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The railroad joins other transportation companies aiming to reduce their carbon footprints.
An Amtrak Acela power car and train set on a test track at the Alstom production facility in Hornell, N.Y. (Heather Ainsworth for The Washington Post)
America’s passenger railroad plans to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045, Amtrak said Thursday, joining a growing list of transportation carriers and agencies that have made commitments to reduce their carbon footprints.
“Not only are trains convenient and comfortable, they are also one of the most sustainable modes of transportation,” Amtrak chief executive Stephen Gardner said in a statement. “With new equipment, modernized stations and net zero emissions, Amtrak can lead the drive toward sustainable transportation throughout the nation.”
Amtrak is purchasing more fuel- and energy-efficient fleets, including dual-power locomotives that will run on electricity where possible, and hybrid train sets that can operate on battery power. The carrier last year announced a $7.3 billion plan to replace nearly 40 percent of its rail car fleet by 2031, including taking the oldest cars in Amtrak’s fleet out of service.
The railroad’s plans include replacing 30-year-old diesel power cars with more efficient cars that it says emit nearly 90 percent less of the pollutant nitrogen oxide. The Acela fleet set to enter service next fall will carry 25 percent more passengers and will be 20 percent more energy efficient.
Amtrak signs deal for 83 multi-powered trains. Some will replace rail cars that are 50 years old.
Funding from last year’s infrastructure law, which allocated $66 billion to rail, will help Amtrak in the effort, the railroad said. | 2022-09-22T19:29:56Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Amtrak pledges net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/09/22/amtrak-greenhouse-gas-emissions-pledge/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/09/22/amtrak-greenhouse-gas-emissions-pledge/ |
Child sexual abuse suit against Tiffany Haddish, Aries Spears dropped by accuser
The comedians were accused of coercing minors into participating in sexually explicit skits in an August complaint. The plaintiff requested dismissal this week.
Aries Spears and Tiffany Haddish were accused of child sexual abuse in a recent lawsuit. (Ethan Miller/Robyn Beck/Getty Images)
The woman who accused comedians Tiffany Haddish and Aries Spears of sexually harassing and abusing her and her brother as children has filed to dismiss the lawsuit, according to documents from the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California obtained by The Washington Post.
The anonymous plaintiff, Jane Doe, who filed the lawsuit on Aug. 30 on behalf of her and her brother, John Doe, who is still a minor, requested Tuesday to dismiss the claim with prejudice, which means the case cannot be refiled.
In a statement to TMZ the same day, Jane, 22, said that her family had “known Tiffany Haddish for many years” and “we now know that she would never harm me or my brother or help anyone else do anything that could harm us. We wish Tiffany the best and are glad that we can all put this behind us.” She did not mention Spears.
On Wednesday, Haddish told a TMZ photographer at Los Angeles International Airport that she was “relieved” by the dismissal. The actress, who said she does not speak to Spears, said her biggest concern throughout the process was “the kids, making sure they’re okay.”
When asked about what the lawsuit ending might mean for her career, Haddish told another TMZ photographer that she “lost everything” after the allegations came out, and that she did not know what the future held. “All my gigs gone,” she said. “Everything gone … I don’t have no job.”
Representatives for Haddish, Spears and the Does did not respond to requests for comment from The Post
The lawsuit alleged that Haddish and Spears forced Jane to mimic a sexually suggestive video of two people eating a Subway sandwich while the then-14-year-old was attending a comedy camp in 2013. The lawsuit claimed Haddish “coached” the minor in “giving simulated fellatio” while Spears watched, and that the experience made Jane “physically, emotionally, and mentally uncomfortable.”
The lawsuit also alleged that Haddish and Spears coerced John, then 7, into filming an explicit sketch titled “Through A Pedophile’s Eyes,” during which, according to court documents, he said he was molested by Spears, who “lusted over him” in the video. Stills from the video, which were included in the lawsuit, show close-up shots of the child’s body and Spears touching John suggestively. The video appeared on the Funny or Die website afterward.
In a statement shared with The Post after the lawsuit was filed, Funny or Die wrote that the company “found this video absolutely disgusting and would never produce such content. We were not involved with the conceptualization, development, funding, or production of this video. It was uploaded to the site as user-generated content and was removed in 2018 immediately after becoming aware of its existence.”
The lawsuit claimed the siblings were told that appearing in these skits would help them get roles on television. Spears, a stand-up comedian, is best known for his run from 1997 to 2005 on the Fox sketch comedy show “MADtv.” Haddish, who was a regular on “The Carmichael Show” and has appeared in movies such as “Keanu,” became famous for her breakout role in the 2017 movie “Girls Trip.” Court documents claimed that when the plaintiff saw Haddish partake in a similar, simulated oral sex scene in “Girls Trip,” it “unlocked a repressed memory” and led her to realize “the severity of what happened to her.”
A few days after the August court filing, Haddish expressed remorse in a post on Instagram. “Clearly while this sketch was intended to be comedic, it wasn’t funny at all, and I deeply regret having agreed to act in it,” she wrote. After news of the dismissal Tuesday, Spears celebrated on Instagram in a post that also promoted one of his podcast episodes. | 2022-09-22T19:34:17Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Child sexual abuse suit against Tiffany Haddish, Aries Spears dropped - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/09/22/tiffany-haddish-aries-spears-lawsuit-dropped/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/09/22/tiffany-haddish-aries-spears-lawsuit-dropped/ |
Storm developing in the Caribbean could pose danger to the U.S.
Uncertainty remains high, but the potential exists for a dangerous storm to impact land next week
American (GFS) model shows a potential tropical storm about to enter the Gulf of Mexico Monday night. (WeatherBell)
After a quiet start to hurricane season, the Atlantic has awakened and is packed with storms and systems to watch — and at least one could pose a serious danger to the United States.
Great concern exists over a clumping of downpours north of Venezuela dubbed “Invest 98L,” which breezed through the Windward Islands with gusty winds and rain squalls. That one will remain tame until the weekend, when it is poised to move into a powder keg atmospheric environment.
Next week, it could enter the Gulf of Mexico, although its exact track is still uncertain. Assuming it grows into at least a tropical storm, it will be named Hermine. The National Hurricane Center gives it a 90 percent chance to do so.
For now, anyone residing along the Gulf Coast and Florida ought to pay close attention to this as the forecast evolves in the coming days.
At present, it’s poorly organized. The reason it isn’t doing much yet is because of disruptive shear, or a change of wind speed and/or direction with height, that it’s combating. Too much shear can knock a fledgling storm off-kilter, as if subjected to a game of atmospheric tug-of-war. That shear is stemming from the high-altitude outflow, or exhaust, of Fiona far to the northeast.
Invest 98L will meander west over the coming days, remaining hindered by shear through Sunday. Things will escalate very quickly Sunday evening into Monday.
That’s when shear will relax at the same time 98L moves over some of the warmest waters in the Atlantic. The northwest Caribbean is replete with ocean heat content, or thermal energy contained in bathlike sea waters, which will support expedited consolidation and strengthening of the nascent storm.
Simultaneously, 98L — by then probably a named storm — will move beneath an upper-level high pressure system. That will work in favor of 98L in two ways:
Divergence. High pressure means air spreading apart. That divergence in the upper atmosphere will have a vacuum-like effect, creating a void and making it easier for surface air to rise. This enhancement of thunderstorm updrafts will hasten how quickly warm, moist “inflow” can rush into the storm.
Outflow. Highs spin clockwise. That’s the direction of tropical cyclone outflow in the northern hemisphere. That high pressure will work with 98L to evacuate “spent” air at high altitudes away from the storm, allowing it to ingest more juiced-up air from below. Imagine placing a suction fan at the top of a chimney. Air would be pulled up and out, which means more air would rush in from the bottom and the fire at the base would grow. This storm will do the same.
Possible track
The potential exists for a very strong storm to be located somewhere in the northwestern Caribbean come Monday. It may be rapidly intensifying at that point.
However, it could track toward anywhere from Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula to central Cuba. But the storm could also slip in between those regions, entering the Gulf of Mexico sometime late Monday or Tuesday.
There are only two escape routes that might allow the storm to avoid the gulf. There is an outside chance that, if it remains weak, it could continue westward in the Caribbean toward Central America. If it strengthens quickly, it could turn north over central Cuba and curl out toward the Atlantic. But just a minority of model simulations present these outlier scenarios.
Most model simulations project that the system will end up in the gulf — while subtleties in atmospheric steering currents will determine where the storm eventually comes ashore.
A small piece of good news is that, if the storm does make a landfall in the northern or western Gulf of Mexico, dry air from the north may weaken it slightly. That’s not much comfort, however, when virtually the entire gulf region is running warmer than average at the most active time of year for hurricanes.
If the storm tracks further east, it could evade such dry air. That would be a concern if any potential track takes it closer to Florida. | 2022-09-22T19:34:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | A developing hurricane in the Caribbean could enter the Gulf of Mexico - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/09/22/hurricane-gulf-caribbean-landfall/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/09/22/hurricane-gulf-caribbean-landfall/ |
Abortion rights protesters fill Indiana Statehouse corridors outside legislative chambers in August. (Arleigh Rodgers / Associated Press)
A judge temporarily blocked Indiana’s near-total abortion ban on Thursday, one week after the new law took effect.
A preliminary injunction granted by Owen County Judge Kelsey Hanlon paused enforcement of the law, which bans most abortions from conception, until the courts determine whether it violates the state constitution.
Indiana was the first state to pass a new abortion ban in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to reverse Roe v. Wade. State lawmakers on Aug. 5 passed a bill that bars abortion after conception, with narrow exceptions for victims of rape or incest, to save the life of the pregnant person and in cases where the fetus is diagnosed with a lethal anomaly. That law took effect on Sept. 15.
Abortion providers in the state, including Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawai’i, Alaska, Indiana and Kentucky, have challenged the ban on the grounds that it violates privacy protections in the state constitution and violates the requirement for equal protection under the law. Indiana Solicitor General Tom Fisher, who is defending the law on behalf of the state, argued in court this week that the constitution does not establish the right to an abortion.
In her order granting the injunction, Hanlon said that whether privacy protections exist in Indiana remains an “open question” but that there is a “reasonable likelihood” the courts will side with the plaintiffs.
“Because of these considerations, and the history of Indiana’s Constitution being interpreted to provide greater protection to individual citizens than its federal counterpart, there is a reasonable likelihood that this significant restriction of personal autonomy offends the liberty guarantees of the Indiana Constitution and the Plaintiffs will prevail,” Hanlon wrote.
Clinics, which stopped performing abortions last week, will be able to resume abortion services while the lawsuit moves through the courts.
“We knew this ban would cause irreparable harm to Hoosiers, and in just a single week, it has done just that,” the plaintiffs said in a statement on Thursday. “We are grateful that the court granted much needed relief for patients, clients, and providers, but this fight is far from over.” | 2022-09-22T19:34:55Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Indiana judge temporarily blocks near-total abortion ban - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/22/indiana-abortion-ban/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/22/indiana-abortion-ban/ |
FILE - In this image taken from video released by the Russian Presidential Press Service, Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures as he addresses the nation in Moscow, Russia, Sept. 21, 2022. Four occupied regions in eastern and southern Ukraine are set to start voting Friday Sept. 23, 2022, in referendums on whether to become part of Russia. (Russian Presidential Press Service via AP, File) (Uncredited/Russian Presidential Press Service) | 2022-09-22T19:35:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | EXPLAINER: What's behind referendums in occupied Ukraine? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/explainer-whats-behind-referendums-in-occupied-ukraine/2022/09/22/5a9010a2-3aac-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/explainer-whats-behind-referendums-in-occupied-ukraine/2022/09/22/5a9010a2-3aac-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
“We don’t have groups. We don’t have cliques,” said Weston McKennie, left. “We don’t have [a divide between] players that play in Europe and play in MLS. Everyone’s always intertwined.” (Martin Meissner/AP Photo)
COLOGNE, Germany — On the southwest edge of this striking city, in a training center tucked behind a thick veil of trees and linked by trails to Beethoven Park, a symphony of activity and emotion involving the U.S. men’s national soccer team has played out all week.
With the curtain rising on the World Cup in two months, Gregg Berhalter is overseeing final live auditions. He conducted workouts for four days and will orchestrate rehearsals Friday in nearby Düsseldorf against Japan and Tuesday in Murcia, Spain, against Saudi Arabia.
The crescendo comes in six weeks, when after almost four years of high and low notes, Berhalter will invite 26 players onstage in Qatar.
“It’s getting close,” he said Thursday. “I mean, you can see it. There’s a little bit of anxiousness in some of the players, which is completely natural. … To think, in two months we’re going to be competing in the World Cup against really formidable opponents and trying to thrive and have a great World Cup.”
Most of the roster is unofficially set. A young core, headed by Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie and Tyler Adams, has played together for years and, barring injury, will carry the squad into the Group B opener Nov. 21 against Wales. The Americans will also face group favorite England and Iran.
Some positions have remained competitive for some time, and on top of that, seven injured regulars were unavailable for this camp, opening the door to others.
“We’re so much of a family that we just want what’s best for the team and we want what’s best for each other,” said McKennie, an Italian-based midfielder. “There’s going to be players that are disappointed. There’s going to be players with their heads down. But at the end of the day, we all support each other and support the bigger picture.”
From all indications, it’s a close group. Players strolled together on the Hohenzollern Bridge, which crosses the Rhine and links the team hotel to the twin-spired Gothic cathedral. Interaction before training is light and playful, complete with roughhousing and pranks. That 17 of the 26 players here are 25 or younger plays into it.
“We don’t have groups. We don’t have cliques,” McKennie said. “We don’t have [a divide between] players that play in Europe and play in MLS. Everyone’s always intertwined.”
When players reunite after missing a camp or two, “It’s like having a best friend for a long time,” McKennie said. “You don’t really have to keep in contact, but when you get back together, it’s like you never left.”
That said, a trip to the World Cup is at stake. The goalkeeping pool is realistically down to four players for three slots, but there’s no clear starter. The central defense remains unsettled. Two roster spots for the strikers are up for grabs. Depth at most positions must be addressed.
The upcoming friendlies will not settle matters. Berhalter will continue monitoring player performances with their respective clubs in leagues that, for the most part, will not pause for the World Cup until a week before the Qatar vs. Ecuador opener Nov. 20.
He’ll also continuing weighing how individuals fit into his system and keep in contact with clubs about injuries and fitness levels.
On Thursday, Berhalter was asked how he will evaluate the pool of strikers, though his answer could have applied to everyone.
“There’s the body of work that they’ve done with us, that they’re doing with us, and then there’s what they’re doing with their clubs and what level they’re playing at their clubs,” he said. “All of those come into consideration.”
He conceded, though, “we may not get it right.”
“That’s part of it,” he said. “We may make mistakes.”
Part of the process in the coming weeks will be assessing those who weren’t available for this camp: goalkeeper Zack Steffen, left back Antonee Robinson, center backs Cameron Carter-Vickers and Chris Richards, midfielders Yunus Musah and Cristian Roldan, and forward Tim Weah.
If healthy, Steffen, Robinson, Richards, Musah and Weah seem sure to make the final list.
Berhalter said he is also considering players who weren’t invited to this camp, most notably German-based striker Jordan Pefok.
As camp accelerated and the friendlies neared, Berhalter detected some nerves.
“There’s a slight hint of it,” he said. “It’s not something that’s palpable, that you can feel, but you see a couple guys are tight in some of the exercises. The message is: ‘Go and do your thing and let the chips fall where they may.’ ”
Among the players embracing that message is Sam Vines, a 23-year-old left back who last was in camp almost a year ago. “Gregg knows our qualities,” he said, “and we know what’s at stake.”
Berhalter plans to use most, if not all, the players in these friendlies. Often agreeable to revealing starters the day before a friendly, he offered just four before Friday’s game: Vines (Antwerp), Arsenal goalkeeper Matt Turner and center backs Aaron Long (New York Red Bulls) and Walker Zimmerman (Nashville SC).
“We’re a brotherhood. We’re a family, but we’re also here to compete,” McKennie said. “You can be friends off the field, but when it comes to on the field, you’re going for my position, I’m going for your position. Even the players that may be their close friend won’t make it onto the roster.” | 2022-09-22T19:35:50Z | www.washingtonpost.com | USMNT prepares in Germany ahead of World Cup roster decisions - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/22/usmnt-germany-japan-world-cup-roster-decisions/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/22/usmnt-germany-japan-world-cup-roster-decisions/ |
Steve Rapp’s hurry-up offense has helped the Pumas win four state championships. This year he’s trying to get a new QB up to speed.
Wise quarterback Cortney Davis talks to offensive coordinator Steve Rapp during a game at North Point on Sept. 3. (Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/For The Washington Post)
There are three minutes remaining in Cortney Davis’s debut as the Wise quarterback, and the reality of his new role is setting in. Since moving to Prince George’s County in December, Davis has heard every stat and every story about Wise’s greatness and how he’s in charge of continuing it.
But the Pumas are trailing North Point 18-14 in a game most thought Wise would win by double-digits. Their recent history of dominance provides a weight, not solace, to the 6-foot-6 transfer from Poly in Baltimore.
Perched atop the North Point press box, offensive coordinator Steve Rapp can feel Davis’s unease, and like a voice from heaven, he speaks into the quarterback’s headset.
“Look, man, there’s three minutes left and we got no timeouts,” Rapp recalls saying. “We don’t need you to be Superman. All we need you to do is stay within the system and give us a chance. If you stay within the system, we’ll leave here with the win. I promise.”
With four seconds remaining, the Pumas are down to their last opportunity. It’s fourth and goal at the 6-yard line. Rapp calls a sprint-out option. If the Eagles blitz, Davis can run; if they don’t, the running back should be open for a pass. The blitz comes right away; Wise’s running back picks it up. And just like Rapp promised, Davis scampers into the end zone for the game-winning score.
Since becoming Wise’s offensive coordinator in 2013 — and more specifically, since installing his hurry-up offense in 2015, — Rapp has taken the Pumas and their quarterbacks to the next level. The Pumas have an 82-3 record and four Maryland 4A titles since 2015, and three of their quarterbacks in that time have gone on to play Division I.
Davis hopes to be the next beneficiary, and Rapp’s reputation promises big results.
A natural play-caller
Rapp has been calling plays ever since he was a 7-year-old pewee quarterback making audibles at the line of scrimmage. And over the years, he honed his play design skills by watching film with his father, Lee Rapp, who played cornerback at the University of Maryland and was a high school football coach. The younger Rapp loved dissecting offenses and asking his father questions.
But when the time came for him to choose between basketball and football in eighth grade, Rapp picked hoops, thinking it was more likely to lead to a pro sports career. After playing the sport at Eleanor Roosevelt, Rapp continued at the College of Southern Maryland, Centenary College and Lehman College. After college, Rapp took a job at his father’s construction company, but couldn’t escape the draw of sports.
He started coaching football with his father at Northwestern High. Whenever he had downtime in his cubicle, he was dreaming up offensive schemes.
Though the Jaguars weren’t dominating, Rapp’s innovative, up-tempo style drew the attention of other coaches, included Wise’s DaLawn Parrish.
In a midseason game in 2012, Wise dominated Northwestern, 47-8, but the Jaguars’ lone touchdown was a doozy. They used a version of the Wildcat offense with wrinkles Parrish had never seen before. He wanted it for his program.
“When I evaluate other coaches or players, I never do it in comparison to what we are doing at my program, because over the years we have elevated ourselves to a level where most schools have a tough time lining up with us,” Parrish says. “So even though we were pounding them, the way that he was moving guys around and finding ways to get his playmakers the ball in space intrigued me. I was standing there on the sideline thinking, ‘Man, if he had my guys’ talent and our program’s structure he’d probably be unstoppable.’ ”
Parrish and Rapp shared a sideline that year during an all-star game between Prince George’s County and Southern Maryland. Their offense hummed. The coaches chatted for hours about schemes, and life, and Rapp’s hunger stood out. Parrish offered him a job as Wise’s offensive coordinator.
Changing the Pumas
Since the school’s inception in 2006, Wise had built its program on great defense and a reliable running game. The most athletic players lined up in the backfield, and wide receivers were essentially extensions of the offensive line.
Rapp had other plans. He wanted to veer away from the ground-based scheme and sling the ball all over the field. Conceiving the plays was easy. Convincing Parrish to let him run them was the hard part.
“It was tough on him at first, because I wouldn’t give him 100 percent control,” Parrish said. “He had to put everything in my terminology and get my approval because, if anything ever happened with him, I wanted to be able to slide in and run the show.”
Rapp’s first two years on staff led to mediocre results. The Pumas went 15-8, and changes seemed necessary. Rapp told Parrish he needed to take off the training wheels and let him do his job.
“He was like, ‘Yo, P, I know you’ve had success doing it your way,’ ’’ Parrish recalled. “ ‘But from now on we’re going to run a hurry-up offense. There will be mistakes, but just trust me. This is why you brought me here.’ ”
Fully enabled, Rapp has proven to be what was promised. The Pumas’ dominant offense propelled the school to three straight Maryland 4A titles in 2015, 2016 and 2017, and then another in 2019.
In the seven seasons before Rapp’s arrival, Wise averaged 25.8 points per game. The Pumas are averaging 37.7 points under Rapp, and 41.4 since they switched to the hurry-up.
Additionally, Wise’s last three quarterbacks, former All-Met Player of the Year Jabari Laws (Army), Quinton Williams (Howard) and Jayden Sauray (Maryland), have each gone on to play for Division I programs.
Now with Davis at the helm, Rapp’s skill-set is being put to the test. The previous three quarterbacks were in the system for multiple years. With Davis, the learning curve must be accelerated.
“When he teaches us QBs he uses real football terminology that I would here at the next level,” Davis said. “He also have us practice fast and teaches ways to get your team involved on everything that is happening on the field. He mixes all this with jokes and laughs and makes it a great place to play football.”
The Pumas are easing in Davis before truly letting it fly. Through three games, he has completed 16 of 27 passes for 220 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions.
Those numbers may not look gaudy, but Wise is 3-0 and averaging 42 points.
“He’s the head coach of our offense, and in a sense the face of our program,” Parrish said of Rapp. “His style has made our program way more attractive and given us the confidence that we can score enough points to beat anyone in front of us.” | 2022-09-22T19:35:56Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How an offensive coordinator reshaped Wise football into a juggernaut - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/22/wise-football-steve-rapp/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/22/wise-football-steve-rapp/ |
The Nashville Predators’ Yakov Trenin is among those who may be affected by the Czech Foreign Ministry’s attempted ban of Russian players. (Mark Humphrey/AP)
“We can confirm that the Czech Foreign Ministry has sent a letter to the NHL to point out that, at this moment, the Czech Republic or any other state in the [visa-free] Schengen zone should not issue visas to the Russian players to enter our territory,” Czech Deputy Foreign Minister Martin Smolek said in a statement to the Associated Press.
Nashville and San Jose are scheduled to begin their regular seasons at O2 Arena on Oct. 7 and 8 in what will be the NHL’s first games played outside North America since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Although travel rosters are not set, Predators forward Yakov Trenin and Sharks forward Evgeny Svechnikov could be affected by the Czech policy, which NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly downplayed in comments to the AP on Thursday, saying he has “no concern” with players traveling to Prague or taking the ice.
The Czech Republic was one of the first European countries to stop issuing visas to most Russian citizens after the Russian invasion began in February. Later that month, the Czech football association said its national soccer team would not play Russia if both teams met in a World Cup playoff — before Russia was later expelled from the tournament. Since the upcoming NHL games were announced in April, Czech goaltending legend Dominik Hasek has led opposition to Russian players coming to Prague, reportedly approaching the upper house of Parliament, the Senate and the Foreign Ministry about the matter.
“It’s very important for the support of our Ukrainian ally and safety of our citizens,” Hasek told Czech media.
The Czech Republic’s initial protest against Russian participation mirrored a broader effort to ban Russian teams and athletes from some major sports and competitions around the world. Some bans also extended to Belarusian athletes because of their country’s support of Russia.
Russian federations and athletes filed appeals to oppose the bans in sports including soccer, gymnastics, rugby and biathlon, and in April, a Russian ban in luge was overturned. Other bans have been reaffirmed, including that of World Athletics, which maintained its stance ahead of this summer’s track and field world championships.
In a conference call last week, U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee chair Susanne Lyons said: “We know that the IOC is beginning to think about whether there’s a pathway back for the Russian athletes. They are beginning to reach out to all of their stakeholders to get input on that topic.”
Lyons framed the IOC’s reconsideration as an issue of fairness, adding, “I think all of us feel at some point in time individual athletes should not be the victims of whatever their government politics or other tensions there are around the world. | 2022-09-22T19:51:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Czech Republic tells NHL that Russian players are unwelcome - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/22/nhl-players-banned-from-czech-republic/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/22/nhl-players-banned-from-czech-republic/ |
White woman who called 911 on Black birder loses suit over termination
Amy Cooper called the police on Christian Cooper on May 25 after he asked her to leash her dog in Manhattan's Central Park. (Video: Christian Cooper)
A federal judge has dismissed a case brought by Amy Cooper, the White woman who in 2020 falsely called 911 on a Black man birdwatching in Central Park, against her former employer over her termination.
Southern District of New York Judge Ronnie Abrams on Wednesday dismissed Cooper’s lawsuit alleging her ex-employer, Franklin Templeton, discriminated against her based on her race and gender, defamed her and intentionally caused emotional distress.
The investment firm said on social media hours after video of the 2020 incident went viral that it was placing Cooper, without naming her, on administrative leave while it conducted an investigation. A day later, it announced the review had led to Cooper’s termination, also without naming her but adding that the company “does not tolerate racism of any kind.”
Cooper sued her ex-employer in 2021, alleging the company illegally fired her without performing a legitimate internal review and falsely portrayed her as a racist, while she was being labeled “Central Park Karen” by social media users for the incident. The suit also argued she was the victim of racial discrimination.
“Franklin Templeton’s alleged investigation and results provided legitimacy to the ‘Karen’ story, and appeared to provide justification for those who sought the destruction of the Plaintiff’s life,” Cooper’s suit claimed.
A spokeswoman with Franklin Templeton on Wednesday said the company was pleased the judge dismissed the case.
“We continue to believe the company responded appropriately,” Franklin Templeton spokeswoman Lisa Gallegos told The Washington Post in an email.
Attorneys representing Cooper did not immediately responded when reached out by The Post seeking comment. Cooper could not be reached by The Post.
Amy Cooper was fired after calling 911 on a Black birdwatcher. Now she’s suing her ex-employer.
On May 5, 2020, Christian Cooper — who is not related to Amy Cooper — was birdwatching in Central Park when he noticed Amy and her dog, an unleashed cocker spaniel, standing right by a sign saying all dogs must be leashed, he told The Post in an interview shortly after the incident.
When he approached her and asked her to leash her pet that early morning, she refused, he told The Post. Christian Cooper, who said he usually carries dog treats, then attempted to throw a treat toward her dog.
He began recording when she threatened to call the police on him.
“I’m going to tell them there’s an African American man threatening my life,” she told him, pulling out her cellphone and dialing 911.
Christian Cooper chose to keep recording because he wasn’t going to become an active player of his “own dehumanization,” he told The Post.
“Please call the cops,” he said on video. “Please tell them whatever you’d like.”
The video quickly racked up millions of views after his sister posted it on Twitter.
The following day, Amy Cooper publicly apologized for her actions, saying she “reacted emotionally and made false assumptions about his intentions” when she should have leashed her dog.
“I was the one who was acting inappropriately by not having my dog on a leash,” she wrote. “I am well aware of the pain that misassumptions and insensitive statements about race cause. … I hope that a few mortifying seconds in a lifetime of forty years will not define me in his eyes.”
State prosecutors charged her with false reporting months later. The criminal charges were later dropped.
On May 5, 2o21, Amy Cooper filed a lawsuit alleging Franklin Templeton “performed no investigation” into the incident, did not interview her nor Christian Cooper, and made no attempt at obtaining her full 911 call.
The company, the lawsuit states, also failed to take into consideration her achievements as an “exceptional employee” who earned “high performer bonuses” three consecutive years, instead defaming her and discriminating against her based on her race and gender. This cost the woman a “substantial loss of earnings and benefits,” and “severe emotional distress” in the near and long future, the suit said.
Teo Armus, Jaclyn Peiser and Michael Brice-Saddler contributed to this report. | 2022-09-22T20:30:56Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Amy Cooper, Central Park Karen, loses suit against ex-employer - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/22/amy-cooper-franklin-templeton-lawsuit/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/22/amy-cooper-franklin-templeton-lawsuit/ |
Order by Mar-a-Lago special master is the first time Donald Trump’s attorneys have been asked to confirm or deny his claims in court
The Justice Department's Jan. 6 investigation is looking at ... everything
Dearie also said in his Thursday order that James Orenstein, a former U.S. magistrate judge for the Eastern District of New York, would help him with the review. He said Orenstein has served on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and holds top-secret government clearance, which means that if he would theoretically be able to review many of the seized classified documents if required.
Read special master Raymond Dearie's Sept. 22 order | 2022-09-22T20:30:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Dearie asks Trump lawyers whether they believe FBI lied about seized documents - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/09/22/dearie-trump-order-declassify/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/09/22/dearie-trump-order-declassify/ |
Do people really support GOP governors sending migrants across the U.S.?
The right points to polling that it says backs up Govs. Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott. But the reality is less cut and dried.
A group of migrants walk from the Migrant Resource Center to a nearby shopping center in search of food on Monday in San Antonio The center is the origin of two planeloads of mostly Venezuelan migrants who were sent to Martha's Vineyard by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). (Jordan Vonderhaar/Getty Images)
The decisions by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) to make a political point by transporting migrants to blue areas has forced a reckoning about how far is too far in the service of making that point.
To hear some on the right tell it, new polling vindicates the governors’ actions, showing that voters approve of what they’re doing.
But it’s not quite so simple.
The conservative National Review on Thursday shared a new poll it had obtained from a Republican pollster. The headline read: “Majority of Likely Voters Support Migrant Busing: Poll.” And in fact, it wasn’t just a majority; it was 63 percent.
But what exactly do those voters support? The question’s wording makes it less clear that this is definitely about transporting the migrants, and there are some key factors in the controversy that aren’t considered as part of the question.
The poll prefaced its question by stating that Texas is sending “buses of immigrants to other states and sanctuary cities including Chicago, New York City and Washington D.C.” Then it asks: “Do you agree or disagree that sanctuary cities should have to share the burden of dealing with these illegals and not just the border states?”
The first note is on “illegals.” According to how proponents have described the programs, the migrants have been processed by immigration officials. Many of them appear to be asylum seekers awaiting their date in court. Republicans believe the asylum process is being abused, but casting these migrants as “illegals” is reductive at best, and of course, likely color responses. (And some polls show most Americans support allowing migrants from Central America to seek asylum.)
The second point is that while the preamble poses the question in the context of Abbott’s busing program, the question isn’t explicitly about transporting people — it’s significantly broader. To disagree with the statement offered is to say that sanctuary cities shouldn’t have to “share the burden.”
The question also ignores that many places where migrants are being sent have large migrant and undocumented immigrant populations. That means, to the extent there is a “burden” to be “shared,” they’re already very much sharing it. (That language, like “illegals,” also probably affects how people respond.)
The population of Washington. — one of the cities mentioned by the poll as a destination for the busing program — is 7 percent undocumented in its broader metro area, according to a 2019 Pew Research Center study. That ranked it in the top 10 percent of all metro areas and right alongside many in Texas. The New York and Chicago metro areas had lower percentages of undocumented immigrants (about 5 percent and 4 percent, respectively), but they still ranked in the top third.
But there is other polling on the question. Like the poll above, this one also focuses on Texas’s program rather than DeSantis’s. Unlike the poll above, it directly asks about the busing program and does so in a less leading manner.
The University of Texas at Austin poll, conducted before the controversy erupted last week, does suggest a program like this could garner public support — though not as much support as suggested by the other poll. It asked whether people support “paying to bus foreign migrants awaiting their asylum hearings to other parts of the country outside Texas?” So it deals with their actual status and the actual busing.
A slight majority — 52 percent — said they support that, while 35 percent opposed it. Among those who supported it are half of independents and more than 4 in 10 Hispanics.
That’s a better gauge of where things stand, with a couple of caveats. The first is that this is a poll of a red state, where fighting illegal immigration is a big reason for the GOP’s long-standing (though recently somewhat diminished) dominance. The second and more important one is that even this question doesn’t quite get to the heart of the current issue.
Some Democrats and immigrant activists have objected to the program, full stop. But the biggest reason for opposition — and the crux of claims that this program might have broken the law — is the idea that the migrants were misled or coerced into participating. This has been the focus of criticisms from politicians like Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) and California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), and of the investigation by a sheriff in San Antonio-based Bexar County, Tex.
Indeed, there is evidence that some of the migrants willfully participated and were grateful to be transported to more welcoming places. And transporting such migrants across the country has been a goal of some asylum advocates. But Democrats, immigrant advocates and even some of the migrants themselves have suggested that people were misled.
The extent to which that’s ultimately substantiated will tell the tale of how this program is truly received by the public. If this was really about people being transported to places they wanted to go without any false pretenses, it’s not difficult to see why Texans — and possibly even Americans more broadly — might support it.
But to the extent the public sees these GOP governors using people as political pawns — an idea raised not just by the left but also by Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, this week — it could be a different story. And saying that these polls show the public definitely approves of these efforts is premature.
This just in: Judge temporarily pauses enforcement of Indiana’s near-total abortion ban | 2022-09-22T20:35:17Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Do polls really show the public supports Abbott sending migrants to blue states? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/22/migrant-bus-polling-support/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/22/migrant-bus-polling-support/ |
Statue debate provokes fiery defense of Confederacy in Virginia’s Mathews County
Members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans watch at the Mathews, Va., courthouse door during a public hearing on the local Confederate monument on Wednesday, 2022. (Gregory S. Schneider/The Washington Post)
MATHEWS, Va. — Former county board member Jerry Sadler solemnly doffed his red Make America Great Again hat as he approached the microphone. “The Lord commanded us to love one another,” he began in a quiet voice. “I don’t hate anybody.”
“But I detest some people’s demeanor and ways,” he said, going on to label the NAACP a “racist organization” and condemn Black Lives Matter for trying to destroy cities. Some things need to change in this country, he said — just not in Mathews County.
And certainly not the Confederate statue standing just outside the door of the historic 1830 courthouse. For more than three hours Wednesday night, the Mathews County board of supervisors heard from local residents about a proposal to deed the land under the monument to a private heritage group that could preserve it in place for all time.
“I just think the monument would be in better hands with people that actually loved it and adored their ancestors. They could take care of it,” local resident Matthew Houston told the board.
The issue Wednesday went far beyond a single statue. Residents — neighbors, families — plunged into an emotional discussion about identity and who gets to define it, provoking a heated defense of local heritage. Much of it was couched in an unreconstructed view of history where the Lost Cause is noble, the Confederacy was a bastion of states' rights and Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman was an unprincipled butcher.
Those who say otherwise “are racist toward us,” said Joey Taylor, commander of the local chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, who have asked to take possession of the monument. “I’m just so tired of it I don’t know what to do … They’re bullying us, telling us we’re bad people. I don’t like that at all. I think we’re good people.”
The board took no action Wednesday, but suggested that it will continue to pursue the possibility of deeding the statue to groups such as the SCV or United Daughters of the Confederacy.
“We’ll probably set an example for some other localities,” board chairman Paul Hudgins said near the end of the meeting. “This board is dealing with the problem because no other board wanted to deal with it … We’ll get this straight.”
Mathews has long been a secluded community of farmers and watermen — it’s not on the way to anyplace else, except by boat, its marshes and creeks prominent along the Chesapeake Bay above Gloucester and below the Rappahannock River.
The county of about 8,600 residents is 8 percent Black, and a referendum last year on the Confederate statue found 80 percent of voters in favor of leaving it in place. Increasingly, though, transplants from Richmond and Hampton Roads have arrived to snap up waterfront getaways. And with Confederate statues coming down across Virginia over the past two years, local residents sense change on the way.
“All eyes are on Mathews. Why are they all on Mathews? Because we had the nerve to push back against what we don’t like," Randall Dobson told the board. “Wake up. Show the rest of America that you can get some backbone and push back and say we’re not gonna knuckle under.”
The historic courthouse was filled to capacity Wednesday night — 80 people — with an overflow crowd outside watching on a TV screen. Only one Black person sat in the audience — local NAACP president Edith Turner — and one on the board: Rev. Melissa Mason.
Local deputies and state troopers formed a heavy presence around the square, but there appeared to be no disturbances. A member of the SCV stood watch inside the courthouse door, politely letting speakers in or out.
Many people spoke against the general idea of deeding public property to private interests, though none called for the statue’s removal.
“I hate it that we’re here having this discussion tonight. I know many people I like and respect will not like what I say,” said Christine Ulrich. The statue honors the “bravery and self-sacrifice of individual people" who died in the Civil War, she said. But giving it to the SCV would allow them “to fly the flag of a government and a way of life defined and made possible by slavery."
Sharon Dequaine pointed out that the monument was not erected right after the Civil War, but in 1912, when African Americans in Virginia and across the South were being lynched and intimidated by the Ku Klux Klan. The statue “was a daily reminder of who holds power and who doesn’t,” she said.
One day, Dequaine said, future residents of Mathews County might not want to preserve the statue as it is. “Do we really want to preclude that choice?” she said. “This is not a matter of black and white, it is a matter of right and wrong.”
There is no threat to the monument, Shawn Jaeger said. “Honestly, if it wasn’t being pushed down everyone’s throats by a small group of people … there wouldn’t even be discussion about this anymore,” he said.
But after the public hearing was complete, board members Dave Jones and Mike Walls revealed what they said was an actual plot to destroy the statue.
In researching the monument’s ownership history, they said, they discovered in the records of the State Corporation Commission that local resident Dee Russell recently registered the name “The Mathews Monument Association.” That was the name of the original group that erected the statue a century ago, long since disbanded.
The two supervisors suggested Russell had done so to try and lay claim to the monument and tear it down.
“This was really disturbing,” Walls said. “This changed the game, folks.”
Citing that finding as well as a letter from the NAACP threatening legal action if the county deeds the property to a heritage group, Jones said the statue is, actually, under assault.
Russell stood and tried to explain, but Jones and Hudgins would not let her speak.
Reached Thursday morning, Russell laughed off the accusation. Her intent, she said, was to explore whether a diverse group of local residents — including a member of the SCV and the UDC — would want to band together to take care of the monument instead of awarding it outright to the SCV.
“It would be a less divisive group of people people from all walks of life in Mathews so it would be more palatable to everyone,” Russell said.
Hudgins, who had run the public hearing with patient good humor, said the “plot” was all the evidence anyone needed. Outsiders were trying to “cause some civil unrest” in Mathews and provoke “them bunch of ol’ hicks” on the board to do something rash.
Vowing that the monument “ain’t going nowhere,” Hudgins said the board would patiently go through the steps of permanently protecting it.
“We do not have a race problem in Mathews County,” he thundered in conclusion. “People stop trying to create one.”
Through it all, Mason, the lone Black board member, had sat mostly silent. Now all turned to her for comment.
“Is it comfortable sitting here? For me? No it’s not,” she said. She pleaded for the community to come together, and grew emotional as she said she fears parts of the rural area are dying off as young people leave.
Could the statue be better positioned as a memorial? she asked. “Is it too late for that? … We have an opportunity to show the world what collaboration, what getting along, truly looks like."
As the meeting turned to other agenda items, Turner, the NAACP chief, rose and quietly walked out, never having spoken up.
“Welcome to Mathews,” she said, crossing the street. “They have a saying, ‘The Mathews way.’ That’s what you get.” | 2022-09-22T20:44:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Statue debate provokes fiery defense of Confederacy in Mathews County - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/22/mathews-virginia-confederate-statue/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/22/mathews-virginia-confederate-statue/ |
A man was fatally shot Thursday afternoon in Northeast Washington, according to D.C. police.
The shooting occurred about 12:40 p.m. in the 3000 block of Adams Street NE, in a wedge-shaped neighborhood bordered by New York, Rhode Island and South Dakota avenues.
Police released few immediate details of the shooting but said they were looking for a black Chevrolet Impala being driven from the scene. The victim’s name has not yet been made public.
Homicides are down about 3 percent compared to this time last year, which ended with the highest number of killings since 2003.
Police said that before Thursday’s killing, there had not been a homicide in D.C. since Sept. 11. | 2022-09-22T20:44:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Man fatally shot in Northeast Washington - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/22/shooting-dc-homicide/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/22/shooting-dc-homicide/ |
Most early deportations under Title 42 were of people stopped previously
One person stopped had been encountered at the border more than 80 times previously.
Venezuelan migrants walk along the U.S. Border fence after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico to turn themselves in to the U.S. Border Patrol on Thursday in El Paso. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
As the number of apprehensions at the border increased over the past two years, Customs and Border Protection noted an important pattern: the number of people being stopped at the border more than one time in a month was increasing. This inflates the monthly totals, since what is reported is stops, not people.
Imagine, for example, if you stopped 200 people at the border one day and 200 the next day — 100 of whom had been stopped the day prior. That’s 400 stops, but only 300 individual people.
This is important largely because that top-line figure, the number of apprehensions, has become central to the political debate. As I wrote earlier this week, misrepresentation of the number of people crossing the border muddies the politics of immigration, often intentionally. More than half of those stopped at the border since January 2021, for example, were removed under a contested policy known as Title 42 which bars any entry. Yet those stops are often included in rhetoric about immigrants pouring into the country.
That said, new data obtained by the research center TRAC at the University of Syracuse show that the percentage of people turned away under Title 42 who’d previously been encountered at the border didn’t change significantly during the first year and a half the policy was in place. In other words, while on a month-to-month basis the Border Patrol says it is encountering people already stopped in the same month, the percentage of apprehensions involving people with prior stops has been fairly steady.
The TRAC data index each of the more than 1.2 million Title 42 removals from mid-March 2020 to September 2021. The data include some remarkable findings, including that more than 4,000 of the stops involved people who had been encountered by Border Patrol at least 20 times previously. One person from Mexico turned away in September 2021 had been encountered at the border 81 times previously. The data match stops with records going back only 20 years, so it’s possible that that number is actually higher.
There is also record of an unaccompanied minor from Mexico being turned away under Title 42 who had been stopped 72 times previously. This, again, is someone under age 18. The records also indicate Title 42 stops of unaccompanied minors who had been encountered 68, 69, 70 and 71 times previously. It’s not a stretch to assume that these are all the same individual, stopped five times in the period at issue and removed under Title 42 each time. If so, it’s a good example of how apprehension numbers don’t reflect actual people.
In total, about 3 in 5 of removals under Title 42 during this period were of people who’d previously been encountered by officials at the border. A quarter were of people who had been encountered at least three times previously.
While the percentage of removals involving people who had been encountered at the border previously didn’t change much during the period, the composition of who was turned away certainly did. In the first three months of the period being considered, nearly half of those turned away were single Mexican adults who either had never been encountered at the border before or who had been encountered three or more times in the past 20 years.
By the end of the period, the single largest category of those turned away under Title 42 was people from outside Mexico or Mexican families and children who’d never been encountered at the border previously.
If we look at this as a percentage, you can see how the pattern shifts. The percentage of those turned away who had been encountered previously stays in the range of 56 to 62 percent. (That’s the darker colored sections in the middle of the chart below.) But those who’d never been encountered before shifted from mostly Mexican adults traveling individually to mostly arrivals from outside of that category.
That chart also reflects indirectly how people from outside of Mexico are making up an increasing percentage of those stopped at the border. Much of the surge in arrivals over the past two years has been individuals and families from countries like Venezuela, places where politically instability is driving them north. Often, though, such individuals will seek asylum upon arrival at the border and not be turned away.
Since he took office, President Biden has faced pressure to end the Title 42 policy, implemented under Donald Trump pretextually as a response to the coronavirus pandemic. The data obtained by TRAC show how Title 42 both aids and hinders Biden politically: It allows his administration to allow fewer immigrants into the country, reducing strain on existing resources, but it also likely contributes to the high number of apprehensions each month.
It also depicts what TRAC aptly describes as the “remarkable persistence” of some individuals. Imagine running into officials at the border 81 times … and then trying yet again. | 2022-09-22T21:01:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Most early deportations under Title 42 were of people stopped previously - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/22/immigration-border-biden-trump/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/22/immigration-border-biden-trump/ |
When Does Relocating Migrants Cross a Legal Line in the US?
Analysis by Joel Rosenblatt | Bloomberg
The governors of Texas, Florida and Arizona have escalated a showdown with the administration of President Joe Biden over its immigration policies along the southern US border by sending thousands of undocumented people north and dropping them off without advance notice in so-called sanctuary states. Critics say the Republican governors have gone too far to score political points, particularly after Florida’s Ron DeSantis took credit for flying about 50 Venezuelans to the island of Martha’s Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts. That episode has spurred a criminal investigation and a class-action lawsuit that will determine whether laws were broken and migrants’ rights were violated.
1. Who are these migrants?
They are people who entered the US without permission, applied for asylum and were released pending a hearing. In the meantime, they are free to travel within the US and to apply for a work permit after 150 days.
2. What’s the criminal investigation?
Javier Salazar, the sheriff of Texas’s Bexar County, which includes San Antonio, said he had opened a probe into who had “lured and transported” migrants from Texas to Florida and then to Martha’s Vineyard, best known as a summer resort for wealthy vacationers. He said his office was investigating whether the migrants had been hoodwinked into boarding flights, but he didn’t specify any possible charges or who the suspects might be. Some Democrats have suggested DeSantis could be prosecuted for trafficking -- the transportation of people through force, fraud or deception. But under federal and state laws, trafficking is typically associated with forced labor or participation in commercial sex acts.
3. What’s the lawsuit?
In the suit filed in Massachusetts federal court, DeSantis and Florida’s transportation secretary are accused of duping the migrants into boarding flights with false promises of employment and housing at their destination. No arrangements had been made for the migrants upon their arrival on Martha’s Vineyard. Once they boarded the flights, they weren’t free to leave, according to the complaint, which includes claims of violations of constitutional and civil rights, as well as “intentional infliction of emotional distress” over the use of the migrants as political “pawns.”
4. What are the legal issues posed by the relocations?
Consent is critical, whether immigrants are loaded onto planes or buses and wherever they are sent. In the rudimentary release forms that DeSantis’s team said were used for the Martha’s Vineyard flights, the migrants agreed to be transported to “locations in sanctuary states.” While there’s no official legal definition of a sanctuary destination, the label generally applies to states, counties or cities that declare they won’t assist in immigration enforcement and deportation. If it’s true the migrants accepted transportation offers voluntarily and intended to go to sanctuary destinations under the belief that anywhere is better than Texas, lawsuits face steeper odds. But it will be harder for the southern officials to defend their actions in court if evidence comes to light that the migrants were coerced or tricked into being transported far from where they applied for asylum and where they must return to complete the process. If the migrants can prove that they were promised places to live and work on Martha’s Vineyard, they might be able to argue that they were defrauded. | 2022-09-22T21:06:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | When Does Relocating Migrants Cross a Legal Line in the US? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/when-does-relocating-migrants-cross-a-legal-line-in-the-us/2022/09/22/b98ba994-3aad-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/when-does-relocating-migrants-cross-a-legal-line-in-the-us/2022/09/22/b98ba994-3aad-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
FILE - This file photo provided by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department shows Larry Jo Taylor Jr. of Indianapolis. A judge declared a second mistrial Monday, June 6, 2022, for Taylor Jr., charged in the 2015 killing of a pastor’s wife after jurors learned details about the Indianapolis case’s long history in the court system. (Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department via AP, File) (Uncredited/Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department)
INDIANAPOLIS — A judge Thursday found a man guilty of murder, robbery and other charges in the 2015 killing of an Indianapolis pastor’s wife during a break-in. | 2022-09-22T21:06:25Z | www.washingtonpost.com | After 2 mistrials, man convicted of killing pastor's wife - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/after-2-mistrials-man-convicted-of-killing-pastors-wife/2022/09/22/9eadf4a2-3ab6-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/after-2-mistrials-man-convicted-of-killing-pastors-wife/2022/09/22/9eadf4a2-3ab6-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
FILE - In this image taken from a video screen, Tafara Williams speaks to reporters from her hospital bed during a Zoom meeting Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020, in Libertyville, Ill. A suburban Chicago police officer who shot a Black couple inside a vehicle — killing a 19-year-old man and wounding his girlfriend, Williams — has been charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. Court records state Dante Salinas was charged in connection with the Oct. 20, 2020, shooting death of Marcellis Stinnette, 19, of Waukegan. His girlfriend, Williams, was injured. (Zoom via AP Photo, File) (Ed White/Zoom) | 2022-09-22T21:06:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ex-Illinois cop charged in 2020 fatal shooting of Black man - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/ex-illinois-cop-charged-in-2020-fatal-shooting-of-black-man/2022/09/22/05df3cb8-3ab1-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/ex-illinois-cop-charged-in-2020-fatal-shooting-of-black-man/2022/09/22/05df3cb8-3ab1-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
By Maddy Butcher
Maddy Butcher is the author of “Beasts of Being: Partnerships Unburdened” and director of the Best Horse Practices Summit.
The change has probably been under way for generations and the digital age has quickened it. While online memes and political salvos monopolize people’s attention and influence behavior, the more contemplative, measured mind-set typically found in ranch and farm country takes on fresh appeal. I’m learning that there’s value in observing, taking stock and reserving judgment while a day or season runs its course.
Writing last month for the Boston Globe, Todd Washburn, a Harvard professor and the university’s former assistant provost for international affairs, observed that “scholars have found that highly educated Americans are central to the political polarization that is fracturing our country … clustering tightly around just a few urban centers.” This population, he noted, is seldom communicating with anyone who disagrees.
Curtis Moore knows both worlds. He grew up in the small town of Bishop, Calif., and spent his summers packing mules in the Eastern Sierras. Later, he cowboyed at a nearby ranch before becoming a lawyer who deals with natural resource conflict resolution. He likes to cite Aldo Leopold, who wrote, “Is education possibly a process of trading awareness for things of lesser worth?”
Moore told me he’s careful to check what he knows academically against what he sees in front of him at any given moment, whether in a conflict-resolution meeting or when working with a new horse.
Erin Nissen is a fourth-generation farmer in the San Luis Valley of Southern Colorado. Her family harvests a million pounds of potatoes each year. I asked for her thoughts on online acrimony and she laughed, saying, “My dad thinks if only people worked longer hours, they wouldn’t have time for the nonsense.”
“I tend to study, sit back, listen, watch. It’s a calmer way of doing things,” she said. “That’s a pretty common thing in ag, although water meetings can get heated.”
Not all water meetings and not all Westerners are quiet and mindful, of course. I live in a county, after all, that helped send Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert to Washington.
And not all Easterners are pushy and opinionated. My friend’s “oh” is an alternative to “ayuh,” a Maine expression endlessly parodied but one that is beautifully reflective, rather than reflexive. Growing up on the Maine coast, I heard it a lot, especially from fishermen, lobstermen and carpenters.
Before he wrote “Charlotte’s Web,” E.B. White moved from New York City to Maine and worked a farm, raising sheep, chickens and crops. In “One Man’s Meat,” he wrote that farmers were “impressed by education, but they have seen too many examples of the helplessness and the impracticality of educated persons to be either envious or easily budged from their position.”
Fence-sitting — literally sitting on the fence and watching animals, feeling the wind shift, smelling the sage after a hard, fleeting rain — is not a waste of time. It’s honorable listening that can inform one’s worldview more than any tweet thread. No fence? You can find this kind of social engagement in the city: Watch birds on a wire as they tilt their heads (looking for predators), scrape their beaks (after eating, or after feeding their young), flit away and return.
“Doing all the time creates problems,” Joe Morris, a rancher in central California, told me. “You really need to observe, learn, listen, then respond. There are teachers everywhere — all you need is students.”
Don’t call me a romantic. There is little romance in my work of bucking bales in July heat or shoveling manure in February rain. But there is quietness. Like the white space of an elaborate print design, it can be refreshingly satisfying. | 2022-09-22T21:06:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Quiet in the rural West serves as a lesson - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/22/rural-west-contrast-digital-noise/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/22/rural-west-contrast-digital-noise/ |
Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom called his hip surgery “life-changer.” (John McDonnell/The Washington Post)
As the Washington Capitals opened training camp Thursday, there was a newfound optimism about organizational pillar Nicklas Backstrom, who said he was “pain free” for the first time in years after undergoing hip resurfacing surgery in June.
Backstrom will start the year on the sidelines, but said he is “optimistic” he will play at some point this season. The 34-year-old said the surgery was a “life-changer” that both gave him a better chance at extending his NHL career and helped his quality of life. He once again can pick up his own socks, tie his own shoes and play with his kids without any discomfort.
“You want to finish on your own terms, not because of an injury and feel like you play through stuff that you don’t want to,” Backstrom said. “That was a big part of it (getting the surgery). I’m optimistic that I get to do that now.”
Along with Backstrom, Tom Wilson and Carl Hagelin are expected to both miss to start the season as they recover from injuries and surgeries. Winger T.J. Oshie, who needed surgery this offseason, wasn’t skating as training camp opened but is expected to back Friday.
Wilson, who had ACL surgery in May, said his recovery was going well and progressing ahead of schedule. One of the biggest hurdles he faces is the mental aspect of recovery, knowing his knee might feel 100 percent better, but he still needs more time. There is no timeline for Wilson’s return.
“I feel like I’ve kind of been ahead of schedule, per se, since Day One, but that doesn’t mean much unfortunately,” Wilson said. “Obviously, I want to be as good as I can every day, but you’ve still got to wait.”
Hagelin, whose eye injury in early March led to two surgeries and left his NHL future uncertain, is also dealing with a lingering lower-body injury. Capitals General Manager Brian MacLellan said Hagelin has been playing through an injury for a while and it recently worsened. Surgery is a likely option; he is out indefinitely.
Oshie had core surgery a few weeks after the season ended for an injury he suffered in late March. Oshie did not participate in the on-ice skate test Thursday, instead watched from the sidelines with Hagelin, Wilson and Backstrom. Oshie said he is “almost” back to being 100 percent and is expected to practice Friday.
Washington wanted to hold Oshie out of Thursday’s skate test so he wouldn’t push himself too much before the regular season starts. Oshie spent the summer participating in informal skates and has been wearing a full-contact jersey during group sessions.
With so many injuries off the bat, Washington will depend on faces new and old, including Dylan Strome and Connor Brown, two newcomers who are both expected to have crucial roles. Brown is likely a temporary replacement for Wilson as the team’s top-line right wing. Strome will likely be in a position battle with Connor McMichael for second-line center.
“We're losing big parts of our team, so I think it's still going to be a challenge,” MacLellan said. “I think we've added good players. I think it's going to make training camp fun to see how guys adapt, how they fit in, see what the combinations are from the coaches. People are going to be getting an opportunity to player higher in the lineup.”
Captain Alex Ovechkin, who had 50 goals last season, and surging Evgeny Kuznetsov, carried the load in the first half of the year when injuries struck. Washington will depend on them again.
Ovechkin is in the middle of his pursuit of the NHL’s all-time goals record, needing only 22 to surpass Gordie Howe for second place on the list. But he isn’t focused on the milestones right now — especially on the first day of training camp. Washington hasn’t won a postseason series since it won the Stanley Cup in 2018; Ovechkin is determined to change that.
“I’m at the age that personal goals is nice, but we understand every year (you get closer) to the end of your career,” Ovechkin said. “So I just want to win. I want to be in the playoffs and fight for the Cup.”
Kuznetsov, who had 24 goals and 54 assists last season, also looks to meet and exceed the high expectations for himself this season. He felt the added pressure last year and pushed everyone to play better, even though the ultimate result wasn’t what Washington wanted.
“When there is a pressure, you can use it as a motivation,” Kuznetsov said. “You have to understand when you present this team, there is always expectation, certain level.” | 2022-09-22T21:07:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Nicklas Backstrom addresses recovery at Caps training camp - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/22/nicklas-backstrom-recovery-capitals-training-camp/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/22/nicklas-backstrom-recovery-capitals-training-camp/ |
Transcript: The Caregiving Crisis
MS. CALDWELL: Good morning, and welcome to Washington Post Live. I’m Leigh Ann Caldwell. I’m an anchor here at Washington Post Live and also co-author of the Early 202 newsletter.
Today we are talking about caregiving. Since the pandemic we have learned how the needs and the concerns have shifted as far as caregiving is concerned, and we are joined by two people who have very intimate knowledge of this: Tim Allen, CEO of Care.com. Thanks for joining us.
MR. ALLEN: Thanks, Leigh Ann. Great to be here.
MS. CALDWELL: And Reshma Saujani, the founder of Marshall Plan for Moms. Reshma, thank you so much for joining us.
MS. SAUJANI: Thanks, Leigh Ann, for having us.
MS. CALDWELL: And a note to our viewers, we of course want to hear from you. So, if you have any questions or comments, please tweet at us @PostLive. And also, a note to our viewers, just want to say that Reshma and Tim have worked together on many projects in the past, but we are thankful that they can join us here together today.
Let's get started. So, Tim, I want to start with you. As CEO of care.com you run a company that has a lot of knowledge about the ins and the outs of caregiving, the needs, the amount people are being paid, how much more they need. So, can you just talk very broadly about what you have learned from the pandemic on the caregiving needs of this country and the caregivers?
MR. ALLEN: Right. Yeah, thank you. I appreciate the forum. So, what we've seen from the pandemic is really that caregiving has always been an undercurrent of the conversation in society. What the pandemic did is it really shone a spotlight on where our infrastructure fell short, and it's infrastructure across the Board for everything from childcare to adult elder care, to taking care of your parents and aging, for example, to disabled care. So, no one was immune, so to speak, using pandemic language in terms of having the infrastructure crumble underneath them. And what I mean specifically in that is you had schools closing, which everyone was affected by. You had adults that were aging in home that you had to get nourishment, care, and necessities to, and you also had disabled individuals who families were primary caregivers who couldn't get their therapy, their rehab, their medical services as they needed to be able to function and move forward and progress in terms of all of the care that they had. So, it kind of went across the gamut of acuity needs.
And so, when parents or, you know, adults I like to say because it does--adult children tend to be the ones taking care of both children and individual members of the family such as aging parents were faced with this, they were left in a dire situation going what do we do, what are we--you know, we've relied on the government for certain aspects of this in the past. We've relied on private institutions for other aspects of this. And so, we're left in this gray area of not knowing where to go and how to function. And that really became transparent.
It was--it was one of those things where I was getting emails hourly during the pandemic of families going where do I go, what do I do, how do I deal with this. And so, we really focused on what you had right in front of you, the capable options that were faced in front of you, and what you could do in your own ecosystem and bubble. But it really was one of the things that showed all of the cracks in the system. And for the first time ever, I think we're having a national conversation about what we can do better as a society in America, and that's been great.
MS. CALDWELL: Well, Reshma, Marshall Plan for Moms is an organization that you note on your website on the frontpage that you can't really go back to normal pre-pandemic because the normal pre-pandemic was broken, especially for women who are the primary caregivers in this country. Can you talk a little bit about if the conversation has advanced and has in fact changed because of the pandemic?
MS. SAUJANI: Well, I mean, we've always treated America's mothers as our social safety net. And pre-pandemic, moms were doing two-thirds of the caregiving work, and so when crises like covid hit, you know, we would have to supplement essentially, you know, our paid labor or our unpaid labor, which actually then pushed us out of the workforce. And so, this hasn't really changed after the pandemic. You know, moms are still doing two-thirds of the caregiving work, and we still have put a priority on fixing our broken system of care. You know, half of daycare centers are still shut down. Far too many families spend more on, you know, their childcare than any other cost center.
You know, we were hoping that in Build Back Better that we would create a ceiling so no American family paid, you know, more than 7 percent of their income to childcare, but that bill didn't get passed. And so, we were too busy bailing out airlines instead of bailing out American families, and now American families are still paying the price.
MS. CALDWELL: Well, Tim, do you think that the care industry needs to be overhauled? Are there problems?
MR. ALLEN: It does. Yeah, absolutely, there's definite problems in the system. You know, I can speak about a multitude of issues. You know, Reshma points to the no more than 7 percent of your household income should go to childcare, to care services, and a majority of families are spending 10 and upwards of 20 percent of their household income on these care services. That's not sustainable for an American family. That's not sustainable from a policy perspective. That's also not sustainable from an economic perspective of the prosperity of our country.
You look at the care infrastructure and it continues to be this farming antiquated system from the 1960s where schools open up at 8:00 a.m. and close at 2:30. Now that isn't meant to be teachers need to step up and do more. Teachers do a lot. What this means is we need a care infrastructure and we need support from both employers and also the government in terms of building systems that are actually going to help support American families to really be successful in their caregiving needs.
The distinguishment I wanted to just point out, Leanne, which is what we've been pointing to here, but it isn't really clear to most Americans, is that caregiving is usually compartmentalized into this what I call the Disneyfication of, you know, this British nanny walks into your home and that's what we compartmentalize into nannies. The majority of Americans are caregivers. They just happen to have this second job that is a full-time job of unpaid labor--majority women as Reshma pointed out--who are picking this up and are actual caregivers. Their profession may not be caregiving, but they are caregivers. And the rationale behind that is that we've really blended duty, loyalty, and responsibility of taking care of our family members, whether that is children, whether that is aging parents, whether that is a disabled individual in the home. We've really marginalized that into a responsibility without showing the distinction of everyone is a caregiver in society. And so, what we need to do from a policy perspective is really look across the spectrum and go how can employers step up and really provide benefits so that when there's a full-time job at play here and you also have a full-time job as a caregiver, it's sustainable? There is that safety net. It is not dependent upon one person.
And then the government also needs to step up. And there's a ton of policies which I'm sure we'll talk about here in a little bit of time, but there's a ton of policies in play here that we really think from tax credits all the way through that will revolutionize our care system because it does need a revolution. It doesn't need an evolution. It needs a revolution.
MS. CALDWELL: Well, Reshma, can you follow up a little bit more on that? Tim said that corporations, companies need to step up and provide benefits. Specifically what sort of benefits? And then on the flipside for the government, other than tax credits, what sort of policies does the government need to provide in addition to the 7 percent capping on a person's income for childcare?
MS. SAUJANI: Yeah, I mean, in my latest book "Pay Up," I talked about exactly what workplaces should do. You know, for so long when we talk about women's equality, we've been saying, you know, if you just leaned in real hard, if you just girl bossed your way to the top, if you just did a power pose before meeting, we would get to equality.
And so, we have never, ever been focused on the fact that most mothers show up with two and a half jobs before they even get to the workplace. They're doing caretaking almost full time, and they're working full time in their jobs, and it's untenable. And it's untenable because we live in a country that doesn't provide any structural support. America is the only industrialized nation that doesn't offer paid leave. Almost 85 percent of women after they have children go back to work 10 days after having a baby literally while they are in an adult diaper. We are the only industrialized nation that doesn't provide affordable childcare. We provide the least amount to families of any other industrialized nation in providing support for childcare. And so--and again, we're in this moment kind of post-pandemic, we're still fighting about flexibility, even though we've seen that so many workers are productive, even while they're able to take their kid to soccer or pick their kid up from school, but we're still pushing against that. And this is again why, you know, we have not reached equality yet.
And so, one of the things I talk about in my book is that now's the time for companies to really step up and for mothers to ask for what they need to be successful. And so that begins with paid leave and having paid leave--and not just having women take paid leave, but mandating that men take it too. There are too many companies today that still don't have gender-neutral paid leave policy. And so, when you're a big, you know, Fortune 100 company and you don't have gender-neutral paid leave policy, you're essentially signaling that caregiving work should be done by women and not men, and you're exacerbating the inequality gap.
You know, one of the things that's really shocking that we've seen is that, you know, during the pandemic, you did start seeing companies step up and provide more, I would say, fair and just paid leave policies. But there was a recent report that came out two weeks ago that showed post-pandemic, companies have reduced those paid leave policies by 65 percent.
The second benefit that I think is critical is childcare. The model of childcare, as I'm sure Tim can talk about, is broken. And so, someone has to provide the subsidy, whether that's the government or that's the private sector. And the government has pretty much said, well, we're not providing the subsidy. So that means that American companies essentially have to provide a subsidy in order to enable women to work, because the vast majority of women, because of the motherhood penalty, essentially work to work. And so, if their company is not providing some sort of childcare support, it becomes untenable, and they either leave the workforce or they downshift their careers, which is what we saw happen during the pandemic.
And so, the Marshall Plan for Moms, we launched the National Business Childcare Coalition with companies like Patagonia, Etsy, Archewell, Synchrony Financial, Athletes United [phonetic], Fast Retailing, to essentially, as models of what they're doing to provide childcare support to their employees--because what they have--what they have seen is that when they provide childcare support, it reduces the attrition rate. And that's a thing that parents are basically saying: I will go work at this company if I can get support with my childcare. It's the number-one thing that we have to solve, and we have to stop seeing childcare as a personal problem that you have to go fix and see it as an economic issue.
MS. CALDWELL: Tim, I want to switch a little bit to the caregiver shortage as well. You run Care.com. I have been on that website many times looking for care, full disclosure. And I have personally noticed in over the past couple years there's a shortage, especially when you need part-time care. My kids are in school. I don't need care all day long. So, can you talk about at first, how has the company changed to address that? And is there anything being done to recruit caregivers, get more people into this industry?
MR. ALLEN: Yeah. So, during the pandemic, we had a moment of looking and reflecting upon ourselves on what the world would look like post-pandemic. And what we found is really flexible care is becoming more of the norm than institutional care. And what I mean by that is, the nine-to-five configuration of care is somewhat obsolete. It's the dinosaur of the industry. So, what we really focused on was being able to give families the choice and option of having configurable care where they could actually have it work for their schedule. Now, whether that is they have jobs that actually require them to go in, in different hours, different shifts, different periods, all the way through to now the white-collar labor force that is working from home more and more. So, providing that configurable care has really been what we call a watershed moment inside the organization. And what that required was being able to go out and recruit a workforce that actually is able to meet that demand.
Now, historically, in the industry, as everyone is likely aware of, but I'll just say it for the sake, is this has been a labor pool that has been underpaid, underrepresented, has not had the benefits, and has really been marginalized in a lot of ways. And what we have found is that as inflation has occurred, rates have risen.
Now rates have risen, putting more pressure on the family in order to pay, but the rates have risen, you know, up to right now over 10 percent for nannies, full-time nannies. But then also babysitters who are also doing these configurable care jobs have risen up to seven-and-a-half percent. So, we look at that data and we're starting to see more of the actual individuals who are our professional caregivers or trying to pick up extra hours, the moms who actually have kids now in school who want to actually have more opportunity for income and employment, are coming to the platform and working to do the configurable care jobs that are needed necessarily for afterschool pickup or more of the timeframes of two to three hours when someone might have a meeting in the home. We're seeing more of that labor pool actually gravitate to the platform, which has been a boon for us.
Overall, though, the industry is facing somewhat of a crisis in regards to the institutional care, the in-center care. You've seen a mass drain of employees. There's employee shortages inside of daycare centers today, and that's really been exacerbated by what we call childcare deserts. In America today, over 50 percent of children actually reside in a childcare desert. Childcare desert's defined as not having access to care, either institutional care or any type of care outside of an individual or maybe a family member.
So, when you look--and in fact, one of the stats I was actually reading yesterday is there's three children for every daycare spot now available, given the shortage of actual employees inside daycare centers. That industry is going through a revolution right now. You're seeing pay raises increase. You're seeing rates increase for families. But it's also putting pressure on the families in and of themselves to make the decision, do I work, do I not work, how do I afford childcare. This all circles back to there has to be an economic underpinning here of either employers or government to help support that raise and that increase of rates, because that's what's going to continue the labor pool. That's what's going to continue to meet the demand. That's what's going to continue to allow institutions to thrive.
MS. CALDWELL: Yeah, Reshma, it's like--it's like a circular conversation, because people want to pay their caregivers more, but people can't afford to pay their caregivers more. You know, we talked about a lot of potential solutions. But I mean, you mentioned this stuff was taken out of the Build Back Better plan. It hasn't passed Congress. Is there the political will to do it, and how long will it take for this country to get there?
MS. SAUJANI: I mean, there needs to be, especially because post-Dobbs, we've entered a period where we're forcing birth, again, in a country that doesn't have paid leave, that doesn't have affordable childcare, that has high rates of maternal death, especially amongst women of color and Black mothers. And so, we need to have a reckoning right now. I mean, when you look at the 26 states that are--that are trying to make the most--you know, the most, you know, excessive reproductive rights policies in terms of really putting the most amount of restrictions, criminalizing women for seeking abortions, those are the policies that have the worst benefits for mothers, including paid leave and affordable childcare, and the highest rates of mortality raises for women of color. And so, there needs to be a reckoning right now. Because this is--it's untenable.
And you know, if we are a country--you know, going back to the economic issue--if we're a country that values innovation, that wants to compete with, you know, China and Russia, then we have got to make sure that all of our workers are able to work at their fullest potential. And the reality is, is that even now, two years after the pandemic, we still have 1 million women that are missing from the workforce. And that doesn't even count the amount of women who have downshifted their careers because they have to afford--pay for childcare.
MS. CALDWELL: Yeah, Reshma, and we're running out of time and we only have time for one short answer, but I do want to ask you this. Does the conversation around unpaid care, does--has that shifted enough? Because women who are at home--men, too--caring for their children, this is unpaid work.
MS. SAUJANI: It is. I think--I think it's shifted with women. We realize that we're doing a tremendous amount of unpaid labor and not getting paid for it and we're not going to work for free. So, there is a movement coming, and there is a reckoning coming with moms.
MS. CALDWELL: Great. And we are out of time. I could talk to you guys for four hours about all of this. Thank you so much for joining us, Tim Allen, and Reshma Saujani. Thanks so much.
MS. SAUJANI: Thank you.
MR. ALLEN: Thank you.
MS. CALDWELL: And we will be back in just a few minutes for the next part of our conversation. Stay with us.
MS. KELLY: Hello and welcome. I am Suzanne Kelly, CEO and publisher of The Cipher Brief. The Cipher Brief is a media organization that focuses on national security issues, putting vital issues in the forefront.
Today we're going to talk about another vital issue that isn't always in the forefront, and that's caregiving. The covid pandemic put strains on all sectors of our society from health to work to caregiving, and I want to focus for just a few minutes on just how that's impacting both individuals and families.
Joining me to talk about this is Regina Blye. Regina is chief program and policy officer at the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation.
Regina, welcome. MS. BLYE: Thank you, Suzanne, for having me.
MS. KELLY: And we do want this conversation to be accessible for everyone, including the visually impaired. So I'm going to describe myself as a youngish‑looking Caucasian brunette who is sitting in front of a bookshelf.
MS. BLYE: And I'm a Black female that uses a wheelchair, and I'm sitting in front of an eclectic bookshelf.
MS. KELLY: Regina, it feels like every issue when you're talking about caregiving is a personal one. I'm wondering if you wouldn't mind sharing a little bit of your story with us and how that led you to the Reeve Foundation.
MS. BLYE: Absolutely. As a person that's been living with paralysis for over 36 years, I can tell you caregiving is a main issue that I deal with on a regular basis, and it's mentally and physically expensive, exhausting, and it's taxing for me and my partner.
For example, I don't look this way by accident. I'm present and fierce because of my partner. He helped me with my hair, clothing, and other personal care activities, and this really shouldn't be his role. And I'm grateful that he understands that it's needed, but then it also starts for us to have difficult conversations about when are we focusing on my care and when am I just supposed to be your partner in life. And so these are the type of situations that families shouldn't have to face.
MS. KELLY: And I think a lot of families find themselves in exactly that situation.
You know, the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation operates something called the National Paralysis Resource Center, which I believe is the only federally funded center that's dedicated solely to assisting anyone with any type of paralysis. What kind of help does the foundation offer, and who can get that help?
MS. BLYE: As the only federally funded center that's available, we're afforded the opportunity to provide support to caregivers through an assortment of free programs and services. Our mighty team of information specialists serve on the front lines and are available to answer questions and provide individualized support.
We've connected with over 115,000 people across the country, and many of those are caregivers. And each day they help people navigate the caregiving system and focus on issues that are inherent to this crisis, for how to find and pay for caregiving to caregiver burnout. Our Peer and Family Support Program is another resource for caregivers that offers support and real‑world advice from those who have been there.
And, finally, our Quality of Life programs have awarded more than $1 million since 2015 to nonprofits that offer innovative respite care services.
MS. KELLY: I didn't know that. That's an impressive number.
You know, many of us remember the accident that left Christopher Reeve paralyzed, and we also remember the incredible support that his wife, Dana, provided. I think just she felt the sympathy of a nation‑‑they both did‑‑but also the admiration for their strength in facing this, and, you know, they were trying to deal with a curveball that life had thrown them. Sharing information and stories of coping and hope seemed to be driving them. How is their legacy being carried on today?
MS. BLYE: Well, Dana Reeve was known for being a model caregiving‑‑caregiver supporting Christopher Reeve and their family after he sustained a spinal cord injury in 1995. It was her vision to provide resources for the entire support system that led to the creation of the National Paralysis Resource Center. It's her vision that we try to continue forward with our information specialists and our Peer and Family Support Program mentors to make sure that people are available to give them the information that they need and also share information and experiences so that we can help at the ready and be able to be a support when someone needs it.
MS. KELLY: And before I let you go, I want to ask, how can people get involved?
MS. BLYE: Absolutely. I want to say for several years, the Reeve Foundation has advocated with many others across the country about home‑ and community‑based services, and as we know that the bill did not pass recently, but that doesn't mean that our work is over. We need your help, and we want you to join us as grassroots advocates and join our Reeve Foundation's Regional Champions. And this is your opportunity to share your story with others and also with Representatives and Senators to let them know the trials that are associated with caregiving and to also let them know a way of building a better model system that will work for everyone, and the way that you can do that is to join us by going to our website at www.ChristopherReeve.org.
MS. KELLY: Regina, any closing thoughts or any words of advice you'd like to share with families who might be facing something like this?
MS. BLYE: I know this road is not easy, but you're not alone, and that's what we're here for, to give you the advice and support that you need. Give us a call or send us an email, and also go to our website. And we'll be able to give you the information to help you get through it. Again, you're not alone.
MS. KELLY: I think that's a really important message for families just to hear it because, in the moment, sometimes it feels like you're very alone.
So I want to thank you, Regina Blye, chief program and policy officer with the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation. Looking fierce. Thank you for joining us today.
MS. BLYE: Thank you for having me.
MS. KELLY: And now back to my colleagues at The Washington Post.
MS. CALDWELL: Welcome back. For those of you who are just joining, I'm Leigh Ann Caldwell, and our next part of the conversation, I'm joined by two women who founded Wives and Girlfriends of Spinal Cord Injury, Brooke Pagé and Elena Pauly. Thanks so much for joining us today.
MS. PAGÉ: Hi there. Thanks for having us.
MS. PAULY: Good morning.
MS. CALDWELL: And a reminder to our viewers that we would like to hear from you. So tweet at us questions @PostLive.
So, Elena, I want to start with you. You've been involved in caregiving since before the pandemic. I want to ask you how you have seen it shift, the needs shift, and how the needs of not only the person being cared for but also the caregiver have changed.
MS. PAULY: Absolutely. So I believe, you know, when the pandemic first began in 2019, a lot of caregivers were sincerely concerned and worried about having their partners go into hospital. The lack of support within the hospital system, the lack of staffing provides a very detrimental setting for the patients that have spinal cord injuries, and what I mean by that is pressure wounds and getting, you know, a very severe disease while you're in hospital and becoming intubated.
So the work of nonpaid spousal caregivers, the workload became a lot, a lot heavier. We canceled home care, the little bit of home care that we did have provided because we were so concerned that our partners would become very ill, and then that, you know, all of that fell on family caregivers, specifically spouses, to do the extra showering, bowel programs, in amongst the dressing, the passive exercises, the physio, the occupational therapy, the grocery shopping, the cleaning, the everything. It became extremely isolating for everybody involved because we were living in a very fear‑based model.
MS. CALDWELL: Brooke, talk about Wives and Girlfriends of Spinal Cord Injury, WAGS of SCI. Why did you found it, and when?
MS. PAGÉ: So both of our partners were injured, quadriplegics, and we found each other on Instagram, of all places. There was really no community for women likes us, young women like us especially. We thought we were all alone, and so when we found each other on Instagram, we were so excited at the connection that we had built between us because our whole lives had changed, you know. We were now living a caregiving life. It was very different than everybody else's lives, our friends and family. They didn't understand. Sometimes we would only have half an hour of free time, and we would go for a quick coffee. And if one of us had to go early, we would understand each other's plight, and we would say, "Okay. Have a good day." And, you know, we would give each other medical supplies when we would fun out, and we just understood the life.
And so one day we were sitting there, and we said, "You know what? We don't want any other woman to feel alone again. We want to make sure that these women have connection like ours. We want to see if we can replicate that, and so we started an Instagram page, and we were super happy when we had a few hundred followers. And, you know, it kind of blew up from there, and we now have women in our community all across the world, and it was a very, very grassroots organization.
You know, we are not funded by any foundation. We don't have a foundation. We are boots‑to‑the‑ground advocates. We are real women who don't have an agenda other than supporting other women in our situation and connecting women with each other because the resources that other women have from living this life are so invaluable, and we just want to make sure everybody knows about us because a lot of us get lost.
MS. CALDWELL: Elena, I want you to back up for a little bit. Talk to the experiences you went through early on when you first became a caregiver. What was it like? Were you‑‑did you have any awareness into the community and to the needs when it began for you?
MS. PAULY: No, absolutely not. So my partner was injured in Cuba while we were on vacation. So the caregiving means from myself became very real. You know, assisting a spinal cord injury in a socialist country with very, very limited medical equipment and resources was the reality we were living, and at that time, we didn't have friends and family come fly out to Cuba to help us. So a lot of the roles were placed on me right off the get‑go, and I think from that, as we were transferred to Canada to the Canadian hospital and our medical system, it was very difficult for me to take a step back and allow for a medical staff to take over without questioning, because like Brooke had said, there are other agendas around health care and big pharma, especially when somebody sustains a spinal cord injury. You get sent home with a huge prescription pad of medications that have adverse reactions.
So these were conversations that we never thought we would ever have to dive into or do our research into, but it became very real and something that we've been very passionate about to help so many other people and open up the conversation of reality around that.
MS. CALDWELL: Brooke, can you talk a little bit about the challenges that the people don't understand unless you are a caregiver, the financial strain, the emotional toll, the physical toll? Can you explain that a little bit?
MS. PAGÉ: So one of the main issues that a lot of spousal or common law or, you know, girlfriends struggle with is the enmeshment of providing the physical care for your partner but also providing the emotional support as well when they're going through these challenges that nobody should have to deal with, but unfortunately, we have to on a daily basis, the psychological struggles of dealing with this injury and all of the many, many side effects that nobody talks about. It impacts your daily life so intensely, and so having that burden of not only do we have to care for our partners physically and help them with things that, you know, nobody else has to deal with this kind of stuff in our friendship circles, except for us, things like‑‑you know, like Elena said, bowel programs, bladder programs. Things that people don't want to talk about, we have to deal with, and so balancing that and making sure that we maintain our own positive mental state, especially when our partners are struggling, and then also the balance of our partner has a lot of issues, mentally, emotionally. We have to deal with that, and being able to devote our time to self‑care and get that time for ourselves in while balancing caring for them and our emotional needs and their emotional needs and then not becoming codependent at the same time. It's a huge psychological struggle.
And there are no resources available for helping women through this, even in the hospital systems in the U.S. and Canada. It's very similar. They don't provide any counseling unless you're suicidal.
So it's very serious, and these women are‑‑we like to describe it as "treading water." It always feels like you're treading water, always trying to just survive, and we're kind of overlooked because we are the partners, we're there, even by our friends and family. And so just the balance, trying to find the balance again is something that we as, you know, advocates and partners is something that is so important and kind of the foundation of our group.
We also are advocates for creating paid spousal and common law partner caregiving systems, as this is something that we work on behind the scenes a lot of our time because this is one of the hugest issues in our community is there are very few paid programs where women get treated equally as another caregiver that comes from outside the home and gets supported in their endeavor of being a great caregiver, right?
MS. CALDWELL: Right. It's so fascinating. I actually, in a previous story, knew someone who went through an agency who was caring for their loved one, went through the agency, got hired by the agency so that they would get paid essentially for the work‑‑
MS. PAGÉ: Yes.
MS. CALDWELL: ‑‑that they were doing at home, you know, such a powerful assessment and testimony.
A disclosure for our audience, Brooke and Elena have worked in the past for the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, which is a sponsor of our program today.
Elena, I have a question from an audience, someone who is watching, who says that‑‑it's from Pat in Indiana. She says, "My late husband was a quadriplegic due to SCI from a car accident. He was a C6‑[C]7 injury with a C1 fraction." Of course, those are spinal cord injuries. "I started a secretarial business in our home to make ends meet. I was his sole caregiver except when he was in the hospital. How did you all cope with that, and more importantly, how did you cope with the doctors who don't listen when you know something is wrong?" Elena.
MS. PAULY: Wow. This is a very real question, very fully loaded question, and I think that you sort of‑‑I mean, for myself especially, like, both Brooke and I in our roles, I feel like we're quite fierce and fiery when it comes to advocating for our partners, and it's really truly just being able to tread that thin line between being a successful advocate and doing it with love and being extremely frustrated because you're seeing things like pressure wounds happening, but you're being ignored.
So, for us, we have a legal advocate on our team, Robyn Wishart with Wishart Brain and Spine Law, and she has been a tremendous help for us. She's a Harvard lawyer, part of our girl gang, who's been able to be our advocate, and that was a huge help for us for coping from the very beginning.
And, you know, it's very difficult not to get frustrated because we have to understand that doctors and specialist are also human. There is such a thing as human error, and there is a shortage of physicians out there, that a lot of the time, you do have to become your own advocate. And I think instead of looking at it as a burden or a frustration, look at it as empowerment, that you're able to do these things, and you could be helping a lot of other people by using your voice. And, you know, just take control of the situation is my biggest piece of advice. Do it yourself. Don't rely on anybody else, and do your research.
MS. CALDWELL: Brooke, there's a report that came out last April‑‑there's been a lot of reports about this‑‑that the amount of anxiety and depression among caregivers is high and especially at increase during the pandemic. So can you talk a little bit about the support that WAGS of SCI has for its members, that you guys have for each other?
MS. PAGÉ: So we have over 10,000 women worldwide in our community now, and so when a woman‑‑you know, when her partner is freshly injured, she can find our information in a hospital or through a nurse or through another advocate locally in her area. And she's then directed to our support network on Facebook and WAGSofSCI.com. We also have a podcast with a ton of resources.
And this allows the women to not feel so alone, like their problems aren't so unique, because when an injury happens in your family, to your partner, you feel like you are completely alone, like no one understands, and so what this does, it connects you with thousands of women who are in your shoes, who are real women dealing with these problems on a daily basis.
Some women live in small communities and live in more isolated communities, and they don't have access to occupational therapists or physiotherapists or even doctors and specialists. And so a lot of the times, they need questions to be answered from women who have been in their shoes and who can help them.
Sometimes the situations are really dire, and then we have the resources that we can direct them to in order to get them help.
But women in the community that are actually living this life are the most profound resources that you can have because they have so many ideas. They have so many fresh perspectives, and when we get posts or emails from women coming to us saying that they're depressed and they're sad and they can't handle this life, we always provide a supportive shoulder for them, even virtually, and make sure that they know that they're not alone.
And some of these phases are very important to go through, especially in a grieving process. You've got to feel all of these emotions and to be able to talk about them with your sisters who understand how you're feeling and who have been there in the past and who have gotten out of it. Have tools and techniques that can help and that we can just all be there for each other, and it's just‑‑it's so important.
MS. CALDWELL: Elena, we got a lot of questions from the audience before this started, and one thing that we noticed was people who are paralyzed wrote in and asked how they can become better advocates and caregivers of themselves.
So we might have just lost Elena for a second, but if Brooke is still there, we can‑‑
MS. PAGÉ: I'm here.
MS. CALDWELL: Okay. So, Brooke, I'm going to ask you this question. Do you have any advice for the‑‑for people who themselves are paralyzed and who want to be more involved in their own caregiving?
MS. PAGÉ: You know, to piggyback on what Elena was saying earlier, being your own best advocate is so important and empowering yourself into saying, "Listen, this is what I need. This is what I want. This is what needs to happen for me," and doing it in a way that is compassionate and that understands that people around you, they do want to help. They just don't really know how.
And sometimes people overstep. You know, family caregivers, even spouses, they tend to do a lot for their partner when their partner could be more independent, and it's all about self‑advocacy and just being your own best friend and being‑‑and really trying to understand what you need as an injured person and what would make you happy and what would make‑‑what would work for your life instead of just accepting what someone else says should be your life.
You know, I found that is a huge hurdle in this life is you have doctors telling you something, you have physiotherapists telling you something, you have the community telling you something, and it may not be what's best for you. So I think it's really important to tune in to your own needs and make sure you understand what you need because it may be different than everybody else and just kind of empowering yourself to say, "Okay. This is what I need. This is how I can help myself," and just building on that every single day to make your life more fruitful.
MS. CALDWELL: And, Brooke, you‑‑we don't have Elena back yet, but you did not expect to be in this situation. So can you talk‑‑you know, we've talked a lot about the challenges. Have there been any welcome surprises, any good sides about this?
MS. PAGÉ: I really like to talk about this because, for me, my relationship is entirely different than it was before injury. I was with my partner for four years as an able‑bodied couple before his injury, and we have been together eight years since then. So we've had eight years in a inter‑abled relationship and then, you know, four years before that.
And my partner's personality has changed, and I always say this to him. It's changed for the better. He's really, really developed and matured, and he knows what he wants. He develops a side of him that is very empathetic and compassionate. He loves helping people more than he ever has. It's developed his empathy. It is‑‑you know, he's become such a well‑founded person, and in turn, our communication has gotten so much better because it has to be. I'm his 24/7 primary caregiver, right? We have to communicate extremely well in order to make it not only as a couple but to make sure his care is top‑notch, and it's a balance, and in that balance comes really working on how we communicate with each other and how we nurture our relationship.
That is so important, and so with that has come a really, really rich relationship. We are so close. We know how to balance our needs. We know how to listen to each other, and to be honest, I always say this to my husband, I don't know if we ever would have gotten to this point in our relationship had he not been injured. And so I think that is a really positive, and I've seen so many couples that have transitioned into just a really beautiful relationship post injury, if you allow it and if you really devote yourself to communication.
MS. CALDWELL: What do you hope comes out of this pandemic as the country, the world emerges from it, and as far as caregiving is concerned?
MS. PAGÉ: I hope that women, especially, have a newfound sense of what they want and need and what's important to them. I think the pandemic has taught people that you really have to nurture your own needs, and you are very important. Your health is very important. Your mental wellness is very important.
And so just taking that sense of this is what I need, this is what is going to make me feel really good, this is what I need to work on in order to create a better world for myself is really important, and I hope that women are really going within and analyzing what they want out of their lives instead of struggling so much on a daily basis.
And with that comes new opportunities. When you open your eyes wider and you relax and you see what's available out there, what could be available, it's just there's lots of potential. I think people are looking for growth right now. I think people are done with the fear. They're done with worrying. They want to live, and with that comes just focusing on what's truly, truly important and advocating for yourself.
We also are‑‑personally, Elena and I are working really, really hard to advocate for, again, paid spousal caregiving opportunities and empowering women behind the scenes to really work no their own cases and say, "Hey, wait a second. I can get paid here. How do I do that?" and trying to find a way to make it so that they can get paid for at least some of their efforts.
MS. CALDWELL: Mm‑hmm. Great.
And, Elena, welcome back. One last question to you, and that is, what do you want‑‑just very broad question, but what do you want people to know about caregiving and about what you have gone through?
MS. PAULY: What I would like people to know is that‑‑and this is sort of echoing what was said earlier in the program is that every single person has either been a caregiver or will need a caregiver or will be a caregiver, and I think that if we don't start advocating for caregivers in our lives now that we're setting ourselves up for a really grim future when we're even older or disabled or, you know, for the mothers that have the children that are really worn out, that this is the time now to be able to use your voice and advocate for these people because it's going to be you.
MS. CALDWELL: Brooke Pagé, Elena Pauly, thank you so much for your time today. That was such a wonderful discussion. Thank you for coming on and sharing your story and advocating for caregivers. Really appreciate it.
MS. PAULY: Thank you so much for having us.
MS. CALDWELL: And thank you for watching. My name is Leigh Ann Caldwell. If you would like to view any more of our programs, you can go to WashingtonPostLive.com. You can also rewatch this program or read the transcripts. Thanks so much. | 2022-09-22T21:08:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Transcript: The Caregiving Crisis - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/09/22/transcript-caregiving-crisis/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/09/22/transcript-caregiving-crisis/ |
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) talks with reporters Thursday during her weekly news conference on Capitol Hill. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
The House on Thursday passed a package of policing and public safety bills, as Democratic centrists and progressives came together on long-sought legislation 47 days to midterm elections.
The legislation is the result of months of negotiations among Democrats as the party seeks to counter Republican accusations that it soft on crime — a perception that Democrats acknowledge cost them seats in 2020. The bills, which garnered bipartisan support, are largely political messages as the measures are unlikely to get enough Republican support in the Senate for passage.
In a statement earlier in the day, Bush complained that one of the four bills failed to address “the crisis of police brutality.”
The Mental Health Justice Act of 2022, sponsored by Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), seeks to create a grant program for states and local governments to train and dispatch mental health professionals — instead of law enforcement officers — to respond to emergencies that involve people with behavioral health needs.
The bill passed 223-206.
The Invest to Protect Act of 2022, sponsored by moderate Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), would award a grant to a local or tribal government that employs fewer than 200 law enforcement officers for equipment and programs including body cameras, de-escalation training and recruitment and retention improvement.
Republicans joined Democrats in passing the bill, 360-64.
The VICTIM Act of 2022 would help law enforcement agencies establish violent incident clearance and technological investigative methods. The measure was sponsored by Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), who is trying to unseat Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).
The vote was 250-178.
The Break the Cycle of Violence Act, sponsored by Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), would fund nonprofit, community and faith-based organizations that work to reduce crime.
During House debate, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) expressed his frustration with where the bills fall short — particularly when it comes to police accountability. But he said he would not allow “the perfect to be the enemy of the good.”
Rep. Michelle Fischbach (R-Minn.) called the legislation unnecessary and incapable of addressing voters’ real concerns about rising crime.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) rejected any characterization that Democrats are attempting to rebrand themselves heading into a competitive midterm election with their majority control in jeopardy. She said her party is displaying its commitment to the public safety of everyone.
The latter was a reference to some Republicans, most notably Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who adopted the far-right rallying cry of “defund the FBI” after the court-ordered search last month of former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
Those involved with the negotiations gave credit to the Congressional Black Caucus, particularly Chairwoman Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), for moderating talks between centrist and liberal lawmakers. Liberals had joined CBC members in initially objecting to a vote for any police funding bill that did not include accountability provisions when leaders tried to pass the package over the summer.
Party leaders, the Congressional Black Caucus chair, and moderate and liberal lawmakers, including Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), reached a deal Wednesday.
During the debate Thursday, Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.) criticized the parts of the bill that substitutes law enforcement for mental health providers in some cases, arguing that the most skilled mental health providers would still be ill-equipped to handle dangerous situations.
Porter defended the legislation saying that existing police departments that use mental health response units have praised the effort claiming it allows them to spend more time enforcing laws. | 2022-09-22T21:10:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | House votes to pass package of policing bills ahead of midterms - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/22/house-democrats-policing/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/22/house-democrats-policing/ |
Fla. city to pay $500K after cops killed driver in 120-shot shooting
Lester Machado was driving his Honda Civic through Hialeah, Fla., early one morning when police tried to pull him over for what they said was a traffic stop.
The 24-year-old sped away. During a chase through the dense downtown streets, officers opened fire at least once, saying Machado had swiped an officer’s car, according to court records. Police eventually forced him off the road, then fired into his disabled vehicle 120 more times, killing him.
This week, five years after the October 2017 shooting, Hialeah agreed to pay $500,000 to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by his mother, according to a copy of the agreement provided by the city.
The settlement does not contain any admission of liability for Machado’s death by the city or the officers named as defendants, all of whom were cleared of criminal wrongdoing shortly after the incident.
Representatives from the city did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday. An attorney for the family declined to discuss the case.
Nationwide, police have fatally shot at least 1,250 people who were fleeing in vehicles since 2015, according to a Washington Post database of officer-involved shootings tracked since that year. In 2017, the year Machado was killed, officers shot 179 people in cars, the most of any year since The Post began tracking the deaths.
Most incidents in which police opened fire into a vehicle involved suspects who were armed. Machado was not. Officers said they tried to pull him over because he had a broken license plate light, though his family’s attorneys said in court papers that the light was functioning.
Immediately following the shooting, police said Machado, who was a manager at a local AutoZone, had reversed his car toward the officers who tried to stop him.
“They jump back into their vehicles for their own safety, and then he takes advantage and speeds away,” Hialeah Police Sgt. Carl Zogby said.
They pursued him for about 10 minutes, stopping when Machado crashed his car into a Metrorail pillar. Six officers opened fire almost immediately, striking the car more than 100 times and hitting a fence at a nearby church. Machado was struck at least seven times, including in the head and stomach, according to court filings.
Under Hialeah police department policy, officers are not supposed to pursue people for minor traffic violations, as the Miami Herald reported. But police said that Machado had used the vehicle as a deadly weapon and that the chase was justified.
The lawsuit by Machado’s family, filed in federal court, said that his car was stopped when police opened fire and that he was not a threat to the officers or anyone else. It noted that Machado was found dead on the rear passenger-side seat.
“It is apparent that after the crash, and the hail of gun fire leveled at him, Machado was seeking shelter and protection from the gunfire, and was not resisting, attempting to flee or retaliate in any way against the overwhelming fire power leveled against him,” said attorneys who filed the complaint on behalf of Machado’s mother, Yolaisy Perez.
The lawsuit also alleged that the shooting was part of a pattern of excessive force and “street justice” by the police department.
In 2021, Perez’s attorneys claimed in court papers that they had found evidence of an “extensive cover-up” to protect the officers. It said that a police sergeant had ordered the officers not to chase Machado, and that he could not have used the vehicle as a deadly weapon because it was “visibly disabled with its rear axle partially detached and all of its airbags deployed.”
A judge denied the request to amend the complaint with the findings, saying Perez’s team had missed a required deadline and had waited too long to seek some pieces of evidence.
Prosecutors found the shooting justified under Florida law, which allows police to use deadly force if they “reasonably believe” that a suspect has committed a felony that could result in serious harm to another person. | 2022-09-22T22:11:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Hialeah, Fla., settles lawsuit over Lester Machado police shooting - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/22/hialeah-settlement-lester-machado/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/22/hialeah-settlement-lester-machado/ |
Timothy Hale-Cusanelli repeatedly expressed desire for civil war while working at N.J. naval base, trial evidence showed
Timothy Hale-Cusanelli of New Jersey. (United States Attorney for the District of Columbia)
A New Jersey man who was one of the first rioters to break into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, then testified under oath that he didn’t know Congress met there, was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison.
Prosecutors had sought more than six years for Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, but a federal judge ruled that his actions did not obstruct “the administration of justice,” though they did obstruct the official proceedings of Congress that day. A jury convicted him of that offense in May.
Also Thursday, the only Jan. 6 defendant to testify about his conduct in front of the House select committee investigating the riot was sentenced to two years of probation for disorderly conduct. Stephen Ayres, a 39-year-old Ohio carpenter, said he thinks about Jan. 6 “every single day” and prays for the injured officers and everyone who lost a loved one.
Hale-Cusanelli, 32, worked as a security guard at Naval Weapons Station Earle and lived on the base in Colts Neck, N.J. In addition to being a supporter of President Donald Trump, the man was a white supremacist who supported Nazi ideology and admired Adolf Hitler, even wearing a “Hitler mustache” to work, the government said in court filings. But U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden ruled that Hale-Cusanelli’s racist preferences were too prejudicial to present to a jury, though he did allow the defendant’s comments that he wanted a civil war to come into evidence.
N.J. man found guilty of felony obstruction of Congress in Jan. 6 riot
Surveillance video showed Hale-Cusanelli climbing through a window on the Lower West Terrace at 2:13 p.m., moments after it was first smashed, wearing a gray suit and a red MAGA hat. Before entering, prosecutors said, he moved a bicycle rack barrier aside to enable crowds to get closer to the building, and then urged the mob forward by waving his arms and yelling, “Advance! Advance!”
Once inside, Hale-Cusanelli was part of a group that overwhelmed U.S. Capitol and D.C. police in the crypt. Photos and videos showed that he then attempted to pull a rioter away from a police officer who was arresting that person. Hale-Cusanelli claimed that he didn’t know the officer was an officer, and that he thought the electoral vote certification “was going to be in a building called ‘Congress.’ As stupid as it sounds, I did not realize that Congress sat in the Capitol building.”
On Thursday, McFadden called that “a risible lie,” and after the jury convicted Hale-Cusanelli in May, the judge suggested to prosecutors that he would consider a request for a longer sentence for “obstruction of justice.” And McFadden did, in fact, increase Hale-Cusanelli’s sentencing range for those sworn statements.
But prosecutors sought two even longer sentencing enhancements for obstructing and interfering with the “administration of justice” at the Capitol. Defense attorney Nicholas D. Smith said that while Congress’s act of certifying the electoral college vote might qualify as an “official proceeding,” and all but one D.C. federal judge has agreed, the certification did not qualify as administration of justice. Prosecutors argued in their sentencing brief that the “'administration of justice’ is synonymous with ‘official proceeding.’ ”
McFadden agreed with the defense. He said the electoral college count was “appreciably different” from the investigations and other justice-related actions of Congress. “I don’t think the administration of justice, as used in the sentencing enhancement, is a fair way to describe what is happening here.”
But McFadden then blasted Hale-Cusanelli for his racist, sexist and antisemitic remarks, some of which were captured on a recording made by his roommate when Hale-Cusanelli returned to New Jersey after the riot. The judge repeated a profane taunt that Hale-Cusanelli shouted at a female Capitol Police officer during the riot, and criticized his “decision to lie on the witness stand.”
“Neither the jury nor I believed your claim that you didn’t know Congress resides in the Capitol building … you participated in a national embarrassment,” the judge said.
“My behavior that day was unacceptable and I disgraced my uniform and I disgraced the country,” Hale-Cusanelli said. He claimed he was “operating under the advice of counsel” when he testified about his confusion on where Congress sits. “I was challenging the law as it applied in my case.”
Elsewhere in the courthouse, Ayres told U.S. District Judge John D. Bates that he’s embarrassed and concerned by the political rhetoric that once captivated him. “I wish everybody in this country could stop and see where it’s going,” he said, in comments similar to those he made during a nationally televised meeting of the House Jan. 6 committee, where he said he hoped like-minded people would “take the blinders off.”
Prosecutors asked for 60 days in jail, citing violent social media comments Ayres made before Jan. 6 and his “lukewarm” response on Capitol Hill when asked if he still thought the 2020 presidential election was stolen. But Bates said he believed Ayres’s remorse was “sincere” and placed him on probation. | 2022-09-22T22:24:13Z | www.washingtonpost.com | One of first Jan. 6 rioters to breach Capitol gets 4-year sentence - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/09/22/hale-cusanelli-sentencing-jan-6/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/09/22/hale-cusanelli-sentencing-jan-6/ |
The four Japanese who took the top positions in the inaugural 1987 Forbes list of international billionaires — the rich Americans were counted separately back then — had a combined wealth of about $50 billion, or $130 billion in today’s money. Adani is worth nearly $145 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Surely that’s a good reason for the market to know the major shareholders behind such a large fortune?
• In India, It’s Old Money Versus Adani Billions: Andy Mukherjee
• India’s Billionaire Race Sees One Pulling Away: Andy Mukherjee | 2022-09-22T22:37:29Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The World’s Second-Biggest Fortune Deserves a Keener Spotlight - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/the-worlds-second-biggest-fortune-deserves-a-keener-spotlight/2022/09/22/09c2200a-3ac2-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/the-worlds-second-biggest-fortune-deserves-a-keener-spotlight/2022/09/22/09c2200a-3ac2-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi canceled an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour when the reporter refused to wear a head covering. (Kevin Hagen/Getty Images for CPJ)
It’s hardly the first time a journalist has wrestled with wardrobe decisions when reporting on an Islamic country where women are required to cover up, such as Iran. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) chided CNN’s Clarissa Ward, inaccurately, for wearing a “mandatory burka” when she reported from Kabul last year. (Ward actually wore a black head covering.) | 2022-09-22T22:37:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Christiane Amanpour says she wouldn’t cover her head, so Iran’s president walked on her - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/09/22/cnn-host-says-she-wouldnt-cover-her-head-so-irans-president-canceled-her/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/09/22/cnn-host-says-she-wouldnt-cover-her-head-so-irans-president-canceled-her/ |
What is the risk of Russian nuclear use in Ukraine? Here’s what you need to know.
Analysis by James Cameron
Ukrainian soldiers stand next to a BM-21 multiple-rocket launcher in eastern Ukraine on Thursday. (Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty Images)
On Sept. 21 Russian President Vladimir Putin issued nuclear warnings as part of his speech announcing partial Russian mobilization and his endorsement of illegal “referenda” in the Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine.
Here’s what you need to know about the risk of Russian nuclear use.
1. What did Putin say about nuclear weapons?
Putin made two distinct nuclear warnings in his speech. The first was directed toward NATO. Putin claimed, with no evidence, that NATO policymakers have discussed using “weapons of mass destruction” against Russia. He “remind[ed]” NATO that Russia possesses “more modern [weapons] than the weapons NATO countries have.” The message was clear: Moscow could retaliate against a NATO nuclear strike — which NATO has not threatened — with a nuclear strike of its own.
The second nuclear warning was more general. Putin pledged that Russia would use “all weapons systems available” to protect its “territorial integrity,” Russia’s “people” as well as Russia’s “independence and freedom.” The target audience for this warning was less clear than the first, including but perhaps not limited to NATO.
2. Is there anything new in Russia’s nuclear policy here?
The first warning contained nothing new. Russia’s 2014 Military Doctrine and 2020 Basic Principles of State Policy of the Russian Federation on Nuclear Deterrence both state that Moscow “reserves the right to use nuclear weapons in response to the use of nuclear and other types of weapons of mass destruction against it and/or its allies.” Putin’s message is also consistent with his previous warnings, which were designed to deter NATO intervention in the war.
Some analysts now argue that the second warning expands the scope for Russian first use of nuclear weapons. Yet the Basic Principles already state that Russian nuclear forces exist to protect “the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the state.” So, it’s not clear that Putin’s words change much.
However, the context in which Putin issued these warnings is important. In the same speech, Putin endorsed the alleged “referendum” voting taking place over the next few days in the occupied parts of Ukraine’s Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. Western officials point out that these votes are illegal under Ukrainian and international law, and predict that “sham” voting will show large majorities in favor of joining Russia, paving the way for Moscow’s annexation of these areas. Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014 after an illegal referendum purported to show 97 percent of voters there favored joining Russia.
Would Putin’s nuclear warning regarding Russia’s territorial integrity also extend to annexed territory? That’s an important question — some Western analysts have previously raised the possibility that Ukrainian attempts to retake Russian-occupied Crimea could increase the risk of Russian nuclear threats or even use of nuclear weapons.
3. What are Putin's nuclear options in practice?
It’s highly unlikely Putin use Russia’s large arsenal of strategic nuclear weapons capable of striking the United States, for fear of sparking an apocalyptic nuclear war. But Putin could rely on a combination of threats and, potentially, the use of shorter-range and lower-yield nonstrategic nuclear weapons to shock Ukraine and its Western supporters. His goal would be to compel them to seek an end to the war on Russia’s terms for fear of further escalation.
Exactly how Russian nuclear use might unfold in this scenario is not clear. Official Russian sources do not go beyond broad statements of policy. And Russian expert writing usually assumes that Moscow’s conventional forces can win a “local” war of the Ukraine type, making nuclear escalation unnecessary.
Nevertheless it’s possible to speculate from this literature how such nuclear use might unfold. Russia could conduct an underground or atmospheric nuclear detonation — for example, at its Novaya Zemlya testing facility in the Arctic. It could conduct a demonstration strike in an uninhabited area that’s close to Ukraine, such as the Black Sea. It might also attack Ukraine directly, against a military target or perhaps even a Ukrainian city. Putin could use these options in sequence, giving time for Ukraine to concede, or the West to put pressure on Kyiv to concede, before he escalated further.
4. How might the world respond?
Even if these options were part of a Russian plan, nuclear use carries extreme risks for Putin and his regime. It is highly likely that it would put Russia in a worse military, political and economic situation.
Putin has no certainty that Ukraine would concede — or that the West would rein in its support for Kyiv. That would leave him with the options of escalating further or accepting that his desperate gamble had failed. Ukraine, the United States and NATO have given no indication that they are ready to back down.
Putin would also break the 77-year taboo against using nuclear weapons, risking global horror, condemnation and economic isolation far beyond what Russia has experienced already.
Then there’s military retaliation against Russia. Before Putin’s speech, President Biden warned that Russian nuclear weapons use “would change the face of war unlike anything since World War II.” He also put Putin on notice regarding the U.S. response — noting that “the extent of what [the Russians] do will determine what response would occur.”
It is not clear what military retaliation would look like. Nongovernmental analysts have proposed a range of credible nonnuclear responses, from cyberattacks to conventional strikes against Russian forces, designed to punish the units that carried out the attack or assist Ukrainian troops in driving Russia from its territory.
5. Who makes these nuclear decisions in Russia?
Of course, Putin may not have unchecked authority to order the use of nuclear weapons. The Russian government maintains three nuclear briefcases, assigned to Putin, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, respectively. Analysts say authorizations from the holders of two of the briefcases are necessary to order use of Russia’s strategic nuclear forces.
Yet it is unclear if any similar safeguards exist for the nonstrategic nuclear weapons that are of greatest concern today. Analysts have posited that although the Russian armed forces may not possess a formal veto, the military would have a measure of control through their involvement in the planning and execution of the strikes. But putting any faith in the idea that Russian officers could refuse to execute an order seems risky, indeed.
James J. Cameron is a postdoctoral fellow at the Oslo Nuclear Project in the University of Oslo’s Department of Political Science. He is the author of “The Double Game: The Demise of America’s First Missile Defense System and the Rise of Strategic Arms Limitation” (Oxford University Press, 2017). | 2022-09-22T22:38:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What did Putin say about nuclear weapons? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/22/russia-putin-nuclear-threat-nato/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/22/russia-putin-nuclear-threat-nato/ |
FILE - This image contained in a court filing by the Department of Justice on Aug. 30, 2022, and partially redacted by the source, shows a photo of documents seized during the Aug. 8 FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. In the weeks since the FBI searched the estate and seized about 100 documents with classification markings, Trump has insisted he did nothing wrong and argued he declassified the information. On Sept. 21, he said in a Fox News interview that a president can declassify material “even by thinking about it.” (Department of Justice via AP) (Uncredited/Department of Justice) | 2022-09-22T22:38:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | EXPLAINER: Declassification in spotlight during Trump probe - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/explainer-declassification-in-spotlight-during-trump-probe/2022/09/22/c35d5330-3abe-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/explainer-declassification-in-spotlight-during-trump-probe/2022/09/22/c35d5330-3abe-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
In an exclusive interview with The Washington Post, a former Twitter official explains what motivated her startling Jan. 6 committee testimony
In an explosive hearing in July, an unidentified former Twitter employee testified to the House Jan. 6 committee that the company had tolerated false and rule-breaking tweets from Donald Trump for years because executives knew their service was his “favorite and most-used … and enjoyed having that sort of power.”
Now, in an exclusive interview with The Washington Post, the whistleblower, Anika Collier Navaroli, reveals the terror she felt about coming forward and how eventually that fear was overcome by her worry that extremism and political disinformation on social media pose an “imminent threat not just to American democracy, but to the societal fabric of our planet.”
“I realize that by being who I am and doing what I’m doing, I’m opening myself and my family to extreme risk,” Navaroli said. “It’s terrifying. This has been one of the most isolating times of my life.”
“I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t believe the truth matters,” she said.
Twitter banned Trump two days after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, citing fears he could incite further violence. By that time, he had sent more than 56,000 tweets over 12 years, many of which included lies and baseless accusations about election fraud. One month earlier, he had tweeted, “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
Navaroli, a former policy official on the team designing Twitter’s content-moderation rules, testified to the committee that the ban came only after Twitter executives had for months rebuffed her calls for stronger action against Trump’s account. Only after the Capitol riot, which left five dead and hundreds injured, did Twitter move to close his 88 million follower account.
Tech companies traditionally require employees to sign broad nondisclosure agreements that restrict them from speaking about their work. Navaroli was not able to speak in detail about her time at Twitter, said her attorney, Alexis Ronickher, with the Washington law firm Katz Banks Kumin, who joined in the interview.
But Navaroli told The Post that she has sat for multiple interviews with congressional investigators to candidly discuss the company’s actions. A comprehensive report that could include full transcripts of her revelations is expected to be released this year.
“There’s a lot still left to say,” she said.
Twitter went easy on Trump because it ‘relished’ the power, ex-employee says
Navaroli is the most prominent Twitter insider known to have challenged the tech giant’s conduct toward Trump in the years before the Capitol riot. Now in her 30s and living in California, she worries that speaking up about her role inside Twitter on Jan. 6 could lead to threats or real-world harm.
Committee member Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) cited those concerns to explain why Navaroli’s voice had been distorted to protect her identity in the segment of her testimony played during a nationally televised hearing in July. Raskin unveiled her name in a tweet Thursday, thanking her for her “courageous testimony” and “for answering the call of the Committee and your country.”
“She has constantly had to say to herself: This is important for the world to know, but it can compromise my safety. And she continually makes the patriotic choice,” Ronickher said. “The folks who do come forward and are willing to take these risks make such an impact for the rest of us.”
The hearings, which have been watched by millions, are expected to resume next week. The committee’s chairman, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), said Tuesday that the hearing could feature “significant witness testimony that we haven’t used in other hearings.”
Twitter for years dismissed calls to suspend Trump’s account for posts that many people argued broke its rules against deceptive claims and harassment; as a political leader, Twitter executives argued, Trump’s tweets were too newsworthy to remove.
But if Trump had been “any other user on Twitter,” Navaroli told the committee, “he would have been permanently suspended a very long time ago.”
The banning has helped fuel a conflict over tech companies’ rules that is likely to be settled in the Supreme Court. More than 100 bills have been proposed in state legislatures that would regulate social media platforms’ content moderation policies, and on Wednesday, Florida asked the Supreme Court to determine whether the First Amendment prevents states from doing so.
Twitter executives have argued that Navaroli’s testimony leaves out the “unprecedented steps” the company took to respond to threats during the 2020 election. The company said it worked to limit the reach of violent extremist groups and ban accounts from organizers of the Capitol riots.
The company is “clear-eyed about our role in the broader information ecosystem,” Jessica Herrera-Flanigan, Twitter’s vice president of public policy for the Americas, said in a statement Thursday.
A Trump representative did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
In the interview with The Post, Navaroli, who is Black, said she still remembers the first time she thought about the constant conflict between Americans’ rights of safety and free expression. She was a middle-school student, walking with her mother to a Publix grocery store near their home in Florida, when a man swerved his truck onto the sidewalk toward them, shouting racial slurs and demanding they go back to where they came from.
After the police arrived, she said, the officers refused to file charges, saying that no one had been hit and that his speech had been protected by the First Amendment.
“It was the first time I was understanding my identity could cause someone to … try to murder me,” Navaroli said. “And I was being told this man that tried to kill me did nothing wrong because this was his constitutional right. It didn’t make sense. So for a lot of my career and a lot of my life, I have been trying to understand this interpretation of this amendment and this right in a way that makes sense.”
In high school, she said, she became fascinated by constitutional questions in her debate class, which simulated mock congressional hearings — one of which took her, for the first time, to Washington, where years later she would sit and give congressional testimony.
How Twitter, on the front lines of history, finally decided to ban Trump
In the years afterward, she graduated from the University of North Carolina’s law school and got her master’s degree at Columbia University, where in 2013 she wrote a thesis titled “The Revolution will be Tweeted” on how constitutional legal principles had expanded to social media.
She later helped study issues of race and fairness with a technology research group in New York, worked on media and internet privacy campaigns for the civil rights advocacy group Color of Change, and taught basic principles of constitutional law to high school students in Harlem.
As the power and prominence of social media expanded during those years, she said she grew fascinated with how online content moderation rules were helping shape real-world social movements, from the inequality campaigns of Occupy Wall Street to the protests over racial justice and police brutality.
She had a strong bias for protecting speech, she said, but she often questioned where some companies were drawing the lines around speech and privacy and what effect that could have on people’s lives.
“Regulating speech is hard, and we need to come in with more nuanced ideas and proposals. There’s got to be a balance of free expression and safety,” she said. “But we also have to ask: Whose speech are we protecting at the expense of whose safety? And whose safety are we protecting at the expense of whose speech?”
Special report: The Jan. 6 insurrection
By 2020, Navaroli was working on a Twitter policy team helping the company design rules for one of the internet’s most prominent gathering places for news and political debate, according to congressional testimony revealed this summer.
By then, Trump had become Twitter’s inescapable force, capturing global attention and news cycles with a constant stream of self-congratulatory boasts and angry tirades.
Starting in 2011, he used the site as a major propellent for the racist “birther” claim that former president Barack Obama was born in Kenya. In one 2014 tweet, Trump asked cybercriminals to “please hack Obama’s college records (destroyed?) and check ‘place of birth.’ ”
During the 2016 campaign, his jotted-off insults helped undermine his critics and sink his political rivals as he captured the Republican nomination and then the presidency. And once in the White House, his tweets became a constant source of surprise and anxiety for even his own administration.
He used Twitter to fire people and belittle America’s geopolitical antagonists, including tweeting in 2018 to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that “I too have a Nuclear Button.” He also used it to announce sweeping executive actions, including his (failed) push to ban transgender people from the military. “Major policy announcements should not be made via Twitter,” the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said then.
Navaroli had argued that Twitter was acting too reluctantly to hold Trump to the same rules as everyone else and, by 2020, she had begun to worry that the company’s failure to act could lead to violent ends, she told congressional investigators.
On Jan. 5, 2021, as pro-Trump forums lit up with excitement about the coming day, she said she was deeply unnerved by the company’s failure to take stronger action against messages from “a violent crowd that was locked and loaded,” she told congressional investigators. She said she wrote that night in an internal Slack message, “When people are shooting each other tomorrow, I will try and rest in the knowledge that we tried.”
On Jan. 6, Trump resisted calls for hours to calm the mob after it had stormed into the Capitol. At 2:24 p.m., Trump tweeted that his then-vice president, Mike Pence, whom members of the mob had been calling to be hanged, “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done.”
At 2:38 p.m., hours after the riots had started, he acknowledged them for the first time, tweeting, “Stay peaceful!” Later that evening, following a brutal skirmish between rioters and the police, Trump tweeted, “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots … Remember this day forever!”
Twitter suspended Trump’s account that evening for 12 hours, but he continued tweeting the next day, even as some Twitter employees began receiving threats. Five people died on the day of the insurrection or in the immediate aftermath, and 140 police officers were assaulted.
On Jan. 8, Trump tweeted that the “great American Patriots who voted for me … will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!” In his final tweet, at 10:44 a.m., Trump said he would not be attending President Biden’s inauguration.
Even a day after Jan. 6, Trump balked at condemning the violence
Twitter’s decision to “permanently suspend” Trump that day followed internal deliberations and emergency meetings. In a statement that evening, Twitter said his tweets could be used to “incite violence” and showed that he planned to “support, empower, and shield those who believe he won the election.”
But in philosophical tweets after Trump’s ban, Twitter’s then-chief executive, Jack Dorsey, expressed some reservations about having to take Trump’s megaphone away. These actions “fragment the public conversation,” he wrote, and “limit the potential for clarification, redemption, and learning.”
Navaroli said she is still broadly hopeful about the internet’s “amazing” ability to connect people, but she worries companies are still struggling to “find the right interventions and levers” around online expression that won’t “lead us to this dystopian future I see ahead.”
“I’ve just really wanted to do my job well,” she said. “This is what I do.”
The Jan. 6 committee’s announcement Thursday follows months of questions about her identity. Her name and details of her work have been fiercely guarded by the committee, which has said its work could lead to criminal referrals of Trump over his role in the attack.
Navaroli left Twitter last year and is now researching the impact of hate-speech moderation through a fellowship at Stanford University. She said she hopes the testimony she gave the committee will help inspire more Silicon Valley insiders to speak publicly about their companies’ failures to fight viral misinformation and extremist speech. | 2022-09-22T22:40:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Twitter Jan. 6 whistleblower Anika Collier Navaroli speaks to The Washington Post - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/09/22/jan6-committee-twitter-witness-navaroli/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/09/22/jan6-committee-twitter-witness-navaroli/ |
Putin has just made the world a far more dangerous place
In an image taken from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service, an intercontinental ballistic missile is launched from an airfield during military drills on Feb. 19, 2022. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service/AP)
But what does it tell us that Putin decided to make his statement anyway? That the war is going very badly for him. This month, Ukrainian forces have routed the Russian army in a stunning series of victories. Putin’s first response was to open a new Ferris wheel in Moscow, urging people to “relax” and enjoy life. A few days later, realizing that the “relax” strategy was not working, he scheduled a national television address during prime time — and then simply didn’t show up. He did give his address the next morning, using the occasion to issue his nuclear threat.
To understand how badly the Ukraine war has gone from Putin’s point of view, consider his decision to announce a partial mobilization. Russia did not mobilize its population for the nine-year war in Afghanistan. It did not do so during the Russo-Japanese war in 1904-1905. Moscow mobilized its citizenry for war twice since the start of the 20th century, first on the eve of World War I and then to defend against the invasion of the country by Adolf Hitler and Germany in 1941.
For Putin in particular, this is a bitter pill. His basic social contract with the Russian people has been: “Stay out of politics, don’t mind my kleptocracy, and I will give you a stable, peaceful country in which you can make a decent living.” This mobilization is the first time he has had to violate that contract.
And, for the first time in his 22-year reign, he faces opposition from both the right and the left. At least 1,300 war protesters have been arrested since Putin’s announcement. But more ominously, right-wing nationalists are openly criticizing the government for not prosecuting this war with greater zeal, manpower and firepower. When a war goes badly, people look for someone to blame. In a dictatorship so centralized, it is hard to see whom to fault other than Putin himself.
His recent actions all raise the ante. In addition to threatening the use of nuclear weapons and mobilizing Russians, he has also signaled that four regions of Ukraine will soon become part of Russia. (Crimea was also incorporated by Moscow in 2014.) This will make it harder to negotiate a peace deal because, under Russian law, these areas would then be part of Russian territory. Annexation also makes it easier to claim that Ukrainian attacks on those territories are not part of a contested conflict but an attack on Russia itself, requiring any and all means to respond.
Of course, this will not deter the Ukrainians. They know that Russia has invaded their lands, destroyed their cities, tortured their people, and killed and wounded tens of thousands. They will fight to regain their country. And Putin’s threats are not going to stop the West from aiding and arming Ukraine. So what is Putin’s game, and where does he go from here?
No one knows, including perhaps Putin himself. He has given some signals to India’s Narendra Modi and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he wants to negotiate. But the Russian leader does seem to be playing a very high-stakes game in which he knows that the outcome could be catastrophic. It is still hard to see how, even if he loses this war, anyone in Moscow could dislodge him. More than perhaps any major nation in the world, Russia is now ruled by one man. There are no institutions — no Politburo, no Central Committee, no monarchy. Nothing. The largest country in the world, with the most nuclear weapons, is ruled by one man. It is, as he once described it, a “vertical of power.” And that vertical looks more unstable than ever.
All of this suggests that we have entered one of the most dangerous periods in international relations in our lifetimes. | 2022-09-22T23:12:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Putin's dangerous nuclear threat risks catastrophe - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/22/putin-nuclear-threat-risks-catastrophe/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/22/putin-nuclear-threat-risks-catastrophe/ |
Outside audit says Facebook restricted Palestinian posts during Gaza war
The company-commissioned audit is one of the first insider accounts of the failures of a social platform during wartime
Palestinians walk next to debris of homes heavily damaged by airstrikes during an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in 2021. (Felipe Dana/AP)
An independent audit of Meta’s handling of online content during the two-week war between Israel and the militant Palestinian group Hamas last year found that the social media giant had denied Palestinian users their freedom of expression by erroneously removing their content and punishing Arabic-speaking users more heavily than Hebrew-speaking ones.
The report by the consultancy Business for Social Responsibility, is yet another indictment of the company’s ability to police its global public square and to balance freedom of expression against the potential for harm in a tense international context. It also represents one of the first insider accounts of the failures of a social platform during wartime. And it bolsters complaints from Palestinian activists that online censorship fell more heavily on them, as reported by The Washington Post and other outlets at the time.
“The BSR report confirms Meta’s censorship has violated the #Palestinian right to freedom of expression among other human rights through its greater over-enforcement of Arabic content compared to Hebrew, which was largely under-moderated,” 7amleh, the Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, a group that advocates for Palestinian digital rights, said in a statement on Twitter.
The May 2021 war was initially sparked by a conflict over an impending Israeli Supreme Court case involving whether settlers had the right to evict Palestinian families from their homes in a contested neighborhood in Jerusalem. During tense protests about the court case, Israeli police stormed the Al Aqsa mosque, one of the holiest sites in Islam. Hamas, which governs Gaza, responded by firing rockets into Israel, and Israel retaliated with an 11-day bombing campaign that left more than 200 Palestinians dead. Over a dozen people in Israel were also killed before both sides called a cease fire.
Throughout the war, Facebook and other social platforms were lauded for their central role in sharing firsthand, on the-ground narratives from the fast-moving conflict. Palestinians posted photos of homes covered in rubble and children’s coffins during the barrage, leading to a global outcry to end the conflict.
But problems with content moderation cropped up almost immediately as well. Early on during the protests, Instagram, which is owned by Meta along with WhatsApp and Facebook, began blocking postings containing the hashtag #AlAqsa. At first the company blamed the issue on an automated software deployment error. After The Post published a story highlighting the issue, a Meta spokeswoman also added that a “human error” had caused the glitch, but did not offer further information.
The BSR report sheds new light on the incident. The report says that the #AlAqsa hashtag was mistakenly added to a list of terms associated with terrorism by an employee working for a third-party contractor that does content moderation for the company. The employee wrongly pulled “from an updated list of terms from the US Treasury Department containing the Al Aqsa Brigade, resulting in #AlAqsa being hidden from search results,” the report found. The Al Aqsa Brigade is a known terrorist group (BuzzFeed News reported on internal discussions about the terrorism mislabeling at the time).
As violence in Israel and Gaza plays out on social media, activists raise concerns about tech companies’ interference
The report, which only investigated the period around the 2021 war and its immediate aftermath, confirms years of accounts from Palestinian journalists and activists that Facebook and Instagram appear to censor their posts more often than those of Hebrew-speakers. BSR found, for example, that after adjusting for the difference in population between Hebrew and Arabic speakers in Israel and the Palestinian territories, Facebook was removing or adding strikes to more posts from Palestinians than from Israelis. The internal data BSR reviewed also showed that software was routinely flagging potentially rule-breaking content in Arabic at higher rates than content in Hebrew.
The report noted this was likely because Meta’s artificial intelligence-based hate speech systems use lists of terms associated with foreign terrorist organizations, many of which are groups from the region. Therefore it would be more likely that a person posting in Arabic might have their content flagged as potentially being associated with a terrorist group.
In addition, the report said that Meta had built such detection software to proactively identify hate and hostile speech in Arabic, but had not done so for the Hebrew language.
The report also suggested that — due to a shortage of content moderators in both Arabic and Hebrew — the company was routing potentially rule-breaking content to reviewers who do not speak or understand the language, particularly Arabic dialects. That resulted in further errors.
The report, which was commissioned by Facebook on the recommendation of its independent Oversight Board, issued 21 recommendations to the company. Those include changing its policies on identifying dangerous organizations and individuals, providing more transparency to users when posts are penalized, reallocating content moderation resources in Hebrew and Arabic based on “market composition,” and directing potential content violations in Arabic to people who speak the same Arabic dialect as the one in the social media post.
In a response. Meta’s human rights director Miranda Sissons said that the company would fully implement 10 of the recommendations and was partly implementing four. The company was “assessing the feasibility” of another six, and was taking “no further action” on one.
In its statement, the Arab Center for Social Media Advancement (7amleh) said that the report wrongly called the bias from Meta unintentional.
“We believe that the continued censorship for years on [Palestinian] voices, despite our reports and arguments of such bias, confirms that this is deliberate censorship unless Meta commits to ending it,” it said. | 2022-09-22T23:25:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | BSR audit finds Facebook hurt Palestinians in Israel-Gaza war. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/09/22/facebook-censorship-palestinians/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/09/22/facebook-censorship-palestinians/ |
Study of large incel internet forum raises alarms about its growth
The Center for Countering Digital Hate reported that an analysis of more than 1 million posts shows a rise in advocacy of rape, mass killings
Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown, right, walks past a board showing the photos of gunman Elliot Rodger and the weapons he used in the mass shooting that took place in Santa Barbara, Calif. Rodger, who posted a manifesto denouncing women before killing six people and himself, is a hero to many people who consider themselves incels. (Jae C. Hong/AP)
The most prominent forum for men who consider themselves involuntarily celibate or “incels” has become significantly more radicalized over the past year and a half and is seeking to normalize child rape, a new report says.
The report, by the Center for Countering Digital Hate’s new Quant Lab, is the culmination of an investigation that analyzed more than 1 million posts on the site. It found a marked spike in conversations about mass murder and growing approval of sexually assaulting prepubescent girls.
The report also says that platforms including YouTube and Google, as well as internet infrastructure companies like Cloudflare are facilitating the growth of the forum, which the report said is visited by 2.6 million people every month. “These businesses should make a principled decision to withdraw their services from sites causing such significant harm,” the report says.
“This is a novel, new violent extremist movement born in the internet age, which defies the usual characteristics of violent extremist movements that law enforcement and the intelligence community are usually used to,” said Imran Ahmed, founder and CEO of CCDH, a British nonprofit. “Our study shows that it is organized, has a cogent ideology and has clearly concluded that raping women, killing women, and raping children is a clear part of the practice of their ideology.”
Incels blame women for their failings in life. The term originated decades ago, and while the first incel forum was founded by a woman in the mid 1990s, incel communities have since become almost exclusively male. Incel ideology has been linked to dozens of murders and assaults over the past decade, the most prominent one involving Elliot Rodger, a 22-year-old self-described incel who murdered six people in a stabbing and shooting rampage in Santa Barbara, Calif., in 2014. Before killing himself, he posted a long manifesto and YouTube videos promoting incel ideology.
In March, the U.S. Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center released a report warning that anti-woman violence was a growing terrorism threat.
According to the CCDH analysis, members of the forum post about rape every 29 minutes, and more than 89 percent of posters support rape and say it’s acceptable. The CCDH analysis also found that posters on the forum are seeking to normalize child rape. More than a quarter of members of the forum have posted pedophilia keywords, the analysis found, and more than half of the members of the forum support pedophilia.
The forum also changed its rules this year to accommodate what appears to be a trend toward normalizing rape of younger victims, according to the report. The forum previously implored users not to “sexualize minors in any way, shape or form,” but in March changed that language to “do not sexualize prepubescent minors in any way, shape, or form.”
The report also cited content that reflected the trend toward pedophilia, noting that a majority of commenters voiced support for a post that read, “As an incel, there is literally no reason to be against pedophilia.” Another thread started by a regular user who had posted more than 7,000 times to the forum contained an image of a 12-year-old child with the comment “who in their right mind would prefer a 22 year old [woman] to this?”
“Analysis of their discourse shows this core group poses a clear and present danger to women, other young men, and reveals an emerging threat to our children,” the report says.
CCDH said its analysis also had found a rising interest in mass murder on the site. Posts mentioning incel mass murders increased 59 percent between 2021 and 2022, the study said, and praise was common for Elliot Rodger. The word “kill” was mentioned 1,181 times on the forum in just one month, equivalent to once every 37 minutes. “Shoot” and “murder” are also popular words on the forum.
“We are in no doubt after conducting this study that this community of angry, belligerent and unapologetic men are dangerous to each other, with malignant social dynamics whereby they encourage each other to worse and worse extremes,” the report said. “Unchecked, incel communities have the potential to radicalize further.”
The CCDH said it is making its full database of the forum available to law enforcement and has briefed counterterrorism officials in the U.S. and the U.K. about the report’s findings.
The forum was founded in 2017 by Diego Joaquín Galante, known online as “Sergeant Incel” and Lamarcus Small as a response to Reddit banning the subreddit /r/incels. It offers an invitation-only Discord server for its members who have posted more than 400 times to the site, and an active channel on the chat app Telegram. Moderators of the forum also maintain a Twitter account that promotes incel ideology and attacks perceived critics.
Only self-declared heterosexual men are permitted to post on the forum; women and members of the LGBTQ community are prohibited from weighing in.
The report says the forum has gained a mass audience largely through social media, singling out YouTube in particular, where, it said, videos promoting incel ideology have been viewed a total of 24.2 million times. “YouTube is a key part of incel education,” Ahmed said.
Forum members, the report said, often share content from misogynist YouTube channels and channels like Incel TV, which promotes incel ideology. Another popular YouTube channel mentioned on the forum, the report said, is SlutHate Creeps, where users post covertly recorded images of women.
But YouTube isn’t the only inroad, the analysis found. Galante and Small have created a network of seemingly more mainstream websites that funnel people to the incel forum. Google searches for body image or unemployment frequently return links to these “incelosphere” sites, the CCDH found.
Teenage boys are among the forum’s most active and extreme users, according to the CCDH. In one instance, a boy who said he was 17 was recorded as being on the forum for an average of 10 hours per day during the period of the report, posting an average of 40 times per day, the report said. Another, who claimed to be 15, spent an average of five hours per day on the site, posting repeatedly about his desire to commit a mass shooting.
The forum enables their participation, the analysis said, by encouraging users to hide the site from prying parents or teachers by using a feature that disguises it as a banana marketing website.
The report criticizes Cloudflare, an internet services company that provides services to the forum and to other Galante and Small sites. Cloudflare recently dropped Kiwi Farms, a forum where users coordinated harassment campaigns against women and members of the LGBTQ community, after a protest launched targeting its mainstream clients. “Cloudflare is profiting from its role as an infrastructure provider to all four incelosphere forums and has been praised by the incel forum’s official Twitter account,” the report says.
The CCDH urged government regulators also to find ways to combat incel ideology and restrict the site. “This should not be left to the goodwill of Big Tech, who profit from the creation and spread of this content and are not properly incentivized or required to be proactively transparent on the key metrics or to invest in the desired safety outcomes,” the report says.
“This forum is a violent ideological manifesto, but for the 21st century,” Ahmed said. “Instead of being a book, it’s essentially a wiki that is continuously being evolved by the readers themselves. Left alone, this community has been radicalized further and their ideology is becoming more dangerous by the day.”
This story will be updated with comment as it becomes available. | 2022-09-22T23:25:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Incel forum pushes rape, mass murder - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/09/22/incels-rape-murder-study/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/09/22/incels-rape-murder-study/ |
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve delivered its bluntest reckoning Wednesday of what it will take to finally tame painfully high inflation: Slower growth, higher unemployment and potentially a recession. Speaking at a news conference, Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged what many economists have been saying for months: That the Fed’s goal of engineering a “soft landing” — in which it would manage to slow growth enough to curb inflation but not so much as to trigger a recession — looks increasingly unlikely. “The chances of a soft landing,” Powell said, “are likely to diminish” as the Fed steadily raises borrowing costs to slow the worst inflation in four decades.
NEW YORK — Stocks closed lower on Wall Street, deepening their losses for the week, as central banks around the world raised interest rates to fight inflation. The S&P 500 fell 0.8% Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about half as much, and the Nasdaq composite lost 1.4%. Central banks in Europe and Asia increased rates a day after the Federal Reserve made another big rate hike and signaled more were on the way. The goal is to cool down economies by making it more expensive to borrow money. The yield on the 2-year Treasury, which tends to follow expectations for Fed action, rose significantly.
LONDON — The Bank of England has raised its key interest rate by another half-percentage point. Despite facing inflation that outpaces other major economies, the Bank of England avoided more aggressive hikes made by the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks. The U.K. bank on Thursday raised its benchmark rate to the highest level in 14 years. It’s the seventh straight move to increase borrowing costs as rising food and energy prices fuel a cost-of-living crisis that’s considered the worst in a generation. Despite facing a slumping currency, tight labor market and inflation near its highest in four decades, officials held off on acting more boldly as they predicted a second consecutive drop in economic output this quarter.
NEW YORK — The CEOs of the nation’s biggest banks returned to Capitol Hill for a second day Thursday, and Senate Democrats strongly urged them to do more to help and protect their customers, while Republicans questioned whether banks should weigh in on hot-button social issues. The bank leaders testified at a time when prices for food and other necessities are the highest in decades. JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon, Citigroup’s Jane Fraser and five other chief executives repeated the message they gave to a House panel Wednesday: The U.S. consumer is in relatively good shape but faces threats from high inflation and rising interest rates.
MENLO PARK, Calif. — Actions by Facebook and its parent Meta during last year’s Gaza war violated the rights of Palestinian users to freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, political participation and non-discrimination. That’s according to a new report commissioned by the social media company. The report confirms long-standing criticisms of Meta’s policies and their uneven enforcement as it relates to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Written by the independent consulting firm Business for Social Responsibility, the report found that Meta over-enforced rules when it came to Arabic content and under-enforced content in Hebrew. But the report did not find intentional bias at Meta, either by the company as a whole or among individual employees.
WASHINGTON — Federal regulators are ordering Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and CEO Andy Jassy to testify in the government’s investigation of Amazon Prime. The regulators rejected the company’s complaint that the executives are being unfairly harassed in the probe of the popular streaming and shopping service. The Federal Trade Commission issued an order denying Amazon’s request to cancel civil subpoenas sent in June to Bezos, the Seattle-based company’s former CEO, and Jassy. The order also sets a deadline of Jan. 20 for the completion of all testimony by Bezos, Jassy and 15 other senior executives, who also were subpoenaed. | 2022-09-23T00:08:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Business Highlights: Powell's message, bank CEOs in Senate - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/business-highlights-powells-message-bank-ceos-in-senate/2022/09/22/f82a1a18-3acc-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/business-highlights-powells-message-bank-ceos-in-senate/2022/09/22/f82a1a18-3acc-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
Almost 40% of Leicester’s residents are of South Asian origin and the city has often been held up as a successful model of integration. Even now, official statements and media reports about the violence have taken pains not to puncture that reputation. Some have blamed “outsiders,” especially from nearby Birmingham, for the trouble. Police have complained that disinformation spread through social media fired up the mobs. And many observers have stressed the pacifying influence of “community leaders.” | 2022-09-23T00:08:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Now the UK Has to Wrestle With India’s Demons, Too - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/now-the-uk-has-to-wrestle-with-indias-demons-too/2022/09/22/c5d13b0e-3ad2-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/now-the-uk-has-to-wrestle-with-indias-demons-too/2022/09/22/c5d13b0e-3ad2-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
This narrow policy underscores just how few legal tools the Biden administration has to significantly shape abortion rights in the country
Veterans Affairs started offering abortions at its federal facilities earlier this month in the wake of a June Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. (iStock)
The Justice Department said Thursday that it will provide legal defense if necessary to Veterans Affairs medical workers who perform abortions to save a patient’s life, protect the mother’s health or in instances when the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest — even if performed in a state where the procedure is illegal in those circumstances.
In an internal government opinion, Justice Department lawyers said that a recently adopted Department of Veterans Affairs policy permitting employees to provide abortion services to veterans and their eligible relatives is legally sound and can continue. The Veterans Affairs agency started offering abortions at its federal facilities earlier this month in the wake of a June Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, upending the right to terminate a pregnancy that had been enshrined in federal law for nearly 50 years.
In some states, including Alabama, officials have threatened to punish Veterans Affairs workers who perform abortions, saying it would violate state law. Alabama prohibits abortions in instances of rape and incest, but allows the procedure if the patient’s life is at risk. The opinion from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel — which serves as a legal directive on another agency’s policies — says states may not penalize any Veterans Affairs doctor or nurse for performing an abortion in certain circumstances. The federal law enforcement agency said it would represent those medical workers if they are penalized.
“The rule is a lawful exercise of VA’s authority,” the opinion says. “Moreover, states may not restrict VA and its employees acting within the scope of their federal authority from providing abortion services as authorized by federal law, including VA’s rule.”
The Justice Department opinion represents the Biden administration’s latest attempt to try to protect access to abortion, to some degree, after the Supreme Court decision, though it would apply to relatively few women because it addresses only rare circumstances.
The United States has 19 million veterans, about 2 million of whom are women. About 9 million veterans are enrolled in VA care, along with their eligible family members. While the new abortion policy is an expansion of veteran health-care benefits, the regulations closely resemble existing care within the Defense Department, which for years has provided abortions at military hospitals using the same criteria. The active-military care is not widely used, with fewer than two dozen abortion cases on average every year, according to Pentagon data.
This narrowness of both policies — applying only to pregnancies that pose a high risk or stem from rape or incest — underscores just how few legal tools the Biden administration has since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. In August, the Justice Department persuaded a judge to block the portion of an Idaho law that criminalizes performing abortions to protect the pregnant patient’s health.
The Justice Department hinged its Idaho lawsuit on the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. Officials say the federal law, known as EMTALA, requires that hospitals participating in the federally funded Medicare program provide necessary, health-stabilizing treatment to all patients, even if that treatment is an abortion.
After Dobbs, the Department of Health and Human Services issued guidance to state officials and hospitals reminding them of requirements mandated by EMTALA, saying that abortions are considered “stabilizing treatment.” Texas successfully sued the government over that guidance and the Justice Department said this month that it intends to file an appeal. With the conflicting rulings from Idaho and Texas, it is possible the question of whether EMTALA includes abortions will ultimately end up before the Supreme Court.
Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said in an interview Thursday that the Justice Department is monitoring evolving state laws to ensure that they do not conflict with what the federal law enforcement agency views as guaranteed federal rights. Gupta heads a reproductive rights task force launched by the Biden administration in July. It aims to marshal federal resources to prevent overreach from state and local governments seeking to impose new abortion restrictions.
“We will not hesitate to act where we see violations of federal law,” Gupta said. “This remains a top priority for the department.”
On Monday, the Justice Department announced that a man had pleaded guilty to federal charges after breaking windows and destroying property at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Oregon.
In the Veterans Affairs opinion, the federal government argues that the Veterans Health Administration has a federally mandated duty to provide proper medical care to the nation’s veterans. Restricting abortion access in the prescribed circumstances would violate that mandate, the 10-page opinion states. It cites the Constitution’s “supremacy clause,” which essentially says that when state laws conflict with federal laws, federal laws prevail.
Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University who has been pushing for the government to find legal avenues to protect abortion access, said he agreed with the Justice Department’s reading of the Veteran Affairs’ policy.
“If the federal law gives a right or even a duty to provide medical services then that supersedes any contrary state law,” Gostin said. “A reasonable judge should uphold that point of view because the supremacy clause makes that very clear.” | 2022-09-23T00:08:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | DOJ will defend Alabama VA doctors threatened with abortion prosecutions - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/09/22/veterans-affairs-abortion-prosecution/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/09/22/veterans-affairs-abortion-prosecution/ |
Former president Donald Trump spoke at a rally in the Covelli Centre in Youngstown, Ohio, on Sept. 17. (Andrew Spear For The Washington Post)
The legal dangers facing former president Donald Trump rose this week, after the New York attorney general filed a fraud lawsuit that could effectively shutter the Trump Organization and the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals allowed federal investigators to continue their probe into classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago.
These and other setbacks for Trump come as at least a half dozen additional legal efforts proceed against the president and his allies — committing him to months of legal wrangling as he seeks to raise his political profile for a possible 2024 bid while also increasing the prospect of becoming the first former U.S. president to face indictment after leaving office.
Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed dozens of his former advisers, and many others, as part of a sprawling investigation into efforts to obstruct the transfer of power after the 2020 election. Separately, a Georgia grand jury has been looking at allegations that he tried to obstruct that state’s electoral count by pressuring secretary of state Brad Raffensperger (R) to “find” enough votes to overturn the election.
An aspiring corporate partner for his new social media company has received subpoenas from the Securities and Exchange Commission. District attorneys in Westchester, N.Y., and Manhattan have ongoing investigations of his companies. One of his sexual assault accusers filed court papers last month disclosing her intent to sue him under a recently-passed New York law that offers exceptions to the standard statute of limitations for sex crimes.
Attorneys aligned with the Democratic Party have even begun to lay the groundwork for legal challenges if he declares another presidential campaign, under the premise that his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, as revealed by congressional investigators, bars him from serving in office under section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which disqualifies those who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” from holding public office.
The breadth of current and potential legal challenges are large even by the standards of Trump, who has spent much of his adult life in litigation. He has returned to old tactics in response, seeking to delay proceedings against him, refusing to admit any misdeed and using the claims against him to rally his political supporters.
“The people behind these savage witch hunts have no shame, no morals, no conscience, and absolutely no respect for the citizens of our country,” he told supporters at a rally in Ohio Saturday in a retooled stump speech. “Our cruel and vindictive political class is not just coming after me. They’re coming after you, through me.”
In other ways, Trump has been forced to adjust, devoting a growing share of political contributions to pay attorney fees. The summer’s planning for a fall presidential campaign announcement have been put on pause, according to two people familiar with the plans, who like some others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Two Trump advisers said the former president was surprised and angry at the lawsuit from New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) on Wednesday, and that her “attacks,” in the words of one of them, anger him more than other investigations. Trump has accused James, who is Black, of being “racist,” without explaining how.
Trump now has more than a dozen lawyers working on various probes against him, with financial support for their efforts coming from both the Republican National Committee and his political committee, Save America. There are separate sets of lawyers for each of the investigations. His political team has tried to cheer him up at times with positive tweets and other conservative news articles that he shares through his PAC’s website.
“He doesn’t seem to have a breaking point,” one of these people said. “He just rolls on and acts like all these things, at least to everyone around him, aren’t slowing him down.”
Among Trump’s advisers, the Jan. 6 investigation from the Justice Department and the Mar-a-Lago document probe are widely viewed as the most wide-ranging and perilous to Trump and his inner circle. But some advisers fear the biggest political damage could be done by James, as his wealth has long been part of his mystique to Republican voters, they say.
Trump himself has paid close attention to that probe, two advisers said. And the Georgia investigation is viewed as something of a wild card with an aggressive prosecutor.
One recent visitor to Trump’s club said he did not focus on the classified documents seized from him — other than to say it was a “witch hunt, overblown and they’re not a problem.” He continues to argue that he won the 2020 election, which he lost to President Biden.
For the moment, there is little sign that the legal attacks have shifted Trump’s political standing and some advisers argue that they will only strengthen him among his core supporters. His favorability rating among the American people, as measured by averages of public polling, remains effectively unchanged over the last 18 months, at about 43 percent. In late August, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) predicted there would be “riots in the streets” if Trump is prosecuted.
“If the media, if the Democrats, if the New York attorney general and the Department of Justice just left this guy alone, you would see his numbers among Republicans fade, I guarantee it,” said one former Trump White House adviser who remains bullish on Trump’s prospects in a Republican nomination fight. “He is constantly getting attacked by these people, who our voters hate. That is what cleaves the base to him.”
Democrats nonetheless believe the controversies, coming less than seven weeks before the midterm elections, have helped them to make the argument to moderate Republicans and independent voters that the current crop of Republican candidates, who have not distanced themselves from Trump, are more extreme than past GOP opponents.
“The impact that the Mar-a-Lago issue has had is it’s raised the stakes on the unquestioning fealty of Republicans to Trump,” Democratic pollster Geoff Garin said. “So I don’t think they are necessarily litigating the details of Trump’s possession of super-classified documents, but voters are litigating the blind loyalty that Republicans have to President Trump and that is part of what people think about when they think about MAGA Republicans.”
Trump has lived his life under legal jeopardy, a regular instigator and defendant in civil litigation, dating back to a 1973 Justice Department civil rights claim for housing discrimination against his family real estate business that ended in a consent decree. Years later, he found himself back in court over his alleged hiring and underpayment of undocumented Polish workers for his first major Manhattan building project, Trump Tower, in 1980.
Under oath in a 2012 deposition about the alleged fraud at a real estate seminar called Trump University — a case he later settled for $25 million — Trump said he had testified in over 100 court hearings and given over 100 depositions.
“Normal course of business, unfortunately,” he explained.
Trump’s time in the White House earned him a brief reprieve, as judges debated whether he could be held accountable in civil matters while in office. Justice Department precedent, meanwhile, protected him from criminal charges while in office. Congress, however, kept up the pressure, with the House impeaching him twice.
D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine sued Trump two days after he left office for abusing nonprofit funds to enrich himself by overpaying his own hotel during his 2016 inauguration. He settled that case for $750,000 more than a year later, without admitting guilt. Months after leaving office, he sat for hours of deposition in a civil case about claims that Trump’s personal security assaulted protesters in 2015 outside his Manhattan office.
The Justice Department’s sprawling investigation of the role of Trump and his aides in efforts to overturn the 2020 election results remains in the early stages, with a new round of broad subpoenas issued earlier this month. Prosecutors are seeking vast amounts of information and communications with more than 100 people about the origin, fundraising and motives of the effort to block Biden from being certified as president — including the slates of fake electors and the riot at the U.S. Capitol.
“It looks like a multipronged fraud and obstruction investigation,” former federal prosecutor Jim Walden told The Post last week. “It strikes me that they’re going after a very, very large group of people, and my guess is they are going to make all of the charging decisions toward the end.”
The department’s criminal investigation into the potential mishandling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago won an important victory on Wednesday night, when a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit overturned parts of a lower court judge’s ruling and said the FBI may once again have access to the classified documents they seized from Trump’s Florida residence and private club on Aug. 8.
In that case, Trump and his aides could be in considerable legal peril, according to experts. That’s because Trump’s lawyers told the Justice Department they had returned all documents with classified markings in response to a subpoena — only to have FBI agents recover about 100 more classified documents during their court-authorized search.
The Justice Department, from Attorney General Merrick Garland on down, has repeatedly said that no one is above the law. But legal experts say prosecutors may still feel that they need a serious, can’t-miss case to file criminal charges against a former commander in chief.
If authorities were to seek an indictment against Trump — or any former president — at either the state or federal level, these experts say, there would need to be compelling evidence that a crime had been committed. In addition, the alleged crime would have to be quite serious.
“I don’t imagine you would charge any former president with a relatively minor crime,” Chuck Rosenberg, a former U.S. attorney and senior FBI official, told The Post in August.
James, the New York attorney general who has the authority to investigate instances of business-related fraud in the state, filed a 222-page lawsuit this week against Trump, three of his adult children, his longtime top financial officer Allen Weisselberg and his comptroller Jeffrey McConney for allegedly engaging in a systematic effort to deceive lenders, insurance companies and tax authorities by tinkering with asset values to gain financial advantages under false pretenses.
The lawsuit has the potential to effectively shut down the Trump Organization’s business operations in the state by removing its leadership and preventing it from obtaining new loans or acquiring new real estate. However, Trump’s current ownership of property and ground leases cannot be revoked, and he would still have the ability to sell those valuable assets. James is seeking to recover $250 million in what she alleges are ill-gotten gains stemming from the alleged fraud.
In Georgia, the Fulton County district attorney has launched her own criminal investigation into efforts by Trump and his supporters to overturn the election results. Investigators have identified more than 100 people of interest in that probe, and are presenting witnesses to a special grand jury.
Trump’s calls to Georgia officials after the election are one focus of the investigation, along with testimony Trump allies gave to state lawmakers in December 2020 and the fake-elector scheme from that same month. Investigators are also looking at an election systems breach in Coffee County, Ga., where Trump campaign lawyers worked with a forensic data firm to obtain voter data. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) said in September that a decision on whether to file any charges is still months away.
In a separate legal maneuver, a New Mexico district judge recently disqualified Couy Griffin, a county commissioner from the ballot, after he had been found guilty of illegally entering U.S. Capitol grounds during the Jan. 6 protests. The judge found that this made him ineligible to hold public office.
“There is enough evidence in the public record already that election officials and state and federal courts will need to ask themselves if Donald Trump is qualified, under the evidence produced by the Jan. 6 Committee, under the 14th Amendment, Section 3,” said Norm Eisen, a former ethics adviser to President Barack Obama, referring to a section of the Constitution forbidding anyone who “engaged in insurrection” to hold public office.
Shayna Jacobs in New York, Matthew Brown in Atlanta and Tom Hamburger in Washington contributed to this report. | 2022-09-23T00:43:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Trump faces growing legal peril as he seeks to raise profile ahead of 2024 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/09/22/trump-legal-danger-investigations/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/09/22/trump-legal-danger-investigations/ |
They claim the University of Florida received a larger state appropriation per student than FAMU from 1987 to 2020, amounting to a shortfall of roughly $1.3 billion
Lee Hall, the administration building at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee. (FAMU Office of Communications) (FAMU Office of Communications)
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, has many of the hallmarks of past fights in Maryland, Mississippi, Alabama and South Carolina for equitable treatment of public HBCUs. It alleges that the state pours more money into traditionally White institutions such as Florida State University, also in Tallahassee, and allows schools to duplicate FAMU’s academic programs.
Denton said it was clear to her and her classmates that FAMU wasn’t to blame for the stark differences in infrastructure and institutional wealth, but rather the university was a victim of state-sponsored discrimination.
The complaint says there has been a deliberate effort by the state to undermine FAMU’s competitiveness by letting other public colleges duplicate its academic programs, luring away prospective students. Decades of disparate state funding have prevented FAMU from achieving parity with its traditionally White counterparts, according to the suit. It claims the University of Florida received a larger state appropriation per student than FAMU from 1987 to 2020, amounting to a shortfall of roughly $1.3 billion.
‘We’re still behind’: Public HBCUs see record investments, but still contend with legacy of state-sponsored discrimination
HBCU land-grant institutions rely much more heavily on federal and state funding, which comprise nearly two-thirds of their revenues, according to research from the National Education Association. By comparison, 44 percent of revenues of other land-grant schools come from federal and state sources, according to the association. That reliance makes the HBCUs more vulnerable in economic downturns and when states withhold support.
“We drilled into the numbers and the obligations to fund the school at parity, and not only is that not the case currently, but it’s also not been the case for quite some time historically,” said Barbara Hart, one of the attorneys at Grant & Eisenhofer representing the students. “It’s the kind of issue that compounds problems over time in terms of recruitment, prestige and research.”
At Md.’s historically black schools, the pursuit of equity without forgoing identity | 2022-09-23T01:40:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Florida A&M students sue state over funding, allege discrimination of HBCUs - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/09/22/famu-funding-lawsuit-florida-hbcus/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/09/22/famu-funding-lawsuit-florida-hbcus/ |
FILE - UCLA coach John Wooden listens to Greg Lee, left, during a timeout in the team’s NCAA college basketball game against Iowa in January 1974 in Los Angeles. Lee, who helped UCLA to consecutive national championships in 1972 and ‘73 as a starting guard under Wooden, has died. He was 70. Lee died at a San Diego hospital Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022, from an infection related to an immune disorder, the university said Thursday after being informed by his wife, Lisa. (AP Photo, File) (Uncredited/AP) | 2022-09-23T01:41:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Greg Lee, UCLA guard under coach John Wooden, dies at 70 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/greg-lee-ucla-guard-under-coach-john-wooden-dies-at-70/2022/09/22/8800e834-3ad6-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/greg-lee-ucla-guard-under-coach-john-wooden-dies-at-70/2022/09/22/8800e834-3ad6-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
Ime Udoka led the Boston Celtics to the NBA Finals in his first season as an NBA head coach, but he will miss the upcoming season because of a team suspension for an improper relationship. (Steven Senne/AP)
Ime Udoka won’t be on the sidelines for the Boston Celtics’ title chase, and his future with the organization is in question.
The Celtics announced Thursday that Udoka, who led the franchise to the NBA Finals in his first season as coach, has been suspended for the entire 2022-23 season for “violations of team policies.” Udoka was involved in an improper intimate relationship with a female staffer, multiple people with knowledge of the situation confirmed, and the Celtics said that a decision about his future with the organization will be “made at a later date.”
The Celtics did not immediately name Udoka’s interim replacement. Assistant Joe Mazzulla is expected to serve as Udoka’s replacement during his suspension, which began Thursday, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.
ESPN and the Athletic first reported details surrounding Udoka’s punishment, which comes less than one week before the Celtics open training camp and less than a month before their regular season opener against the Philadelphia 76ers on Oct. 18.
Udoka, 45, emerged as a rising star in the coaching ranks last season, guiding Boston to 51 wins and its first Eastern Conference championship since 2010. Credited for holding Boston’s stars accountable and motivating a roster that had underperformed before his arrival, Udoka oversaw the NBA’s top-ranked defense and finished fourth in coach of the year voting. During an impressive playoff run, the Celtics swept Kevin Durant’s Brooklyn Nets, dethroned Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Milwaukee Bucks and outlasted Jimmy Butler’s Miami Heat before falling to the Golden State Warriors in six games.
Boston solidified its position as a leading title favorite by acquiring guard Malcolm Brogdon from the Indiana Pacers in a July trade. The Celtics return Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart and Al Horford, among other key pieces from last year’s team. However, center Robert Williams III will be sidelined for at least a month following a recent knee surgery, and forward Danilo Gallinari, an offseason addition, could miss the entire season after tearing the ACL in his left knee in August.
A former NBA player, Udoka spent seven seasons with five different NBA teams before joining the San Antonio Spurs’ coaching staff in 2012. Udoka, who spent the 2019-20 season as an assistant with the Philadelphia 76ers and the 2020-21 season in the same role with the Nets, also served as a USA Basketball assistant under Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Mazzulla, 34, joined the Celtics in 2019 as an assistant coach under Stevens following a previous stint as an assistant with Boston’s G League affiliate, the Maine Red Claws. This summer, the Rhode Island native interviewed for the Jazz’s head coaching position before it went to Hardy. | 2022-09-23T01:53:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Celtics suspend head coach Ime Udoka for 2022-23 season - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/22/ime-udoka-suspended/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/22/ime-udoka-suspended/ |
Ask Amy: I didn’t reach out quickly enough to my grieving friend
I have struggled most of my life with post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from a sexual abuse trauma when I was 17. I really did not begin healing until my current physician diagnosed me and referred me to a specialist for therapy.
Suicides always send me to a dark place, because it was riding my shoulder for so many years. My friend did not notify me personally; she posted the news to Facebook.
She has not reached out to me. I am riddled with guilt over my reaction to her loss. I usually reach out to people who have lost loved ones in a timely manner.
She has had a rough life, but in the past 25 years, she remarried and took life by the horns and has done quite well.
I, however, am just now finding peace because of finally receiving proper treatment. I procrastinated reaching out because of my own selfish(?) fears of my own instability.
Selfish: Your shame has sent you into a self-punishing spiral. Now that you have processed your own behavior, you really should stop making this about you.
You have no way of knowing how this tragedy has affected your friend. You should assume that she received, read and appreciated your thoughtful note, but this sort of communication does not beg a response (grieving people are not always able to reply), so do not think that the ball is in her court.
You should call your friend, even though it isn’t her birthday. Do not continue to apologize for or explain your reaction to her child’s death. Don’t make references to your own trauma. Simply tell her that she continues to be in your daily thoughts, and ask her how she is doing. Then listen to her with thoughtful compassion. If she doesn’t want to talk about her loss, then segue into other topics that you two have traditionally discussed.
Dear Amy: Recently, a longtime, good friend was staying with me as a guest for five nights at an expensive resort.
Last week, she told me how impolite it is for me to never eat anything while she does, because she feels she shouldn’t be eating “alone,” and it makes her not enjoy her food.
I was stunned, yet politely assured and reminded her that I am not being rude but simply do not eat in-between meals. (She knows this very well.)
She went on and on trying to get a different response from me.
I was hurt and felt as though she was treating me as one of her children or colleagues, or as her husband.
I do not want to be impolite, wasteful or berated, and I don’t want to lose my friend.
Upset: You do not need to snack alongside your friend to be polite. You also don’t need to ingest her bullying and berating.
Dear Amy: “No Plaque” complained because her dental hygienist spoke to her using what seemed to be “baby talk.”
As a mid-30-something, I can’t recall having spent much time with elderly people who DIDN’T have some type of dementia.
It has an unfortunately outsize role in my life, family and social circle.
Been There: I’m sorry about your own experience with elders, but you also need to get out more. | 2022-09-23T04:17:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ask Amy: I didn’t reach out quickly enough to my grieving friend - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/09/23/ask-amy-guilt-grieving-friend/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/09/23/ask-amy-guilt-grieving-friend/ |
My problem stems from being assigned tasks that I understand were often asked of administrative assistants in years past, but that should no longer be required of the role in modern times (in my opinion). However, perhaps I am mistaken on where the line is drawn between business and personal tasks.
These are tasks such as ordering flowers for a colleague of my boss who has suffered a loss; sending a card or food on his behalf to the family; ordering and picking up food as his contribution to an office potluck; sending a fruit basket to a colleague of his who was ill, etc. I don’t usually know the person he is asking me to buy these items for, and I do not know their dietary needs or preferences. And writing a card of sympathy for someone I don’t know feels icky.
Even before his executive assistant was laid off, I was often asked to do these things. I consider the requests to be inappropriate and personal in nature, not business-related. They are things he could ask his spouse for help with, if he really couldn’t do it himself (which he could, he just doesn’t want to). He is paying for these items with his own funds, and they are from him directly, not the university or the division.
Absolutely not. But neither does Miss Manners recommend opening a fight based on gender, as accurate as that assessment may be, when you might make your case by being professional — where he was not — and presenting the facts.
The whiff of an HR threat should be sufficient for your boss to recognize that he does not wish to involve them — and that it would therefore be easier for him to pick up his own dang dry cleaning. | 2022-09-23T04:17:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Miss Manners: Boss asks me to do tasks that aren’t in my job description - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/09/23/miss-manners-boss-personal-assistant/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/09/23/miss-manners-boss-personal-assistant/ |
Virginia Tech's Jalen Stroman (26) forces a fumble from West Virginia running back Tony Mathis Jr. during the first half Thursday night in Blacksburg. Stroman left the game late in the second half because of a targeting call, one of 15 penalties against the Hokies. (Matt Gentry/AP)
BLACKSBURG, Va. — The student section at Lane Stadium began filling up roughly an hour before Virginia Tech’s game against West Virginia. Gradually, elbow room grew scarce for the eagerly awaited showdown between heated border rivals.
By the time the Hokies sprinted onto the field with “Enter Sandman” blaring over the sound system, fans clad in the vibrant school colors, with one half of the stadium wearing orange and the other donning maroon, had packed the place and were jumping in raucous unison.
The throwback atmosphere to the rebuilding program’s most prosperous era failed to insulate Virginia Tech from a mistake-filled, 33-10 loss. The Hokies committed 15 penalties, the majority defensive, for 132 yards and moved the ball sporadically at best in failing to reclaim the Black Diamond Trophy.
The Hokies (2-2) gave up 422 yards, their most of the season, and wilted down the stretch to drop a second straight game to West Virginia (2-2), which limited Virginia Tech to 25 rushing yards in front of a sellout crowd that began a mass exodus early in the fourth quarter. The Hokies’ rushing total was their lowest since amassing just nine yards against Pittsburgh in 2015.
“Obviously disappointed,” Coach Brent Pry said. “We didn’t play complementary football. We’ve got to own it, and we’ve got to be better in a bunch of areas, and we can be. We play a cleaner, smarter game, we got a chance.”
Syracuse is rolling — behind architects of Virginia's record-setting offense
Five straight scoring drives propelled the Mountaineers. The last of those delivered West Virginia a 23-10 lead with 14:13 remaining courtesy of tailback Justin Johnson Jr.’s six-yard burst through the heart of a defense that entered ranked first in the ACC in total yards and scoring.
Two snaps previous, Virginia Tech bailed out the Mountaineers on third and 14 when quarterback JT Daniels threw an incomplete pass but officials charged defensive tackle Norell Pollard with hands to the face, moving the ball half the distance to the goal line to the Hokies 14.
Any glimmer of a comeback was extinguished when Virginia Tech quarterback Grant Wells’s pass over the middle wound up in the grasp of cornerback Jacolby Spells. The freshman turned the corner around the left side and took the interception 27 yards to the end zone for a 33-10 advantage.
The margin of defeat was the most lopsided for the Hokies in the series in 61 years — dating from a 28-0 loss in 1961.
Wells, a transfer from Marshall, completed 16 of 35 passes for 193 yards and a touchdown, tossing one interception. The junior won the starting job after a training camp competition with senior Jason Brown, also a transfer (South Carolina).
Svrluga: For Terps, beating Michigan might require forkfuls of belief
A defense that had been mostly stout in the first half permitted the Mountaineers to use 6:31 during their first possession of the third quarter, which put them ahead 16-7 on Casey Legg’s 25-yard field goal with 7:04 to play. The series included cornerback Chamarri Conner’s pass interference penalty.
Virginia Tech countered with Will Ross’s 44-yard field goal during a drive that also got a boost from pass interference, this one called against Mountaineers cornerback Rashad Ajayi when he grabbed wide receiver Stephen Gosnell on deep ball down the left side.
The first half ended with Virginia Tech trailing 13-7 following a touchdown drive from the Mountaineers that took just 50 seconds, culminating in Daniels’s 24-yard strike to wide receiver Sam James in the middle of the end zone, where linebacker Dax Hollifield was several steps behind in coverage.
The Hokies had been leading 7-6 thanks to Wells’s 28-yard touchdown pass to Kaleb Smith on the first snap of the second quarter. Smith beat cornerback Wesley McCormick on a fade to the right portion of the end zone and gathered the pass for his second touchdown catch of the year.
A pass interference penalty assessed to West Virginia’s Davis Mallinger on third and 13 aided the possession, moving the ball to the Mountaineers 28. Virginia Tech also benefited from a fortunate sequence when Wells’s pass caromed off Da’Wain Lofton and into the hands of Smith for a 17-yard gain on third and two.
Penalties plagued Virginia Tech throughout the half, including on the Mountaineers’ first scoring drive, which ended in Legg’s 23-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead with 3:19 left in the first quarter. The most egregious was Jalen Stroman being called for a face mask infraction, but the Hokies also were guilty of an illegal substitution and a neutral zone penalty during the series.
“I go back to this: I think we press and we kind of get out of sorts and we feel we need to do things above and beyond,” Pry said. “Sometimes I look out there, and it’s kind of a panic. We’re not playing as one, and we’ve got to coach them through that.”
Circumstances worsened for Stroman in the closing minutes when he was called for targeting, rendering the sophomore ineligible for the first half of the next game at North Carolina Oct. 1.
“We just made a lot of mistakes,” Conner said. “The guys were trying to go hard and leave it all out there. Sometimes it just works out like that. We’ve got to be better.” | 2022-09-23T04:43:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Virginia Tech fades in second half of lopsided loss to West Virginia - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/22/virginia-tech-fades-second-half-lopsided-loss-west-virginia/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/22/virginia-tech-fades-second-half-lopsided-loss-west-virginia/ |
What coronavirus? At U.N. General Assembly, war overshadows pandemic.
People stand outside U.N. headquarters in New York during the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday. (Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)
This week, the leader of the free world declared the pandemic “over.” President Biden made the remarks during an interview with “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday. His remarks surprised White House officials, who quickly tried to walk them back, fearing they could impact the administration’s push for more pandemic funding.
As world leaders gathered in New York City this week for the opening of the U.N. General Assembly, you had to wonder if Biden had a point. This year’s opening week is the first one to be held fully in person since the pandemic began. The event was all virtual in 2020 and hybrid in 2021.
There was even a tangible sign this week of a new, post-pandemic era: The traditional gridlock that plagues midtown Manhattan during “UNGA week” was back. The topics of discussion had changed, too: Just last year, covid-19 dominated the conversation, with Biden himself hosting a concurrent summit on global vaccination efforts and committing to a goal of immunizing 70 percent of the world’s 8 billion people within the next year.
But this year, things are different, although not necessarily in a positive way. The international community has moved on from the pandemic — but to war and general chaos.
The Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces continues to cause economic and political shock waves, with Moscow this week calling for a “partial” mobilization and making thinly veiled nuclear threats. A violent crackdown in Iran has cast doubt over any diplomatic progress that could be made on Tehran’s nuclear weapons.
Other conflicts have flared in Ethiopia and along the border of Armenia and Azerbaijan, while Washington and Beijing remain at odds. Meanwhile, the global economy is on the brink, and the death this month of Queen Elizabeth II diverted much of the world’s attention.
The pandemic was all but forgotten at the United Nations — and last year’s pledges had gone unfulfilled. When Biden spoke at the General Assembly last year, he said the words “covid-19” 10 times and “pandemic” six times. This year, he focused instead on countering Russia and other authoritarian states, saying “covid-19” just three times and mentioning “pandemic” only once.
Biden missed his own stated target on global vaccination. Advocacy groups said that less than 1 in 5 people of low-income countries was fully vaccinated, while 56 percent of people in lower-middle income countries had reached the target.
“Our failure to deploy vaccines equitably is a resounding global failure — a failure that cost lives and livelihoods, and resulted in waves of variants which made the pandemic longer for all of us,” Tom Hart, president of the ONE Campaign, said in a statement.
There were also some less-heralded developments. Most notably, the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria on Wednesday raised $14.25 billion at its Seventh Replenishment Conference. The event, hosted by Biden, brought the country closer to its $18 billion target for the next three years.
There have also been discussions about preparing for the next pandemic. On Thursday, I moderated a panel co-sponsored by a South Africa-based mRNA technology and training hub, backed by the World Health Organization. The hub aims to start a global network of vaccine research sites in developing nations.
The idea is that the hub would train other sites, or “spokes,” so that when the world faces its next pandemic, richer names won’t be able to hoard the vaccine supply. In this effort, there have been some early signs of success.
The South African company Afrigen Biologics, which works at the hub, is already testing a potential coronavirus vaccine. It also started work on a tuberculosis shot.
“We have been approached by the leading scientists in the HIV community,” Petro Terblanch, executive director of Afrigen, said at the conference, which was co-organized by the advocacy group Public Citizen.
HIV is one of the many diseases experts hope could be eradicated with an mRNA vaccine.
Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist at the WHO, admitted that the hubs may fail to make a significant impact on the covid-19 pandemic — Afrigen’s vaccine could still be years away from hitting the market — but that the system needed to be put in place now for the future. “The only way to solve this problem is to take a longer-term view, not a quick fix view,” she said.
The problem is that governments around the world are not always good at taking the longer view. Britain was long a leader in health funding, but stunned onlookers on Wednesday when officials failed to pledge any new money at Biden’s Global Fund replenishment event. Under new Prime Minister Liz Truss, Britain has significantly pulled back its aid budgets.
David Lammy, a member of the British opposition, noted that the country had pledged at least $2.6 billion in military aid to Ukraine in 2023. Countries that needed aid would surely be aware of that too, he told the Guardian. “In the past, I have said Britain’s foreign policy has become too transactional, but this isn’t even transactional. This is just ill-thought-out,” he said.
Meanwhile, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol caused a minor diplomatic scandal when he spoke an undiplomatic truth at the Biden event: the U.S. president’s pledge of $6 billion in funding for AIDs, tuberculosis and malaria may not get past Congress.
“It would be so humiliating for Biden if these idiots don’t pass it in Congress,” Yoon was overheard telling a group of aides.
But even without Congress as an obstacle, the United States has yet to provide funding for the mRNA hubs project, which has the potential to make a major impact with a modest price tag. Instead, it supports the hub through technical assistance.
The hub in South Africa expects it will need about $100 million in funding over the next four years, with just $67 million raised so far.
For the project, that $34 million shortfall is a lot of money, but it’s also about half of the cost of an F-35 fighter jet. And it’s only a fraction of the billions of military aid the United States has pledged to Ukraine this year. | 2022-09-23T04:44:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What coronavirus? At U.N. General Assembly, war overshadows pandemic. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/23/unga-pandemic-biden/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/23/unga-pandemic-biden/ |
Biden Should Amplify the Voices of Iran’s Protesters
Having received armed Iranian drones for his war in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin owed Ebrahim Raisi a favor. The Russian leader duly did a solid for his Iranian counterpart this week, by sparing Raisi’s blushes at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Putin’s dramatic raising of stakes in the war — he announced the mobilization of up to 300,000 reservists and made unsubtle threats to use nuclear weapons — drew international attention away from Iran, where the death of a young woman in police custody has set off protests nationwide against the Raisi regime.
Mahsa Amini, 22, fell into a coma and died after being detained last week, apparently because she had not sufficiently covered her hair. There were suspicions that she had been tortured by the so-called “morality police,” reports that her head had been slammed repeatedly against a hard surface.
Mistreatment at the hands of security forces is commonplace in the Islamic Republic, but Amini’s death was the proverbial last straw for many Iranians, especially women. Social media platforms quickly filled with videos of women removing and burning their headcovers — the theocrats in Tehran deem the hijab compulsory — and cutting their hair.
The regime responded with a characteristically heavy hand. As Raisi took his turn at the UNGA lectern to issue a tired tirade against Western perfidy, his security forces were clubbing and shooting protesters. But videos also showed civilians fighting back, beating cops and setting fire to their vehicles. Demonstrators were calling for the very thing Raisi and his boss, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, routinely accused foreigners of plotting: regime change.
In New York, Raisi was met by protestors outside the UN as well as criticism in the great hall. Some of it came from unexpected sources: Chile’s President Gabriel Boric name-checked Amini in his call to “mobilize efforts to stop violence against women.” And President Joe Biden expressed solidarity with the protesters: “Today we stand with the brave citizens and the brave women of Iran who right now are demonstrating to secure their basic rights.”
But the remark went almost unnoticed, since the meat of Biden’s (somewhat undercooked) speech was about Putin and the escalation of nuclear danger in Ukraine. Raisi was not in the audience as the US president spoke, but he doubtless muttered a sotto-voce “spasiba” to his Russian benefactor for sucking all the oxygen out of the UNGA.
As he heads back to Tehran, Raisi will be counting on Biden’s attention — and the world’s — remaining on Russia as the Iranian regime deals with the protests the only way it knows how. There are ominous signs of a violent crackdown akin to that of 2019, which led to the killing of more than 1,000 Iranians who participated in demonstrations against gasoline prices.
As of this writing, the death toll in Iran is 17, but the government has moved to shut down access to the internet and other forms of communication, which is usually a tell that it wants to keep word of state brutality from reaching a wider audience.
The challenge for Biden is to help the protesters without allowing the regime to portray them as American stooges. The most useful thing the US can do is amplify the voices of the protesters and help them evade the regime’s blackouts, the better to communicate with each other and coordinate their protests.
One practical way to achieve this is to exempt from international sanctions Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite system, which can provide internet connectivity to Iranians. The US Treasury has said some satellite internet equipment can be exported to Iran.
At the diplomatic level, the State Department should also use every opportunity to draw attention to the protests and encourage American allies to do likewise. Every statement relating to the negotiations over the revival of the Iran nuclear deal should be accompanied with a strong reiteration of solidarity with the protesters and an equally forceful denunciation of the crackdown.
Finally, the White House should make it clear that any Iranian official linked to abuses against protesters will be subject to sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act. Here, too, the Biden administration has made a good start, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken announcing sanctions against the “morality police.”
Iran’s protesters know the grave risks they take when they challenge the regime, but Mahsa Amini’s example has inspired them to rise up rather than be cowed down. Biden should reward their bravery by helping them to be heard above the noise created by Putin.
• It’s Time for Plan B on Iran: The Editors
• Iran’s New Ploy to Disrupt the Mideast Is Laying Claim to Bahrain: Hussein Ibish | 2022-09-23T06:14:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Biden Should Amplify the Voices of Iran’s Protesters - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/biden-should-amplify-the-voices-of-irans-protesters/2022/09/23/6865c298-3afd-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/biden-should-amplify-the-voices-of-irans-protesters/2022/09/23/6865c298-3afd-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
Skyscrapers and buildings on the City of London skyline at dusk in London, U.K., on Thursday, Oct. 21, 2021. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the City of London will prosper outside the European Union, noting job losses and disruption to capital flows have been lower than feared. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg (Bloomberg)
Back in the 1980s, London’s “Big Bang” revolutionized stock trading and put it at the forefront of global financial markets. Following Britain’s departure from the European Union in 2020, the government has aspirations for another kind of “Big Bang”: jettisoning EU rules that it sees as holding back innovation and economic growth. The risk is that the EU decides the measures give the UK’s financial firms an unfair competitive advantage over European rivals and limits their access to continental markets.
1. What’s the plan?
The government has introduced a Financial Services and Markets Bill that runs to more than 300 pages and represents the biggest set of financial reforms since 2000, when Tony Blair’s Labour administration brought in rules to boost protections for consumers. The idea is to tailor regulations originally drawn up for 28 EU nations to better suit the UK economy. The bill would:
• Make stock listings easier, giving London’s capital markets a potential edge over those on the continent
• Unravel parts of the EU’s extensive MiFID II rules designed to protect investors, such as a cap on trading in so-called dark pools, or private venues
• Ease regulations governing the insurance industry and crypto assets. Certain types of stablecoins -- crypto tokens designed to hold a steady value -- would be classified as a valid form of payment
• Broaden the remit of regulators to include a goal of stimulating the economy, alongside ensuring the stability of the financial system
2. What else is on the cards?
Since the bill was published in July, Liz Truss has succeeded Boris Johnson as prime minister and replaced the Treasury team that initiated the reforms. Her rise to power was thanks partly to the right wing of her Conservative party, which sees Brexit as an opportunity to cut bureaucracy and reduce the size of the state. Truss wants to go further than Johnson by scrapping EU caps on banker bonuses and adding a “call-in” power to allow ministers to block or change the decisions of financial regulators including the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority -- which oversees the financial system -- and the Financial Conduct Authority. Her government may also strengthen the bill’s requirement for regulators to consider competitiveness in their deliberations. This could include laying out a process they must follow for making decisions.
3. What’s the timetable for change?
The legislation has been debated by lawmakers and is due to become law in April or May 2023 after being examined by parliamentary committees. In the meantime, financial firms and their lobbyists are seeking to influence it with the aim of adding some proposals and removing others.
4. How is the EU likely to respond?
The bloc already dashed the hopes of some British politicians that the UK would get automatic access to EU financial markets after Brexit. To preserve their business with clients on the continent, UK-based banks have had to rebase some employees and activities inside the EU. Much remains to be settled in terms of market access. For example, it’s still not clear what role the UK will continue to play in the EU’s massive financial derivatives market. Critics of Britain’s proposed reforms say they could antagonize the EU and make it less willing to allow London to continue acting as a clearing house for derivatives. The EU has not yet made a definitive move, partly because there is a view that its own markets need time to develop to match the depth and breadth of London’s.
Read More: How ‘Equivalence’ Holds Key to Post-Brexit Banking
5. How might the reforms affect the BOE?
At the heart of the debate about the call-in power is politicians’ attitudes toward the central bank, which sets interest rates and is the UK’s ultimate financial regulatory authority. The BOE is having a difficult time. There is criticism across government of its handling of inflation. Truss has said she wants to revisit the bank’s mandate and explore how to ensure policy makers meet their goal to keep a lid on prices. This has led to speculation that she could make the BOE more accountable to the government.
There are plenty of people from the world of economics, government and finance who believe the BOE’s independence is crucial. The institution has the freedom to set monetary policy and regulate on consumer protection, competition and the safety of the financial system. Andrew Bailey, the BOE’s governor, has warned of a hit to the UK’s reputation if the bank’s freedom is curtailed. His supporters warn that diluting the BOE’s ability to make decisions would give politicians and lobbyists inappropriate influence over regulatory policy. However, even backers of the BOE recognize that more clarity is needed on holding financial regulators to account. Before Brexit, the PRA and the FCA -- which focuses on consumer protection -- operated according to directions set by the European Parliament. Many lawmakers and industry figures say someone else is now needed to oversee the regulators, whether it’s Parliament, the courts or the government.
7. What do the changes mean for insurers?
Insurance firms wants the UK reforms to include a watering down of capital rules known as Solvency II to free up billions of pounds, which they say they would use for investment. The PRA is prepared to roll back part of Solvency II. But it wants to tighten regulation in another area known as the matching adjustment, a calculation that calibrates how well a long-term asset such as an infrastructure investment matches a liability like paying pensions. | 2022-09-23T06:15:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What Britain Is Targeting in a Post-Brexit City - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/what-britain-is-targeting-in-a-post-brexit-city/2022/09/23/bad8eb6a-3b05-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/what-britain-is-targeting-in-a-post-brexit-city/2022/09/23/bad8eb6a-3b05-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
Why Italy’s Far-Right Virus Threatens Europe’s Body Politic
CASERTA, ITALY - SEPTEMBER 18: Giorgia Meloni leader of the “Fratelli d’Italia” party speaks at a political rally on September 18, 2022 in Caserta, Italy. Italians head to the polls for general elections on September 25, 2022. (Photo by Ivan Romano/Getty Images) (Photographer: , Ivan Romano/Getty Images Europe)
What happens in Italian politics doesn’t often stay in Italy.
From Fascism to Nazism; from Berlusconi to Trump; from the rabble-rousing Five Star Movement to the disruption wrought by social media, Italy has often served as a political laboratory for liberal democracies.
So, would a victory in Sunday’s election by the far-right Brothers of Italy and its leader Giorgia Meloni pull Europe in her direction?
Signs already point that way. In the past decade, far- and alt-right politicians have steadily emerged from the shadows in Europe where they had been relegated since World War II. The cordon sanitaire that kept them out of power is breaking down. The rise of the radical anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats party, which finished second in this month’s vote and may well become kingmakers in a governing coalition, is the latest sign of that breach.In a rally this week, Meloni, who revels in slamming immigration, abortion and what she calls the LBGTQ lobby, said she hoped that Spain’s right-wing Vox party would gain traction with the success of Brothers of Italy. Earlier this month, her party opposed a European Parliament motion declaring Hungary had become an “electoral autocracy” and could no longer be considered a democracy. Its prime minister, Viktor Orban is “a gentleman who won elections several times according to the rules,” Meloni told Italy’s state radio. Meantime, she hasn’t been able to quash concerns that Russian interference has sought to benefit her electoral allies, Matteo Salvini’s League and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia.
A Meloni win would mark an abrupt change for Europe from the technocratic coalition led by Mario Draghi, which provided stable — even effective — governance since its appointment in February 2021. Fueled by a post-pandemic handout from the EU totaling 260 billion euros ($258 billion) in loans and grants by 2026 Italy has seen rare growth. The economy is expected to expand 3% this year after 6.5% in 2021. That has kept the country’s vast debt load at about 150% of gross domestic product.
Draghi also fostered liberal, Atlanticist policies and close relations with Emmanuel Macron of France and Olaf Scholz of Germany, as well as Joe Biden. While Meloni has said she’s pro-EU and pro-NATO, her approach to the US veers toward the Trumpian right. Along with Orban, she spoke to the Conservative Political Action Conference this year.
Ironically, Meloni’s policies at home could be contained; first by her political bedfellows, and then by economic pressure. After the Sept. 25 vote, it will take until mid-October at the earliest to present a coalition to President Sergio Mattarella. Bickering with Salvini that has characterized the campaign isn’t likely to diminish, particularly if she takes substantial votes from his League and Berlusconi’s Forza Italia.
If forming a right-wing government proves untenable, some observers suggest it may in turn prompt Mattarella to seek another unelected official as prime minister. It’s not impossible to imagine Italy could see another government led by a Bank of Italy technocrat, even if Draghi has ruled himself out. In any case, chatter in Parliament’s corridors suggests there’s already expectation the Quirinal Palace — perhaps Draghi himself — will have a hand in ensuring Meloni appoints a finance minister to pacify markets.
Then there’s the economy. While the International Monetary Fund in August noted growth had “rebounded vigorously” from Covid-19, the effect of the war in Ukraine, inflation and energy shortages will hit living standards. But with the disbursement of the EU’s bumper post-pandemic funds a vital stay in supporting the economy, there’s a limit to how much of a collision course with Europe Meloni can afford.
True, a big win by Brothers of Italy will be a reminder of the weakness of Europe’s south, and the issues of immigration, falling birthrates, deindustrialization, poverty and youth unemployment, after months when global attention has been on the vulnerability of Europe’s east with Russia’s war in Ukraine. The European Central Bank has also promised to help contain spreads on southern European debt.
Nonetheless, “Italy’s confrontational politics means it will be stressful to manage public debt,” says Paola Subacchi, professor of international economics at Queen Mary University of London.
Meloni’s greatest impact could be felt throughout Europe. In liberal circles in Rome, there are already worries of a Pandora’s box of contagion being opened by a Meloni win. History is instructive here too. Three years ago, in September 2019, I sat in the office of one of the bosses of Italy’s biggest companies and discussed the risk to Europe from what then seemed like the inevitable rise to power of Salvini.
The industrialist argued that the lesson from history wasn’t that Europe was at risk when Italy got a hard-right leader, but when that paved the way for one in Germany. Shocking though that statement seemed at the time, the argument sounds prescient today. The risk to Europe may well not be Giorgia Meloni herself, but how her influence spreads.
• Fear of `Mafia Entrepreneurs’ Stalks Italy: Rachel Sanderson
• European Bond Yields Settle for Less Than 3-2-1: Marcus Ashworth | 2022-09-23T06:15:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Why Italy’s Far-Right Virus Threatens Europe’s Body Politic - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/why-italysfar-right-virus-threatens-europes-body-politic/2022/09/23/67a80726-3afd-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/why-italysfar-right-virus-threatens-europes-body-politic/2022/09/23/67a80726-3afd-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
ADDS DEATHS Whales are stranded on Ocean Beach at Macquarie Harbour on the west coast of Tasmania of Australia, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022. Two more whales died Friday, Sept. 23, 2022, in Australia after a handful that had been refloated a day earlier stranded themselves again. About 200 pilot whales have now died from a group of about 230 that stranded themselves this week on the wild and remote west coast of Tasmania. (Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania via AP) (Uncredited/Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmani) | 2022-09-23T06:15:59Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 2 more whales die in Australia as stranding deaths reach 200 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2-more-whales-die-in-australia-as-stranding-deaths-reach-200/2022/09/23/ad6677aa-3b04-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2-more-whales-die-in-australia-as-stranding-deaths-reach-200/2022/09/23/ad6677aa-3b04-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
Italians attend a rally in Rome on Thursday before a giant poster of Giorgia Meloni, whose far-right Fratelli d'Italia party is expected to lead a conservative coalition to victory in the election Sunday. (Gregorio Borgia/AP)
ROME — Italy doesn’t feel like a country that’s about to swing to the far right.
Two-thirds of Italians say they’re optimistic about the future of the European Union, whose stimulus helped buoy the country — and boost the image of the bloc — after the pandemic’s economic shock. What’s more, the country has been led for the last year and a half by economist Mario Draghi, a paragon of centrist stability who continues to earn high approval ratings.
But if the national elections on Sunday go as expected, Draghi’s successor as prime minister will be Giorgia Meloni, a firebrand from the Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) party who wants her country to push for more autonomy in Europe, blockade the Mediterranean against undocumented immigrants and defend a traditional family identity she says is under attack.
Crucially, in a country rebuilt after the ruins of war and fascism, Meloni would be the first Italian leader from a party with a post-fascist lineage — as well as a tricolor flame logo that hearkens to an earlier, more extreme political movement formed shortly after Mussolini’s death. She would take power 100 years after the March on Rome, the death knell for Italian democracy before World War II.
Here are the factors — historical, contemporary and structural — that have made such a scenario possible.
Ping-pong politics
Instability is at the heart of Italian politics, and incongruous zigzags are a feature of the system, not a bug. Since the end of World War II, Italy has cycled through governments every 400 days or so. Careers rise and crash at super-speed. Voters coalesce around parties and then drop them. To the extent that there’s any recent constant, it’s that 40 to 50 percent of voters tend to favor the right. And Meloni, in recent years, has pulled votes away from competing parties — in part because Fratelli d’Italia has remained in opposition.
The system’s design also plays to Meloni’s benefit. Voters don’t directly pick the prime minister. And because there’s such fragmentation, a figure like Meloni needs to only convince a plurality of voters of her party’s fitness. In this instance, Fratelli d’Italia is expected to be the choice of about one-quarter of would-be voters — enough to make it Italy’s most popular party. And based on its coalition with others on the right — in contrast to infighting on the left — it has overwhelming odds to prevail in the vote.
But national votes, even seemingly decisive ones, rarely bring the tidal change that they might in, say, France or the United States. Italy’s last national vote, in 2018, is a good example. That election looked as if it were the start of a populist revolution, and it led initially to a government of anti-establishment forces on the left and right. But their agreement was brittle. One government collapsed and then the next. Eventually, in the middle of the pandemic emergency, Italy’s president handpicked Draghi to lead a unity coalition. In other words: Three years after a populist revolt underpinned by heavy Euroscepticism, Italy was being run by a former European central banker chosen by one man and devoted to burnishing Italy’s stature in Brussels.
An attempt at moderation
In her social views, Meloni has much the same profile as Viktor Orban, the orchestrator of Hungary’s autocratic turn. Meloni is emphatic about the importance of protecting what she says is Europe’s Christian identity. She blasts the “wokeness” of the left and its positions on gender identity.
But on other issues, Meloni has tried to make herself more palatable to Italy’s center, a tactic that has helped take her party from the fringes. She once argued for the dissolution of the euro zone; now she says Italy’s place is within Europe. She used to trot out conspiratorial ideas about unnamed forces deliberately orchestrating mass migration to Italy; she no longer speaks in those terms.
She compares Fratelli d’Italia to the Tories of Britain and Likud in Israel — conservative parties, not norm-wreckers. And she has portrayed herself as working at times to support the initiatives of Draghi, including on measures related to Ukraine, a country that she has backed unequivocally against Russia.
“She has developed a way to talk to international interlocutors, sounding reasonable,” said Nathalie Tocci, director of the Italian International Affairs Institute. “But she is also able to speak with her Roman accent, fiery voice, in a way that gets the message across [to her base]. So she’s an effective politician.”
Fascism? Not here!
One of the fiercest debates among Italians centers on the country’s past — and to what extent strands of fascist DNA still linger in Meloni’s party. Meloni last month issued a video saying the Italian right had handed over fascism “to history” decades ago, and condemned the anti-Jewish laws that were among the most virulent elements of Mussolini’s reign.
But that hasn’t ended the discussion.
Italy never had a German-style break with its war identity, in large part because of the messy way the conflict ended: with Mussolini’s fall in 1943, with the creation of a German-backed puppet state and a fierce resistance movement that had some ex-fascists joining in. There was never a major purge of the Mussolini-era administration. Some of his loyalists, in the aftermath of the war, formed the Italian Social Movement, a neo-fascist group that never got more than single-digit support and was dissolved in 1995. Subsequent, incrementally less extreme iterations included Fratelli d’Italia, which was founded in 2012.
So what connects Meloni to the fascist era? Critics say some threads remain. Over the years, two Mussolini descendants have ran under the party’s banner. Several party members in 2019 attended a dinner to commemorate the March on Rome. Meloni herself said, in 1996 during her late teens — in a video that made the rounds during the campaign — that Mussolini was a “good politician.”
In Italy, such remarks are hardly disqualifying. In 2013, Silvio Berlusconi said Mussolini was a good leader in many respects, despite the anti-Jewish laws. Berlusconi leads another party in Meloni’s would-be coalition.
The disarray of the left
Weakness on the left translates into strength on the right — and the left has rarely been on shakier ground. If all the left-leaning parties pooled together, they could have made the vote a contest. But given how splintered they are, they have almost no chance.
It wasn’t always like this. In 2019, the leader of another far-right party, Matteo Salvini, orchestrated a government collapse in an attempt to force new elections and win power for himself. Salvini’s League, at the time, was by far the most popular party. But his gambit didn’t work. That’s because the center-left Democratic Party and the anti-establishment (and vaguely left-leaning) Five Star Movement set aside years of vicious rivalry and banded together to form a coalition that staved off elections and closed the door to Salvini.
This time around, the Five Star Movement and Democratic Party are on tense terms. Both had been a part of Draghi’s government, but the Five Star Movement helped initiate its collapse, in part because it opposed a waste incinerator project. The Democratic Party fiercely opposed the Five Stars’ maneuver.
The rift between the parties, Democracy Party leader and former prime minister Enrico Letta said in July, had become “irreversible.”
They are now running separate campaigns against the right. | 2022-09-23T06:16:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Italy election: Giorgia Meloni and the far right expected to win - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/23/italy-election-far-right-meloni/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/23/italy-election-far-right-meloni/ |
(Ron Sachs/POOL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
“By the way, we’ve also … reduced the deficit by $350 billion my first year. This year, it’s going to be over $1.5 trillion, reduced the debt.”
— President Biden, in an interview with 60 Minutes, aired Sept. 18
Do Americans still care about budget deficits? President Biden appears to believe so, since he’s constantly crowing about his record of deficit reduction.
Just in the week before the 60 Minutes interview, the president mentioned having reduced the budget deficit by $350 billion six times, sometimes saying he wants to counter accusations that he’s running up the federal tab.
“By the way, when you hear your Republican friends or anybody else tell you, ‘Boy, they’re spending a lot of money,’ guess what? We cut the budget [deficit] $350 billion last year,” he said at an infrastructure event in Boston on Sept. 12. At a fundraising event in the city, Biden said: “Our Republican friends talk about, well, ‘Big Spendin’ Biden.’ Well, guess what? I lowered your deficit by $350 billion the first year and over $1 trillion this year.”
And when the president on Aug. 24 unveiled his plan for student loan forgiveness, which by some estimates would cost at least $500 billion over ten years, he remarked, “There is plenty of deficit reduction to pay for the programs — cumulative deficit reduction — to pay for the programs many times over.”
The Congressional Budget Office, the official scorekeeper, in February 2021 estimated the budget deficit would fall dramatically in fiscal 2021 and 2022 because emergency pandemic spending would lapse. Budget deficits would be high in both years, but the red ink would begin to shrink.
When Biden says he cut the deficit by $350 billion in 2021, that’s a real number. In its latest report, the CBO says the figure is $360 billion.
But here’s the shell game.
Before Biden took office, CBO said in its early 2021 projection that the budget deficit was expected to decline $875 billion in 2021. But then Biden enacted additional covid relief funds and other new policies, resulting a more modest decline of $360 billion.
The budget deficit was expected to fall even more in 2022, and it has under Biden. But the combined 2021 and 2022 budget deficits were projected by CBO to be $3.31 trillion. Now, CBO says they will be $3.81 trillion.
In other words, Biden is bragging about reducing budget deficits even as he increased the national debt about $500 billion more than originally projected.
Of course, budget projections are not written in stone, especially in the long term. Technical factors, such as inflation increasing tax revenue, can change the underlying mix of spending and revenue. A White House official emphasized to the Fact Checker that outlays (spending) fell by about $950 billion from 2021 to 2022 but revenue also increased by around $800 billion.
The official noted that deficit share of gross domestic product (GDP), the broadest measure of the economy, declined to 4.2 percent, compared to 4.6 percent in CBO’s February 2021 projection. “That shows that the strong recovery under President Biden didn’t just drive a strong recovery but also led to a better fiscal outcome,” the official said.
But Marc Goldwein, senior vice president at the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), calculates that deficits would have been about 3.3 or 3.4 percent of GDP if everything were the same as in the February 2021 projection. The big difference was the impact of inflation, according to the CBO — and an unexpected $80 billion windfall in 2021 for the government for in the sale of telecommunications licenses.
In other words, again the data show the deficit picture has worsened under Biden.
Moreover, any suggestion that this claimed deficit reduction will help pay for student loan relief is disingenuous. The budget deficit soared in the first place because of a national emergency. “This is like a family going into debt for a one-time $100,000 medical expense, and then the next year claiming they can afford to borrow $50,000 for a sports car because the medical expense is over,” said Brian Riedl, a budget expert at the Manhattan Institute.
Now that we have examined the budget impact of the first two years of the Biden presidency, let’s turn to the future.
Unexpected emergencies, such as the war in Ukraine, often put pressure on the federal budget. Biden managed to obtain passage of an infrastructure bill long sought by members of both parties. We take no position on whether certain programs are necessary or desirable. We’re just looking at the numbers — and they also show future increases in the deficit.
According to a new accounting by the CRFB, under Biden an additional $4.8 trillion in borrowing has been added in the 2021-2031 period.
“This $4.8 trillion is the net result of roughly $4.6 trillion of new spending, roughly $500 billion of tax cuts and breaks, and $700 billion in additional interest costs, partially offset by $400 billion of spending cuts and $600 billion of revenue-increasing policies,” CRFB said.
The policies that have boosted deficits included:
Biden’s covid relief bill ($1.85 trillion added to deficits).
The fiscal 2022 spending bill ($625 billion).
The bipartisan infrastructure bill ($370 billion).
Health and disability benefits for veterans exposed to toxic substances ($280 billion).
Boosting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits by 21 percent ($185 billion).
Health-related executive orders ($175 billion).
CHIPS Act for semiconductor manufacturing expansion in the United States ($80 billion).
Assisting Ukraine in its war with Russia ($55 billion).
Student loan debt relief and repayment pauses ($750 billion).
On the other side of the ledger, the energy and health bill dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act was crafted to show about $240 billion in deficit reduction over ten years. But the bill would shrink deficits by only about $90 billion if a three-year extension of expanded health care subsidies were made permanent, CRFB estimated.
You know how it goes in Washington — a temporary measure often keeps getting extended if the benefits remain popular. And, for budget optics, extending a program for only three years costs less, on paper, than one in place for ten years.
Biden is citing real deficit-reduction numbers, but doing so in a way to mislead listeners.
The president is leaving out important context. The budget deficit was supposed to shrink as the massive spending caused by the pandemic faded.
Indeed, the budget-deficit picture, now and in the future, would have been better if not for Biden’s policies. He has every right to argue that those policies were needed. But he cannot suggest that they reduced the budget deficit.
Three Pinocchios | 2022-09-23T07:46:25Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Biden’s unwarranted bragging about reducing the budget deficit - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/23/bidens-unwarranted-bragging-about-reducing-budget-deficit/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/23/bidens-unwarranted-bragging-about-reducing-budget-deficit/ |
FILE - Sun Lijun, then a vice minister of public security, attends a meeting in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei Province on April 7, 2020. The former deputy Chinese police minister who was accused of leading a crime gang of government officials was given a death sentence with a two-year reprieve Friday on charges of manipulating the stock market, taking bribes and other offenses, state TV reported Friday, Sept. 23, 2022. (Chinatopix via AP, File) (Uncredited/CHINATOPIX) | 2022-09-23T07:46:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Former Chinese deputy police minister sentenced for graft - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/former-chinese-deputy-police-minister-sentenced-for-graft/2022/09/23/d93fc02c-3b07-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/former-chinese-deputy-police-minister-sentenced-for-graft/2022/09/23/d93fc02c-3b07-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
Travelers heading to quarantine in the arrival hall at Hong Kong International Airport on Aug. 8. The city is finally ending its prolonged isolation by ending mandatory hotel quarantine. (Bertha Wang/Bloomberg)
HONG KONG — Hong Kong said Friday that it would abolish mandatory quarantine for travelers, easing rigid pandemic rules that have isolated the once-thriving financial center, pummeled the economy and fueled an exodus of residents.
John Lee, the city’s leader, said that starting Monday, travelers will be able to do a PCR test on arrival, then perform medical monitoring in their hotel or home for three days via an app that assigns a color-coded health pass. During this time they will not be able to enter bars or restaurants but will otherwise be able to move around the city. Additional coronavirus tests and a further four days of self-monitoring will be required in the period after arrival.
“We hope to reduce the inconvenience for arriving passengers. We don’t want to move backwards," Lee said in a news conference, emphasizing the need to balance health risks against the desire for economic revival.
Hong Kong’s ‘zero-covid’ policy buckles under the onslaught of omicron
The moves are designed to reinvigorate a formerly freewheeling international city that has lost some of its competitive edge under some of the world’s toughest coronavirus restrictions.
But the question many are asking is whether the measures are too little, too late. Hong Kong’s population dropped at its steepest rate on record over the past year and its labor force continued to shrink. Many of those leaving have cited the pandemic restrictions as well as China’s crackdown on the city’s freedoms. Meanwhile, countries such as Singapore that reopened sooner have lured businesses and tourists.
The relaxation comes ahead of a meeting of Chinese Communist Party leaders in Beijing, where President Xi Jinping is expected to secure a third term amid discontent over his strict “zero covid” policy.
Hong Kong officials long hewed closely to China’s goal of stamping out outbreaks, though without the more-extreme measures seen in the mainland. But for a long time, arriving passengers were forced to spend as much as three weeks confined to a hotel room. Residents who tested positive for the coronavirus were routinely shipped off to spartan isolation rooms — with parents sometimes separated from their children. The city enforces mandatory mask-wearing and limits on gathering sizes.
Brian Leung, an American who works in health care, left Hong Kong in June after more than a decade in the city. He said he moved to Singapore because it relied “more on scientific decisions, rather than political” considerations to inform its approach to living with covid-19.
“Hong Kong was a great city, but with how it coped with the pandemic a lot of weaknesses came out,” Leung said, adding that some of the covid rules had been “inhumane.” “We were scarred by that.”
While some other places in East Asia have been slow to reopen, the severing of Hong Kong’s links with the world hit especially hard because of its role as a global financial capital. Uncertainty about when Hong Kong would end its isolation caused at least 45 airlines to stop flying to what was previously one of the world’s busiest aviation hubs.
“A lot of airlines will be keeping an eye on Hong Kong, but will be reluctant to commit anything to the market until they see clear evidence that the restrictions are being removed and more importantly … will not be reintroduced,” Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association, said in a media briefing this month.
Elsewhere in the region, Japan is set to remove entry limits on Oct. 11 and Taiwan plans to end quarantine next month.
To kick-start Hong Kong’s reopening, the city intends to host a financial forum and a rugby Sevens tournament in November.
Epidemiologists, business leaders and even pro-Beijing politicians who once hailed the importance of attaining “zero covid” had called for the government to relax the quarantine requirements, expressing worries about sacrificing the city’s competitiveness for a virus that has become far less of a threat with the advent of effective vaccines, improved treatments and increased immunity.
What’s more, the strict border rules didn’t stop the virus from leaking in. For a time, Hong Kong had the developed world’s highest death rate from covid-19 owing to its failure to adequately vaccinate its elderly population. The city has reported thousands of coronavirus cases a day for months.
Body bags, overflowing morgues and chaotic hospitals: Hong Kong’s pandemic goes critical
The end of quarantine may do little to boost the economy in the short run, experts said.
Terence Chong Tai-leung, an economics professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said he did not expect a “huge immediate effect” because Hong Kong’s fortunes are closely tied to those of mainland China, which remains largely closed. Without mainland tourists, Hong Kong lost a massive chunk of its retail sales.
John Mullally, managing director at recruitment consultancy Robert Walters, said Friday’s news was a “really good first step,” but predicted it could take “three years for the city to take back its pre-pandemic caliber and the type of talent to trickle back in.” He estimated that about 15 to 17 percent of foreign and mainland Chinese finance workers have left Hong Kong.
Gary Ng, senior economist at Natixis, said entering Hong Kong will still involve inconveniences of mandatory testing and use of health codes, making Singapore a better option for foreign businesses looking to send talent to Asia in the near term.
David Crawshaw in Sydney contributed to this report. | 2022-09-23T09:00:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Hong Kong to scrap hotel quarantine, easing covid rules - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/23/hong-kong-hotel-quarantine-covid-rules/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/23/hong-kong-hotel-quarantine-covid-rules/ |
Ukraine live briefing: Russia set to hold sham referendums starting today; ...
Kostiantyn Khudov
A soldier stands guard at a polling station in the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic on Thursday ahead of the referendum. (AP)
KHARKIV, Ukraine — Kremlin proxy authorities in occupied, war-torn Ukraine on Friday declared that “voting” had begun in staged referendums, and that Moscow’s desired outcome — a claim of public support for the annexation of Ukrainian territory — was assured.
The so-called votes, which are being orchestrated in parts of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of eastern and southeastern Ukraine controlled by the Russian military, are illegal under Ukrainian and international law and, in any case, would not remotely meet basic democratic standards for free and fair elections, not least because of the wartime occupation conditions, and displacement of large numbers of citizens.
Western leaders, including President Biden have denounced the process as a “sham” ahead of Russia’s theft of Ukrainian land.
The Kremlin’s puppet leaders, however, exulted in the process, which they tried to portray as a long path from self-determination to unification with Russia.
“The holding of the referendum is a historic milestone,” Denis Pushilin, the leader of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic said in an video address on Friday morning. “Not only because we are sure of its positive result, but because it is the culmination of our common difficult path. First we became an independent state, then we achieved the recognition of the Republic, and here it is, the third step — unification with Russia.”
“We’re coming home,” Pushilin declared in the speech. “This is the main motive of all our deeds and battles.”
But by rushing ahead to stage the current votes, Moscow has broken even its own prior standard, that such votes should be held only after Russia had full military control of the regions, reflecting President Vladimir Putin’s concern that his troops face a real risk of defeat without a major military escalation.
Putin, in a national address broadcast Wednesday, declared his support for the process, and leaders of the Russian parliament have declared their intention to support the precooked outcome by accepting the territories as part of Russia. And former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday said Russian would defend those territories, potentially by using nuclear weapons.
Such declarations pose risks for Moscow, however, because Russia does not fully control any of the four partially occupied regions, militarily or politically, and is facing stiff resistance from local residents and from Kyiv. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has pledged to reclaim all occupied Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, which Russia invaded and annexed illegally in 2014.
For residents, it was not entirely clear how the “voting” procedure would be carried out. The proxy authorities said that much of the voting would be house-to-house or in “public places” but that polling places would also be open both in the occupied areas and in Russia.
In the eastern Ukrainian town of Starobilsk, located in the Luhansk region and under Russian occupation since March, one man said some voting booths had been set up at a government building but people still had not received much information as to when and how the staged referendum would take place.
There were rumors that local police and Russian soldiers might go knocking door to door to collect ballots.
“No self-respecting person will open the door for them,” the man told The Washington Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal.
Still, sympathies in the town are divided, as they have been since Russia began fomenting an armed separatist uprising in Luhansk and Donetsk in 2014 in response to Ukraine’s pro-European Maidan revolution.
Potentially scarier, the man said, is what may come after the vote. No one doubts that the announced result will be overwhelmingly in favor of joining Russia, but once that happens, he said he fears that he and other men in occupied Ukraine could be mobilized to fight on the side of their occupiers and against their own countrymen.
In an information bulletin posted online, authorities of the separatist Luhansk People’s Republic said that residents must be 18 years old to participate in the “referendum” and would be asked: “Are you in favor of the LPR joining the Russian Federation as a subject of the Russian Federation?”
The authorities said that “voting” would take place from Friday until Tuesday, but would be held at local polling stations only on Tuesday. On the other days, they said, “residents will be able to vote for the future of the Republican in places specially organized … in the adjacent territories, public areas and other places suitable for voting equipment.”
They described a process by which residents with acceptable identification documents could essentially request to vote anywhere, even if they are not already listed on voter registration rolls.
But in one sign of the absurd pretense of the exercise, the authorities warned that “repeated voting is prohibited” and anyone caught voting multiple times could face a fine of up to 3,000 rubles (about $50) — acknowledgment that the Russian currency has already been adopted in the separatist territory — or imprisonment of up to three years.
The Kremlin has taken a raft of other steps to coerce the regions into Russia: replacing Ukrainian news with Russian propaganda channels, forcing people to take Russian passports to get social benefits, and imposing Russia’s education curriculum, to teach Ukrainian children the Russian version of their history — that Ukraine is not a sovereign nation but part of the “Russian world.”
Some pro-Russian officials in occupied Ukraine had urged pushing ahead with the staged votes regardless of Russia’s lack of full control over the four regions, noting that the votes would never be accepted by the international community.
Indeed, Western leaders have condemned the process in blunt terms.
“The Kremlin is organizing a sham referenda to try to annex parts of Ukraine, an extremely significant violation of the U.N. Charter,” Biden said in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly this week.
“This world should see these outrageous acts for what they are,” Biden continued, adding: “This war is about extinguishing Ukraine’s right to exist as a state, plain and simple, and Ukraine’s right to exist as a people.”
One ominous element was the plan for house-to-house voting. Facing the possibility of embarrassingly low turnout, local officials charged with organizing the votes were knocking on doors in some places, pressuring people to vote and shattering the traditional privacy of the ballot box.
In a video aired by state propagandist Vladimir Solovyov, officials watched how residents of the Donetsk region marked ballots in the hallway of an apartment block.
Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of Melitopol, a city occupied by Russian forces in Zaporizhzhia, said the occupation authorities would perform a “fake referendum” and that people who would normally work in the southern Ukrainian city’s voting commission are “refusing to work on this en masse.”
Fedorov was allegedly abducted by Russian forces in March before he was freed in what Ukrainian government officials called a “special operation.” Like many legitimately elected officials from occupied areas, he’s governing from outside of Melitopol but is still in contact with many people living there.
The Moscow-established authorities “don’t even plan to go door to door,” canvassing residents, Fedorov said. “For show, they’ll knock on a few doors and take some pictures to show they’re asking people what they think, but in reality, there won’t even be that.”
“Of course people are scared,” Fedorov said. “And people are scared because they understand that this is happening for several reasons, including mobilization.”
Fedorov has advised people to leave the occupied area any way possible. He said that he has been told that men aged 18 to 35 are no longer being allowed to leave through the checkpoints that lead out of occupied territory. So Fedorov has advised his citizens to try to get out via Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula illegally annexed by Russia eight years ago, and to then flee abroad from there.
A similar staged referendum probably would be taking place in the northeastern Kharkiv region if not for a successful Ukrainian counteroffensive that led Russian troops to make a humiliating retreat after months of occupation.
In the recently liberated city of Izyum, Kostiantyn Petrov, secretary of the mayor of Izyum, said he found the staged votes baffling.
“It’s hard to understand Putin,” Petrov said. “He thinks this referendum will legitimize occupation of these regions. He wants to show that people want to see Russians there. But such a vote under the threat of rifles cannot be legitimized by any civilized country.”
Petrov said that based on accounts of how Russian forces treated civilians in Izyum, he expected similar tactics could be deployed during the staged referendums in other regions. “If you don’t vote for Russia,” he said, “maybe they will not give you aid.”
“I just feel sorry for them,” said Volodymyr Matsokyn, deputy mayor of Izyum, said of residents living in areas still under Russian control. “It’s a pity that it’s the situation.”
“This referendum is an ordinary version of Putin’s politics,” he said. Putin is trying, he said, to legitimize Russian rule of Ukrainian territory. “But it’s nothing more than occupation.”
Anton Chernyshov, 31, who survived the occupation of Izyum, is now working as a volunteer helping to distribute humanitarian aid to the many people in his city still struggling to find enough to eat.
If Ukrainian forces had not retaken Izyum and a similar vote had taken place there, he said, most of the few people left wouldn’t have cared to vote. The votes taking place in other regions, he said, are not real referendums but little more than “a picture” released by the Russians to give a false veneer of legitimacy to their imposed rule.
In Izyum, power is still out and cellphone network has still not been widely reinstated since the Ukrainians’ retook control, and many residents were unaware of Putin’s plans to stage referendums in occupied areas of Ukraine.
Luba, 59, barged into the courtyard of a building housing temporary city offices on Thursday, complaining about how little aid was reaching residents who had survived the occupation. She held up one bag of pasta, one can of beans and one can of meat, shouting that she was supposed to share such little food between several families.
Luba said had not heard any recent updates on the votes — and had little ability to focus on anything but securing more food. “I don’t know anything,” she said. “There is no electricity.”
Another Izyum resident, Valentyna, 65, said she doubted Ukrainians living under occupation would vote to separate and join Russia. “I believe in our people,” she said. “I believe in Ukraine.”
Still, Valentyna said she knows the battle is far from over in nearby towns still occupied by the Russians. “We’re glad we stayed alive,” she said of those living in Izyum. “But they tell us not to relax too much. No one knows what will happen next.” | 2022-09-23T09:00:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Kremlin proxies stage referendums as Russia aims to seize Ukraine land - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/23/russia-referendum-occupied-ukraine-annexation/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/23/russia-referendum-occupied-ukraine-annexation/ |
Revelers dance at a rave held at the ancient Krak des Chevaliers castle in western Syria on Aug. 19. (Video: Courtesy of Sinn Experience)
BEIRUT — The music was pulsing as colored lights danced across the crowd. The DJs kept the party going until dawn. It was like any other rave, expect this one was held at a medieval castle, Krak des Chevaliers, one of Syria’s most cherished cultural landmarks.
Before the Syrian civil war, tourists flocked to the country to take in its rich history and tour its ancient cities and castles — six of which had been designated by the United Nations as World Heritage sites.
In 2013, as the war intensified, UNESCO placed all six on its List of World Heritage in Danger, a designation it hoped would “mobilize all possible support for the safeguarding of these properties.” But the conflict would take a terrible toll, and violence prevented UNESCO from working to repair the damage. Now, as the war winds down, cultural experts are still struggling to access heritage sites, and they fear no one is working to protect them.
The destruction over the past decade has been extensive. Krak des Chevaliers, or al-Hosn Castle, was struck in 2012 and 2013, damaging at least one tower. The ancient city of Palmyra was ravaged by Islamic State militants, who partially blew up a Roman amphitheater, which they used for public executions, and destroyed temples and the huge triumphal arch honoring Roman Emperor Septimius Severus. UNESCO condemned the demolitions as a “war crime.”
The government now controls five of the six World Heritage sites and has reopened them to tourists. But UNESCO says it has conducted assessment visits to just three of the sites, citing security concerns. Since 2011, experts have been unable to reach Krak des Chevaliers in western Syria, as well as the Qal’at Salah El-Din, a fortress that dates to Byzantine times, and the ancient Roman city of Bosra.
“The restoration and recovery of cultural heritage sites and cities can take place only after the settlement of the conflict,” the UNESCO World Heritage Center said when asked about the lack of access.
U.N. intervention in Syria has been limited to humanitarian issues, the World Heritage Center wrote in an emailed brief, saying it “supports the protection of Syrian cultural heritage from a distance. On the one hand, we assess the damage caused to cultural heritage, using remote sensing techniques. ... On the other hand, we provide advice to prepare for the restoration of conflict-damaged World Heritage.”
Images of the dance party at Krak des Chevaliers last month raised alarm among experts, who were already worried the government was prioritizing tourism over preservation.
Amid criticism, Western tourists returning to a battered Syria
“Forget about raves and all that: You usually have big [foot] traffic of visitors, and this all causes wear on a site,” said Amr Al-Azm, a Syrian professor of Middle Eastern history and anthropology at Shawnee State University in Ohio who worked in the country before the war. “As the keeper of a site, you always try to balance between the needs of local communities, the needs of the protection of the site and the needs of maintaining the site.”
The issue today, Azm said, “is that there is no oversight. We don’t know who’s responsible, and there is a past history of the usage of these sites for unconventional functions, which then resulted in significant damage of the site itself.”
Azm recalled an example from before the war, in the early 2000s, when air conditioners were mounted on the roof of the Aleppo Citadel for a conference at the World Heritage site. The ensuing damage to the ancient walls caused a scandal and led to an investigation.
“When you don’t have oversight, and somebody comes in and does something like that, you end up with a lot of significant irreparable damage to the site itself,” said Azm. Such damage could result in sites being knocked off the World Heritage list, which happened with Liverpool’s Victorian docks after UNESCO concluded that years of development had caused “irreversible loss.”
In lieu of bringing in international experts, Syria’s Culture Ministry and event planners say they are going to great lengths to ensure the sites are treated with care.
When Michael Atallah, 30, and his partners started their entertainment venture Siin Experience, their aim was to bring electronic music to Syria and marry it with the country’s celebrated heritage — Sin was the name of the Mesopotamian moon god. They wanted to get young Syrians excited about ancient sites, which most had only visited during dreary school trips.
Atallah lost track of how many venues they applied to before finally winning permission to organize the rave at Krak des Chevaliers. To help push the idea through, he said, they showed the Culture Ministry examples of concerts at other ancient sites, like the ones held in the Roman-era Théâtre Antique d’Orange in France. “We always try to show them that this is being done abroad,” he said.
The group then employed a music engineer from Lebanon — the regional destination for electronic raves and parties in general — who pays special attention to the effect the vibrations have on old structures. It wasn’t just a preservation issue, Atallah said. He also worried that old stones could come loose and fall on the crowd.
The planners originally envisioned their event inside the fortifications, but the Culture Ministry denied them access after studying the request.
“We didn’t enter one centimeter of the castle,” Atallah said.
The event, attended by 1,200 people, was held in the parking lot outside, with the castle’s ancient walls serving as a backdrop for the DJs’ turntables. Lasers flitted across the stone structure, sometimes drawing purple and green lines along the edges, creating the impression of a massive childish drawing of a black castle outlined in neon. Then red lights flooded the place, bringing the walls to life.
Atallah hopes it will be the first in a succession of parties at historic sites. From the famed Khan Assad Pasha, a caravanserai in Old Damascus, to the courtyard of the Damascus Citadel, he wants to showcase what his tired country still has to offer.
“People come to you at the end of the night and tell you, ‘You are helping me stay in this country,’” he said. Everyone — the organizers, the musicians, the crowds — can finally “empty out all the negative energy that we’re all feeling.” | 2022-09-23T09:00:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Concern for Syria's heritage sites after party at Krak des Chevaliers - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/23/syria-heritage-sites-unesco-tourism/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/23/syria-heritage-sites-unesco-tourism/ |
How to make voter registration both accurate and easy
Our research on 156 countries finds that automatic registration tends to be more accurate
Analysis by Holly Ann Garnett
Toby S. James
A poll worker sets up a sign outside a polling station during a special election in Lauderhill, Fla., in January. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Since the United States was founded, Americans have been fighting over who should be able to vote. That battle has heated up since the 2020 election. Republicans and others on the right argue that to prevent election fraud, states should require voters to show ID at the polls and should regularly purge the registration rolls of voters who haven’t recently cast ballots. Democrats and others on the left argue that it should be easier to vote, in part to bring in citizens from traditionally disenfranchised and underrepresented groups. This group sometimes claims that efforts to prevent fraud amount to voter suppression.
How can these apparently competing concerns be resolved? Our research finds that both goals — reducing fraud and making it easier to vote — can be reached through automatic voter registration.
Some states have already made it easier to register to vote
Before they can cast a ballot, an American must register to vote. In most states this involves finding out when and where to register, acquiring and filling out the form (in person or online), and showing whatever documents are required to prove citizenship and residency in the state.
What if there were an easier way?
Some states have already done away with complicated registration procedures. In North Dakota, you can vote without being registered, as long as you can show identification such as a driver’s license to prove you’re eligible. In many other states, you can register as late as Election Day.
However, many election administrators and voters find advance registration helpful. That way, election administrators can properly plan to have enough polling places, ballots and officials on hand. For voters, registration brings mailers with background on elections and referendums and other advance notices that can remind them when and where to cast their ballots.
Is there an option that maintains a voter registration list while easing the burden on citizens? Some states have found what they think is the solution: automatic voter registration. In this type of process, the state automatically registers any eligible voter who interacts with statewide databases, as when applying for or renewing a driver’s license. To do so, the state links its voter registration list to other population lists the state is already collecting. For instance, when you renew a driver’s license, if you are a U.S. citizen, the computer checks whether your name, age and address are in the voter rolls — and if not, adds you automatically.
That relieves citizens of an administrative chore and potentially increases the registration lists’ accuracy.
Some have argued that this might result in inaccurate registers — for instance, by inadvertently registering noncitizens — causing confusion at the polls. Is that accurate?
The global evidence and experience
In our research on voter registration around the globe, we find that government agencies quite commonly use existing databases to create a voters list. In our research, 78 countries worldwide automatically register voters in some way, out of a sample of 156. Others share databases to facilitate voting in some way that isn’t quite automatic, but does receive information from other government databases or subnational electoral officials, as Canada does. For example, Finland’s population registry automatically creates a list of eligible voters that’s delivered to election officials six weeks before the election.
Our research finds that countries with some form of automatic or government-initiated voter registration tend to have more complete and more accurate lists than do systems in which individuals must register themselves. They list more of the people who are eligible to vote, and do so more accurately — updating addresses, for instance, when there’s a postal change, without the voter having to inform the registry when they move.
Some U.S. states have joined this trend. Since the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, states have been required to enable voters to register at motor vehicle agencies. But there’s been a bigger push more recently. In 2021, Hawaii became the most recent state to pass a law enabling automatic voter registration. Other state legislatures are working on similar bills.
Automatic voter registration doesn’t appear to substantially increase turnout, according to recent research. But in making voting lists more complete and accurate, states may make it easier for some population groups, especially minorities and poorer citizens, to vote.
The United States doesn’t have national or statewide population registries, so how can it register voters automatically?
When a country doesn’t have reliable, centralized data on its citizens, it must find other ways to register voters. In the United Kingdom, for example, some advocates recommend that the country automatically register citizens to vote at key life moments using the Social Security databases or when applications are made for a passport. Many U.S. states could use a similar approach, capturing key data when citizens interact with government agencies ranging from the Department of Motor Vehicles to social service agencies.
Heated partisan debates about the rules of democracy can undermine trust in democratic institutions and complicate policymaking. Academic evidence suggests that automatic voter registration can deliver accurate and complete registers, expanding and safeguarding democracy.
Holly Ann Garnett (@hollyanngarnett) is an associate professor of political science at the Royal Military College of Canada, co-director of the Electoral Integrity Project, and co-editor (with Michael Pal) of Cyber-Threats to Canadian Democracy, (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2022).
Toby S. James (@tobysjames) is a professor of politics and public policy at the University of East Anglia, U.K., co-director of the Electoral Integrity Project, and author of Comparative Electoral Management: Performance, Networks and Instruments (Routledge, 2020). | 2022-09-23T09:17:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How can the U.S. prevent election fraud and make it easier to register to vote? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/23/voter-registration-fraud-suppression/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/23/voter-registration-fraud-suppression/ |
COLOGNE, Germany — For 90 years, Engelbert Schlechtrimen’s family has been baking wheat rolls, rye bread and chocolate cakes in this western German city. Next month, they will turn off the ovens for good, because they can no longer afford rising energy prices resulting from Russia's war in Ukraine.
Still, even these innovations won’t save him from closing down the family business — consisting of a bakery and two stores that employ 35 people — after almost a century. It’s one victim of a European energy crisis driven by Russia's cutbacks of natural gas, used to heat homes, generate electricity and power factories. | 2022-09-23T09:17:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | After 90 years, German bakery to close as energy costs soar - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/after-90-years-german-bakery-to-close-as-energy-costs-soar/2022/09/23/349aac32-3b14-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/after-90-years-german-bakery-to-close-as-energy-costs-soar/2022/09/23/349aac32-3b14-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
Missy Khamvongsa
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and President Biden. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg; Leigh Vogel/Getty Images)
President Biden is taking Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and other Republicans to task over a proposed nationwide abortion ban, a topic set to be a key galvanizing issue in the upcoming midterm elections.
“Think about what these guys are talking about,” Biden told a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in New York this week. “No exceptions — rape, incest — no exceptions, regardless of age,” he said of the proposed ban.
His stinging rebuke comes days after Graham introduced a bill that would ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy across the United States. However, he said exceptions could be made “in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.”
Appearing on Fox News on Thursday, he reaffirmed his commitment to a nationwide ban: “We’re a national party. Here’s my position on the border. Here’s my position on crime. Here’s my position on inflation. … We owe it to the American people to tell them who we are, and here’s who we are as a national party.”
“They’re trying to marginalize me now,” he continued. “I’m a pro-life guy, always have been,” he said. “I guess here’s what I’m saying to the pro-life movement: Stand up for the baby in a reasonable way — they need you now.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) responds to Republicans criticizing him for proposing a nationwide 15-week abortion ban right before an election:
“We owe it to the American people to tell them who we are, and here’s who we are as a national party.” pic.twitter.com/wqyl4PsYZO
“Well, the good news is — for me, anyway — I’m going to be around at least for another two years. … I’m going to veto it. It’s not going to happen,” Biden said to applause regarding a nationwide abortion ban.
Abortion is now banned or mostly prohibited in 15 states, while laws in several others are in various stages of legal limbo. Last month, Indiana passed a near-total abortion ban, the first to do so after Roe was struck down in June.
Kansas voters have also rejected a ballot measure that would have allowed state lawmakers to regulate abortion — the first time voters in a state referendum had decided on such a provision since Roe was overturned. In South Carolina, Republicans also fell short earlier this month in their bid for a near-total abortion ban in the state.
While Republicans generally have praised the ruling overturning Roe, many have preferred not to make the issue a focus ahead of the midterm elections, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
Democrats have roundly criticized the bill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called it the “latest, clearest signal of extreme MAGA Republicans’ intent to criminalize women’s health freedom in all 50 states and arrest doctors for providing basic care.”
Several opinion polls show that a majority of Americans favor abortion rights. In a Washington Post-Schar School poll in July, 65 percent of respondents indicated that the end of Roe v. Wade represented a “major loss of rights” for women, and almost a third said abortion will be one of the “single most important” issues when they vote in November. | 2022-09-23T10:10:17Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Biden rebukes Lindsey Graham over proposed nationwide abortion ban - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/23/lindsey-graham-abortion-ban-biden/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/23/lindsey-graham-abortion-ban-biden/ |
Cameron Kasper, 16, right, and other students listen to speakers during a rally in support of inclusive Family Life Education outside of Luther Jackson Middle School in Falls Church, Va. on July 14, 2022. Students across Virgina have rallied for the rights of transgender students. (Eric Lee for The Washington Post)
In Fairfax, a gender-nonconforming teen who is out at school, but not at home, is terrified their parents will discover the truth under Virginia’s new policies for transgender students. If they find out, the teen is sure, they will refuse to pay for college — and may kick the teen out of their home.
Elsewhere in Virginia, a teen girl is grateful that students who were assigned male at birth will no longer be allowed inside girls’ locker rooms and bathrooms. She is confident sports competitions will be fairer now, too.
And in Chester, Ace Nash, a trans sophomore who has passed as male since starting high school, is wondering if classmates will discover his secret — and what they might say if they do. He feels broken when he imagines seeing his birth name on school records or hearing it from a teacher, as may happen under the new policies.
“If I had kept presenting as female, I would be dead,” Ace said. “I can’t imagine being forced to be female again.”
It’s been a week days since the administration of Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) sharply restricted transgender student rights, debuting guidelines that say trans students must access school facilities and activities, including restrooms and sports teams, that match their sex assigned at birth. The guidelines also make it difficult for students to change their names and pronouns at school and say teachers can refuse to use transgender students’ names and pronouns if it violates their beliefs. And the guidelines suggest parents should be told about students’ gender identities, no matter if the student wants to keep it private.
Teens, tell The Post: What's your reaction to Virginia's new guidelines for transgender students?
Virginia’s more than 130 districts have until next month to adopt the policies, the Youngkin administration says. Already, Democratic legislators are vowing defiance, and Youngkin’s guidelines may be vulnerable to legal challenges.
In the meantime, the teenagers who will be most affected by the new policy are trying to figure out how it will reshape their lives. The Washington Post asked students statewide to share how they are feeling, garnering more than 260 submissions across 30 school districts as of Wednesday evening.
The vast majority were from transgender students who wrote in fear. Some who transitioned years ago are worried they will be outed to unsuspecting classmates. Others who are mid-transition, or just beginning to transition, are worried they will be outed to their parents and forced to leave home. Many wrote they are feeling angry, depressed, suicidal.
“Because of it, I’ll probably have multiple breakdowns a day, my grades will drop,” wrote a 16-year-old. “Everything I’ve worked so hard to overcome will have been for nothing.”
Research suggests there are roughly 4,000 transgender teens in Virginia, a state with 1.2 million public school students. Research has also shown that transgender youths are far more likely to attempt suicide.
Still, a handful of teens, most female, wrote to say they are pleased with the guidelines. They wrote they will feel more comfortable in bathrooms and locker rooms limited to students assigned female at birth, especially when dealing with menstrual periods.
Asked about students’ distress, Youngkin spokesman Rob Damschen provided a copy of remarks he said the governor gave to a group of reporters in Loudoun County on Tuesday.
“I would find it very hard to argue that a parent being engaged in a child’s life is inconsistent with that child’s safety,” Youngkin said then. “This is about keeping people safe, but also fully, fully, involving parents into these most important positions.”
Damschen noted that a reporter asked Youngkin what he would say to transgender students who live with parents who do not support their gender identities.
“I would say,” the governor said, “trust your parents.”
‘I would not be okay’
Ace Nash began dressing and appearing as a boy in seventh grade, just before the coronavirus pandemic struck and sent everyone home to learn online for more than a year. He had always felt wrong, but now he felt whole. He had always been male on the inside, but now he looked like it, dressed like it, acted like it. The people he loved treated him like it, too: His mother and closest friends addressed him using his new name and pronouns.
Just before ninth grade, which was in-person, Ace switched to a different school in Chesterfield County Public Schools. Ahead of the school year, he convinced his parents to sign a form so the district would change his name and pronouns in school records. He emailed teachers to request they use his name and pronouns in class. He also started taking testosterone, which deepened his voice.
With luck, Ace figured, no student would ever realize he was trans.
By the beginning of this year, things were going well. His teachers almost never messed up his pronouns or name. No one gave him trouble about using the boys bathroom. Ace — who draws pictures of animals in his spare time and wants to be a psychologist — felt just like any other student.
“The kids who do know don’t care,” he said. “But there are very few who actually know or care at all.” (Ace said he decided to speak to The Washington Post because he believes he will be outed under Youngkin’s policies soon anyway, and he wants people to know how the new rules are affecting trans students.)
Then Youngkin’s administration rolled out new rules. Terror gripped Ace.
He began poring through the 20-page policy. His eyes caught on the sentence: School divisions “shall change the legal name or sex in a student or former student’s official record only if a parent or eligible student submits a legal document, such as a birth certificate.” Ace has never legally changed his name. He is unsure if both parents would let him.
Ace imagined hearing his old name and pronouns in the classroom. He imagined logging into the online learning platform Canvas and seeing his old name on the screen. He logged into Canvas right then, just to check: For now, it was unchanged.
The Chesterfield school district did not respond to a question asking if it plans to adopt the Youngkin administration’s guidelines.
Over the next several days, Ace did not learn much. He was too busy worrying a teacher would approach him about his name or pronouns, although no one did. He worried someone might stop him on the way to the boys bathroom, although no one did that either. Still, Ace began minimizing restroom trips by skipping lunch or waiting until he got home. At night he took melatonin, seeking the release of sleep. It didn’t help.
Ace’s thoughts strayed to dark places. Before this year, Ace said, he has attempted suicide three times, most recently in November, because he was miserable over the wave of anti-transgender legislation appearing across the country. More than 300 bills restricting trans rights have been proposed nationwide, according to a Washington Post analysis, and many target schools.
Since the Virginia guidelines’ release, Ace said, he has felt the impulse to harm himself. He does not know what he will do if he is forced to return to female pronouns and facilities at school.
“I would not be okay,” he said. “I could not deal with that. I would genuinely be a danger to myself.”
‘For safety and fairness’
Among students who agree with the new guidelines for transgender students, reasons for support center on the use of traditionally single-sex spaces and activities.
Of the 266 submissions received by The Washington Post, 13 came from students who said they are pleased with the guidelines. Four students said they did not care. The rest — 94 percent — came from students who believe the new guidelines will make their lives worse or endanger their friends’ mental health and well-being. Eighty-two percent of the submissions came from students who identified themselves as LGBTQ.
The Washington Post attempted to contact every student who shared support for the Youngkin administration’s guidelines, but most did not respond. One declined to be interviewed. Only one gave permission for her submission to be quoted.
A 15-year-old boy wrote he is relieved he no longer has to think about girls entering the boys’ bathrooms and locker rooms. Under Youngkin’s policies, he wrote, he will no longer face harassment for refusing to use other students’ requested pronouns.
LGBTQ clubs were havens for students. Now they’re under attack.
A 16-year-old wrote the new guidelines will make locker rooms and bathrooms feel safer. The teen wrote she finds it stressful when members of the opposite sex walk in while the teen is changing or using the restroom.
A 17-year-old girl said she will be less concerned about sexual assault. Still another student, a 15-year-old girl, suggested schools were making too many accommodations for a very small population of transgender students.
And another 17-year-old girl, who agreed to be quoted on the condition of anonymity “for fear of backlash from my friends,” wrote the Youngkin administration’s guidelines are overdue.
“It will get the guys out of the girls’ locker rooms and bathrooms and make girls’ sports competitions more fair,” she wrote. “I’m a strong ally and believe everyone has equal value, and love is love, but this change is necessary for safety and fairness.”
‘Wrong or dirty’
In Arlington, two trans teens are trying to figure out just how much the new guidelines will alter who they are.
Ashton, who spoke on the condition that his last name not be used for fear of bullying, discovered he was transgender in seventh grade and began transitioning to male a year later. His parents were supportive, and — after wrangling briefly with Arlington Public Schools — he managed to get his names and pronouns changed in school records.
Now a deep-voiced 17-year-old senior and president of the Yorktown High School Gay-Straight Alliance (or GSA) club, Ashton passes as a male, he said. His school has gender-neutral bathrooms and he prefers to use those, but no one would look twice if he used the men’s restroom. Apart from a small group of students who persist in harassing him, Ashton said, life at school feels almost as comfortable and accepting as life at home.
Until last Friday. Ashton learned about the Youngkin administration guidelines when a GSA club chat erupted. Other members were outraged. Ashton typed little, trying to work through his emotions — first disbelief, then anger, then sympathy for transgender friends who do not live in supportive households.
Ashton was relieved to see his school district put out a statement vowing opposition to the guidelines, one of a trio of Northern Virginia districts to do so. A handful of others have signaled they will comply, but most have yet to say anything. Still, Ashton feels unsure Arlington will succeed, so he is making preparations. First up is researching how to legally change his name. Second is trying to wrap his brain around using the women’s restroom again. That will be more uncomfortable for girls than for him, he said, given he presents as male.
But mostly Ashton wishes he could speak directly to Youngkin. “You have to pay attention to the rights of children,” he would say. “There is nothing wrong or dirty about being trans. It’s just a part of us that we live with.”
Elsewhere in the same district, another trans teen is not sure she will be able to keep that part of herself alive much longer.
The teen, a 17-year-old senior, was assigned male at birth but identifies as female. She came out to her parents a year ago, she said, but they refused to believe her. After several yelling matches, they decided to ignore the problem. Now, the teen and her parents live together uneasily, both sides afraid to broach the “taboo topic,” the teen said. The teen’s parents continue to use her old name and treat her as male. The teen spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation from her parents.
School is the teen’s safe haven. Her teachers use her new name and pronouns, and she uses gender-neutral bathrooms. Some fiends support her gender transition, encouraging the steps she’s taken — growing her hair out, painting her nails. The teen occasionally tries on dresses and skirts, too, which she says make her feel alive. But she has not dared wear those outside her bedroom.
Under the new guidelines, the teen is preparing for a very different life. No matter what her district says, she believes the guidelines will encourage teachers and student alike to harass transgender children. All she wants, now, is to disappear.
So she will stop using her name and pronouns. Stop painting her nails.
“It’s the kind of thing where you have to present, like, two faces to society at the same time,” she said.
Only, for now, nobody will see her real face.
A future, under threat
Ever since the Youngkin administration guidelines appeared, the gender-nonconforming teenager in Fairfax County has lived in dread of an email from their high school counselor.
The teenager, who is 17 and a senior, spoke on the condition of anonymity because their parents do not know they are gender-nonconforming. The student identifies as neither female nor male and uses he, she and they pronouns. The teen’s close friends at their Fairfax County Public Schools campus know, as do some teachers and the counselor.
Every time the student has discussed gender and mental health with the counselor, the counselor has urged the teen to bring it up at home. Given the new guidelines suggest school staff should inform parents about students’ gender identities, the teen is sure the counselor will be sending an email to their mother and father any minute.
The Fairfax system has not said how it will respond to the new state policies. Superintendent Michelle Reid wrote in a message to families Sunday that the district “remains committed to an inclusive learning environment.”
The teen has known they did not align with any gender for a long time. As a child, it felt wrong when they were told to “go play with the girls.” But the student’s parents do not believe transgender people exist, the teen said, and think being transgender is a ploy for attention.
Once, the teen tried to broach the subject with their parents — who value education — by proposing to fill out college applications as a trans student, perhaps easing the path to admission. The parents, alarmed, refused to let the teen speak with their younger sibling for a week, fearing a mention of trans people might “taint” the younger child’s mind, the teen said.
The teen went public with their gender identity at school this year, announcing a different name and pronouns to friends and teachers. Until this month, the student planned to make it through the rest of senior year by existing as their true self at school and a shriveled version at home. The teen dreams of attending a university in the Northeast and majoring in gender studies. The teen meant to tell their parents about their gender once they were much older.
Under the new guidelines, though, the teen fears their parents will learn the truth now — and can almost feel their future slipping away.
“It would lead to either me not having housing,” the teen said, “or them not being willing to pay for my college.”
Probably both. | 2022-09-23T10:35:59Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Virginia's trans kids fear being outed by Youngkin policy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/09/23/virginia-transgender-youngkin-students-outing/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/09/23/virginia-transgender-youngkin-students-outing/ |
The fate of the old streetcar bridge in Georgetown is again in the spotlight as historic preservationists push to save it
The condemned trolley trestle in Georgetown. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
The District’s last remaining streetcar trestle has been saved from demolition, at least temporarily, even as its fate is uncertain amid a renewed push to restore it.
The D.C. Court of Appeals this month vacated a city decision that would have allowed Metro to demolish the 126-year-old bridge it inherited 25 years ago. The ruling was another setback in Metro’s years-long quest to rid itself of the structure, while historic preservationists say the ruling could breathe new life into efforts to turn it into a neighborhood trail.
Metro failed to prove that keeping the structure would cause economic hardship to the transit agency, the court ruled Sept. 15, sending the case back to the mayor’s agent for historic preservation, a city official designated by the mayor’s office to rule on D.C. historic preservation law. The mayor’s agent approved the demolition permit in December 2019, but the appeal has stalled that process for years.
“WMATA doesn’t have a reason to demolish,” said Rebecca Miller, executive director of the DC Preservation League, which has long challenged the demolition plans and brought the case to court. “They ignored the trestle since they became its owner and this [is considered] demolition by neglect. They have let it rot in violation of D.C. historic preservation law.”
Metro spokeswoman Sherri Ly declined to comment on plans for the trestle, its condition or the legal case, citing the litigation.
How Metro inherited three century-old streetcar trestles — and a burden
Built in 1896, the trestle is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It’s also on the D.C. Inventory of Historic Sites as a contributing element of the Glover-Archbold Historic District.
The trestle — located north of the Potomac River in Glover-Archbold Park, east of Foxhall Road NW and west of the Georgetown University campus — was a critical passage point for the trolley line that took thousands of passengers from Georgetown to the amusement park at Glen Echo in Maryland.
The trolley required numerous trestles to carry tracks over water along the Potomac. It is the last streetcar trestle still standing in the District, officials with the historic preservation office said.
It is also in poor condition and has continued to deteriorate to the point that the pedestrian path beneath it was closed six years ago. In 2018, Metro said an inspection indicated that the 260-foot-long, 20-foot-wide structure was at high risk of collapse.
Metro inherited the trestle in 1997 after it settled a lawsuit brought by the previous owner of the streetcar system, D.C. Transit. The structure has remained unused since the streetcar network shut down in 1962. Metro also owns land near the trestle assessed at more than $500,000, according to court documents.
The agency has sought the trestle’s demolition after unsuccessful efforts to have the city take it over. Metro has also tried to sell or donate it to the National Park Service, Georgetown University and D.C. Water, according to court records.
The court’s ruling is the latest setback for Metro’s efforts to unload the trestle. Before the mayor’s agent’s favorable decision on the demolition permit three years ago, the District’s Historic Preservation Review Board in 2018 denied Metro’s petition for a raze permit, delaying the transit agency’s plans to demolish the structure.
A full restoration could cost upward of $4 million and between $100,000 and $200,000 annually to maintain, court documents indicate. Metro has said demolition would cost about $800,000.
The District Department of Transportation said five years ago it was interested in the trestle’s restoration if it could be reused as part of the city’s growing trail network. The trestle is on a route that DDOT has identified as a potential bike and pedestrian trail — an off-road connection between Georgetown and Foxhall Village — and possibly to the Palisades neighborhood. The city had said it could also be a connection to the Capital Crescent Trail and the C&O Canal Trail.
But DDOT said this week it no longer is interested in the structure after a study and an independent inspection found parts of the bridge and its footings to be in poor condition. The agency concluded “the bridge no longer serves a transportation function and as such, is not of interest to DDOT to acquire,” DDOT spokeswoman Mariam Nabizad said in an email.
Those in favor of resurrecting the structure say Metro should donate the demolition funds toward restoration, arguing that new transportation money is available through the federal infrastructure law. The site’s historic designation could also make it eligible for federal grants.
A bike and pedestrian path, they say, is even more critical now that the District is planning to open a new high school at the former Georgetown Day School on MacArthur Boulevard.
“This trail will help the Palisades, Georgetown and Glover Park people get to this school and will improve the area’s bicycle infrastructure,” said Brett Young, a Palisades resident who has long advocated for restoring the trestle. He said the investment would create a needed path in an area of the District that does not have protected bike lanes.
He said the court’s decision has revived hopes for repurposing the old trestle, validating its historic value to the city. A structure that was used for transportation, he said, could once again be used for that purpose while serving pedestrians and bicyclists.
“We all agree that the bridge is not in good shape,” he said. “It’s a historic landmark and WMATA let it decay. But it has been up more than 120 years and we can restore it to last another 50 to 100 years.”
After the court’s ruling, the mayor’s agent will likely hold hearings, where Metro would need to again make its case for demolition. | 2022-09-23T10:36:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | D.C.'s trolley trestle in Georgetown is saved from demolition, for now - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/09/23/dc-streetcar-trestle-georgetown/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/09/23/dc-streetcar-trestle-georgetown/ |
19th-century philosophers and poets who asked what it means to be free
Review by Greg Ellermann
Standing at the front of an overcrowded auditorium in the late 18th century, the Romantic philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte would tell his students to look within. Attend to yourself, he would say, turn your eyes away from all that surrounds you: the walls of the classroom, the other students just inches away, the world itself. So began Fichte’s celebrated lectures on the meaning of freedom, drawing fascinated audiences that numbered in the hundreds. A few years later, another great Romantic, Friedrich Schelling, would take the lectern at the same university. Fichte’s onetime disciple and soon-to-be bitter rival, Schelling taught by the light of two candles. In his courses on nature and art, the darkened auditorium again became a place of enchantment. “I was in a state of rapture,” one listener recalled. Others simply broke down in tears.
Andrea Wulf’s engaging and often profound new group biography, “Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self,” returns repeatedly to such scenes of instruction. Set in Jena, a German university town that was for a few brief years at the turn of the 19th century the intellectual capital of Europe, the book shows how “the First Romantics” or “the Jena Set,” as Wulf calls them, came together — to write, argue, love and study. It presents a thrilling picture of university life, one less and less familiar in our own moment of hypermediated education and continuing devaluation of the humanities.
The book’s title adapts a phrase from a contemporary of Fichte, the critic Friedrich Schlegel — “magnificent outlaws” or “exiles” more literally — to describe this group of poets and philosophers who lived together in the aftermath of the French Revolution and who asked in their own ways what it means to be free. Wulf paints a moving collective portrait of these intellectuals as they struggled to embody their revolutionary ideals. She argues that the Romantics — including Goethe, Schiller and Hegel, as well as some lesser-known figures, such as the philosophers Fichte and Schelling, the critics Friedrich and August Wilhelm Schlegel, and the poet Novalis — handed down to us the modern notion of the self as essentially free. Wulf also shows how important were the women in this intellectual circle, who lived out their own experiments in liberation. Thus, Caroline Schlegel, August Wilhelm’s wife, who was a translator and critic in her own right, plays a crucial role in the story, its biographical and emotional pivot.
As a local history of Romanticism, the book contrasts strikingly with Wulf’s last, the acclaimed “The Invention of Nature.” There, Wulf followed the Romantic naturalist Alexander von Humboldt from Berlin and Jena to Venezuela, Siberia and beyond. In “Magnificent Rebels,” the main reminder of a world outside Jena comes in the form of intermittent news about Napoleon’s rise to power and his campaign of conquest — a campaign that, in the final chapter, becomes a devastating intrusion into the insularity of intellectual life.
At its most ambitious, “Magnificent Rebels” concerns the relationships between philosophy and politics, thought and action. It explores the tension between the inwardness of Romantic philosophy and the ethical or political aspirations of its practitioners, nearly all of whom supported the French Revolution. For the Romantics, Wulf argues, this seeming contradiction could be understood only in light of a notion of the I, or the Ich: the autonomous self or free agent that we still often take ourselves to be. Shaped by its revolutionary historical context, this idea of universal human freedom had radical and far-reaching implications that exceeded the individual mind. It posed a direct challenge to the crushing hierarchies of old regimes.
Famously, the Romantic vision of the self was focused on the power of imagination. As Novalis had it, in “poeticizing,” the self demonstrates that it is free. For Wulf as for many others, these claims raise a difficult question: Was the Romantic philosophy of freedom a genuine revolutionary philosophy? Or was it rather a retreat from politics, an effort to transcend social conflict by imaginative or poetic means? The latter has long been the consensus, but Wulf, to her credit, never entirely accepts that these two possibilities are opposed. She recognizes that the Romantics really did hope to reinvent the world and to do it, in part, with their ideas. As Friedrich Schlegel observed in a moment of “sublime impertinence,” “If you only write for philosophers, you can be incredibly daring before the police will notice anything.” Schlegel knew that the Romantics’ thoughts about freedom, nature, art and more could have real effects.
Despite the complex arguments developed by its main characters, the book vividly conveys the drama of ideas. It captures the unique pleasures of communal thinking (“symphilosophy” in Schlegel’s phrase), as well as the suffering and the sense of betrayal that mark a community’s dissolution. There is plenty of erotic drama here too, since the rebellion Wulf describes was sexual as much as anything. For the Romantics, as we see in detail, free thinking and free love were inseparable, and the personal consequences were often excruciating.
When the book seeks to communicate its subjects’ ideas — some of which are notoriously obscure — it can fall into oversimplification. It sometimes unnecessarily avoids the language used by the Romantics themselves; for instance, the absence of the term “irony” is odd, considering its significance for Schlegel, who gave a philosophical meaning to this familiar poetic device. And important precursors such as Rousseau and Kant are mentioned only briefly. Still, “Magnificent Rebels” shows with great lucidity how the Romantic desire to liberate the self still shapes our sense of who we are — or who we might strive to be.
In the book’s epilogue, Wulf traces the influence of the Jena Romantics on American Transcendentalism and beyond. Her interests are mostly literary, but there would be other ways to tell the story of Romanticism’s bequests. In 1836, a young Karl Marx studied with August Schlegel in Berlin. It was the Romantic ideal of freedom that Marx had in mind when he argued, a few years later, that German philosophy was compensation for the absence of a political revolution. “We are philosophical contemporaries of the present,” he wrote, “without being its historical contemporaries.” In Germany, unlike in France, the revolution had taken place only in books. But, he added, there is no way to go beyond philosophy “without making it a reality” — without, that is, making a new social world in which it would be possible to live together freely as the Romantics had imagined, on a scale far greater than that of a university town. For Marx, this was a world that was waiting to be built. And it still is.
Greg Ellermann is a lecturer in English at Yale University and the author of “Thought’s Wilderness: Romanticism and the Apprehension of Nature.”
The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self
Knopf.
512 pp. $35 | 2022-09-23T10:40:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 19th-century philosophers and poets who asked what it means to be free - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/09/22/19th-century-philosophers-poets-who-asked-what-it-means-be-free/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/09/22/19th-century-philosophers-poets-who-asked-what-it-means-be-free/ |
A refreshing argument that democracy can be repaired — by us
Review by E.J. Dionne Jr.
It would be far better if democracy did not face the trials it currently confronts. But if there is a blessing in today’s distemper, it lies in renewed efforts to understand what democracy is, how it can thrive and — to paraphrase the title of a justly famous recent book — how it dies.
Urgent moral and intellectual inquiry into democracy’s fragility has replaced a complacency that took hold after the Soviet Union’s collapse. That triumphalism could easily blind comfortable citizens to the ways in which their institutions were less democratic than they thought they were, less inclusive and less stable. The resurgence of authoritarian movements in what seemed to be solidly democratic nations and the deepening repression in China have wiped away any smugness.
One of the merits of Jedediah Purdy’s “Two Cheers for Politics” is that he does not take democracy for granted. He knows it needs new forms of defense, and he challenges the political structures we once thought were working just fine.
The subtitle of this thoughtful philosophical ramble, “Why Democracy Is Flawed, Frightening — and Our Best Hope,” reflects Purdy’s awareness that many who offer rote defenses of democratic systems are in fact skeptical of how they work and often fear what would happen if majorities they mistrust won power through democratic means.
A communitarian progressive and a professor at Columbia Law School, Purdy combines hard-edged critiques of inequality with a warm tone of hope and a longing for a degree of trust across our barricades of suspicion.
What he’s calling for amounts to a new ecology of democracy. If we require clean air and clean water to preserve life, we need a degree of social solidarity, trust and genuine equality to save democracy.
“What does it mean to put democracy first?” Purdy asks early on. “It means asking whether our culture, our economy, and our politics help us to see one another as equals who can rule together. It means recognizing how culture, economy, and politics can undercut both democratic equality and the civic trust people need if they are to rule together.”
Yes, ruling together is the point. This means, as Purdy shows with a tour through political philosophy and political science from Hobbes and Rousseau to Robert Dahl and Samuel Huntington, that democratic citizens are simultaneously the rulers and the ruled. This is not an easy thing to pull off.
In principle, at least, democracy allows us — collectively — to shape our own fate. But we agree to live with the results of democratic elections even when our side, our ideas and our interests lose out, knowing we might prevail in the future.
It is good to have an academic critic of our system lift up mass elections as a plausible and fair way to govern ourselves by collecting our preferences on a regular basis. “Whatever moves toward universal voting,” he writes, “moves closer to democracy.”
And this, I think, explains why Purdy puts politics in his title and democracy in the subtitle: You can’t really believe in democracy unless you believe in politics.
His book thus invites comparison with the British political theorist Bernard Crick’s 1962 classic, “In Defense of Politics.” Crick’s formulation — that politics is at once conservative, liberal and socialist — is very much in keeping with Purdy’s argument. Both writers offer a perspective from the democratic left that nonetheless respects certain conservative dispositions and aspirations.
In Crick’s view, politics is conservative because it “preserves the minimum benefits of established order”; liberal, “because it is compounded of particular liberties and requires tolerance”; and socialist, because “it provides conditions for deliberate social change by which groups can feel they have an equitable stake in the prosperity and survival of the community.”
Equity and social change are especially important to Purdy, and some of the book’s sharpest criticisms are directed at libertarian hero Friedrich Hayek’s argument that state intervention in the marketplace should be sharply circumscribed.
Hayek, Purdy argues, highlights the need to curb the power of the state but does so in a way that pays no attention to the dangers of concentrated economic power. Purdy writes that Hayek “proposed to redefine democracy as public consent to a set of rules that would encase the market’s ostensibly neutral procedures from state intervention.”
This, Purdy insists, is “a specifically antipolitical agenda, one that used both the institutions of the state and the public philosophy of government to minimize the scope of legitimate argument about the distribution of wealth and power and the nature of value.”
His critique here points to the ways in which Purdy is a democrat all the way down. His argument against class inequality is above all a case for the equal dignity of every citizen. His affection for democracy is rooted in the chance it offers citizens to deliberate as equals on how to create a better collective life.
The law professor in Purdy comes out in one of the book’s most interesting chapters, a sharp critique of how our Constitution works. He joins many others in calling attention to the workings of the Senate and the electoral college in foiling genuinely democratic outcomes by overrepresenting the citizens of small and rural states. But he reserves his strongest and most telling criticisms for the power of the Supreme Court to decide, often arbitrarily, what the Constitution says.
He takes originalism to task for shackling us permanently to decisions made centuries ago. But he is nearly as critical of the “living constitutionalism” of liberals. The latter try to reflect current opinions and attitudes. But there is nothing democratic about giving so much power to judges. In a democracy, the people, not judges, should be the arbiters of the public’s current will.
Purdy’s answer is that it should be far easier to amend our Constitution, and he goes a step further, suggesting that our basic governing framework be put up for regular popular revision. “A constitutional referendum every twenty-seven years,” he writes, “would mean that every generation of adults would live under a fundamental law that it had affirmed in its sovereign role.”
It’s hard to imagine this ever happening, and I think Purdy gives short shrift to the New Deal settlement in constitutional law — now being overturned by a right-wing court — that sought to protect individual rights while allowing the elected branches broad leeway to enact social and economic legislation. Nonetheless, he’s right that we have lost our constitutional imagination (reflected in the past especially when the democratizing amendments enacted after the Civil War led to what the historian Eric Foner has called “the second founding”). We have largely given up because the rules for amending the document give a small number of low-population states the power to block any revision.
Those who would reject Purdy’s radical proposal still need to grapple with the crisis of representation that our Constitution creates for democracy. To look only at our presidential election system, a flip of about 32,000 votes in three states and one congressional district would have given victory in the electoral college to the candidate who lost the popular vote by more than 7 million ballots. That problem is not going away.
Purdy’s overall take will no doubt seem utopian to some readers and too progressive for others. But at a time of cynicism bordering on nihilism, his faith in the capacity of his fellow citizens to undertake the work of social reconstruction is refreshing. A democratic revival, he writes, “would be a reminder that history is not just something that happens to us or the cacophony of stories we tell about the mess we were born into; it is also something we make.”
Utopianism has its problems. But resignation is far worse.
E.J. Dionne Jr. writes a twice-weekly column for The Washington Post. He is a professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. His latest book, with Miles Rapoport, is “100% Democracy: The Case for Universal Voting.”
Two Cheers for Politics
Why Democracy Is Flawed, Frightening ― and Our Best Hope
By Jedediah Purdy
Basic. 293 pp. $30 | 2022-09-23T10:40:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Book review of Two Cheers for Politics: Why Democracy is Flawed, Frightening — and Our Best Hope by Jedediah Purdy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/09/23/refreshing-argument-that-democracy-can-be-repaired-by-us/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/09/23/refreshing-argument-that-democracy-can-be-repaired-by-us/ |
CNN’s ‘The Murdochs’ doc is real-life ‘Succession’ — and no less dramatic
Modeled after the HBO drama, the terrific new docuseries tracks Rupert Murdoch’s rise to power and uncertain legacy
Rupert Murdoch, left, is driven home from the Royal Courts of Justice in London with wife Wendi Deng Murdoch and son Lachlan in 2012. (Oli Scarff/Getty Images)
He may be the most powerful media mogul in the world. His influence on global affairs is inestimable. In a new docuseries, Roger Stone, of all people, calls him “the most ruthless businessman in world history.” And yet, for at least the past four years, millions have obsessed over his most obvious (and rather surprising) weakness: 91-year-old Rupert Murdoch’s seeming inability to settle on an heir to take over the empire he’s been building for the past seven decades.
The reason for that obsession is, of course, the cultural dominance of HBO’s “Succession,” at least among the chatterati. Its creator, Jesse Armstrong, has taken care to distance his show from the Murdochs, claiming that the exquisitely cringe-y Roys are inspired by several modern-day dynasties.
In contrast, the upcoming seven-part documentary “The Murdochs: Empire of Influence,” which debuts Sunday on CNN with a two-hour premiere, models itself quite overtly after the Emmy-sweeping drama. Will the future of Fox News — arguably the most significant hub for the mainstream conservative movement — be led by firstborn son and onetime Roger Ailes foe Lachlan; his ambitious but more politically moderate younger brother James; or their highly accomplished older sister Elisabeth, considered the most in disposition like Rupert himself?
“The Murdochs” (the Mur-doc?) deftly dramatizes the horse race between the three adult siblings, who share a mother in Anna Torv, Rupert’s second wife. In a notable departure from “Succession,” though, the Murdoch progeny don’t appear to be fatally incompetent, like the younger Roys. Pit against one another, they prove to be their father’s children, in both their business acumen and ethical flexibility. But at varying points, each tries to individuate themselves from their father, and much of the suspense lies in how Rupert schemes to draw them back under his influence.
But “The Murdochs” doesn’t need the Roys; the series is terrific enough on its own. Though the visuals are mostly pulled from old interviews, archival materials and (evocative) stock images, they’re so slickly edited and spliced with talking heads that you don’t feel the absence of the subjects, who chose not to participate. An exceptionally lively rundown of Rupert’s improbable career, the doc alternates between action-packed anecdotes and insightful analyses of the mogul’s M.O.s, like his championing of lowbrow tastes and dealmaking with politicians poised to grant him future favors. More than once, he throws his flesh and blood under the bus for the sake of the child he perhaps cherishes most: his business.
“The Murdochs” feels like a product of CNN’s last chapter in more ways than one. The docuseries was originally produced for its former streaming service, CNN Plus, which was killed less than a month after launch. It’s also an unabashed tour of the scandals that have plagued the family — the kind harder to imagine being made under the network’s current regime, which has signaled an intention to move rightward after the Trump years.
But the doc is fair, even balanced. For one, there’s much grudging admiration for Rupert’s business savvy. In the 1980s, he decided that the biggest competition for his newspapers wasn’t its print rivals but television, so he set forth on founding a fourth TV network — a feat no one had attempted in America in 30 years. At the time, hardly anyone believed that Fox would survive. Similarly, a harrowing close-call of a kidnapping in London with tragic consequences — one that involved Anna and the headline “They took the wrong wife!” — can’t help but generate sympathy for the family.
“The Murdochs,” though, is just as persuasive of its namesakes’ pitilessness. Older outrages, like the time Rupert likely engineered the firing of more than 5,000 unionized newsroom workers in London in one fell swoop with the aid of Margaret Thatcher, are well worth a revisit, as are fuller accounts of more recent disgraces, like the thoroughly enraging U.K. phone-hacking scandal of the mid-2000s and early 2010s.
For someone like Rupert, who “ma[de] his family the business and the business his family,” as one commentator puts it, things became exponentially more complicated for his would-be successors when Rupert left Anna and married Wendi Deng in 1999, with whom he had two more children. (Since the docuseries’s streaming premiere in March, Rupert has divorced his most recent wife, Jerry Hall.)
The later chapters grappling with Fox News and Rupert’s fluctuating relationship with Donald Trump are much more familiar. But if there are fewer revelations, the ever-precarious rivalry between the siblings keeps the momentum going. The doc never provides a full sense of how the lifelong efforts to impress their father have affected the children’s relationships with one another — incidentally, a particular strength of “Succession.” These later installments finally offer us some clue, with the Murdochs, like much of the Republican elite, seemingly diverging in response to Trump’s rise — Lachlan even further to the right, James toward the center.
In the end, Rupert does seem to come up with a solution to the dilemma that’s haunted him for decades — one that ensures he won’t ever have to choose among his children, while calling on them to see the best among themselves. But perhaps the doc is best seen not as a reflection of one man’s indecision over his legacy, but our collective distraction from its terrible enormity.
The Murdochs: Empire of Influence (one hour) premieres with Episodes 1 and 2 on Sunday at 9 p.m. on CNN. New episodes air weekly. | 2022-09-23T10:40:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | CNN’s ‘The Murdochs’ doc is real-life ‘Succession’ — and no less dramatic - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/tv/2022/09/23/murdochs-docuseries-cnn-review/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/tv/2022/09/23/murdochs-docuseries-cnn-review/ |
People are fleeing Puerto Rico, Guam and every other U.S. territory. What gives?
As the sun sets, Carlos Fernandez, 90, stands in the doorway of his shack, down a steep, winding road on a remote mountainside in Villalba, Puerto Rico. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)
For much of the postwar era, America’s territories thrived. Remnants of the age of imperialism, the five far-flung Caribbean and Pacific outposts added residents faster than most states. But the 2020 Census revealed a troubling turn: Every territory is now shrinking, losing population faster than any state.
What’s going on? Why are people fleeing the distant vestiges of America’s global empire?
Good data remains elusive. The government rarely gives the territories equal coverage in its headline economic and demographic releases. Legislation introduced in July by Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and the territories’ nonvoting delegates would push agencies to fill those data gaps, but it has yet to truly begin the arduous journey through Congress.
So, we picked up the phone. Talking with locals, officials and experts over the past few months, we eventually came to a simple — perhaps overly simple — conclusion:
The island territories, even the most developed ones, have much in common with America’s rural areas. Their problems are rural problems, supercharged by migration and tax policy. And, of course, by distance from the nation’s population centers.
The population loss in the territories came as rural America snapped a four-decade population growth streak and started shrinking. The decline stemmed from familiar rural culprits: declining manufacturing, lack of health care, falling birthrates, brain drain and climate change. Even Puerto Rico’s storied capital, San Juan, might have more in common with a faded Rust Belt hub like Detroit than with a coastal “superstar city.”
Like many rural areas, the islands are trapped in a vicious cycle. As people lose their jobs or move away, tax revenue falls. Without that revenue, the territories can’t provide the same services. The lack of services and amenities drives more residents away, those residents stop paying taxes, and the cycle accelerates.
Each island is different, but when we asked for the broadest factors, economists pointed to manufacturing. The islands’ struggles came as China squashed rural factories everywhere. And the territories were hit unusually hard because the flood of cheap Chinese goods came at the precise moment when an accident of history made the islands uniquely vulnerable.
While not all policymakers agree, economists such as Zadia Feliciano of Queens College, City University of New York, say textile, footwear and electronics manufacturers on the islands depended on those tax breaks and couldn’t weather China’s rise without them. Her recent analysis with Meng-Ting Chen of Soochow University in Taiwan found that the phasing-out of one of the biggest tax credits, Section 936 of the Internal Revenue Code, from 1996 to 2006 explains at least half of the decline in Puerto Rico’s pharmaceutical industry since 1995.
“The declining population of Puerto Rico in part is due to the economic crisis created by the elimination of Section 936,” Feliciano said.
The economic struggles have accelerated brain drain on the islands, as the young and ambitious leave to attend school or join the U.S. military. As with rural kids seeking their fortune in cities, the islanders often put down roots on the mainland, where their college degrees and other experience are far more remunerative. The islands just don’t have many high-paying opportunities for the educated.
“It’s really troubling for our middle class and our students who graduate here,” said Roseann Jones, a University of Guam economist who has spent the past 25 years on the island. “They’re beginning to say this is a very challenging place economically to build and raise a family, to commit to.”
States with the worst brain drain — and more!
“The ambitious, well-prepared kids, they go to college on the mainland and they rarely come back,” said Mark Wenner, former chief economist at the USVI Office of Management and Budget. “And then you have a mass of young people that are not well prepared due to the low-quality public education system. … The only option for many is basically to go the military or to migrate to the mainland.”
Brain drain has long plagued the islands. But as birthrates have fallen and death rates rise, it hits differently. Populations no longer can count on enough new babies to counter the steady outflow of young adults. Indeed, the birthrate in the territories is perilously close to falling below the rate of replacement. That’s probably already happened in the Virgin Islands, American Samoa and Puerto Rico, which has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world. At current rates of decline, the other two Pacific territories will soon join them.
The islands’ rising death rates are tied to an aging population living in health-care deserts. Mainland rural Americans often are forced to travel hundreds of miles to get basic care. For Americans in the territories, hundreds of miles can easily become thousands.
Medical facilities on the islands often can’t provide advanced care, forcing residents to travel to the mainland United States or foreign countries. For example, a 2019 federal report found that the only hospital in American Samoa was “in a state of failure due to age, environmental exposure, and lack of preventative maintenance.”
Like most other territorial residents, American Samoans are not eligible for Medicaid, the federal health program for the poor, or Supplemental Security Income, which pays monthly benefits to the elderly and disabled, unless they go to the mainland — a surprising disparity recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. (Thanks to a quirk of history, residents of the Northern Marianas can get SSI.)
As their population and economic growth have sputtered, many communities in this fast-oxidizing, globe-spanning island Rust Belt have turned to the only industry left to them: tourism. But service-industry work doesn’t pay nearly as well as factories, and the influx of tourists can drive up the cost of living for locals.
“We have this greater and greater trend of people saying, ‘I can’t find work here, I can’t find a future here,’” Jones said of Guam. “‘I can’t continue to pay $15 a gallon for fresh milk.’”
The 2020 Census — and the pandemic — came as the islands struggled to recover from Hurricanes Irma and Maria, two of the most expensive storms in history. In 2017, they devastated the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico twice in a matter of weeks, leaving more than 3,000 dead and demolishing important health, education and tourist infrastructure — some of which still hasn’t been rebuilt.
“The climate risk is becoming increasingly more significant, more severe,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics and a longtime follower of the economic travails of Puerto Rico and the other territories. “I suspect that we’ll see more of this migration because of the climate problems these islands face.”
Typically U.S. citizens by birth, territorial residents are nonetheless stuck in constitutional limbo, disadvantaged by complicated, more-than-a-century-old legal decisions that deny them certain rights and benefits because they are “fierce, savage and restless” people who cannot be governed by “Anglo-Saxon principles.”
But there’s a simple way to break out of that limbo: They can move to the mainland. The moment a territorial citizen steps off a plane in Florida or California, their vote counts in federal elections and they’re eligible for every federal benefit.
“It’s not hard for residents in the territories to leave these days,” Zandi said. “They have family members and friends that are here in the U.S., and if they want to move, they know exactly where they’re going to go, at least at first.”
Each time an islander moves to the mainland, the negative feedback loop spins a tiny bit faster, said Bernard Yaros, a Moody’s Analytics economist who has covered Puerto Rico for eight years. “The population was declining, that reduced the tax base for the public sector, which then was unable to provide adequate public amenities. And then this reduction in the quality of public services contributed to further frustration and out-migration.
“In economics, demography is destiny,” Yaros said. “It’s very tough to have a fast-growing economy if your population is shrinking.”
Hello, friends! The Department of Data needs your quantifiable questions! What basic math operations do adults struggle with the most? What’s the line between a “college town” and a town that just happens to have a college? What country controls the largest share of the world’s oceans, and why is it France? Just ask!
To get every question, answer and factoid in your inbox as soon as we publish, sign up here. If your question inspires a column, we’ll send a button and an official Department of Data ID card. This week, the buttons go to Post climate reporter Allyson Chiu, who hails from Guam, and Christopher Philippo, a New York reader who wants us to include the territories in more maps. We will, Chris — as soon as the data is available! | 2022-09-23T10:49:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Why people are fleeing Puerto Rico, Guam and every other U.S. territory? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/09/23/american-territories-population-loss/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/09/23/american-territories-population-loss/ |
Florida students study Tom Brady’s controversial fitness program
One district is experimenting with P.E. class. Others seek to follow.
Students learn about TB12 fitness principles in Pinellas County, Fla. The school system and Pinellas Education Foundation partnered with Tom Brady’s Foundation to revise the physical education curriculum for two courses. (Pinellas County Schools)
On a podcast last year, Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady explained the evolution of his fitness regimen, called the TB12 Method — enthusing that some day he and his body coach would go on tour, doing seminars, teaching people and bringing the approach to high schools.
Ben Wieder was listening.
Wieder served on the board of the Pinellas Education Foundation, in this county just outside Tampa. He’d recently devoured Brady’s controversial fitness book, which lays out the NFL superstar’s approach to movement, muscle work, hydration, nutrition and mental fitness. Wieder gathered with local officials and pitched the TB12 Foundation, the charitable arm of the company founded by Brady and body coach Alex Guerrero, about adapting it for schools. “If anyone could bring this concept to life, it’s us,” he recalled thinking.
Now, in a first-in-the-nation effort, 5,000 students on Florida’s west coast are learning the principles that Brady extols as essential to muscle recovery, injury prevention and improved performance. They have picked up words like “pliability,” used vibrating foam rollers and spheres to loosen up and assessed each other as they lower their bodies into squats and planks.
“The roller is my favorite, because it helps a lot,” said Antoine James, an eighth-grader who is on the volleyball team at Pinellas Park Middle School and plays football outside of school.
Supporters say the program in 94,000-student Pinellas County Schools gets kids excited about fitness, and they believe the project will set off similar efforts in Florida schools and far beyond. Already, dozens of other school districts have called Pinellas, which includes St. Petersburg and Clearwater, with questions. The project is a 10-school pilot, supported by more than $30,000 in donated gear from the TB12 Foundation, which views the arrangement as a long-term partnership and will consider what “a full rollout” might require after the trial.
“We’re introducing kids to concepts they haven’t thought of before and tools they haven’t used before,” said Stacy Baier, chief executive officer of the education foundation. In Pinellas alone, she said, “there are a lot more schools waiting in the wings to get it.”
But Brady’s system is not without its doubters in the scientific community.
When he published his book in 2017 laying out his TB12 program, skeptics questioned the science behind some of his claims and the program’s obvious connection to product sales. The TB12 website now sells supplements, protein powder, vibrating spheres and foam rollers, and branded hoodies, T-shirts and hats.
Perspective: Brady wasn't born great. He's a self-made legend.
Reviewers knocked Brady for saying he doesn’t get sunburns anymore because he drinks so much water, a claim that was widely dismissed. They also questioned whether what worked for an elite athlete could be as helpful to amateurs.
The New York Times called Brady’s book “short on science,” casting doubt on the concept of pliability and his disregard for the nightshade foods, including tomatoes, strawberries, eggplant and potatoes. “Mr. Brady does not explain or justify these dietary choices in this book,” the review said. “For that, we need to consult the separate TB12 Nutrition Manual (available for $200 at tb12store.com).”
Brady stood by his TB12 method amid the criticism, saying that he knows his own experience and is sharing it. Brady’s representatives did not provide comment this week.
More recently, Brady announced a new TB12 supplement called “Protect” — to support the immune system — a couple of months into the pandemic, angering critics who accused him of taking advantage of fear about the coronavirus. The product marketing did not mention the pandemic, but the TB12sports Instagram account said, “It’s more important than ever to give your body everything it needs to help support your #immune system.”
Others have also raised questioned about Guerrero, his body coach and close friend, who he met in 2004.
Guerrero was investigated by the Federal Trade Commission for allegedly promoting an herbal supplement to prevent, treat and cure cancer, heart disease, arthritis and diabetes. In an infomercial cited by the FTC, Guerrero was cast as a doctor. According to a 2005 settlement, Guerrero agreed not to make false or unsubstantiated claims about food, drugs or supplements, and not to misrepresent himself as a doctor. He was fined $65,000 and agreed to other conditions.
The FTC investigated Guerrero again years later for a drink called NeuroSafe, promoted as a way to help prevent and quicken recovery from concussions. The FTC decided not to take enforcement action because sales were limited, marketing was stopped and Guerrero agreed to give refunds to consumers, according to an FTC letter to Guerrero’s attorney in 2012. TB12 representatives did not provide comment from Guerrero on the FTC actions or respond to questions from a reporter.
In the podcast last year, Brady was unflinching about the fitness method be created with Guerrero. “I have zero doubt — zero — that 20 years from now every single professional sports team, every single college, university, everybody, will be talking about pliability and the impact it has on people’s performance over time,” he said. “It is absolutely 100 percent certain that this is the key to longevity for athletes — and not just for athletes but for anybody who wants to live an active life.” The challenge is educating people, he said.
In many aspects, his program also has a lot in common with other wellness practices: movement, healthy food choices, high levels of hydration, sound sleep habits and cognitive fitness. And Brady himself is an inspiration: a seven-time Super Bowl champion, still on the field — and mostly winning — at 45 years old.
Educators in Pinellas County worked throughout their summer to revise the curriculum for the two courses that are now blended with TB12 — a one-semester required P.E. course for eighth-graders and a full-year state-required P.E. class for high school students, said Ashley Grimes, the Pinellas County educator who led that revision. TB12 body coaches trained educators who were teaching the new curriculum, which does not advance the contested health claims. The school system did not pay for TB12’s gear or efforts.
Tom Brady says an anti-inflammation diet is good for him. Would it work for you?
At Pinellas Park Middle School, Joshua Stroman, 13, liked what he was learning. He defined pliability as “a way of flexibility” and something that “softens your muscles.” He said he thinks it will “help my knees not go bad,” which is important to his football game. He wants to play in the NFL.
An important element of the curriculum is that students set goals and evaluate their progress, Grimes said. “This is exciting because we’re moving physical education to where it needs to go, to more student ownership and student direction,” she said.
And the Brady connection goes a long way: “The kids are automatically more interested,” said teacher Tiffany Williams.
Mike Fantigrassi, of the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), said TB12 has positive features, including Brady’s appeal, the accessibility of resistance bands, and its focus on movement quality, core and balance. But the method is not based in research, he said, and appears to omit or severely restrict traditional weight training. “I am concerned that there are things that aren’t rooted in science that are being taught in schools,” he said.
But some argue engaging kids in physical activity, health and wellness is foremost. Malachy McHugh, director of research at the Nicholas Institute of Sports Medicine and Athletic Trauma at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, said debating the science behind TB12 is much less important. “If it’s more attractive to prospective participants and doesn’t do any harm, that’s a great starting point,” McHugh said. “I suspect kids will be more inclined to do the training program created by Tom Brady than to attend a calisthenics class with Mr. or Mrs. Smith.”
Michelle Grenier, a professor emeritus at University of New Hampshire who has trained P.E. teachers for more than 20 years, said student motivation is “key at eighth grade or the high school level.” But she and others wondered how TB12 would serve the diverse classrooms of public schools. Many students would not call themselves athletes, Grenier said.
“You hope the program makes clear this is a program for everybody,” she said.
Pinellas educators involved in rolling out TB12 said it is geared to all abilities. Allison Swank said she tells students that even if they are not playing sports, they can apply principles of the program to daily life — carrying heavy backpacks, walking up stairs and bleachers.
The reimagined P.E. classes were designed using TB12 materials as a guideline while still adhering to state education standards. The revisions include more student ownership of learning and tie pliability into traditional units on sports including soccer and basketball, said Grimes, who led the curriculum change and is the district’s supervisor for health and P.E.
TB12 content is merged into learning about nutrition, hydration, functional strength and conditioning, mental fitness and rest and recovery, she said. When it comes to nutrition, classes might address that wheat bread is healthier than white, or that a sweet potato is more nutritious than a white potato. “At no time during the process do we dictate to students,” Grimes said. “We don’t say, ‘You can’t eat a tomato.’ ”
From California Kid to the GOAT: Tom Brady
As for Brady’s famously strict eating plan, that is not foisted on anyone, said Bryan Hart, a head body coach with TB12. (When Brady’s book was published, his diet included fresh organic fruits and vegetables; protein smoothies; wild fish; free-range hormone-free meat; and whole grains. Snacks included TB12 protein bars, hummus and guacamole. He sometimes had a cup of bone broth with dinner and limited alcohol, dairy, gluten, white sugar, white flour and processed sweets. He was a fan of avocado ice cream — without the dairy.) “We’ll guide people towards what food groups and types of food are going to be beneficial for them, and then what we know is going to increase inflammation or decrease performance,” Hart said.
There are not plans for expansion beyond Pinellas at this time, said Lisa Borges, executive director of the foundation.
But TB12 is a for-profit company — selling vibrating foam rollers for $160 each — and some wonder about the implications if it becomes embedded in school systems.
“I think it’s a fair question, to look at the optics and consider that this is the branding of an individual and it does tie to a for-profit company,” said Paul Wright, a professor of kinesiology and physical education at Northern Illinois University and chair of the Research Council of the Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE America).
McHugh said his only misgiving would be if the primary motivation by TB12 is to “create revenue streams for the company, as opposed to getting kids more engaged in physical education.” Those involved said the effort is not about profit.
“I know that’s not the reason they’re doing it,” said Wieder, the education foundation board member. “Could there be some kids down the line who could become paying customers? Sure.” But Brady has often said he wished he had known the TB12 method he was young, Wieder said — and so he wants to provide it to others.
At TB12, Hart, the head body coach, said that what it gets out of the partnership is “the overall success of the students in their health and wellness. Those kids are learning about our method and benefiting from it, and that’s all we want.” | 2022-09-23T10:49:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Florida students study Tom Brady’s controversial TB12 fitness program - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/09/23/tom-brady-tb12-schools-pe/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/09/23/tom-brady-tb12-schools-pe/ |
On calls when a person is suicidal, some police try a new approach
A small but growing number of agencies are telling officers that in some cases, they should leave, rather than intervene
By Caren Chesler
Police in a small but growing number of states are trying a new tactic on calls when someone is threatening suicide. They respond, assess and sometimes, depending on the situation, they leave.
It’s happening in Fresno, Calif., where last year, police were called to the home of a man who barricaded himself in his house with a gun and was threatening to kill himself and police, if they entered. It’s happening in Birmingham, Ala., where in 2020, police were called to the home of a man holding a gun to his head and threatening to shoot himself or officers if they didn’t back off. And it’s happening in Los Angeles, Seattle and Portland, as police departments grapple with how best to assist someone who is suicidal, armed and doesn’t necessarily want police to intervene.
"When we looked at the core issue of these calls — mental health — we realized that a law enforcement response may not be the appropriate one for the given situation,” said Lt. William Dooley, public information officer for the Fresno Police Department. “Why should we use force, possibly injuring the person and our officers, when all we want to do is get them help?”
Inside the investigation of an officer who killed a teen threatening suicide
In departments that have adopted strategies referred to as “Tactical Disengagement” or “Tactical Retreat,” officers still respond to suicide calls, sometimes with mental health professionals in tow. But they look at the totality of the circumstances before acting. For instance, has a crime taken place? Has there been a threat to hurt others? If not, and if the presence of police will only escalate the situation, departments may decide it’s best to go and turn the case over to the mental health system.
The reasoning is that if police leave, they will not end up killing the suicidal person.
But there is risk as well: If police leave, mental health experts say, some suicidal people may be more likely to kill themselves.
The man who was threatening to take his own life in Fresno made it through the night, and by morning had reconsidered. But in Birmingham, the opposite occurred. Police negotiated with him for several hours. He said he “wanted to go out in a blaze,” which police took as a reference to his wanting to commit “suicide by cop.” Eventually, they departed. When the man’s fiancee returned home the next morning, she found him dead in the bathroom, a gun by his side.
The data is not yet there to determine which scenario is more likely. And once officers leave the scene, in some cases handing off to mental health professionals, it’s no longer considered a police matter. That means there isn’t always follow-up by the police department.
But Lt. Ruben Lopez, who heads the LAPD’s SWAT unit, said that after he wrote an article about the city’s disengagement policy this year for the publication PoliceOne, he received about 100 inquiries from other agencies interested in doing something similar.
“When a person is in crisis, that’s not a criminal act. That’s no different than someone having a medical condition in their home. But for years, we expected the police to go in and deal with it with guns drawn, and then you have the disastrous results,” Lopez said.
When a call to police seeking help turns deadly
According to The Washington Post’s database of police shootings and associated deaths, nearly a quarter of the 6,800 fatal police shootings recorded since 2015 involved people with mental health conditions. Between 2019 and 2021, according to a Post investigation, there were 178 instances in which law enforcement officers shot and killed the very people they were trying to save.
Richard Frank, a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution and director of the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative on Health Policy, noted that police have long been one of the first responders to those having a mental health crisis, and they’re not necessarily equipped to handle these situations.
“Police have a hard job. And they’ve been put in a really unenviable position,” Frank said. “In fairness to them, this is not what they signed up for.”
Rick Wall, a police consultant and former Los Angeles police officer, said he is working with departments in Arizona, New Mexico, California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas that are reconsidering how they respond to suicide calls. Some of the impetus, he said, is a spate of court cases that have held officers liable for engaging suicidal subjects and then firing when the subjects become aggressive.
“You’ve got a court saying, ‘Hey, you know what? You may be better off just walking away than chasing the guy and having him die,’ " Wall said.
A new national suicide hotline that's easy to remember: Just dial 988
While most states have welfare statutes enabling police to intervene if someone is a threat to themselves, suicidal subjects often don’t want police intervention, or they would have called police themselves, Dooley, of the Fresno police department, said in an email.
Departments with disengagement policies emphasized that they don’t have guidelines instructing officers to leave the scene of potential suicides. Instead they may make that decision in some cases, based on the assessment of the responding officers and higher-ranking officials.
“We don’t have any blanket policy on it. We’re still going to the same calls,” said Sgt. Corey Williams of the Seattle Police Department’s Crisis Response Team. “These are just added things we tell officers, in terms of best practices: that they should consider the governmental interest in the situation, and that they have the option to walk away.”
While police walking away from some suicide calls may reduce shootings, removing them altogether may not be the answer either, said Paul Appelbaum, a psychiatry professor at Columbia Medical School. “You still have a suicidal person who’s at risk and is receiving no assistance,” he said.
Appelbaum, whose work focuses on legal issues as they intersect with psychiatric issues, said a better answer would be for police to remain in the background and send in a mental health professional to engage with the person. Officers would still be available if needed to assist in entering a residence or otherwise help get the person to a place where they can be evaluated.
“If the person is hanging themselves, or has just slit their wrists and is behind a locked door, a social worker isn’t going to break down the door and go in to try to save them," Appelbaum said. “Sometimes you need the authorities who can use force to enter a residence and assist someone.”
Some police officers said leaving the scene is counter to their mission. Harvey Barnwell, chief of investigators at the Union County Prosecutors’ Office in Elizabeth, N.J., thinks training — not leaving — is the way to change the culture of law enforcement in these situations.
“For us in the law enforcement profession, who took the oath and swore to serve and protect, I can’t see anyone wanting to walk away,” he said.
New Jersey recently launched a pilot program where plainclothes police in Elizabeth and Linden will respond to behavioral health crises with a certified mental health screener from a hospital. In announcing the initiative, Acting Attorney General Matthew Platkin acknowledged that a significant proportion of police uses of force in the state involve a civilian identified as suffering from mental illness or under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
Barnwell said he still remembers his first attempted suicide call, nearly 30 years ago. It involved a man saying his wife was brandishing a knife and threatening to kill herself, again. Tired of the threats, the husband suggested the wife just do it already, if she was going to do it, and with that, the wife plunged the knife into her stomach. She was rushed to the hospital and recovered, Barnwell said.
But the suicide call that lingers in his memory is one he received at the end of a shift, as he was about to go on a three-day leave and just wanted to go home. A 13-year-old boy shot himself in the head while his mother was readying herself for a date with a new boyfriend. Barnwell and his partner arrived within minutes. He said his partner took the boy’s mother into the room where her son’s body lay, got down on the floor with her and cried.
“It brought me back to the realization that that was someone’s loved one, and me wanting to go home was irrelevant. And that we needed to treat that family with the compassion and grace they deserved," he said in an interview. “I think I will always try to talk someone out of this situation, because that memory is so overwhelming.”
If you or someone you know needs help, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or visit suicidepreventionlifeline.org. You can also text a crisis counselor by messaging the Crisis Text Line at 741741
Police reform in America
Repeated police misconduct: More than $1.5 billion has been spent to settle claims of police misconduct involving thousands of officers repeatedly accused of wrongdoing. Taxpayers are often in the dark.
Listen: “Broken Doors” is a six-part investigative podcast about how no-knock warrants are deployed in the American justice system — and what happens when accountability is flawed at every level.
Fatal Force: Since 2015, The Washington Post has logged every fatal shooting by an on-duty police officer in the United States. View our police shooting database.
Fired/Rehired: Police departments have had to take back hundreds of officers who were fired for misconduct and then rehired after arbitration.
Read more coverage on policing in America. | 2022-09-23T10:49:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | On calls when a person is suicidal, some police try a new approach - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/09/23/calls-when-person-is-suicidal-some-police-try-new-approach/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/09/23/calls-when-person-is-suicidal-some-police-try-new-approach/ |
Baldwin Lee’s stunningly artistic photos of the American South
Walls, Miss., 1984. (Baldwin Lee)
The photos in Baldwin Lee’s namesake book recently published by Hunters Point Press are sumptuously lyrical explorations of America’s Deep South. There is no denying the artistry of the work. When I first went through it, I was repeatedly struck by the classical nature of the body language and compositions.
When I read in an interview by Jessica Bell Brown at the end of the book that Lee had studied with Walker Evans, I wasn’t surprised at all. Learning that he also studied with Minor White was a bit of a shock, but after looking again at the pictures, it made a lot of sense.
Both Evans and White were titans in the world of photography. They didn’t work in a similar way, and indeed, they didn’t think too much of each other’s work. As Lee says in the interview, “Neither man held the other in high esteem. Evans considered White to be flawed by pretentiousness and affect. White saw Evans as not much more than a transcriber of fact.”
In a nutshell, you might say White’s photography was interpretive and Evans’s was more matter-of-fact. That is, of course, a very reductive view — there’s more complexity to their work than that, but it’s a good starting point, especially as you consider Lee’s work.
The photos Lee made (and they were definitely “made”) have a little bit of both photographers’ influence. They are neither wholly factual nor wholly interpretive. They occupy a space somewhere in between. Lee’s work is not documentary, although there are flecks of that in them. They are more of a personal interpretation of life in the South.
As such, the work is definitely that of an outsider. Lee grew up in Manhattan, but cordoned off in what was, at the time, the very insular world of Chinatown. He tells Brown that out of the five hundred people in his school, only two were not Chinese. Lee also grew up with societal pressures that are faced by many Chinese immigrants. He tells Brown, “I am the second oldest of five children. As the first male child in a Chinese immigrant family, I was conferred a special status, with special expectations. My father told me when I was five years old that I would go to MIT, the typical immigrant aspiration.”
Lee would end up fulfilling that expectation — he graduated as his high school’s valedictorian and was accepted into MIT. And although he was miserable studying science and technology, MIT would be the place where he collided with his photographic fate. It’s where he enrolled in a class with Minor White and found the spark of creativity that would propel him the rest of his life. Studying under both White and Evans would prove to be formative for Lee.
And while Lee’s work is that of an outsider, I think it’s important to know that he didn’t just swoop into a community, get what he wanted and then leave. His work is collaborative. He puts it this way:
“I would approach my potential subjects, explain in as detailed a manner as possible what I had seen, and ask for permission to take a photograph. Of course, small talk — where was I from, who would see the photograph, why I selected them — would sometimes ensue. Often permission was granted with no discussion at all. Looking is a two-way street. Not only is the photographer looking, but the potential subject is looking too. What the subject sees carries great weight. For some reason, people would see me positively. I am not sure if it was my race, gender, physicality, dress, demeanor, or anything else. If in a day I asked twenty people for permission to make photographs, nineteen would say yes.”
Collaboration notwithstanding, Lee’s work is an interpretation of the people and places in the photographs. He “made” the photos in the book with the cooperation of the people in them, even as he also directed them, sort of in the way a filmmaker would. As he told Brown:
“I worked with a tripod-mounted 4 × 5 view camera. This type of camera required long exposure times that necessitated standing perfectly still. There was no possibility of making spontaneous or surreptitious photographs. The crucial aspect in making the photograph involved my issuing verbal directions, asking for extremely specific movement of the figure and glance. This is not unlike how a sculptor making a figurative piece conceives of specific gestures and repositions various parts of the body.”
This direction given to produce Lee’s vision is one of the crucial things that sets the work apart from straight documentation. It’s also partly what makes it art, as he underlines with his comparison to the work of a sculptor. The result is a stunningly wrought group of photographs that are artistic to the highest degree.
You can find out more about the book, and buy it, on the publisher’s website, here. And you can see more of Lee’s work on his website, here. | 2022-09-23T10:49:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Baldwin Lee's photos of the American South - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/photography/2022/09/23/baldwin-lee-photos-american-south/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/photography/2022/09/23/baldwin-lee-photos-american-south/ |
Sweden’s next prime minister will juggle an awkward coalition
Passing budgets and laws won’t be easy, given the policy disagreements among the four parties
Analysis by Jacob Christensen
Moderate Party leader Ulf Kristersson arrives at the Swedish parliament, the Riksdagen, before his meeting with the speaker of the parliament, Andreas Norlen, on Sept. 19 in Stockholm. (Tim Aro/Tt/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
After the Sept. 11 general election results, Sweden will have a new government — thought it’s not quite clear who will be in it. There is particular uncertainty over the role of the far-right Sweden Democrats, which may undermine the new government’s long-term stability.
The Sweden Democrats now hold 20 percent of the seats in Parliament, making them the biggest party on the right or center right. That gives the party an important role in forming and running the new government. However, they may not be invited to join the government — or could even choose to stay out of government, while supporting it in Parliament. Either way, Sweden’s next prime minister will have to manage an awkward coalition of four parties ranging all the way from social liberals to the radical right. Passing budgets and laws is likely to be hard.
Sweden’s new governing coalition relies on a party founded by neo-Nazis
The new government will probably come together quickly
Sweden’s constitution sets out the rules for forming a new government. After talking to representatives of the parties, the parliamentary speaker proposes a prospective prime minister and government coalition. Parliament then takes a vote. If not defeated by an absolute majority in parliament, the new leader enters office with their new government.
Governments usually form quickly in Sweden, but they have not always been stable. The last two legislative terms saw conflicts over the role of the Sweden Democrats and ideological differences among the government’s supporters. After the 2018 elections, it took a record 134 days for Social Democrat Stefan Löfvén to pull together a weak minority government including the Social Democrats and the Green Party. The Social Democrats still hold the largest share of seats, but Sweden’s left-wing parties now claim a combined 173 seats, fewer than the 176 seats held by right-wing parties.
This time, we can expect the process to be much quicker. Traditionally, the leader of the largest party on the winning side would be invited to form a government. Instead, Jimmie Åkesson of the Sweden Democrats appears to have passed the baton to Ulf Kristersson, the leader of the Moderate Party, which lost seats in the election and is now only the third-largest party in parliament after the Social Democrats and the Sweden Democrats.
But the government faces complications
The new government will rest on the support of the four parties on Sweden’s “new” center right. They are the traditionally internationalist and socially liberal Liberal Party; the Christian Democrats, a party inspired by U.S. conservatives and with conservative social values; the Moderate Party, which is pro-market and focused on law and order; and the Sweden Democrats, who promote nationalistic populism and campaigned on an anti-immigrant, policing and criminal justice platform.
The immediate question is whether the Sweden Democrats will join the government, provide support in parliament for a three-party coalition of Moderates, Christian Democrats and Liberals, or block the Liberals from entering government and force a two-party coalition of Moderates and Christian Democrats.
Like their radical right counterparts in Finland and Norway, the Sweden Democrats might enter government as part of a coalition. The Finnish and Norwegian coalitions eventually broke down, however, over disagreements on immigration policies and the integration of non-natives.
Alternatively, the Sweden Democrats might stay out of government, while supporting it. That’s what the Danish People’s Party did in 2015, to avoid disputes over the European Union, even though they were the largest party in the winning bloc. That decision left the Danish People’s Party looking weak and indecisive, especially when their leader made advances to the Danish Social Democrats over social and employment policy in the run-up to Denmark’s 2019 election.
In Sweden, conflict between the Sweden Democrats and the Liberal Party will complicate the process. Both parties made it their priority to exclude the other from the government coalition. A two-party Moderates-Christian Democratic coalition, supported by Sweden Democrats and Liberals, might offer a viable alternative, but this would mark a major symbolic defeat for the Liberal Party.
Sweden’s next government has only a narrow majority
As the last two electoral terms show, even when winning parties have enough support to form a government, the coalition may not be able to govern very effectively. Löfvén, who was prime minister in 2014, lost the vote over the 2015 government budget, soon after being voted in as prime minister.
Kristersson will want to avoid a similar embarrassment. However, his coalition’s narrow majority in Parliament — 176 seats to 173 seats on the left — means the new government will be vulnerable if members of parliament defect or are expelled. And the likelihood of policy misalignments suggests that neither the Sweden Democrats or the Liberals are likely to be stable partners.
In the near term, the Sweden Democrats and the other three parties are likely to disagree over the level of unemployment benefits, for instance. The Sweden Democrats might even side with the opposition Social Democrats to protect benefits that their supporters like. Despite these types of challenges, the government might still survive.
Over the longer run, the Sweden Democrats are untested on economic and energy policy issues. Both of these issues are increasingly urgent for Sweden, which faces high inflation and energy shortages like other European countries. Should the Sweden Democrats withdraw their support for government policies on these issues, Kristersson might not necessarily resign. Instead, he might have to rely on the support of the Social Democrats — as his predecessor Carl Bildt did, when he was unable to work with the populist New Democracy party during the economic crisis of the early 1990s.
Sweden’s new government will probably be more stable than its two immediate predecessors, for now. But it still faces a number of difficult political challenges and will be working with a slim majority.
Jacob Christensen (@jacobchr) is a senior lecturer in social science in the social work department at UCL University College at Odense, Denmark. | 2022-09-23T10:50:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ulf Kristersson relies on support from Sweden’s “new” center-right. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/23/sweden-right-wing-coalition-kristersson/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/23/sweden-right-wing-coalition-kristersson/ |
Coach Bill Belichick speaks to quarterback Mac Jones before the Patriots' season-opening defeat at Miami. (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — As the New England Patriots celebrated and savored a wind-swept victory over the Buffalo Bills last December, it seemed they were back to being the Patriots. They were on a seven-game winning streak. They had the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs in their sights. A Super Bowl meeting with Tom Brady seemed possible. Coach Bill Belichick again was an unquestioned NFL mastermind, and the franchise appeared to have put Brady’s exit into its rearview mirror, with young quarterback Mac Jones thriving.
But since then, the steps along the path back toward contending have been wobbly. The Patriots emerged from the bye week that followed the Buffalo triumph and lost at Indianapolis. The Bills then dominated them twice, the second time in a playoff loss that ended New England’s 2021 season on a decidedly sour note.
Issues have continued into the early stages of this season, with Belichick’s decisions about his coaching staff drawing scrutiny and Jones’s progress being questioned. The Patriots have gotten off to an uneven start, and they’ll take a 1-1 record into Sunday’s meeting with the Baltimore Ravens at Gillette Stadium.
“We can say what we want to be,” veteran safety Devin McCourty said after Wednesday’s practice. “But who we are is what we put out on the field. So each time we get out there, I think we have to have that mentality of building our identity, building who we are and putting those days together that at some point this season we can hang our hat and say, ‘This is who we are. This is what we’re going to bring every week.’ In this league, you have to go do that.”
The Patriots are trying to find their way, which was until recently an unfamiliar state for the team that fans across the NFL spent two decades loving or loathing with intense fervor while owner Robert Kraft, Belichick and Brady were the mainstays of six Super Bowl championships.
It has been a mixed bag since Brady’s free agent departure to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020. The Patriots went 7-9 and missed the playoffs that year, with Cam Newton at quarterback. Then came a free agent spending spree before last season, along with the good fortune of being able to select Jones with the 15th choice in last year’s draft. The team started slowly last season but was 9-4 after the 14-10 victory over the Bills on Dec. 6, a game in which Jones attempted only three passes.
It unraveled from there. The 47-17 defeat to the Bills in the opening round of the AFC playoffs was particularly dispiriting to fans.
The Patriots lost their offensive coordinator, Josh McDaniels, who became the coach of the Las Vegas Raiders in the offseason. Then Belichick created a mini-commotion before the season by failing to clarify publicly how he’d divide the offensive play-calling duties between two former NFL head coaches back on his staff as assistants, Matt Patricia and Joe Judge.
Jones, through two games, has two touchdown passes, two interceptions and a passer rating of 83.2, down from last season’s mark of 92.5. Former NFL quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, now an analyst for ESPN, said on the network’s pregame show Sunday that the Patriots “did this to yourself” and urged the team’s coaches to keep the approach simpler for Jones. The Patriots won Sunday at Pittsburgh, rebounding from a season-opening loss at Miami.
“There’s things that you want to have back,” Jones said Wednesday. “But if you win the game, you can sit there and complain about plays you wish you had back, but at the end of the day, you won. And that’s what’s important. So it’s not about always winning super pretty all the time. It’s about winning. That’s all I care about. That’s all I’ve ever cared about. All the other stuff takes care of itself.”
Jones was asked whether he believes he is improving.
“I’d say we improved from Week 1 to Week 2,” he said. “It’s not all me. It’s everybody. We’ve all improved and got better. We’ve got a lot of games, and we’ve got a big one this week. That’s all you can judge yourself on is your last game. We won our last game. So that’s all that matters, and then the next week is the next week. That’s all you can focus on. I’m not sure about the stats and stuff. I don’t really look at them.”
Belichick said he thinks Jones has “gotten better at a lot of things,” and Patriots veterans continue to praise the young quarterback and his approach.
“He would be crazy if he built his career off what people write and say about him, because … there’s not that many people that played that position at a high level and can do that consistently,” McCourty said. “I think no matter what in this league, you come out, you play as a rookie, you have success as a rookie, you go out there and you do good things. It [stinks] to say but everyone is waiting to write bad things about you. That’s just how everything works. But I think he knows that in this building, every guy in that locker room believes in him. Everybody in that locker room sees him as not just our quarterback but a captain of this team, a leader of this team.”
Said center David Andrews: “A sign of a mature team, a good team is when it doesn’t matter who’s getting the ball, who’s excelling, who’s getting carries, who’s getting catches, whatever, right? … Just win. That’s all that matters.”
The task within the AFC East suddenly is daunting. The Bills, regarded as this season’s Super Bowl favorite by many observers, are off to a dominant start. The Dolphins also are 2-0 and relevant again, behind a newly revved-up passing game led by quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and wide receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. The Patriots must show they can keep pace in a division in which finishing annually in first place once was a given.
“No matter what, we all come in here with the same mind-set: How can we go out there on Sunday and win a football game?” McCourty said. “That’s been the Patriot Way since I got here. No game is going to be exactly the same. It’s not always going to be 30 points on offense and defense holding them to 10 points. I don’t know how we’re going to win. But I know as a team, that’s something we’ve got to figure out.” | 2022-09-23T10:50:42Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Mac Jones, Patriots look to find their way amid uneven start - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/23/mac-jones-patriots/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/23/mac-jones-patriots/ |
“I have three years left, and I think I can play — hopefully I can play those three years,” Nicklas Backstrom said. “I think I can help.” (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
In his 15 seasons with the Washington Capitals, Nicklas Backstrom has played in more than 1,000 games and racked up more than 1,000 points as one of the few athletes in this town you could set your watch to. Yet over the past few years, a hip injury hampered him so badly that he could neither pull on his socks nor tie his shoes. He could have, and perhaps should have, retired. He will not.
“I owe it to myself,” he said, “to the organization, to the fans to try to come back.”
Let’s be clear about this, Nick: You don’t owe anything to anyone.
The Capitals held their annual pre-training camp media day Thursday, and for the second straight year they did so having no idea when Backstrom next will play for them — or, frankly, if he will. His 35th birthday is in November. He has given his body to his team and his sport to the extent that playing with his children was a non-starter. Playing hockey again? Why?
“A lot of guys would just say, ‘Hey, it’s been hard, and I don’t want to do it anymore,’” longtime teammate Tom Wilson said.
“A lot of people, I think, would have probably given up,” longtime teammate T.J. Oshie said.
Given his role in establishing hockey as a sport that can create buzz in the District, and his role in building a Capitals culture in which winning is expected, there’s no need for him to dress for another game, dish out another assist, play another shift. The problem is he has an absolute and unwavering desire to do all of those things.
“It’s going to be a tough comeback, if you want to call it that,” Backstrom said during an interview Thursday. “Yeah, I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished here. But at the same time, I want to finish on my own terms. I don’t want to go out feeling this stopped me.”
Man, did it look like it was stopping him last year. The approach before the 2021-22 season was for Backstrom to rest and strengthen the hip during the fall, then see whether he could play from mid-December through the spring playoffs. His production was okay-ish: six goals and 25 assists in 47 regular season games. His form was something less than that.
Backstrom’s game has been built more on smarts than speed. But this is the NHL, and there is a baseline rate at which a center must move. Too often, Backstrom couldn’t reach it. In yet another first-round playoff loss, his production — six points in six games against Florida — masked the fact that even as he tried to lead, he was more of a liability physically.
Last December, about a week before he made his season debut, Backstrom sat on the couch in the lobby of the Capitals’ practice facility and said to me, “Obviously, I don’t want to go out there and not be myself.” And then he went out there and couldn’t be himself. Doubt about whether he could regain his form surfaced — and persisted.
“If you go back a couple years, you always had that in the back of your head,” he said Thursday. “You’re like, ‘What’s next? What other choices do I have?’”
The choice this offseason: hip resurfacing surgery — a kind of hip replacement that, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, involves trimming the head of the thighbone and capping it with a smooth metal covering, in addition to removing damaged bone and cartilage from the socket and replacing it with a metal shell. It was a serious decision to endure a serious procedure.
“I don’t know that it’s actually been done at the level he’s at,” General Manager Brian MacLellan said. “It’s a serious intrusion in your body.”
On June 17, Backstrom underwent the surgery in Belgium.
“On June 18,” he said, “a lot of f---ing pain.”
To help navigate the road ahead, Backstrom talked to other athletes who had undergone the same procedure — former Wimbledon champ Andy Murray and former NBA all-star Isaiah Thomas among them. He got honest assessments but also positivity. On Thursday, he could smile about his situation.
“Honestly, if you take the conversation we had last year, that’s a totally different conversation,” Backstrom said, thinking back to the dark days of preparing to play on one leg. “Now I can actually do things that I haven’t done in years.”
That doesn’t yet include skating. It doesn’t yet include hockey. No one can or will say when those steps will be taken.
“The process from the surgery to now has been really good,” Backstrom said. “I’m in good spirits, you know? I’m mentally good.”
There is a sticky part to all of this, and it has to do with building the Capitals’ roster and Backstrom earning the money he was promised when he signed a five-year, $46 million extension that ensured he would never play in another uniform. If he retired, the Capitals would be free from his annual $9.2 million hit on the salary cap — but Backstrom would forfeit the remaining cash. If he went on long-term injured reserve, even for a year at a time, he would make his money and the Caps could get relief against the cap. The Caps also have insurance on the deal, according to a person familiar with it, in which 80 percent of his salary is covered after a deductible of 30 games worth of salary.
Is living up to that contract — and the organization that issued it to him — part of his motivation?
“I think of it two ways,” Backstrom said. “Let’s say I’m sitting on no contract right now. I’m probably not going to get signed anywhere. At the same time, I was fortunate to sign a five-year deal with Washington based on what I did accomplish and what we won here and everything.
“So, yes, I want to finish on my own terms. I have three years left, and I think I can play — hopefully I can play those three years. I think I can help.”
Translation: You’re going to have to drag him off the ice.
“The passion is still there,” MacLellan said. “It’s fun for him to play — or I don’t think he’d be doing it.”
Practice begins Friday, and there is room to be hopeful. “I’m optimistic,” Backstrom said. But it’s important to be realistic, not rosy. Self-awareness is particularly difficult for elite athletes who know what they once were and desperately want to be again.
“I don’t know exactly what version we’re going to see,” Backstrom said. “A pain-free version would be great.”
That’s most important. But production is, too. Nicklas Backstrom’s No. 19 will be raised into the rafters in Chinatown one day regardless of whether he ever suits up in the home dressing room again. He needs to know that he will be treasured here either way and should take pride in putting in all of the work he has to get to this point — even if he’s never the version of himself we have known all these years. | 2022-09-23T10:50:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Nicklas Backstrom needs to know he doesn’t owe anything to anyone - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/23/nicklas-backstrom-needs-know-he-doesnt-owe-anything-anyone/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/23/nicklas-backstrom-needs-know-he-doesnt-owe-anything-anyone/ |
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and International Boxing Association President Umar Kremlev toured the newly opened International Boxing Centre this month in Moscow. (GAVRIIL GRIGOROV/SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images)
Suspicions of corruption in Olympic boxing have existed for decades, including allegations that bouts were fixed at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. Now, continued charges of mismanagement within its governing body might push the sport out of the Olympics.
Boxing is not on the International Olympic Committee’s preliminary program for the 2028 Los Angeles Games, and while the sport’s status could be restored next year, concerns over its leadership make that far from certain. Some see the results of this weekend’s International Boxing Association presidential voting as perhaps the sport’s last chance to stay in the Olympics after 2024. Russia’s Umar Kremlev, the incumbent, faces Dutch challenger Boris van der Vorst in an election the IOC said in a recent letter to Kremlev will be “thoroughly assessed.”
“To me, the drop-dead date for boxing is based on the outcome of this election because of the failures of the current leadership,” USA Boxing Executive Director Mike McAtee said.
In the wake of the Rio scandal, the IOC took temporary control of the sport in 2018, setting up a boxing task force to run the competition at the Tokyo Olympics. In the meantime, Kremlev was elected IBA president in 2020 and offered assurances he would oversee reform in the organization, hiring Canadian law professor Richard McLaren, who investigated Russia’s state-sponsored doping program at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, to probe the Rio allegations. McLaren’s report, released a year ago, detailed several instances of bribery and results manipulation.
But Kremlev’s other actions have raised eyebrows. He moved much of the organization’s operations from Lausanne, Switzerland, to Russia, where he has thanked President Vladimir Putin for his support of the country’s boxing program. He spent heavily on marketing that appeared to promote himself. He has resisted calls for an outside organization to handle the assignment of judges and referees at events.
The IOC also expressed worry that, under Kremlev, the IBA’s lone sponsor is Russian energy company Gazprom, which has supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and is “dependent” on a Russian-owned bank branch in Switzerland whose operations are restricted by sanctions.
In a response to the IOC, the IBA said it “is confident it has implemented the vast majority of the recommended reforms,” defended its centralizing of staff in Russia for “continued smooth operation moving forward” and noted that it “has worked extremely hard” to train officials.
A separate email from an IBA spokesperson said the federation is “financially stable and has no financial issues as of now,” adding that it will “announce two new sponsors in the foreseeable future.” The email also addressed IOC concerns about refereeing and judging at the recent Commonwealth Games, quoting a yet-to-be-published report from McLaren calling it “a successful and non-problematic tournament.”
Adding to the intrigue, Sunday’s vote will be the second in six months. Kremlev and van der Vorst were supposed to face off in May, but on the eve of the vote, the IBA ethics committee disqualified van der Vorst for “early campaigning.” Over the summer, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled in van der Vorst’s favor, forcing a new election. By then, the IOC had announced it would take over boxing for the 2024 Paris Olympics as it did in Tokyo last year.
No matter how frustrated IOC executives have become, they are hesitant to give up on boxing because it is one of the most racially diverse sports at the Olympics, with fighters coming from all kinds of backgrounds, as opposed to many of the Games’ more niche sports that tend to draw athletes from wealthier families who can afford exorbitant training costs.
The addition in 2012 of female fighters has helped give boxing one of the more unusual fields of competitors at the Olympics. With many fighters coming from underserved communities where boxing gyms bring structure to kids who might otherwise not have any, the IOC does not want to pull a critical funding source for amateur fighting.
In its letter to Kremlev, the IOC observed an “absence of a real evolution” in IBA management and said the executive board “is not in position to reverse” its decision to leave boxing off the Los Angeles program “and will continue to monitor with grave concerns IBA’s governance.”
In addition to boxing, the IOC also has left weightlifting (plagued by reports of a doping culture) and modern pentathlon (undergoing an overhaul to replace horse jumping as a discipline) off the initial Los Angeles program. Those sports are being given a chance to make it back, but they will be competing with karate, lacrosse, cricket and others to be included.
The IOC executive board will vote in the fall of 2023, but recommendations are expected in the next few months. The tone of the IOC’s letter worries McAtee.
“If you’re looking at all the [other sports the IOC can choose instead of boxing], how many times is [IOC President] Thomas Bach and all of them going to go, ‘Why are we still dealing with boxing?’ ” he said.
The fear among many boxing people is that once boxing falls out of the Olympics it won’t ever get back, removing an event that was part of the ancient Greek Olympics and has been in every Summer Games but one since 1904 while also taking away a significant revenue source for amateur boxing organizations.
“This would be the end of [Olympic] boxing, and I cannot accept that,” van der Vorst said in an email. “I cannot even contemplate conceding and letting the Olympic dream of boxers be destroyed.”
Later he added: “This is more than just a race between Umar and myself — this is a real battle for the Olympic future of our ancient and beautiful sport.” | 2022-09-23T10:51:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Olympic boxing faces uncertain future amid leadership vote - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2022/09/23/olympic-boxing-iba-election-umar-kremlev/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2022/09/23/olympic-boxing-iba-election-umar-kremlev/ |
BOSTON — The Boston Celtics suspended Ime Udoka for a full year, banning the coach who led them to the NBA Finals last spring for the entire 2022-23 season over what two people with knowledge of the matter said was an improper relationship with a member of the organization.
NEW YORK — Aaron Judge fell a few feet short of a record-tying 61st home run, hitting a 404-foot drive caught just in front of the center field wall, and the New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox 5-4 on Josh Donaldson’s 10th-inning single to clinch their sixth straight playoff berth.
SAN DIEGO — Brendan Donovan hit a grand slam in the seventh inning to lead Albert Pujols and the NL Central-leading St. Louis Cardinals to a 5-4 victory against the San Diego Padres, snapping a three-game losing streak.
OAKLAND, Calif. — Veteran catcher Stephen Vogt of the Oakland Athletics will retire after 10 major league seasons.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The idea was for two of the most reliable American teams to set the tone in the Presidents Cup, and the result was predictable.
SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France — Rasmus Hojgaard holed a 72-foot birdie putt on the way to shooting a 9-under 62 at the French Open, giving him a two-stroke lead at the European tour event.
SAN DIEGO — Top-seeded Daniel Evans of Great Britain beat 95th-ranked Taro Daniel of Japan 6-4, 6-4 in his opening match at the San Diego Open ATP 250.
LUBBOCK, Texas — Texas Tech linebacker Bryce Ramirez was back in Texas five days after breaking his left leg in a gruesome injury sustained during a game at North Carolina State. | 2022-09-23T10:51:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Thursday's Sports in Brief - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/thursdays-sports-in-brief/2022/09/23/4077c0ae-3b27-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/thursdays-sports-in-brief/2022/09/23/4077c0ae-3b27-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
1911 Capitol Hill house for sale for $2.6 million
The home — a mix of Renaissance classicism, Romanesque Revival and Beaux-Arts — was designed by noted architect Clement A. Didden and his son George
The historical details of this 1911 house on Capitol Hill have been preserved, including the Palladian window and the fireplace with mirrored overmantel and tile surround in the living room. (HomeVisit)
A real estate agent took Beth Hannold to see this 1911 semidetached house in D.C.'s Capitol Hill neighborhood before it went on the market, and Hannold was so enthralled that she wasn’t paying as close attention as she should have been on her drive home.
“I believe I was by myself. My husband was working,” Hannold said. “I was so rattled by it, or in the clouds, I went through a stop sign.”
The house — a mix of Renaissance classicism, Romanesque Revival and Beaux-Arts — had everything that she and her husband were looking for: a fireplace, a garage, the right number of rooms and bathrooms. And its historical features, both inside and outside, had been preserved. The facade features pressed Roman brick and brownstone and is adorned with a Palladian window and cast-iron balconettes.
Capitol Hill house | The house — a mix of Renaissance classicism, Romanesque Revival and Beaux Arts — was designed by noted architect Clement A. Didden and his son George. It is listed at $2.6 million. (HomeVisit)
“I’m an architectural historian,” Hannold said. “My husband also likes historic properties. … All the period details were still intact, and, of course, the spaciousness, which means a lot to my husband but not so much to me. He’s a big guy.”
Even more than historical details, this house has history. It is connected to two prominent Capitol Hill families, the Diddens and Carrys. Noted architect Clement A. Didden and his son George designed the house for George and his wife, Marie, the daughter of Clement’s good friend Albert Carry.
Clement, or C.A., Didden was born in Germany, and he trained as an architect there. He was the sixth generation in his family to become an architect. He practiced architecture in England and South Africa, eventually coming to America. He worked in New York and Philadelphia before landing in Washington in 1872. In 1902, he formed his own firm with son George.
C.A. designed several rowhouses but is perhaps best remembered for the apartment building known as Porter Flats, which no longer exists. At the time of its construction in 1902, it was the largest apartment building in Washington.
Didden also designed a country estate for Carry in 1887. Carry was a prominent Washington brewer, real estate investor, banker and philanthropist. He founded National Capital Bank. Carry’s grandson George A. Didden Jr. was the bank president for 52 years.
Carry hired C.A. to design several of National Capital Brewing Co.'s pubs as well a number of buildings on Capitol Hill. This house was built next to Carry’s house on Capitol Hill.
After the Diddens moved away from Capitol Hill, the house was turned into a boardinghouse. In 1964, St. Mark’s, an Episcopal church, acquired it for use as a rectory and hired C. Dudley Brown, an interior designer who specialized in historical properties, to restore it. Hannold and her husband, Doug Delano, bought the house in 1998.
Since moving in, Hannold and Delano have done some updating — putting on a new copper roof, adding central air conditioning, repointing the brick, fixing the brownstone, and renovating the kitchen and the owner’s bathroom — but they haven’t altered the home’s character.
“I think the Didden who built it could walk in there and be completely familiar with it,” Hannold said. “We’ve really felt a sense of stewardship.”
Hannold said one of the best things about living in the house has been the connection with the previous owners. Not long after they moved in, Albert Didden, George and Marie’s youngest child, who was born just after the house was completed, got in touch.
“He kept planning to come over but was never able to do it because of his health,” Hannold said. “He told me wonderful stories, like how the doctor came over and took out the tonsils of all the children in the kitchen. Just great stories about roaming the neighborhood and playing, who lived where in the various houses on our street.”
Jim Adams, who was rector of St. Mark’s from 1966 to 1996, and his wife visited along with Brown, the interior designer.
“That was quite a pleasure, to meet the Adamses, who loved that house and who I believe had three daughters … they raised there,” Hannold said.
The house has twice been featured on the Capitol Hill Restoration Society’s house tour, and it was included in Kevin Murphy’s book “The American Townhouse.”
“The exterior is just so handsome,” Hannold said. “People would always stop us when we were out front and tell us how much they love the house.”
The five-bedroom, five-bathroom, 5,100-square-foot house is listed at $2.6 million.
139 12th St. SE, Washington, D.C.
Features: The facade on the 1911 semidetached house features pressed Roman brick and brownstone and is adorned with a palladium window and cast-iron balconettes. The home has two sets of stairs, a wood-burning and a decorative fireplace, original millwork, transom windows and two skylights. The main level has a living room, a parlor, a dining room, a kitchen and an office. The lower level has a family room, an office and a workshop. The detached garage has parking for two cars.
Listing agent: Betsy Rutkowski, Long & Foster Real Estate | 2022-09-23T11:23:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 1911 Capitol Hill house for sale for $2.6 million - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/09/23/capitol-hill-house-for-sale/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/09/23/capitol-hill-house-for-sale/ |
Montgomery students are meeting literacy expectations but are behind in math
Parents and students on the first day of school at Harriet Tubman Elementary School in Gaithersburg, Md., on Aug. 29. (Robb Hill for The Washington Post)
Montgomery County students met the school system’s performance target in reading but fell short of goals in math for the last school year, according to academic data shared with the school board Thursday.
Overall, 71.7 percent of students met academic standards in literacy. That was 5.8 percentage points higher than the goal for the 2021-2022 school year, which was originally set for 65.9 percent.
Math scores were lower, with 61.2 percent of students meeting expectations; lower than the 64.1 percent target.
The data follows trends seen nationally of students who are continuing to catch up after two years of disrupted learning during the pandemic, with the district’s economically disadvantaged students and students of color disproportionately lagging behind.
The academic data presented to the board focused on students in second, fifth, eighth and 11th grades. It was further categorized by race and economic status. The results are a mix of students’ report card grades, district tests and other outside exams — such as state-level exams, AP tests and the SAT. Scores were presented for each of the tests.
Student scores on report cards were higher than those on district tests and outside assessments, the data showed. In math, for example, fifth- and eighth-graders’ report card scores were twice that of the district’s test scores.
During a discussion on math scores, Kisha Logan, director of pre-K through 12th grade curriculum, said district assessments depict a student’s understanding of a topic during a specific moment in time. But report card grades generally reflect a longer period of time, after a teacher has the time to help a student better understand a topic.
Board member Lynne Harris (At Large) said she’d heard from teachers that because of the amount of re-teaching that has had to be done, the district’s assessments have tested students on topics they hadn’t yet gotten to in the classroom.
“This is a very common discrepancy that you see in districts,” said board member Scott Joftus (District 3), who is also a consultant for superintendents and school districts across the country. “One thing that I think we need to be careful about is that there’s not a misunderstanding among our educators about what the level of expectation is.”
Joftus added that normally, when data collected directly from the classroom — like the report card data — shows twice the amount of students being successful compared with district assessments, “it means that our expectations are somewhat out of alignment.”
Officials from the school district’s curriculum office said they plan to focus on professional development initiatives for teachers, which would include training on different data tools to monitor student progress. They also use the data to better help students who have a significant need, which could include targeted tutoring before or after school. | 2022-09-23T11:23:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Montgomery students are meeting literacy expectations but are behind in math - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/09/23/montomgery-county-student-test-scores/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/09/23/montomgery-county-student-test-scores/ |
For decades, Trump’s creditors have bailed him out because it cost more to bring him down than prop him up.
President-elect Donald Trump, left, his chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, center, and his son Donald Trump Jr., attend a news conference at Trump Tower in New York, on Jan. 11, 2017. New York’s attorney general sued former president Donald Trump and his company on Wednesday, alleging business fraud involving some of their most prized assets, including properties in Manhattan, Chicago and Washington, D.C. (Evan Vucci/AP)
I met Donald Trump 30 years ago while reporting on his failing Atlantic City casinos. He was then and is now proof that the very rich are different from you and me.
I was working on the story with a colleague who, as part of our joint investigation, was given an audio tape of a two-hour discussion between various Trump creditors. The bondholders were owed tens of millions of dollars.
Trump went broke, but stayed on top
The creditors could have crushed Trump and taken the property after he missed a $41 million payment. But it cost more to bring Trump down than bankrupt him.
Much of the deliberations on that June 1991 conference call concerned the fear of being stuck in bankruptcy court for years if they pushed Trump out. At one point, the creditors talked about paying Trump more than $1 million in an annual management fee even though they thought he had done a “terrible” job managing the casinos.
“What is he providing for the million and a half?” one bondholder asked, prompting others on the call to laugh.
“We hope as little as possible,” an adviser to the bondholders said, causing even louder laughter. “We hope it becomes characterized as a nonmanagement fee.”
When I interviewed Trump, he claimed he was financially successful because his bankers and backers trusted and respected him. “They love me because I’m good and I’m honest,” he said.
Fact Check: Has Trump declared bankrutpcy four or six times?
New York Attorney General Letitia James is trying to do what Trump’s financial backers have long failed to accomplish, which is to make him accountable for his failings and falsehoods as a businessman.
James is suing the former president for falsely inflating his net worth by billions. She alleges Trump used fraudulent accounting statements to obtain loans and tax breaks. She wants Trump to repay the $250 million she claims he illegally obtained.
The latest case against Trump illustrates how the extremely wealthy often walk away from dastardly deeds and poor business management with millions.
F. Scott Fitzgerald couldn’t have been more right when in his short story “The Rich Boy,” he writes: “Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.”
6 takeaways from the New York AG’s $250 million lawsuit against Trump
From platinum pensions to eye-popping salaries, history favors affluent and influential company executives, even when they spectacularly fail at their jobs.
Former Equifax chief executive Richard Smith, who “retired” after a major data breach at the credit bureau was revealed, left the company with a pension worth more than $18 million.
Many executives who oversaw financial companies that drove us into the Great Recession left or resigned — but had earned obscene bonuses, stock options, and years of multimillion-dollar paychecks. Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008, yet its former chief executive Dick Fuld earned an estimated $34.38 million a year before the company filed for bankruptcy.
The House Oversight and Reform Committee held a hearing in October 2008 about the collapse of Lehman Brothers. The committee chairman at the time, Rep. Henry Waxman, said: “While Mr. Fuld and other Lehman executives were getting rich, they were steering Lehman Brothers and our economy toward a precipice.”
This is a complete list of Wall Street CEOs prosecuted for their role in the financial crisis
Waxman said Fuld depleted Lehman’s capital reserves by over $10 billion through year-end bonuses, stock buybacks and dividend payments.
“What is fundamentally unfair about the collapse of Lehman is its impact on the economy and taxpayers,” Waxman said. “Mr. Fuld will do fine. He can walk away from Lehman a wealthy man who earned over $500 million, but taxpayers are left with a $700 billion bill to rescue Wall Street and an economy in crisis.”
As I read the complaint against Trump, I kept thinking: What’s the culpability of the financial institutions? Given Trump’s history of corporate bankruptcies, why didn’t they double-check his math and triple-check appraisals?
The lawsuit claims that Trump, three of his children (Donald Trump, Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump), and senior executives at the Trump Organization, armed with super hyped-up appraisals of various New York properties, got banks to lend money on more favorable terms than would otherwise have been available to the company.
Trump and his family, through an attorney, have denied any wrongdoing.
How Donald Trump inflated his net worth to lenders and investors
James’ lawsuit says that from 2011 to 2021, Trump and the Trump Organization intentionally created more than 200 false and misleading valuations of assets to defraud financial institutions.
I’m still stunned at how Trump has been allowed to prosper even as investors and financial institutions faced massive losses. Banks repeatedly renegotiated his debt to bail him out or preserve the value of the assets that served as collateral for loans made to Trump.
Trump survived and thrived because of the willingness of bankers and bondholders to prop him up.
But let struggling consumers default on their mortgages, student loans or credit card debt, and they face financial ruin.
I’ve often heard various versions of a comedy bit that says if you owe the bank $10,000, you don’t sleep. But if you owe the bank $10 million, the banker doesn’t sleep. The dollar amounts change depending on who tells the joke, but the underlying sentiment is that uber-rich people frequently get favorable treatment when they falter financially.
“For too long, powerful, wealthy people in this country have operated as if the rules do not apply to them,” James said in a statement. “Donald Trump stands out as among the most egregious examples of this misconduct.”
Thirty years ago, my colleague and I wrote the following in our Post investigation on his failing casinos, “What is clear is that Trump has not had to face the ultimate financial reckoning.”
Maybe that day has finally come. | 2022-09-23T11:41:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The latest case against Trump shows history favors the very rich - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/09/23/new-york-trump-lawsuit/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/09/23/new-york-trump-lawsuit/ |
Broncos’ early gaffes raise a question: Can Nathaniel Hackett hack it?
“Heck, I’d be booing myself,” Nathaniel Hackett said of unhappy Denver fans. “I was getting very frustrated.” (Justin Edmonds/Getty Images)
After a string of game-management miscues, it’s fair to say Nathaniel Hackett’s tenure with the Denver Broncos has gotten off to a, well, rocky start. If the 42-year-old former Green Bay Packers offensive coordinator isn’t already on the hot seat after only two games, it might start getting a little toasty unless he begins showing signs he is up to the task.
“I just want to be sure that I am the most efficient that I can possibly be and communicate the best way that I can,” Hackett said Monday. “To this point I haven’t done that, and I can do a lot better.”
That comment came a day after Broncos fans went to the extraordinary length of counting down the play clock as it neared zero during a 16-9 Denver win Sunday over the visiting Houston Texans. The chanting was provoked by yet another Broncos delay-of-game penalty, the kind of gaffe more commonly associated with visiting teams.
Including a season-opening loss at the Seattle Seahawks, the Broncos have incurred four delay-of-game calls, two more than any other team. By contrast, over the previous six years, a span encompassing three different head coaches, Denver averaged fewer than four such penalties per season. Hackett’s squad has also been flagged for a league-high six false starts, and its 25 total penalties far exceeds the 18 racked up by the next-most-penalized team, the Philadelphia Eagles.
That lack of discipline would reflect poorly on any NFL coach, but Hackett has also struggled with a lack of decisiveness, not to mention some highly questionable choices when he did finally make a call.
The most notorious episode came at the end of the loss to the Seahawks before a national TV audience on “Monday Night Football" eager to watch Wilson take on the franchise with which he spent the first 10 years of his career. With Denver down by one with about a minute left and facing a fourth-and-five just beyond midfield, Hackett let the play clock nearly run out before calling a timeout with 20 seconds left and sending in kicker Brandon McManus for a 64-yard field goal attempt. Predictably — given that NFL teams are 2 for 42 on attempts of such length since 1960 — the kick failed and questions immediately sprang up about why the debuting head coach preferred that Hail Mary-esque option over letting the highly paid and experienced Wilson try to pick up five yards for a first down.
“Looking back at it,” Hackett said after the 17-16 defeat, “we definitely should have gone for it.”
Last week brought a better result, but given that it was a close, low-scoring affair against a Texans squad widely expected to be one of the worst in the league, the quality of the win could still be questioned. Unfortunately for Hackett, so could his ability to translate his area of expertise — offense — into results.
The Broncos are one of just two teams yet to score a touchdown in the red zone. This despite the fact that Denver has made six trips inside its opponents’ 20-yard line. By comparison, the offensively struggling Chicago Bears and first-year coach Matt Eberflus have three touchdowns on four trips into the red zone.
Denver is 0 for 5 scoring touchdowns in goal-to-go situations, and while Hackett has been criticized for taking the ball out of Wilson’s hands in some situations, he also has gotten dinged for calling too many passing plays near the end zone. Inside their opponents’ 10-yard line, the Broncos have run the ball just four times while throwing it 12. On those passes, Wilson has just four completions. By managing just 16 points in each of its games, Denver is on pace for its worst per-game scoring mark since the 1971 Broncos stumbled to a 14.5-points average.
Hackett was brought in not only for his reputed offensive prowess but as the opposite, in many ways, of former head coach Vic Fangio, a one-time defensive coordinator in his 60s known for a somewhat gruff demeanor. The considerably younger and more charismatic Hackett is thought to have the people skills Fangio lacked, and he promised to bring welcome changes this year in energy and an analytical approach.
What Hackett did not bring was Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. There was speculation that the former Green Bay assistant was hired by the Broncos specifically to lure the superstar quarterback to Denver, but a person familiar with the situation said the team decided Hackett was its best choice regardless of its quarterback.
If Rodgers was the preference, the Broncos got quite a consolation prize in Wilson, who came over from Seattle in a blockbuster trade and was promptly given a five-year contract extension worth $245 million, including $165 million in guaranteed money. The 33-year-old Wilson said Wednesday, “I trust coach Hackett tremendously,” and cited his own newness to the team as a factor in its offensive issues.
One sequence in the Texans game exemplified much of what has Broncos fans so frustrated. On third-and-one late in the third quarter, with Denver down by three but having reached Houston’s 35-yard line, Hackett called for an H-back option featuring a little-used tight end/fullback, Andrew Beck. The former undrafted free agent wasn’t able to beat defenders to the edge and lost a yard. Now facing fourth and two, Hackett eventually sent out McManus, who tied the score with a 54-yard field goal. But wait — delay of game! Pushed back five yards but still well inside Texans territory, Hackett opted to punt rather than attempt a 59-yard field goal that would have been five yards shorter than the one he went for in Seattle that did not have the benefit of Denver’s thinner air.
The home crowd booed as the CBS broadcast crew questioned Hackett’s play-calling and described the penalty as “brutal.”
In the fourth quarter, Hackett had to burn his second timeout when Denver prepared to field a punt with only 10 men on the field. The missing player happened to be the team’s punt returner, Montrell Washington. The coach then used his third and final timeout with more than seven minutes left because the play clock was about to expire on a second-and-11 pass play following a Texans penalty.
Little wonder, then, that Broncos fans felt compelled to start letting Wilson and Co. know when another delay-of-game flag was becoming imminent.
“I guess that was helpful,” the ever-upbeat quarterback said with a chuckle after the game. “That was great our fans were into it.”
Nathaniel Hackett's Coach of the Year odds ballooned all the way from 18/1 to 100/1 yesterday at @CaesarsSports.
The first-year Broncos head coach was tied for the second-lowest odds at 15/1 heading into the season. Hackett is now the biggest longshot in this market.
In his Monday news conference, Hackett stressed the need to improve.
“We’ve got to make sure the communication is clear and concise,” he told reporters. “I need to do better at making decisions faster and quicker, and getting that information to the quarterback, and being on the same page with him.”
In fairness, Hackett has experienced some bad luck, including a major knee injury before the season to wide receiver Tim Patrick, who was expected to be a significant contributor. Starting wide receiver Jerry Jeudy exited the Texans game in the first quarter with a rib injury, further impairing Denver’s attack. In the loss to the Seahawks, both Melvin Gordon and fellow running back Javonte Williams lost fumbles on goal-line carries. If they had punched the ball into the end zone instead, the Broncos might very well be 2-0 with a more functional-looking offense. As it is, Hackett can point to his team’s third-best standing in yards per drive, at 41.2, as evidence that he is doing something right.
Still, the relatively fruitless way most of those drives have ended represents a major problem for Hackett to fix. The slow pace at which Denver has played, meanwhile, has resulted in a second-worst total of 19 drives, meaning that the team has given itself little margin for error.
If Hackett suffers more self-inflicted wounds this week, it will again be under the glare of the national spotlight — and in front of vocal Denver fans — as the Broncos are set to host the San Francisco 49ers on “Sunday Night Football.”
The first-year coach asserted Wednesday he was “doing every single thing I can to try to put myself in a position to make quicker, faster, more efficient decisions.”
“I think we’re going to have some good answers as we move forward,” he said. | 2022-09-23T12:11:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Nathaniel Hackett is struggling early in his Denver Broncos tenure - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/23/nathaniel-hackett-broncos-gaffes/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/23/nathaniel-hackett-broncos-gaffes/ |
The Terrapins take on No. 4 Michigan at noon Saturday (Fox)
Maryland quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa spent a Tuesday night going over film with head coach Michael Locksley. (Amanda Andrade-Rhoades for The Washington Post)
Taulia Tagovailoa’s pen rarely stops moving. With a spiral notebook on his lap and a television to his left, Tagovailoa’s eyes dart from the screen to his notebook, to his coach and back to the screen. He answers questions and nods along. And he writes the entire time. What exactly goes in the notebook? Everything, he says.
It’s a serious, and at times monotonous, hour and a half inside Michael Locksley’s office the Tuesday before the SMU game. The coach, leaning back in his chair, holds the remote and flips through plays from practice — showing one angle and then the next and pointing out precise movements as the action unfolds. His comments might be about a safety’s shoulder, another defender’s hips or Tagovailoa’s feet. The reminders travel from Locksley’s lips into the notebook — and then hopefully to the playing field during Maryland’s game each Saturday.
“Coach Locks, the things that he gives me — to me, it’s gold,” said Tagovailoa, the Terrapins’ third-year starting quarterback.
Svrluga: For Terps football, beating Michigan might require forkfuls of belief
The coach asks questions — “What coverage are you expecting on a normal down and distance?” — and the quarterback almost always answers correctly. He knows the coverage with which one play doesn’t work, and he knows on another, he’s supposed to put the ball on the tight end’s left pad. It’s a robotic routine, with occasional interjections.
“Did you talk to Tua?” Locksley said. “What's the deal? Is he going to come up or not?”
Tagovailoa’s brother, who played for Locksley at Alabama and is now the quarterback for the Miami Dolphins, played in Baltimore the day after Maryland faced SMU last weekend. Taulia made it to his brother’s game, but Tua did not watch the game in College Park. Locksley and Taulia correctly assumed that would be the case, and then their focus shifted back to the film.
Tagovailoa writes so he remembers and so he can flip through the pages for reference later. After each game, Tagovailoa rips the sheets from the notebook, staples them together and sets them on a desk in his living room. This week, there are stacks at home from the first three games, while the notes for Michigan, as he prepares for the Big Ten opener, keep growing each time he pulls the book from his backpack. He keeps all the pages from last season in a big binder.
“It’s almost on the verge of being compulsive, which is a positive,” offensive coordinator Dan Enos said. “He takes great pride in his preparation. He takes great pride in his ability, his detail. He’s a guy that never wants to be on the field and not have an answer.”
By the time Tagovailoa meets with Locksley this Tuesday night, the office window looks out onto a dark practice field. Tagovailoa woke up around 6:15 a.m., then met with Enos. He had breakfast and class, then answered questions at his weekly news conference. After a study hall, he had lunch and more meetings. He practiced, ate dinner and watched film with wide receiver Jeshaun Jones. Around 9 p.m., Tagovailoa came here to go through practice tape, he said, “with the sensei.”
Tagovailoa has led Maryland to a 3-0 start this season after setting multiple school passing records last year. He still often thinks about not wanting to let the team down. He’s the leader of the offense and quarterbacks can have an outsize impact on a game’s outcome.
“That weighs on you a little bit,” he said. “I think doing these meetings, doing all [the work to prepare], you feel better, and I feel like for me and Enos and Locks, we sleep better at night knowing that we did that.”
This season, Tagovailoa has begun attending some of the coaches’ game-planning meetings. He likes understanding why the staff makes certain decisions, and then he can relay that information to his receivers.
As Locksley flipped through the film, he reminded Tagovailoa of Maryland’s past tendencies on certain plays, which opposing teams will know. Locksley, who worked with quarterbacks and coordinated offenses before he became Maryland’s head coach, harped on decision-making with Tagovailoa, reminding him that he considers a misread the same as a bad pass. There’s no reason to hesitate once Tagovailoa spots the key — in this case, a defender’s shoulder. Later, Locksley told Tagovailoa, “If you attack the middle of the defense with your legs, it becomes an issue, especially if you put it on tape.”
And Locksley also asked what the quarterback had for dinner. Answer: Beef tacos with avocado.
Soon after, Locksley needed to step away for a quick recruiting call. Tagovailoa headed to the putting mat that separates Locksley’s desk from the sitting area in his office. Tagovailoa took a few putts, explaining how his brother got him into golf this summer but he’s not very good yet. As Locksley walked back in, he jokingly acted surprised to see Tagovailoa make a putt. The two returned to their seats, their focus again turning toward the screen.
Pep Hamilton, the offensive coordinator for the Houston Texans, sometimes calls Locksley during these film sessions. A few days prior, Hamilton had asked for Tagovailoa, who was at Buffalo Wild Wings with the offensive players and staff rather than watching film with Locksley. So on this night, Locksley called Hamilton via FaceTime, and the NFL coach offered encouragement to Taulia. Eventually, Locksley said he and Tagovailoa needed to get back to watching film.
Locksley thinks Tagovailoa is underappreciated within the national college football landscape. He said everyone tuned in for Maryland’s Friday night game against Iowa last year, and after they saw Tagovailoa collapse in the second quarter, throwing one interception after another, they formed their opinion about him.
Those bad memories stick inside Tagovailoa’s mind, too. When he thinks back on that game, his eyes get wide, as if he’s experiencing the mistakes all over again. At Big Ten media days, a reporter asked about the lessons he took from throwing four interceptions against the Hawkeyes. Tagovailoa quickly offered a correction: It wasn’t four. He threw five.
At the end of last season, Tagovailoa explained why he’s so meticulous in his preparation and said he thinks he’s “kind of traumatized by the Northwestern game,” referring to his Maryland debut that featured 94 passing yards, no touchdowns and a lopsided loss. He doesn’t want to feel that way again.
“Everybody’s different,” Enos said, “but I do think that failure fuels work ethic.”
Even after great games, Tagovailoa comes into meetings with critiques of his performance, and he doesn’t want to be showered with praise. Tagovailoa is too hard on himself sometimes, Enos said, so the coach preaches to him: “Give yourself some grace, man. You’re not going to be perfect or play perfect.”
Enos, a longtime quarterbacks coach, said Tagovailoa is among the best he’s seen at the college level in terms of preparation. When Tagovailoa leaves Locksley’s office around 10:30 p.m., the coach mentions they’ll work on third-down situations and red-zone offense the next day at practice, so he should watch that film beforehand. Tagovailoa said he already had — that’s what he worked through with Jones earlier in the day.
In the quarterbacks group text, the players and Enos sign off messages with “JWMF,” which stands for Just Win Monday through Friday. Tagovailoa, Enos said, is a “living example” of the position group’s philosophy — the idea that they’ll win games based on their preparation during the week.
After a win, Tagovailoa feels a rush of joy. That’s why he does all this work. It’s to chase that moment.
“You put all your chips in during the week,” Tagovailoa said, and so far this season, it’s paid off each time. | 2022-09-23T12:11:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How Maryland QB Taulia Tagovailoa works on winning Monday-Friday - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/23/taulia-tagovailoa-preparation/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/23/taulia-tagovailoa-preparation/ |
A soccer player was spooked before fatal plane crash. So was his pilot.
A Nantes soccer team supporter stops by a poster of Argentine player Emiliano Sala, who died in a plane crash in 2019. (Thibalt Camus/AP)
In the phone call, Ibbotson described what he found so disconcerting about the Jan. 19 flight. For starters, Ibbotson said he heard a “bang” that was cause for alarm, according to the recording.
So, on Jan. 21 around 7:15 p.m., Ibbotson departed with Sala, despite rainy and cloudy conditions ahead, according to an incident report released in March 2020 by the U.K. Air Accidents Investigation Branch. It found that about an hour later, Ibbotson lost control of the plane while trying to avoid inclement weather. It also found that dangerous levels of carbon monoxide had entered the cabin, which may have affected the pilot’s abilities and is likely to have rendered Sala “deeply unconscious” during the crash.
Before the crash, the Cardiff City Football Club had acquired Sala, a striker, from FC Nantes for nearly $20 million, then the largest expenditure in the team’s history. And in the years since, the teams have clashed over whether Cardiff is obligated to pay that money. In late August, according to the BBC, a ruling was made that Cardiff must pay the first installment.
You can ban a book, but can you stop teens from finding it online? | 2022-09-23T12:16:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Emiliano Sala's pilot said airplane was 'dodgy' before deadly crash - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/23/emiliano-sala-pilot-recordings/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/23/emiliano-sala-pilot-recordings/ |
In rural Alaska, modern realities collide with traditional way of life
Connie Walton, left, and her cousin Hilda Booth, center, and Isabel Monroe get together most evenings in the summer to play Rummikub and catch up on news and happenings in the village of Noatak. (Emily Schwing for The Washington Post)
NOATAK, Alaska — Half a dozen women gather to play Rummikub most summer evenings in a small house on a hill that delivers a southward view of this small Arctic village. There’s lots of laughter and teasing, a nice reprieve from some of the challenges of life in rural Alaska.
In late July, one conversation settled on whether the group could take a weekend boat trip downriver to a place called Sisualik, which means “place that has beluga whales” in the Inupiaq language and is a popular spot to camp, fish and pick berries that sometimes swell to the size of small grapes. The problem, however, was finding enough fuel to power the boat.
In May and June, while other Americans were shouldering the burden of $5-per-gallon gas, residents in Noatak were paying $17.99 a gallon for unleaded and $12.99 for diesel — each about $5 more per gallon than the usual price. The village, which sits 70 miles north of the Arctic Circle, is home to about 570 people. The vast majority of them are Indigenous, and they rely heavily on fishing and hunting for their main food sources. At the only local store, beef steaks shipped in from the Lower 48 states can cost more than $100. A green pepper is priced at $6.59. Those goods and others, such as apples, diapers and butter, as well as diesel and unleaded gas, are all delivered by air.
By mid-July, diesel had become unavailable in the village. The two tanks that store the community’s fuel can hold up to 24,000 gallons, but store employees said that the drums are never filled and that they’re never quite sure when the next delivery will arrive. The fuel — which villagers need to power boats, all-terrain vehicles and snow machines, as well as to heat homes — is delivered by air, and both tanks had run dry for at least the second time this year. Some residents cited mechanical issues with the delivery planes, while others blamed flight scheduling. The planes are limited, and airlines must make sure that a pilot is available and that the weather is safe for flying.
Some people, including Della Luther, decided to find fuel on their own.
“I went to Kotzebue to go get stove oil,” said Luther, 62, who works as a health aide at the local clinic. “Stove oil” is the diesel fuel used in oil-drip stoves for home heating. Luther said her son had the 15 gallons of gas she needed to travel about 70 miles downriver by boat to the larger hub community of Kotzebue, where she bought a 50-gallon drum of diesel for more than $8 per gallon. With the added weight in her boat, she had to buy an additional 21 gallons of unleaded gas to make the return trip to Noatak. Even so, she said it was a good deal.
The gas station in Noatak is a wooden shed that stands alongside a row of metal shipping containers that hold extra dry goods across from the store. Normally, one or two customers might be waiting here to fill their four-wheelers. When fuel finally arrives, store employees said, the line sometimes stretches down the street and past the Noatak Friends Church, which had also run out of stove oil by the last Sunday in July.
“Alappaa!” (“cold” in Inupiaq) Ricky Ashby exclaimed when he returned to his sister-in-law’s house after services that day. Wrapped in a blanket and settled into a sofa with a cup of coffee, Ashby, 67, a Nautaaq tribal elder and a devout Quaker, said it was difficult to concentrate on his morning prayers because the church was so chilly. Noatak is far enough north that even in late July, temperatures at night and into the early morning can dip into the 30s. On this particular Sunday, it was 43 degrees when Ashby unlocked the church door for services at 10 a.m. He said he remembered a much simpler time in this village.
“When I was growing up, there was a building about 40 by 30 [feet]. And in the bottom and upstairs in the attic [was] our whole supply of canned food for the winter,” he said. Ashby added that when he was young, goods and fuel were delivered twice a year by barge from Kotzebue. These days, he said, that much food is delivered by air every week.
Noatak is fairly quiet on Sundays, which residents recognize as a day of rest. On the last Sunday in July, more than 30 boats were docked at the riverbank. That didn’t seem out of the ordinary until midday Monday, at the height of the fishing season. All day, chum salmon announced their arrival with chaotic splashing in the river, but the boats remained tied up, some with nets piled inside. On Tuesday afternoon, most of the boats still hadn’t moved — an unsettling sight in a town that depends so heavily on fishing as a main source of food. At the peak of summer, people also would normally be traveling upriver to cut and haul firewood. This fall, they should be heading out again by boat to hunt caribou, another dietary staple in a community that depends on a subsistence lifestyle.
“It’s just that right now, we’ve got no fuel,” said Hannah Onalik, 67, a tribal elder. “That’s why [the boats] are parked.”
As Onalik talks, two diesel-powered electricity generators, twice the size of a dump truck, hum away at the river’s edge. For her, they’re a reminder of yet another challenge.
“I’m worried. Am I going to have electricity next month? Is my freezer going to work?” she said. As the price of diesel rises, so does her electricity bill. And if her freezer isn’t working, her fish and fresh-picked berries may not last until winter.
Onalik is the tribal council secretary and works as a clerk at the store. She’d like to retire, but she’s the only person in her four-member household with a full-time job. She said she makes $33,000 a year. “I’m going to have to move to Anchorage, where it’s easier,” she said. Because Onalik has a job, she doesn’t qualify for local energy assistance or food stamps from the state. Moving to Alaska’s urban center would be difficult, she said, because she has always lived in Noatak.
“This is home,” she said. “Our food, our fish, our caribou — we would never get those in Anchorage,” which is nearly 600 miles to the southeast. “This is just home, no matter what.”
She said a housing shortage in Noatak and the high cost of living have forced some people to move away. The list of reasons to leave may be long, but she also has a reason to stay: “Because, gosh, who would not love Noatak?” As she talked, her gaze moved north, toward a mostly untouched Arctic wilderness and the dark blue ridge line of the Brooks Range in the distance.
Alaska's Matanuska Glacier is public, but most visitors can reach it only via private land
Alaska is known for its extensive system of braided rivers, and the Noatak is one of them. In the 1980s, the main channel of the river, which had been separated from the village by a large island, began to shift closer to the community. The water became increasingly shallow, and by the 1990s, barges could no longer travel upriver from Kotzebue to make their biannual deliveries. At the same time, more people were installing diesel-powered heaters in their homes.
In 1989, Teck Cominco started developing one of the world’s largest zinc mines, known as the Red Dog, a few dozen miles to the north. The mine offers jobs with a two-weeks-on schedule for many residents in Noatak, but that cuts into time people might otherwise be out subsistence hunting and fishing.
Ricky Ashby said residents who work hunt and fish less often and buy more food from the store. “Some of them, both parents are working just to afford their kids,” he said.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median income in Noatak is $55,000, and only one-third of the working-age population is employed. Cost-of-living data show that in the village, the price of utilities alone is more than 2½ times the national average. Grocery and health-care bills are also above average, compared to those in other communities in the United States.
Many Noatak residents rely on federal benefits to ease the pain of high grocery bills. They also depend on dividends paid out by the state annually. The payments are based on revenue from Alaska’s mineral development and lease sales. This year, qualifying Alaskans are receiving $3,284. The check includes a $650 energy relief payment the legislature approved. Still, it’s not enough for most families in Noatak to get by.
Charlie Barger, 76, said he remembered when five gallons of fuel cost less than $20. He said that was cheap by Noatak standards. But in the past decade, he said, a single gallon has cost at least $10. “Back in the ’80s, we got a barge every summer for stove oil and for groceries for the store,” he said. “Yeah, we used to have barges come up [the river] every summer. Now the water [is] too low.”
Air delivery is more expensive, too. Airplane maintenance, the cost of jet fuel and pilot time all factor into the delivery fees. In addition, the planes that can use small village runways, like Noatak’s, can’t carry as much freight as a barge.
The changes in the Noatak River have not only hindered the village’s ability to receive goods by barge, but they are now threatening the community’s key lifeline: its airport runway. As the river’s main channel changes course, it’s creeping closer and closer to the bank that lies at the south corner of the runway.
In a small back office at the Nautaaq tribal building, Jeff Luther shuffled through photos he has taken over the past three years. In 2020, the riverbank eroded by more than 16½ feet, he said.
“In 2021, we lost 28 feet,” he said. “And then this year is over 60 feet.”
Luther, 40, is the tribe’s environmental program assistant. He said that in recent years, spring rain has been heavy and that more meltwater from farther north has inundated the river and exacerbated the erosion. This year, late summer rain caused the river to swell. In August, Luther said that 12 to 20 feet of riverbank farther south of the village and its runway had collapsed.
“It just depends on how much snow there is and how much water gets into the river,” he said. Luther said he has taken recent measurements showing that only 194 feet of land now stretches between the riverbank and the runway’s edge.
Noatak is the only permanent community nestled along this river. But 100 miles southeast, other Arctic communities on the Kobuk River are also struggling with the high cost of living. The villages of Shungnak and Kobuk have partnered on a multimillion-dollar solar array project that came online in the spring. It could save both communities at least $200,000 in costs associated with diesel-powered electricity generators. Noatak recently received a nearly $2 million grant from the Energy Department for a similar project.
“They were going to come in this month and get the pad and foundation formed,” said Edna Bailey, a tribal administrator. “And then I think next year, they’ll finish the whole thing.” She said she pays at least $700 a month for electricity. Others in Noatak have reported monthly electric bills topping $1,000.
A long trail in Alaska would link city, wilderness -- if it can survive red tape
Between the riverbank erosion and the high cost of living, the community is looking for another lifeline. Many residents are turning back to a winter trail used for generations that connects the community to a road that leads to Red Dog Mine. In the winter, they can travel there by snowmachine for less expensive fuel, but they can buy only limited quantities. Noatak’s tribal council is working with the regional government and an Alaska Native Corporation on a plan for a permanent unpaved road along the route. But navigating possible litigation from environmental groups and persuading government agencies to help fund such a project may present yet another challenge. | 2022-09-23T12:16:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | In rural Alaska, modern realities collide with traditional way of life - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/23/noatak-alaska/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/23/noatak-alaska/ |
A ball sits on a roulette wheel at the Global Gaming Expo Asia (G2E Asia) in Macau, China, on Wednesday, May 16, 2018. The expo runs through May 17. (Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg)
One of the world’s largest derivatives exchanges is making a dangerous play for retail investors.
CME Group Inc. plans to offer the trading masses options to punt on whether stocks, gold, oil – or virtually any other asset – will rise on a given day. These will be yes/no contracts, such as: do you think stocks will rise today? If you answer “yes,” and the market finishes up, the contract pays off. If you answer “yes,” and the market goes down, the option expires worthless. Contracts like these have been popularized by sports- and politics-betting sites. And so, with every passing day, the markets asymptotically approach the financial sophistication of DraftKings Inc.
The new CME contracts will encourage pure speculation, serving practically no economic purpose. There is lots of economic utility in plain vanilla options. You can buy puts to protect a bet on a stock rising; or sell calls against a long stock position to hedge it and earn a premium; and you can construct more complex wagers involving different strikes and maturities to obtain the risk profile you want.
Betting on whether stocks, oil or gold will be up or down in a day is just a punt, the kind you make with a friend over beers. It’s simple and easy to understand, which is what makes it so dangerous. Lots of money has been lost at the roulette wheel betting on red or black. It’s another step toward the gamification of investing – a trend led by brokerage Robinhood Markets Inc. that sparked the meme stock frenzy – which risks breaking the link between price and value for the chimera of democratized markets, and a tidy profit.
Plain vanilla options are also dangerous, but everyone knows this, and their complexity acts as a barrier to entry. When that barrier falls, disaster strikes. Like when retail investors were caught holding very expensive GameStop Corp. calls as the stock plunged. The coin-toss CME options will either payout or expire worthless. Losing 100% on a series of trades can be devastating for a retail investor.
What CME is really offering is a binary option. Intuitively easier to understand than plain vanilla options, but more difficult to hedge. Variations of binary options are naturally occurring in the currency world, where one-touch and barrier options are common. They have been responsible for some violent currency moves, as market participants attempt to trigger them around the strike price, and the amount of hedging required is enormous. In the event that these yes/no contracts gain popularity (and I don’t think they will), they could provide a lot of excitement in late-day trading if the underlying asset is approximately unchanged.
The options are another example of the unstoppable growth of derivates, which have eclipsed the listed stock market. In 1999, at the height of the dot-com bubble, the average daily options volume across all exchanges was about 2 million contracts. So far this month, we are averaging 42 million contracts, according to the Options Clearing Corp. That’s 42 million options contracts controlling 4.2 billion shares, which means that the options tail is now wagging the stock market dog.
Then again, you can’t stop progress. When the first US stock options were listed in the early 1980s, there were warnings that the leverage and hedging activity would crash the equity market. That turned out to be false. The options market has held up just fine through a series of crashes and panics. The same was said of leveraged exchange-traded funds in the late 2000s. During the financial crisis, those leveraged ETFs amplified volatility, but nothing broke. Every financial innovation is greeted with some skepticism. Binary options are no different. And maybe “How can I make a clean bet on the stock market going up or down?” is a problem that some people have. It’s not a problem that Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates has.
Derivatives exchanges have become indistinguishable from sports betting sites. As usual, the only people who will make money in the long run are the bookmakers, in this case quants who build the market-making platforms, taking 50 cents out of every $100 bet. It’s a good thing we’re not too squeamish about legalized gambling anymore, because that’s exactly what this is. I worked with some folks at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. who would get bored during the day and start betting $100 on coin tosses. That was degenerate behavior. When an exchange encourages it, it’s still degenerate behavior, but with a veneer of respectability.
• Robinhood’s Era of Fun and Games Comes to an End: Jonathan Levin
• The Gamification of Finance May Be a Good Thing: Mark Gilbert
• Day Trading Isn’t Fun When Stocks Stop Going Up: Brian Chappatta | 2022-09-23T12:20:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The CME Is Becoming the DraftKings of Exchanges - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-cme-is-becoming-the-draftkings-of-exchanges/2022/09/23/b4ec2102-3b2f-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-cme-is-becoming-the-draftkings-of-exchanges/2022/09/23/b4ec2102-3b2f-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
Secret Service uniformed division turns 100 and seeks to move out of the past
The agency that protects White House and foreign missions is trying to rebuild after earlier troubles.
From left, U.S. Secret Service Lt. Paul Mayhair and Officer-Technician Stephen Wolford drive from the White House on Sept. 15. (Maansi Srivastava for The Washington Post)
The man believed he owned the Pakistani embassy’s chancery building in Kalorama Heights, and on one recent morning, he paid a visit to stake his claim.
Police officers with the uniformed U.S. Secret Service foreign missions division sped to the stretch of Massachusetts Avenue in Northwest Washington dubbed Embassy Row and detained the man, who they said had gotten inside the building with a phone, keys and a pen — but no identification or paperwork to support his assertion.
“You’re on my property,” the 39-year-old man told Officer-Technician Stephen Wolford, who has been on the force a little more than four years.
“This is the Embassy of Pakistan,” Wolford told the man, who was dressed in shorts and sandals and handcuffed on the front lawn, surrounded by police and embassy officials.
Wolford is one of about 1,700 uniformed Secret Service police officers whose primary job is protecting the White House grounds, an 18-acre fortress where the president lives and works, and where the agency must quickly evolve to adapt to new threats. But officers also fan out across the city responding to calls, and helping with security at roughly 500 foreign missions and similar properties across the District.
The uniformed division — not to be confused with iconic suit-clad agents who protect presidents and dignitaries — turned a century old Sept. 14. The birthday comes as the Secret Service is rebounding following a string of embarrassing security failures in the early to mid-2000s that engulfed both the protective details and the uniformed division.
In one incident in 2014, an intruder with a knife jumped the fence and managed to get past several layers of security and into the East Room of the White House before being detained. More recently, the agency also has been thrust to the center of political controversy over allegations that then-President Trump tried to get his protective detail to take him to the Capitol on Jan. 6, when rioters overtook the building.
The House Committee on Oversight and Reform concluded in 2015 that rank and file officers and agents had “lost confidence” in their leadership and descried the Secret Service as an “agency in crisis.” The report faulted disciplinary procedures and what it said were dangerously low staffing levels.
New breaches revealed in report that says Secret Service is ‘in crisis’
The Government Accountability Office found similar problems in its own report issued in December 2014, and recommended more training and improvements in security measures. In January this year, the GAO said the agency had successfully implemented 13 of its 19 recommendations, including increasing the size of the uniformed force. Its target is to have 1,805 uniformed officers by 2025.
The GAO said in its January update that construction of a new, taller fence around the White House, which began in 2019 and is designed to stop people from climbing over it and onto the grounds, is behind schedule. The Secret Service attributed that to a variety of factors, including demonstrations and the discovery of power lines.
The chief of the Uniformed Division, Alfonso M. Dyson Sr., said in an interview that no one has successfully scaled the new fence, and that he welcomed the critique of the agency he has been with for 32 years. He said officials are making progress on the recommendations.
“When I see those reports, it just tells me we need to take a look at the things we’re doing to see if we need to adjust something, or train better or do some things slightly different,” said Dyson, who was named chief Jan. 31. “I think constructive criticism is a good thing.”
The chairman of the union representing uniformed Secret Service officers declined to discuss the reports, saying in an email it would require speaking on security issues “that would be a breach in our duty.”
As Dyson strolled the White House grounds and Pennsylvania Avenue one day last week, a few clumps of tourists gathered, a group arguing Biden has abandoned Latin America held a news conference and a Biden supporter displayed a sign honoring families of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The nation’s capital and the White House in particular are popular targets for locals living around the corner, and from others coming from around the world, to call attention to their causes. Dyson described 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as “sort of a Main Street” akin, he said, to a “People’s Avenue.”
Dyson said Secret Service officers have made more than 500 arrests across the city this year, many helping D.C. police on calls unrelated to foreign missions, and have seized dozens of illegal firearms, including some near the White House. The chief said he does not sleep much at night, his mind “constantly racing” about threats and what might come. “You just don’t know when something is going to happen,” he said. “I know something is going to happen one of these days. And again, this is why we train and prepare.”
The uniformed division began as the White House Police Force under the administration of President Warren G. Harding, joined with the Secret Service in 1930 and adopted its current name in 1977. In many ways, those who work on it are like any other police officer.
Accompanied by a Washington Post reporter on a recent shift, Wolford ticketed a car illegally parked in a diplomatic space outside the Embassy of Poland, and raced to a report — later deemed false — of a woman cutting herself inside the Embassy of Azerbaijan.
But some calls take on heightened concern when they affect an address associated with the executive branch, as when a construction worker flagged down Wolford one day last week after an unoccupied vehicle struck a fence near the vice president’s residence at the Naval Observatory. Police, worried about an attack or a bomb, closed streets, though they later learned a motorist had parked and simply forgotten to set the vehicle’s parking brake. A busload of migrants sent by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to the vice president’s residence also prompted a security alert.
Protecting foreign missions can also come with special challenges. The war in Ukraine drew armed wannabe-soldiers to the embassy volunteering to fight. And extra officers had to be sent to the Russian Embassy for demonstrations against the war.
Construction will begin this summer to make White House fence taller
Even those mourning the death of Queen Elizabeth II required attention from police around the British Embassy. Wolford noted the sad occasion, but also that there are people who don’t like the British monarchy. “So you kind of have to be very vigilant as people are placing their flowers down,” he said, as he passed by the embassy in his cruiser a few days before the funeral. “There could be bad actors out there.”
And then there are the mental health calls.
Wolford has completed Crisis Intervention Team training to deal with people experiencing mental health distress, and he said he recently helped talk a man out of jumping off the Taft Bridge over Rock Creek, south of the National Zoo. He is part of a growing number of federal officers certified to help people in mental distress, which he said helped in how he handled the man claiming to own the Pakistani embassy’s chancery building.
Someone on the embassy staff had flagged down a Secret Service officer saying the man had entered the building, claimed ownership and was planning to change the locks, according to an arrest affidavit filed in court.
That officer took him outside, as Wolford and others sped to the call. The man remained calm but insisted he was the building’s rightful owner, telling Wolford he had given money to somebody online.
“I have evidence that I bought this,” the man said. Referring to embassy staff, he added, “I have been in constant contact with them.”
Wolford had officials run the address and a dispatcher radioed back that the building was indeed owned by Pakistan. Police said they even checked with a Realtor the man told them had brokered the sale. The Realtor told police the building was not for sale.
Authorities said the man was taken to a hospital for treatment of a preexisting medical condition. Police said he was charged with unlawful entry. | 2022-09-23T12:20:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Secret Service uniformed division turns 100 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/23/secret-service-uniformed-100th-anniversary/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/23/secret-service-uniformed-100th-anniversary/ |
After Gov. Greg Abbott in February ordered child abuse investigations of the parents of transgender children, Morgan Davis, a Child Protective Services worker in Austin, was assigned two cases.
Morgan Davis, a former investigator for Texas Child Protective Services. (Ilana Panich-Linsman for The Washington Post)
The day after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services to “conduct a prompt and thorough investigation” of families with transgender children, the first case came up, and Morgan Davis’s name was on it.
Davis was one of four investigators on a Travis County unit tasked with reviewing claims of child abuse. Usually, he and his colleagues took cases on a rotation. Davis was next in line.
That evening, a Wednesday in late February, his supervisor called and relayed the basic facts. A mandated reporter — by law, any licensed professional who works directly with children — had turned in a family outside of Austin because they’d allowed their teenager to live as a girl. Under the governor’s order, someone had to investigate the family for child abuse.
Davis’s supervisor told him she knew working the case might feel difficult. Nine months earlier, Davis had come out as a transgender man. He was 52, born in a generation when calling yourself “tomboy” felt daring enough, but after five decades, he’d decided he was finally ready to live as himself.
On the phone, the supervisor said she was prepared to offer Davis something she never had before.
“If you want to recuse yourself,” she said, “you can.”
Davis had taken the investigator job because he hoped to advocate for children in a way he felt no one had advocated for him when he was young. Usually, he believed in the department’s mission of removing children from abusive situations. But if he took this case, he thought, he’d be carrying out what many in his department had been calling a political stunt.
Across the country, Republican lawmakers were pushing anti-trans legislation to bar children from sports or gender-affirming health care. Abbott’s letter went further. It didn’t matter that puberty blockers and hormone therapy are endorsed by all major medical associations as appropriate treatments for gender dysphoria. If a parent allowed their child access to those medications, Abbott wrote, the state could break up the family.
Abbott said he’d written the directive because he wanted to protect children from “abusive” procedures, but Davis and his colleagues believed the governor had done it to rouse his conservative base ahead of November’s gubernatorial run against Beto O’Rourke.
It was evil, Davis thought, and he didn’t want to participate in evil. But recusing himself wouldn’t make the case go away. Another investigator would take it. Davis believed that most of his colleagues wanted to protect children from harm, but he knew that no one else had the lived experience he did. If he took the case, maybe he could tell the family he understood. Maybe he could thank them for giving their daughter the childhood he never had.
Davis pulled in a deep breath, exhaled, then told his boss he’d do it.
“If it’s got to be someone,” he said, “I want it to be me.”
‘We just cried together’
Davis already had 25 cases of abuse and neglect on his docket, a load that current and former Child Protective Services employees described to The Washington Post as “unmanageable.” His colleagues had similar amounts. According to the Houston Chronicle, nearly 2,300 employees have left DFPS this year — the highest voluntary exit rate the agency has seen since it became independent in 2017. (A DFPS spokesperson said the department has roughly 13,000 employees.) Those departures left investigators like Davis with two and three times the load they used to carry. Davis regularly worked all day, all night and into the weekend.
As Davis and his supervisor talked that Wednesday night, she told him he wouldn’t have to spend long on this one.
“She told me, ‘Just go in, do the interview, assess the safety, then we’ll close the case,’ ” Davis said.
When someone reports child abuse, investigators act immediately, Davis said — within 24 hours for the most serious cases and within 48 for others. Investigators talk to the person who made the complaint, then they go to the child’s school.
In this case, Davis’s supervisor allowed him to schedule a meeting at the family’s home for that Friday evening, roughly 48 hours after the initial report. (According to civil court filings, other families did not receive the same treatment: In at least two instances, investigators interviewed children at school with no warning.)
Davis spent that Thursday calling people for advice. He talked to his own doctor and to people from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association. Davis said the guidance they gave him echoed the statements they put in writing that same week: Gender-affirming care can be lifesaving for young trans people. The governor’s letter would put those children at even higher risk of anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicide.
Davis spoke to the person who reported the abuse and, later that afternoon, called the child’s mother to set up the meeting.
“My name is Morgan,” he said. “I need to let you know there has been a report.”
Davis still believed he could make the situation better, so he told the woman she’d be safe with him.
“I’m a trans man,” he said. “I’ve been assigned to this case.”
They spoke a few minutes longer, Davis said, then “we just cried together.”
An ‘exemplary’ family
Davis often wore jeans and a button-down when he visited families or children. That Friday, he put on what he described as his Sunday best — a wool blazer, a pair of cowboy boots and his favorite bow tie.
He spent the morning investigating a different family for physical abuse and sexual assault, then, on his way to the suburbs to interview the family who’d allegedly allowed their child to transition, he stopped to buy empanadas and tartlets to give the visit a homier feel.
They had set the meeting for 6 p.m., but Davis arrived 20 minutes early, so he drove around the block 12 times before he forced himself out of his Jeep. He stepped into the street, then threw his DFPS badge into the vehicle. He’d seem less threatening, he thought, without it.
Davis strode toward the house, and his arms and legs shook. He’d done all he could to appear non-threatening, but he knew a good bow tie and a box of pastries would go only so far. Ultimately, the child would see a state investigator.
Davis gripped the box. He rang the doorbell. The child’s mom opened the door immediately.
“Hi,” Davis said, holding up the pastries. “These are for you.”
The family had hired two lawyers: one for the parents, one for the child. Davis knew both of them because he’d previously worked as a clerk and judicial aide in the county CPS court.
One of the lawyers, Michael Ludvik, had taught Davis how to shave after he started taking testosterone. The other, Tracy L. Harting, had worked CPS cases for 25 years, and at first, she told The Post, she felt relieved that Davis would be the one investigating.
“When I looked at it initially, it was like, ‘Great. We’re not going to have to explain so many things because there’s just going to be some understanding there,’ ” Harting said.
Everyone, including the child, settled in the living room, and Davis noticed that the parents sat on the couch together. He’d been on the job only for a year, but he’d never seen parents sit together. Usually, he visited young people at school, but when he did go to homes, the mood tended to be chaotic.
Davis began by asking the parents to sign a release form that would allow him to review their child’s medical records. The parents declined, and Davis exhaled with relief. If they didn’t turn over the records, he thought, he had no proof that they were allowing her to seek gender-affirming care. Without proof, he had no case.
Next, Davis asked the roughly 20 questions he asks every parent he investigates. How do you discipline your child? When is the last time they went to the doctor? How would you describe your relationship with your child?
5 percent of young adults identify as trans or nonbinary, survey says
The parents declined to answer most of Davis’s questions, and after 20 minutes, he told them he needed to interview their daughter separately, so Davis, Ludvik and the child moved to another room.
Again, Davis read from a list of required questions. Most were basic — what are your chores, who’s the better cook, your mom or your dad — but some are so intimate, Davis blushes every time he interviews a kid. He’s the kind of guy who says “golly” a few times a conversation, and he’s more likely to spell out s-e-x than say the word itself.
But the questions are designed to determine whether a child is being abused, and investigators have no leeway, so Davis forced himself to ask them that evening.
“Do you know where your privates are?” he asked the girl. “Has anyone touched them?”
They talked for a little more than 20 minutes, then Davis looked around the house. The pantry held several boxes of name-brand cereal. The family had hung art on most of the walls. Davis made small talk with the mom as they toured the kitchen, then the girl asked, “Do you want to see my room?”
Davis knew he had to appear official, but he wanted to cry. The question was so innocent. He was there to investigate her for being herself, and like any kid, she wanted to show off her room.
“Yeah!” Davis said, trying to mask his heartbreak with an enthusiastic grin.
He followed the girl down the hallway and into her room. She had an impressive collection of Lego sets, two bookshelves and at least 40 books. She told Davis “The Odyssey” was her favorite. Her parents had even taken her to Greece so she could see some of the places mentioned in the Homeric epic.
After an hour or so, Davis asked if he could snap a portrait of the child to show she was “height- and weight-appropriate.” Ludvik and the girl’s parents agreed Davis could take one outside near the front door.
The girl smiled, sweet and shy. Davis took one shot with his state-issued phone, then he relaxed. They were done. The family was “impeccable,” and he was going to close the case.
He stepped outside. He called his supervisor and described the family as “exemplary.” The fridge was stocked. The books on the girl’s shelves were above grade level. There’s no abuse, Davis told his supervisor. We can shut this down.
“Unfortunately,” the supervisor said. “We have to wait.”
Davis still doesn’t know when or why the higher-ups decided they wouldn’t heed his report, but he said his supervisor told him it was beyond her control. One of her bosses had to join the investigation.
Davis returned to the living room, and he tried to frame his boss’s words as no big deal, but the lawyers realized then, and the family did, too, that it didn’t matter if the investigator was trans or kind. Something inextricable and horrible was beginning, and Davis couldn’t stop it.
The parents’ lawyer walked Davis out. Maybe Davis did understand the family in ways other investigators couldn’t, Harting thought, but that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Maybe the family had trusted Davis and told him things they wouldn’t tell other investigators, things the state could eventually use against them.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Harting told Davis in a tone that was firm but kind. “I know you meant well, but this is wrong. You shouldn’t do this.”
An exodus
Davis spent much of that weekend working and crying. He stayed up past midnight typing notes for his boss, and his stomach tightened as he uploaded the photograph of the girl. He woke up the next morning at 6, and he scrutinized his report until he was sure he’d written the best version he could.
Still, Davis felt “sunk.” He’d watched for months as lawmakers in other states had moved to restrict transgender rights. Lobbying didn’t seem to sway them, and neither did a broad medical consensus. The only tactics that seemed to work, Davis thought, were lawsuits. He spent most of that weekend hoping someone would sue, and on Tuesday, a week after Abbott published the order, one family did.
Davis read the civil court filing on his phone at the office the next morning. The family had a 16-year-old transgender daughter, Davis read, and the mother worked for CPS. After Abbott released the order, the mother, identified only as Jane Doe, asked her supervisor how it would affect her family. A few hours later, the agency placed Jane Doe on administrative leave. An investigator called the next day.
Davis winced as he read the family’s affidavit. They wrote that they now live in “constant fear.” Jane Doe is unable to sleep, and her daughter “has been traumatized by the prospect that she could be separated from her parents and could lose access to the medical treatment that has enabled her to thrive.”
He imagined other families with trans kids must feel the same way.
“I did this,” Davis thought. “I hurt a child. I hurt a family, a family I would have wanted.”
Department supervisors mostly kept the cases “hush-hush,” Davis said, but he learned that first week that other colleagues had cases, too. By March, agency officials later said in a public meeting, the state had opened nine investigations. In early March, one of Davis’s colleagues quit in protest.
Randa Mulanax was a supervisor over the removals unit, and she’d worked for the department for nearly six years. When the first lawsuit went to court March 11, the plaintiffs subpoenaed Mulanax.
The hearing was broadcast online, so Davis watched on his phone, alone, at the office. He felt “electric” as Mulanax took the stand. She was a straight, cisgender woman, and she was willing to give up a good job to fight for transgender children.
“I’ve always felt at the end of the day, the department has children’s best interest at heart and families’ best interest at heart,” Mulanax testified. “I no longer feel that way with this order.”
A district court judge granted the Doe family a temporary restraining order, a ruling that meant the state could not investigate them further, but the state appealed, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton vowed to keep investigating families.
Harting declined to discuss the case Davis investigated, but the lawyer represents multiple families who are either being investigated or remain at risk of investigation, and she said they all feel traumatized.
Court documents filed as part of two lawsuits support that. One 16-year-old trans boy said he “felt his world cave in” when he was pulled out of class in late February and questioned by a CPS investigator at school. Another 16-year-old trans boy took a bottle of aspirin and attempted to die by suicide the day the directive came down.
As Davis learned about those cases, he told himself he should quit. But every time he considered leaving, he thought of the girl he’d investigated. If he left, someone else would interview children like her. Though Davis said many of his colleagues support trans children, court records show that some used tactics the children found harmful. In at least one instance, an investigator addressed a trans boy by the name and sex he was assigned at birth, even though his family had applied to legally change both. Afterward, the mother wrote in a legal filing, the boy had a “meltdown” and has since felt too anxious to return to school.
Maybe Davis couldn’t stop the investigations, but he could at least try to make them less painful.
A few weeks after the hearing, Davis was assigned a second case. This time, a teacher told CPS officials that she had seen something on a child’s Instagram page. Davis thought the teacher shouldn’t be patrolling teenagers’ social media, but it was his job to investigate, so he called the family. The mother didn’t answer, but eventually, she called Davis back and told him they’d moved to Colorado two days after Abbott published his letter.
“Oh, thank God,” Davis told her. “I’m so happy for you.”
By the end of March, all of the other investigators on Davis’s unit had quit. Still, he tried to hold on.
Then, Davis said, in early April, his supervisor told him the agency would no longer consider gender dysphoria a medical diagnosis, even though it’s in the latest Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. (The agency has not made this guidance public, and the claim does not appear in legal filings. A spokesperson for DFPS declined to comment.) And in early May, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the temporary restraining order applied only to the family that sued. Without a statewide injunction, Davis realized, the agency might keep investigating other families. Three days later, he left CPS.
“I was complicit,” Davis said. “I thought I was doing good, but I should have resigned that first night. The only way to do good, I realized, was to get out and go public.”
When Davis transitioned in the spring of 2021, he planned to do so quietly. He didn’t know any other trans adults, and he worried some people wouldn’t support him.
The investigations changed him. This summer, he decided to trade his privacy for advocacy. Late last month, he and 15 former colleagues signed an amicus brief condemning the policy, and when Davis signed it, he came out publicly.
“Davis resigned in May 2022 after about one year as a CPS Investigator for DFPS,” his lawyer wrote. “Mr. Davis is an openly transgender man.”
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, Texas has investigated at least 13 families this year, and parents say the state continues to open new ones.
On the morning of Aug. 30, a 13-year-old transgender boy was pulled out of class and interviewed by a CPS investigator for nearly an hour, according to court records filed this month. Since then, the boy has experienced frequent panic attacks, his mother testified.
Stories like those gnaw at Davis. In the months since he left CPS, he has struggled — both personally and professionally. He cries often when he thinks about the night he interviewed the family. They and other families deserved better, he thought.
“We walked into their homes and their schools,” he said, “and we scared the garbage out of them.”
After he left CPS, Davis applied for several dozen jobs, but no one would hire him. He went a few months without work and, eventually, took a temporary job at a supermarket. Mulanax, the supervisor who quit and testified in March, works part time at Target and is back in school. Davis said he knows others remain unemployed.
In September, a few weeks after Davis and his colleagues signed the amicus brief, a Travis County district court judge ruled that CPS cannot investigate members of PFLAG, a national LGBTQ organization with 18 chapters in Texas. Investigators have not returned to the home Davis visited in February, but Harting said this week that all of the cases she represents remain open. A DFPS spokesperson said Wednesday that the state has closed all but four cases and that no children have been removed.
A law firm finally hired Davis as a paralegal last month, but even if he hadn’t found work, he said, he is proud that he left the position that he once thought of as his dream job.
“It took me 52 years to be brave,” he said. “I never had somebody stick up for me. I came from a really religious family. I was called all the names you can think of. I still don’t know anybody who would stick up for me. If even just one person sees that they have someone to stick up for them, maybe I can make amends for what I did that night.” | 2022-09-23T12:20:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | To protect Texas’s transgender kids, this trans CPS worker resigned - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/23/texas-transgender-child-abuse-investigations/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/23/texas-transgender-child-abuse-investigations/ |
What to watch with your kids: ‘Catherine Called Birdy’ and more
From left, Beau Gadsdon, Zac Cudby, Austin Haynes and Eden Hamilton in “Railway Children.” (Jaap Buitendijk/Blue Fox Entertainment)
Railway Children (PG)
World War II-set family drama has themes related to war, racism.
“Railway Children” (also known as “The Railway Children Return”) is a British drama set during World War II that deals with issues around race. The movie is a sequel to a 1970 film, which itself was an adaptation of the classic novel by E. Nesbit. Offering a less typical perspective in a genre often preoccupied with trenches and war rooms, it focuses on a group of children who meet Abe (Kenneth Aikens), a Black U.S. soldier who’s on the run due to the racism he encountered in the Army. There’s also a racist attack in a pub, which highlights the bigotry among people who are supposedly fighting on the same side. The children have never encountered racism before — which indicates their position of privilege — so Abe’s experiences are new to them. They show bravery and are independent and stand up to those who bully others. While the film isn’t very violent, the theme of death lingers, as the kids are coming to terms with their parents’ mortality and the hatred and conflict that surround them. A man is heard being shot, but it’s not shown. There’s also a focus on the brave women left behind at home during World War II. (98 minutes)
Catherine Called Birdy (PG-13)
Heartfelt medieval comedy adaptation tackles adult themes.
“Catherine Called Birdy” is a coming-of-age comedy (based on the popular same-named 1994 book) set in medieval England. It’s sweet but has sexual references and deals with some tough subject matter. Directed by Lena Dunham, the story follows a 14-year-old girl named Birdy (Bella Ramsey) who’s dealing with adolescence — including first crushes and periods — all while her father, Lord Rollo (Andrew Scott), tries to marry her off so he can restore the family’s wealth. There are discussions about virginity and stillbirth, but nothing overly graphic is shown, and many of the references are made via innuendo. That said, there is a distressing birth scene, as well as a duel (with swords) that results in a nonfatal bloody wound. Reflecting the 13th-century time period, girls are married against their will and treated like property. But Dunham has fun ridiculing these traditions, and Birdy uses her smarts to stay one step ahead of her father — and any potential husbands. Rollo is portrayed as always being drunk, and another character is seen throwing up after a wedding. There’s also some potty humor and occasional use of “s---.” (108 minutes)
Star Wars: Andor (TV-14)
More mature “Rogue One” prequel has violence, intrigue.
“Star Wars: Andor” is a prequel series to the film “Rogue One.” The show, which focuses on a thief (Diego Luna) who starts working for the rebels, is more mature than other Star Wars movies and shows. Some scenes are set in a brothel, where sex workers dance in the background (no nudity). Characters drink in a bar, and the sci-fi fantasy violence is amped up to include frequent use of guns: One character is shot point-blank in the head. There’s also some hand-to-hand fighting and combat. (12 episodes, ranging in length from 35 to 50 minutes)
I Used to Be Famous (TV-MA)
Sweet British drama has neurodiverse lead, strong language.
“I Used to Be Famous” is a charming British drama that preaches the idea of never giving up. It is also notable for not only having an autistic supporting lead character, but casting a neurodiverse actor in the role. When down-on-his-luck former boy-band member Vince (Ed Skrein) meets Stevie (Leo Long), a young drummer with autism, the pair form a two-person band. Vince helps Stevie come out of his shell and his comfort zone, while Stevie helps Vince become less self-obsessed. Though not constant, the language is strong, with words such as “f---” and “s---” used. In one scene, Stevie is derogatorily called “special needs.” There is one moment of violence when a brawl kicks off at one of the band’s live performances. Punches are thrown, and Vince is left with a bruised and bloodied face. There are also a number of references to the death of Vince’s brother, something he is struggling to overcome. Characters can also be seen drinking alcohol throughout the film, though never to excess. (104 minutes) | 2022-09-23T12:21:06Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Common Sense Media’s weekly recommendations. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/movies/2022/09/23/common-sense-media-september-23/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/movies/2022/09/23/common-sense-media-september-23/ |
Neu created a rhythm that’s still beating 50 years later
The German band’s longtime influence has trickled into many unexpected streams of music
By Jonathan Williger
Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother of Neu. (Groenland Records)
Perched inside the recording room at Star Studio in Hamburg, guitarist Michael Rother heard his own playing in a new light. It was a couple days into the four-day session in December 1971 that would produce the first self-titled album by Neu, Rother’s newly formed duo with drummer Klaus Dinger. Along with producer Conny Plank, he was fleshing out the 10-minute instrumental “Hallogallo,” conjuring plumes of melody that would swirl over Dinger’s streamlined, insistent 4/4 beat. While listening to the playback, Plank decided he wanted to hear the guitars backward, suddenly throwing the tape into reverse.
“Everything went vvvvp vvvvp vvvvp and I thought, oh this is wonderful,” Rother recalled during a recent Zoom call from Italy. “That change from reality — that abstraction — really interested me. I’m not saying suddenly genius melodies came out of me, but it was inspiring.” Plank incorporated the inverted guitar into the mix, ingraining the song with an otherworldly euphoria that Rother was able to play off of in subsequent takes. On the recording, his guitar darts in and out of the surreal swells of sound while Dinger’s drums march a straight line toward the horizon.
“Hallogallo” would go on to define an era of German underground music and influence multiple generations of rock bands, electronic music producers and experimentalists from all over the world. Though it sold modestly upon its release in March 1972, and was out of print for much of the 1980s and ’90s, “Neu” cleared the path soon trod by Brian Eno and David Bowie, and later countless others who were searching for a way out of established rock-and-roll tropes toward something more transcendent and strange. Across its six tracks, Rother and Dinger, guided by Plank and his penchant for exploring the possibilities of sound, dismantle just about every hierarchical structure in rock music. Chord progressions and song structures are boiled down to a singular drone, which is experienced as inexhaustible, almost eternal.
Fifty years after its release, the album’s influence continues to be enormous. To mark the anniversary, the German label Grönland has put together a boxed set compiling that landmark first album and the three that followed, along with a collection of remixes and new songs by contemporary musicians inspired by their sound and legacy. Artists such as the National, New Order’s Stephen Morris and composer Yann Tiersen all reworked material for the set. Though Dinger died in 2008, Rother will be revisiting Neu songs at a concert in London on Nov. 3, with Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor opening.
“We’ve always loved that sound, the stacked guitars driving toward infinity,” says Kassie Carlson, singer with the New York-based band Guerilla Toss. The band contributed an original song, “Zum Herz,” to the Grönland tribute compilation, transposing the melody from Rother’s solo song “Zyklodrom” into an post-punk rave-up. “A lot of our music nods toward that era of German cosmic music, with that blissful, major sound. But with ‘Zum Herz’ we really wanted to try to write a Neu song.”
Rother and Dinger met in 1970 when they became members of Kraftwerk alongside one of the band’s masterminds, Florian Schneider. The association with Kraftwerk and that group’s status as one of the most well-known German bands of the 20th century hangs heavy over the story of Neu, even if the duo’s contributions never ended up on a Kraftwerk album. In that embryonic stage, their music had an unpretentious, often impassioned character compared with the mechanized, detached style they would adopt years later when they fully embraced synthesizers and drum machines. Rother grins as he tells a story of performing with Kraftwerk and understanding just how unhinged a player Dinger could be. “I noticed the audience staring at the stage and followed their eyes to Klaus,” he remembers. “There was blood squirting from his hand. He loved to play on broken cymbals, which of course had very sharp edges. He was beating the drums and just continued to play without stopping for a second. I think it never crossed his mind.”
This image runs counter to how many fans and critics have characterized Dinger’s drumming. The beat on “Hallogallo,” as well as “Negativland” from the first album, “Für Immer” from “Neu 2,” and other songs, has been popularized as “motorik” (“motor skill”), conjuring a well-oiled machine, unchanging and static. Dinger never adopted that name, and later in life he began calling it the “Apache beat,” evoking a stereotype of Native American music. Despite the problematic genesis of that terminology, it points to the focused intensity of his playing as the drummer attempts to draw connections to the ceremonial uses of repeated rhythm in Native communities. Listening to the motorik beat, it can indeed seem unbound to clock time, pushing defiantly into boundless space even as it ticks off the seconds precisely and purposefully.
“For me it’s the greatest beat to play guitar to,” writes Stereolab’s Tim Gane in a recent email. Several of the French group’s most iconic songs sit atop the assertive pulse Dinger pioneered. “The motorik drum beat isn’t just any 4/4 drum beat, and Klaus Dinger wasn’t just any ordinary rock drummer,” Gane added. “His way of playing is totally unique and so full of soul, passion and intensity that it counterbalances the alienating effect of the guitar effects. It creates a new kind of shadow rock music that wasn’t at all shallow.”
Motorik has become almost synonymous with krautrock, the inelegant term coined by the British press to lump together the groups emerging from Germany at the time, but “Neu” is an album built on contrasts. Following the immediacy of “Hallogallo” is the hyper-minimal “Sonderangebot,” a five-minute recording of a muted cymbal roll panned between the left and right channels in a slow, queasy lurch. “Negativland” buzzes with a distorted twang created by Plank manually phasing two recordings of Dinger playing the shamisen, a Japanese banjo, standing between two tape machines and slowing down one tape and then the other. No two songs sound alike, and the whole enterprise is built upon the juxtaposition of Dinger’s rhythmic intensity and Rother’s sanguine, cosmically inclined songcraft.
“It’s definitely more about the total package,” says Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley when asked about Dinger’s influence on his own style. Shelley heard Neu for the first time on mixtapes Sonic Youth would listen to in the tour van, and was able to track down used copies of the first three albums while the band was on tour in Europe in the ’80s. “Television, the Stooges, and obviously the Velvets were a big part of what we shared, and this became another pillar,” he says. “We really based a lot of how we heard things and what we started playing on this Neu music.” Shelley was invited by Rother to play that music with him as a part of the group Hallogallo 2010, which debuted at that year’s All Tomorrow’s Parties festival. “It has a certain freedom. That stuff sounds wide open.”
That openness allows Neu’s influence to trickle into many unexpected streams of music. It fueled the rise of punk, with Iggy Pop telling the BBC in 2009 “when you listen to it, it allows your thoughts to flow.” The idea of the endless pulse coupled with ethereal, atmospheric sounds has come to define many strains of electronic music that are made for the dance floor, as DJ and radio host Tim Sweeney explains. Sweeney’s show, Beats In Space, has been a place for countless DJs to present new sounds to a wide audience, and Sweeney himself has consistently mixed krautrock into the show for decades. “You almost go into a trance listening to it,” he says. “A lot of dance music is like that, with that repetition. The atmosphere is a big part of it, too, the delay they used — that gets referenced a lot.”
For all its influence on music at home in dense urban environments, even Pop heard what he called “pastoral psychedelicism” in Neu’s music. Nashville-bred guitarist William Tyler finds surprising connections between the country music he grew up on and Rother’s music in Neu and beyond. Beyond the ubiquitous associations with the open road that permeate both, there was a revelatory moment where he heard a Waylon Jennings groove, “that to me sounded like krautrock. It drives the same way, and glides the same way,” he says. His 2016 album “Modern Country” was based around the question: “What would have happened if those guys from Düsseldorf had made a record in Nashville?” Tyler made the connection explicit by performing the gently drifting Neu track “Weissensee” on that tour, and covering Rother’s “Karusell” on his EP “Lost Colony.”
The German countryside is very important to Rother, who moved to an estate outside the town of Forst shortly after making the first two Neu albums (simultaneously forming the group Harmonia with Cluster’s Hans-Jochim Rodelius and Dieter Mobius), and has remained there ever since. The music Neu made was created with the echoes of fascism still audible, a reckoning with the Nazi regime still in progress. Rother is an outspoken pacifist, and he blames the obsession of pinning German identity onto the music they made on the British music press. His music, with its expanses and bright textures, suggests a type of pastoral futurism, an idyllic vision of music that has escaped the trappings of what he calls “Anglo-American influence.” Neu’s music always points to something beyond — beyond the narrow mind-set of nationalism, beyond the history’s impulse to repeat itself, beyond any expectations whatsoever.
Rother often reminisces in interviews about his time growing up in Pakistan, where his family lived between the ages 9 and 12. He developed a love of droning sounds and the new scales he heard while listening to street musicians, and he swam in the Arabian Sea, the waves swallowing him up and spitting his small body back out. “It’s such a big joy,” he says, ruminating on those times in the ocean and his current love of swimming. “It just keeps going. You can’t see it properly, and it keeps getting deeper and deeper. It’s something that inspires my imagination.” The sound of water permeates the first Neu album — it leads into several songs, those sounds giving listeners audible connections to that sense of the infinite Rother speaks of now. Its powerful slipstream, uninterrupted for 50 years, continuing on. | 2022-09-23T12:21:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Neu created the beat that keeps on going - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/09/23/neu-michael-rother-motorik/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/09/23/neu-michael-rother-motorik/ |
If the pandemic is ‘over,’ so is Biden’s authority to forgive student debt
President Biden at the White House on Tuesday. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
President Biden declared that “the pandemic is over” and now is trying to walk it back. Little wonder: With just a few words in a “60 Minutes” interview, Biden completely undermined his administration’s legal justification for student loan forgiveness.
The nonpartisan Penn Wharton Budget Model estimates that Biden’s loan forgiveness plan will cost between $605 billion and $1 trillion. Congress has not authorized him to spend any of that. So where does the president get the authority to unilaterally spend up to 1$ trillion? He claims to find it in the Heroes Act — a law passed after the 9/11 attacks to help those Americans called up to active military service not default on their student loans. The law provides “the Secretary of Education with specific waiver authority to respond to a war or other military operation or national emergency” (my emphasis).
Biden is not even trying to conform with the intent of the law — by, for example, perhaps extending loan forgiveness to first responders and front-line medical workers who risked their lives during the covid-19 pandemic. He’s driving a steam engine right through the plain text of the law and providing mass debt forgiveness for those who did not serve in any capacity in a national emergency — and using the pandemic as justification.
Of course, consistency has never been Biden’s strong suit. In the spring, his administration announced it was lifting Title 42 — the Trump-era public health order that allows border officials to turn away illegal migrants in order to prevent the spread of covid-19 — because Biden’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared it was “no longer necessary” since we now have “an increased availability of tools to fight COVID-19” and “97.1% of the U.S. population lives in a county identified as having ‘low’ COVID-19 Community Level.”
In other words, Biden effectively declared the pandemic emergency over for illegal migrants at the border, but then a few months later invoked it to justify student loan forgiveness. Then he (again) declared the pandemic “over” — even as his administration submits an emergency request to Congress for $27 billion in pandemic spending before the end of the year.
So, in all likelihood, Biden will follow his declaration that the pandemic is “over” by soon extending the pandemic emergency declaration. Because if Republicans regain the majority in just one house in November, the ability to pass Democrats-only spending bills will evaporate — which means the pandemic emergency will be all Democrats have left to continue their miasma of fiscal profligacy. | 2022-09-23T12:21:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | If the pandemic is ‘over,’ Biden can't forgive student debt - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/23/biden-pandemic-over-student-loan-forgiveness/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/23/biden-pandemic-over-student-loan-forgiveness/ |
How would McCarthy act as speaker? He may have just given us a glimpse.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) makes a speech in West Pittston, Pa., on Sept. 1. (Sean McKeag/AP)
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Wednesday did not propose any radical policy when he released his party’s legislative priorities should it retake the majority. But his plan does suggest something truly revolutionary: an end to the Imperial Speakership.
The agenda, labeled the Commitment to America, doesn’t exactly provide a clear picture as to what a Republican-led House might actually do in power. Instead, it safely hews to clear GOP staples, such as encouraging private-sector growth and making America safe at home and abroad.
The plan is built around four conceptual pillars. The first, titled “An Economy That’s Strong,” takes aim at the Biden administration’s record on energy, inflation and government spending, while the second, “A Nation That’s Safe,” focuses on fighting crime and combating China and other foreign adversaries. The other two, “A Future That’s Built on Freedom” and “A Government That’s Accountable,” addresses a host of topics such as education and promises oversight investigations into the administration’s alleged lapses.
Nothing in the document contains anything particularly innovative, and that’s probably both by design and smart. Genuinely creative ideas can become the lightning rod of a campaign, and the party has no need to put forward potentially controversial proposals. It only needs to gain five seats to retake the House. Why risk that by embracing something that could trump the overarching sense of malaise and unease that Republicans and independents feel?
The flip side is that the Republican leader offered no captivating concept to generate enthusiasm among voters. Prior House GOP campaign efforts have included ideas such as embracing the then-revolutionary idea of across-the-board tax cuts (1978) or congressional term limits (1994). There’s only one idea buried in the commitment’s supporting documents that could play that role this cycle: requiring employers to use the federal government’s E-Verify system to ensure that only people with a legal right to work in the United States can get a job. But there’s no indication that McCarthy intends to make the proposal a party rallying cry.
The plan also name-checks the Parents’ Bill of Rights, which would require school districts that receive federal funds to be transparent to parents about its curricular, budgetary and school safety practices. It also proposes federal retention and recruitment bonuses so that localities can hire 200,000 additional police officers. Both are good policy proposals that could prove popular on the campaign trail.
Still, that doesn’t make for a specific governing agenda. Which of the 18 principles in the Commitment’s one-page summary will be prioritized? The broader Commitment contains 39 discrete promises. There’s no sense which will receive primary or secondary focus.
That lack of clarity could be an indication of the type of House speaker McCarthy wants to be. Members have become accustomed to a system in which everything of import comes down from the speaker’s office. Many GOP members, especially those in the Freedom Caucus, have chafed under this regime and want a return to regular order. That is, they want committees and ordinary members to write and approve the bills, rather than the speaker’s staff.
Indeed, McCarthy suggested as much in a news conference in March 2021. When discussing rolling back covid-19 measures in Congress, he added: “I think we should go back to working in committee. I think bills should actually come through committee before they come to the floor.”
McCarthy’s plan might offer a vision of what that might look like. He seems to envision a conference dedicated to certain broad principles whose members work to determine the details and priorities.
This stands in stark contrast to the document that elevated former House speaker Paul D. Ryan to national discussion, his Roadmap for America’s Future. That ambitious plan offered highly detailed ideas for virtually every area that impacted the federal budget, from taxes to entitlement spending. There was clearly room for amendment, but it was essentially one person’s proposal to solve the problem of recurring federal deficits. But McCarthy, it appears, has no interest in Ryan’s comprehensive, top-down approach.
Holding looser reins might help McCarthy solve the long-running problem of corralling the GOP’s unruly conference. If more chefs get to cook the meal, it’s less likely they will be disappointed with the menu. This approach is more parliamentary than presidential, which is appropriate given that the speaker serves at the pleasure of the membership, as opposed to an executive with a secure term of office.
House Republicans are offering voters a clear sense of a change in direction — a return to tried-and-true ways of thinking and legislating. We’ll see soon whether that’s something Americans want. | 2022-09-23T12:21:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Kevin McCarthy as House speaker has potential - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/23/mccarthy-speaker-house-republican-agenda/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/23/mccarthy-speaker-house-republican-agenda/ |
Birthday parties are back — and some parents are relieved to scale down
They’ve been creeping back onto calendars since sometime last year, as the country has limped toward a new normalcy. Now it seems the true resurgence has arrived, bringing with it an eternal truth: If you want to make a parent feel a rush of excitement, or a surge of stress, or a wave of anxiety, or maybe just exhaustion, tell them they’ve been invited to — or have to plan — a child’s birthday party.
“I love kid birthdays,” says Lois Montague, a mother of two young children in Napa, Calif. “We invite everyone.”
“Even just talking about those themed, super-organized parties makes me anxious,” says Matthew Koehler, father to a 9-year-old daughter in D.C. “My wife and I are introverts.”
“Oh, the treat bags are where I feel pressure, for sure,” says Jessika Boles, a mom of two in Nashville. “Some moms have custom-made cookies that they individually package with ‘so-and-so’s fourth birthday’ and a princess tiara on it, that kind of thing, and a bunch of little toys and candies, and you can tell, well, this probably cost $15 or $20 per kid.”
After varying periods of pandemic hiatus, the birthday party scene has rebooted, and parents are figuring out exactly what that means. Gifts, or no gifts? The whole class, or just a few friends? Where are we doing this, and do we want to be doing this? As weekends book up, parents say the celebrations often veer toward opposite ends of the party-planning spectrum: either more bombastic than ever, as the design fanatics reacquaint themselves with their creative muscles; or decidedly more mellow, as families embrace a casual vibe.
“I think everyone is just so burnt out,” Koehler says. “They want to do something special for their kid, but they also want it to be an opportunity to just have their friends over, and not have it be this big stressful sort of situation.” In his social circle, he says, this has meant abandoning the pre-pandemic house parties in favor of gathering in common areas outdoors.
“People are using public parks or the school playground after hours,” he says. “They don’t have to rent a place. It’s cheaper. They can invite whoever they want, and people bring food and drinks instead of presents. It’s much lower key.”
Others, though, are thrilled to have festivities resume. Montague, a physician who is in a Facebook group for “party-planner” moms who work in the medical field, says the stress and burden of the pandemic years actually heightened their focus on their children’s birthdays. The online group is “amazing in its over-the-topness,” she says. “I think covid has made some value the opportunity to gather and celebrate things so much more.”
Social media, of course, has amplified the urge to stage a photo-perfect backdrop. But the desire to indulge is not superficial so much as a necessary form of balance, at least in her community: “I know among my colleagues in medicine, we cling to the nonmedical aspects of our lives as a form of escapism,” she says.
In Nashville, Jessika Boles has seen her community of parents leap straight back into the pre-pandemic birthday party pattern, which is to say that she and her two children have been attending lots of larger group gatherings at gymnastics studios and dance studios and Chuck E. Cheese and trampoline parks.
There are things she doesn’t like much about this prepackaged party approach — the cost, for one (she spent $500 for her son’s last birthday at a trampoline park), and the impersonal, formulaic structure of it all. But, she adds, for families who can manage the price tag, there are also certain upsides. “I’m a working mom. I’m a college professor. I’ve got a second job in the health-care setting, and it’s a lot of mental energy to put toward — ‘Where do I find decorations? And where do I get the cake done?’ So I do appreciate that there’s a one-stop shop,” she says.
In Montana, Susi Milligan has only recently entered the world of hosting birthday parties for her 6-year-old son’s friends and classmates, and she says she has felt no sense of competition or uniform set of expectations about what a celebration should look like. Some families invite only a few friends to their home; others “go all-out with pool parties at the local hotels, filling the pool with blowup toys,” she says. One family they know “had a pizza and glow-in-the-dark bounce house party in the open space upstairs at a local bar,” she adds.
She finds the variety rather liberating: “Everyone does what is right for them. I don’t feel the pressure to do something big, just something right for my kid.” (For her son’s birthday, she says, this meant inviting a few of his friends over for a snowball fight.)
“I’m still torn at times,” Milligan says. “Do we say ‘no gifts’ on the invite? Do we invite the whole class?” Her guiding principle, she says, is to “try to figure out where our kid is. What are the things we want to teach him at this age, how will he feel celebrated and how do we help him love the kids around him?”
Caroline Willson, an educator and mom to a 6-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son in Memphis, has noticed some big — and welcome — changes to the birthday party scene in recent months. Before the pandemic, she says, the parties were larger, complete with bouncy houses and princess performers and professional face-painting and the sense that parents had either put in a lot of effort or paid a lot of money to outsource that effort.
But as parents adapted to accommodate covid safety measures during the pandemic, those gatherings were replaced instead by smaller, more intentional celebrations, and that seems to have stuck. “Next week, my daughter is going to a birthday party that is just the birthday girl and two friends, and they’re going to do something special together,” she says, “and that’s it.”
She has heard other parents echo her own relief about this shift. “It definitely feels like people are glad to be able to reimagine how we do it,” she says, “that it doesn’t have to be this high-pressure thing. It can just be a few friends hanging out.”
Willson says she herself used to be someone who ordered all her color-coordinated streamers and buntings and cake toppers from Etsy, who stayed up decorating the cupcakes just-so until 2 a.m. the night before the party (something her kids never once seemed to notice, she adds). Now she’s someone who plops a stack of pizzas on a picnic table at the park and watches her son and his friends shriek with joy as they race around with Nerf guns.
“I used to feel like, to be a good mom, you’ve got to do this lavish, pull-out-all-the-stops thing,” she says. “And then, not being able to do anything allowed me to figure out: Maybe there are some things that the kids do care about, and we can still do those things. But as for the rest, who were we doing this for?” | 2022-09-23T12:21:42Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Kids’ birthday parties are back, and so is the party planning stress - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/parenting/2022/09/23/kids-birthday-parties/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/parenting/2022/09/23/kids-birthday-parties/ |
Broader and broader swaths of society are showing that they’re outraged, with grievances that won’t soon go away.
Analysis by Mohammad Ali Kadivar
People gather in protest against the death of Mahsa Amini along the streets in Tehran on Sept. 19, 2022. Amini, 22, fell into a coma and died after being arrested in Tehran by the morality police, for allegedly violating the countries hijab rules. (Getty Images)
Last week, Iran erupted with what has become an unusually powerful protest wave after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, died in police custody. Tehran’s morality police had arrested her for not wearing a proper hijab, the mandatory hair covering for Iranian women.
The first protest came with Amini’s funeral in Saghiz in Iran’s Kurdistan on Sept. 17, and quickly spread to other Kurdish cities. This Monday, female activists organized a protest in the capital Tehran, which continued and spread across the country. Despite the regime’s efforts to clamp down on both the protests and media coverage, soon tens of thousands of people were protesting in more than 40 cities, nearly every day, with police and government thugs attacking with batons, tear gas, and in some cases, live ammunition. In many cities, women have taken off their headscarves and set them on fire, while other women cut their hair in public – serious acts of defiance against the Islamic republic’s control.
Over the past five years, Iranians have increasingly taken to the streets to protest such things as rising gas prices, low-quality water and the removal of bread subsidies. But the current protests are bringing in far more support, not just on the streets but from key sectors of Iranian society. That matters.
For four decades, the Iranian regime has tried to enforce mandatory hijab for women. Initially, women in Tehran protested, but as Islamists took over all government branches, they suppressed all opposition to their rule — including refusals to wear hijab — through patrols and violence. As educated young urban women have tried going out with only loosely covered hair, the government has harassed and detained them, most recently through the morality police.
Why have protests been erupting over the past five years?
These protests spring from four main causes: increasing government repression; less choice in representatives; endemic corruption; and weakened social services and welfare.
While many individual protests began because of economic grievances like inflation, they’ve been inflamed by several underlying causes. One has been the government’s violent and repressive response to unrest, including imprisoning activists, students and journalists. During the protests, many citizens were shocked when they learned that state security forces had killed at least 300 protesters in one week; since then they’ve witnessed violent crackdowns and mass arrests of thousands in 2018, 2019, 2021 and earlier in 2022. In this round, many have been particularly outraged by government violence against women.
Further, the government has reduced citizens’ choices for their representatives. While the Islamic republic’s elections have never been fair and free, for decades elections did include genuine competition between hard-liners and moderates or reformists. However, since 2019, only hard-line candidates have been allowed to run for office — and fewer Iranians have bothered to go to the polls. Now, all three government branches are run by people who have been responsible for violent crackdowns: President Ebrahim Raisi once helped authorize the mass execution of political prisoners in 1988. The head of the Iranian parliament, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, is a former chief of police and member of the Revolutionary Guards. And Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, the chief justice, is a former prosecutor known for authorizing beatings, torture, and other abuses. The increasing government violence was a major reason many opposition activists campaigned to boycott Iran’s 2020 presidential election, which resulted in the lowest turnout since the regime took power.
Many Iranians are also outraged by rampant corruption among state officials, including embezzlement and awarding state contracts to cronies. Some high-ranking officials, such as former vice president Mohammad Reza Rahimi, have been imprisoned on such charges. Parliamentary leader Qalibaf is widely known for such corruption, but has stayed in power through strong political connections.
Finally, that corruption has been related to mismanagement and the failure of public services. In July 2022, for instance, a large building — built by a local businessman strongly connected to local and national elites — collapsed in the city of Abadan, killing dozens and setting off protests over rampant violations of safety regulations.
How are these different from previous protest episodes?
The current wave of protests takes courage from those past protests, but goes beyond them in some significant ways. First, women are leading this round and finding creative ways to challenge the regime.
Second, across the country, athletes, artists and businesses have spoken out in support of the protesters — something that did not happen, for instance, in 2019, during widespread protests over rising gas prices. This suggests that the protests are expressing broader grievances within Iranian society that won’t be easily erased.
Third, the current protests have spread beyond the usual suspects. In addition to women and university students, merchants and shoppers in Tehran’s bazaar have been protesting. They’ve previously protested over worsening economic conditions and the decline of Iran’s currency exchange rate. But this may be the first time in decades they’ve protested not just over their immediate economic interests but are standing up in solidarity with Iranian women and others who’ve been mistreated by security forces — something they did during the 1979 revolution.
Fourth, the protests crossed the ordinary ethnic divisions, bringing together groups that are often divided. Last summer, during protests in the southwestern province of Khuzestan over polluted water and air, the region’s two ethnic groups — Bakhtiari Lors and Arabs — joined together. But that stayed confined to the province. This time, however, protests have spread nationwide, well beyond Kurdistan province. Protesters have emphasized that ethnic solidarity in such chants as “From Kurdistan to Tehran, oppression against women,” or in the Turkish-speaking Azerbaijan province, “Azerbaijan is awake and supports Kurdistan.”
How the cyberwar between Iran and Israel intensified
So far, officials have claimed that no one mistreated Amini and that foreign enemies are behind the protests. Videos of police and plainclothes violence have gone viral on the internet, and BBC Persian has reported 22 people killed, as of this writing. Still other videos show protesters fighting back.
Social science research has long debated whether repression crushes protests or fuels further protests. With escalated violence, the government may push protesters out of the streets. But since these protests are now embedded in broader social movements, such repression will likely add to mounting grievances that will ignite further protests in the near future.
Professors, check out TMC’s improved -- and newly indexed -- list of classroom topic guides.
Mohammad Ali Kadivar (@MAliKadivar) is an assistant professor of sociology and international studies at Boston College, and author of the forthcoming Popular Politics and the Path to Durable Democracy (Princeton University Press 2022). | 2022-09-23T12:21:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Why are so many Iranians protesting the hijab? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/23/amini-hijab-morality-police-iran/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/23/amini-hijab-morality-police-iran/ |
Inside the two-day scramble to add drought funding to the climate law
Good morning and welcome to The Climate 202! Congrats on making it to Friday after an extremely busy week for climate policy, whether you attended the U.N. General Assembly and Climate Week in New York City, the Clean Energy Ministerial in Pittsburgh, or the vote on a climate treaty on Capitol Hill. But first:
Inside the two-day scramble to add drought funding to the Inflation Reduction Act
A week after Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced that they had reached a surprise deal on a landmark climate, health and tax policy law, the Colorado River was in a climate-change-fueled crisis — one deepening by the day.
It was Aug. 3, and the water levels of two key reservoirs fed by the Colorado River — Lake Mead and Lake Powell — had declined dramatically amid the worst drought to parch the region in the past 1,200 years.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), one of two crucial Democratic votes in the 50-50 Senate, promptly called a Schumer staffer and issued an ultimatum: She would not support the landmark legislation unless roughly $5 billion was added to address the worsening drought across the West.
“I was pretty shocked when I read about the elements of the Inflation Reduction Act and saw that for a very, very significant piece of climate legislation, there was nothing included for drought,” Sinema said in a rare interview, which her office granted on the condition that it would only focus on the drought funding.
“I immediately went to Senator Schumer's team and said, 'Look, I know that East Coast senators don't understand the dire effects that drought has on our economic future. As a Western voice, I'm here at the table now,'” she said. “And this is no secret: I refused to move forward with the bill until significant resources for drought resiliency for Arizona and the entire American West were included.”
What followed was a roughly 48-hour scramble among Sinema and three other Western Democrats — Sens. Michael F. Bennet (Colo.), Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.) and Mark Kelly (Ariz.) — to secure $4 billion for drought mitigation in the final package that President Biden signed into law on Aug. 16.
Here's what happened over that two-day period, according to senators and aides involved in the private negotiations:
A tale of two basins
Kelly, a former astronaut and engineer, asked his staff to include the latest water levels of Lake Mead and Lake Powell in his daily briefing memos. Kelly then presented these figures to Manchin, with whom he has a good relationship.
Manchin initially agreed to provide $1 billion for drought resiliency in Arizona. But the Western senators continued to push for $5 billion for drought mitigation across the Upper Basin of the Colorado River — which includes Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — as well as the Lower Basin, which includes Arizona, California and Nevada.
At one point, Sinema met with Cortez Masto and her staffers in the basement of the Capitol to discuss how the drought money “wouldn't be a gimme for a state or a region, but would be critical for the entire country,” said a Senate Democratic aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
Meanwhile, after Bennet heard that Sinema wanted the drought funding, he called Schumer but didn't reach the majority leader. Bennet then went on national television and declared that he would “never vote for a bill that didn't do the right thing” for drought-stricken states, he recalled in an interview.
After he finished the TV appearance, Bennet got a call back from Schumer, who invited him to his office. There, the two senators huddled for more than an hour and went “back and forth on language that would work for both basins,” Bennet said.
“I called Joe in the middle of this, and I said, ‘$1 billion is never going to be enough. We really need $5 billion,’” Bennet said. “And Joe was a no at the beginning of that. But he thought it over, and he was willing to go to $4 billion. And that was a very good outcome for everybody.”
Seeking ‘permanent solutions’
Manchin has credited Kelly's numbers-based presentations with persuading him to support the additional funding. “Kelly was the one who put the big push on” for the drought money, he told reporters after the bill-signing ceremony at the White House.
Kelly, Bennet and Cortez Masto all face tough reelection races that could determine which party controls the Senate after the midterms. But Kelly said in a recent interview that the drought money “has little or nothing to do with the election” and “everything to do with” preventing an environmental catastrophe.
“We can’t allow the Colorado River to get down to dead pool,” Kelly said, referring to when reservoirs drop so low that they would not be able to produce hydropower.
On Thursday, Bennet led his colleagues in a letter calling on the Bureau of Reclamation to use the $4 billion to enact “permanent solutions” to the drought crisis. The bureau will hold listening sessions on Sept. 30 to hear from tribes, water managers, farmers and others about implementation of the funding.
A spokeswoman for Manchin declined to comment on the record for this report, while spokespeople for Schumer and Cortez Masto did not respond to requests for comment.
Exclusive: Energy Department announces nearly $4.9 billion for carbon management
The Energy Department on Friday will announce that nearly $4.9 billion from the bipartisan infrastructure law will support the development of technologies that slash planet-warming emissions from power generation and industrial operations, according to details shared exclusively with The Climate 202.
The department is making the following three funding opportunity announcements:
The Carbon Capture Demonstration Projects Program will provide up to $2.54 billion to develop six integrated carbon capture, transport and storage projects that can be deployed at power plants or other industrial facilities, including cement, pulp and paper, iron, steel, and certain types of chemical plants.
Carbon Dioxide Transport, Engineering, and Design will provide up to $100 million to design regional carbon dioxide pipeline networks to safely transport captured CO2.
Carbon Storage Validation, and Testing will provide up to $2.25 billion to develop new and expanded large-scale, commercial carbon storage projects with the capacity to store at least 50 million metric tons of CO2.
“Nearly every climate model makes clear that we need to incorporate carbon management technology — especially in hard-to-decarbonize sectors and heavy industries such as steel and cement production — in our toolkit to tackle the climate crisis,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a statement. "The bipartisan infrastructure law is helping DOE pick up the pace on projects that can store tens of millions of tons of CO2 that would otherwise be emitted, which will bring jobs to our economy and deliver a healthier environment for all Americans.”
Boebert urges Biden not to make Camp Hale a national monument
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) on Friday will send a letter to President Biden asking him to reconsider his reported plans to designate Camp Hale, a historic military site in Colorado, as a new national monument.
“For years, partisan big-city Democrats — with the full backing and support of the far-Left green energy cartel — have attempted to implement massive new land grabs,” the letter says.
Biden has not yet created a national monument. The potential designation of the Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument would bypass opposition in Congress, where Republicans have rejected legislation from Colorado Democrats to permanently protect these sites.
In the letter, Boebert argues that the designation would represent an overreach of executive power and would trample on private water rights. Eight other Republican lawmakers also signed the letter, including Reps. Doug Lamborn (Colo.), Ken Buck (Colo.), Troy E. Nehls (Tex.), Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Paul A. Gosar (Ariz.), Louie Gohmert (Tex.), Byron Donalds (Fla.) and Russ Fulcher (Idaho).
Congress races to fund government despite clash over Manchin's permitting bill
Congress is poised to pass a stopgap funding bill next week, likely preventing a government shutdown even as a clash over a permitting reform bill bogs down negotiations, Caitlin Emma reports for Politico.
It's unclear whether the funding bill will include the legislation from Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) to speed up the permitting process for new energy projects. Republicans and Democrats have expressed misgivings about the measure, and time is running out to strike a compromise.
The Senate is expected to act first on the temporary funding fix. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) moved Thursday to advance the funding bill, teeing up a test vote on Tuesday evening. (Both chambers are out Monday for Rosh Hashanah.)
Schumer has remained determined to attach the permitting provisions to the funding bill, honoring a deal this summer that gained Manchin's vote for the Inflation Reduction Act.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), who introduced a separate GOP permitting plan, said Thursday that she supports Manchin’s version, citing its provisions that would expedite the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Even so, few other Republicans have voiced a willingness to back Manchin's plan.
Meanwhile, in a Thursday letter led by Sen. Jeff Merkley (Ore.), nine Senate Democrats called for a separate vote on Manchin’s permitting measure, citing its potential to increase pollution in low-income areas and communities of color, which are disproportionately exposed to environmental hazards.
However, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that “there’s no question” as to whether she supports the deal with Manchin.
“I said I support it, yes,” she said. “I said that right from the start.”
Federal government to pay for 100% of Puerto Rico hurricane cleanup for a month
President Biden on Thursday announced that the federal government will cover 100 percent of the cost of debris removal, power and water restoration, shelter and food for the next month in Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona, John Wagner and Azi Paybarah report for The Washington Post.
The funding, which Biden revealed before a briefing with the Federal Emergency Management Agency on island recovery efforts, will relieve Puerto Rico of the cost of the initial part of the task, as the island begins to rebuild from its second major hurricane in five years.
“We are with you,” Biden said. “We are not going to walk away.”
Wildfires are burning higher in the West, threatening water supplies — Joshua Partlow for The Post
It’s common to charge electric vehicles at night. That will be a problem. — Shannon Osaka for The Post
Coastal cities in parts of Asia are sinking fastest, study finds — Karina Tsui for The Post
California Moves to Ban Natural Gas Furnaces and Heaters by 2030 — Angel Adegbesan for Bloomberg
World Bank leader, accused of climate denial, offers a new response — David Gelles and Alan Rappeport for The New York Times
Happy Ottumn pic.twitter.com/D0fTUFe1OF | 2022-09-23T12:22:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Inside the two-day scramble to add drought funding to the climate law - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/23/inside-two-day-scramble-add-drought-funding-climate-law/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/23/inside-two-day-scramble-add-drought-funding-climate-law/ |
Why did an appeals court let the Justice Dept. use the Mar-a-Lago documents?
A panel of three judges heard the case. If three different judges had been randomly selected, it could have gone the other way.
Analysis by Joshua C. Fjelstul
Donald Trump holds a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, on Sept. 17. (Gaelen Morse/Reuters)
Late Wednesday night, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit issued an emergency ruling that allows the Department of Justice to continue its unprecedented investigation into former president Donald Trump’s improper handling of classified documents.
The 11th Circuit’s ruling partially overturns a decision by U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon that appointed a special master — Judge Raymond Dearie — to review the documents that the FBI seized from Mar-a-Lago. Her ruling paused the DOJ’s investigation until Dearie’s work is complete, but the 11th Circuit is now allowing the DOJ to continue its review of the classified documents.
The 11th Circuit’s ruling was issued by three judges — two of whom were Trump appointees. Who were these judges, and how were they chosen? And why did two Trump appointees side with the DOJ and overturn Cannon’s ruling?
Here’s what you need to know about how the U.S. Court of Appeals has reignited the DOJ’s investigation — and how it could have easily gone the other way.
Who heard the DOJ’s appeal and why?
The U.S. Courts of Appeals hear cases in randomly selected three-judge panels. The three judges who heard the DOJ’s appeal were — by chance — two Trump appointees and one appointed by Barack Obama. At the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, there are 11 active judges, of whom six were appointed by Trump.
District judges vary considerably in their ideological outlooks. As we’ve seen with Cannon, who sided with Trump on most points, which judge you get can dramatically influence the direction of your case.
By hearing cases in panels, the U.S. Courts of Appeals are designed to rein in district judges who make partisan rulings. The rulings of a three-judge panel are supposed to be at least slightly more representative of all U.S. Courts of Appeals judges than the ruling of any individual judge.
Trump could have won if different judges had been selected
The outcome of the DOJ’s appeal may have come down to which judges happened to hear the case. This panel had two Trump appointees, Britt Grant and Andrew Brasher, who were willing to side with the DOJ. The third judge, Robin Rosenbaum, was appointed by Obama.
We can’t know how any of the other judges on the 11th Circuit would have ruled, but it’s plausible that other Trump appointees, had they been selected, would have sided with Trump — as Cannon did. In other words, with a different panel of judges, the DOJ could have lost its appeal. That’s the risk the department took when it appealed Cannon’s ruling because it had no way of knowing ahead of time who would hear the case.
This system undermines the application of U.S. law
All this underscores a problem with how the U.S. federal court system is designed: When judges are highly partisan, it really matters which three judges you get.
In a study, I show how panel systems can undermine the consistency of law. Consistency means that courts would decide similar cases in similar ways, regardless of which judges are involved. In a fair legal system, the law is applied consistently. When there’s more variation in judges’ beliefs — as can happen when judges are more partisan — the outcomes of similar cases depend more on which judges are on the panel.
The uncomfortable reality of the U.S. legal system is that your odds of winning an appeal can come down to luck of the draw. As judges have become more partisan, the U.S. Courts of Appeals’ application of U.S. law seems increasingly unpredictable. The fairness of the system has eroded.
The DOJ has been strategic — and that could have made the difference
The panel that heard the DOJ’s appeal had two Trump appointees, so why didn’t Trump win? My research shows that when the facts of a case strongly favor one side over the other, which judges you get matters less. Even judges who don’t agree with you ideologically can’t easily ignore clear-cut facts. When the facts are weaker, there’s more room for judges to insert their partisan opinions into a case.
In this case, the facts clearly favored the DOJ. The government has a strong interest in protecting national security secrets, and Trump didn’t make a compelling argument that the documents at Mar-a-Lago that were marked classified had, in fact, been declassified.
No, presidents can't declassify documents with Green Lantern superpowers
The strength of the facts in this case wasn’t an accident. Like many institutions with prosecutorial power, the DOJ is strategic in choosing which cases to prosecute, and it prefers to prosecute cases it is likely to win.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has been particularly careful in his handling of this case, which could result in the first indictment of a former president. For example, none of the three statutes that the DOJ cited in applying for the Mar-a-Lago search warrant hinges on the recovered documents actually being classified.
The DOJ’s investigation has been saved by chance
The fact that the DOJ has been so strategic in its handling of this case helps to mitigate the unpredictability of the U.S. Courts of Appeals. However, if the two Trump-appointed judges on the panel had been more partisan, the DOJ’s appeal could have easily gone another way. The DOJ’s history-making investigation into Trump has — at least for now — been saved by chance.
Joshua C. Fjelstul (@joshfjelstul) is a postdoctoral research fellow in the department of political science and international relations at the University of Geneva and a researcher at the Arena Centre for European Studies at the University of Oslo. | 2022-09-23T12:22:13Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Did Trump lose to the DOJ by chance? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/23/trump-maralago-documents-fbi-ruling/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/23/trump-maralago-documents-fbi-ruling/ |
The area’s best distance runner is a musician, gardener and boy scout
Centennial's Antonio Camacho is perhaps the best cross-country athlete in the area, and he's trying to develop his life outside running as well. (Craig Hudson/For the Washington Post)
Antonio Camacho-Bucks wants you to know he has a life outside of running. The Centennial senior hopes to become an Eagle Scout before his 18th birthday in January. This past summer he spent 10 days living out of a sailboat alongside fellow scouts; and recently, he reconstructed an entire campground for Cub Scouts when a storm flooded their tents.
He spends plenty of time camping out with others on Scout Troop 944, but he admits his attention is sometimes divided. By 6 a.m., he may need to head to cross-country practice.
“Everything that I pretty much do is aimed toward running, that’s pretty much every day of my life,” Camacho-Bucks said. “But it’s important to stay balanced. That’s something that my mom really encourages.”
Now in his senior season, the reigning boys’ cross-country All-Met Athlete of the Year has a state title, college coaches vying for his talent and a convincing claim as the best high school distance runner in the area. On Saturday, athletes from more than 100 schools across the Mid-Atlantic will race against Camacho-Bucks in the Oatlands Invitational. Many already know his name.
Camacho-Bucks has always been fast. It took time for people to figure out he was wired like this.
Jose Camacho and Christa Bucks-Camacho knew their son’s vigor had to go somewhere. And sure, Antonio was always a considerably better runner than his peers, but not in the ways that would suggest he was destined for 75 miles a week. At soccer matches, when other kids would beg for substitutions, Camacho-Bucks would leave the field with more energy than when he arrived.
In fifth grade, amid a blizzard, it clicked.
“I was trying to make provisions for the electricity to go out and my son is like, ‘Mom, I need to go on a run,’ ” Christa said. “He said, ‘I’ll be back in 30 minutes.’ So he runs, comes home and asks, ‘Mom, can I do it again?’ I was just like, ‘Antonio, I hate to tell you this, but you can’t run in a blizzard.’ ”
Later that year, he won a local 5K — not just in his age bracket, but all of them. At the start of his freshman year, Camacho-Bucks began to take the sport seriously.
“I was always one of the faster guys in class,” Camacho-Bucks said. “I thought I would give it a shot.”
Soon, he had a résumé that rivaled his elder peers, and he capped off his first cross-country season with a sixth-place finish at the Maryland 3A state meet (no other freshman boy in the 2010s finished in the top 10 of a 3A or 4A state meet).
“He is absolutely fantastic to work with, a fantastic student of the sport,” Centennial Coach Kevin McCoy said. “I myself am a massive running junkie … and he’s just along the same line as me. We just have fantastic conversations every Monday, and it’s not just about how we ran, but about how some college meet went that he found a way of pirating off the internet.”
By his junior year, Camacho-Bucks appeared inevitable. He outpaced local runners in all but one cross-country meet, the 3A East region championship, and defeated that same competitor by almost 18 seconds for the state title later that month.
He credits his work ethic to his mom — “I always told him there’s a reason to get up in the morning,” she said — who works long hours for the Social Security Administration, and his dad, who runs a small landscaping business in Ellicott City.
But a willingness to embrace relationships and activities outside of running? It existed. But it wasn’t nearly this strong.
That changed in February, when his grandmother unexpectedly died. The senior had always been close with his grandparents, and he felt weighed down during the spring track season. When he drove to practice, the presence that often sat in the shotgun seat wasn’t there. When he got home from the YMCA, his grandmother’s enchiladas no longer filled his stomach. And the way she showed her love — rarely with words, but with her presence — was absent.
“She was a big part of our family, coming to my races, coming to everything – that was a big hit to our family,” he said. “She was just a huge, big personality.”
Now, Camacho-Bucks’s passions extend beyond the sport he so often dominates. Later this year, he’ll play the euphonium in a local performance, appearing alongside a 90-year-old who was friends with his grandmother. He plans to continue with the brass instrument through college. He has recently taken up gardening, creating a drip irrigation system alongside his grandfather so he’ll have an easier time watering his plants. He continues making time for scouting.
And yet, there are times when Camacho-Bucks can’t help himself. Cross-country remains a fixture in his mind. He admits his love of swimming allows him to “flush” the blood and gunk that build up in his legs during runs. When a flight was delayed last year, his father recalled, Camacho-Bucks went back through security and mapped a 10-mile run around the airport. Even watching movies with his dad has turned into an opportunity to improve.
“I made a little massage-stretch table in my living room, and yeah, I find myself watching Netflix and stretching and cupping,” Camacho-Bucks said. “I just like having no limitations, being able to push myself, see how great I can be.” | 2022-09-23T12:22:25Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The area’s best distance runner is a musician, gardener and boy scout - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/23/areas-best-distance-runner-is-musician-gardener-boy-scout/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/23/areas-best-distance-runner-is-musician-gardener-boy-scout/ |
No relationship is perfect. Try to start thinking of yours as an ecosystem that you share with someone else.
Do you know what “normal marital hatred” is? If you’ve been married or in a long-term relationship, then you probably do.
“I’ve been talking about this around the country for decades,” said Terrence Real, a best-selling author and family therapist who offers couples workshops. “Not one person has ever come backstage and said, ‘What do you mean by that?’ Everybody knows what it is.”
Even so, the idea that hating your romantic partner is “normal” may come as a bit of a shock to those who have idealized romantic relationships. One conversation with Real, and you will be cured of any notion that real life looks like a rom-com.
“No one acknowledges the underbelly of relationships,” said Real, author of “Us: Getting Past You & Me to Build a More Loving Relationship.” “Nobody acknowledges the darkness.”
Another researcher, retired University of Virginia professor E. Mavis Hetherington, studied 1,400 heterosexual couples over three decades and found a type of marriage most prone to divorce. She called it the pursuer-distancer marriage, in which one person typically presses to solve problems, but the other dismisses the concerns.
Real said he thinks the real problem is that many couples turn conflict into a power struggle, and nobody wins. “In normal circumstances, if you’re unhappy with me, that is not the time for me to talk to you about how unhappy I am with you,” he said. “Everybody gets that wrong.”
So here’s what you should know about normal marital hatred, and what you can do about it.
It’s okay to hate your partner. “There are going to be moments when you look at your partner, and at that moment, there is a part of you that just hates their guts,” Real said. “You’re trapped with this horrible human being. How did you wind up here? What I want to say is, ‘Welcome to marriage. Welcome to long-term relationships.’ ”
But don’t despair, he said. “The question is: Now what? How do I deal with it?”
Stop idealizing relationships. Real notes that we wrongly celebrate an idealized version of commitment, like that “cute couple” we see at a party who seem to have a perfect relationship.
“Just once at a cocktail party, I wish someone would say: There’s Harry and Shirley. For the first 20 years, they fought like cats and dogs. He actually left her for a year and took up with another woman. Then they managed to work on it and settled down, and now they’re pretty okay. Aren’t they adorable?”
Normal marriages or long-term partnerships are not happy all the time. After four decades of counseling couples, Real has seen that all relationships follow a consistent cycle: harmony and closeness; disruption; and repair and a return to closeness. “This pattern of closeness, disruption and returning to closeness can play out at the micro level 20 times in the course of one dinner conversation. It can also play out over the macro level over decades,” he said.
Your relationship is an ecosystem. Real said traditional therapy, which can teach us to assert ourselves, set the record straight, set boundaries and push back, can actually add to the dysfunction of marriages.
He knows people don’t always like to hear it, but it’s healthier to start thinking of your relationship as an ecosystem where any disruption hurts you just as much or worse than it affects your partner. “Stop thinking like two individuals, and start thinking ecologically,” he said. “Your relationship is your biosphere. You’re not above it. You’re in it. You breathe it.”
Once you realize that it’s in your self-interest to help your partner feel better, it’s easier to de-escalate conflict. Save the constructive conversation for later, when you’re both open to listening, instead of in the middle of a fight.
“This is not the time to say, ‘Well, let me tell you about all my issues with you!’ Everybody gets that wrong,” Real said. “Put objective reality aside. Enter into your partner’s subjective experience with compassion and curiosity. Say, ‘I’m sorry you feel that. Is there anything I could say or do that would help you feel better?’ ”
Learn how to repair. Real said successful couples learn how to talk to each other during and after conflict. Instead of saying, “Don’t talk to me like that,” Real suggests something closer to, “I want to hear what you have to say, so could you speak to me differently so I can hear it?”
“I want both partners to be fully voiced, but you have to do it skillfully,” he said. “People have to learn to speak up for themselves and be loving at the same time. Nobody knows how to do that.”
Discover real intimacy. Real said we all long for a perfect relationship. But real intimacy actually happens when we learn to accept the imperfections of our partner.
“That’s the character of couple-hood,” he said. “You’re clear about your partner’s imperfections, and you feel the pain and frustration of it, but you choose to love them anyway. That’s mature love.” | 2022-09-23T12:23:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Normal marital hatred is real. Here's what to do about it. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/09/23/marriage-relationships-conflict/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/09/23/marriage-relationships-conflict/ |
More than 70 migrants perish while fleeing Lebanon after boat sinks
Sarah Dadouch
People gather following the sinking of a migrant boat, that according to Lebanese and Syrian officials sank off at Syrian coast after sailing from Lebanon, at the Lebanese-Syrian border crossing in Arida, Lebanon Sept. 23. (Mohamed Azakir/Reuters)
BEIRUT — Syrian authorities have recovered the bodies of at least 73 migrants who were aboard a boat bound from Lebanon that capsized Thursday off the port city of Tartous, Syria’s state news agency said Friday.
The boat is believed to have left from the coastal Lebanese city of Minyeh on Tuesday, carrying migrants of varying nationalities, said Brig. Gen. Samer Kubrusli, Syria’s director general of ports, according to the news agency. Twenty survivors were being treated at a local hospital, the agency said.
It appeared to be the deadliest accident to date in the ongoing wave of sea migration from Lebanon that has accelerated over the last few years as the country suffers from a catastrophic economic crises that has wiped out household savings and decimated the value of the local currency.
Dozens of bodies were recovered on Thursday, and on Friday, at least 31 more bodies were found on beaches in Tartous or recovered from the sea, Kubrusli was quoted as saying.
In April, another boat carrying migrants and headed for Europe sank off the Lebanese coast, killing more than 30 people, local media reported. | 2022-09-23T12:23:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | More than 70 dead as Lebanese migrant ship sinks off Syrian coast - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/23/lebanon-migrant-ship-sink/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/23/lebanon-migrant-ship-sink/ |
Readers critique The Post: Queen coverage was a little over-the-top
I am sure Queen Elizabeth II was a very nice person, and I certainly can understand her family’s grief over her death, but I am puzzled by the enormous coverage of her passing by the U.S. media.
The United States is not a monarchy, and we fought against the British version to secure our independence. Moreover, monarchical institutions promote the notion that an entrenched group of wealthy and privileged families wrapped in pageantry should somehow reign for centuries over their subjects. Through the ages, monarchies have brought the world religious wars, crusades, inquisitions, tyranny, absolutism and the suppression of popular democratic movements, largely at the public’s expense. Though today most monarchies are weak and largely symbolic, they continue to perpetuate an image of entitlement and empire. It’s time to move on.
Arthur Edward Schwartz, Arlington
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Don’t compare Trump to Caesar
I agree with Dana Milbank’s basic assessment in his Sept. 8 Thursday Opinion column, “ ‘Hail, Caesar’ has a nice ring to it, says the MAGA crowd,” that there are many similarities between the late Roman Republic and the United States. Disregard for laws and shattering political norms by powerful, wealthy strongmen competing for political supremacy ruined the republic and led to autocracy under Augustus Caesar, Julius Caesar’s great-nephew, who was the last man standing at the conclusion of devastating civil wars.
But I think Milbank got the comparison of former president Donald Trump to Julius Caesar wrong. Although unscrupulous, Caesar possessed personal courage, was an exceptionally able general and politician, and a very gifted man who had a positive vision for the future of Rome. Trump is a proven demagogue but has also demonstrated that his incompetence and cowardliness have prevented him from transforming that demagoguery into lasting political power or a vision for the future of the United States.
We could still succumb to an authoritarian, but it will likely be someone such as Ron DeSantis, the Republican Florida governor, not Trump.
Thomas Beall, Warren, R.I.
No need to pile on Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton is darned if she does and darned if she doesn’t. Monica Hesse’s Sept. 12 Style column, “What do we gain from this brand of feminism?,” critiqued Clinton for showing a lighter side and going on a “boondoggle” with her daughter, Chelsea, and crudely compared both Clintons to the Coneheads from “Saturday Night Live.”
I remember not so long ago when Clinton was accused of not showing her personality. She can’t win no matter what she does.
Hesse also pointed out that shows with Clinton and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, focus on the same thing: famous women interviewing famous women who have accomplished great things. She wrote that these projects would not have been “greenlit” if these women weren’t famous. So what? At least they are using their celebrity status for good. And since when is it a bad thing to have shows or podcasts about inspiring women? We need more of them, not less.
Laura Gross, Washington
Be more cautious when stating absolutes
The Sept. 14 Style profile of Nina Totenberg, “The reporter, the justice and decades of unlikely friendship,” referred to Totenberg as “the best-known and most respected legal affairs reporter in America.” Whether Totenberg is the best-known legal affairs reporter might or might not be the case. That she is the “most respected” is something else.
One should be careful when throwing absolutes around. Linda Greenhouse, formerly of the New York Times, and Joan Biskupic, once a Post reporter, are both very highly regarded. Better to say “one of the most respected.”
Lawrence Meyer, Washington
Point us in the right direction, please
In the “In the News” section at the bottom of The Post’s front page, whenever there is a report on unemployment, gross domestic product or some other economic rate, there is no indication if the rate is up or down. Adding a simple up or down arrow would be a significant help to readers who do not follow these trends closely.
Pete Steffes, Chincoteague Island, Va.
A more helpful map next time, please
The Sept. 13 Metro article about “Hazel,” a tunnel boring machine, was very interesting [“Engineers hope ‘Hazel’ can dig Alexandria out of sewage issues”].
However, the small map didn’t show the route of the tunnel. This seems to be an important piece of the story.
The map did show three outfall locations with four red squares. It’s not clear why there were three names and four squares. The map also did not show where the sewage treatment plant is located. In any case, I presume that the tunnel will connect the outfall squares with the plant.
How difficult would it have been to show at least the approximate location of the tunnels?
This reader would have preferred a larger map, even if that required a smaller photo of the program manager and the model of the machine.
John J. Landers, Bethesda
Don’t overlook this Oval Office short-timer
Matthew Dallek’s Sept. 11 Outlook essay “The unsung virtues of the one-term presidency” focused on presidents who served four year or fewer. I found it hard to believe that while it included Gerald Ford, who finished Richard M. Nixon’s second term, it left out the most significant president who served four years or fewer: Andrew Johnson. He completed Abraham Lincoln’s second term and was not returned to office.
He was one of the most significant American presidents because of his blatant racism and desire to ensure that Black citizens became and remained second-class citizens, and his actions to ensure that the White citizens who had rebelled against the United States were returned to power as quickly as possible. Without him, the country might be a better place for people of all races.
Leslie C. Taylor, Bethesda
Standardized tests are not indicative of potential
Thaves’s Sept. 16 “Frank and Ernest” comic represented the contradiction of the SAT. The test plays a major role in high school, putting the pressure of parents, peers and colleges on students as they attempt to earn a high score. Though it is used to measure students’ academic capabilities, it is an ineffective benchmark.
As a student, I have taken test-prep programs to learn the pattern of the test, rather than applying knowledge learned from the classroom. In these programs, I gave insightful reasons to support my answer choice, and all my supervisor could say was “It’s what the answer key says.” At other times, we debated the question for the entire session, which was more of a learning experience than the standardized test itself.
Standardized tests cannot measure students’ potential because they do not consider in-depth thinking. The ability to provide deep reasoning to support an argument should be valued higher than the ability to rinse and repeat. Standardized tests should not be the benchmarks in education. We should measure the academic potential of students instead of rehearsing for a patterned exam.
Andrew Ryu, Fairfax
Big kudos to the ‘big lie’ essay
High praise to Claire Hao and Steve Brodner for their excellent Sept. 15 Opinion visual essay [“Fly! Fly! The winged monkeys of Trump spread the ‘big lie.’ ”]. The article and Brodner’s illustrations perfectly reflected the absurd yet dangerous attacks on democracy by willful politicians and operatives.
Bob Latham, Ellicott City
This educational comic strip will be missed
“Flashbacks” will be missed! Normally, I am not a reader of comics or, for that matter, graphic novels, but I enjoyed learning about our country’s history through Patrick M. Reynolds’s comic strip.
After reading his weekly comic, I would share it with my family and with my class. Talk about a great way to get students’ interests sparked; they then could further research a topic. History came to life; history became interesting!
One series that Reynolds did that I particularly remember was the plight of the Bonus Army. After fighting in World War I, soldiers were told they would be provided compensation — a promise the government did not keep. Reynolds told the entire story about how they came to Washington to protest and were attacked by government representatives. Another was the 9/11 series that provided a thorough timeline of the events from before the attacks to the aftermath.
Reynolds did an incredible service in imparting knowledge of historical events, using words and his detailed comics to tell the story. His work, the last of which publishes Sunday, will be missed by many.
Miranda Skelly Delmerico, Winchester
‘Get with it’ on the crossword puzzles
Having read two letters in the Sept. 10 Free For All complaining about The Post’s relatability to the boomer (my) generation, I say to the authors a hearty “Get with it.”
Regarding the first, “Crossword puzzles for whom exactly?”: Crossword answers reflect our culture, be it popular, literary or arcane, and I applaud Evan Birnholz for challenging puzzlers to color outside the lines.
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And, in the second, “Make The Post boomer-friendly,” a writer complained that he didn’t know what a UX designer is: My daughter is one, and she makes websites and apps easy to use for coots like me and the letter writer.
So, dear Post, please keep ringing in the new. As the poet laureate of our generation wrote, “He not busy being born is busy dyin’.”
Seth Greenstein, Potomac
In response to Kutlu Somel’s question regarding Evan Birnholz’s weekly crossword puzzles, I would answer that they are for people who enjoy a challenge beyond the mundane crossword puzzles found in other newspapers.
I look forward to Birnholz’s complex mind exercises that provide me with twists and turns and require thinking “outside the box.” If Somel and others desire an easier puzzle, they should turn to the Arts and Style section of The Post and work on the Los Angeles Times puzzle printed there. I, for one, will be eagerly awaiting the next Birnholz puzzle with pen (not pencil) in hand!
The Sept. 11 puzzle was one of his easiest and should have satisfied most puzzle solvers.
Sonia Houck, Woodbridge
I disagree with the recent letter criticizing the Sunday crossword puzzles by Evan Birnholz. Though sometimes challenging, they are almost always solvable, unlike some of the Los Angeles Times puzzles published in The Post on Saturdays.
Yes, a few of his formats are literally outside the box, but that’s what makes them fun. His puzzles often demand a wide range of knowledge, but he strikes a nice balance of current and past subjects, resulting in a very entertaining product. I hope The Post continues to publish his crosswords for a long time.
Bob Sabatelli, Clarksburg
Moore worked on the vision of D.C. until the end
“Architect transformed the aesthetic of the District,” the Sept. 9 obituary for architect Arthur Cotton Moore, who died Sept. 4 at age 87, captured Moore’s admirable urban design vision — “preserving the city’s urban landscape even as he pushed it to evolve.” D.C. planners and architects will speak respectfully of the historic 1791 L’Enfant Plan that laid out our nation’s capital and of the 1901-1902 McMillan Plan that renewed L’Enfant’s vision after a century of haphazard growth. Moore internalized that humanistic vision.
Though the obituary suggested Moore’s design work was mostly in the past, until his last days, as vice chair of the National Mall Coalition, he was actively exploring and promoting ideas to turn obstacles into opportunities. He thought brilliantly and innovatively about how urban design advances democracy, social justice and sustainability.
Learning that the Smithsonian was looking for sites “on the Mall” for the Women’s History and American Latino museums, Moore identified two potential sites. He believed, and we agree, that the location near the Tidal Basin both builds on L’Enfant’s layout of the city as a symbol of founding principles and extends the historic idea to include chapters of our ever-evolving history.
And speaking of evolving, Moore knew the demand for more museums and memorials would continue. So he envisioned a “3rd Century Mall” whose expanded boundaries would incorporate underused federal land along the Potomac River — inspired by the McMillan commission plan that expanded the Mall in 1902 to include the Lincoln Memorial.
His design for the National Mall Underground project began as a beneath-the-Mall parking garage and floodwater cistern to improve visitor access as well as protect our national treasures from storm water flooding. Then he added a field of geothermal rods to provide renewable clean energy. In essence, Moore made the Underground a facility that promotes both historic preservation and forward-looking solutions to ensure the vitality of the Mall long into the future.
Moore never met an urban design obstacle he thought couldn’t be solved. Though, sadly, many of his ideas did not reach fruition in his lifetime, Moore had a way of elevating the architectural conversation. Where there was change, there was Moore, with both history and imagination in equal measure, to promote a deep respect for the L’Enfant vision that was and is the inspiration for our beautiful capital city.
The District of Columbia, the D.C. community and the entire country have lost a champion, a visionary and a good friend.
Judy Scott Feldman, Washington
The writer is a founder and the chair of the National Mall Coalition.
Less rambling, more pertinent details
What has happened to the editing of Post articles? I tried reading the Sept. 14 front-page article “ ‘The lakes are the tears of the mountains.’ ” I got to Paragraph 6 with no idea of where this was taking place nor what it was about, not having a clue where Nevado Palcaraju nor Huaraz were located.
Is everything a feature now? What happened to the front-page articles offering who, what, when, where and how in the first paragraph? This article rambled for about six inches with no indication of what it was about.
Barbara Kernan, Rockville | 2022-09-23T13:34:42Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Readers critique The Post: Queen Elizabeth II coverage was too much - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/23/reader-critiques-too-much-queen-elizabeth-coverage/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/23/reader-critiques-too-much-queen-elizabeth-coverage/ |
Hi Damon: My best friend is an antivaxxer (not only covid, all the vaccines). His wife is, too. They have a 9-month-old baby and they haven’t vaccinated him. I babysit for them every other weekend. Should I take the baby to get his shots without telling them?
Anonymous: My feelings on vaccinations are well-documented. But just in case you’re unfamiliar, a quick refresh:
I think I’ve reached the threshold of intellect where I’m just smart enough to know that I’m not that smart. I have some gifts and some talents, I guess. But with medical science, I trust that the PhDs and MDs who’ve spent thousands of hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars to learn about it, and whose livelihoods are predicated on the retention and application of that knowledge, know much more about it than I’d ever know. And I’m not just talking about some faceless wall of anonymous white-coated professionals, but family and good friends. A neighbor. An ex-girlfriend. All medical doctors or science-related PhDs unanimous in their belief — no, plea — that everyone get vaccinated.
And look, I’m a Black American. My skepticism of our health-care system, based on my awareness of the profound racial disparities existing within it — historically, and presently — is justified. But, as I wrote in a New York Times essay last year, my desire to prevent more infection, sickness and death is a force greater than cynicism.
That said, I am also a parent of two small children. And if someone took them, against my will, to get vaccinated? Let’s just say that I was advised, by my editors, for legal-ish reasons, not to say what I’d do to that person.
What you’re suggesting is reckless, egregious and possibly even criminal. Forty-three states require a parent’s permission to vaccinate a child. The age where parental consent is no longer necessary depends on the state, and ranges between 15 and 18. But these laws are for teenagers who wish to get vaccinated, not adults who want to sneak their friends’ babies to the clinic.
Of course, if you believe that your friends are abusing their children, you have a responsibility to report them. But despite the fact that I do agree with you on the necessity of vaccination, and that your friends are acting dangerously, you’ve burrowed so deeply in the rabbit hole of self-righteousness that you’ve come up on the wrong side.
I was tempted to suggest that you attempt to sway them into getting vaccinated, but if an active pandemic that has killed millions of people — plus all of the social restrictions of being unvaccinated — hasn’t convinced them yet, I’m not sure what else would. Maybe an ultimatum, where you tell them you don’t feel safe around them anymore. You’d risk ending that relationship, sure. But I’d rather lose friends than commit a crime and lose my freedom. | 2022-09-23T13:39:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ask Damon: Should I get my friends' baby vaccinated without telling them? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/09/23/ask-damon-antivax-friends-baby/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/09/23/ask-damon-antivax-friends-baby/ |
LAS VEGAS, NV - SEPTEMBER 20: Fox News Channel and radio talk show host Sean Hannity (L) interviews U.S. President Donald Trump before a campaign rally at the Las Vegas Convention Center on September 20, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Trump is in town to support the re-election campaign for U.S. Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) as well as Nevada Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial candidate Adam Laxalt and candidate for Nevada’s 3rd House District Danny Tarkanian and 4th House District Cresent Hardy. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) (Photographer: Ethan Miller/Getty Images North America)
The relationship between Donald Trump and the Republican-aligned media is symbiotic — and dysfunctional, at least for the Republican Party.
Trump had a bad day on Wednesday, with New York State filing suit against him for inflating the value of his properties and a federal appellate court ruling against him in his battle with the federal government over his possession of classified documents. So what did the former president do? He went on Sean Hannity’s prime-time show on Fox News to complain. He had a completely bizarre diatribe about, among other things, how he could declassify things while president just by thinking it (uh, no) and his even goofier theory that the FBI may have been looking for Hillary Clinton’s emails at Mar-a-Lago.
What Fox News gets out of all this is clear: viewers. What Trump gets out of it is also clear: the attention he craves, which also helps him remain the most prominent Republican in the nation — which helps his chances of winning the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 if he wants it.
What the Republican Party gets out of this is … well, nothing good. To begin with, boosting the chances of a candidate who may well wind up under federal indictment, and remains unpopular except with the most intense Republican voters (and, given his many scandals, is likely to remain so), doesn’t help the party. Most of the time, when its candidate loses a presidential election, a political party moves on — and that’s with a candidate untouched by scandal.
As for the long-term effects on the party and its voters — well, that’s nothing good, either. Think about what Republican-aligned media — not just Fox News, but other TV, talk radio and online outlets — are teaching Republican voters. As the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent noted after watching Trump’s performance on Hannity, what viewers are experiencing is the “hermetically sealed-off Fox News universe, where actual legal arguments against him were treated as if they simply don’t exist.”
But the worst effects may be on Republican politicians. The lesson they’re getting is that, within the party, anything goes. They don’t have to come up with strong arguments to defend themselves or their ideas — they can just say any fool thing, and party-aligned media will treat it as if it’s brilliant. They are also learning that, especially on Fox News, it’s dangerous to speak out about even very obvious wrongdoing by anyone in the party.
(The exception that proves the rule was the case of Madison Cawthorn, the young House Republican that Fox News turned against — and who then lost his primary.)
The problem comes when this closed information loop collides with the rest of the world. For Trump, that collision is taking place in the judicial system, which is not impressed with his bluff and bluster.
For the Republican Party, however, the problem is manifesting itself in the form of a historically poor crop of candidates. Just this week, two House Republican candidates ran into trouble, one for having campaigned on combat experience in Afghanistan that was reported to be fiction.
As the political scientist Brendan Nyhan points out, this is an expected consequence of nominating inexperienced candidates. But it’s more than that: It’s what happens when one of the core beliefs of a political party is that nothing matters — not just experience, but policy and maybe even truth itself. If that’s the case, then not only are qualifications irrelevant, but so are policy positions that are unpopular with swing voters.
It’s hard to say how much all of this will matter this November, but it certainly is putting what should be a great year for the party — with an unpopular Democratic president in office — in serious danger. The Senate and gubernatorial races are already more competitive than anticipated, and now it appears the House is as well.
Of course, ratings for Fox News and for Republican-aligned talk radio will probably be higher if Democrats do well in November, as Trump and other Republicans go on the air to rail against the continued outrages of President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress. Now that’s what I call symbiotic.
• Here at Bloomberg Opinion, Dave Hopkins understands how passing legislation helps and doesn’t help Biden.
• Natalie Jackson on polling averages.
• Matt Grossmann talks with Joshua Kalla and Kevin DeLuca about how campaigns persuade voters.
• Caitlin Talmadge at the Monkey Cage on Putin and the nuclear threat.
• Dan Drezner on Putin’s latest efforts. | 2022-09-23T13:52:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How Trump and Hannity Are Hurting the Republican Party - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-trump-and-hannity-are-hurting-the-republican-party/2022/09/23/8f0ed996-3b3b-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-trump-and-hannity-are-hurting-the-republican-party/2022/09/23/8f0ed996-3b3b-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
A campaign by Republican governors in several states to transport thousands of asylum seekers to Democratic-controlled areas is a callous political stunt — and also an indictment of the federal government’s failure to control the country’s borders. Rather than deflect blame for the crisis, President Joe Biden needs to acknowledge the scope of it and mobilize an effective response.
So far this year, border officials have reported a record 2.2 million encounters with migrants attempting to enter the country from the south. Rules put in place at the start of the pandemic allowed the US to expel many of these migrants to Mexico or to their home countries, but in recent months, increasing numbers have come from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, whose authoritarian governments refuse to cooperate. As a result, tens of thousands of asylum seekers have been released into the US while their cases are adjudicated.
In April, Texas Governor Greg Abbott began busing migrants to Washington, D.C., a program he later expanded to New York City and Chicago. Not to be outdone, Florida’s Ron DeSantis helped fly some 50 Venezuelan asylum seekers to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, supposedly in retaliation for the federal government’s sending migrants to Florida without notice.
If these stunts were intended to catch Democratic leaders in northern cities unprepared, they’ve succeeded. Neither Abbott nor DeSantis alerted the receiving cities before acting. Having received more than 11,000 migrants since May, New York City is considering cruise ships as temporary housing. Washington’s mayor has declared a public-health emergency. Massachusetts and Illinois have mobilized the National Guard.
All told, this spectacle has been a national embarrassment. Republican governors may have a point about border security, but they’ve forfeited any moral authority by treating vulnerable people as props. Although Biden has (rightly) denounced the relocation stunts as “un-American,” his administration has contributed to the problem by haphazardly unwinding restrictions on entries while failing to establish adequate alternatives. For its part, Congress has failed to pass commonsense immigration reforms that would clamp down on illegal border crossings while expanding legal pathways for the immigrant workers the country needs.
First, all asylum seekers need temporary shelter and basic services. Currently, their welfare is at the mercy of whichever municipality they end up in or whatever charity offers them aid. Congress should increase Federal Emergency Management Agency funding for migrant assistance, which at the moment totals just $150 million — barely enough to help the thousands coming to New York, let alone the rest of the nation. Federal assistance to border states should be boosted on the condition that no money be diverted to transport migrants to other communities without the agreement of local authorities. Big cities such as Washington and New York should expect to devote more of their own funds to handle the continued influx, particularly if they’ve advertised themselves as “sanctuaries.”
At the same time, the government needs to address the underlying problems that have led to this crisis. Most important, it needs to fix the system for adjudicating asylum claims. The US spends $750 million a year on immigration courts, compared to $7.2 billion on border enforcement. A shortage of asylum officers, judges and clerks has contributed to a backlog of 2 million pending immigration court cases, which often take years to resolve. That’s simply unsustainable. A sizable increase in funds for this system should be paired with reforms — such as empowering asylum officers to fully adjudicate cases, while allowing for appeals to a judge — that would accelerate processing, reduce backlogs and potentially limit the perverse incentives that have led so many migrants to try their luck in the first place.
Above all, ending the partisan bickering and gamesmanship over the chaos at the border requires leadership. It may be naive to expect Biden to call attention to such a crisis in an election year. But it’s his responsibility to work with leaders on both sides to fix it.
• The Solution to US Border Woes Is No Secret: Eduardo Porter
• Immigrants on Martha’s Vineyard Expose US Immigration Hypocrisy: Tyler Cowen | 2022-09-23T13:52:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Migrant Relocation Stunts Highlight a Broad Policy Failure - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/migrant-relocation-stunts-highlight-abroadpolicy-failure/2022/09/23/71008166-3b40-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/migrant-relocation-stunts-highlight-abroadpolicy-failure/2022/09/23/71008166-3b40-11ed-b8af-0a04e5dc3db6_story.html |
The Tigers will visit the Demon Deacons at noon Saturday (ABC)
Dabo Swinney is looking to get Clemson back to the College Football Playoff after a down season last year. (Jacob Kupferman/AP)
It’s always curious to have a quiet giant hanging around somewhere, and in this loud and funky college football September the role has gone to Clemson, which has played it dutifully. It has operated in a hush unless you count the 206,556 who have seen it in person, and some of those surely were repeat customers.
No. 1 Georgia has been gorgeous; No. 2 Alabama has been clutch on the road at Texas in the noise and heat; No. 3 Ohio State has been No. 1 nationally in yards per play per usual; No. 4 Michigan has been No. 1 nationally in points per game per unusual; and the great program at No. 5 Clemson has been …
What has Clemson (3-0) been doing?
Does anyone know?
“This is a huge, huge game for us,” Coach Dabo Swinney told reporters in Clemson, S.C., on Tuesday. “It’s a huge game for Wake (Forest).” The extra “huge,” nothing more than a glitch of chatter, might just fit. Now comes the learning part of the Clemson season: at No. 21 Wake Forest (3-0) on Saturday, then No. 12 N.C. State at home, at Boston College and Florida State, Syracuse at home, at Notre Dame, and finally Louisville, Miami (Fla.) and South Carolina all at home.
By then, people in the other 49 states ought to know more about Clemson, such as whether Clemson will be apt to make its seventh College Football Playoff out of nine playoff seasons, and its seventh in the last eight. It missed last season as it went 10-3 and saw its regular season record since 2015 dip from a decent 73-3 to a wretched 82-6 (counting conference championship games). Clemson saw its number of regular season losses by more than one score in the past seven seasons rise all the way to one. One of the uppermost single-program eras in the 153-year history of the sport descended into … one of the uppermost single-program eras in the 153-year history of the sport. Clemson’s longtime coordinators felt so ashamed that they ran off to Oklahoma (Brent Venables) and Virginia (Tony Elliott).
(Note: That’s not really why they left.)
In trying to save face this September, Clemson has reached 85-6 in regular seasons since 2015 by throttling Georgia Tech (1-2), Furman (2-1) and Louisiana Tech (1-2), who combined have beaten Western Carolina, North Greenville, East Tennessee State and Stephen F. Austin. Nobody knows what any of that means. Clemson stood 100th last year in yards-per-play offense, eighth in yards-per-play defense; this year it’s 64th and 35th. Nobody is quite sure what any of that means either.
“Last year was just, I mean, really unexplainable,” Swinney said to a question about injuries. “I wish I could tell you it was just one thing, ’cause it wasn’t. If it had been one thing it would be easy to point your finger. It was a lot of fluky, freaky things, all across the board. We’ve been much better (this year).”
He pointed out that Clemson’s heyday teams — two national champions, two national runners-up and two national semifinalists — largely avoided the injury brunt. His 2021 team did not — the starry defensive line ached in particular — and the whole operation still managed the “unexplainable” with a 10-3 year with a 10-3 loss to the national champions (Georgia), a double-overtime loss at a 9-3 team (N.C. State) and a 27-17 loss at an 11-3 ACC champion (Pitt).
For all its hush, Clemson is also a glaring window on how the windows of expectation have narrowed in the football-glued culture at large. A first-year starting quarterback isn’t expected to look like a first-year starting quarterback anymore, and Clemson last year had a first-year starting quarterback.
DJ Uiagalelei, the junior from Southern California, epitomized the Tigers’ newfound reach in 2020 when he chose the distant school as the nation’s No. 3 prospect (rivals.com) and No. 1 prostyle quarterback. Now he already has learned one rare life skill — that of gentlemanly answers to questions about being criticized. “I definitely didn’t play the level I wanted to,” he said at the ACC preseason media gathering. He landed outside the top 100 in the country in passer rating, and threw 10 interceptions against nine touchdown passes.
Those watching Clemson closely had gotten used to the following: Deshaun Watson in 2015 (12th in rating, 35 touchdown passes, 13 interceptions), Watson in 2016 (19th, 41 and 17), Trevor Lawrence in 2018 (12th, 30 and four), Lawrence in 2019 (eighth, 36 and eight) and Lawrence in 2020 (12th, 24 and five). In that vein, Uiagalelei has ticked upward this year so far, standing 55th with a rating of 144.44, five touchdown passes and one interception.
“I think the quarterback is playing much better,” Wake Forest Coach Dave Clawson told reporters in Winston-Salem, N.C. “He’s completing 60 percent of his balls (57-for-88). He’s taking care of it. He’s only thrown one turnover on the year. He’s a threat to extend plays and run the field. You know, he’s 6-4, 235 (pounds).” He is very much that, and also, Clawson said, “You can tell he’s more comfortable.”
Uiagalelei told reporters in Clemson last week, “I think compared to last year, I think I’m a lot further ahead — mentally, physically.” He spoke of “read-wise, and just the feel of the game.” He dug out the now-old line about the game starting to “slow down a little bit.”
He will serve as the quarterback question of the game, while Wake Forest brings its own quarterback story with Sam Hartman, the one with the 4,228 passing yards and 39 touchdowns last season, back for a third game since leaving the team in midsummer to deal with a health issue. The last time Wake Forest beat Clemson, a 12-7 non-thriller on a Thursday in 2008, it proved so intolerable that by the following Monday, coach Tommy Bowden had stepped down. Up stepped a long-shot interim, Swinney, who has steered the thing to such heights that if a 13-game winning streak against Wake Forest happens to end on Saturday, Clemson might not be so quiet anymore. | 2022-09-23T13:53:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Clemson's quiet season about to get louder at Wake Forest - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/23/clemson-wake-forest/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/23/clemson-wake-forest/ |
Make it an epic pasta night with recipes for sauces, salads and more
One of the biggest differences between the two comes down to cooking time. Fresh pasta takes between 1 and 3 minutes, Stefanelli said, whereas dry pasta can take as long as 15 minutes (or more) depending on the size and shape. Regardless of the variety, Stefanelli urges cooks to finish cooking pasta in whatever sauce they’ve paired it with for the last 1 to 2 minutes “so that starch and the liquid are able to come together and really emulsify and become one.”
The difference in durability impacts the usage for these two categories of pasta. When combining pasta with large chunks, dry is better, as it is less likely to tear. On the flip side, Stefanelli prefers fresh pasta in smoother, saucier dishes. “But the beauty of pasta is you can always have fun with it and experiment,” he said.
When cooking a recipe, I always urge people to follow it as written, especially the first time you make a dish. But should you want or need to swap one for the other, you can use 1-1/2 pounds of fresh pasta for every 1 pound dry pasta. Gill is a believer in making do with whatever pasta you have on hand. “Neither is wrong, it’s just a different experience,” she said. But the two behave differently when saucing. “Because cooked fresh pasta doesn’t absorb water like dried does, be conservative when adding pasta cooking water to the accompanying pasta sauce, or the sauce might end up being too loose.” Andrew Janjigian wrote in Cook’s Illustrated.
“I always recommend getting the best quality pasta that you can get,” Gill said. “It just doesn’t have the same consistency once cooked.” Some brands that she recommends include Pastificio Mancini (“that’s the one that I use a lot”), Pastificio Dei Campi (“that’s probably my favorite pasta”) and De Cecco, which is widely available at grocery stores. For Stefanelli, “One of the pasta brands that I’m madly in love with is Faella,” which he stocks at Officina, his Italian specialty market in D.C.’s Wharf neighborhood. “Play around with different brands and see what people prefer because it’s really hard to tell what everybody who’s going to read this story has access to,” he said. “So have fun with it.” | 2022-09-23T14:18:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Fresh pasta versus dry: The differences and when to use which - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2022/09/23/fresh-versus-dry-pasta/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2022/09/23/fresh-versus-dry-pasta/ |
Bicycles are ubiquitous in the bike-friendly city of Ghent, Belgium. (Photos by Mary Winston Nicklin for The Washington Post)
Going to a spa? Try the original one, in Belgium.
The rebellious noose bearers
In Belgium, Antwerp is a cosmopolitan port city whose attractions include art, diamonds, ale, architecture — and chocolate
Revolutionary creativity
Winston Nicklin is a writer based in Paris. Her website is marywinstonnicklin.com. Find her on Twitter: @MaryWNicklin.
Yalo Urban Boutique Hotel
Brabantdam 33, Ghent, Belgium
011-32-9-395-92-00
yalohotel.com/en
This design-centric boutique hotel has become a vibrant hub for locals since it opened in 2021. Creative bar drinks and tasty restaurant cuisine are just as appreciated as the morning coffee by a neighborhood roastery. Certified by Green Globe, Yalo prioritizes sustainability. Its motto is, “Connect to the good life.” Rooms about $140 per night.
Ham 39
en.publiekgent.be
Awarded a Michelin star, Publiek offers a cool vibe and great value. Chef Olly Ceulenaere works his magic in an open kitchen. Open Tuesday to Friday, noon to 2 p.m., for lunch. For dinner, open Tuesday to Thursday, 7 to 9 p.m., and on Friday and Saturday, 6 to 9 p.m. Closed Sunday and Monday. Lunch from about $48 for three courses; dinner from about $80 for five courses.
Epiphany’s Kitchen
Burgstraat 10
epiphanyskitchen.com
The concept at this atmospheric spot is plant-based, though you can add a sustainably sourced fish or meat protein to your meal. Open Thursday to Monday, noon to 2:30 p.m. and 5:30 to 10 p.m.; closed Tuesday and Wednesday. Entrees from about $20.
Amour Gent
Sint Salvatorstraat 18a
amourgent.be
This popular cafe is located in a former industrial site in the Dok Noord that’s been converted into shops, offices and restaurants. Lunch and dinner are served as a delicious vegetarian buffet, though a meat dish is always available. Open Monday to Friday, noon to 2 p.m., for lunch, and Friday, 6 to 9 p.m., for dinner. When the weather’s nice, the terrace fills up fast. Lunch about $17; dinner about $21.
DOKano
Houtdok, Chinastraat 1
dokano.be/en/
Working for clean, plastic-free water, this nonprofit organizes excursions and educational team-building activities with school groups on Ghent’s waterways. You can “rent” a canoe from DOKano in exchange for picking up a bucket of trash. (Donations suggested.) Book your boat by email: info@dokano.be.
St. Bavo’s Cathedral visitor center
Sint-Baafsplein
sintbaafskathedraal.be
This visitor center offers an augmented-reality experience shedding light on the creation of “The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb,” or the Ghent Altarpiece. Forty- and 60-minute tours available; tickets can be booked online in advance. Open Monday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m.; last admission 4:30 p.m. About $16 per person ages 12 and older; about $8 per person under 12.
STAM, the Ghent City Museum
Bijlokesite. Godshuizenlaan 2
stamgent.be/en
The story of the city’s history is told with flair at STAM. The museum’s architecture reflects the modern city itself. Open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and weekends, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Closed Wednesday. Tickets about $10, about $2 ages 19 to 25 and free for people under 19.
Museum of Fine Arts (MSK)
Fernand Scribedreef 1
mskgent.be/en
Considered Belgium’s oldest museum, MSK has an extraordinary art collection. The 225th-anniversary celebrations include special events, exhibitions and artistic activities. Open Tuesday to Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Closed Monday. Tickets about $15 per person, about $3 for ages 19 to 25, and free for under 18.
Walking tours with Gentse Gidsen
Nederpolder 2
gentsegidsen.be/en/
Professional city tour guides offer a range of Ghent tours, whether your interest is history or street art. The Ghent history tour, which meets at the Tourist Information Center, is about $8 per person, while the other themed two-hour walks start from about $105 per guide.
visit.gent.be/en | 2022-09-23T14:18:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Why you should visit Ghent, a hip, historic and green Belgian city - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/09/23/ghent-belgium-travel-vacation/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/09/23/ghent-belgium-travel-vacation/ |
Maryland A.G. settles with Kushner-owned company over housing conditions
Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh (D) speaks during a 2017 news conference. (Alex Brandon/AP)
A property management company owned by the family of former president Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has agreed to pay a $3,250,000 civil penalty along with restitution to settle a 2019 lawsuit brought by Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh (D), who alleged the firm charged tenants illegal fees and housed them in apartments with leaking roofs, excessive mold, rodent infestations and other issues.
The lawsuit claimed that Westminster Management engaged in “unfair or deceptive trade practices” at 17 residential communities located in Baltimore City, Baltimore County and Prince George’s County.
The affiliate of Kushner Cos. “victimized consumers, many of whom are financially vulnerable,” the lawsuit alleged, placing them in units “infested by rodents and vermin, plagued with water leaks … and, at times, lacking in basic utilities.”
Frosh has said the scope of violations and the number of tenants affected in the case are the most severe his office has ever seen.
“Westminster is pleased to have settled this litigation with no admission of liability or wrongdoing,” Peter Febo, Kushner Cos.' chief operating officer, said Friday. “We look forward to moving past this matter so that we can focus on our ever-expanding real estate portfolio.”
Several months before the lawsuit was filed, when Trump characterized the late Democratic Rep. Elijah E. Cummings’s Baltimore-based congressional district as a “rodent infested mess,” Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. (D) called the insults ironic, pointing to the allegations of neglect and disrepair at Kushner’s properties.
The Kushner family has been the subject of fierce scrutiny and criticism in parts of Maryland, where it manages a wide portfolio of apartment complexes. In 2017, Baltimore County officials revealed that Kushner Cos. properties were cited for more than 200 code violations in a calendar year. | 2022-09-23T14:31:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Maryland A.G. Frosh settles with Kushner-owned company over housing conditions - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/22/kushner-suit-maryland-attorney-general/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/22/kushner-suit-maryland-attorney-general/ |
Roh Sung-sang inspects the damage to his cabbage crop on his farm in Taebaek, South Korea. (Min Joo Kim/The Washington Post)
With its typically cool climate, this alpine region of South Korea is the summertime production hub for Napa, or Chinese cabbage, a key ingredient in kimchi, the piquant Korean staple. But this year, nearly half a million cabbages that otherwise would have been spiced and fermented to make kimchi lie abandoned in Roh’s fields. Overall, Taebaek’s harvest is two-thirds of what it would be in a typical year, according to local authorities’ estimates.
Rising costs have pushed Daesang, South Korea’s top kimchi producer, to lift prices by 10 percent starting next month, according to a company spokesman. Cabbage kimchi, the most popular type, has been out of stock on the company’s online mall for a month. (The fermented pickle dish can also be made from radish, cucumber, green onion and other vegetables.)
To promote kimchi abroad, Korean scientists are trying to get rid of the smell
Imports, mostly from China, are a touchy subject. Kimchi, along with other items found in both Korea and China, was the subject of a recent cultural spat over its provenance that escalated into a soft-power battle between the Asian neighbors. Chinese imports account for 40 percent of commercially produced kimchi consumed in South Korea.
“If climate change continues at its current pace, by the 2090s the yield for Korean highland cabbage will drop by 99 percent, which basically means no more harvests,” said Kim Myung-hyun, a researcher at South Korea’s National Institute of Agricultural Sciences. | 2022-09-23T14:31:23Z | www.washingtonpost.com | South Korea faces kimchi shortage after extreme heat, rainfall - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/23/south-korea-kimchi-crisis-shortage/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/23/south-korea-kimchi-crisis-shortage/ |
Man trying to escape shooting dies in vehicle crash in Northeast D.C.
Authorities said it does not appear the victim was struck by gunfire.
A man died after vehicle he was driving crashed Thursday night as he sped away from a person shooting at him on an exit ramp on D.C. Route 295 in Northeast Washington, police said.
A D.C. police spokeswoman said that after a preliminary investigation, it does not appear the man was struck by gunfire. Authorities said they are awaiting the results of an autopsy to determine how he died.
The incident occurred shortly before midnight on the ramp leading to a service road in the 600 block of Kenilworth Avenue NE, adjacent to the southbound lanes of Route 295.
Police said it appears a person in a vehicle opened fire on the man driving another vehicle. Police said the victim sped away but crashed on the service road. Police said that vehicle overturned, and that no others were involved in the crash.
The person who opened fire escaped, police said. Authorities said they have not learned an apparent motive. | 2022-09-23T14:53:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Man dies after vehicle shot at in Northeast Washington - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/23/fatal-crash-shooting-dc/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/23/fatal-crash-shooting-dc/ |
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