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Prosecutor suspended over claim he pressured defendant for nude photos
Ronnie Goldy Jr. provided a defendant with legal favors for years in exchange for her nude photos, court officials allege
Kentucky elected prosecutor Ronnie Goldy Jr. testifies on Sept. 9 at a hearing about allegations that he provided legal favors in exchange for nude photos from a defendant. The state Supreme Court temporarily suspended Goldy's law license on Sept. 16. (WLEX)
Elected prosecutor Ronnie Goldy Jr. had spent about three years helping a defendant out of legal jams in exchange for nude photos of her, but on June 15, 2018, he asked for something more, court officials said.
“When do I get to see a video?” Goldy, the top prosecutor for several rural counties east of Lexington, Ky., allegedly asked her in a Facebook message.
“When am I not gonna have a warrant hahaha,” the woman countered, according to a court report.
“Lol. Good point,” Goldy allegedly replied before sending another message: “Incentives never hurt.”
Twelve days later, Goldy followed up, telling the woman she owed him “big time,” according to a report filed last week with the Kentucky Supreme Court. When the woman asked why, Goldy allegedly responded that the “Judge is about to withdraw some warrants.”
On Friday, the state Supreme Court temporarily suspended Goldy from practicing law for allegedly engaging in a quid pro quo relationship. For seven years, he did legal favors for the female defendant, demanding nude images and “sexual favors” in return, according to a report written by Jean Chenault Logue, a state judge who served as a special commissioner overseeing Goldy’s case.
When reached for comment, Goldy referred The Washington Post to his attorney, Tim Denison, who did not immediately respond early Tuesday. Denison told WLEX that his client never asked the woman for sexual photos or videos.
Under Kentucky law, a commonwealth’s attorney like Goldy can’t be removed from office except by impeachment. But Logue recommended Goldy’s suspension from practicing law, saying the inquiry commission had presented enough evidence to show that Goldy’s “professional misconduct poses a substantial threat of harm to the public.”
“He has abused his office, abused the trust of the public and brought the legal system of Kentucky into disrepute,” the Kentucky Bar Association’s chief bar counsel, Jane Herrick, said in a July 15 petition seeking his suspension.
The process to sideline Goldy started in mid-July when an inquiry commission with the state Supreme Court filed a petition seeking his temporary suspension. That filing came just days after the Louisville Courier-Journal published a July 12 article about Goldy’s messages to the defendant, which the commission referenced.
Goldy, who since 2013 has served as the elected commonwealth’s attorney in the region, told officials that he first met the woman in 2015 or 2016 when she was in a local jail, Logue said in her report.
Over the following years, Goldy helped the woman out of legal jams by pushing back court dates and making warrants for her arrest disappear, Logue’s report states. Goldy would frequently ask the woman, who is now 28, for nude pictures and videos in exchange, according to the report, and she would sometimes comply.
One such occasion started on May 3, 2018, when Goldy allegedly gave the woman $25 for gas. After she thanked him, Goldy allegedly responded in a message by saying, “Now your turn,” adding that she should not “leave me hanging.”
Goldy exchanged 230 pages’ worth of Facebook messages with the woman between 2018 and 2020, according to the Courier-Journal.
Herrick, the state bar association’s attorney, grilled Goldy about those messages during a five-hour hearing on Sept. 9. At the hearing, Goldy said he never abused his power as an elected prosecutor, Logue said in her report summarizing the case. He acknowledged that he communicated directly with the defendant using Facebook Messenger but when shown a binder full of messages that he allegedly sent the woman over the years, testified that he couldn’t tell whether they were his. “I don’t recall getting them,” he said.
“Mr. Goldy did not deny sending the messages, always stating he did not recall sending [them],” Logue noted.
Goldy at first denied receiving or asking the defendant for any nude photographs before admitting he’d received some on two occasions, Logue wrote. “He further acknowledged he did not handle it correctly but could not state what he did or did not say,” the report stated.
The woman told WLEX that her relationship with Goldy started as a personal one, and then she began feeling “that I owed him.”
“He always felt like I was always in debt to him. I never was equal. I always owed him,” she told the station, adding, “In hindsight, it was just something to keep me in debt to him.” | 2022-09-20T12:42:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Kentucky prosecutor Ronnie Goldy suspended after nude photo controversy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/20/kentucky-prosecutor-suspended-nude-photos/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/20/kentucky-prosecutor-suspended-nude-photos/ |
Sherri Papini, 40, has never explained why she concocted the story, which she stuck to for five years
Sherri Papini leaves the federal courthouse after her sentencing in Sacramento on Sept. 19. (Rich Pedroncelli/AP)
For more than five years, Sherri Papini insisted that, in November 2016, she was abducted by two masked women who held her captive for 22 days, starved her and branded her shoulder with a hot tool.
In April, the now-40-year-old mother of two admitted that she staged the abduction that prompted a multistate search. And on Monday, during her sentencing in a federal courtroom in Sacramento, she repented.
“I am guilty of lying. I am guilty of dishonor,” she said before the judge, according to the Sacramento Bee, adding, “I am choosing to humbly accept responsibility.”
U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb sentenced Papini to 18 months in prison after she pleaded guilty to mail fraud and making false statements, according to the Justice Department. Shubb called Papini a “manipulator,” the Bee reported, and said the eight-month sentence recommended by prosecutors would not suffice.
“People don’t like to be conned,” Shubb said, according to the newspaper.
The judge also ordered Papini to pay $309,902 in restitution to the California Victim Compensation Board, the Social Security Administration and the agencies that investigated the sham kidnapping. Her motive for concocting the story remains unclear.
Papini’s attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post late Monday. William Portanova, one of Papini’s lawyers, said that his client was “treated very fairly by the U.S. attorney and by the court, and she knows she has to pay her price,” according to the New York Times.
Papini captured national headlines in November 2016 when she was found on Thanksgiving morning in the middle of a highway in California’s Yolo County, bound by restraints, according to a criminal complaint. She had been missing for 22 days, and Papini told investigators that two Hispanic women had abducted her on Nov. 2 as she was jogging. She described being physically abused by her captors — forced to use the bathroom in a bucket and fed only Cream of Wheat and “maybe rice or tortillas” once a day. She said her captors branded her skin using a hot tool after she tried to escape.
Then she said one of her captors put her in a car and dropped her off on a country road, according to the complaint.
Missing California mother found alive three weeks after her apparent abduction, police say
Soon after Papini was found, her husband, Keith, repeated portions of the story on national television and denounced any implication that the story was fake.
“I understand people want the story, pictures, proof that this was not some sort of hoax, plan to gain money or some fabricated race war,” he said in a statement to ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “I do not see a purpose in addressing each preposterous lie.”
For the next five years, Papini stood by her statements. From 2017 to 2021, Papini collected regular payments, totaling more than $30,000, from the state’s victims compensation board, which compensates victims for crime-related expenses. She also received over $127,000 in Social Security disability payments, according to prosecutors.
Meanwhile, law enforcement officials continued to investigate. In August 2020, investigators questioned Papini after finding evidence that she had not been kidnapped in 2016 but was rather staying with her ex-boyfriend at his residence in Costa Mesa, nearly 600 miles south of Papini’s home in Redding. They had discovered that the DNA on the clothes she was wearing when she was found matched that of the ex-boyfriend. The ex-boyfriend told investigators that he helped Papini “run away” after she told him she was being abused by her husband, according to the complaint. He said he picked her up and drove her to his home, where Papini ate very little and had him help to brand her right shoulder with a wood-burning tool.
Prosecutors say Papini’s fake kidnapping was carefully concocted, with plans being laid nearly a year before her disappearance, when she started communicating with the ex-boyfriend on “burner phones.”
A mother said she was kidnapped. Now she admits it was all a hoax.
Prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo this month that the ex-boyfriend “seems to have unknowingly assisted in the kidnapping hoax.” No domestic violence reports were ever filed against her husband with the county sheriff’s office, according to prosecutors. Shortly after Papini was charged, her husband petitioned for divorce and sought custody of their children, news outlets reported.
Papini was arrested in March 2022 and pleaded guilty in April to one count of mail fraud and one count of making false statements to a federal law enforcement officer. At the time, her lawyer, Portanova, said he did not know why Papini did it, though in a recent court filing he wrote that she left her family “in pursuit of a non-sensical fantasy.”
And after Papini returned to her family, he added, “each lie demanded another lie.”
Timothy Bella contributed to this report. | 2022-09-20T12:42:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Sherri Papini sentenced to 18 months in prison for kidnapping hoax - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/20/sherri-papini-kidnapping-prison-sentence/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/20/sherri-papini-kidnapping-prison-sentence/ |
Our survey experts: It's okay to expose the government
Welcome to The Cybersecurity 202! As a basketball fan, I can't not watch “Legacy: The True Story of the LA Lakers,” but it’s pure hagiography. Can we stop having the subjects of documentaries serve as executive producers on them, please?
Below: Authorities investigate a suspected ransomware attack on Bosnia’s parliament, and Uber releases details on last week’s hack. First:
The Network weighs whether U.S. entities should reveal U.S. government disinformation, hacking operations
U.S.-based organizations and companies should publicly reveal hacking and disinformation campaigns when they find them, regardless of whether they believe they are potentially the work of the U.S. government, according to 73 percent of surveyed cybersecurity experts.
That result — drawn from The Network, our panel of more than 100 cyber experts who are invited to participate in our polls — follows revelations last month about Facebook and Twitter removing fake, pro-U.S. accounts. Stanford University’s Internet Observatory and New York-headquartered social media analysis firm Graphika described the campaign in a joint report.
On Monday, my colleague Ellen Nakashima plumbed further into that campaign to find explicit connections with the U.S. government. The Network survey began and concluded before Ellen’s story was published.
In favor of disclosure
For some respondents who favored disclosure of suspected U.S. operations, it was about overall security.
“The internet is too critical for society for vulnerabilities to persist, even if they are being exploited by the ‘good guys,’” answered Bruce Schneier, a lecturer and fellow at Harvard University and chief of security architecture at Inrupt. “Reporting hacking of any type, by anyone, makes us all safer. Apologies to those on our side; defense has to take precedence.”
Hiding the campaigns once they’re discovered could also prove problematic for U.S. aims, said Betsy Cooper, a policy director at the Aspen Institute and a senior adviser at Albright Stonebridge Group.
“If companies decide to hold back disclosure anytime the U.S. government is the source, then malicious actors will have even more incentive to undertake false flag operations and blame the U.S. for all their trouble,” she said.
Cooper is skeptical that most companies could accurately attribute the source of a campaign anyway. Attribution, some maintained, wasn’t a necessary part of the discussion.
“Discovering an operation doesn’t mean you have a responsibility to accurately attribute it,” said Jeff Moss, president of DEF CON Communications. “Exposing what you have found helps shed light on the size of the problem and inform better policy outcomes.”
Despite the “yes or no” format of the survey question, many respondents offered caveats.
Organizations should call out U.S. government-led disinformation efforts but not hacking campaigns, said Jay Kaplan, CEO of cybersecurity company Synack, who answered “yes” to the overall question.
“Companies and the government need to work together to avoid derailing vital national security missions” on the hacking front, Kaplan said. “Disinformation campaigns are a different story. By definition, they play out publicly. And any government or group trying to sway public opinion by deliberately sharing false information shouldn’t be surprised if their efforts are exposed.”
Some favored coordination with the U.S. government, while others did not.
“Companies should consider notifying governments in advance of outing them. Responsible security researchers notify companies before exposing zero-days,” answered Bruce McConnell, a distinguished fellow at the Stimson Center.
Companies should “of course” disclose, said Mark Weatherford, chief strategy officer at the National Cybersecurity Center.
“What is the alternative? Ignore it and let it continue? Call the FBI and take the time to run that gantlet and try to find someone who will take you seriously?” Weatherford asked. “We should expect that everyone is playing off the same sheet of music, and it would be the height of hypocrisy to expect companies to treat this activity any differently than if it was a criminal or nation-state actor.”
Katie Moussouris, CEO of Luta Security, had a novel reason for answering “yes.”
“If private companies uncover the U.S. government’s own cyber offense operations, the public should know about it, if for no other reason than to know how much our cyber offense capabilities need to be much stealthier to evade our adversaries,” she replied.
Opposed to disclosure
One survey respondent who answered “no” didn’t want to prescribe what companies should do, given the potential harm of all the options.
“This debate brings up a question of where an organization's loyalties ultimately lie: to their stakeholders, to the global cybersecurity community, or to their country of origin?” asked Katie Nickels, director of intelligence at Red Canary. “Each organization has to make a decision about where their loyalties lie, and it's not an easy one to make.”
And there’s overlap among those who answered “no” and those who answered “yes,” with some offering caveats.
“It depends. If the effort is in support of legitimate foreign objectives, then ‘no,’” said Paul Rosenzweig, principal at Red Branch Consulting. “If it is some plausible form of misconduct, then ‘yes.’”
Answered Peter Swire, who teaches privacy and cybersecurity at Georgia Tech and is senior counsel at Alston & Bird: “Good judgment is required here. Suppose the U.S. recently was assisting Ukraine to mask its counteroffensive near Kharkiv. I hope that companies based in the U.S. and allied countries would avoid disclosures that would help the Russians.”
Unable to answer
A handful of Network members found the framing of the question problematic, and told us they opted not to answer one way or another.
“It depends on what the organization is securing and for whom,” said Lesley Carhart, director of incident response for North America at Dragos. “Is there a potential risk to civilian lives and infrastructure? How thorough is the researcher's understanding of what is happening and of their accurate attribution? This is one of those cases where we desperately need to educate people better on making ethical decisions in cybersecurity and understanding the benefits and limitations of threat intelligence.”
As the many caveats above suggest, even when some experts answered “yes” or “no,” they found it difficult to do so. Here’s Joe Hall, distinguished technologist at the Internet Society (who ultimately answered “yes,” emphasizing disclosure for “the benefit of defenders everywhere”):
@timstarks dang, totally rethought my 202 response throughout the day. It was a thinker!
— Dr. Joseph Lorenzo Hall (@JoeBeOne) September 13, 2022
Here are some more responses to The Network survey question on whether U.S. organizations should publicly expose hacking and disinformation campaigns, regardless of suspected U.S. involvement:
YES: “The issue, and potential danger, with U.S. companies deciding to turn a blind eye to disinfo and hacking operations they believe could be from the U.S. is they can't be sure exactly who is behind any attack. Detected attacks could be from some other bad actor they end up covering up for.” — Shane Huntley, who directs Google’s Threat Analysis Group
YES, but: “... only after going through a process similar to what traditional media goes through to assess whether to publish classified or other sensitive government information. Talk to the administration and give them an opportunity to make the case for why publication would damage national security. Then make an informed and considered decision balancing those arguments and the public interest in the information.” — Suzanne Spaulding, senior adviser for homeland security as part of the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies
NO: “If you’re part of a U.S.-based company and discover U.S. government hacking operations, it’s a tough decision on whether you should expose those operations. If the U.S. government is working to counter an operation by hacking a U.S. adversary (nation-state or criminal group) that is focused on attacking U.S. companies for economic gain, what would [be] the point of exposing that operation? Likely just marketing for the company. Not all operations should be exposed.” — Tony Cole, grant advisory board member at the Gula Tech Foundation
YES: “It’s incredibly difficult to collect public information about hacking (including state-sponsored intrusions), so releasing information about these campaigns enables researchers, insurers, cybersecurity experts, and others to learn from them and understand how the threat landscape is shifting and how to do a better job of defending against emerging threats. Equally if not more important, it helps foster trust between companies and their customers if those customers believe that companies are forthcoming about intrusions and disinformation even when those operations originate from the U.S. government.” — Josephine Wolff, associate professor of cybersecurity policy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University
Prosecutors in Bosnia investigate apparent ransomware aimed at parliament
The website for the parliament has been down for two weeks, with local media outlets reporting that some lawmakers had been told not to turn on their computers, the Record’s Jonathan Greig reports. Nezavisne reported that the attack was ransomware, and the Sarajevo Times reported that the parliament’s main server was turned off after the cyberattack.
The case was referred to prosecutors a couple days ago, Greig reports. “The prosecutor who was on duty on that date gave necessary instructions to officers in law enforcement agencies and the aim is to clarify all the circumstances of the case and to protect the cybersecurity of the IT system and the capacities of the institutions” of the country, said Boris Grubešić, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office.
Uber releases more details about breach
Last week’s hack of internal systems at the ride-hailing giant was probably a result of a hacker buying an Uber contractor’s stolen password after their phone was infected with malware, the company said. The hacker was able to get around the company’s multi-factor authentication after the hacker repeatedly requested approval. Once the hacker got in, they were able to access other employees’ accounts, which gave them more power in apps like Slack, the company said. The hacker is also believed to be linked to the Lapsus$ hacking group, which has been responsible for a string of high-profile hacks on major firms, the company said.
“Our existing security monitoring processes allowed our teams to quickly identify the issue and move to respond,” Uber said. “Our top priorities were to make sure the attacker no longer had access to our systems; to ensure user data was secure and that Uber services were not affected; and then to investigate the scope and impact of the incident.” The hacker downloaded some Slack messages and finance data, the company said, and they were also able to view the company’s dashboard for software vulnerabilities reported by researchers. But “any bug reports the attacker was able to access have been remediated,” it said.
Hacking group focused on Central America dumps 10 gigabytes of military emails, files (CyberScoop)
Kiwi Farms has been breached; assume passwords and emails have been leaked (Ars Technica)
Judge refuses Lindell motion to dismiss suit brought by voting machine company (Politico)
Michael Gableman, who produced no evidence of 2020 election fraud in $1 million review, now suggests the country needs revolution (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
Juliane Gallina, the associate deputy director of the CIA’s digital innovation directorate, speaks at an INSA event today at 9 a.m.
The RH-ISAC hosts its cyber intelligence summit today and Wednesday in Plano, Tex.
Emily Goldman, the director of the U.S. Cyber Command / National Security Agency Combined Action Group, speaks at a Carnegie Endowment event on Wednesday at 10 a.m.
The Senate Intelligence Committee holds a hearing on the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, and protecting U.S. innovation Wednesday at 2:30 p.m.
🏃♂️🚗 pic.twitter.com/sZPOQ8WKf8 | 2022-09-20T12:42:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Our survey experts: It's okay to expose the government - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/20/our-survey-experts-it-okay-expose-government/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/20/our-survey-experts-it-okay-expose-government/ |
Senate set to approve treaty fighting climate super-pollutants
Good morning and welcome to The Climate 202! Below, we have more updates on the damage and power outages in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Fiona. But first:
Senate will likely approve Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol this week
When Congress passed the biggest climate bill in U.S. history this summer, not a single Republican voted for the measure.
But now, Congress is poised to deliver a bipartisan win on climate action, as the Senate appears set to ratify a treaty amendment fighting climate super-pollutants with plenty of Republican support.
The details: Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) has teed up votes this week on the Kigali Amendment to the 1987 Montreal Protocol, which compels countries to phase down hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs — planet-warming chemicals used in air conditioning and refrigeration that are hundreds to thousands of times as powerful as carbon dioxide.
The Senate will vote on a motion to invoke cloture on the Kigali Amendment this afternoon. If 60 senators vote to invoke cloture and end debate on the amendment, a final vote will likely happen Thursday.
At that point, the Kigali Amendment would need the approval of a two-thirds supermajority of the chamber — 67 senators if all 100 senators are present — to become law.
Backers of the amendment remain optimistic about its passage, pointing to widespread support from both environmental groups and business heavyweights such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers.
“This is a treaty vote, so it needs 67 votes. Even though this is a high hurdle, it looks like we can clear it,” said David Doniger, senior strategic director in the climate and clean energy program at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
“This effort is moving through the Senate on a bipartisan basis and is supported by a coalition running from the NRDC to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who all see the environmental, trade and jobs upside,” Doniger said. “It's an unusual alliance, but it's a good alliance to have.”
Marty Durbin, senior vice president of policy at the chamber, said in a statement that the business group “is a strong supporter of the Kigali Amendment and has been working toward its adoption for several years. HFCs are a leading contributor to global warming, and adoption of the amendment is a great opportunity to show American climate leadership.”
Some GOP concerns
Out of all 50 Senate Republicans, four have signaled their concerns by placing holds on the Kigali Amendment, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The four are Sens. John Barrasso (Wyo.), James M. Inhofe (Okla.), Mike Lee (Utah) and Rand Paul (Ky.), according to the two individuals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the holds were not public.
Barrasso, the top Republican on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has also introduced an amendment that would condition Senate approval of Kigali on the definition of China as a developed country. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) has filed a similar amendment. (While China is party to Kigali, along with more than 130 other countries, it is defined as a developing nation.)
“The Kigali amendment is a solution in search of a problem,” Barrasso said in a statement. “There is no need to handcuff America to another international treaty that lets China play by a different set of rules.”
Ultimately, Schumer can still bring the amendment to the floor, despite the hold requests.
Spokespeople for Inhofe, Lee and Paul did not respond to requests for comment.
Creating jobs
However, other Republicans have rallied around the amendment, saying it could create jobs making chemicals that are more climate-friendly alternatives to HFCs.
“If the Senate fails to ratify the Kigali amendment, the U.S. will cede its ability to export key American products,” Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.), whose state is home to a Honeywell plant that makes these chemicals, said in a statement. “These new coolants are environmentally friendly, and, more importantly, their manufacturers are creating tens of thousands of American jobs.”
Kennedy has also been circulating a sign-on letter to leadership urging support for the Kigali Amendment, according to two people familiar with the matter. A Kennedy spokeswoman did not respond to a request for a copy of the letter.
In 2020, Congress passed the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act from Kennedy and Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.). The bipartisan bill directed the Environmental Protection Agency to slash the nationwide use and production of HFCs by 85 percent over the next 15 years.
The EPA issued a final rule targeting HFCs last year, providing a domestic counterpart to what Kigali would accomplish internationally.
“I'm very excited to finally bring [Kigali] to the floor,” Carper told reporters Monday. “I think we'll get broad bipartisan support. The business community has been, almost as one, urging us to bring this up because of the great potential for job creation and economic activity.”
Fiona inundates Puerto Rico, causes catastrophic damage and extensive power outages
While the full scope of Hurricane Fiona’s destruction remains unclear, Puerto Rican Gov. Pedro Pierluisi on Monday night estimated “billions” in damage, adding that at least two people have died, Arelis R. Hernández, Jason Samenow, Praveena Somasundaram and Reis Thebault report for The Washington Post.
So far, the monster storm has knocked out power to the entire island and has spilled 32 inches of rain near Ponce, the island’s second-largest city, according to a rain gauge maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey, with floods and mudslides expected to carry into today.
Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell will travel to Puerto Rico today, which marks the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Maria making landfall on the island. Slow recovery from Maria has left the territory’s infrastructure extremely vulnerable to the effects of extreme weather, which is intensifying because of human-caused climate change.
Fiona strengthened into a Category 3 storm on Tuesday morning, packing peak winds of 115 mph as it neared the Turks and Caicos, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Power has been restored to 100,000 customers in the northern part of Puerto Rico. Meanwhile, flooding has severely affected the water system, leaving about 750,000 without service or potable water.
The National Guard has activated 600 soldiers throughout Puerto Rico for rescue operations, and emergency responders have rescued about 1,000 people. New York, New Jersey and California have also committed to sending troops to the island to assist in relief efforts.
Puerto Rico’s power grid has been in trouble for a long time
Even before Hurricane Fiona’s fierce winds cut power to all of Puerto Rico on Sunday, the U.S. territory’s electrical grid was fragile and unreliable, running on old equipment that has been slow to modernize since Hurricane Maria swept through the region five years ago, The Post's Joshua Partlow and Arelis R. Hernández report.
Luma Energy, the state-run utility that was hired in 2020 to handle electricity transmission, has been unable to keep the lights on this year even without destructive storms, according to a report last month by the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau. At the same time, a plan to upgrade the power system, funded with $12 billion from the Federal Emergency Management Agency as a response to the 2017 storm — which killed about 3,000 people and left some residents without power for close to a year — has yet to take shape.
The island’s power grid has been at the center of debate, with protesters, customers and workers calling on Gov. Pedro Pierluisi to cancel the Luma contract, although the significant energy issues date back decades and are largely the result of bureaucratic delays, mismanagement and underfunding.
Hugo Sorrentini, a spokesman for the company, said about 1,500 utility workers are “ready to respond” to the widespread outages but that crews have been blocked by flooding.
A House Natural Resources Committee hearing scheduled for Thursday on Luma's contract has been canceled, the panel announced Monday. But the government has a set deadline of Nov. 30 to consider whether to extend the contract for 15 years.
‘Bad blood’: GOP considers tanking Manchin’s permitting plan
Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) is struggling to round up enough Republican votes to advance his energy permitting deal with Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) ahead of the midterm elections, Caitlin Emma, Burgess Everett and Sarah Ferris report for Politico.
Several Senate Republicans said Monday that they might not provide the votes needed to pass the deal, which would speed up the approval process for new energy projects, as part of a stopgap funding bill, given Manchin's eventual support for the Inflation Reduction Act.
“Given what Senator Manchin did on the reconciliation bill, [it’s] engendered a lot of bad blood,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) said. “There’s not a lot of sympathy on our side to provide Senator Manchin a reward.”
Instead, 48 Republican senators have thrown their support behind a similar proposal led by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.). It is unlikely, however, that either bill will move this week since negotiators are not close to reaching an agreement, senior aides said.
Meanwhile, 42 House Republicans and 14 Senate Republicans penned “Dear Colleague” letters on Monday urging lawmakers to oppose any stopgap funding bill that allows Democrats to pass a new budget before the end of the year, Emily Brooks reports for the Hill. The letters come just 10 days before government funding runs out Sept. 30., threatening a government shutdown.
Scientists have calculated how many ants are on Earth. The number is so big it’s ‘unimaginable.’ — Dino Grandoni for The Post
Historic and disastrous storms hit opposite corners of North America — Matthew Cappucci for The Post
Millions are displaced each year by climate change. José Andrés, Leon Panetta and others are teaming up to try to help — Ed O’Keefe for CBS News
Ukraine warns of ‘nuclear terrorism’ after strike near plant — Karl Ritter and Jon Gambrell for the Associated Press
Almost 2,000 guests attended the elaborate state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II on Monday.
But just one of them had eight legs. 🕷️ https://t.co/prFbBvmhL0 pic.twitter.com/UYOprRwiRY | 2022-09-20T12:42:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Senate set to approve treaty fighting climate super-pollutants - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/20/senate-set-approve-treaty-fighting-climate-super-pollutants/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/20/senate-set-approve-treaty-fighting-climate-super-pollutants/ |
Magnus Carlsen has not publicly spoken of his possible suspicions regarding Hans Niemann, preferring to let his actions, plus a cryptic tweet, speak for themselves. (Jon Gambrell/AP)
The two were playing an online match Monday in the Julius Baer Generation Cup, using the Chess24 platform via Microsoft Teams, when Carlsen’s webcam suddenly switched off while he was on the clock for his second move.
“What happened? That’s it?” exclaimed Peter Leko, a grandmaster who was providing analysis on the feed.
“We’re going to try to get an update on this,” said fellow analyst and international master Tania Sachdev. “Magnus Carlsen just resigned. Got up and left. Switched off his camera, and that’s all we know right now.”
The tweet gave the impression that Carlsen was hinting at some nefarious behavior on the part of Niemann, who has enjoyed a meteoric rise in the sport. Speculation that Niemann was cheating only increased after Hikaru Nakamura, a 34-year-old American grandmaster who has a massive following for his Twitch streams, offered his take shortly after Carlsen’s withdrawal.
“This is probably something I should not say, but I will say this anyway, which is: There was a period of over six months where Hans did not play any prize-money tournaments on Chess.com,” Nakamura said. “That is the one thing that I’m going to say, and that is the only thing that I’m going to say on this topic.”
Nakamura added on his Twitch stream: “I think that Magnus believes that Hans probably is cheating. … He’s withdrawing to make the point without publicly making the point.”
In a Sept. 5 interview with grandmaster Alejandro Ramirez that was shared online by the Saint Louis Chess Club, which hosted the Sinquefield Cup, Niemann said his cheating on Chess.com occurred when he was 12 — “I was just a child” — and 16. Of the latter episode, he said he wanted to gain higher ratings so he could “play stronger players” and was eager at the time to “do anything to grow my stream.”
Describing his unethical behavior as “an absolutely ridiculous mistake,” Niemann asserted that since then, he has “never in my life” cheated.
“I am proud of myself,” he said, “that I learned from that mistake and now have given everything to chess. … I was confronted, I confessed, and this is the single biggest mistake of my life and I’m completely ashamed.”
On Hans' history of cheating on https://t.co/bYjFcPulIk:
(4/10) pic.twitter.com/s9euB5FxLn
“I am not going to let Chess.com, I’m not going to let Magnus Carlsen, I’m not going to let Hikaru Nakamura — the three arguably biggest entities in chess — simply slander my reputation,” Niemann added, “because the question is: Why are they going to remove me from Chess.com right after I beat Magnus? What’s with the timing?”
“We have shared detailed evidence with him concerning our decision, including information that contradicts his statements regarding the amount and seriousness of his cheating on Chess.com,” the website stated. “We have invited Hans to provide an explanation and response with the hope of finding a resolution where Hans can again participate on Chess.com. We want nothing more than to see the best chess players in the world succeed in the greatest events. We will always try to protect the integrity of the game that we all love.”
The “tumultuous” situation in the chess community, as Chess.com put it, ratcheted up further when Niemann offered to “strip fully naked” if it would help prove he wasn’t using any contraptions to help him cheat. | 2022-09-20T12:43:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Magnus Carlsen resigns from chess match against Hans Niemann - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/20/magnus-carlsen-hans-niemann-chess-cheating/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/20/magnus-carlsen-hans-niemann-chess-cheating/ |
Two men dead after break-in at home in Hyattsville, police say
Two men are dead after what police are saying was an attempted break-in at a home in Hyattsville.
Police said the incident unfolded at 12:18 a.m. Tuesday when they got a call for a “burglary in progress” in the 5600 block of 30th Avenue. When officers arrived, a car was leaving with a man inside who had been shot. Family of the man said “someone broke into their home and shot him.”
He was taken to a hospital where he later died. He was 23 years old; his name has not yet been released.
Officers entered the home and found another man dead from a gunshot wound. They also found a gun near his body, authorities said.
Police said the incident was not random and remains under investigation. Prince George’s County police investigate homicides that happen in the city of Hyattsville. | 2022-09-20T13:11:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Two men dead after break in at home in Hyattsville - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/20/hyattsville-two-killed-burglary/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/20/hyattsville-two-killed-burglary/ |
Bethesda Naval fire station in ‘total disrepair,’ Van Hollen says
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), right, shakes hands with Scott Burkhardt, president of the National Capital Professional Firefighters, outside Walter Reed Military Medical Center in Bethesda. Also pictured are Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), left, and Edward Kelly, general president of the International Association of Firefighters. (Meagan Flynn/The Washington Post)
It was the kind of thing he expected to happen inside a burning building but instead it happened at his firehouse: Military firefighter James Freeman stepped out of his bunk room at Naval Support Activity Bethesda and plunged right through the floor.
His left leg punctured the water-damaged wood as the rest of his body remained above the linoleum tile, tearing his Achilles’ tendon and leaving him hospitalized for a day this past June.
“I’ve been in the government since 2002, and I’ve never seen anything like it,” Freeman said. “I guess I’m a little bitter about the situation. It could have been 100 percent avoidable, my injury.”
There were warnings about poor conditions for years, even before the main firehouse building went up in flames in 2019, causing significant damage. And when Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) visited the installation Monday, they said the facilities remained in a “total state of disrepair” and they demanded that the Navy prioritize building a new fire station to protect the firefighters from hazardous living conditions.
Van Hollen and Raskin said that despite years of pressing the Navy to take care of the problems, they have continued to receive reports of sagging floors, mold, structural issues or rodents, including a mouse found in the refrigeration system recently, which a Navy spokesman characterized as a single event. At this point, Van Hollen said, the costs of the seemingly never-ending repairs and the cost to the firefighters’ safety far exceeds the cost of simply building a new station, which the Navy has not yet committed to doing in its next budget.
“The cost of doing nothing, just in terms of dollars and sense, are huge — even bigger in terms of the human cost and risk to the firefighters,” Van Hollen told reporters after touring the facilities and meeting with Freeman.
“Clearly when you have firefighters falling through the floor of the firehouse, you have a problem,” said Edward Kelly, general president of the International Association of Firefighters, who joined the lawmakers at the news conference.
The original firehouse was built in the 1940s, servicing the installation and surrounding Montgomery County neighborhoods, and caught fire in 2019. But even before then, it had been under scrutiny for poor conditions. The bunkhouse where firefighters live, on the other hand, was built in 2011 and was only supposed to be temporary.
In a letter to Van Hollen in July, Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro said the Navy completed “preliminary planning” for a new 16,500-square-foot firehouse at the Bethesda installation at an estimated cost of $22.5 million, but the project is in the department’s pipeline alongside myriad others. Del Toro also said the Navy had awarded contracts to repair the damaged flooring, construct new door frames and upgrade the building to address a water-intrusion problem.
A Navy spokesperson added Monday that repairs to air conditioning were also done, and a contract has been awarded to repair the ceiling in the engine-bay that had been water-damaged. That ceiling had also previously collapsed in 2019, Freeman said, and the recent repair contract is due to lingering problems.
But in a statement, the Navy did not commit to building the new firehouse through the 2024 budget, saying decisions haven’t yet been made about the budget.
The conditions are part of a pattern of problems with the living situation at the installation that have persisted for years. Earlier this year, service members living at base barracks at NSA Bethesda, which is home to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, lodged a flood of complaints ranging from no hot water to broken air conditioning. Two buildings underwent major repairs, and one of those buildings is set to reopen soon after residents were relocated, a spokesman said Monday. Maryland lawmakers wrote to the Navy at that time to once again urge the Navy to prioritize improving the conditions at the installation — including the firehouse — and found themselves writing a similar letter after the floor collapsed at the station.
Freeman said that was not even the first time the floor had collapsed, underscoring the limited durability of the maintenance repairs. Seven or eight months earlier, in virtually the same spot of the living quarters, the floor caved a little — “enough to scare me,” Freeman said. Repairs were done, but were insufficient. After Freeman fell through he was out for three months in rehab, he said.
Scott Burkhardt, the president of the National Capital Professional Firefighters, said it was only a “reasonable expectation in a developed society to go to work and not fall through the floor of their place of employment.”
“We’re worried about sagging floors and sagging carpentry when we’re trying to salvage somebody’s house after their house was on fire,” Burkhardt said. “We shouldn’t be worried about rodent and insect infestations. This isn’t Jumanji. This is our livelihood.”
A spokesman for the naval installation, Jeremy Brooks, said the floor collapse was caused by a water intrusion issue, and that the flooring has since been repaired. Van Hollen said that same water issue has caused mold and mosquito problems indoors.
“Most people put their mosquito zappers outside the house on their patio. The mosquito zappers are inside, because there’s so much water damage that there’s mold growing,” Van Hollen said. The repeated repairs have created the effect that the building is “being held together by chewing gum,” he said.
Burkhardt said that the base firefighters have had a strong working relationship with the commanding officer and public works department tasked with doing repairs. He said they have tried to do the best they can, but that it’s a top-down funding issue, with repairs functioning as “Band-Aids.”
“We have a fantastic relationship with our public works officer here — he’s pouring his heart and soul into trying to facilitate this,” Burkhardt said. “But he’s hamstrung, as is the commanding officer here, with the limited resources and the limited budget that he has."
The commanding officer at NSA Bethesda, Capt. Scott Switzer, said in a statement that he is in “constant communication regarding any issues in fire department facilities, and we work to correct those issues immediately when they arise. We remain committed to our firefighters’ safety and comfort.”
The Navy will be expected to submit its fiscal year 2024 budget early next year, and Van Hollen and Raskin said they plan to ensure the Navy makes the new construction a priority.
“We have the resources in the United States of America to allow firefighters who are protecting all of us to have a decent and safe environment,” Raskin said, adding that the Navy’s “mammoth budget” should be able to make room for the new construction without an issue. | 2022-09-20T13:59:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Van Hollen, Raskin press Navy to overhaul Bethesda fire station - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/20/bethesda-fire-station-disrepair/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/20/bethesda-fire-station-disrepair/ |
An officer fatally shot a man who was suicidal in Riverdale Park
A man was fatally shot by police in Riverdale Park. The incident is under investigation. (iStock)
A man was fatally shot Monday by a police officer in Riverdale Park.
The Maryland Office of the Attorney General said the incident happened around 3:30 p.m. when officers with the Riverdale Park Police department responded to a home in the 4700 block of Oglethorpe Street near East-West Highway for a report of a man who was suicidal and had “access to firearms,” the attorney general’s office said in a statement.
When officers arrived they spoke for “several minutes with the man at the front door of the home.” The man went inside the home and to a bedroom upstairs, officials said.
Officers followed the man inside the home and “gave him commands to stop,” but he “did not comply,” the statement said.
Once inside the bedroom, the man pointed a handgun at officers and one officer shot the man, officials said. He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. His name was not released.
Authorities said a body camera on the officer who shot the man was active at the time. Officials said the Independent Investigations Division will typically release body-camera footage within 14 days of an incident. | 2022-09-20T13:59:55Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Man fatally shot by police officer in Riverdale Park - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/20/man-fatally-shot-police-officer-riverdale-park/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/20/man-fatally-shot-police-officer-riverdale-park/ |
I Paid Off Student Loans But Support Relief for Those Who Can’t
Don’t hate. (Photographer: Paul Morigi/Getty Images North America)
In December 2019, my husband submitted his final student loan payment. From the moment we got married and started attacking those student loans as a team, it took us 18 months to pay off $51,234.51. Of that debt, $34,134.51 were federal loans and $17,100 were private. There is not one part of me that begrudges the millions of Americans who are on the precipice of receiving $10,000 to $20,000 in student loan relief.
From the outside, it appears as if my husband and I “pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps” to pay off that debt and heck, if we did it, then all student loan borrowers should have to as well. But that’s simply not a practical, kind, empathetic or, frankly, a reasonable response.
In terms of the “bootstraps” narrative, it’s important to acknowledge that my husband and I earned in the low six figures collectively and had no other debt besides his student loans. Granted, we live in one of the most expensive cities in the country, but during that time, we still had enough flexibility in our budget to pay off student loans aggressively and live our lives. There was no rice and beans. We still took vacations, went out to dinner, invested in our retirement plans and had a healthy emergency savings account.
However, this accelerated payoff strategy while balancing a well-rounded life would not have been possible without getting married. Well, that’s not entirely true — I could’ve still helped make payments on his debt as an unmarried couple, but I didn’t do that and don’t advise anyone to. My husband would not have been able to afford such an aggressive repayment strategy, even living a modest life, on his salary alone, which included overtime. In fact, getting married negatively impacted his monthly payments.
My husband, like many with federal student loans, was on an income-driven repayment plan, which caps your monthly payments based on a percentage of your discretionary income. That means those who aren’t earning a high salary but have significant loans will have a payment that’s affordable relative to their income. However, filing a joint tax return meant my income counted in the calculation, and his monthly minimum payment went up by a significant amount.
We made our decision to aggressively pay off the student loans based on what was in our best interest as a family and our mental health. Erasing his private loan made mathematical sense, but ditching the federal student loan debt at a rapid pace didn’t make much sense on paper, especially because my husband was eligible for two different forgiveness programs thanks to his job as a teacher. Forgiveness programs, depending on the type, eliminate some or all remaining federal student loans after a certain amount of service.
Had we elected to not pay off his federal loans aggressively, we could’ve paid off the debt slowly on his income-driven repayment plan and then ended up enjoying 2 1/2 years of a pause on payments during the pandemic that still would have counted toward his forgiveness eligibility. That would’ve been thousands of dollars back in our bank account with credit toward the remaining balance being forgiven — on top of the $10,000 in relief.
But for me, there’s no regret.
We decided not to pursue the forgiveness programs given the restrictions that would have kept my husband’s career in a particular type of holding pattern for five years to a decade, depending on the program. For example, the Public Service Forgiveness Program requires you to work for a government or nonprofit organization for a decade before your loans can be forgiven. This means that if you have an opportunity or desire to move into the private sector before your decade commitment is up, you’d relinquish the opportunity to have your federal loans forgiven. That’s a significant ask and could have long-term consequences on someone’s career and potential earnings.
Then, at the start of the pandemic, my income began to bottom out, and it was a huge sense of relief to at least be debt-free during a time when everything felt so volatile. Once the income concerns passed and financial stability returned, I still felt grateful to have gotten the debt anxiety off our backs.
Look, I know hackles may still be raising for some — and my anecdotal story isn’t likely to change anyone’s mind — but this is a nuanced issue with no perfect solution. The decision to provide one-off, lump-sum relief may be an imperfect option, but it will provide a much-needed financial lifeline to many Americans, some of whom did not entirely understand the consequences of taking on tens of thousands of dollars in student loans.
Historically, little to no meaningful education was provided to student loan borrowers. It was simple for people to access thousands of dollars in loans and not totally understand how much interest would accrue or even the true likelihood of gainful employment after graduation. You could’ve made a completely informed decision based on data and still your employment situation may not have resulted in the salary you needed to stay on top of your student loans.
It’s easy to put a 2022 lens over this problem, but I matriculated in 2007 — before the financial crisis — and I’m in the middle of the millennial generation. How many elder millennials were sold a bill of goods about the career opportunities and necessity of college only to end up being part of the mass layoffs and bottoming-out job market in the Great Recession? Then, when they finally began to feel some level of breathing room and financial stability, they were punched in the mouth by the pandemic.
Sure, there’s ample information and resources available for someone to be proactive and to do their own research. But we should be realistic about whether the average 18-year-old is making rational, practical decisions over emotional ones. Even parents can apply pressure about going to the school with the most prestige, no matter the cost. It’s also frustrating to see how many people are pointing fingers at “useless degrees” and “fancy schools” as if those are the only graduates who will be receiving assistance. It isn’t just liberal arts majors who struggle with the burden of student loans. It’s also irrational to expect everyone to be a STEM major.
For many, the concern is who will shoulder the financial burden of this student loan relief. Will it be the average taxpayer who either ground it out to pay off student loans or never even took them on at all? It’s currently unclear, and understandably people are worried about their own wallets being hit to help someone else. However, there are plenty of ways in which people’s taxes support systems for which they receive little to no benefit personally but help the wider community.
It’s always been strange to me how a contingent of people feel hellbent on making those coming up behind them struggle in the exact same way. We all know life isn’t fair, and some of us will be cut breaks at times in our lives or receive bouts of good luck that others simply won’t. But it’s a peculiar phenomenon to want people to struggle simply because you had to as well. It’s also a fallacy that the next generation has the option to even follow in the footsteps of its predecessors.
Will there be a portion of people who get relief who perhaps could be working harder? Sure. But will millions of Americans get a lifeline who have worked overtime or multiple jobs or had some unfortunate situations arise that are costly? Most definitely. Just because some people haven’t “earned” the relief to your personal metric doesn’t mean the many hardworking people who are struggling shouldn’t receive help. | 2022-09-20T14:13:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | I Paid Off Student Loans But Support Relief for Those Who Can’t - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/i-paid-off-student-loansbut-support-relief-for-those-who-cant/2022/09/20/70d5f6d0-38e8-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/i-paid-off-student-loansbut-support-relief-for-those-who-cant/2022/09/20/70d5f6d0-38e8-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
A new Kennedy Center exhibition shows JFK’s love of the arts
“Art and Ideals: President John F. Kennedy” is a new permanent exhibition on the second floor of the Kennedy Center. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
It’s hard to believe this 7,500-square-foot room — filled with videos, illuminated display cases, walls of posters and artifacts, and crowned with a vibrant wraparound LED screen dubbed “the frieze” — was once the atrium gallery, a rentable event space and occasional performance venue.
One section on “dance diplomacy” shows how the Kennedy Center hosts cultural events in the community and online, a continuation of policies that sent the New York City Ballet to perform behind the Iron Curtain, or the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater to Southeast Asia; another display focuses on how the Kennedys used the White House as a showcase for the best of American arts, inviting the National Symphony Orchestra and American Shakespeare Festival Theatre to perform at official state dinners. | 2022-09-20T14:13:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | JFK's love of the arts shines in a new Kennedy Center exhibition - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/20/jfk-exhibit-kennedy-center/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/20/jfk-exhibit-kennedy-center/ |
‘Semper Supra,’ composed by two officers, joins a tradition of military anthems that spans generations
The Space Force announced its official song, “Semper Supra,” at a conference on Tuesday. (Staff Sgt. Kayla White/U.S. Air Force/AP)
The song, “Semper Supra” (“Always Above”), joins the ranks of “The Marine’s Hymn,” “The Army Goes Rolling In” and other staples of the American military anthem repertoire. It’s also … Wait. Why are you laughing?
I knew as soon as I said “Space Force” this would happen.
Because the Space Force is, for the foreseeable future, the New Guy among military branches. Because its sudden and ham-handed public rollout in 2019 was largely entrusted to the writers’ rooms of late-night shows. And, yes, because it’s called the Space Force, so there remains a lingering temptation not to take it seriously (and a tacit cultural authorization to proceed).
Case in point: My father called this morning and asked what I was doing. I told him I was writing about how the Space Force is debuting its official song. His reply: “Who wrote it? Buck Rogers and Hammerstein?” And we laughed and laughed.
Trump’s Excellent Space Force Adventure
This placed the “Semper Supra” creative duo of Jamie Teachenor and Sean Nelson in a tricky predicament. Both men are experienced officers and military musicians: Teachenor, 42, is an Air Force veteran and former vocalist in the Air Force Academy band Wild Blue Country. Nelson, 39, is a Chief Musician who serves as trombonist and staff arranger for the Coast Guard Band.
“The tradition goes back over 100 years,” Nelson said in a conference call on Monday. “Figuring out where this song will fit into that tradition was so important, but I also [wanted it] to have it have its own identity.”
“There’s a lot at stake,” added Teachenor. “It was very nerve-racking.”
Take “The Marine’s Hymn.” One of the oldest songs in American military history, its iconic melody was lifted from Jacques Offenbach’s 1859 opéra bouffe, “Geneviève de Brabant,” and its anonymously penned lyrics (charting a purview “from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli”) were likely written decades before its official adoption in 1929.
Or “The U.S. Air Force Song” (a.k.a. “The Wild Blue Yonder”), which was written by a rejected WWI Air Service pilot named Robert MacArthur Crawford and won a contest held by “Liberty” magazine publisher (and fin de siecle fitness guru) Bernarr Macfadden. It was officially adopted in 1947.
But as Teachenor points out, conversations about the creation of a military branch dedicated to what has been called “the ultimate high ground” have been going on in some form or another since the mid-1940s.
Opinion — The U.S. Space Force is preparing to militarize space. Good.
The formation of a “Space Task Group” of NASA engineers in 1957 was ramped up in 1961 after President John F. Kennedy’s call to put a man on the moon. In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan’s controversial “Star Wars” initiative sought to create “a shield that could protect us from nuclear missiles just as a roof protects a family from rain.” In the 1990s, Operation Desert Storm saw the advent of GPS and satellite data that would lead to a paradigm shift in Americans’ reliance on space-bound technologies.
Talk of the creation of an official “Space Corps” was actively afoot in Congress by 2017. Following 2019 authorization by the Trump administration of Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) — and following a rocky start — the USSF was launched that December.
“That’s a beautiful thing, when people realize that space has a long and vibrant history,” says Teachenor. “That it’s not just sending astronauts into space, it’s the folks on the ground supporting all those satellites in orbit. The mission of the Space Force is one of the most important — we can’t go a day without space.”
And while the Space Force’s $15.5 billion budget is a fraction of the Pentagon’s annual spending, the two musicians are hoping that the simple presence of “Semper Supra” in the rotation of medleys at public ceremonies, sporting events and other forums will help to launch the Space Force — and its “Guardians” — into wider public consciousness.
Okay. So what’s it sound like?
Well, it sounds a lot like a military anthem. A lot. Like, almost too much. In response to my dad’s quip about Buck Rogers and Hammerstein, I told him that “Semper Supra” sounded to me like something you’d hear before the big game at Space Force High. Which, in retrospect, was kind of mean.
Those looking for clarity in terms of who the Space Force is, what they do and why they are, will not find it in “Semper Supra,” which goes light on detail and lyrically has the smoothed-over feeling of a song written by committee.
But those looking for a little hook upon which to hang memories of their own service (in this case, as “Guardians”) will find “Semper Supra” does the job.
I guess for a song that’s destined to orbit around this branch of military in perpetuity, I was hoping for something … I don’t know, spacier?
Over the past century, the cosmos has supplied us with such a rich musical mood board: Gustav Holst gave us his standard-bearing model of the solar system, “The Planets,” back in 1916. Stanley Kubrick’s use of Johann Strauss’s antigravity waltzes and the monolithic motif taken from the other Strauss’s “Also sprach Zarathustra” have informed our perception of deep space since “2001” arrived in 1968. John Williams has also memorably distilled his visions of the vastness of space into universal themes — think the “five tones” of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
All of which is to say, despite the vacuum of space, as listeners we are well trained to know what it “sounds” like.
Perhaps this is why the deja vu of “Semper Supra” felt like a letdown. After feeling my stomach plunge when hearing the unholy sound of a black hole for the first time, an earthbound brass band march can’t help but sound like it’s stopping short of the goal. (I didn’t even think marching in space was possible!)
NASA posts what a black hole sounds like. One review: ‘Cosmic horror.’
But as much as I’d love our new national call to cosmic duty to strive to capture the boundless wonder of space — that most abstract of jurisdictions — some deeper listening helped me accept that anthems aren’t just music for me to complain about. And they’re not merely jingles designed to inject a quick shot of pomp into staid military circumstances.
Anthems are little battle-tested vessels of memory — strong enough to hold heavy stories of service and portable enough to carry them across generations with the ease of a tune. Will “Semper Supra” ever find its way into the ears and hearts of Americans? That’s a question for the future. | 2022-09-20T14:13:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | New Space Force anthem aims to land the military branch on your radar - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/09/20/space-force-anthem/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/09/20/space-force-anthem/ |
The unique scoring structure of American football — three points for a field goal and six points for a touchdown before the extra point, which is worth one point, so long as a team decides not to try for a two-point play — clumps scoring differentials around certain key numbers. That makes betting on the NFL different from wagering on other sporting events: The key numbers should almost always dictate your approach to wagering on weekly point spreads.
Since 2015 — when the NFL moved extra-point attempts back from what was essentially a 20-yard field goal to a more difficult 33-yard attempt — 15 percent of regular season games have ended with a scoring margin of exactly three points. That might sound small, but it represents the most frequent outcome by a significant amount. Nine percent of games finished with a differential of seven points, and seven percent of games were decided by six. Together, those margins have accounted for nearly a third of all games.
Of further interest to sports bettors is how often particular point spreads ended exactly on the number: with a three-point favorite winning by three points, for example. The push rate for a game with a point spread of three is nine percent; not surprisingly, that’s the highest push rate for any point spread other than 14, which has less than one-tenth the sample size. (In other words, far fewer games start with a point spread of 14.)
This type of information is critical to determining line value in the NFL, because it helps you determine the worth of acquiring an extra half point on a bet — which could turn a push into a win. (Sportsbooks allow bettors to “buy a half-point” — paying worse odds for the chance to move a point spread from -3 to -2½, from +7 to +7½, and so on.)
If this sounds confusing, don’t worry: Here’s a quick primer how you should approach several key numbers on the point spread. (Sportsbooks, of course, also offer odds on every quarter, every half and so on; these rules do not apply to those smaller-scale time frames.)
How to play a point spread of 3 and 7
If the point spread is three, you’ll want to either play the favorite at -2½ or the underdog at +3½, as both options give you the benefit of turning a push into a win in the event of a three-point final margin. (For beginners: Assume the Philadelphia Eagles are favored by three points against the Washington Commanders, and win the game, 27-24. Underdog bettors who took the Commanders would win if they had made the bet at +3.5, since the final margin was 3 points; Eagles backers who had Philadelphia at -2½ would also win. Anyone who had a three-point spread would push, meaning the stake would be returned with no profit or loss.)
Ideally, you can find a rogue or stale line of -2½ or +3½ at -110 odds (wager $110 to win $100), giving you an edge over the house. Here’s why. The true value of a -2½ or +3½ line when the consensus line is ±3 -110 is -130. (Avert your eyes if you hate math: that number is derived by factoring in the original implied probability at -110, 52.4 percent, and adding half the push frequency.) Thus, it becomes profitable to move off the three-point spread by playing the favorite at -2½ or the underdog at +3½, if the price better than -130.
Point spreads of seven should be played in a similar fashion. If moving off a 7-point spread at -110 odds, you need to find either the favorite at -6½ or the underdog at +7½, either at a price of -124 or better. This also illustrates that not all half points are created equal; the half-point adjustment on a 3-point spread has greater value. Why? It all depends on how often you expect the final margin to land exactly on the number in question. The higher the possibility of a particular outcome, the more valuable the extra half-point becomes.
How to play a point spread of 4 or 5
Games with point spreads of -4, -4½, -5 and -5½ have ended with a score differential of exactly five or six just 13 times in the past eight seasons. In other words, you are probably better off going with an alternate line rather than one of those point spreads. The benefit of an alternate line is acquiring a more lucrative price.
Let’s go back to a real world example. If the line for the Buffalo Bills in a game against the Miami Dolphins is -4 -110 and you can find an alternate spread of -6½ at +120 odds or better — meaning a profit of at least $120 for every $100 wagered — that’s a more profitable play. The chances of the Bills winning by exactly five or six — a win at -4½ but a loss at -6½ — aren’t high enough to cancel out the bigger winnings if they cover the larger spread. If you find a -5 or -5½ -110 spread as the main or consensus line, then you should want an alternate line of -6½ at prices of +109 and +104, respectively.
If the underdog is getting 4, 4½, 5 or 5½ points, you can usually stick with those, knowing the game is more likely to end with a differential of three points than it is with six.
How to play a point spread of 6
If you are debating a line of -6 -110 and can’t find -6½ at -102 odds or better, take a look at the money line bet, which only requires your chosen team to win, by any margin. Teams with a closing point spread of -6 have gone 60-30-1 straight up since 2015, equating to a 66.5 win rate. The break even price for such a win rate is -200, so a moneyline bet at less than -200 odds could be appealing.
Interested in taking the underdog at +6 -110? Then you probably want to investigate the prices for +7½. If you find an oddsmaker offering that alternate spread at -150 odds or better, it is worth considering.
There are other point spreads, of course. Week 2 of this season featured a few favorites of nine or more points, which adds a level of complexity to your decision-making. Those are big numbers, and you have to be sure the team strengths are as lopsided as they look on paper. If not, in taking the favorite you are giving away two key numbers, three and seven, plus the possibility of a third in a 10-point margin.
You could also stay away from those situations — no one says you have to bet every game — and focus on games in which you believe you gain an advantage by exploiting the most frequent key numbers of three and seven. In general, the takeaway should be this: Always make sure you have a key number covered in your favor, usually by grabbing the extra point or half-point that would convert a loss or a push into a win. | 2022-09-20T14:14:59Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The NFL's most common margin of victory can help shape your point spread analysis - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/20/nfl-margin-victory-point-spreads/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/20/nfl-margin-victory-point-spreads/ |
Bad Bunny performs in Philadelphia on Sept. 4. (Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Roc Nation)
When Bad Bunny made his television debut on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” in September 2018, he opened with a reminder that his native Puerto Rico was still reeling from Hurricane Maria, the Category 5 storm that led to the deaths of nearly 3,000 people, caused widespread destruction across the island and left its already fragile power grid damaged to an unprecedented extent. “After one year … there are still people without electricity in their homes,” the artist (born Benito Martinez Ocasio) said, adding that President Donald Trump was in denial about the lives lost in the months following the hurricane. “But you know what,” Bad Bunny said, launching into his debut studio album’s first single, an anthem of resilience: “[Es]tamos bien” (“We’re good”).
The performance, which the Latin trap-reggaeton phenom gave in front of a collage of beautiful scenes from the island that raised him, marked a powerful and poignant message to the world: Puerto Rico was battered but not broken. Come what may, estamos bien. Four years and three additional albums later, Bad Bunny has gone from breakout to global superstar, but Puerto Rico — like confident, independent women and hip-hop braggadocio — remains a recurring and prominent theme in his work.
On Friday, less than 48 hours before Fiona, another catastrophic hurricane, made landfall in Puerto Rico — knocking out power across the island — Bad Bunny released a stunning 22-minute documentary/music video for “El Apagón” (“The Blackout”), a pointed track from his latest album, “Un Verano Sin Ti” (“A Summer Without You”), which has been atop the Billboard 200 chart for 11 weeks. Over the song’s jubilant, club-ready beat, Bad Bunny raps about his love for the island, ticking off a list of hometown treasures, including J.J. Barea, one of only a handful of Puerto Ricans to play for the NBA (“a champion before LeBron,” BB boasts), and reggaeton pioneer Tego Calderon. “Maldita sea, otro apagón,” Bad Bunny says, briefly interrupting his joyful ode: “Damn, another blackout.”
In the video, verses of “El Apagón” are interspersed with reporting by Bianca Graulau, an independent journalist who has been documenting inequities in the U.S. territory, whose residents lack representation in Congress and are unable to vote on a federal level. Five years after Maria, persistent blackouts continue to plague the more than 3 million United States citizens who call the island home. As Graulau explains in the video, the documentary portion of which is titled “Aquí Vive Gente” (“People Live Here”), Puerto Rico’s billion-dollar effort to privatize the electrical grid — through a controversial contract with Luma Energy — has done little to quell the problem. Gov. Pedro Pierluisi, whose administration hired Luma, publicly criticized the energy consortium for the first time last month after a report by Puerto Rico’s Energy Bureau showed that outages have actually increased in duration this year.
Bad Bunny, meanwhile, has frequently spoken out against Luma since embarking on successive world tours earlier this year. “Luma can go to hell,” he said in July while performing in San Juan at the largest indoor arena in Puerto Rico, where “El Apagón” rings even more poignant. He expressed similar wishes for Pierluisi and other politicians before telling the crowd: “The country belongs to us. We are the ones who have the control.”
“The beaches belong to us, too,” Bad Bunny added, in a nod to the increasing development across the island, which — in addition to pushing out longtime residents — has restricted locals from their own beaches.
“El Apagón (Aqui Vive Gente)” also highlights the growing number of Puerto Ricans facing displacement due to increasing gentrification, spurred largely by investors who, lured by significant tax breaks, replace longtime residential buildings with luxury hotels and Airbnb rentals that cater to wealthy non-natives. Graulau, who broke the story last year of the displacement of residents in the coastal town of Quebradillas, appears in the video, talking with residents who were pushed out of homes they lived in for decades.
“El Apagón” references displacement in a bridge sung by Bad Bunny’s girlfriend Gabriela Berlingeri. “I don’t want to leave here / I don’t want to leave here,” she sings in Spanish, while urging that the developers and crypto bros do. “This is my beach, this is my sun. This is my land, this is me.” | 2022-09-20T15:09:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Bad Bunny wants you to stop ignoring Puerto Rico - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/09/20/bad-bunny-apagon-puerto-rico/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/09/20/bad-bunny-apagon-puerto-rico/ |
With multiple pro tours and new venues everywhere, pickleball’s growth shows no signs of slowing down.
MASON, OH - SEPTEMBER 11: Amateur pickleball players play mixed double matches during the Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) Baird Wealth Management Open at the Lindner Family Tennis Center. (Arden S. Barnes/For The Washington Post)
MASON, Ohio — The public address announcer’s voice boomed, balls flying amid the chaotic symphony of plastic pops and thwacks. So many greats had played and won here at the Lindner Family Tennis Center outside of Cincinnati: McEnroe and Agassi, Djokovic and Federer, Nadal and Serena. But center court was suddenly the stage for something very different.
“We love tennis, and this is an incredible tennis facility,” the announcer bellowed, “but for today we are piiiiickleball!”
All eyes were on Anna Leigh Waters, 15, and Ben Johns, 23, a mixed doubles team and perhaps the two brightest stars in the rapidly expanding pickleball universe, phenoms changing the way the game is both played and perceived. Competing in the Baird Wealth Management Open, one of the biggest events staged by the Professional Pickleball Association (PPA), Waters and Johns are torchbearers for a young sport with a future as promising as it is unpredictable.
Quaint and complex, the game has been likened to chess on concrete and is most commonly compared with tennis, badminton and table tennis. It has also exploded into a big business with no shortage of deep-pocketed investors and eager opportunists.
“We’re going to see way more growth in the next three years than what we’ve seen in the previous three years,” said Connor Pardoe, the founder and commissioner of the PPA. “It seems like every day there’s something new and exciting and someone else that wants to get involved. It’s really hard to even predict three years out.”
Pickleball isn’t a sport at a crossroads as much as it’s a five-lane highway with everyone trying to merge while careening against the guardrails at top speeds. There are three professional leagues battling for players, customers, sponsors and superiority. Communities are racing to build courts to satisfy an ever-growing appetite, and investors are finding new ways to monetize the sport. Meanwhile, the tennis community is trying to save its courts and safeguard its future.
There’s no blueprint for this kind of growth. Pickleball, with its quirky name and humble roots, was invented in 1965 and has long been popular in active retirement communities. But it went mainstream only in the past few years. Aided by a pandemic boom, there were 4.8 million players last year, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, though many in the industry suspect the real number is much higher, based on equipment sales and online activity. There are now 10,000 facilities nationwide registered with USA Pickleball, with three new venues opening every day on average.
“A year ago it was like the wild west,” one industry insider said. “Now it’s like World War III.”
Old sport, new vibe
Tyson McGuffin doesn’t look like a prototypical pickleball player, but maybe there’s no longer such a thing. The sport is now several years removed from any stereotypes or stigmas about being strictly a 55-and-older pastime, and it’s seeing growth across virtually all demographics.
McGuffin is a tatted, mulleted, mustachioed ball of energy on the court. Then there’s J “Gizmo” Hall, who sports dreadlocks past his shoulders and competes wearing brightly colored, mismatched clothes that often feature cheeseburger patterns. And if Parris Todd looks like a fashionista on the court, it’s because she’s a fashion designer off it.
The tour features former lawyers, accountants, college professors and many, many former tennis players. Its highest ranks also include teenagers Waters, Jorja Johnson (15) and her brother JW Johnson (19). Though the sport is buoyed by millions of casual players, there are a few dozen touring pros who earn a living off prize money, endorsement deals and pickleball clinics and coaching.
Both professionally and recreationally, the game is showing no signs of slowing down. Its biggest events are staged in famous tennis venues such as the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Ohio, Indian Wells Tennis Garden in California and the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York.
“If you would’ve told me two years ago we would have been able to take those courts and turn them into pickleball courts, I would have thought you were crazy,” said Ken Herrmann, chief executive and founder of the Association of Pickleball Professionals (APP).
There are high-level pickleball tournaments nearly every weekend, attracting both skilled professionals and weekend and after-work players. The event organizers aim for a festival-like atmosphere with a DJ blasting music, pros mixing with amateurs as they mill between courts, food trucks and vendor tents. Fans chase selfies and get their paddles autographed by the top-ranked players while waiting their turn to hit the courts in amateur tournaments.
In Cincinnati, more than 850 players signed up for the four-day event, where 42 pickleball courts were spread across the tennis center — a pickle-palooza by any measure. The Tennis Channel covered each day.
The buzz and energy is still new. According to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, there were 3.4 million players in 2019, a figure that shot up 39 percent post-pandemic.
“You’ve got to remember that people couldn’t do anything, but they could go out in their driveway or in their cul-de-sac or the street or the park,” said Leigh Waters, one of the nation’s top doubles players who teams with her daughter Anna Leigh. “And they could do it with their family. It didn’t matter what age they were, what athletic ability they were.”
With a smaller court and a shorter net than tennis, the game can be more intimate and doesn’t necessarily require as much mobility. The plastic ball has holes like a Wiffle ball, giving it pop off the paddle and making the speed and pace manageable. Children play alongside grandparents. Men team up with women. Among pros and amateurs alike, the doubles game is more popular and highly regarded than singles.
“It’s all about equality,” says Anna Worcester, a strategic adviser for Major League Pickleball. “All ages can play, all genders, all geographies, indoors or outdoors. It’s fun, it’s social, it’s easy to pick up regardless of athletic ability. It’s affordable and inexpensive. Pickleball meets every consumer need.”
According to SFIA’s most recent numbers, the single largest age demographic is still 65-plus (849,000 players last year), though younger players aren’t far behind (787,000 ages 25-34; 600,000 in 18-24; and 610,000 in 35-44). Players tend to be white, college-educated and earn at least $100,000 annually.
The major hotbeds are California and Florida, but nearly the entire country has felt the demand. Private businesses have been sprouting everywhere, such as the Pickle Shack in Columbus, Ohio, which is open to players 24 hours a day; the Missouri Pickleball Club outside of St. Louis, which features 18 indoor courts spread across 51,000 square feet; and several places like Chicken N Pickle, a chain that aims to marry casual pickleball with casual dining.
Parks and recreation departments have been similarly scrambling to accommodate pickleball’s popularity.
According to the National Recreation and Park Association, nearly 80 percent of departments serving communities of at least 250,000 people have outdoor tennis courts; half now also feature pickleball courts. Change is harder on the public side, where local officials have to sort out limited resources, often re-purposing tennis courts or converting soccer fields. They must weigh the needs from their tennis players, too, who don’t want to lose courts or contend with pickleball lines. (A single regulation tennis court can accommodate four pickleball courts.)
In Wichita, a pickleball pro is now on the city payroll to help oversee the sport and run clinics and tournaments, and local officials have allocated $3 million to build its “Pickleplex,” a 20-court public facility scheduled to open next year.
“I knew it was coming, but it’s hard to move fast enough,” said Troy Houtman, Wichita’s director of parks and recreation. “People are just so hungry for it.”
A tour tug-of-war
Herrmann saw the potential early. With a background in tennis as a player, coach and club operator, he launched the APP in 2019, growing it from three annual events in 2020 to 32 this year, featuring $2 million in total prize money.
The PPA’s Pardoe was early in the space, too. After his family, which runs a real estate development company in Utah, began casually playing together, they dreamed up something similar to the AVP beach volleyball tour. The PPA launched in 2018 and this year is staging 20 events with $3 million in prize money.
And a hedge-fund manager named Steven Kuhn founded Major League Pickleball in 2021, introducing a rating system and offering a team format that sets it apart from the two existing tours. Backed by investors that include Drew Brees, James Blake and Gary Vaynerchuk, the league is hosting three events this year, featuring many of the players from the tours.
All three entities are vying to be the market leader. For now, they seem to coexist, but the PPA ruffled feathers when it signed exclusive contracts with some of the sport’s top players. The tour was purchased this year by Tom Dundon, the billionaire owner of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, who quadrupled the staff and moved the operation from Salt Lake City to Dallas. It has already seen improved coverage on the Tennis Channel and even a weekend slot on CBS for a recent tournament.
“The most amount of money we bring in from our different buckets, the No. 1 would be sponsorship,” the PPA’s Pardoe said. “When I came into the sport, we did not have $1 in sponsorship money, not one sponsor behind us. When we came in, it was all family money. It’s pretty surreal.”
As a whole, the industry has graduated from mom-and-pop and pickleball-specific companies to broader corporate partners. Signage around the Lindner Family Tennis Center included Hertz, DraftKings, Baird and Chase.
“I have the best job in the world, honestly, because it’s true: Everyone wants to be in pickleball,” said Josh Freedman, an agent to some of the game’s top players. “I think we’re very, very early and the appetite is not even close to being fulfilled yet.”
But it’s not clear whether the sport, with many more amateur players than tour followers, will support three top-level organizations. They all have different credentials: the APP is sanctioned by USA Pickleball, the national governing body; the PPA has Dundon and many of the top players locked up; and Major League Pickleball, which is aligned with APP, features a team format that aims to be more like the Davis Cup or World Team Tennis.
“Let’s learn from tennis’s successes and learn from tennis’s mistakes,” said Worcester, the MLP adviser who had previously served as the chief executive of the Women’s Tennis Association and spent decades in the tennis industry. “Pickleball already has too many acronyms, so I’d like to think that pickleball will get its act together and streamline.”
Worcester says that means consistent rules and a unified ranking system and not stirring confusion for the pickleball players and viewers.
“There’s been space for everybody,” the PPA’s Pardoe said, “and I think the other organizations are doing a great job right now. I think it’s been nothing but helpful for everybody.”
‘Competition for tennis’
As most tennis aficionados would be quick to note, pickleball is not tennis. But the sports are certainly related and their fortunes can’t be easily untangled.
On the court, the scoring is different; the athleticism, mobility and endurance much different. Even the seriousness, intensity and collegiality can feel different.
Pickleball can feature long rallies with players gathered closer to the net, exchanging short-distance dinks — until a switch is flipped and the players launch into a rapid-fire exchange of volleys. At the highest levels, it’s a game of both finesse and power. There are few aces — only underhand serves — and shot placement is at a premium.
“In tennis, if you physically don’t meet the high-level physical standards, it’s very hard to compete,” said 32-year-old Jessie Irvine, who was a high-ranked junior tennis player and is now one of the top pickleball players in the country. “This is a more neutralizing sport, more based on skill than actual physicality the way tennis is.”
Like Irvine, many pickleballers at all levels, old and young, come from tennis backgrounds, and pickleball is increasingly co-opting tennis resources, its courts and its players.
“Pickleball, to me, is a competition for tennis,” said Ray Benton, chief executive of Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Md. “What the pickleball people have done is absolutely spectacular. They found a way to get people to have fun on a racket court. In my judgment, tennis is the better sport, and we need to do a better job of promoting it.”
JTCC is a highly-regarded training ground for young players — Frances Tiafoe among them — and next month it will host a PPA event at its College Park campus for the first time.
“For people in the tennis establishment to demean pickleball is missing the point,” he said. “We have plenty of room for a vibrant tennis industry and a vibrant pickleball industry. But to pretend it isn’t competition and demean it, that’s like people who drove horse and buggies demeaning the automobile. It’s not a fad and it’s not going away. They’re two wonderful sports and we need to maximize both of them.”
Nearly 1 in 3 pickleball players also participated in tennis at least once in the past year, according to SFIA. Tennis also experienced a covid-boom, and more than 22 million Americans played the sport last year — 4.7 times more than pickleball and up 28 percent from two years earlier, according to SFIA data.
The popular comparison offered by pickleballers is to look back at ski resorts three or so decades ago, when snowboarding first took hold and skiers had to reluctantly share the slopes.
“And you know, maybe they didn’t like the snowboarders at first, but now here we all are,” Pardoe said. “They both coexist and they all sell a ton of equipment and both are doing great.”
Irina Tereschenko, 39, is a Russian-born player who made the leap from tennis six years ago and has since traveled across Europe and Asia introducing people to pickleball. They might not have access to courts and equipment yet, but Tereschenko says they’re easily hooked.
“I think pickleball is entering its second or third stage of mass adoption,” she said, “and that’s super exciting. I think it’s going to explode globally.”
If pickleball continues to grow at its current rate, there will be more than 13 million Americans swinging a paddle in 2025. Industry insiders say the sport is continuing to get younger. It’s being taught in gym classes. There are intramural clubs in high schools and on college campuses, though it hasn’t yet caught on as a sanctioned sport.
“Getting more youth programs, getting it into schools, would be the next kind of big step,” said Irvine, the pickleball pro who also coaches high school tennis. “And then I think it has the potential to be a collegiate sport and ultimately, it needs to be in the Olympics. That would skyrocket everything.”
But it’s still largely an American game, and it would need more international players to attract serious Olympic interest. Organizers with the 2024 Paris Games and 2028 Los Angeles Olympics have largely settled on their sport offerings, leaving the Brisbane Games in 2032 as the next possibility.
Waters and Johns could still be in their prime by then. They’re both among the youngest players on tour but also considered among the best to ever play the sport. In Cincinnati, Waters won the women’s singles title and also mixed doubles, while Johns won mixed doubles alongside Waters and men’s doubles with his brother Collin. (Johns won approximately $8,500 for his efforts, while Waters pocketed $7,500. Both also earned appearance fees, which can range from $1,000 to $5,000 for the PPA’s top players.)
Waters, who turned pro at 12, is no longer getting asked by friends why she gave up soccer and why she’s on the road so much. She has been featured on “SportsCenter” and has her own logo, a signature paddle and a sponsorship deal with Fila. She’s growing right along with the sport.
“I used to hear, like, ‘Ha-ha, that’s just an old-person sport,” the 15-year-old said with a laugh. “But now they see me on TV and stuff. Or they see that I’m playing with celebrities that they know. And I’m like: ‘I told you. Pickleball is a legit thing.’ ” | 2022-09-20T15:18:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Pickleball is exploding, and it’s getting messy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/20/pickleball-growth-tennis/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/20/pickleball-growth-tennis/ |
Trump has more legal problems of his own making
Pages from the affidavit by the FBI in support of obtaining a search warrant for former president Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. (Mario Tama/Photographer: Mario Tama/Getty I)
Donald Trump and Federal Judge Aileen M. Cannon might end up regretting their selection of Raymond Dearie as the special master to undertake the review of classified papers retrieved from the former president’s Mar-a-Lago club. In fact, as Trump desperately attempts to delay a possible indictment, the Justice Department’s investigation into Trump seems to be gaining speed.
Things took a turn for the worse for Trump and Cannon when the no-nonsense Dearie demanded what Cannon failed to do: make Trump say under oath whether he had “declassified” any documents. That’s a problem for Trump. If he attests to something widely believed to be false (multiple former Trump officials have said there was no outstanding order to declassify documents), he risks criminal charges for lying. If he says he didn’t declassify them, the government’s classification system is final (worsening his liability for hoarding the documents).
Trump’s attorney’s are refusing to answer Dearie’s questions about declassification for now, an astounding act of gamesmanship. Their defiance will only bring Dearie closer to the point of ruling that there is no dispute as to classification (contrary to Cannon’s assertion). Given the nature of the documents and the potential threat to national security their mishandling poses, it seems virtually impossible for Trump to sustain an executive privilege claim.
This should have been obvious to Cannon as well, but she chose to fob the decision off to Dearie, who — unless the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit beats him to the punch — will likely end Trump’s bogus attempt to recover top-secret documents that never belonged to him.
Trump’s team is also whining that Dearie is moving expeditiously with a final report due back to Cannon no later than Nov. 30. If Trump’s advisers were betting on Dearie dragging his feet, they seemed to have miscalculated.
In fact, Dearie might be the least of Trump’s new legal travails. The New York Times reports that former White House attorney Eric Herschmann “warned [Trump] late last year that he could face legal liability if he did not return government materials he had taken with him when he left office.” Herschmann has already been called to testify before a federal grand jury. If he confirms this account, it could be “the latest evidence that Mr. Trump had been informed of the legal perils of holding onto material that is now at the heart of a Justice Department criminal investigation into his handling of the documents and the possibility that he or his aides engaged in obstruction,” the Times reported.
In other words, just as Trump was warned that his scheme to secure phony electors to overturn the 2020 election was illegal, it seems he knew it was illegal to keep highly sensitive documents. He did it anyway.
To be clear, Trump should have been on notice that the materials were classified and not properly held by him given that the government had requested the documents and then subpoenaed them. But the new evidence makes clear that his own former advisers were telling him, as the Times put it, about “the seriousness of the issue and the potential for investigations and legal exposure if he did not return the documents, particularly any classified material.” This is as close to definitive proof of criminal intent as you will get.
Trump never learns. He continually disregards the advice of serious lawyers. Instead, he searches for answers he prefers from cranks, incompetents and partisan ideologues. (In the case of Mar-a-Lago, he has reportedly turned to non-lawyer and right-wing zealot Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch.) That not only lands him in hot water but also risks making the serious lawyers into adverse witnesses against him.
Trump remains his own worst legal enemy. At this rate, it’s possible the Justice Department will make its decision on whether it will charge Trump for his document-hoarding by year’s end. | 2022-09-20T15:40:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Trump has more legal problems of his own making - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/20/trump-classified-documents-dearie-special-master/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/20/trump-classified-documents-dearie-special-master/ |
First, it shows that the US has a red-state elite that can no longer articulate or justify its own privileges — for instance, living in an exclusive community such as Martha’s Vineyard. Second, it shows that the conservative establishment has no real plan for fixing a broken US immigration system.
Even before the modest number of Venezuelan arrivals, the island was known for its extreme income inequality. Wages there are below the Massachusetts average, and living expenses prohibitively expensive. Those realities stem from decisions about land use made by the island’s population.(1)
The larger point, of course, is that the US has too many arrivals living in “immigration limbo.” They can cross the border with an asylum claim and then live in the country while they wait for a slow and somewhat arbitrary judicial system to hear their claim. The US would do better with a system of more ex ante immigration approvals, and fewer hanging cases ex post.
Perhaps the presence of so many asylum seekers from Venezuela will convince some wealthy island residents of the failures of socialism. More than that, their journey should be all the evidence any American needs of the utter dysfunctionality of the US immigration system.
• Can Immigrants Save American Democracy?: Romesh Ratnesar
• How to Make Progress in the Immigration Debate: Karl Smith
(1) I am OK with such community-supported zoning restrictions when they apply to very limited local areas, such as Martha’s Vineyard, and there are many options to look elsewhere. The problem arises when they start infesting a larger part of the US, as they have. | 2022-09-20T15:44:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | When Immigration Hypocrisy Landed on Martha’s Vineyard - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/when-immigration-hypocrisy-landed-on-marthas-vineyard/2022/09/20/e7827c84-38f9-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/when-immigration-hypocrisy-landed-on-marthas-vineyard/2022/09/20/e7827c84-38f9-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
An anti-Che Guevara T-shirt available at the recently opened Victims of Communism Museum in Washington, D.C. (Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/For The Washington Post)
Channy Laux, 60, is the granddaughter of a refugee from communist China who fled to Cambodia. She was 13 when the communist Khmer Rouge, which would eventually kill almost 2 million people, took over Cambodia in 1975. Her father and brother were shot trying to escape to Thailand through the jungle. Laux was sent to a reeducation camp and was tortured, raped and starved. She eventually reached the United States as a refugee with no English skills, studied to be an engineer, wrote a memoir, and now runs a Cambodian restaurant and food business in San Jose. “If you think that capitalism is bad,” she says, “wait until you live under communism.”
Bleak canvases by Ukrainian painter Nikolai Getman — who turned his Siberian gulag years into art — adorn the walls. An interactive display allows visitors to choose what they would do if facing persecution by Fidel Castro and other dictators. A photo gallery of those who survived communism includes Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Pope John Paul II and the Dalai Lama. A merchandise table near the front door sells anti-Che Guevara shirts; the face of Cuba’s revolutionary hero, often found on dorm room walls, is encircled in red with a line through it.
From 2015: Yes, there are socialists in D.C. You just haven’t looked hard enough.
Wood says communists are “against the victimization of anyone under any system.” “I can’t defend everything that’s been done in the past century-and-a-half in the name of communism. ... Humans are always going to make mistakes,” she argues. Wood has never been to the museum, but, “judging from its website,” she says, “this museum could be the basis of a whole other museum called ‘Lies About Communism.’ ”
One of the volunteer speakers associated with the museum is Rushan Abbas, who is Uyghur and was born in East Turkestan — otherwise known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China — in 1967. Among her earliest memories is her mother being taken away by Red Guards; both her mother and father were forced into reeducation during Mao’s Cultural Revolution. The family was eventually reunited, but Abbas’s father worried enough about Rushan’s participation in anti-communist protests in the 1980s ahead of the Tiananmen massacre to arrange for her to study in the United States.
Opinion: China seized my sister. Biden must fight for her and all enslaved Uyghurs.
Justin Wm. Moyer is a reporter for The Post. | 2022-09-20T15:45:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | New anti-communism museum in D.C. tallies 100 million victims of the ideology - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/09/20/victims-of-communism-museum-opens/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/09/20/victims-of-communism-museum-opens/ |
King Charles III: The epitome of inherited everything.
King Charles III walks through Windsor Castle ahead of the committal service for Queen Elizabeth II at St. George's Chapel. (Peter Nicholls/Pool/AP)
The funeral of Queen Elizabeth II was majestic, historic and very, very long. It was a procession of prayers and hymns, buglers and solemn bagpipers all tucked into two services and one interment and watched by a global audience. But the two minutes of silence during the ceremony at Westminster Abbey was particularly moving. During that brief, quiet interlude, a small slice of the world stopped jabbering and spinning and gave in to reflection, not simply on the impact that the 96-year-old monarch had during her reign, but on what it means to love, to mourn and to ultimately carry on.
It’s the carrying on that’s always the struggle. And that’s the primary duty, the fundamental role, facing King Charles III. At 73, he is the senior citizen king, not so much a reflection of the future as he is a reminder of all the work that must be done in the here and now. His very presence is a complicating factor to all the history and turmoil and empire-building he symbolizes. He’s the White male heir at a time when White male privilege at all levels has been vigorously called into question. He is the epitome of inherited everything. He is a distillation of our contemporary grievances.
Monarch buried next to Prince Philip at Windsor
He isn’t what the world needs to see. Yet, if he is to live up to his duty, he must be seen. Eventually.
Charles follows a sovereign who reigned for 70 years, one of the most famous women in the world, a confidante of a long procession of prime ministers and often the sole woman with a voice in a room full of male leaders. Perhaps she did not say enough or do enough over her life. But still, there she was. She was widely admired for stepping up to a task for which she was only minimally prepared. And she endured. By the time she was an eminence gris, President Biden said she reminded him of his mother. More than a few of her subjects thought of her as the country’s grandmother. These characterizations, perhaps, say more about our relationship with distinguished older women — and our need to distill them into a warm and fuzzy stereotype — than it does her maternal nature.
Popular culture, from “The Crown” to “The Queen,” built her into a flawed but determined figure. A woman who grew into both her role and her symbolism. If princes and princesses are the stardust of fairy-tales, queens are the heroines. On social media, the designation is applied to any woman at the top of her game or one who has overcome obstacles. She is bestowed with a series of fire emoji in lieu of a crown.
The television cameras always found him in the crowd, but the eye didn’t naturally fall on him. He was easy to lose amid the men in their bright red uniforms and their gold braid; those Royal Navy servicemen and their precise choreography. Charles was dwarfed by his towering sons, the Prince of Wales in uniform and Prince Harry in morning suit. And even Princess Anne, walking soberly with her siblings — back straight and eyes forward, her slender frame outfitted in her own polished uniform — seemed larger.
The gray-haired Charles, his eyes hollow and his mouth set in a flat, narrow line, didn’t add to the majesty of the day as much as he seemed deflated by it. His millennial children are the stars of the current royal soap opera, one that has obsessives parsing the brothers every interaction to suss out whether they’re truly on speaking terms or just putting on a pantomime of fraternal cordiality, one that has them fretting over Prince Harry’s second-row seat in Westminster Abbey. All royal aficionados can finally sigh in relief that Charles and Camilla, the Queen Consort, have made peace with their public. They seem like a nice older couple. She supports victims of domestic abuse. He is an environmentalist. Yet without the klieg lights of gossip, the King falls into soft focus.
But perhaps this near invisibility is for the best, at least for now. In the current times, Charles represents those who are now being asked to listen more than they speak, step out of the spotlight so others can garner a bit of attention. The aggrieved do not want to be told that mistakes were made or that the past was regrettable. They want accountability, but if that isn’t forthcoming, then a first-person apology would at least be a start. They want to be seen for who they are and for what their ancestors could have been if only they had been wholly seen.
The new king is the embodiment of so many traditions and injustices that Western culture is struggling to come to terms with — stolen land, stolen wealth, stolen labor, stolen hope — and among them is the notion of inevitability. Charles stands as the bridge to generations and generations of inevitability — all the way down to 9-year-old Prince George, the someday-king with a tousle of blond hair and fidgety energy. If the queen was lauded for comforting her subjects with consistency, Charles comes to the throne at a time when the greatest gift to some people might be inconsistency, uncertainty and ultimately, possibility.
The questions facing the culture are vast and impossible for a single man to address. He might be a king, but he isn’t a god. Nonetheless, they land at Charles’s feet. They are his to consider. The queen has been quoted as saying “We have to be seen to be believed.” That may well be accurate.
But it’s a truth that is not limited to the monarchy. | 2022-09-20T15:45:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | King Charles III: The epitome of inherited everything. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/20/king-charles-iii-epitome-inherited-everything/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/20/king-charles-iii-epitome-inherited-everything/ |
Trump lawyers, Justice Dept. to meet with Mar-a-Lago special master
Meeting in federal court comes after Trump’s lawyers acknowledge the Mar-a-Lago case may lead to an indictment
5/15/08 225 Cadman Plaza East, Brooklyn Federal Court, Eastern District, Brooklyn, NY. Chief Justice Raymond J. Dearie. (Gregory P. Mango)
NEW YORK - Lawyers for Donald Trump are scheduled to meet Tuesday with federal prosecutors and the special master appointed at the request of the former president to review documents seized from his Florida home.
In a court filing ahead of the hearing, Trump’s lawyers acknowledged that the investigation into the documents found at Mar-a-Lago could lead to an indictment.
The newly-appointed special master, federal judge Raymond J. Dearie, is weighing the mechanics of how to review about 11,000 documents, roughly 100 of which are classified, that were taken Aug. 8 when FBI agents executed a court-authorized search of Trump’s residence and private club.
Prosecutors say the search was necessary to recover highly sensitive national security papers, following months of prevaricating by Trump’s legal team about what classified documents he had after leaving the White House, and whether he had given them all back to the government. Officials say they are investigating several potential crimes, including mishandling of national defense information, and hiding or destroying government records. Trump’s lawyers accuse the Justice Department of trying to turn a records-keeping dispute with the National Archives and Records Administration into a criminal case.
Trump lawyers acknowledge Mar-a-Lago case may lead to indictment
U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, granted Trump’s request for a special master — a neutral third-party legal expert — to review the seized documents to determine which may be covered by claims of attorney-client privilege or the far more vague and disputed assertion of executive privilege.
After Cannon appointed Dearie to serve as special master, Dearie ordered both sides to appear in his courtroom Tuesday to talk over the mechanics of reviewing the documents — even as the Justice Department is appealing parts of Cannon’s order. Prosecutors have asked a higher court to stay Cannon’s decision that Dearie should review the classified as well as the non-classified documents, and that the FBI and Justice Department cannot use the classified documents as part of their criminal investigation while the special master review is ongoing.
In a filing ahead of Tuesday’s hearing, lawyers for Trump expressed concern that Dearie has posed questions to them that Cannon left unasked, including about whether the documents that bore classification markings were in fact classified. The lawyers argued that Trump — who had broad declassification powers when he was president — might be at a legal disadvantage if he answered those questions at this stage of the process.
Explaining whether Trump declassified the documents, the lawyers wrote, would force Trump to “fully and specifically disclose a defense to the merits of any subsequent indictment without such a requirement being evident in the District Court’s order.” By raising that concern, the lawyers acknowledged at least the possibility that the former president or his aides could be criminally charged in the case.
The Washington Post has reported that among the classified material the FBI took from Mar-a-Lago was a document describing a foreign government’s military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities, according to people familiar with the search, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive details of an ongoing investigation.
Some of the seized documents detail top-secret U.S. operations so closely guarded that only the president, some members of his Cabinet or a near-Cabinet-level official could authorize other government officials to know details about them, these people said.
Barrett reported from Washington. | 2022-09-20T15:45:23Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Dearie meets with Trump lawyers, Justice Dept., on Mar-a-Lago search - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/09/20/dearie-mar-a-lago-trump/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/09/20/dearie-mar-a-lago-trump/ |
Former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice Michael Gableman, an investigator hired by Republicans to look into former president Donald Trump's 2020 loss in the battleground state, takes the stand and refuses to answer questions from Circuit Court Judge Frank Remington on June 10, 2022, in Madison, Wis. (Amber Arnold/AP)
There was never any good reason to think that the results of the 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin were tainted by fraud. Donald Trump won the state narrowly in 2016 and lost it narrowly four years later. His deafening insistences that something weird happened as the votes were counted was easily explained. In county after county — ones he won in 2020 and ones he lost — there was a slight shift in vote margin to his opponent. And that was that.
But, as you know, Trump was not content with that being that. Recognizing that his popularity with the Republican base gave him leverage over his party’s elected officials, he began pressure campaigns across the country aimed at deploying legislative power to undermine the 2020 results. In Wisconsin, that meant pressuring Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R).
In June 2021, shortly after Trump had called him out by name, Vos announced a probe aimed at uncovering this purported fraud. To lead the effort, he selected Michael Gableman, a retired member of the state Supreme Court. The intent, it seemed, was to demonstrate that this was not a partisan fishing expedition but, instead, a probe guided by an experienced jurist.
That is not how it turned out. A bit over a year later, Gableman’s probe was shuttered by Vos and the former judge cited for contempt. The investigation turned up nothing of consequence. And Gableman, it seems, has transitioned from retired judge to anti-establishment revolutionary.
On Monday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on comments Gableman made earlier this month at a Republican Party event in Outagamie County, Wis. In his speech, a recording of which was filmed by liberal activist Lauren Windsor, Gableman explicitly advocates for “revolution.”
“I feel like I’ve been working in the Twilight Zone,” Gableman says. “And the papers have painted me out as if I’m the bad guy. So it’s a good thing I’m not doing it for the papers, I’m doing it for you.”
“For the first time in my life, I am beginning to wonder if America’s best days aren’t behind us,” he added a bit later. “I don’t know. But I’ll tell you what. Our comfort, our comfort is holding us back from taking the action that’s necessary.” After a riff on how the frequency of obesity is a mark of the country’s abundance, he continued. “It’s that very comfort that is keeping us from what our Founders knew to be the only way to keep an honest government, which is revolution.”
“Thomas Jefferson said that the tree of liberty must be watered by the blood of revolution every generation,” Gableman said. “I don’t think that’s going to happen. And our president has gone out of his way to say, ‘Don’t even think about a revolution. We have F-14s.’ Who talks like that?
Gableman did not respond to a request for comment from The Post.
People who recognize the downside of an armed conflict, certainly. Presidents of nations. People like that.
Gableman misquotes Jefferson here. In a letter written in 1787, Jefferson praised Shay’s rebellion, an uprising that emerged among Revolutionary War veterans in Massachusetts as the Constitution was being drafted. He derided British claims about the new nation having collapsed into anarchy, and suggested that seeing such rebellions every few decades — ones rooted in misconceptions but demonstrating interest in governance — was healthy. In another letter that same year, he described rebellion as “a medecine [sic] necessary for the sound health of government.”
This is not what Gableman is describing. Jefferson, expressing his own opinion in a time before the First Amendment’s protections for the right to assemble and to petition the government, embraces rebellion, uprising. He did not endorse revolution — an overthrow of the government — or suggest that revolution should be a feature of government.
It’s fairly easy to trace Gableman’s path to this point. Even when Vos nominated him, there were obvious questions about his impartiality. He had attended a pro-Trump protest in Wisconsin on Nov. 7, 2020, soon after the election was called for Joe Biden. While Wisconsin’s Supreme Court elections are technically nonpartisan, there is often little question about partisan allegiances. Gableman, for example, served for a time as a county Republican Party chairman. The review itself was plagued with problems. At one point, Gableman admitted that he lacked “a comprehensive understanding or even any understanding of how elections work.”
In March, Gableman appeared before a committee of the state assembly to present the findings of his probe. A report offered to the chamber was clear that the intent of the investigation was “not to challenge certification of the Presidential election.” But in presenting the findings, Gableman encouraged them to decertify the election results anyway.
Why? Not for any good reason. The probe made two central claims in its effort to cast suspicion on the election results. The first was that a nonprofit group had provided funding to expand voting access in the state, something that Gableman’s team suggested was a violation of law — despite courts having repeatedly upheld the grants. The second was a claim about suspicious vote totals in nursing homes, a claim that was soon debunked. No evidence was presented to suggest that the victor in the state was anyone other than Biden.
Despite turning up no evidence of any significant fraud, Gableman became a star in Trumpworld. Trump praised him personally at an event held at Mar-a-Lago in April. There’s a reason he was asked to speak at that dinner in Outagamie County, after all.
Vos’s refusal to entertain overturning the election results — something Trump continued to demand even into this summer — made him a target of the former president in the state’s primary elections. Gableman joined the fight, endorsing Vos’s opponent. Soon after Vos won renomination, he ended Gableman’s probe, withdrawing subpoenas from Gableman’s effort. Gableman, meanwhile, was facing a contempt-of-court citation for failing to preserve documents from the election review.
That Gableman is now advocating for some sort of “revolution” is telling. He is a figure who was at the center of the Republican establishment in a swing state for years — a literal component of the state’s justice system. Asked to expend that legacy in a review of the 2020 election, Gableman then collapsed into Trumpism. He embraced Trump’s theory of the case and Trump embraced him back. He moved to the right of the state’s staunchly conservative establishment and came into conflict with it. And now he sees no path forward but to perhaps challenge those F-14s.
Contriving reasons to challenge elections is to democracy what dividing by zero is in math: Once you do it, anything can follow. In Wisconsin what followed was an elected jurist telling supporters that revolution is a viable, natural next step. | 2022-09-20T15:45:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Following Trump, a state supreme court justice becomes a revolutionary - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/20/trump-wisconsin-court-2020-election/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/20/trump-wisconsin-court-2020-election/ |
FILE - Boston Bruins’ Zdeno Chara, of Slovakia, hoists the cup following the Bruins’ 4-0 win over the Vancouver Canucks in Game 7 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Finals on Wednesday, June 15, 2011, in Vancouver, British Columbia. Chara announced his retirement Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022, after playing 21 NHL seasons and captaining the Boston Bruins to the Stanley Cup in 2011. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jonathan Hayward, File) | 2022-09-20T15:46:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Longtime NHL defenseman Zdeno Chara, 45, retires as Bruin - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nhl/longtime-nhl-defenseman-zdeno-chara-45-retires-as-bruin/2022/09/20/e0a31694-38f9-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nhl/longtime-nhl-defenseman-zdeno-chara-45-retires-as-bruin/2022/09/20/e0a31694-38f9-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
Transcript: Queen Elizabeth II: A Conversation with David Miliband
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Hello, and welcome the Washington Post Live. I’m Frances Stead Sellers, a senior writer here The Post.
Millions of people tuned in today to watch the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's longest-serving monarch. Here with me today to make sense of this pivotal moment with the Queen's death and the ascension of King Charles III is David Miliband, who served as foreign secretary from 2007 to 2010.
David, a very warm welcome to Washington Post Live.
MR. MILIBAND: Thanks, Frances. Very good to be with you.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: A word to our audience before we go any further, please send in any Twitter questions you may have to @PostLive. You can tweet your questions to @PostLive and we'll try to take a few of them during the show.
So, David, you probably saw the queue. I'm sure you did. Five miles long, we watched those huge lines of people lining up, and headlines are now saying this is the moment that unites the nation. Do you think the Queen's funeral in any way points towards the survival of the monarchy?
MR. MILIBAND: Well, I think it's hard to make instant judgments, especially on the day of a funeral. I think it's very important to recognize quite what a unique person Queen Elizabeth was: 70 years on the throne, a third of the life of America, as someone pointed out, and someone who, for 70 years, had made public service such a central feature of her--not just her life, but her existence.
And what I try to explain, especially in America--I live and work in the U.S., but I'm obviously a Brit, as you can tell by my accent--is that the unity you reference in respect of the Queen legitimized great political division beneath her, and that's the combination that I think is important. It is not that British people agree about everything, but there's the point of unity, especially the point about public service, with stoicism, with grace, with commitment, with tolerance, with an ability to bend and to change. That point of unity in a way provided a basis for people to disagree in ways that weren't too disagreeable, and I think that's been part of the secret of success, and the sheer range of British points of view. You saw the elected first minister of Northern Ireland from Sinn Fein; the Scottish nationalist, first minister of Scotland able to be engaged in this period of mourning in a way that I think is quite powerful.
And so, I'm sure you watched the funeral, I did this morning. The music was really extraordinary. It was very much in keeping with the Queen's personality. She wasn't someone for verbal superlatives, and there weren't too many verbal superlatives. The superlatives were in the occasion and in the music, I think.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Yes, how very well put. You raised the question of political unity going ahead. Britain is at a striking moment with Brexit still not fully understood. Internationally, there's a reckoning over the legacy of colonialism that comes to a head maybe with this moment. There's economic instability, war in Europe, an awful lot going on right now. How do you think those things fit in as we have this great transitional moment with the ascension of King Charles III.
MR. MILIBAND: Well, I think transitional, which is the word that you used, was a very well-chosen word. The transition, at one level, was seamless, the last Thursday week, ten days ago. But obviously, it's a grinding--it's a period of grinding gears for the western world, given the invasion of Ukraine; for Britain, given the adjustment post-Brexit to its political alliances, never mind its economic alliances.
And that has prompted all kinds of debate because the--for some people, the Scottish question is unresolved, and there remain very real issues about how the position of Northern Ireland is to be squared with the Brexit that the government have chosen. So, I think that, for many British people, the last ten days have brought a relief from those questions, but those questions haven't gone away. And the place of Britain in Europe and the wider world--Britain is still a European country, even though it's left the European Union, is important. Its position in the wider world remains very much contested. And it's a country that still has great strengths, but its domestic strains are real.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: The values you talked about, particularly duty, we often associate with the Second World War, and of course the Queen was a link to that period. What do you make of the response of young people, now? Do those same values resonate with them?
MR. MILIBAND: Well, it's interesting. Let me just say one thing. I read a comment today from Paul Keating, who's the former prime minister of Australia and avowed Republican, and he put it very well, I think. He talked about how in the 20th century there'd been, if you like, a privatization of individual feeling. He didn't quite put it like that, but he used a phrase like that. And he said, what the Queen embodied was an assertion of public spirit, and I don't think that is a historic or 20th century idea, and I want to try and link that to your question about young people, because I think there are tens of millions of young people all around the world who see a world of connection between them and people far away.
And they haven't privatized themselves into their own cubby hole. They are thinking globally about serious issues, but also about culture and sport and other aspects of life. So, I think one shouldn't try and isolate the reaction to the Queen's death separate from the wider issues that face the globe.
I mean, I spend my professional time running a global humanitarian organization. We help people whose lives are shattered by conflict and disaster. We were founded by Albert Einstein, the International Rescue Committee in New York in the 1930s. So, we take the global view, and what we see is the consequences of an undermanaged and mismanaged global commons. My point in answering your question is that undermanagement or mismanagement of the global commons is something that is felt profoundly.
And actually, I think when people ask themselves, well, why are young people still--why have there been so many young people queuing or so many young people on the streets to meet Prince Charles, one potential explanation is that he's been very modern in his embrace of the need for living within the confines of--living within the natural confines of a single planet that we share.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Right, of course. Ideas of his that seemed a little outlandish years ago now seem very current. And maybe you can talk a little bit about them, his interest in the climate, in organic gardening, in building to a human scale.
MR. MILIBAND: Yes, Prince Charles, as he then was--I became Secretary of State for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs in 2006. And he was determined to open himself up to answering my questions about his views. He was happy to give advice. And more recently, he's been the patron of the International Rescue Committee in the UK and has thrown himself into that patronage in a very serious way.
We took him on a virtual visit to a malnutrition clinic that we run in northern Nigeria. He visited himself refugees from Syria in Germany. He went to Jordan and visited the Zaatari refugee camp where we deliver--or I'm sorry, it was outside Oman, actually. He met refugees from the Zaatari refugee camp who came to meet him outside Oman. So, he's someone who has shown a genuine humanity and humanitarianism. Now, obviously, as King he will have to curb his charitable activities. He's said that himself the day after the Queen died. But I think that that is an important aspect of the way that the monarchy has moved on. And I think it would be a pity if that sense of humanity or humanitarianism was lost in the transition that's now taking place.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: I'd love to ask you a little bit more about your personal experiences with royalty. Of course, you traveled with the Queen when you were foreign secretary. She's known for putting people at ease. She's known for being very knowledgeable. She's known for this dutiful approach that you referenced earlier on.
What else surprised you about her?
MR. MILIBAND: Well, she was just distinctly unstuffy. It's the last thing that you would expect. She was dignified but unstuffy, and I saw a number of examples of that. When Condoleezza Rice was finishing as secretary of state in the U.S., we were wracking our brains about how we could mark her departure from office, because she'd--whether you agreed with her or disagreed with her--she obviously came from the center right of the political spectrum; I came of the center left of the political spectrum--but she was a remarkable colleague in all sorts of ways. And there was a state dinner, I think, for the President of Mexico and we suddenly had the idea, why don't we offer to Condi the chance to play in the music room of Buckingham Palace with--my wife's a violinist. So, she brought three members of the London Symphony Orchestra and we couldn't really get an answer until we asked the Queen and she said, oh, that would be a great idea. And sure enough, I think it would have been in December 2008, Buckingham Palace was open for Condi and my wife, Louise, and her colleagues to play a quartet.
And there were corgis running around. The Queen's were slapped when they got out of line. And she was extraordinarily dignified but unstuffy. When--as you referenced, when the Queen went on foreign trips, the foreign secretary goes with her. I think you had a couple of clips, there, or a couple of photos. I had to depart from a visit to Lithuania and Latvia. And the protocol would have been, well, that meant my wife would have to go back on Easy Jet and the Queen said, oh, don't be ridiculous. She's part of the team. Just let her come along. She was unstuffy, while obviously maintaining decorum and dignity at every stage.
And my goodness, she knew her stuff. I mean, she'd met every prince and prime minister you could think of, and president. And if you were discussing different countries around the world, she had insight that spoke directly to this idea that the monarch was there to provide counsel to her ministers, which I think the Archbishop of Canterbury referenced in his eulogy this morning.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: You referenced these overseas trips and of course they grab the international headlines, as do weddings and today's funeral. But it strikes me that much of what the Queen has done, and we'll see going ahead, has made local headlines rather than international and national headlines. Am I right in thinking that?
MR. MILIBAND: You mean local in the UK?
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Yeah.
MR. MILIBAND: Yeah, I mean, I think we shouldn't get this--at one level, it's been a global event; at another event, we shouldn't get it out of proportion. Of course, it's more important to British people than to people anywhere else.
Of course, there are all sorts of issues about the future of the commonwealth. There are countries debating whether to become republics; that's totally within their rights. But equally, I think the longevity and sincerity of the Queen's reign is something that has given everyone a chance to pause and reflect.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Let me pick up on that. Why do you think the Queen has captured the imagination of Americans? And I don't just mean this funeral; I mean for decades leading up to this funeral. She and her family were followed, and popular magazines. Is it all about celebrity instead of duty or is there something else that I don't understand?
MR. MILIBAND: Well, you should probably ask some Americans that, since you're asking [audio distortion]--
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Well, you live here. You live here. So, hazard a guess for me.
[Overlapping speakers]
MR. MILIBAND: I can give you my perspective.
First of all, I think that the fact that she'd met every American president since Truman gave her an absolutely unique mystique, and the fact that she didn't talk to anyone about what they were like meant that there was this added sense of--added dimension to her role. In fact, she'd known the representatives of the United States from the 1930s. She remembered President Kennedy's father being the ambassador at the UK at a very difficult time when debates about appeasement and rearmament were to the fore and were contested.
So, I think that part of the secret was the longevity and part of the secret was the extraordinary determination not to speak publicly about what she knew, and that added to the allure, I think. And I think at a time when so many public figures are brought down, whether by themselves or the media or by circumstance, she sustained a level of performance, if you like, a level of public service that could only bring admiration.
Now, the fact that she was a queen maybe has a special distance, but also a special allure in a country that renounced the monarchy 250 years ago.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: So, let's look forward, as you did. You referenced the fact that some countries may decide to be independent from the commonwealth. We're also undergoing a reckoning in many countries about the legacy of colonialism. What specific challenges do you think a 73-year-old White man has in managing these enormous challenges moving ahead?
MR. MILIBAND: Well, I think, to go back to what I started with, his job is not to manage. His job is to be the monarch and to respect the limits that are placed on that. And politics will take its course and, in the end, he will perform his duties but countries will come to their own views.
I heard an interview with the Prime Minister of Australia and the Prime Minister of New Zealand separately, that they both said, look, this will be addressed, but now is not the time to address it. There's a period of mourning, there's a period of respect. We've got big, global issues that we're dealing with. We can come to this in due course. And I think that there have been similar statements from prime ministers and presidents in the West Indies, in Barbados, in Jamaica, and elsewhere.
And I think that going forward there will be politics and then there will be the role of the monarch. His role is obviously to listen, to advise as appropriate. But in the end, it's a commonwealth, not an empire, and that was the transition that happened under Queen Elizabeth and is now settled. And so, other countries can decide for themselves. They've become independent. The question is whether they want to become a republic, and that's for them.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: So, I'd love to hear your views about stability in Britain. We've got a new King, and a prime minister who the Queen ushered in two days before she died. What does that mean for--and you made very clear the monarchy is not about politics. But still, what does it mean for political and leadership stability?
MR. MILIBAND: Well, Britain has provided a great example of stability at the level of head of state recently but not a very good example of political stability.
I mean, this is the fourth prime minister in six years. So, politics is reflecting the tumult of society and tumult within the conservative party, obviously, which is the governing party in the UK. And Britain faces big, big challenges, some of which face every industrialized society. How does it make its way in the world? How does it create wealth in the modern world? How does it distribute wealth in the modern world? Those are generic problems, whether you're in Britain or France or America.
Now, Britain has some added dimensions to it, most notably around Brexit, which is massively unfinished business, unresolved business. Brexit has happened, but the contours of future relationships between Britain and the rest of the European Union--or Britain and the European Union--is completely unresolved. There are in some ways consequent but also separate national questions, in Scotland and elsewhere, constitutional issues. And there are bread-and-butter issues, because although Britain is, relatively speaking, less dependent on Russian gas than other parts of Europe, it is as affected as everyone else by the rise in the gas price. And so, the economic pressures are very, very real. There's high inflation; there's high and growing gas prices. There's, by historic standards, relatively high debt-to-GDP. So, this is a very contested and testing time for British government.
And I think anyone who predicts to you that it's going to be serene and stable on the political front going forward is probably kidding themselves.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: You mentioned Europe, obviously, in that discussion because of Brexit. But could Brexit throw Britain closer to the United States, tighten the famous special relationship we've heard so much about?
MR. MILIBAND: I don't think so, because I don't think any American government that looks at the global balance of power would want to allow the UK to become a wedge between relations of 27 European countries and Washington.
Now, there are institutions like NATO that go beyond the EU. Those are transatlantic bodies that involve America and Canada, all the European countries, bar Ireland, which is neutral, and but also include the UK. So, there are other organizations and they have proved their worth in the course of the--for example, the Ukraine conflict. But I don't think--I think any British politician, and several of the current government have fallen into this trap of thinking that they could somehow drive a wedge between Washington and Brussels. They could use links to Washington to put pressure on Brussels. I think that's deeply mistaken. I think Britain got a lot of strength in Washington from its relationship with Brussels. So, now that they've been sundered, that actually poses a problem for the UK.
And I always say to people that the transatlantic relationship between Britain and the U.S. has to be about more than weddings and funerals. That's especially relevant today. But it can only be more so if there are strong relations between London and Brussels. And it's effective as a triangle; it's not going to be effective as a duopoly.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: David, I want to ask you about the IRC in a second, but one last question: You've seen the Queen's work as a diplomat, in effect, traveling with her. Today, the Princess of Wales met with the First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelensky.
What is the role of a slimmed-down monarchy, which we gather we're going to have going ahead in terms of greasing the wheels for Britain's relationship with the rest of the world?
MR. MILIBAND: Well, I hope that the monarchy can reflect the best of British values, and in much of what the Queen did, she did that. And you can't do better than that. And representing British values is something that's slightly different from representing British interests. It's the job of government to reflect British interests. They can be short-term, but Britain's values should be long-term, and that's something where I think the monarchy has a role to play.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: So, let's talk about the IRC. We're talking at a day when Hurricane Fiona dumped something like 30 inches of rain on Puerto Rico, is heading up through the Dominican Republic, through the Turks, and will go on towards Bermuda, it seems. Tell me what the role is of an organization like yours given this huge, growing threat we appear to have from climate change.
MR. MILIBAND: Well, our job as a humanitarian relief agency is to help people survive, recover, and gain control of their lives after their lives are shattered by conflict or disaster.
Now, I believe that the humanitarian movement and the climate movement have not done a good job of working together. There are three statistics I want you to remember. One is 54, that is the number of civil wars going on around the world, separate from Ukraine. The second number is 100 million, that's the number of people around the world who've been displaced from their homes, who've been rendered homeless by conflict. Fifty-five million are internally displaced in their own countries; 45 million are refugees and asylum seekers. You know that in the U.S. people coming from Central America. And the third figure is 345 million. That's the number of people around the world who are what the UN calls one step short of famine. They're at the international phase classification three or four, five being famine. Those are people who will go hungry tonight.
Now, the striking thing about those three statistics, the civil war statistic, the displacement statistic, and the hunger statistic is they're all affected by the climate crisis. You could probably calculate that at least half of the wars, half of the displaced, and half of the hungry, there is a climate dimension. It's not that there's a climate refugee, but that there's a climate contribution to the conflict that causes refugee flows.
And so, this requirement that we understand that the climate crisis is not just tomorrow's problem; it's not our grandchildren's problem or even our children's problem; it's today's problem, is very, very important. And that's something where I think the commitment of my organization to help people survive and recover and gain control of their lives must take account of the climate crisis.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Well, then, let's go straight to Pakistan, where we're seeing this enormous flooding there. Do we need a global organization to oversee these disasters and try to pull together the climate message along with the disaster response message?
MR. MILIBAND: Well, I think the first thing to say is that one of the dangers in the debate about so-called "global warming," so-called in the sense that it's more accurate to talk about the greenhouse effect. The danger of the phrase "global warming" is it suggests something incremental. We don't talk about "global boiling," which would sound more dramatic.
Now, the truth about the greenhouse effect is that it is associated not just with the rise in the average global temperature, aka global warming; it's also associated with more extreme weather events, and the amplitude of the weather events that we're seeing in Pakistan, that we're seeing in the hurricanes--not the frequency, but the amplitude, speaks to the changes, the man-induced--the manmade changes in the climate.
Now, second point, there are global organizations. There are global UN agencies. There are global UN environment programs, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. So, there are global agencies, but they are struggling to keep up with the tide of human misery that exists in a world which is undermanaged and mismanaged. And that is the essential challenge that we face today, that the risks are global, whether they be health risks or climate risks or nuclear risks, but resilience is increasingly national. And that's a mismatch that leaves you with the kind of problems that we've got today.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: So, we spoke about a year ago and you were talking about the need for a leadership-level group that could combat pandemics looking ahead. Is there a parallel, there? I mean, we have the WHO and you explained to me then that the WHO is about disease, not about national security, economic issues, and the many other ramifications of a pandemic. Is there a parallel there between those needs?
MR. MILIBAND: That's an interesting question. Just for the benefit of your audience who weren't necessarily here last year, I served on the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response. And the point we made was that pandemics are not just a health issue. Pandemics are a security issue; they're an economic issue; they're a political issue. And that's why we argued in our report that there needed to be a high-level panel of political leaders--if you like, a UN Security Council for Pandemics, that would mobilize global attention, that would hold accountable different actors.
Now, you can make the same argument in respect of the climate. The climate crisis is not just an environmental issue. It's an economic issue, security issue, political issue. And that's where I think we should be deeply concerned about the fragmentation of political leadership around the world and the increasing tendency of countries to opt out of the UN system. And there is a global set of rights and responsibilities on individuals and states. It's set out in the UN Charter. And there are a set of global institutions, but too many nations are divesting themselves of their global responsibilities and their global multilateral commitments, and that's, I think, where the debate needs to return. That includes a debate about reform of the UN, but it's also about commitment to global action, because this nationalization of resilience at a time of globalization of risk is a recipe for disaster.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: David, I've got time for only one last question, and it's another pandemic one. You talked before about--well, we've talked before about tackling pandemics. This year, we've had polio--a resurgence of polio, which is a vaccine-preventable disease. We've got monkeypox. We're seeing many viruses which were knocked back during the pandemic revive themselves. We've also, in this country, had GOP legislation push back public health measures.
Did we learn anything from this pandemic? Are we any better prepared to face another one?
MR. MILIBAND: Well, I think that there is an interesting example in monkeypox, because the determination of the Director-General of the World Health Organization to declare a public health emergency of international concern, even though there were still divided opinions on his executive committee, is very important. It's exactly the kind of preemptive action that we in the Independent Panel on Pandemic Preparedness and Response recommended. And so, that does suggest lessons have been learned.
However, the failure of, for example, the U.S. Congress to fund at all the global vaccination drive, that's an example of a failure to learn lessons. So, I think it's a mixed picture, but for me, the real lesson is absolutely obvious: We're an interconnected world, and whether it be health security, environmental security, nuclear security, unless we tackle these problems together, none of us are going to be sheltered.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: David Miliband, former foreign secretary and president of the IRC, thank you so much for joining us, today.
MR. MILIBAND: Thanks so much for your time.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Well, it was a powerful message to leave us with about the importance of understanding the interconnectedness of the world.
We have lots of good programming coming up on Washington Post Live. You can go to WashingtonPostLive.com and you’ll see a lineup, there. And we’ll look forward to seeing you again. I’m Frances Stead Sellers. Thank you so much for joining us. | 2022-09-20T15:47:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Transcript: Queen Elizabeth II: A Conversation with David Miliband - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/09/20/transcript-queen-elizabeth-ii-conversation-with-david-miliband/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/09/20/transcript-queen-elizabeth-ii-conversation-with-david-miliband/ |
The U.S. task force said the guidance for adults age 19 to 64 will help primary care clinicians identify early signs of anxiety, which can go undetected for years
(Washington Post illustration/Unsplash)
The draft recommendations, from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, are designed to help primary care clinicians identify early signs of anxiety during routine care, using questionnaires and other screening tools.
Anxiety disorders are often unrecognized and underdetected in primary care: One study cited by the task force found the median time for initiating treatment for anxiety is a staggering 23 years.
“Screening is great, but with a dire shortage in the workforce, it’s perplexing unless there are plans for increased funding of clinicians,” said Eugene Beresin, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and executive director of the Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds.
Global prevalence of anxiety and depression increased by 25 percent during the first year of the pandemic, the World Health Organization reported earlier this year. By the end of 2021, the WHO said, “the situation had somewhat improved but today too many people remain unable to get the care and support they need for both pre-existing and newly developed mental health conditions.”
Anxiety, with its telltale dread and gut-wrenching, heart-pounding, palm-sweating physical signs, can manifest in a number of distinct diagnoses, including generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder and others.
Together, these make up the most common mental illnesses in the United States, afflicting 40 million adults each year, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. Treatment can include psychotherapy, notably cognitive behavioral therapy; antidepressant or anti-anxiety medications; as well as various relaxation, mindfulness and desensitization therapies, physicians said.
“After 2020, it’s the rare patient who is not anxious,” said Qureshi, who noted that she now routinely asks patients, “How’s your stress?” “We have found that when it comes to mental health, if we don’t ask, often we don’t know.”
The panel also cited “racism and structural policies" that disproportionately affect people of color. The panel noted that Black patients are less likely to receive mental health services compared to other groups, and that misdiagnosis of mental health conditions occurs more often in Black and Hispanic patients. | 2022-09-20T15:47:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | U.S. health task force calls for routine anxiety screening in adults - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/09/20/mental-health-anxiety-screening/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/09/20/mental-health-anxiety-screening/ |
Serhii Mukaieliants
IZYUM, Ukraine — The last time the parents saw their children, they were boarding buses to Russia — for summer camp near the beach.
It was Aug. 27, and after months enduring some of the worst conditions imaginable, families in this largely destroyed city occupied by Russian forces since March had signed their kids up for camp in Gelendzhik, a Russian resort town on the Black Sea. They hoped the camp, advertised in Russian propaganda news outlets, would give their children a break from war and a semblance of normalcy.
Residents of Izyum celebrated the successful counteroffensive, which reignited hopes that the tide of the war was turning in Ukraine’s favor. But the advance also left the children who traveled to the camp in Russia stranded on the other side of a dangerous front line with no clear way home.
Many also expressed worries that publicizing that their children traveled to camp in Russia could spark accusations their families collaborated with Russian forces.
“I only have one thing in my head: to get my kid back,” said a woman whose 12-year-old son is at the camp. She said she last spoke to him directly more than 10 days ago.
Vera, 38, who spoke on the condition to use only her first name, sent her 15-year-old son, Dima, to the camp in hopes that it would help him recover physically and mentally from a cluster ammunition bombing.
Vera wept as she recalled how a bomb landed in the same room where her son and his friend had tried to hide from the attack, badly wounding them. The friend was evacuated for further medical treatment, and Dima stayed in Izyum, where doctors removed shrapnel from his limbs. But he never mentally recovered from the incident. “The kid was all stressed out,” she said. “He’s now afraid of every little noise or rattle.”
Vera said she feared that her son and the other children could be mistreated in Russia because of their Ukrainian nationality. But when she briefly got phone connection, she managed to video call Dima and saw “how tanned he was.” He assured her no one was harassing them.
“ ‘I shouldn’t have gone,’ ” she recalled Dima saying in their last call.
On Monday, the mothers compiled a list of the names and ages of 29 children from Izyum who they knew were still at the camp. Some parents have reportedly already traveled out of the area to try to retrieve their kids themselves. Others said they could not afford to make such a trip and that traveling through Europe to Russia would require international passports, which they don’t have.
Volodymyr Matsokyn, the deputy mayor of Izyum, who recently returned to the deoccupied city, said in a text message Tuesday that officials have a complete list of children at the camp and “are currently working on this issue together with state agencies.”
“We will definitely be returning the kids, whatever the cost,” Matsokyn said, noting that it will be important for international agencies “to help Ukraine to return our younger citizens back to their motherland.” Out of 200 children attending the camp in Gelendzhik, he said, 80 are from Izyum.”
The decision to send their children to camp also reflected the sense of confidence among Russian troops and officials that they had already effectively annexed the territory they controlled in Kharkiv — a miscalculation that evidently contributed to the surprise success of the Ukrainian offensive.
The camps seemed well organized and required routine medical checks as part of the enrollment process, parents said. Anatoliy Kovalenko, 58, general surgeon and chief doctor at a hospital in Izyum, said he did standard health checks for 10 to 15 children who he later learned had traveled to the camp.
An article about the camps featured photos of smiling children and said they are “having a safe rest” in Medvezhonok, which the newspaper describes as “one of the best parts of Russia, on the Black Sea coast.” Other children attended camps in Crimea, the peninsula jutting into the Black Sea, one article said.
Vitaliy Ganchev, the Russia-appointed head of the military-civilian administration of the Kharkiv region, was quoted as saying it was the first time children could vacation in Crimea and other areas “for free and in an organized manner, especially in August — in a high season.”
“As Russia was still here, they were supposed to come back here,” Vera said. “And then, when Ukraine entered here, they said, ‘We are prolonging the term for another 21 days.’ ”
One woman who gathered with other mothers Monday but declined to be named because of security concerns said that her teenage daughter understands “it’s going to be more difficult for them to come back” now because the lines of control have changed.
Initially, parents had zero interest in Russian camps. “In the beginning there was not even a question that we would send them,” the mother said. “Then the first group went and came back and the second group went and came back.”
Now that Izyum is back in Ukrainian control, and the children are stranded in Russia, “no one really takes pity on us,” she said.
To some observers, the simple fact they stayed in Izyum throughout the occupation “means we’re collaborators,” she said. Advertising that they had sent their children to camp in Russia would only encourage such suspicions, she said.
In May, Olya Yemelyanskaya’s house was struck by shelling, setting it ablaze and destroying most of it — including her teenage foster daughter’s bedroom.
When she heard about the camp on Russian radio, Yemelyanskaya said: “We had only one consideration — that they were really tired from all this.” Yemelyanskaya said she has two foster daughters living with her, one of whom is 18 and was too old to enroll in the camp.
“Seeing all this, these ruins, burned houses — they became more closed off,” she said of the girls. They wanted the younger one, Valentyna, “to at least get some rest,” she said.
Since then, they have not spoken to her directly. Another sister, who lives in the city of Kharkiv, has spoken to her through Viber. “She was saying they were treated well,” Yemelyanskaya said, weeping as she described her daughter’s situation. “And now of course she’s crying and wants to go home.”
“We miss her so much,” she said.
Whitney Shefte, Wojciech Grzedzinski and Lesia Prokopenko contributed to this report. | 2022-09-20T15:48:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Kharkiv children were sent to summer camp in Russia. They never came back. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/20/kharkiv-summer-camp-children-missing/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/20/kharkiv-summer-camp-children-missing/ |
Unity to invest more in battle royale, multiplayer game development
Rival of 'Fortnite’-maker Epic Games says the popularity of the battle royale genre informed its work on new, better tools
(Washington Post illustration; Unity Gaming)
Unity Software, which makes software for building video games and other digital simulations, is turning its focus to fine-tuning tools for game developers to work on multiplayer properties, particularly battle royale games. The company announced a new game server-hosting service Tuesday, allowing developers to scale up their titles without needing to build their own cloud infrastructure. It also touted the release of a game matchmaking service it had been testing, allowing studios to use a new queuing system.
Unity’s competitor, Epic Games, developer of the battle royale smash hit “Fortnite,” also owns Unreal Engine, which is used by developers looking to develop first-person shooters and multiplayer titles. The new approach from Unity looks to catch up to the popularity of battle royale titles like “Fortnite” and “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds” (PUBG), both games with robust player bases.
“We’re investing heavily in multiplayer game support because we see it as a trend for the last couple of years,” said Jeff Collins, Unity’s senior vice president of engineering, in an interview with The Washington Post. Historically, the company had attracted small, indie creators.
Still, Collins said some of the world’s major battle royale games such as “Apex Legends” and “Call of Duty: Warzone” were already using Unity’s multiplayer solutions — though those titles aren’t built on the Unity engine. He pointed to “Among Us” and “Valorant” as well as examples of games that use Unity services to support a large player base. “Call of Duty: Mobile” is also built on the Unity platform.
The game server-hosting service relies on Google Cloud and other infrastructure. The matchmaking feature was previously available for blockbuster studios in closed beta. It launches for everyone Sept. 20.
Unity also showcased the potential of its engine by adding a sample battle royale game. The sample game demonstrates the capabilities of Unity’s software, including the capacity to support up to 80 players. If game studios wish to expand this to up to 200 players, they must contact Unity and work with the company to obtain specific hardware to support this experience.
The company debuted on Wall Street in September of 2020. In 2022, it reported a net loss of $204 million in the financial quarter ending in June, up from its net loss of $148 million in the same time period last year. Earlier this summer, Unity laid off part of their staff as a cost-cutting measure, as first reported by Kotaku. The company did not share dollar amounts of its investment in tools for multiplayer games.
To shape its priorities, Unity surveyed about 1,500 gamers in the U.S., U.K., South Korea and Japan, with findings released in a report about multiplayer gaming Tuesday. Collins said the report could help Unity’s clients, game developers, determine what features appealed to gamers the most and focus on on those.
“If I’m a game developer, one of the hardest decisions to make is, ‘Are you going to invest in a certain kind of play mechanic in your game’ because that’s going to say everything about whether your game is successful or not,” Collins said.
The survey showed the battle royale genre was most popular, while turn-based titles were the least. For Unity, that means support for turn-based titles is not the priority.
“I can tell you that we don’t work very hard on them because of this,” Collins said.
Asked whether it was too late to begin supporting battle royale features for developers now, five years after “PUBG” and “Fortnite” took the world by storm, Collins said players would vote with their feet, and if the market is indeed oversaturated, they would simply not gravitate toward new battle royale titles.
“Now because of the strength of battle royale for so long, the rise of ‘Fortnite,’ it’s hard to predict a downturn in that yet,” Collins said. “But yeah, if I’m a new developer right now, I’m probably thinking about a twist on some of these titles.”
One of the features Unity highlighted in its report is that 31% of players considered in-game chat an important feature to have in their games. Unity acquired Massachusetts-based company Vivox in 2019, adding its voice and text chat capabilities to its software offerings for developers.
“Unity has been playing catch-up with its multiplayer capabilities, an area where it historically has been lacking,” said Joost van Dreunen, a lecturer on the business of games at the NYU Stern School of Business. “Unity brings a wealth of expertise to developers, for sure, but that also means taking market share from rival Epic Games, which continues to dominate with ‘Fortnite.’ The announcement comes at a time when Unity could use a win, since its share price has dropped to $37, down from over $200 in December last year.” | 2022-09-20T16:19:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Fortnite-maker's rival Unity to push battle royale features - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/09/20/unity-epic-unreal-fortnite/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/09/20/unity-epic-unreal-fortnite/ |
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks at a naturalization ceremony in New York on Saturday. The Justice Department announced charges on Tuesday in connection with what prosecutors say was $250 million in fraud targeting a pandemic food aid program. (Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)
The Justice Department charged 47 defendants Tuesday for allegedly defrauding a federal program that provided food for needy children during the pandemic, describing the scheme — totaling $250 million — as the largest uncovered to date targeting the government’s generous stimulus aid.
Federal prosecutors said the defendants — a network of individuals and organizations tied to Feeding Our Future, a Minnesota-based nonprofit — allegedly put the wrongly obtained federal pandemic funds toward luxury cars, houses and other personal purchases in what amounted to a case of “brazen” theft.
The alleged scheme centered on the Federal Child Nutrition Program, which is administered by the Agriculture Department to provide free meals to the children of lower-income families. Congress greatly expanded the program over the course of the pandemic, including by allowing a wider array of organizations to distribute food at a larger range of locations.
The changes to federal law opened the door for Feeding Our Future to play a greater role in distributing meals, the Justice Department contends, and the group disbursed more than $200 million over the course of 2021. In doing so, though, federal prosecutors alleged the company’s founder and executive director, Aimee Bock, oversaw a vast fraud scheme across Minnesota.
Bock recruited individuals and companies that “fraudulently claimed to be serving meals to thousands of children a day,” prosecutors contend. Some of the defendants created shell companies to enroll in the program and serve as sites for meal distribution, according to the government. In other cases, the Justice Department alleges that the defendants submitted the names of fake kids obtaining meals and false invoices for food purchases that never occurred.
Feeding Our Future ultimately reaped $18 million in administrative fees that in the eyes of the government it was “not entitled” to receive. Company employees also appeared to solicit “bribes and kickbacks” from individuals and companies that it sponsored, the government says. | 2022-09-20T17:15:56Z | www.washingtonpost.com | U.S. charges ‘brazen’ theft of $250 million from pandemic food program - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/09/20/pandemic-fraud-food-children-doj/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/09/20/pandemic-fraud-food-children-doj/ |
Russia’s recognition of Ukraine’s separatist Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics was the precursor to President Vladimir Putin’s Feb. 24 invasion of the country, and extending its control of those areas has since become his primary goal. Parts of the two eastern provinces, known collectively as the Donbas, have been effectively under Russian control since the Kremlin fomented and supported a separatist uprising in 2014. Now they are the main battlefield for Europe’s biggest armed conflict since World War II.
Mariupol, the second-largest city in the Donbas, was critical to Putin’s goal of securing a land bridge from Russia to Crimea and became a major focus of the war. During a three-month siege, Russian forces laid waste to its buildings and forced much of its pre-war population of almost 500,000 to flee. As the city fell in May, Russia concentrated on securing the entire Donbas, diverting troops from a failed attempt to take the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. Russian artillery pounded Ukrainian defenses before inching forward at the cost of high casualties on both sides. The tide appeared to turn in September, when Ukraine recaptured a swathe of territory east of the city of Kharkiv. The Kremlin responded by organizing sham votes to approve of its annexation of the areas still under its control. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has pledged to take back all territories occupied since 2014, including the Donbas and Crimea.
• A Bloomberg story on Putin’s narrowing options following Ukraine’s counteroffensive. | 2022-09-20T17:16:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Why Ukraine’s Donbas Region Matters to Putin - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/why-ukraines-donbas-region-matters-to-putin/2022/09/20/bbd224e8-3905-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/why-ukraines-donbas-region-matters-to-putin/2022/09/20/bbd224e8-3905-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
The showers and thunderstorms, however, are unlikely to make a serious dent in the rainfall deficit
Rain drenches streets in Chinatown in San Francisco on Sept. 18. The rainstorm is a dramatic shift of events for many residents after a record heat wave and grueling wildfire season. (Brontë Wittpenn/San Francisco Chronicle/AP)
Summer months are usually dry across California, and the first half of September was no different, with most of California — including the cities of Sacramento, which saw an all-time high temperature of 116 degrees on Sept. 6, and nearby Davis — left dry and baking. The notable exception to the dry conditions was the heavy tropical rainfall from the remnants of Hurricane Kay in far-southern parts of the state. In the past few days, the unusual September rainfall has fallen from Santa Barbara up through the California/Oregon border.
At Davis’s University Airport, 1.7 inches of rainfall were recorded in the past 24 hours. While this type of rainfall may not be unusual in many spots in the United States, it is highly out-of-the-ordinary in the Davis area, which on average sees less than a tenth of an inch of rainfall in September.
“There’s been some minor flooding, road flooding and such in the heavier thunderstorms, and there’s been reports of minor ash flows and debris flows and burn scar areas,” Chris Hintz, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento, told The Washington Post.
On the subreddit for the University of California at Davis, students shared photos of the downpour and the subsequent flooding, with students swimming in a flooded-out underpass. Photos also showed minor flooding at the school’s student union building.
Richards Blvd underpass is flooded as is the intersection of 6th & F Streets. Please avoid the area. Take other routes to get in and out of town - take 113 or Mace to get in and out of town. pic.twitter.com/wbxQsa79Ja
A photo shared by the city’s Twitter account showed minor flooding at a local underpass, with the city asking drivers to take alternate routes in and out of town.
In Sacramento, just over an inch of rain has fallen in the last three days, well over the September average of just 0.09 inches of rain. From June through September, the city averages just 0.36 inches of rain a year, meaning that the city saw nearly three times its annual summer rainfall in just three days.
The big rainfall winner was just north of Davis in Woodland, where 4.11 inches of rain were measured in the past 48 hours, according to the National Weather Service. Notable rain fell also fell in Central California. In San Luis Obispo, a daily rainfall record of 0.32 inches of rain was set on Sunday.
We have high rainfall amounts for this storm system! Rancho San Julian has reached 4.07", and Celite and Sudden Peak surpassed 3". All 3 sites are near each other, and topography is playing a role in these high values. #carain #Socal #cawx
More Totals:https://t.co/rmhvqyWLYD pic.twitter.com/Po72Afk1V3
The mountains of Santa Barbara County picked up the most rain in the greater Los Angeles area, with 4.07 inches of rain recorded at Rancho San Julian. The city of Santa Maria also smashed its daily rainfall record on Monday, tallying 1.77 inches in 24 hours. The former record was just 0.16 inches, set back in 1959.
The weather pattern that has brought scattered showers and thunderstorms to the area is expected to hang on for another day or two, with the quasi-stationary large low-pressure system off the coast forecast to begin moving inland on Wednesday, Hintz said.
Flash flood watches have been hoisted for the burn scar of the Mosquito Fire — California’s largest fire of the year — which as of Tuesday morning is just 39 percent contained, having burned 76,000 acres northeast of Sacramento.
When heavy rain falls over burn scars, ash and debris flows can sometimes be triggered, especially on steeper terrain, which can make for dangerous firefighting. The wet weather does bring some advantages for firefighters too, with chillier temperatures and high humidity both helpful in fighting the blaze.
“Fire activity has slowed down, but the firefighters have not,” the U.S. Forest Service wrote in its Tuesday morning update. “While the rain presents a different set of challenges to the fire-suppression effort, crews continue to work, taking advantage of the lull in fire activity to secure the fire perimeter and increase containment before warm, dry weather returns.”
Unfortunately, the rainfall in the region will not be enough to make a significant dent in the severe-to-extreme drought conditions that persist throughout the state.
“This little bit is not going to make much of a difference in the overall drought picture but the fact that we’re starting to see significant storms like this is favorable,” Hintz said.
After the low-pressure system passes through the region, the medium-to-long-range forecast for Northern California shows a return to hot and dry conditions, with the latest runs of the American (GFS) model showing the potential for several days with highs in the 90s, or even topping 100 degrees, in California’s Central Valley by late next week. | 2022-09-20T17:16:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Drought-stricken inland California sees much needed rainfall - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/09/20/california-heavy-rain-drought-fires/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/09/20/california-heavy-rain-drought-fires/ |
Marriott’s new Bethesda headquarters celebrates the company’s past
David Marriott, chairman of the board of Marriott International, stands near the Cabinet of Curiosities, which displays objects illustrating the company's history, in its headquarters. (John Kelly/The Washington Post)
David Marriott was 15 when he got his first job: washing dishes at a hotel near the Beltway in Bethesda. That was in 1988. His brother Stephen happened to be the general manager there.
“He made sure I was on time,” David said. “He ran a tight ship.”
Now it’s David who helps keep the ship tight — shiny, squeak-free and steaming forward — as chairman of the board of Marriott International. Back in the ’80s, the hotel he worked at was known as the Pooks Hill Marriott. Today, it’s called the Bethesda Marriott, which is not to be confused with the company’s new hotel, the Marriott Bethesda Downtown at Marriott HQ, which — as that long name suggests — sits across from Marriott’s new headquarters.
That’s a lot of “Marriotts,” but, then, a lot of Marriotts have been involved in the company’s success. There’s David Marriott himself. There’s his father, Bill Marriott Jr. And there’s Bill Jr.’s father, J. Willard (Bill) Marriott, who in 1927 opened a root beer stand on 14th Street NW. That space was so narrow — eight feet — they had to shoehorn the necessary soda-making equipment inside.
On Monday morning, the ribbon was cut on Marriott’s new headquarters at 7750 Wisconsin Ave. in Bethesda. At 785,000 square feet, it’s plenty big enough. Its 21 floors — well, 20; there’s no 13th floor — encompass work spaces, a day-care center, a fitness center, a test kitchen, and an Innovation and Design Lab.
But what David wanted to show me first was just off the lobby: the Cabinet of Curiosities. It’s a wall adorned with relics of the company’s history, from restaurant menus to pie tins, from “Do Not Disturb” hang tags to a bicycle bearing a sign on the saddle: “Follow Me.”
“That’s from our first hotel, the Twin Bridges Marriott,” David said.
That motor hotel opened near the Pentagon in Arlington in 1957. After guests checked in, they would get back in their cars and follow a bicycle-riding bellman to find their room.
The Marriotts were from Utah. How’d they end up in Washington?
David said his grandfather came to New England to do his two-year Latter-day Saints mission. During that time, he visited Washington and thought it had two things going for it: The plenitude of government workers assured a customer base. And during the summer, it was hot and humid. Who wouldn’t want ice-cold root beer?
And so he opened that root beer stand. By the time Bill Sr. opened his second location, at Ninth and G NW, he had married Alice Sheets. He’d also come to a realization: During a Washington winter, ice-cold root beer might not sell.
What they needed was food. Alice’s facility with language — she’d been a Spanish major in college — allowed her to go to the Mexican Embassy to get recipes for tamales and chili. The food was spicy and served warm, inspiring the new name of their eatery: the Hot Shoppe. The chain exploded.
I don’t think I ever had a tamale at a Hot Shoppes, but, like many a Washingtonian, I consumed my fair share of Teen Twist ham sandwiches and Might Mo hamburgers. There aren’t any Hot Shoppes anymore — the last one closed, in Marlow Heights, in 1999 — but they’re resurrected in the name of the new building’s staff cafeteria, which is called the Hot Shoppe. The Mighty Mo will occasionally be on the menu, too, which means if you want a culinary blast from the past, you’ll have to be hired by Marriott.
If all Marriott did was restaurants, it probably wouldn’t have needed this new building, which has room for 2,800 employees and replaces the company’s old HQ near Westfield Montgomery mall. After catering for airlines, the company got into the lodging business. They have 8,100 hotels under 30 brands, from Aloft to Ritz-Carlton. The new building includes a lab where room layouts can be mocked up and tinkered with. Then they’ll be built in the new Marriott hotel across a plaza to see what guests think.
The views are great from atop the glassy new headquarters, designed by the firm Gensler. David pointed out Sugarloaf Mountain in the distance. We were standing near a notch in the building. Twenty floors below was the reason for the notch: the Tastee Diner building, whose owner had declined to sell.
“When my parents were away, the woman who watched me used to take me there,” he said.
Not to Hot Shoppes?
“She liked Tastee Diner,” David said.
It can seem like our area doesn’t make anything — no factories, no mills — but it did produce Marriott International. And it produced all those Marriotts, who seem to retain a sense of the company’s history.
David’s family used to have a dog called Mighty Mo. It was a name they felt they had to give him, he said. After all, their next-door neighbors — the McDonalds — had a dog named Big Mac. | 2022-09-20T17:16:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Marriott International moved into its new Bethesda, Md., building - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/20/marriott-international-history-bethesda/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/20/marriott-international-history-bethesda/ |
P.K. Subban, Zdeno Chara call it quits on a day of retirements in the NHL
P.K. Subban announced his retirement after 13 NHL seasons. (Joe Puetz/AP)
A trio of veteran defensemen announced their retirement from the NHL on Tuesday, when P.K. Subban, Zdeno Chara and Keith Yandle each said they would step away from the sport.
“I remember my dreams of playing in the NHL and winning a Stanley Cup, similar to the guys on the Don Cherry Rock’em Sock’em tapes at the end of every volume, with the black eyes, broken bones, and tears of joy. To this day I still dream about it,” Subban wrote in a social media post. “However, the end of this chapter is closing and after 13 years in the NHL, I have made the decision to retire.”
Subban, 33, was selected by the Montreal Canadiens with the 43rd pick of the 2007 draft. The Toronto native made his NHL debut in 2010 and eventually established himself as one of the league’s top defensemen, winning the Norris Trophy in 2013.
In 2014, Subban agreed to an eight-year contract extension worth $72 million that made him one of the highest-paid players in the league and its top-paid defenseman at the time. He was traded to the Nashville Predators in 2016 for Shea Weber in a one-for-one swap of elite defensemen, and he was traded again to the New Jersey Devils in 2019. He ultimately played in 834 games, tallying 115 goals and 352 assists. He also won a gold medal as a member of Team Canada at the Sochi Olympics in 2014.
Subban served as an NHL analyst for ESPN during the waning days of his playing career, contributing to the network’s postseason coverage in each of the past two seasons. In May, he was noncommittal about his future in broadcasting.
“I’m not saying I have the talent to be able to work on TV, but it’s definitely been something that has been fun because I’m passionate about the game,” he said. “I’m passionate to be involved in the game, and it’s a way for me to do that when I’m not playing. … As far as whether I do it as a career or job, I’ll make that decision when my playing days are over.”
Chara, 45, registered 209 goals and 680 points over 24 seasons with the New York Islanders, Ottawa Senators, Boston Bruins and Washington Capitals. The 2009 Norris Trophy winner, Chara said in his announcement that he signed a one-day contract with the Bruins so he could retire with the team he captained to a Stanley Cup championship in 2011.
The tallest player in league history, the 6-foot-9 Chara joined the Capitals in 2020 at 43, recording 10 points in 55 games. He played his final season with the Islanders, who drafted him in 1996 before he made his NHL debut the following year.
Yandle, 36, made his announcement on the “Spittin’ Chiclets” podcast, saying, “The last year it’s one of those things I’ve been thinking about. … When that’s all you know in your life, just to call it an end, it’s nerve-racking.”
Throughout a career that included stints with the Arizona Coyotes, New York Rangers, Florida Panthers and Philadelphia Flyers, Yandle established himself as one of the most durable and offensively skilled defensemen in the league. A three-time all-star selection, Yandle accounted for 103 goals and 619 points in 1,109 games. He set the NHL record for the most consecutive games played (989) before he was benched by the rebuilding Flyers late last season. | 2022-09-20T17:17:29Z | www.washingtonpost.com | P.K. Subban, Zdeno Chara, Keith Yandle retire from NHL - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/20/pk-subban-retirement-zdeno-chara/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/20/pk-subban-retirement-zdeno-chara/ |
De Jon Watson, who is finishing his first season as Washington's director of player development, made the call about Tripp Keister's status with the organization. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)
The Washington Nationals fired minor league manager Tripp Keister on Monday, ending Keister’s 11-year run in the organization. Keister, a manager for his entire time with Washington, led the Class AA Harrisburg Senators for the past two seasons. The decision was ultimately made by De Jon Watson, according to multiple people familiar with the situation. Watson, who is just finished his first as the club’s director of player development, declined to comment.
As word spread throughout the organization this week, many were frustrated by Keister’s dismissal, according to three people with knowledge of the situation. In a little over a decade, the 52-year-old managed the Gulf Coast League Nationals, the low-Class A Hagerstown Suns, the high-Class A Potomac Nationals and Senators. Before joining the Nationals, he was an amateur scout for the San Diego Padres, assistant coach at the University of South Carolina and head coach at Delaware State and Wesley College.
He was, in short, a staple of Washington’s player development staffs when they were run by Doug Harris or Mark Scialabba. Keister’s energy turned Manager Dave Martinez into a fan when Keister helped during major league spring trainings. But changes were expected once Watson took control last fall. Back in July, Watson noted how Harrisburg’s losing record showed a talent gap in a system that then got another jolt with the Juan Soto-Josh Bell return.
From the archives: De Jon Watson has a clear vision as Nationals’ new head of player development
Keister declined to comment on his departure. General Manager Mike Rizzo, who would have to approve the firing, did not respond to request for comment Tuesday.
The Senators finished 52-85, the worst record in the Eastern League. In 2021, they had the second-worst record at 42-76. One could argue, though, that minor league managers should not be assessed by wins and losses, especially when they are given a thin roster in what was a bottom-ranked farm system. According to multiple people with knowledge of Watson’s decision, there was a disconnect between Keister and Micah Franklin, who Watson hired as the Senators’ hitting coach after they worked together with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Since Watson assumed his current role, the Nationals have made overdue strides toward modernizing their player development operation. Last spring, they hired David Longley as director of data and technology in the minors. The staff grew by 14 positions with additional coaches, coordinators, a nutritionist and mental skills coordinator. Washington brought in personnel from a number of other clubs, bucking a long-standing trend of rearranging deck chairs instead of filling holes from the outside. And the club is now in the process of installing Hawk-Eye camera systems at Nationals Park and all five of their affiliate facilities in Florida, Harrisburg, Fredericksburg, Wilmington and Rochester, hoping to an influx of player movement data.
But Keister’s firing has worried those who want a mix of new blood and loyalty to tenured coaches and coordinators. Of course, those can be clashing pursuits, and it is not Watson’s job to keep someone around just because they have been with the team for a while. Still, two people described Keister as organized and willing to learn about analytics and tech, despite having a traditional baseball background.
A year ago, before Watson replaced Scialabba as head of player development, the club fired high-A manager Tommy Shields, outfield/baserunning coordinator Gary Thurman, hitting coach Brian Rupp and pitching coach Pat Rice. At least so far, this September’s shake-up is not as widespread.
With Keister no longer in his role, the Nationals’ minor league managers are Matthew LeCroy (Class AAA Rochester Red Wings in 2022), Mario Lisson (high-Class A Wilmington Blue Rocks), Jake Lowery (low-Class A Fredericksburg Nationals), Luis Ordaz (Florida Complex League) and Sandy Martinez (Dominican Summer League). | 2022-09-20T17:17:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Nationals fire Class AA manager Tripp Keister - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/20/tripp-keister-fired-nationals/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/20/tripp-keister-fired-nationals/ |
A view of seven puppies that were stolen in Northwest D.C. Rescue officials are looking for them and asking for the public's help. (Humane Rescue Alliance)
Another stolen puppy has been returned after he and six litter mates were stolen from their mother in Washington.
Officials with the Humane Rescue Alliance said Tuesday a fourth puppy — named Apollo — has been reunited with his mom, Godiva, and three other siblings — Link, Glitter and Aries. Apollo was brought Monday night to the humane rescue offices with his favorite toy, a lamb chop.
Authorities said they’re “working with the family who unsuspectingly” bought Apollo and brought him to them. Once he’s older and stronger and can be separated from his mom and littermates, they said, they plan to return him to that family.
But Godiva’s three remaining puppies are still missing and officials said they’re still trying to get them back.
The tale of the stolen puppies started in mid-July when Godiva, malnourished and pregnant, was picked up by the humane rescue alliance. It cared for her and she successfully bore a litter of seven puppies in early August.
Godiva, a 1-year-old that’s believed to be a Labrador mix, was transferred to a foster home so she could be with her 5-week-old puppies.
But in late August, rescue officials got a call that a dog was found tied to a pole outside a home on Crittenden Street NE. They got the dog and realized it was Godiva. But she was without her pups.
After a search at another home in the 4800 block of North Capitol Street NE, they found one of the seven puppies. The three others have been returned over the last few days to the rescue group.
Investigators at the humane rescue alliance have given few details about the case because they said it is under investigation and they’re trying to figure out how, why and at what point Godiva was separated from her puppies.
Anyone with a tip can call humane rescue officials at 202-723-5730. | 2022-09-20T17:33:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Another puppy stolen from mom Godiva has been returned in D.C. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/20/stolen-puppy-returned-dc/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/20/stolen-puppy-returned-dc/ |
Nation’s largest LGBTQ group picks first Black woman as president
The vote to bring on Kelley Robinson came more than a year after Human Rights Campaign directors fired their previous president, Alphonso David, for his role in advising the staff of former New York governor Andrew Cuomo on how to respond to sexual harassment allegations.
In this July 26, 2017 photo, people with the Human Rights Campaign hold up “equality flags” during an event in support of transgender members of the military on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, hired Kelley Robinson, the executive director of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, as its new president Tuesday.
The vote to bring on Robinson came more than a year after HRC’s directors fired its previous president, Alphonso David, for his role advising the staff of former New York governor Andrew Cuomo (D) on how to respond to sexual harassment allegations that eventually led to the governor’s resignation.
Human Rights Campaign hit with racial bias suit by former president fired in Andrew M. Cuomo scandal
Robinson, a Black woman who identifies as queer, said in an interview this week that she hoped to lead a “broad, intersectional coalition for change" that extends beyond the political sphere to include workplaces, schools and sports leagues.
“I am a community organizer, through and through, and I kind of look at the fight that is in front of me,” she said. “It has become clear that reproductive rights is the canary in the coal mine issue in so many ways. They are coming for abortion rights, they are coming for marriage rights, they are coming for privacy.”
In a video made to accompanying her appointment, Robinson said she would prioritize making everyone feel included and heard in HRC’s work, a continuation of a long-held effort by the organization to move beyond criticism that it focused too much on the interests of white, gay men.
“By standing here today I am making a promise and commitment to carry this work forward, to ensure that if you have ever not seen yourself in this movement you know that in this time we are here for you,” she said in the video. "This next chapter of the Human Rights Campaign is about getting to freedom and liberation without any exceptions.”
Robinson, whose first day at HRC will be Nov. 28, began her career as an organizer for Obama for America in Missouri in 2008, before moving over to work for an affiliate of Planned Parenthood, a nonprofit network of facilities that provide sexual health care, including abortion services.
She served as associate director of youth engagement and national organizing director before becoming the executive director of the group’s political arm in 2019. Planned Parenthood Action Fund ran a $45 million electoral program in 2020.
Robinson is married to Becky George, a senior adviser for movement building at Everytown for Gun Safety. They have a 1-year-old child.
David, the group’s first Black president, was fired for “violation of HRC’s Conflict of Interest policy and the mission,” after a report by the New York attorney general revealed he had advised Cuomo’s team on how to respond to sexual harassment allegations while running the organization.
David, who is now the president of the Global Black Economic Forum, sued HRC months later, alleging it had a “racist, biased culture” and had fired him because of his race. HRC’s leadership has denied those claims, and is contesting his lawsuit in a New York court.
Joni Madison, the HRC’s interim president who previously served as chief operating office and chief of staff, is expected to stay at the organization.
On our radar: Democrats call for more Puerto Rico aid, recall ‘callousness’ of Trump throwing paper towels | 2022-09-20T17:50:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Human Rights Campaign picks first Black woman as president - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/20/hrc-president-kelley-robinson/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/20/hrc-president-kelley-robinson/ |
The New York Mets and Washington Nationals line the field at Nationals Park on April 7, 2022, in Washington. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post)
The District said it will ensure that Nationals Park can operate through the end of 2023 while a dispute with the ballpark’s owner works its way through the Zoning Commission.
The Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) confirmed last week that it had decided not to issue another temporary certificate of occupancy for Nationals Park as part of an attempt to get the venue’s owner, Events DC, to live up to an agreement to develop commercial space around the park. In its original agreement with the city, Events DC said it would build 46,000 square feet of commercial and retail space at the ballpark.
On Saturday, the DCRA appeared to reverse itself and said it would issue a temporary certificate of occupancy that expires Dec. 31, 2023.
Since the ballpark’s opening in 2008, the DCRA has issued conditional certificates of occupancy on the understanding that the stadium’s owner was making “good faith” progress toward satisfying its agreement with the Zoning Commission to reach its promised development target, DCRA spokesman Daniel Weaver said in an email. He said once those targets were reached, the agreement would be fulfilled, and the agency would issue a permanent certificate of occupancy.
“As Events DC has followed through on the filing request, DCRA will issue another [temporary certificate of occupancy] which will expire on December 31, 2023 to allow time for the Zoning Commission to issue a ruling, and or for Events DC to submit any construction plans for review and approval,” he wrote.
Events DC is the trade name for the Washington Convention and Sports Authority, an independent authority created by the District’s government that owns and operates several city venues, such as the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, RFK Stadium and Nationals Park. | 2022-09-20T18:30:19Z | www.washingtonpost.com | D.C. backs off threat to close Nationals Park - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/20/dc-nats-park-events-dc/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/20/dc-nats-park-events-dc/ |
On Friday at about 8:20 p.m., officers responded to Gaithersburg High School during the school’s football game with Northwest High School for the report of a fight, Gaithersburg Police said in a statement.
As officers tried to stop the fight, other altercations broke out, resulting in the assault of a police officer and the injury of a one school staff member, the statement said. | 2022-09-20T18:30:25Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 5 charged with assault after Md. high school football brawl - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/20/football-brawl-gaithersburg-high-school/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/20/football-brawl-gaithersburg-high-school/ |
The next big threat to democracy: Under-the-radar election sabotage
In an image taken from video, Cathy Latham, the GOP chair of Coffee County, Ga., left, is seen on Jan. 7, 2021, inside the county election office accompanied by employees of SullivanStrickler, a digital forensics firm hired by lawyers working for President Donald Trump. (Obtained By The Washington Post)
Anyone concerned about the survival of U.S. democracy is focused, for good reason, on a troubling number of high-profile Republican candidates who either refuse to accept the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s victory in 2020 or proclaim outright that Donald Trump was the true winner.
But there is another threat to our elections that could be equally significant, one that does not announce itself in television ads or get as much attention from the news media. It’s the threat of stochastic election sabotage carried out by largely anonymous local officials and activists.
You might have heard of “stochastic terrorism,” the threat posed not by organized terrorist groups but by randomly distributed individuals who are inspired by extremism and plan lone acts of violence. Similarly, we’re seeing the evolution of a loose network of conspiracy theorists and Trump cultists who seem willing to do anything to ensure Republican victories — including breaking the law. Some might decide the time has come for them to take matters into their own hands.
Consider what happened in Coffee County, Ga., a rural, overwhelmingly Republican county; Trump won there by 40 points in 2020. Earlier this year, we learned that the local election supervisor became convinced of something fishy going on in her state. So, on Jan. 7, 2021, she opened her offices to a group of men who it turns out were working for disgraced Trump attorney Sidney Powell. The supervisor said she thought they could prove “that this election was not done true and correct.”
In the latest development, surveillance video shows that the men were escorted in by the chair of the county Republican Party, who claimed under oath that she had only briefly stopped into the election office. In fact, the videos reveal she stayed for hours with Powell’s operatives. The men spent eight hours “copying sensitive software and data from its voting machines,” as The Post reports.
The details in the Coffee County case are a bit complicated, but the very fact that operatives hired by Trump’s lawyer were traipsing around election offices and accessing what is supposed to be secure equipment is profoundly disturbing. And it’s not the only place something like this happened.
We’ve seen similar stories in Colorado, Michigan and Ohio: allegations of local election officials working with Trumpist conspiracy theorists to “prove” various kinds of voter fraud, all to show that Trump won in 2020.
Every time this happens, it means those local officials made a decision that, despite procedures and laws in place to secure their systems, equipment, files and information, they would nonetheless allow Trump acolytes access, all because of a delusion about a stolen election.
How do we know that it won’t happen again in 2024 — not after the election is decided and not in a few places here and there, but in dozens or hundreds of local election offices, while counting continues? How do we know there won’t be illegal tampering, as right-wing election officials decide the results just don’t look right to them, and something must be done to correct them?
The answer is supposed to be the law. The United States has a highly decentralized election system, but there are rules in place to which everyone is supposed to adhere, rules that prevent any local official from substituting their own judgment for the voters’ will.
But just like the Coffee County official who decided that something just wasn’t right because a Democratic candidate won her state, others could find ways to make sure the results are what they feel they ought to be.
There are many reasons the problem could be far worse in 2024 than in 2020. Election officials have been subjected to threats and harassment, driving many out of jobs they once regarded as their civic duty.
In addition, the Republican National Committee is investing substantial resources to recruit partisan poll workers and poll watchers. Some of them are planning to break rules governing their behavior, even as Republicans inundate local election offices with public records requests in an apparent attempt to cause havoc.
This is happening at a moment when the idea that you are under no obligation to obey laws you don’t like is becoming increasingly common on the right. Much of the Republican Party has united around the idea that although Trump probably violated the law by hoarding boxes full of classified government documents, the law doesn’t apply to their dear leader, because laws are for losers.
On Fox News, Tucker Carlson spreads lies about doctors performing gender-reassignment surgery on children and proclaims, “No parent should put up with this for one second, no matter what the law says. Your moral duty is to defend your children. … You should fight back.” He did not explain which laws people should break as they “fight back.”
The deeper conservatives go down these right-wing rabbit holes, the more cataclysmic the imagined threat becomes. If you believe yourself a soldier fighting against vast conspiracies to change every child’s gender or to deprive Trump of his rightful rule, you’d have to be a fool to obey the law.
So yes, we should be deeply concerned about people such as Doug Mastriano and Kari Lake. But the threat of stochastic election sabotage — widely distributed, carried out by people who aren’t public figures, difficult to predict where it will emerge — is just as real. And it could be what tips the next election into outright chaos. | 2022-09-20T18:34:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | High-profile election saboteurs aren't the only threat to democracy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/20/stochastic-election-saboteurs-trump-2024/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/20/stochastic-election-saboteurs-trump-2024/ |
Valery Polyakov, Russian cosmonaut who set record in space, dies at 80
He spent a record 437 days in space beginning on Jan. 8, 1994, and orbited the Earth more than 7,000 times
Valery Polyakov on the Russian space station in March 1985. (Roscosmos Press Service/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
Valery Polyakov, the Russian cosmonaut who set the record for the longest single stay in space, died Sept. 19 at 80.
Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, announced the death but did not provide further details.
Mr. Polyakov had trained as a physician and wanted to demonstrate that the human body could endure extended periods in space. His record of 437 days in space began Jan. 8, 1994, when he and two others blasted off on a two-day flight to the Russian space station Mir. While aboard Mir, he orbited the Earth more than 7,000 times, before returning March 22, 1995.
Upon landing, Mr. Polyakov declined to be carried out of the Soyuz capsule, as is common practice to allow readjustment to the pull of gravity. He was helped to climb out himself, and he walked to a nearby transport vehicle.
Mr. Polyakov previously had spent 288 days in space on a mission in 1988-1989.
He was born Valery Ivanovich Korshunov in Tula, Russia, on April 27, 1942, and took the surname of his stepfather, who adopted him in 1957. | 2022-09-20T18:43:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Valery Polyakov, Russian cosmonaut who set record in space, dies at 80 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/09/20/valery-polyakov-space-soviet-dead/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/09/20/valery-polyakov-space-soviet-dead/ |
Lin-Manuel and Luis Miranda: Puerto Rico needs help now
By Lin-Manuel Miranda
Playa Salinas is flooded after the passing of Hurricane Fiona in Salinas, Puerto Rico, on Sept. 19. (Alejandro Granadillo/AP)
Lin-Manuel Miranda is the creator of “Hamilton” and “In The Heights.” His father, Luis Miranda, is a philanthropist and political strategist.
Maria also destroyed about 80 percent of the island’s coffee trees. Coffee is central to Puerto Rico’s cultural and economic identity; it sustains many families running multigenerational, smallholder farms. So, we set out to revitalize that sector by bringing together philanthropy and businesses to help.
A coalition that included Nespresso, Starbucks and the Rockefeller Foundation, among others, came together to distribute 2 million climate-resilient coffee seedlings to more than 1,100 farmers. According to a 2017 agricultural census, 67 percent of coffee farms on the island qualify as small businesses, generating less than $10,000 in sales that year. Thanks to these kinds of collaborative efforts — and the leadership of local agricultural organizations and the hard work of the coffee growers themselves — coffee production on the island today has surpassed pre-Hurricane Maria levels.
Harder to stand back up have been the island’s arts and cultural groups, which always take a beating in natural disasters — and are often the last to be resuscitated. The Flamboyan Arts Fund enabled direct support of 541 artists and 106 arts organizations, including museums, theaters, arts education programs and concert venues. The fund is behind the biggest private investment in the arts in recent history and has sustained many organizations after Maria damaged their facilities and deprived them of income in the months that followed. A typical grant went to the Museo de las Americas in San Juan, which lost electricity for more than 80 days after Maria, causing significant damage to a key exhibit about Taínos and other indigenous groups. The grant allowed the museum to restore artifacts and reopen an immersive exhibition to the public.
All of these groups again need help now that Fiona has struck. The two storms remind us that Puerto Rico is in a state of increasing vulnerability. Solving its energy crisis, the effects of climate change and continued migration off the island are essential priorities for both the citizens of this island and the nation of which it is a part. Nonprofits can’t address these issues by themselves, but they can play a critical role in creating accessible health care, supporting the arts and innovating in agriculture to improve the lives of farmers.
Opinion|I’m a classified document and I didn’t think I would end up like this | 2022-09-20T18:47:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Lin-Manuel, Luis Miranda: How to help Puerto Rico after Hurricane Fiona - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/20/lin-manuel-luis-miranda-puerto-rico-hurricane-help/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/20/lin-manuel-luis-miranda-puerto-rico-hurricane-help/ |
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert, and Wanjiku “Wawa” Gatheru, Sophia Kianni and Miranda Wang join Washington Post Live for conversations about the human, environmental and economic consequences of climate change and the efforts to combat them. Conversation recorded on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022.
Washington Post senior writer Frances Stead Sellers speaks with David Miliband, former U.K. foreign secretary and International Rescue Committee president, about the queen’s legacy, his reflections on the day’s ceremonies and the past and future of the British monarchy. Conversation recorded on Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. | 2022-09-20T18:48:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Sen. Schatz, Patagonia CEO and young activists on climate change - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/post-live/sen-schatz-patagonia-ceo-and-young-activists-on-climate-change-1/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/post-live/sen-schatz-patagonia-ceo-and-young-activists-on-climate-change-1/ |
Gio Reyna, right, and Jude Bellingham celebrate after the American set up the Englishman's Champions League goal against FC Copenhagen two weeks ago in Dortmund, Germany. (Martin Meissner/Associated Press)
COLOGNE, Germany — If one had monitored Gio Reyna’s status in Borussia Dortmund’s Bundesliga match Saturday strictly by the time of his entrance and exit, alarm bells surely would have gone off.
Dortmund’s terrific U.S. teenager left in the 84th minute after entering late in the first half. Substitutes aren’t substituted unless they’re injured.
Uh oh. Not again.
For more than a year, every time the artful attacker seemed to turn the corner, muscular injuries stalled his can’t-miss career — a career that had rocketed out of the shadows of his father, Hall of Famer Claudio Reyna, and perforated the global scene.
Immensely talented, yes. But durable?
With the World Cup fast approaching, any hard fall, sign of discomfort or unexpected absence has raised concerns in Dortmund and U.S. national team circles. And so on Saturday, the box score showed Reyna entering in the 32nd minute and leaving before the end of Dortmund’s 1-0 victory over Schalke.
The substitution was not, however, because of injury but rather was part of his club’s carefully curated plan — much to U.S. Coach Gregg Berhalter’s approval — of managing his minutes.
Reyna, 19, was fine. In fact, he was better than fine, contributing to the buildup of Youssoufa Moukoko’s 78th-minute goal. Two days before U.S. training camp opened, the audience at Dortmund’s madhouse, Signal Iduna Park, included Berhalter and more than two dozen U.S. staffers.
“They were all the way up there” behind the north goal, Reyna said during an interview at the U.S. team hotel Monday. “If they would have asked me before, I would have gotten them better tickets.”
The group, he added, “couldn’t have come to a better game.”
It was a reference to the match itself, the Ruhr region rumble known as the Revierderby, but could’ve applied to what the delegation witnessed from him.
After missing most of Dortmund’s 2021-22 season and the bulk of the U.S. World Cup campaign, Reyna is getting closer to full-time work. He has made four Bundesliga appearances as a substitute, recorded two assists in a sub’s role against FC Copenhagen in the UEFA Champions League and started against Manchester City in that continental competition last week.
He is expected to see some action in the last two U.S. tuneups for the World Cup: vs. Japan on Friday in Düsseldorf, Germany, and Saudi Arabia next Tuesday in Murcia, Spain.
Barring major setbacks the next seven weeks — and that’s always a concern with him — Reyna is almost certain of making the 26-man roster headed to Qatar.
“I'm getting there,” he said. “I'm still a little bit letting things come with time. It will come. I'm pretty close to being where I want to be.”
The recurring setbacks presented as many mental challenges as physical tests.
“I've gotten stronger through all of it,” Reyna said. “It wasn’t just the physical aspects. I worked a lot on everything over the summer and through the rehab process.”
His U.S. teammates say they have noticed a happier and more confident player.
“When [the injuries] keep happening and happening, we were all heartbroken for him,” winger Brenden Aaronson said. “I was sending him messages, telling him to keep going. To see his mentality now and to see him pushing through it, I think it only has made his character stronger.”
Reyna had been on the fast track since age 17, when he became the youngest American to appear in a Bundesliga match, breaking Christian Pulisic’s record by about two months. In 2020-21, he made 30 starts, including four in the Champions League, and scored seven goals across all competitions.
The following season was interrupted early by a hamstring injury suffered in the World Cup qualifying opener in El Salvador. Multiple setbacks prolonged his absence.
This season, Dortmund has executed a deliberate plan, careful not to rush him back. Late last month, as a last-minute precaution after Reyna said he didn’t feel quite right, the club held him out of a match against Hertha Berlin.
“It doesn't make sense to risk the next setback,” Coach Edin Terzic said after the game. “We'll continue to build him up cautiously in the hope that he'll bounce back to full capacity. We must learn from the past. We'd rather go without him for one or two matches than go without him for months.”
Reyna praised the club’s cautious approach, though he said he is “very eager to play every game 90 minutes.” “Of course, it’s not possible now,” he said. “I’m working on it. I’m not far away.”
Consecutive appearances totaling 114 minutes over five days last week was “a good sign,” he said.
Following Reyna’s influential performance against Copenhagen two weeks ago, Terzic shared Dortmund’s happiness about Reyna.
“One could see the joy” in Reyna’s game, he said. “It’s incredibly good how he accelerates the game and brings his creativity.”
The next step for Reyna is ramping up his playing time with Dortmund and staying injury-free before the World Cup, which would be his first in soccer’s spectacle following his father’s appearance on four U.S. rosters between 1994 and 2006.
The younger Reyna remembers growing up in suburban New York and going through his father’s “big bag of jerseys” that he had acquired via Premier League postgame swaps. The collection includes Steven Gerrard, Thierry Henry and Wayne Rooney.
Gio Reyna’s most prized jersey is from French superstar Kylian Mbappe, secured after a Champions League round-of-16 game in 2020.
“It was with no fans, so it was pretty easy to talk to people,” he explained. “Our teams got into a fight. I was playing right wing and he was left wing. We were on the other side from the fight. We didn’t really run over and get involved. So I just asked him during the fight, ‘Hey, can I have your shirt later?’ He said, ‘Yeah, sure.’ ” | 2022-09-20T18:49:23Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ahead of World Cup, USMNT's Gio Reyna is thriving - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/20/gio-reyna-usmnt-health/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/20/gio-reyna-usmnt-health/ |
Transcript: Protecting our Planet
[Technical difficulties]
MS. McGRAIN: [In progress]‑‑active role in combatting climate change.
For those of you who are not familiar with SK, we are a Fortunate Global 500 company based on South Korea. We have over 100,000 employees worldwide and have more than 100 operating companies in a wide range of industries, including clean energy, semiconductors, and life sciences.
An underlying principle has guided SK companies for decades now. That is the impact on society should be integral to addressing the success of the business. This means delivering positive results not only for our shareholders but also for the people in the communities where we operate. Focusing on sustainability is a critical way to deliver these results. This is, in part, why SK is investing in and focusing on clean energy solutions for climate change.
SK is growing our investments in the U.S. at a rapid rate. We plan to increase our U.S. assets and investments to over $50 billion by 2025. Our growth in the U.S. will promote green energy solutions including EV batteries, hydrogen energy storage solutions, and carbon capture.
We are proud, SK is proud, to be at the forefront of the technologies and innovations that are going to help change our energy future and the future of our planet.
With that, thank you again for joining us this morning, and we're looking forward to the programming.
MS. McGRAIN: Thank you.
MS. LEE: Thank you, Erin.
And now I'd like to introduce my colleague Leigh Ann Caldwell who will be on stage after this short video.
MS. CALDWELL: Hello. Good morning. I am Leigh Ann Caldwell. I'm an anchor here at Washington Post Live and coauthor of the Early 202 newsletter.
Today I'm joined by Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii. We're going to talk about climate change and the legislation that was just passed in the Senate to try to address it.
Welcome, Senator.
SEN. SCHATZ: Thanks for having me.
MS. CALDWELL: So, before we get to that, let's start with a little bit of things that are happening around the world, including Puerto Rico, another devastating hurricane. Of course, there's the energy and climate component, but also, there's just going to be a lot of need for funding. Do you expect Congress to provide funding for Puerto Rico? Especially, there's a funding bill that's due next week.
SEN. SCHATZ: Absolutely. We're going to help Puerto Rico. They are in trouble again. It looks like this storm is also severe, maybe less severe than the last one, but that is not to diminish the importance of the suffering. We've got lots and lots of people without power, some of the same problems on their power grid that occurred last time that they still have not fixed.
We will help. We're in disaster response right now. When disaster recovery comes, the Congress will, no doubt, pass an emergency spending measure for the disaster in Puerto Rico but also very likely the other disasters across the continental United States. We've had flooding and wildfires and excessive heat and storms, and every year we pass a disaster supplemental, which costs tens of billions of dollars. And every year the expense to deal with the increased severity and frequency of these storms goes up and up and up. It's just another example that taking no action on climate change is way more expensive than taking action.
MS. CALDWELL: And do you think that this Puerto Rico money will be attached, included in this other disaster aid that needs to be passed by next Friday?
SEN. SCHATZ: I don't think that we're going to do disaster aid in the continuing resolution.
SEN. SCHATZ: I think we're going to do a separate disaster supplemental in the next month or two.
MS. CALDWELL: Okay, great. And then also today in the Senate, they are voting on a procedural motion, on the Kigali Amendment, to try to get out some toxic chemicals used for air conditioning coolants. How important is this? Will it make a difference, and will it pass, get the two‑thirds necessary in the Senate?
SEN. SCHATZ: We think so. We think we have the votes for this. This is something that has a good bipartisan consensus. This is good for American industry because we have the alternative to the chemicals that are currently being used, but more importantly, whatever we do, the rest of the world tends to follow as it relates to this kind of manufacturing. And so this is going to have an outsized impact on climate, but the reason that we have the votes for it so far‑‑and I knock on wood whenever I say we have the votes for something because things could change in the next three or four hours‑‑is that this really does help American businesses. So we have this interesting coalition of environmental organizations and business organizations saying, hey, this is the right thing to do.
MS. CALDWELL: Another newsy topic regarding climate that's happening in the Senate and Congress is permitting reform for energy projects around the country.
You had a big role in negotiating this side deal with Senator Joe Manchin. Where does that stand? Because it doesn't look like right now it has the votes in order to pass.
SEN. SCHATZ: Well, we'll see. Let me just back up a second. I really believe that the modern environmental movement‑‑and I was just talking in the back room about my sort of start in politics and environmental advocacy. I was part of the Save Sandy Beach Coalition, the Save Sunset Beach Coalition, and lots of environmental activism is principled on stopping bad projects from happening.
But, if we're going to save the planet, if we're actually going to meet our clean energy goals, we have to build things. We have to change our mentality. That doesn't mean we allow improper things to get built, but it does mean that we have to make it easier to build especially electricity transmission. So the basic strategy for the grid is to electrify everything, right, and then over time to make sure that the electrons going into the grid are increasingly clean. Well, that doesn't work if it takes 15 years to do a transmission line from the American Southwest to the American Midwest, and so we're going to have to do permitting reform. And anytime you do a change in the way that the federal government regulates, it has to apply equally to dirty and clean, and so that's the compromise that we struck. So I am for permitting reform.
Whether or not we can pass it in the CR, I don't know. It is very, very fluid. Over the last 24 hours, the Republicans have now announced that they are against a thing that they say they are for because they want to retaliate against Joe Manchin. This is something they also did with the CHIPS and Science bill, where they said if you vote for this other thing, we're going to tank this thing over here, which we like, but we're going to take it anyway. That strikes me as a miscalculation like it was the first time, but I don't know whether we can sort of sort all of this by the time we have to pass a government funding bill by the end of next week.
MS. CALDWELL: So another thing that Senator Cornyn, a Republican of Texas, told me yesterday, yes, he said, that he's mad at Joe Manchin for voting for the climate change bill.
SEN. SCHATZ: And what a weird thing. Could we just stop there? That's so weird. I mean, everyone is mad at everyone. We always vote contrary to others' beliefs. I've literally never heard of voting no on something that you like in order to retaliate against someone for a different vote. This is a new tactic, and I just wanted to pause right there, because when McConnell announced he was going to kill the CHIPS bill unless we killed some other bill, I tweeted this strikes me as a miscalculation. And it was, and now it seems like this is a tactic they're relying upon.
And so I didn't mean to interrupt. I guess I did, but‑‑
SEN. SCHATZ: But I just don't want to normalize this tactic where we hold different pieces of legislation hostage, even things that we like.
MS. CALDWELL: Okay. So my question was, because I followed up with something very similar to Senator Cornyn yesterday, because many of these energy projects that would benefit from permitting reform would actually benefit Republican conservative states, and his response was, well, if we take back control of the Senate, we can have better permitting reform, more to our liking, in January. So what is your reaction to that?
SEN. SCHATZ: Well, I think if you look at the permitting reform that they proposed, it was not a balanced package. It was basically a fossil fuel wish list, and so if you believe in permitting reform as, you know, Martin Heinrich and myself and other people in the environmental movement do, you're sort of making a trade here and saying we've got to make it easier to build certain things. We don't want to undermine bedrock environmental protections, but it is reasonable to ask things to go a little more quickly so we can build these big projects.
What they did was just provide a fossil fuel wish list, and as long as the filibuster is still in place, if we lose one or both chambers, we're not going to pass that, and Joe Biden is not going to sign that into law.
So this strikes me as, again, a miscalculation. They should get over their hurt feelings and vote for the thing that they said they wanted all along.
MS. CALDWELL: So are Democrats and environmentalists who have concerns about making it easier to build fossil fuel projects as part of this permitting reform in exchange for the clean energy projects as well‑‑are they willing to get on board because of that calculation? Do you think the Democrats are going to support it?
SEN. SCHATZ: I think Democrats in the Senate, by and large, not every single one, but I think they're‑‑
MS. CALDWELL: Senator Sanders said he won't.
SEN. SCHATZ: Senator Sanders is a no, but I think most Democrats in the Senate, by and large, are for this because they understand the need to make it easier to build these projects.
And, also, to be blunt, we just passed the biggest climate action that any country has ever taken, and part of that arrangement was this, and so any functioning political party has to be good to their word, and this is part of that.
MS. CALDWELL: Speaking of this biggest climate change bill that you have passed, $369 billion for climate. Can you talk about, specifically, how Americans will feel this, what differences they will see, how it will impact them?
SEN. SCHATZ: Yeah. I think, in the long run, the $370 billion does a lot to reduce emissions, and to me, the big policy innovation here is sort of it sounds so straight forward as to not be an innovation. But remember we were all in competition for "No, I've got the climate solution," "No, I've got the climate solution," "No, we should do agriculture," "No, we should do battery storage," "No, we should do high tech in fusion and hydrogen," and what we decided is both from a coalition‑building standpoint and from the standpoint of the scope of the problem and the opportunity, let's just do it all. And so this is really going to make a difference in emissions.
Now, in the short run, lots of people want to participate in the clean energy revolution. It's nice to say, oh, there will be this many gigawatts of solar or wind, but what does that mean for me? There are lots of direct subsidies for families that want heat pumps, that want energy‑efficient appliances, that want to put solar panels on their roofs. All of these are, in a certain way, over‑subsidized. So people are going to start to do the arithmetic as sort of big business is doing and saying, oh, my God, this bill is even better than I thought, like the investment tax credit on the business side is 30 percent, which it always was. But here's the kicker. If you used domestic materials, you get another 10 percent. If you invest in a so‑called "energy community," in other words, a place where they're making a transition from fossil to clean, you get another 10 percent. A 50 percent ITC is completely unheard of, and this thing stays on the books until we hit a 75 percent emissions reduction nationwide.
This bill, as big as it is, to say $369 billion, it sort of understates the impact it's about to make.
MS. CALDWELL: You called it a "political miracle" that it was able to pass. Why was it able to pass? Why was Senator Joe Manchin convinced to come on board?
SEN. SCHATZ: Well, it really was a miracle, and I sort of‑‑I don't know why I feel so strongly about this particular point because it seems small compared to the magnitude of the crisis here, but I just don't want ever‑‑I don't want to ever see the history written like this thing was inevitable. This was not supposed to happen. This was structurally very, very unlikely.
But I think there's probably three or four dozen people across the country and in particular in this town who can credibly claim, hey, I'm the one that saved this thing, because this thing had that many not just near‑death experiences but actual deaths and resurrections. And so part of it was just persistence because, you know, the planet is at stake. You don't sort of go, you know, this isn't‑‑I don't want to name another issue to diminish the importance of that other issue, but as much as any other issue may seem urgent, you can always say, look, we'll come back next year. There is no "let's come back next year" on a planet that is on fire, and so nobody ever gave up.
And credit to Chuck Schumer who never gave up, who was, you know, always good on climate but not as passionate as he is now, and I think part of that is because of his grandson and his passion about leaving the next generation in better shape than his generation, and credit to Joe Biden for allowing the negotiations to continue quietly and staying engaged and not walking away from the table.
And, in the end, I mean, I can't get into Joe Manchin's mind‑‑
SEN. SCHATZ: ‑‑but one of the things, one of the exchanges that we had‑‑we had some frisky text exchanges throughout the process.
MS. CALDWELL: What was one?
SEN. SCHATZ: Well‑‑
SEN. SCHATZ: I'll sanitize it, but we‑‑you know, when one of the deaths of the climate bill‑‑I forgot which one it was actually, and I texted him. I said, you know, the sad thing is there was so much in it that was negotiated by the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, on which he's the chairman. And so there was a lot of stuff in that bill that he liked all along, and if you listen to him carefully, he talks about the need to decarbonize, right? But he just wants to make sure that we have reliable electricity and fuel for everybody, and then we make a transition in a way that works for people.
And so, when he started to talk like that, I ran the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative in the state of Hawaii, and as much as I'm a, you know, left progressive climate hawk, when you become in charge of an electricity system, right, a transmission distribution system, you start to sound a little bit more like Joe Manchin because you say, "I can't have a brownout or a blackout in Waikiki."
We have the Joint Base Pearl Harbor‑Hickam that's on the commercial grid, and suddenly, you start to sound like a pragmatist. And we found common ground, and I think that Chuck Schumer's staff and others just kind of stayed engaged and stayed engaged, and finally, it came down to Joe Manchin would rather move the country forward with energy security than not.
MS. CALDWELL: The Washington Post wrote a story about the three climateers, and you, Senator Whitehouse, and Senator Heinrich. Can you talk a little bit about the work over the years on this issue and how perhaps there might have been a generation‑‑is there a generational divide in the Senate on this issue and the work that you did to ensure that it was front and center for Democrats for years?
SEN. SCHATZ: Well, I don't know if it's a divide. I guess the way I would look at it is Barbara Boxer, right, who is now retired, was an absolute climate hawk, but she wanted reimbursement. So, when several of us came to the Senate, she welcomed us in, and so it wasn't so much a divide as "Great, we're not alone anymore," because it used to be Barbara and a couple of other people. And now the climate sort of cohort, you could probably say is 20 to 30 members of our 50‑person caucus.
But, you know, Sheldon Whitehouse and Martin Heinrich and I are a nice balance because Sheldon kind of looks at the legal and structural impediments to change and doesn't like sort of losing the same battle over and over again. Martin is an engineer by training and sort of understands the technical piece of the grid of fuel security, of the kind of stuff at the U.S. Department of Energy that has to happen and the kind of making‑it‑work piece. And then I'm the synthesizer, right? I'm the person who kind of says let's make sure that this is not a loser for the caucus. Let's make sure that this is not something that splits our caucus, but, you know, it was like about eight years ago, we kind of all huddled and said, we don't like losing anymore. And so we weren't the only ones, but we started to meet weekly and just stay at it because we understood that in politics, you don't know whether your bill is going to pass next week or next decade, but you got to be ready for the moment, and we were.
MS. CALDWELL: There were a lot of losses from then until now, though.
SEN. SCHATZ: Yes. Yes, it was, I mean, shoulder to the wheel, right? And part of it was that I felt the disappointment that lots of people felt, but I also felt a special obligation to keep my chin up, right? Because if I'm walking around despondent, then that's really going to impact the way people feel all across the country, but I feel like this is an issue that supersedes all other issues.
I was the lieutenant governor of the state of Hawaii. I still am happy, but I was very happy doing that work, and when I had an opportunity to come to the Senate, it was because of climate. It's because we need federal action and because the United States has to remain the indispensable nation in all things, but in particular, in a thing that kind of knows no borders and needs international leadership, and so we made a lot of progress.
I do want to say this bill is great. It gets us 80 percent of the way towards our clean energy goals, but that's only 80 percent of the way to a 50 percent reduction. And so this is a big down payment. It's the biggest thing we've ever done by far, but the other way to look at it is that we're going to have to do two or three or four more of these over a generation. This is a generational fight, and we're still in it.
MS. CALDWELL: So what else can the Senate do? What else needs to be done specifically?
SEN. SCHATZ: Kigali will be a very good start, and I am very focused on implementation because I've seen you can set big clean energy goals, and you can get stopped by NIMBYs. You can get stopped by‑‑bureaucracy is not even intentionally speaking, just the processes that take a long time. But there are massively generous tax credits now for manufacturing, for transmission distribution, for battery storage, for research. All of this can happen, but you have to now find the project, cite a project, finance a project, permit a project, and the build a project. And so execution is one sort of line of effort, and the other piece is that for the first time since President Obama was president, we are in a position to step back onto that global stage with Secretary Blinken and former Secretary Kerry and President Biden and say, "Okay. What's next?"
And the EU has already displayed incredible leadership, but we have more work to do in the global south to make sure that as we move forward with clean energy, we do so with justice in mind. But there's an opportunity to leverage what the United States has done to create a global movement for clean energy, and we're already seeing it happen
MS. CALDWELL: What about China?
SEN. SCHATZ: China is going to be a hard one. You know, we did well with President Obama and his bilaterals, and that was sort of we were able to kind of bifurcate or separate our disagreements from climate. Climate was its own track, and I'm hoping we can get back to that where we can disagree about human rights, we can disagree about the Western Pacific and Taiwan and Hong Kong and lots of other economic challenges, but climate should be its own track because climate is not a win‑lose thing. It's either a win‑win or a lose‑lose.
And so we're going to have to‑‑and I know that that's what Secretary Kerry has in mind is to sort of allow the United States and China to have vigorous disagreements in other areas but to work together on climate.
MS. CALDWELL: An audience or viewer question from George Kralovec from Virginia asks, "Now that we have the Inflation Reduction Act, which is actually the climate change bill named the Inflation Reduction Act, do we still need a price on carbon?"
SEN. SCHATZ: Oh, that's an interesting question. I remain in favor of a price on carbon, but I'm also‑‑look, I was going around saying you can't just advocate for your pet bill, right? And then I have to sort of stay true to that. I continue to think that a price on carbon is the most elegant, most pro business, most predictable way to do this, but also, my other title is chief deputy whip. So I have to be able to count, and we don't have the votes for that.
And so we had to pivot very quickly to something that we did have the votes for, which was essentially all carrots and very, very few sticks. Is it ideal? Is it the thing that I would have written if I were in charge of everything? No. Do I think we should eventually do a price on carbon? I do, but I don't think the current political environment puts us in a position to do that in the next, you know, six to twelve months. But, again, you just sort of never know when things could shift.
MS. CALDWELL: And you mention the carrots versus sticks. So the carrots are tax incentives and not forcing mandates on actions and activity. Why did that transition happen, and when did that happen? When did Democrats realize that the stick is not going to work?
SEN. SCHATZ: Well, I think it's two things. First is the politics of it. Sticks are harder to do, and it's not clear that we would have ever gotten Joe Manchin's vote if it were all sort of on the regulatory and punitive side. So that's number one.
The other thing is just it's an idiosyncrasy of passing something through reconciliation. You can't really pass new regs‑‑
SEN. SCHATZ: ‑‑in a reconciliation vehicle. It can only be sort of tax policy or budget‑related policy. So we sort of backed into something that ended up working politically because of the idiosyncrasies of the weird process we used.
MS. CALDWELL: On implementation, what is the timeline for some of this? Of course, there's the permitting reform requirement, but for these new projects, are we 10 years away?
SEN. SCHATZ: No. We can't be 10 years away. But, I mean, in the last month, so many new investments have been announced and more coming, and so this is so generous and so real and, by the way, so permanent, right? Because when people are making investments and they say, well, the ITC, you know, expires in two years, what happens after that? Right? What happens if we can't, you know, break ground by the time the ITC expires? None of that is a consideration anymore. This law is permanent. Most of the ITC piece is permanent until we achieve a 75 percent reduction in emissions. So that predictability is sending a giant signal to the private sector. So it's already happening.
Our goal is, you know, between 40 and 45 percent reduction in emissions by 2030, and so that means projects need to be contemplated, financed, and built over the next three to five years.
MS. CALDWELL: Also, in permitting reform, I was talking to Senator Booker yesterday, who made an argument that I have heard over and over again that this actually hurts, you know, lower‑income communities who are negatively impacted by energy projects. They bear the brunt of these. What is your reaction to that?
SEN. SCHATZ: Well, Cory is my friend, and he really walks the walk as it relates to environmental justice.
MS. CALDWELL: And, to be clear, he still supports this, but he says "that sucks" for that.
SEN. SCHATZ: Yeah, I have those reservations.
MS. CALDWELL: Those are not my words. His.
SEN. SCHATZ: Either way. You know, I think those reservations are fair, and I think it's important to point out that the Inflation Reduction Act has $60 billion for environmental justice. And so, in the big picture, again, environmental justice was not on the radar for the federal legislature. I'm not sure it wasn't an issue, but it wasn't on the radar for the federal legislature as recently as three years ago, and now when we pass energy policy, we do environmental justice. And that from a precedent‑setting standpoint is really key.
But I think we're going to have to be cautious because the thing that the so‑called "EJ community," the environmental justice community talks to me about is, hey, carbon emissions are important, and climate change is important, but sometimes we're getting directly poisoned, right? And so there is a scenario if we're not careful and if we're not mindful and if we don't include people where we could do the emissions reductions on the carbon side and still harm these frontline and fence‑line communities and still ignore and harm these frontline and fence‑line communities. So that's something that I think we all have to wrap our mind around and be increasingly sensitive to.
But I am super proud that we invested $60 bill in in EJ communities.
MS. CALDWELL: Some of the energy projects of the future will actually‑‑you know, mining for car batteries, et cetera. You are head of the Indian Affairs Committee. So a lot of this is on Native land, and how do you move forward with some of these communities who don't want to harm their people or their land for perhaps‑‑of course, they want a better world, but for these precious minerals?
SEN. SCHATZ: Well, I think that, you know, the principle that I use as the chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is "Nothing about me without me," and that's a Barbara Mikulski line. But I think it's really an important way to look at all politics, but in particular, when it comes to Native communities, too often the federal government makes decisions on behalf of Native communities and not allowing them to drive their own destiny.
What we did on the Indian Affairs side in the Inflation Reduction Act is provide $20 billion worth of tribal loan authority for clean energy projects, and I've spoken to tribal leaders who are absolutely thrilled because they think they can make tons of money for their tribal members on doing wind and solar. And so it's a double‑edged sword because as we move forward, we're going to have to do new industrial processes and, like you say, new mining and new siting and new construction, and those are all things that the environmental community sort of traditionally is allergic to. But if we're going to save the planet, we have to actually imagine that we're building things that save the planet.
You can't at this point just leave things alone. We're going to have to build these big planet‑saving projects, and I'm excited about the ability to do it together.
MS. CALDWELL: I have 15 seconds left. Is climate a good issue in these midterm elections?
SEN. SCHATZ: Oh, yeah. Now, first of all, I predict wrong all the time, except when it comes to Hawaii, but I will say that Joe Biden's popularity was kind of shockingly low with young people, considering his politics. And we passed the Inflation Reduction Act. Now, that's not the only thing that happened, but we passed the Inflation Reduction Act, and he is now doing much, much better among young people. People are fired up about this bill.
MS. CALDWELL: Senator Schatz, we are out of time. Thanks for joining us today.
SEN. SCHATZ: Thank you. It was great fun.
MS. CALDWELL: And my colleague, Juliet Eilperin, will be out momentarily with the next guest.
MS. EILPERIN: Hello, and welcome to Washington Post Live. I'm Juliet Eilperin, deputy climate and environment editor here at The Washington Post, and today I'm joined by Ryan Gellert, CEO of Patagonia, a brand some of you might be wearing right now or certainly familiar with, to discuss the role of private companies in addressing climate change.
Ryan, welcome.
MR. GELLERT: Thank you. Great to be here.
MS. EILPERIN: Last week, Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard announced that he had transferred‑‑he and his family's ownership valued at roughly $3 billion to a set of trusts and nonprofit groups in order to preserve the company's independence and ensure that all‑‑that all of its profits, about $100 million a year, are used to combat climate change and address other issues, including protecting land across the globe. What were those initial conversations like between you and Yvon?
MR. GELLERT: Yeah, it was‑‑well, first of all, let me just say last week was‑‑it was really‑‑it was humbling, and it was really inspiring. I mean, to have been with the Chouinard family for the last couple years in close quarters and, you know, there's a small group of us really trying to understand how we solve this problem, that they had presented and honestly that they had wrestled with for decades.
You know, people that know Yvon or has read his story, familiar with his story, know that one of his mentors was a person named Doug Tompkins, and Doug along with his first wife founded Esprit, and then Doug sold Esprit and took the money that he made from that. And he became with his second wife, Kris Tompkins, the largest conservationist in the history of private conservation. So they bought land in Chile and Argentina and created these large‑scale national parks,
And so Doug has always been in Yvon's ear about you should do the same thing, and I think for decades, Yvon had really wrestled with that. How do I have the biggest impact? You know, he describes himself as a reluctant businessman because he has always been a reluctant businessman.
And so fast forward to a couple of years ago, Yvon said, "Look, I'm not getting any younger, and now is the time that we solve this problem." And, you know, for any of us that are familiar with the normal ways that founders exit businesses, it felt like‑‑I mean, it was just the most demotivating thing I ever heard because‑‑first time he said it, I was like, all right, all right, but maybe I can sidestep this because it's been a live conversation for a long time. But it became increasingly clear that he was really committed to doing this.
And one of the times that‑‑I think the time it became most clear, I was over at his house, and it was just he and I sitting on the back porch. And he said, "I swear to God, if you don't‑‑if you don't start moving on this, I'm going to go get the Forbes billionaire list, and I'm going to start just cold‑calling people." And so that was the point where I think it was clear to all of us that he wasn't going to move off of this.
And so we explored taking the company public, which, you know, the quote of $3 billion in valuation. I think had we taken it public, it probably would have been $6 billion‑plus. And we looked at selling minority interests or even selling the whole company, and I think what that did‑‑I never was interested in those outcomes, and I think many of us weren't, but we had to solve the problem that Yvon and the family had put in front of us.
And when we got deeper into the conversations, what became clear was there were two things of primary interest to them. One is protect the ongoing integrity of Patagonia, the business, and the other is create more money right now to cash‑flow the environment. And so it was two years of trying to figure out if we could put together a new structure because we couldn't figure out how to do those two things under the existing models.
MS. EILPERIN: And could you talk a little about, yeah, why you landed where you did? And, also, obviously, there's been different reporting on the tax implications and what benefits or costs there were to the family to do this. So if you could talk a little about that.
MR. GELLERT: Yeah. So how we came to this, you know, again, we exhausted the options, the well‑worn paths for founders to exit, and so we started looking at, you know, different structures and looked at‑‑we took inspiration from some other companies that were very purpose‑led, Ben & Jerry's and Newman's Own, and there were flaws in each of those.
And so we ended up putting together, you know, taking existing tools and cobbling them together. So, in essence‑‑and it's a complex story or it's a complex structure, but it's a simple narrative. The simple narrative is this. There's a purpose trust. Trusts generally benefit a person. A purpose trust benefits a purpose. So the purpose trust owns 100 percent of the voting shares of Patagonia now, and that it exists to ensure that people like myself, the leadership team, run the business using the philosophy that's so important to the founders.
And then there's the hold fast collective, and that receives all of the profits from the business, and its purpose is cash flowing the environment. So that's the structure that we landed on.
On the tax piece, yeah, it's been widely reported on, and, you know, a few things. Number one, we have always paid our taxes. That's, you know‑‑that's public record. That can be pulled, and that's not just in America, but that's around the world. We don't employ complex business structures to avoid paying taxes. So we have never structured the business that way. It's not only that we pay our taxes. We have always believed in paying our taxes.
When Trump pushed through a corporate tax reduction, we actually took the benefit of that $10 million and gave it to small grassroots organizations working on the front lines of the climate crisis. So that's sort of context of how we think about this.
MS. EILPERIN: Mm‑hmm.
MR. GELLERT: In this structure for the nearly two years that we had meetings every single week with the family, never once did I have a conversation with them about, by the way, optimize this for taxes. So it was never a part of the conversation.
And the final thing I would say is the estate taxes are intended‑‑it's a tax paid when you take something of value and hand it from one generation to the other. That didn't happen here, and capital gains taxes are a tax that you pay when you take something. It escalates in value. You sell it, and you take the money off the table. That didn't happen here. So it's‑‑you know, it's the equivalent of me not paying taxes on my house yesterday because I didn't sell my house yesterday, and so I don't think we have dodged anything.
MS. EILPERIN: Got it. And you briefly mentioned this, but‑‑when you talked about the purpose trust, but could you walk us through what this means for you as CEO going forward and running the company? Obviously, you have to adhere to these ideas, but is there anything else you would say about how running the company is different now than it was?
MR. GELLERT: No. I would say that it's exactly the same as it was before, and I think if anything is different, I see it as an asset because it takes away this question of what happens at some point down the road. And so I would hope that not just for myself or the leadership team, for every employee at Patagonia, we now know not just what our structure is today but what our structure will be for the future. But, to me, it's the most liberating thing in the world to know that our values are codified, that we have put together a leadership team, and we have an organization and a culture of people that are focused on these things, and we have a board of directors that are equally committed to them. So I feel like it just brings clarity that we've been looking for.
MS. EILPERIN: Got it. And, in terms of the hold fast collective and some of the other, you know, activities that are going to now be funded, as you said, with more money, could you talk a little about, you know, how it's going to be balanced between, say, grassroots initiatives aimed at, you know, conservation, things including, say, regenerative agriculture or something like that, and obviously politics? Because, clearly, this is something that Patagonia has gotten involved in. It's a 501(c)(4) making that possible, and, you know, we're at this moment where we have obviously political players on both sides of the aisle‑‑
MR. GELLERT: Yeah.
MS. EILPERIN: ‑‑doing this, this kind of move, and‑‑
MS. EILPERIN: ‑‑could you spell out how, how you're going to engage in that?
MR. GELLERT: Yeah. So I would day first, again, stepping back for context, you know, we spent over this nearly 24‑month period‑‑it took kind of everything we had, including all the time we had to figure out how to pull this off, and we‑‑this transaction actually completed about a month ago. And so we had almost no capacity to think about anything else. It was a really small team because we wanted‑‑we needed to keep this thing tight until it was done, and then once it was done, about a month ago, we switched gears. And that really small team became slightly less small but not a whole lot more, and we focused on putting together a rollout plan for our employees.
And so, you know, it was incredibly important for us to roll this out for our employees and with our employees in a way that they would understand the intentionality behind this.
MR. GELLERT: And so that was kind of all the time and energy that we had up till then, and we met. So we did that on Wednesday. The news became public on Wednesday. Thursday morning, the board got together, and we said, "All right. We now need to move to the third piece of this," which is how we're going to deploy these funds. And so it's a longwinded way of saying, to some extent, we haven't answered those questions.
I think what people can expect from us is we'll be focusing on root‑cause issues, not symptoms. We'll be focusing directionally on the same types of things, overwhelmingly nature‑based solutions to the climate crisis, and being as inclusive as we know how to be with the communities that rely on these areas and those that have been exposed to‑‑you know, bear a disproportionate amount of way for the climate and ecological crisis. Those are the general directions.
I think regenerative organic agriculture‑‑and I always work in the word "organic" because so often now people are talking about regenerative, regenerative agriculture, which is just, I think, lacking in definition and specificity‑‑
MS. EILPERIN: Mm‑hmm
MR. GELLERT: ‑‑so regenerative organic agriculture.
As far as the politics piece. We were very intentional about setting up a 501(c)(4) for the reasons you articulated. I don't know what that will mean.
I would tell you what I don't think it should be is an arms race, both sides, and continuing to try to outspend each other. I don't see how that benefits any of us, but I think the thing that we think about all the time in addition to really focusing on root‑cause issues is where can we be most additive, and I think, you know, we've got a little bit of time in front of us right now to figure out and fine‑tune what we think that will be.
MS. EILPERIN: And what do you think it means‑‑you know, it's so interesting that we obviously just had Senator Schatz talk about, of course, the Inflation Reduction Act. There is this considerable amount of money that the federal government and all of us at taxpayers will be putting towards addressing climate change as a result of that legislation. But, in many ways, you really see, you know, a far greater amount of money coming from, you know, private actors, whether it's in the political realm, whether it's with philanthropy. You know, what do you think are the implications of having so many private actors who don't have that same accountability to the public, you know, engaging in this issue?
MR. GELLERT: I think when it comes to the climate and ecological crisis, we don't have a choice. I mean, the thing that I keep going back to is, you know, governments were‑‑the whole concept of government is to solve these kinds of big complex problems and also focus energy and resources towards big opportunities.
I think people individually say, "Well, I didn't create this problem. What can I do? I'm one person." I think businesses have always very conveniently hid behind this Friedman approach to, you know, the rule of business is to maximize shareholder wealth. That's a wonderfully entertaining academic idea, but it has created the problems that we have today, and if we don't shift away from that, we know exactly what tomorrow is going to look like. So I think at an individual level, we not only need to make decisions in our lives, to minimize our footprint where we can, but we also need to, you know, really embrace our role as part of civil society, turn out to vote.
And, by the way, today is National Voter Registration Day. So that's worth mentioning as well.
But really show up in all the ways we can individually. Governments need to do what governments need to do, which is step up and solve the biggest problems that we face, and I don't think there's any bigger than this. But businesses have to step into this space.
So, you know, I think we're just past the luxury of being able to debate what the purpose of business is.
MS. EILPERIN: Got it. And along those lines, in a post published on LinkedIn, you criticized corporate members‑‑
MR. GELLERT: Mm‑hmm.
MS. EILPERIN: ‑‑and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Business Roundtable, which obviously includes some of the biggest corporations in the world, for their opposition to the Inflation Reduction Act and their general hypocrisy on these issues. Do you think that public shaming will compel some of these companies to act on this issue, and how?
MR. GELLERT: Well, I think people like me posting things like that on LinkedIn isn't going to change anything. Let's be clear.
I do think employees and customers have the power to change things. You know, I talked a minute ago about, you know, what are we best at, what are we uniquely qualified to impact. I think one of the things that we have proven reasonably good at, we're good storytellers, and we have a community of people, whether they're customers of Patagonia or they just sort of follow what we're up to, but I think really respond to the stories that we tell. And I think creating a world‑‑and I do think the news last week‑‑I don't think other companies are going to follow us immediately and give their companies away.
MS. EILPERIN: Okay.
MR. GELLERT: But you know what it does is it expands the conversation about what's possible, which hopefully shifts the responsibility within boardrooms a little bit more in that direction.
So LinkedIn posts like that, you know, I think it's making a statement and informing people about the‑‑you know, the‑‑I mean, it came from, if I want to be really honest, and I won't name names here.
MS. EILPERIN: Yeah.
MR. GELLERT: But it came from a conversation with one of the biggest companies in America and their CEO in saying, "Hey, look, you all are undermining this, and you are describing yourself to your customers and to your employees as a regenerative company. And you are in a leadership role with one of the organizations that is trying to torpedo this legislation. I can't square that, and all I ask you go do is say the same thing to your lobbyists that you're saying to your employees and to your customers, and if you do that, then, you know, people can vote with their dollars."
MS. EILPERIN: See, I would like you to name names, and so my next question would be, can you identify any hypocritical companies right now in this space in part to say, you know, make it clear for, you know, consumers and those voters you just talked about?
MR. GELLERT: I would say this, and I'm not trying to sidestep that as much‑‑
MR. GELLERT: ‑‑as I actually think‑‑I think it's important that people educate themselves on this and not just look at sound bites.
Look at the‑‑look at the membership of the Business Roundtable. Look at the membership of the American Chamber of Commerce, and look for any and you will find very few public statements from those members supporting the Inflation Reduction Act or supporting, prior to that, Build Back Better. Look for it. You're going to find very few. Look at the leadership within those organizations, particularly the Business Roundtable, and look at whether or not‑‑look at whether they've gone on record in support of these things.
Also, I would encourage you to check the dates they might have gone on record. You know, the week before is a little different than when the momentum is being built.
MS. EILPERIN: Got it.
And are there‑‑are there examples you can point to where you feel like consumer action--because this comes up a lot with our‑‑you know, with our audience too of, you know, this balance between the need for actual, you know, government rules and what people can do, where you seeing a really significant shift in how people place their dollars and what that means in terms of environmental outcomes.
MR. GELLERT: You know, I think the two things that people, I think, sometimes‑‑I mean, voting is number one, period, and so I think it's one thing to vote. It's another thing to educate yourself and really be an informed voter, and it's a third thing to help other people vote.
And so one of the things that we're pushing on quite a bit and we‑‑actually, I just found out last night that in the short time that we've posted this information on our website about how people can participate in the upcoming midterms, we've had 3,000‑plus people register to be poll workers from our community, which that's another way that I think people don't think about a lot to engage in, in the process. So I think participating, getting yourself up to speed, helping other people do it is critical.
I think the other thing that people often overlook as individual employees is how much influence they can have on the companies they work for, and I think one of the great trends in the last couple of years has been employees putting pressure on their employers on the topics most important to them; in my opinion, few, if any, more important than climate.
Now, while Patagonia has taken many steps to curb its environmental impact, it turns a profit by getting people to buy what I believe you've said in your own words are‑‑we're making stuff‑‑we're not making stuff that people need to survive.
MR. GELLERT: Yep.
MS. EILPERIN: So how do you address this inherent contradiction in being a consumer‑oriented company and clearly one of the biggest issues we especially face in the industrialized and wealthy world?
MR. GELLERT: Yeah. Well, I think‑‑I think the first way we do it is acknowledging our place in the world with no arrogance, and, you know, I think just stepping right into that, we‑‑I think that quote, because I've used it often, is "We make product that people may want, but they don't need it to survive." And I think that that's a really important thing for us to understand. I think it's really important that we never try to convince anybody otherwise.
You know, one of the questions I was answering from a journalist in the UK over the‑‑it was on Friday of last week. So, again, the news of us giving the company away and restructuring it was done on Wednesday. So it was 48 hours later. He said, "So what have sales been like since?" and I said, "You know, to be honest with you, I don't know. I haven't asked, but I should ask."
MS. EILPERIN: Did you find out the answer?
MR. GELLERT: I did ask, and the answer was on our e‑comm, on our website was traffic had gone up 300‑plus percent, meaning people were coming, and we had done a home page takeover with a letter from Yvon Chouinard about what he had done and why he had done it. And the revenue on the website was up maybe 30 percent for a couple of days. So, I mean, there was a little bit of an impact but not a meaningful one.
So your question, though, to try to answer it directly, it's one that we wrestle with all time is we've got to be really honest with ourself about the business that we're in and the impact of that business. We have to constantly wrestle with how we minimize the footprint of our business, and then at the heart of that tension that you describe is the reason that we started taxing ourselves, what we called an "earth tax" in the mid‑'80s. Originally, it was 1 percent of sales or 10 percent of profits, whatever was greater, and then we codified it, and then we cofounded an independent organization called "1% Percent for the Planet," 20 years ago. And we've given 1 percent of revenue every year to small grassroots organizations working on the front lines in the climate and ecological crisis, and that's to sort of tax ourselves because we know we can't do enough good within the business to offset the impact that we have. But this is something that we've got to wrestle with every day.
MS. EILPERIN: Right. And now, of course, some companies may benefit by getting more political, and I'm wondering to what extent when you talk about your conversations with like‑minded CEOs‑‑
MS. EILPERIN: ‑‑or ones that have slightly different views, to what extent is there a possibility for a broader coalition, and how would you see that developing?
MR. GELLERT: I think what we have found is that building coalitions around issues has become easier and, in many ways, more productive. I mean, one of the ones that I'll point to‑‑I think it's the best example so far that we have‑‑is Time to Vote. So we cofounded with Levi and PayPal an organization of businesses that are committed to helping their employees get out and vote, and part of the commitment is shutting down their business on Election Day, which is something we've done for a long time, to ensure that their employees have access to getting out and voting. And that's a‑‑that's a pretty nonpartisan topic, and it's a nonpartisan organization. I believe in the last election cycle, we had over 2,000 businesses that had committed to that. So that's an example where you kind of have a single issue where a lot of businesses can come together.
I don't think in general we make great partners broadly for other businesses because this is what we do. This is what we're focused on, and I think people often say, "Well, can we just bring it down?" No. This is what we do, and so if we have to go it alone at times, then so be it. But we're not doing that intentionally to‑‑you know, we're not wanting to go alone.
MR. GELLERT: But we sort of move at the pace we move, and we'll align with others on issues where the opportunity is there.
MS. EILPERIN: Right. And, obviously, so you've identified clearly voting is something which, you know, there is again some precedent of, for example, bipartisan coalitions and kind of apolitical coalitions on that. Obviously, Patagonia is engaged in other issues, including abortion. Are there‑‑are there any‑‑are there issues beyond, say, something like voting where you feel like there's the most possibility for broader action, and are there ones where you feel like it's incredibly unlikely that corporations would become more political?
MR. GELLERT: I think that‑‑I think that environmental issues are ones that have gotten united on. I mean, I see more overlay there with voting than I do perhaps on the others.
I mean, on reproductive rights and abortion, that's an issue incredibly important to our employees, so it's important to us, period. And so that's an issue that that's the lens that we bring to it.
I think that one of the challenges of running a business, being part of a business like Patagonia, is having authenticity and credibility and a reason for engaging in all of the issues that we engage on. I think it's very easy, and you get a lot of microphones put in front of your face. It's very easy to have an opinion on everything. I don't think that that's good for us. I don't think that's good for our community. I don't think that that's helpful for the underlying issues, and so I think a certain amount of discipline is really important from us. And I think finding opportunities where the things that we're focused on overlay with the things that are important to other businesses, that's where‑‑that's where sometimes we form these coalitions.
MS. EILPERIN: And for publicly traded companies that have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders, to what extent do you think that they could ever make decisions that aren't directly related to their bottom line?
MR. GELLERT: You know, I think that that's‑‑I've got mixed mind on this. On the one hand, I do fully acknowledge our life is a whole lot easier with the owners that we have, both being privately owned and up till, you know, about a month ago, and now having the structure that we have, it just simplifies everything for us. So I do‑‑you know, I'd be kind of disingenuous not to acknowledge that.
I think the flip side is, you know, the leaders of publicly traded companies use that as an incredibly convenient excuse not to do the right thing, and so I find that also pretty disingenuous. And so I think this notion of, you know, hey, look, our number one responsibility is this, everything else is outside of that, I think is‑‑that's really convenient.
You know, look, I can get kind of on my soapbox on this. I think there's few things that heads of businesses love being called more than a leader. They usually love applying it to themselves, if somebody else doesn't first, and, you know, leadership is something that happens when you're sitting alone at night trying to wrestle through really big decisions. And these are big, complex decisions. They also happen to sit at the heart of an existential threat to humanity and everything that we hold dear, one that we‑‑crises that we have created ourselves, and so if you can't figure out how to make that part of your responsibility, somebody ought to strip the leader‑‑lapel off your jacket.
MS. EILPERIN: Okay. Last question. Almost a year ago in response to a question asking if you had faith that governments and big businesses would be able to stop runaway climate change‑‑
MS. EILPERIN: ‑‑you responded, "No, I don't." In light of what we've seen recently, whether it's in terms of legislation in Washington and this move, to what extent would you modify that answer?
MR. GELLERT: I wouldn't modify it all, I mean, because it was an honest answer, and I've got two young kids, so I think about this all the time. I think the world they're inheriting is going to be vastly different than the one I grew up in. And I just‑‑that sobers the hell out of me to acknowledge, but I think it's true. So, if you want an honest answer, that's my honest answer, and I'll stand by it.
Now, I think a lot of people take that as a reason to just be paralyzed and feel like you can't move forward and contribute. I feel like we've lost the right to be‑‑you know, to be cynical about this. I think we have to show up every day and do everything we can, and I would love nothing more than to be proven wrong.
MS. EILPERIN: There you go.
Well, Ryan, we're just about out of time. I want to thank you for joining us here at The Washington Post, so thank you.
MR. GELLERT: Thank you. Thank you so much.
MS. EILPERIN: And‑‑
MS. EILPERIN: And my colleague, Frances Stead Sellers, will be out here shortly with the next guest after this video. So please stay with us.
MS. LABOTT: Hello. For a growing number of companies, sustainability is a business decision that transcends ESG, public relations, or even a corporate ethos. Building impact and social value is now a pillar of many companies' investment in innovation strategy, and to discuss the importance of a sustainable business strategy and investment across the clean energy landscape, I'm joined by Richard Chin. He's the CEO of SK Growth Companies.
Richard, thanks for joining us today.
MR. CHIN: Thank you. It's an honor to be here, a pleasure.
MS. LABOTT: So we don't see a lot of ads for SK products on television. You're a B2B business, but I‑‑and I don't think people really know how much your investments are powering our business and personal lives. Talk to us a little bit about your footprint here in the United States and the vision of where you want to go.
MR. CHIN: Great. Thank you.
First of all, as my colleague and head of the D.C. office shared with you, we are the second‑largest conglomerate based in Korea. We employ over 110,000 employees worldwide in lots of different industries and operating companies in clean energy, semiconductors, and life sciences.
In the United States specifically, we're across 26 states, over 4,000 employees, and currently have about $13 billion in investments and assets. By 2025, that increases to $50 billion in investment and assets and over 20,000 highly skilled workers. So we're excited about our growth in all of the sectors that we're investing in, in the U.S.
As, Elise, you mentioned, we don't appear in a lot of advertising, primarily because we're B2B, but we're in industries like semiconductors where we serve customers like Apple, Dell. So, if you use a cell phone, a smart TV, any device that processes information, we make those devices smarter with our semiconductor solutions.
We also have a huge gigafactory in Commerce, Georgia, producing electric vehicle batteries, and we're‑‑
MS. LABOTT: The biggest in the United States, right?
MR. CHIN: Well, right now, absolutely, it is, and it's going to get larger by 2025 as we continue to invest in two plants. One is live right now. We'll be serving customers like Ford. Their F‑150 Lightning program will be powered by our electric vehicle batteries as well as Volkswagen's ID.4 product.
As I mentioned, the first plant is live. Second plant will be live by‑‑in a couple of years, and we'll be producing over 300,000 electric vehicle batteries a year.
And then, in addition to that, we've announced a joint venture with Ford where we will be building in Tennessee and Kentucky, another several mega‑plants to produce about a million batteries per year when that plant is up and live.
So, by 2025, we're pretty confident we're going to be the largest battery maker for electric vehicles.
MS. LABOTT: Yeah. All of these vehicle companies, automotive companies are coming out with electronic vehicles. So that's obviously going to increase.
Now, you're investing heavily in helping scale green business and technology and research and development for eco‑friendly solutions. What's driving that strategy?
MR. CHIN: That's a great question. The underlying principle is that businesses‑‑SK, we believe that businesses must produce not just economic value but social value, and this is a philosophy that our chairman, Tony Chey, created, established nearly a decade ago, where he called it a "double bottom‑line approach" in terms of philosophy as well as management system. And it measures our operating companies' economic value creation but also social value creation, and much of the social value creation measurements are around environment and sustainability.
So we not only talked the talk before ESG was an acronym that we created in the industries, but we also walked the walk of doing the things necessary to create sustainability in everything that we do in our business for positive social impact.
MS. LABOTT: So how does that translate into your business decisions and strategies? Like, is it‑‑talk about‑‑is it the inception of what you do?
MR. CHIN: Absolutely. You know, as we look at our businesses today‑‑and much of our businesses in post‑war Korea started with hydrocarbon‑based energy businesses or other very traditional conglomerate businesses‑‑we want to transform ourselves as a conglomerate to become a much more eco‑friendly conglomerate. So, therefore, every investment decision we make, every key capital investment decision we make, we ask along the lines of both financial returns but also social impact returns, and so that's how we think about and act on our investments.
MS. LABOTT: Well, certainly, you did that, all that years ago, a kind of pioneer in the field, but you're not just thinking in clean energy. But you've put a premium on sustainable business practices themselves, and I think that's a growing field for a lot of companies. Tell us about your strategy for sustainable business practices.
MR. CHIN: Sure. Just as, you know, we think both about financial and social impact up front when we make capital investment decisions and new business investment decisions, we really look at ourselves and say, "What are the things that we're doing that we can do better in terms of sustainability and having a less negative footprint to the environment?"
So, simple examples, in today's business that we fun in semiconductors, manufacturing of semiconductors is a very water‑intensive process, and so we are using artificial intelligence solutions to measure and see how we use water and where we can save water in our manufacturing process, and so, therefore, by 2030, we're anticipating that through these improvements, continuous improvements in our processes, that we would reduce water usage, for example, by 300 percent. And so we‑‑every day we look at the way we do business and try to impact more positively to the environment.
Another sort of good example would be even in our chemicals and plastics‑related businesses. We realized several years ago that the labels that go around the plastic bottles are not recyclable. So, therefore, our chemists, our scientists came up with an eco‑label that can be recycled. They don't have to get separated from the plastic bottles to make the process cumbersome for recycling.
And so "Every little bit helps" is our motto and our thinking, and that's how we practice every day those sort of important steps and turning our business around.
MS. LABOTT: Now, you recently did a survey of business leaders that found sustainability. Just like for you, it isn't PR anymore, but it's critical to the overall success of a business. What do you say to companies that are just starting now to think about this kind of business strategy for sustainability?
MR. CHIN: Yeah. That's a great question. We conducted the survey to just understand how important sustainability is and whether companies are actually implementing sustainability, metrics, and processes into their business decision‑making, and surprisingly, we found that they are already doing that. An overwhelming percentage of respondents said that they are doing that.
However, many companies are still struggling to put in place the right metrics and right processes to get them there, and so, therefore, as I just talked about, I think it's really imperative that we look at‑‑businesses look at, at the same time of looking at financial returns, those everyday little things that we do in our everyday practices of our businesses to really move towards having less footprint to the environment.
MS. LABOTT: You've said that in order to achieve both on financial performance goals but also deliver on the climate pledges made in Paris Agreement, you need to constantly be rethinking the traditional business models. So talk to us about what the future of SK looks like, keeping that in mind.
MR. CHIN: Sure. As I mentioned, you know, much of our businesses that we started with are we're looking to transform ourselves from those businesses to much more eco‑friendly businesses, and so the first thing we are really looking to do is, you know, earn the money from today's business and invest in businesses that will be much more eco‑friendly, and so, for example, although we power the Korean economy with all of our energy solutions, some hydrocarbon‑based, we would take those earnings and reinvent it, not just into those businesses but into businesses like electric vehicle battery business, clean hydrogen business, things that we have not done before, and so we're transforming it.
Secondly, also, as we do with‑‑in other parts of the world, in the U.S., we're investing in new technologies and new industries that we think are essential to making our world a much better place to do business in and live in, and so, therefore, many of the venture‑backed companies, for example, in Silicon Valley that are doing very novel things in things like sustainable food and sustainable agriculture and other new innovative industries and sectors, we're investing our earnings into those companies and helping that ecosystem thrive and help them prove out their technologies and make those technologies real so that we can have a sustainable future.
MS. LABOTT: Talk to us a little bit about those kind of novel products that you're talking about. I know you're heavily investing now in sustainable food, and so what does the future look like on alternative food or some of the other kind of new innovations in eco‑products?
MR. CHIN: Sure. Let's say with sustainable food for a second. You know, we all know that agriculture is really an energy‑intensive industry and lots of carbon emissions, water‑related issues, other negative footprints in terms of pesticides and antibiotics used and so on.
In the sustainable food sector, I'm sure some of you have seen it where we're investing in companies like Wildtype, which is growing, essentially culturing fish like salmon and making sure that we in the future will have these lab‑‑or not lab but culture‑grown, real salmon protein for consumers to consume without all the negative side effects and negative pesticides or antibiotics and things like that and also the negative effects of aquafarming. And so that area is ripe for innovation and ripe for some revolutionary products, and we went to be enablers, not just financially, but as commercial partners to make those technologies become real.
MS. LABOTT: You had said recently that you were talking about 3‑D printing for sustainable food.
MR. CHIN: Yeah. So right now many of the new technologies are at pilot scale, and they're utilizing things like 3‑D printing technologies to produce the quality and texture of meats and fish and other products that consumers will adopt because they won't see the difference between what has grown and cultured versus what is caught in the ocean through farming.
MS. LABOTT: So you won't really be able to tell the difference.
MR. CHIN: Absolutely. And if you try like Wildtype's‑‑I'm not a spokesperson for Wildtype, although we've invested in the company. If you tried their salmon as sushi, you couldn't tell the difference between cultured salmon versus aquafarm salmon.
MS. LABOTT: So it isn't a green effort. It's more of a business plan and investing in these next‑generation clean energy technologies and products, as you said, can enhance sustainable growth and value for all stakeholders.
Richard Chin, CEO of SK Opportunities‑‑Growth Opportunities, thank you so much for joining us.
MR. CHIN: Thanks, Elise. Thanks for the opportunity.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Good morning. I'm Frances Stead Sellers, a senior writer here at The Washington Post, and I'm very excited now to be introducing three company founders to inspire us. First of all, Wawa Gatheru, who is the founder of Black Girl Activists, and then Sophia Kianni, who is the founder and executive director of Climate Cardinals, and then Miranda Wang at the end is CEO and co‑founder of Novoloop, so a very warm welcome to all three of you. Thank you for joining us.
[Applause.]
MS. STEAD SELLERS: So, truly, I mean, this is so inspiring to see all three of you here, and, Miranda, I'd love to start with you and ask you a little about Novoloop and the founding story there.
MS. WANG: Novoloop is actually an advanced circularity company. So we are based in Menlo Park, California, a venture‑backed startup, and we're working on transforming plastics that are really hard to recycle today by existing means, and we invented a chemical process to actually take the plastics, break them down a molecular level, and create brand‑new high‑performing materials from it.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Including a shoe? Is that right?
MS. WANG: That's right, yes. And so‑‑
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Are you wearing one?
MS. WANG: I'm not wearing them right now.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Okay.
MS. WANG: I'm not wearing them right now. There are eight pairs that were made in the world.
MS. WANG: And so in collaboration with On Running, we actually created the Cloudprime together and that was debuted last week on September 15th. And it was a really interesting consortium project. So Novoloop actually contributed the outsole, which is the bottom of the shoe, and it was created through our chemical upcycling technology. But the upper and the midsole of the shoe were actually created through carbon capture.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: So just before I move on to the next person, I want to ask you about this business of upcycling as opposed to stopping plastics at source. Where is the issue here? Should we be looking at the product at the very beginning, or is upcycling an answer to our climate problems with plastic?
MS. WANG: We absolutely need to do both. So there‑‑you know, there's actually been a really great study performed by Google looking at what it takes to close what they call the "circularity gap," which is the difference between how much plastic is projected to be produced as well as how much we can actually recycle with our existing means. And the gap is huge.
There's a variety of activities that have to happen in a concerted fashion, including reduction consumption and new technologies to circularize plastics.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Thank you.
So, Sophia, Climate Cardinals, a very different approach again. If you can tell me a little bit about the inspiration behind it and what it's doing.
MS. KIANNI: Yeah, of course. So, growing up‑‑I an Iranian American‑‑I would visit Iran during the summers, and I realized that my relatives didn't know anything about climate change, partially because there was a lack of resources available in Farsi, which is Iran's native language‑‑and so I worked with my mom, who's sitting here, to translate‑‑
MS. KIANNI: ‑‑to translate climate resources into Farsi so I could teach my relatives about climate change. And when I was in my senior year of high school, I decided to start Climate Cardinals, which is an international youth‑led nonprofit working to make climate education more accessible to people who don't speak English, people like my relatives, and so now we've grown to over 9,000 student volunteers in 41 countries. And we've been able to translate over half a million words of climate resources into over a hundred languages.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: So tell me a little bit more about the problem with the overrepresentation of English or the fact that so much of this is communicated primarily in English.
MS. KIANNI: Yeah. So, when you look at the research, around 80 percent of scientific literature is only available in English, but then 75 percent of the world doesn't speak English.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: So tell me again. Seventy‑five percent is in English, and 75 percent of the world does not speak English.
MS. KIANNI: Eighty percent is in English‑‑
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Eighty percent, wow.
MS. KIANNI: ‑‑and then 75 percent of the world doesn't speak English.
MS. KIANNI: And then even the UN's IPCC report, which is widely regarded as the most renowned piece of climate literature in the world, it's only officially available in 61 languages that account for less than half of the world‑speaking population, and so the UN, with all the climate documents and resources they're putting out, is leaving half of the world behind in their advocacy.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Wow. So there's a really good example of inequities in terms of communications.
And you, Wawa, look at another form of inequities. And you bring‑‑can you help me connect the dots with race and‑‑
MS. GATHERU: Yeah.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: ‑‑why that's such a key issue as we combat climate change?
MS. GATHERU: Yeah. So I am the founder of Black Girl Environmentalists, and it really is a love project. I've been in the environmental space since I was 15 years old, and‑‑
MS. STEAD SELLERS: So what took you‑‑then 15, and you jump into the environment.
MS. GATHERU: Yeah. So what's really interesting is I had a lot of the experiences that a lot of my peers in the environmental space had of feeling very close to the earth but wanting to protect the earth, feeling close to the identity of the environmentalists, but I very adamantly didn't see myself as an environmentalist.
My idea of environmentalism felt as though it was in this high tower of whiteness and you have to be extremely wealthy and do certain activities like hiking and camping, and my family didn't do that. My family didn't look like any of the environmentalists I saw on TV, people talking about climate change. So I just thought, I guess, it's not for me.
It wasn't until I was 16, I stumbled into an environmental science class, and my teacher decided to add an environmental justice chapter, and there, I began to connect the dots between race and social justice and why all these different social justice issues are environmental issues as well, since the people that are experiencing the climate crisis first and worst are people of color and are women, and when you bring that intersection together, you find Black non‑men, which is a demographic in the climate space that is not only underrepresented but isn't allowed at the same decision‑making table as others, which is what I really want to help change.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: So take that for me on to the international level, and tell me what you think the responsibility is of developed nations to help combat CO2 emissions and educate people around the world.
MS. GATHERU: Accountability, absolutely. I mean, what we're seeing, for instance‑‑
MS. STEAD SELLERS: What form?
MS. GATHERU: I mean, climate reparations is one.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Right.
MS. GATHERU: That's a new legal framework that a lot of people are talking about, and I think it's something that needs to be taken seriously. I mean, we look at countries like the United States, like the United Kingdom that have really, in a lot of ways, disproportionately contributed to the crisis that we find ourselves in, yet when we look at the countries that are‑‑even right now Pakistan is under water, and people aren't talking about it in the way that they need to. There is a discrepancy there. Pakistan doesn't emit the same amount of greenhouse gasses as a country like the United States, yet it's Pakistan that's under water right now.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: So, talking about accountability, Sophia, what does our generation, the generation of many people in this room, owe your generation in terms of repairing the damage that's being done to the world?
MS. KIANNI: I would say a seat at the table is what is owed in the sense that I truly believe in the power of intergenerational collaboration, and so I for the last two years have had the privilege of serving on the UN Secretary‑General's Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change. So I've been able to work closely with him and his team to talk about climate solutions and to talk about the demands of the youth climate movement, and I think that similar models need to be implemented at all levels of our government at all different institutions and organizations, because young people, we know that our generation is going to be disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis if action isn't taken. And so I think that it is your generation's responsibility to sit down and to work with us and to think about how we can co‑design a better future.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: And do you think that message is being picked up? Do you feel you are being listened to and new approaches are being taken on by older generations because of your own activism?
MS. KIANNI: I do think that we're being listened to, but I do think that listening isn't enough. I think we need to now take that next step into action and into co‑designing with young people so that we can actually implement the climate policies and the different solutions that we're actually designing.
And, I mean, at Stanford, we have the Stanford Climate Ventures Program, and it's been incredible to watch my peers build climate tech companies, and I also think there's an incredible opportunity for public‑private sector partnerships as well.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: So, Miranda, we've just heard from Ryan Gellert at Patagonia with this incredible contribution, but talk to me about corporate responsibility going ahead and whether you think big companies and small companies can and should be committing to climate in a way that goes beyond their own concerns with profitability.
MS. WANG: Yeah. You know, I think on the issue of sustainability here, it really is a team sport, right? It's something that can only happen if you look at our supply chains. We have to from a very beginning, the raw materials stages, through all the way to the end products work toward adopting‑‑develop and adopting these better materials, better ways of manufacturing our waste into resources. That's just one example of things that would require just an entire, you know, concerted effort across the entire supply chain, right, tens of hundreds of companies, for example, just to get to one end product.
And so, you know, I think on this front, it's more about how are companies looking at their role in this. Are you in a position where you're actively able to develop the technologies and implement them, and if you are, then you should do that? But, if you're in a position where you can't really do that, you know, you're more at the place where you're selecting maybe the technologies or things to purchase‑‑and I think that's the part where a lot of the things, for example, that my fellow panelists are doing, you know, is bring to the forefront the attention of how much society is demanding these things. And this is what is holding companies accountable and is very important.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: So I'd love it if you'd just each talk to me briefly about the personal commitments you make within running your own companies of whatever size to make sure that they are accountable to the climate. Maybe Wawa‑‑
MS. GATHERU: Can you repeat that question one more time?
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Yeah. About the personal commitments you make within your own groups about running your lives and your companies in a way that's climate friendly.
MS. GATHERU: That's a great question. You know, I think something that we're missing from the climate space is world building, right? Like, that space that science fiction gets so right, where you can just take the time and imagine the world that you're working towards, and I think with climate, everything is so urgent, we don't always take the time to do that. So something that I really think is important within the organization and for our members is to take the time before and after meetings to think about what are we working towards. What world are we building? What world do we want to be a part of, and what world do we want to leave behind? And be very specific about what that looks like.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Interesting.
Sophia, do you have anything to see? I love the science fiction reference.
MS. KIANNI: I think for me, the biggest thing that I have really focused no is making sure that when we think about accountability, we think about the fact that‑‑think of it through the lens of individual action is actually a very flawed perception, and I think that too often, young people feel like we need to think about like our carbon footprint and we need to think about all the ways that we need to act and think more sustainably.
And, I mean, I wrote an op‑ed for The Washington Post about how I live more sustainably as a student, but I practiced it by saying that the notion of the carbon footprint was designed by fossil fuel companies and really peddled as a marketing scheme to make us think that we're responsible for the climate crisis, when it really is the companies that need to be held responsible. And I think for me being able to educate the thousands of young people that I work with to realize that we need to be holding polluters accountable, and part of the biggest way we can do that is by getting involved in political processes and being advocates, going and voting, and then also getting out the vote so that we look at it through a more systemic lens.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: That's fascinating.
Miranda, a word to add on that?
MS. WANG: Yeah. I think I spend most of my time considering what really is good technology, right? So, when we're working every day in the tab developing a very technical, complicated, scientific technology, it's really, I think, important to implement measures like LCAs, life‑cycle assessments, for example, at early stages so that you understand--you know, for example, our process, yes, we're using plastic waste as an input, but how good is the process in general from cradle to gate? And those studies, doing it in an early enough stage actually helps to elucidate what are the points that we could make changes in our process development, such that when the technology is industrialized and scaled up, it has the absolute best impacts possible.
And, also, I think another perspective looking at a lot of ways things are manufactured is that, you know, a lot of processes are chemical, right? You're emitting some sort of carbon emissions, for example. Now there are increasing ways to actually take that, instead of letting that release off into the atmosphere. Can we take that and make goods with it? Can we use that and then trap that into, you know, some physical form? And that's really an interesting topic that I think people in my space, in climate tech, is looking very deeply at and is a good thing.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: So, when we were outside before coming on, we were talking about how interconnected and powerful the youth climate movement is, and I know a number of you have met each other, but how optimistic does that make you about transformational change going ahead?
MS. GATHERU: It makes me so optimistic. I think where I gain a lot of my optimism and even just energy to remain in this space‑‑because, honestly, there are so many different avenues that I could have gone, and, you know, at 16, I realized the climate crisis was the biggest crisis that was facing humanity. And it's really my climate comrades that keep me going, hearing their stories, hearing the way that they got into climate, the innovative ways that they're addressing unique climate communications to climate tech to climate strategy. It's so inspiring, and I think a lot of people should turn their eyes to the youth climate movement because there's a lot of amazing innovation happening there.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: So, Sophia, what's the one piece of advice that you'd give to the older generation?
MS. KIANNI: I think I would say that maybe‑‑
MS. STEAD SELLERS: You've got your audience.
MS. KIANNI: I would say use your creativity. Part of the thing that really inspired me about Climate Cardinals is that we honestly are a ragtag group of teenagers that were able to congregate through the power of social media. With a zero‑dollar marketing budget, we launched on our first day and went viral on TikTok and reached hundreds of thousands of people and were able to get over a thousand people to sign up to volunteer with us. And I think that now when you think of the fact that this is a group of teenagers that spans over 40 countries, the average age of one of our volunteers is just 16 years old, and we did this just purely through the power of imagination and creativity. And I think that's something that's often lacking in the climate crisis when we look at it through such a black and white lens where you also leave behind the justice perspective, but then you also leave behind the notion of, hey, maybe we can get on TikTok and actually mobilize people to go out into the streets and take action and to join efforts like Climate Cardinals.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: So, just to follow up on that, how inspired are you by the global reach? I mean, we're so caught up in a world that's bound by national boundaries, and then you're talking about, you know, global reach educationally, but‑‑
MS. KIANNI: I mean, it's amazing to me that I can wake up and talk to a volunteer in Bangladesh and then talk to another volunteer in Iran and to see that all these young people want to do is that they realize that the climate crisis is the biggest issue of our time, and they're spending their free time, their free resources organizing so that they can make an impact, even in the smallest way, even if it's translating one document and sharing that with their relatives, the way that I did. The fact that that's their first step into this movement makes me so inspired because I know that our future leaders are already so activated and so involved, and all it took was one TikTok to inspire them.
So imagine how much more we can all accomplish if the older generation is supportive and really makes sure that young people have the resources and the aptitude to get involved in more initiatives.
And a last question for you, Miranda. Technology. I mean, it's so key, obviously important going ahead. How optimistic are you that the technological changes are going to overcome the problems that we're facing now?
MS. WANG: I think the biggest impacts on climate course correction, if you will, is going to come from technology, but technology doesn't get developed in a vacuum, right? It's developed based on how‑‑a reflection of how people in society think.
And I think if you look at climate tech and how it's accelerated, I mean, this is an industry that's growing at the scale of the Industrial Revolution but at the speed of the Digital Revolution, right? How it has changed over the past two years in terms of the amount of investment dollars going in, the amount of numbers of companies being created, that is an active reflection, I think, of a generation change.
Climate is very much the most important topic today, and it will remain to be the most important topic. I mean, as we see everything that's going on, it is being exacerbated, and these problems are not going to course‑correct themselves.
And so I think when we go to technology and look at what, you know, keeps me optimistic and why we founded Novoloop, the really deep intent is to show the possibilities that can come out of using carbons trapped in plastic waste. What are all the ways we can tap into that as a resource and make products that are relevant for the world? And that's where I see a lot of my, you know, fellow entrepreneurs in the Bay Area and beyond working on every day, and it's extremely energizing.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Well, thank you. Thank you, Wawa, Sophia, and Miranda, for tackling the most important topic of the day in the most inspiring way possible. Thank you for joining The Washington Post today.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Thank you to everybody who joined us here and to our audience online in our live event space. You can always go to Washington Post Live to see our upcoming events and tune in online or join future events here. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Frances Stead Sellers. Thank you very much.
[End of recorded session] | 2022-09-20T18:50:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Transcript: Protecting our Planet - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/09/20/transcript-protecting-our-planet/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/09/20/transcript-protecting-our-planet/ |
Adnan Syed smiles and waves as he leaves the courthouse after a judge overturned his 2000 murder conviction and ordered a new trial in Baltimore on Monday. (Reuters/Evelyn Hockstein)
Adnan Syed walked free from a Baltimore courthouse Monday after a judge tossed out his 2000 murder conviction in the case that captivated listeners around the world when it was featured in the breakout season of the hit podcast, “Serial.”
Syed, now 41, had been serving a life sentence for the murder of his classmate and ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, who was found strangled in Baltimore’s Leakin Park in 1999. There is still a long road ahead for Syed, who was released to home confinement after Monday’s decision, as prosecutors determine what their next move will be in the high-profile case.
Syed, now 41, spent more than two decades in prison after a jury convicted him of killing his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, when the two were teenagers. Lee, a senior at the Baltimore-area Woodlawn High School, disappeared on Jan. 13, 1999. Her body was found weeks later, inside a shallow grave in Baltimore’s Leakin Park. She had been strangled. Prosecutors argued that Syed, 17 and a fellow senior at Woodlawn, had killed Lee after she broke up with him. Jurors found him guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping, robbery and false imprisonment. A judge sentenced him to life in prison plus 30 years. Syed has always maintained his innocence and fought his conviction. His story reached millions through “Serial,” a hit podcast released in 2014.
Who was Hae Min Lee?
Lee, 18, was a popular student at Woodlawn High School who a teacher described to the Baltimore Sun in 1999 as “one of those rare people you meet in life who is always happy, always joyful and full of love.” Lee played field hockey and lacrosse at Woodlawn, and the school retired her number 22, which she wore for both sports, after her death.
Lee and Syed dated but largely kept their relationship under wraps from their families in part due to cultural and religious differences, according to “Serial.” Lee was Korean American and Syed, of Pakistani descent, was Muslim.
Lee’s family said in 2016 that they believe Syed was guilty. They declined to participate in “Serial’s” production.
What is 'Serial’?
In 2013, lawyer Rabia Chaudry contacted Sarah Koenig, a producer with the radio program “This American Life.” Chaudry, a longtime friend of Syed’s, was convinced he had been wrongly convicted. She wanted Koenig to investigate the case. The result was “Serial,” a podcast released in 12 episodes in the fall of 2014. The series became a smash hit and a cultural phenomenon. It reached hundreds of millions of listeners, won a Peabody Award and helped fuel the popularity of podcasts, especially those focused on true crime. “Serial” released two subsequent seasons focused on other stories.
‘Serial’ helped spark an explosion of true crime stories. Will its new season be heard above the noise?
Why was Syed released?
The Baltimore City State’s Attorney last week filed a motion to vacate Syed’s 2000 murder conviction and said that after a year-long investigation, “the State no longer has confidence in the integrity of the conviction.” In other words, prosecutors believe the original investigation was insufficient and that the prosecution broke rules to win a conviction. Circuit Court Judge Melissa Phinn in Baltimore agreed, and found during the original trial, the state failed its obligation to share information that could have helped the defense.
What new facts or evidence have prosecutors mentioned?
The biggest bombshell from the state’s attorney’s motion was the that original prosecutors suppressed evidence that could have helped the defense, in what’s known in criminal law as a Brady violation.
In particular, prosecutors at the time did not share with the defense that they had information about an alternate suspect with a motive to kill Lee had previously threatened to “make [Lee] disappear]” and said “he would kill her.”
The state’s attorney said there are two alternate suspects in Lee’s murder and that they may have worked together. One of the suspects has a criminal history of attacking a woman in her car and one has a “credible” history of rape and sexual assault, the prosecutor’s office said, though the motion did not specify if both pieces of new information applied to one of the alternate suspects or a mix of the two.
Prosecutors know the identities of the alternate suspects but did not name them since they have not been charged with a crime relating to Lee’s murder.
The motion also described new information that indicates some of the evidence used to convict Syed, like cellphone call data from the time, was unreliable.
Did the court say Syed is innocent?
No. The state’s attorney made this clear in her motion and she distinguished between finding Syed’s initial conviction flawed and perhaps unconstitutional and saying he is innocent.
“To be clear, the State is not asserting at this time that Defendant is innocent,” the motion read.
Will Syed get a new trial?
Prosecutors have 30 days to decide if they wish to re-try Syed or drop the charges against him altogether.
In the meantime, prosecutors said they will continue their investigation and “bring a suspect or suspects to justice.”
How has Lee’s family reacted?
The Lee family said they were disappointed with Monday’s hearing. Appearing virtually in the courtroom, Young Lee, Hae Min Lee’s brother, said the prosecutors’ motion to vacate the conviction left him feeling “betrayed.”
“This is not a podcast for me,” he added. “This is real life — a never-ending nightmare for 20-plus years.”
After the ruling, Steven J. Kelly, an attorney for the Lee family, said in a statement: | 2022-09-20T19:04:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Adnan Syed's vacated conviction: What to know about his release, case - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/20/adnan-syed-serial-conviction-vacated/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/20/adnan-syed-serial-conviction-vacated/ |
Biden reset U.S. policy on defending Taiwan, whether aides like it or not
Taiwan's U.S.-made Patriot surface-to-air missile batteries pass during the Republic of China National Day parade in Taipei, Taiwan, on Oct. 10, 2007. (Wally Santana/AP)
The debate is settled. It is the policy of the United States that the U.S. military would defend Taiwan if it were attacked by Communist China. The policy of “strategic ambiguity” is dead — no matter what a bunch of unelected White House aides say.
Thus says the president of the United States. In an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” aired Sunday, correspondent Scott Pelley asked Biden, “Would U.S. forces defend the island” of Taiwan? Biden answered unequivocally: “Yes, if in fact there was an unprecedented attack.” Pelley asked again: “So unlike Ukraine, to be clear, sir, U.S. forces, U.S. men and women would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion?” Biden answered: “Yes.”
He could not have been any clearer — no hesitation, no caveats, no ambiguity. But, CBS reports, “After our interview a White House official told us U.S. policy has not changed. Officially, the U.S. will not say whether American forces would defend Taiwan. But the commander-in-chief had a view of his own.”
I’m sorry, but the commander in chief does not have a “view of his own” that is distinct from U.S. policy. When he speaks, what he says is U.S. policy. Period. Full stop. The president sets our foreign policy — not unnamed, unelected aides. And Biden has said, in no uncertain terms, that U.S. military forces will defend Taiwan if it is attacked.
He has said it not once, not twice, not three times — but four times in the past year. In August 2021, Biden told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, “We made a sacred commitment to Article 5 that if in fact anyone were to invade or take action against our NATO allies, we would respond. Same with Japan, same with South Korea, same with Taiwan.” The next day, a “senior Biden administration official” insisted to reporters that U.S. “policy with regard to Taiwan has not changed.”
counterpointIn backing Taiwan, the U.S. must strike a hard balance
Then in October, Biden said it again — even more emphatically. During a CNN town hall, when a voter asked, “Can you vow to protect Taiwan?” Biden answered, “Yes.” Host Anderson Cooper asked him to clarify: “Are you saying that the United States would come to Taiwan’s defense …” Biden interrupted Cooper midsentence and said, “Yes.” Cooper continued: “… if China attacked?” Biden repeated again: “Yes, we have a commitment to do that.” So, this time he said it three times in less than a minute. But the next day, his White House minders again insisted that Biden had not in fact said what he plainly had said.
Then in May, at a Tokyo news conference, Biden was asked: “You didn’t want to get involved in the Ukraine conflict militarily for obvious reasons. Are you willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan, if it comes to that?” Biden replied: “Yes.” The reporter asked again: “You are?” Biden was unequivocal: “That’s the commitment we made,” adding, “The idea that [Taiwan] can be taken by force, just taken by force, is just not appropriate.” But his national security team contradicted him again, insisting that “the president was clear on the fact that the policy has not changed.”
Now, Biden has said it a fourth time. It is clear he means it. At some point, we have to decide who is running the country — the president or his advisers? The fact is that Biden has made a clear, unequivocal commitment to defend Taiwan — and it is one of the best things he has done as president.
During the Cold War, Article 5 of the NATO Charter — declaring that an attack on one ally is an attack on all — was a source of stability in Europe, because the Soviet Union knew that any act of aggression against a NATO ally would result in a U.S. response. Our commitment to defend NATO allies is the reason Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine but not Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia or Poland. Similarly, removing any ambiguity over whether the United States will defend Taiwan will have a stabilizing effect in the Pacific — sending Chinese dictator Xi Jinping a clear message of deterrence.
The failure of Biden’s advisers to fall in line behind the commander in chief borders on insubordination. They keep telling him it’s not U.S. policy to defend Taiwan, and he keeps saying it is. Maybe they think he forgot? Or that he’s confused? During the CBS interview, Pelley asked, “Mr. President, you are the oldest president ever. … Some people ask whether you are fit for the job.” Biden replied: “Watch me.”
He probably should have said, “Listen to me” — because that is what his own advisers refuse to do. The president keeps saying that Republicans represent a threat to the “very foundations of our republic” because they refuse to “recognize the will of the people.” In fact, the threat from those who refuse to recognize the will of the people comes from within. Biden won 306 electoral votes. His aides got zero. That means when he speaks definitively — four times — on a matter of U.S. policy, that is the new policy of our nation, and his advisers need to salute and carry out his orders. | 2022-09-20T19:13:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Biden says U.S. will defend Taiwan. His aides must accept it. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/20/biden-taiwan-defend-aides-deny/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/20/biden-taiwan-defend-aides-deny/ |
Chrissy Teigen has shown what abortion is. Some refuse to accept it.
Chrissy Teigen and John Legend arrive at the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sept. 12. (Jae C. Hong/AP)
Two years ago, Chrissy Teigen’s pregnancy with her third child ended in tragedy. She and her husband, John Legend, had named the baby Jack and lost him at 20 weeks — on what she called, in an Instagram post featuring somber images from the hospital room, the “darkest of days.”
Last week, according to the Hollywood Reporter, Teigen — who is pregnant again — gave a talk in which she reflected on that day. “I told the world we had a miscarriage, the world agreed we had a miscarriage, all the headlines said it was a miscarriage,” she said.
But now she wanted to correct the record. “Let’s just call it what it was: It was an abortion.”
It was “an abortion to save my life for a baby that had absolutely no chance,” she continued. “And to be honest, I never, ever put that together until, actually, a few months ago.”
I don’t know what happened in that hospital room. But I do know something is wrong with our collective understanding of the word “abortion” if a grown woman failed to grasp until long afterward that she had had one.
An abortion is the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy. Unless you believe that a pregnancy should never be deliberately ended — and few people do — abortion should be treated as what it is: a medical procedure.
And yet, because we hear so often that abortions are acts of thoughtlessness, selfishness or cruelty, people find it hard to acknowledge that abortion can be a medical necessity, or to call tragedies such as Teigen’s by the correct name.
Opinion: I had a late-term abortion. But saying I’m ‘pro-choice’ is a problem.
If those choosing abortion wish desperately that they didn’t have to — if they grieve for their lost baby — then, people seem to think, it couldn’t be an abortion.
Recent commenters on Teigen’s initial Instagram post accuse her of having misled her followers — not just about the fact that she had an abortion (which, again, she says she didn’t realize at the time) but even about the fact that she was sad. As though she and Legend faked those sorrowful photos.
Meanwhile, some of her supporters are trying to argue it wasn’t an abortion at all. One writes: “Early induction to save the life of the mother isn’t an abortion.”
Wrong. It can be a moment that cries out for human sympathy and still be an abortion.
A similar confusion occurred in July at a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee. Catherine Glenn Foster, chief executive of Americans United for Life, argued under questioning that “if a 10-year-old became pregnant as a result of rape and it was threatening her life, then that’s not an abortion.” She didn’t say it would be understandable or should be legal; she said it wouldn’t be an abortion.
I guess if you believe an abortion is always morally wrong, the idea that it could be clearly morally right simply does not compute. It must be something else!
Sorry — still simply the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy.
The confusion is not confined to individuals in a fog of grief or under pointed congressional questioning. It extends, I think, to anyone who supports abortion rights but still insists that abortion “is not a good thing,” as Kat Rosenfield argued in a column blaming the left for the post-Roe predicament we’re now in.
“No woman sets out to have an abortion,” Rosenfield writes; “nobody wants one on its own merits. Like most medical procedures, abortion is a solution to a problem.”
First: Of course no one wants one on its own merits. No one wants an appendectomy for the fun of it either. Second: If it’s a “solution to a problem,” how is it not a good thing? Do we not want to solve problems?
Fracture reduction — the setting of a broken bone — is a good thing, whether or not the broken leg was a result of carelessness.
Lithotripsy — using ultrasound to break up kidney stones — is a good thing, whether or not those stones could have been avoided by drinking eight glasses of water a day.
And so on. Medical treatment and access to it are good things.
Kate Cohen: Forget ‘abortion.’ Bring back ‘Relief for Ladies.’
That’s why insisting that abortion should be “safe, legal and rare” might have been smart political strategy, but it has never made logical sense. Abortion is a medical answer to a problem — either an unwanted pregnancy or a wanted pregnancy gone terribly wrong.
Do we want antibiotics to be rare? No. We want meningitis to be rare. Same with abortion. What should be rare is unwanted pregnancy. And there are plenty of ways to accomplish that: better sex education, free and easily accessible contraception, sexual violence prevention, and so on.
I’m grateful to Teigen for setting the record straight about what abortion really is — and what really was an abortion. We want tragedies such as the one she and her husband suffered to be rare. But because we can’t eliminate fatal fetal abnormalities, we should ensure that everyone has access to the solution — and our deep sympathies when they need to use it. | 2022-09-20T19:13:42Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Chrissy Teigen had an abortion. Yet some are still in denial. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/20/chrissy-teigen-abortion-lost-pregnancy/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/20/chrissy-teigen-abortion-lost-pregnancy/ |
The Commanders placed center Chase Roullier (73), shown here in a preseason game against the Kansas City Chiefs, on injured reserve after he suffered a knee injury in Week 2. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post)
Roullier, who missed nine games last season with an ankle injury, suffered a knee injury late in the Commanders’ loss to the Detroit Lions Sunday. He could be eligible to return for Week 7, when the Commanders host the Green Bay Packers, but according to a person familiar with his situation, Roullier is seeking a second opinion to determine the next step. With or without surgery, it’s possible he may need the rest of the season to recover.
“My least favorite part of the game is those injuries, and I know what he did last year and how he battled,” Commanders quarterback Carson Wentz said after the Lions game. “I saw him in there working every day since I’ve got here in the spring, and my heart just dropped when he went down. … It really stinks, especially a competitor like he is, such a great guy, such a leader on this team up front, especially with those O-linemen.”
Chase Roullier, snap after snap, cements himself as an anchor of Washington’s offense | 2022-09-20T19:22:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Commanders place Chase Roullier on IR, add veteran center Nick Martin - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/20/chase-roullier-commanders-nick-martin/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/20/chase-roullier-commanders-nick-martin/ |
The National Archives helps reveal the great myth of American sports
Perspective by Kevin B. Blackistone
The Nationals Archives Museum has opened its first sports exhibit. (Larry French/Getty Images for National Archives Foundation)
“Why should a man who is trying to do what his audience expects him to do and pays for, be the target of vile abuse, all on account of his color of skin?
“Doesn’t the … instinct of man have assent itself? Draw away the veil of civilization and you will find the human race pretty morally equal. In science we have advanced wonderfully, but morally, precious little, of any at all. We should all cultivate the sense of fair play.”
So wrote the first Black man allowed to fight for (and win) the heavyweight championship of the world, Jack Johnson. Circa 1921. On lined notepad sheets. In cursive. With pencil.
From prison.
It is one page of his handwritten autobiography, a brownish yellow now, some of which the National Archives Museum unveiled last Friday along with myriad other artifacts — like the blue jacket worn by former president George W. Bush wore when he threw the first pitch after 9/11 — in its first-ever sports exhibit.
But what caught my attention were the items that reminded — as Johnson pondered — how sports have been, and often still are, contested turf for the egalitarian ideals we champion them for embodying: meritocracy, fairness, inclusiveness, equality. The same problems we see all these years later manifested in things like NFL coach Brian Flores’s discrimination lawsuit against the league, women’s soccer players having to wrestle for equitable World Cup prize money, or, of course, Colin Kaepernick being exiled. This is why sports are a perfect petri dish for protest and social change.
Barry Svrluga: The USWNT won a soccer game, then celebrated a much greater victory
For example, on display at “All American: The Power of Sports” is a photo of an all-Black Army football team from 1926. They were segregated from the service academy’s White football players, who were heroized a couple seasons earlier by the famous Roaring ’20s sportswriter Grantland Rice.
There’s a photo of Japanese women playing baseball at an internment camp east of the Sierra Nevada in California, one of 10 such places at which the U.S. government imprisoned Japanese living here during World War II. The women were photographed appearing, if you can imagine it, happy.
There’s a letter from a Black Army Lt. Jack Robinson in 1944 about a White bus driver demanding he move from a seat next to a woman the bus driver wrongly believed was White. It led to the lieutenant, who was a famous athlete at UCLA and would become the first Black Major League Baseball player in 60 years, to be court martialed for insubordination. Robinson wrote on unlined paper with the letterhead McCloskey General Hospital, Temple, Texas, to the Civilian Aide to the Secretary of War.
The exhibit’s curator, Alice Kamps, admitted to not being some rabid sports fan. What drove her to design the display, she said, was instead her interest in studying national identity.
“I was really intrigued to learn about the way that sports was used in the late 19th century, early 20th century, like almost a prescriptive fashion to create good citizens in schools and in military training grounds, because of the values that sports teach,” Kamps explained. “And you can see that in some of the propaganda, too. Like, there’s a poster in the exhibit that says, ‘This is America.’”
And another poster of a Pvt. Joe Louis, who followed Johnson as a Black heavyweight champion of the world, being used to rally Black men wary of joining a segregated military again for another World War campaign.
“The government, in conjunction with major professional sport franchises, college athletics, and USA Olympic sports, have intentionally conveyed particular messages and images in a concerted effort to fashion cultural attitudes about race, gender and masculinity,” retired George Mason University sports historian David Wiggins, one of several scholars who consulted the archives, wrote in an email, “as well as appropriate notions about war, patriotism, and being a ‘good American’.”
Candace Buckner: Adam Silver was the ‘good’ commissioner. Why waste that defending bad guys?
Indeed, the collection wasn’t culled from dusty attics in small towns or from memorabilia collectors. It came mostly from the storerooms of the government. The War Relocation Authority. Presidential libraries. The Secretary of War. The Bureau of Prisons, where Johnson’s letter was filed from his stint at Leavenworth after being wrongfully convicted of violating the Mann Act, also known as the White Slave Traffic Act of 1910. It was a law passed with the aim of snaring Black men like Johnson who dared have relationships with White women. It charged those men with transporting White women across state lines for prostitution.
“There were these situations where sports was used to try to control the behavior of certain groups, or to cultivate certain traits,” explained Kamps. “But then these groups were able to kind of turn that around in a way and use sports to meet their own needs and to express their own identity and power.”
Found at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which among other things oversaw the boarding schools to which Native American children were forced in an attempt to strip them of their culture, were letters from one of its most famous subjects, the athlete nonpareil Jim Thorpe. In some, he demanded his pay from a contract he signed that, like so many treaties indigenous people signed with the federal government, was not being met. Also on display: the gold medals the International Olympic Committee gave Thorpe’s family in the early 1980s to replace the pair it stripped from him that he’d won in 1912. The committee said then that he violated its amateur rules by playing minor league baseball a couple of summers. Many thought he suffered the indignity because he was Indian.
“Irrespective of their hardships and horrendous mistreatment at the hands of the government, these people could exercise some agency and realize a much-needed sense of community and camaraderies through participation in sport and recreational activities,” Wiggins wrote. “It was a means for these people to try to maintain a sense of cultural identity while attempts were being made to strip them of their dignity and, in some cases, entire way of life.”
Indeed, what this exhibit reveals as much as anything is the mythology of sports as the pillars of a pluralistic democracy. | 2022-09-20T19:22:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The National Archives helps reveal the great myth of American sports - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/20/national-archives-museum-power-sports/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/20/national-archives-museum-power-sports/ |
How to understand the latest immigration numbers
Migrants from Haiti make their way toward El Paso on Monday from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. (Paul Ratje/Reuters)
There is no question that the number of people stopped at the U.S.-Mexico border has surged in the past two years. Data from Customs and Border Protection indicate that more than 3.6 million people have been prevented from entering the country or apprehended after having done so.
This does not mean, though, that 3.6 million people illegally immigrated to the United States or that the nation is now 3.6 million residents larger. Given the rhetoric surrounding the increase in border stops, it’s worth considering who is included in that number — and what happens to them after they are stopped.
Who is being stopped?
In January 2021, the first month that President Biden was in office (albeit for only a third of it), there were 78,414 stops at the U.S.-Mexico border. The following month there were more than 100,000, a number that has been exceeded every month since.
On average, about 183,000 people have been stopped at the border each month. The month with the highest number of stops was May, in which more than 241,000 people were stopped.
This chart shows the relative number of total stops. Each circle is divided into constituent groups, which is more useful in later graphs in this article.
At the outset of Biden’s term in office, the vast majority of those stopped at the border were adults traveling by themselves. In January 2021, 9 in 10 of those stopped fell into that category. In July and August, the figure was closer to three-quarters, with a significant portion of the total (about 16 percent each month) made up of members of families — adults and related children traveling together.
A more significant change is in the number of arrivals from countries other than Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras (the green group below). In January 2021, nearly 9 in 10 of those stopped were from one of those four countries. In August, less than half were.
Last month, the number of stops involving people from Mexico and those three Central American nations was 44 percent higher than in January 2021. The number of stops involving people from other countries — Haiti, Venezuela, etc. — was up nearly tenfold.
Who isn’t being stopped?
Those who see the increase in stops at the border as indicative of a failure to prevent illegal immigration often point to estimates of the number of people who weren’t stopped. After all, the Border Patrol can’t and doesn’t catch everyone sneaking into the United States.
This is true, but it is often rooted in a failure to understand how border protection has changed in recent years. Data from the Department of Homeland Security indicate that north of 80 percent of those seeking to enter the country illegally were stopped in 2019, up substantially in the past decade or two. In part, that is a function of increased use of technology; in part it’s because of expanded barriers on the border both under George W. Bush and Donald Trump. In part, too, it’s probably a function of why many of those crossing the border are being stopped, which we’ll get to in a moment.
The effect, though, is that the combined number of people both stopped at the border and entering illegally is probably lower now than it was 15 to 20 years ago.
What’s happening to those who are stopped?
CBP data can be broken out into three groups: those apprehended, those deemed inadmissible and those stopped and expelled from the country.
This last group is the most controversial. At the outset of the coronavirus pandemic the Trump administration instituted a policy of quickly deporting people stopped at the border, citing a regulation that leveraged public health concerns. The Biden administration continued that policy over the objection of many of the administration’s allies until moving to lift the policy (called Title 42 after the section of code it depends on) this year. In May, a judge prevented the policy from being ended.
The data also includes people stopped at border crossings as they seek entry, those deemed “inadmissible.” In other words, among the stops are people who tried to enter at a border checkpoint but were prevented from doing so.
Since the beginning of Biden’s term in office, the number of apprehensions — people stopped after entering the country — has increased as a percentage of the total number of stops. In January 2021, about 16 percent of stops were apprehensions. Last month, more than half were.
But consider what that means: Most of those who’ve been stopped at the border since January 2021 were expelled from the country under Title 42 — nearly 1.9 million of the nearly 3.7 million total stops.
That has two effects relevant to the political debate. The first is that it means far fewer people remain in the United States than the top-line figure would suggest. When the Republican Party releases a statement blasting the number of people who have “crossed the border” under Biden — as it did on Monday — it doesn’t mention that most of those people were quickly removed or slated for removal.
It also means that a lot of the people removed from the United States simply come back to the border and try again. Since Title 42 was put in place, the percentage of people stopped multiple times in a month has soared. Earlier this year, CBP reported that the number of “encounters” at the border increased 82 percent from 2019 to 2021 — but the number of unique individuals stopped at the border increased only 30 percent.
Those who are allowed to stay in the country, meanwhile, remain in detention. Again, rhetoric would suggest that millions of people crossed the border into the United States where they roamed free. But the reality is that most of those not removed remain in detention.
That’s less likely for families or children. A reason that surges in the number of children stopped at the border increases the strain on federal resources is that the rules for detaining kids are (understandably) more strict. Families are often released from custody to await hearings. About 920,000 of those stopped at the border and not expelled are families or children traveling alone (about 270,000).
One additional complicating factor is the increase in people seeking asylum in the United States. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of people who say they are seeking asylum when they are detained at the border; some immigrants actively seek out authorities to whom they can turn themselves in. There’s a legal process by which asylum claims are adjudicated, during which time immigrants are allowed to remain in the United States. When you hear assertions about people entering the country illegally, that does not mean that they are not legally allowed to remain in the United States, particularly if awaiting an asylum hearing.
This certainly helps account for some of the surge in people arriving from countries such as Venezuela. Last month, the United Nations announced that the number of refugees from Venezuela around the world was about equivalent to the number from Ukraine. Many of them are making their way north to the United States.
There’s no question that the number of people seeking to come to the United States is straining resources and the ability of state and federal officials to respond. But it is not the case that millions of people are pouring over the border unchecked. It’s likely that, despite the recent increase in border stops, fewer people are being stopped or escaping into the United States than 20 years ago. And of those who have been stopped since the beginning of 2021, less than half remain in the country. And only a portion of those who remain end up being released to await a hearing.
The situation is complicated. Which is one reason uncomplicated political rhetoric gets so much traction. | 2022-09-20T20:14:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How to understand the latest immigration numbers - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/20/immigration-biden-border/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/20/immigration-biden-border/ |
One person who has flagged the need to think globally is Fed Vice Chair Lael Brainard. While not for a minute challenging the desirability of reining in demand and prices, she did keep an eye on the potential consequences of the global policy lockstep. “The rapidity of the tightening cycle and its global nature, as well as the uncertainty around the pace at which the effects of tighter financial conditions are working their way through aggregate demand, create risks associated with over-tightening,” Brainard said in a Sept. 7 speech. A bleak global outlook may also keep the Fed from moving by a full percentage point today, according to Bloomberg Economics. | 2022-09-20T20:19:13Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Era of the Global Central Bank May Have Arrived - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-era-of-the-global-central-bank-may-have-arrived/2022/09/20/9ebfdcdc-391f-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-era-of-the-global-central-bank-may-have-arrived/2022/09/20/9ebfdcdc-391f-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
FILE - Jimmy Kimmel appears at the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards in in Los Angeles on Monday, Sept. 12, 2022. Kimmel is celebrating his 20th anniversary as ABC’s late-night host early, signing a three-year contract extension for “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” His show debuted in January 2003, and the new deal means he will remain with it into the 2025-26 season. (Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)
Kimmel’s decision contrasts with changes in late-night programming. Conan O'Brien wrapped his show in 2021, Corden announced that he’s leaving “The Late Late Show” next year for other opportunities, and TBS said that “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” was ending after seven seasons. | 2022-09-20T20:19:38Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Jimmy Kimmel signs 3-year extension for ABC late-night show - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/jimmy-kimmel-signs-3-year-extension-for-abc-late-night-show/2022/09/20/6fa2a3d4-391b-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/jimmy-kimmel-signs-3-year-extension-for-abc-late-night-show/2022/09/20/6fa2a3d4-391b-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
The Pentagon’s alleged secret social media operations demand a reckoning
The Pentagon on Jan. 26, 2020. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)
The U.S. military has apparently adopted a new national security strategy: internet trolling. The Post reports that the Pentagon will conduct a sweeping review of its policies regarding clandestine information warfare, after Facebook and Twitter removed fake accounts suspected of being run by the Defense Department.
The news raises the question of whether social media companies should crack down on fake accounts that exist for benign purposes, such as promoting democracy. On the other hand, it is also reasonable to ask whether the U.S. government should conduct offensive cyberoperations to influence foreign peoples. Though it seems contradictory, the answer to both questions is yes.
Social media sites need rules against platform manipulation, and those rules need to have a bright line: A site can’t pick and choose which false personas it likes and which it doesn’t based on the countries they come from or values they promote — doing so would make effective enforcement nearly impossible.
At the same time, the U.S. government cannot leave the online influence battlefield. U.S. adversaries are all too present on the front of online influence, from China’s so-called 50-Cent Army of propagandists, which spreads misinformation about Hong Kong, Taiwan, the cultural genocide of the Uyghur Muslim minority and more, to Russia’s Internet Research Agency, which sought to magnify racial tensions among American feminists preparing for the 2017 Women’s March.
Fighting back is tricky. The U.S. military’s reluctance to cede the clandestine information space to malign foreign forces makes sense — but in trying to seize some of the territory for itself, the Defense Department also risks undermining this country’s own objectives. Spreading truthful information, such as the facts about the coronavirus pandemic, through false means, such as inauthentic personas, reflects this nation’s values better than spreading false information through false means. But inauthentic personas themselves can prove a problem: Their widespread use, when uncovered, promotes an internet-era nihilism, suggesting that nothing on the internet can really be believed.
Under narrow circumstances, deception might be the best or the only option. But the Pentagon’s alleged efforts don’t seem to have been effective: The operations uncovered by Facebook and Twitter and documented by researchers show the indiscriminate creation of fake accounts, sometimes with faces generated by artificial intelligence, spamming platforms with petitions, memes and hashtag campaigns, all boosted inorganically. They did not succeed; overt operations generated more engagement. And, of course, they could not hide their fake nature; the platforms managed not only to disrupt them but also to identify them as likely associated with the U.S. military.
The Defense Department should ensure that any policy emerging from its audit treats platform manipulation not as a default but as an intervention that demands careful justification. Meanwhile, the government as a whole, from the Pentagon to the State Department to intelligence agencies, ought to rethink, with the help of academic input and public debate, what a digital-age hearts-and-minds campaign looks like. U.S. information operations should elevate the truth and expose falsehoods, and any clandestine tactics should be based on research about what works. Those conducting these salvos should be trained in how to do the job right. They should also make sure not to get caught. | 2022-09-20T20:20:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The Pentagon’s alleged fake social media accounts demand a reckoning - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/20/military-pentagon-fake-social-media/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/20/military-pentagon-fake-social-media/ |
A waiter takes customers' orders in D.C. on May 29, 2020. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
District voters might feel a sense of deja vu over a hotly-debated ballot initiative to change how tipped workers are paid. After all, the city’s voters passed a very similar measure in 2018 with 55 percent of the vote, before the D.C. Council overturned it. We opposed Initiative 77 in 2018. This year’s Initiative 82 is even riskier, given the fraught economic climate.
Currently, D.C’s minimum wage for tipped workers is $5.35 per hour, compared with $16.10 for other workers. No employee can lawfully earn less than the full hourly minimum: If tips do not make up the difference, restaurants and employers bridge the gap.
Initiative 82 would tear up this model by gradually raising the tipped minimum wage to $16.10 by 2027. Proponents argue that it would stabilize incomes, reduce wage theft on the part of employers and put less pressure on service workers to tolerate customer abuse.
But can businesses withstand what would essentially be a threefold increase in labor costs over just five years? Even in normal times, this would be challenging: Employers would likely be forced to reduce hours, cut jobs, relocate to other jurisdictions or transfer higher costs to consumers.
And these are far from normal times. The covid-19 pandemic decimated D.C.’s dining and nightlife scene, with hundreds of restaurants, bars and clubs closing their doors or moving out of the city. In response, the D.C. government spent tens of millions of dollars to prop up the hospitality industry. Now, after more than two difficult years, brick-and-mortar businesses are only just emerging from crisis mode and starting to rebuild. As D.C. Council member Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2) — whose ward would be among the most affected by the measure — warns, this is an inopportune moment to mandate dramatic changes to their business models. Passing Initiative 82 this year could put the city’s economy and workers at risk.
Furthermore, the proposed system would almost certainly guarantee higher menu prices at a time of sky-high inflation and rising food costs. That would put more financial pressure on D.C. residents and deprive working families of opportunities to dine out — or even order takeout — on special occasions. Tipped workers are also increasingly speaking out about their qualms: Many stand to earn less if customers tip lower amounts or restaurants institute mandatory service charges, which are shared with backroom workers.
As the debate around Initiative 82 heats up, we hope more city officials and leaders add their voices to the chorus opposing it. Eliminating the tipped minimum wage was a bad idea in 2018, and is an even worse idea now. And this time, the D.C. Council is unlikely to intervene: In contrast to the 2018 vote, which took place in a primary election, Initiative 82 will be on the ballot in November’s general election, making it harder to argue that the eventual result will not represent D.C. voters’ true feelings. All the more reason for voters to listen to the broad range of people and groups standing against it.
Opinion|Once again: Eliminating the tipped wage is a bad idea for D.C. | 2022-09-20T21:15:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | D.C. voters: Eliminating the tipped minimum wage is a bad idea - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/20/dc-tipped-wage-initiative-vote-against/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/20/dc-tipped-wage-initiative-vote-against/ |
There’s no excuse for allowing the savage cocaine injustice to persist
The Sept. 16 editorial “Uneven justice” was right: “The powder vs. crack cocaine disparity still exists, and it remains unfair.” The Equal Act would finally end the racial disparities in crack and powder cocaine sentencing by changing the sentencing ratio from 18-to-1 to 1-to-1. The bill has already passed the House in an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 361-66. A bipartisan coalition has grown further to include 11 sponsoring Senate Republicans, as well as law enforcement groups and civil rights leaders, who are ready to right this pernicious wrong. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) has pledged to do everything he can to pass the bill.
So, the editorial’s suggestion that we should instead pursue an Un-Equal Act — an arbitrary “compromise” ratio of 2.5-to-1 — doesn’t make sense. We have 61 votes to pass Equal, a rarity in today’s hyperpartisan Senate. Whenever a vote is scheduled, I believe we will succeed. With a truly transformative bill within reach, why should we settle for less or capitulate before even a vote?
There is no pharmacological difference between crack and powder cocaine. There is no criminological justification for the difference in sentencing guidelines. And when 61 senators agree, there’s no excuse for allowing such a savage injustice to persist.
We have the votes. It is time to send the Equal Act to President Biden’s desk and end the devastation this disparity has caused to too many lives and families.
Cory Booker, Washington
The writer, a Democrat, represents New Jersey in the U.S. Senate, where he introduced the Equal Act.
Few issues in Congress have such broad, bipartisan support as ending the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine. Both drugs are made of the same underlying substance, and both produce similar physiological effects. Nevertheless, Congress established a 100-to-1 sentencing disparity. In 2010, legislation lowered that disparity to 18-to-1. Legislation in 2018 made the change retroactive. It’s time to end the disparity once and for all.
The Equal Act would do just that and has strong bipartisan support — from Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) to Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). Police, taxpayer and civil rights organizations have endorsed the bill. The Equal Act passed overwhelmingly in the House, with every Democrat and a majority of Republicans supporting it. In the Senate, 11 Democrats and 11 Republicans have co-sponsored the legislation.
Cocaine has destroyed too many lives. U.S. Sentencing Commission data shows that the sentencing disparity doesn’t make Americans safer. Instead, it imposes overly harsh sentences that harm families, waste tax dollars and create intergenerational cycles of crime and poverty. That’s why states from South Carolina to California have eliminated their sentencing disparities. The Senate must act to do the same.
Udi Ofer, Princeton N.J.
The writer is director of the Policy Advocacy Clinic at Princeton University and former deputy national political director of the American Civil Liberties Union.
David Safavian, Alexandria
The writer is general counsel for the American Conservative Union and a former member of the George W. Bush administration. | 2022-09-20T21:15:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | There’s no excuse for allowing the savage cocaine injustice to persist - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/20/theres-no-excuse-allowing-savage-cocaine-injustice-persist/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/20/theres-no-excuse-allowing-savage-cocaine-injustice-persist/ |
The U.N. is getting Ukraine surprisingly right
An image of a ship carrying grain from Ukraine is displayed on screens as Secretary-General António Guterres addresses the General Assembly at the United Nations in New York on Tuesday. (Mary Altaffer/AP)
As President Biden and other world leaders gather in New York this week to address the U.N. General Assembly, there’s an unusual twist: The United Nations, so often derided as a useless forum for debate rather than action, is working aggressively to contain the damage from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
This is a diplomatic version of “man bites dog.” “I would have predicted that the U.N. would act as ineffectively as the League of Nations in the 1930s, but the opposite has happened,” says Jeffrey Feltman, a former State Department official who served as the United Nations’ undersecretary-general for political affairs. He told me that in the Ukraine crisis, the United Nations “has shown more coherence than I’ve ever seen from the organization in my career.”
The United Nations can’t stop this grinding war because of Russia’s veto power in the Security Council. But it has worked to address some of the side effects, such as the Russian blockade of Ukrainian grain exports, which has exacerbated the global food shortage, and Russian threats to the big Ukrainian nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhia.
Secretary General António Guterres brokered a July 22 deal that allowed Ukraine to resume exports of grain through the Black Sea, in tandem with Russian exports of grain and fertilizer. In the first six weeks after the agreement was signed, Feltman estimates that about 4 million metric tons of grain left Odessa, just below the pre-war monthly average of about 5 million metric tons.
Diplomats will huddle on the sidelines in New York this week to try to extend the four-month grain deal. As a sweetener, the United Nations is close to negotiating a new plan to ship Russian ammonia to the West, via a pipeline through Ukraine; the ammonia is desperately needed to produce fertilizer that would help ease the global food shortage.
The U.N.-mediated grain deal — the only major diplomatic success since the war began in February — came about partly through several of the United Nations’ often powerless agencies. UNCTAD, the organization’s trade and development group, dramatized the global food shortage and pushed Russia, Turkey and Ukraine to negotiate. The day after the deal was signed in July, the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization appointed a former U.S. Coast Guard rear admiral to oversee implementation details in Istanbul.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, meanwhile, has worked to prevent a catastrophe at the Zaporizhzhia power plant. Rafael Grossi, the IAEA director general, visited the plant, which Russian forces seized early in the war, and has stationed IAEA inspectors there to try to prevent what could be cataclysmic damage to its reactors.
In the Ukraine crisis, “the U.N. is not the sort of obstructed graveyard you might think,” says Mark Malloch-Brown, a former U.N. deputy secretary general. “The big political questions are still no-go areas,” because of Security Council vetoes. But the organization has been able to operate effectively at the margins, he notes.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shocked the sometimes-slumbering General Assembly. In March, 141 of the assembly’s 193 members voted to condemn the invasion and demand that Russia “unconditionally withdraw.” A U.S.-sponsored road map for dealing with the food crisis is supported by 103 countries. Just last week, 101 countries voted to give Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky special permission to address the General Assembly by video.
Guterres’s balancing act in the Ukraine crisis has been to embrace the U.N. Charter’s principles of nonintervention and territorial sovereignty, while also preserving the organization’s neutrality. And he has occasionally been quite blunt. During an April trip to Moscow, he publicly chided Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a news conference, saying it was “true and obvious” that there were no Ukrainian troops in Russia but Russian troops in Ukraine.
For the Biden administration, the United Nations' new energy validates a strategy to reengage the international organization after years of U.S. frustration and neglect. A senior State Department official explained that the administration reckoned that U.N. agencies still had a “unique capability” to deal with problems if they were mobilized, and that “we can’t do it alone” in responding to global crises.
The biggest obstacle to U.N. peacemaking is the rule that allows any of the five permanent members of the Security Council — the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France — to veto resolutions they oppose. The United States has tolerated this formula for inaction in part because it wanted to preserve its ability to veto resolutions that unfairly attacked Israel. But Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, this month proposed a new code for council members, including a pledge to use the veto power only in “rare and extraordinary situations.”
“The weapon of choice of a diplomat is a microphone,” Thomas-Greenfield observed in announcing her reform plan. And we’ll certainly hear a lot of diplomatic verbiage this week at the General Assembly. But, for a change, the United Nations is producing not just words but also deeds. | 2022-09-20T21:15:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The United Nations is getting Ukraine surprisingly right - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/20/united-nations-gets-ukraine-russia-right/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/20/united-nations-gets-ukraine-russia-right/ |
Dodgers legend and D.C. native Maury Wills dies at 89
D.C. native Maury Wills, who led the Los Angeles Dodgers to three World Series titles, died Monday. He was 89. (Jae C. Hong/AP)
Legendary shortstop Maury Wills, a three-sport star at Cardozo High School in Washington, D.C., who went on to win three World Series titles with the Los Angeles Dodgers, died Monday at 89, the team announced. Wills hit .281 during his 14-year major league career and stole 586 bases, including a then-single-season record 104 in 1962, when he was named National League MVP.
The greatest baseball player to come out of D.C., Wills grew up as the seventh of 13 children in the Parkside public housing project in Northeast. He said he first dreamed of becoming a professional baseball player after meeting Washington Senators second baseman Jerry Priddy at a youth clinic in the District in the 1940s.
“I was barefoot and he said, ‘Don’t you have any spikes?’” Wills recalled in 1975. “'You tell your folks to get you some, you’re a good little player.' So he was always a favorite person of mine.”
For many years during his retirement, Wills returned to D.C. to hold clinics and camps in the summer. There’s a baseball field named in his honor across Georgia Avenue from Howard University.
A standout quarterback at Cardozo, Wills received nine scholarship offers to play college football, but he signed with the Dodgers instead. Wills spent nearly a decade in the minors, during which time he learned to switch-hit, before making his major league debut as a 26-year-old in 1959. He was the Dodgers’ starting shortstop by the end of the season, which culminated in a World Series win over the Chicago White Sox.
From 2009: Dodgers' Man of Steal Seeks a Gold Plaque
For the next 13 years, Wills tormented opposing pitchers with his blazing speed atop the lineup. He led the National League in stolen bases for the first of six consecutive seasons in 1960 and was named to the first of his seven all-star teams in 1961. Dodgers Manager Walter Alston named Wills the Dodgers’ first Black captain before the 1962 season, which was the best of his career. Wills played in every game that year and managed to ignore the racist taunts and hate mail he received on a daily basis as he closed in on Ty Cobb’s single-season stolen base record set in 1915.
“It was a little sad, but I had a goal — I wasn’t going to let anything bother me, and I had a friend taking some of that pressure off me anyway — we helped each other, we had our own ways of dealing with things,” Wills told The Post in 2009, referencing Dodgers ace Sandy Koufax, who endured antisemitic slurs. Wills, who blew past Cobb’s mark of 96 stolen bases, said he and Koufax would sometimes open each other’s mail and throw the most hateful notes away.
Ahead of being inducted into the D.C. Sports Hall of Fame in 2015, Wills recalled the best baseball memory of his career: sleeping at his parents’ house the night before the 1962 All-Star Game, which was held at D.C. Stadium.
“The team hotel was uptown, but I chose to go home to stay with my family,” Wills said. “I went back and stayed with my folks overnight and shared with everybody how it felt to be on a major league baseball team.”
When the 5-foot-11, 165-pound Wills arrived at the ballpark the next day, the security guard didn’t recognize him, decided he was too small to be a ballplayer and initially denied him entry. The situation was eventually sorted, and after Wills was named MVP of the game with a stolen base and two runs scored in the National League’s 3-1 win, he made sure to show the guard his trophy.
“He still didn’t believe me, he thought maybe I was carrying it for somebody,” Wills said. “I’ll always remember that.”
The Dodgers traded Wills to the Pittsburgh Pirates after the 1966 season. He switched teams again after the Montreal Expos selected him in the 1968 expansion draft, but was traded back to Los Angeles in June 1969.
After retiring in 1972, Wills spent five years as an analyst for NBC. He was hired to replace Darrell Johnson as the Seattle Mariners’ manager in the second half of the 1980 season and was fired in May 1981 after the Mariners got off to a franchise-worst 6-18 start. Wills would struggle with cocaine and alcohol addiction until getting sober in 1989.
Wills later returned to the Dodgers as a spring training instructor, and left an impression on Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts, who was an outfielder for the team from 2002 to 2004.
“He just loved the game of baseball, loved working and loved the relationship with players,” Roberts, who wears No. 30 in honor of Wills, told the Los Angeles Times. “We spent a lot of time together. He showed me how to appreciate my craft and what it is to be a big leaguer. He just loved to teach. So I think a lot of where I get my excitement, my passion and my love for the players is from Maury.” | 2022-09-20T21:15:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Maury Wills, Dodgers legend, dies at 89 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/20/maury-wills-dodgers-dead/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/20/maury-wills-dodgers-dead/ |
Adnan Syed’s fans may be cheering for the wrong reason
Adnan Syed leaves a Baltimore courthouse Monday after a judge overturned his 2000 murder conviction and ordered his release. (Jerry Jackson/The Baltimore Sun via AP)
Adnan Syed is free. But the seemingly feel-good story — a 17-year-old boy dubiously imprisoned for the murder of his ex-girlfriend finally walks out of prison almost a quarter-century later — gets queasy when you look a little closer.
Everyone knows “Serial.” You’d need to both have been living under a rock the entirety of the 2010s and not owned headphones to have missed the podcast to end (or begin) all podcasts. “Serial” was the tale that turned true-crime podcasts into a popular phenomenon still going as strong as the killings, kidnappings and all other lurid offenses they document.
But for the headphoneless rock-dwellers out there, the briefest of recaps: Syed was convicted in 2000 of strangling Hae Min Lee, whose body was discovered buried in a Baltimore park. He said he was innocent and continued saying so for 15 years until, suddenly, the whole world heard when Sarah Koenig picked him as the subject of her breakout series.
Over 12 episodes in 2014, she chronicled how the case came together, or didn’t: an alibi witness never called to the stand; an alleged accomplice to the crime full of seesawing stories; a prosecutor elsewhere charged with misconduct and a defense lawyer charged with incompetence.
She never proved Syed innocent — she couldn’t have. But to hear the cheering crowd on the steps of the courthouse Monday, you’d think she had. And that’s part of the problem.
A judge vacated Syed’s conviction this week because the state’s attorney for Baltimore City put in a request based on the findings of a new investigation, which in turn was made possible by a recently adopted Maryland law allowing people convicted of crimes as juveniles to request changes to their sentences. That investigation identified two “alternative suspects” and raised doubts about the reliability of critical evidence in Syed’s case.
Now, these developments could have occurred independent of the podcast and the mass attention it incurred. Yet there’s a reason news of the tossed verdict appears in The Post and the New York Times rather than in, say, just the Baltimore Sun, or nowhere much at all, just as there’s a reason for that cheering crowd. And those in the crowd largely weren’t cheering because they didn’t believe Syed was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. They were cheering because they didn’t believe he was guilty at all.
The thing is, the legal system and journalism don’t operate toward the same ends, and that’s especially so for the journalism-entertainment hybrid that true-crime shows embody. The legal system accommodates more nuanced conclusions than “Adnan is guilty” and “Adnan is innocent” — it even asks for them. Most exonerations exist somewhere in that in-between space, where innocence is scarcely a given but plenty of reasonable doubts remain.
Journalism, of course, has room for nuance, too, and so does good art. Yet, for the most part, that’s not how readers read or listeners listen or viewers view. We’re looking for stories with characters and with endings. We hunger for conclusions that are beyond a reasonable doubt, and if we’re not given them we make them up for ourselves. No question fans fell into distinct “guilty” and “innocent” camps. A popular dating app even leaned on the divide as a prompt to help users find their perfect match.
Koenig, to her credit, left her tale much more open than many of her true-crime successors, neither indicting Syed nor absolving him. But she also turned him into a protagonist her tale’s followers needed to believe they knew so that they could care about him. Otherwise, why tune in for next week’s episode?
When fiction is just that — fiction — this kind of character-making doesn’t matter much. But true crime is basically true, and it certainly involves real people. Plenty of hard-nosed reporters have taken aim at wrongful convictions before, but never has a pop-cultural hit of such magnitude ended in a reversal like this one.
“Serial,” even with most of the spin stripped away, pretty clearly reveals a miscarriage of justice: shaky witnesses, shaky evidence, shaky verdict. To that extent, this week’s ruling is worth celebrating. What happened to Syed was unfair, just as what happened to so many other imprisoned people whose lives don’t lend themselves to record-breaking audio entertainment. Fairness, however, is different from truth — which we haven’t gotten today and may never get.
“Vacated conviction” may sound final, but Adnan Syed isn’t really free yet, unless prosecutors decide to drop the case rather than retry him. And of course, even a final verdict exonerating him would only determine what the legal system is supposed to figure out: whether he’s guilty, yes, beyond a reasonable doubt. That’s how life works, bereft of tidy conclusions. Just don’t tell that to the people cheering outside the courthouse — or gobbling up true-crime shows on the couch. | 2022-09-20T21:41:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Adnan Syed is free. But true crime isn't always true. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/20/adnan-syed-free-conviction-serial-fiction/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/20/adnan-syed-free-conviction-serial-fiction/ |
Parts of a steel bridge that washed away are seen on the banks of the Vivi River in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona in Puerto Rico on Tuesday. (Ricardo Arduengo/Reuters)
Even before rain lashed Puerto Rico starting Sunday, unleashing devastating floods, a perfect storm of ill will, decrepit infrastructure, red tape and official ineptitude had enfeebled the island’s defenses and left it ripe for a knockout blow. Hurricane Fiona delivered it.
Puerto Rico’s latest natural disaster reflects a chronicle of lessons unlearned. It was five years ago, nearly to the day, that Hurricane Maria ran roughshod over the U.S. territory, triggering a blackout that lasted nearly 11 months for many of its more than 3 million people. Given the mounting probability of further such storms as the climate changes, which will elevate sea levels, evaporation and rain volume, Maria should have served as an urgent warning of the cost of delay and dysfunction. Instead, it heralded a desultory response marked by partisan infighting in Washington and compounded by incompetence in Puerto Rico.
Lin-Manuel Miranda and Luis A. Miranda Jr.: How to get Puerto Rico help now
The effect was visible Monday, after Fiona had finished with Puerto Rico. The island’s power grid was crippled; 1.5 million had lost electricity; many were without water; and some rural communities were cut off. On Tuesday, more than 1 million people remained without power.
Maria had left 3,000 people dead, along with a grim tableau of wrecked homes and businesses. That was a moment for Washington to act with all due speed to relieve and rebuild. Instead, Puerto Ricans were subjected to the belittling spectacle of President Donald Trump tossing rolls of paper towels into a crowd in Guaynabo, a suburb of San Juan.
That cavalier gesture was an apt symbol of the chaotic response to come. On Capitol Hill, lawmakers bickered. The Federal Emergency Management Agency was effective in the weeks right after the storm, but then things bogged down. As Mr. Trump labeled Puerto Rico as corrupt, federal officials attached onerous conditions to releasing the extensive aid that Congress had approved.
Critically, the job of remaking the island’s power grid — converting it into an up-to-date system hardened to withstand further storms — stalled as billions of dollars in aid from FEMA arrived too slowly. A U.S.-Canadian private consortium, called Luma Energy, took over the job of modernizing the electricity system last year and has since failed miserably. Puerto Ricans have been living with routine blackouts; practically every household that can afford a private generator has one.
Recognizing that the island is hobbled by a decades-old power grid prone to chronic failure, Congress allocated about $12 billion to overhaul it, the biggest allocation of funds to FEMA in the agency’s history. But Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, known as PREPA, has not been up to the job; the utility is bankrupt, and efforts to restructure its $9 billion debt have failed.
The Biden administration cut red tape and unlocked funds, to no discernible effect. It needs to do more to ensure that the past, and the present, do not become prologue for episodic storm disasters. One place to start would be to revive the position of special representative for Puerto Rico’s disaster recovery, established in the Trump administration’s final year and subsequently abolished when President Biden took office. An overseer who can corral the bureaucracy and manage a massive problem would help — and should signal a renewed commitment to aiding an island packed with U.S. citizens. | 2022-09-20T21:41:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | After Hurricane Fiona, Puerto Rico faces a legacy of failure - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/20/puerto-rico-hurricane-fiona-disaster-power/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/20/puerto-rico-hurricane-fiona-disaster-power/ |
Now comes Jamie Dimon, the billionaire chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co., who wrote in prepared remarks ahead of congressional hearings this week that higher capital requirements for banks are “ bad for America.” Some will no doubt skewer Dimon for seeming to suggest that efforts to make the banking system — the lifeblood of the economy — safer is somehow unpatriotic. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Bankers should be regularly reminded of just how close their reckless actions came to causing a financial system collapse back in 2008.Nevertheless, Dimon’s remarks shouldn’t be dismissed as just hollow words from an entitled banker. The reality is that the banking system today is nothing like its former self. Reforms such as the Volcker Rule, the Dodd-Frank Act and Basel III forced most big banks to cut back on proprietary trading and keep a sizable portion of their reserves in the safest assets.(1)US banks are sitting on surplus liquidity — deposits minus loans — of $6.43 trillion, up from about $250 billion in 2008, according to the Federal Reserve.
To be clear, this is no time to become complacent about the banking system. The economy will need healthy banks to help it recover from what’s likely to be a protracted period of slow growth. Dimon, who has a history of declaring efforts to rein in banks as bad for America, is right to point out that excessive capital requirements may hinder banks from doing their jobs -- extending credit when it’s most needed. Still, a little more humility would be nice. More from Bloomberg Opinion: | 2022-09-20T21:50:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Fed Should Heed Dimon’s ‘Bad for America’ Line - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-fed-should-heed-dimons-bad-for-america-line/2022/09/20/b8ffa238-3921-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-fed-should-heed-dimons-bad-for-america-line/2022/09/20/b8ffa238-3921-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
FILE - Miles Teller poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film “Top Gun: Maverick” at the 75th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Wednesday, May 18, 2022. Teller will host the opening episode of the 48th season of “Saturday Night Live” on Oct. 1, 2022. (Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP, File) | 2022-09-20T21:51:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Teller, Gleeson, Megan Thee Stallion host first 'SNL' shows - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/teller-gleeson-megan-thee-stallion-host-first-snl-shows/2022/09/20/a610305a-3928-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/teller-gleeson-megan-thee-stallion-host-first-snl-shows/2022/09/20/a610305a-3928-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
Chris Murphy’s warning: A GOP House would defund the Ukraine struggle
Destroyed buildings in the center of Izyum, Ukraine, on September 14, 2022. (Wojciech Grzedzinski/For The Washington Post)
“If Republicans win control of the House or the Senate, I think there’s a likelihood that they will hold up any additional aid," Murphy told us.
As of now, Senate Republicans appear supportive of the Biden administration’s most recent request, for $12 million to be added to a continuing resolution funding the government through September. But if Republicans were to win the House (let alone the Senate), that could change everything.
Much GOP rhetoric on this is couched in fiscal terms, saying we shouldn’t spend so much on Ukraine when needs are unmet at home. Traditional conservative groups like Heritage Action have urged Republicans to vote against Ukraine aid packages, and 57 Republicans in the House voted no in May on a $40 billion aid package.
But some of the most direct pledges to cut off aid come from far-right Trumpists such as Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who are forthright about their sympathies. As Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) once said, “Ukraine is not our ally. Russia is not our enemy.”
The pro-Putin sentiment is already there. Tucker Carlson, the highest-rated host on cable television, has so enthusiastically offered pro-Russian spin that his segments frequently re-air on Russian state TV. He declared just three weeks ago: “By any actual reality-based measure, Vladimir Putin is not losing the war in Ukraine. He is winning the war in Ukraine.”
This Internationale, as Fukuyama observed, is aligned to one degree or another with leaders like Viktor Orban in Hungary, Eric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen in France, and Putin in Russia. And of course there’s Trump. | 2022-09-20T21:51:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Chris Murphy's warning: A GOP House will defund the Ukraine struggle - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/20/chris-murphy-ukraine-republcan-house-defund/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/20/chris-murphy-ukraine-republcan-house-defund/ |
This undated U.S. State Department photo shows Ambassador Lynne Tracy. President Joe Biden has formally nominated Tracy, a veteran foreign service officer with years of experience in Russian affairs to be the next U.S. ambassador to Russia. The White House on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022, announced the nomination of Tracy, the current U.S. ambassador to Armenia, to the post after the Russian government signed off on the choice. (U.S. State Dept. via AP) (Uncredited/AP) | 2022-09-20T21:51:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Biden formally nominates new ambassador to Russia - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-formally-nominates-new-ambassador-to-russia/2022/09/20/088ddd98-3921-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-formally-nominates-new-ambassador-to-russia/2022/09/20/088ddd98-3921-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
FILE - Alabama split end Dennis Homan (25) runs upfield on a pass from quarterback Ken Stabler during an NCAA college football game against Texas A&M at the Cotton Bowl, on Jan. 1, 1967, in Dallas. Homan’s grandson, current Alabama long snapper Kneeland Hibbett, has pledged to donate a share of his name, image and likeness proceeds to the Concussion Legacy Foundation, which has worked with ex-football players and others who developed traumatic brain injuries from repeated hits to the head. (AP Photo/File) (Uncredited/AP) | 2022-09-20T21:52:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Grandson of Alabama champ pledges NIL money to CTE research - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/son-of-alabama-champion-pledges-nil-money-to-cte-research/2022/09/20/ea143118-3926-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/son-of-alabama-champion-pledges-nil-money-to-cte-research/2022/09/20/ea143118-3926-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
‘Valorant’ esports is entering a new era. It took some ‘hard’ choices.
Riot Games’ president of esports talks turning down teams applying for partnership, sports marketing and engaging with the Middle East
(Washington Post illustration; Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games)
ISTANBUL — On the day of the Valorant Champions 2022 grand finals, a procession of influencers and stars were invited to the Volkswagen Arena in Turkey to kick off the proceedings. The singer Ashnikko, whose music gained viral popularity through the video app TikTok, walked the event’s so-called “gold carpet.” Popular streamers and content creators, including Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek and Tarik Celik, smiled and waved to a crowd of fans waiting outside the venue. Then came the Riot executives.
The Champions grand finals signaled the end of one era for “Valorant,” and the beginning of another. The executives were on-site to bask in the excitement of the in-person event, but also to tease what that new era might look like.
“Watch this next year,” said John Needham, president of esports at Riot Games. He was hyping an upcoming event in Sao Paolo, Brazil, while in the same breath, extolling the deep fandom for “Valorant” visible in countries like Japan and South Korea.
“You will be surprised where our events go,” Needham said.
In a food court next to the Volkswagen Arena, The Washington Post spoke with the executive about making “Valorant” esports profitable, Riot’s criteria and expectations for partnered teams, and the developer’s approach to bringing esports to the Middle East. At the time, Riot Games was planning to release “Valorant” partnership news — at least pertaining to its Americas league — on Wednesday, Sept. 21, and Needham was tight-lipped about which teams would make the cut.
Launcher: Last year, you told one of our colleagues the following: “If I can’t make esports a great business for teams and our sponsors, then we’re not going to last long. We’re very much thinking about, ‘How do we make the entire ecosystem profitable?’ ” I’d like to ask you your own question back: What are you doing to make the entire “Valorant” ecosystem profitable?
John Needham: With the partnership model that we’ve set up, instead of the teams paying Riot for a slot, we’re asking them to invest their cash back into the ecosystem. Invest in marketing their teams and marketing our sport. Invest in infrastructure to develop their teams. Invest in business development, and get a great set of sponsors backing their teams. All those things were very important requirements when we did partnership interviews. We’re lowering the investment basis for teams. We’re still asking them to invest in our ecosystem, but making it easier for them then to be profitable for us.
For us, our sponsorship business just keeps growing. We have grown 50 percent a year in sponsorship revenue for the past six years, so we’re doing really well. “League of Legends” [esports] is pretty close to sustainability. We’re getting to the point now where we’re trying to allocate more revenue to the teams, out of digital and other digital products that we put around our events. We’re making great progress there, and we still have work. “League of Legends” teams are expensive for our team owners. But I feel like with “Valorant,” we’ve kind of set a great foundation to allow the teams to really invest their money in places that will make the business really good.
We’re a really fast-growing sport right now, but I think we can do a lot more. We don’t have nearly the percentage of active players in the game watching esports in “Valorant” — yet — but with our partnership model, we’re just more closely aligned with the teams, and together I think we’re going to build the sport a lot faster.
How are you planning to bridge that gap between active players and folks who follow the esport?
Needham: I think it’s just getting back to basic sports marketing: Telling our players why they need to watch, why it’s exciting, making stars out of the players and helping the teams build fandom around their brands. All of those things will give this generation of “Valorant” players a reason to be a fan of our sport. Everything we do right now is around “How do we elevate our players to become fans?”
We have a closer relationship with the “Valorant” game team than we do with any game team that we build sports around. So that kind of close partnership with the game team is going to allow us to do things like the new mode, Premier, that we’ve talked about: a new competitive layer that will link into the esports competitive scene right out of the game. I think through that, we’ll get a lot of our players interested in our esport. It will be very strongly tied right into our Challenger series, and then on up into our international leagues that we’re launching this next year.
Last year you told The Post that “League of Legends” esports wasn’t profitable. Is “Valorant” esports profitable?
Needham: We’ve been running the sport for two years now and experimenting with how to bring it to life through our broadcasts and our events. We figured out, I think, that a lot of things are different with “Valorant” esports compared to “League of Legends,” but we are investing deeply. We’re going to be investing in this Challenger tier at the national level. We’re investing deeply in the international tier and all of our international events. Our expectation is we will be profitable in three to four years.
Does Riot have a metric internally that tells you, “Yeah, we’re on the right track with this. We might not be profitable, but fans are funneling back into the game.”
Needham: With “Valorant,” we have seen a direct correlation in our events and the growth in viewership around our events and the growth in player count. So we feel like esports is really helping the game to grow and pull players in.
I’m sure there were tough decisions that had to be made in the past several months, where maybe there was one partnership slot for several qualified teams. Tell me a bit about what factors pushed certain teams over others.
Needham: Getting back to the intent of the system, we asked, “Who do we want to partner with, who do we think can grow the sport along with us in a great way?” So, who has great marketing, who has great player development? But it’s hard. There were a lot of teams who applied for a very limited number of slots. What it led to was what we announced less than a month ago, Ascension out of the Challenger tier.
We have so many teams we’re going to have to unfortunately tell that they didn’t make it — and they’re really good organizations. So we’re going to invest more in that Challenger tier and make those national leagues amazing as well. I want multiple ways for our fans to engage in our esport. I think there will be a national layer for them to engage in and learn about their local stars, and then there will be this international league, which will have the best players on the planet competing.
‘Valorant’ reveals path for tier-2 teams into international leagues
What is the brand of “Valorant” esports now, and what do you anticipate it to be at the end of 2023?
Needham: The thing that’s really cool about “Valorant” in general — and you see it come through in our shows — is it’s very stylish, it’s very cool, right? And it’s got this high-intensity action to it in ways that are different than “League of Legends.” You know, the “League of Legends” show for esports is technical. Our players watch that show to really learn how to get better at the game. With “Valorant,” it’s a little bit different. You’re just watching guys with crazy mechanics and crazy speed. We want to lean into that. How can we showcase their talent as a player more than the technicalities of the game? I think the focus is a little bit different in it being an entertainment product, first and foremost.
What are you looking for from partnered teams to achieve in the next year in terms of building out the “Valorant” esports brand?
Needham: Part of the partnership and part of the marketing aspects of our agreement with the teams is they have to give us content that we can use on our channels, [that] we can use on our shows and vice versa. Collectively, if we can just put a lot more effort into the basic sports marketing and into their players and making their players personalities and stars, I think that’s where the sport will start to take off. That’s really the biggest focus: How can we make their brands better, and how can we highlight and put a spotlight on their best players and make them stars?
Is it going to be incumbent on teams to figure out what the best content is for the next year? Or are you saying, essentially, “Here are the specific deliverables Riot wants?”
Needham: We give them an idea on the type of content we want and the quality bar that we need, because I want to be able to put it on air on our show. But it’s not going to be: “Give us your best content.” We will be partnered with them. Our content teams will be partnered with their content teams to build stuff we can use on both channels.
Look, what’s interesting about sports are the stories behind the players and behind the teams. It’s what I love about the Olympics, [what] I love about all the big sporting events: the players’ stories. I think those are the ones that we will most closely partner with teams on, because that’s where people develop an affinity for the star and start rooting for that player to do well.
Can you tell me if Riot had a specific bar for what esports organizations needed to show to enter the partnered league from the perspective of financial stability?
Needham: We definitely had our finance team do financial due diligence, and there is a minimum level of capital that the teams need to have. Again, we want them to be able to invest in marketing, invest in infrastructure, in developing their players. You need capital to do that. So yeah, sure, we had a certain baseline.
But as part of our structure, we’re paying teams stipends, we’re paying teams a portion of digital sales of esports assets. We announced how well we’ve done with the skin pack around this event, which has been incredible. And we’re going to continue to build products where we can share a lot of those revenue back with the teams. So it will require capital, but we’re helping the teams a lot in getting set up and getting financed.
Do you mind if I ask what that baseline is? Can you give me even a ballpark?
Needham: I can’t. I’m sorry.
With regard to Ascension: Some of the teams that didn’t make partner may have been turned away because of sponsorships or business dealings with entities and industries that Riot doesn’t want to be affiliated with, like gambling. I’m curious if you have any protections in place if a team like that — that was disqualified from partnership consideration — makes it through Ascension and becomes an international league team.
Needham: We’re going to have requirements in our Team Participation Agreement that they’re going to have to abide by. We have rules about partners and investors that they can have in their teams. So they will have to modify their business structure to meet our structure.
I want to pivot to a sensitive topic: the esports industry and the Middle East, Saudi Arabia in particular. I understand the argument that there are a lot of fans in the region who care about esports, and that companies in the industry want to bring esports and entertainment to them. At the same time, there are dramatic human rights concerns around some of the regressive governments in place there. I’m curious about how Riot is thinking about those challenges, and whether you have any hard lines around participation in certain countries?
Needham: We are an international company, the biggest international gaming company that I’ve been a part of. So we serve players in dramatically different cultures all around the world, and we have a philosophy around “We’re going to go and we’re going to serve our players where they are in their region.” That carries through in esports as well.
For our fans in the Middle East, we are supporting them with esports there — within the Middle East — and we try to be careful in not mixing the cultures too much in ways that could upset our fan base. We love our Middle Eastern players. We’re going to have a great esports scene in the Middle East. We’ll just see how that grows and develops and whether that can be a part of our bigger international ecosystem.
As esports watchdog tackles widespread match-fixing, critics fear it can’t do the job
A long time ago, Riot gave me a statement that the company was working with Sportradar to look into allegations of match-fixing pertaining to players from other scenes who had moved to participate in “Valorant” esports. Did anything turn up from that?
Needham: We do run into questionable competitions, and that’s why we have a partnership with Sportradar. Competitive integrity is one of our most important things, and we try to protect the integrity of our competitions above all else. We’re always monitoring the “Valorant” matches. We haven’t seen any indication of any sort of fixing. When we do, we step in and we address it.
I mean, we have values at Riot. We take those values very seriously, and we want our players to show those values as well. So we look at players a lot, and we look at the accusations that we see out in the media and we do investigations. We have a whole team that manages that aspect of our business. So we’re aware of a lot of players coming up from “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive,” and we see issues like this and we investigate and we do what’s appropriate within our values.
Can you tell me what those values are?
Needham: I mean, we’re about diversity. We are about women’s rights. We are about being fair and protecting our integrity as a sport, right? So anything that crosses those lines, we will take action against it. | 2022-09-20T22:20:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Riot president of esports talks uber-competitive Valorant partnerships - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/esports/2022/09/20/valorant-partnership-john-needham-esports/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/esports/2022/09/20/valorant-partnership-john-needham-esports/ |
A Mar-a-Lago brief by GOP attorneys general is less than meets the eye
Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference last month in Dallas. (Dylan Hollingsworth/Bloomberg News)
When Donald Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago was searched last month, the GOP sprang into action. Republicans were willing to go to great and often extremely speculative and unproven lengths to defend him even when we knew very little about the search. This wasn’t just a questionable search, in their view: It was an abuse of power and a political hit job, evidence might have been planted, and so forth.
The fervent support and baseless accusations have died down somewhat since then, as the party grapples with the emerging facts, which paint an increasingly vivid picture of the former president taking highly sensitive documents to his luxury resort.
Enter a group of GOP state attorneys general, who filed an amicus brief in the Mar-a-Lago documents case on Tuesday. The move by the attorneys general for Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and West Virginia would seem, on its face, to be a significant show of support for Trump’s legal case.
Dig a few inches deeper, though, and it’s significantly less than meets the eye. The document is devoted to attacking the Biden administration and its handling of legal matters; it does next to nothing to actually address the case at hand.
The brief opens with some of the greatest hits of the GOP’s attacks on the search itself. The brief calls it an “unprecedented nine-hour search of former President Donald J. Trump’s private residence” and even characterizes it as the Biden administration “ransacking the home of its one-time — and possibly future — political rival.” (“Ransacking” often connotes stealing things or at least dealing with matter haphazardly and roughly.)
But apart from that, the brief doesn’t deal with the search, Trump’s underlying conduct or even the order that’s being appealed at all. It instead devotes its entire argument to a series of cases in which the attorneys general participated — as well as other matters — that it argues demonstrate legal “gamesmanship.”
Certainly, there’s some grist for that mill. The attorneys general cite how President Biden acknowledged last year that re-upping of the covid eviction moratorium would likely fail in court, but still was worth pursuing because it could help people before it would get struck down. The brief also cites Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. accusing the administration of legal gamesmanship in a long-running legal battle over immigration rules.
But otherwise, the brief reads like a hastily assembled list of complaints you might see on a Fox News show. And the examples cited aren’t restricted to court battles; they also include public comments from Vice President Harris last week about the border being “secure,” the administration’s comments about not funding “gain of function” research, and its aborted launching of a “Disinformation Governance Board.” These far-ranging incidents are all gathered in the service, essentially, of one argument: The administration can’t be trusted in its representations of the facts about the Mar-a-Lago search.
But the brief is as notable for what it doesn’t say and what it doesn’t argue. It doesn’t delve at all into Trump’s retention of government documents that could be highly sensitive. (It doesn’t even use the word “classified” at all, in fact.) Nor does it get into the actual legal disputes over the Mar-a-Lago search that had been raised in the case Judge Aileen M. Cannon heard.
It’s a contrast to the amicus brief late last week from a group of GOP law enforcement officials, arguing that Cannon’s order be overturned and dissecting the legal reasoning closely.
These attorneys general say they have an important perspective on the core issue of whether the administration should be treated with the “presumption of regularity” — that is, the idea that government officials “have properly discharged their official duties.” But that goal doesn’t preclude them from actually going to bat for Trump or at least the specifics of Cannon’s controversial order. Yet they opt not to do any of that.
In many ways, this tactic reflects the last time GOP attorneys general stepped forward in a high-profile way to seemingly vouch for Trump. It was after the 2020 election, when Trump was making all manner of false claims about voters fraud, “stolen” elections and the like: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and others sued various swing states to try to overturn their results. But rather than echo his claims with full force, the attorneys general — nearly all of the ones on this latest brief, in fact, plus some others — offered a more watered-down version that merely raised questions. It was rather quickly rejected by the Supreme Court.
It’s also reflective of the tack seemingly taken by Trump’s own legal team, which has declined to vouch for many of his claims in court — most notably that Trump had declassified all the documents.
And as always, what people say publicly should be measured against what they — and their allies — are willing to say in a court of law. | 2022-09-20T22:42:38Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What the GOP attorneys' general brief supporting Trump doesn't say - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/20/republican-attorney-general-amicus-brief-trump/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/20/republican-attorney-general-amicus-brief-trump/ |
Dan Cox questions election integrity as Md. officials ask judge for help
An election worker moves a sign as ballots are recounted for the democratic nominee for Montgomery County executive on Aug. 19 in Germantown, Md. The margin of ballots were 35 between Marc Elrich and David Blair. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)
The State Board of Elections’ case before a judge on Tuesday to speed up Maryland’s stringent ballot-counting timeline this cycle found an opponent in Dan Cox, the Republican candidate for governor who was endorsed by former president Donald Trump and promised primary voters he would audit the 2020 election if he were elected.
The board’s effort, rooted in fears that an unprecedented and chaotic primary season marked by delays in counting mail-in ballots could portend months-long waits for general election results, drew condemnation from the freshman state delegate, who made election integrity part of his primary platform.
Cox told reporters on Monday that he would respect the outcome of the election if the current process stayed in place but would not say whether he would contest the results if the judge changed the timeline — a question he again did not answer on Tuesday.
“I firmly believe, I want this to be very clear, I firmly believe in our constitutional process,” Cox said at a news conference after the court hearing before Montgomery County Circuit and County Administrative Judge James Bonifant. “That’s all that I’m asking for here today.”
Bonifant is slated to deliver a ruling Friday at 3 p.m. on the board’s request, which seeks to suspend a law unique to Maryland that prohibits canvassing mail-in ballots until two days after the election. The law originates from a period when mail-in ballots made up only a small fraction of the overall vote.
This year’s midterm election cycle will be under close watch around the country as Republican candidates refuse to say if they will accept results, showing the lasting effects of unproven claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential race. After years of managing misinformation related to the accuracy of election results — much of it stemming from Trump — election integrity has become a key platform point for GOP candidates around the country as election officials strive to deliver timely, accurate and transparent results.
The hearing comes after a primary cycle marked by an unprecedented deluge of mail-in ballots and extended delays that took nearly a month to certify results. Expecting even higher turnout and longer turnaround times during the general election, the board argued that an emergency remedy from the court is necessary to meet local, state and federal certification deadlines.
“The local boards of election responsible for counting the vast majority of mail-in ballots require more time for canvassing and tabulating these ballots or there is a substantial risk that they will not be able to meet critical deadlines established by law,” read the petition filed in the Montgomery County Circuit Court this month.
If approved, the petition would allow election officials to begin canvassing and tabulating mail-in ballots Oct. 1. Results would not be released until after polls close on Election Day.
Cox, who made election auditing a key plank of his primary platform, filed an objection to the state’s petition. He said in a news release last week that the situation did not warrant an emergency and that changing the process weeks before the election “is unacceptable, and further undermines trust in the outcome of elections.”
The November ballot will feature Cox, a first-term delegate, and Wes Moore (D), a best-selling author who garnered high-profile celebrity and political endorsements, as gubernatorial candidates, along with any third-party contenders and a host of congressional, state and local offices.
In the courtroom, Cox’s lawyers argued that the situation did not warrant an emergency because the board already knew there would be an influx of mail-in ballots. They further argued that the court did not have the power to intervene, saying the authority to change the rule rests with the General Assembly.
“It might be a terrible situation,” Ed Hartman, Cox’s co-counsel, said during the hearing. “But it’s not an emergency.”
State lawmakers attempted to change the process during this year’s legislative session when they passed a bill that would have permanently removed the two-day wait provision, among other election law changes. But while Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) supported counting mail-in ballots early, he vetoed the bill, citing concerns including the exclusion of “basic security measures such as signature verification.”
The veto came on May 27, after the legislative session ended. Daniel Kobrin, assistant attorney general representing the State Board of Elections, said in court that the General Assembly did not have the power to call a special session to override a veto.
Kobrin said the Board of Elections briefly considered seeking relief from a judge ahead of the primary but that it didn’t know the full extent of effects the surge of mail ballots would have. After assessing how long it took to certify results during the primary election, the board unanimously voted to seek action from the court last month.
“Now we know,” Kobrin said. “Now we have the case study of the primary election.”
The main sources of delays in this year’s primary race came from Montgomery County, Maryland’s most populous county that received more than 74,000 mail-in ballots during the primary and took 36 days to completely tabulate all ballots and conduct a recount in the Democratic primary race for county executive.
The petition argued that those kinds of delays after the general election could bump against tighter state and federal result certification deadlines: Some local office terms are slated to begin on the first Monday in December, and under the Constitution, Congress is to convene Jan. 3.
Tammy Patrick, senior adviser to the elections team at the nonpartisan Democracy Fund, said that either way, the court outcome will probably be leveraged to sow mistrust in the state’s election system. But she said a timeline change would not affect the integrity or fundamental process of counting ballots.
“The process will be the same if it’s done a week before the election or a week after the election,” Patrick said. “It’s not a question that they’re asking to completely change the process. They’re asking to move when the work is done to an early enough time period so that it aligns with the vast majority of what other states do.”
Erin Cox contributed to this report. | 2022-09-20T22:55:42Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Md. GOP candidate Dan Cox argues against counting mail ballots early - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/20/maryland-mail-vote-counting-lawsuit/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/20/maryland-mail-vote-counting-lawsuit/ |
D.C. Council approves new office to aid migrants arriving on buses
Johan, 24, a migrant from Venezuela, listens to a humanitarian volunteer as he and other migrants prepare to leave after being dropped off outside the U.S. Naval Observatory near Vice President Harris's residence in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 15, 2022. (Craig Hudson for The Washington Post)
The D.C. Council on Tuesday voted to create a new government office that lawmakers say will offer immediate support to the thousands of asylum seekers being bused to the District at the directive of GOP governors from southern states, despite concerns from advocates about some of the bill’s provisions.
The bill to create the new Office of Migrant Services was written by Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), who declared a public emergency over the situation earlier this month. In a letter to council members Tuesday encouraging them to approve the measure, Bowser estimated that at least 9,400 people have arrived in D.C. since April through busing programs created by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) — which she called a “humanitarian crisis.”
Bowser’s public emergency declaration permits her to use $10 million from the city’s contingency funds to establish the office; she plans to seek reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Bowser’s emergency bill enables the Office of Migrant Services to provide asylum seekers who are in the city temporarily with short-term support like food, clothing, legal services and shelter, helping relieve the burden on local nonprofits which have thus far handled the brunt of the response.
“We haven’t had a system in our government structure that will allow us to support migrants that have been bused here, that have been paroled to the United States, that are moving around the United States,” Bowser told reporters Monday. “We haven’t had a way to deal with [them] humanely and efficiently. And that’s what this office and these sets of services will allow us to do.”
The council voted 12-0 to approve the bill. Council member Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4) voted “present,” citing her desire to ensure the measure strikes the right balance.
Photos: What’s behind governors busing migrants from the border to other states
But in recent days, advocates for the homeless have warned that the bill’s language is too broad and places migrants into a lower tier of city services — stripping them of some protections that are guaranteed to people experiencing homelessness in D.C. through the city’s Homeless Services Reform Act (HSRA).
That law mandates that families be placed in private rooms with their own bathroom facilities instead of in congregate settings — a safeguard against potential predatory behavior, especially against children. Bowser’s bill allows contractors to house multiple people in congregate settings, including single adults.
“Some of these revisions wouldn’t be necessary if [the bill] was really only targeting temporary migrants passing through,” said Rachel Rintelmann, interim co-executive director of the nonprofit Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia, which was among dozens of local groups to request changes to the bill.
In 1 day, 36 orgs/experts & 100s of individuals asked DC Council to create Office of Migrant Services without harming unhoused persons. Thank you to all of our partners/allies for joining us in this message of justice. The Council votes tomorrow. @ChmnMendelson @BrianneKNadeau pic.twitter.com/xJNFxF0Gvh
— Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless (@WashLegalClinic) September 19, 2022
Council member Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2) tried to address the advocates’ concerns through amendments that would instruct the Office of Migrant Services to prioritize non-congregate shelters for families with children and would require anyone who is denied services from the new office to receive written and oral notice, as well as the chance for an appeal.
She also wanted to strike a clause from Bowser’s version of the bill that denies HSRA eligibility to immigrants who awaiting hearings outside the District — noting that D.C. lacks an immigration court. That means migrants who live in D.C. and are awaiting an immigration interview or hearing would become ineligible for HSRA protections, which include eviction prevention services.
While several lawmakers said that Pinto’s proposed changes had merit, they voted 9-4 against her amendment.
Emergency bills require nine votes to pass and remain in effect for 90 days. Council member Brianne K. Nadeau (D-Ward 1), who introduced the bill Tuesday, said her committee will hold a hearing on a permanent version of the bill next month, a process that she and other members said will allow the council to better address some of the advocates’ concerns.
“Right now, the idea is let’s get the office stood up, let’s support folks as they’re arriving,” Nadeau said.
The council’s vote comes as the scene on the ground in D.C. is shifting. In recent days, busloads of migrants from Texas have arrived at the National Observatory — near Vice President Harris’s official residence — rather than the initial drop-off site near Union Station in Northeast D.C., sharpening national focus on the situation. Buses coming from Arizona are still stopping at their usual drop-off location near Union Station, immigrant advocates say.
Ashley Tjhung, an organizer with the Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network, a coalition of groups assisting the migrants, said the increased publicity surrounding the drop-off site in front of Harris’s residence has coincided with a surge in social media threats.
“We don’t think anything is a very present concern,” she said. “Still, the uptick in anonymous threats is very concerning.”
Bowser, who was rejected twice by the Pentagon when she asked for National Guard support to help with the arrivals, said in her letter that she expects the busing programs to continue. She opposed any changes to the emergency bill, which she said could “divert valuable personnel and operational resources away from individuals in need of services.”
D.C. may end right on red for cars, let cyclists yield at stop signs
In its first legislative meeting after the summer recess, the council also tackled dozens of other measures, including key pieces of legislation related to cars and transit.
One bill, introduced by D.C. Council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3) and other lawmakers, allows people on bicycles and scooters to treat a stop sign as a yield sign, also known as an Idaho Stop, and also bans right-on-red turns at all traffic lights beginning in January 2025, except at intersections where the District’s Department of Transportation determines it would “improve safety” to allow them.
The council voted 13-0 to approve Cheh’s bill, which will require a second vote to pass before it heads to Bowser’s desk. | 2022-09-20T22:55:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | A new D.C. office will work with migrants bused from Texas, Arizona - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/20/texas-arizona-migrants-buses-dc/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/20/texas-arizona-migrants-buses-dc/ |
Browns plan to ban fan who allegedly threw water bottle at team owner
Browns owner Jimmy Haslam was on the sideline during the late stages of his team's collapse against the Jets. (AP Photo/Ron Schwane)
A Cleveland Browns fan was arrested Sunday for allegedly throwing a water bottle at team owner Jimmy Haslam during a home loss to the New York Jets. The Browns plan to ban the fan from returning to Cleveland’s FirstEnergy Stadium, per multiple reports Tuesday.
Video shared by NFL Network appeared to show Haslam struck by a bottle thrown from the stands just after the Jets scored a touchdown with 22 seconds left, helping them complete a remarkable comeback from a late deficit. The 68-year-old Haslam, who purchased the Browns in 2012, was heading toward the stadium tunnel at the time. The video showed him stopping and pointing into the stands.
A 51-year-old resident of a Cleveland suburb was taken into custody after being identified on video surveillance, according to an arrest report provided by Cleveland police. An officer said the fan was initially asked by stadium security to stop near an exit gate but kept going and “pulled away” from an attempt to detain him. More security personnel arrived and kept the fan from leaving, at which point the officer arrived and brought the fan to a stadium police room, where his Miranda rights were read.
According to the police officer, the fan “appeared to be intoxicated” and stated, “It never hit the field.”
The fan was then taken to a county detention center and booked on charges of misdemeanor assault, failure to comply and disorderly conduct.
The incident was one of two on Sunday in which an NFL fan is alleged to have assaulted a member of a league organization during a game. Las Vegas police are investigating an incident in which Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray may have been struck in the face as he high-fived Arizona fans in the front row at Allegiant Stadium following an overtime win over the host Raiders.
“I think that guy’s a lowlife, whoever did it,” Cardinals Coach Kliff Kingsbury said, “and I hope they arrest him, he gets fired and can never go to another game.” | 2022-09-20T23:04:25Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Browns to ban fan who allegedly threw water bottle at owner Jimmy Haslam - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/20/jimmy-haslam-browns-water-bottle-fan/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/20/jimmy-haslam-browns-water-bottle-fan/ |
Floodwaters surround a family and their belongings in Jaffarabad, Pakistan, in August. Recovery from the devastating floods could cost $10 billion. (Zahid Hussain/AP)
Denmark will direct about $13 million to vulnerable countries that have suffered “loss and damage” from climate change — the first time in U.N. history a wealthy member state has pledged compensation for the consequences of emissions in the developing world.
Loss and damage funding has long been a rallying cry for climate justice advocates and leaders from vulnerable countries. Wealthy nations, including the United States, have rebuffed those calls, worried that any kind of financial commitment would imply legal liability for climate change’s escalating toll.
But the issue has gained traction amid increasing devastation from climate disasters, such as the drought-fueled famine in East Africa and Pakistan’s recent deadly floods. Some 400 activist groups released a letter this month demanding that finance for loss and damage be added to the agenda for this November’s U.N. climate negotiations in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
At last year’s talks in Glasgow, Scotland became the first government contributor to a loss and damage fund. (As a constituent country of the United Kingdom, Scotland is not a U.N. member state.) Belgium’s Wallonia region pledged another million euros to the cause.
Denmark’s loss and damage investment is the biggest yet — though it pales in comparison to the financial toll wrought by climate change each year, activists say. Recovery from the floods in Pakistan alone is estimated to cost upward of $10 billion.
Climate change brings irreversible harm to poor countries. At COP26, rich ones face pressure to foot the bill.
According to an announcement from the Danish foreign ministry, the pledge includes 40 million Danish kroner — about $5.4 million — to work with civil society groups on addressing loss and damage, especially in Africa’s Sahel region. It also sets aside millions for “strategic efforts” around loss and damage negotiations ahead of the upcoming talks in Egypt.
Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at the nonprofit Climate Action Network, called Denmark’s pledge “significant.” But he pointed out that about a third of the promised funding will go to the InsuResilience Global Partnership, a U.N.-organized program through which private companies provide disaster insurance to those most vulnerable from climate change.
This setup “will create business for European corporations in the developing countries, eventually making [the] vulnerable pay for the premium toward losses and damages from climate disasters,” Singh said.
The Danish embassy was not immediately available for comment. | 2022-09-20T23:21:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Denmark first U.N. member to pay for ‘loss and damage’ from climate change - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/09/20/denmark-climate-change-un-general-assembly/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/09/20/denmark-climate-change-un-general-assembly/ |
A murderer describes his crime, then claims it was for a man he never met
Bobby Joe Leonard said he strangled a woman in 1998 after getting a phone call offering $5,000 to commit murder
Andrea Cincotta in a family photo from 1997. Cincotta was slain in her Arlington apartment in August 1998. Her fiance, James Christopher Johnson, is charged with hiring Bobby Joe Leonard to kill her. (Family photo)
In graphic detail, Bobby Joe Leonard described to an Arlington County jury this week how he killed a woman with his bare hands in 1998. Then he tried to convince the jury that the woman’s fiance had called him weeks earlier and offered him $5,000 to commit the murder — though he had never met the man, got no money up front, and never tried to collect it when it wasn’t waiting for him in the victim’s apartment.
Arlington police struggled for more than two decades to solve the slaying of Andrea Cincotta, a 52-year-old librarian with the Arlington Central Library, who was found dead by her fiance, James Christopher Johnson.
Then in 2018, when Arlington cold case detectives went to visit Leonard in prison, he admitted he’d killed Cincotta — and claimed that Johnson had hired him to do it. A grand jury indicted the two men last year, and Leonard — already serving a life sentence without parole — pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in July. Johnson, who has pleaded not guilty, is now on trial, where jurors will have to decide whether they believe Leonard when he says that an unknown older White man who sounded like Johnson called him twice and arranged for Cincotta to be killed.
Police knew decades ago that Leonard, who would be arrested the following year for choking and nearly killing a 13-year-old girl, had been in Cincotta’s apartment previously. But there was no physical evidence placing Leonard at the crime scene.
Leonard has 13 prior felony convictions and acknowledged Tuesday that he violently choked a number of women around 1998 and 1999, all of them without payment or assistance from another person. In 2018, he cut a deal with Arlington prosecutors to reveal what happened with Cincotta in exchange for prosecutors not seeking the death penalty against him.
Dressed in a black Arlington jail uniform, Leonard, 54, shuffled slowly into the courtroom in leg chains but no handcuffs, one deputy in front and one behind him, and two more near the witness stand.
Three months after his release from prison in 1998, Leonard met Andrea Cincotta, according to his account in court. She was a longtime employee of the Arlington Central Library who loved to swim in the mornings, go out with friends and help build a vacation home with her live-in fiance of the previous seven years: Johnson, then 36 and an employee at the Home Depot.
Leonard had gotten a job through a temporary work agency, and was assigned to a company called Trash Masters, which was hired to replace mailboxes in Colonial Village, the condo complex on North Rhodes Street where Cincotta and Johnson lived. The couple had just bought a new computer and wanted to recycle the old one, Leonard testified.
Cincotta came home one day in August 1998 and parked next to the Trash Masters van, Leonard testified. Cincotta walked up to Leonard and asked if he would recycle her old computer. Trash Masters didn’t do that, Leonard explained, but he offered to take the computer himself.
Cincotta then led Leonard into her apartment, and straight back to her and Johnson’s bedroom, Leonard said. Cincotta suggested they swap phone numbers so she could make sure Leonard got her computer running. Johnson was not present when Leonard took the computer away, and his lawyers said he had never seen Leonard in person until Monday in the courtroom.
Leonard said that Cincotta called him a day later to ask him if had the computer running. He testified that he was having trouble starting the computer, and that Cincotta handed the phone to “my boyfriend,” who walked Leonard through the setup process.
About seven to 10 days later, Leonard testified, he got a call at home in southeast Washington. His caller ID indicated it was from Cincotta. But he said when he answered, “it was the same man, Andrea’s boyfriend, calling to check to see how everything was going,” Leonard said.
He said the “older White male” told him “I know that you’ve been locked up a few times. I know that you’ve been in a bunch of trouble. He was reading from something, like my criminal history.”
Defense lawyer Manuel Leiva noted that when Leonard testified before the grand jury, “you never once mentioned anything about the caller stating he knew about your criminal record.” Leonard replied, “I may not have.”
But in Leonard’s testimony, which started late Monday and stretched into Tuesday, he said the caller claimed his awareness of Leonard’s criminal record “gave him an idea.” He said the caller told him, “I want you to do something with Andrea that’s kind of unusual. I want you to get rid of her.”
Leonard said he pressed the caller to be specific. “'Are you saying you want me to kill her?'” Leonard testified he told the caller. “He said yeah. He said, ‘We’re talking about $5,000 cash. Are you the kind of person I could get to do this?’ I said yes.”
In what Leonard said was a 90-minute phone call, he and the unnamed man discussed how to commit the killing without attracting attention or creating a messy crime scene, and they agreed that strangling was best. Leonard said the caller told him to wear a hat and gloves and not to use a gun. The caller said the $5,000 would be in a pair of shoes in the master bedroom closet, Leonard said.
Leonard said he was suspicious that he was being set up, somehow, so he wandered around the neighborhood on North Rhodes Street for a while until he spotted Cincotta drive up. He saw no cameras, no police, so he went inside, knocked on her door and then stood outside Cincotta’s apartment chatting with her for several minutes.
Leonard, then 30, said he asked Cincotta for a cold drink, and she brought him a can of root beer. “As she reached out to hand me the soda,” Leonard said on the witness stand, “I reached out with both hands by the throat and choked her down to the ground. She didn’t really offer any resistance”
He said he ran water in the bathtub and placed Cincotta in it to make sure she wasn’t breathing. Then he carried her wet body to her bedroom closet and placed her inside.
Leonard said he searched furiously in the closet, and one other bedroom closet, for the $5,000 payoff. He took a jug of coins, Cincotta’s purse and car keys, and tried to drive her Honda Civic back to D.C., but he burned out the manual clutch and abandoned it on I-295. Johnson discovered it there the next day. When he fled the scene with only a large jug of coins, but no $5,000, “I felt foolish,” Leonard said.
Soon after, Leonard traveled to Philadelphia to meet with his ex-wife, but he said he got arrested after choking her. Arlington police found him in a Philadelphia jail and questioned him. Leonard said he was confident he had left no physical evidence behind, having wiped surfaces in Cincotta’s apartment and car, but because he was a suspect in her death, he said he never made an attempt in the subsequent 24 years to demand payment from the person who had hired him to commit murder.
Arlington detectives made a number of visits to Leonard in prison to ask him about the case, he said. But in 2017, Leonard testified, he became a Christian, “to live a changed life, to become a better type of human being.” When Arlington cold case detectives visited him in 2018, “something just struck inside of me that you don’t have to lie about this anymore.” He said he did not know the name of the man who hired him to kill Cincotta, but he would recognize the voice.
On the same day in 2018 that Leonard confessed to Arlington cold case detectives, he later made a call to a friend and told her, “I was just made an offer and I’ll be home soon,” Leiva said prison recordings showed. Leonard acknowledged saying as much, but claimed it was a lie. “Did I still lie in 2018 at times? Yes I did,” Leonard explained.
Leonard did extract one last concession from prosecutors, as he was about to testify on Monday: He wanted Arlington prosecutors to help him move to a lower-security prison than the high-security Wallens Ridge State Prison where he is currently held. The trial was delayed for an hour while prosecutors scrambled. Leonard said he has already been approved for the move, but transfers can take two years. He said he merely wanted Arlington prosecutors to make a call to help expedite the process. Current Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti was summoned, and a handwritten agreement was signed that cleared the way for Leonard’s dramatic testimony. | 2022-09-20T23:22:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Murderer describes his crime, and claims it was for a man he never met - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/20/bobby-joe-leonard-murder-hire/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/20/bobby-joe-leonard-murder-hire/ |
U.N. chief says world is ‘gridlocked in colossal global dysfunction’
Yasmeen Abutaleb
“Divides are growing deeper. Inequalities are growing wider. Challenges are spreading farther,” U.N. Secretary General António Guterres told the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday in New York. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
NEW YORK — U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said Tuesday that a breakdown in global cooperation amid Russia’s war in Ukraine is exacerbating the top threats to human existence, including food insecurity and climate change.
Guterres said problems such as poverty, indebtedness, online hate and harassment, and a loss of biodiversity are resulting from the international system’s failure to function.
The United States seeks to pressure and isolate Russia on the world stage for the violence and destruction that have taken place in Ukraine since Moscow’s forces invaded on Feb. 24. The fighting has resulted in tens of thousands of casualties and millions of refugees as Russia has captured and then retreated from Ukrainian territory in the south and east.
Many developing countries in Africa and Latin America, meanwhile, resent the global push to condemn Moscow while they bear the brunt of rising food and energy prices stemming from the war.
Washington is trying to cater to those concerns this week by prioritizing lowering global food costs and gesturing toward reforming the U.N. Security Council — a longtime goal of developing countries that view the institution as outdated and unrepresentative.
“For the West, the goal of this week is to win the hearts and minds of non-Western leaders,” said Richard Gowan, a U.N. expert at the International Crisis Group.
But many countries that had been resistant to condemning Russia remained so during the first day of speeches.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, the first head of state to speak, remained neutral on the conflict, instructing both sides that a solution “will only be achieved through negotiation and dialogue.”
Macky Sall, the president of Senegal, also called for de-escalation and negotiation in an address that did not use the word “Russia” once.
Some criticism of Moscow came from the president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, who objected to Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine and also criticized the U.S. trade war with China for negatively affecting the world economy, a jab seen as providing a balanced perspective between Moscow and Washington.
“You have a lot of countries that were once willing to criticize Russia earlier in the year but have developed Ukraine fatigue and are trying to stay out of the war,” Gowan said.
Even before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, a slow-building global food crisis, caused by conflict, climate change and the coronavirus pandemic, was driving malnutrition in areas including the Horn of Africa, Haiti, Yemen, Syria and Afghanistan.
Putin’s invasion dramatically worsened those problems, depriving world markets of a key grain supplier. Rising prices have increased the U.N. World Food Program’s costs by nearly 50 percent, meaning existing funds can feed fewer people. Some 50 million people are on the brink of famine.
It is just one of many issues Guterres said are being overlooked as leaders focus on the daily battlefield gains and losses in Ukraine.
“Much of the world’s attention remains focused on the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” he said. “At the same time, conflicts and humanitarian crises are spreading — often far from the spotlight.”
He emphasized lesser-publicized crises including the economic collapse of Afghanistan, the proliferation of armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the deteriorating human rights situation in Myanmar, and the “cycles of violence” in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
The United States’ efforts to earn good will from the developing world this week are manifesting in different ways.
President Biden is expected to discuss U.N. Security Council reform during his visit to New York, but U.S. officials have not yet determined if he will do so publicly or privately, the president’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told reporters Tuesday.
While other nations occupy rotating seats, countries from the global south are advocating for an overhaul that would result in a council that better reflects today’s diversified centers of world power.
“Abuse of the veto has virtually paralyzed the council on countless crises by preventing substantive action — on Syria, Russia’s abuses in Ukraine, and Myanmar,” said Louis Charbonneau, U.N. director at Human Rights Watch. Russia has been the most active user of its Security Council veto, while the United States has vetoed motions aimed at Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.
He said a new rule requiring the Security Council’s permanent members to justify their vetoes before all member nations was a step in the right direction toward accountability.
Biden’s aides are also hosting a food security summit with the European Union and the African Union on the sidelines of the general assembly, as well as meetings on the coronavirus and a conference for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Those gestures will coincide with a hard push by Biden during his speech Wednesday for nations to rally against Russia and “stand against the naked aggression we’ve seen these past several months,” Sullivan said.
In his remarks, the president is expected to depict the challenge of the 21st century as a contest between “democracies and autocracies.” The refrain, which Biden often uses, offers an easily digestible view of the world but also risks excluding some non-democracies from which the United States seeks cooperation, such as Singapore or Persian Gulf monarchies.
Other Western leaders have tried to take a more inclusive approach, such as French President Emmanuel Macron, who scheduled a dinner Tuesday night seeking to bridge the “North-South Divide” with invitees including the leaders of Senegal, Ivory Coast, Colombia, Argentina and the European Council, and the foreign ministers of India, Egypt and Indonesia.
“Our goal is not to perpetuate the idea that it’s the West against the rest,” said a French official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the French president’s diplomatic discussions. “A breakdown of the world order is in no one’s interest.”
A Turkish-U.N.-brokered deal to end Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports and resume Ukrainian exports in July has helped ease global food and grain supply problems and created vital silo space for Ukrainian farmers’ next harvest.
“Some might call it a miracle on the sea,” said Guterres. “In truth, it is multilateral diplomacy in action.”
“That needs to change,” Blinken said at a food security meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. gathering. “And no matter what countries have done so far, every country is called upon to do more.”
“The security architecture is eroding,” he told the General Assembly. “Mutual distrust between global powers is deepening.”
Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, France’s minister for development and international partnerships, said the key to addressing long-term food challenges is to help developing countries reduce their dependence on imports, an effort Paris and others are backing. She pushed back on the assertion from Russia and its allies that the West’s response to Russia’s actions was to blame, citing the exclusion of food and fertilizer from global sanctions.
“We have to be honest that Russia has chosen to weaponize access to food, just as it has chosen to weaponize the energy supplies,” she said in an interview. “Of course the most affected are the most vulnerable countries.” | 2022-09-20T23:22:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | United Nations gathering stresses war in Ukraine and Russian aggression - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/20/unga-russia-ukraine-war-food/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/20/unga-russia-ukraine-war-food/ |
FEMA faces deep mistrust as it vows to help Puerto Rico respond to Fiona
The toll from the Category 1 storm has slowly begun to emerge. Flooding destroyed homes, bridges and roads.
An aerial view of a house that collapsed in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona in Guayama, Puerto Rico, on Sept. 20. (Ricardo Arduengo/Reuters)
Five years after the federal government bungled its response to catastrophic Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, the U.S. agency tasked with reacting to major disasters is under pressure again after this week’s Hurricane Fiona battered the territory’s infrastructure, flooded communities and left the island without electricity.
As the slow-moving storm headed north after a punishing push across the island, top officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued repeated promises: This won’t be like last time. FEMA, they have insisted, is far better prepared for Fiona than it was in 2017, when Maria made landfall on Puerto Rico, plunging the island into one of the largest blackouts in U.S. history and claiming thousands of lives. In an after-action report, the agency admitted to systemic failures during the humanitarian crisis.
“We are much better positioned today than we were before Maria,” Keith Turi, FEMA’s assistant administrator for recovery, said in an interview.
By early Tuesday, the rain in Puerto Rico had eased as the storm began lashing Turks and Caicos and threatening Bermuda with winds that had increased in speed, making it a Category 3 hurricane. But even as Fiona moves on, it leaves a daunting path to recovery in Puerto Rico. Downpours will also continue in some parts of archipelago, aggravating already dire flooding and further complicating the response. Officials said at least four people have died there but have warned that the toll could rise once emergency workers are able to assess the full scope of the damage.
Residents still struggling to rebuild after Maria will be closely tracking the recovery process over the coming weeks and months, many skeptical of the government’s ability to help, with billions of dollars in promised federal relief funds still not disbursed half a decade later. On Sunday, President Biden issued an emergency disaster declaration, and Puerto Rico officials on Tuesday said they expected Biden to upgrade it to a major disaster declaration, which would unlock more federal resources for response and recovery.
“Biden promised to give our request expedited attention,” Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said. The damage is “catastrophic,” he added, especially in the southern and central regions.
“The havoc caused by Hurricane Fiona has been devastating for a lot of people,” Pierluisi said.
FEMA’s chief, Deanne Criswell, traveled to the big island on Tuesday to assess the impact, and she said the agency plans to send hundreds of additional staffers to help with the recovery. “Our partnership with the Government of Puerto Rico has never been stronger,” she said in a statement.
Criswell has said her agency’s top priorities are saving lives and restoring power. Federal resources will be key to both objectives, especially when it comes to propping up the island’s patchwork electrical grid, which was knocked entirely offline when Fiona made landfall over the weekend.
By Tuesday afternoon, power had been restored to nearly 1 in 5 households and businesses in Puerto Rico, according to Luma Energy, the private company that manages electrical transmission on the island. Some 1.2 million customers were still without power, relying on generators or left in the dark.
In any emergency response, power restoration is key, said W. Craig Fugate, FEMA’s administrator during the Obama administration. Once electricity is back online, localities have a much easier time meeting community needs. The concentrated flooding after Fiona could make roads and other areas inaccessible for utility workers, delaying restoration, he said.
About 20 percent of power restored at this point is “a good sign,” Fugate said, but the process could drag on as teams move around the island.
“Generally, restoration goes fast for the areas with limited damages and then slows down as the repairs become more complex in the hard-hit areas,” he said.
It is still too early to judge the intergovernmental response to Fiona, Fugate said, but FEMA appeared well prepared. Fugate recalled visiting an agency warehouse in Puerto Rico during his tenure, which did not include the response to Maria, and finding the shelves inside “barren.” The team there had stocked up based on what it needed during past responses, but Fugate said FEMA should be ready for the “worst-case scenario” on the island.
The agency’s report in the aftermath of Maria conceded that FEMA suffered from a critical lack of aid supplies, which were taxed during the response to an earlier hurricane, Irma, that passed near the island shortly before Maria hit. Officials also wrestled with logistics issues and staffing shortages. One year later, Puerto Ricans judged the response a failure at every level of government.
But FEMA officials say they have learned from the experience and bulked up their preparations.
“We’ve got 10 times more food and water and three times more generators on the island today than we did before Maria,” Turi, the agency’s assistant administrator for recovery, said.
Some 700 FEMA staffers have been based in Puerto Rico to help with the Maria recovery effort, he said, and they can assist with the Fiona response if necessary.
While the extent of the damage is still being assessed, early reports suggest the big island’s south and its central mountain regions sustained the most severe damage, with flash flooding and mudslides. A large swath of the territory got more than 20 inches of rain, with several pockets recording more than 25 inches. The intense downpour caused rivers and canals to overflow, washing away bridges, like the one spanning the Guaonica River in Utuado, a town in the central mountains.
In the Ponce region, the hurricane dumped more than 32 inches of rain. The expected downpours in the coming days could also push the total rainfall in other areas to 30 inches. And in the southwest, the Guanajibo River near the town of Hormigueros crested at more than 29 feet, well above the threshold for a major flood and higher than its previous record level of just over 28½ feet, set during Maria.
“What Hurricane Maria brought was wind, lots of wind — unlike this one, which brought too much water,” said Eric R Garcia Flores, a member of a rescue unit in Caguas, a mountainous municipality that sustained extensive damage.
FEMA officials said they cannot yet estimate the extent of the economic impact on the island, but stories of loss have emerged from several town and cities.
In the Susúa Baja neighborhood of Yauco, Radamés Ramírez and Keily Sánchez’s house had survived Hurricanes George and Maria. But not Fiona.
The couple, their daughter and pets had to leave the property, located about 60 miles southwest of San Juan, on Saturday after part of their wood and zinc-paneled roof fell off, they told the newspaper Primera Hora.
When the couple returned Monday morning to assess the damage, there was not much left. The floor was flooded and water leaked through the walls. The couch, a recent gift, was so soaked in water that they had to throw it out.
“It wasn’t a castle, but it was my home, and that’s what made me feel happy,” Ramírez said in an interview with the outlet.
In the central town of Cidra, Gabriela Colón Arzola described a harrowing escape from her flooding home with her two children. Water was rising in the house, threatening to trap them, she said in a video published by el Nuevo Día.
After finally wrenching the door open, she saw her car covered in water and washing machines floating down the street. The three scrambled to the top of a nearby hill and found shelter at a neighbor’s house.
On Tuesday, Colón Arzola told the newspaper, she returned to her home to assess the damage. All she managed to save was her baby’s crib.
“I don’t have diapers, I don’t have clothes, I don’t have anything,” the woman said. “I’m starting from zero.”
Juan C. Dávila, Arelis R. Hernández and Jason Samenow contributed to this report. | 2022-09-20T23:26:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | FEMA faces deep mistrust as it vows to help Puerto Rico respond to Fiona - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/20/hurricane-fiona-puerto-rico-fema/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/20/hurricane-fiona-puerto-rico-fema/ |
Adnan Syed was released from prison. What role did ‘Serial’ play?
Omari Daniels
Adnan Syed smiles and waves as he exits the courthouse. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)
He was the star of one of the most well-known true crime podcasts in the world. But it took more than “Serial” to free Adnan Syed.
The Maryland man convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend walked out of a Baltimore courthouse on Monday because of a rare confluence of people and policy: savvy friends devoted to his cause, a prosecutor with a history doing defense work, a new law around juvenile sentences, and the millions of podcast listeners who called attention to inconsistencies in the 1999 trial that put Syed in prison.
Experts and attorneys involved in the case say that Syed’s story reveals the challenges of trying to address potential injustice in the criminal legal system, how easy it is for people to wrongly spend their lives behind bars, and how public scrutiny can change the course of a case.
“The thing about these convictions that are so old is that they die in the dark,” said Erica Suter, Syed’s attorney. “They need light. They need oxygen.”
Adnan Syed, featured in ‘Serial’ podcast, released from prison
Syed, 42, has maintained his innocence since he was arrested for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, when he was just 17 years old. He was accused of strangling Lee, then 18, and burying her in a nearby park. He was convicted in 2000 and sentenced to life in prison.
On Monday, a judge overturned that conviction — ruling that deficiencies in how prosecutors had turned over evidence to defense attorneys could have affected the outcome of his case. The Baltimore City state’s attorney now has 30 days to decide whether they will retry Syed or drop the case altogether. In the meantime, Syed is home on electronic surveillance. Videos Monday night showed him smiling, eating leftovers from a fridge.
Syed’s release has not been universally welcome. Lee’s brother, Young Lee, said in court that he felt “betrayed” by the Baltimore City state’s attorney’s office motion, granted by the judge, to vacate Syed’s conviction. He said he was open to further investigation, but that it was “really tough” for his family to know that there “could be someone out there free for killing my sister.”
The 23 years between the ruling that incarcerated him and the one that set him free were riddled with setbacks and moments of despair for Syed and his defense team. When Syed’s attorney first filed for a post-conviction relief a decade after the original ruling, his attorney at the time, Justin Brown, said he struggled to reach a woman, Asia McClain, who he believed was an alibi witness who could help free his client. Brown said Rabia Chaudry, a close family friend of Syed’s and a legal student at the time, had previously visited McClain and asked her to sign an affidavit saying she had seen Syed at the library at the time of Lee’s slaying.
McClain could not be reached for comment but said on Twitter that she was “taking this time to reflect on and compose my thoughts in a manner that is consistent with all of the many emotions I have surrounding this case.” Chaudry did not respond to requests for comment.
A judge was ultimately unmoved by the affidavit, Brown said. Brown said he remembers walking out of an empty courtroom with Syed’s mother. “She is this very hopeful, optimistic, never quit, amazing woman, and I didn’t know what to tell her,” he said. “I didn’t think we had a realistic chance of winning at that point.”
Then Chaundry met Sarah Koenig, an investigative journalist who took an interest in the case. Koenig told Syed’s story in a 12-part series that revealed new details about his case, and in the process, captured the public’s attention. “Serial,” which premiered in 2014, quickly shattered records with hundreds of millions of downloads and ushered in a new era of true-crime podcasts.
Suddenly, Syed’s story was everywhere. In group text conversations across the world. On blogs where web sleuths discussed theories. In restaurants and pubs and courtrooms all across Maryland, where Brown said was suddenly recognized for his association with the man accused of killing Lee.
“It opened my eyes to a lot of how the system works,” said Ross Montgomery, a Kansas native who started listening to “Serial” when it debuted and continued to follow the case closely.
The series also gave new life to Syed’s legal case. Brown, who said he and Chaudry made the decision to hand over his legal files to Koenig, listened to the podcast, heard McClain speak and realized then that she might be willing to help. He reached out to her. One day, unlike all those years ago, she returned his call.
“I always get asked the question, ‘Did ‘Serial’ help the case?’” he said. “It absolutely did help. It brought us Asia McClain, which kept this thing alive.”
Brown asked the court to reopen the post-conviction hearing, citing new information from McClain. A judge agreed, and in 2016, Brown returned to court for a hearing. This time, the room was packed.
Still, Syed remained incarcerated for years, as his case cascaded through Maryland’s court system. A judge once granted a new trial, but the state’s highest court ultimately reversed that decision. In 2019 — despite “Serial,” an subsequent four-part documentary on HBO and two separate books on the case — it seemed like Syed might in fact spend his remaining years behind bars.
Syed had decided to reject a plea offer that would have released him from prison in just four years — if he admitted guilt, Brown said. In 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court decided against hearing Syed’s case, ostensibly ending his decade-long battle for a new trial.
“I was, personally, haunted by the decision not to take the plea,” Brown said. “Despite trying to put on a brave face publicly, I thought in all likelihood that was the end of the road.”
But changes to the criminal legal system in Maryland gave Syed another chance.
First, the state legislature passed a bill that allowed judges to grant requests to vacate convictions “in the interest of justice and fairness.” Then, Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby created a Sentencing Review Unit. Mosby tapped Becky Feldman, a former public defender, as its chief.
In October 2021, the Juvenile Restoration Act took hold in the state — allowing prosecutors to request reductions in sentences for those who served at least 20 years in prison for crimes committed under 18. That month, Syed’s attorneys delivered his case to Mosby’s office.
The subsequent investigation uncovered new evidence that showed prosecutors had known of two other possible suspects, including one who had a motive to kill Lee, and had failed to hand over information to defense attorneys. Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh (D) — whose office has previously defended the handling of Syed’s case in court proceedings — has disputed that, calling the allegations that prosecutors did not hand over evidence to Syed’s defense as they should have “incorrect.”
According to court filings, one of the suspects had threatened to make Lee “disappear” and “kill her.” The filing also alleged one “engaged in multiple instances of rape and sexual assault,” and one had relatives who lived near the area where Lee’s car was found. It does not differentiate between the suspects.
That discovery, along with others suggesting unreliable evidence and witness testimony, informed Mosby’s decision to file a motion to vacate Syed’s conviction.
In court days later — or 23 years later — a judge ordered Syed’s shackles removed. | 2022-09-21T00:36:13Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Adnan Syed was released from prison. What role did 'Serial' play? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/20/adnan-syed-serial-impact/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/20/adnan-syed-serial-impact/ |
How SNL turned prim Queen Elizabeth II into a punk brawler
Fred Armisen, Bill Hader and John Mulaney reminisce on their sketches that turned the queen into a Cockney thug
From left, Elton John with Bill Hader's Prince Philip and Fred Armisen's Queen Elizabeth II. (Dana Edelson/NBCUniversal/Getty Images)
Queen Elizabeth II famously had a wicked sense of humor, so one can only imagine how she felt about the many “Saturday Night Live” parodies of the royal family over the years. Did she spit tea when her doppelganger, Kate McKinnon, crawled out from under a pile of gifts at a royal baby shower? Or fidget in her gilded chair during the classic Mike Myers sketch about her son’s divorce, “The Tampon Prince?”
Those are just a few of the SNL alums who tried to fill the queen’s tiara. But there is one impression to rule them all: Fred Armisen’s ridiculous rendition of the queen as a brawling, trash-talking, Cockney-accented thug.
It’s a loving sendup and lightning strike of silliness that represents SNL at its best. Over the course of three sketches Armisen wrote with John Mulaney and Bill Hader (plus one memorable cameo in a royal gynecologist’s office), their queen intimidates Elton John, compares derrieres with Katy Perry’s Pippa, and waves pound notes in the face of a terrified Kate Middleton (Anne Hathaway), taunting, “I’m on the money!”
Oh, and she’s also an excellent punk rock drummer.
The Washington Post caught up with the writing trio to talk about how their brash and bawdy Elizabeth came to be.
“It’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever done on the show. There was this immediate sense of, ‘Oh, this is going to be fun,’” recalls Armisen, a lifelong Anglophile and lover of British punk, who texted a picture of the Elton John sketch to Hader and Mulaney when the queen died.
The brawler queen
The first of Armisen’s queen sketches aired on Nov. 20, 2010. It featured Hathaway as Kate, who had just gotten engaged to Prince William, the queen’s grandson. All is polite until William (Andy Samberg) is called away and Kate is left alone with the queen and her husband, Hader’s Prince Philip.
“Shut up!” the queen barks at Kate, and proceeds to grill her while a menacing, Cockney-bruiser Philip chomps on a toothpick and plays with the future princess’s hair. (Choice lines: “You think you can just show up and do a bit of queenin’, right?” … “Don’t go asking questions like, ‘Where’d you get this vase?’ Or ‘Where that throne from?’ … because chances are we nicked it.”)
Armisen: It was basically a topical sketch. But it was just an excuse to do that kind of British accent. It wasn’t too complicated. I just wanted an excuse to talk like Mick Jones from the Clash. You know, kind of thuggish. A London tough guy.
Mulaney: Bill and Fred and I were very interested in North English accents. The Yorkshire accent. The Red Riding Trilogy, which were such brutal movies and featured the line “we come from the North [where] we do what we want,” which we borrowed for the queen in one of these sketches.
Hader: I just remember Fred saying, “I got us playing the queen and Philip. But we’re kind of like gangsters,” and I thought that was really funny. We used to do these late-’60s, early-’70s British gangster characters around the [SNL] office with John Mulaney. We would just walk around the office going like, “Oh yeah? Who’s they?” Or if someone’s food was late: “I’m still waiting for my lunch order. Someone’s gonna pay for this.”
Armisen: I didn’t feel like we were making fun of [the royal family]. I felt like we were really just celebrating that they exist, you know? Because it is awesome. It’s like, “This is the queen and her husband in the comfort of their home.” It’s what I hope the queen is like.
Mulaney: I loved how petty and low-rent and criminal the queen as played by Fred was.
Armisen: I worked to get her regular speaking voice correct, that quiet tone that she has. Watching videos, hearing speeches, just to make sure there’s a difference between the two. We wanted it to feel like, “Okay, all of the queen’s staff is gone. Now we’re really going to talk.”
I think, physically, Bill has to pretend to have a toothpick in his mouth. Or maybe he really does.
Hader: I had to have the toothpick! [laughs] You’d just think it was Prince Philip if I didn’t have the toothpick.
Armisen: I know it’s illogical, but my perception of England is that that’s what it’s really like. I imagine everyone at every — whatever — university or government building, that when you close the doors, that’s what they really talk like. It’s almost like the Cockney accent is such a fun, cool one, and I just imagine people are more fun when the doors are closed.
The Rocketman goes to Buckingham
The second sketch, on April 2, 2011, features Elton John coming to the palace to go over the musical program for the royal wedding. Once again, the queen yells “Shut up!” as soon as they’re in private, and accuses Sir Elton of offering only his “crap” songs.
Before long, the queen is on the palace drum kit, with Hader’s Philip on guitar to play “Riot in London,” which Armisen wrote. “My name’s the queen and this is not a democracy!” the royal matriarch shout-sings.
Hader: I do forget a lot of the stuff I did on “Saturday Night Live.” I’ve had people come up with lines that I’ve said tattooed on their body. And I’m like, “Oh, what’s that?” And they’re like, “You said that on ‘Saturday Night Live.’ ” And I’m like, “Oh my god. I’m sorry I’m ruining your moment.”
But I do remember doing those sketches. … Especially the one with Elton John. That was crazy.
Mulaney: I remember being in the hall outside 8H 10 minutes before the Elton John sketch. And Fred was standing there alone dressed as the queen with quiet dignity. It was adorable.
Armisen: The more I get to learn about Elton John, like, he was also very supportive of the punk scene and new wave. And [the punk song] kind of matches the London-ness of it, you know? It made sense. What if they had some instruments at Buckingham Palace anyway? How cool would that be? It feels like something they would be doing.
The Post: Was the whole purpose of the sketch to play punk with Elton John?
Armisen: Without a doubt. It’s a very personal sketch in that I’m thinking, “Wow, I’m dressed up as the queen playing drums with Elton John singing punk.” It’s like an ultimate awesome thing.
Hader: I was very intimidated by Elton John so I didn’t say much of anything to him. We did a “Laser Cats” with him, too. And I just remember being like, “Oh my God. I feel so bad for debasing you.”
Mulaney: Elton John was fine with absolutely any joke.
Hader: I had to call him a “poof,” which is a derogatory term for gay person. And Standards and Practices said, “You cannot say that,” and Elton John was like, “This is absolute madness! You have to say it!” If you watch it, I say what [Standards] told me to say — [“You must be the only fruit who doesn’t know about weddings”] — and then Elton John corrects me, and he did that live on-air: “I’m the only poof … ” So that’s not scripted when he does that. I don’t know if he paid the fine.
Pippa the scrapper
In the third sketch, airing Dec. 10, 2011, the queen and Phillip lay into Kate about not giving them a royal heir. The shock comes when Kate’s sister, Pippa (Katy Perry), shows up and turns out to be a Cockney brawler, too. As they compare bums, the queen declares: “I call my a-- the IRA because when I walk into a room, people’s heads explode!” It ends, of course, in a Christmas ska song, with Kenan Thompson and Jay Pharoah randomly popping out in suits and fedoras to dance and play tambourine.
Hader: Oh, my God. I don’t remember that at all. I really genuinely cannot remember that.
Mulaney: We thought about the queen and Philip playing something like the Streets. But we loved watching [the British ska band] the Specials and loved their appearance on SNL in 1980.
Armisen: I wanted [Kenan and Jay] to be like two members of the Specials. As a side note, my favorite SNL musical guest I’ve ever seen is the Specials. I never saw it live. I saw it as a kid on TV. And even now when I watch, it’s always my favorite.
The Specials - Gangsters - Saturday Night Live - 1980
Gangsters - Saturday Night Live - 1980 #thespecials #ska #2tone
Posted by The Ska Bar on Friday, February 15, 2019
Hader: I don’t remember this at all. You could literally tell me anything right now and I’d be like, “Uh, okay.”
Mulaney: We wrote one version for Mick Jagger that didn’t make it. Mick played Rebekah Brooks from News of the World. I don’t remember any of the jokes but I remember at one point the queen and Philip say the greatest English musician ever was [Queen guitarist] Brian May. And then later they say it again.
That was the last full outing for Armisen’s queen, but she did make one final appearance in a Dec. 15, 2012, sketch called “The Royal Gynecologist.” A bewigged palace emissary (Martin Short) visits Kate’s new OB/GYN (Hader) to instruct him on how to address “the royal ahem.” It’s an exercise in watching Hader try not to burst out laughing, as Short threatens to deport him to Australia for uttering the term “vagina” and offers an approved substitute: “Her Downton Abbey.” The bit ends with the queen jumping into medical stirrups to “get me Judi Dench washed” as audience members scream out, “Oh no!”
Mulaney: Seth Meyers and Marika Sawyer and I wrote “The Royal Gynecologist” piece for Jamie Foxx. He would have been wonderful but Marty was off-the-charts stupid hilarious in it. That wig!
Hader: That one I remember because Martin Short was like, “I’m gonna make you break.” He was doing everything in his power to make me laugh because I’m a very soft touch, which is very well documented. The minute he started doing that character in the first rehearsal, everybody was like, “Oh, Hader’s toast,” because I was laughing so hard.
Armisen: It really bonds you. That’s the fun of working there — it’s that me and John and Bill are still connected. We’re still sending each other these pictures. It keeps us together as friends.
Hader: During the pandemic, John and Fred and I texted every day and most of it was bits. I remember we did a whole thing talking like we were the Van Halen brothers, just about random stuff. Anything to lighten our mood.
Armisen: [The queen sketch] is a nice reminder of how long we’ve known each other. It came together so easily and so quickly because we all agreed, like, this is what it’s going to be.
Hader: Seeing pictures of that sketch makes me feel like, “Oh, man. We had so much fun.” Sitting in a room with Fred and John Mulaney on a Tuesday night writing, thinking up sketches was one of the high points in my life. Like, if we were all working at a Kinko’s or something — if they still have those places — we would be doing that stuff. We would be just doing voices and doing bits and thinking up ideas and stuff. | 2022-09-21T00:53:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How SNL turned prim Queen Elizabeth II into a punk brawler - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/09/20/snl-armisen-queen-sketch-interview/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/09/20/snl-armisen-queen-sketch-interview/ |
One of the largest industrial development programs ever undertaken by the U.S. government
Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo at a program Sept. 13 on building a semiconductor ecosystem in West Lafayette, Ind. (Darron Cummings/AFP/Getty Images)
The White House and Commerce Department on Tuesday announced the team that will oversee the doling out of $52 billion in federal subsidies for the semiconductor industry, pledging strict oversight to “responsibly spend taxpayer dollars.”
Distributing the money provided in the Chips and Science Act will be one of the biggest industrial development programs the federal government has ever administered.
Ronnie Chatterji will oversee the program from the White House’s National Economic Council, managing interagency coordination of an effort that aims to subsidize construction of computer-chip factories and research facilities in the United States. Chatterji was previously chief economist at Commerce and a professor at Duke University’s business school.
Michael Schmidt will lead the new Chips Program Office at Commerce, which is expected to vet industry applications for chip-factory construction. He previously managed implementation of the Child Tax Credit program at the Treasury Department.
A separate Chips Research and Development Office at Commerce that will vet applications for R & D funding will be overseen by Eric Lin. He has a doctorate in chemical engineering and was previously director of the Material Measurement Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
The leadership, which is still hiring additional staff, will be “essential to bolstering our supply chains, spurring historic investments in research, strengthening our national security, and creating good-paying jobs for the American people,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement. | 2022-09-21T00:54:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Biden administration names overseers for $52 billion in chip spending - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/09/20/chips-commerce-biden-team-announcement/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/09/20/chips-commerce-biden-team-announcement/ |
Washington Monument vandalized, officials say
An arrest is reported in National Mall incident, police say
An act of vandalism was carried out Tuesday night at the Washington Monument, according to the U.S. Park Police.
Police said a man was in custody. The specific nature of the vandalism could not be learned immediately.
However, the area around the base of the monument was closed temporarily, police said.
Park Service conservators will work on a process of restoring the damage, police said.
The monument, in the form of an obelisk, stands south of the White House on the National Mall and is one of the most-recognized symbols of Washington, the United States and the Founding Fathers. | 2022-09-21T02:59:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Washington Monument is vandalized, officials say - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/20/washington-monument-vandalism-arrest-police/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/20/washington-monument-vandalism-arrest-police/ |
Patrick Corbin (back spasms) exits early, Nats’ rally falls short late
Patrick Corbin left in the first inning Tuesday night with back spasms. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
ATLANTA — After his 12th pitch Tuesday night, Patrick Corbin walked back to the mound and kicked at the rubber at the Truist Park pitcher’s mound for a bit longer than usual. Then he stepped off, stretched out his back behind the bump, squatted and put his head near his glove.
By that time, Manager Dave Martinez and athletic trainer Paul Lessard had jogged out to meet him. A few moments later, Corbin walked with Lessard while Martinez stayed to hand the ball off to his next pitcher.
The Washington Nationals would go on to lose, 3-2, to the Atlanta Braves, inching closer toward the century mark in the loss column at 51-97 with 14 games remaining. The Nationals struck out 14 times and left 11 on base, including three in the ninth after trimming their deficit to one run off Braves closer Kenley Jansen.
But the night started with Corbin’s exit, later announced as back spasms. While he was sore afterward, it remains a significant development for a pitcher who, despite well-documented struggles since playing a key role in the Nationals’ 2019 World Series run, has consistently taken the mound every fifth day.
“If I could’ve pitched, I would’ve. Never want to put the bullpen in a situation like that,” Corbin said. “So I tried to wait as long as I could to see if [the pain] would go away, but it just wasn’t going away. I don’t think it’ll be too serious, but it was something [where] I wasn’t going to be able to throw.”
Tuesday marked his 30th start of the season — he’s made at least 30 in every season for the Nationals aside from pandemic-shortened 2020. Those starts haven’t always been pretty, including a 2022 campaign in which he has lost an MLB-high 18 games while also leading the league in earned runs allowed (100) and hits (199). As bad as he’s been for extended stretches, his ability to take the mound every fifth day has helped stabilize a rotation often in flux.
Corbin said he doesn’t believe the injury is too serious, but the left-hander becomes only the latest Nationals pitcher bitten by the bug. Stephen Strasburg (thoracic outlet syndrome) and Joe Ross (Tommy John surgery) combined to make just one start all year. Aníbal Sánchez didn’t make a start until mid-July after spending the first three months of the year rehabbing from a neck impingement.
Cade Cavalli made his major league debut on Aug. 26 before ending up on the injured list a few days later with right shoulder inflammation, the same injury that forced Erick Fedde to miss nearly a month.
In the short term, Corbin’s injury forced the Nationals bullpen to cover the final 7⅓ innings Tuesday and complicated Martinez’s pitching plan for the rest of the series. Martinez didn’t want to name a starter for Wednesday ahead of Tuesday’s game until he saw the state of his bullpen; Paolo Espino will now start the series finale.
The Nationals ended up using four relievers to cover the rest of the game. Erasmo Ramirez entered first and pitched three innings. In the fourth inning, Ramirez allowed a single to Matt Olson, prompting a mound visit from pitching coach Jim Hickey ahead of an at-bat against Travis d’Arnaud. D’Arnaud hit the first pitch he saw out of the ballpark to give the Braves a 2-0 lead.
Washington’s offense couldn’t solve Braves starter Charlie Morton. The Nationals repeatedly chased his curveball, even when it didn’t threaten the strike zone, striking out nine times against the right-hander, seven on his curve alone.
But in the sixth, the Nationals put runners on the corners to end Morton’s night. Joey Meneses would come in to score when Braves second baseman Vaughn Grissom made a throwing error on a tailor-made double play ball to cut the Braves lead to 2-1.
Jordan Weems, Hunter Harvey and Kyle Finnegan covered the rest of the game. Dansby Swanson hit a solo shot off Finnegan to give the Braves (93-55) a much-needed insurance run in the bottom of the eighth.
The Nationals scored in the ninth on a two-out RBI single by Luis García, then loaded the bases for Luke Voit, who flew out to center field to end the game.
“We ended up being all right,” Martinez said about the bullpen. “The guys came out and threw the ball well. And the beauty of it, we [were] in the game until the end.”
How did Nelson Cruz feel after batting practice Monday? Martinez said Cruz was having trouble focusing out of his left eye while hitting. He’s been sidelined with eye inflammation since Sept. 13 and has been taking medicine to address his vision. Martinez said the team will assess Cruz’s status again in a day or two.
A former National announces his retirement. Catcher Kurt Suzuki, who had stints in Washington from 2012 to 2013 and 2019 to 2020, when he was a part of the 2019 World Series roster, said he plans to retire at the end of the season. He made one all-star appearance with the Minnesota Twins and played for five teams; he currently plays for the Los Angeles Angels.
In his four seasons with Washington, Suzuki hit .252 with 27 home runs and 130 RBI. | 2022-09-21T03:56:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Patrick Corbin exits early with back spasms; Nationals fall to Braves - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/20/nationals-braves-patrick-corbin-injury/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/20/nationals-braves-patrick-corbin-injury/ |
LOS ANGELES — Rookie Miguel Vargas drove in the go-ahead run with an infield single in a five-run eighth inning and Los Angeles rallied for its MLB-leading 44th comeback win in the first game of a doubleheader.
ARLINGTON, Texas — Taylor Ward hit a tiebreaking RBI double during Los Angeles’ three-run sixth inning that ended with a triple play by Texas. | 2022-09-21T03:56:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Judge hits 60th, then Yanks walk off Bucs on Stanton's slam - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/mlb/judge-hits-60th-then-yanks-walk-off-bucs-on-stantons-slam/2022/09/20/50bf643c-395e-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/mlb/judge-hits-60th-then-yanks-walk-off-bucs-on-stantons-slam/2022/09/20/50bf643c-395e-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
She makes friends quickly. Her friendships are generally short-lived because of her addiction, but while they last, they are intense. Her friends tend to see her as a victim; they are very protective of her and want to set things right.
We do care about her, but we also know that enabling her addictions would be the worst possible thing for her — and for us. We will help her with necessities in an emergency, and we give her generous gifts (within our household budget, because we are far from wealthy) for holidays and special occasions, but we also do a whole lot of saying no to outrageous demands. She blames me for this, although I tend to be more generous than her son is, because he carries more resentment toward her.
By coldly informing them that they have their facts wrong, explaining that you now have to go — and quietly hanging up.
Timing is critical, because you do not want to leave the impression that you are slamming the phone down, but neither should you agree to share the actual details with someone who, Miss Manners agrees, has no right to inquire.
Dear Miss Manners: I was a guest at a group dinner featuring a cuisine traditionally eaten with chopsticks. The restaurant served the meal family-style, with several common dishes in the middle of the table with the intent that diners serve themselves. No serving utensils were provided.
Restaurants also sometimes forget to set as many places as there are people, but that does not mean the last arrival is expected to eat with their hands. Miss Manners instructs you to ask a passing waiter for serving utensils. | 2022-09-21T04:13:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Miss Manners: My mother-in-law complains about me to her friends - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/09/21/miss-manners-mother-in-law-addict/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/09/21/miss-manners-mother-in-law-addict/ |
Did the US Shortchange Investors $27 Billion?
The Fannie Mae headquarters building stands in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, Aug. 9, 2010. Fannie Mae, the mortgage company seized by the U.S. government in 2008, said it would seek $1.5 billion in Treasury aid after reporting a $1.2 billion second-quarter loss on Aug. 5. (Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg)
Elon Musk’s bid to get out of buying Twitter Inc. for about $44 billion goes to trial Oct. 17 in Delaware. The same day, another multibillion-dollar lawsuit that zeroes in on good faith when parties sign contracts will be heard in US District Court in Washington. The investment firm Fairholme Funds Inc. is leading a group that claims US government agencies shortchanged them $27 billion in the financial engineering that has its roots in the 2008 mortgage meltdown.
Two weeks before the collapse of Lehman Brothers, authorities agreed to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) that greased the nation’s housing market. But the government couldn’t afford to take their liabilities onto its own balance sheet in a full-blown nationalization, so then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson proposed a conservatorship instead. The US Treasury Department offered each of them up to $200 billion of capital support in exchange for warrants over 79.9% of common stock together with some preferred stock. Initially, the support carried a 10% cash dividend.
The situation was meant to be temporary. The press release accompanying the move said that it was “designed to stabilize a troubled institution with the objective of returning the entities to normal business operations.” That all changed in August 2012, when the government amended the terms of the bailout. The 10% dividend was canceled, and the companies were now required to hand over all their profits to the Treasury in a so-called “net worth sweep.” With the companies stripped of the right to retain earnings, any value left in their legacy junior preferred stock evaporated. Shareholders were not happy.
In a 2014 decision, Judge Royce Lamberth of the US District Court for the District of Columbia sided with the government. “It was Congress, after all, that parted the legal seas so that FHFA [the body overseeing the housing companies] and Treasury could effectively do whatever they thought was needed to stabilize and, if necessary, liquidate, the GSEs.”
But a separate hearing entitled Fairholme to conduct fact discovery and it soon transpired that not all was as it seemed. The August 2012 amendment coincided almost completely with a turnaround in Fannie’s and Freddie’s fortunes. Having sustained losses every year between 2008 and 2011, the two began generating profits again in the first quarter of 2012. Projections – not initially declared in court – showed the profit trajectory continuing. “I believed we were now in a sustainable profitability,” said Susan McFarland, Fannie Mae’s former chief financial officer, in a deposition. An upturn in profit also paved the way for a writeback of deferred tax assets, worth around $50 billion for Fannie Mae.
The prospective turnaround undermined the “death spiral” rationale for diverting the dividends. “So when the amendment went into place,” McFarland testified, “part of my reaction was they did that in response to my communication of our forecasts and the implication of those forecasts, that it was probably a desire not to allow capital to build up within the enterprises and not to allow the enterprises to recapitalize themselves.”
Her analysis is supported by an email that Jim Parrott, then a senior White House official on housing finance, sent on the day the net worth sweep was announced. It was structured, he wrote, “so they can’t repay their debt and escape as it were.”
To Fairholme, it looked like the government could see massive profits ahead and conspired to take them all for itself without compensating stockholders. Indeed, by the time the sweep was finally turned off in 2019, the Treasury had received $301 billion in dividends from Fannie and Freddie, having made $191 billion of capital injections. “By imposing the so-called ‘Net Worth Sweep’ on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in August 2012,” Fairholme wrote in 2017, “FHFA enabled the United States Treasury to loot the Companies to the guaranteed exclusion of all other investors.”
Briefed with new evidence of what government officials were thinking at the time, Judge Lamberth changed his tune in 2018, paving the way for Fairholme to bring a claim for breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. “So while Plaintiffs could reasonably expect the GSEs to exercise discretion as it relates to dividends, they could not expect the GSEs to extinguish the possibility of dividends arbitrarily or unreasonably,” he wrote. “And at the nascent of a sustained period of profitability, Plaintiffs would have reasonably expected the GSEs to be moving out of conservatorship, not doubling down by executing the Net Worth Sweep.”
Next month, the sides are scheduled to meet in court. As with Musk, the cases should show that no one is above the law – not the richest man in the world, nor the U.S. government.
• Mortgage Lenders Timed the Market Perfectly: Marc Rubinstein
• Paulson Hedge-Fund Chat Not a Crime: William D. Cohan
• AIG Shareholders Still Want Nicer Bailout: Matt Levine | 2022-09-21T05:27:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Did the US Shortchange Investors $27 Billion? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/did-the-us-shortchange-investors-27-billion/2022/09/21/12aaec36-396b-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/did-the-us-shortchange-investors-27-billion/2022/09/21/12aaec36-396b-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
Bankers are not known for their modesty. Who could forget Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein saying in 2009 that the firm was doing “God’s work” right after the US’s biggest banks had to be bailed out by the federal government? It didn’t matter that a spokesman for Goldman Sachs said later that Blankfein didn’t mean for his words to be taken seriously; the episode just reinforced the notion that bankers were out of touch with reality.
Now comes Jamie Dimon, the billionaire chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co., who wrote in prepared remarks ahead of congressional hearings this week that higher capital requirements for banks are “bad for America.” Some will no doubt skewer Dimon for seeming to suggest that efforts to make the banking system — the lifeblood of the economy — safer is somehow unpatriotic. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Bankers should be regularly reminded of just how close their reckless actions came to causing a financial system collapse back in 2008.
Nevertheless, Dimon’s remarks shouldn’t be dismissed as just hollow words from an entitled banker. The reality is that the banking system today is nothing like its former self. Reforms such as the Volcker Rule, the Dodd-Frank Act and Basel III forced most big banks to cut back on proprietary trading and keep a sizable portion of their reserves in the safest assets.(1)US banks are sitting on surplus liquidity — deposits minus loans — of $6.43 trillion, up from about $250 billion in 2008, according to the Federal Reserve.
To be clear, this is no time to become complacent about the banking system. The economy will need healthy banks to help it recover from what’s likely to be a protracted period of slow growth. Dimon, who has a history of declaring efforts to rein in banks as bad for America, is right to point out that excessive capital requirements may hinder banks from doing their jobs -- extending credit when it’s most needed. Still, a little more humility would be nice. | 2022-09-21T05:27:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Fed Should Heed Dimon’s ‘Bad for America’ Line - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-fed-should-heed-dimons-bad-for-americaline/2022/09/20/b8ffa238-3921-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-fed-should-heed-dimons-bad-for-americaline/2022/09/20/b8ffa238-3921-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
LONDON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 09: Liz Truss, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom attends a service of prayer and reflection for her majesty The Queen Elizabeth II at St Paul’s Cathedral on September 09, 2022 in London, England. Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was born in Bruton Street, Mayfair, London on 21 April 1926. She married Prince Philip in 1947 and acceded the throne of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth on 6 February 1952 after the death of her Father, King George VI. Queen Elizabeth II died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on September 8, 2022, and is succeeded by her eldest son, King Charles III. (Photo by Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images) (Photographer: Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images Europe)
With the UK confronting a worsening cost-of-living crisis, the new prime minister moved quickly two weeks ago to announce that she will shield households from what would have been additional sharp increases in their energy bills. The coming price increase for the typical British household will be limited to 25% over the next two years, instead of a possible nearly threefold increase, using a cost stabilization mechanism that provides, to quote Truss, “a new energy price guarantee that will give people certainty on energy bills.” Businesses will receive support for six months, though the exact form has not been announced.
Further fiscal support would come from the cancellation of the corporate tax increase announced by the previous government and, perhaps, a reversal in the increase in the cost of national insurance. There is also talk of other cuts in general taxation and levies. Meanwhile, on the supply side, the government is keen to accelerate the development of domestic sources of energy, including renewables, and have the Bank of England provide some £40 billion in liquidity support to suppliers and energy retailers
There is a risk that such a funding approach could aggravate complicating moves in both interest rates and the currency — both of which are already fueling stagflationary tendencies. The more the markets push back against a large increase in government borrowing, the greater the pressure on the Bank of England to raise interest rates more aggressively.
Third, the government has yet to announce measures that would help “nudge,” to use the behavioral economics term, households and businesses toward greater energy efficiency. Absent that, the government’s short-term effort to contain the cost of fossil fuels could complicate the fight against climate change, which has yet to build sufficient momentum.
Finally, the government’s domestic growth efforts are taking place in a global economy that is slowing much faster than many anticipated. All three systemically important regions — US, China and the euro zone — now face worrisome recession risks, albeit to different degrees.
The new Truss government is right to emphasize growth. The success of its specific approach will depend in large part on managing three risks that have so far remained largely unaddressed and a fourth one that is outside of its control.
• UK Energy Plan Will Push Interest Rates Higher: Richard Cookson
• Liz Truss’s Problems Have Already Started: Editorial | 2022-09-21T05:27:56Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Truss Faces Four Hurdles to Spur Growth in UK - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/truss-faces-four-hurdles-to-spurgrowth-in-uk/2022/09/21/12114a9a-396b-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/truss-faces-four-hurdles-to-spurgrowth-in-uk/2022/09/21/12114a9a-396b-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
They had what Putin wishes he had. (Getty Images)
The Italian empire had a population of some 56 million in the 1930s compared with modern Russia’s 140 million, yet Mussolini’s 20,000 Blackshirt storm troops quickly expanded to 115,000 in 1935-1936 for the Ethiopian campaign, Pier Paolo Battistelli and Piero Crociani wrote in “Italian Blackshirt 1935–45.” There was no shortage of volunteers.
Putin can only dream of the volunteer numbers the 20th-century fascist regimes could raise. Months into the war, the combined strength of the volunteer battalions formed in the Russian regions was barely in the tens of thousands, and it was hard to say if many of the volunteers were motivated by patriotism in the sense Putin or the Russian far right understand it. Rather, the battalions’ main lure for able-bodied men was the promise of salaries they couldn’t count on in their home regions. The message the Wagner Group private military company is pushing in its ads is that of romanticized, testosterone-fueled adventure as an alternative to boring work in a factory — but its actual promise, too, is of a high, reliable income. Even the prisoners Wagner is recruiting to flesh out its private army are offered substantial cash in addition to a pardon after six months on the front lines.
An affinity for cash has been the Russian regime’s only true ideology throughout Putin’s rule. According to the latest wave of the World Values Survey, a plurality of Russians — 48.8%, compared with 37.9% in the supposedly more materialistic US — consider economic growth the country’s most important goal. Russians learned to be self-sufficient in the 1990s as the paternalistic Soviet state fell apart, and they reveled in this self-sufficiency as the country’s economy was gradually restored. “Every man and woman for themselves” has been the nation’s unofficial motto, first a survival refrain, then a recipe for well-being. So, when the regime needed something akin to the Mussolini- or Hitler-style nationalist, imperialist revival, the regime struggled to offer its volunteers anything more convincing than cash.
The difficulty in selling a kind of post-fascist pseudo-conservative ideology to Russians is twofold. First, propagandists need to get people to internalize the idea that the current war isn’t really against Ukrainians (whom, remember, more than two thirds of Russians actually like) but against the US and NATO, which are supplying Ukrainians with their weapons. That narrative is already widespread on state television and pro-Kremlin Telegram channels as an explanation of recent Russian setbacks. The flaw in it, however, is that there are no NATO boots on the ground — and the other support Ukraine is receiving was predictable before the invasion, so the decision to invade despite it is looking less and less defensible. Both Putin and Dugin have said that Russia had no other choice but to start the war. Yet neither has convincingly explained why some kind of pre-emptive strike against a clearly stronger adversary — and not just against the presumably weaker Ukraine — made practical sense.
Even if Russians accept this narrative, however, the survivor and the individualist in them will doubtless wonder why it makes sense to die in this war. Is a ban on same-sex marriages or on marijuana worth the ultimate sacrifice? Would I take a bullet to prevent the “merger of man and machine”? Do I care that deeply about global migration? None of the “traditionalist” ideas Dugin, and Putin, would have Russians defend with their lives are as powerful as the evil constructs the 20th-century fascist leaders were so good at drumming into their nations’ minds. Nor does either of them have the charisma to keep people from asking the most basic of practical questions: “Why is this supposed to be a matter of life and death to me?” And, most importantly, Putin hasn’t achieved the momentum of military victories that made both Mussolini’s and Hitler’s rhetoric far more attractive than it should have been.
Ukraine War Shows the US Military Isn’t Ready for War With China: Hal Brands | 2022-09-21T05:28:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Why Putin Can’t Tap Fascism’s Greatest Resource - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/why-putin-cant-tap-fascisms-greatest-resource/2022/09/21/125cfc38-396b-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/why-putin-cant-tap-fascisms-greatest-resource/2022/09/21/125cfc38-396b-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
Tracie Revis, left, a citizen of the Muscogee Creek Nation, and Seth Clark, mayor pro-tem of Macon, stand at the approach to the Earth Lodge, where Native Americans held council meetings for 1,000 years until their forced removal in the 1820s, on Aug. 22, 2022, in Macon, Ga. Revis and Clark are co-directors of an initiative to bring 50 miles of the Ocmulgee River under federal protection as a national park. (AP Photo/Sharon Johnson) (Mike Stewart/AP) | 2022-09-21T05:29:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Muscogee get their say in national park plan for Georgia - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-muscogee-get-their-say-in-national-park-plan-for-georgia/2022/09/21/de2b839a-3964-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-muscogee-get-their-say-in-national-park-plan-for-georgia/2022/09/21/de2b839a-3964-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
In this Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022, photo taken by an individual not employed by the Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran, a trash bin is burning as anti-riot police arrive during a protest over the death of a young woman who had been detained for violating the country’s conservative dress code, in downtown Tehran, Iran. Iran faced international criticism on Tuesday over the death of a woman held by its morality police, which ignited three days of protests, including clashes with security forces in the capital and other unrest that claimed at least three lives. (AP Photo) (Uncredited/AP) | 2022-09-21T06:59:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | EXPLAINER: Woman's death in custody sparks Iran protests - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/explainer-womans-death-in-custody-sparks-iran-protests/2022/09/21/f8ab472e-3972-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/explainer-womans-death-in-custody-sparks-iran-protests/2022/09/21/f8ab472e-3972-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
NEW YORK — Aaron Judge hit his 60th home run and Giancarlo Stanton followed with a game-ending grand slam, completing the New York Yankees’ stunning five-run, ninth-inning rally to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-8.
ATLANTA — Travis d’Arnaud broke a scoreless tie with a two-run homer in the fourth inning, Dansby Swanson went deep in the eighth, and the Atlanta Braves beat the Washington Nationals 3-2 and clinched a playoff berth.
SAN DIEGO — Kim Ha-seong homered and Mike Clevinger had a strong outing for the San Diego Padres, who shut down Albert Pujols and the NL Central-leading St. Louis Cardinals 5-0 to clinch their first winning record in a full season since 2010.
BOSTON — Zdeno Chara signed a one-day contract with the Boston Bruins and announced his retirement Tuesday after 24 seasons in the NHL and captaining Boston to the Stanley Cup in 2011. | 2022-09-21T08:31:25Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Tuesday's Sports In Brief - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/tuesdays-sports-in-brief/2022/09/21/b776b5d0-397d-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/tuesdays-sports-in-brief/2022/09/21/b776b5d0-397d-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
‘Harrowing’ claims of racism, bullying rock Australian football club
By Frances Vinall
Hawthorn Hawks fans wave flags during the Australian Football League grand final between the Hawks and the West Coast Eagles in Melbourne, Oct. 3, 2015. (Julian Smith/AP)
MELBOURNE, Australia — Australian rules football was rocked on Wednesday by allegations of racism and bullying toward Indigenous players, the latest in a string of incidents to roil the country’s most popular sport.
Indigenous players for the Hawthorn Hawks claimed coaches pressured them to stop seeing their partners and, in one case, to have a partner’s pregnancy terminated, to focus on training, according to a report by the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
The Australian Football League (AFL) announced it would appoint an independent panel to investigate the claims, and two coaches named in the report stepped aside pending the results.
“What we have seen today is a challenging, harrowing and disturbing read,” AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan said in a news conference on Wednesday. “It’s hard to find more serious allegations.”
The AFL is the most-watched professional sports league Down Under. Its grand final often draws more viewers than any other TV program. For Australians, especially in southern states, it draws the fanatic membership reserved for the NFL and NBA in the United States, and soccer in Latin America.
The ABC report comes on the heels of an internal review commissioned by the Hawks, which had not been publicly released. The allegations center on the tenure of the club’s former head coach, Alastair Clarkson, between 2005 and 2021.
One player told the ABC that Clarkson and two others went with the player to his house and broke up with his pregnant girlfriend on his behalf. They had reportedly told him she was holding him back from reaching his full potential as a player and that he wasn’t spending enough time socializing with the team.
Two players claimed they were pressured into switching the SIM cards in their phones so their partners couldn’t contact them.
One player said that when his girlfriend became pregnant, he was excited to share the news with the club. But Clarkson “demanded” the pregnancy be terminated, and that the player break up with his girlfriend and move into the home of an assistant coach, the player told the ABC.
Acquittal in Aboriginal town stirs ghosts of Australia’s last massacre
The player’s then-girlfriend told the ABC she was told by another club official that Hawthorn had decided it was better for his football career “if he didn’t become a father.”
The players were not identified in the ABC report.
Clarkson said he was “shocked” by the allegations, which he denied.
“I was not afforded any due process and I refute any allegation of wrongdoing or misconduct,” he said in a statement. Clarkson said he was not interviewed as part of the club’s review and would "look forward to the opportunity to be heard as part of the AFL external investigation.”
Clarkson, who is now the head coach of another club, North Melbourne Kangaroos, said he would “step back” from his responsibilities to cooperate with the inquiry.
Chris Fagan, a former assistant coach at Hawthorn named in the ABC report, took a leave of absence from the Brisbane Lions, where he is now head coach, pending the results of the investigation.
Tony Armstrong, an Indigenous sports presenter and former AFL player, said on the ABC on Wednesday that the report came at a difficult time for Indigenous people, with recent incidents including the coverage of Queen Elizabeth II’s death, raising painful memories of the injustices Indigenous Australians have endured since British colonization.
“The allegations themselves are very, very concerning; there’s going to be a lot more to play out," he said. “I just want to send my love to all First Nations people who are out there reading this.”
Aussie rules, as the sport is known here, was influenced by an Aboriginal game and is popular among Indigenous Australians. But the sport has been hit repeatedly by accusations of racism.
Last year, the president of another club, Collingwood Magpies, resigned after a report decried structural racism at the club. The report was commissioned after a Black player claimed he was given a racist nickname and endured frequent racist jokes. Aboriginal Aussie rules star Adam Goodes was subjected to years of boos after he had a young fan ejected for calling him an ape in 2013. The AFL apologized to Goodes in 2019.
White Australian police officer acquitted in killing of Aboriginal teen, a case that gripped the country
Shelley Ware, an Indigenous media personality who comments on the AFL, said the latest allegations should spur every club to undergo an external review focusing on racism.
“It should be across the board," she said. "And I hope that the voices and the strength of the families that have spoken up give other families that voice to speak up.”
Nerita Waight, chief executive of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, said in a statement that “the players cited in this story were a long way from home, country and family, and should have been able to place their trust and safety in the hands of the club.”
“Unfortunately, I cannot be shocked by these revelations,” she added, citing the treatment of Goodes and other players of color.
In a statement, the Hawks said the club had commissioned external First Nations consultants to liaise with current and former Indigenous players and staff to learn more about their experience. Chief executive Justin Reeves said in a news conference the findings were a surprise and the allegations were “extremely disturbing.” | 2022-09-21T08:31:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Australia's Hawthorn football club faces Indigenous racism claims - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/21/australia-racism-indigenous-hawthorn-hawks/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/21/australia-racism-indigenous-hawthorn-hawks/ |
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, left, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting on Sept. 20. (Presidential Press Office/Reuters)
TEL AVIV — Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, thawing a 14-year-old chill and heralding hopes of collaboration fueled by the possibility of exporting natural gas to an energy-desperate Europe.
Lapid’s office said that Tuesday’s meeting in New York was the first face-to-face encounter between leaders of the two countries since 2008 and they discussed “economic and energy cooperation.”
It comes a month after Israel and Turkey announced a full restoration of diplomatic ties and exchange of ambassadors, a development that Lapid described as “an important asset for regional stability and very important economic news for the citizens of Israel.”
Israel is hoping its gas will finally make it part of the Middle East
Turkey, the first Muslim country to recognize Israel as a state and, before 2008, one of its strongest allies in the region, has over the past decade and a half intensely challenged Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians. Erdogan has repeatedly made parallels between his own democratically elected Islamist party and Hamas, which rules the blockaded Gaza Strip, calling it “a resistance movement that defends the Palestinian homeland against an occupying power.”
Turkey’s increasing criticism of Israeli treatment of Palestinians has caused diplomatic tumult. In 2010, Ankara recalled its ambassador after an Israeli naval commando raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla resulted in the deaths of 10 Turkish activists. Tensions again boiled over in 2018, following bloody protests on the Gaza border provoked by President Donald Trump’s decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, and Turkey and Israel recalled their respective ambassadors.
But the tides have turned in recent months, as Israel, exploiting its recently discovered offshore natural gas sites, seeks to export billions of cubic meters to a European market seeking to wean itself from Russian supplies.
Israeli gas is part of a global, patchwork energy strategy being forged by European leaders looking ahead to a potentially difficult winter. Russia’s pipeline gas today makes up 9 percent of all imported gas to the European Union, compared to 40 percent before the invasion of Ukraine.
As part of this effort, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in June inked a deal with Israeli and Egyptian leaders that will enable Israel to pipe natural gas to Europe via Egyptian liquefaction facilities.
As a result of the diplomatic strain, Ankara abandoned talks to build an underwater natural gas pipeline linking Israel to Europe via Turkey, years ago.
But Erdogan called a visit last March by Israeli President Isaac Herzog to Turkey, the first in over a decade, “an opportunity to revive the cooperation on the topic of energy that began before.”
At his speech before the General Assembly Tuesday, Erdogan highlighted energy as a priority in Turkey’s foreign policy.
“Turkey has always looked at energy as a field of cooperation rather than competition,” he said. “In addition to our own needs, we have implemented many projects that support regional and global energy security.”
Zeynep Karatas in Istanbul contributed to this report. | 2022-09-21T10:02:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Lapid and Erdogan make first high-level Israel-Turkey meeting in years - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/21/israel-turkey-un-erdogan-lapid/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/21/israel-turkey-un-erdogan-lapid/ |
“Let’s just ignore him,” the GOP Senate leader said at one point, underscoring his hands-off approach on whether to stand up to pro-Trump lawmakers after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol
By Rachael Bade
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) walks into his office at the U.S. Capitol on May 27, 2021. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)
Adapted from “UNCHECKED: The Untold Story Behind Congress’s Botched Impeachments of Donald Trump,” by Rachael Bade and Karoun Demirjian, published by William Morrow. Copyright © 2022 by Rachael Bade and Karoun Demirjian. Reprinted courtesy of HarperCollins Publishers. To be published Oct. 18.
The vote, McConnell knew, would be seen as a test for the looming impeachment trial, making the stakes of his choice incredibly high. If GOP senators, under his leadership, were willing to endorse the constitutionality of the proceedings, it would signal that a Trump conviction was a real possibility. But if they voted the opposite way, condemning the entire trial, it would foreshadow that Republicans would likely help the former president escape accountability — something McConnell was loath to do.
This account of McConnell’s role in weighing Trump’s second impeachment trial is based on interviews with people familiar with McConnell’s thinking and deliberations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly.
Mounted on the office wall above McConnell’s head was a framed portrait of his mentor, the late Kentucky senator John Sherman Cooper, for whom he had interned in the summer of 1964. Cooper, a Republican, had helped pass the Civil Rights Act despite a flood of angry pro-segregationist letters he’d received from his constituents. The 20-something McConnell had once asked Cooper how he squared his vote with what his constituents wanted.
“There are times you follow, and times when you lead,” Cooper had told him, an adage that stuck with McConnell decades later.
Was this McConnell’s own moment to lead? And if he did, would enough Republicans follow him to make it worthwhile?
McConnell was still shaken by the siege of the Capitol. The night of the riot, when he returned to the building from Fort McNair, he had seen the splintered wood in the door to his Capitol suite left by marauders who had tried to break into his office and attack his staff. He had watched, stunned, as his aides moved furniture they had used to barricade the entrance out of the way to make room for his return. Overcome with emotion at the trauma they’d experienced, McConnell had made a vow to his aides.
The Attack: Before, during and after the attack on the Capitol
For a while, it looked like McConnell’s confidence was well placed. In the immediate aftermath of Jan. 6, Republicans across the political spectrum had turned on Trump, calling on him to resign. The day after the riot, McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, resigned her position as secretary of Transportation, prompting other Cabinet members to follow. The exodus was so great, in fact, that McConnell began fearing that Trump, left unfettered, might start to act upon his worst instincts. He personally urged top Trump officials like White House counsel Pat Cipollone and national security adviser Robert O’Brien to serve out their terms, looking to them to restrain the president who had already proved himself a threat to the nation.
McConnell was stunned at the speed with which that powerful anti-Trump sentiment had faded by the time the House voted to impeach, an indictment supported by just ten Republicans. It was clear that many of his members still feared that the outgoing president and his loyal base would come after them if they broke with Trump. In the days after the riot, as anger at Trump gave way to panic that blaming him could cost lawmakers their jobs, a large crop of rank-and-file Senate Republicans also began frantically searching for an escape hatch — a way to vote against impeachment without defending what Trump had done.
Those senators had found salvation in a Jan. 12 Washington Post op-ed written by well-known conservative attorney J. Michael Luttig, who had served as a U.S. Court of Appeals judge for fifteen years. In it, Luttig argued it was unconstitutional to impeach a former president — or for the Senate to conduct a trial against an ex-president who had been impeached while in office. The next morning, as the House prepared to impeach Trump again, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton sent the piece around to his colleagues. Soon, Trump’s most hardcore defenders became obsessed with the idea, pressing other senators to embrace the argument as a reason to oppose removal.
McConnell himself wasn’t convinced by Luttig’s logic — and he knew some of his GOP colleagues weren’t either. The argument seemed to him a “procedural off-ramp.” And McConnell was not yet sure he wanted one.
In a series of meetings, McConnell and a host of skeptical GOP senators debated the merits of a similar argument with his trusted legal adviser from the first impeachment, Andrew Ferguson. Ferguson, who had barely escaped the rioters as they tore into the Capitol on Jan. 6, had wrestled with the subject for days and concluded that the Founders conceived of impeachment only as a means of removing people still in office. He pointed out that Benjamin Franklin once argued that impeachment was a necessary constitutional escape hatch for removing a tyrant because the only other recourse was assassination — and no one wanted that. Since there was simply no way the Senate could convene and speed through a trial in the days remaining before Biden’s inauguration, Trump could not be subject to conviction, Ferguson advised his boss and the members.
McConnell, still skeptical, challenged his counsel: Why would the Founders have given Congress the absolute power of impeachment in the Constitution if it was limited? he wanted to know. Why would the Founders include a provision in the Constitution to bar someone from running for office ever again — only to limit a conviction to current officeholders?
Ferguson acknowledged it was a tough question. But if McConnell’s endgame was to keep Trump from running for office again, Ferguson warned, a Senate conviction was no guarantee of that goal. Some scholars believed that the Constitution did not actually permit an impeached president to be disqualified from holding office again, as it did judges and other public officials, he explained to McConnell and other GOP members considering conviction. It was a minority view that few constitutional experts agreed with, Ferguson acknowledged, noting he personally didn’t accept it either. But it didn’t matter: Trump could try to run again in 2024 and sue any state that kept him off the ballot, he said. It would turn into an explosive legal battle that would catapult the ex-president back into the headlines, possibly resurrecting his efforts to stage a political comeback, right when the party was trying to heal.
“Barring him from office wouldn’t be a slam dunk,” Ferguson warned.
Meanwhile, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), the longtime ally whom he had leaned on for legal advice during the first impeachment, was trying mightily to get McConnell right with Trump. He popped into the leader’s office at least twice that month to argue that conviction was out of the question. The GOP would be legitimizing a snap impeachment with no due process for the president. And besides, he said, Trump was not guilty of incitement.
“What he said — it’s political speech! The MOST protected form of speech,” Graham firmly told McConnell. “If you’re going to start holding politicians accountable based on the actions of others — from a speech? That’s a dangerous place to go.”
McConnell, still considering his options, said nothing in response.
The way Graham had rationalized Trump’s actions since Jan. 6 had been particularly craven — and a perfect example of how McConnell was quickly losing his members to Trump. The night of the riot, Graham had declared in an emotional speech that he and the president were through.
“Trump and I, we had a hell of a journey,” he had said on the Senate floor, his voice catching. “I hate it being this way. Oh my God I hate it … but today all I can say is count me out. Enough is enough.”
Two days later, Trump supporters had harassed Graham as he walked through Reagan National Airport, calling him a “traitor.” Graham’s resolve crumbled almost immediately. By the time the House was voting to impeach the following week, he had resumed his position as captain of the president’s cheering squad. He even found Trump an impeachment trial lawyer when no one else would step forward to defend him.
In some ways, McConnell’s passivity had enabled such whiplash. Like Graham, many Senate Republicans who experienced a flash of conscience and self-reflection in the wake of the riot had it quickly beaten out of them by Trump’s base. Many of those senators were looking to McConnell for a smoke signal on what they should do, but the Senate GOP leader kept his cards close to the chest.
McConnell did drop occasional hints of his fury with the president, hoping to give others the courage to take the principled stand he still wasn’t sure he wanted to take himself. In private conversations, he made clear he thought Trump had committed impeachable offenses. The day after Luttig’s argument made a splash with his members, McConnell penned a letter to his colleagues saying he was open to voting to convict — an enormous turnaround for a leader who had declared during Trump’s first impeachment that he was “in total coordination” with the president’s defense team. And when it came to the facts of what had happened on Jan. 6, McConnell didn’t mince words; he put the blame squarely on the ex-president’s shoulders.
“The mob was fed lies,” McConnell said on the Senate floor on Jan. 19. “They were provoked by the president.”
But McConnell stopped short of perhaps the one thing that may have made a difference: He never actually encouraged his colleagues to convict. Instead, he told them the verdict would be a “vote of conscience.” And while some senior Senate Republicans privately predicted in mid-January that double digits of their ranks would be willing to convict Trump — if not the full seventeen that would have been necessary to bar him from serving in office again — McConnell never did a whip check.
Instead, as the trial neared, Trump’s defenders quickly filled the void — in part by trying to pressure McConnell back in line with Trump. A week after the impeachment vote, on the day of Biden’s inauguration, a group of them told CNN that if McConnell voted to convict Trump, he could no longer be leader — a very public warning that the Kentuckian needed to check himself. Even Graham argued the party needed Trump to win back the Senate — despite evidence that Trump had just cost the party two Senate seats in Georgia.
On a conference call with the GOP senators that week, McConnell listened as a group of Trump allies pressed him to find a way to avoid a second impeachment trial — and to do more to defend the ex-president. Couldn’t he get the Supreme Court to throw out the charges, they asked. After all, Trump was not president anymore. Why go through this at all?
A year before, McConnell had used his position to secure the most advantageous conditions possible for the president at trial, assuring his acquittal almost single-handedly. But this time, he refused to intervene. Even when Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) warned McConnell on the call that some of the GOP’s biggest-name donors wanted to see a more robust effort to exonerate the ex-president, McConnell remained unmoved. He had defended Trump for too long. Others could do as they wanted, but as far as he was concerned, this time the former president was on his own.
If you have ideas about defending Trump, talk to Graham, he told the senators during the call.
Over the next few days, as an increasing number of GOP senators coalesced around the argument that a post-presidential impeachment was unconstitutional, McConnell made one last attempt to change their minds. He asked his leadership team to invite well-respected Republican legal experts to advocate both for and against the constitutionality argument so his members could hear both sides. Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, who oversaw the GOP Senate lunches, agreed. To kick things off, he invited Jonathan Turley — the constitutional lawyer Jerry Nadler’s attorneys had mocked as a “rent-a-quote” machine during the first impeachment — to lay out the anti-impeachment position at a Jan. 26 luncheon. They’d settle on a pro-impeachment GOP scholar later.
But the night before Turley’s session, Paul cornered McConnell’s staff in the cloakroom and demanded an immediate vote on the constitutionality of the looming trial. If McConnell didn’t schedule such a vote himself, Paul insisted he would force the issue. And he would do it the next day, right after the luncheon.
McConnell knew the vote was sure to fail, but that wasn’t the problem. The issue was that it would compel every senator to preemptively declare on the record whether they thought convicting Trump was constitutional — including McConnell, who was still at war with himself over that very question. Much to McConnell’s chagrin, it also would require his members to take a position without having heard any prominent GOP scholar argue why it might, in fact, be constitutional to convict an ex-president, as he had originally wanted.
As lawmakers left the Turley lunch the next day and headed to the chamber for the snap vote Paul had demanded, McConnell retreated to his office for a private moment. On the floor, several GOP senators who had just sat through arguments about why they must acquit Trump still weren’t sure if they agreed and started buttonholing McConnell’s staff.
“How’s he voting?” they asked over and over, eager for guidance — and to know if they’d have political cover to vote that the trial was constitutional. “How’s he voting?”
McConnell’s aides confessed to the senators that they had no idea what their boss would do.
In his memoir, McConnell had written that a “true leader is one who doesn’t take a poll on every issue.” Cooper, his mentor, had been a shining example of leading with conviction where there was a clear right and wrong. But that day, McConnell decided to neither lead nor follow, leaving his members without the guidance and protection they needed to take a very politically risky position. He walked to the floor and voted with the bulk of the GOP to declare the trial was unconstitutional, an argument he wasn’t even sure he agreed with. If McConnell was going to break with Trump on impeachment, it would have to happen another day. | 2022-09-21T10:06:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | ‘Unchecked’ book excerpt: Inside McConnell’s decision not to convict Trump - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/21/mcconnell-trump-impeachment-book/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/21/mcconnell-trump-impeachment-book/ |
For decades, Black coaches have been disproportionately excluded from the NFL’s top jobs. These are the voices of the coaches who broke through.
Jayne Orenstein
In the NFL’s 102-year history, 26 Black men have served as head coaches. Two have died. Twenty-four remain.
This summer, 16 of those 24 sat down with The Washington Post to tell their stories and share their perspective on why the NFL’s inclusion problem persists. They have grounds for grievance, but their stories reflect the pride in the paths they took, the pressure they felt, the value of their contributions and the legacy they leave behind.
There was hesitance, even fatigue, among those who spoke with The Post — and some who didn’t — about why Black coaches are deserving of more opportunities in the NFL. Most had to be convinced to participate, expressing doubt that this time their words would be heeded.
“Sometimes I wonder, ‘Just how much progress have we made?’ ” asked Anthony Lynn, the former Los Angeles Chargers coach.
Those who spoke did so, they said, mostly for those who never got the chance and for those who continue to be ignored. There is a determination among the ones who made it that they are no longer anomalies — and that this small fraternity of Black coaches no longer remains so exclusive.
We interviewed 16 current and former Black head coaches. These are their stories.
Marvin Lewis
Terry Robiskie
Mike Singletary
Anthony Lynn
How Black coaches worked their way to the top — and what they endured along the way.
Watch All
Getting there is hard. For Black coaches, staying there is even harder.
The Rooney Rule isn’t working. Here’s what Black coaches say needs to happen for team owners to see them as leaders.
For all the pain they’ve endured, Black coaches — even those who never got a fair shake — take pride in making it to the mountaintop.
Miami Dolphins (interim), 2011
New York Jets, 2015-18
Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 2022-
Bowles, 58, was promoted to head coach of the Buccaneers in March after Bruce Arians shifted to a consulting role. In his previous job as defensive coordinator, Bowles devised a scheme that held the high-scoring Kansas City Chiefs without a touchdown in Super Bowl LV. He also led the Jets to their only winning season in the past decade.
Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post
Indianapolis Colts, 2009-11
Detroit Lions, 2014-17
Caldwell, 67, is one of four Black coaches to reach the Super Bowl, doing so in his first season leading the Colts. Under Caldwell’s tutelage, Peyton Manning had the best seasons of his career, Joe Flacco won the Super Bowl, and Matthew Stafford made his lone Pro Bowl appearance. Caldwell also was the first Black coach in ACC history at Wake Forest University.
Cleveland Browns, 2005-08
Kansas City Chiefs, 2011 (interim), 2012
Houston Texans (interim), 2020
Crennel, 75, retired from coaching in June after 52 years, including 39 in the NFL. After serving on staffs that reached six Super Bowls (and won five), Crennel landed in Cleveland, where he led the Browns to one of their three winning seasons since they were revived in 1999. When he took over the Texans in 2020, he became the oldest head coach in NFL history.
Michael Starghill, Jr. for The Washington Post
Houston Texans, 2021
The first African American to play quarterback at Vanderbilt, Culley, 67, took the longest pathway to an NFL head coaching job at 43 years — with 27 of those spent as an NFL position coach. Culley was 65 when the Texans hired him. The long wait ended with a short sip: He was fired after going 4-13 in his lone season.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 1996-2001
Dungy, 66, became the first Black coach to win a Super Bowl when the Colts prevailed in February 2007. A Hall of Famer, he made the playoffs in each of his last 10 seasons. Since Dungy debuted, half of the 16 Black full-time coaches hired in the NFL coached under him or coached under someone from his coaching tree.
Kansas City Chiefs, 2006-08
Edwards, 68, was the head coach at Arizona State University from 2018 until he was let go this September. He spent nearly 30 years in the NFL as a player and coach. “You play to win the game,” he once famously quipped, and he often did, reaching the playoffs in half of his eight seasons as an NFL head coach.
Minnesota Vikings, 2010 (interim), 2011-13
Frazier, 63, is now assistant head coach/defensive coordinator for the Buffalo Bills. A knee injury suffered during the Chicago Bears’ victory in Super Bowl XX ended his career as a defensive back and pushed him into coaching. When he was hired by the Vikings, he became one of only three Black coaches since 1990, out of 14, to be elevated from an interim role to the full-time job.
Oakland Raiders, 2011
Jackson, 56, is now the head coach at Grambling. The last coach Raiders owner Al Davis hired before he died, Jackson was fired after his lone season with the franchise that made Art Shell the first Black head coach of the NFL’s modern era. Jackson later took over the rebuilding Browns, whom he would accuse of not prioritizing winning.
Takashi Sato for The Washington Post
Denver Broncos, 2017-18
Joseph, 50, is now defensive coordinator of the Arizona Cardinals. After spending 12 seasons as a defensive assistant, he became the first full-time Black head coach in the history of the Broncos. He was fired after two years and is among three Black coaches (out of five) hired since 2017 who were given two or fewer seasons.
Cincinnati Bengals, 2003-18
Lewis, 63, is the winningest coach in Bengals history with 131 victories, and he ranks third in wins among Black coaches. He was the coordinator of the dominant Baltimore defense that helped the Ravens win Super Bowl XXXV. Five former Lewis assistants have become NFL head coaches, including three Black coaches, giving him the largest coaching tree among Black coaches not named Tony Dungy.
Paul Kuroda for The Washington Post
Buffalo Bills (interim), 2016
Los Angeles Chargers, 2017-20
Lynn, 53, is now the assistant head coach and running backs coach for the San Francisco 49ers. A two-time Super Bowl champion as a running back with the Denver Broncos, Lynn was an assistant for 16 years before taking over as an interim in Buffalo. He reached the playoffs once and finished with a winning record over four seasons with the Chargers.
Alisha Jucevic for The Washington Post
Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 2009-11
Atlanta Falcons (interim), 2020
Morris, 46, is now the defensive coordinator for the defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams. The Buccaneers made him the youngest Black head coach of the NFL’s modern era when they hired him at 32. His second of three seasons with Tampa Bay resulted in 10 wins and a seven-game turnaround, the largest in franchise history. He also reached the Super Bowl as an assistant with Tampa Bay and Atlanta.
Washington (interim), 2000
Cleveland Browns (interim), 2004
Robiskie, 67, coached in the NFL for nearly 40 years, winning the Super Bowl after the 1983 season as a special teams assistant with the Los Angeles Raiders. He served as head coach for a total of eight games with Washington and Cleveland but retired in 2020 as one of five Black interim coaches who never ascended to the full-time role.
San Francisco 49ers, 2008-10
Singletary, 63, helped shatter a long-held myth about Black players’ ability to play middle linebacker when he became the heart and soul of the Chicago Bears’ Super Bowl XX-winning defense. Among Black coaches, Singletary is the only Pro Football Hall of Fame player to land a full-time job in the NFL.
Chicago Bears, 2004-12
Houston Texans, 2022-
When he took over the Texans in February, Smith became the first Black head coach to be hired for a full-time job by three franchises. Smith, 64, reached the postseason three times with the Bears and became the first Black coach to secure a trip to the Super Bowl before losing to his mentor, Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts. Smith also reached the Super Bowl as defensive coordinator of the 2001 St. Louis Rams.
Jacksonville Jaguars (interim), 2011
Tucker, 50, was an assistant for 10 NFL seasons. After his only shot as a head coach came on an interim basis (and lasted five games), he moved on to the college ranks — first at Colorado, then at Michigan State, where he is among the highest-paid coaches in the nation after winning Big Ten Coach of the Year honors in 2021.
Additional reporting by Jerry Brewer, Candace Buckner and Dave Sheinin. Additional video filming by Erin Patrick O’Connor, Alice Li, Jayne Orenstein, Jorge Ribas, Brandon Watson, Nate Peracciny, Gabrielle Joseph, Max Toomey, Jacob Hurwitz-Goodman, Jack Mayer, Julian Valdivieso, Jeffrey McWhorter, Jamal Martin, Meagan Laboy, Anto Tavitian, Christopher Zuppa and Boyzell Hosey. Editing by Joe Tone. Copy editing by Michael Petre. Photo editing by Toni L. Sandys. Video editing by Jayne Orenstein, Joshua Carroll, Jorge Ribas and Justin Scuiletti. Design and development by Brianna Schroer and Joe Fox. Design editing by Virginia Singarayar and Matt Callahan. Logo design by Chloe Meister. Project management by Wendy Galietta.
By Jayne Orenstein
Jayne Orenstein is a senior producer overseeing national video coverage. Twitter Twitter | 2022-09-21T10:14:59Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Black NFL coaches who made it to the head coaching ranks - Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/interactive/2022/black-nfl-coaches-voices/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/interactive/2022/black-nfl-coaches-voices/ |
As the National Football League faces litigation alleging racial discrimination at its highest coaching levels, reporters at The Washington Post wanted to know: Does the experience of Black head coaches differ from that of their peers?
Over seven months, Post reporters built data sets with the goal of examining this question. The Post also contacted, either directly or through a representative, every living Black current or former head coach. Sixteen of the 24 agreed to be interviewed, including 14 of the 19 who held full-time positions. (Dennis Green, the second Black head coach in the modern era of the NFL, died in 2016.) Post reporters traveled the country, visiting homes, offices and team facilities to conduct in-person interviews with those 16 and also interviewed dozens of their colleagues.
The Post asked the NFL multiple times to provide data to aid reporters’ efforts. A spokeswoman said in July that the league could not provide any of the data The Post requested, which included aggregate demographics on a season-by-season basis for head coaches, coordinators, position coaches and players.
The Post also asked the NFL to verify coaches’ dates of birth and racial identification. In the days before this story published, the league provided The Post with four tables that showed the aggregate demographics of head coaches, offensive coordinators, defensive coordinators and special teams coordinators over a 21-year span — not separated by season.
Without data directly from the NFL, The Post gathered information from multiple sources for the league’s 191 head coaches since 1990, the year after Art Shell became the first Black coach in the modern history of the league. The Post compiled their race, date of birth and information about their coaching careers, such as how many seasons they spent as a head coach and their career record, from sources including statistics website sports-reference.com, team bios, public records and the coaches themselves.
Reporters also collected coaches’ year-by-year results and full job histories, allowing The Post to analyze each coach’s network, identifying which coaches each had worked under and those who later worked under him.
Identifying coaches’ races
Reporters first needed to identify the race of each coach. To do this, The Post relied on numerous sources: the NFL’s diversity and inclusion reports from 2013 to 2022, which include the racial identification of select coaches; a data set from researchers at Arizona State University’s Global Sport Institute; and information provided by University of Pennsylvania professor Janice Madden, who, with Matthew Ruther, has studied the NFL’s Rooney Rule.
Each data set used slightly different methods to identify race. The lead researcher for the NFL’s diversity and inclusion reports, C. Keith Harrison, said his effort used “multiple credible sources” to pinpoint racial identities, but he wouldn’t provide additional details, and an NFL spokeswoman did not respond to questions. The Global Sport Institute’s racial identification relies on publicly accessible sources.
Madden used some visual evaluation to determine race, a practice she said mirrored “the evaluations of the hiring/firing parties whose behavior and choices we were studying.” Only 25 coaches in The Post’s data set, all of whom worked in the 1990s, were solely identified through Madden’s visual approach. Madden identified all of them as White.
For most analyses, The Post grouped coaches into three categories: White, Black and other coaches of color. The coaches in the other category are Mike McDaniel (biracial), Robert Saleh (Lebanese American), Ron Rivera (Latino) and Tom Flores (Latino).
McDaniel has a Black father and a White mother. According to a Miami Dolphins spokeswoman, he identifies as biracial. The NFL diversity and inclusion report lists him as multiracial and league officials did not include him in their count of Black coaches. Through the team spokeswoman, he did not respond to questions about how he would prefer to be categorized by The Post.
Saleh, of the New York Jets, told The Post he identifies as a minority. According to the U.S. Census, people of Middle Eastern descent are considered White, but Saleh is described as a coach of color in the NFL’s reports, so The Post categorized him with other non-Black coaches of color.
Where possible, The Post used coaches’ racial self-identification. For instance, Herm Edwards is biracial but has identified himself as Black, and Brian Flores, who is listed in the NFL’s reports as Honduran American and Afro Latino, also identifies as Black. The Post identified both coaches as Black in its analysis.
The Post relied on data from the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida for the demographics of NFL players by year. In some years, the league did not provide data to TIDES. The Post worked with data from the Global Sport Institute to determine the demographics of coordinators.
Coaches’ career paths
The Post pulled each coach’s job history from Sports-Reference, then verified each position through public sources, adding and adjusting numerous roles. Job titles were grouped into general categories such as coordinator or low-level assistant for analysis purposes. NFL playing time was counted only in years when a player appeared in a game.
Post reporters categorized a primary coaching area — offense, defense or special teams — based on a coach’s career path. In general, if a coach spent at least three years longer in roles of a certain area than all others, he was designated with that coaching area. All data related to performance as a head coach came from Sports-Reference. All data related to win totals and winning percentage is for the regular season unless otherwise noted.
In general, the average number of years spent in a role represents the average of all coaches, even if some did not hold that role. For instance, only 28 percent of first-time NFL head coaches had previously served as college head coaches, and they held their roles for an average of seven years. But The Post’s analysis includes those who never held college head coaching roles, bringing the average down to about two years.
The Post relied on news reports to determine coaches’ postseason outcomes and whether departures should be classified as “fired” or “otherwise left.” Coaches who retired or resigned, even amid pressure or turmoil, are included in the “otherwise left” category.
Coaches’ ages for a given season are determined based on their age as of Jan. 1 of that year.
The Post used network analysis, a technique that represents relationships between different members of a group, to analyze professional connections between NFL coaches. Limiting the analysis to full-time coaches who coached games in or after the 1990 season, including the 32 coaches coming into the 2022 season, The Post visually and quantitatively represented relationships between these coaches.
The Post limited its analysis to relationships at the NFL level in which one person served as a full-time head coach and the other was employed by him as a coach or adviser. For example, in 1996, Lovie Smith was the linebackers coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, when Tony Dungy was their head coach, so Dungy and Smith are connected in the network. Smith worked under Dungy for five years, so their connection has a weight of five. | 2022-09-21T10:15:06Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How The Washington Post analyzed Black NFL head coaches data - Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/interactive/2022/data-black-nfl-head-coaches/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/interactive/2022/data-black-nfl-head-coaches/ |
Pro football’s turn toward inequity resonates eight decades later. Change will require intentional action.
Fritz Pollard died waiting for the NFL to change. He lived until he was 92, and that was not long enough. For his last 65 years, he yearned to see another person like him: a Black man, valued and empowered, with the title of head coach.
In 1921, when the star running back also coached the Akron Pros, professional football seemed ahead of the racist times. It chose not to stay that way. Sixty-eight years elapsed before Art Shell became the second African American to hold the position in 1989. Pollard had succumbed to pneumonia three years earlier, in pioneering solitude, never witnessing that dreamy day when Black minds would be as appreciated as Black athleticism.
“He was waiting for the time the NFL became fully racially unbiased,” said his grandson Stephen Towns, a periodontist who lives in Indianapolis. “He was waiting for leadership that reflected what he saw on the field. But it never happened. It was a real sore spot for him.”
He was Coach Pollard 26 years before Jackie Robinson burst through baseball’s color barrier. Yet more than a century later, the NFL has trusted just 26 Black men to direct its teams, a total inflated by five interim coaches. As the 2022 season unfolds, the sport is enmeshed in a racial discrimination lawsuit and fails to meet the most meager standards for coaching diversity.
The Akron Pros of 1920 were the first champions of the American Professional Football Association, later renamed the NFL. The team included Fritz Pollard (front row, far right), who served as coach a year later. (Bruce Bennett Studios/Getty Images)
The NFL never integrated. Not fully, at least. Not properly. Unlike baseball, there is no clear before and after in its history. It took a winding path of organic integration, segregation and reintegration that can be trimmed to a truth: With its actions, the NFL has always placed conditions on inclusion. Exclusion has always been the point.
It is the tormenting legacy of a league that could have set a standard for inclusion. When Pollard joined what was then called the American Professional Football Association in 1920, he endured racist taunts from the crowds and cheap shots from opponents. But he also was the sport’s highest-paid employee, earning $1,500 per game. For a while, his speed and intelligence prevailed over bigotry. Then the fledgling league, which was struggling to compete for relevance with baseball, boxing, college football and horse racing, aspired to become what it is today: a massive and indomitable force, this nation’s greatest sporting addiction.
The NFL kept out African Americans from 1934 to 1946, a capitulation to White players who complained that the handful of Black players in the league were taking away jobs. After World War II, it reintegrated while reinforcing classic, biased beliefs about who could play where on the field and strengthening a Whites-only leadership sentiment, amplifying old prejudices as its profile rose. Those decisions combined with a tradition of inheritance and nepotism to create a caste system that still plagues progress 101 years after Pollard provided a model for equality and meritocracy.
Pollard was inducted to the National Football Foundation's hall of fame in 1954. The Pro Football Hall of Fame didn't welcome him until 2005, nearly two decades after he died. (AP)
His obituary began exactly how he feared it would: Frederick Douglass Pollard, the only Black head coach of an NFL team … He was a trailblazer who never saw fresh footprints on his path.
The NFL was ahead and thought it was behind. Now it’s just an aloof giant with one foot in the segregation era and the other in a courtroom.
“Until we understand the past, I don’t think we’re really going to understand the future,” said Hue Jackson, the former coach of the Oakland Raiders and Cleveland Browns. “We’re going to continue to put Band-Aids on it because we don’t really want to have those hard conversations about where all of this started.”
The NFL went all-White for a dozen years in the 1930s and 1940s. (Seymour Wally/New York Daily News/Getty Images)
Football historians refer to it as a “gentlemen’s agreement,” peculiar phrasing for a pledge that team owners made to ostracize Black talent. In 1933, two African Americans, Ray Kemp and Joe Lillard, played in the league. There would not be another until 1946, when Black media members and activists criticized the Rams, who had relocated from Cleveland to California and sought to play in publicly funded Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Competition from the All-America Football Conference — which had recruited Paul Brown, a White coach who was a seminal figure in pushing for the sport’s desegregation, to lead its Cleveland franchise — also persuaded NFL owners to abandon the color ban.
It took 16 years for every NFL team to reintegrate, with Washington owner George Preston Marshall finally ending his obstinance in 1962. Even then, doors were merely cracked open across the league. Diversity had to squeeze through, one audacious soul at a time.
The NFL didn’t have a Black official until 1965. Marlin Briscoe, the first Black starting quarterback of pro football’s modern era, didn’t get an opportunity until 1968. The long and arduous journey of minority quarterbacks is well told, but linebacker, center and guard were among the other “thinking positions” once considered unattainable.
Marlin Briscoe was the first Black quarterback in the modern era of pro football, getting his chance in 1968. (Denver Broncos/AP)
Aspiring leaders had it worse. In 1957, Pittsburgh hired Lowell Perry as the first African American assistant coach of the modern era. Twenty years later, when future Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy began his career as a player with the Steelers, there were just 10 Black assistants in the league. In 1985, The Washington Post reported there were just 32. The league lasted without a Black general manager until 2002, when the Baltimore Ravens promoted Ozzie Newsome.
This problem is not old history. It is a morphing reality that floats in the current of societal progress and embeds systemic racism even as times change. Undoubtedly, things are better, but they have never been right. The NFL is rooted in selective integration, a largely unacknowledged sin that rots its soil. Nothing can grow.
“It’s all related to who they were,” said Louis Moore, an author and history professor at Grand Valley State University whose work focuses on the intersection of race, sports and politics. “It’s all related to the owners and their ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ to keep people out. It still impacts the NFL today because, post-World War II, when football becomes modern and grows in popularity, you have this tradition of what can be integrated and what can’t be. The quarterbacks and coaches are the people who are the face of the league, and the NFL has always been reluctant to let a Black man be that face. It influences every perception about the game.”
Washington's George Preston Marshall, right, was the last NFL owner to integrate his roster. (William J. Smith/AP)
Washington's coaching staff in 1973. (Paul Vathis/AP)
LEFT: Washington's George Preston Marshall, right, was the last NFL owner to integrate his roster. (William J. Smith/AP) RIGHT: Washington's coaching staff in 1973. (Paul Vathis/AP)
Perhaps if the NFL had more turnover in the ownership ranks, it would be harder for these relics of prejudice to persist. But this is a legacy league, full of families that bought in long ago and established a troubling ethos buttressed by the sport’s economic dominance. The NFL has grown from an afterthought to a 32-team behemoth that prospers from a predominantly Black labor force. It has not progressed, though. The real power exists in a White billionaire clique that keeps getting more exclusive and refuses to evolve. The same kind of person who governed a team in the 1930s still runs the show now, only with a much greater wealth advantage over the average American and an even more cloistered lifestyle.
While it is unfair to hold their descendants responsible for decisions made — or unchallenged — decades ago, decency and self-awareness should dictate a stronger commitment to breaking the chain. Instead, these families often minimize or deny the ban, deflecting responsibility for its residual effects.
Of that group, only the Rooneys have been a consistent leader in the minority hiring discussion. Throughout the league, negligence abounds — and coaches suffer the most.
“Minority coaches are frustrated today more so than maybe any time I’ve ever seen,” Dungy said.
Tony Dungy, pictured helping the Steelers warm up as their defensive backs coach in 1981, spent 16 years as an NFL assistant before the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hired him as their head coach in 1996. (George Gojkovich/Getty Images)
When he started coaching, Dungy sported a beard. It was his signature look in the 1980s, along with a mini-Afro, groomed much like a young Mike Tomlin. One day, Dungy ran into George Young, who was the New York Giants’ general manager for nearly two decades.
“If you really want to succeed in coaching, you need to shave your beard,” Dungy recalled Young telling him.
Dungy, in his mid-20s, was confused. Facial hair? Really? Were his hopes and dreams dependent on a razor?
Dungy consulted Dan Rooney, the Steelers’ president.
“Is this true?” he asked. “Am I not representing you the right way?”
Tony Dungy became the NFL's fifth Black head coach when the Buccaneers hired him. (Getty Images)
Dungy coached the Bucs for six seasons. (Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
LEFT: Tony Dungy became the NFL's fifth Black head coach when the Buccaneers hired him. (Getty Images) RIGHT: Dungy coached the Bucs for six seasons. (Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
“No, we want you to be who you are,” he remembered Rooney saying. “Don’t worry about that here with the Steelers.”
Dungy spent 16 years as a defensive assistant and interviewed for several openings before the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hired him in 1996. He was the NFL’s fifth Black head coach. He was 40 and full of gratitude, having outlasted scrutiny of his personal style and mild-mannered demeanor.
He did not yell like a coach. He was not White like a coach. He was unsure whether any owner would embrace him.
“The owners are telling me that I might have to change, and maybe you can’t be as close to the players,” Dungy said. “Maybe you’ve got to come across as more determined or more forceful. Maybe you’ve got to change who you are. And I just really started thinking: ‘Do I do that? Do I come across differently in order to get a job?’ ”
Dungy refused. He kept in mind what Rooney had told him. At the time, he was with Minnesota, not Pittsburgh. But the memory of an organization that truly saw him boosted his conviction. To the detriment of the sport, few organizations seek or appreciate original talent. Rather, they attempt to copy what worked in the past. And the past was so exclusive, so limited, that mythologizing it hindered vision.
In 1989, Raiders owner Al Davis made Art Shell the NFL's first Black head coach since Fritz Pollard in the 1920s. (Scott Halleran/Getty Images)
In early February, during another deflating hiring cycle, Tomlin was the NFL’s lone Black head coach. It was 2002 again, when Herm Edwards stood alone for a short time. It was 1989 again, when Shell stepped into history. It was 1921 again.
“It’s more disappointment than hurt,” said Towns, 75, who gave an acceptance speech in 2005 for Pollard’s posthumous Pro Football Hall of Fame induction. “You move on, but you always feel that animosity of what could have been. If my grandfather were alive, I think he would be extremely militant and extremely outspoken about the whole hiring process.”
On Feb. 1, Brian Flores filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against the league and its teams. He included tanking allegations against Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross and details of what he considered a sham interview with the Giants. Two additional coaches, Steve Wilks and Ray Horton, later joined the class-action suit. It should be a cloud hovering over this season, but the league’s popularity makes all skies look sunny. The initial public outcry subsided, and while Flores awaits his day in court, the matter seems to be merely another nuisance for the NFL to crush.
Brian Flores's class-action lawsuit against the NFL alleges racist hiring practices. (David Santiago/Miami Herald/AP)
In the league office, Commissioner Roger Goodell has attempted to prioritize diversity with new strategies, revised programming and multiple expansions of the Rooney Rule, which requires teams to interview minority or female candidates for head coaching and top front-office openings. However, these initiatives amount to a veneer of concern, shielding the serial indifference of the clubs that perpetuate the inequity. There has never been a policy powerful enough to force the owners to change. They won’t allow such accountability. It’s their league, so it’s all about their whims and their comfort level with the candidates.
“No one is going to force them to do anything with their team that they don’t want to do,” said Marc Ross, a former executive with the Giants and Philadelphia Eagles. “… Any initiatives or pressure [don’t matter]. It’s what they want to do.”
The NFL is a small, elite world. It doesn’t matter who you are as much as whose you are: which family, which friends, which coaching or general manager tree, which offensive or defensive tradition.
Tony Dungy of the Colts and Herm Edwards of the Jets met in a playoff game in January 2003. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
For aspiring Black head coaches, the world is even smaller. Examine the ones who made it, and there are maybe a dozen pathways to recognition. The bulk of them come from the Steelers, the Dungy tree or the Bill Walsh tree. It’s symbolic that late Raiders owner Al Davis — who hired Shell and Tom Flores (the first Latino head coach) as he championed diversity throughout his organization — was often considered a pariah.
“It’s extremely scary to think that we’re in 2022 and these conversations are even happening,” said Brian Levy, a White agent who represents several prominent Black coaches. “That’s, to me, the scariest thing. The results are what they are, and they speak for themselves. You’re walking up a down escalator.”
Anthony Lynn lasted four seasons with the Chargers. (Dustin Bradford/Getty Images)
Anthony Lynn, an assistant head coach for the San Francisco 49ers, did not want his son to follow him into this profession. He tried to steer D’Anton toward Wall Street. But D’Anton loved football too much.
D’Anton was a defensive back who played his final game at 24, much like Dungy. In 2014, he took an internship with the New York Jets, where his father worked. Since then, he has taken assistant jobs with the Buffalo Bills, the Los Angeles Chargers, the Houston Texans and now Baltimore. D’Anton was on his dad’s staff when Anthony was the Chargers’ head coach, but he has moved around on purpose to learn from as many great minds as he can.
“I’ve wanted to coach since I was in the seventh grade,” said D’Anton, now 32 and teaching the Ravens’ safeties. “After playing, I missed being on the field, the energy, the creativity. I just knew I had to get back on the grass.”
D'Anton Lynn is the Ravens' safeties coach. (Rob Carr/Getty Images)
The Lynns are one of those cute father-son coaching stories, but they come with an asterisk. Long ago, Anthony prepared D’Anton for the realities of being Black in this business.
“He gave me the twice-as-good-to-get-half-as-much talk when I was 8 years old,” D’Anton said. “Then he gave it to me again as a coach.”
D’Anton remains an idealist as he rises in the profession. He’s earnest. He stays in the moment, giving his best at every stop. In the NFL, many coaches begin with this mentality, only to see their spirit diminished by the pressure to win and the struggle for equal opportunity.
The NFL allowed Black players before its peer leagues, and it reintegrated just before the others opened their doors. But that whiplashing exposed a transactional ruthlessness: Exclusion is the preference. Diversity is a constant negotiation.
D’Anton inherited persistence rather than privilege. It is a requisite trait in the Black struggle for opportunity in America, an injustice that only the powerful can correct with intentional action.
NFL owners wasted a century making Black coaches — and the game itself — wait for better. The obligation falls on them, if they ever recognize it, to see that D’Anton walks a path more stable than the one Anthony has traveled.
Editing by Matt Rennie. Copy editing by Michael Petre. Photo editing by Toni L. Sandys. Video editing by Jayne Orenstein, Joshua Carroll, Jorge Ribas and Justin Scuiletti. Design and development by Brianna Schroer and Joe Fox. Design editing by Virginia Singarayar. Project management by Wendy Galietta.
Jerry Brewer is a sports columnist at The Washington Post. He joined The Post in 2015 after more than eight years as a columnist with the Seattle Times. Twitter Twitter | 2022-09-21T10:15:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Perspective | Negligence runs rampant in the NFL. Minority coaches suffer the most - Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/interactive/2022/inequity-nfl-coaches/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/interactive/2022/inequity-nfl-coaches/ |
Nearly two decades after the NFL enacted the Rooney Rule, teams’ hiring and firing practices still disadvantage Black coaches at every turn — and it’s getting worse, a Post investigation found.
By Dave Sheinin
Emily Giambalvo
In 1989, the Los Angeles Raiders hired Art Shell, who became the first Black head coach in the modern history of the NFL.
He is one of 191 people who have been head coaches in the three-plus decades since.
A brief uptick of Black coaching hires in the mid-2000s provided hope that racial equity was within reach.
But that glimmer of progress was a mirage. In the 33 years since Shell’s hiring, just 24 other head coaches have been Black.
Despite the league’s end-zone pledge to “END RACISM,” Black coaches continue to be denied top jobs in a league where nearly 60 percent of the players are Black.
It is a glaring shortcoming for the NFL, one highlighted by the findings of an investigation by The Washington Post. Black coaches tend to perform about as well as White coaches, The Post found. But while White candidates are offered a vast and diverse set of routes to the league’s top coaching jobs, Black coaches face a much narrower set of paths. They have had to serve significantly longer as mid-level assistants, are more likely to be given interim jobs than full-time ones and are held to a higher standard when it comes to keeping their jobs.
Since 1990, Black coaches have been twice as likely as others to be fired after leading a team to a regular season record of .500 or better.
Amid growing scrutiny of the issue, The Post compiled and analyzed three decades’ worth of data and conducted interviews with 16 of the 24 living current and former NFL head coaches who identify as Black, as well as dozens of other coaches, former players, team executives, agents and others.
The data quantifies the frustration felt by many of those coaches, which erupted into the public eye this year with a lawsuit by Brian Flores, fired by the Miami Dolphins in January, that accuses the league and its teams of racism in their hiring and firing practices. The lawsuit and its potential implications hover over the NFL as its new season unfolds with just three Black head coaches: Todd Bowles of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Lovie Smith of the Houston Texans and Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
That’s the same number as in 2003 — the year the NFL, under intense external pressure, introduced the Rooney Rule, which required teams to interview at least one candidate of color for open head coach and front-office jobs.
Taken together, The Post’s analysis mirrors the sentiment among Black coaches that they are playing by a different set of rules than their White counterparts. The result, Black coaches said, is a league where many Black assistants have resigned themselves to the notion that they will never get an opportunity to be a head coach — a position that, in addition to the immeasurable prestige, also could pay, on average, 10 times what a mid-level assistant makes — while others have left the profession entirely.
“It seems like the criteria moves,” Leslie Frazier, defensive coordinator for the Buffalo Bills, said in an interview. “One week, or one year, it’s ‘We want an offensive-minded guy.’ Another year: ‘We want a guy with a Super Bowl-winning background.’ What’s the criteria? Sometimes it’s because he’s ‘a great leader.’ Sometimes it’s because he ‘came up the same way I came up.’ But the common theme … is [an owner is going] to hire someone that looks like that owner.”
The NFL is both a financial behemoth, with record revenue of $11 billion in 2021, and a cultural institution with unmatched reach into the national psyche: 75 of the country’s 100 most-watched television programs in 2021 were NFL games. Its sheer might and media reach give it unprecedented sway over American culture and have allowed it to survive controversies that could have smothered lesser enterprises, most recently the rift over players kneeling during the national anthem to protest police violence against Black people.
The league, led by Commissioner Roger Goodell, has acknowledged its failures in promoting Black coaches, defending itself by highlighting its efforts to create a pipeline of diverse coaches. But when it comes to the bottom line, the league characterizes itself as largely powerless to direct the hiring practices of 32 individual teams that are owned almost exclusively by White men. It declined to provide The Post with any data beyond the aggregate demographics of head coaches and coordinators from 2002 to 2022. It also declined to make Goodell available for an interview.
“At the end of the day, we don’t make the hires,” said Troy Vincent, a former all-pro cornerback who played for four NFL teams and now is the league’s executive vice president of football operations. “We’ve exhausted ourselves with programs, initiatives, making sure that [owners] are aware of who’s out there [as candidates]. But we don’t make the hire. And so it’s been a difficult challenge for us, but we’ve got to keep pushing. And we believe that what we’re doing is the right thing until hearts change. …
“We’re still dealing with America’s original sin — slavery — and the misconception of who Black men are. So we’re just trying different things.”
Despite the league’s long-standing issues surrounding its dearth of Black leadership, the NFL and the vast majority of its teams have lagged behind corporate America in incorporating basic best practices that could diversify its top roles. The league hired its first chief diversity and inclusion officer in 2020, only after widespread protests following the murder of George Floyd prompted businesses nationwide to reckon with systemic racism. Twenty-three NFL franchises now have a “DEI lead” — a staffer tasked with “fostering a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment” — but only 11 are dedicated full-time to the role, league officials said.
As part of this project, The Post contacted all 32 teams seeking interviews with its owner (or, in the case of the publicly owned Green Bay Packers, its top executive). Only one — the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Art Rooney II, for whose father, Dan, the Rooney Rule is named — agreed to be interviewed for this story before it was published.
“Most of us were not expecting it to turn in the wrong direction the way it did, and to the extent it did, and over the time period that it did,” Rooney said of the recent downturn in the number of Black head coaches. “I don’t think there’s any one reason that you could point to. It’s obviously a trend that was not expected [and] not welcomed. ... It may have taken us too long to get to this point. We’re addressing the situation. But I’m just pleased to say at this point that I do think there’s a consensus and a collective effort to address it.”
In public statements, the NFL and its team owners often tout the league’s “holistic” approach to diversity, using metrics such as the number of minority head coaches and general managers and the rising number of women in coaching and front-office roles. Aside from Bowles, Smith and Tomlin, three additional head coaches are people of color: Miami’s Mike McDaniel, who is biracial; the New York Jets’ Robert Saleh, who is Lebanese American; and the Washington Commanders’ Ron Rivera, who is Latino.
But for many Black coaches, that word — “diversity” — obscures the real problem.
“The NFL doesn’t have a diversity problem. The NFL has a Black problem,” said Dennis Thurman, a former defensive coordinator for the Jets and Bills who left pro football in 2020 to join Deion Sanders’s coaching staff at Jackson State, a historically Black university. “There aren’t that many Hispanics playing in the NFL. There aren’t that many Asians. There aren’t women on the field in the NFL. I understand them wanting to be inclusive, and I applaud what they’re doing for those groups.
“But the issue is not women. It’s not Asians. It’s not Hispanics. The majority of players in the NFL are Black. They use the word ‘diversity.’ It’s real slick. But, no, uh-uh. That’s not the issue.”
In 1989, the Los Angeles Raiders made Art Shell the first Black head coach in modern NFL history. (Ronald C. Modra/Getty Images)
When the Raiders made Shell the first Black head coach of the modern era in 1989 — the first since Fritz Pollard of the 1921 Akron Pros in the American Professional Football Association, the precursor of the NFL — Black coaches across the league allowed themselves to believe it was the start of a wave.
“We thought that would open up the floodgates,” said Terry Robiskie, an NFL assistant from 1982 to 2020. “We just knew, ‘Man, we gettin’ ready to roll.’ … We just had to go and win games and be successful. We just thought: ‘Oh, boy. Before long, 50 percent of the head coaches in the National Football League are going to be Black.’ ”
30 head
30 head coaches
The Rooney Rule is established
Instead, it was three years before a second Black head coach, the Minnesota Vikings’ Dennis Green, joined Shell.
For the rest of that decade and into the next, the league never had more than three Black full-time head coaches at any time.
The adoption of the Rooney Rule in 2003 appeared to temporarily alter the trajectory, putting an influx of Black coaches in top jobs.
By the 2006 season, the NFL had seven Black head coaches, two of whom — Dungy and his protege Smith — became the first Black men to guide their teams to the Super Bowl, with Dungy’s Indianapolis Colts beating Smith’s Chicago Bears in February 2007.
By 2011, two more Black head coaches had reached the Super Bowl, with Pittsburgh’s Tomlin having won a ring. The league had seven Black coaches at the start of the 2011 season, and three more became interim coaches.
But despite those opportunities, the league is left today with just three Black head coaches.
The Rooney Rule has succeeded in getting Black coaches in front of general managers and owners for interviews. But the cultural disconnect between those coaches and the owners who have final say over hiring decisions remains too vast to bridge, former coaches and executives said.
“The owners of these teams predominantly grew up in different environments,” Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells, a White man with a track record of nurturing and promoting Black assistants, told The Post. “I don’t want to say their exposure isn’t too good, but really that’s probably the truth.”
Hall of Fame running back LaDainian Tomlinson, now a special assistant to ownership for the Los Angeles Chargers, said: “I really think there’s a disconnect [between] the owners and the kind of culture that is Black folks — not understanding the way Black folks communicate, the mannerisms, the expressions. It’s different than someone who looks like them. We hear owners say all the time, ‘Oh, I connected with this [White] candidate because they reminded me of myself.’ If we can’t get past that [mind-set with] coaches who don’t look like you or talk like you or come from the same background, they’ll never get a chance.”
The Denver Broncos' new ownership group is led by Rob Walton, center, and includes Condoleezza Rice, second from left, and Mellody Hobson, second from right. (David Zalubowski/AP)
Of the league’s 31 majority team owners, only two identify as people of color: Bills co-owner Kim Pegula, who is Asian American, and Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan, who is Pakistani American. After reports that the sale of the Denver Broncos might usher in the league’s first Black majority owner, the franchise recently was sold to a group led by Walmart heir Rob Walton.
While the Rooney Rule is easily adhered to — the Detroit Lions, fined $200,000 in 2003, are the only team to have been found in violation — it hasn’t altered the bottom line, in part because it is so easily gamed. In Flores’s lawsuit, he refers to many of these meetings as “sham interviews” — a concept that comes up frequently in conversations with other coaches and executives.
Anthony Lynn, the former coach of the Chargers, said he interviewed with six franchises before landing that job. He was offered more interviews, he said, but refused to meet “with an organization that had not already interviewed a minority because I did not want to be a token interview.”
Maurice Carthon, who won two Super Bowl rings as a running back with the New York Giants, was persuaded to go into coaching by Parcells in 1994. He served as an assistant for seven NFL teams over the next 19 seasons, three times rising to the role of offensive coordinator; in 2009, he was named assistant head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs. Carthon would interview unsuccessfully for five head coaching jobs before retiring in 2012 at 51.
Maurice Carthon had a long NFL coaching career as an assistant. (David Eulitt/Kansas City Star/Getty Images)
During an interview with the Oakland Raiders in 2004, Carthon, then with the Dallas Cowboys, knew almost as soon as he got off the plane that his candidacy was a farce — because, he said, Raiders senior personnel executive Michael Lombardi told him so. “He said to me, ‘You know, you’re not going to get this job,’ ” Carthon recalled.
Lombardi, now a media analyst and author, said he does not remember the conversation and was not directly involved in Carthon’s job interview, which was conducted by owner Al Davis. He did acknowledge contacting Carthon on behalf of the team, though, and recalled that Davis was more interested in a different candidate: Sean Payton, another Cowboys coach, who was regarded as a “young quarterback guru.” In any event, the unpredictable Davis hired Norv Turner.
But the most memorably unpleasant of Carthon’s interviews came with the New Orleans Saints in 2006, he said. During his conversation with owner Tom Benson, Carthon recalled, Benson said to him, “You know, in our organization here, we let the boys wash the cars.”
The Saints, who have never employed a Black head coach, hired Payton. Until being asked for comment by The Post, the team said in a statement, it had never heard of Carthon’s allegations, adding that no candidate ever mentioned receiving a racial comment from Benson, who died in 2018.
Carthon said he kept the “racist comment” to himself. Black coaches often do, Dungy said, to avoid appearing as though they’re blaming racism for not getting hired.
“There’s a culture of forced silence, because if you want another opportunity, you just can’t go out and say, ‘That interview that I got was a sham,’ or, ‘I didn’t get a fair deal,’ ” Dungy said. “It’ll be held against you.”
The NFL’s Vincent acknowledged Black coaches’ reluctance to speak up but insisted he and other league officials are willing to intervene when coaches feel they’ve been discriminated against.
“They remain silent because they want a second opportunity,” Vincent said, “and to speak out when you’re the minority, sometimes it can hurt you. We’ve seen that happen. So we try to be a buffer where we can allow them to share in confidentiality.”
From left, Marvin Lewis, Lovie Smith, Tony Dungy, Herm Edwards, Romeo Crennel and Art Shell were all NFL head coaches in the 2006 season. (Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images)
A (coaching) tree grows in Tampa
At some franchises, the Rooney Rule has made no impact on head coaching hires, nor has it even helped Black coaches land the offensive and defensive coordinator roles that almost universally precede head coaching jobs.
In 2003, the year the rule was implemented, 22 percent of coordinators were Black, according to data compiled by the Global Sport Institute at Arizona State University and The Post. By 2020, that number was 18 percent, forcing the NFL to tacitly acknowledge the policy’s shortcomings by extending it to coordinator positions. Last season, 27 percent of coordinators were Black.
At 13 NFL franchises, still
no Black full-time head coach
A team-by-team look at the percentage of games coached by Black coaches from 1990 to 2021
Other races:
For teams that have relocated, data includes games from all cities where they played.
At 13 NFL franchises, still no Black full-time head coach
For teams that have managed to diversify, much of the work appears to have been done by head coaches with enough power to overcome the owners’ discomfort. Parcells’s coaching tree is one of the most successful, and one of the more diverse, in NFL history. He recommended Romeo Crennel for his first job and was an early promoter of Lynn and Bowles. In 2003, he made Carthon the first (and so far only) Black offensive coordinator of the Cowboys.
This was how Parcells summed up his view of hiring assistants: “If you can help, come on in. If you can’t, get out of here.”
But the work of providing opportunities for Black coaches has disproportionally been done by other Black coaches. Among this subset, one name stands out: Tony Dungy.
The Dungy effect
This diagram depicts Dungy's connections with coaches who have led NFL teams, including the coaches he employed in the NFL and the coaches whom those coaches employed
Wilks
Singletary
Line thickness represents the number of years two coaches worked together. Only connections in which one coach is a NFL head coach and the other coached beneath him are depicted. Some of the coaches depicted worked for Dungy or a former Dungy assistant after they had already served as an NFL head coach
Of the 16 Black men who became full-time head coaches after Dungy, five served as assistants under him and a sixth, Steve Wilks, was an assistant under one of his proteges (Lovie Smith). Marvin Lewis, an intern with Kansas City while Dungy was an assistant there, went on to become the Cincinnati Bengals’ head coach, and two more Black future head coaches, Hue Jackson and Vance Joseph, were on Lewis’s Bengals staffs.
In essence, Dungy helped develop more than half of the Black men who followed him into the NFL’s head coaching ranks.
One of Dungy’s first hires with the Bucs was Herm Edwards as his defensive backs coach and assistant head coach in 1996. By 2001, Edwards had been hired as head coach of the Jets.
As Edwards recalled: “The first thing [Dungy] did, he said: ‘You’re going to be a secondary coach. But I’m going to [make you] the assistant head coach, and that’s more important than being a coordinator.’ He said, ‘I’m going to teach you how to be a head coach.’ … And so when he made decisions, I was involved. And there were times I had opportunities to leave to become a coordinator, and I chose not to. And Tony would [say]: ‘You don’t need to do that. Just trust me. You will be a head coach.’ And within five years, I was.”
Having served as the league’s main engine for inclusion for much of his career, Dungy retired in 2009 — turning a strong Colts team over to another protege, Jim Caldwell, who took Indianapolis to the Super Bowl in his first season.
“What Tony did for me during that stretch, it’s a model for [making] certain that you put a guy in the best position to succeed,” Caldwell said. “… He wanted me to see everything. He allowed me to literally do it all. … So by the time I took over the job, I had a really good feel for it.”
It would take a few more years after Dungy’s exit, as his proteges cycled through various hirings and firings, but once that engine idled, the NFL’s progress died out.
“I get frustrated when I hear about the ‘pipeline,’ ” Dungy said. “ ‘We’ve got to do this, we’ve got to do that to get more people in the pipeline.’ The pipeline is full of people. We’ve just got to get ownership to notice and to see some of these guys and get that to become the trend.”
The Rams' Sean McVay and the Bengals' Zac Taylor exemplify a recent trend. (Paul Childs/Reuters)
Rise of the ‘whiz kids’
On Jan. 12, 2017, the Los Angeles Rams hired Sean McVay as their head coach. He was 12 days shy of his 31st birthday, making him the youngest head coach of the NFL’s modern era.
The Rams hadn’t posted a winning record in 14 years. But McVay led the team to an 11-5 record and a division title in his first year, then to the Super Bowl the next season. By last season, which concluded with McVay’s Rams winning the Super Bowl over the Cincinnati Bengals — who were coached by his 38-year-old former assistant, Zac Taylor — it was clear McVay was the prototype of the latest hot thing in the NFL: the bright, young football mind.
Head coaches hired at age 40 or younger
McVay
For decades, young coaches were rare, with only 22 coaches 40 and younger hired between 1990 and 2016.
Since 2017, the year the Rams hired McVay, 15 coaches 40 and younger have leaped into top jobs.
But among this new breed of coaches — featuring glowing reputations in the media as “whiz kids,” “young geniuses” or “quarterback whisperers” — only one has been Black: Flores.
“When we listen to our media partners, they don’t consider Pep Hamilton a ‘boy genius,’ ” the NFL’s Vincent said, referring to the Texans’ 48-year-old offensive coordinator, who is Black. “So there’s a lot of obstacles that we don’t control. ‘Boy wonder,’ ‘genius’ — we [as Black men] don’t have the luxury.”
The same bias that for decades prevented Black players from being quarterbacks in the NFL now appears to be blocking their paths to head coaching jobs. From 1990 to 2015, the proportion of offensive- and defensive-minded head coaches fluctuated around 50 percent each season, The Post found. Since then, offensive-oriented head coaches have become more common (56 percent in 2022), and defensive-focused head coaches have fallen from favor (38 percent).
Rules that protect the quarterback, and the highflying offenses that empower them, have made experience overseeing the passing game especially attractive to front offices. But the jobs that offer that experience — offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach — are overwhelmingly filled by White coaches. Of the 169 coaches to serve as offensive coordinators from 1999 to 2021, 86 percent were White.
In March, the NFL enacted a rule requiring teams to employ at least one person of color as an offensive assistant beginning this season. The rule was also an acknowledgment that some teams were unwilling to do so on their own.
Since 1990, just 30 percent of Black full-time NFL head coaches have climbed the coaching ladder through a primarily offensive track, compared with 56 percent of White coaches. And two of the consensus top offensive coordinators in the game today — Eric Bieniemy of the Chiefs and Byron Leftwich of the Buccaneers, both of whom are Black and both of whom have won the Super Bowl in the past three years — have been unable to convert their success into head coaching jobs, even after several interviews apiece.
Meanwhile, of the six minority head coaches in the NFL this season, five — Bowles, Rivera, Saleh, Smith and Tomlin — come from defensive backgrounds. Only McDaniel comes from the offensive side.
In essence, the NFL has decided it’s okay for Black men to be quarterbacks — just not to coach them. And in the process, coaches said, the league has failed to learn from the lessons of the White QB era.
“A lot of the Black quarterbacks [of earlier eras], their skill set was outside the box of what the NFL did,” Dungy said. “They just needed people to think a little bit differently. And that’s what it took for the quarterbacks. Now all of a sudden … we’ve got this young group of quarterbacks that is [setting] the league on fire.
“And I think the same thing is true with coaching. We’ve got some coaches who have that same brilliance [but aren’t] getting an opportunity. We think we’re hiring the best. We think that we aren’t missing anything, but we are.”
David Culley waited a long time to be an NFL head coach, finally getting his shot with the Texans in 2021. (Eric Smith/AP)
Two coaches, two paths
Consider the career trajectories of two recent hires.
Kevin O’Connell, a quarterback who spent years on the fringes of the NFL before turning to coaching, skyrocketed through the ranks. He landed his first NFL position as the Browns’ quarterbacks coach in 2015 at age 29 and was an offensive coordinator four years later with Washington. When O’Connell, who is White, was chosen to lead the Vikings in 2022, he had spent just seven years as a football coach.
Then there is David Culley. After making history as Vanderbilt University’s first Black quarterback, Culley began coaching as soon as he received his diploma. He worked for seven colleges before making the jump to the NFL, where he logged almost three decades as a position coach; as an NFL wide receivers coach alone, he spent three times as long as O’Connell spent as an assistant in any role.
Two paths — one especially short, one incredibly long — show how experiences vary for coaches of different races.
Culley
NFL head
NFL interim
low-level
NFL head coach
NFL interim coach
NFL coordinator
NFL mid-level
NFL advisory
NFL low-level
College head coach
College assistant
He finally got his shot as a head coach in 2021 at 65 with the Texans in what seemed to be an impossible situation. Culley took over a team that had just lost defensive superstar JJ Watt in free agency and that was without starting quarterback Deshaun Watson all season. The Texans went 4-13, and Culley was fired after the season.
The career paths of O’Connell and Culley are emblematic. Although White and Black coaches average around 20 years until their first NFL head coaching position, they tend to take different paths to the jobs.
Stuck in the pipeline
The amount of time coaches spend in common roles before their first head coaching opportunity varies by their race.
Black coaches
White coaches
College HC
Shown are the average number of years spent in each position by Black and White coaches, including those who spent no years in that role.
Sources: Post reporting, Post reporting
NFL mid-levelassistant
Nearly half of Black coaches played in the NFL, compared with a quarter of White ones, suggesting a prerequisite exists for some coaches that doesn’t for others. Black coaches then languish for nearly twice as long as assistants and position coaches, The Post found, spending much longer in the league’s middle levels of coaching before becoming head coaches. The Black men who became NFL head coaches in the past decade, on average, had spent more than nine years longer than their White counterparts in mid-level assistant jobs and three years fewer as coordinators.
White coaches, meanwhile, spent more time in college roles — providing an additional pathway that isn’t available for Black coaches. Since 1990, seven White coaches became first-time NFL head coaches without having coached in the league, something no Black coach has done. Those seven coaches have gone a collective 161-205-1 (a .440 winning percentage).
A shorter leash
At the end of the 2021 season, two of the league’s three Black head coaches, Culley and Flores, were fired. It was reminiscent of the purge that followed the 2018 season, when five of seven Black coaches lost their jobs — and another reminder of the fleeting nature of those jobs for Black men.
Getting fired is a near-certainty for head coaches across sports. But Black NFL coaches face an especially difficult path to keeping their jobs.
Among coaches fired since the 2010 season, Black coaches have been ousted after fewer than 20 games 24 percent of the time, compared with 10 percent for White coaches.
Winning more games doesn’t necessarily save them. Since 1990, Black coaches who have won at least six regular season games have been fired that year 12 percent of the time; for White coaches, that figure is 8 percent. When their teams won at least nine games, Black head coaches were fired 8 percent of the time — vs. 2 percent for White coaches.
In other words: Since 1990, a Black head coach who wins at least nine games and a White coach who wins at least six have roughly the same chance of being fired.
At least a Black coach who gets fired can say he had the opportunity to be a full-time head coach, however fleeting. The same cannot be said of another group: interim coaches, those hired to replace an outgoing head coach, often late in a lost season. That is one subgroup where Black representation far outpaces that of full-time coaches.
While Black coaches have held 13 percent of full-time head coaching jobs since 1990, The Post found, they’ve held 29 percent of the interim stints — an indication that owners are most willing to entrust their franchises to Black men only when the season already has gone sideways.
“That was the hardest thing I ever had to do,” said Mel Tucker, the head coach at Michigan State, who was the interim coach of the Jaguars for the last five games of 2011. “It wasn’t my team. It wasn’t my coaches. … So you try to improve the team. And then you try to win some games, keep the train on the tracks, you know, and then … you try to interview for the job.”
“They either want you to be the head coach or not,” he added. “It’s not like you can prove yourself in five games.”
Since 1990, Black men have held interim head coaching jobs 14 times and been retained full-time just three times. All three — Crennel with the Chiefs, Frazier with the Vikings and Mike Singletary with the 49ers — posted at least a .500 record during their interim stints. For White coaches, whether they are hired full-time has no correlation to their on-field performance as the interim coach, The Post found.
“Let’s face it: Nine times out of 10, if I’m an interim head coach, this ship is sinking. Maybe the ship’s already at the bottom of the ocean,” said Robiskie, whose interim stints, with Washington in 2000 and the Browns in 2004, did not lead to full-time opportunities. “And what am I doing? I’m trying to keep it afloat for three more weeks for the next guy who’s coming.”
Robiskie, 67, is retired, part of the generation of Black coaches for whom whatever progress is made will come too late. Without having been a full-time NFL head coach, they are mostly forgotten — Perry Fewell, Sherman Lewis, Willie Shaw, Clarence Shelmon, Ray Sherman, Jim Skipper, Emmitt Thomas and others — except in the minds of the fortunate few who came after.
“The shoulders that we stood on to become head coaches — those guys never got a bite of the apple,” Herm Edwards said. “But they set it up for us. … Guys who have been in the league for a long time, it’s probably [too late]. It’s not their fault. It’s just — that’s how it works. A lot of men of color that have been in the league for 10, 12 years, they’re sitting there going, ‘You’re right — I’m not getting [a shot].’
“But there’s maybe a young guy on your staff that might have an opportunity [someday]. That was me. That was Marvin [Lewis]. That was Tony Dungy. That was Lovie Smith. That was Mike Tomlin.”
Brian Flores's lawsuit brought more attention to the NFL's hiring practices. (Mark Brown/Getty Images)
‘They have an obligation’
In early February — deep into the hiring cycle, with the Flores lawsuit filed and the list of Black head coaches down to Tomlin — the NFL was facing criticism as unrelenting as at any time in its history.
The continued dearth of Black head coaches “is not a coincidence or a mere accident, but more systemic in nature,” Rep. Bobby L. Rush (D-Ill.) wrote in the wake of Flores’s lawsuit. “Simply put, this is bold-faced racism.”
Two unusual developments in the following weeks reduced the heat on the NFL. First, the Texans, who were reportedly leaning toward hiring Josh McCown, a then-42-year-old former NFL quarterback with no coaching experience above the high school level, pivoted to Smith.
Then Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians, a Super Bowl champion in the 2020 season, abruptly stepped down, bequeathing the job to his handpicked successor, Bowles.
“The league knows there’s a point where they should be involved,” said John Wooten, former chairman of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated to championing diversity in the NFL. “They’re doing what they should be doing as a league if they want the diversity and inclusion that they say they want. We expect them to step in whenever a voice is needed or wanted or accepted. … In those cases, I think they have an obligation.”
The events of this February left some with a distinct sense of deja vu.
At the end of the 2001 season, the firings of Green by the Vikings and Dungy by the Buccaneers briefly left the NFL with one Black head coach. That offseason, attorneys Cyrus Mehri and Johnnie Cochran Jr. commissioned a report exposing the league’s treatment of Black coaches and threatened legal action. The NFL adopted the Rooney Rule the next year.
“Twenty years later, the same thing happens,” Dungy said of the parallels between those offseasons. “And in this 20-year period, it’s like the NFL didn’t hear. … I think Brian Flores just felt like something needed to be done.” (Flores declined to comment for this story.)
Over the years, the Rooney Rule has been tweaked and strengthened. It now requires teams to interview two external minority candidates for head coach openings and one for coordinator and quarterbacks coach openings. Teams are rewarded with draft picks if they develop a minority coach who leaves to become a head coach or a GM. And teams are now required to employ at least one minority coach on offense.
“I think you could certainly argue that we didn’t respond quick enough to the negative trend,” said the Steelers’ Rooney, who chairs the NFL’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. But through improvements to the rule and honest self-appraisal by those in the league, he said, there is now “a sufficient amount of scrutiny to the hiring process so that if we feel like teams are skirting the rule or not abiding by the rules, that’s going to be identified and addressed. So there’s a lot of scrutiny inside the league now.”
Yet all the improvements and all the scrutiny have yet to bridge the widest gap of all — the one residing in the minds of the league’s owners. The result is a growing sense of hopelessness among Black coaches.
Ex-Lions coach Jim Caldwell and former Bengals coach Marvin Lewis remain out of the NFL. (Gary Landers/AP)
“We don’t feel like there’s a lot of hope when Marvin Lewis is still [out of the league] and Jim Caldwell is still sitting at home,” said Hue Jackson, the former Raiders and Cleveland Browns coach and the current coach at Grambling, a historically Black university. “You talk about two of the guys who were trendsetters, and they can’t get an opportunity. And so now we’re talking about the young minority coach getting a chance. And that really doesn’t happen. But it happens for our [White] counterparts, you know? So tell me where the hope is. Show me where the hope is.”
Rather than attempt to force owners into specific hires, which it is powerless to do anyway, the NFL has focused on populating the pipeline with diverse candidates, empowering them through symposiums and workshops — and asking for patience.
“Stick to the plan. Stick to the plan. Stick to the plan,” said Jonathan Beane, an NFL senior vice president and its chief diversity and inclusion officer. “You have to have a plan that addresses the issues, is well thought out and one that you can believe in. Otherwise, you shouldn’t even try. We believe that is going to get the results. Stay the course. … I love to read articles about the hiring cycle and our efforts — even the shortcomings. I’m going to soak it all in. We can’t be afraid of scrutiny.”
This May in Atlanta, the NFL held what it called the inaugural Coach and Front Office Accelerator Program for prospective head coach and general manager candidates of diverse backgrounds. While the program could easily blend into the rest of the league’s sprawling but mostly toothless diversity efforts, the accelerator program stood out because it placed more than 60 aspiring head coaches and GMs, the majority of them Black, face to face with ownership representatives of each of the 32 teams.
“Everyone is very focused on trying to find a way to get this right, to be an organization that is the gold standard for inclusion and diversion, not just in leadership roles but throughout the organization,” said Dasha Smith, the NFL’s executive vice president and chief administrative officer.
Still, one could argue these measures are designed to make the league appear proactive without addressing the core issue — as critics said the NFL did during previous controversies, such as those regarding concussions and players kneeling during the national anthem.
Real change, at least when it comes to an institution as powerful as the NFL, rarely comes without intense external pressure. That is how it happened two decades ago with the introduction of the Rooney Rule. There are many who hope a similar upheaval arrives in the coming years — one that results not in more interviews but in head coaching jobs.
If that happens, the vehicle is likely to be Flores’s lawsuit.
“I’m proud of him for what he did, what he stands for, [and] disappointed that it had to come to that,” Jackson said. “Somebody had to take a stand for minority coaches. Somebody [had] to stand on the hill and fight. …
“We’re talking about the National Football League, and people don’t want to challenge the National Football League. But at some point, people got to wake up.”
Additional reporting by Jerry Brewer, Adam Kilgore, Sally Jenkins, Candace Buckner, Gus Garcia-Roberts, Nicole Dungca, Mark Maske, Nicki Jhabvala and Jayne Orenstein. Editing by Joe Tone, Meghan Hoyer, Matthew Rennie, Jason Murray and Joan Neisen. Copy editing by Michael Petre. Photo editing by Toni L. Sandys. Video editing by Jayne Orenstein, Joshua Carroll, Jorge Ribas and Justin Scuiletti. Design and development by Brianna Schroer and Joe Fox. Design editing by Virginia Singarayar and Matt Callahan. Logo design by Chloe Meister. Project management by Wendy Galietta.
Dave Sheinin has been covering baseball and writing features and enterprise stories for The Washington Post since 1999. In 2019, he was awarded the Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportswriting. Twitter Twitter
By Artur Galocha
Artur Galocha is a graphics reporter focusing on Sports. Before joining The Washington Post in December 2020, he was a graphics editor at El País (Spain). Twitter Twitter | 2022-09-21T10:15:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How Black NFL coaches, despite Rooney Rule, are denied top jobs - Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/interactive/2022/nfl-black-head-coaches/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/interactive/2022/nfl-black-head-coaches/ |
The central bank is expected to raise rates by three-quarters of a percentage point for the third consecutive time
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell speaks during a Senate hearing in June. The central bank is expected to raise interest rates again as it tries to bring down inflation. (Oliver Contreras for The Washington Post)
The central bank is expected to raise rates by three-quarters of a percentage point on Wednesday at the end of its two-day policy meeting. Some market analysts think the Fed could hoist rates by a full percentage point, after federal inflation data came in unexpectedly hot last week. Either option would be considered massive by historical standards, and the expectation of a least a .75 increase underscores the extent to which the Fed has had to escalate its fight against the economy’s biggest threat.
“If it’s [one percentage point], I think that would be interpreted as a statement,” said Justin Wolfers, professor of public policy and economics at the University of Michigan. “If they raise by 100 basis points, it’s not, ‘we need to get there in a hurry.’ It’s, ‘I need to punch much harder than you thought.’ ”
But with big actions come big risks that the Fed could soon force a recession. So far, the job market and consumer spending — two crucial economic engines — have stayed resilient through the Fed’s sharp rate hikes, and Americans may even be feeling better about inflation. But interest rate increases operate with a lag, and before too long, the full weight of what the bank has already done may become clear. The markets have grown increasingly anxious about a recession, and stocks have tumbled in recent weeks on investor anxiety that the Fed won’t ease up on its policies anytime soon. Most major stock indexes closed down about 1 percent on Monday.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell will appear at a news conference at 2:30 p.m. Eastern. He is likely to get questions on inflation, the risks of a recession, future rate hikes — and what the toll of those moves will be. In a much-anticipated speech last month, Powell acknowledged the “pain” the country will face as the Fed wrestles inflation down to more normal levels.
“There will very likely be some softening of labor market conditions,” Powell said in an unusually direct speech at the annual Jackson Hole Economic Symposium. “While higher interest rates, slower growth and softer labor market conditions will bring down inflation, they will also bring some pain to households and businesses. These are the unfortunate costs of reducing inflation. But a failure to restore price stability would mean far greater pain.”
The Fed has raised rates four times in the past six months, by three-quarters of a percentage point in June and July. After misjudging inflation for much of last year, the Fed has been in a race to push past the “neutral” zone of roughly 2.5 percent, where rates don’t slow or juice the economy, and into “restrictive territory” that dampens consumer demand and gets inflation down. Another hike of three-quarters of a percentage point would get rates between 3 percent and 3.25 percent, and rates are expected to climb to at least 4 percent by the end of the year.
Higher interest rates are the Fed’s main tool for slowing the economy, since they make a host of lending — from mortgage rates to auto loans and borrowing for businesses — more expensive. The goal is to curb demand, especially since Fed policy can’t do anything to fix supply-side issues that are also driving prices up, like chip shortages in Asia or the energy crisis spurred by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Wednesday’s expected rate hike comes one week after inflation data from August offered little reassurance that the Fed’s moves are working. Prices rose 8.3 percent in August compared to last year, and 0.1 percent compared to the month before, with inflation continuing to push up food and housing costs. Fed officials had hoped that the latest consumer price index report would show a meaningful drop in inflation, thanks in part to falling gas prices. Instead, they got a clear signal that inflation is becoming more entrenched — and will be that much harder to root out of the economy. | 2022-09-21T10:19:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Federal Reserve set to hike interest rates to fight inflation - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/09/21/fed-rate-hike-inflation/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/09/21/fed-rate-hike-inflation/ |
Savers who missed out on the stock market boom -- and saw pitiful interest income for years -- are seeing their returns creep up a bit
Perspective by Allan Sloan
The Federal Reserve building in Washington. (Stefani Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images)
The Federal Reserve’s four rate increases this year and Wednesday’s upcoming fifth increase have been major factors in sending both stocks and bonds into bear markets.
However, tens of millions of people are getting a little-recognized benefit from these rate increases. I’m talking about people who own money market mutual funds, whose assets consist of high-quality, short-term IOUs from the federal government, banks and other financial institutions.
The interest that holders of these funds are getting these days is more than 100 times — or 10,000 percent — above what they were earning at the end of last year.
In addition, yields on short-term Treasury securities, such as 30-day or 1-year Treasury bills, have risen by hundreds of percent above last year’s level.
Supersized rate hikes are the Fed's new normal
Call it the Revenge of the Savers, whose interest income had gotten vaporized by the Fed twice in recent years. But now, their income is creeping up a bit.
From March 2020 through this past March, the Fed pushed short-term interest rates down to essentially zero to try to offset economic damage caused by the pandemic.
Those ultralow rates benefited the overall economy and helped stabilize the financial system, but they hurt savers who were trying to live on the income from safe, secure short-term investments.
According to the Investment Company Institute, the mutual fund industry’s trade organization, there are about 58 million money market mutual fund accounts, which means lots of people benefit when money fund interest yields rise, and have their income diminished when rates fall.
Numbers from Peter Crane, whose Crane Data is the go-to source on money market funds, indicate the funds were yielding 0.02 percent at the end of last year, and had about $5 trillion of assets.
Get out your calculator, multiply $5 trillion by 0.0002, and you see that the funds collectively were yielding about $1 billion a year.
These days, the average yield on these funds is about 2.11 percent. Do the multiplication again, and you see that holders’ annualized income is running a bit over $105 billion a year. That’s more than 105 times — call it 10,500 percent — the year-end number.
To be sure, money fund holders aren’t getting rich on their current income. But it’s way above what they’d been getting. And it’s going to rise more after this week’s Fed increase works its way into money fund yields, a process that will take about three weeks.
Yields will rise more by the end of the year if the Fed, as almost everyone expects, continues raising rates to try to fight inflation.
Crane is projecting a 3 percent yield for money funds by mid-October and about 4 percent by year-end.
For people looking for another safe investment, the 30-day Treasury bill was yielding 2.57 percent on Tuesday, more than 40 times its 0.06 percent yield at the end of last year.
And the one-year Treasury was yielding 4.03 percent, more than 10 times the 0.39 percent that it was yielding at year-end.
I’ve written numerous columns about how prudent, conservative savers were getting screwed by the Fed lowering rates to almost nothing to help bail out the imprudent and bolster the economy.
Now, savers are getting a bit of their own back.
Sure, I don’t want to see the return of the days of double-digit money fund and Treasury bill yields, like we had in the 1980s when inflation was running wild.
But it sure is nice to see tens of millions of people getting yields on safe, short-term investments that include a number to the left of the decimal point rather than looking like a rounding error. | 2022-09-21T10:19:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Fed rate rise offers boon to the cautious and to savers - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/09/21/savers-investors-fed-rate-rise/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/09/21/savers-investors-fed-rate-rise/ |
NextFest returns with a two-day celebration of D.C.’s music culture
NextFest returns to Meridian Hill Park for a second year on Sept. 24. (Viva Ventura/Darnell Smith)
Whether referred to as Meridian Hill or Malcolm X, the rectangular park at the southwest corner of Columbia Heights has been the site of community gatherings for more than a century.
The park’s denizens, as once compiled by Washington Post writer David Montgomery, have included “Edwardian promenaders, Prohibition partyers, Depression bedrollers, bossy senatorial wives, soccer players, drummers, drug dealers, muggers, lovers, writers, martial artists, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Von Trapp Family Singers, Sun Ra, Tito Puente, Angela Davis, Dick Gregory, Bill Clinton.”
Since a revitalization in the early 1990s that restored its pre-bad-old-days glory, the park has remained a gathering spot for a diverse, if more mundane, cast of characters. Yet the weight of the park’s history is still present, even if unknown to recent adoptees. As Steve Coleman — one of the key organizers of the park’s rehab — once said, “Past, present and future must be present in the theme of every event.”
That is certainly the case with NextFest, which will be staged in and around the park on Sept. 24 and 25. Presented by CapitalBop, Long Live GoGo and Washington Parks & People, the second annual festival is a celebration of D.C.’s musical culture, with a full day of jazz, funk and go-go performances on Saturday and classes, discussions and lectures on Sunday.
“NextFest grew out of our desire to celebrate the cultural legacy of D.C. as a center of Black music and Black culture, and an acknowledgment that in D.C., politics, protests, music and gathering are always interlinked,” said Giovanni Russonello, co-founder and editor in chief for CapitalBop.
For 12 years, CapitalBop has worked to enrich, preserve and promote D.C.’s jazz scene. When booking shows, the organization has tried to connect younger and older generations both onstage and in the crowd, while bringing music to DIY spaces, galleries, rock clubs, theaters, warehouses and more. Often, the bills expand beyond jazz to a wider gamut of sounds and styles, which CapitalBop and the other organizers have looked to replicate with NextFest.
“CapitalBop is creating a space where it really displays all of the different live music offerings that D.C. appreciates,” said Justin “Yaddiya” Johnson, founder of Long Live GoGo and co-booker of the festival. “Live music is definitely a part of the DNA of the area.”
Jazz can be more than a set of stylistic regulations: It’s a mind-set, a messy community history, music that puts you in a specific place based on the physical experience of listening to it. In D.C., CapitalBop and the organizers of NextFest hear jazz everywhere. And while D.C.’s musical identity is distinct and powerful, it’s not tied to any particular genre, despite efforts by some to pigeonhole the city’s musicians. Russonello poses Chuck Brown as an example: In his music, the threads of go-go are impossible to untangle from inspirations including Jimmy Reed’s blues guitar, Duke Ellington’s jazz orchestration, James Brown’s funk and Barry White’s soul. That musical tapestry informs NextFest.
“The criterion for booking this festival didn’t have to do with genre as much as it had to do with [the question], ‘Is this music about the community, and is it a force for healing?’ ” he explains.
The bill for NextFest delivers that force in different ways. There are go-go heavyweights New Impressionz, UCB (a band about to celebrate its 25th anniversary) and the Soul Searchers (who began their run as Chuck Brown’s backing band). Veterans including jazz drummer Lenny Robinson and free jazz bassist William Parker and his Heart Trio are programmed alongside D.C. soul singer Cecily. Meanwhile, the bleeding edge of experimental music is explored by duo Freddie Douggie, composed of Ben Lamar Gay and Jayve Montgomery, and genre agnostics Raw Poetic and Damu the Fudgemunk. And — as they did last year — the drummers and dancers of the long-running Malcolm X drum circle will keep the beat alive, as they do every weekend.
To connect to the park’s history of activism and education — it was Angela Davis who called for the park to be named after Malcolm X, after all — NextFest also includes a day of culture and conversations at the Josephine Butler Parks Center, which is operated by festival co-presenter Washington Parks & People. The festival is also being supported by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the D.C. Office of Cable Television, Film, Music and Entertainment as part of its 202Creates effort.
Having buy-in from various organizations, both nonprofit and city-run, not only makes NextFest possible but speaks to its mission of bringing people together and claiming space for the Black musical heritage of D.C.
Concert: Sept. 24 from noon to dusk in Meridian Hill Park, 16th and W streets NW. Music performances, panel discussions and films: Sept. 25 from 11:45 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. at Josephine Butler Parks Center, 2437 15th St. NW. Full schedule for both days can be found at nextfestdc.com. Free. | 2022-09-21T11:15:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | NextFest returns with a two-day celebration of D.C.'s musical culture - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/09/21/nextfest-preview/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/09/21/nextfest-preview/ |
The nation’s oldest state-supported military college sees 25 percent drop in number of freshmen, triggering alarm
The Corps of Cadets marches out of the barracks for a change-of-command ceremony at Virginia Military Institute on May 14, 2021. (Parker Michels-Boyce for The Washington Post)
Freshman enrollment at Virginia Military Institute has plummeted by 25 percent this year, prompting alarm and debate among officials and alumni about how to fix the problem.
The nation’s oldest military college typically enrolls about 500 new cadets at the start of its renowned “Hell Week” — a period of grueling training and verbal abuse — each August. In 2021, the number of freshman was 496; the year before, it was 522, the highest ever, according to the college’s data.
At a Board of Visitors meeting Tuesday, VMI’s superintendent, retired Army Maj. Gen. Cedric T. Wins, said the school had hoped to attract 520 freshmen. He blamed a combination of national trends, including falling birthrates and a drop in the number of postsecondary students nationwide, and factors unique to VMI.
For the past two years, the college has faced intense scrutiny over racism and sexism on its Lexington campus, fueling a public battle among its alumni over the school’s identity and way forward.
During a presentation for the board, Wins showed a slide entitled, “Possible Drivers for a 25% drop in VMI Admissions for the Class of 2026.” The first reason listed: “VMI brand reputation tarnished in various media outlets.” The third bullet point: “Ideological differences among a divided alumni base.”
At a small school that costs about $30,00 for in-state students and $60,400 for out-of-state students, the consequences have been dramatic. Overall, VMI counts 1,512 students, down from 1,652 the year before, and about 1,700 in 2019.
Wins said the college’s yield — the percentage of students who enroll after being accepted — has also dropped. According to the college’s statistics, the yield fell from about 53 percent in 2018 to 43 percent in 2022.
The plunge in enrollment has sparked consternation — and more division — among parents and alumni. On one Facebook group, they began arguing shortly after Hell Week began about why the number of “rats,” as freshmen are known, was so low this year. Some blamed the push to make VMI more welcoming to women and cadets of color.
“Nobody wants a woke VMI,” one graduate declared.
When the probe, conducted by the law firm of Barnes & Thornburg, concluded in June 2021 that VMI suffered from a “racist and sexist culture,” a conservative political action committee called the Spirit of VMI mocked the findings online and denounced the school’s leadership for “appeasement.”
In the war for VMI’s future, some powerful alumni resist change while others demand it
Since then, its supporters and other alumni have taken to conservative news sites or Facebook groups for the VMI community, railing against the college’s diversity, equity and inclusion training efforts.
In April, they circulated a petition seeking to halt the school’s potential contract with a Northern Virginia firm that conducts diversity training for corporations and government agencies. Around the same time, a company run by another graduate — who also helped resurrect the college’s student newspaper — sued VMI and the diversity training firm in an effort to stop the contract.
“Ideological differences among a divided alumni base certainly has affected us because if you contrast that with ... the peaks and valleys of the negative media press, what we are seeing from our alumni base is kind of a sustained negative reaction that has happened,” Wins told the Board of Visitors. “And, we have to decide amongst ourselves which is harmful. Both are harmful, but which is of more detriment to the institute and how do we turn that around?”
Wins, the first Black superintendent in VMI’s 182-year history, also said the college has fallen victim to “misinformation” from alumni who have accused it of embracing critical race theory. The college has consistently dismissed that allegation.
“Misinformation regarding our initiative for diversity, equity and inclusion and the thought, the notion, the misinformation about the institute and what it’s doing or what it’s not doing with critical race theory is certainly having an impact, we believe,” Wins told board members.
VMI’s first Black superintendent blasts White critics of diversity and equity reform
Though the federal service academies also reported a steep drop in applications, they have kept their enrollment numbers stable. At the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., the number of cadets who showed up on “Reception Day” was 1,210, slightly lower than the previous year, according to a spokesman. At the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., the number of students who began this year was 1,184, one more than than the prior year, a spokeswoman said.
William “Sonny” Leggett, a retired Army colonel and Citadel’s vice president of communications and marketing, said the school forecast that applications to colleges nationwide could fall this year and that it acted early to promote Citadel to students with an interest in attending military schools.
But Leggett also said The Citadel’s enrollment may have benefited from some of the controversy that VMI has faced the past two years.
“There’s an inevitable impact and reputational damage” that VMI suffered, he said. “Similar things have happened to other institutions, and how they handle those problems is key to their future success.”
During Tuesday’s meeting, when Citadel’s scholarship was brought up, Thomas Watjen, VMI’s board president, said, “Isn’t that the fastest way to try to get going here? Because there’s a sense of urgency.”
Wins agreed. VMI is exploring whether to offer a similar scholarship in the next year, Wins told the board, saying it could be “the thing we need to slide across the table.” | 2022-09-21T11:20:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | VMI enrollment plunges 25 percent amid diversity, woke division - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/21/vmi-enrollment-plunges-diversity-woke/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/21/vmi-enrollment-plunges-diversity-woke/ |
Transurban team selects construction partner for Maryland toll lanes
Tutor Perini will join a Transurban-led team trying to clinch a 50-year contract to build, finance and operate toll lanes on the Beltway and I-270
The American Legion Bridge will be replaced and expanded if Maryland adds toll lanes to part of the Capital Beltway and Interstate 270 via a public-private partnership. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)
A private consortium said Wednesday that it has selected a lead construction contractor to build toll lanes on part of Interstate 270 and the Capital Beltway in Maryland.
Australian toll road operator Transurban and Australian investment bank Macquarie said they have chosen a team of companies led by Los Angeles-based Tutor Perini Corp. to design and build the first segment of toll lanes. It would include the western part of Maryland’s Beltway, a new and wider American Legion Bridge, and I-270 between the Beltway and I-370.
First, however, Transurban would need to clinch a 50-year contract with the Maryland Department of Transportation for the private consortium to finance, build and operate the toll lanes in exchange for keeping most of the toll revenue.
Maryland board approves final rates for planned toll lanes on I-270, Beltway
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) has said that adding privately financed toll lanes for motorists who want to buy their way out of congestion is the only way the state can afford to provide significant traffic relief. Meanwhile, opponents say widening the highways would cause too much environmental damage and give short shrift to mass transit.
MDOT has estimated the first phase of construction to cost $3.75 billion to $4.25 billion, according to the project’s final environmental impact statement.
The project got a significant boost in August, when the Federal Highway Administration approved its environmental study. Opponents have threatened to sue on environmental grounds.
Hogan's toll lane plan for I-270, part of Capital Beltway receives federal approval
Project supporters would need to get a 50-year deal to the state’s Board of Public Works, which approves major contracts, before term-limited Hogan leaves office in January. Otherwise, a new governor could block, change or slow the toll lanes plan. Democratic gubernatorial nominee Wes Moore and Republican nominee Dan Cox have said they would like to consider major changes to the proposal.
If a long-term contract isn’t reached or the board rejects it, the state would have to reimburse the Transurban-led team up to $50 million of its planning costs, according to a predevelopment agreement the state signed in August 2021.
The Transurban team’s lack of a lead construction contractor has been at the center of a bid protest filed by Spanish construction firm Cintra, which lost out to Transurban on the predevelopment agreement. The protest, which is pending in court, alleges in part that the Transurban team’s lack of a construction partner violated the state’s bid rules for the project. MDOT has rejected the claims, and Transurban has defended MDOT’s procurement process.
In a statement, Pierce Coffee, president of Transurban North America, called Tutor Perini “the right partner” on a large project that “demands a strong team with the track record to collaborate and innovate.”
Tutor Perini chief executive Ronald Tutor said that the company brings “a strong record of meeting or exceeding project participation goals for disadvantaged businesses” and “the strength” of its union and nonunion contracting partners.
Maryland again denies Cintra bid protest on toll lanes plan
Tutor Perini has had some delays and cost overruns on other projects.
In 2019, a jury in Washington state rejected the company’s claim that the state was responsible for more than $300 million in cost overruns on a highway project after a massive tunneling machine hit a pipe and broke, causing 2 1/2 years of delay, according to the Seattle Times. The company’s contract for building part of the California bullet train project had grown from $1 billion to $2.4 billion as of late 2021, largely because of change orders, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Construction experts say large, highly complex infrastructure projects often go over budget or fall behind schedule because of unforeseen problems or, in some cases, inaccurately low bids.
Purple line delays, cost overruns reveal long-brewing problems
Under the toll lanes proposal, the private consortium would add two high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes in each direction to both highways. The first segment would include the Beltway between the Virginia side of a new and wider American Legion Bridge and the exit for Old Georgetown Road in Bethesda, as well as I-270 south of I-370. One of the I-270 HOT lanes would come from a converted carpool lane. The regular lanes would be rebuilt but remain free.
The Tutor Perini team includes a subsidiary, Wisconsin-based Lunda Construction, and Connecticut-based O&G Industries. Centreville, Va.-based Parsons Corp. will lead the team’s design work, Transurban said. | 2022-09-21T11:20:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Transurban team hires construction contractor for Maryland toll lanes - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/09/21/transurban-maryland-toll-lanes-construction/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/09/21/transurban-maryland-toll-lanes-construction/ |
The Uniper headquarters in Düsseldorf, Germany. (Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters)
BERLIN — The German government announced Wednesday that it would nationalize the country’s biggest importer of Russian gas, Uniper, expanding state intervention aimed at preventing an energy shortage because of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The move builds on a 15 billion euro rescue package from late July that was intended to stabilize the gas giant, which supplies 40 percent of the natural gas used across Germany. Through the additional 8 billion euro capital increase, the German government will now take ownership of 99 percent of the company.
The deal still needs to be approved by the European Commission.
German Economic Affairs and Climate Minister Robert Habeck said Wednesday the step became necessary as the situation has changed over the last few weeks. Conditions have worsened, he said, particularly since Russia halted all gas deliveries through the Nord Stream pipeline in early September.
“The decision was made,” he said at the news conference, “to ensure security of supply for Germany.”
Uniper, which is one of Europe’s largest gas companies, has struggled in the wake of the energy market turmoil following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The company, which imports roughly 50 percent of its gas from Russia, announced that reduced deliveries led to a 12 billion euro loss in the first half of 2022.
Klaus-Dieter Maubach, Uniper’s CEO, said the move to nationalization was necessary due to the worsening conditions and pledged that the company would do “its part in overcoming the energy crisis.”
For months, the German government has staunchly vowed to support Uniper because of the company’s key role within the country’s energy infrastructure. “We will not allow a systemically relevant company like Uniper to fail, thus jeopardizing Germany’s energy security.” Habeck said in July. “The shortage of energy that has been artificially created by Russia is not a normal fluctuation that the market can digest. ” | 2022-09-21T11:25:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Germany nationalizes Uniper to protect energy security - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/21/germany-uniper-nationalization-gas-russia/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/21/germany-uniper-nationalization-gas-russia/ |
Don’t Look Now, But TINA Has an Alternative
Would you rather buy a risk-free long-term Treasury bond yielding more than 3.5% or take your chances in the stock market? The jury is apparently still out among investors, but at least they’re debating the matter — as has rarely been the case in the post-financial crisis era.
Consider how the investment landscape has changed. In the 13 years through 2021, many investors saw stocks as the only viable option. Persistently loose monetary policy meant that the S&P 500 Index returned 16% a year, crushing the 2.5% total return on a portfolio of Treasuries and the 6.3% annual return on investment-grade corporate debt. Investors would have been forgiven for forgetting about the risks inherent to stocks because the outperformance was also remarkably consistent during that period. That gave rise to the prevalence of the “there is no alternative” — or TINA — motto in US equity markets.
The market is now shifting in ways that many traders haven’t experienced in their professional lives. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has pledged to keep interest rates high for an extended period to fight the worst inflation in 40 years, meaning companies’ financing costs should remain high and bonds can suddenly hold their own as long-term strategies.
It’s a return to a time and interest-rate environment in which the excess returns of equities were far less juicy and less consistent. Indeed, in the 25 years before the financial crisis, the excess total returns of stocks over Treasuries were about one-third as fat as they were in the 13 years after 2008.(1) If the market is returning to that paradigm, investors may have to think harder about whether 4.5 percentage points is appropriate compensation for the risk of riding the less predictable equities market headlong into a potential recession. Perhaps some will split the difference and the 60/40 stock-equity portfolio — which has been declared irrelevant 1,001 times — will come back into vogue.
To be sure, both asset classes have their risks, but at least they don’t seem like highly correlated ones. For equities, investors must worry that the Fed’s inflation fight will undermine resilient consumption trends and business investment and push the economy into a recession. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg put odds of a downturn at around 50% in the next 12 months, but there’s considerable debate about how deep it would be and the extent to which it would zap earnings. For their part, longer-term bonds face the risk that high inflation will force the Fed to raise interest rates even higher. Of course, in a worst-case scenario — stagflation — both bonds and stocks will continue to get hammered.
Then there’s the upbeat “soft landing” narrative, in which the Fed declares victory on inflation without inflicting too much pain on workers and consumers. In truth, any one of these outcomes appears conceivable, and that’s why projections are all over the map. Looking toward the end of the year, the median analyst surveyed by Bloomberg projects that 10-year bond yields will drop from these levels to 3.17%, implying prices will rally, but the range is a wide 2.55% to 4.1%. The median equity strategist predicts that the S&P 500 will a close at 4,300, but the range implies anything from an additional 12% drop to a 32% rally by the end of the year.
Fund investors aren’t exuding much clarity on the matter themselves. Money has been pouring into money-market-like exchange-traded funds in the past week, including the SPDR Bloomberg 1-3 month T-bill ETF, but speculative stock buying is hardly a thing of the past: The ProShares UltraPro QQQ — which seeks to offer three times the daily performance of the Nasdaq 100 Index — was also among the ETFs that saw the most inflows in the past week.
Ultimately, the market is still a ways off from settling on a new favorite asset class, and that may be a good thing. The environment of higher interest rates heralds a return to the hard work of investing — constantly reassessing the balance of risks and rewards instead of plowing full-steam ahead into a single asset class. That, too, could change eventually, especially if the Fed delivers on the soft-landing scenario and the economy goes back to its 2009-2021 status quo. But for the time being, investors are just going to have to contend with a world of difficult choices.
• Move Your Savings Account to an Online Bank Now: Alexis Leondis
• Wall Street Squirms While Main Street Gets Relief: Conor Sen
(1) Neither sample includes 2008 itself because it would sway the numbers drastically. | 2022-09-21T11:33:23Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Don’t Look Now, But TINA Has an Alternative - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/dont-look-now-but-tinahas-an-alternative/2022/09/21/603ad15a-399d-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/dont-look-now-but-tinahas-an-alternative/2022/09/21/603ad15a-399d-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) speaks with the media after touring a Loudoun County elections facility Tuesday. (Cliff Owen/AP)
A directive from Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) for public schools to restrict the rights of transgender students is either unenforceable or will be struck down in court because it appears to violate both state and federal law, experts and advocates said.
The model policies, released Friday evening, require schools to categorize transgender children by their “biological sex” when it comes to using the bathroom, locker room and other facilities and participating in activities. They also bar students from adopting a new name or pronouns without parental permission.
“Gov. Youngkin is trying to pick a political fight by attacking trans students, but his model policies are in conflict with recent court rulings,” said employment and civil rights attorney Joshua Erlich. “Discrimination against transgender individuals is illegal discrimination on the basis of sex.”
The directive, which does not go into effect until after a 30-day public comment period beginning later this month, says schools must comply with federal precedent and the Virginia Human Rights Act, but it does not explain how. A spokeswoman for the governor declined to answer specific questions about the policy, saying in a statement that it “requires that schools treat every single student with dignity and respect.” Some districts have vowed to resist it.
Recent federal court decisions have upheld protections for transgender people, including a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision, written by Trump appointee Neil M. Gorsuch, that determined that civil rights law barring sex discrimination covers transgender people.
In 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that a transgender student could not be barred from using a boys’ bathroom. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of that ruling last year.
Erlich represented a woman whose case recently led the Fourth Circuit to rule that gender dysphoria — the distress a person feels when their gender does not match their sex assigned at birth — is protected under disability law.
Virginia also has a Human Rights Act that bars discrimination in schools based on gender identity.
Youngkin’s policies include an admonition to treat transgender students “with respect, compassion, and dignity in the classroom and school environment.” But Eden Heilman, legal director of the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said that’s not enough: “That’s not how the law works.”
Del. Danica A. Roem, a Prince William Democrat and the first openly transgender member of the Virginia House of Delegates, said she has told concerned parents to expect legal challenges.
“They do not have the authority to do what they are doing,” Roem said. “Whether you agree with what the governor wants to do in terms of the merits, or lack thereof, of his policy, or disagree with him, what we all have to agree on is the governor cannot break the law.”
Youngkin put forward the model policies — a version of which must be adopted by all of the state’s 133 school districts — under legislation passed two years ago, during a Democratic administration, that was meant to protect transgender students. The legislation called for the Department of Education to “develop and make available to each school board model policies concerning the treatment of transgender students in public elementary and secondary schools that address common issues regarding transgender students in accordance with evidence-based best practices.”
Under then-Gov. Ralph Northam’s Democratic administration, schools were directed to respect a student’s “consistently asserted” gender identity. Few schools actually implemented policies in line with Northam’s model before his administration ended, leading to lawsuits from parents of trans children.
Youngkin’s policies say students can change their sex in official records if they have updated their birth certificates or other legal identification, but they do not say whether that would allow a transgender student access to any facilities conforming to their gender identity.
The Youngkin policies also say schools can separate student-athletes based on sex. But the 2020 Virginia law passed to protect transgender students specifically excluded athletics.
All Virginia public high schools are members of the Virginia High School League (VHSL), which has had its own trans-inclusive policy since 2014 and is a voluntary, nonprofit organization that does not answer to the governor’s office and the state legislature. Efforts by the legislature to force the league to allow home-schooled players or recognize robotics as a sport have failed. (The organization chose to include robotics in 2019.)
VHSL spokesman Mike McCall said the group was “still digesting” the model policies.
Jack Preis, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law, said the language in the state law might be vague enough to allow the governor’s office to issue the policies, as courts generally defer to agencies on ambiguous statutes.
“If you know Youngkin was coming along … you would have written this with a lot more focus,” he said.
But he said the model policies probably will fail for other reasons.
For example, he said, it’s not clear that teachers would be always be aware of a student’s “biological sex,” because of ambiguous names and clothing styles.
“Privacy rights are going to prevent many teachers from even knowing whether or not they are teaching a trans student,” Preis said.
Youngkin’s document does not define “biological sex” or address intersex children. It also does not mention students who identify as nonbinary, which is an option on U.S. passports and Virginia driver’s licenses.
“That’s a problem,” said Katrina Karkazis, a gender studies professor at Amherst College. “There are six to nine markers in the body that are sex traits and while some of those are commonly thought to be binary, many of them are not. … The question becomes which trait are you looking at in order to make a determination.” There is also scientific research indicating that gender dysphoria has biological roots, as the Fourth Circuit has noted. That is why discussion of transgender identity often refers to “sex assigned at birth,” Karkazis said.
The Youngkin administration said teachers have a First Amendment right to refuse to use students’ preferred pronouns, citing a decision from a federal appeals court in Ohio that allowed a teacher to sue after he was reprimanded for refusing a student’s request to use her preferred pronouns. But that case involved higher education, which analysts say makes it different.
“Freedom of expression under the First Amendment is much different in a college classroom than it is in a K-through-12 classroom,” said Suzanne Eckes, an education law professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. While pronouns are a new and “gray area,” she said, “there are plenty of cases that just show that First Amendment rights of teachers are strictly limited.”
Legal challenges in Virginia to Northam’s policy requiring teachers to use students’ preferred pronouns rest on state religious freedom law, which offers broader protection than the U.S. Constitution.
An attorney for the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian nonprofit backing those lawsuits, said their interpretation of the law would also call for accommodations for teachers who want to use trans students’ preferred pronouns.
“Schools can provide accommodations for teachers on both sides,” said ADF senior counsel Tyson Langhofer. “The government can’t force somebody to speak a message they disagree with — that goes both ways.” | 2022-09-21T11:34:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Virginia's governor restricted rights for trans students. Is it legal? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/21/youngkin-transgender-virginia-schools-legal/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/21/youngkin-transgender-virginia-schools-legal/ |
A worker carries disinfecting equipment outside the Central Hospital of Wuhan in China in February 2021. (Ng Han Guan/AP)
Biosecurity advisers to the federal government are calling for tighter scrutiny of experiments with potentially dangerous viruses and other pathogens, reflecting an ongoing debate within the scientific community over the benefits and risks of such laboratory research. This contentious issue has become even more rancorous amid speculation that some kind of “lab leak” might have played a role in the origin of the coronavirus.
The draft recommendations from members of the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, which will meet Wednesday to discuss the policies, do not address the pandemic’s origin. Nor is there any direct reference to the coronavirus.
But the first recommendation clearly carries the signature of the pandemic: The external advisers urge the government to broaden its definition of the kinds of experiments that require special reviews and safety measures.
Current policies cover pathogens that are “likely highly virulent” — that is, extremely deadly. But the advisers say this fails to cover pathogens that don’t meet that threshold of deadliness, yet “pose a severe threat to public health or national security if the pathogen was capable of wide and uncontrollable spread in human populations.”
That is a fair description of the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, which is far less lethal than viruses such as Ebola but is extraordinarily transmissible.
A science in the shadows: Controls on ‘gain of function’ experiments with supercharged pathogens have been undercut despite concerns about lab leaks
The National Institutes of Health earlier this year charged the biosecurity board with revisiting the framework for risky research involving “enhanced potential pandemic pathogens” and, separately, “dual-use research of concern,” which involves pathogens that could be weaponized.
Wednesday’s meeting will be the first chance for the full board to discuss the draft recommendations — as well as the first opportunity for the public to weigh in. Final recommendations from the board are not expected for months, and top federal officials will ultimately decide on the policies.
This is not a crackdown on research so much as a refinement of the existing biosecurity framework, said Lyric Jorgenson, acting associate director of the NIH Office of Science Policy.
“We’re attempting to capture the best balance of preserving the benefits of research and minimizing the risk,” she said.
Pathogen research was a thorny debate even before the coronavirus pandemic. Scientists who study pathogens contend that they are doing lifesaving work by studying and in some cases manipulating pathogens that could pose a threat if they evolved into more transmissible or lethal forms. But critics fear that some of that research could inadvertently spark an outbreak, or be exploited by malicious actors seeking to make bioweapons.
The scientific community wrestled with biosafety and biosecurity issues more than a decade ago in the wake of what some scientists thought was overly risky research on the influenza virus. Much of the criticism focused on fears that knowledge gained by such research could fall into the hands of terrorists seeking to make bioweapons. The federal government subsequently developed a framework for subjecting certain kinds of experiments to special oversight.
But critics of “gain of function” experiments have continued to characterize the oversight as inadequate and point to a lack of transparency in the review process. That contention gained intensity amid the lab leak conjectures for the pandemic’s origin.
There is no hard evidence that SARS-CoV-2 came out of any laboratory. Many prominent virologists who study the virus and have published peer-reviewed papers on the pandemic’s origin say the evidence points overwhelmingly to a natural spillover from animals sold in a market.
The debate hinges to a great degree on geography. A major research facility that studies coronaviruses, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, happens to be located in the city where the outbreak began.
Chinese scientists have said they never had the virus in their laboratories. Promoters of the lab leak theory note that the Chinese government has been generally uncooperative, stiff-arming international investigations. Chinese officials have also floated far-fetched theories of the pandemic’s origin, saying the virus probably came from outside China, possibly from a U.S. military laboratory.
Most pandemics historically have come from pathogens jumping into humans from an animal host. Such zoonotic spillovers have produced HIV, Ebola, Zika, influenza and hundreds of other diseases. The 2002 SARS outbreak began in China through a natural spillover from animals sold in markets there. The novel coronavirus circulating today is so similar genetically to the original SARS virus that scientists decided to give it a derivative name.
In the early days of the pandemic, some prominent scientists who examined the genetic features of the new virus thought that it might have been produced through laboratory manipulation. But they soon concluded that those features could easily have resulted from natural selection. An influential paper published in the journal Nature Medicine in early 2020 declared that the virus was not engineered. While the scientific community is not monolithic on the issue of the pandemic’s origin, many virologists think this one began like so many in the past — through a natural spillover.
Two papers published this summer in the journal Science presented evidence that the epicenter of the pandemic was a market in Wuhan that sold live animals capable of being infected by, and transmitting, coronaviruses. The authors of the papers highlighted the concentration of early cases in and around the market, including among vendors who worked there. Many environmental samples of the virus were found on surfaces in the area where animals were sold and butchered, the scientists wrote.
But the authors of those papers acknowledge that there remain many unknowns, such as which animals carried the virus and where the animals came from.
Some researchers have fired back against the lab leak promoters, saying unfounded accusations against scientists is endangering public health.
“Sowing distrust in evidence-based inquiries destroys opportunities for international collaborations that are essential to this work,” scientists Angela Rasmussen and Michael Worobey wrote recently in Foreign Policy. “Biosecurity cooperation, once a relatively bright spot in U.S.-China relations, has been effectively destroyed.”
There are many interested parties in the biosecurity debate. Epidemiologist Syra Madad, co-chair of the biosecurity working group that made the draft recommendations, noted that pathogen research is highly competitive because it leads to innovative vaccines and therapeutics.
“We don’t want to stymie any good innovation,” she said, stipulating that she was speaking in her personal capacity and not as co-chair of the working group.
Robert Garry, a virologist at Tulane University, said he would support a ratcheting up of biosafety requirements for certain experiments. But he said he thinks the research community has been careful and pointed out that people working with pathogens have a personal interest in biosafety. For them, he said, it’s a life-or-death matter.
“We’re not opposed to the regulations. We need to know what the rules are. But don’t shut us down,” Garry said. “This work needs to be done.” | 2022-09-21T11:34:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Coronavirus origin debate looms over guidelines for risky lab research - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/09/21/pathogen-research-lab-leak-coronavirus/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/09/21/pathogen-research-lab-leak-coronavirus/ |
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