning of a whole new race.” What do you hope readers take away most about him?
A: Let me talk in a wider frame first. I think the most important thing you can do when you lose a child is for the family to continue to talk about that child. Do not push the subject aside. It’s not about getting into how somebody died, it’s getting into how they lived. Teddy brought so much brightness, laughter and charm to our family.
Q: The memoir serves as a tribute to family, but especially to your wife. You write that she focused her energies on not allowing the family to devolve into anger.
A: That’s true. She took everything out of our master bedroom, and she put in a hospital bed for me and a cot for herself. [Our sons] Willie and Charlie didn’t go back to college for a while. Susan’s magic kept us all together and celebrating Teddy. He’s buried not more than a mile and a half from here [in Litchfield, Conn., where Ebersol grew up]. Quite often, I’ll walk over there and lean against the grave of a dear friend of mine, whose grave is next to Teddy’s, and I’ll talk to Teddy. It brings his image alive to me in a way that I find very satisfying.
Q: You began your career at ABC under Roone Arledge, who you call a model of leadership and innovation. What did you learn most from him?
A: I thought of myself as a producer first and an executive second. I went over to NBC initially to do all kinds of different things, but it quickly evolved into sports. I made myself available all the time. The different departments were spread out over several floors. I would walk those floors so anybody could see me walk by. I was very approachable. I don’t see how you could be a boss without creating a culture where people are free to engage the bosses. My philosophy took hold quickly. People would ask me, “Is it okay if I try this?” and it paid off in spades; we became the best sports department in television.
Q: Where do you rank Muhammad Ali lighting the Olympic cauldron on your vast list of creative accomplishments?
A: First. I had a relationship with him from my teenage years when I was a researcher. When I pitched the Olympics leadership in Atlanta that he should light the cauldron, there was hesitancy. I said: “This is nuts. This is the most famous athlete in the world.” They finally agreed. I sat with Ali and his wife, and they jumped at the opportunity to do it. He did an unbelievable job, and if you go back and look at that tape, he exhibited a fair amount of courage because there was enough of a breeze that the flames were blowing back [toward him].
Q: Advance reviews of your book called it an exhilarating outing for any sports fan. But what doesn’t get as much play is that you are an unsung comedy hero. You co-created “Saturday Night Live” with Lorne Michaels. What do you remember most about the original auditions?
A: Lorne has such a great eye for talent. The auditions were hysterical. The most famous one, I suppose, was when Lorne took us all down to watch Chevy Chase perform stand-up. [He was being considered as a writer.] When we were in front of the place afterwards, it was pouring rain, and Chevy said he’d get a cab and he ran down the middle of Third Avenue. There was an enormous pothole, and he faked a fall. Lorne looked at me and said, “Wouldn’t you think a guy who is willing to do that would be the funniest guy on our show?”
Lorne Michaels still lives for Saturday night
Q: There’s that old maxim: Dying is easy, comedy is hard. Which is harder, comedy or sports?
A: I’m not sure I’ve ever been asked that. Sports is harder because you’ve got to win the rights in the first place. You have to win the rights to the championships, and then produce those games to capture a massive audience. I was lucky to have Jack Welch [CEO of General Electric, which owned NBC], who was the most successful businessman in America at the time when I was running sports at NBC, support me. I won his trust in a business where the losses can reach billions of dollars. There aren’t those kinds of losses in comedy.
Q: You detail in the book about how a salary impasse led to your departure from NBC. But in reading between the lines of your book, I’m thinking that there was nothing else for you to achieve in your career once Stephen Colbert on “The Colbert Report” debuted an Olympic mascot, Ebersol the Moose.
A: I have the moose! He’s in storage in Connecticut.
Q: You’ve produced so many thrilling and inspiring stories. What do you hope readers take from your own?
A: I am a lucky, lucky guy. Through my career, I met this unbelievable woman who after 40 years of being married is still the centerpiece of my life. We have great kids. We had one horrible, dark tragic day in our lives, but Teddy still lives in our hearts.
Donald Liebenson is an entertainment writer. His work has been published in the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, VanityFair.com and New York Magazine’s Vulture website.
My Forty Years of Laughter, Tears, and Touchdowns in TV
By Dick Ebersol | 2022-09-08T15:35:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Dick Ebersol's memoir is full of highs and lows - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/09/08/dick-ebersol-memoir-interview/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/09/08/dick-ebersol-memoir-interview/ |
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - JANUARY 28: Children wave their hands at a private nursery school January 28, 2005 in Glasgow, Scotland. The average price of pre-school care has increased over the past year, sending child care prices to an average of GBP200 in parts of the southeast. Many working parents in the UK have called for pre-school childcare subsidies such as those in France where nearly 100% of three-year-olds are in pre-school education, despite the fact that school attendance is not compulsory until they turn five. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images) (Photographer: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images Europe)
More than ever before, people seem to be breaking new paths at very young ages or without all the standard credentials. Carlsen, for instance, was the world’s top-rated chess player at age 19, the youngest player ever to hold that designation. At times he might have thought, “How did this happen!?” When Kobe Bryant and LeBron James skipped college basketball and moved directly to the NBA, such career paths were unusual and controversial. They made it work, and pretty quickly they too were no longer considered impostors.
Of course I never mentioned in my cover letter that I was a mere undergraduate, so I actually was a kind of impostor. I’ve done some of my best work as an impostor.
Or consider the teenagers who drop out of college, start tech companies, and become billionaires in their 20s. It is hardly surprising that sometimes they feel like they do not belong. Closer to home, consider the careers of journalists such as Ezra Klein and my Bloomberg Opinion colleague Matt Yglesias, who two decades ago were just two kids with undergraduate degrees writing on the internet. They were impostors, pretending they were “official” public intellectuals, whatever that might mean. Now they are “official,” widely read and deservedly so. No one cares that they started as impostors.
Of course not all impostors succeed. So if you perceive yourself as an impostor, it’s OK — rational, even — to have mixed feelings. Some of your dread reflects a sense that you may be in over your head. But if you really are going to succeed, that bit of fear and doubt may spur you to superior performance.
Evidence suggests that women and women of color suffer from impostor syndrome to an especially high degree. That presents very real problems of expectations, bias and social perception, which I do not mean to minimize. But in the meantime I am happy to send the message to those individuals that they are breaking new ground and paving the way for others — and that they should embrace their inner impostors. | 2022-09-08T15:35:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Impostor Syndrome Is a Professional Superpower - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/impostor-syndrome-is-a-professional-superpower/2022/09/08/5a38b8ee-2f7f-11ed-bcc6-0874b26ae296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/impostor-syndrome-is-a-professional-superpower/2022/09/08/5a38b8ee-2f7f-11ed-bcc6-0874b26ae296_story.html |
People worried Mt. Rainier may be erupting. It was just a cloud.
The agency confirmed that what was mistaken as steam was instead an ordinary cloud
A cloud formation atop Mount Rainier on Wednesday. (National Park Service) (National Park Service)
Saucer-like cloud lights up skies in California
The USGS quickly dismissed rumors of an eruption but didn’t comment on whether the volcano was venting — or exhaling pent-up gases and/or lava and pyroclastic materials such as ash.
“The sort of behavior seen in this video is not unusual,” the agency wrote at 10:09 a.m. Pacific time.
So if Wednesday’s apparition wasn’t a spurt of steam and was nonvolcanic in origin, what was it?
Weather balloon data from the mouth of the Quillayute River, about 75 miles west of Seattle, showed a very narrow level of moisture present at 4,313 meters, or 14,150 feet. That is probably the layer that rode up and over the edge of the volcano, where it was cooled to saturation. The air above and below was drier, meaning there weren’t any other clouds to obscure the view.
Mount Rainier is about 60 miles from downtown Seattle and rises to 14,411 feet in elevation. An active stratovolcano, it is the highest mountain in Washington state and a staple of the Cascades. The last minor eruption occurred in the early- to mid- 1800s, but eyewitnesses reported other eruptive activity during the latter half of the 19th century.
It has been roughly 1,000 years since the last magmatic eruption at Mount Rainier, but that didn’t stop Twitter from quickly devolving into a snowballing of speculation — and perhaps a bit of snark. Some users fearfully asked follow-up questions, while others dared the universe to throw another wild card into the mix.
“Let’s hear what [the volcano] has to say,” wrote another.
The agency went on to discourage heavy alcohol use, writing back: “We would not recommend [a drinking game]. Alcohol poisoning would definitely be a possibility.” | 2022-09-08T15:36:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | USGS confirms Mt. Rainier is not erupting - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/09/08/mount-rainier-volcano-eruption/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/09/08/mount-rainier-volcano-eruption/ |
Can California’s electric-car mandate survive future heat waves?
Electrical transmission towers at a Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) substation during a heat wave on Sept. 6 in Vacaville, Calif. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg News)
The state’s infrastructure is apparently already struggling with that problem. As Labor Day approached, the state’s beleaguered grid operator urged residents not to charge their electric vehicles between 4 and 9 p.m., when usage generally peaks. Yet at the moment, the state has only 563,070 electric vehicles — more than any other state, to be sure, but only about 3 percent of the nearly 18 million automobiles registered in California.
What happens when that figure is closer to 100 percent? It’s a relatively small thing for most people to put off doing laundry, turn off the lights in empty rooms or set the thermostat a few degrees higher. But using your car is not an optional activity in a state where virtually every town and city has been designed around the automobile. The government murmurs that by 2030 — when two-thirds of all new vehicles sold in the state are supposed to be electric — only 4 percent of the state’s electricity when use is highest will go to charging cars. But when loads are peaking, as they did on Tuesday, that might be 4 percent more than the state is currently capable of generating.
California’s drive to zero-emissions vehicles is part of a broader plan to make the state carbon-neutral by 2045. That noble goal will increase electricity consumption as much as 68 percent, not only to charge electric vehicles but also to convert gas stoves to induction, gas furnaces to heat pumps, and gas dryers to electric, among the other changes that will be necessary for California to reach its target. | 2022-09-08T15:36:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Can California's electric-car mandate survive future heat waves? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/08/california-electric-car-mandate-future-heat-waves/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/08/california-electric-car-mandate-future-heat-waves/ |
Thank you, Obamas, for showing how a former first family should behave
Former president Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama participate in a ceremony to unveil their official White House portraits at the White House on Sept. 7. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
For four years of the Trump administration, Americans suffered through a dangerous, aberrational and thoroughly unfit president. And for nearly two years since the 2020 election, they have suffered through the antics of a dangerous, aberrational and thoroughly unfit former president who never accepted that he lost and doesn’t seem to understand he remains subject to the same laws the rest of the country lives under.
The Obamas’ return to the White House on Wednesday for the unveiling of their official portraits was a welcome change of pace. The country benefited not only from the camaraderie, good humor, graciousness and elegance they displayed, but also from a reminder that the act of leaving the presidency (thereby resuming one’s place among fellow citizens and supporting the accession of their successor to power) is an important and vital part of democracy.
Former first lady Michelle Obama put it most eloquently when she explained: “We hold an inauguration to ensure a peaceful transition of power. Those of us lucky enough to serve work … as hard as we can for as long as we can, as long as the people choose to keep us here. And once our time is up, we move on.” She added, “And all that remains in this hallowed place are our good efforts. And these portraits.”
And as former president Barack Obama put it, “You take the baton from someone, you run your leg as hard and as well as you can, and then you hand it off to someone else, knowing that your work will be incomplete.” That is the essence of democracy: recognizing that the officeholder’s tenure is temporary but the institution continues.
That is how it is supposed to work. In highlighting that salient fact, the Obamas demonstrated just how deeply destructive and wrong the actions of former president Donald Trump have been. He did not leave peacefully but instead cultivated — and continues to cultivate — a deep sense of anger and even incited violence. It would be nice to “fire” someone from the role of former president, but unfortunately there is no such mechanism (aside from perhaps indicting, convicting and disqualifying that person from future office).
Before Trump, we were blessed with five former presidents (Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter) who all understood their role in the ongoing effort to sustain our democracy. Their humility and decisions to retreat from the politics of the day — opting instead for the occasional joint philanthropic effort, participation in commemorative occasions that reinforce a sense of national unity and the attendance at inaugurations — underscore the peaceful transfer of power. Occasionally, they stood up in times of national crisis to reemphasize our commitment to democracy, as they did following the January 2021 attack on the Capitol. As George W. Bush put it then: “It is a sickening and heartbreaking sight. This is how election results are disputed in a banana republic — not our democratic republic.”
Just as it was beyond Trump’s capacity to adhere to his oath or respect our democratic institutions and norms, it is too much to expect him to act like a normal, law-abiding, patriotic ex-president. That makes it all the more important for former first families to remind us what normal, appropriate behavior for former presidents looks like. Who guessed that would be such a vital contribution to democracy? | 2022-09-08T15:36:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Thank you, Obamas, for showing how a former first family should behave - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/08/michelle-barack-obama-portrait-former-presidents/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/08/michelle-barack-obama-portrait-former-presidents/ |
Geoffrey Berman’s timely reality check on Trump and a ‘weaponized’ DOJ
Geoffrey S. Berman, then the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, points to a chart during a news conference in 2019. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
From virtually the moment we learned that the FBI had searched former president Donald Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago last month, he and his allies have decried the search as symptomatic of an allegedly “weaponized” Justice Department. The charge was lodged even as we knew next to nothing about what undergirded the search or what materials Trump actually had — which we’ve now found out included many classified documents and even highly sensitive information on the nuclear capabilities of a foreign country.
Now comes a timely reminder of just how rich that claim is, coming from Trump and Co., according to the people who witnessed the actions of his own Justice Department firsthand.
Former U.S. attorney Geoffrey Berman is releasing a new book detailing his jousting with political appointees at the Trump Justice Department — including then-Attorney General William P. Barr, whom he casts as repeatedly pushing Trump’s line in prosecution decisions with political implications. A leaked copy of the book, “Holding the Line,” was obtained by the New York Times and the Guardian.
Berman, who worked for Trump in 2016 and served on his transition team, was a central figure in many key events by virtue of leading the second-most prominent district in the country, based in New York City. But he has rarely spoken publicly — including about the ugly 2020 dispute between him and Barr that marked the end of his tenure.
That’s changed, and now Berman isn’t holding back much.
“Throughout my tenure as U.S. attorney,” Berman wrote, according to the Times, “Trump’s Justice Department kept demanding that I use my office to aid them politically, and I kept declining — in ways just tactful enough to keep me from being fired.”
A case in point Berman raises is a request he received in 2018, when he said a Trump political appointee asked him to charge a prominent Democratic lawyer, Gregory Craig, and to do so before the midterms. Berman’s office had prosecuted former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and Trump-allied Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.). “It’s time for you guys to even things out,” Berman recalls the official telling him.
The official identified by Berman, then-principal associate deputy attorney general Edward O’Callaghan, called the statements attributed to him “categorically false,” according to the Times. (He did not immediately respond to a Washington Post inquiry Thursday morning.)
Berman also reportedly expounded on the clash with Barr that led to Berman’s exit.
In summary: Berman’s office had prosecuted multiple Trump allies and had been investigating Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani; Barr claimed Berman was resigning and said he would appoint a new interim U.S. attorney; but Berman denied it and returned to work. Ultimately, Berman forced Trump to fired him — which meant Berman’s deputy would take over the top job, rather than Barr’s pick.
Barr’s botched effort to remove a prosecutor who probed Trump allies
In later testimony, Berman was tight-lipped about Barr’s motivations. But he writes in his book: “The reason Barr wanted me to resign immediately was so I could be replaced with an outsider he trusted.”
Berman also details several other instances of politics apparently seeping into the Trump DOJ’s work:
He says that, after he declined to prosecute Craig, the case was “peddled” to the U.S. attorney in Washington. That office in in 2019 prosecuted Craig for alleged false statements but lost the case after a brief jury deliberation.
He discloses a previously unknown investigation of former secretary of state John F. Kerry for allegedly violating the Logan Act, which Trump had pressed for publicly. Berman says his office was charged with investigating the matter two days after Trump tweeted about it. He also says the pressure repeatedly ramped up whenever Trump weighed in — a “clear” and “outrageous” pattern.
He says a Justice Department official pressured his deputy, Robert S. Khuzami, to remove all references to Trump in a charging document detailing Cohen’s crimes. (Trump was listed in the document as “Individual-1,” but his identity was obvious, and the document implicated him in the scheme.)
He says Barr stifled campaign finance investigations emanating from the Cohen case and even floated seeking a reversal of Cohen’s conviction — just like Barr would later do with another Trump ally, Michael Flynn. (Barr also intervened in the case of another Trump ally, Roger Stone, to seek a lighter sentence than career prosecutors wanted.)
He says Barr took a keen, unusual and problematic interest in the Halkbank case, which involved Turkish bankers and government officials close to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. At the time, Trump was close to Erdogan, who decried the probe. Berman says Barr “appeared to be doing Trump’s bidding” by pushing for the charges to be dropped, according to the Guardian.
Similar to many of these, significant concerns about political influence in the Halkbank case have been raised before. And these examples don’t include the many other instances in which Trump leaned on the Justice Department (an extensive list is here). Sometimes, this involved extraordinary actions by Barr himself and officials or prosecutors like Berman objecting. Example A-1 is arguably Trump pushing the Justice Department to validate his baseless attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
But Berman brings his front-row perspective to these matters, given his involvement in many high-profile incidents. And despite his spat with Barr, his version of events has long been regrettably incomplete, leading to the incident to fall by the wayside.
“I walked this tightrope for two and a half years,” he writes, according to the Times. “Eventually, the rope snapped.”
None of this means that the search of Mar-a-Lago was definitely justified, or that it would be okay for subsequent Justice Departments to act in political ways because the other side did it.
But the evidence that that’s what happened with the Mar-a-Lago search is currently far more circumstantial, and the claims far more speculative. And when you spend four years meddling in Justice Department matters that have clear political and personal implications for you — something even Barr, at one point, publicly said he objected to — it makes your objections ring a little more hollow.
Insight: The story behind The Post’s story on a man with a pistol showing up at Rep. Jayapal’s home | 2022-09-08T15:36:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Geoffrey Berman's timely reality check on Trump and a 'weaponized' DOJ - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/08/berman-trump-department-justice-organized/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/08/berman-trump-department-justice-organized/ |
Monday briefing: NASA postpones moon rocket launch; strikes near Ukraine nuclear plant; Brian Robinson Jr. shot; and more
NASA postponed its inaugural moon rocket launch.
What happened: Problems with the massive rocket and its fueling procedures prevented it from lifting off as planned this morning.
It’s a setback: The complicated and expensive spacecraft has suffered delays for years. NASA has backup dates on Sept. 2 and 5, but it’s not clear when it might try to launch again.
What’s the mission? A test flight would send the Orion crew capsule around the moon without astronauts on board.
The National Archives has dealt with threats since the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago search.
Why? The agency, which looks after government records, has been in a standoff with former president Donald Trump over classified documents taken when he left office.
The wave of threatening messages hit after the search of Trump’s Florida home this month, according to Post reporting.
What else to know: A judge could appoint an official this week to review the recently seized material.
More Russian strikes were reported around Europe’s biggest nuclear plant.
What happened? Ten people were injured yesterday in shelling near the Zaporizhzhia plant in southeastern Ukraine, officials said.
What’s next: Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency are headed to the plant as concern over a potential nuclear catastrophe grows.
An NFL running back was shot twice yesterday.
What we know: The injuries to Brian Robinson Jr., a rookie on the Washington Commanders, aren’t considered life-threatening, police said. He’s in stable condition.
The investigation: Officers said they’re looking at the shooting in D.C. as a possible attempted robbery or carjacking. They recovered a firearm near the scene.
Death Valley recorded the most extreme U.S. heat of the past decade.
How we know this: A new analysis of more than a decade of data shows the highest and lowest temperatures recorded at reliable weather stations in the U.S. each day.
The records: California’s Death Valley twice suffered a sweltering 130 degrees, in 2020 and again in 2021. The record low was minus-56 degrees in Cotton, Minn., in 2019.
A baseball card sold for a record $12.6 million.
What’s the card? It’s a mint-condition 1952 Topps featuring Hall of Fame slugger Mickey Mantle, who spent his 18-year career with the New York Yankees.
What we know: The rare card sold at auction yesterday, bringing a tidy profit for the man who bought it in 1991 for $50,000. The new owner hasn’t been revealed.
Drought keeps exposing hidden history.
Like what? Sunken Nazi ships were seen poking out from a dried-up river in Serbia. Buddhist statues, hundreds of years old, reappeared in China. Ancient dinosaur footprints showed up in Texas.
Why is this happening? Record-breaking drought — driven by climate change — has parched waterways around the world, briefly revealing what’s usually submerged.
And now … if you’re taking a flight soon: Here are the rules of acting like a decent human. And, if you’re weighing buying an electric vehicle: They soon could charge faster than your iPhone. | 2022-09-08T15:38:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The 7 things you need to know for Monday, August 29 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/the-seven/2022/08/29/what-to-know-for-august-29-2/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/the-seven/2022/08/29/what-to-know-for-august-29-2/ |
A stalwart presence on the 24-hour news network for two decades, he helped elevate CNN to global prominence with his riveting coverage from Baghdad during the Persian Gulf War
CNN anchor Bernard Shaw in 2001. (Alex Brandon/AP)
Bernard Shaw, a journalist who left network TV in 1980 for the uncertainly of anchoring at the first 24-hour cable news network — CNN — and whose steady-under-missile-fire coverage from Baghdad during the Persian Gulf War helped elevate the outlet to global prominence, died Sept. 7 at a Washington-area hospital. He was 82.
The job seemed risky at best when Mr. Shaw took a salary cut to sign on as a Washington-based anchor. But over the next 21 years, he became vital to CNN’s credibility and the reputation it cultivated for breaking news. He was also one of the most prominent Black journalists on TV before relinquishing the anchor seat in 2001. (In 1978, ABC named Max Robinson, the first African American as co-anchor of a major network news broadcast.)
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As his career advanced, Mr. Shaw said he increasingly wrestled with the “untold sacrifices” his family had made for his work and the milestones in his children’s lives that he had missed. After moderating the 2000 vice-presidential debate between Republican Richard B. Cheney and Democrat Joseph I. Lieberman, Mr. Shaw retired, at age 60, after his contract expired.
“I’m committing anchor heresy,” he acknowledged in a 2001 interview with King, when he walked away from CNN. “Most people in these jobs, as you and your viewers know, do not give them up. But a little voice inside this size 7½ head has told me, ‘Bernie, it’s time to go.’ ” | 2022-09-08T15:43:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Bernard Shaw, unflappable founding anchor at CNN, dies at 82 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/09/08/bernard-shaw-cnn-anchor-dead/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/09/08/bernard-shaw-cnn-anchor-dead/ |
Ron Johnson flips on gay marriage bill after saying he saw ‘no reason to oppose it’
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) has changed his stance on federal legislation that would codify the right to same-sex marriage, telling voters he would not support the Respect for Marriage Act “in its current state.” His remarks come just two months after Johnson issued a statement that said he saw “no reason to oppose” the bill, which would require that someone be considered married in any state as long as the marriage was valid in the state where it was performed.
Speaking last week to a group of conservative voters in Wisconsin, Johnson told an audience member that he only issued his July statement “to get [the media] off my back” about the issue, according to audio obtained by Heartland Signal.
Johnson said he had been “hounded” by congressional reporters for his opinion on the Respect for Marriage Act, which Democrats had teed up as a direct result of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in June. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his concurrence with that decision that the high court should also examine previous rulings that legalized the right for married couples to buy and use contraception without government restriction (Griswold v. Connecticut), same-sex relationships (Lawrence v. Texas) and marriage equality (Obergefell v. Hodges).
“You have to understand the process here. You’re walking down the subway in the Capitol and all of a sudden you get descended [upon] by national press,” Johnson told an audience member at the Sept. 1 meeting. “You just get hounded on this crap, right? So, just to get 'em off my backs, I wrote a press release. And I said I’ve always supported civil unions, never felt that we needed to do anything other than that, but then the Supreme Court ruled [on abortion], and I just considered the matter settled.”
Johnson added that he did not think the Supreme Court would ever overturn Obergefell v. Hodges because of stare decisis, the notion that precedents should not be overturned without strong reason — even though Roe v. Wade had been overturned despite several justices also agreeing that it was “settled as precedent.”
“Justice Thomas is probably right that [Obergefell] was wrongly decided, but that’s a different issue as to whether or not the Supreme Court will overturn it. They never will,” Johnson said. “With all those caveats, I said at this point, I don’t see reason to oppose it — to get them off my back, okay?”
Johnson then said he actually would not support the Respect for Marriage Act “in its current state” because of concerns over religious liberties, but said he and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) were working together on “just a smokin’ amendment” that would protect those liberties.
“We’ll see where it goes from there,” he said. “But at the same time, I don’t want to see millions of lives disrupted either. To me, that was a ruling that was healed. Let it go. Move on. We’ve got enough problems.”
The audio concluded with Johnson taking a shot at fellow Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D), who has teamed up with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) to push for passage of the same-sex marriage bill. Baldwin, the first lesbian woman elected to the Senate, has long advocated for LGBTQ rights.
“I’m not happy with the Baldwins of the world who are just opening up that wound and opening up that debate, okay?” Johnson said.
The Respect for Marriage Act would require that someone be considered married in any state as long as the marriage was valid in the state where it was performed. The bill would also repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman and allowed states to not recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. That law has remained on the books despite being declared unconstitutional by the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling.
The bill would also protect interracial marriages, prohibiting states from not recognizing a marriage “on the basis of the sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin of those individuals.”
“Individuals in same-sex and interracial marriages need, and should have, the confidence that their marriages are legal,” Baldwin and Collins wrote in a joint op-ed for The Washington Post on Tuesday. “We all have family, friends, co-workers or neighbors who are in these marriages. These partnerships deserve fairness and the recognition, stability and rights of marriage. They are an accepted part of American life.” | 2022-09-08T16:01:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Sen. Ron Johnson flips on Respect for Marriage Act after saying he saw ‘no reason to oppose it’ - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/08/ron-johnson-same-sex-marriage/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/08/ron-johnson-same-sex-marriage/ |
The White House in 2015 after the Supreme Court extended protections for same-sex marriage. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Democrats’ time in power in Washington could be limited to the next few months. Despite the left noticeably gaining momentum since Republicans have passed abortion bans across the nation, Democrats could still lose their narrow majority in the House of Representatives, in the Senate, or in both chambers in November’s midterm elections.
Congress is back this week, with just a few weeks before those elections. And Democrats are trying to get as much done as they can while they still have the levers of power.
Here’s what they’re aiming to do with the time they know they have left, roughly in order of their priorities.
Keep the government open
If it’s the fall, Congress is trying to figure out how to keep the government open for another year. The deadline for funding the government for the next 12 months is always Oct. 1, which is when a new fiscal year begins, but Congress hasn’t met that deadline in years. Instead, they’ll probably pass a spending bill that keeps the government open through December, and then after the midterm elections, they’ll come back and fight over a longer-term budget.
Where there’s a budget deadline, there’s always a risk for a government shutdown. In the Senate, all it takes is one senator to stop the process. But Democrats will probably do everything in their power to avoid that, since shutdowns are almost always politically damaging for the party in power.
Enshrine the right to same-sex marriage into federal law
After the fall of Roe v. Wade this summer, Democrats tried and failed to pass a law protecting abortion rights nationwide.
They also saw an opening to act on same-sex marriage. And they might have just enough Republican votes to pass a national law protecting it.
The impetus for this came when the Supreme Court ended protections for abortion rights, and Justice Clarence Thomas suggested that same-sex marriage could be next. The Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that same-sex couples have the right to marry, but Congress never passed a law guaranteeing that. In fact, in the ’90s it passed a law that made it difficult for states to recognize same-sex marriage.
House Democrats quickly voted to codify same-sex marriage and interracial marriage, within weeks of Roe falling. They were probably expecting this to be a political vote that got no Republican support, but 47 House Republicans joined them, surprising congressional Democrats, reports The Post’s Marianna Sotomayor. The relatively bipartisan success in the House motivated a bipartisan group of senators to try cobbling together a narrow coalition. The signs are that they’re close: They need just 10 Republicans to join all 50 Democrats.
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said a vote could happen “within weeks.” Sotomayor reports it could come as soon as next week.
GOP Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) is one of the bill’s champions. She wrote alongside fellow bill author Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) in The Washington Post this week: “Individuals in same-sex and interracial marriages need, and should have, the confidence that their marriages are legal. These loving couples should be guaranteed the same rights and freedoms of every other marriage.”
But after that op-ed came out, they lost a precious potential Republican vote. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) — who is up for reelection in a state that voted for President Biden — originally said he could support the bill, but this week abruptly said that he had concerns with the way it was written.
Appoint more federal judges
Of the two chambers in Congress, only the Senate can approve a president’s nominees to serve as federal judges. It’s an important but normally behind-the-scenes process that got a lot of attention in the Trump era, when President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans sprinted to put more than 200 conservative federal judges on the bench in courts across the nation.
(The fruits of that may have just born out for Trump when a judge he appointed in Florida defied conventional legal wisdom and temporarily halted the FBI’s investigation into secret government documents he took from the White House, while a “special master” sifts through the files to see what the government can keep.)
Democrats under Biden are racing to shape the courts, too. Biden has appointed more judges than any other president in decades at this point in his tenure, a recent Pew Research Center analysis found. One of them now sits on the Supreme Court.
But if Senate Democrats lose control of the chamber next year, Biden can expect that rapid pace to come to a halt under Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) leadership. McConnell has been ruthless at stopping Democrats’ judicial nominees: He once held open a Supreme Court vacancy for nearly an entire year when Barack Obama was president.
Get money for booster shots, monkeypox vaccines, Kentucky flood victims and Ukraine
Biden wants Congress to approve tens of billions of dollars to help battle the ongoing crises his administration is trying to manage, from pandemics to a war overseas, to worsening natural disasters at home. He’d love for Congress to fold all this into the spending bill that must pass by October.
But Republicans in the Senate see much of this, especially the covid money, as needless spending. (They may also see a “no” vote as a way to make an election-year argument that Democrats want to spend more and make inflation worse.) Senate Republicans have been blocking additional covid-related funding for months: “At some point you’ve got to tell the alcoholic no,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) told Politico.
More than a year and a half after the attack on the U.S. Capitol, Congress has passed precisely zero legislation to prevent it from happening again.
There isn’t much it can do, legislatively speaking, since elections are run by the states. But a bipartisan group of lawmakers has zeroed in on strengthening the rules for how Congress counts each states’ electoral votes and signs off on the winner of the presidential election. It’s the last step in the presidential certification process, and an obscure law governing it is one that Trump and his allies tried to exploit to stay in power.
Weeks, days and even hours before the Jan. 6 attack, Vice President Mike Pence came under enormous pressure from Trump and his allies to reject legitimate electors from states that Trump lost.
It would have been illegal under the 140-year-old Electoral Count Act, which governs rules about what to do if there are legitimate disputes about which presidential candidate won in a state.
Some lawmakers in both parties want to tighten this law so that it’s extra clear that a vice president has no role to unilaterally reject electors, and to raise the bar for how many lawmakers it takes to question results in the first place. (Right now it’s just two, one from each chamber.)
Collins is leading the bipartisan charge on this, but it’s not clear if or how much momentum there is to make this change.
Finish up their Jan. 6 investigation
If Republicans win back the House of Representatives, they are going to almost certainly sideline or disband the committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the likely next speaker of the House in such a scenario, has fervently defended Trump over the attack, and even threatened to investigate Democrats in return. In addition, the committee’s No. 2, Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), loses her job in January because she lost her primary this summer to a pro-Trump election denier.
The committee has already interviewed thousands of witnesses, reviewed tens of thousands of documents and held several public hearings this summer to share its findings so far. But committee members say they are still actively investigating the attack and who was behind it — and that they still have unanswered questions.
They may release a report on their findings and hold more hearings this fall. An essential element of their investigation will be to recommend legislation Congress can pass, to ensure this doesn’t happen again. But their time for all this is limited. | 2022-09-08T16:01:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What the Democrats want to get done before they may lose Congress - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/08/same-sex-marriage-democrats-congress/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/08/same-sex-marriage-democrats-congress/ |
It was the second historic summer in a row for the continent, which experienced blistering heat waves, brutal drought and widespread wildfires.
A woman cools herself with a fan as she rides on the London Underground on July 19, 2022 in London. (Carl Court/Getty Images)
Amid blistering heat waves, brutal drought and widespread wildfires, Europe just notched its hottest summer in recorded history, new data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service show.
It was the second historic summer in a row for the continent, with average temperatures 0.4 degrees Celsius (0.72 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than the previous record set just last year, Copernicus announced Thursday. August was especially scorching, surpassing the 2018 record by a whopping 0.8 degrees Celsius (1.44 degrees Fahrenheit).
In a statement, Copernicus senior scientist Freja Vamborg described the past three months as “a summer of extremes.”
The combination of record heat and extraordinarily dry conditions wreaked havoc across the continent. Officials have attributed thousands of deaths to the long stretches of oppressively hot weather. Crops withered and forests turned brown and barren as Western Europe was gripped by the worst drought in centuries. Wildfires raged from the Caucasus mountains to the Atlantic coast, with flames consuming roughly 50 percent more land than the previous record set in 2017.
The historic season was made significantly worse by human-caused climate change, scientists say. One recent analysis found that the burning of fossil fuels and other carbon-emitting activities made a July heat wave in the United Kingdom 10 times as likely. Other research shows that the climate-driven cycle of hot weather and dry landscapes can lead to the formation of “heat domes” that deflect rainy weather and force the continent to bake beneath inescapable sunshine and heat.
Globally, temperatures in August tied for the third hottest on record, Copernicus said. Heat waves scorched much of China. Drought plagued much of the western United States and Canada. Even Antarctica was warmer than is usual for this period. | 2022-09-08T16:36:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Europe just had its hottest summer in recorded history - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/09/08/europe-record-hot-summer-extreme-heat/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/09/08/europe-record-hot-summer-extreme-heat/ |
Baltimore narrows boil water advisory but E. coli source unclear
A resident carries bottled water to his home in Baltimore, Sept. 6, 2022. City officials began distributing bottled water after harmful levels of E. coli bacteria was detected in the drinking water. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston)
Baltimore city officials continued searching for the source of an E. coli contamination of tap water Thursday, after a boil water advisory was lifted for a portion of the city.
Three sites tested positive for contamination over Labor Day weekend, but follow-up testing showed only one positive site remained, city officials told reporters Wednesday.
“This isn’t something that can be resolved over night,” Mayor Brandon Scott (D) said during a news conference Wednesday. “We are continuing to test locations throughout the city and the surrounding county and will continue to do so until the issue is resolved.”
The boil water advisory remains in effect for parts of West Baltimore from North and South Riggs Avenue to West Franklin Street and East and West Carey Street to Pulaski Avenue, officials said. The advisory south and southwest of Route 40, including a precautionary area in Baltimore County, has been lifted.
Gov. Larry Hogan (R) on Wednesday said the Maryland Department of the Environment is working with the Baltimore City Department of Public Works to enforce the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, which sets minimum standards for water quality.
The department has had a team of engineers on-site inspecting the distribution system, treatment systems, pumping facilities and other infrastructure, and will inspect certain treatment facilities in the affected area, he said in a statement.
“Our agencies are working around the clock to assist city officials and help ensure access to clean water,” Hogan said in a statement. “We will continue to provide coordination and technical assistance, and make available what resources and personnel are needed as the situation warrants.”
In a series of tweets, Scott thanked residents for their “patience and understanding.” He added that the city will reduce water bills by 25 percent for all residents in the next billing cycle. “I understand this has been an inconvenience for residents,” he said in a tweet.
The Baltimore Department of Public Works continued Thursday to distribute water at three locations — 1401 W. Lafayette Ave., Harlem Park Elementary/Middle School; 3301 Waterview Ave., Middle Branch Park, and 500 3rd Ave., Lansdowne Library — with limit of three gallons per household. Older adults and homebound residents could schedule a water delivery by calling 3-1-1. | 2022-09-08T16:53:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Baltimore narrows boil water advisory, hunts for contamination source - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/08/baltimore-boil-water-contamination/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/08/baltimore-boil-water-contamination/ |
Chelsea quickly hires Graham Potter to replace Thomas Tuchel
Graham Potter has been named the new coach of Chelsea. (Gareth Fuller/PA via AP)
Graham Potter is changing Premier League clubs, leaving as Brighton’s manager to take the same position with Chelsea, which fired Thomas Tuchel on Wednesday.
Potter, who signed a five-year contract Thursday, said he is “incredibly proud and excited to represent Chelsea.” His first game will be an away derby with Fulman on Saturday.
“We are thrilled to bring Graham to Chelsea,” Todd Boehly, the Chelsea chairman, said in a statement. “Not only is he extremely talented on the pitch, he has skills and capabilities that extend beyond the pitch which will make Chelsea a more successful club.
“He has had a major impact at his previous clubs and we look forward to his positive impact at Chelsea. We look forward to supporting him, his coaching team and the squad in realizing their full potential in the coming months and years.”
The hiring of Potter, 47, is something of a gamble, given his inexperience at soccer’s highest level. Tuchel and Chelsea won the UEFA Champions League last year and he was experienced at managing stars such as Kylian Mbappé and Neymar at Paris Saint-Germain. Potter has a less impressive résumé, one that shows only one trophy, the 2017 Swedish Cup. He led that Ostersund club for seven years, from the fourth tier to the first division and into the Europa League for the first time.
He has since coached Swansea for one season in English soccer’s second division, taking the team to the FA Cup quarterfinals before moving to Brighton in 2019. Brighton finished ninth — the highest in its history — in the Premier League last season and currently is fourth in the standings.
“I am incredibly proud and excited to represent Chelsea FC, this fantastic football club,” Potter said in a statement released on the club’s website. “I am very excited to partner with Chelsea’s new ownership group and look forward to meeting and working with the exciting group of players and to develop a team and culture that our amazing fans can be proud of.”
The pressure on Potter increases significantly at Chelsea, which has not impressed Boehly and a group of owners who took over the team in May. Chelsea is five points from the top spot in the Premier League and three points from the fourth spot in the early stages of the season.
“He’ll be expected to win every week, to challenge for trophies,” Jody Morris, who formerly played for Chelsea and was an assistant with the team, told the Associated Press. “It’s totally different to being in a club where you are expected to be midtable and can go a couple of months without winning a game. You go a couple of games without winning at Chelsea and it’ll be totally different.” | 2022-09-08T17:02:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Chelsea hires Graham Potter to replace Thomas Tuchel - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/08/chelsea-hires-graham-potter/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/08/chelsea-hires-graham-potter/ |
Farewell, octopus; hello, lionfish: Lebanon’s warming seas change fishing
The prices of local fish, by kilogram, in August in Berbara, Lebanon. (Manu Ferneini for The Washington Post)
BATROUN, Lebanon — The first time the famous boutique seafood restaurant Jammal bought lionfish from the market, the fishmongers were intrigued. What were Mickey Jammal’s people doing buying this strange, undesirable newcomer to the coastal waters?
Lionfish is not native to Lebanon, but as the Mediterranean’s waters warm, nonnative organisms are outcompeting native fish for limited resources and, in some cases, eviscerating the local marine population.
Fishermen, restaurant owners, divers and scientists in Lebanon know there is no fighting this phenomenon. Climate change is here, they say, pointing to the invasion of species like lionfish and pufferfish, and the disappearance of local favorites like sea urchins and octopuses. All they can do is adapt to the changing marine reality, slowly introducing foreign fish to the local diet and finding uses for the nonedible ones.
There is an absence of historical data on the temperatures of Lebanese waters, but a report recently published by a team of researchers from the National Institute of Oceanography in Haifa, Israel, said the Levantine Sea, the easternmost part of the Mediterranean, is the “warmest in the entire Mediterranean Sea and one of the fastest warming regions globally.”
Record heat bakes Middle East as temperatures top 125 degrees
According to NASA’s GISS Surface Temperature Analysis, the Mediterranean as a whole has warmed more than 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) over the last three decades. This is in addition to an unprecedented 5-degree heat wave this summer that has caused blooms of jellyfish. The creatures, which harm fish stocks, are not uncommon in Lebanon but have never appeared to this degree.
Many of the new species also don’t have natural predators, and the solution being proposed is one that has traditionally been the bane of marine life: overfishing, and giving the Lebanese a taste for these interlopers.
The lionfish is the drama queen of the sea. Its face is framed by large fins that look like embellished, feathery sleeves — which, along with the spines dotting the fish’s body, are packed with venom glands that deliver a sting causing swelling and extreme pain.
Georges Sarkiss, a fisherman from Berbara, a northern coastal village in Lebanon, has felt the sting of the lionfish, which left him with a bloated hand and leg for weeks.
But on a windy Friday in August, he got on a boat, traveled just over a mile, put on his diving gear and jumped into the sea with another diver, both armed with spears and a container they had fashioned out of a plastic water jug. When they resurfaced, they were shocked at the sheer multitudes of lionfish they had seen 50 meters (164 feet) below.
“It’s like all the lionfish in Lebanon ran off and are hiding down there,” Sarkiss joked. “It’s out of this world.”
Back at the modest village port, Sarkiss daintily cut off the venomous spines with scissors, before a colleague cleaned the fish and another sliced off the flesh. The fishermen arranged the pale pink chunks on a plastic plate and devoured them raw. Some drizzled on soy sauce, while others lamented that they didn’t have the quintessential Levantine dipping sauce of olive oil, lemon juice, minced garlic and salt.
The fishermen started diving for lionfish in the last couple of years after a local group called Diaries of the Ocean began encouraging restaurants to serve it.
“When the fishermen first told us about the lionfish, they were scared of it,” founder Jina Talj said. “It’s new, it’s scary-looking, it’s intimidating, it’s big, it’s bright, it has a lot of spines.” So the 37-year-old marine biologist set up a three-pronged plan: teach the fishermen how to properly handle it; inform restaurants about the new catch and persuade them to serve it; tell the public to eat it.
Talj’s nongovernmental organization even put out a recipe booklet with help from nutritionists. When anti-government protests exploded in the country in late 2019, she set up a tent in downtown Beirut where other encampments had sprung up, and lectured on eating more sustainably. She displayed a few lionfish in an aquarium and even grilled one.
Up the coast, at a well-known brewery, she threw a big barbecue featuring kilos upon kilos of the fish in hopes that the taste would catch on.
And it did. Jammal is just one of many restaurants that began offering the fish. Jammal likes to serve the whole thing raw, with a side of soy sauce to complement its buttery, light and delightfully non-fishy taste.
The lionfish is just one example of an invasive edible fish, but it tops the list because it is extremely carnivorous and has no natural predators in the eastern Mediterranean — a problem faced in many waters around the world, including off the United States. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration called it the “poster child for invasive species issues in the western north Atlantic region.”
After Talj’s initial interactions with the fishermen, they got back in touch with her and complained about a new species: the pufferfish. “We can’t eat it, we can’t fish it. It tears the fishing nets,” she recalled them saying.
Manal Nader, director of the Institute of the Environment at Lebanon’s University of Balamand, described the fish as extremely voracious. “Search ‘pufferfish eating Pepsi can,’ ” he instructed. It’s the first hit on Google: a Lebanese man chortles in disbelief as the fish easily takes repeated bites out of the can.
“We have no predator for the pufferfish — it’s on top of the food chain. It eats what it wants, it does what it wants, and on top of everything, you cannot fish it,” said Nader.
While some fish of this species are edible when handled correctly — like fugu, a delicacy in Japan — this one is not. “The one we have here is the most toxic,” said Nader. “You’re not allowed to cook it, you’re not allowed to market it, you’re not allowed to ship it — it’s not allowed to go into any place. Its toxin can be used as a nerve weapon, because it’s 1,000 times more potent than cyanide.”
So Nader has been actively pursuing another way to make the fish attractive to human predators. Tetrodotoxin, or TTX, an ingredient in anesthetics, can be extracted from the fish. TTX is traditionally produced synthetically, but some medical companies have for years been conducting research into natural substitutes, specifically extracted from the pufferfish.
The plan would be to build a lab in Lebanon that could extract the substance and then export it to Italy, where it would be refined.
Nader hopes his planned project would be a win-win for everyone. Fishermen would make money. Medical companies would make money. And the local species would get a bit of relief, instead of being eaten by a fish that can chew through aluminum cans.
Facing unbearable heat, Qatar has begun to air-condition the outdoors
As the fishermen in Berbara cut up their lionfish for a midmorning snack, they swapped stories of the species they or their fathers used to see, now just urban myths: sponges, oysters, starfish, sea horses. In Lebanon, sea urchins were never a luxury but an easily sourced comfort food. Now, they’re nowhere to be found.
Nader said he and his friends used to pick up octopuses from tide pools some 30 years ago; now the fishermen scratched their heads trying to remember the last time they had seen one. The pufferfish doesn’t help: Nader explained that an analysis of its stomach contents found high levels of octopus.
Unfortunately for Lebanon’s seas, there is no sign it has acquired a taste for lionfish. | 2022-09-08T17:02:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Lebanon's warming seas force fishermen and diners to change their habits - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/08/lebanon-warming-sea-lionfish-fishermen/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/08/lebanon-warming-sea-lionfish-fishermen/ |
Next year, a quarter of its students will pay nothing to attend the Ivy League university
The Princeton University campus in New Jersey. (Seth Wenig/AP)
For six years, Princeton University has boasted that the average family making less than $65,000 a year pays nothing for an undergraduate student’s tuition, room and board. Financial aid grants cover the entire bill.
Now the Ivy League school, one of the world’s wealthiest and most exclusive universities, is extending that pledge to include most families earning up to $100,000. The new full-ride benchmark, announced Thursday, will take effect in fall 2023. More than a quarter of Princeton undergraduates are expected to qualify. The aid expansion will also benefit families over the threshold, including even many affluent ones with incomes of as much as $300,000.
For students who receive no financial aid, the estimated cost of attendance at Princeton this year is $79,540. That counts tuition, meals, housing and miscellaneous expenses. So the value of a full ride, over four years, is well over $300,000.
Such are the benefits — for the select few who can get in — of attending a university with an endowment valued last year at more than $37 billion. Huge recent investment returns on that money are supporting the new aid.
Princeton’s president, Christopher L. Eisgruber, said the initiative is meant to ensure that students “flourish on our campus,” taking full advantage of academic, research and internship opportunities. He said the university will also scrap a policy that students who receive financial aid are expected to contribute $3,500 a year for books and miscellaneous expenses. That is likely to reduce pressure to find well-paid summer jobs or part-time work during the school year.
Princeton’s announcement is likely to reverberate among ultra-selective schools and the students who compete for admission to them. Harvard, Yale and Stanford universities all promote on their websites that families with incomes of up to $75,000 and typical assets will qualify for grants that cover full costs. Yale, for example, calls its program a “zero parent share award.”
In 2001, Princeton eliminated loans from the financial aid packages it offers students. Some other prestigious schools followed that “no-loan” example.
But one financial aid expert said the impact on higher education of Princeton’s latest announcement will be quite limited at a time of rising concern about college costs and intense political debate over student debt cancellation.
“Does it change the world? No,” said Sandy Baum, an economist at the Urban Institute who for many years analyzed financial aid and pricing trends for the College Board. “Will it make life better for the small number of people who are fortunate enough to get into Princeton? Sure. … I’m not really worried about these Princeton students. I’m worried about all the people who don’t go to Princeton.”
Colleges scramble to recruit students as nationwide enrollment plunges
With new residence halls, Princeton is growing its undergraduate enrollment from a pre-pandemic level of about 5,200 to about 5,700 by fall 2025. But demand for seats far exceeds supply. Every year the university draws tens of thousands of applicants. Its acceptance rate was 4 percent for the class that entered in fall 2021.
For many years, the university has sought to shed its image as a haven for the elite. About 21 percent of freshmen this fall have enough financial need to qualify for Pell Grants, the university said, up from 10 percent in 2009. Pell Grants target aid to families with low-to-moderate incomes. Princeton’s Pell share is relatively high for its peer group, but it trails the shares found at many public universities.
What to know about Pell Grants
Eisgruber said he would like to diversify the student body further.
“We have to think about middle-income students as well,” he said. Many who barely miss qualifying for Pell Grants are “underrepresented at colleges and universities like this one,” Eisgruber said.
To illustrate its new policy, Princeton showed in a chart how projected aid awards would cut the cost of attendance for families living in the United States with no more than one child in college and less than $150,000 in assets (not counting retirement funds or a primary residence they might own).
Under those circumstances, a family earning $150,000 would be expected to pay $12,500 a year. The contribution would be $25,000 a year at an income level of $200,000, $37,500 at an income level of $250,000, and $50,000 at an income level of $300,000.
All of those sums are substantially lower than the current cost of attendance — nearly $80,000 — for families that receive no financial aid.
The chart did not specify how the scenarios would work for international students. But Princeton officials say the university meets full financial need regardless of citizenship.
Princeton’s formula spotlights an open secret of higher education: The definition of financial need can vary hugely from school to school. Families making in the range of $300,000 a year would qualify for little or no need-based aid at many other colleges or universities. But Eisgruber argued that such cases deserve attention, too, especially when families have multiple children.
“We’re talking about families that face difficult trade-offs,” he said, “where paying for a college education is something that can require a lot of budgetary sacrifice.” | 2022-09-08T17:11:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Princeton to pay tuition, other costs for families making under $100K - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/09/08/princeton-student-tuition-financial-aid/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/09/08/princeton-student-tuition-financial-aid/ |
Even moved to the background, pandemic deaths are shaped by politics
The death toll in red counties in 2022 has been 40 percent higher when adjusted for population
Medical staff prepare to move the body of a deceased covid-19 patient to a funeral home van at the Willis-Knighton Medical Center in Shreveport, La., on Aug. 18, 2021. (Gerald Herbert/AP)
About every three minutes last month, an American died of the coronavirus.
Compared to other months during the two years prior, that toll is comparably mild. In January, for example, there was a death from covid-19 in the United States more than once a minute. But August was worse than June, for example. So far this year, more than a quarter of a million people have died of the disease — a toll far larger than even a bad flu season — though much of the country clearly considers the pandemic over.
And, as has obviously been the case, deaths from the coronavirus are inextricably linked to politics.
A lengthy new report at ProPublica elevates a specific example of how politics affected the response to the virus. It explores the situation at a hospital in Montana, where Republican leadership blocked vaccine mandates, even for health-care workers. Gov. Greg Gianforte (R), elected in November 2020, quickly enacted policies aimed at minimizing the perception of the danger posed by the virus upon taking office. The article is a grim portrait of how the hospital was forced to scramble to care for sick and dying patients, even as political leaders scored points with ostentatious opposition to efforts to treat the pandemic seriously.
Over the course of the pandemic, more people have contracted the virus and died of it in counties that voted for Joe Biden in 2020 than in ones that voted for Donald Trump. But late last year, the toll in counties that backed Trump by more than 20 points passed the toll in counties that supported Biden by that margin.
That’s despite those strongly pro-Biden counties being home to more than 30 percent more people. If we control for population, we see that while infection rates are fairly similar regardless of party, the death toll has been far worse in counties that backed Trump. The counties in which Trump won by the widest margin have seen a cumulative population-adjusted death toll that’s 42 percent higher than counties that backed Biden by the widest margin.
It’s often the case that Biden-voting counties see more population-adjusted infections in a month (though this is, of course, affected by the regularity with which people seek out and report tests). But the last time there were more population-adjusted deaths in blue counties than in red ones was in early 2021.
A central factor here, of course, is vaccinations. There’s an obvious divergence in the death toll in mid-2021 on the graphs above, one that occurred shortly after Biden- and Trump-voting counties began to separate on likelihood of vaccination. (On the graphs below, June 2021 is indicated with a vertical line to show the point at which the rates of full vaccination began to diverge. Then the delta variant hit.)
The idea that there exist medications that can broadly protect the unvaccinated has been compelling for a few reasons. For one, it allows those on the right to continue to position themselves against the establishment and “elites” like government medical officials. For another, it suggests that the pandemic was never as big a deal as it was made out to be, a common argument as the currently most-prevalent variant appears to less frequently result in death.
The embrace of ivermectin was a potent example of how politics overwhelmed practicality during the pandemic, as I noted earlier this year. That article was thrown back at me repeatedly in recent weeks following the release of a new — dubious — study purported to show that the drug was effective against the virus. For many people, it’s more politically (or economically) rewarding to elevate vague or shaky claims about the effectiveness of random drugs than to admit that the vaccines themselves proved very effective at reducing the death toll.
What happened at St. Peter’s Health in Helena, Mont., was a microcosm of fights happening across the country, fights often centered on politics and political views. The effect is that, even as the omicron variant allows many Americans to focus attention away from the coronavirus, the virus does more damage in more-Republican places. | 2022-09-08T17:11:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Moved to the background, pandemic deaths still are shaped by politics - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/08/coronavirus-deaths-politics-states/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/08/coronavirus-deaths-politics-states/ |
‘Women make awesome games.’ This camp is helping them make more.
Mehrish Khan, 13, of Santa Clara, gets help from counselor Cecil Kong as she works on her game art the Girls Make Games video game-making camp at Crystal Dynamics in San Mateo, California. (Marlena Sloss/For The Washington Post)
When Girls Make Games CEO Laila Shabir was growing up in the United Arab Emirates, she was constantly told what she could and could not do. Once, when she was younger, Shabir cut her hair to look like a boy so she could play soccer. She imagined her hobbies wouldn’t be so strictly defined by gender roles when she moved to the United States. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.
“It’s not something someone obviously or openly tells you,” Shabir said to The Washington Post. “It’s just something you kind of hear and internalize over time.”
These subtle reinforcements of gender roles and restrictions around who exactly is allowed to enjoy particular hobbies inspired Shabir to start Girls Make Games, a summer camp where girls and nonbinary children learn all the basics of game development from coding to concept art illustration. The camp is hosted by LearnDistrict, an educational media company founded by Shabir and Ish Syed. During the camp’s three week curriculum, they work together in groups with the goal of producing their own video games for publishing.
This year, GMG offered three on-site camp venues in San Mateo, Seattle and Bellevue, Washington. Every year, GMG selects the best student project to get crowdfunded, developed and published. Shabir said GMG has published 11 student games so far, some of which are showcased on GMG’s website.
The camp was born out of Shabir’s own experience in game development. Before Shabir co-founded LearnDistrict with the intention of making educational video games, she worked in finance, another famously male-dominated field. After graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Shabir interned at Merrill Lynch before moving on to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and BlackRock.
But Shabir said none of those spaces came close to the gender disparity she saw in the video game industry. When she put out hiring notices for her small indie game studio, the applicants were overwhelmingly men.
“When I put up the job apps, it was like 90 percent men and boys applying, saying this is my dream job to do this,” Shabir said. “But I never had women applying, saying I’ve been dying to make an educational game.”
LearnDistrict eventually grew to eight employees but Shabir was the only woman. When Shabir tried to headhunt qualified women, she encountered resistance from both men and women. People told her there just aren’t enough women working in games and games aren’t something that women are typically interested in. It took her five years to convince her own sister Isra Shabir, a fellow M.I.T graduate with a degree in computer science, to join LearnDistrict.
Shabir attributed this difficulty to a confluence of factors, but one of the biggest was the cultural assumption that video games are a male pastime with content aimed at a masculine audience. If girls don’t play games, then Shabir questioned why she was making educational games that would only be played by boys. So she started Girls Make Games in 2014 as a research project: what if she asked a bunch of gamer girls what kind of games they enjoy and games they want to see?
“I wanted to get to know them,” Shabir said. “And that was it. Honestly, a social experiment.”
That social experiment has mentored over 22,000 children and partnered with industry giants such as Nintendo, PlayStation and Ubisoft, according to GMG’s 2021 report. Many of the campers are now veterans who have been attending for years, citing it as a great way to build up experience and strengthen their college applications. But also, it’s a summer camp. That means friendship and fun.
“The community is honestly one of the best parts,” said Vanessa Meza, a 15-year-old camper who has been attending GMG for five years. “Everyone is very nice. It doesn’t matter where you’re from or what you like to do. It’s just a good, safe space for everyone to just come in and chill out and make games together.”
This year, some GMG students attended camp at the Crystal Dynamics offices in San Mateo. Crystal Dynamics is the current developer of the Tomb Raider franchise, which stars globe-trotting archaeologist Lara Croft, one of gaming’s most prominent heroines. Crystal Dynamics studio head Scot Amos described the developer’s partnership with GMG as an extension of the company’s core values, pointing out that two of Crystal Dynamics’ co-founders, Judy Lang and Madeline Canepa, were women. Amos praised GMG as a launchpad for helping budding game creators, especially for those who love games but have no idea how to start making their own.
“If you didn’t have Girls Make Games, would they even have someplace to know how to get a game engine and start making something?” asked Amos. “Sure, you could go on to YouTube if you knew what to search for. And then you’d say, is it a good one? Is it a bad one? Do I know what I’m looking for?”
Meet the women who brought Lara Croft to life
GMG students are encouraged to create whatever they want. Shabir says that messaging is an important part of the curriculum. Instead of pointing out the dearth of women in the industry, Shabir focuses on the value they bring. If girls get told subconsciously that they should be joining game development to even out the ranks, then they may just feel like numbers on a company diversity report.
“Continuously reminding them that there aren’t many women in the industry can go the other way,” Shabir said. “No, it’s more like, you know what, women make awesome games. So we want your game. That gets them excited.”
It’s been an inspiring tenet to campers such as 9-year-old Rena Foulds. Foulds is currently enjoying the hit platformer “Stray” and the samurai action adventure “Ghost of Tsushima” (in the Japanese dub, no less) but she got to make her own game at this year’s GMG. Her project, “The Amazing World of Cake,” is about three animals trying to gather the ingredients to bake a cake while dealing with thieves and mischievous birds. When asked how she came up with the idea, her response was exactly in line with GMG’s teaching philosophy: make the game that you want.
“Me and my friends like cake,” Foulds said. “And we just made it up along the way. And for the characters we used a cheetah, dog and a tiger 'cause those are our favorite animals.”
Shabir believes video games have the ability to create a profound, lifelong impacts. As a medium, video games can uniquely be enjoyed as a pastime, an ice breaker for parties, a competition or an art piece. In an episode of VH1’s “I Love the ‘90s,” John Mayer discussed how video game music deeply inspired his own music and scatted tracks from “Super Mario Bros.” note by note. Shabir likened video games to books, in the sense that games had the power to influence her way of thinking and her perspective.
And that is a power that should be shared with everyone, she said.
“It makes sense that kids are attracted to video games because everything that games represent, kids are into,” Shabir said. “If we want to reach people, if we want to make a difference, I think video games have a massive societal influence and we should be tapping into that collectively. Not just on an individual level but as a society and as an employer.”
Marlena Sloss in Oakland, Calif. contributed to this report. | 2022-09-08T17:14:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Girls Make Games encourages young gamemakers to follow their dreams - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/09/08/girls-make-games/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/09/08/girls-make-games/ |
David Clements is traveling the country trying to convince local leaders to withhold certification of election results. If he succeeds, it could cause chaos.
David Clements attends a meeting of the Otero County Board of Commissioners in Alamogordo, N.M. on Aug. 11, 2022. Clements and his wife Erin push claims of election fraud in New Mexico and around the country. (Paul Ratje/for The Washington Post)
NELIGH, Neb. — One recent still summer night in this tiny city on the Nebraska prairie, more than 60 people showed up at a senior citizens center to hear attorney David Clements warn of an epidemic of purported election fraud.
For two hours, Clements — who has the rumpled look of an academic, though he lost his business school professor’s job last fall for refusing to wear a mask in class — spoke of breached voting machines, voter roll manipulation and ballot stuffing that he falsely claims cost former president Donald Trump victory in 2020. The audience, which included a local minister, a bank teller and farmers in their overalls, gasped in horror or whispered “wow” with each new claim.
“We’ve never experienced a national coup,” he told the crowd, standing before red, white and blue signs strung up alongside a bingo board. “And that’s what we had.”
Clements, who has no formal training or background in election systems, spent months crisscrossing the back roads in his home state of New Mexico in a battered Buick, trying to convince local leaders not to certify election results. His words had an impact: In June, officials in three New Mexico counties where he made his case either delayed or voted against certification of this year’s primary results, even though there was no credible evidence of problems with the vote.
Now, Clements has taken his message nationwide, traveling to small towns in more than a dozen states, with a focus, he said, on places that are “forgotten and abandoned and overlooked.” His crusade to prove that voting systems can’t be trusted has deepened fears among election experts, who say his meritless claims could give Trump allies more fodder to try to disrupt elections in November and beyond.
Republican primary candidates embracing Trump’s stolen election rhetoric have flourished this year. Clements’s strategy is to target his message locally: to county commissioners and clerks, jobs that are lower profile but that wield an outsize role in administering America’s decentralized election system. If local jurisdictions fail to certify their votes, it could throw the outcome of an election into chaos, raising doubt about the results and giving ammunition to losing candidates who refuse to accept their defeat.
Clements is one among a tightknit circle of Trump supporters who travel the country as self-appointed election fraud evangelists. They embrace the instructions of leaders like former Trump adviser turned podcaster Stephen K. Bannon, who has urged election deniers to run for local races and sign up to be poll workers in what he calls his “precinct-by-precinct” takeover strategy.
Like others preaching the gospel of election fraud, Clements has attracted a large following online, where he mixes conspiracies with Christian nationalist and sometimes violent rhetoric. He has appeared on Fox News and on Bannon’s podcast. He’s dined with Trump and Mike Lindell, the chief executive of MyPillow and high-profile election fraud conspiracist.
“We’ve got enough evidence to have indictments, people tried for treason and have the remedy of firing squads. That’s what we need,” Clements told an audience at a New Mexico church in February.
A recent report from congressional Democrats on election misinformation highlighted Clements’ activities, and concluded that “the greatest current threat to democratic legitimacy now comes from lies by domestic actors who seek to convince Americans that their election systems are fraudulent, corrupt, or insecure.”
New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, who has clashed repeatedly with Clements and his wife, said the “misinformation and disinformation” were being “seeded as core beliefs, not just with elected officials but the general public.”
“I do worry about potential violence toward election officials, in particular around the upcoming general election,” she said.
“Why?” he asked. “Because I care about the truth. Because I want to make sure our voices are accurately captured. Because the rule of law needs to exist.”
“We’ve figured out how they’re screwing you out of your vote,” Clements said. “That’s the battle. So what’s the solution?”
“Sledgehammers!” a woman at the back of the room yelled out.
A shifting course
Distraught that Biden’s victory would be validated by Congress despite the insurrection, he has said that he ran outside and fell on his knees, next to the fire pit.
“I said, ‘God save us, please, please save our country,’ ” he recalled in a speech in Michigan last year. He looked back and saw his wife and children standing in the window watching him, weeping. “And something happened. My heart filled … and I heard, ‘We are going to win.’ ”
Clements came down from the mountain filled with zeal and — sitting down in his garage armed with nothing more than a laptop and a “crappy microphone” — soon began posting about alleged election fraud on YouTube. He said he began examining the alleged evidence of fraud in contested states like Georgia and Pennsylvania in the days following the election, and later had some of those who claimed to have observed it firsthand appear on his YouTube videos.
Clements said in an interview that as an attorney he was “eminently qualified” to talk about the legalities surrounding voting machines, and that his wife, Erin, has two decades of expertise working with data as a civil engineer. Neither, however, has experience running elections or formal education in voting machine systems.
“I’m a child of the trailer park. My mom worked at Kmart and Lowe’s, my dad bagged groceries,” he said. “Dysfunctional family. At times I felt cursed. I’d see other happy families on vacation while I would bus their tables as an underage kid and say, ‘is this it, Lord?’ ”
But, he said he realized, “God was preparing me for something, to see artifice, to see lies.”
He delved into politics too, serving as a county Republican chair and as an unsuccessful Republican primary candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2014. Later, he served as the vice chair for legal affairs of the state’s Libertarian party.
Just weeks later, in October 2021, he was fired, by his own account, for refusing to wear a mask in class. In his disciplinary hearing, which Clements posted online, the university said he violated the school’s covid-19 mask and vaccination policy.
“Clements was saying, ‘You’re zombies, man. You’re zombies,’ ” Pecchia recalled. “This guy has gone off the deep end. It’s like he’s been radicalized somehow. It was a complete change. I never ever got the impression he was so radical about things like that and I felt stupid I had submitted a letter for this guy nominating him for this great award.”
Anti-vaxxers quickly embraced Clements, with far-right Colorado podcaster Joe Oltmann creating an online fundraiser for him and calling him “a lightning rod of truth and courage.” The appeal has since brought in more than $304,000 in donations, including from donors who say they support his “election integrity” crusade. Clements says he is not paid for his appearances but asks for donations for travel expenses at the door.
“Given his intelligence and accomplishments, the fact that he’s decided to pursue this provably false theory is tragic and surprising,” said Chris Luchini, the head of the Libertarian Party of New Mexico and a former colleague of Clements.
Pressing on, on foot
In October, around the time he was fired from his university job, David and Erin Clements mailed a 261-page document to commissioners and county clerks across New Mexico alleging widespread issues with the voting systems — what the congressional report called “imaginary fraud.”
David and Erin Clements claimed that the state’s voting tabulators are insecure and miscount votes. They also alleged that unnamed bad actors “massively” manipulated voter registration rolls, allowing people to illicitly vote in the last presidential election.
The couple soon found an ally in Couy Griffin, a flamboyant former Disneyland Paris rodeo cowboy who until this week was a member of the county commission in Otero, a rural New Mexico community of 69,000 along the Texas border. Griffin, who was once thanked by Trump for saying “The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat” and who was convicted of a misdemeanor for entering a restricted area during the Capitol riot, has long alleged the 2020 presidential election was stolen. A state judge on Tuesday ordered Griffin removed from office, citing his role in having “aided the insurrection” on Jan. 6, 2021.
“This is a nonpartisan issue,” Griffin said in an interview. “Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican we should all want to make sure our elections are secure.”
Griffin said David Clements “knows what he’s talking about,” and that he is the kind of expert Griffin wants to explain complicated voting systems to him, rather than the election officials in his own county.
But David and Erin Clements pressed on, appearing before the three-member, all-Republican Otero commission with a new target: the state’s June 7 primary. David Clements urged commissioners not to perform their statutory duty to certify the results, arguing that doing so would place them in legal jeopardy because of the problems they alleged with the machines. The county’s attorney disagreed, calling the argument “highly unlikely.”
Yet two independent election security experts who have examined the Clements’ work — Susan Greenhalgh, senior adviser on election security for the nonprofit Free Speech For People, and Kevin Skoglund, president and chief technologist for the nonpartisan Citizens for Better Elections — said the fraud charges are baseless and misleading. New Mexico’s Secretary of State has also rejected the allegations.
A document that David Clements claims shows a failure to update voter check-in machines for 11 years is inaccurate, since the state uses a different check-in system, the Secretary of State’s office said.
The claim that the volunteer canvassers found dozens of “ghost voters” at one address turned out to reference The Post office box at a nearby military base.
Clements also asserted that the digital file containing the ballot from the 2020 elections had been deliberately “wiped” from the voting machines when in fact separate files are created for each election and the ballots and other records are preserved.
“Their reports on election fraud are a jumble of conspiracy theories and full of errors. They are wrong about voting technology, election processes, certification, and legal requirements,” Skoglund said. “They even quote me and cite my work on voting systems with modems and internet connectivity, but I disagree with every conclusion they draw from my work.”
“I don’t think he understands what he’s talking about most of the time,” said Greenhalgh. “He takes things and extrapolates them to a place that comes completely out of thin air. It sounds good and people believe it because it sounds authoritative if you don’t know much.”
The “fanciful arguments” of conspiracists obscure the country’s real need to continue to address election vulnerabilities, she said, such as internet voting — 31 states and the District of Columbia allow it for overseas, military and in some places disabled voters — as well as outdated paperless voting machines.
Clements’ allegations extend to voting machines made by multiple companies, including Dominion Voting Systems, which are used in New Mexico and have been the target of false claims by Trump supporters. Those claims are rooted in a 2020 election night error by the clerk in a Michigan county that resulted in the heavily Republican area briefly reporting that Biden had beaten Trump there. The error was quickly corrected, but the damage was done.
“This is yet another example of how lies about Dominion have damaged our company and diminished the public’s faith in elections,” Dominion spokeswoman Stephanie Walstrom said of Clements.
In his own backyard: claims of fraud
At the June hearing in Otero, David and Erin Clements turned up to a crowded meeting room to give the commission a nearly three-hour update on their “findings.” The couple’s conclusions prompted Griffin to chastise his own clerk, Robyn Holmes, a Republican who has thirty years of experience running elections in the county.
“If I was in your position I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night,” Griffin said to Holmes. “You’re in the middle of elections that are fraudulent right now if what they’re telling us is true.”
“If what they’re telling us is true,” Holmes said, shouting, “IF!”
“I totally take exception to the idea that Robyn Holmes — our Republican clerk — doesn’t know what she’s doing. So who is the leader here today?” Swanson asked. “Is it my county commissioners or these people sitting here who had lunch with Donald Trump and the MyPillow guy?”
On June 17, the state’s deadline to certify election results, Clements drove several hundred miles in his old Buick, hoping to stop commissions across New Mexico from okay’ing the votes. He appeared first in Torrance County, where he led off comments at a raucous meeting. Citizens hurled insults at leaders voting for certification, calling them “cowards,” “traitors to our country” and “rubber stamp puppets.”
In Sandoval County, Clements had so riled residents that the commissioners had to be removed from the hearing room by sheriff’s deputies for their safety after voting 4-1 to approve the results, according to County Commissioner Katherine Bruch, a Democrat.
In Otero, two commissioners who had voted not to certify earlier in the week reversed their decisions and approved the results, bowing to an emergency order from the state’s Supreme Court that mandated them to follow their statutory duty.
Griffin, the only dissenter, called his vote in from Washington, where he had just been sentenced to 14 days in jail — time served — for his role in the Capitol attack.
“My vote to remain a no isn’t based on any evidence, it’s not based on any facts, it’s only based on my gut feeling and my own intuition, and that’s all I need,” Griffin said, his drawl tinny on the speakerphone.
The Otero controversy is far from over. On Aug. 11, Clements and his wife presented the final findings of their “audit” in a special five-hour commissioners meeting, during which he got into a shouting match with the county attorney and told Holmes she should resign because it was “disgusting how you fight the people.” She left the meeting in tears.
Holmes has grown so disheartened by the couple’s oft-repeated allegations that she has stopped coming to meetings unless asked for. “I was to the point that, ‘You guys aren’t even telling half-truths anymore,' ” she recalled. “It’s all falsehoods and speculation. I’m not going to sit and argue with that.”
In the end, the commissioners voted to sue the secretary of state’s office for forcing them to certify the primary results. Their county attorney, R.B. Nichols, advised that the “frivolous lawsuit” would “not pass muster” in court and would cost the county more than $100,000.
That day, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released their report into the threat of election misinformation. It singled out “fraudulent” audits in Maricopa County, Ariz., and Otero County as key drivers in an effort by “malicious domestic actors” to erode trust in American democracy.
“We’re in a contest of wills. Who is going to break whose will?” Clements said. “I’m not asking you all to storm the beaches of Normandy, to suffer a bloody death to save our republic. I’m asking you all to consider showing up to an air-conditioned building, organizing, opening your mouth and saying: ‘These machines suck. I know they do. I don’t want them. Make them go away.’ ”
One woman told him she and others in her county were planning to have a days-long outdoor slumber party near her county’s one ballot drop-box before the November election to guard it from being stuffed with ballots — a fear propagated by the debunked film 2000 Mules.
A rancher named Dave Wright raised his hand to say that it was obvious to him the Democratic National Committee had figured out how to cheat, so why couldn’t the Republicans do so as well?
“I stand before you as someone who used to be an award-winning professor, an award-winning prosecutor — who is unemployed,” Clements said. “I come to you as someone who had a future. And if we don’t fix our country, I can’t go back to that world.”
Magda Jean-Louis and Alice Crites contributed to this report. | 2022-09-08T17:23:55Z | www.washingtonpost.com | An ex-professor spreads election myths across the U.S., one town at a time - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2022/09/08/an-ex-professor-spreads-election-myths-across-us-one-town-time/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2022/09/08/an-ex-professor-spreads-election-myths-across-us-one-town-time/ |
Special masters and Trump’s Mar-a-Lago documents: What you need to know
The Justice Department and Donald Trump’s lawyers have until Friday to submit a joint list of potential special masters
A page from the order granting a request by the legal team for former president Donald Trump to appoint a special master to review documents recovered by the FBI during a search of his Mar-a-Lago estate. (Jon Elswick/AP)
Lawyers for Donald Trump made a big request last month in a legal filing about the ongoing investigation into the possible mishandling of classified documents at the former president’s Florida residence: They wanted the judge to appoint a special master to examine the papers to see if any should be kept from investigators.
The prospect of a special master has now been the subject of multiple legal filings and a hearing in a federal courthouse in West Palm Beach. Trump’s lawyers reasoned that a neutral outside expert could sort through all the documents and separate out any protected by attorney-client or executive privilege. The process, they argued, would restore “trust” in an investigation that Trump and his allies have blasted as politicized and unfair.
On the other side, the Justice Department said that there was no legal basis for such a person to be appointed in this investigation — and pointed out that it had already examined all the seized documents, so a special master would be pointless.
On Monday, the judge granted Trump’s request. Barring an appeal, the Justice Department and Trump’s lawyers have until Friday to submit a mutually agreed upon list of potential special masters.
A special master is an impartial outside expert who can essentially be viewed as a judge’s helper, said David R. Cohen, an attorney and longtime special master. In theory, the special master can help with whatever a judge needs.
In what circumstances is a special master usually appointed?
Special masters are most frequently named to sort through documents involved in a court proceeding and examine them for certain types of privileges. The most common of these is attorney-client privilege, but a special master may also be used to detect documents potentially protected by doctor-patient privileges or spousal privileges. The special master would set aside documents protected by these privileges and, with a judge’s sign-off, they would not be used as part of the legal proceeding.
In this instance, Trump wants a special master to sift through the documents FBI agents recovered from Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8 and set aside any materials that may be protected for attorney-client or executive privilege (more on executive privilege below). Prosecutors also said in court filings that they had a “filter team” set aside any of the seized documents that could be protected by attorney-client privilege.
But special masters could also be appointed in sprawling legal cases, to help the judge assess potentially massive amounts of information collected through the legal discovery process — even if the special master search has nothing to do with privilege issues. And in class-action cases with huge monetary settlements, a judge may appoint a special master to determine who should receive money and which lawyers should get paid through the settlement.
Executive privilege is a power that presidents can assert to shield communications from courts and Congress on the theory that this privacy will enable open and honest discussion within the White House or executive branch.
The Justice Department has argued that Trump is no longer president and can’t assert this privilege. Government lawyers have also argued that, even if he had executive privilege, Trump couldn’t shield information from the Justice Department since it is also part of the executive branch.
When granting Trump’s request for a special master, U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon ruled that it’s not clear cut that a former president cannot exert executive privilege in this scenario. Still, it’s unclear what types of materials Trump’s legal team believes would be protected by this privilege.
There are no set qualifications a special master must have, but the vast majority are attorneys, according to Cohen. The judge would need to select a person who is neutral and whom she trusts.
In some cases, special expertise may be sought. If there is a patent case, for example, a judge may want the special master to be a scientist who has an expertise in a specific area, Cohen said.
After examining the documents, the special master would typically submit his or her findings and recommendations to the judge.
In the case of the Trump document investigation, finding a suitable special master could be difficult, since the Justice Department has said in court filings that the president had highly classified government documents in his possession in Florida. A special master would likely need to have the required government clearance to view these sensitive documents.
Typically, both parties would split the cost of a special master. But it’s up to the discretion of the judge — and the judge could order the costs to be split unevenly.
How did special masters come to be?
Special masters began in England hundreds of years ago, Washington Post reporter Paul Schwartzman wrote earlier this week. By the 15th century, British judges were assigning fact-finding work to clerks who were called masters, Amalia Kessler, a Stanford University Law School professor, told him. In the United States, “We called them ‘special’ because they’re not a group of masters associated with a particular court but appointed on a special basis, case by case,” Kessler said. | 2022-09-08T17:23:56Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What a special master is, how it impacts Trump documents investigation - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/09/08/what-is-special-master-trump-documents/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/09/08/what-is-special-master-trump-documents/ |
The monarch was a constant and reassuring figure as she helped lead her country through a period of radical shifts in the latter half of the 20th century.
By Adrian Higgins
Queen Elizabeth II, photographed in 2013. (Phil Wilkinson/Scotsman/PA Wire/Press Association Images)
Britain's Queen Elizabeth II has died after 70 years on the throne. Here's a look back at her life and legacy as the longest-serving British monarch. (Video: Alexa Juliana Ard/The Washington Post)
It was one of few missteps, and the crisis passed: By the time of her Diamond Jubilee in 2012, Queen Elizabeth was the subject of a four-day love fest that included a waterborne procession on the River Thames that rivaled a medieval pageant. Her approval rating stood at 90 percent. At a service at St. Paul’s Cathedral, then-Archbishop Rowan Williams said, “We are marking six decades of living proof that public service is possible, and that it is a place where happiness can be found.”
Nothing captured this moment more clearly than the image of the queen at her husband’s funeral, held in 2021 amid restrictions related to the covid-19 pandemic. Dressed in black and with her face veiled by a mask, she seemed alone if not isolated in the oaken pews of St. George’s Chapel, Windsor.
In his book “The Real Elizabeth,” journalist and historian Andrew Marr wrote, “Her view of her role has been that she is a symbol, and that symbols are better off keeping mostly quiet. The Queen’s style of monarchy has buried much of a sense of self, as we understand that today. ... The Queen is still what she does. There is only a little space (though an interesting space) between Queen Elizabeth II and the woman who lives her life.”
Pushed onto center stage
Despite Philip’s subordination — against type — the marriage was solid and happy, and the prince sometimes referred endearingly to his wife as “Sausage.” The queen’s opening of her speeches with “My husband and I ... ” became a catchphrase. Courtiers who saw them at close quarters observed “a reserved, yet visible, fondness,” Pimlott wrote.
“It has turned out,” she said at a formal luncheon, “to be an annus horribilis.”
“We are all visitors to this time, this place. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love ... and then we return home.” | 2022-09-08T18:16:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Queen Elizabeth II dies at 96 after reigning over the UK for 70 years - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/09/08/queen-elizabeth-ii-dead/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/09/08/queen-elizabeth-ii-dead/ |
Queen Elizabeth II led a life devoted to public service and a life in the public eye. The archives are rich with images of her as a child, when she had no idea that her uncle would abdicate and her father would die in his 50s, making her monarch at age 25. The images document her time as a young queen, projecting British power in the world in numerous trips abroad. And they illustrate how she grew into the role of sovereign and became a symbol of stability and continuity — even through royal scandals, the contraction of the British Empire and massive change around the world.
1927 | Windsor, England
Princess Elizabeth accompanies relatives on a carriage ride on the grounds of Windsor Castle.
1933 | London
Princess Elizabeth, on right, and Princess Margaret attend the annual sale of the Disabled Soldiers' Embroidery Society. They were involved in charity work from a young age.
1933 | Scotland
Princess Elizabeth with her uncle at Balmoral estate, the royal retreat in Scotland. He would become King Edward VIII in 1936, but he abdicated the same year to marry American socialite Wallis Simpson, which put Elizabeth in direct line for the throne.
June 13, 1946 | Windsor, England
Princess Elizabeth salutes as A.T.S. cadets parade past her at the Imperial Services College.
May 10, 1945 | London
Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret speak to a member of the Lewisham Women's Voluntary Service two days after the end of the war in Europe. Buckingham Palace was among the many sites in London bombed during the “blitz.”
Nov. 20, 1947 | London
Elizabeth was 21 when she married Philip, 26, a Royal Naval officer who was also a distant cousin and member of the exiled Greek royal family. She would later refer to him as her “strength and stay.”
April 21, 1947 | Cape Town, South Africa
“I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service,” she said in a radio address on her 21st birthday.
Oct. 21, 1950 | London
Elizabeth and her grandmother Queen Mary take care of the newly christened Princess Anne, who is wearing a gown made in 1841 for Queen Victoria's eldest child.
Feb. 11, 1952 | London
Elizabeth, on left, her grandmother Queen Mary and her mother, Queen Elizabeth, stand at the entrance to Westminster Hall, as the coffin of her father, King George VI, arrives to lie in state.
June 7, 1952 | London
The new queen — an avid horsewoman — participates in the Trooping of the Colour ceremony, which marks the official birthday of the British sovereign.
Feb. 9, 1953 | London
Elizabeth was both a young queen and a young mother. Here, she returns with Princess Anne and Prince Charles after a Christmas holiday in Sandringham, England.
Queen Elizabeth II is crowned at Westminster Abbey. Her coronation was the first to be televised.
Oct. 16, 1957 | Jamestown, Va.
In her first visit to the United States as queen, Elizabeth marks the 350th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, England’s first permanent settlement in America.
Queen Elizabeth II is welcomed to New York with a ticker-tape parade. She addressed the United Nations General Assembly and toured the sites during the trip.
July 1, 1969 | Wales
Queen Elizabeth II invests her son and heir, Charles, as Prince of Wales, in a ceremony at Caernarfon Castle.
Elizabeth and Philip celebrate their silver wedding anniversary alongside their children, Charles, Edward, Andrew and Anne, at Buckingham Palace.
July 5, 1973 | Calgary, Canada
Chief Harold Cardinal escorts Elizabeth as she exits a teepee.
July 7, 1976 | Washington, D.C.
Philip and Elizabeth join President Ford and first lady Betty Ford for a state dinner at the White House. Through the years, Elizabeth would meet with 13 American presidents.
Elizabeth receives congratulations from well-wishers during a brief walkabout as part of the Silver Jubilee, celebrating 25 years of her reign.
Robert Rider/AP
Sept. 5, 1979 | London
The royal family attends the Westminster Abbey funeral of Lord Louis Mountbatten, Philip's uncle, who was killed by an Irish Republican Army bomb. The sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland resulted in more than 3,500 deaths over three decades of Elizabeth's reign.
AP/UKPA
July 29, 1981 | London
The royal family waves from the balcony of Buckingham Palace following the wedding of Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales. Elizabeth would urge them to divorce in 1995.
Elizabeth inspects a foal during a visit to Lane's End Farms.
Elizabeth and Philip look up from the balcony of Buckingham Palace as a Concorde flies overhead during the Golden Jubilee celebrations.
Queen Elizabeth II, escorted by Prince Philip, walks through the Royal Gallery to the House of Lords for the opening of Parliament. She opened every parliamentary session during her reign, except in 1959 and 1963 when she was pregnant.
May 5, 2007 | Louisville
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip attend the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. The queen owned and bred thoroughbreds for most of her life.
Elizabeth's likeness graced British money and postage stamps. Here, she unveils a bust by the late British sculptor Oscar Nemon.
Shaun Curry/Pool/AFP/Getty Images
Queen Elizabeth II leaves Buckingham Palace in a carriage for the official state opening of Parliament.
July 1, 2010 | Ottawa
Elizabeth inspects a Guard of Honor outside the Canadian Parliament after arriving to attend the Canada Day celebrations.
April 29, 2011 | London
Queen Elizabeth II, bottom center, and other Royal family members attend the wedding of her grandson Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, above center, at Westminster Abbey.
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip host President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama for a state dinner at Buckingham Palace.
Larry Downing/Pool Reuters/AP
Oct. 26, 2011 | Melbourne, Australia
Elizabeth rides on the royal tram down St Kilda Road during her 16th official visit to Australia.
Feb. 6, 2012 | King's Lynn, England
Elizabeth is greeted by well-wishers during a visit to King's Lynn Town Hall to start celebrations for her Diamond Jubilee, 60 years to the day since she ascended to the throne.
March 20, 2012 | London
Elizabeth waves after she addresses the next speaker of the House of Lords, Baroness Frances D'Souza, front left, and speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, front center, at Westminster Hall.
Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP Pool
Queen Elizabeth II presents actress Angelina Jolie an honorary damehood for services to British foreign policy and the campaign to end war zone sexual violence.
July 5, 2015 | King's Lynn, England
Queen Elizabeth II talks with great grandson Prince George outside the church on the Sandringham Estate, where they attended the christening of great granddaughter Princess Charlotte.
June 11, 2016 | London
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip ride in a carriage during the Trooping of the Colour at Buckingham Palace.
June 11, 2021 | St. Austell, England
Elizabeth, center, during a reception at the Group of Seven summit. Other leaders onstage, from left: President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
JJack Hill/Pool/AFP/Getty Images
June 5, 2022 I London
From left: Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince George, Prince William, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, stand on the balcony during the Platinum Pageant, marking the end of the celebrations for the Platinum Jubilee.
Sept. 6, 2022 I Scotland
Elizabeth welcomes Liz Truss at Balmoral Castle where she invited her to become her 15th prime minister and form a new government.
After more than seven decades of rule, the queen died on Sept. 8 at Balmoral Castle. She was 96.
Photo production by Stephen Cook | 2022-09-08T18:16:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Photos: The life of Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/photography/interactive/2022/photos-queen-elizabeths-life/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/photography/interactive/2022/photos-queen-elizabeths-life/ |
D.C. candidates grapple with questions on crime ahead of general election
The John Wilson Building in D.C., home to the offices of the mayor and city council. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)
Candidates running for local D.C. offices discussed strategies for violent crime prevention at a forum in Southeast Washington this week, grappling once again with a topic that District voters say is a preeminent concern.
The forum, hosted at Matthew Memorial Baptist Church on Wednesday night and organized by community public safety groups, came as D.C. and surrounding jurisdictions are grappling with elevated crime levels.
In neighboring Prince George’s, County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks announced a curfew for children younger than 17 after several people were shot over Labor Day weekend; elected officials and police in the District have similarly struggled to curtail violent crime throughout the summer, and D.C. police last month quietly resumed enforcing a youth curfew that was mostly dormant during the pandemic.
Some of the candidates for mayor, D.C. Council chairman and council at-large who appeared at the forum — the first to take place after the June primary — pointed out that four men had been shot just hours earlier, about two miles away.
“Quality of life is really suffering in this city, at least in the minds of those who roam the streets and are here every day,” said incumbent Council member Anita Bonds (D-At Large), who won in the Democratic primary and is favored to retain her seat in the overwhelmingly Democratic city. “We have more money every year and programs every year. The question is, how do we get to them?”
Bonds is among eight candidates competing for two at-large council seats in the general election. Council members Elissa Silverman (I-At Large) and Kenyan R. McDuffie (D-Ward 5) are also running, bringing heightened attention to that race. (McDuffie was disqualified from running for attorney general in the primary and entered the at-large race in July as an independent.) Several other independents are running at large, including Fred Hill, Karim Marshall and Graham McLaughlin, while Republican Giuseppe Niosi and David Schwartzman of the D.C. Statehood Green Party round out that ballot.
When the at-large candidates were asked by moderator and veteran journalist Tom Sherwood if they or a family member had been a victim of a serious crime, all but Schwartzman raised their hands. They were less unified on other topics, however, including missteps at D.C.'s 911 call center and the appropriate number of police officers in the city.
Asked what they might say to a grandmother who is too afraid to let her grandchildren play outside, some of the nonincumbent candidates blamed current lawmakers for what they characterized as a lack of oversight and innovation in reducing violent crime.
“I would say to that grandmother that your council has failed you as a whole because they’ve taken the approach of, ‘we’re going to wait for the mayor to fall down and point at her,' as opposed to doing its legislative oversight responsibility of coming up with thoughtful, implementable projects and programs that can be tracked to make sure they’re actually working,” said Marshall, an attorney who spent nearly a decade in city government.
On the topic of police, Hill and Niosi pushed for more officers, while Schwartzman proposed an elected citizens’ review board instead. Other candidates discussed the importance of a whole-of-community approach to crime: McLaughlin, who for several years has opened his home to men returning from prison and helped some of them start businesses, said the city “asks police to do too much” — he pushed for more non-police responses for emergency calls related to behavioral health or substance abuse crises.
McDuffie, invoking his authorship of the NEAR Act in 2015, which aims among other things to address the root causes of crime through public health approaches, agreed. “If our solutions to violence begin and end with police, then those solutions are failed from the inception,” he said.
When asked about resident complaints that quality of life is decreasing in the city, Silverman recalled how earlier that day she confronted a resident who jumped the Metro’s turnstile — a decriminalized act in the District — and asked him why he couldn’t pay the fare. She said that after a brief discussion, the man called Metro’s services “great.”
“I said ‘it is great … but it’s also really suffering financially. And if we don’t pay the fares, we’re not going to be able to keep Metro [afloat],’ ” Silverman said. “We all have to hold each other accountable.”
Some candidates for mayor and D.C. Council chair also appeared at Wednesday’s forum; the Democratic primary winners in those races are also favored to win. Incumbent chairman Phil Mendelson (D) responded to questions with Republican candidate Nate Derenge; in the mayor’s race, independent Rodney “Red” Grant appeared with Libertarian candidate Dennis Sobin. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), who won the Democratic primary in June and is seeking a third term, did not attend.
Over the course of his campaign, Grant, a comedian and former police officer, has repeatedly called for the return of community-policing initiatives that were popular in the District in the late 1980s and 1990s, like “Orange Hats” — citizen watch groups that used to patrol D.C. neighborhoods independently of police.
Asked if he’d support a curfew for D.C. youths, Sobin said no. Grant was more receptive to the idea.
“Our young people are out here wilding sometimes, and whatever it takes for us to get them under control, we have to do it,” he said.
More on the 2022 D.C. elections
D.C. elections: Here’s where the mayor, council candidates stand
As Election Day in D.C. approaches, candidates remain hot on the trail
Race for D.C. Council chair means first explaining: What’s council chair? | 2022-09-08T18:29:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | D.C. candidates face questions about crime ahead of general election - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/08/dc-general-election-crime-forum/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/08/dc-general-election-crime-forum/ |
It’s a shrimp-like crustacean found only in the city, and there’s a new plan to try to save it
The tiny whitish crustacean on the leaf under the dime is a Hay's Spring amphipod, a unique species found only in D.C. at sites along Rock Creek. (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
It’s one of the only endangered species in the District, and chances are you’ve never heard of it.
Officially called Stygobromus hayi, the Hay’s Spring amphipod is so small it makes a dime look big. The amphipods look like small shrimp and are hard to find because they’re translucent white and live in springs under wet, dead leaves. And they’re found only in D.C.
Wildlife experts said a recently approved recovery plan to research and learn more about the amphipods and their habitat is essential to save — and revive — them as a part of the D.C. region’s ecosystem. Experts hope their plan will lead to their removal from the federal endangered species list.
“It’s an exciting milestone for this species,” said Kathleen Cullen, a biologist and species lead for the Hay’s Spring amphipod at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Chesapeake Bay field office in Annapolis. “This provides a road map so we can help improve the species and its habitat.”
Her agency, along with the D.C. Department of Energy and Environment, the Smithsonian Institution and the National Park Service, have been working together for several decades to gather data on the rare species and develop the plan to help it.
D.C.’s only endangered species is shy and sightless, but it’s having a moment
The Hay’s Spring amphipod was discovered by Leslie Hubricht in the 1930s in a spring near the Smithsonian’s National Zoo on Connecticut Avenue. Hubricht named it for William Perry Hay, a local high school biology teacher. Last seen in the late 1970s, the Hay’s Spring amphipod was put on the endangered species list in 1982 — having fallen victim to development and storm water runoff.
“Development in the D.C. area paved over and destroyed those spring habitats,” Cullen said.
The size of a pencil eraser, the Hay’s Spring amphipod is tiny, colorless and looks like a freshwater shrimp, moving with the flow of groundwater and feeding on pieces of leaves and plants, Cullen said.
Experts aren’t sure of their life span but believe they can survive underground for about seven years. Little is known about their predators, but researchers suspect that larger-sized amphipods eat them.
In the winter, Hay’s Spring amphipods can be found in springs when groundwater rises to the surface under leaves, and that’s when experts search for them and count them, according to Cullen. The groundwater level is often too low to find them in summer.
Researchers also rely on “eDNA,” or environmental DNA, taking samples of spring water back to a lab and examining it to see if genetic material of the Hay’s Spring amphipod can be found.
Hay’s Spring amphipods are believed to be at eight sites in Rock Creek Park that are owned by the National Park Service.
“They’re a good indicator of water quality,” Cullen said. “When they’re present and the water quality is good, that benefits every species that depends on clean water.”
While it’s no cute black-and-white panda, the Hay’s Spring amphipod has gained some fame. In 2017, city officials declared it the District’s “official amphipod.” And the crustaceans were used in an effort to try to stop construction of the Purple Line in the Maryland suburbs.
Purple Line’s obscure obstacle: The endangered Hay’s Spring amphipod
Experts have recently outfitted 11 acres around the Fitzgerald Tennis Center in Rock Creek Park with better soil and drainage, so storm water can soak into the ground and the land doesn’t suffer as much from pollution and erosion. The effort, researchers said, could help save the springs where the Hay’s Spring amphipods live.
“We want to improve the water quality and quantity that’s getting to the springs,” Cullen said. “We want that water to come in through the ground and not in a big pulse that could wash the spring away or sediment on top of it.” | 2022-09-08T18:29:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Saving D.C.'s endangered species — the Hay's Spring amphipod - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/08/endangered-crustacean-hays-spring-amphipod/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/08/endangered-crustacean-hays-spring-amphipod/ |
A person holds their phone with a screen saver of Queen Elizabeth II on Sept. 8, 2022 in London. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)
The first murmurs that the queen might have died came just after midday in parliament.
It was Liz Truss’ second day as British prime minister. Early Thursday afternoon, the new leader of Britain was facing a grilling from the leader of the opposition, Keir Starmer, about her plans for the country’s winter energy crisis. Starmer’s deputy passed him a note written on yellow paper. Within minutes, both Truss and Starmer had left the room. There was hushed talk. Something was up.
“A lot of very glum faces,” one reporter noted on Twitter.
It was 12.21 p.m. in London.
Queen Elizabeth II had been the British monarch since 1953. She had seen Britain through turbulent years, offering a type of symbolic leadership that provided many with stability and comfort. But she was also 96 years old. In recent years, her public appearances had become fewer and fewer. Her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, died in 2021. He was 99.
For years, there have been accounts of secret plans prepared by the royal family, the British government and the publicly funded broadcaster, the BBC, for how to announce the queen’s death to the people. Leaks had described strict formal procedures under the name “Operation London Bridge,” with the BBC holding dress rehearsals for deaths every six months.
But the last time a sitting British monarch died was 70 years ago. A lot has changed since then.
Hours before the queen’s death was officially announced, there were fake accounts sharing fabricated news of the death. A BBC anchor shared news of the queen’s death, before deleting the tweet and issuing a strangely worded correction.
According to documents published last year by Politico, the day of the queen’s death would be described as “D-Day." The scenes in Parliament on Thursday suggested that D-Day was here, though there were certainly other possibilities. It took less than 15 minutes for doubts to be dispelled.
At 12:34 p.m. London time, the Twitter account of Britain’s royal family shared a statement from Buckingham Palace. It was 29 words long: “Following further evaluation this morning, The Queen’s doctors are concerned for Her Majesty’s health and have recommended she remain under medical supervision.”
“The Queen remains comfortable and at Balmoral," the statement continued, referring to the monarch’s summer home in Scotland.
Speculation abounded. The BBC website started a live blog; other outlets soon followed. A 2017 story published by the Guardian that described “Operation London Bridge” was widely shared on Twitter. The lengthy article discussed many of the arcane measures the BBC would take for the death, but also the psychological weight the queen’s death carries.
“The Queen is Britain’s last living link with our former greatness – the nation’s id, its problematic self-regard – which is still defined by our victory in the second world war,” the British author, Sam Knight, wrote.
By 1:48 p.m. London time, the BBC had suspended its regular programming. Huw Edwards, a veteran Welsh broadcaster, was on the screen wearing a somber black suit and a black tie. The chyron read simply: “HM Queen Elizabeth’s health.”
The royal family rushed to be at her side. Flight tracker websites tracked unusual flights to Aberdeen, the nearest airport to Balmoral, from Royal Air Force bases in other parts of Britain.
On Twitter, fake accounts saying the queen was dead were retweeted by many others. This has happened before. In 2016 a fake BBC news account spread the soon viral news that the queen had died before being suspended by Twitter. The year before that, a real BBC journalist sent out a tweet that read “Queen Elizabrth [sic] has died.” The tweet was quickly deleted; the BBC issued a statement that suggested the tweet had been sent during a “technical rehearsal for an obituary.”
This time, it didn’t seem like a rehearsal.
At 3:07 p.m. London time, BBC anchor Yalda Hakim tweeted “BREAKING: Queen Elizabeth has died aged 96, Buckingham Palace has announced.”
The tweet was swiftly deleted and then replaced with a correction. “I tweeted that there had been an announcement about the death of the Queen. This was incorrect, there has been no announcement, and so I have deleted the tweet," Hakim wrote at 3.19 p.m.
In the hours that passed, more and more members of the royal family arrived at Balmoral. Prince William, the queen’s grandson, was photographed driving a Range Rover containing her sons Prince Andrew and Prince Edward and Edward’s wife Sophie.
In the past, some accounts of “Operation London Bridge” had suggested that the news would not be announced later in the evening, leading some reporters to suggest that no announcement would come before the morning. But times change.
At 6:41 p.m. local time, over six hours since the murmurs started, the Twitter account of the royal family made the announcement: “The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon.” The website of the royal family went black, with a simple stark picture of the queen and the message: “Queen Elizabeth II 1926 — 2022.”
The queen was dead. | 2022-09-08T18:33:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Covert plans, fake news: How the news of Queen Elizabeth’s death broke - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/08/queen-death-fake-news-twitter/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/08/queen-death-fake-news-twitter/ |
WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 27: U.S. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell speaks during a news conference following a meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) at the headquarters of the Federal Reserve, July 27, 2022 in Washington, DC. Powell announced that the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) (Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty Images North America)
The dynamics of future inflation will probably be different and more influenced by the labor market, which is part of why it could be relatively easy to get the personal consumption expenditures price index back down to the 3.5% to 4% range, but significantly harder to get it to the Fed’s 2% target next year. Speaking at a Cato Institute event Thursday, Powell took note of “very, very strong” labor market conditions:
We think by our policy interventions what we hope to achieve is a period of growth below trend which will take – which will cause the labor market to get back into better balance, and then that will bring wages back down to levels that are more consistent with 2% inflation over time. That’s what we’re trying to achieve.
How will Powell know if wage pressures are abating? Average hourly earnings might offer some indication, but they’re still growing at around 5.2% year-over-year. Of course, earnings growth can exceed inflation to the extent that it’s offset by productivity growth, but productivity is actually declining in the US. And 5.2% would still be too high, even if productivity returned to a more typical 1% to 1.5% range.
Next, Powell is clearly intent on being cautious and bracing for any future problems that aren’t obvious now. Powell was humbled by the experience of the past 18 months, including the temporary slowing of inflation that tricked the Fed around the summer of 2021, when price increases seemed to moderate, but then suddenly re-accelerated. Speaking Thursday, he noted that there’s much that the rate setting Federal Open Market Committee cannot know about the current state of the economy, somewhat echoing a candid remark made in June that “we now understand better how little we understand about inflation.” The supply shocks that initially drove up the price of used cars and other durable goods in 2021 may be abating, but Powell is looking toward the next disruption. As he put it Thursday:
The question really is, is this going to be a temporary thing that’s really related to the pandemic in some way, or is there actually something more structural and persistent happening? For example, if we’re moving to a world where we’re going to see more frequent, larger and more persistent supply shocks for whatever reason, that will have critical and difficult implications for the conduct of economic policy and monetary policy in particular. So this is not possible to know right now.
Powell made clear that he’s looking at more than just one inflation report -- and investors should too. Even if CPI shows further improvement, two good reports hardly make for convincing evidence that the problem has been solved. Perhaps that’s why federal funds futures now imply an 85% probability that the central bank will raise the upper bound of its target rate by 0.75 percentage point this month to 3.25%. The central bank is intent on fighting the inflationary pressures that are forthcoming, not just the ones that may be behind it. Like it or not, that suggests that the bank is likely to stay aggressive in the year ahead.
• The Fed Has Learned Its Money-Market Lessons: Bill Dudley | 2022-09-08T18:42:25Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Powell Is Looking Well Past the Next Inflation Report - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/powell-is-looking-well-past-the-next-inflation-report/2022/09/08/cb845afc-2f9e-11ed-bcc6-0874b26ae296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/powell-is-looking-well-past-the-next-inflation-report/2022/09/08/cb845afc-2f9e-11ed-bcc6-0874b26ae296_story.html |
Don’t be hasty. (Photographer: Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images)
A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee voted yesterday to recommend approval for an ALS drug being developed by Amylyx Pharmaceuticals. The fate of this small company’s drug could matter well beyond ALS to influence how data are regarded for other medicines.
FDA and its advisors are skeptical the drug works as well as the company purports, and clear evidence of its efficacy won’t be available until 2024 at the earliest. Still, the agency is widely expected to formally approve the drug as soon as later this month. That sets up a bad precedent not only for future treatments for ALS, but for other diseases. And one analyst for a company developing other ALS drugs has already concluded that yesterday’s decision signals a willingness to approve drugs based on data that is anything short of negative.
Yesterday’s vote reverses a negative decision in March by the committee. In this second-chance scenario, Amylyx didn’t provide any new data in the drug’s value in treating ALS, but rather new analyses of existing data — analyses that were heavily critiqued by the FDA’s own staff. But throughout the meeting, the agency took great pains to explain its ability to be flexible in its review of certain medicines, seemingly steering its advisors towards a positive vote.
The FDA’s decision may have far-reaching effects, something that was clear from the very start of yesterday’s unusual meeting. During his opening remarks, Billy Dunn, director of FDA’s office of neuroscience, stressed to the advisors that the agency has the power to remove a drug if a larger trial did not prove its effectiveness. He then called on Amylyx to voluntarily withdraw the study if a Phase 3 study, dubbed “PHOENIX,” failed. Results from that ongoing study are due by early 2024.
Minutes later, Amylyx co-chief executive officer Justin Klee responded, “If PHOENIX is not successful, we will do what is right for patients, which includes voluntarily removing the product from the market.”
That stunning exchange loomed over the rest of the daylong meeting. It was repeatedly raised during committee members’ discussion. One advisor, National Institutes of Health neurologist Bryan Traynor, when explaining his “yes” vote, mentioned that he was “struck” by Klee’s vow to withdraw the drug.
But there’s a problem. The FDA can’t just pluck a drug off the market — in fact, it often doesn’t even try and instead relies on a manufacturer to do so. The law does grant it authority to repeal a drug’s approval, but the process takes a long time and, short of a serious safety issue, can be difficult to apply.
Take the case of Makena, a drug for preventing preterm births. In 2017, a large study showed that it did not work any better than older, much cheaper generic drugs. It took until 2020 for the agency to recommend that it be withdrawn from the market. The company disagreed, and a hearing finally will be held next month — two years after the FDA’s recommendation was made — to discuss the issue.
And although Amylyx’s Klee vowed to withdraw the drug if it turned out to not work, small biotech companies habitually go through management changes or are sold (Amag Pharmaceuticals, which developed Makena, was bought by Covid Pharma in late 2020). The next CEO might not feel as compelled to act.
Another very real possibility is that the ongoing Phase 3 study could take longer than anticipated to be completed, putting off the answer to the question of whether the drug works or not. That could leave a drug with questionable efficacy — and potentially a very high price — on the market for years while the company claims to be gathering additional data. “What is going to stop the manufacturer from lollygagging around? The incentive for them is not great,” says Reshma Ramachandran, co-director of Yale University’s Collaboration for Research Integrity and Transparency.
To be sure, the FDA and its advisors were in a difficult position with Amylyx’s drug. ALS is a devastating and universally fatal disease. During the public comment section of yesterday’s meeting, one person with ALS described the daily experience of living with disease as like being buried alive. People with ALS, their families, and neurologists came out in droves to support the drug’s approval, making clear they were comfortable with the existing data on its value.
The FDA seemed determined to shepherd its advisors toward a positive outcome that would allow it to formally approve the drug without controversy. FDA stressed throughout the meeting that it has the authority to exercise flexibility in its consideration of the evidence for drugs. And while flexibility is certainly welcome for ALS, it would seem to be applying it rather broadly: Ramachandran and her colleagues found that 1 in 10 of all drugs approved by FDA in recent years had not hit the main goal in clinical trials.
That’s a worrisome pattern. Confidence in the neuroscience division has already been shaken after its decision, against the advice of its committee, to approve Biogen’s Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm despite little evidence that it works. Leading that same committee down a disingenuous path, one that promises quick action on Amylyx’s drug if it doesn’t work, does nothing to restore that confidence.
Flexibility is welcome where the need is great, but the evidence is thin. But the FDA should be very selective about where it applies that flexibility and honest about how difficult it might be to dial back the decisions its gets wrong. Cherry-picking which drugs can skate by on scant evidence isn’t good regulatory science — and ultimately could be bad for patients.
• Apple Is Finally Chasing the Lucrative Ironman Crowd: Tim Culpan | 2022-09-08T18:42:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The FDA Is Rushing a New and Unproven ALS Drug - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-fda-is-rushing-a-new-and-unproven-als-drug/2022/09/08/7e2ed15c-2f98-11ed-bcc6-0874b26ae296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-fda-is-rushing-a-new-and-unproven-als-drug/2022/09/08/7e2ed15c-2f98-11ed-bcc6-0874b26ae296_story.html |
Floods, dangerous surf forecast for California from Hurricane Kay
Confidence is increasing for significant rain and flash flooding in Southern California and southwest Arizona between Friday and Sunday
Strong waves come ashore before the arrival of Hurricane Kay, in Los Cabos, Mexico, on Wednesday. (Jorge Reyes/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
The remnants of Hurricane Kay are just a day away from bringing significant rainfall to parched areas of Southern California and southwest Arizona — but the downpours may end up being too much of a good thing.
Forecasters say areas of flash flooding are probable in the region Friday through Sunday. The interior mountains of Southern California could see up to 5 inches of rain, an exceptional amount.
“Confidence remains high for a significant rainfall event across this region,” the National Weather Service said in an online discussion Thursday.
The storm’s remnants could also bring gusty winds and dangerous surf conditions to coastal areas of Southern California.
Effects on Mexico
A Category 1 hurricane with 85 mph winds, Kay is expected to make landfall on the west-central coast of Baja California in Mexico Thursday evening. The storm is weakening and forecast to be downgraded to a tropical storm on Friday.
Blamed for at least three deaths over Baja California, Kay continues to be a major rain-producer.
The storm is projected to bring 6 to 10 inches of rain to much of the peninsula, with localized amounts of up to 15 inches. Near the coast, Kay is expected to whip up large waves and dangerous rip currents, with a damaging storm surge, or rise in ocean water above normally dry land, possible as well.
Tropical storm warnings have been hoisted for the entirety of Baja California’s coastline, even on its eastern side, which rests on the Gulf of California. This is because Kay is a large hurricane; tropical-storm-force winds (39-plus mph) extend up to 230 miles from its center, while hurricane-force winds (74-plus mph) extend 35 miles from the center.
Effects on the Southwest United States
Kay is expected to further weaken and bend away from the Mexican coast as it gets closer to bone-dry Southern California. Still, winds from the southwest will drag Kay’s moisture into the region, first bringing with it cloud cover that will help to end the prolonged, record-setting heat wave.
The hurricane’s remnants will also carry unusual amounts of moisture that could help ameliorate the ongoing drought across Southern California. Some thunderstorms associated with Kay have already started rumbling near Riverside, Calif., bringing isolated heavy rain and lightning.
Although the rain is needed, the National Weather Service is cautioning that Kay’s arrival will not be without its dangers.
“Despite those positives, it’s never a good thing to get too much rain all at once, a trait all too common among slow-moving tropical storms,” the Weather Service wrote.
Hurricanes are moving more slowly — which makes them even more dangerous
Precipitable water, a measure of atmospheric moisture, is forecast to be over 2 inches across parts of Southern California by late Friday. That is five standard deviations above the norm for the region at this time of year, meaning it is very rare.
Flash flooding is most likely in narrow slot canyons, in urbanized areas like San Diego, Palm Springs, Calif., and Yuma, Ariz., and over burn scars, where fire has stripped away vegetation and water tends to rapidly run off rather than soaking into the ground.
Flood watches have been hoisted from central Southern California into western Arizona, and the Weather Service has placed a large swath of Southern California and an increasing portion of southwestern Arizona in the slight- to moderate-risk zone for flash flooding from Friday to Saturday morning.
Rainfall amounts of more than 2 inches are likely in the zone covered by the flood watch, with up to 4 or 5 inches possible on the east slopes of mountains, where winds from the east will intensify the precipitation.
Updated rainfall potential through Sunday from the moisture from tropical cyclone Kay. The greatest potential for heavy rainfall and flash flooding is for the east slopes of the mountains and adjacent deserts areas for Friday afternoon and night. #cawx pic.twitter.com/JzaWihbf2k
In San Diego, an inch or less of rain is expected, mostly falling Friday into Saturday morning. But, being along the coast will bring a separate set of hazards. The Weather Service is warning of dangerous rip currents and an elevated surf of 3 to 6 feet, along with the possibility of gusty winds up to 40 miles per hour.
In Los Angeles, the Weather Service predicts 0.25 to 0.75 inches of rain, with 1 to 2 inches in the mountains to its east, mostly falling Friday night into Saturday.
While Kay won’t come close to making landfall in California, it will still bring strong winds on Friday that will enhance the local fire danger. Gusts on the Laguna Mountains east of San Diego could exceed 70 mph, which will help feed any blazes.
Thunderstorms could also bring dangerous cloud-to-ground lightning that could ignite wildfires in the region — though any downpours from Kay may help quash some of them.
Kay is not the first tropical system to affect California, but such occurrences in the state are fairly rare. They typically originate from the remnants of tropical storms and hurricanes, as is the case with Kay, rather than direct strikes. | 2022-09-08T18:42:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Floods, dangerous surf forecast for California from Hurricane Kay - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/09/08/hurricane-kay-mexico-california-flooding/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/09/08/hurricane-kay-mexico-california-flooding/ |
Police investigating triple shooting with one dead in Southeast D.C.
D.C. police investigating the shootings of several people, one of them fatally, that occurred Wednesday afternoon on a city block in Southeast Washington said they may have found the vehicle used by the shooters, abandoned and burned in Northeast.
The shootings occurred about 4:50 p.m. outside a convenience store in the 600 block of Chesapeake Street SE, near Hendley Elementary School. Police said two men got out of a vehicle and opened fire on people on the block.
Police said three men were struck by bullets, including Kendrick Phillips, 30, of Southeast Washington, who died at a hospital. Two other men had injuries that police said did not appear life-threatening.
Authorities had initially said four men had been shot; they later said a fourth person who they thought had been struck by gunfire was instead injured running away from the gunfire.
Police said they were looking for a black sedan with temporary license plates and tinted windows. They said a black Dodge van was later found burned on Central Avenue in Northeast Washington. A police spokeswoman said they are trying to confirm if that is the vehicle used in the shootings. | 2022-09-08T18:42:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Police investigating triple shooting with one dead in Southeast D.C. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/08/homicide-washington-shooting/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/08/homicide-washington-shooting/ |
Virtual charter schools see enrollments rise
Charter schools are publicly funded schools that are operated outside publicly overseen school districts, sometimes by for-profit companies. Charter advocates say these schools offer choices to families that want alternatives to troubled neighborhood schools. But charter schools have become increasingly controversial in recent years, with critics saying that in many places they take money from district schools that educate the vast majority of American children and do not on average have better student outcomes than traditional public schools.
Charter schools experienced a jump in enrollment during the coronavirus pandemic, but as this post shows, much of that jump was in virtual charter schools, which have long been the worst-performing schools in the charter sector. This past spring the U.S. Government Accountability Office released a concerning report about virtual charters.
This post provides new data on the rise in virtual charter enrollment and digs into the GAO report. Part of the piece is technical, which is important to explain how the findings were reached.
The following was written by Carol Burris, an award-winning New York school principal who is now executive director of the Network for Public Education, a nonprofit advocacy organization that opposes charter schools. Burris has written extensively about charter schools and other school reform efforts for more than a decade on The Answer Sheet.
Last October, this post examined state 2020-21 enrollment data indicating that large numbers of students had during the coronavirus pandemic moved to virtual charter schools, which are notorious for being the lowest performing schools in the charter sector. Researchers and advocacy organizations, including the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, had previously been highly critical of virtual charters.
The final numbers are now in from the Common Core of Data, and the findings are confirmed. During the 2020-21 school year, an additional 175,260 students enrolled in virtual charters bringing the total enrollment in virtual charters to 483,871. Even more importantly, that shift accounted for over 70 percent of the increase in charter school enrollment between the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years, an increase that was heralded as a victory by school-choice advocates.
Will these students remain at home learning over the internet, or will they return to brick-and-mortar schools? That remains unknown. What we do know is that families are being aggressively courted by for-profit charter operators that include national chains like Stride K12 (formerly K12 Inc.) and Pearson’s Connections Academy as well as smaller for-profit organizations that are marketing their own online charter schools.
Why charter schools get public education advocates so angry
The Common Core of Data (CCD) is the U.S. Department of Education's database on public elementary and secondary education. As described by the U.S. Department of Education, the CCD is “a comprehensive, annual, national database of all public and charter elementary and secondary schools and school districts.”
The database includes a table generator that allows the public to create tables of information on topics of interest, including school types, enrollment, and demographics. We used that generator to compare the growth in online school enrollment between 2019-2020 with 2020-2021 enrollment.
Four choices describe a school’s virtual school status. A Full Virtual school delivers all instruction over the internet. A Face Virtual school delivers instruction virtually but provides the opportunity for some in-person meetings among students or with teachers. A Supplemental Virtual school offers some virtual courses, but online learning is not the primary means of delivering instruction. The fourth possibility is Not Virtual, meaning that all instruction is provided within a brick-and-mortar school.
For our analysis, we included the first two categories of schools — Full Virtual and Face Virtual. These were the two types included in the March 2022 report on virtual charters by the Government Accounting Office (GAO).
For the 2019-2020 school year, the CCD identified 349 charter schools as being Full or Face Virtual. There were four coding errors leaving a total of 345 schools. Enrollment in those schools ranged from 0 to 12,693. The total enrollment in virtual charter schools that school year was 308,611 students, representing 9 percent of the total 3,432,494 students enrolled in charter schools that year.
Using CCD data, we followed the same procedures for the following year, 2020-2021. California, Utah, Texas, and Illinois did not provide their schools’ virtual status. Therefore, we used the California Department of Education’s database to identify exclusively (full) and primarily (face) virtual schools in that state. We then used the 2019-20 CCD database to identify the rest of the schools in the other three states. If the school was open and still virtual, they were added.
The CCD identified 3,681,958 students as being enrolled in charter schools in 2020-21[1], which indicated that student enrollment in virtual charters had jumped from 9 percent to more than 13 percent of charter school enrollment.
The number of virtual charters increased from 345 schools to 384 — a modest increase. But the capacity of virtual schools, especially for-profit-run virtual schools, to expand without facility concerns allowed the massive enrollment surge to be absorbed with only a modest increase in the number of schools.
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Charters operated by the for-profit online giant Stride K12 increased from 72,474 students in 2019-20 to 110,767 in 2020-21. Its strongest competitor, Pearson’s Connections Academy, experienced even stronger proportional growth from 53,673 to 85,749.
Overall, the for-profit-run charter sector enrolled more than 50 percent of all students enrolled in virtual charters during both years.
Those who believe in market-based schooling see the expansion of low-cost virtual schools as a victory. Others who believe in high-quality schools view the expansion of virtual charters as a cause for serious concern.
In March 2022, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a blistering report on virtual charter schools. The analysis showed that virtual charter students lag behind their peers in brick-and-mortar charter schools, and even further behind students in brick-and-mortar public schools in publicly overseen districts.
When the GAO reviewed student proficiency in math and reading, they found “the national average math proficiency rate for virtual charter schools was 25 percentage points lower than the rate for brick-and-mortar traditional schools” and “the average reading proficiency rate for virtual charter schools was 9 percentage points lower than brick-and-mortar traditional schools.”
While many virtual charter operators claim that the students attending their schools are often already lagging, the GAO made sure to control for several factors that could impact these proficiency rates, including past academic performance and student mobility. Even after controlling for those factors, the GAO still found virtual students’ scores statistically significantly behind brick-and-mortar public school students. Not only that, fewer virtual students bothered to take state tests.
From the report: “The participation rate for virtual school students on state tests is substantially lower than for students in brick-and-mortar traditional schools and brick-and-mortar charter schools according to our analysis of EDFacts data.”
The concerns of the GAO extended beyond academics to criminality. They reported that states have varied methods for accepting daily student attendance figures from virtual charters, leaving those figures vulnerable to manipulation and fraud. Their investigators found that some schools relied on students only logging into a portal or a program, regardless of how long they stayed. While some virtual charters took daily attendance, others only took attendance weekly or even monthly.
Attendance inflation and manipulation occur because enrollment data determines how much money virtual charter operators will get from our state and federal tax dollars. Such manipulation can significantly enhance end-of-year profits. Fraud, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, from enrollment schemes involving virtual schools has occurred with alarming frequency.
Notable cases include the A3 charter school network, EPIC charter schools, California Virtual Academy (CAVA), and Ohio’s Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT).
Eleven people were indicted in the elaborate A3 charter scheme, which bilked California taxpayers out of 50 million dollars. Perpetrators were accused of falsely and dually enrolling students in their charter schools, without the knowledge or consent of parents, to collect state payments.
After a decade of investigation, David Chaney, Ben Harris, and Josh Brock of Epic charters were arrested in June of 2022 for cheating Oklahoma taxpayers out of tens of millions of dollars. The trio had regularly enrolled “ghost students,” including students enrolled in home-schools and private schools, created fake invoices, used school credit cards for personal items, and dipped deep into “learning funds” accounts to make political contributions to stall and obstruct the auditing of the school. During the 2020-21 school year, this corrupt online chain, which has shed its management company and is now on probation, enrolled over 60,000 students.
Although CAVA has made its settlement to the taxpayers of California in compensation for sloppy attendance and deceptive practices, ECOT still owes the state of Ohio $117 million.
The allure of virtual schools
For those not interested in engaging in fraud, virtual charter schools are still a source of enormous profit, which is why for-profits operate over half of the sector. The GAO provides insight into why this is so. According to the report, “The student-teacher ratio across virtual charter schools was about 75 percent higher than for brick-and-mortar traditional public schools, according to 2017-2018 CRDC data.” The GAO also found that while district public schools spent $13,646 per student on instructional staff in 2017-18 (50 percent of all of their income), virtual charters spent only $8,295 per student (25 percent of all of their income).
This allows virtual charters to dedicate excess resources to attracting new students in addition to bottom-line profit. The GAO described the marketing operations of virtual charter schools as follows:
Officials in one state said the bulk of virtual charter school advertising tends to be seasonal. Schools launch multimillion dollar campaigns throughout the summer, including on television and billboards throughout the state, to encourage enrollment for the fall. Officials from one virtual charter school in Pennsylvania said they broadcast television ads on specific networks that appeal to parents and air the commercials in the mornings when parents might be struggling to get their children ready to go to school and in the evenings after children are in bed.
Perhaps the most disturbing marketing tactic is providing families financial incentives for enrolling their children in the virtual charter or recommending other children to the school.
In 2016, I met Anaheim High School District Superintendent Michael Matsuda. Matsuda showed me a flier from Epic Charter schools, which was expanding from Oklahoma to his state of California at the time. It advertised that new enrollees would receive $1,500 for a “personal learning fund,” along with free laptops, iPads, and internet services. According to the Woodward News, Epic was also handing out free concert tickets, vacations, and other prizes for referrals of students to the school at a time when its four-year graduation rate of only 28 percent.
Such practices are not isolated to Epic. The GAO found that 31 percent of virtual charter schools’ websites “specify that stipends are available to enrolled families, which can be used to pay for extracurricular activities, among other purchases.” For cash-strapped families, this can provide a powerful incentive.
Although it is easy to blame the sharp increase in virtual charter enrollment on the pandemic, as the GAO notes, virtual charters have been the fastest growing sector of charter schools for years. Whether that enrollment trend will dip now that families feel it is safe for their children to return to in-person learning remains to be seen. Our preliminary research shows a drop in charter school enrollment during the 2021-22 school year, but until the final NCES numbers are released, we will not know the final count — either overall or in virtual schools.
Now small for-profit chains are opening virtual charters, with many of these schools coming online this year. The big brick-and-mortar for-profit chains, including Academica and Leona, have also opened virtual charters. Other for-profit-run charters are now providing full virtual options as part of brick-and-mortar schools. Those enrollment numbers are hidden in school reports and, therefore, not included in our totals.
There may be a continued demand for virtual schools, which the market-based charter movement promotes and expands. However, studies beyond the GAO have demonstrated that online schooling is a flawed option for most students, with kids often returning to district schools far behind academically. Virtual schooling is the poster child for the failings of school choice. It is time that the public demands guardrails and extensive reform.
[1] CCD describes charter school status in eight ways: open, future, new, added, reopened, changed boundary, inactive, and closed. We included all, with the exception of inactive, closed, and future. | 2022-09-08T18:42:56Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Virtual charter schools see enrollments rise - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/09/08/virtual-charter-schools-enrollments-rise/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/09/08/virtual-charter-schools-enrollments-rise/ |
On Feb. 11, 1952, Queen Elizabeth II is seen descending a plane and shaking hands with British leaders shortly after the death of her father, King George VI. (Video: AP)
It had been “a perfectly happy day,” one newspaper later wrote of Feb. 5, 1952.
King George VI, who had been ill, was feeling well enough to go hare hunting at his Sandringham estate.
“The King, a great shot, was on top of his form,” his neighbor Lord Fermoy said.
George dined with his wife and younger daughter, Princess Margaret, before retiring to his bedroom at 10:30 p.m.
Thousands of miles away in Kenya, his older daughter, Princess Elizabeth, had also had a wonderful day, seeing and filming with her handheld movie camera rhinos, warthogs, baboons and a herd of elephants, pink from rolling in the dust.
But the next day, Feb. 6, when Elizabeth became sovereign? The queen would always commemorate it with a day of quiet reflection. This date marks when her beloved father, King George VI, 56, was found to have passed away in his sleep.
“It is a day that, even after 70 years, I still remember as much for the death of my father, King George VI, as for the start of my reign,” she wrote in an anniversary statement in February.
Queen Elizabeth died Thursday at 96. She reigned longer than any other British monarch, 70 years.
The story of the day and hour of Elizabeth’s accession to the throne has been told many times, but it remains a captivating tale. It is history with echoes of Arthurian romance.
The epic, unlikely love story between Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip
On the morning of her father’s death, 25-year-old Elizabeth was perched in a treehouse in Kenya from which she’d watched a herd of elephants led by matriarchs come to a watering hole.
“There has been much speculation, not least because of historical parallels, about when precisely Elizabeth became Queen,” wrote Sally Bedell Smith in her biography of the monarch. “It undoubtedly happened when she was atop the African fig tree, which draws a romantic line to the moment in 1558 when Elizabeth I, seated next to an oak tree at Hatfield House, heard that the death of her sister, Queen Mary, meant she was the monarch, also at age twenty-five.”
For many months, King George — known to today’s generations for overcoming a debilitating stutter in the 2010 Oscar-winning film “The King’s Speech” — had been in declining health.
“The King, a heavy smoker, underwent a left total pneumonectomy in September 1951 for what euphemistically was called ‘structural abnormalities’ of his left lung, but what in reality was a carcinoma,” wrote Rolf F. Barth of Ohio State University in a “pathologists’ reassessment” last year.
“His physicians withheld this diagnosis from him, the public, and the medical profession,” he and co-author L. Maximilian Buja wrote.
The history of royal funerals: Lavish, moving, crowded and sometimes bizarre
Too ill to travel, 56-year-old George tasked Elizabeth and her husband, Philip, with undertaking a months-long tour of the Commonwealth, in the twilight of the British Empire.
George saw his daughter off at London Airport on Jan. 31, 1952. Newspapers said the king looked “well and cheerful.” One of his biographers would later suggest “haggard” as a better description. The crowd let out a cheer as he waved goodbye to Elizabeth.
It would be the last time the two saw each other.
The young couple traveled to Kenya, where a BBC newsreel shows Elizabeth in a print dress and Philip in a white naval uniform, bedecked in medals, emerging from the BOAC Argonaut plane.
“When the royal couple stepped off into the hot sunshine of Nairobi, no one knew then that the girl who had arrived here as Princess Elizabeth would leave five days later as queen,” the British broadcaster would report.
From the Kenyan capital, Elizabeth and Philip, accompanied by a small entourage, traveled three hours to Sagana Lodge, a villa alongside a trout stream, presented to them as a wedding gift from the Kenyan state.
“It was a dangerous time in the British colony. The Mau Mau campaign had just broken out across the White Highlands,” wrote historian Nicholas Best in the Observer. “The officials responsible for the princess’s tour of Kenya, Australia and New Zealand felt unable to guarantee her safety while she was in Kenya. It was only fear of ridicule that stopped them canceling the African leg of the trip.”
On Feb. 5, the couple traveled further into the forest, to the Treetops Hotel, a game-viewing lodge. Their three-bed cabin was reached by a rickety ladder and built into the branches of an ancient fig tree, overlooking a waterhole and salt lick.
“Treetops is old hat now, but in 1952 it was the only place of its kind in the world,” wrote Best, who has been researching lodge founder Eric Sherbrooke Walker, a colorful character, former bootlegger and friend of royals.
In an interview, Best told The Washington Post that Walker positioned local men with spears at the edge of the forest to deter journalists, out of concern for Elizabeth’s privacy and also because the smell of more humans would frighten the wildlife.
Naturalist and big-game hunter Jim Corbett, who accompanied the couple, spent the darkest hours of the night at the entrance of the lodge with a shotgun, to keep curious leopards away, Best said.
On Feb. 6, because of the distance and difficulty of communication, it took hours for the news of the king’s death to reach rural Kenya. The message was relayed to Philip’s private secretary, and from Philip to his wife when they’d returned to Sagana Lodge.
Without ceremony or even awareness, but in accordance with British tradition, Elizabeth had become queen.
The newspaper front pages rang out, “Long Live Queen Elizabeth,” while noting, “Her Majesty, pale with grief, leaves by air for home.”
The new queen stayed composed, except for one moment on the flight back to London. “The Queen left her seat after a while. Her face was set when she returned, but it was obvious to the other passengers that she had been in the loo, having a good long cry,” Best wrote in the Guardian.
When the plane arrived, a black dress was quickly brought onboard so she could disembark in appropriate mourning attire.
The next day, she read a proclamation declaring her reign:
“By the sudden death of my dear father, I am called to assume the duties and responsibilities of sovereignty. My heart is too full for me to say more to you today than I shall always work as my father did throughout his reign, to advance the happiness and prosperity of my peoples, spread as they are all the world over.” | 2022-09-08T18:43:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | When Queen Elizabeth II became queen, in a treehouse in Kenya - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/09/08/princess-elizabeth-queen-kenya/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/09/08/princess-elizabeth-queen-kenya/ |
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Lawyers for two men convicted of conspiring to kidnap Michigan’s governor are asking for a new trial, alleging misconduct by a juror and unfairness by the judge.
The allegation first was raised early in the trial. U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker said he spoke privately to the juror who denied saying that his mind was made up before being chosen. The juror’s name and gender have not been publicly disclosed. | 2022-09-08T18:43:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 2 men convicted in Gov. Whitmer kidnap plot seek new trial - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/2-men-convicted-in-gov-whitmer-kidnap-plot-seek-new-trial/2022/09/08/cd252d5a-2fa3-11ed-bcc6-0874b26ae296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/2-men-convicted-in-gov-whitmer-kidnap-plot-seek-new-trial/2022/09/08/cd252d5a-2fa3-11ed-bcc6-0874b26ae296_story.html |
With dignity, Queen Elizabeth II embodied an endangered principle: Unity
Queen Elizabeth II smiles at Somerset House on Feb. 29, 2011. (Eddie Mulholland/WPA Pool/Getty Images)
The sun has finally set on the British Empire. Its last rays were embodied in the steadfast person of Queen Elizabeth II, who died Thursday after more than 70 years on the throne. Hers was the longest reign in British history, during which the country struggled to find its postcolonial identity.
Ten days of ceremonies will mark her passing — no one outdoes the English on ceremony — during which everything that can be said will be said of the Forever Queen. Here, while the news is still news, are a few brief observations on the person, the historical figure and the symbol that was Elizabeth Windsor.
We often think of duty in the context of a particular moment: the soldier in battle, the first responder in an emergency, the citizen in the jury box. The queen’s entire life was a duty fulfilled. She first appeared on the cover of Time magazine in April 1929, a public figure at age 3. You might think the palaces and courtiers and jewels were ample compensation. But consider all the people around her who saw the royal life up close and wanted out. Her uncle abdicated the throne. Her children chafed under the scrutiny. A grandson decamped to Hollywood and bared his soul to Oprah.
I met her briefly in 1985, at a commemoration of U.S. aid to Britain under the Marshall Plan. I was in graduate school; she had been queen since my parents were in college. I was warned not to initiate a handshake, but she reached to shake mine, supremely dignified but not aloof. She was as close to a complete blank as anyone I had ever encountered. That was her duty: not to be interested or uninterested; not to be happy or grumpy; not to hurry or tarry. She wasn’t there as a person. She was there as The Queen.
She made monarchy palatable to the modern age. We’ll see how long that lasts without her.
This is not a question for Britain alone. As queen, Elizabeth symbolized something in short supply throughout the West: unity. She was not of any party or faction. She was not of the left or of the right. She was not of the North or of the South. Though she was once the wealthiest woman in Britain, she liked loyal dogs and muddy boots.
Her very existence — so diligently and dutifully fulfilled — was an appeal to the idea that such a thing exists as a British people, bound together not just by geography, and certainly not by belief, but by a past and a living culture. When the voters elected a Conservative government and later elected a Labour government, and switched again, and again, and again, across decade after decade, every prime minister’s first act was to see the queen. Her ceremonial invitation to form a government embodied the principle that dueling parties serve the same nation. | 2022-09-08T18:43:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | David Von Drehle: Queen Elizabeth II embodied dignity and unity - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/08/queen-elizabeth-death-dignity-unity-duty/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/08/queen-elizabeth-death-dignity-unity-duty/ |
Will Camilla be queen? What to know about Charles’s wife.
Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, attend the reopening of Hillsborough Castle on April 9, 2019 in Belfast. (Chris Jackson/Getty Images)
Queen Elizabeth II’s son Charles, 73, is now king after his mother, the longest-reigning monarch in British history, died in Scotland on Thursday.
He inherits the sovereign title and job as head of the Commonwealth, as well as other assets such as land. While the wife of a king usually assumes the title of queen, this hasn’t been a given for his wife Camilla.
Ahead of the couple’s wedding in 2005, it was agreed that she would not be known as queen when he becomes monarch, but as “princess consort” — at a time when public sentiment toward her was more frosty.
The intervention cleared up a question that had lingered since they married. Without it, Camilla, previously known as the Duchess of Cornwall, could have been the first British queen not to be called queen.
“And when, in the fullness of time, my son Charles becomes King, I know you will give him and his wife Camilla the same support that you have given me; and it is my sincere wish that, when that times comes, Camilla will be known as Queen Consort as she continues her own loyal service,” Queen Elizabeth said in her February statement as she planned beyond her reign.
Camilla should be ‘queen consort’ when Charles is king, Queen Elizabeth II says
When Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles, just about 7 percent of Britons thought she should become queen. It was eight years after his divorce from Princess Diana and seven years after her death.
Although she didn’t have the same kind of star power as Diana, Camilla sought improve her image after she became a royal. She has become patron to dozens of charities and advocated against domestic violence, among other causes.
In a 2010 interview, when he was asked if his wife would become queen, Charles responded: “That’s well … we’ll see won’t we? That could be.” | 2022-09-08T18:46:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Will Camilla be queen? What to know about Charles’s wife. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/08/uk-queen-elizabeth-charles-camilla/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/08/uk-queen-elizabeth-charles-camilla/ |
Is this feminism? What to make of Hillary and Meghan’s new shows.
A television show from the former secretary of state and a podcast the duchess of Sussex are filled with light. But they’re not necessarily enlightening.
Hillary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton talk with Glennon Doyle and Abby Wambach on the show “Gutsy.” (Christina Belle/Apple TV Plus)
There’s a feeling I know, and you might know it, too. It’s like the spring-loaded dread that accompanies the final notes of “Pop Goes the Weasel.” It’s like the vague sense of unease when it’s been too long since your toddler made an appearance, and the cat and the finger paints are missing, too.
It’s the feeling you get when you remember that Hillary Clinton is still out there, making what she can of her legacy — and whatever she’s made is going to flash into the headlines before too long. And when it does, you will feel the desire to defend her against gross attacks while also cringing at whatever she’s gotten up to now.
The latest bit of Clinton content, I lukewarmly inform you, is “Gutsy,” a new show premiering Sept. 9 on Apple TV Plus. In it, the former secretary of state teams up with her daughter, Chelsea, to explore. . . something. . . about women. Gutsy women. Women like Abby Wambach, and Amber Ruffin, and Amy Schumer, and Wanda Sykes, and Gloria Steinem, and Megan the Stallion, and Kim Kardashian, and Mariska Hargitay, and Kate Hudson, and a minister, a former neo-Nazi, an anti-gun activist, refugees, widows, a jewelry maker. They also pop into a clown school in Paris and hike trails in New York over the course of the eight-part series, which is loosely organized around themes. “Gutsy women have the last laugh” is the name of a comedy-themed episode. One about love and relationships is called “Gutsy women have rebel hearts.” For some reason, more than one episode lands the Clintons in a bowling alley.
Look, there is nothing new I can tell you about Hillary Clinton or how to think of her. You either want to hear more about why she stayed in her marriage (episode four) or you don’t. You’ll either think the whole series is an oatmeal-flavored boondoggle for mother-daughter bonding or you won’t.
But did you know that “Gutsy” is the second show to premiere in the past month featuring a famous woman interviewing other famous women? In August, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, premiered a Spotify podcast called “Archetypes.” The first episode explored ambition, with Meghan interviewing Serena Williams — a coup for the show, considering that the tennis legend had just announced her retirement. The second explored what it means to be a diva with Mariah Carey.
The Clintons’ series and Meghan’s podcast are intertwined in ways that seem synergistic, if not inevitable. Serena Williams is praised in “Gutsy” (though not interviewed, at least not in any of the four episodes I screened). Margaret Cho is identified as an icon in “Gutsy,” and will also reportedly be an upcoming guests on “Archetypes.” Both shows feature a variation of the phrase “if a man did that” — as, again and again, Hillary and Chelsea and Meghan discover that comedy is more difficult for women, and fame is trickier for women, and moms are more judged than dads. If any of this is news to you, then I wish you a swift recovery from your head wound.
I blame Beyoncé, really, for her trailblazing 2014 awards-show appearance in front of a 20-foot-tall sign reading “FEMINIST.” She planted the idea that millions of listeners might excitedly flock to a project in which famous women teach basic feminism to the masses. They will not. They will flock to Beyoncé.
And that’s what it really comes down to with projects like this. If you want to learn about how women are misjudged, mistreated and misunderstood, who do you want to learn it from? Is your answer Hillary Clinton? The chip on this woman’s shoulder is 100 percent warranted — gutsy women still lose elections — but it’s still there. It’s hard for her not to turn conversations into narratives of her own past traumas. In the comedy episode, which features an absolutely killer lineup of brilliant guests, the theme that Clinton is drawn back to isn’t her guests’ brilliance but her own family’s victimization at the hands of cruel funny people.
To put it another way: You know you have something to learn from Amy Schumer. So you could turn to the meticulous and meaty New Yorker profile of the comedian published last week by the incisive writer Ariel Levy, in which Schumer unpacks how and why her audience has become increasingly female. Or, you could watch Hillary and Chelsea — who approach comedy much as the Coneheads approached Earth — take Amy Schumer to an elegant teahouse, order coffee instead, then crack each other up with patriotic knock-knock jokes (Why doesn’t America ever knock? Because freedom rings.) before name-dropping Madeleine Albright.
The duchess of Sussex fares better. Meghan is an actress, after all, and she can step into the role of regular person just as she once stepped into the role of princess. It’s fun to listen to her and Serena Williams chat about their close friendship — intimately and invitingly, as if you, too, could be their friend. That is, until you are smacked by the tennis racket of reality, and remember they both have more money than God and occupy the same rarefied plane as the Clintons.
Who are these pink-pussy-hatted exercises for? The viewers who would be drawn to such explicitly feminist shows surely already know the basics that Hillary Clinton has come to teach them. So is “Gutsy” for women who want to open a central vein to the sisterhood? Women who want to gawk at Abby Wambach and Glennon Doyle’s serene kitchen while pretending they’re doing so in the name of female empowerment? Men?
There’s nothing wrong with either of these projects. They are a reminder that women can be funny, smart, brave, resourceful and silly, and that’s all fine. But neither would ever have been greenlit if they were proposed by anyone other than three of the most famous women on the planet. And I couldn’t help but wish they’d used their prodigious fame to deliver something more than a tour through their rolodexes. It would have been nice to hear the word “gutsy” and feel like it referred to a fresh, unexpected angle on what it means to be a woman in America in 2022, and not to the anxious feeling in my intestines when I learned Hillary Clinton had stepped back into the spotlight. | 2022-09-08T18:59:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Hillary Clinton and Meghan have new feminist shows. Are they any good? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/09/08/hillary-clinton-show-meghan-podcast/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/09/08/hillary-clinton-show-meghan-podcast/ |
Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, wave from the balcony of Buckingham Palace in London following her coronation June 2, 1953. (Leslie Priest/AP)
Queen Elizabeth II’s death Thursday afternoon brings an end to one of the longest leadership tenures in world history. For parts of eight decades, Elizabeth served as monarch of Britain, with more than 70 years passing between her ascension to the throne in 1952 and her death.
The scope of her tenure can be encapsulated quite simply. Until Thursday, at least 9 out of every 10 living human beings have never known a British monarch other than Elizabeth.
The dark purple below indicates the fraction of each country’s population that is 65 or over — and possibly was born before Elizabeth’s reign.
You can see both how much of each country’s population was born after Elizabeth assumed the throne — and how the age of national populations varies around the world. In Europe and North America, there is a much higher density of older people than in Africa, for example.
According to the World Factbook’s data, about 10 percent of the global population is aged 65 and over. In Britain, though, that figure is nearly 19 percent, and just over the 17 percent in the United States. Near the poles are Japan and Nigeria — the former with a much more heavily old population, and the latter with a much less heavily old one.
We can view this a bit differently. The graph below shows the entirety of the measured world population. The boxes in dark purple are the segments of each country’s population age 65 or older. The light-colored boxes are the population born after Elizabeth became queen. That includes more than 53 million British residents (shown near the bottom right), just to give a sense of scale.
That’s an estimate, of course, since “over 65” is not equivalent to “born before 1952.” In the United States, though, Census Bureau data gives us a more precise sense of the population that’s never experienced a non-Queen Elizabeth II world.
About 8 in 9 U.S. residents were born in or after 1952.
Notice the gap between that 11.2 percent figure and the 16.9 percent in the World Factbook data. That’s because about 18 million Americans are 65 or older but born after 1951. Our numbers are skewed somewhat since Elizabeth took the throne in the middle of a massive population surge here (the baby boom). But it reflects how other countries might similarly have fewer pre-Elizabeth residents than the figures above suggest.
Precision isn’t really the point here. Instead, it’s scale. The vast majority of the living human population has always existed alongside her royal highness Queen Elizabeth II. | 2022-09-08T19:12:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Nine in 10 living humans were born after Elizabeth became queen - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/08/queen-elizabeth-reign-world-population/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/08/queen-elizabeth-reign-world-population/ |
Complaints about Zuckerberg’s 2020 election grants are rejected by bipartisan election commission
Mark Zuckerberg speaks during the virtual Facebook Connect event in 2021. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg News)
A unanimous bipartisan vote this summer by the Federal Election Commission has undercut fantastical claims about Mark Zuckerberg’s role in the 2020 election that have taken hold among GOP leaders, candidates and activists decrying “Zuckerbucks.”
The claims originate in the more than $400 million donated in fall 2020 by Zuckerberg, the chief executive and founder of Meta, and his wife, Priscilla Chan, to a pair of nonprofits that provided grants aiding state and local governments with election administration in light of the challenges posed by the coronavirus.
The couple touted the contributions at the time, saying, “Inadequate public funds and a global pandemic have led to unprecedented challenges for election administrators throughout the country, and we are doubling down on our commitment to ensuring that every qualified jurisdiction has the resources it needs to allow every eligible citizen to vote safely and have their vote counted.”
The grants, dispatched to blue and red areas of the country alike, were used to buy masks and plexiglass dividers, among other tools designed to keep voters and elections officials safe.
The funding from Zuckerberg, however, soon became kindling for the firestorm unleashed by former president Donald Trump and his allies as they questioned the legitimacy of the Nov. 3, 2020, vote.
The issue flared up in Republican primaries this year, with candidates trading accusations of having accepted “Zuckerbucks.” Numerous states banned election administrators from accepting private donations for voting-related expenses.
“Big tech’s efforts to undermine the integrity of our elections has no place in our country, and I’m proud to have signed legislation that ensures Alabama’s election process remains airtight,” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) said in the spring.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) said he was “very proud of having banned ‘Zuckerbucks’ in the state of Florida,” according to a local NBC affiliate.
The move against private funding of election administration remained primarily a GOP cause, but it did gain a measure of bipartisan support in Virginia and a handful of other states.
Meanwhile, the contributions gave rise to numerous complaints before the FEC. Among the allegations were that Zuckerberg and Chan had made excess contributions in violation of federal campaign finance law and that the one of the nonprofits they funded had failed to register as political committees.
The regulator rejected those claims in a series of 6-0 votes — a show of unity by the commissioners, who are split evenly by party. The votes took place in July, and attorneys for Zuckerberg and Chan were notified of the decisions in a Thursday letter. | 2022-09-08T19:12:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Complaints about Zuckerberg’s 2020 election grants rejected in bipartisan FEC vote - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/08/zuckerberg-2020-election-republicans/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/08/zuckerberg-2020-election-republicans/ |
Former Washington safety Deshazor Everett, shown here before a game in 2020, was sentence to house arrest Thursday. (Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post)
Former Washington safety Deshazor Everett was sentenced to three months of house arrest for his involvement in a car crash that killed his girlfriend, Olivia S. Peters, last December. His license was also suspended for six months.
The night of Dec. 23, Everett was driving a 2010 Nissan GT-R that was traveling north on Gum Spring Road when it veered to the right and hit several trees before rolling over, according to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s office. Peters, an occupational therapist and the passenger in the car, was taken to StoneSprings Hospital Center, where she died of her injuries. She was 29.
According to the sheriff’s office, Everett’s car was traveling more than twice the 45-mph speed limit before crashing. Everett, 30, suffered serious but not life-threatening injuries and was treated at Reston Hospital Center.
Washington safety Deshazor Everett involved in fatal crash in Loudoun County
Everett was charged initially with involuntary manslaughter, but he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of reckless driving in a deal with the commonwealth’s attorney’s office in Loudoun County. That crime, a misdemeanor, is punishable with up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.
The Commanders placed Everett on the non-football injury list the day after the accident, and in March released him from the team with a year remaining on his contract.
After going undrafted in 2015, Everett signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but was waived in training camp. He signed with Washington days later and became a reserve safety and key special teamer during his tenure with the team. In his 89 career games, he totaled 170 tackles, two interceptions and two forced fumbles. | 2022-09-08T19:25:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Former Washington S Deshazor Everett sentenced to house arrest - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/08/deshazor-everett-sentencing/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/08/deshazor-everett-sentencing/ |
Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo speaks at a news conference on the arrest of Clark County Public Administrator Robert “Rob” Telles on Thursday in Las Vegas. Telles was arrested Wednesday in the fatal stabbing of Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German, whose investigations of the official's work preceded his primary loss in June. (John Locher/Associated Press)
A government official was arrested on the charge of open murder in the stabbing death of Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German, police said Thursday.
Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles, 45, who German had spent months reporting on, was taken into custody Wednesday, police said. German, 69, was found dead Saturday morning, the county coroner’s office said, and his cause of death was multiple sharp-force injuries.
Telles was a person of interest early in the investigation as authorities considered work-related grievances or conflicts, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Capt. Dori Koren said at a news conference Thursday. He did not disclose a specific motive.
Upon a search of Telles’s home, police recovered a pair of shoes and a straw hat that matched those worn in a previously released photo of the suspect, police said Thursday. Both items were cut, likely in an attempt to destroy evidence, Koren said. He added that Telles’s DNA was a positive match for DNA recovered from the crime scene.
A well-known journalist in Nevada, German covered the unrest in Telles’s office, his alleged relationship with a subordinate staffer and allegations the county official’s employees made against him, which included bullying, favoritism and emotional stress. In June, Telles conceded a Democratic primary race for the post to his deputy and took jabs at German’s reporting on Twitter.
In the weeks before German was killed, he was planning a follow-up piece on Telles, the Review-Journal reported. He had been waiting on a public-records request.
“We are relieved Telles is in custody and outraged that a colleague appears to have been killed for reporting on an elected official,” Review-Journal Executive Editor Glenn Cook said to the paper. “Journalists can’t do the important work our communities require if they are afraid a presentation of facts could lead to violent retribution.”
Fifty journalists and media workers worldwide have been killed this year, according to data from the Committee to Protect Journalists. Those deaths included people who died during dangerous assignments and those who seemed to have been targeted.
One of the worst attacks on an American newspaper was in 2018, when a gunman killed five people and wounded several others at the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, Md. The gunman had previously lost a defamation lawsuit against the newspaper for its 2011 coverage of a criminal harassment charge against him. Prosecutors argued he was out for “revenge,” and the jury found him criminally responsible for the rampage.
Recounting the timeline of the incident, Koren said German had an altercation with the suspect Friday morning around 11 a.m. near the side of his home, after which he was stabbed multiple times.
Over the course of his career, German became known for his wide-ranging investigative work and coverage of high-profile stories on politics and organized crime. He wrote the 2001 true-crime book “Murder in Sin City: The Death of a Las Vegas Casino Boss,” and he led the paper’s investigation of the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, the deadliest in modern U.S. history. He hosted the Review-Journal’s podcast, “Mobbed Up.”
Cook told The Washington Post in a statement that German had not told the paper’s leadership about any concerns for his safety. Police said there was no threat to the public after the stabbing, the Review-Journal reported.
On Monday, police released a surveillance image of the person suspected of killing German. The photo showed an image of a person wearing a large straw hat and an orange reflective shirt. The next day, police released another photo, this time of the vehicle tied to the suspect: a maroon GMC Yukon Denali.
After police released the vehicle’s image on Tuesday, Review-Journal reporters saw Telles standing next to a matching vehicle in his driveway. The GMC and a second vehicle were towed from Telles’s property on Wednesday afternoon, the Review-Journal reported.
On Thursday, Koren said the GMC was registered to Telles’s wife, and police had video evidence that showed the vehicle departing around 9 a.m. on the day of the murder and returning after 12 p.m., matching the incident timeline.
Early Wednesday afternoon, Telles arrived at his home, appearing to wear a white hazmat suit, videos posted online by reporters show.
As reporters continued asking Telles questions, he silently walked through the garage and closes it.
Later on, local media reported an hours-long standoff outside Telles’s home Wednesday. Videos posted online showed SWAT team members outside the official’s home and an individual being carried into an ambulance on a stretcher. Police said in the Thursday news conference that Telles had self-inflicted, non-life-threatening injuries, but did not disclose the nature of the injuries.
Officials said the case is still ongoing, and remains a priority for Las Vegas police.
The cartoon shows a typewriter illuminated by the halo of a candle alongside a verse from the Bible: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.”
Elahe Izadi contributed to this report. | 2022-09-08T19:34:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Robert Telles charged with murder of Las Vegas journalist Jeff German - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/08/las-vegas-journalist-murder-charge/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/08/las-vegas-journalist-murder-charge/ |
Anne Garrels in 2006 in Iraq. (Dianna Douglas/NPR)
Ms. Garrels’s death from lung cancer was announced by NPR, where she remained an occasional contributor following her retirement from full-time reporting in 2010.
Ms. Garrels became one of NPR’s most experienced voices from the field during conflicts and from flash points that included China’s 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy crowds in Tiananmen Square, Russia’s war in Chechnya in the 1990s and the fall of Kabul to Western-allied forces following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Covering one of the indelible moments of the Iraq War — the toppling of a huge statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad — Ms. Garrels accurately noted that the euphoria of Hussein’s downfall would soon fade and the Pentagon would likely be in for a long struggle against opponents of Western forces.
On NPR’s “All Things Considered” on April 7, 2003, Ms. Garrels was asked by host John Ydstie to describe how Iraqis were coping with the chaos, blackouts and confusion about when American forces could enter downtown Baghdad and the strongholds of Hussein’s regime.
Ydstie asked Ms. Garrels to tell listeners what she can see and hear.
“A lot of artillery, bombing, heavy machine gun fire, which is really the first time we’ve heard that,” she said. “I saw a lot of [Iraqi] Republican Guard units outside the city today. … A lot more trenches have been dug or reinforced.”
The next day, as U.S. forces swept deeper into the city, an American tank fired a shell into the 15th floor of the Palestine Hotel, the base for Ms. Garrels and other journalists, overlooking the Tigris River in central Baghdad. The blast killed Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk and cameraman José Couso of the Spanish TV network Telecinco. An investigation by the Committee to Protect Journalists said U.S. forces were intending to target a nearby Iraqi military position, but added that “attack on the journalists, while not deliberate, was avoidable.”
Ms. Garrels, who was not injured, described how the battle unfolded from her window at the hotel.
Investigation clears U.S. troops in shelling that killed journalists
During the height of the war, Ms. Garrels managed like other correspondents: keeping the bathtub full to anticipate water cuts, working by candlelight or generator, and getting by on snacks and, for some, smokes — Ms. Garrels’s favorites were Kit Kat wafers and Marlboro Lights.
Ms. Garrels’s personal account of the war, “Naked in Baghdad,” (2003) refers to her habit of working in her hotel room without clothes as a security trick. If Iraqi security came to the door, she explained, she could ask for time to get dressed — and allow her a chance to stash her satellite phone to avoid confiscation.
Amid her numerous accolades, including a George Polk Award in 2003, Ms. Garrels faced some criticism for a 2007 story on NPR citing statements by prisoners previously tortured by Iraqi Shiite militias, which claimed it was purging members for committing atrocities against civilians.
In an interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep, Ms. Garrels said she was unaware the militiamen planned to take her to the tortured men. She also defended the reporting, saying NPR made clear the men were abused in custody and corroborated their statements.
“We were not told we would see torture victims,” she said. “When we saw what we believe to have been torture victims, we reported it. And in the end, if you ignore the reality of what these groups are doing and do not say they torture these people, then that's even worse.”
First Moscow posting
A longtime family friend, Peter Kazaras, director of Opera UCLA at the University of California at Los Angeles, said Ms. Garrels showed an early hint of the journalist at age 4 at Idlewild Airport (now John F. Kennedy International). As she waited with her older siblings for a flight to join their parents in Bermuda, she interviewed all the other passengers.
Ms. Garrels joined NPR in 1988 in Moscow just as the Soviet Union was beginning to unravel. Amid the chaotic aftermath, she began following the lives of a group of people in Chelyabinsk, a city near Russia’s Ural Mountains. For two decades, she kept tabs on their lives. The result was the 2016 book, “Putin Country: A Journey Into the Real Russia.”
Here's what Afghanistan looks like a year after the Taliban regained control
During the Iraq War, NPR was flooded with letters, emails and voice messages applauding Ms. Garrels’s coverage and sending wishes for her safety. She played down her own courage and often pointed to the people caught in conflict as often showing true resolve.
“As Amer and I washed away the blood, [the man] looks at me with a smile and says with a certain amount of surprise, ‘You are very brave,’ ” she said. “I look at his suit, now covered with blood, and tell him the same.” | 2022-09-08T19:34:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Anne Garrels, covered Iraq and other conflicts for NPR, dies at 71 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/09/08/anne-garrels-npr-correspondent-dies/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/09/08/anne-garrels-npr-correspondent-dies/ |
By Diane Daniel
The permanent collection at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam contains about 500 art and design objects dating from 1870 to the present. (John Lewis Marshall)
When you think Dutch art, you probably picture Van Gogh, Rembrandt and other old masters whose work graces the walls of museums in Amsterdam and beyond. But the Netherlands also has a rich variety of bold and compelling contemporary art found in museums across its 12 provinces. I’ve chosen a few to whet your palette, so to speak, but this is but a small sampling of the possibilities.
I’ve started the list in Amsterdam, at the Stedelijk Museum. Although it is the country’s best-known source of contemporary and cutting-edge art, it is still overshadowed by its super-famous neighbors. Then we move south to Rotterdam, an industrial-leaning city more known for its architecture than its art. The choice here, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, combines the two in groundbreaking, breathtaking ways. Moving toward The Hague, the newest destination on the list is Museum Voorlinden, a testament to how a private collector can create a public destination. Finally, we go down to Tilburg, about 90 minutes south of Amsterdam, in the province of North Brabant, where the TextielMuseum lovingly honors its industrial past while looking far into the future at the adjacent TextielLab.
Stedelijk Museum
Although the Stedelijk is the Netherlands’ most important museum for modern and contemporary art, it’s overshadowed by its more famous neighbors on Museum Square. At the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum, you’ll almost always find lines of people waiting to get in. Not so here. Even its name, which translates to “municipal museum,” downplays the Stedelijk’s significance.
But if you step into “the bathtub,” so nicknamed for its oblong addition protruding over the square, which was added to the original 1895 building a decade ago, you’ll find an intoxicating mix of modern masterpieces and experimental work.
A current series, “POST/NO/BILLS,” blends history and graphic design around the museum’s historic staircase and in the arches of the corridor. The current show in the series is “Sophie Douala — Follow the Black Rabbit” (through Dec. 31). Douala, born in Cameroon, raised in France and living in Berlin, creates trippy, colorful designs punctuated with somber, self-reflective videos that use current events as the backdrop.
The Stedelijk’s permanent collection contains about 500 art and design objects dating from 1870 to the present, shown in three categories. The museum also was an early supporter of the Dutch design duo Drift and recently acquired more of its lighting and material installations.
Coming up, “Anne Imhof — YOUTH” (Oct. 1-Jan. 29) features the German visual and performance artist, who will place a sound-and-light installation in the Stedelijk’s nearly 12,000-square-foot lower-level gallery. “Bad Color Combos” (Oct. 22-March 5) is an overview of the recent work of French-Moroccan artist Yto Barrada, including her film, textiles, photography and sculptures.
Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen
Billed as the world’s first publicly accessible art depot, a.k.a. storage space, this recently opened architectural stunner in Rotterdam holds some 151,000 objects from the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, located next door. The museum, which opened in 1849, is closed for renovation until at least 2029.
Before you get a peek at the vast holdings inside, outside you’ll see your surroundings and the skyline reflected in the curved building’s mirrored facade, perfect for selfies.
In the building’s atrium, you can gaze up through glass at the depot’s six stories, accessible by stairs and a clear elevator. Although not all the art here is contemporary, the overall look certainly is, as are many of the pieces highlighted. Most artwork is stored in rooms with huge windows, which you can enter with a guide. Other work is cleverly displayed in glass cases positioned at eye-catching angles. You feel as if you’re in a monsoon of art and design objects coming at you from all directions. It’s overwhelming in the best of ways.
On the free guided tours, you can go into a storage area to see works hung on racks or stored on pallets, in cases or on shelves. Some are exhibited often, while others are rarely seen. During the workweek, you can also see art conservators laboring behind windows, and you can sometimes get the opportunity to ask about their projects.
Once you’ve absorbed as much art as you can, check out the lovely tree-lined rooftop and its restaurant, where you’ll be treated to a panorama of Rotterdam.
Museum Voorlinden
Pick a warm, sunny day to visit this private museum and gardens in Wassenaar, just northeast of The Hague, where nature, art and architecture harmonize.
The museum, which opened in 2016, was founded by Dutch art collector and industrialist Joop van Caldenborgh. Housed in a 100-acre nature reserve, it features a private permanent collection and rotating temporary exhibits with a backdrop both old and new. The grounds include walking paths, gardens, sculptures and a 20th-century country mansion, where the restaurant and terrace are located.
The elongated museum building is designed to pull in light from every corner. The 20 galleries are lit by natural daylight, while a roof made of glass incorporates indirect LED lighting.
Several of the favorite permanent works here are huge and beg for interaction.
“Swimming Pool,” designed by Argentine conceptual artist Leandro Erlich for the Voorlinden, makes a splash with its optical trickery. As visitors look down into the pool, they see other visitors — clothed and dry — walking on its floor. (The “swimmers” enter on a lower level of the museum.) It’s the people that make this experience so fun.
Continuing the holiday theme is “Couple Under an Umbrella,” one of Australian sculptor Ron Mueck’s oversize, hyperrealistic human figures. An older shirtless man in swimming trunks lies under a beach umbrella, with his head in his wife’s lap. They’re designed with uncanny precision, down to the wrinkles and hair.
On a more meditative note, American artist Richard Serra’s “Open Ended” is a huge work of six vaulted steel plates molded together to form a maze. A walk through it is both mysterious and calming.
Along with works from the permanent collection, current and upcoming exhibits include “GROUND,” a major retrospective from British sculptor Antony Gormley (through Sept. 25), and a retrospective from Italian artist Giuseppe Penone (Oct. 8-Jan. 29).
TextielMuseum and TextielLab
If a textile museum conjures clanking wooden looms, huge spools of cotton thread and elementary school field trips, you wouldn’t be totally wrong. But nowadays, this dynamic destination in Tilburg brings together textile design, art, fashion and innovation, with heritage at its core.
The building itself blends past and present. The museum is located in an old textile factory that was built in the 1860s by a woolen fabric manufacturer. The last addition, in 2008, extended the main building with a striking glass-covered entrance area. Another redevelopment is planned for the coming decade.
The future hums in the textile lab, located inside the museum. Here fabric innovations are born through collaborations with staff and a host of Dutch and international designers. In fact, there’s a good chance that anything you see made by a Dutch designer that includes a clever use of textiles was executed here. Visitors can walk through much of the workspace, where staff members are on hand to demonstrate and explain the weaving, knitting, lasering, tufting and embroidery techniques employed today.
The museum also explores the industry’s past, especially in the permanent display “Woollen Blanket Factory 1900-1940.” The exhibit re-creates activities in a textile factory from 1900 to 1940, including spinning and weaving looms driven by a steam engine built in 1906.
Temporary exhibits often focus on sustainability and research. “To Dye For” (through Nov. 13) explores the world of textile dyeing, from its origins to current practices, as well as its effects on people and the environment. “Secrets of making #2 — Artists and designers in the TextielLab” (through June 4) is a behind-the-scenes look at the creative processes of 10 makers who recently worked in the lab.
The museum also has a colorful cafe and a beautiful shop, where many of the textiles designed and made in the TextielLab are for sale.
Daniel is a writer based in the Netherlands and Florida. Her website is bydianedaniel.com.
Goirkestraat 96, Tilburg
011-31-135-367-475
textielmuseum.nl/en
Open Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. About $12.50 for adults, about $4 ages 13-18, and 12 and younger free.
Buurtweg 90, Wassenaar
voorlinden.nl/?lang=en
Open daily, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. About $19.50 for adults, about $8.50 ages 13-18, and 12 and younger free.
Museumpark 24, Rotterdam
boijmans.nl/en
Open Tuesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. About $20; 18 and younger free.
Museumplein 10, Amsterdam
stedelijk.nl/en
Open daily, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. About $20; 18 and younger free. | 2022-09-08T19:34:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Check out the Netherlands' overlooked contemporary art museums - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/09/08/netherlands-contemporary-modern-art-museums/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/09/08/netherlands-contemporary-modern-art-museums/ |
Sources: Photos from AP, Reuters, Getty Images and
EPA-EFE/Shutterstock. Staff reports.
Camilla, Duchess of
Sources: Photos from AP, Reuters, Getty Images and EPA-EFE/Shutterstock. Staff reports.
LONDON — As Britain reels from the loss of Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-serving monarch, here’s a look at the next 10 royals who are next in line to the throne.
Charles ascended the throne the moment his mother passed away in Balmoral, Scotland, on Thursday evening local time. Here’s what to know about the new line of succession, half of them children.
As the elder son of Prince Charles and Diana, the 40-year-old is now heir to the British throne.
Who succeeds Queen Elizabeth II? Your guide to royal succession
William’s eldest child, 9, follows his father in the line of succession. Prince George was born to much fanfare on July 22, 2013, as reporters and pundits waited outside London’s St. Mary’s Hospital to catch a glimpse of the royal couple’s firstborn child and heir.
Prince George grins on beach in new photo released to mark 9th birthday
George’s sister — William’s 7-year-old daughter — comes next.
The third child of William and Catherine is now fourth in line to the throne. Four-year-old Louis captured hearts and international headlines after his emotional display on the balcony of Buckingham Palace amid the pomp of the queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June.
William’s brother, Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, 37, is now fifth in line to the British throne. Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, bought a $14.7 million home in California after “stepping back” from the royal family and surrendering their “royal highness” titles.
Meghan and Harry are becoming your typical American mega-celebrities
Harry’s children with wife Meghan come next. Archie, their firstborn, is 3.
Among the many jaw-dropping revelations the Duke and Duchess of Sussex made in an interview with Oprah Winfrey earlier this year was the claim that Buckingham Palace refused Archie the title of prince — a decision that Meghan called hurtful and suggested was driven by institutional racism within the monarchy.
7. Lilibet-Diana Mountbatten-Windsor
Harry and Meghan’s daughter, age 1, follows her brother, Archie. The queen reportedly met her great-granddaughter Lilibet — who is named after her and after Harry’s late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales — for the first time at the Platinum Jubilee.
8. Andrew, Duke of York
Charles’s first brother — second son of Elizabeth and Philip — is now eighth in line to the throne. Andrew, 62, in February settled a lawsuit with an American, Virginia Giuffre, who said she was forced to have sexual encounters with him when she was a teenager after being trafficked by U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein.
While Andrew has been stripped of his royal highness title and honorary patronages, he remains in the line of succession.
York strips a title from Prince Andrew. But it’s hard to take ‘Duke of York.’
Beatrice, 34, who also goes by Mrs. Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, is the elder daughter of Prince Andrew and ex-wife Sarah.
Beatrice’s daughter, Sienna, who is nearly a year old, is now 10th in line to the British throne.
Adela Suliman, Annabelle Timsit and William Booth contributed. | 2022-09-08T19:47:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Queen Elizabeth II's line of succession: The royal family, visualized - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/08/queen-elizabeth-succession-line-visualized/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/08/queen-elizabeth-succession-line-visualized/ |
Appalachian, Indigenous pipeline foes to protest climate deal
A demonstrator holds a sign at the “People vs. Fossil Fuels” rally in Washington on Oct. 11, 2021. (Eric Lee for The Washington Post)
Roishetta Ozane and her six children squeezed into a three-bedroom trailer, paid for by FEMA, after their Southwest Louisiana home was destroyed by two hurricanes, only six weeks apart.
The single mother and her children lived in this cramped space for nearly two years before Ozane, after working three jobs, could afford to buy a new home this past June. Now, it’s hurricane season again.
Ozane, 37, traveled this week from her home in Sulphur, La., to the nation’s capital to rally on Thursday at 5 p.m. with others who have been displaced by climate catastrophes and those who are advocating against pipelines in their communities. She said she is sharing her story in meetings on the Hill with the offices of her local representatives in hopes that those in power listen to her concerns and reject any bills that further invest in polluting infrastructure.
“For so long … these industries have been placed in BIPOC communities that are too often targeted by these projects. It’s time for them to stop. We can no longer be made sacrifices for oil and gas,” Ozane said, referring to Black, Indigenous and people of color. Emphasizing that her home near Lake Charles, La., is surrounded by oil and gas refineries, chemical manufacturers and other industries, she had this message for lawmakers: “Breathe the air we breathe. Drink the water we drink. And feel everything we feel in a community where everywhere we look we see industry.”
Appalachian, Indigenous pipeline foes say climate deal ‘left us to burn’
Though last month’s passage of the Inflation Reduction Act — a climate, energy and health-care package — was the climate movement’s biggest legislative success, Ozane and others feel their communities were sacrificed as a bargaining chip. To secure the support of Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), Democratic leadership reached a side deal with Manchin that would overhaul the process for approving new energy initiatives and expedite the 300-mile-long Mountain Valley Pipeline project — a natural gas pipeline across West Virginia and Virginia that those rallying in D.C. on Thursday have opposed for years.
Ozane, an organizer for Healthy Gulf, an environmental justice organization, is one of the hundreds expected to protest Thursday at the Robert A. Taft Memorial Carillon, joining people from Appalachia and as far away as Alaska to demand that lawmakers reject this side deal, said Grace Tuttle, a lead organizer of the rally who has been advocating against the Mountain Valley Pipeline for three years. Tuttle said the demonstration will be a show of solidarity among communities affected “first and worst” by fossil fuel developments.
The landmark Inflation Reduction Act will significantly advance the fight against climate change, spending about $370 billion to bring the country closer to achieving the emissions cuts scientists say are required to avoid the devastating consequences of the Earth’s warming.
Rally organizers argue that the side deal, if passed, would “gut bedrock environmental protections, threaten tribal authority, endanger public health, fast-track fossil fuel projects, cut public input and push approval for Manchin’s pet project, the Mountain Valley Pipeline.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment but previously said environmental justice leaders were key to developing the bill, calling it “the most significant investment in climate, clean energy, and environmental justice in U.S. history and defeating the special interests who for decades have blocked progress.” A representative for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) did not respond to a request for comment.
Those rallying are especially concerned with the easing of permitting restrictions, warning it could weaken an important environmental protection law Indigenous people have frequently used to challenge projects they believed would harm their communities.
Donald Jones’ family has owned interconnected farmland in the hills and valleys of the Blue Ridge Mountains since the late 1700s. Though parts of the property have been sold off through the generations, Jones and his siblings still own 70 acres of the Giles County, Va., farmland, inherited from their father, and have fought for years to keep the Mountain Valley Pipeline out from their land, worried it would harm the mountain spring, the peach orchard and other ancestral land.
His father was one of the about 300 property owners in southwest Virginia who, after refusing to sell easements for the project, was sued by the pipeline company. Construction on the pipeline, which would transport Appalachian shale gas and cuts through Jones’ property, began in 2018. But Jones, like many others, kept pushing back.
Over the years, he has outlined his complaints about the pipeline and its construction in filings to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. He cited felled trees placed in mounds on the side of the mountain, deep holes of muddy water where his golden retriever got stuck, the removal of bat houses and a hand-stacked rock pile that was on the property for generations.
“Within the Federal Court System, their only concern is of current land value,” Jones wrote in one of the filings. “There is no ‘value’ for ancient ecosystems. There is no ‘value’ for clean mountain spring water. There is no ‘value’ for generational lands. There is no ‘value’ for all the time we spent protecting Dad’s property rights. There is no ‘value’ on the unforeseen damage created by ‘pipeline survival.’”
This pipeline project, proposed in 2014 and now mostly finished, is a key priority of Manchin’s. He and supporters have argued that this project, designed to carry 2 billion cubic feet of gas a day, would increase the nation’s exports of liquefied natural gas, which the United States is sending to help Europe during the war in Ukraine.
When asked Thursday about this rally and the permitting side deal, Manchin told reporters: “I’m done. I’m all said out … Everybody’s working so hard.”
“Federal and state officials have carefully evaluated MVP’s plans and concluded the project can be built safely and responsibly,” said Natalie Cox, a spokeswoman for Mountain Valley Pipeline. “Mountain Valley also previously announced plans to voluntarily offset its operational emissions and has committed funding to preserve more than twice as many acres of land as will be used for the project’s long-term operation.”
Jones, 61, of Salem, Va., is traveling to Thursday’s rally as one of the rural landowners opposed to the pipeline. He is dismayed by political maneuvers made to pass the Inflation Reduction Act and worries about what kind of planet will be left as his 4-year-old grandson grows up.
“Appalachian people, we don’t have a lot of money, but we fought this pretty hard. It’s hard to go up against this big money,” Jones said. “I’m not giving up now.” | 2022-09-08T20:00:50Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Appalachian, Indigenous pipeline foes protest climate deal - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/08/pipeline-protest-manchin-climate-deal/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/08/pipeline-protest-manchin-climate-deal/ |
U.S. Marines remove a high-speed, antiradiation missile (HARM) from an F/A-18C Hornet jet. (U.S. Navy/Navy Media Content Services)
The Biden administration is sending the Ukrainian military more radar-hunting missiles, U.S. officials said Thursday, a move intended to bolster its aerial-attack capabilities against invading Russian forces.
The weapons, known as high-speed, antiradiation missiles, or HARMs, are part of a $675 million arms package that President Biden has newly approved for transfer to the government in Kyiv. The military aid also includes additional rounds for rocket artillery systems that Ukraine has used against Russian positions hundreds of times, remote-detonated antitank mines and 105mm howitzer cannons and rounds for them.
“Ukraine is fighting for its life,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said during a news conference at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where he announced the latest weapons transfer at a meeting of several countries supporting Ukraine’s war effort. “It’s fighting for its sovereign territory, and its democracy and its freedom. But the stakes reach far beyond the front lines. They affect us all.”
Colin Kahl, the undersecretary of defense for policy, first acknowledged in August that Ukrainian forces had been using the HARM missiles for weeks and “to great effect.”
The Pentagon, though, initially avoided identifying the missiles by name, with a senior defense official saying the Biden administration wanted to be careful about describing weapons that could provide Ukraine with a “significant asymmetric and unexpected advantage.” That changed once U.S. officials saw how “successfully” the missiles integrated with Ukrainian aircraft, prompting additional transfers, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity under rules set by the Defense Department.
Observers of the war had identified the missiles, and remnants of them, in imagery recorded on the battlefield. On Aug. 30, the Ukrainian air force also posted a video of what appeared to be a HARM being fired from one of its MiG-29 fighter jets.
The Ukrainian Air Force posted a video that appears to show a Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter armed with an AGM-88 HARM missile.https://t.co/9hdXbJ0VEf pic.twitter.com/80nJgNL1aw
The United States has used HARM missiles since the 1980s, deploying them to hunt radar sites in Iraq and Yugoslavia, according to photographs released by the Pentagon. U.S. pilots launch them from F-16s and F/A-18 fighters.
The missile has an antenna in its nose that searches for radar emissions, according to an Air Force fact sheet. Each missile is about 14 feet long and 800 pounds.
The administration’s decision to supply additional HARM missiles follows months of internal deliberation over whether the United States should provide Ukraine with more combat aircraft.
In March, Poland blindsided the United States by offering to give Ukraine its old warplanes if the administration pledged to provide Poland with more-advanced F-16s to replace them. Biden officials said Poland was free to offer its jets to Ukraine, but that it made no sense for the United States to be involved in a three-country agreement.
In April, the Pentagon disclosed that the United States and other countries had sought spare airplane parts to assist the Ukrainian air force, helping them put an additional 20 jets in the air.
In July, the U.S. Air Force’s top officer, Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., said that the United States and its allies were discussing whether it makes sense to reinforce Ukraine’s air force with planes from the West. He raised the possibility of sending F-16s, the French Rafale, the Swedish Gripen or some other jet.
Some U.S. lawmakers also have suggested that the United States should send aircraft from its aging fleet of A-10s, attack planes that had a prominent role in protecting ground troops in earlier conflicts but are seen as vulnerable to newer planes and air defenses. Ukrainian officials have indicated they are more interested in multirole aircraft, such as the F-15, F-16 or F/A-18.
Since Russia’s invasion, the United States has provided more than $14 billion in security assistance to Ukraine, U.S. officials said. Austin said Thursday that the meeting in Germany highlighted a shift in which allies are discussing more how to support Ukraine “over the long haul.” | 2022-09-08T20:05:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | U.S. sends Ukraine HARMs missiles to hunt Russian radar - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/09/08/ukraine-harms-missiles/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/09/08/ukraine-harms-missiles/ |
In just the past week, nearly 1,000 heat records have been broken.
A lifeguard packs up for the day as the sun sets on Sept. 1, 2022, in Long Beach, Calif., amid the heat wave. (Ashley Landis/AP)
In just the past week, nearly 1,000 heat records have been broken, including more than 270 monthly records — temperatures unsurpassed for September. Some places, like Salt Lake City, Sacramento and Reno, have broken their September records multiple times and by large margins.
In addition to its magnitude and duration, the heat wave also been exceptional for its scope. Record-shattering temperatures have stretched from Arizona to Washington state and as far east as North Dakota.
Utah: St. George, in the southwest corner of the state, hit 112 degrees Tuesday.
Montana: Big Horn hit 108 Wednesday.
When Death Valley soared to 125 degrees Tuesday, it fell just one degree shy of the September California and world records.
Below we list some of the most significant heat records set since the heat wave began:
Salt Lake City tied its all-time high of 107 on Wednesday. It broke its previous September record high five times in seven days. Before hitting 107 on Wednesday, it hit 105 on Tuesday, 104 on Monday, 103 Saturday and 102 Thursday. The previous monthly record was 100. It has hit at least 100 seven times this month. Before 2022, it had only done so three times during September dating to 1928.
Several locations in the Mountain West set September record highs on Wednesday: Glasgow, Mont. (106); Sheridan, Wyo. (104); Boise, Idaho (104); Bowman, N.D. (102, tie); Helena, Mont. (102); and Cheyenne, Wyo. (97).
Downtown Sacramento set an all-time high of 116 degrees on Tuesday, surpassing the previous mark of 114 from July 17, 1925. Records there date back to 1877. Stockton tied its all-time high of 115.
Death Valley hit 125 degrees Tuesday, tying its September record high and missing the September world record by just 1 degree. On Saturday, the low temperature in Death Valley of 102 degrees tied the highest minimum temperature ever recorded worldwide during September. It topped 120 degrees on nine straight days, setting calendar day records of 123 on Aug. 31, 124 on Thursday, 124 on Friday, 122 on Saturday, 124 on Sunday, 125 on Tuesday and 122 on Wednesday. It has established a new September record for most days reaching at least 120. | 2022-09-08T20:13:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | September's heat wave in the West is the most severe on record - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/09/08/western-heatwave-records-california-climate/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/09/08/western-heatwave-records-california-climate/ |
Prosecutors seek details from Trump’s PAC in expanding Jan. 6 probe
Investigators are seeking documents about Trump’s political fundraising in the wake of his false claims about the 2020 election.
Former president Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., on Sept. 3, 2022. (Andrew Kelly/Reuters)
The Justice Department is seeking details about the formation and operation of Donald Trump’s post-presidential political operation, according to people familiar with the probe, sending a raft of subpoenas in a significant expansion of the criminal investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
A federal grand jury sent subpoenas on Wednesday to a wide range of former campaign and White House staffers asking for information about the Save America PAC, according to three people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing probe. The people described the subpoenas as broad, seeking all documents and communications about opening the PAC and every dollar raised and spent.
At least one of the subpoenas also demanded information about the plan to submit phony slates of electors claiming Trump won pivotal states, including all communications with several key lawyers and advisers involved in the effort, one of the people said. They include Rudolph Giuliani, Boris Epshteyn, Joseph DiGenova, Bruce Marks and Victoria Toensing, among others, this person said.
Spokesmen for Trump and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The subpoenas were first reported by ABC News.
Epshteyn declined to comment. Marks said he was out of the country and wasn’t aware of a subpoena. Giuliani and Toensing did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Justice Department has already charged hundreds of people involved in the Capitol riot with low-level offenses such as trespassing and attacking police, as well as accusing leaders of the violent extremist groups the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers of coordinating the attack. More recently, prosecutors began examining planning for the rally before the riot and Republican efforts to send Trump slates to the electoral college.
As part of the probe, prosecutors have sought phone records and other information from Trump’s inner circle and questioned close advisers to former vice president Mike Pence before a federal grand jury. The Washington Post reported in July that the investigation included Trump’s possible role in the phony elector efforts and his pressure of federal and state officials to challenge the election results.
The investigation is separate from the criminal probe into handling of government secrets after Trump left office, leading to a search warrant at his Florida resort in August.
The government soon faces the 60-day period before an election where the Justice Department customarily avoids taking investigative steps that could be perceived as influencing voters.
The House committee investigating Jan. 6 has also shown interest in the finances of Trump’s PAC, alleging that the group use false claims about the election to solicit donations. At a June hearing, a committee investigator said the Trump campaign raised hundreds of millions by sending as many as 25 emails a day asking for donations to an “Official Election Defense Fund” that did not actually exist.
Devlin Barrett and Spencer S. Hsu contributed reporting. | 2022-09-08T20:14:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Prosecutors seek details from Trump’s PAC in Jan. 6 probe - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/09/08/trump-subpoenas-pac-jan-6/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/09/08/trump-subpoenas-pac-jan-6/ |
A baby from the Malawi village of Tomali is injected with the world's first vaccine against malaria in a pilot program in Tomali on Dec. 11, 2019. (Jerome Delay/AP)
Take the case of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis. The United States has its own highly effective programs to oppose infectious diseases, including the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI). But the Global Fund was created in 2002 to share the burden of such efforts. The United States’ portion of the fund’s budget is capped at 33 percent — meaning that other donors must come up with 67 percent to trigger America’s full contribution.
Another of the world’s deadly respiratory diseases, tuberculosis, felt the worst of the global health system shock. The number of people treated for TB in countries where the Global Fund invests fell by more than 1 million. Malaria cases and deaths increased. HIV testing declined by over 20 percent.
To fix this derailment, the Global Fund estimates it will require $18 billion over the next three years — nearly a 30 percent increase from the funds it raised in its last replenishment, three years ago. This means that donor nations need to increase their pledges by 30 percent during a time when war and rising energy prices complicate the politics of generosity.
One source close to the negotiations says the results so far are “mixed.” The Biden administration has acted admirably. It has proposed about a 30 percent increase in its funding pledge, to $6 billion (if other nations step up), and will host the Global Fund’s replenishment summit in New York this month. The German government, under tremendous economic strain from energy disruptions, has signaled an increase of 30 percent. Japan has significantly raised its pledge as well.
The wild cards are Britain and France. Britain’s decision will indicate the attitude of a new prime minister and a new government toward foreign assistance. People close to the negotiations fear that flat funding might be the best outcome. They also hear disturbing rumblings that President Emmanuel Macron’s French government — which hosted the last replenishment summit and is the Global Fund’s second largest contributor — might increase its pledge by only 5 to 15 percent increase, which would be a serious disappointment. | 2022-09-08T20:14:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Covid eroded fights against TB and other diseases. The world must act. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/08/global-fund-aids-malaria-tuberculosis-covid-fight/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/08/global-fund-aids-malaria-tuberculosis-covid-fight/ |
Putin is trying to build a new axis of autocrats
Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok, Russia, on Sept. 7. (Sputnik/Via Reuters)
Taking a page from the Western alliance-building playbook, Russian President Vladimir Putin is devoting considerable time and energy to fostering a new axis of autocrats that is bringing Moscow into ever tighter collaboration with China, North Korea and Iran. Western countries play down these developments at their own peril. A powerful anti-Western bloc of dictatorships is taking shape.
Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February, Moscow, Beijing, Pyongyang and Tehran have been working to upgrade their cooperation. Sharing a common set of anti-American grievances and anti-Western objectives, these dictators are finding new ways to work together on both the tactical and strategic levels.
“Strategic circumstances are driving these countries together,” to cooperate in more active and complex ways, a senior Biden administration official told me — and U.S. strategy has yet to adapt.
To be sure, the dictators’ talk of warming friendships always has an element of propaganda. Putin’s crowing about Russia’s ability to withstand Western pressure at his economic forum in Vladivostok this week should not be taken at face value. Even so, the West can’t ignore growing signs that the autocrats are getting more organized — in ways that threaten U.S. and European interests.
The Russia-China strategic partnership that Putin and Xi Jinping forged in February in Beijing — to some derision at the time — is accelerating in the military, energy and financial arenas. Although China is not providing weapons to Russia directly, their military cooperation continues to deepen. For example, China has sent 2,000 troops to participate in Putin’s “Vostok 2022” joint military exercises taking place in far eastern Russia.
Putin and Xi are set to meet next week in Uzbekistan to advance their joint pledge in February to build a Russia-China partnership “superior to political and military alliances of the Cold War era.” In advance of the meeting, the two countries signed a series of gas deals that will be executed in their own currencies, a step toward establishing independence from the U.S. dollar and avoiding U.S. sanctions.
What was once a tactical military alliance between Russia and Iran in Syria is now expanding. Iran is supplying Russia with armed drones for use in Ukraine and helping Russia to evade Western energy and financial sanctions. Putin traveled in July to Tehran, where he signed energy and trade cooperation deals while Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei joined him in blaming the United States and NATO for the Ukraine war.
Moscow and Pyongyang are closer than they have been in decades. In a letter to Kim Jong Un last month, Putin reportedly pledged to “expand the comprehensive and constructive bilateral relations” between the two countries. Russia is said to be supplying wheat and energy to North Korea in return for diplomatic support at the United Nations. Pyongyang has also recognized Russian-occupied territories in eastern Ukraine as independent states.
There are reports that thousands of North Korean workers could be shipped into eastern Ukraine to support the Moscow-controlled puppet governments there. The U.S. intelligence community is said to believe that Russia might buy “millions” of artillery shells from North Korea. That deal might never materialize. But if it did, it would mean that Russia, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, was abandoning any pretense of adhering to the U.N.’s own sanctions against Pyongyang.
The Biden administration’s line is to say that Putin’s outreach to other isolated dictators, such as Kim, shows that he is desperate and therefore the U.S. policy of pressuring Russia is working. When asked about the burgeoning ties between Russia and North Korea, a senior U.S. defense official told me: “From our perspective, it’s more a sign of weakness than of strength.” This makes sense as public messaging, but such talk does little to address the problem.
Some officials and experts point out that there are good reasons to believe that Moscow’s latest efforts to build an autocratic bloc against the West will not succeed. Dictators have trouble trusting each other. There are limits to what North Korea or Iran can really offer. Meanwhile, Russia’s increasing dependence on China is a big problem for Putin over the long term.
But policymakers cannot afford to sit back and hope that the autocrats will fail. Western governments must devise a coherent response. The first step is to acknowledge the expanding authoritarian alliance and the threat it poses to our interests. Then Western countries need to come up with new and innovative military, diplomatic and economic strategies to combat the autocrats’ increased cooperation where it impacts us.
A world divided into blocs is not a good outcome. Any responsible policy must include diplomacy aimed at engaging these adversaries and attempting to preserve the overall multilateral system. But if the axis of autocrats continues to grow, the United States and its partners must be ready.
Opinion|A year after Kabul’s fall, duty still calls the U.S. in Afghanistan | 2022-09-08T20:14:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Putin is pulling Russia, China, Iran and North Korea into an axis of autocrats - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/08/russia-china-iran-alliance-dictators/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/08/russia-china-iran-alliance-dictators/ |
Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in Jerusalem in June 2021. (AFP/Getty Images)
Months after investigations by international news and human rights organizations found that an Israeli soldier probably fired the shot that killed a highly regarded Palestinian American journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, last spring, an Israeli military investigation has reached the same conclusion — but also ruled out any criminal investigation or charges against its troops. That judgment leaves critical questions unanswered.
First, the Israeli Defense Forces presented no evidence to support its contention that Abu Akleh’s killing was an accident or, as a senior Israeli official told journalists, a “misidentification.” Second, the IDF cast doubt on its own finding by asserting that the shot was aimed at Palestinian gunmen “during an exchange of fire in which life-risking, widespread and indiscriminate shots were fired toward IDF soldiers.” In fact, detailed probes by The Post, the New York Times and other independent groups — based on video, audio and eyewitness accounts — suggest no Palestinian gunmen were in Abu Akleh’s vicinity when she was shot in the back of the neck, nor had crossfire occurred there in the preceding minutes.
It remains the case that no evidence has emerged to suggest, as the Palestinian Authority has said, that Israeli forces involved in the May 11 incident targeted noncombatants or specifically Abu Akleh, a household name in the Arab world based on her two decades of reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for Al Jazeera. But the absence of such evidence does not justify the Israeli military’s decision to close the case. To the contrary, it calls attention to the paucity of investigative details made public.
No recording or transcript of any interview with an Israeli soldier has been released, nor evidence of what any soldier saw, heard or believed when they opened fire toward a group of civilians, including the 51-year-old Abu Akleh, whose protective gear identified them as journalists. Nor has the Israeli military provided any video, if it exists, from drones of body cameras that might shed light on the incident, despite requests from The Post.
The Israeli military’s conclusion marks a nearly complete reversal from its initial insistence that Palestinians gunmen had likely killed Abu Akleh. It is in line with a similar finding reached two months ago by the U.S. State Department, which, coming from the Jewish state’s most important ally, relieved pressure for bringing criminal charges against an IDF soldier or soldiers.
Still, it should not be the last word on the incident in the West Bank city of Jenin, amid a military raid after weeks of Palestinian terrorist attacks cost the lives of 17 Israelis. A truly independent investigation is needed; Israel should invite the FBI to undertake one.
Combat correspondents routinely take risks in the course of their reporting. That is no justification for shrugging when one dies in unwarranted circumstances, as in Abu Akleh’s killing. Israeli and international human rights groups have long alleged instances in which Israel’s soldiers and police avoid accountability for alleged misdeeds. In that regard, it is noteworthy that no Israeli officials have been seriously punished for the chaos at Abu Akleh’s funeral in Jerusalem on May 13, when police beat Palestinian pallbearers carrying her coffin, causing them nearly to drop it. That lapse, and the questions left unanswered by Israel’s conclusion about a respected journalist’s death, further underscore the need for an outside investigation.
Opinions about press freedom
Opinion|In U.S. journalist’s death, Israel leaves questions unanswered
Opinion|Life in a safe house: Why I sympathize with Salman Rushdie | 2022-09-08T20:14:55Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Israel leaves unanswered questions in death of U.S. journalist - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/08/shireen-abu-akleh-unanswered-questions-israel/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/08/shireen-abu-akleh-unanswered-questions-israel/ |
The potential scam targeted the Affordable Connectivity Program, renewing fears that a program meant to close the country’s digital divide may be susceptible to fraud
The seal of the Federal Communications Commission before a December 2017 meeting in Washington, D.C. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
More than 1,000 households in Oklahoma used the identity of a single 4-year-old to obtain free or discounted internet service from the U.S. government, part of a broader wave of suspected fraud now raising new questions about Washington’s attempts to close the digital divide.
The apparent plot targeted the Affordable Connectivity Program, which provides up to $30 each month toward millions of Americans’ mobile phone or home internet bills. Similar suspicious activity also surfaced in Ohio and Texas, according to the inspector general for the Federal Communications Commission, a watchdog that uncovered the alleged scam.
In total, the potentially fraudulent activity may have resulted in about $1.4 million in misspending, according to federal investigators. The government sent that money directly to telecom carriers, which under law accept federal benefits on their subscribers’ behalf and apply the discounts to customers’ bills. None of the companies that processed the suspect applications and received federal funds are named in the report.
But the FCC’s inspector general on Thursday described the matter as a serious threat, one that if left unresolved could undermine the roughly $14 billion in subsidies Congress adopted last year. And its findings offered a stark reminder of the myriad problems that plagued its decades-old predecessor — an initiative to provide low-cost telephone service that had been riddled with fraud over the years.
The FCC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
David L. Hunt, the agency’s inspector general, said in a statement that telecom providers seeking “program support each month after failing to properly train and monitor their sales agents’ enrollment activity will be held accountable.”
Lawmakers approved the Affordable Connectivity Program on a bipartisan vote last November as part of a sprawling $1.2 trillion law to improve the nation’s infrastructure. The benefit system augmented a broadband initiative enacted earlier in the coronavirus pandemic, as Congress sought to ensure hard-hit, cash-strapped Americans could maintain their internet connections at a time when life, work and school had migrated online.
Known as ACP, the program’s guidelines are generous. Families can qualify if they already receive other government support, including low-cost health insurance under Medicaid and low-income education awards known as Pell Grants, or if their income does not exceed 200 percent of the federal poverty line. The up-to-$30 monthly benefit can go toward a wide array of plans nationally, and the subsidy itself is larger — up to $75 — for those who live on tribal lands.
Lacking a Lifeline: How a federal effort to help low-income Americans pay their phone bills failed amid the pandemic
Since its adoption, more than 13 million subscribers have enrolled, representing roughly one-quarter of the total number of Americans who are estimated to be eligible. The gap reflects the challenges the government faces in reaching communities that are not connected — and navigating them through what can be a complicated application process. Hoping to boost enrollment, Vice President Harris in recent months has embarked on a nationwide effort to tout the program.
In doing so, though, the government has faced a challenge: encouraging participation while warding off criminals who may be inclined to steal the aid from Washington. The potential scams uncovered by the inspector general for the FCC, revealed in a report Thursday, put that task in sharp relief.
The alleged fraud hinges on a critical stipulation in the program: An entire household is eligible for monthly broadband subsidies even if only one person, including a child or dependent, meets the criteria for participation. A family could receive a monthly $30 credit, for example, if they have a student who receives free and reduced lunch — even if their parents do not obtain other federal support.
To receive aid this way, applicants for broadband bill credits are asked to provide the name of the child or other dependent through which they qualify. But telecom carriers and the U.S. government apparently did not catch repeated instances in which households used the same child or other dependent’s name and address — and in some cases, even their same partial Social Security number — and received monthly support anyway.
In Oklahoma, 1,042 households obtained their broadband aid by saying they had a 4-year-old child — the same 4-year-old — who was receiving Medicaid benefits. The child’s name, date of birth and last four digits of their Social Security number “were used over and over again,” according to the FCC, which said the transactions began in December.
Nationally, the FCC’s top watchdog discovered 11 other instances in which seemingly eligible applicants had been used to obtain benefits hundreds of times each. In Texas, for example, one unnamed telecom company enrolled 997 households in the government internet program, even though each of the applicants included the same 18-year-old.
In its alert, issued Thursday, the inspector general acknowledged the total amount of improper payments “remains low” — but stressed that the data show “use of this flagrant technique is steady to increasing, particularly for certain providers.”
The findings marked the latest warning from the FCC’s top overseer, which this year has highlighted potentially predatory practices on the part of telecom carriers and specific instances of stolen or abused funds. Some of the alerts and enforcement efforts involved an earlier iteration of the internet subsidies, called the Emergency Broadband Benefit, which Congress adopted as part of the American Rescue Plan in 2021.
But fraud targeting government telecom programs long predates the pandemic and the more recent efforts to ensure Americans can afford internet access. For decades, a wide array of threats sapped money from the decades-old program known as Lifeline, which provides low-cost phone service to Americans in need. The FCC issued a slew of massive penalties — including a $200 million fine against Sprint in 2020 — for abuses that allowed ineligible subscribers to obtain government benefits. In its wake, the FCC, largely under Republicans, tightened it to a point that critics felt it discouraged enrollment. | 2022-09-08T20:16:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Thousands allegedly bilked U.S. for free internet — in one child’s name - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/09/08/fcc-broadband-fraud-coronavirus/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/09/08/fcc-broadband-fraud-coronavirus/ |
Ibram X. Kendi on finding inspiration in Zora Neale Hurston for his new book
Ibram X. Kendi is a historian, best-selling author and director of Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research. On Wednesday, Sept. 14 at 11:45 a.m. ET, join Washington Post associate editor Jonathan Capehart for a conversation with Kendi about his new children’s book, “Magnolia Flower,” and how it was shaped by his experiences as a father.
Author, “Magnolia Flower” | 2022-09-08T20:16:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ibram X. Kendi on finding inspiration in Zora Neale Hurston for his new book - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/09/14/ibram-x-kendi-finding-inspiration-zora-neale-hurston-his-new-book/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/09/14/ibram-x-kendi-finding-inspiration-zora-neale-hurston-his-new-book/ |
Robert McCurdy’s and Sharon Sprung’s portrayals of Barack and Michelle Obama reflect strong artistic visions, developed over decades-long careers
The official White House portraits of former president Barack Obama, by artist Robert McCurdy, and former first lady Michelle Obama, by artist Sharon Sprung. (Andrew Harnik/AP)
When Robert McCurdy’s and Sharon Sprung’s official White House portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama were unveiled Wednesday, they looked like the buttoned-up cousins of the bold portraits the National Portrait Gallery debuted in 2018. McCurdy’s painting of Barack Obama is hyperrealistic and no frills. Sprung’s first lady is straightforward and simple.
But as you look more closely, it’s clear that the relatively conventional styles belie strong artistic visions. Informed by McCurdy’s meticulous process, which he likens to “directing the world’s shortest movie,” and Sprung’s passion for painting, which she has called “pushing around puddles of this almost living substance,” these portraits aspire to more than faithful representations for posterity’s sake. They aim to make the former president and first lady feel present — to make their likenesses as approachable as the Obamas themselves.
Here's what President Biden, former president Barack Obama and his wife Michelle said at the unveiling of their official White House portraits. (Video: Michael Cadenhead/The Washington Post, Photo: Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
Their public debut is a long time coming — the commissions have been a secret for six years. Handpicked by the Obamas with the help of Thelma Golden, director of the Studio Museum in Harlem, McCurdy and Sprung were hired in 2016 after a months-long interview process.
Stewart McLaurin, president of the White House Historical Association, says the portraits are especially expressive.
“With our earliest presidents, Americans didn’t know what they looked like, so they depended on paintings,” he says. “Now, we are saturated with images,” so these portraits don’t just show the Obamas, “they’re a snapshot of how the president and first lady see themselves.”
For McCurdy, 69, Barack Obama’s portrait isn’t actually “a portrait” at all. It’s a meeting place. His subject, he says, is not the sitter — but his gaze.
McCurdy’s artistic training goes back to high school. He attended Camp Hill, a school in Pennsylvania that allows students to major in art, and he went on to study at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. McCurdy says he was influenced by minimalism, the predominant art movement during his formative years, and for two decades, he painted in an abstract style.
Then one day, he says, “I felt like figuration [paintings of people] was right outside the door saying, ‘Whatever you’re doing in there, I could do it better.’ ”
In the stripped-down portraits McCurdy creates today, those early influences are evident. His works have a mechanical quality and are aligned in spirit with the industrial minimalism of Donald Judd and simplicity of Ellsworth Kelly, who is one of his favorite artists. “If I start to make gestural lines and create motion in the piece, then I’m starting to tell the viewer how to think,” McCurdy says. “I try to create as much opportunity for this to be an interactive experience for the viewer.”
When McCurdy met with Obama in 2016, they spoke about the artist’s strict process. He spends just a couple of hours with his subjects, during which he takes dozens of photos of them staring directly into the camera without gesture or emotion. All the photos are destroyed, he says, except one that McCurdy feels captures a timeless moment — with no before and no after. He works from that photo for 12 to 18 months, nine hours a day, rendering every hair and pore to painful perfection.
Obama sought McCurdy out for the portrait, which McCurdy says is rare. His only other commission was the portrait of Bezos. (Amazon founder Bezos owns The Washington Post.) When he reaches out to subjects he wants to paint, they sometimes say no.
“We’re in a Photoshop age where we make everything look nice. We’re not used to having all of our flaws out there and being an actual human being,” he says. “The people who have chosen to do it are enormously courageous.”
As for why Obama wanted such an honest rendering? “My impression is he never tries to be anything but what he is. He’s always tried to make a genuine connection with people,” McCurdy says.
That was surely Sprung’s experience. When the artist visited the White House in 2016 as a candidate for the official commission (she was considered for both portraits), she brought printed talking points. Obama flicked them away. He just wanted to have a conversation, she said in a phone interview.
After his death, she didn’t speak for a year. “From then on, I think my orientation was to observe things and try to figure out what was going around me,” she says.
Sprung has been an artist since those difficult childhood days in Glen Cove, N.Y. She recalls making illustrations of her mother getting ready to go on dates. At 16, Sprung started going to Manhattan on Saturdays to attend the Art Students League, where she now teaches. She recalls being inspired by the diverse faces she saw in the city — a stark contrast to her homogenous hometown.
“Where I grew up, every house was the same. The lawns were the same. It was just a repeat, repeat, repeat,” she says. “Getting into the city was this wonderful world where you saw all these faces and everybody was different.”
At 19, Sprung dropped out of Cornell University to pursue art full-time, a decision that isolated her from her family. “I really had no choice at that point but to succeed, and I had to do it quickly because I had no money and no support,” she says. She wrote to artists she admired and developed an acquaintance with Aaron Shikler, who, coincidentally, had painted official portraits of Jacqueline Kennedy, Nancy Reagan and former president John F. Kennedy.
“I felt very empowered by that,” she says. “I was painting women that I admired, who took chances, had guts, who made it the hard way.”
The portrait became so real to her that she caught herself saying good morning and good night to the first lady’s likeness — even asking it for help with the painting.
Sprung says she felt an artistic freedom while working because it was clear the first lady trusted her. Obama didn’t ask for reference photos or offer feedback throughout the process. “I could express myself because I didn’t have somebody looking over my shoulder going, ‘Oh, I don’t like my eyebrows,’ ” Sprung says.
The final portrait shows Obama in a blue dress on a red couch and is rendered in a style Sprung calls “contemporary realism” for its bright, modern colors.
“I think I have a sense of who she is,” Sprung says of the former first lady. “Not in words. I couldn’t describe it. It’s different, intimate kind of knowing.” | 2022-09-08T20:18:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Meet the artists who painted the Obama White House portraits - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/09/08/obama-portraits-artists/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/09/08/obama-portraits-artists/ |
A Texas judge mounts a new assault on privacy rights
A month's worth of birth control pills. (Paul Chinn/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Jonathan Mitchell is at it again. Mitchell is the conservative lawyer behind S.B. 8, the Texas law that ended most abortions in the state in 2021, even before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Now, Mitchell is going after the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that private employers’ insurance policies cover preventive medical services. In a case brought by Mitchell, a federal judge on Wednesday ruled that a Texas company can’t be forced to provide coverage for drugs that prevent HIV infection because its Christian owner says such medication “facilitates and encourages homosexual behavior” in violation of his religious beliefs.
That wasn’t all. Mitchell, pressing an array of arguments that conservatives have deployed to dismantle the modern administrative state, argued that the mandates for free contraception and other preventive services were unconstitutional because the entities imposing the rules weren’t subject to enough presidential control or congressional oversight.
He lost on the contraception claim, but the judge, Reed O’Connor, found that the panel that determines what other services should be covered is unconstitutional because its members aren’t appointed by the president or confirmed by the Senate — threatening guaranteed no-cost coverage for everything from cancer screening to vaccines.
The decision might not stand. After all, this is the same judge who in 2018 struck down the entire Affordable Care Act based on a cockamamie theory involving the supposed unconstitutionality of a single section — the individual mandate. Last year, the Supreme Court, ruling 7-2, slapped him down, finding that Texas and others challenging the ACA didn’t have standing because they hadn’t proved the provision injured them.
So, it’s fair to have some doubts about O’Connor’s determination that Braidwood Management, the company complaining about having to cover the HIV-prevention drugs, had shown the necessary harm harm to bring the case.
After all, the Biden Justice Department noted in urging O’Connor to dismiss the case, Braidwood didn’t claim it was being asked to cover the medication — just that there was a “hypothetical possibility that it may one day have to make” such a payment. As the department’s brief said, “It is difficult to imagine that individuals eligible to be prescribed PrEP medications would choose to work for Braidwood,” given the company’s anti-gay stance. This is not the stuff on which strong federal cases are made.
Yet, here we go again — pushed by conservative lawyers, a conservative judge (O’Connor was nominated by George W. Bush) bends over backward to accommodate strained claims of religious liberties.
My point here isn’t to be dismissive of freedom of religion. As a member of a minority faith, I’m sympathetic to such arguments. Some of them — as in the case of the religious baker called on to create a custom cake for a same-sex wedding — present difficult issues. But, as this dispute demonstrates, things have gotten entirely out of whack and, in this era of conservative-dominated courts, now tilt too far in the direction of religious rights.
Medicine has made enormous strides since the emergence of the AIDs epidemic. Antiviral PrEP medications — short for pre-exposure prophylaxis — reduce the risk of contracting HIV from sex by 99 percent. As a result, a government advisory committee recommended in 2019 that the drugs be made part of the mandatory package of fully subsidized preventive care.
This is a development that everyone should cheer, including people who call themselves Christians: It prevents needless death. But Mitchell’s lawsuit claims the requirement forces religious employers “to choose between subsidizing lifestyles that violate their religious beliefs” and not providing insurance to their employees — and makes them “complicit in these behaviors.” Complicit? Guess what? Gay people are going to have sex. The question is whether the sex is going to be safe or risk giving them a terrible virus — at enormous cost to society.
The root of this problem is the Supreme Court’s 2014 decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, in which the court said the religious freedom of a privately owned company was violated by the ACA’s contraceptive mandate.
But the facts in Hobby Lobby underscore how much more extreme and attenuated the claims of religious freedom have become. In that case, the objection was to forms of contraception provided for by the ACA that the company owners claimed were abortifacients and therefore violated their religious convictions against abortion.
Here, the opposition is not to the medicine itself — the drugs can be used, for example, to allow a woman who is HIV-positive to become pregnant without risk to her child. It’s to the sort of people who tend to take the medication, and the behavior they engage in.
More such clashes are coming. Two years ago, in Bostock v. Clayton County, the court ruled that federal anti-discrimination law covers gay and transgender workers. But by Mitchell’s — and O’Connor’s — reasoning, it would be a violation of an employer’s religious rights to apply that ruling to any employer whose anti-gay discrimination had a religious basis: If it’s subsidizing gay conduct to cover anti-HIV medication, then isn’t it subsidizing gay conduct to pay gay employees?
The court in Bostock said religious rights might “supersede” anti-discrimination law “in appropriate cases” and put off the issue for another day. The Mitchell-O’Connor approach would carve a gaping loophole in that protection. Which might suit this conservative court just fine. | 2022-09-08T20:57:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Texas judge Reed O’Connor mounts a new assault on privacy rights - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/08/texas-judge-gay-rights-contraception/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/08/texas-judge-gay-rights-contraception/ |
D.C. mayor declares public emergency over migrants arriving on buses
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser announced a public emergency and new resources to aid migrants being bused to the District from Texas and Arizona. (Craig Hudson for The Washington Post)
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) declared a public emergency Thursday over the influx of asylum seekers bused in from Texas and Arizona, a formality that allows her to release $10 million in city funds to aid the migrants while also acknowledging that the Biden administration isn’t likely to play a more active role.
After the Pentagon twice rejected Bowser’s request for National Guard troops to help with the busloads of migrants arriving several times per week from the two border states, Bowser is moving to create an Office of Migrant Services that will coordinate an array of services, including temporary shelter, meals and medical support.
The arrival of about 9,400 migrants in the nation’s capital since Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) launched their busing programs in the spring has caught the city largely off-guard, even as many of those individuals have since left for other parts of the United States, the mayor said.
“We’re not a border town,” Bowser said during a news conference to announce the plan. “Basically, what we’re doing today is a new normal for us. We have to have an infrastructure in place that allows us to deal with the border crisis here now that has visited us in Washington, D.C.”
The public emergency declaration allows the city to use $10 million of contingency funds for a more coordinated team of aid workers to meet the buses at Union Station and, then, offer arriving migrants other types of “triage” assistance such as medical treatment and help getting to their next destination, city officials said.
Bowser said the city will seek Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reimbursement for as much of the aid as possible.
Through the Office of Migrant Services — to be set up within the city’s Department of Human Services — the city will also establish a framework for temporary shelter for the migrants that is distinct from the District’s existing homeless services system, the mayor said, adding that her office has not yet decided who will lead the new office.
Legislation to be sent by Bowser to the D.C. Council would extend those services beyond the 15-day period covered under the emergency declaration, Bowser said.
Until now, the city has left the bulk of the aid response to local groups whose volunteers have stood outside Union Station — often in the early morning hours — to greet the arriving buses and drive the migrants to a temporary shelter in Montgomery County that holds 50 people at a time.
Other migrants have been put up inside area hotels and churches, and some have been forced to sleep in the streets or in hotel parking lots.
As of Thursday, there were 348 migrants staying at two hotels in the city, Bowser’s office said.
With an increasing number of those families choosing to stay in the city, about 70 migrant children have been enrolled in D.C. public schools, her office said.
Despite the new city services, some longer-term questions about aid remain.
SAMU First Response, the nonprofit agency that runs the Montgomery County shelter under a nearly $2 million FEMA grant, has been searching for a larger space closer to Union Station that could serve as a clearinghouse for assistance.
Bowser said the city is helping with that search, both inside and outside the city. But “we don’t have a likely space in the District” owned by the city that would be available for such a purpose, she said.
Tatiana Laborde, managing director of SAMU First Response, said the creation of a Migrant Services Office is a welcome boost to an operation that has, at times, been haphazard.
“It’s going to make our response more robust,” Laborde said at the news conference, where workers from her agency had just come in from assisting migrants who arrived that morning from Texas.
Bowser said, through the new services, her office wants to ensure that “we have a humane and efficient welcome process that will allow people to move on to their final destinations,” in line with the city’s commitment to help those in need.
The issue of who should do more to help the migrants has dogged her office for months. Local aid groups have repeatedly criticized Bowser for not stepping in sooner with assistance — attacks that sharpened after D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine (D) awarded $150,000 in grants to six nonprofits helping the migrants.
The mayor said she was not reacting to any of those developments. But she accused Abbott and Ducey of politicizing a humanitarian crisis at the border — repeating allegations that some of the migrants were “tricked” into coming to D.C.
Bowser also said she was “disappointed” by the Biden administration’s reluctance to deploy National Guard troops and provide a larger space, such as the D.C. Armory, to serve as a temporary shelter.
The Department of Defense has told Bowser that National Guard troops aren’t trained to provide services at an overnight shelter and that the Armory isn’t equipped for that kind of use.
“Mayors do a lot of things, but we’re not responsible for a broken immigration system,” Bowser said.
With both Abbott and Ducey vowing to continue sending buses, “What we’re dealing with is a big unknown,” she said. “It’s an unknown that’s being imposed on us and it is an unknown that we’re going to do our best to prepare for.” | 2022-09-08T21:10:25Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Migrants arriving in D.C. on buses declared a public emergency by Mayor Bowser - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/08/bowser-public-emergency-migrant-buses/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/08/bowser-public-emergency-migrant-buses/ |
People react outside Buckingham Palace, after Queen Elizabeth, Britain's longest-reigning monarch and the nation's figurehead for seven decades, died aged 96. (Henry Nicholls/Reuters)
According to one account of the procedure published by the Guardian after a 2017 investigation, the news of the queen’s passing would be privately announced by the queen’s private secretary with a coded phrase:
Under the expected procedure, after the British monarch dies, his or her replacement takes over immediately. This means that after Queen Elizabeth II died on Thursday, her son Prince Charles automatically became monarch — and in his case, he became King Charles III.
For the BBC, a state-funded broadcaster, the procedure is complicated. The news is expected to be broken in a careful, somber manner, with hosts wearing black to dignify the importance of what has happened. An alarm for national emergencies, rarely used, will go off in the offices.
Veteran host Jeremy Paxman wrote that in the 1970s and ’80s, journalists were expected to come in on a weekend every six months to go through the procedure for Elizabeth’s death. “Long sets of guidelines were produced and laminated in plastic,” Paxman wrote in his book “On Royalty.”
But some things have changed. On Thursday, the news of the queen’s passing was first shared on a Twitter account belonging to the royal family. It was widely expected, however, and broadcasters from the BBC and other networks were already all in black.
The next days are considered D-Day+1, D-Day+2, and so on, according to leaked documents published by Politico last year. Exactly how these days will play out is not yet clear, but we have a rough outline from centuries of monarchal practice.
An “Accession Council” will likely meet on Friday. It typically meets within 24 hours of the monarch’s death, usually at St. James’s Palace, where many important events in royal history have taken place. It hosts officials and some royals for accession proceedings for King Charles.
Later — though not always on the same day — the new sovereign, or head of state, will hold his or her first session with privy counselors. The new monarch will then take an oath of office, which has been taken by every monarch since George I in 1714. Signed copies of the oath are then sent to official record-keepers.
On Saturday, the queen’s body is expected to be transported to Buckingham Palace. As she died at Balmoral in Scotland, her family’s summer retreat, it is not yet clear if the coffin will be transported by royal train or by airplane.
The queen’s state funeral is expected to be held on D-Day+10, which is Sunday, Sept. 18, at London’s Westminster Abbey. Heads of state and other VIPs from abroad will be in attendance. Later, there will be a committal service at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, a Royal home outside of London, where the queen will be buried inside the King George VI’s Memorial Chapel inside St. George’s Chapel.
The funeral of Queen Elizabeth’s husband, Prince Philip, last year may provide something of a model, albeit it was clearly of a smaller scale. That funeral took place on April 17, 2021. Though Prince Philip wasn’t given a state funeral, which is reserved for monarchs, he was buried after a service at St. George’s Chapel. Philip was interred in the Royal Vault at St. George’s Chapel, but his remains will be moved to the King George VI’s Memorial Chapel so that he can be laid to rest next to the queen. | 2022-09-08T21:19:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Operation London Bridge: The plan for after Queen Elizabeth’s death - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/08/what-is-operation-london-bridge/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/08/what-is-operation-london-bridge/ |
Man pleads guilty in killing of girlfriend who placed baby in trash
Carl Jones pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the stabbing of Ladonia Boggs, who admitted putting their 2-month-old’s remains in the trash
Kyon Jones. (DC Police)
A D.C. man pleaded guilty Thursday to voluntary manslaughter in the stabbing of a girlfriend who had admitted last year to throwing the couple’s 2-month-old baby’s remains into the trash.
Carl B. Jones, 44, also pleaded guilty to carrying a dangerous weapon in the April killing of Ladonia Boggs, 39. Boggs’s body was found in the doorway of her apartment in the 1500 block of Benning Road NE.
Last year, police accused Boggs of putting 2-month-old son Kyon Jones’s body in a trash receptacle after she said he died in early May 2021. Prosecutors decided not to pursue a murder case and instead charged Boggs with tampering with physical evidence. She was not jailed and had a court date set for two months after she was killed.
At Thursday’s hearing in D.C. Superior Court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sitara Witanachchi said Jones went to Boggs’s apartment with a knife and the couple “got into a fight over the dead child.” The prosecutor said Jones then stabbed Boggs in the abdomen.
After Jones’s arrest, Jones admitted to detectives that he and his girlfriend had occasionally smoked PCP. When detectives asked him if he was responsible for Boggs’s killing, court documents say he responded: “If I did, would I be wrong for doing that?”
According to court records, authorities found a trail of blood leading from Boggs’s body across the floor to the bedroom, down the hallway and to the living room. They also found blood on the couch.
In May 2021, Boggs telephoned Jones and told him that the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency had removed their son from her home, according to court documents. The next day, Jones called the agency to inquire. A social worker told him that the baby had not been removed from Boggs’s care. The social worker contacted city authorities, including D.C. police, who then began investigating.
After being confronted about her account, Boggs told authorities that she had given the baby to her godmother.
After authorities were unable to find the godmother, Boggs told police she was sleeping in the same bed with her son and rolled over him while she was asleep after smoking PCP earlier in the day, according to court documents. When she awakened, she saw that the baby was not breathing, placed his body in the trash and gave his clothes to a neighbor, according to the documents.
Jones initially was charged with second-degree murder. As part of the plea deal with federal prosecutors, he faces a prison sentence of seven to nine years. Jones will remain in the D.C. jail until his sentencing Dec. 9. | 2022-09-08T21:27:50Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Man pleads guilty in killing of girlfriend, who put baby in the trash - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/08/manslaughter-plea-baby-in-trash/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/08/manslaughter-plea-baby-in-trash/ |
Florida’s largest school system blocks LGBTQ History Month declaration
A student listens to a teacher's instructions at iPrep Academy on the first day of school in Miami in August 2021. (Lynne Sladky/AP)
The leaders of Florida’s largest school system rejected a resolution to declare October as LGBTQ History Month, another sign that the state continues to lurch to the right as Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis pushes to remove discussions about sexual orientation from the classroom.
The school board’s vote against the measure, which comes just one year after the body approved a similar resolution by a vote of 7-1, highlights the rapidly shifting political landscape in Florida as conservative parental rights groups have mobilized to erase any discussion of topics such as gender and racial inequality in school.
This year, DeSantis and Florida’s Republican-controlled legislature enacted a new law that prohibits schools from teaching students in kindergarten through third grade about topics involving sexual orientation or gender identity. Lessons for older grades must now be “age appropriate,” a vague term that is causing widespread confusion throughout the state about what teachers can say in the classroom or whether they can even display placards identifying their classrooms as “safe spaces” for students who may feel bullied.
Florida teachers race to remake lessons as DeSantis laws take effect
An attorney for the school system told board members that he did not believe the proposed ordinance conflicted with the Parental Rights in Education law. But several school board members still cited the new ordinance, which critics have dubbed the “don’t say gay” law, in justifying their decision to reverse their previous support for LGBTQ History Month.
Before the vote, dozens of parents and community members crammed into the meeting room, including some men aligned with the far-right extremist group the Proud Boys.
“We are sitting talking about recognizing LGBTQ History Month. What does that mean exactly? What will be celebrated? … What will be depicted in our hallways?” asked Christi Fraga, a board member who opposed the resolution. “If we are going to allow the teachers to decide what can be taught inside the classroom during this time, that concerns me.”
The board’s decision outraged Democratic lawmakers and gay rights activists, who accused the leaders of the nation’s fourth-largest school system of suppressing South Florida’s own ties to the nation’s gay rights movement.
In the 1970s, gay rights activists in Miami sparred with Anita Bryant, a religious conservative who used South Florida to launch her nationwide campaign against anti-discrimination ordinances. Then in the 1980s during the AIDS epidemic, gay men flocked to Miami Beach, and helped develop it into a global tourism and entertainment destination.
“I am horrified, but I am not surprised given the turn that Florida has taken under Governor DeSantis,” said Michael Rajner, 51, a South Florida gay rights activist. “He has seemed to make the Sunshine State into a fascist state and is bringing us back into the Dark Ages.”
DeSantis’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the vote.
Equality Florida, a gay rights advocacy group, also decried the school board’s decision.
“Tonight’s vote is one more proof point of the sweeping chilling effect of Florida’s discriminatory Don’t Say LGBTQ Law and the toxic anti-LGBTQ environment being fostered by Gov. DeSantis,” Joe Saunders, Equality Florida’s political director, said in a written statement.
Rajner said he worries the school board’s decision will further stifle discussion in the classroom of people who are LGBTQ — questioning, as an example, whether teachers who bring up Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will be allowed to note that he is the nation’s first openly gay Cabinet member.
“Youth who are LGBT should have a role model to look up to, similar in ways that Barack and Michelle Obama have given hope to so many Black youths,” he said.
But Anthony Verdugo, executive director of the Miami-based Christian Family Coalition, a conservative political advocacy group, said Wednesday’s vote showcases how conservative parents are now speaking out in opposition to the teaching of issues in schools that don’t directly relate to “reading, writing and arithmetic.”
“Schools are there for education and not there for indoctrination,” said Verdugo, repeating debunked theories that children choose their sexual orientation based on their exposure to LGBTQ issues. “We celebrate the content of people’s character, not their sexual preference and not their sexual identity.”
Verdugo added he still supports other school district designations, such as Black History Month and Hispanic Heritage Month.
“Those are notable, morally neutral matters, “he said. “Matters of sex and sexual activity, those are not morally neutral.”
Verdugo noted Wednesday’s victory comes on the heels of conservatives’ success last month in winning two Miami-Dade school board seats, which he says will assure a new conservative majority when the new board is seated in November. He believes the outcome of that election also prodded the current board to reject the resolution.
DeSantis flexes influence with ‘anti-woke’ school board victories
“I don’t think the margin would have been great, and last night the parents, students and citizens showed up in force,” said Verdugo, who also played down the presence of the Proud Boys. “Individuals and groups have a right to speak out, on whatever issue drives them.”
At one point during the meeting, some of the parents in the audience began shouting at Andrea S. Pita Mendez, a 17-year-old high school senior who sits on the board as a nonvoting student adviser.
After stating she represents “the voice of 340,000 students,” Mendez began pushing back at board members’ assertion that their clients are district parents.
“They are not. They are the students,” Mendez said. “The parents are not because they don’t sit there for eight hours every day.”
As Mendez spoke, some members of the audience groaned and yelled at her, causing her to briefly halt her remarks.
When the outburst subsided, Mendez once again pleaded for the board to support the resolution.
“You are not in those hallways every single day. We are,” said Mendez, who is also the president of her student government association. “And our students told me they support this item. Students are allowed to make their own opinions about the information they learn.” | 2022-09-08T21:32:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Miami-Dade school board rejects declaring October LGBTQ History Month - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/08/miami-schools-lgbtq-history-month/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/08/miami-schools-lgbtq-history-month/ |
Even so, my younger self couldn’t grasp how one person with all that inherited wealth could come to embody a nation’s view of itself. For an American, it all sits oddly apart from modern notions of democracy. The hereditary principle was always anathema to the American sense of meritocracy (though the irony now is that so much wealth and opportunity in the US is indeed inherited). So was the idea of a head of state who is also head of church.
Becoming British has meant working toward an understanding of things that come automatically for the native-born. The other lesson I gleaned from my early days living in the UK was that while the queen’s role is largely ceremonial, there is no neat dividing line between palace and politics. The queen may stay out of politics, but as former US ambassador to Britain Raymond Seitz, a keen observer of Britain, wrote, “when that little arch of reservation rises on the royal brow, a silent shudder runs through Whitehall.” (Will the rather bushier brow of Charles get the same notice, I wonder.)
Hers is an impossible act to follow for Charles, her heir and now king. He is happily remarried to Camilla, the woman who was at the heart of his marriage breakup with Diana. Those wounds at least have healed, but his family is still reeling from the very public falling-out of his two sons, William and Harry, and the shame of his brother Andrew’s association with Jeffrey Epstein. With the queen gone, it will be on Charles to create a sense of stability and continuity, but just stopping the sense of decay would be a start. The scrutiny will be intense.
The queen’s death represents a moment of vulnerability but also opportunity. Although support for the monarchy is strong overall in Britain, with about 62% of Britons in favor, it’s weakest among young people; only a third of 18- to 24-year-olds see the point. “If the monarchy is to thrive, it must keep telling a story that engages people,” wrote the historian Alex von Tunzelmann in April. “This does not mean it should modernize. Its appeal may lie in reiterating that sense of tradition, benevolence and duty that the Queen has channeled so well.”
The royal succession will also be a test, perhaps in some ways a defining one, of another new prime minister, Liz Truss, whose handling of the response will be broadcast around the world. Days of remembrances and outpourings will dwarf talk of the country’s energy crisis, the flailing National Health Service, the war in Ukraine and pretty much all other news. But only temporarily. The queen leaves the world at a time when Britain’s fourth-straight Conservative government is redefining its role in the world after Brexit, trying to hold a fraying union together and confronting the biggest economic crunch since the financial crisis. The pound, as if asking the question, is at its lowest level since 1985. | 2022-09-08T21:45:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | An Elegy for the Queen From an American in London - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/an-elegy-for-the-queen-from-an-american-in-london/2022/09/08/bbf2747e-2fb3-11ed-bcc6-0874b26ae296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/an-elegy-for-the-queen-from-an-american-in-london/2022/09/08/bbf2747e-2fb3-11ed-bcc6-0874b26ae296_story.html |
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II dies at age 96
The queen reigned for 70 years, a record for British monarchs.
Britain's Queen Elizabeth II speaks during the State Opening of Parliament in London on May 25, 2010, as husband Prince Philip listens. Elizabeth died Thursday at age 96. Her oldest son, Charles, became king immediately. (Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images)
Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, died Thursday after 70 years on the throne. She was 96.
Her 73-year-old son, Prince Charles, automatically became king and will be known as King Charles III, his office announced. Charles’s second wife, Camilla, will be known as the Queen Consort.
The queen enjoyed robust health into her 90s, although she used a cane after the death of Philip, her husband of 73 years, in 2021. Since a brief hospital stay last fall her public appearances grew less frequent.
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was born in London on April 21, 1926, the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York. She was not born to be queen — her father’s older brother, Prince Edward, was destined to take the crown, to be followed by any children he had.
But in 1936, when she was 10, Edward VIII gave up his position to marry twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson, and Elizabeth’s father became King George VI.
Elizabeth was barely in her teens when Britain went to war with Germany in 1939. Elizabeth and her sister, Margaret, lived mostly at Windsor Castle, spending many nights in an underground shelter as bombs fell. To help the war effort, Elizabeth joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service in 1945, learning to drive and service heavy vehicles.
At Westminster Abbey in 1947 she married Royal Navy officer Philip Mountbatten, a prince of Greece and Denmark. Their first child, Prince Charles, was born in 1948. He was followed by Princess Anne in 1950, Prince Andrew in 1960, and Prince Edward in 1964. Besides those children, she is survived by eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
In February 1952, George VI died after years of poor health at age 56. Elizabeth, visiting Kenya, was told that she was now queen.
“My father died much too young,” Elizabeth reflected in a documentary in 1992. “And so it was all a very sudden kind of taking on, and making the best job you can.”
Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s first reaction was that the new queen was “only a child,” but he became an admirer.
Her personal life included plenty of troubles.
In 1992, Princess Anne was divorced, Prince Charles and Princess Diana separated, and so did Prince Andrew and his wife, Sarah. That was also the year Windsor Castle was seriously damaged by fire.
Five years later, Diana died in a Paris car crash. The public mourned, but the queen didn’t initially make a public show of grief. Many saw that as unfeeling. After several days, she made a televised address to the nation.
In 2015, she became the longest serving monarch in British history, and she kept working into her 10th decade.
She appeared infrequently in public this year as she marked her Platinum Jubilee. In May, she asked Charles to stand in for her at the State Opening of Parliament, one of the monarch’s key constitutional duties.
But she remained in control of the monarchy. On September 6, she presided at a ceremony at Balmoral Castle to accept the resignation of Boris Johnson as prime minister and appoint Truss as his successor.
She was at the center of public life to the end. As Britons endured loss and isolation during the coronavirus pandemic, she made a rare video address in 2020 that urged people to stick together.
She summoned the spirit of World War II and echoed the wartime song “We’ll Meet Again.” | 2022-09-08T21:45:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II dies at age 96 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost/2022/09/08/queen-elizabeth-dies-at-96/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost/2022/09/08/queen-elizabeth-dies-at-96/ |
An accounting of the classified documents
The Justice Department released this photo on Aug. 31 of documents seized at Mar-a-Lago. (Department of Justice/AFP via Getty Images)
The excellent Sept. 3 front-page article “Trump mixed secret, trivial” described what is known so far about the thousands of documents found at Mar-a-Lago. I had a TS/SCI clearance for most of my 20 years in the Air Force and for 17 years as a contractor. I am amazed and disgusted by the way former president Donald Trump handled classified material.
The article cited a government inventory that included “government documents with classified markings,” “empty folders with ‘CLASSIFIED’ banners" and “empty folders labeled 'Return to Staff Secretary/Mili[t]ary Aide.” A government filing said that there might be “additional witness interviews” and that the investigation could include “the nature and manner in which [the documents] were stored.”
I suggest that the investigation look into the sources of the classified documents to see whether any of the individuals, including the staff secretary, the military aide and any briefers who provided them to the former president recall not getting their documents back. There might be a record of some of the missing documents in the offices of whoever prepared a presentation or briefing either as a response to a request from the then-president or to call his attention to an important matter.
Previous reporting has noted that when he was president, Mr. Trump traveled with boxes of documents. Considering that he could have carried this habit over into his post-presidential years, I suggest that some consideration be given to getting search warrants for any location where Mr. Trump might have gone after Jan. 20, 2021 — especially if all the missing documents cannot be accounted for.
Stephen Marschall, Burke | 2022-09-08T21:45:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | An accounting of the classified documents - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/08/an-accounting-classified-documents/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/08/an-accounting-classified-documents/ |
Gaming charity cancels Florida event citing covid, ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law
Games Done Quick was also concerned about the state’s lack of mask mandates.
(iStock and GamesDoneQuick/Washington Post illustration)
The video game charity event Awesome Games Done Quick 2023 will not be taking place in Florida as planned. In an announcement Thursday, the event’s organizer, Games Done Quick (GDQ), said it does not believe Florida to be “a safe place for our community at this time,” citing the state’s covid-19 protocols and Parental Rights in Education Act (known colloquially as the “don’t say gay” law).
Games Done Quick is a semiannual event featuring speedruns, where gamers rush through a video game with the goal of finishing it as quickly as possible through careful planning, skill and often leveraging a game’s bugs in ingenious ways. For nearly a decade, Awesome Games Done Quick was held in the D.C. area until 2020 when GDQ hosted the event in Orlando. This year’s event was to mark Awesome Game Done Quick’s return as an in-person event (2021 and 2022 were virtual events due to coronavirus measures), but it is now planned to be purely virtual once more.
GDQ’s winter event, Awesome Games Done Quick, is held every January to raise money for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. GDQ has prominently featured trans gamers in its events as both hosts and creators. It also started Frame Fatales, an all-women speedrunning event for the Malala Fund, a nonprofit dedicated to girls’ education, which was co-founded by Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai.
As Roe v. Wade repeal looms, video game industry stays mostly silent
In the statement, GDQ said it had originally secured a Florida venue for 2021’s event but postponed its use due to the pandemic. After seeking out other venues to host Awesome Games Done Quick 2023 in person, GDQ said the cost of paying out its current venue’s cancellation fee and finding a new one were too much. The event organizers did not specify the name of the venue in the release and did not respond to questions from The Post at the time of publication.
“While the move to online will allow us to save some on expenses, we still have considerable costs to recover,” wrote GDQ on its website. “We are looking to recover that money where possible, including with community support via Twitch subs. We thank the community for their support!”
Games Done Quick, which was founded by Northern Virginia native Mike Uyama, has raised over $35 million for charity since its inaugural event in 2010. The organization runs two events each year dedicated to different charities: Awesome Games Done Quick in the winter for the Prevent Cancer Foundation and Summer Games Done Quick in the summer for Doctors Without Borders.
Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act, which was championed by and signed into effect by the Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), places restrictions on classroom discussions regarding gender, sexual orientation and LGBTQ issues. The White House has described the law as thinly veiled attack on LGBTQ rights, calling it “discrimination, plain and simple” in an official statement. The law has also been condemned by dozens of major corporations including Sony Interactive Entertainment, Starbucks and Target. In March, Disney announced it would be halting all political donations in Florida due to the law after the company’s own workers criticized CEO Bob Chapek for not taking action sooner.
In Awesome Games Done Quick 2022, speedrunner Mitchriz beat FromSoftware’s “Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice” (a notoriously hard title from a developer famed for creating brutally difficult games) in just two hours — while blindfolded. Awesome Games Done Quick 2022 raised a total of $3.4 million from thousands of donors who watched the event online.
Awesome Games Done Quick 2023 will run from Jan. 8 to 15, 2023. | 2022-09-08T21:46:56Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Games Done Quick cancels Florida event over ‘Don’t Say Gay’ laws - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/09/08/gdq-florida/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/09/08/gdq-florida/ |
Pregnant women were jailed over drug use to protect fetuses, county says
Hali Burns, right, seen here with her partner, Craig Battles, says she was arrested days after giving birth because she tested positive for drugs twice during her pregnancy. She has been held in jail since mid-July. (National Advocates for Pregnant Women)
It was Ashley Banks’s alleged use of marijuana while pregnant that landed her in an Alabama jail in May. And it was a drug program’s determination that she was ineligible for treatment that kept her there.
Banks, 23, was charged with chemical endangerment of a child after police allegedly found marijuana on her during a traffic stop, her lawyers wrote in court filings. She admitted that she had smoked marijuana on the day she learned she was pregnant — two days earlier — but says in court records that it was before she confirmed her pregnancy.
Banks’s statement to police, however, subjected her to what her lawyers say is a policy in northeast Alabama’s Etowah County: Almost all pregnant or postpartum women who are charged with endangering their fetus via drugs have to remain in jail until they complete a drug-treatment program, without an assessment of whether that condition is appropriate for them.
The policy, previously reported by AL.com, kept Banks in the Etowah County Detention Center for three months while she endured severe vaginal bleeding and two emergency room visits that left her fearful for her high-risk pregnancy. A court-contracted substance abuse agency twice told her that she didn’t qualify for treatment because she wasn’t addicted to drugs, leaving her in limbo until a judge granted her release Aug. 25 on conditions that did not include drug treatment.
The Etowah County District Attorney’s Office did not respond to an interview request but said in a similar case that the county’s request for drug treatment as a bail condition is meant to protect the fetuses.
“The goal of the state and the courts in this jurisdiction has been to try to — to try to see to it that children are born [safely]; that the mothers who are — who test positive during pregnancy have opportunities to get treatment so that we can have a healthy relationship subsequent to that,” Deputy District Attorney Carol Griffith said in a hearing last month, according to a transcript.
Prosecutors across the country regularly criminally charge pregnant women accused of taking drugs, arguing that such cases encourage them to get help and protect their fetuses. But the nonprofit legal organization National Advocates for Pregnant Women calls Etowah County the country’s “ground zero of pregnancy criminalization” for its number of prosecutions — more than 150 in the past decade — and their increasing frequency in recent years. The prosecutions also reflect how fights to restrict abortion, recently resulting in the fall of Roe v. Wade, have emboldened the fetal rights movement to seek criminal charges against pregnant women who use drugs.
Alabama’s “chemical endangerment of a child” statute was passed in 2006 to target people who turned their homes into methamphetamine labs, putting their children at risk. Prosecutors soon began applying the law to women who exposed their fetuses to drugs, particularly after the Alabama Supreme Court upheld the practice in 2013.
“The prosecution’s alleged justification for this is that this is needed to protect the women’s ‘unborn’ and born children,” said Emma Roth, a staff attorney at National Advocates for Pregnant Women. “When the reality is, this puts the health and well-being of these women at risk, and their pregnancies and their children at risk.”
Jails can be dangerous environments for pregnant women, Carolyn Sufrin, director of the Advocacy and Research on Reproductive Wellness of Incarcerated People program at Johns Hopkins University, wrote in a court filing supporting Banks. Poor dietary options, unsanitary spaces and lack of access to medical care, she said, can endanger the physical and mental health of women and their fetuses. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists opposes criminalizing women for behavior that allegedly harms their pregnancies.
The Etowah County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to an interview request about medical services at the jail. Josh Morgan, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office, told AL.com that women charged with chemical endangerment receive the same medical evaluation as other inmates and are then referred to obstetricians.
Another woman in that county, Hali Burns, says she was arrested at the hospital six days after giving birth because of two positive drug tests during her pregnancy. Her lawyers argue in court filings that she has a prescription for one of the drugs she tested positive for — Subutex, which treats opioid addiction — and that her sinus medication caused her to falsely test positive for methamphetamine. She tested negative for drugs at the time she gave birth.
Burns, 34, was arrested July 12 due to the positive tests and separated from her newborn son and her older daughter, according to court records. Her bail conditions include inpatient drug treatment and a $10,000 cash bond, another common requirement in chemical endangerment cases.
Although Burns was deemed a candidate for a residential treatment center, her lawyers say, she was told that a bed would not be available for weeks. She eventually learned that a bed had become ready for her but that she was barred from entering the program because she allegedly had another positive drug test.
“In this case, I think the fact that we actually have another subsequent positive drug screen is just further evidence that this is an individual who desperately needs the help that we’re offering here,” Griffith said at an Aug. 18 hearing in Burns’s case.
Morgan Cunningham, a lawyer for Burns, argued that bail is meant to protect community members and ensure that a defendant shows up at trial. Burns, he said, is neither dangerous nor a flight risk.
“The purpose of bond is not punishment,” Cunningham said. “And, you know, some people might look at the opportunity to go to rehab as a reward. The purpose of bond is not reward either.”
A judge refused to revise Burns’s bail conditions, and she remains in custody — away from both her children.
“The courts and the prosecutors are hurting the very population that they allege they’re helping,” Roth said. “And at the same time, they’re robbing these women of their freedom.” | 2022-09-08T22:28:50Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Pregnant women jailed over drug use to protect fetuses, Alabama county says - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/08/pregnant-women-drugs-jail/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/08/pregnant-women-drugs-jail/ |
Queen Elizabeth II and the waning of Britain’s empire
Queen Elizabeth II died Thursday afternoon at the age of 96. Her seven-decade reign, longer than that of any other monarch of her realm stretching back to before the days of the Norman conquest, can be seen as its own Elizabethan age. Through political upheaval and economic crises, family dramas and a revolving door of 15 prime ministers, the queen was serene and enduring. She rarely gave interviews or offered a public opinion, and put forward a regal presence defined by her reticence. Her stoic continuity was, in itself, a form of grace.
In a statement, President Biden described Elizabeth as “a stateswoman of unmatched dignity and constancy” who “defined an era,” adding that “her legacy will loom large in the pages of British history, and in the story of our world.”
The days to come will see a surfeit of commentary and analysis of the depth of that legacy. But one narrative is inescapable: Elizabeth ascended the throne 70 years ago as the head of a globe-spanning empire. But she died at a moment of contraction and uncertainty, with most of Britain’s colonies gone, its place in Europe a source of tension, and its global status diminished.
“If the reigns of the other great female monarchs of English and British history, Elizabeth I and Victoria, coincided with periods of national expansion, it fell to the second Elizabeth to be a mainstay of a nation coming to terms with a changed place in the world,” observed an editorial in the Financial Times.
Little of this was directly due to the queen herself: She was throughout a ceremonial figure, more often cresting the tides of history than moving them. But in her role, she seemed to embody a story of her nation. Elizabeth understood this herself. She famously said in 1947, on her 21st birthday during a visit to South Africa, “that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service, and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.”
No matter her decades of faithful service, the imperial family would rapidly shrink. A few months after that speech, Britain’s most important imperial possessions — India and the newly-created Pakistan — finally shook off the colonial yoke and declared their independence. Nothing conveyed the grandeur of Britain’s world-striding empire better than Queen Victoria’s earlier assumption of the title of “Empress of India.” For more than a century, the pillaged wealth of the Asian subcontinent had turbocharged the British economy and undergirded Britain’s rise to global preeminence. Gems looted from India made their way into the crowns of British royals, including that of Elizabeth’s mother, a visceral reminder of a link that India finally sundered in 1950 when it officially became a republic.
Still, in 1952, when Elizabeth learned of her father’s death in a Kenyan hunting lodge, Britain possessed more than 70 overseas territories. Now it counts only 14 — mostly scattered, wind-swept islands, the geographically largest of which is the Falklands, a South Atlantic archipelago inhabited by fewer than 3,000 people. Under her watch, not only did the empire contract, but the United Kingdom devolved power to constituent home nations Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The febrile politics of Brexit have raised the prospect — albeit, still remote — of the latter two also breaking away.
As the heir apparent and then queen, Elizabeth was perhaps not privy to all the sordid details of the operations carried out to preserve her empire after the end of World War II and through the 1960s. Those included brutal counterinsurgencies in what’s now Malaysia, Yemen, Cyprus and Kenya — where tens of thousands of people were detained and tortured by colonial authorities as they tried to crack down on the anti-colonial Mau Mau movement. Those misdeeds have only belatedly led to a reckoning in Britain, with the government paying compensation to some victims of its colonial policies, while activists push for the removal of statues and the revision of school curriculums glorifying Britain’s empire.
Elizabeth cast herself as the happy steward of the Commonwealth, now a bloc of 56 independent countries that all, at some point, were ruled by the British Crown. But its history was hardly benign. “The Commonwealth had its origins in a racist and paternalistic conception of British rule as a form of tutelage, educating colonies into the mature responsibilities of self-government,” noted Harvard University historian Maya Jasanoff. “Reconfigured in 1949 to accommodate newly independent Asian republics, the Commonwealth was the empire’s sequel and a vehicle for preserving Britain’s international influence.”
The Commonwealth’s present is more mundane. For all the global relevance it gave the queen and her scions, who embarked on periodic, media-soaked tours of their former holdings, it’s a grouping of limited stature and influence. In many instances, the Commonwealth’s member states don’t share political values or economic interests. Nor do the vast majority of them look to Britain for any particular guidance or leadership.
Indeed, the most notable phenomenon of the last years of Elizabeth’s reign was a movement among Caribbean nations to remove her as the titular head of their states and press demands for reparations for the abuses and exploitation of the colonial era. Barbados led the way, officially becoming a republic last November. To its credit, the British monarchy acknowledged the occasion with poise and humility.
“From the darkest days of our past and the appalling atrocity of slavery, which forever stains our history, the people of this island forged their path with extraordinary fortitude,” said then-Prince Charles at a ceremony where he celebrated Barbadian independence. “Freedom, justice, and self determination have been your guides.”
It’s too early to tell what sort of role the new King Charles III may want to play. Jasanoff called for the British monarchy to do away with the “myths of imperial benevolence” that still suffuse its ceremonies and activities. “While we celebrate the mightiness of Elizabeth II’s allegiance to a life of service,” wrote journalist Tina Brown in her 2022 book, “The Palace Papers,” “we should also acknowledge that an antiquated version of monarchy must now pass into history.”
Queen Elizabeth II live updates: Monarch dies at 96, King Charles III ascends to throne | 2022-09-08T22:50:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Queen Elizabeth II and the final end of Britain’s imperial age - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/08/queen-elizabeth-empire-death-imperial/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/08/queen-elizabeth-empire-death-imperial/ |
Utility warns against touching water in T. Howard Duckett Reservoir
The reservoir remains open for recreational use, but blue-green algae found in the water can be toxic, WSSC Water says
The T. Howard Duckett Reservoir, seen in 2014 behind the dam of the same name along Interstate 95 in Laurel, Md., is under a health advisory for a toxic algae bloom. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)
WSSC Water is advising people who use its T. Howard Duckett Reservoir in Laurel for fishing and boating to not touch the water or eat some parts of fish caught there because of a toxic blue-green algae that can cause serious health problems.
The reservoir remains open for recreational use, the utility said. The Triadelphia Reservoir, also along the Patuxent River, has been under a similar health advisory since mid-July.
High concentrations of the naturally occurring cyanobacteria, commonly called blue-green algae, appear in stagnant, warmer water, WSSC Water officials said. The reservoirs provide a source of drinking water for WSSC Water, which serves Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, and recreational areas for hiking, fishing and boating.
Algae bloom prompts health advisory for Triadelphia Reservoir in Maryland
The utility’s drinking water is not affected, but water quality is being monitored at the Patuxent filtration plant, utility officials said. The algae can cause skin irritation or rashes, nausea, disorientation, numbness and fatigue.
Reservoir water that hits the skin, including while wading in to launch canoes or other boats, should be rinsed off immediately with clean water, the utility said. Pets, which aren’t allowed in the reservoir, should not swim in or drink the water, and the livers or other digestive organs of fish caught there should not be eaten. Fish fillets should be thoroughly washed with drinking water, the utility said.
Anyone who touches or drinks the water should contact a local health department, WSSC Water said. | 2022-09-08T22:54:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | WSSC Water warns against touching water in T. Howard Duckett reservoir - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/09/08/duckett-dam-rocky-gorge-algae/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/09/08/duckett-dam-rocky-gorge-algae/ |
MWAA to pay contractor more than $200 million for Silver Line cost overruns
Documents obtained by The Post outline the terms of an agreement between MWAA and the lead contractor on the long-delayed rail project
The entrance to the Washington Dulles International Airport Station this summer. The second phase of the Silver Line extension has faced considerable delays but is expected to open later this year. (Luz Lazo/The Washington Post)
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority will pay the lead contractor on the long-delayed Silver Line rail extension $207 million more as part of an agreement reached in July, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.
The MWAA’s board of directors in July approved spending an additional $250 million to cover cost overruns on the multibillion-dollar rail project, but the agency has declined to detail how the money will be spent, saying dollar amounts weren’t finalized and that employees who made the calculations were unavailable.
The documents The Post obtained indicate the airports authority and Capital Rail Constructors, which built the rail line, reached an agreement five days before the board voted to authorize the additional expenditure on July 20. The seven-page agreement — dated July 15 and signed by MWAA chief executive John E. “Jack” Potter — outlines how much the contractor will receive and when the payments will be made.
The new details are the latest chapter in a decades-long effort by Virginia officials to build a rail connection linking the nation’s capital with Loudoun County and Dulles International Airport. The project is years behind schedule and has endured political infighting and numerous setbacks, including issues with flawed construction materials, but is expected to begin carrying passengers by the end of the year.
MWAA officials confirmed the authenticity of the documents Thursday. The agency didn’t release other details or say whether a similar agreement over cost disputes had been reached with Hensel Phelps, the contractor responsible for building a rail yard that is part of the project. Hensel Phelps officials did not respond to requests for comment.
$250 million approved as Silver Line costs escalate
The MWAA’s reluctance to release details of how the additional funds will be spent raises questions about transparency and its management of the high-profile rail project, which is more than four years behind schedule. The airports authority, Fairfax and Loudoun counties are paying for a portion of the project’s costs, but the bulk of the funding comes from Dulles Toll Road users.
Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.), a member of a House committee that has Metro oversight who has closely followed Silver Line construction, was among the lawmakers who have pressed the MWAA for an accounting of the money. As of Thursday afternoon, his office had not received a response from the agency, spokesman Jamie Smith said.
“Taxpayers and local stakeholders are entitled to more transparency and accountability than MWAA is offering,” Connolly said in a statement. “This isn’t an insignificant cost to the project, and Northern Virginians should not be on the hook for contractor deficiencies. A full explanation and accounting is warranted.”
The dollar amounts in the agreement The Post obtained were redacted, but a supplemental document reviewed by The Post indicated CRC, the consortium led by Bethesda-based Clark Construction, will receive an additional $207 million. According to the agreement, the two sides were motivated to strike a deal to avoid “the time, expense and aggravation of litigation.”
“Capital Rail Constructors is pleased that the outstanding business and commercial terms have been resolved with MWAA,” the contractor said in a statement Thursday. “We are proud to have been a part of the delivery of Phase 2 of the Silver Line, a transit line that will benefit the Capital Region for generations.”
The agreement indicated the amount could change if Metro doesn’t accept the rail line by Oct. 31. While MWAA oversaw construction, Metro will operate the line. MWAA previously said $33 million of the $250 million will be used to fund a special account that Metro could draw from to cover additional expenses that arose during construction, including defective concrete panels installed at five of the six stations and track issues.
Metro takes control of Silver Line extension, starting testing phase
The MWAA has blamed the cost overruns on the project’s complexity, an increase in the cost of building materials, supply chain slowdowns and pandemic-related restrictions. The additional money approved by the airports authority pushed the price tag for the second phase to more than $3 billion. The first phase, which began carrying passengers in July 2014, cost nearly $3 billion, bringing the total cost to about $6 billion.
Under the funding agreement, Dulles Toll Road users will pay about $188 million of the cost overruns, according to the airports authority. Fairfax County will pay an additional $40 million, Loudoun County an additional $12 million, and the MWAA another $10 million.
MWAA officials said the Silver Line cost increase is not expected to affect Dulles Toll Road rates, which already were set to rise next year. Over the past three years, the authority has refinanced bonds and restructured debt being used to finance the cost of the rail extension. That savings will provide enough cushion to avoid more toll increases, officials said.
Metro took control of the line in June to begin inspections, testing and training, but the agency must formally accept the rail line and receive several certifications before passengers can begin riding.
Metro has said the rail line could begin carrying passengers this year, but Metro General Manager Randy Clarke said during a transit agency board meeting Thursday he wasn’t ready to set a date. Clarke said the project is “in the red zone,” borrowing a football analogy on a day the NFL season was set to begin.
“I know everyone in the community is dying to hear when we’re going to open it,” he said. “We would like to open it tomorrow. We’re getting really close.”
Building the Silver Line's second phase has been more problematic than the first
Even though the rail line’s second phase was expected to be far less complex than the first, contractors quickly ran into problems. The project’s first phase, built by Bechtel, was six months late and more than $220 million over budget. It included five stations, while the second phase will add six stops to the system.
The airports authority has been criticized in the past for its lack of openness on issues ranging from executive compensation to contracting. After a series of scandals more than a decade ago that prompted a federal investigation and congressional hearing, the authority brought in new leadership and enacted ethics, contracting and hiring changes.
The MWAA is not obligated to follow federal or state laws on contracting, ethics or transparency, although federal laws and the authority’s agreement with the U.S. government — from which it leases the airports — do impose some governance requirements.
As the MWAA and its contractors work through the project’s finances, Metro is continuing to hire and train workers for the 11.4 mile extension, which also will include a 90-acre rail yard and a maintenance center that can hold 168 rail cars.
Lynn Bowersox, a Metro senior vice president helping to oversee the line’s incorporation into the transit system, said during the Metro board meeting Thursday that 450 employees are learning the layout of the stations and facilities. Next month, Metro will simulate service over two weeks so new staff can practice operating the extension, Bowersox said.
Lawmakers tire of Silver Line construction delays
Metro is continuing to work with the MWAA to resolve outstanding minor issues as the transit agency runs tests.
“We continue to work with the airports authority to address open items,” she told Metro board members. “And while testing continues, I want to assure the board that we have found no showstoppers.”
The MWAA hasn’t handed over Silver Line records and warranties, which Bowersox said are typically delivered when Metro formally accepts possession.
Metro Chief Safety Officer Theresa Impastato said Metro and the MWAA agree on several safety and security checks needed for certification, and Metro has submitted preliminary paperwork to the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission, an independent regulatory agency, for review.
Bowersox said the Federal Transit Administration will conduct on-site reviews next week.
Also Thursday, Metro announced during its board meeting the results of an internal investigation into how the transit agency handled a July 30 track fire on the Red Line.
During the low-voltage electrical fire at Dupont Circle — which shut down the track between Farragut North and Van Ness for more than a day — emergency communication dispatches seemed to indicate a rail operations controller told the operator of a train with passengers to inspect the track where the fire was reported, which would be a violation of safety protocols.
But Impastato told board members a review found the order was given to the operator moments before the fire was reported. The inspection order was to search for a downed circuit on the track that may have caused the train to lose speed commands or connection to the rail’s network. The train moved forward, then stopped when the operator saw smoke about 100 yards ahead in the tunnel from an unrelated fire, Impastato said.
Although no inspection violation occurred, Impastato said Metro’s probe uncovered other areas for improvement in coordinating the response and damage assessments.
Agency probes Metro over handling of weekend track-fire incident
“There were unnecessary delays in communications to the public about reroute options, coordination of bus shuttles and communication … with regard to the needs for the restoration of service to accommodate the repairs that were needed,” she said.
Metro on Thursday also announced five station name changes, effective Sunday, that the transit agency’s board approved on behalf of local jurisdictions: White Flint will become North Bethesda, Largo Town Center will become Downtown Largo, Tysons Corner will be Tysons, and Prince George’s Plaza will change to Hyattsville Crossing. The West Falls Church station’s secondary name will lose “UVA” — a reference to the University of Virginia — while keeping its “VT” reference to Virginia Tech.
Metro considers changing the name of the White Flint station to North Bethesda
Changes on signage and maps are paid by the jurisdictions that requested the name changes. | 2022-09-08T22:54:59Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Metro Silver Line: MWAA to pay contractor more than $200M for cost overruns - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/09/08/silver-line-metro-mwaa/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/09/08/silver-line-metro-mwaa/ |
Ocasio-Cortez raises a difficult question: How widespread is misogyny?
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), speaking at a news conference on Dec. 7, 2021, on Capitol Hill. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
One of the qualities that makes Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) such a magnet of outrage from her political opponents — and, at times, from her own party — is her disinterest in moderating how she presents her views. Her election in 2018 was largely a function of her representing a dramatic break from the standard pattern of Democratic elected officials and, since taking office, she has made very clear just how sharp that break was.
Ocasio-Cortez is the focus of the cover article of this month’s GQ magazine. In an interview with reporter Wesley Lowery, she offered the sort of unfiltered assessments of American society that’s endeared her to Democratic voters and, in a different sense, Fox News hosts.
That network’s morning hosts, for example, ran a segment on Thursday centered on one particular quote from Ocasio-Cortez.
“Imagine working a job and your bosses don’t like you and folks on your team are suspicious of you,” she said to Lowery, describing the challenges and stresses of her position. “And then the competing company is trying to kill you.”
Fox News’s chyron assessed that Ocasio-Cortez had said “GOP in Congress are trying to ‘kill’ her.” A guffawing Tucker Carlson was invited to offer his opinion, of which you can probably guess. It’s true that Ocasio-Cortez has expressed concerns, in the past, about some of her congressional colleagues, though that quote is fairly vague. (Threats to legislators from political opponents is, of course, not a nonexistent danger.)
Most of the blowback to the Ocasio-Cortez interview, though, followed from Lowery’s asking her whether someone like her might ever be elected president. That spurred a broader, emotional reflection from Ocasio-Cortez centered on how women — and, particularly, non-White women — are regarded in American society.
“My experience here has given me a front-row seat to how deeply and unconsciously, as well as consciously, so many people in this country hate women,” she said. “And they hate women of color.”
She then made clear that she wasn’t talking solely about the political right.
“It’s not just the right wing,” Ocasio-Cortez continued. “Misogyny transcends political ideology: left, right, center.”
This, too, became Fox News fodder — as well as spurring scoffing in other corners of the conservative media universe.
Yet what Ocasio-Cortez said is hard to dispute. Of course a lot of people in the United States hate women. She didn’t claim that most Americans hate women or even that most Republicans hate women. She just said that she came to understand how broad that sentiment was. (It’s almost certainly also the case that she attracts more of that sort of sentiment than most women by virtue of her public platform.)
Many on the right, though, are keenly attuned to interpreting broad comments as narrow attacks. It’s also the case that articulating opposition as being at times rooted in gender-based hostility can be redirected into a claim that Ocasio-Cortez is simply trying to wave away valid criticism, a favorite pastime of those looking to downplay discrimination or hate. But, again, it is obviously the case that there exists both misogyny and racism in the United States. Carlson’s haw-hawing on Fox about how “most men actually really like women” is intentionally beside the point.
But this is admittedly hard to measure. Ask people if they hate women and they are generally not going to say “yes,” even if that’s actually how they feel. Particularly since misogyny isn’t always manifested as “hate.”
We can evaluate the question indirectly. By, for example, considering the divergence in how people view men and women.
The General Social Survey (GSS) regularly asks Americans to evaluate the role of women in American society. In the 1970s, two-thirds of Americans said that it was “much better for everybody” if men worked and women stayed home. About half said men were better suited emotionally for politics. Over time, as views of gender roles changed, the percentage offering those views has fallen.
But even in 2018 and 2021, 1 in 5 Americans said it was much better for women to take care of the home and 1 in 8 said men were better suited for politics. In each case, it was Republicans who were more likely to hold those views — views that fairly obviously conflict with Ocasio-Cortez’s current role, even if they don’t necessarily universally reflect misogyny.
The GSS also asks how likely it is that a man or woman will be passed over for a promotion in favor of a member of the opposite sex. In essence, this is a question about the prevalence of discrimination. And when we separate out views by party and gender, we see an interesting result: Most Republican men think it’s more likely that men will get passed over in favor of a woman than vice versa.
Again, this is not a direct measure of misogyny. But it is a reflection of the extent to which some Americans — largely on the right — view discrimination as a threat to groups that have long been (and remain) in positions of power.
In polling published in April, YouGov asked this directly. Respondents were asked whether men or women faced discrimination in American society. Overall, most Americans said women did. Among Republicans, though, the results were about evenly split. More Republicans said men face a great deal of discrimination than said that about women.
And yet again, this is not a direct measure of misogyny. Instead, it is a measure of the extent to which groups perceive women or men as potential victims. If you are inclined to think that men are more likely to be victims of discrimination, that probably colors how you approach women in your day-to-day life — not to mention how you view Ocasio-Cortez’s argument.
In speaking to GQ, she was careful not to say that this is a partisan issue. And, to some extent, it’s not: Lots of Democrats also think men face a great deal of discrimination. Ocasio-Cortez also declined to estimate how many people dislike women inherently, simply saying that her position has made her more aware of the extent of it.
That’s hard to dispute. But if you are in the business of stoking a sense of victimhood, like Tucker Carlson, it’s easy to see why you might go out of your way to try.
Your questions answered: Why are top secret documents printed and not just stored digitally? | 2022-09-08T22:54:59Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ocasio-Cortez raises a difficult question: How widespread is misogyny? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/08/ocasio-cortez-raises-difficult-question-how-widespread-is-misogyny/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/08/ocasio-cortez-raises-difficult-question-how-widespread-is-misogyny/ |
Queen Elizabeth II greets India's Prime Minister Narenda Modi before a formal dinner at Buckingham Palace in London in 2018. (Victoria Jones/AFP/Getty Images)
LONDON — The death on Thursday of Queen Elizabeth II prompted an outpouring of condolences from leaders around the world.
Presidents, prime ministers and fellow monarchs all paid tribute to the queen, Britain’s longest-serving monarch. At 96, she remained one of the world’s most recognizable people, her image a symbol of the nation both at home and abroad.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Twitter that he would never forget the queen’s “warmth and kindness.”
“During one of the meetings she showed me the handkerchief Mahatma Gandhi gifted her on her wedding,” he said. “I will always cherish that gesture.”
French President Emmanuel Macron, also on Twitter, said that he would “remember her as a friend of France, a kind-hearted queen who left a lasting impression on her country and her century.”
United Nations Secretary General António Guterres mourned her loss in a statement, saying she was a “reassuring presence throughout decades of sweeping change, including the decolonization of Africa and Asia and the evolution of the Commonwealth.”
In a statement addressed to the new king, Charles III, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa “expressed his profound and sincere condolences” for the queen’s death.
Dickie Arbiter, a former press secretary for the queen, said her legacy would be one of “stability and continuity” and that thanks to her lengthy stewardship, Britain has a monarchy that is “world-recognized.”
Robert Hardman, author of “Queen of the World,” said she may be remembered in the pantheon of British monarchs as the first to reverse 1,000 years of accepted royal practice that a monarch’s job is to consolidate or conquer or expand territory.
In the queen’s case, she came to the throne “with the specific expectation that she would hand stuff back, withdraw, reduce Britain’s footprint," Hardman said. “It’s been a lifelong exercise in managed decline.”
In Jamaica, a Commonwealth realm, Prime Minister Andrew Holness, said the country was praying for Elizabeth’s family “and the people of the United Kingdom, as they grieve the loss of their beloved Queen and matriarch.”
“She celebrated our good times, she stood with us in the bad,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement.
Irish President Michael D. Higgins also paid tribute to “her warm and enduring friendship" in a statement and described her landmark 2011 visit as “pivotal in laying a firm basis for an authentic and ethical understanding between our peoples."
Hugo Vickers, a royal biographer, said that the queen “bestowed an atmosphere of calm over a very fast-changing world” and was an “extraordinary conciliator.”
Amanda Coletta contributed reporting from Toronto. | 2022-09-08T23:08:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | World pays tribute to Queen Elizabeth II - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/08/queen-elizabeth-legacy/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/08/queen-elizabeth-legacy/ |
(Zé Otavio for The Washington Post)
What made her extraordinary was not who she was, but what she gave
She became the queen before many of us were born, before many of our mothers were born, before many of our grandmothers were born, a fixed point on a spinning axis. Whether you loved her or not she was always there. Death and taxes and Queen Elizabeth II were the only certainties of life for 70 years, until she died on Thursday at the age of 96.
Chances were that what you loved or hated wasn’t the woman herself but the institution she embodied, a sprawling $28 billion firm of inherited titles and property. The woman herself? She was a cipher by design. Her position prevented her from vocalizing opinions on politics, elections, social movements and individual people — anything of consequence, really, because modern monarchs don’t run the government even while they appear on its money.
Was it a fairy tale? Was it feminism? The highest-ranking woman in the world, and her power came not via her hard work or via a wedding ring on her finger but via a chaotic ladder of genealogy reaching through centuries: beheadings and infertility, abdications and overthrowings, all leading up to this singular woman holding the throne longer than anyone had before, or likely ever will again.
Little girls aren’t taught to play-act at being queen. They play-act at being princesses, which is a much gauzier, more romantic kind of role. (If you don’t believe me, check the costume aisle at Halloween or the product lines of the Disney corporation).
The role of queen is not about finding oneself — the arc of princesses, both real and fictitious — but rather about sublimating oneself: in the duty of family, in the duty of work and in the duty of country.
She was forever tied to Britain’s past and forever responsible for the monarchy’s future. A king must rule; a queen must rule and also lend her body to the act of motherhood, which Elizabeth did four times. For her first birth, her husband Philip was off reportedly playing squash. By her fourth, she reportedly asked him to be in the room.
Was this a political decision in the name of gender equality, or did she just want the support of her husband while doctors rummaged around her cervix? We’ll never know, and the point of Elizabeth is that we never needed to. Her existence as monarch was already so revolutionary that her acts did not have to be.
And then those children grew up, and their hair grew gray while Elizabeth’s grew white, and it started to seem as if she could live forever or die at any moment.
In the past few years, especially, her mortality became more obvious. She got covid. She reduced her public engagements. In June 2021, her husband of 73 years died, and in a photograph that circulated widely from the funeral, Elizabeth sat socially distanced and alone in St. George’s Chapel, wearing double masks, watching the casket carrying Prince Philip make its way down the aisle with nobody in arm’s reach to comfort her. At this point she already looked unsteady on her feet, and very, very small.
You know what got to me, in a way I didn’t expect? When I realized that through the course of my whole lifetime, the words to the de facto English anthem have been “God save the Queen,” but now and for the rest of my life, and maybe for the rest of my daughter’s — through the reigns of Charles, then William, then George, as a series of powerful men replace this powerful woman — they’ll be “God save the King.”
Look, I’m an American, and as such I am liberated from any legitimate impact of the monarchy. I do not have to concern myself with the tax burden, the iffy bloodlines, the intermarriage, the outer-marriage, the jewels, the jubilees, the two-dozen official residences, the Crown’s pomp and the Queen’s circumstances. As an American I don’t have to deal with all that.
But as an American I can also remark, with both wonder and dispassion, on what made the Queen so meaningful: She always seemed like a remarkably average woman.
She was not imbued with any preternatural wit, or presence, or beauty, or grace. Her appearance was wholesome rather than striking. She was not sexy or sparkling. She did not appear to have a way with words. Her quotes and public addresses were not particularly deep. She did not give introspective interviews about being a working mother “having it all.” She was not on book tours or launching podcasts or chatting with Diane Sawyer. She did not build her brand in the ways we now expect famous, powerful women to do; instead she sought to preserve an antique brand — for better or worse, but not for herself.
This, to me, is the legacy. This is the remarkable thing. That for 70 years the most important figure in Britain was a woman who did not do many of the things or embody many of the characteristics that society often demands women do and be. For 70 years the Commonwealth’s most important resident was an extremely average woman who was made sublime only because the people allowed her to be.
She did her work. She did her work stoically, stoutly, relentlessly, uncomplaining, for 25,000 days while her contemporaries retired or died, and her children divorced or became caught up in Jeffrey Epstein scandals, and one of her grandsons resigned and moved into Tyler Perry’s house in California and the other grandson stayed put and sired his own heirs who may one day carry on the work that his grandmother had been doing since before the invention of birth control or Barbie.
She did her work. Whatever any of us think of the monarchy, we can think something of showing up to do the work. “I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service,” she once told her future subjects in a radio address broadcast on her 21st birthday. “And the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.” | 2022-09-08T23:16:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Queen Elizabeth II did her job - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/09/08/queen-elizabeth-ii-did-her-job/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/09/08/queen-elizabeth-ii-did-her-job/ |
Phoning it in? (Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images AsiaPac)
One man who dedicated his life to solving this puzzle was Kazuo Inamori, one of the giants of postwar Japanese industry, who died last month at the age of 90. He founded electronics maker Kyocera Corp. and what would later become KDDI Corp. — currently Japan’s 48th and fifth biggest companies by market value — and was utterly obsessed with improving management, boosting engagement and making workers happier.
For Inamori, working was living. For quiet quitters looking to spend more time on recreation, he warned that such pleasure is fleeting.
“The thing that humans truly derive pleasure from is found within work,” Inamori, who was also an ordained Buddhist monk, once wrote. “You might find temporary enjoyment in neglecting your work and enjoying hobbies or having fun, but it won’t be the type of pleasure that wells up from the bottom of your heart. There is no greater pleasure in life than that which comes from working hard and earnestly, overcoming hardship and suffering and building something.”
In his later years, he spent much of his time sharing what he learned. More than his considerable business achievements, which include taking on the one-time state monopoly of Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. to build Japan’s No. 2 mobile carrier, he became known for his management credo. Kyocera’s website lists 46 books he wrote or co-authored, mostly on the subject of management or philosophy. Thousands of students flocked to his Seiwajyuku school of management, from SoftBank Group Corp. founder Masayoshi Son to Hakuho, the most decorated sumo wrestler in history.
What links them was the commitment to success that Inamori demanded. He was famed for calling on workers to produce “not your best, but perfection.”
To Gen Z quiet quitters, that might sound similar to the hustle culture they’re trying to escape from. But Inamori’s difference is that he was no slave driver: He understood the importance of having both management and employees on the same team. “If you want eggs,” he said in a 2015 interview with Bloomberg, “take care of the hen.”
Inamori was perhaps most famous for this promotion of “amoeba management,” which sought to enthuse workers by letting them operate as independently as possible. For him, it all came down to getting workers involved.
While “employee engagement” probably wasn’t a phrase when Inamori was setting up Kyocera in the 1950s, he understood the paramount need to have worker buy-in. He promoted radical transparency of company results with workers, and initially wanted to make Kyocera something more akin to a legal or accounting partnership, where workers would also be part owners.
“Management must not seek to satisfy only their own desires,” Inamori said. “They must think of the happiness of every single employee.”
In Western profit-driven, shareholder-first companies, the compact between management and workers has long since broken down. Chief executive pay is up 1,300% since 1978, and is now 351 times higher than a typical worker, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Disengagement seems a natural consequence.
Inamori promoted viewing workers as more than replaceable tools that can be tempted with workplace beanbags and baristas, and then discarded when they have outlived their usefulness. Management must work as hard as employees do, if not harder, he said, and the CEO must work harder than anyone. Management must be in the trenches, just as he frequently was, sleeping on the factory floor.
For Inamori, this was more than just lip service. He fought to protect jobs, resisting restructuring at Kyocera when it was hit by the oil crisis-triggered drop in demand in the 1970s. Instead, he put employees to work trimming weeds and cleaning mud out of ditches on factory grounds.
He also insisted that shareholders should not be prioritized above workers. Yet Inamori was committed to brutal cost-cutting and prioritized profit-making. Little wonder he was tapped to lead the turnaround at Japan Airlines Co. when it went into bankruptcy proceedings, shedding costs and, yes, jobs and relisting the troubled airline in record time in 2012.
As the West shifts focus away from a slavish devotion to shareholders to a more inclusive business philosophy, Inamori may in time come to be seen as an early advocate of stakeholder capitalism — a philosophy that has deep roots in Japanese business culture. It’s also one that’s making an attempted comeback with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s policy of “New Capitalism.”
And while Inamori did not actively prioritize shareholders, they can have few complaints: KDDI has more than doubled its net income in the last decade to $4.7 billion last year, while also doubling its profit margin and its dividend payout ratio — even as the mobile carrier industry and its fat profits became the object of political ire. Kyocera may no longer be a household name, but has also never posted a loss in its more than 60-year history.
Perhaps in an era of rising living costs, that’s one reason the quiet (and not-so-quiet) quitters should bear one final word of advice. “Instead of looking for the job you love,” Inamori said, “love the job that is given to you.”
• Some Employees Can’t Afford to ‘Quiet Quit’: Kami Rieck
• A Mysteriously Large Chunk of Gen Z Isn’t Working: Justin Fox
• What a Netflix Hit Says About Japan’s Risk-Taking: Gearoid Reidy | 2022-09-08T23:16:50Z | www.washingtonpost.com | A Japanese Philosophy for the Quiet-Quitting Generation - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/a-japanese-philosophy-for-the-quiet-quitting-generation/2022/09/08/64cf5874-2fc2-11ed-bcc6-0874b26ae296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/a-japanese-philosophy-for-the-quiet-quitting-generation/2022/09/08/64cf5874-2fc2-11ed-bcc6-0874b26ae296_story.html |
LONDON - FEBRUARY 29: Queen Elizabeth II smiles as she opens the refurbished East Wing of Somerset House, on February 29, 2011 in London, England. (Photo by Eddie Mulholland - WPA Pool/Getty Images) (Photographer: WPA Pool/Getty Images Europe)
The death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday marks the end not just of an era spanning seven decades, but of one of the most remarkable public careers in modern history. Amid war, geopolitical upheaval, social turmoil and technological revolution, the queen’s decency and grace brought stability to Britain and endeared her to generations all over the world.
It’s difficult to overstate the scale of change that took place under Elizabeth’s watch. When she ascended to the throne in 1952, after the death of her father, King George VI, Britain possessed more than 70 overseas territories. Humanity had yet to be introduced to color television, personal computers or birth-control pills. The Beatles were in grammar school. Several of the 15 prime ministers who eventually served under her were not yet born.
Under Elizabeth, Britain gave up its empire but remained a linchpin of the Atlantic alliance that preserved democracy in Europe and won the Cold War. The queen presided over the 30-year conflict in Northern Ireland; Britain’s entry into and exit from the European Union; the privatization of the national airline, telecom and gas companies; and the rise of mass immigration to the UK. Britain’s foreign-born population increased from a fraction of a percent in 1954 to more than 14% today. While the country is in some ways more politically polarized and chaotic than when Elizabeth came to power, it is also richer, healthier, more dynamic and more diverse.
Considering the transformation of British society, perhaps the queen’s most striking achievement has been preserving the institution of the monarchy itself. She has weathered not only shifting social mores but also her own family’s predilection for infighting, tragedy and scandal. She managed to project dignity and composure at all times, even while partaking in occasional high-profile stunts, such as memorably appearing to skydive into the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Olympics. It’s testament to the queen’s leadership that, while support for the monarchy has slipped in recent decades, a solid majority of Britons want it to continue.
Critics will point out that for all her modernizing instincts, Elizabeth failed to scale back the extravagant privileges enjoyed by the royal family and its satraps. In the last full year of her reign, the monarchy’s taxpayer-supported expenditures topped 100 million pounds ($115 million), up 17% over the previous year. The public’s adoration for their sovereign has insulated the monarchy from political pressure to reform; the incoming king, a far less popular figure, may not be so lucky.
All that’s for another time. As she demonstrated one last time during the Covid pandemic, Elizabeth’s role has been to serve as an enduring symbol of reassurance, diligence and integrity. For that she deserves the world’s admiration and gratitude. | 2022-09-08T23:16:56Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Farewell to Queen Elizabeth II, a Monarch for the Ages - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/farewell-to-queen-elizabeth-ii-a-monarch-for-the-ages/2022/09/08/2f3c5b28-2fc5-11ed-bcc6-0874b26ae296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/farewell-to-queen-elizabeth-ii-a-monarch-for-the-ages/2022/09/08/2f3c5b28-2fc5-11ed-bcc6-0874b26ae296_story.html |
New movies to stream from home this week: ‘End of the Road’ and more
Queen Latifah, left, and Chris “Ludacris” Bridges in “End of the Road.” (Ursula Coyote/Netflix)
In the thriller “End of the Road,” Queen Latifah and Chris “Ludacris” Bridges play Brenda and Reggie, a recently widowed emergency-room nurse and her ne’er-do-well brother, setting off on a road trip from Los Angeles to Houston with Brenda’s kids (Shaun Dixon and Mychala Lee) in the back of a station wagon. In Tucson on Day 1, an unpleasant encounter with a couple of racists is just a harbinger of far worse things to come for this foursome, as they make their way through an inhospitable landscape that Reggie likens to Area 51 — except they’re the aliens. For example: They witness a murder in the motel room next door, then Brenda discovers the next day that Reggie has taken a bag full of cash that he found in the dead man’s bathroom. Needless to say, they’re quickly the object of a manhunt — by the unseen mob boss who claims it’s his money, and by an Arizona state trooper (Beau Bridges) who claims he wants to protect them from the mob boss. Things play out as you might expect — a kidnapping, a rolling gun battle, and various and sundry rivals for the loot — with one rather surprising and satisfying turn of events to keep the otherwise predictable plot interesting. But the main pleasure is watching what Latifah (who is also the film’s executive producer) does with the formulaic material. In her hands, Brenda is a mama bear not to be messed with. R. Available on Netflix. Contains some strong, bloody violence, drug use, sexual scenes and strong language. 91 minutes.
Madison Pettis and Lochlyn Munro are among the attractive ensemble cast of young actors in “Margaux,” a horror flick about a group of college seniors celebrating their final college days at a “smart” house when the home’s titular A.I. system decides to eliminate the tenants one by one. R. Available on demand. Contains violence and gore, coarse language, drug use, and some sexuality. 105 minutes.
Described as an homage to “The Breakfast Club,” “The Class” revolves around a group of high school seniors who are forced to spend a Saturday together completing an exam they either missed or failed. Executive produced by “The Breakfast Club’s” Anthony Michael Hall, who plays a school administrator, the film echoes the 1985 movie’s themes, in that disparate characters discover themselves, along with surprising connections with their classmates. Unrated. Available on demand. 114 minutes.
Stephan James plays Louis, a young man with an intellectual disability who is convicted of his sister Delia’s murder, in “Delia’s Gone,” a mystery in which Louis, after serving a short sentence, sets out to find Delia’s real killer. According to the New York Times, the film — which also stars Paul Walter Hauser and Marisa Tomei as the current and former sheriffs of the rural town in which the film is set — is marred by a “pervasive self-seriousness in pursuit of what turns out to be nothing much at all.” R. Available on demand. Contains violence and strong language. 90 minutes. | 2022-09-08T23:17:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | New movies to stream from home this week. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/movies/2022/09/08/september-9-new-streaming-movie-roundup/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/movies/2022/09/08/september-9-new-streaming-movie-roundup/ |
By Ruby Mellen | Sep 8, 2022
From tears to flowers to singing “God Save the Queen,” people around the world are mourning the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-ruling monarch. Over her seven-decade reign, she became one of the most recognizable public figures. Her silhouette was stamped on currencies worldwide, and her face graced newspapers, television sets and internet memes.
She transcended politics and celebrity, holding audiences with presidents and prime ministers, rock stars, astronauts, authors and supermodels.
Despite the rain, crowds have been gathering outside Balmoral Castle in Scotland where she died, and Buckingham Palace in London.
Outside Buckingham Palace on Sept. 8.
Outside the palace Sept. 8.
A notice announcing the death of Queen Elizabeth II is placed outside Buckingham Palace.
Crowds gather on the Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace.
People gather in front of Buckingham Palace on Sept. 8.
A man places flowers outside the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The queen was also remembered during soccer matches, on airplanes and outside British Embassies.
One British Airways pilot announced the death to passengers as they prepared to land in London.
A minute of silence is observed after the queen's death during a soccer match in St. Gallen, Switzerland.
Three-year-old India Rogers leaves flowers at the British Embassy in Washington.
Astrid Riecken for The Washington Post
A wall fragment in Jerusalem's Old City is illuminated with the Union Jack flag.
Ronen Zvulun/Reuters
A mourner lights candles outside the British Embassy in Oslo. | 2022-09-08T23:17:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | World reacts to Queen Elizabeth’s death, in pictures - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/photography/interactive/2022/global-reactions-queen-elizabeth-pictures/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/photography/interactive/2022/global-reactions-queen-elizabeth-pictures/ |
‘London Bridge is Down’
The death of Queen Elizabeth II, and how her reign over Britain shaped the world for 70 years.
Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-reigning monarch in British history and an icon instantly recognizable to billions of people around the world, has died aged 96. (Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images)
Queen Elizabeth II is dead. She passed away peacefully on Thursday afternoon at the age of 96, according to a statement from Buckingham Palace. She was Britain’s longest-reigning monarch and held the throne for 70 years.
The world had been bracing for her passing for some time. “Operation London Bridge” even maps out what happens next, the when and the how. Her son now takes over as King Charles III.
Despite the preparations, Brits are still in shock. For many, Queen Elizabeth was all they knew, a constant amid big cultural shifts and geopolitical changes, nationally and globally.
She became queen at a time when British colonial rule was imploding. She ushered in a new era of the Commonwealth. Tabloids and television zeroed in on her marriage and family life, but she still somehow remained private.
Adrian Higgins reported for The Washington Post for years, covering the royal family. He joins “Post Reports” to look back on the life and legacy of Queen Elizabeth II, and how her death calls into question the future of a monarchy that dates back to the 10th century. | 2022-09-08T23:17:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | ‘London Bridge is Down’ - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/post-reports/london-bridge-is-down-/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/post-reports/london-bridge-is-down-/ |
In Washington, tributes to Queen Elizabeth II’s legacy and strength
India Rogers, 3, leaves flowers at the British Embassy in Washington on Sept. 8, following the announcement of the death of Queen Elizabeth II. (Astrid Riecken for The Washington Post)
The news of Queen Elizabeth II’s death Thursday afternoon did not come as a shock in Washington. She was 96 and had been ill. Cable news channels and social media overflowed all morning and early afternoon with updates and rumors about her condition. The news came instead as a final word, confirmation that an unprecedented era had ended.
For some Washingtonians, especially those with British ties, the finality landed with a heavier weight than they had expected. Queen Elizabeth was the only monarch most of them had ever known.
Andrew Murray, an architect from London who lives on Capitol Hill, said his reaction to the news surprised him.
“I’m no royalist. I was generally ambivalent and even disdainful toward the royals,” he said in a text. “But I feel genuinely tearful right now.”
Murray, 49, said Elizabeth had been queen his entire life and for most of his parents’ lives as well.
“That is a lot of anecdotes and conversation and of her being part of the background to things,” he said. “And to be fair, while her family is often a mess, she was bloody good at what she did.”
By midafternoon Thursday there were more media members than mourners in front of the British Embassy on Massachusetts Avenue NW. A dozen bouquets of flowers were placed on the Union Jack emblem that greets visitors at the embassy’s entrance. By evening, though, the number of bouquets had multiplied many times. President Biden and first lady Jill Biden visited the embassy about 6 p.m. to sign a condolence book.
Edward Rogers stopped at the makeshift memorial outside with his daughter India, 3, who carefully placed red roses next to the other flowers. “We just wanted to pay our respects,” Rogers said. The Washington resident said he and his family travel often to the United Kingdom and regularly spend Thanksgiving there. “We loved her. We love the country.”
Linda Gikas walked from her nearby home to the embassy to pay tribute to the late queen. Gikas, 70, is American, but had worked at the embassy from 2012 to 2014 and said she wanted to recognize how Elizabeth had “always answered the call to duty.”
“As an American woman I looked up to her,” Gikas said. “She took on so many tasks with graciousness. She was a source of strength.”
Not everyone who showed up at the embassy was there to express admiration. A man wearing a mask knelt down on the sidewalk and scrawled a Gaelic inscription in chalk that translated to “Our day will come,” the catch-cry of Irish Republicans seeking unification of the Republic of Ireland with six counties of Northern Ireland that remain part of Great Britain.
Queen Elizabeth had a long history with Washington, having traveled here often on royal visits during a reign that spanned 14 presidential administrations. In 1951, then still a princess, Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, came to town for an official visit and a meeting with President Harry S. Truman. She returned on numerous occasions, including a memorable 1991 trip when she visited the home of Washingtonian Alice Frazier, who ignored protocol and greeted the queen with a big hug.
Queen Elizabeth accepted the hug, stiffly it must be said, but declined the potato salad Frazier offered.
Across Washington, the queen’s death was marked in various ways. Flags at the White House were ordered flown at half-staff. At Washington National Cathedral beginning at 5 p.m. the bells tolled 96 times. And Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) tweeted, “On behalf of 700,000 Washingtonians, we send our love to the people of the United Kingdom. Queen Elizabeth II led a remarkable life, changed the world’s perception of women in leadership, & defined the British monarchy for generations of people worldwide.”
In the afternoon lull before dinner at Union Market, the occasional passerby paused for a photo or a double take at the British restaurant and snack shop Aboveground. A large Union Jack with a photo of Queen Elizabeth celebrating her Platinum Jubilee hung from the storefront. Sarah Christianson stopped by to pick up some Hobnobs, a British chocolate biscuit. Christianson, who grew up in Oxford, England, before moving to D.C., had been following news of the queen — “like a symbol of England for my whole life” — all morning as her friends texted back and forth.
“I’m not going to be heartbroken because she was a very old woman who had an amazing life,” Christianson, 45, said. “But yeah, it’s a bit of a strange feeling.”
A visual timeline of Queen Elizabeth II’s 70 years on the throne:
At The Queen Vic bar on H Street, half of the TV screens were tuned to the NFL Network and the other half played the BBC, as presenters in black suits spoke in front of the evening crowds gathering in London.
Avery Phillips nursed an Ale to the Queen — “it felt appropriate.”
“It feels like the end of an era,” said Phillips, 27, who grew up in Surrey, England, and moved to D.C. from Australia last year. “I was so sure she’d make it to 100.”
“It’s sad,” said Charles Keats, who sat next to her. “For a lot of people she’s the only queen they’ll ever remember.”
Keats, who is from Maryland but grew up in London, reminisced about his time in the U.K. and swapped British history trivia with Phillips. They wondered how people would take to the monarchy after Elizabeth’s death.
Keats, 57, raised his pint glass and offered a toast — “to the king.”
Queen Elizabeth II will meet with President Biden on June 13 in his first foreign trip as president. Here's a look at her past meetings with U.S. presidents. (Video: Alexa Juliana Ard/The Washington Post)
Queen Elizabeth II live updates: Monarch dies at 96, Charles ascends to throne | 2022-09-08T23:38:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | D.C. pays tribute to Queen Elizabeth II's legacy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/08/dc-united-kingdom-queen-elizabeth/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/08/dc-united-kingdom-queen-elizabeth/ |
County police will be enforcing a curfew for children 16 and younger for 30 days starting Friday night
Prince George's County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks with Prince George's County Police Chief Malik Aziz. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
Prince George’s police will begin enforcing a 30-day curfew for children under 17 starting Friday evening, County Executive Angela D. Alsobooks announced Monday. Alsobrooks called it a “cooling off period” following a month of record-breaking homicides and increased gun violence and carjackings, with several cases involving minors both as victims and perpetrators.
The Washington Post asked the county specific questions about how it would handle enforcement and penalties related to the curfew and what guidance officials had on how parents and children should adhere to the curfew, but a spokesman for the police department said they were still working on providing answers or finalizing plans.
The county code, however, provides some insight into the rules, exceptions and potential punishments. This story will be updated if county officials offer additional guidance.
When does the curfew start and who does it apply to?
The Prince George’s County juvenile curfew applies to children 16 and younger. Enforcement will start Friday at 11:59 p.m. and is scheduled to continue for at least 30 days. From Sunday through Thursday, children will not be allowed to be outside in public places from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. On Friday and Saturday nights, the curfew is from midnight to 5 a.m.
Yes, children are allowed to be outside during curfew hours if accompanied by a parent or an adult authorized by their parent, according to the county code.
Children are also exempted from curfew if they are running an errand directed by a parent until 12:30 a.m.
According to county code, children who are “exercising First Amendment rights” are also allowed out with written permission.
Children who are outside on the property where they live are excepted, according to the code.
If a child is using a direct route back home, with no stops or detours, within one hour of the end of a school activity, religious activity or voluntary activity, such as going to the movies or a sports game, they are also excepted, according to the county code.
The code also notes exceptions for children who are legally employed and carry a card of employment with their hours written on it and children who have permission from parents for interstate travel.
Police are developing an “operational plan” for enforcing the curfew that will be finalized by the end of this week, the police department said in a statement Tuesday.
Officers are “trained in non-biased policing,” the department said. The department hopes to gain compliance voluntarily with help from parents and children.
In a separate statement, Alsobrooks said “the first measure our officers will take, if required, is to educate youth on the curfew and tell them to go home.”
According to Prince George’s County code, enforcement begins with a warning from police. An officer notifies them that they are violating curfew and requests their name, address, phone number and parents’ contact information. A written warning of violation of the code will be given. The child is ordered home, and the police chief also sends a written notice to the child’s parent.
After receiving one prior written warning, if a child is caught breaking curfew again, or an officer who has “reasonable grounds to believe that the juvenile has engaged in delinquent conduct” can take the child into custody and transport them to a police station, according to the code. Police call the child’s parent to pick them up and police determine whether either the child or the parent has violated the code.
Police release the child to their parent. However, if the parents can’t be located or do not come to get their child, police will release the child to the Department of Social Services, the code states.
What are parents’ responsibilities for the curfew?
Alsobrooks said in the statement that parents should take children inside by 10 p.m. on school nights and midnights on weekends. The county will work to provide services for children who remain, she said.
According to the county code, it is against the code for a parent “knowingly to permit, or by inefficient control to allow” a child in a public place during curfew.
The code goes further to say there is “no defense that a parent was without knowledge of the activities or conduct or whereabouts” of a child, based on a “reasonable community standard of parental responsibility.”
What are businesses’ responsibilities for the curfew?
Businesses, considered a place open to the public, will be breaking code if they “knowingly” allow a child to remain at the establishment during curfew, according to the code.
Businesses face fines of up to $500 for violating the curfew. After receiving a warning, and violating a second time, that is considered a first offense with a fine of $100, according to the code. A second offense could cost a business $250, and a third or any offense after, is $500.
What are children’s rights if they are detained by the police?
A child has the right to remain silent when questioned by police while waiting for their parents, the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland said in a statement in response to questions from The Washington Post. They can also decline to answer questions, and tell police that they do not want to speak without a lawyer. People have a right to record officers and tell police they do not consent to searches.
What is the punishment for being found in violation?
Parents face fines of up to $250, according to the county code. The first offense, which is considered an offense once a child breaks curfew again after receiving a warning, is a $50 fine. A second offense is a $100 fine, and a third or any offense after, is a $250 fine.
A parent must also pay any costs the county took to stay with a child who was detained as a violator if they don’t show up within one hour of being told their child has been detained for breaking curfew, according to the code. The amount of money owed is based on the county employee’s hourly wage and the cost of employee benefits.
What is the history of the curfew code?
The juvenile curfew code was passed by the Prince George’s County council in 1995, according to a Washington Post report. The code was meant to prevent crime by restricting children from going to public spaces after a certain time of day. Though unanimously approved, Black council members expressed concern over the enforcement of the curfew, in particular against any racial profiling from officers, according to the report. The American Civil Liberties Union opposed the legislation, calling it a form of “house arrest.”
What have people been saying about the curfew?
The Labor Day announcement spurred mixed reactions about the effectiveness of a curfew.
“Curfews do not make anyone safer or address any underlying societal problems which are the true root of crime,” Maryland Public Defender Natasha Dartigue said in a statement Thursday. “At best, curfews are an ineffective band-aid; at worst, they criminalize our most vulnerable and at-risk children.”
However, Alsobrooks stood behind her decision in a statement posted on her Twitter account Wednesday.
“While there are some who disagree with a 30-day curfew, I am responding to the residents of Prince George’s County who have asked what more can be done to protect their children,” said Alsobrooks, who had previously served as the Prince George’s County State’s Attorney. “Our County is 84 percent Black and brown, which means we are working to protect children of color, including those who have been victims of violent crime at the hands of other children.”
Katie Mettler contributed to this report. | 2022-09-09T00:22:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Questions about the Prince George's County curfew for juveniles answered - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/08/juvenile-curfew-prince-georges-faq/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/08/juvenile-curfew-prince-georges-faq/ |
Crowds gather outside Buckingham Palace on the day of Queen Elizabeth II's death. (James Forde/For The Washington Post)
Obituary: Queen Elizabeth II, who reigned over the U.K. for 70 years, dies at 96
As the only monarch the vast majority of Britons have ever known, she has been a constant in people’s lives — her profile on the currency, on the stamps. She was there in times of celebration and sorrow and fear. As she aged, she became more and more a grandmotherly figure of warm and fuzzy affection, even for those who don’t especially like the institution.
Her son Charles, Britain’s longest-serving monarch-in-waiting, is now finally King Charles III. His wife, Camilla, will be known as “queen consort.”
Charles acknowledged the grief, this “moment of the greatest sadness” for him and his family, and said her loss would be “deeply felt” in Britain, the Commonwealth “and by countless people around the world.”
Pope Francis praised her “devotion to duty, her steadfast witness of faith in Jesus Christ and her firm hope in his promises.”
The British Horseracing Authority hailed the queen as a great and influential supporter.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said that “under history’s brightest spotlight,” the queen “offered a masterclass in grace and strength, power and poise.” She said Elizabeth’s life and leadership “will continue to inspire young women and girls in public service, now and for generations to come.” | 2022-09-09T00:22:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Queen Elizabeth II, U.K.'s era-defining monarch, dies at 96 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/08/queen-elizabeth-ii-death/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/08/queen-elizabeth-ii-death/ |
Baseball's minor leagues have implemented a pitch clock this season and game times have been reduced by nearly a half-hour. (John Minchillo/AP)
A pitch clock, a ban on shifts, and larger bases are about to become permanently part of Major League Baseball when a joint committee votes Friday to approve the rules for use starting next season, according to a person familiar with the committee’s schedule.
MLB is pushing for the changes, which league officials hope will rejuvenate what many believe has become a stodgy sport in the age of data. They hope the pitch clock will bring game times down from record highs. They hope banning the shift will allow more hits and therefore more action. They hope larger bases will induce more stealing, and therefore more havoc on the bases. They hope, in other words, that these changes will yank baseball out of its modern-day slog.
And though the competition committee, which was created as part of the new collective bargaining agreement between the owners and players’ union, is meant to ensure player input on any major rule changes, it was not built to give them veto power: Six of the 11 members of the committee are MLB representatives. Four are players. One is an umpire. What MLB wants, one would think, MLB will get.
Minor league baseball players take a step toward unionization
So the sport long treasured as the one without a clock is about to get one. And after seeing the results of a test run in the minor leagues, as well as the noticeable effect it has had on young pitchers just arriving in MLB, everyone from once-skeptical players to old-school executives are growing comfortable with the idea — or so the conversation in clubhouses around the league for the last month would suggest.
The first two changes are somewhat self-explanatory. As tested in the minors this season, the shift rule would require four infielders to have their feet on the dirt, with two fielders on each side of second base, as the pitch is delivered. As tested in the minors — though hardly visible from the stands — bases will grow from 15 inches square to 18 inches square.
As for the pitch clock, the specifics of the rule on which the committee will vote Friday were not immediately available. But in Class AAA this season, pitchers were allotted 19 seconds to deliver a pitch with a runner on base, 15 seconds without. If they failed to deliver the ball in that time, the umpire called a ball. Pitchers could step off the rubber (or, as the new baseball jargon will say it, “disengage from the rubber”) no more than twice per at-bat. If they stepped off a third time, they were called for a balk — unless they recorded an out by doing so. In other words, a third pickoff attempt is permitted as long as it works.
In Class AAA, hitters could call timeout just once per at-bat. If they were not in the box with nine seconds to go, the umpire penalizes him with a strike. By the end of the minor league season, teams were rarely combining for more than one violation per game.
But the league does anticipate players needing time to adjust to the rule. Formalizing the rules in time for a full offseason and spring training of awareness will likely provide that adjustment period. As of midway through the 2022 minor league season, game times had dropped from 3:04 to 2:36, according to league data.
The three rules on the ballot Friday may just be the first of other significant changes to come. The league has tested everything from automatic umpires to moving the mound back to pre-tacked baseballs in the minor leagues in recent years. The broad goal of the changes is to make baseball appealing to the shorter attention spans of the age. In a sport that treasures its tradition, that will be no small feat. | 2022-09-09T00:30:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | MLB poised to add pitch clock, ban infield shifts starting next season - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/08/mlb-rules-pitch-clock-infield-shift/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/08/mlb-rules-pitch-clock-infield-shift/ |
CHICAGO — An ex-business manager for R. Kelly and his co-defendant at the singer’s federal trial in Chicago expressed doubts on the witness stand Thursday about Kelly’s insistence in the 2000s that he never sexually abused minors — testifying a day after the former employee told jurors he had had no reason to doubt his boss was telling the truth. | 2022-09-09T00:48:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ex-employee testifies he now doubts R. Kelly abuse denials - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/ex-employee-testifies-he-now-doubts-r-kelly-abuse-denials/2022/09/08/de8e6296-2fd5-11ed-bcc6-0874b26ae296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/ex-employee-testifies-he-now-doubts-r-kelly-abuse-denials/2022/09/08/de8e6296-2fd5-11ed-bcc6-0874b26ae296_story.html |
FILE - In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends a meeting on a disaster prevention work which was held during Sept. 4 and Sept. 5, 2022 in Pyongyang, North Korea. 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 language watermark on image as provided by source reads: “KCNA” which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File) (朝鮮通信社/KCNA via KNS) | 2022-09-09T00:48:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | N. Korea says it will never give up nukes to counter US - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/nkorea-says-it-will-never-give-up-nukes-claims-us-hostility/2022/09/08/65f129da-2fd1-11ed-bcc6-0874b26ae296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/nkorea-says-it-will-never-give-up-nukes-claims-us-hostility/2022/09/08/65f129da-2fd1-11ed-bcc6-0874b26ae296_story.html |
Transcript: Race in America: Giving Voice with Mo Amer
MR. REZAIAN: Hello, I’m Jason Rezaian. I’m a global opinions writer here at The Washington Post. And welcome to Washington Post Live for another program in the Race in America series. Joining me today is standup comedian, co-creator, and star of the new Netflix series “Mo.” Mo Amer, welcome.
MR. AMER: Thank you for having me.
MR. REZAIAN: Thanks for joining us.
And just a quick note for our audience, we want to hear from you as well. So, send us your questions for Mo via Twitter using the handle @PostLive. Let's get started.
Mo, you've talked about how this show explores belonging and your experiences. I've had the opportunity to watch the show. I binged it over a weekend, and I watched your two Netflix specials as well, so I've got a ton of questions for you. But I'd love it if you--
MR. AMER: Oh, boy.
MR. REZAIAN: I'd love it if you just start by telling us about your own experience and how have you explored belonging in this country in the series.
MR. AMER: Well, yeah, I mean, I've explored it through my art, which has been such a relief to have and something that has helped me. It's been very therapeutic for me, and it's been a great way to articulate how I view things in the world.
But belonging in America is really one of the fundamental things of being American. It's just like, you get here, it's fish out of water, you’re trying to understand where you come from when you look around. And you see that, you know, landing in Houston, Texas, most diverse city in America, that it is--that you do belong here, that it takes a while for everybody else to catch up. But, you know, once they do, they appreciate you even more.
MR. REZAIAN: You know, I have not spent any time in in Houston, but I understand a bit about the demographics. It is sort of the city of the future of America in a lot of ways. Talk about it as a character in "Mo," because it really--that sense of place is such an essential part of what you've created here.
MR. AMER: Yeah, it was really important to me to highlight the city in a--in a flattering way and the way I see Houston, and the way I did that was--the way I would describe the show to, you know, my director and the DPs, like I wanted it to be shot like an urban Western. There's all these like, you know, Houston as the cloud formations that come off of the Gulf are really special and rich and just bold and the sun is always beaming a certain way that is just a little bit different than anywhere else, and just describe it as an urban Western, you know, just kind of getting those spaghetti Western shots while also getting the backdrop and the authenticity of what Houston is.
MR. REZAIAN: Well, I hope that at some point I can come down to Houston and enjoy, you know, a series of meals with you because it seems like a great place to eat as well.
MR. AMER: It's the best food city in America, guaranteed. I know there's a lot of cities going to take this personal, but I'm ready--I'm ready to put it up against you. I promise you it's one of the best cities in the world for food--in the world even, not just America. It's pretty spectacular. You can go to one shopping mall and one little shopping strip and then just have Nigerian food next to Vietnamese food next to Chinese food next to Mexican food next to Arab food. And every time you walk in there, you just be in a different land. It's pretty spectacular.
MR. REZAIAN: It seems like it. In the show, one of the many challenges of Mo’s immigration status is that he doesn’t have a work permit, and so he has to resort to, you know, taking different types of jobs and working under the table. We've got a clip. Let's take a quick look.
MR. REZAIAN: Something that that clip reminded me of is what a shape-changer your character is. I mean, you know, in different settings with people of different backgrounds, you know, you really are able to kind of connect with the person that you're talking to, employing their vernacular, you know, really standing in their shoes. How much of that has been part of your immigration journey in America?
MR. AMER: It's been a big part. I mean, going back to what I was saying about being a fish out of water and then quickly realizing that you need to communicate with everyone, like assess people really quickly and find a way to communicate with them in a way where they feel comfortable with you and they feel that you're one of them, and it was just something that I just had to do for like survival purposes. Yeah, that was a big part of it. Can you expand on the question to? Is it about belonging and--
MR. REZAIAN: Well, I mean, just that in that sense of just the different communities that you come in contact with in the show. African Americans, you're in a relationship with a Mexican character, your own, you know, Palestinian brethren, your Nigerian best friend, I mean, you know, there's just a lot going on here.
MR. AMER: No, it is. And that's just a testament to the city of Houston. I wanted to constantly make sure to showcase the most diverse city in America in a proper way. Aside from having one of the most diverse casts on television, Houston is that place. The suburb of Alief, where I grew up, where the--where the show takes place, there's 80 languages spoken, and that's in that suburb alone. That’s pretty--that’s pretty a staggering stat for the population. So, I--that was something that was very easy to do in the show. It was something important to do and to reflect it accurately.
But as far as like the diversity and, you know, how I--how the character Mo really just works his way and navigates his way through, you know, selling stuff in the back out of his truck--or out of his car, excuse me, out of his trunk and whether he's, you know, trying to feel like he belongs in the city that he loves him, that raised him, but also just like, he sells Yeezys to a southern man, and he--and he approaches him with a southern accent to make him feel comfortable and gives him a couple of phrases that brings him in even closer to him, and that way he can pull off the sale.
MR. REZAIAN: It really shines through. One thing, you know, I have a process question. You know, I watched your two Netflix standup specials after I watched the show. And you know, there's so many of the--of the bits from your standup shows that you're able to kind of translate into scenes. Talk about that process. That ain't easy. You know, what was that like? And you know, how far in advance did you know that, you know, this is something that I want to--I want to act out with multiple characters at some point?
MR. AMER: Yeah, I mean, there's a mixture of things. So, like the flashback in episode seven where my family is fleeing the Gulf War in Kuwait and coming to Houston, that's something I put together about nine years ago, about eight years ago, eight-and-a-half years ago. And so, it's always been in the works. And then from your standup, you know, my standup was drawn from my real experiences. So, some of them you would just--it was just such a pleasure to explore it in on television where you perform it, it is standup and it's just you, but now bringing it to life and able to fictionalize it and mold it in a particular way where it fits into the story was a lot of fun.
MR. REZAIAN: Now, you know, there are two really important relationships--multiple important relationships in the show, but there's two primary relationships: the one with your mom, and the one with your Mexican Catholic girlfriend. Talk about those relationships. Talk about Mo’s relationships, and you know, what's most vital and important to this character.
MR. AMER: Yeah, there's the mom, there's the girlfriend, there's the brother, that's also important, and there's the relationship with his father--his deceased father that also shapes him today. And I can't talk about the mom without, you know, acknowledging the dad relationship which he lost at a young age, which really make sense when you see him in modern day and present day that he's overcompensating with his mom and he's making sure he doesn't make the same mistakes that he made with his father.
And then, you have episode two, which is like a complete dedication to moms and a love letter, really, to moms. The title of the episode is "Yamo," which is a Syrian slang for mom. And there's this particular song that plays while she's making olive oil and finding her own purpose again after--so many years after her husband passes away. So that song is so incredibly special. It's from a Syrian show called Ghawar that I've always wanted to put on American television that is--it's a classic TV show. It's entitled after the main character, Ghawar. And there's a scene where he's essentially singing for Mother's Day to his moms, and it's a prayer. It's talking about how, you know, nine months you carried me and I--when you raised me, I gave you so much drama, and how many pairs of socks did you lay out for me? How many times did you go hungry to feed me? And the last verse is an entire prayer.
And when I heard that song, I was about six years old. And there's only two times I've seen my father cry. It was during that song and when my grandmother passed away, my mom’s mom. And I've always wanted to put it on television, and we were able to track Ghawar down, that created Duraid Lahham of that show, and he gave us direct permission to use that song. So, the mom relationship is very, very important. If you watch my first special, there’s a dedication to my mom as well in that. It just happened naturally and organically. I didn't want to--I didn't plan it.
And then, the girlfriend relationship is a great exploration into, you know, religion and having conversations that happen pretty often in relationships, but I've never really seen on American television before, where it's a genuine--sorry, I don't know if you can hear the lawn guy nearby. It happens in life. What are you going to do? What are you going to do?
But the relationship with the girlfriend was really important to highlight their differences, but they're also seeing like they both are believers in the end. And really the tension about religion wasn't the biggest thing. Like Mo is--in the show is using that as an excuse, because he feels less there that he can't actually provide for her as he would like to because his immigration status is up in the air and he can't function or provide for her or his family as he would like. But he falls on the--on the--on the religious aspect, which is meaningful to him and they are, you know, valid differences for him. But truly, it's about his ego.
But those are--those are like really beautiful relationships to explore, and then seeing him even discuss, like the Arab relationship with the Spanish relationship with the Mexicanos and going into a little bit of history and talking about how Arabs spent time in Spain. And we're culturally very much alike and potentially be the same--you know, have--you know, have Arab DNA in you. You don’t know. You know, you just do a cheek swab. So, it's really interesting to see that all play out. It was so much fun working with Teresa Ruiz, who is absolutely a brilliant actress. And the woman who plays my mom, Farah, is absolutely spectacular in the show. And it just warms my heart every time I watch her. She's incredible.
MR. REZAIAN: Well, that answer sprouted up seven other questions. But one thing that I want to mention is that that, you know, kind of parallel of about the Mexican in America experience with the Palestinian experience. I mean, you know, you bring up the wall motif more than once in the show, and I think it's a really, you know, apt thing to talk about right now.
MR. AMER: Yeah. Can you repeat the question because it's--
MR. REZAIAN: I mean, that was more of a statement than a question. I apologize.
MR. AMER: Yeah, exactly. I was like, is there a question there. I was like hold on.
MR. REZAIAN: But so, I mean, you know, one of the questions that--and I want to say that the scene that you mentioned and the song that you mentioned about moms is such a gorgeous scene, and it is a beautiful song. I don't speak Arabic. But you know, I got tears in my eyes. Do Palestinian moms really make olive oil at home? And how does it taste compared to the stuff that you get [audio distortion].
MR. AMER: I mean, I mean, like, there's some that absolutely do. But we get deliveries every six months from our village back home. So, we do that, but my mom does not--does not do that herself. It was fictionalized. It was--it was a great way for her to find her purpose and that touchstone to home. So, it was a beautiful way to articulate that. And I can't even like talk about it too much because I get emotional. It's such a personal scene. And it's so meaningful. And it's for all mothers, not just, you know, Arab Palestinian moms. It's just a dedication to moms in general. You know, "Yamo" is essentially like "our dear mama."
MR. REZAIAN: It is really beautiful. You know, you talked about the religions including Christianity and Islam, kind of, you know, the interplay between the two. Obviously, in your standup and in the show, you know, there are a lot of references to religion. You have a lot of fun with it. You know, I've read things that you've said in the past about your relationship with Dave Chappelle and others. And you know, I'm a First Amendment person, and I believe that no issue, even sacred issues are sacred. Where do you fall on that?
MR. AMER: You know, I am always in favor of more speech, not taking away speech. You know, whenever there is--you know, whenever you start taking away people's free speech, it gets really dangerous. Even though there might be something you don't--you really disagree with, you don't take it away. I think whenever you have extreme speech, you need more speech, you know, people that are that are going to oppose that and really, in a healthy way, in a logical way, have these disputes. And I think that's what it comes down to, is just talking things through, even if it makes you uncomfortable. There's things that makes me--make me uncomfortable and in interviews, and people try to put me on the spot, but it's important to just answer, you know, in a grounded way and be really honest about it. And that's the only way you're going to find understanding. If you start muzzling people and doing that, it's going to create a--it's going to create a negative ripple effect, I believe.
MR. REZAIAN: I don't want to put you on the spot with this one. But as, you know, a writer from a Muslim background, you know, when Salman Rushdie was attacked a few weeks ago, you know, those of us who come from an Islamic background, you know, had to have an answer, right? And were you confronted with questions about what your take on that was?
MR. AMER: I mean, I'd hope--I hope people that without having a Muslim background would have an answer as well. I mean, the bottom line is like it's obvious like this is a terrible thing that happened. I hope that it’s unanimous. You know like, nobody should get attacked and stabbed in the neck. I mean, I'm not--I'm not meaning to look down on this and laugh on it. I’m not laughing at that. I'm laughing at the question, that you have to like--it's like after 9/11, like how do you feel about this, Muslims? Like, bro, it's a horrible thing. What are you talking about? Like this is--what do you--this is not even a question that should be posed. It's really--I find it to be--I understand why you asked it, but it's just I find it to be ridiculous.
Obviously attacking anybody who's innocent and doing that, it's well--you know, it's--you know, in our religion killing one person is like killing all of humanity. You know, that's the way it's looked at. So, it's really horrible. I hope he's recovering okay. Whether I agree with him or disagree with him on his takes and how he sees the world doesn't matter. We can’t just attack anyone. You know, no one can attack while someone is on stage, they're performing or giving a speech. This is not the way we go about it. You know, we're supposed to be the best creations in the world, it’s like because we have logic, we have deduction, we can have conversations whether--no matter how difficult it is and get to an understanding, either we agree to disagree and we peacefully go on our ways or not. Like, that's the way it should be done, in my opinion.
MR. REZAIAN: I appreciate that. Something else that comes up in your standup is, you know, the travel document not being a passport. My wife was stateless for several years when she first came to the United States. Talk about the trials and tribulations of being a refugee in this country--even one who, you know, went to school here, was raised here, and feels pretty comfortable.
MR. AMER: Yeah, it was a rough one not having, you know, a passport. And that's like--that was a real eye opener to being, you know--there's a--there's--there's one thing to be stateless on paper, and there's another one to like travel as a stateless person. And the conversations would be pretty humorous sometimes. You know, like when you're traveling and it says where you're born on the travel document, so where's your Kuwaiti passport? I'm like, no, I'm not Kuwaiti. Well, what do you mean you’re not Kuwaiti? It says you’re born in Kuwait. Like, yes, but both my parents are Palestinian. And in Kuwait, it doesn't matter if you're born there. It matters where your parents come from. They're like, okay, well give me your Palestinian passport. Like, man, I don't have--Palestine’s not a state. I don’t have a Palestinian passport. We don’t live in Palestine. We live in Houston. We’re filing for asylum. Like these--it’s exhausting. Imagine answering that, like, probably 20 times on one trip and then repeating that over and over again. It can create this--it’s a really toxic thing that happens. And you start feeling like, do I--where do I belong and having this really like empty feeling inside and just wanting to feel like you're the same as the person next to you. But your documentation, your paperwork clearly show that you're not. You’re in a very unique position. And I just--I just--it's about patience. It's about like just breathing deep and finding a really constructive way to deal with these emotions in my art, what is a great medium for me.
But, you know, immigration, the asylee process is really long. And even if you get a fast court date, you get your asylum, it takes you five years after you're granted asylum to get your green card. And you can't even apply for citizenship until you get, you know, four years and nine months after you get your green card. So, you're talking about 10 years before you get--before your citizenship after you're granted asylum. And that creates a lot of tension.
And essentially the system is set up in a way where you almost have to do like illegally adjacent things to make a living or put you in a situation to where you almost have to like be disingenuous, or you know, or have to lie in certain cases to just make a living. So, it's tough; it's really tough. And it takes a toll on you. And I almost feel like it's by design. So, you quit and just go somewhere else. Or, you know, it creates cheap labor. So, yeah, it's a--it's something that really needs to be fixed, in my opinion, and in a more organized and have some kind of way to see, you know, and hear more cases in a speedy manner so people can contribute better to America. And it's kind of crazy, because you do end up paying taxes while you're doing that. You're a part of society, and you contribute in that way. And you’re still seen as someone who's not American. It's a painful one. It’s tough.
MR. REZAIAN: And talk about--I mean, you alluded to this, but, you know, taking that toxic experience and transmuting it into art. I mean, how long do you have to sit with it before you can laugh at it? Or is that part of your own kind of therapeutic process of dealing with the realities of being a migrant in this country?
MR. AMER: Yeah, I take it right away. I mean, as a standup, I--if something's bothering me, I talk about it immediately. It's what I do. It's just the--you whatever's--for me, I write everything on stage--excuse me—I write everything on stage. And whenever I have something that bothers me, the funnier it is usually. So it was really, really important to--you know, to constantly have that about, you know, my--the way I perform, the way I--the subject matters that I take on are really personal to me and that usually resonates with the audience on stage, because it's just seeing me kind of frustrated would in turn make it even funnier, and then it would be like this great partnership where I feel relieved afterwards and then I found something really funny in an otherwise really stressful or hurtful situation.
MR. REZAIAN: Yeah, I think I was watching the second of your specials and you know, the frustrated use of an F bomb is really evocative and effective. It makes you laugh every time, you know?
MR. AMER: I love that. I love that special.
MR. REZAIAN: It's really, really wonderful. I mean, when were you first attracted to doing standup? Obviously, you know, you've been a funny person your whole life, right? Like, you've been trying to make people laugh since you were a kid. I mean, what--how did this all come together?
MR. AMER: Well, standup is an indigenous art form to America, so I wasn't really familiar with it. It was like there's three indigenous art forms: It’s jazz, hip hop, and standup comedy. And you know, jazz is already spread throughout the world. So, when I came to America at nine years old, you know, I was introduced to hip hop, which is a big part of my life to this day. And then I saw standup, and I loved it. It has this storytelling tradition. As an Arab who comes from a storytelling tradition, I find it so fascinating to see one person on stage, telling stories, and being deeply personal at the same time, while delivering these hilarious punch lines. It's like--and sharing it with a crowd. I thought it was--I was just immediately in love. I was like this is what I'm going to do for a living. And I was 10 years old when I saw it. I was like this is it. This is what I'm going to do. And four years later, I started in my high school English class, shortly after my father passed away, which makes sense, which really tracks, to take that pain and start doing standup comedy was truly something that saved my life and refocused everything for me.
MR. REZAIAN: So, you've got some really big projects coming up. Talk to me about "Black Adam," which also stars The Rock.
MR. AMER: I can't say anything. It's a DC comic book universe. I can’t say anything.
MR. REZAIAN: Was it fun to work on?
MR. AMER: Yes, it was so fun. I was like, where do I go with this? Hello. You know, they're so strict about these things. I didn't even see the script until I got there basically. It was really amazing. But, no, working with The Rock was such a pleasure. I mean, he's exactly what he advertises, which is very frustrating. You're kind of hoping for him to have a little slipup or something. But no, he is such a genuine human being and really cares.
And you know, one of his heroes is Muhammad Ali and one of my heroes is Muhammad Ali, and he takes on the Muhammad Ali mentality of just like making time for everyone as much as he can and being present and really funny. Man, I don't like saying all these nice things about him, okay? Just like I want to find some kind of flaw about him, but I can't. He just sent me like four cases of Zoa energy drinks just because. It was just so nice.
And really--and also you can’t mention the "Black Adam" without talking about Pierce Brosnan. I mean, the entire cast, first of all, we're very close and we're really excited. I just saw the movie a couple of weeks ago. They have just outdone themselves. The story is so good, and it's awesome. But as amazing as The Rock is, I mean, Pierce Brosnan is spectacular in it. You know, that's someone I was really, really excited to work with. I couldn't believe that he was in the movie. And I was so excited to do my scene with him that I forgot to worry about my lines. Like I just didn't even--I was like, oh my god, yeah, I shouldn't memorize these. I was so excited. And he's an incredible person and someone who's done--you know, he's like my James Bond. To see him and to work with him and to learn from him, he just--every day he came to work with such an energy and enthusiasm and excitement that that just really was so contagious.
But everyone in the movie, we have a phenomenal relationship. But we're going to hang out today as a cast just because we want to see each other, and that really resonates on screen. And I'm so excited to see such a different character like Black Adam come to life, a superhero character like this that is so incredibly unique. And I do believe that The Rock's entire career has come to--come to a head with this film. It was all--everything that he's done before was really in service of this particular film and this universe. It’s so special. It's really special.
MR. REZAIAN: We're almost out of time. But my last question for you is that the first season of "Mo" ends on a kind of cliffhanger. What are plans for season two?
MR. AMER: I would say so.
MR. REZAIAN: I don't want to give it away here, but, you know?
MR. AMER: It's going to be a spoiler. It's going to be a massive spoiler, but I'm working on it right now, and it's going to be really exciting and fun. That's all I can tell you. I can't really say anything else. Yeah, but yeah, it's going to be a great exploration into--I can't tell you or talk about it because it'll ruin the show, especially the way the show closes.
MR. REZAIAN: But it's coming. It's happening, yeah?
MR. AMER: It’s coming. I hope so. Yeah, I hope. I mean, it seems like it. I mean, it'd be really--I think--I think it will. I feel very confident about it.
MR. REZAIAN: Well, unfortunately, that's all the time we have for today. Mo Amer, thank you so much for joining us. It's been a great pleasure.
MR. AMER: Thank you for having me. Thank you. My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. And sorry about the noises.
MR. REZAIAN: It's all good.
And thanks to all of you for joining us today. To check out our other interviews we have coming up, head to WashingtonPostLive.com to find out more. Again, I’m Jason Rezaian. And thank you for joining us for today’s Washington Post Live.
[End recorded session.] | 2022-09-09T00:50:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Transcript: Race in America: Giving Voice with Mo Amer - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/09/08/transcript-race-america-giving-voice-with-mo-amer/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/09/08/transcript-race-america-giving-voice-with-mo-amer/ |
South Carolina State Sen. Tom Davis rubs his head as Senate President Thomas Alexander gavels a vote closed while debating a ban on abortion at the state legislature in Columbia, South Carolina, on Sept. 8, 2022. (Sam Wolfe/Reuters)
The state already has a “heartbeat” ban that bars abortions after cardiac activity can be detected, which occurs around six weeks. That law took effect in late June, shortly after the Supreme Court reversed Roe, but was blocked by the South Carolina Supreme Court in August.
The original bill senators began debating on Wednesday would have banned abortion except when a pregnant person’s life is at risk or “major bodily function” imperiled, a vague term that doctors and advocates fear could chill the provision of care to patients with dangerous pregnancy complications. Several amendments were made because there was not enough support among the Republican majority for a ban from fertilization or a ban without exceptions for victims of rape or incest.
Physicians who violated the bill as it was originally proposed would have faced felony charges and civil penalties — including potentially a $10,000 fine, up to two years in prison and the loss of their medical licenses. Patients who have abortions do not face criminal or civil penalties.
“I’m not going to let that happen,” Republican Sen. Tom Davis said after taking to the floor to briefly filibuster the proposed ban.
He recounted how his teenage daughters asked him if he’d allow the legislature to take away their right to bodily autonomy in the earliest stages of a pregnancy. Davis added that he did not believe the proposed bill amounted to an “equitable balancing of competing rights” between a pregnant person and an unborn child.
Although abortion is temporarily legal in South Carolina while the state’s existing six-week ban is blocked by the court, it is part of a large swath of Midwestern and Southern states that have banned most abortions, including Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee.
North Carolina, which allows patients to terminate pregnancies before 20 weeks, remains one of the only states in the region to allow abortion care. Virginia allows abortion until the end of the second trimester, though the state’s Republican governor wants to pass a 15-week ban. Florida allows abortion up to 15 weeks.
The lawmakers pushing these measures are now faced with mounting evidence that the public does not support the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the nearly 50-year-old precedent. In August, voters came out overwhelmingly against an antiabortion amendment in Kansas, while Democratic candidates who support abortion rights have overperformed in recent special elections across the country.
“Since Dobbs we’ve seen the public come out in support of abortion rights, but it’s not hitting home with legislatures,” Nash said.
Two physicians who serve in the West Virginia state Senate — Republicans Tom Takubo and Michael Maroney — pushed for an amendment that would have removed criminal penalties for doctors who perform abortions, arguing that their proposed changes would stop doctors from fleeing West Virginia, where hospitals already struggle to attract physicians.
“It’s not surprising if for 50 years you were told that all roads go through the Supreme Court,” said Kristi Hamrick, chief media and policy strategist for Students for Life Action, one of the largest antiabortion groups. “Now they can go through state capitals … and there’s a lot of innovation out there.”
Sen. Billy Garrett (R) repeatedly pushed back on proposed exceptions, objecting to his fellow lawmakers’ entreaties to consider the right of a to autonomy over her body, especially in cases of rape or incest.
“The right to life, in my estimation, is the most superior right to any right,” Garrett said.
“As much as I hate being put in this situation,” Sen. Richard Cash (R), one of the state’s most outspoken antiabortion politicians, told a group of Republican senators who proposed a new version of the bill that included several exceptions, “I intend to vote for your amendment.” | 2022-09-09T02:19:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | South Carolina Senate fails to advance bill banning abortion from fertilization - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/08/south-carolina-abortion-ban-proposal/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/08/south-carolina-abortion-ban-proposal/ |
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