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On hurricane relief votes and hypocrisy
Doc’s Beach House in Bonita Springs, Fla., right on the beach, was destroyed by Hurricane Ian. (Thomas Simonetti for The Washington Post)
In life, there are coincidences, and then there’s how members of Congress vote.
As Florida surveys the damage done by Hurricane Ian and confronts how to recover from it, the New York Times on Thursday ran a piece noting that Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) was once quite skeptical of expansive federal disaster relief. Some of his first votes as a member of Congress in 2013 were against bills to help the Northeast recover from Hurricane Sandy. But then he voted for a 2017 bill that included relief funds for his home state amid Hurricane Irma. Now he’s in a position of not just asking the federal government for help, but also potentially to enact expansive aid package of his own.
Plenty of others have gone a step further in such observations, pointing to DeSantis’s 2013 votes as a sign of hypocrisy. But while there have unquestionably been some thoroughly convenient flip-flops on these kinds of votes over the last decade-plus, it’s worth taking in the fuller context and what it says about the shifting and malleable politics of disaster relief on the right.
The GOP movement to question spending on disaster relief began to pick up amid the debate over Hurricane Katrina aid in 2005. Only 11 House Republicans voted against the $50-plus billion package, but others cautioned that they’d be drawing a harder line moving forward, particularly if the spending wasn’t offset with cuts elsewhere.
“Congress must ensure that a catastrophe of nature does not become a catastrophe of debt for our children and grandchildren,” said future Vice President Mike Pence, then a congressman from Indiana.
After the tea party movement took hold in 2010, members began to hold that line. A $9.7 billion flood relief bill for Hurricane Sandy was considered noncontroversial, even passing by voice vote in the Senate. But 67 House Republicans voted against it, including then-Rep. DeSantis.
Then came a larger $50 billion Sandy bill. Fully 36 Senate Republicans voted against it, as did 179 House Republicans — the vast majority of GOP contingents in both chambers (again including DeSantis). They objected not just because the spending wasn’t offset, but because they viewed it as too large, and not sufficiently targeted in scope or timing to truly constitute hurricane relief.
By the time 2017 rolled around, though, DeSantis wasn’t the only one who didn’t seem to be holding as hard a line. Despite the bill lacking such spending offsets, the GOP no votes on a $36.5 billion aid bill for Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria numbered only 17 in the Senate and 69 in the House.
Such votes show how malleable such principled stands can be, depending on where disaster strikes.
For instance, only 3 of 18 House Republicans from Florida voted for the larger Sandy bill, but every one of them voted for the 2017 bill that included aid for their home state.
Likewise, of the 49 House GOP yes votes on the larger Sandy bill, nearly half came from states that were directly affected, including every Republican from New York and New Jersey.
One of those New Jersey Republicans was Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.), who actually introduced the smaller Sandy bill. Just eight years before, he had been one of those 11 Republicans who voted against the Katrina package.
If you comb through all of these votes, you’ll notice that, the larger Sandy bill aside, lawmakers who come from states that are particularly vulnerable to hurricanes (i.e. along the Gulf Coast) are generally less likely to be among the hard-liners — perhaps owing to the fact that they know their states could be next in line.
That’s where DeSantis’s votes do stand out. On the first Sandy bill, he was one of just two Florida Republicans to vote no, and very few members from the Gulf Coast joined them.
It’s a stand that served notice of his intent to legislate as a tea party conservative; he cast the vote just a day after being sworn into Congress. But it was also something that a politician in his position might have anticipated posing problems down the line. It became an issue in his 2018 campaign for governor when, as the Times noted, GOP primary opponent Adam Putnam sought to spotlight it. Putnam’s campaign said that families shouldn’t have to worry about whether DeSantis would deliver in a time of disaster.
DeSantis emphasized even at the time that he didn’t oppose all federal disaster aid. In 2013, he said he opposed what he called a “put it on the credit card mentality" — a claim in line with tea party warnings about the lack of spending offsets. But as noted, the 2017 bill he voted for lacked such offsets.
In further comments, DeSantis also argued that the Sandy bill spent too excessively, both on things that were unrelated to the storm (for this claim, he cited how not all of the money was spent immediately) and effectively rewarding New York for not sufficiently insuring its buildings.
“So, in that situation, we want to help people, I think, as the last line of defense, but you don’t want to basically reward them for not doing the responsible thing,” he said. “So I think a lot of people who have looked at it have acknowledged that there was more spending in it than what needed to be done, and it was not an appropriate vehicle, with excessive spending and extraneous money.”
Post Fact Checker Glenn Kessler looked at these kinds of claims in 2017, after Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) defended his vote against the package by saying it was two-thirds pork. (His office later said he had misspoken and was referring to how slowly the money would be spent.) Kessler cited a detailed congressional Research Service report and concluded that “it’s clear that virtually all of it was related to the damage caused by Sandy.”
DeSantis and his fellow critics pointed to spending on things like the Smithsonian and Head Start, but each was impacted by Sandy, and the spending was storm-related. They pointed to spending on fisheries, but it was a relatively small line item, and the fisheries too were impacted by declared disasters — both Sandy and others.
They also pointed out that not all of $16 billion spent on an account that funds Community Development Block Grants went to areas impacted by Sandy. But 80 percent of it did, while the rest of the funds went to areas affected by other disasters.
As for the pace of the spending, which both Cruz and DeSantis raised, the Congressional Budget Office had estimated that only 30 percent of the money would be spent by a year later and that about one-quarter would not be spent for at least five years. But the CBO put out a report noting that, while that kind of pace “looks surprisingly slow to some observers,” it “simply reflected historical patterns for the expenditure of disaster relief funds.”
In the end, the votes and the rhetoric surrounding disaster relief reflect the rise and decline of the tea party movement. Everyone was quite keen to build up their deficit-hawk bona fides in the early 2010s, and what better way to send that message than holding the line against disaster relief that you cast as wasteful?
DeSantis took that further than many others in his party, as one of 67 to vote against the smaller Sandy bill. But by 2017, even when most of his fellow hard-liners still weren’t convinced that the latest disaster relief bill was worth their vote — and a very similar number (69) voted no — DeSantis was suddenly on the other side.
As he could be on a future, Ian-related relief bill. Both he and President Biden have played up the need for a united, bipartisan front, and it’s possible DeSantis could help convert some of his fellow former hard-liners to support a bill — especially given that they might feel invested in furthering DeSantis’s political prospects as the potential leader of the national GOP ticket in 2024. But what if that bill is big and isn’t offset — and if Florida’s interest isn’t viewed, by some, as necessarily the nation’s interest? | 2022-09-30T18:20:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What DeSantis and others' votes on Sandy aid portends for Ian - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/30/hurricane-relief-votes-hypocrisy/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/30/hurricane-relief-votes-hypocrisy/ |
FILE - This undated photo provided by the Nevada Department of Corrections shows Porfirio Duarte-Herrera. Police have arrested the convicted bombmaker who escaped from a Nevada prison where he was serving a life sentence for a deadly 2007 explosion outside a Las Vegas Strip resort, authorities said. (Nevada Department of Corrections via AP, File) (Uncredited/Nevada Department of Corrections)
RENO, Nev. — The head of Nevada’s Department of Corrections has resigned at the request of Gov. Steve Sisolak in the wake of an escape by a convicted bombmaker that went unreported for four days. | 2022-09-30T18:20:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Nevada governor orders prison head to resign after escape - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/nevada-governor-orders-prison-head-to-resign-after-escape/2022/09/30/172125f6-40e0-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/nevada-governor-orders-prison-head-to-resign-after-escape/2022/09/30/172125f6-40e0-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html |
Vegas casino closes wildlife attraction after third dolphin death this year
The Mirage has temporarily shut down its Siegfried & Roy Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat
Three Atlantic bottlenose dolphins jump out of the water at the Mirage hotel and casino in Las Vegas in May 2008. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images for Cirque du Soleil)
The Mirage hotel and casino in Las Vegas has temporarily closed its dolphin and wildlife attraction after an 11-year-old bottlenose dolphin died on Saturday, the venue’s third dolphin death since spring.
The resident cetacean, named K2, was the second dolphin to perish in September. The Mirage said the cause of death was a respiratory illness; the necropsy report will take about 30 days to complete.
Earlier this month, 19-year-old Maverick had been receiving medical care for a lung infection when he died; the company is awaiting the necropsy findings for his case. In April, the 13-year-old Bella succumbed to gastroenteritis.
How to choose a wildlife experience that does no harm
The Siegfried & Roy Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat, which also houses several big cats, has not scheduled a reopening date. A Mirage spokesman said the Oct. 9 date posted on the website does not reflect the actual return. The Mirage last closed the attraction in March 2020, when the pandemic forced the entire Strip to go dark.
The hotel and casino, which is operated by MGM Resorts, has been criticized over the years for the high number of dolphin deaths at the attraction, which opened in 1990 with five bottlenoses. Since its founding, the company said 14 dolphins have died for a variety of causes and at a range of ages: Three were at least 25 years old, the average life expectancy of dolphins in captivity, and three were youngsters, for instance. Activists, however, count 16 deaths.
“This particular facility is known amongst the animal rights community as the ‘Dolphin Death Pool’ due to the high percentage of dolphin deaths that were reported in the late 90s and early 00s,” Shelly Rae, a Vegas resident and dolphin advocate, said in an email. “I am appalled that the Mirage seems to be reverting back to these former standards of care.”
During the closure, the company said independent investigators, such as the San Diego-based National Marine Mammal Foundation, will examine the venue’s services and operations, such as its veterinary care, water quality and filtration system. (The NMMF did not respond to requests for comment.)
A hater's guide to Las Vegas
On April 27, the attraction passed a routine inspection by the Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. An agency spokesman was unsure of the next scheduled visit, but confirmed that the resort had temporarily closed its doors to conduct an internal probe.
In a staff memo released the day after K2’s death, Mirage’s interim president Franz Kallao expressed sorrow over losing the young son of Duchess, the property’s eldest dolphin, who is nearly 50 years old.
“K2 was very vocal, energetic, loved his toys and was a joy to be around,” Kallao wrote. “He always made us smile.” Kallao told his team, and the general public, that a group of experts would thoroughly review the habitat, with the goal of creating a safe and secure home for its finned residents.
“We are temporarily closing the Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat to focus our efforts on ensuring that we have the safest possible environment and the best care possible for our dolphins and to give our team the time they need to process and grieve,” he stated in the letter.
Animal welfare advocates are pointing to the death as a cruel consequence of holding wild animals in captivity. “It’s horribly tragic,” said Cameron Harsh, programs director at the U.S. office of World Animal Protection. “This is the third dolphin to die at this venue [this year], and they are all under the age of 20. Dolphin live 30 to 50 years in the wild. That is really indicative of the short life spans of these animals when they are in captive environments.”
Harsh said man-made enclosures can be detrimental to the physical and mental well-being of wild animals, especially creatures hard-wired to roam far and deep. Dolphins can hunt and swim at depths of up to 180 feet, he said. The Humane Society of the United States said the highly intelligent and social mammals can cover 80 miles a day, about 20 times the length of the Las Vegas Strip. “The surface area of a tank is minuscule compared to the ocean,” he said. “It’s like being stuck in a shallow pool.”
The habitat’s four interconnected pools contain 2.2 million gallons of man-made seawater and are fringed by palm trees at the Strip hotel known for its tropical theme and faux volcano. The maximum depth of the Caribbean blue water is 23 feet.
The company said the attraction’s primary purpose is to educate and contribute to dolphin research. The dolphins don’t perform tricks or gamely swim with guests, for instance, though visitors who purchase special packages, such as the Meet and Greet Experience, can feed and snap photos with them. Dave Blasko, executive director of animal care at the Mirage, said the dolphins are not coerced with food or treats. If the mammals want to swim over to say hello, they will; if they don’t, they won’t, and you just paid $100 for wet feet.
For the science part of the mission, Blasko cited one project that involved partnering with the Navy to study dolphin hearing and the effect of ship frequencies on wild populations. Darian L. Wilson, director of corporate communications and public affairs for the Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific, said the Navy Marine Mammal Program does not use the resort’s dolphins or facilities. However, its affiliates share information with the Mirage, especially data that relates to the care and welfare of marine mammals.
“Our team here was saddened to hear about the loss of dolphin K2 and our sympathies go out to the personnel there,” Wilson added by email.
Since 2013, Rae has been calling out the company for the inhumane treatment of its dolphins. She posts photos and descriptions of infractions through Free the Mojave Dolphins, such as the chewing gum and chicken nuggets she once discovered floating in their habitat. Rae and other activists also distribute literature about the dolphins’ plight and hold demonstrations outside the resort. The next one, named “Freedom Matters: Protest captivity at the Mirage Las Vegas!”, is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 5.
For many animal welfare advocates, improving the dolphins’ living conditions isn’t enough. They want the animals to be returned to their wild habitats or rehomed in a sanctuary where they will no longer have to endure puppy-like pats on the head and selfie photo shoots.
They also want to ban the practice of breeding wild animals, thereby stopping the industry from churning out future animal entertainers. Six of the Mirage’s seven remaining dolphins were born in breeding programs and can never live in the wild.
“This needs to be a turning point,” said Harsh, referring to the recent tragedy. “We need more wildlife protection, not wildlife exploitation.” | 2022-09-30T18:21:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Mirage in Vegas closes wildlife attraction after third dolphin death - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/09/30/mirage-dolphin-death-las-vegas/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/09/30/mirage-dolphin-death-las-vegas/ |
Billy Eichner on his new film ‘Bros’
Billy Eichner is the star and writer of the film “Bros,” which is the first romantic comedy from a major studio about two gay men. On Thursday, Oct. 6 at 12:00 p.m. ET, Eichner joins Washington Post associate editor Jonathan Capehart to discuss his new film and historic achievement.
Actor & Writer, “Bros” | 2022-09-30T18:21:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Billy Eichner on his new film ‘Bros’ - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/10/06/billy-eichner-his-new-film-bros/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/10/06/billy-eichner-his-new-film-bros/ |
Medical experts on cancer treatments and expanding access
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States with certain communities at a greater risk due to a complex interplay of biological, environmental, behavioral, and socioeconomic factors. On Thursday, Oct. 6 at 2:00 p.m. ET, Carol Brown, chief health equity officer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and David Agus, the founding director and CEO of the Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine, join Washington Post Live for conversations about the latest medical breakthroughs and ways to scale those advances, promote access and reduce disparities.
Chief Health Equity Officer, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
David Agus
Founding Director & CEO, Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine
Content from Johns Hopkins Medicine
Progress and Promise in Cancer Care
Deaths from many types of cancer, including colorectal, breast and lung are decreasing, according to data from the American Cancer Society.
Advances in education, prevention and screening, and early diagnosis are critical to this success. Treatment advances, particularly in novel therapies and immunotherapy, also significantly contribute to better health outcomes. And, clinical trials are shifting the treatment paradigm. Many individuals and families will benefit from these advances, but disparities in health outcomes persist, in part because of unequal access to cancer care.
In a segment presented by Johns Hopkins, Ashwani Rajput, Director of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center in the National Capital Region shares advances made in cancer treatment and how Johns Hopkins Medicine is working to increase access to care.
Ashwani Rajput
Director, Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, National Capital Region | 2022-09-30T18:21:17Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Medical experts on cancer treatments and expanding access - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/10/06/medical-experts-cancer-treatments-expanding-access/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/10/06/medical-experts-cancer-treatments-expanding-access/ |
Rachel Nichols is joining Showtime after her ugly exit from ESPN.
Last summer, Nichols was removed from ESPN’s NBA coverage after the New York Times published a leaked audio recording of Nichols, who is White, complaining about a job she had lost to fellow NBA host Maria Taylor, who is Black.
Nichols, on a phone call she didn’t know was being recorded, suggested that if ESPN wanted to improve its record on diversity, the network shouldn’t do it by giving Taylor Nichols’s contractually guaranteed job as host of the NBA finals.
Rachel Nichols is back on the air, but the fallout at ESPN is just beginning
In her first appearance on Showtime Friday, Nichols joined the video podcast, “All the Smoke," with former NBA players Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes, and publicly offered for the first time her version of the events that led to her ESPN departure. She suggested that the recording of her had been strategically leaked and said much of the frustration she had meant to express in the leaked call stemmed from the difficulties of being a woman in the sports media business.
“I feel sorry that any of this touched Maria Taylor,” Nichols said. “She’s a fellow woman in the business. It’s not her fault what was going on."
She added that human resources investigated the tape and found she didn’t need to be disciplined. “I thought we had put things behind us, and unfortunately there were still some people who had bad feelings and held on to this tape for a year," she said. "Just kept in in their pocket. And when there was a point they wanted some leverage with their own situations they fed it to the press.”
The saga began, Nichols explained, in 2019, when she was given a new contract that guaranteed her hosting duties for the NBA Finals. A year later, as racial protests swept the country, ESPN asked her to give up what she called a “dream job” to Taylor.
Nichols believed that ESPN was asking a woman to fix its diversity problem and would not have asked its main college football host, a man, to step aside for Taylor in the same way. “Do you think ESPN would ever say to Rece Davis, 'Hey we want to give Maria this opportunity, you go be the sideline reporter?” Nichols said on the podcast. "They don’t say that to men.”
The recording was made from Nichols’s hotel room in Orlando during the NBA bubble in 2020. She said the camera was inadvertently running in her hotel room for hours and that someone at ESPN had used a cellphone to record the video of her and then circulate it around ESPN.
Nichols said she attempted to call, text and set up a meeting with Taylor to apologize but that Taylor was not interested. After the tape was published last year, Nichols was removed from NBA Finals coverage, and later in the summer, she was removed from the network’s airwaves.
Dolphins QB exits field on stretcher with head injury | 2022-09-30T18:58:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Rachel Nichols lands at Showtime, sounds off about ESPN exit - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/30/rachel-nichols-showtime-espn/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/30/rachel-nichols-showtime-espn/ |
Here’s another option for preventing bridge suicides
Netting beneath the Stewart Creek Bridge in Ithaca, N.Y. (Courtesy Jakob Rope Systems)
Regarding the Sept. 28 editorial “Build more suicide barriers”:
I hope the D.C. Department of Transportation will consider putting up nets under some of the more scenic bridges, as was done at my alma mater, Cornell University, several years ago.
Cornell experienced a cluster of bridge suicides in the 2009-2010 academic year. Former president David J. Skorton had netting designed and installed while advocating mental health initiatives. (Though Cornell sometimes has a reputation for suicides, it has the same rate as at most colleges, just more from bridge jumps.) Importantly, the nets are visually unobtrusive and do not block the views of Cornell’s spectacular gorges. They also can withstand snowfall and extreme weather.
To be clear, neither nets nor barriers are a solution to our nation’s severe mental health crisis, but one hopes that they might serve as a deterrent. I hope the D.C. government will consider both as an option.
Cathy Merrill, Washington
From the March 12, 1973, Post: “A Northwest Washington man leaped 86 feet to his death off the Taft Bridge Saturday, police reported. They said John M. Wolff, 28, of 3137 Patterson St., NW, was seen by witnesses running south on the bridge at about 5 p.m. when he placed both hands on the railing and fell to the ground below.” By this account, he didn’t seem to have had any second thoughts. He ran and he jumped. In the bigger picture, there had been lots of starts and stops, ups and downs.
On the last morning of my brother’s life, the police found him wandering naked in Rock Creek Park and brought him home, wrapped only in a blanket. He had identified himself as John Patterson, confusing his name and address. That evening, after the police came to the house for the second time that day, my whole body shook. It was the worst, and nothing could be done. Who was to blame: No one or everyone? It wasn’t really an accident. It was purposeful. Yet, if he didn’t know his own name, how purposeful could it be? How purposeful could he be?
I still wonder why the police brought him home and not to the emergency room. I wonder why my parents didn’t take him. I wonder whether he had second thoughts after his hands left the railing. And why were there no suicide barriers on the Taft Bridge? Why are there still no barriers?
In some circumstances, death by suicide is preventable if we care enough to make the effort and pay for the barriers. Who’s with me?
Patricia Wolff Hartman, Rockville | 2022-09-30T19:42:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Here’s another option for preventing bridge suicides - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/30/another-option-preventing-bridge-suicides/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/30/another-option-preventing-bridge-suicides/ |
Why it can be difficult to prosecute sex trafficking
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) on Feb. 26. (John Raoux/Associated Press)
Regarding the Sept. 24 news article “Rep. Matt Gaetz unlikely to be charged in sex-trafficking probe”:
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) learned Sept. 23 that he likely evaded federal charges of sex trafficking — allegations he has always denied. The congressman was investigated for alleged sexual conduct with a 17-year-old when he was in his 30s and for allegedly paying for sex with money or things of value after she turned 18. Mr. Gaetz’s explanation: “I’ve been, you know, generous as a partner.” The recommendations against charging the congressman are at least in part because of witness “credibility” concerns.
As the executive director of TurnAround, the first comprehensive anti-human-trafficking service provider in Maryland, and a former prosecutor, I recognize the “I’ve been generous” dodge and the uphill battle that survivors must fight to be seen as credible as they seek out justice.
Sex-trafficking survivors often tell us that their exploitation began with gifts. Fifteen is the average age when victims are first trafficked, and many survivors say they didn’t feel like victims, initially. Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 of trafficking girls for Jeffrey Epstein, promised her victims she would pay for education expenses and took them shopping. These are grooming techniques, used to build trust and accumulate power over victims. These activities can also be used against survivors later if they attempt to fight back against those who would exploit them.
D.C., Maryland and Virginia all received an F in an annual assessment of how well states prevent, identify, respond to and provide justice for survivors of sex trafficking. Doing a better job starts with recognizing red flags, such as adults who provide “gifts” to minors in exchange for a sexual relationship.
Amanda Rodriguez, Baltimore | 2022-09-30T19:42:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Why it can be difficult to prosecute sex trafficking - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/30/difficulty-prosecuting-sex-trafficking/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/30/difficulty-prosecuting-sex-trafficking/ |
Fleeing war is not a sign of weakness
Protesters on Sept. 28 near the Verkhni Lars customs checkpoint between Georgia and Russia. (Daro Sulakauri/Getty Images)
Regarding Mark Hertling’s Sept. 28 op-ed, “The Kremlin’s recruits are heading for slaughter”:
The flight of Russian men seeking to avoid conscription is not a new phenomenon. In 1912, my grandfather fled to the United States to avoid becoming cannon fodder for the army of the czar. My grandfather was a brave man who traveled thousands of miles to a new country, where he established a home despite an unfamiliar culture and an unknown language. In taking that risk, he saved himself and his family from the Holocaust and gave his descendants a chance for a brighter future.
Laura Noell, Bethesda
Opinion|Russia, drawn deeper into Ukraine, loses grip on conflict on its periphery | 2022-09-30T19:42:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Fleeing war is not a sign of weakness - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/30/fleeing-war/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/30/fleeing-war/ |
Judge Cannon shows the courts have been politicized far beyond SCOTUS
Judge Aileen M. Cannon is seen in a still image from a video interview during a nomination hearing on July 29, 2020. (Committee on the Judiciary)
The Supreme Court is facing a legitimacy crisis as its ongoing legal revolution becomes more and more alarming to a public unhappy about its recent rulings on abortion and gun rights. But there’s another legitimacy crisis brewing, one that can be seen vividly in Judge Aileen M. Cannon’s extraordinary rulings in the case involving Donald Trump’s hoarding of documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
Cannon, who was appointed by Trump despite her thin experience, has been almost comically eager to help the former president. Her appointment of a special master to review documents seized in the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago was greeted with shock and ridicule on substantive grounds and was widely seen as a means of delaying the case as long as possible.
But Cannon’s latest intervention on Trump’s behalf is particularly disturbing. I want to focus on one part of the order she gave Thursday, because it speaks to how we believe courts are supposed to work and how those foundations of the justice system are being warped.
Trump, true to form, has been making fantastical claims about how victimized he has been at the hands of law enforcement. Among other things, he has said the FBI may have planted evidence at Mar-a-Lago to incriminate him.
So special master Raymond J. Dearie — who was suggested by Trump’s attorneys and agreed to by the government — essentially told the Trump team to put up or shut up. He instructed them to clarify whether they’re challenging the government’s inventory of documents collected at Mar-a-Lago. Would they make an official statement alleging documents were planted, or would they accept that the inventory is accurate?
This put them in an awkward position — the same awkward position Trump attorneys have been in before. Their client is the most notorious liar in the history of American politics. But in court, the rules are different than on Fox News or Truth Social.
Unlike in places where people engage in freewheeling debate about public issues, courts have strict rules and expectations that participants must follow. A key one is that lawyers can’t just toss around wild claims; if they’re going to make an important assertion to a judge or a jury, they have to have evidence for what they’re saying.
In case after case after the 2020 election, Trump attorneys such as Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell rolled into court with rumors, speculation and hearsay about widespread election fraud. Again and again, they were shot down by judges telling them it wasn’t enough to say they heard about a guy whose cousin’s girlfriend’s neighbor said he saw a van with a Joe Biden bumper sticker idling behind the board of elections building. Without evidence, they lost.
But Cannon swooped in to save Trump’s lawyers from the embarrassment of contradicting their boss. She overruled Dearie, allowing the lawyers to avoid taking a position on whether the inventory is accurate. Given the chance to draw a bright line marking the integrity of what goes on in court, she did the opposite.
This may seem like a small thing. But it’s a direct assault on the idea that the courts are a venue where fairness prevails precisely because there are strict rules everyone has to follow, rules designed to get to the truth.
Almost two years after Trump left office, the poison he injected into the courts with the appointment of a long list of hack judges is becoming more clear. It’s increasingly difficult to look at important court cases of recent days and believe that whether you like the outcome, the procedures have been fair, the judges have worked to be objective and the integrity of the courts is intact.
Judges such as Cannon undermine a cornerstone of the legitimacy of the court system: the idea of “procedural fairness.” This topic has long been of interest to judges and lawyers, and research has found that people’s perceptions of whether they were treated fairly is often just as important as the outcome in determining their feelings about the process.
So how is the public supposed to believe we have procedural fairness in our court system when Republicans go shopping for a Trump judge who’ll strike down any law, regulation or presidential decision they disagree with — and so often succeed? When a case involving potential criminal actions by the former president is heard by a judge he appointed, a judge who will barely try to pretend she isn’t in the tank for him?
The Supreme Court gets the most news, and its conservative majority has shown they have few limits on their policy ambitions (and they’re just getting started). But if the whole court system is losing its legitimacy, it isn’t because the public is being too cynical. It’s because they know exactly what they’re witnessing. | 2022-09-30T19:42:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Judge Cannon shows the courts have been politicized far beyond SCOTUS - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/30/judge-cannon-trump-politicized-courts/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/30/judge-cannon-trump-politicized-courts/ |
NASA’s asteroid-hitting mission is a call to action
This combination of images provided by NASA shows three views of the DART spacecraft impact on the asteroid Dimorphos on Sept. 26. (NASA via AP) (AP)
NASA crashed a spaceship into an asteroid. But don’t worry, that’s good news. This week’s successful Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) is cause both for celebration and for action. To make the mission count for more than a nifty science demonstration, there’s work to be done.
Asteroid collisions with our planet are what’s known as low-probability, high-impact events — much like, say, pandemics. Could-be catastrophes don’t tend to get as much attention as smaller-scale problems with a higher chance of occurring during our lifetimes. NASA’s DART experiment is a welcome departure from this norm: The project sent a vehicle roughly the size of a golf cart careening into a rock roughly the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza, aiming not to annihilate the asteroid but rather to nudge it. By altering the orbit only slightly, NASA showed it can, well, save the world. The asteroid that DART flung itself against this week didn’t pose a threat now or in the foreseeable future, but if we know another asteroid does, we can theoretically push it off course.
The knowing part, however, is key. NASA may be able to move asteroids, but it must do so five to 10 years before they’re projected to hit Earth to make them miss. Yet scientists believe we have found only 40 percent of asteroids 460 feet wide and larger — which includes those big enough to rival the ones believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs as well as many of those big enough to destroy a city by loosing 10,000 times the energy of the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. Even smaller asteroids can do serious damage: Think of the 10-ton meteor that exploded over Russia in 2013 and injured 1,200 people. We’ve seen near-disasters, too, like the car-sized asteroid that skirted our atmosphere in the summer of 2020.
Guest Opinion: Three cheers for NASA’s asteroid smasher
Congress created a mandate in 2005 that NASA identify 90 percent of those 460-foot-plus asteroids, but progress so far has been shaky. Hope rests on a planned upgrade of NASA’s Neowise telescope. This highly sensitive contraption, which should be able to see a 460-foot asteroid from 50 million miles away, will detect heat signatures rather than visible light — so that the space rocks glow, instead of looking like bits of charcoal against an infinite black background. Bureaucracy ensnared the effort for more than a decade. NASA now plans to launch NEO Surveyor in 2026, but some scientists are skeptical after the agency proposed to cut more than 75 percent of the project’s budget in the coming year. More encouragingly, both chambers of Congress have drawn up appropriations bills restoring some of that money, and the Chips Act specifies that NASA shouldn’t cut NEO Surveyor to accommodate other cost overruns.
Planetary defense, as it’s called, may not inspire the thrill of a moon landing or a trip to Mars. A mission like DART is about as exciting as it gets. Yet if we don’t devote ourselves to the task today, we might regret it when we find ourselves facing the end of the world. | 2022-09-30T19:42:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | NASA's DART mission is cause for celebration and action - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/30/nasa-asteroid-redirection-test-celebration/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/30/nasa-asteroid-redirection-test-celebration/ |
Here’s the reality of the care industry
The Sept. 26 front-page article “Forced to carry the load on their own” highlighted our nation’s caregiving crisis. Care jobs have long been underpaid and undervalued. The work has historically been performed by women, and disproportionately by women of color. Nearly half of home-care jobs are held by Black and Latina women who are paid a median wage of $29,260 per year, often struggling to meet expenses. Black and Latina women are also overrepresented in the child-care workforce. The median pay for child-care workers is just $27,490 per year, approximately the poverty line for a family of four.
This is the reality of work for millions of women of color: jobs with low-wages and few benefits or opportunities for advancement. Yet, families strain to pay the astronomical out-of-pocket costs for caregiving.
The only solution is for Congress to invest in child-care and home care to transform care jobs into family-sustaining jobs, while establishing a national paid-leave program to help more working people care for their loved ones.
Indivar Dutta-Gupta, Washington
The writer is president and executive director of the Center for Law and Social Policy.
The Sept. 26 front-page article “Forced to carry the load on their own” reported that “policymakers have long recognized that America’s patchwork system of home care is insufficient.” If “pro life” had teeth and if it were more than a slogan, this would not be the case — or does life no longer pertain once the woman gives birth?
Robert Braxton, Fairfax | 2022-09-30T19:43:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Here’s the reality of the care industry - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/30/reality-care-industry/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/30/reality-care-industry/ |
Hurricane Ian and the new era of rapidly accelerating storms
People walk along the beach in Bonita Springs, Fla., on Thursday to look at the damage left by Hurricane Ian. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
One of the reasons that many experts prefer the term “climate change” to “global warming” (beyond the political provenance of the former term) is that “climate change” doesn’t constrain expectations about what might happen as the world gets hotter. The globe will warm, certainly; air temperatures have risen and will continue to rise. But there are myriad other effects, some related to air temperatures and some not.
For example, water temperatures will also rise (and have also risen). That means water will expand, accelerating sea-level rise. Rising air temperatures, meanwhile, mean that air can hold more moisture. Climate change will spur longer, deeper droughts — but also, because the sky contains more moisture, bigger rain- and snowstorms.
The arrival of Hurricane Ian in Florida this week provides an example of what warmer ocean water and more atmospheric moisture can yield. Writing for Axios, Andrew Freedman described Ian’s rapid intensification as it neared Florida, something that is relatively unusual from a historical perspective but clearly linked to factors correlated to climate change.
As he noted, that storms like Ian are getting stronger faster provides a very real and immediate risk to areas in the hurricane’s path.
“The danger of a rapid intensification shortly before landfall is that people will be caught off guard by the stronger storm,” Freedman wrote, “and get stuck in a vulnerable spot for storm surge flooding, damaging winds or both.”
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has historical data on the speed and location of hurricanes near the United States. Using this data, segmented into six-hour observation periods, we can get a sense of how the number of rapidly intensifying storms is increasing.
The most a hurricane’s wind speeds have increased over a six-hour window in NOAA’s records was 63 mph. There are 12 storms, though, where speeds have increased by at least 35 mph over that period. Of those 12, seven have occurred since 2000.
If we look at the hurricane data by time periods, we can see the rise in the number of storms in which wind speeds increased rapidly. As a function of the percentage of all six-hour periods catalogued in the NOAA data set, the density of periods in which wind speeds picked up by only 9 mph is down. The percentage in which wind speeds increased by 23 mph or more is up.
5 knots
20 knots or more
As you probably noticed, most of the storms in which rapid increases in wind speed occurred were in the Gulf of Mexico or the Caribbean. In nearly every part of those regions, the surface temperature of the water has increased since the early 1960s. On average, the increase across latitude-longitude locations is 1.2 degrees Celsius. That’s more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit.
The largest increase in a hurricane’s wind speed over 24 hours was 95 knots — 109 mph. There are eight storms that have seen 24-hour increases of at least 81 mph. Six of them happened since 2000. Three developed since 2016.
More heat in the ocean to draw from and more atmospheric moisture mean bigger hurricanes. Climate change contributes to both of those factors. And climate change has unquestionably worsened over the past several decades.
Again, this is not an academic exercise. As Freedman points out, a storm that suddenly jumps from Category 4 to Category 5 is a storm that people risk underestimating. And there is perhaps no bigger contributor to deaths during natural disasters than human underestimation of the threat. | 2022-09-30T19:51:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Hurricane Ian and the new era of rapidly accelerating storms - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/30/climate-change-hurricane-ian/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/30/climate-change-hurricane-ian/ |
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Equatorial Guinea has filed a case against France at the International Court of Justice accusing Paris of “misappropriation of public funds,” the court announced Friday. It’s the latest step in a lengthy legal tug-of-war centered on a mansion situated on an expensive avenue in the French capital.
The latest: Trump’s legal team divided over how to handle Mar-a-Lago case | 2022-09-30T19:51:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Equatorial Guinea sues France at UN court over Paris mansion - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/equatorial-guinea-sues-france-at-un-court-over-paris-mansion/2022/09/30/0aeac6f8-40ee-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/equatorial-guinea-sues-france-at-un-court-over-paris-mansion/2022/09/30/0aeac6f8-40ee-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html |
CHICAGO — Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker warned that his Republican opponent is a far-right politician who would take the state backward while state Sen. Darren Bailey asked voters to consider whether the Democratic incumbent’s first term has improved their lives as the two candidates met for an online forum Friday. | 2022-09-30T19:51:56Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Illinois' governor race echoes U.S. abortion, crime debates - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/illinois-governor-race-echoes-us-abortion-crime-debates/2022/09/30/54bff510-40f2-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/illinois-governor-race-echoes-us-abortion-crime-debates/2022/09/30/54bff510-40f2-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html |
Tua Tagovailoa was taken off the field on a stretcher on Thursday. (Kareem Elgazzar/USA Today Sports)
Like bruising touchdowns and highflying catches, serious injuries, and specifically head injuries, are a staple of the football experience — and the football broadcast.
So when Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa hit the turf Thursday night, suffering what appeared to be his second head injury in five days, it provided the first test of how Amazon (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post), which is paying more than $1 billion to the NFL to broadcast Thursday night games, would handle what has become a difficult balancing act for the league’s media partners.
The broadcast was tasked with deciding quickly how to show replays of the injury and how to contextualize it. Tagovailoa had been injured during the previous week’s game against the Bills, wobbling and falling to the ground after a hard hit. He left that game but returned after the Dolphins reported that he cleared the NFL’s concussion protocols. The NFL Players Association has asked for a review of how that was handled.
After Tagovailoa was injured Thursday, the game returned from a commercial break and showed a slow-motion replay of his fingers bending involuntarily after he impacted the ground. “We’ll show you in a moment how his fingers were stretching out at the end of that play,” play-by-play man Al Michaels said.
Plenty of broadcasts are forced to determine how newsworthy injury replays are, and some decide that they are not. When Alex Smith suffered a gruesome injury to his leg several seasons ago, CBS showed just a single replay. “It’s a philosophy thing,” CBS Vice President of Production Howard Bryant said then. “It’s a horrific injury, and we described it in-depth and documented it, and as a group we felt that was enough.”
Amazon showed another replay of the Tagovailoa injury in the fourth quarter. The multiple replays drew the ire of some fans on social media.
At halftime, the game’s studio crew returned to the topic of Tagovailoa but made little reference to Tagovailoa’s controversial injury and status the previous week. Host Charissa Thompson referred only obliquely to it, saying, “Given everything that we saw last week and now this week, a really tough sight to see.”
But there was no discussion of whether Tagovailoa should have been playing in the first place — not even from former cornerback and Amazon crew member Richard Sherman, who once published an essay on the Players’ Tribune called, “Why I Hate Thursday Night Football,” which cited his concerns about player safety and the short turnaround from Sunday games.
Not everyone was convinced the show should have debated the Dolphins’ decision. Andrew Whitworth, a recently retired offensive lineman, responded to the criticism of one NFL writer on Twitter.
“You just criticized former players,” he wrote. “Who played the game. For spending their time talking about their football brother having movement and gaining consciousness. Bad look is caring about anything other than Tua and his family in this current moment. Policy is for [tomorrow]!”
Chris Nowinski, co-founder and CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, started a program to educate broadcasters on how to talk about concussions with Bob Costas, who has alleged that he was removed from NBC’s Super Bowl coverage because of his commentary about concussions. “The problem is, we all thought Bob Costas was untouchable,” Nowinski said. “When he said one bad word about football, he got thrown out of NFL broadcasts by NBC. And I think that scared everybody. ... I watch the games and hear the fear in [announcers’] voices. If they say one bad thing about concussions or bring it up in the wrong place, they’ll lose their jobs.”
During Thursday’s pregame show, Amazon’s crew had a longer discussion of Tagovailoa’s injury the previous week. The network offered a more in-depth report of the injury after the game, too, including a detailed explanation of the league’s concussion protocols from reporter Michael Smith.
Michael Weinstein, a longtime sports executive and producer, including of NFL games, said getting the balance right on live coverage of critical injuries is one of the hardest things a sports telecast has to do. “You’re trying to tell a story of what happened, but also making an instantaneous decision,” he said.
Weinstein thought the context of Tagovailoa’s previous injury was important and needed to be highlighted, but he said it was difficult for broadcasters to speculate about whether a player should or shouldn’t be playing.
“How do you say he shouldn’t be playing if the Dolphins and the doctor green-light him,” he asked. “It’s hard for Al or [color analyst Kirk] Herbstreit or anyone on the broadcast to say that.”
Weinstein added that the way injuries are shown and talked about on TV matters to the NFL. When he used to meet with the league before the season about broadcasting games, executives always highlighted the work the NFL was doing to protect players — especially as awareness around concussions has grown. “The NFL is aware that there is a concern about this on every level," Weinstein said.
Mark Maske contributed to this report. | 2022-09-30T19:52:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Tua Tagovailoa’s injury renews debate over how broadcasts handle concussions - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/30/tua-tagovailoa-injury-amazon/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/30/tua-tagovailoa-injury-amazon/ |
Anyone who calls the Supreme Court too imposing is a heretic who should perish
Have you considered that actually you are the one undermining the legitimacy of the Supreme Court? (Reuters/Pool)
“It goes without saying that everyone is free to express disagreement with our decisions and to criticize our reasoning as they see fit. But saying or implying that the court is becoming an illegitimate institution or questioning our integrity crosses an important line.” — Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. , to the Wall Street Journal
First off, how dare you. Second of all, how dare you! I am calling up the Wall Street Journal now to say “how dare you” to them a third time! You are crossing a very important line by saying I am crossing an important line.
We all know that speech is not limitless. Some forms of speech are too reckless to be borne. For instance, everyone knows that shouting “Fire!” in a crowded theater is something you should never ever do, even if I, Samuel Alito, am lighting your crowded theater on fire. Your shouting will cause a panic, and it is beyond the pale. If I am setting fires, I’m sure it is with good reason, and you ought to sit there patiently to find out what the reason is.
What should you do if you think the Supreme Court is becoming too political a body? Hush! That’s what you should do! If we were too political, I would be the first to know, and I know that we aren’t. Too political a body would be one that had Merrick Garland on it.
Have you considered that actually you are the one undermining the legitimacy of the Supreme Court? You and all your impertinent questions! It is certainly not I, anything I am doing, or the way the court is currently composed. The legitimacy of the Supreme Court, as we learned from Marbury v. Madison, is something that is handed down through a system of divine right. John Marshall was presented a set of scales by a mysterious arm that reached up out of the Potomac River, and from that point, nobody was allowed to question anything the court did. (Except, of course, for those decisions that it made with which I personally disagreed, and which I gleefully overturned. But that was different.)
No, I won’t explain any further! All I know is that the legitimacy of the Supreme Court is something that ought to be taken on faith, as a matter of dogma — which, coincidentally, is also a pretty great way of making judicial decisions. Yes, I’m sure I have that right. When people talk about the separation of church and state, they just mean California.
Of course, there are some members of the Supreme Court you can disagree with readily, at any time. The minority, for instance. And no such deference is owed to the executive branch, at whom you may mouth your disagreement any time you see fit.
But to call my court’s integrity into question — the temerity! This kind of horrible disrespect is the sort I will not suffer in silence. All I want is to live my life as I choose, holding sway over the entire nation without pushback or criticism. Yet at every turn my benevolence is met with treachery and complaint. Is this how you treat your unelected magistrate? Nobody shall exert undue control over my judicial body.
This is what I am always warning about: the creeping tyranny of people saying, “Your opinion is ill-considered,” or, “This seems political,” or, “You are free to have those beliefs, but I don’t think, in the United States, you get to impose them on others.” Imagine being any more oppressed than this! You can’t! I certainly can’t!
So stop questioning my authority! You know what it’s called when you question the integrity of the Supreme Court, as a majority of Americans now do? “Free speech in a free country”? Who said that? Find the heretic, and seize him! Seize him! | 2022-09-30T20:34:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Samuel Alito says not to question the integrity of the Supreme Court - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/30/alito-supreme-court-integrity-heresy-satire/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/30/alito-supreme-court-integrity-heresy-satire/ |
Congress proved to be productive as Democrats navigated with slim majority
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi holds here weekly news conference at the U.S. Capitol on Friday. (Sarah Silbiger for The Washington Post)
Funding infrastructure in all 50 states. Billions for U.S.-made semiconductors. Help for U.S. veterans exposed to burn pits in Afghanistan and Iraq. Aid for Ukrainian forces fighting a Russian invasion.
And of course, there is what Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) referred to as the “crowning jewel” of legislation — the sprawling Inflation Reduction Act aimed at lowering prescription drug costs, addressing climate change, raising taxes on some billion-dollar corporations and reducing the federal deficit.
Congress’s two years — which some political observers predicted could be stymied by razor-thin majorities in both houses, and heightened polarization nationwide — has, according to Democrats, been one of the most productive in recent history with passage of several bipartisan bills, such as the infrastructure measure, and significant Democratic-only legislation with far-reaching impact for millions of Americans.
President Biden called the infrastructure legislation “monumental.” House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) called the money to subsidize the domestic manufacturing of semiconductors “profound.” And on Friday, shortly before the House passed a short-term spending bill to keep the government operating, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters, “We look back on this session with great pride” as Democrats managed to deliver on several of Biden’s agenda items but not all.
“We put people over politics,” she said, describing the accomplishments in a campaign-style slogan: “People greater than politics.”
Republicans cast the Democratic record as marked by “reckless” and “partisan” spending, contributing to record inflation while failing to address issues such as the influx of migrants at the border or crime in the nation’s cities.
“Runaway inflation isn’t the only crisis keeping American families up at night,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said this week. “The last two years have seen law and order deteriorate across our country. Public safety has eroded. Violent crimes like murders and carjackings are breaking records. And our southern border has turned into a turnstile. … This is a nationwide phenomenon on Democrats’ watch.”
The flurry of legislation passed by the House, where the Democrats’ advantage has been a handful of votes, and the Senate, at 50-50 with Vice President Harris often the tiebreaking vote, comes after the relative legislative inactivity of the divided 116th Congress, which met from January 2019 to January 2021 — the final two years of Donald Trump’s term in the White House.
According to a Pew Research Center report, the 116th was “one of the least legislatively productive Congresses of the past five decades. Of the 24 Congresses we analyzed, only four passed fewer laws than the 116th — three of them within the past decade.”
The Pew analysis found that only about two-thirds of the laws enacted were substantive — “meaning they changed written law, spent money or established policy, no matter how minor” — while nearly a third were ceremonial such as renaming a post office.
As for the analysis on the 117th Congress, Pew was expected to crunch the numbers after a lame-duck session following the midterm elections.
In her final weekly news conference in Washington before the midterms, as lawmakers headed for the exits, Pelosi sought to contrast the legislation that Democrats were able to pass and get signed by Biden to what Republican congressional leaders have said they will do if they win majority control in November.
“This is an election about contrast: nationwide abortion ban, respecting freedom of choice for families. Again, kitchen-table issues like prescription drugs, lowering the cost of prescription drugs,” she said. “Republicans wanting to reverse that. The list goes on and on.”
Republicans have pointed to many of those same pieces of legislation that Democrats enacted as the reason Americans face higher prices at the supermarket, smaller paychecks, higher interest and mortgage rates, and a dropping stock market.
A “massive spending spree” led to the highest inflation in 40 years, according to a video released Friday by Senate Republicans. The video says that development, along with rising crime and large numbers of migrants crossing into the country at the southern border, “is the Biden legacy in just two years.”
Unable to pass the individual spending bills, Congress was forced to pass the short-term bill to keep the government open until Dec. 16, giving negotiators more time.
Public opinion polls show Republicans are slightly favored to win enough seats to take control of the House, according to the data site Five Thirty Eight. Democrats are slightly favored to maintain control of the Senate, according to the site.
In the Senate, Schumer navigated a razor-thin majority with a penchant for deal making, sometimes with surprising or mixed results.
In June, after a deadly shooting inside a Uvalde, Tex., elementary school, a bipartisan group of senators passed modest firearm restrictions with $15 billion in funding for mental health and school security. The legislation was a breakthrough on an emotional and polarizing issue that Congress had largely left untouched for more than 25 years.
In July, another deal was announced. Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) — who for months had resisted supporting Biden’s wide-ranging climate and inflation legislation, announced that he had struck a deal with Schumer to do just that. Manchin would support the Inflation Reduction Act in exchange for Schumer passing new legislation easing the federal permitting rules for pipelines and other infrastructure.
Manchin supplied his much-needed vote and Biden signed the legislation into law in August. But when Schumer attached Manchin’s permitting revision this week to a short-term spending bill to avert a government shutdown, bipartisan opposition mounted. Manchin ultimately asked for it to be withdrawn, and the spending bill was passed.
In the House, legislative activity has been determined by Pelosi, and her unique ability to whip votes among her members.
Passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, funding for semiconductors and four bills this month to fund small police departments and install accountability measures were viewed as a testament to Pelosi’s ability to hold together her caucus, despite fissures along ideological and generational lines. The first female speaker of the House, Pelosi has led the Democrats for 19 years.
To close observers, the most recent session of Congress was very productive, but many rank-and-file members were displeased with how legislation was crafted and brought to the floor for votes.
For example: Legislation banning members of Congress from owning and trading individual stocks was not brought to the House floor for a vote, despite widespread support among members. A sponsor of the bill, Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.), blamed Pelosi, writing in a scathing statement Friday: “our bipartisan reform coalition was then subjected to repeated delay tactics, hand-waving gestures, and blatant instances of Lucy pulling the football.”
Spanberger added: “This moment marks a failure of House leadership — and it’s yet another example of why I believe that the Democratic Party needs new leaders in the halls of Capitol Hill.”
Pelosi, who has openly opposed the ban in the past, told reporters on Friday the delay was because “other members had ideas to improve upon the bill.” Referring to committee leaders — whom she appoints and essentially answer to her — Pelosi said, “I said to them, whatever you the members want to do, I fully support.”
It was the latest example of Pelosi’s push-and-pull leadership of the more than 200-member caucus, which includes nationally recognized progressive figures like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and more moderate members like Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) who have openly embraced some Republican economic policies as they seek to woo voters outside major coastal cities.
Pelosi has regularly brushed aside questions about whether she will continue to lead House Democrats if they do not maintain control of the chamber. Pelosi, who has been in Congress since 1987, told reporters Friday, “I’m strictly focused on winning the next election.”
But Democrats, and many Republicans, have said Pelosi is the only person who can pull that caucus together. Two of her Republican predecessors, John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and later Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), retired after their leaderships were undermined by the House Freedom Caucus, the growing right-wing group of Republicans. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has strained to show he can corral votes in his caucus the way Pelosi has in hers.
“Name me when we didn’t get votes,” Hoyer told reporters this week before ticking off a list of laws. “We may not have gotten it on the day that we wanted,” but “all those pieces of legislation passed.”
Marianna Sotomayor and Paul Kane contributed to this report. | 2022-09-30T20:56:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Congress proved to be productive as Democrats navigated with slim majority - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/30/congress-democrats-legislation-biden-agenda/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/30/congress-democrats-legislation-biden-agenda/ |
PM Update: Rain is heavy at times tonight amid gusty northeast winds
The rain may be spottier Saturday, but it will be a wet weekend on the whole.
It was on the chilly side today thanks to thick clouds keeping temperatures from rising much. Highs near 60 and toward the mid-60s are more than 10 degrees below normal for the date. As the remnants of Hurricane Ian move into the area, we’ll be seeing a lot more of these gray skies and cool temperatures. There will be plenty of rain, as well.
Through Tonight: Rain will spread over the area from the south. It will be occasionally moderate to heavy through the night. Low temperatures will be mainly in the mid- and upper 50s. You might notice increasing humidity as remnants of Ian close in, but it will be a raw “muggy.” Winds will stay up, blowing out of the north/northeast around 10 to 15 mph, gusting as high as 35 mph. An inch of rain, give or take a quarter inch or so, seems likely.
Tomorrow (Saturday): We might end up in a lull after the overnight rain. Even so, it’ll probably remain on the damp side, with both some drizzle and occasional showers or a storm. There could be a more coalesced wave of rain in the midday or afternoon, especially to the west. Highs will be in the low to mid-60s. Winds will be out of the northeast around 10 to 15 mph, with gusts near 25 mph.
Sunday: Rain odds will be up again as the core of Ian’s remnants move into the area from the west. Remnants are slowly meandering, so it’ll probably stay showery through the day and into the night. Rain may be more consistent than Saturday, but it will mainly be on the light side. Temperatures will be around 60 to the low 60s for highs. Winds will be out of the north/northeast around 10 to 15 mph, with gusts past 25 mph.
Rain totals as high as about three inches are possible by the time the storm is done.
Pollen update: Mold spores are low/moderate. Tree, grass and weed pollens are low. | 2022-09-30T21:09:29Z | www.washingtonpost.com | PM Update: Rain is heavy at times tonight amid gusty northeast winds - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/09/30/dc-area-forecast-rain-tonight/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/09/30/dc-area-forecast-rain-tonight/ |
Besieged and ignored, Brazil’s Indigenous women are running for office
Sônia Guajajara attends a demonstration at the University of São Paulo law school in August. She is running for a seat in Brazil's congress. (Rafael Vilela/For The Washington Post)
RIO DE JANEIRO — For more than two years, Vanda Ortega Witoto watched from her village in the Amazon as Brazil’s chaotic response to the coronavirus brought catastrophe to her people.
“I saw my leader die without oxygen,” said the 35-year-old nursing technician, a member of the Witoto people. “I saw my relatives being buried after no ambulance took them to the hospital.”
Now Witoto, a 35-year-old nursing technician in the remote Aldeia Colônia in Amazonas state, is running for Brazil’s congress.
“We can’t ask for help from the state when we don’t have our representatives, because those who are there are not sensitive to our cause,” she said. “They don’t even know about our existence and have no reason to defend it.”
They sat on the sidelines and watched others — mostly non-Indigenous men — make the decisions and pass laws that have threatened their land and impacted their lives. Now Indigenous women are fighting back.
A record number of Indigenous women are running for office in Sunday’s election — for state legislatures, for congress, for the vice presidency — as part of a concerted effort to increase Indigenous representation in government.
They come from different states, speak different languages and are running with different parties. But many share a common goal: To undo policies of President Jair Bolsonaro that they say have removed protections, undermined their rights and encouraged record deforestation in the Amazon.
The costs of campaigning, a lack of access to information about the electoral process — sometimes even the absence of ballot boxes in their remote villages across the vast Amazon — can make political participation for these communities particularly challenging. Many of the candidacies this year are long shots. But the effort is a seen as a necessary step toward eventual representation.
“Under Bolsonaro, Indigenous rights have been “totally dismantled,” said Sônia Guajajara, from the Guajajara people of the Arariboia Indigenous lands in Maranhão state.
Bolsonaro, a right-wing populist, is running Sunday for a second term as president. Guajajara, 48, who made Time’s list of the 100 Most Influential People of 2022 for her Indigenous rights activism, is running for a seat in congress with the Socialism and Liberty Party.
In 2018, Guajajara became the first Indigenous candidate to run for vice president as running mate to Socialism and Liberty nominee Guilherme Boulos. She said mounting attacks on Indigenous leaders and territories and accelerating environmental destruction have led communities to understand that “the Indigenous movement alone was not enough to stop all the setbacks and put an end to this violence.”
Bolsonaro, campaigning for president that year, promised not to expand protected Indigenous land by “an inch” (and has made good on the vow in office).
“In that moment we also understood that he called for a fight,” said Guajajara, one of the candidates seen as competitive.
Witoto’s Indigenous name, “Derequine,” means “angry ant” in the Witotoan language. Asked if the meaning of her name reflects her current feelings, she laughed. “Yes, we are angry!” she said.
If she wins, she would be the first Indigenous person to represent Amazonas in Congress. The state in the center of the rainforest is home to Brazil’s largest Indigenous population.
Indigenous organizations have put forward 185 federal and state candidates in this year’s election. They call it the “headdress lobby.” That’s the most since Brazil started reporting candidates’ races in 2014.
Brazil is home to more than 896,000 Indigenous people of 305 different ethnicities. But Latin America’s largest country didn’t elect its first Indigenous person to office until 1969, when Manoel dos Santos of the Karipuna people became a city councilman in Oiapoque in the northern state of Amapá.
It would take another half century for the first Indigenous woman to win a seat in Congress. Joênia Wapichana was elected a federal deputy in 2018.
Witoto remembers the day she visited Wapichana’s office in Congress.
“It is a place that seems not to be our place. But it needs to be our place,” she said. “It was not built for us, but we need to get there.”
In April, Witoto joined thousands of Indigenous people to protest a bill that would allow large-scale mining in Indigenous land, which scientists warn would bring environmental and humanitarian catastrophe.
She camped in front of congress for five days. No matter how many protesters were present or how loud they chanted, she said, no one seemed to listen.
“We were talking to ourselves,” she said. “There was not a single representative who would let us in to listen to our demands. I said: ‘No, I can’t do this anymore.’ I was tired.”
Adriana Ramos, coordinator of policy programs at the nongovernmental Social Environmental Institute, said the number of Indigenous women running for office this year is in part a result of more women climbing ranks within local and national Indigenous groups and gaining influence among their own people.
“It is a product of a process of empowering women,” Ramos said. “Once they had opportunities to lead these organizations, they showed the capacity to lead and to manage politics, while it also gave them the organizational tools to build the strategy of launching more female candidacies.”
Maial Kaiapó, 34, running for congress from Pará state — one of the Amazon’s most deforested — said the rising threat from land grabbers and illegal loggers added to her sense of urgency.
“It is time for us, Indigenous women, to move and enter the political field,” she added. “Because we are really in the middle of a war.”
She is the granddaughter of Raoni Metuktire, 92, chief of the Kaiapó people and one of Brazil’s most prominent Indigenous leaders. He has fought for the preservation of the Amazon for decades.
In a video posted on Kaiapó Instagram account, Raoni endorsed his granddaughter in their native Kaiapó language.
“May she speak for us,” he said.
Gabriela Sá Pessoa contributed to this report from São Paulo. | 2022-09-30T21:22:29Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Brazil election: Indigenous women running in record numbers - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/30/brazil-election-indigenous-women/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/30/brazil-election-indigenous-women/ |
NFL protocols couldn’t protect Tua Tagovailoa from careless humans
Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is taken off the field after being injured in Cincinnati. (Jeff Dean/AP)
Never assume an NFL team will protect its players. Never assume infallible protocols are in place. Never assume a doctor is independent enough, or a front office is savvy enough, or a head coach is concerned enough to ensure we won’t see the ghastly malpractice from Thursday night again.
Four days after being allowed to play through concussion symptoms, Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa lay motionless and concussed at Paycor Stadium. The Cincinnati crowd went silent. The Miami players and staff formed a half circle near Tagovailoa, who was at midfield for about 10 minutes before being carted away and taken to a nearby trauma center. The image of his hands, frozen and splayed above his face, should haunt the entire 2022 season and intensify scrutiny of the NFL’s concussion policies for years.
Such a scary incident could happen on any play. However, Tagovailoa shouldn’t have been the victim on this particular night because he shouldn’t have been allowed on the field. On Sunday against the Buffalo Bills, Tagovailoa was slammed to the turf in the second quarter. Afterward, he shook his head repeatedly. He stumbled as he tried to walk. He left the game to be evaluated because he exhibited what is listed as “gross motor instability” in the current NFL concussion safety playbook. Somehow, he was cleared to return — a process that includes a neurotrauma consultant not on the team’s payroll — and finished that game.
The Dolphins won, 21-19, over a Buffalo squad that might be the league’s most dominant team. Although the Dolphins initially said Tagovailoa suffered a head injury, both the organization and the quarterback called it a back problem afterward. His helmet appeared to crash into the ground against Buffalo, and he was clearly wobbly, but Tagovailoa had declared he “hyperextended” his back.
Never assume that anyone sees the big picture.
It all added up to a complete institutional failure, for the Dolphins and the entire league. While it’s easy to lump this incident into all of Miami’s recent dysfunction, the truth is that any of the 32 teams could have messed up similarly. Their priorities will always be about winning, no matter what they say. The culture of football will always lead players to toughen up and keep their mouths shut, unless they’re trying to persuade the team they’re okay to take more punishment.
Russell Wilson once banged his head in an NFC championship game against Green Bay, kept playing and later explained that drinking water with “nanobubbles” protected his brain. In 2021, Patrick Mahomes left a playoff game with a concussion, but he made a suspiciously swift recovery to play in the AFC championship game the next week. The sport has a disturbing number of former players — recent ones — who open up about playing through concussions. And the brain studies of many deceased players keep leading to diagnoses of chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
The NFL has safety guardrails to protect the team and players from their nature, and in many cases, they may work. But in a game as violent as football, it is insufficient and life-threatening to settle for being pretty good most of the time. Tagovailoa is fortunate to be responding fairly well after the vicious incident. He needs to take as much time as he needs to recover, and more importantly, the Dolphins need to force him to do so.
The league should be humble about this breakdown, not defensive. Perhaps the pending investigation into Tagovailoa’s care will find only something as simple as an unintentional misdiagnosis, but layers of protocols exist so that honest mistakes can be caught. Common sense must prevail when there’s video evidence of a player looking like he absorbed a knockout punch.
It’s not an acceptable defense to look at Tua’s case and conclude, hey, things happen. This can’t happen, not four days after the man had trouble staying upright for a spell. The protocols must be revised to trigger mandatory rest and a more stringent evaluation period when something so obviously alarming occurs.
Yet it seems every person complicit wants to seek absolution rather than take responsibility. In his role as face of the franchise, rookie head coach Mike McDaniel embarrassed himself after the game when he said, in trying to express relief, “The best news we can give is that everything is checked out that he didn’t have anything more serious than a concussion.”
He didn’t intend to dismiss the seriousness of a concussion, but that’s what he did. Those words wouldn’t have seemed so callous if the Dolphins had been more careful after Tagovailoa’s injury against Buffalo. Every player on the 53-man roster deserves diligent medical care, but the quarterback is the most essential component of the team. Miami’s negligence with Tagovailoa makes you wonder how the team looks after linemen, linebackers and tight ends who engage in jarring collisions nearly every play.
The Dolphins chose Tagovailoa with the No. 5 overall pick of the 2020 draft. During the offseason, they committed to building around him by trading for the speedy Tyreek Hill and making him a $30 million-a-year receiver. They also hired McDaniel to upgrade their offensive system. If their plan goes well, the Dolphins won’t hesitate to make Tagovailoa one of the game’s top-paid quarterbacks in the near future. He is their potential franchise player — if they don’t ruin him being shortsighted.
McDaniel, however, doesn’t regret the decision to play the quarterback Thursday night.
“That would be irresponsible in the first place, and I shouldn’t be in this position,” he said. “I do not have any — absolutely zero — patience for, or will ever put a player in position to be in harm’s way. That is not what I’m about at all, and no outcome of a game will ever influence me being irresponsible as the head coach of the football team.”
It wouldn’t be naive to trust his intentions, but McDaniel has done nothing to earn blind faith. And how could McDaniel — who surely re-watched every second of the Buffalo game, including Tua’s stumble — not have questioned whether it was prudent for Tagovailoa to be cleared to play? Every football game puts players in harm’s way, but rarely does the harm feel as avoidable as it did Thursday night.
Is the goal player protection or deniability? It’s a question that many should ponder within the Dolphins’ organization, at the league office and throughout the entire sport. What happened Thursday night was not inevitable. It was preventable. It was not just a random moment of football brutality. It was the terrifying result of carelessness. The culprits are many, and all of them should be full of remorse. | 2022-09-30T21:24:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Tua Tagovailoa's injury resulted from careless humans - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/30/tua-injury/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/30/tua-injury/ |
D.C. officers removed from violent crime squad amid internal investigation
The investigation was sparked when someone saw police stop a man and take a gun from him, without making an arrest, people familiar with the matter said.
A view of a D.C. police car. So far this year, 11 juveniles between the ages of 11 and 17 have been fatally shot or stabbed in the District. (Peter Hermann/The Washington Post)
Several D.C. police officers have been removed from a specialized police unit that focuses on violent crime, after a person alerted senior department officials of seeing police stop a man in Southeast Washington, search his bag and seize a gun, but never place him under arrest, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Investigators are exploring whether the officers violated the man’s civil rights by stopping him and searching his bag — and also why he was not arrested, if he was carrying a gun illegally, the people familiar with the matter said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe an ongoing investigation.
The incident was captured on the officers’ body worn cameras, and the footage has been reviewed by the department’s internal affairs division, the people familiar with the matter said.
Police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck said investigators are also reviewing other cases to see if the conduct was more widespread in the officers’ unit, which operates out of the Seventh District station. Among the things investigators are exploring is whether there are an inordinate number of gun seizures from that squad that do not correspond to arrests, according to a person familiar with the investigation. The department is expected to address the investigation at a news conference Friday.
Getting illegal firearms off the streets is one of the D.C. police department’s primary mission as it struggles to drive down shootings and homicides, which are near 20-year highs.
Every week, the agency publicizes list and pictures of guns taken by officers, accompanied by photographs. There were 53 such firearms seized from Sept. 19 through Sept. 26. Police said earlier this month they have seized more than 2,000 illegal guns so far this year, about 800 more than at this time in 2021.
Officers are under pressure to seize weapons, even as police officials complain the cases are difficult to make in court. That is especially the case when police find one gun in a vehicle, or a residence occupied by multiple people. Prosecutors have said in those case, they prefer to investigate more thoroughly before making arrest to ensure they charge the person who had control or owned the firearm.
D.C. police Chief Robert J. Contee III has said he understands that caution, but he also worried about people not being charged being out and “picking up another gun.” | 2022-09-30T21:57:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | D.C. officers removed from violent crime squad amid internal investigation - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/30/dc-police-internal-investigation-guns/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/30/dc-police-internal-investigation-guns/ |
FBI investigating menacing calls to ex-D.C. police officer Michael Fanone
Fanone, who was seriously injured defending the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has been an outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump.
Former D.C. police officer Michael Fanone, left, and Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn talk before a Jan. 6 House select committee hearing in June 2022. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Federal authorities are investigating menacing phone calls and other messages directed at Michael Fanone, a former D.C. police officer who was seriously hurt defending the Capitol from rioters on Jan. 6, 2021, and has since become an outspoken critic of former president Donald Trump, according to Fanone and another person familiar with the matter.
Fanone said a prosecutor with the U.S. attorney’s office in D.C. told him Thursday that the FBI had launched an inquiry into the communications he received, after he forwarded a recording of call in which someone told him: “The world would be a better place if you were hit by a fast moving bus tomorrow.”
That call came hours after Fanone, who was beaten and electrocuted into unconsciousness, and suffered a heart attack during the Jan. 6 riot, testified at a sentencing hearing Tuesday in federal court for one his attackers. A judge sentenced Fanone’s assailant to seven years and two months in prison, after Fanone told the man: “I hope you suffer.”
Fanone said he forwarded a recording of the menacing call, which came from a number in Delray Beach, Fla., to a federal prosecutor, who texted him, “Ok, got it. I’ll send to FBI. They should be calling you soon.” But after he said heard nothing back, he gave The Washington Post a recording of the call and the prosecutor’s text. He said a different prosecutor then called him Thursday to confirm the FBI was investigating the call and other messages he received. A person familiar with the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the open case, confirmed the investigation.
How battered D.C. police made a stand against the Capitol mob
Lira Gallagher, a spokeswoman for the FBI’s Washington Field Office, said the agency “can neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.” But, she said: “We do take all threats of violence seriously and work with our law enforcement partners to investigate people who make them, including those who seek to harass, intimidate, or retaliate against federal witnesses.”
Fanone, now an on-air contributor to CNN, said he understands the difficulties of investigating such messages, because to substantiate criminal wrongdoing, threats typically need to be specific and overt. Many of the missives that Fanone said he has received wish him harm, or wish him dead — but don’t appear to make specific threats to kill him.
But Fanone said he did not feel authorities took his concerns seriously enough, and that his outspokenness had made him a high-profile target. When he goes out in public, detractors sometimes follow him on city streets.
Fanone said that he was not allowed to use a private entrance to the federal courthouse on Judiciary Square at the recent sentencing hearing. As a witness and victim in ongoing criminal cases, he said, he deserves protection from those who might do him harm.
“I’m a private citizen,” Fanone said. “I have no means of protecting myself.”
Bill Miller, a spokesman with the U.S. attorney’s office, declined to comment. Representatives from the U.S. Marshals Service, which provides security at the federal courthouse, did not respond to a request for comment.
Jan. 6 hearings open with visceral accounts of Trump supporters’ assault on police
Fanone was among hundreds of D.C. police officers who rushed to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 to answer a citywide emergency alert, as rioters stormed the building.
The officer’s early interviews with The Post and other media — along with testimony in court and to the House select committee investigating the origins of the attack — have offered one of the most vivid accounts of that day. Fanone’s blunt speaking style and unflinching criticism of Trump, the former president’s supporters who sought to overturn the election and lawmakers who deny or downplay that a violent insurrection occurred, has made him a hero to some, and a target of others.
He resigned from the D.C. police force in December, shortly after he had returned to full duty after recovering from the attack. At the time, Fanone said he had become ostracized by many friends and fellow officers who did not like his appearances on national television or his views on the insurrection.
During the sentencing hearing earlier this week, U.S. Marshals removed a spectator who shouted at Fanone. And he received a vulgar, menacing voice mail as he testified before House lawmakers in July 2021.
Fanone said the only time he was afforded protection was during a hearing in June at the Capitol when he invited actor Sean Penn to accompany him. He said Penn’s visit was not announced ahead of time, and that four U.S. Capitol police officers were quickly dispatched to escort him and the actor.
“Any other time, it’s ‘You’re on your own, Fanone,'” he said. “And people ask me why I’ve lost faith in law enforcement. That’s why.”
Fanone said he asked Capitol police officers for an escort after one incident in which he was followed and heckled by demonstrators after a committee hearing in July. He said he made a separate request that same month through the House Sergeant-at-Arms to allow him secure parking on the Capitol grounds and the use of a nonpublic entrance. He said he was allowed to park on the grounds, but was denied other accommodations.
Representatives for the Sergeant-at-Arms did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Fanone resigns from D.C. police force 11 months after battling rioters at Capitol
Timothy Barber, a spokesman for the U.S. Capitol Police, said Fanone has not contacted department officials “to voice safety concerns.” In a statement, Barber said: “We are proud of all the officers who heroically defended the Capitol and would gladly listen to his concerns.”
Barber also said Capitol Police were not aware Penn had planned to attend the hearing with Fanone, “so when the arrival created a frenzy, officers ensured all of the guests and journalists could safely move around.”
Fanone denied Penn’s visit caused a frenzy in the hearing room. | 2022-09-30T21:57:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | FBI investigating menacing calls to ex-D.C. officer Michael Fanone - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/30/fanone-threats-fbi-investigation/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/30/fanone-threats-fbi-investigation/ |
Ukraine has always been ready to negotiate. The question is how.
Destroyed Russian ammo storage in Izyum, Ukraine, on Friday. (Oleg Petrasyuk/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
Iuliia Mendel is a journalist, the author of “The Fight of Our Lives,” and a former press secretary for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday declared his willingness to negotiate with Ukraine. Sounds good, right?
It’s important to pay attention to the details. He made the statement right after he announced the illegal annexation of regions of Ukraine that are (at least partly) occupied by Russian troops. So in effect he was saying: “I’ve invaded your country. I’ve killed tens of thousands of your people, created millions of refugees, caused many billions of dollars’ worth of damage, and now I am trying to steal your land. So let’s negotiate.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also made a statement about negotiations with Russia on Friday. Ukraine, he said, is ready “to agree on coexistence on equal, honest, dignified, and fair terms.” He also made it clear that no talks about peace are possible with Putin: “We are ready for a dialogue with Russia, but with another president of Russia.” In case that wasn’t clear enough, he announced another decision: Ukraine is speeding up its plans to join NATO.
As I followed all of this news, I was reminded of my visit to Zelensky’s headquarters in Kyiv a few weeks ago. There, not far from the spot where I once worked as Zelensky’s press secretary, I met with senior presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak. (These days Podolyak is often described as one of the most powerful people in Ukraine, not far behind the president himself.)
As Podolyak pointed out to me, it’s a myth — often asserted by the Russians, by the way — that Ukraine isn’t ready for talks. In fact, Podolyak already has experience of sitting at a table opposite a delegation from Moscow. In February, he was part of the Ukrainian negotiation team that met with Russian representatives at the border with Belarus just as the war was getting underway.
The Russian negotiators, fully believing their own propaganda, issued ultimatums to “demilitarize” and “denazify” Ukraine.
“They kept calling us ‘Nazis,’ ” he told me. “It shows you how degraded Russian diplomacy and consequently the political process is.” He told me that even some of the members of the Russian delegation he has known for years referred to him with this label.
The Ukrainian delegation came with a mandate to do everything it could to start a dialogue. At the time, Russia was killing countless Ukrainian citizens and destroying Ukrainian cities; Ukraine had prevented the Russian troops from taking the capital but had not yet fully driven them out of the area to the north of Kyiv. The Kremlin demanded that Ukrainians lay down their arms and surrender. “They were completely unprepared,” Podolyak recalls. “The Russians knew nothing about the state of our army. They described some of our bases, which are exclusively under Ukrainian jurisdiction, as NATO bases. … The only thing they had to offer was war and blackmail.”
The last round of talks, held in Turkey at the end of March, ended with the Ukrainians handing over a communique with a proposal to end the war. The Ukrainian delegation presented a proposal for a new system of security guarantees that would define Ukraine’s status as a neutral nonaligned nonnuclear state. Ukraine offered to negotiate the status of Crimea separately within 15 years, without the use of military means. Separately, the presidents of Ukraine and Russia would discuss the status of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
The Russians responded by saying that they would give Ukraine a gift “that would please them very much.” That meant, Podolyak said, “that they would withdraw their troops from Kyiv region.” (By then, of course, Ukrainian fighters had already defeated the Russian forces marching on Kyiv.)
But what the Ukrainians discovered after the withdrawal filled them with horror. In Bucha, investigators discovered the bodies of more than 400 civilians — their hands often tied behind their backs — who were shot by the Russian invaders. There is evidence of torture and rape. Hundreds remain missing. What the Ukrainians saw was shocking in its brutality, this “not only canceled out the Istanbul communique but also our understanding of what Russia is.”
I asked what he meant by this: “We saw that the Russian army wasn’t just fighting, it was destroying,” Podolyak told me. “And they were doing it on the principle of genocide — not on the basis of ethnicity but of affiliation with the Ukrainian state. As if it didn’t matter who you were ethnically, what language you spoke, they would kill because you were a citizen of Ukraine.”
Even after visiting the site of the massacres on April 4, Zelensky still confirmed his readiness to negotiate: “We strive for peace, we deserve it. And these people showed it, and the Armed Forces showed it. Peace is impossible without victory.” And yet, he added: “We do not want to lose millions of people. That is why there should be dialogue.”
Now Putin declares his willingness to discuss peace even as he declares mobilization, annexes Ukrainian territory and threatens the use of nuclear weapons against those who would resist his seizure of Ukrainian land. And Ukrainians are still prepared to negotiate. If the Kremlin wants talks, it should start by withdrawing its troops. Nothing is preventing it from doing that.
The latest: Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees Friday to annex four occupied regions of Ukraine, following staged referendums that were widely denounced as illegal. Follow our live updates here.
The response: The Biden administration on Friday announced a new round of sanctions on Russia, in response to the annexations, targeting government officials and family members, Russian and Belarusian military officials and defense procurement networks. President Volodymyr Zelensky also said Friday that Ukraine is applying for “accelerated ascension” into NATO, in an apparent answer to the annexations.
Opinion|Ukraine has always been ready to negotiate. The question is how. | 2022-09-30T22:36:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Ukraine has always been ready to negotiate. The question is how. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/30/ukraine-russia-negotiate-peace/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/30/ukraine-russia-negotiate-peace/ |
Man charged with murder in Pr. George’s stabbing
A 25-year-old man has been arrested and charged with murder in a fatal stabbing in the Adelphi area Wednesday afternoon, Prince George’s County police said.
Joshua Deva of no fixed address is charged with first-degree murder and related counts in the killing of Randolph Crawford, 59, of no fixed address, police said. He is being held without bond at the county jail.
Officers found Crawford with a stab wound at about 3:10 p.m. in the 2300 block of University Boulevard, police said. He died at the scene.
Police said the two were “involved in a physical altercation” before Deva allegedly stabbed Crawford.
It was not immediately clear whether Deva has an attorney. | 2022-09-30T22:41:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Joshua Deva charged with murder in Prince George's - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/30/man-charged-murder-adelphi-stabbing/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/30/man-charged-murder-adelphi-stabbing/ |
Shared Voices program aims to help HBCU student performers grow
The Howard University Chorale performs during an event for Shared Voices, a classical music student exchange program created by opera star Denyce Graves. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)
Opera star Denyce Graves was in her first year of teaching at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University when she says she met a graduate student with a beautiful voice.
The student was a hard worker, Graves said, but wasn’t getting the opportunities to perform that she felt she should have. She didn’t get into the opera program and was upset and disillusioned.
Graves says she sat with the student and cried and hugged her. It led her to want to do more to help other students.
“How are we preparing [students] to be successful out there in the world when they’ve got no context and no industry connections and no opportunities?” Graves said. “It became so clear. It was crystal clear that something had to be done about that.”
The experience led to the creation of Shared Voices, an effort launched by the Denyce Graves Foundation that brings together students at four historically Black colleges and universities, four music conservatories and the Metropolitan Opera. The cohort includes students from Howard, Fisk and Morgan State universities and Morehouse College.
A kickoff for the program was held Friday in D.C. at Howard’s Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts with a reception that included the 16 inaugural cohort members and performances by the university’s choir. During the ceremony, Graves received a presidential Volunteer Service Award and greetings from the office of Vice President Harris, a Howard alumna.
Other institutions participating in the program are the Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins.
“The Shared Voices program will offer them access,” Graves said. “They have the opportunity through the program to take the best from all of the institutions.”
Ava Paul, a participant in the inaugural cohort and a second-year vocal performance and politics student at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, said Graves emphasized to her that there is nothing in the world without connection. It’s a basic part of thriving in the performance world.
“We need to view ourselves as so much more than singers,” Paul said. “We need to be, you know, entrepreneurs and most especially for me, champions of social justice, because I think there is so much representation that just isn’t performed and isn’t celebrated for the excellence that it is.”
Following a morning reception Friday, there was a panel discussion and concerts. The foundation also hosted breakout sessions for students, including a meet-and-greet with the cohort and a training on starting an artistic career.
Simone Brown, social media manager for the Denyce Graves Foundation performed “Take My Mother Home,” by Andrè Previn, during a recital.
“I haven’t sung in front of Denyce in like two years or so. I did my master studies with her and she was my teacher,” Brown said. “I still get to study with her every once in a while, but this was the first time she’s gotten to hear me in a while. So that was special for me.”
The Shared Voices program will give participants the ability to have individual coaching, classes, rehearsals, performances and other activities across the partnering universities. The Metropolitan Opera will also offer master classes as part of the program.
“The students, they were the ones who really gave birth to this, because when I would sit in my sessions and in my lessons with them, they would tell me what was going on and what was needed,” Graves said.
Cohort participant Travis Guillory said the classical voice world “can be very overwhelming for marginalized groups.” “This program just really makes me elated because I know that there are some people out there that look like me that sound kind of similar to me,” Guillory said. “I hoped that out of this program, I would get a sense of community. And that I can have the resources to do whatever I want to do in the classical arts world.”
“I’m just so honored to be in it. I’m just going to soak everything up,” cohort participant Hannah Jeané Jones said. “I hope to gain a sense of where I stand in this industry. I will learn more about myself and learn more about my people.” | 2022-09-30T22:41:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Shared Voices program aims to help HBCU student performers grow - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/09/30/denyce-graves-hbcu-classical-music/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/09/30/denyce-graves-hbcu-classical-music/ |
Metro delays opening of Potomac Yard station until 2023
The transit agency also announced it is extending the closure of six stations south of Reagan National Airport
A rendering of the Potomac Yard Metro station in Alexandria. (City of Alexandria)
The opening of Metro’s Potomac Yard station in Alexandria has been pushed back until 2023, the transit agency said Friday.
The stop, which will sit between the Reagan National Airport and Braddock Road stations on the Yellow and Blue lines, had been expected to open later this year. But Andy Off, Metro’s executive vice president of capital delivery, said it became clear in recent days the project would not be completed in time and the opening would be delayed.
“We are frustrated with these developments on the Potomac Yard Station project,” he said in a statement. “We will continue to work as quickly as possible to deliver a high-quality station, and we are doing everything within our power to move the project forward in a safe and responsible way.”
The transit agency said crews ran into issues with the soil that affected the stability of the ground between the tracks. Construction was halted until a plan to deal with the issues could be developed.
Metro also said “unexpected site conditions and remediation efforts tied to the Potomac Yard station” would force the transit agency to extend the closure of six stations south of National Airport. The stations were scheduled to reopen Oct. 23, but work on tracks to the new station is now expected to end Nov. 5.
The project is being built by Potomac Yard Constructors, a joint venture of Halmar International and Schiavone Construction Co., two global construction companies. Messages left with the companies late Friday afternoon were not returned.
Safety system problems delay opening of Potomac Yard Metro station in Alexandria
Alexandria Mayor Justin M. Wilson (D) called the delayed station opening a “gut punch,” particularly because Metro did not provide a new opening date for the station.
“To get to this place now is really frustrating,” he said in an interview Friday. “As the entity that is paying the bills on this project, we are the customer here, and this is unacceptable.”
It’s the second time Metro has delayed the opening of the station. It originally had been scheduled to open this past April, but in July 2021, Metro announced it encountered issues with the design of a critical safety system at the station and pushed back its opening until the fall. Metro took responsibility for issues with the design of the automatic train control system, which ensures that trains maintain a safe distance from one another.
Wilson said that after that initial delay, Alexandria officials asked to receive more oversight on the project. Since last winter, city workers have shadowed and monitored construction at the new station, he said.
Those workers raised concerns about delays they thought would make it impossible for the station to open this fall, but Metro and its contractor insisted they could maintain the schedule, Wilson said. He said the city will assume more authority moving forward on operational decisions and change requests at the project site, while getting more frequent and detailed reporting on progress.
Given the economic consequences of the delays on the city and its businesses, Wilson said Alexandria should no longer be responsible for its total share of the project. The Potomac Yard station is a key component of Alexandria’s efforts to remake a 295-acre former railroad yard south of the airport into a bustling urban center.
Potomac Yard Metro station is over budget and behind schedule
Alexandria, along with other government and private partners has invested roughly $370 million to fund construction of the station.
“The impact of these delays on the city of Alexandria specifically is measured in the millions of dollars over the past year and a half, and that bill is going to continue to run,” Wilson said.
During the extended closure of six stations south of National Airport, Metro said free shuttle bus service will continue and that the Metroway-Potomac Yard line will continue to be free. Parking at the Franconia-Springfield, Van Dorn and Huntington stations is also free. | 2022-09-30T22:41:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Metro delays opening of Potomac Yard station in Alexandria - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/09/30/potomac-yard-metro-station/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/09/30/potomac-yard-metro-station/ |
Family to settle lawsuit over deadly no-knock raid in Mississippi
A Post investigation examined the case of Ricky Keeton, 57, killed when deputies stormed his mobile home
By Jenn Abelson
Robbie Geiger, the daughter of Ricky Keeton, has agreed to settle the wrongful death lawsuit she filed after deputies killed her father during a no-knock raid at his trailer in Smithville, Miss. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)
The family of a Mississippi man killed by Monroe County sheriff’s deputies during a no-knock raid has agreed to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit for $690,000.
The settlement came several months after The Washington Post’s “Broken Doors” podcast investigated the case of Ricky Keeton, and examined the prevalence of no-knock drug raids in this rural community of roughly 35,000 residents.
In October 2015, a SWAT team fired dozens of bullets into Keeton’s mobile home around 1 a.m. after the 57-year-old appeared at the door with a pellet gun. His longtime girlfriend said Keeton had been awakened by banging outside, and had no idea it was law enforcement. Deputies said Keeton fired first.
The Post’s investigation into no-knock raids — one of the most aggressive and intrusive policing tactics — uncovered broader accusations that the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office had abused its power and trampled on the rights of residents. There were complaints of corruption, sexual misconduct and excessive force. Some of the allegations against the head narcotics officer Eric Sloan eventually drew the scrutiny of state investigators and the FBI.
When the sheriff waged a war on drugs in a Mississippi county
Keeton’s daughters, including Robbie Geiger, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Sloan and the county in June 2016 and had faced repeated trial delays. The settlement, which is not yet final, was disclosed in court filings this week.
Geiger said she finally agreed to settle after the judge excluded from evidence allegations of wrongdoing by Sloan, the former head narcotics officer. Geiger also worried Monroe County would continue to fight in court for years to come. Sloan was never charged and has denied wrongdoing.
“It takes a toll on somebody,” Geiger said. “I’ve never got to mourn and actually heal and put it behind me because it’s been in my face for so long.”
Geiger credited The Post’s investigation for revealing the full story of her father’s death and the dangerous raids that she said destroyed lives in Monroe County.
“That made me the most happy, that it actually got heard in a different light by people that actually lived it and knew what happened,” Geiger said. “People need to know that there’s other families in the world going through this.”
Sloan and an attorney for Monroe County did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Former Monroe County Sheriff Cecil Cantrell also did not respond to a message seeking a comment. But in an interview with The Post last year, Cantrell defended his time in office, saying he was the first person to try to clean up the county’s drug problem.
“I decided if this county was going to be cleaned up, that it had to start with the sheriff,” he said. “And we did, ma’am. We cleaned this county up.”
During his tenure, Cantrell waged a war on drugs with a growing number of raids that resulted in seizures of property and money. In the weeks before the deadly raid, a confidential informant accused Sloan of extortion and sexual assault, allegations that drew the attention of state and federal law enforcement. At the time, Cantrell was preparing for his upcoming reelection bid that fall.
After the raid at Keeton’s trailer in Smithville, Cantrell appeared on the local news and said that Keeton had opened fire on deputies — and that they found drugs, which Cantrell suggested were linked to a Mexican drug cartel.
Keeton’s family denied any such connection. They said Keeton was in poor health and lived with his girlfriend, Wanda Stegall, in a modest trailer. Keeton had known the sheriff since they were children, when they attended the same church.
During Cantrell’s deposition in the family’s lawsuit, the sheriff acknowledged that he made the final decision about raids as the top law enforcement officer. He couldn’t explain why deputies didn’t do an undercover drug buy instead of trying to force their way into Keeton’s home without warning. He didn’t know whether the property the sheriff’s office seized from Keeton’s property had been purchased with drug money.
Deputies also took outdoor cameras from Keeton’s home, but when a state investigator examined the images from the night of the raid, he said they were obscured, as if someone had covered the camera before or during the shooting.
Deputies had taken three months to submit the drugs they said they’d found in Keeton’s trailer to a crime lab, which identified about seven ounces total of amphetamine and methamphetamine.
Stegall was later charged with drug trafficking in connection with the raid even though she was never named on the search warrant. She eventually pleaded guilty to possession of between 10 and 30 grams of meth and ended up on probation.
Stegall, who was not part of the wrongful death lawsuit, expressed disappointment with the settlement: “Cecil Cantrell got away with everything,” she said.
Keeton’s death in 2015 had long faded from public view until a local newspaper learned about public records The Post obtained and requested identical copies. They then published stories about the case and no-knock raids.
Geiger said the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office has devastated families with these dangerous searches. The Post’s investigation revealed that fatal no-knock searches around the country often failed to turn up large amounts of drugs, and that judges rarely questioned police seeking these warrants.
“They know what they did was wrong, and people need to know,” Geiger said. “This whole fight with police officers and their abuse of power — it’s for all of us.” | 2022-09-30T22:54:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Family to settle lawsuit over deadly no-knock raid in Mississippi - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/09/30/family-settle-lawsuit-over-deadly-no-knock-raid-mississippi/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/09/30/family-settle-lawsuit-over-deadly-no-knock-raid-mississippi/ |
Facing criticism, Dolphins and NFL defend decisions on Tua Tagovailoa
Dolphins Coach Mike McDaniel walks away as quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is taken from the field on a stretcher during the first half of Thursday night's game in Cincinnati. (Joshua A. Bickel/AP)
Under intense public scrutiny and facing sharp criticism, the Miami Dolphins and the NFL on Friday defended the process by which quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was cleared to return to a game Sunday after being evaluated for a possible head injury and then permitted to play Thursday night in Cincinnati.
Tagovailoa was taken from the field on a stretcher during Thursday’s game against the Bengals and transported by ambulance to a hospital after suffering a concussion, according to the Dolphins, on a first-half hit. The league said Friday that it will adjust its concussion protocols if needed after completing its ongoing joint review with the NFL Players Association on whether those protocols were followed properly in this case. The NFLPA said it was focused on the medical judgments made during the episode more than on procedural issues.
“Until we have an objective and validated method of diagnosing brain injury, we have to do everything possible, including amending the protocols, to further reduce the potential of human error,” former Cleveland Browns center JC Tretter, the NFLPA president, said in a statement. “A failure in medical judgement is a failure of the protocols when it comes to the well being of our players.”
Tagovailoa said in a statement posted to social media that he was “grateful for the support and care I’ve received” and added: “I’m feeling much better and focused on recovering so I can get back out on the field with my teammates.”
The Dolphins said Tagovailoa was undergoing further testing and evaluation Friday after getting released Thursday night from the University of Cincinnati Medical Center and accompanying the team on its flight back to Miami. According to Coach Mike McDaniel, Tagovailoa was suffering from a headache and underwent an MRI exam Friday after undergoing a CT scan and X-rays in Cincinnati.
“I’m not even really thinking about timetables or anything regarding him as a player right now,” McDaniel said during a news conference. “It’s all about, really, Tua the person.”
McDaniel said he would not have allowed Tagovailoa to play Thursday if he’d been given any “medical indication” the quarterback suffered a head injury during Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bills in Miami Gardens, Fla. Tagovailoa left that game after absorbing a first-half hit, then wobbling after getting to his feet. But he was cleared to return after undergoing a concussion evaluation, and both he and McDaniel said then that he had suffered a back injury rather than a head injury.
“If there would have been anything lingering with his head, I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if I had prematurely put someone out there and put them in harm’s way,” McDaniel said Friday. “This is a relationship that I have with this human being. I take that serious. I wouldn’t have put him out there if there was any inclination given to me whatsoever that he was endangering himself from that previous game.”
Allen Sills, the NFL’s chief medical officer, stressed during a televised interview Friday that for a player to be cleared to return to a game under the concussion protocols, there must be agreement between the team physician and an independent neurological consultant following a step-by-step evaluation process involving prescribed tests.
Sills told the league-owned NFL Network that it is “important to recognize that these are not decisions made by one person. They’re made jointly by team staff and also this independent neuro-expert.”
According to Sills, Tagovailoa underwent a long-form exam called the Sport Concussion Assessment Tool in the locker room Sunday. After returning to Sunday’s game, Sills said, he was evaluated daily for a concussion leading up to Thursday’s game.
“I know that he was checked after the game,” Sills said. “I know that he was checked the following day. In fact, every player that gets an examination on game day gets a follow-up exam the following day even if that exam was negative. That’s part of our concussion protocol. And then I know that this player was checked every day leading up to the game.”
Sills said the joint review with the NFLPA will include interviews with the athletic trainer, the team physician, the unaffiliated neuro-specialist, the injury spotters in the booth, the neuro-specialist in the booth and Tagovailoa.
“We want to get better at these things,” Sills said. “I think we have gotten better. We’ve seen our care improve drastically. But that doesn’t mean that we’re done. … And whatever our review leads us toward, that’s the direction we’ll move in. If we feel we need to make adjustments collectively with the players’ union, we’re absolutely committed to that.”
Christopher Nowinski, the founding CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, said Friday he was “horrified and disgusted” by the handling of Tagovailoa’s health.
“I was one of the people saying the NFL is not as bad as it used to be,” Nowinski said. “And I was starting to focus on other sports and other leagues around the world to try to get them to a better place. And now I realize I’ve got to laser back on the NFL.”
The “hole in the protocol here,” Nowinski said, is the provision that allows a player to return to a game if he demonstrates “gross motor instability” but that condition is determined by the doctors not to be neurologically caused.
“The idea that they tried to claim it was something else and that lets him go back in shows you can cheat what is obvious signs,” Nowinski said. “There were no signs of a back injury. There were five signs of concussion. Either the doctor is not qualified, which I doubt, or for some reason they felt like risking his career for a win. … It’s not just the failure of the medical care. It’s a failure of the culture. It’s a failure of the leadership. It’s a failure of the coaching staff. It’s a failure of the ownership. Every fan knew he had a concussion on Sunday.”
The NFLPA initiated the joint review with the league Sunday.
— George Atallah (@GeorgeAtallah) September 30, 2022
“The whole point of our advocacy for more than a decade on the issue of concussions,” George Atallah, the union’s assistant executive director of external affairs, said in a statement Friday, “is to shift the culture of our game from one that was previously focused on the fastest path back to the field, to one that emphasized player care above all …. [W]e have improved on those protocols to the point where today’s concussion protocols are far more comprehensive and safer for players than ever before … But they are only effective if the people applying them and making decisions place patient/player care above checking boxes to clear someone back to work as fast as possible.”
McDaniel said Tagovailoa was laughing and demonstrating his “definitely normal Tua” personality on the plane ride back to Miami, as the two spoke and then Tagovailoa pulled out his phone to watch a movie.
“All of his teammates were absolutely elated to see him on the plane,” McDaniel said. “He was elated. It brought him some joy, which was good to see.” | 2022-09-30T22:55:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | NFL, Miami Dolphins face criticism in Tua Tagovailoa concussion - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/30/nfl-concussion-protocols-tua-tagovailoa-dolphins-doctors/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/30/nfl-concussion-protocols-tua-tagovailoa-dolphins-doctors/ |
Jameis Winston was held out of practice all three days and listed as doubtful to play because of a back injury that has plagued him all season. If he can’t play Sunday, backup Andy Dalton is the likely choice and has been taking first-team reps in practice. Tight end/quarterback Taysom Hill is another possibility.
Outside linebacker Za’Darius Smith was questionable to play with a knee injury.
Running back Dalvin Cook has a shoulder injury, but fully practiced Thursday and Friday. Alexander Mattison is at the ready to be the main ball carrier if Cook can’t play or is limited. | 2022-09-30T22:56:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Saints coach Allen gets 2nd chance in London against Vikings - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nfl/saints-coach-allen-gets-2nd-chance-in-london-against-vikings/2022/09/29/ee1aaf1e-403b-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nfl/saints-coach-allen-gets-2nd-chance-in-london-against-vikings/2022/09/29/ee1aaf1e-403b-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html |
Aging infrastructure to blame for E. coli bacteria in Baltimore water
Workers with the Baltimore City Department of Public Works distribute jugs of water to city residents at the Landsdowne Branch of the Baltimore County Library on Sept. 6, 2022 in Baltimore. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Baltimore city officials this week said problems due to aging infrastructure in the city’s water treatment system contributed to an E. coli contamination in September that left some city residents without drinking water for five days.
An unprecedented confluence of events in multiple areas of the city’s water system — which includes about 4,000 miles of pipe — reduced chlorine levels enough to trigger three positive tests for E. coli, Timothy Wolfe, chief of the office of engineering and construction for the city’s Department of Public Works, said in an interview Friday.
City officials shared the findings for the first time publicly Thursday at the second of two city council hearings devoted to the contamination, which prompted a five-day boil water advisory in September for West Baltimore and parts of Baltimore County, sending volunteers and city workers scrambling to meet residents’ basic needs in the summerlike heat.
The presence of E. coli bacteria indicated the water may have been contaminated by human or animal feces, officials said at the time. No illnesses were linked to the contaminated water, city spokeswoman Monica Lewis said Friday.
Residents and environmental justice advocates have for years decried inaction on infrastructural improvements needed to safeguard Baltimore’s water quality. They say funding inequities leave cash-strapped cities with no choice but to react to problems they would rather prevent.
Baltimore City Council member John T. Bullock, who represents parts of West Baltimore affected by the advisory, welcomed the results of the probe, which officials have been awaiting for weeks.
“We could always have more detailed information but the meeting was helpful in terms of what was happening with the reservoirs and treatment centers and where there may have been breakdowns in the infrastructure,” he said.
Bullock said he was confident Wes Moore, the Democrat running for governor, will prioritize West Baltimore, if elected. But federal infrastructure funding will also be necessary to make lasting upgrades in the city’s water treatment and collection system, Bullock said.
“Hopefully some of that money will make it’s way to Baltimore, because we are one of the oldest cities in the country,” he said.
The emergency overlapped with a crisis in Jackson, Miss., where 150,000 residents were without safe drinking water, partly due to a failing water treatment plant, focusing new attention on weaknesses in water infrastructure around the country.
The problems with Baltimore’s water system were exacerbated this summer after workers had to make valve repairs on a downtown Baltimore water main up to 60 inches in diameter, which was installed in 1915, Wolfe said. Around the same time, over July 4 weekend, a sinkhole opened when storm water overwhelmed a 115-year-old stone arch drain, forcing workers to shut down a 48-inch water main built in 1898.
In early February, another 48-inch water main, which was installed in 1925, needed repairs that could have compromised an earthen dam holding up a large water reservoir critical to providing residents drinking water, he said. Rather than risk worker safety and the integrity of a critical water supply, the pipeline was shut off. A $137 million project to replace the pipe system with underground storage tanks should be complete in early 2023, Wolfe said.
Adjustments needed to maintain water levels and safety in another reservoir upset the pressure balance in the entire system, allowing chlorine residuals — the city’s defense against bacteria — to change, he said.
Officials are accelerating a program to replace the city’s water mains, or, underground pipes, at the rate of 15 miles a year, but Wolfe said federal dollars could allow them to do more.
“More money to the city — or any city of this size — is very helpful,” he said. | 2022-09-30T23:33:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | E. coli in Baltimore water blamed on aging infrastructure - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/30/baltimore-water-ecoli-infrastructure/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/30/baltimore-water-ecoli-infrastructure/ |
D.C. splits agency that regulates construction, permitting issues
D.C. Council chair Phil Mendelson pushes back on Mayor Bowser’s picks to lead the two new agencies.
A worker cleans the lobby of the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs in Washington in March 2020. (Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post)
D.C.'s Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, formed in 1983, has been tasked over the years with a wide range of responsibilities: issuing construction permits and business licenses, inspecting reports of housing code violations and ensuring the city’s buildings are up to code, to name a few.
But as of Saturday, after years of critiques from residents who said the department had fallen short in some of its assigned duties, the agency long known as DCRA will no longer exist. It is being split into two separate entities: the Department of Buildings (DOB) and the Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection (DLCP); the former agency will focus on building inspections, zoning administration and code compliance, and the latter will crack down on unlawful businesses and issue licenses.
City lawmakers say the transition, which was approved by the D.C. Council over repeated protests from Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), will streamline services by dividing responsibilities between two smaller, easier-to-manage agencies.
Late Friday afternoon, just hours before the transition became official, Bowser appointed DCRA’s current director, Ernest Chrappah, as the acting director of the new DOB. Bowser selected DCRA’s current deputy director, Shirley Kwan-Hui, to lead DLCP on an interim basis until she nominates a permanent director. Chrappah’s appointment will require confirmation by the D.C. Council; per D.C. law, Kwan-Hui’s interim appointment does not require confirmation, but can only be paid for 180 days unless she becomes Bowser’s nominee.
D.C. Council chair Phil Mendelson (D), who pushed for DCRA to break up and has been among its harshest critics over the years, immediately pushed back against Bowser’s pick to lead the DOB. In a statement Friday evening, he commended Chrappah for his public service but said Bowser has shown an unwillingness to embrace a fresh start with the new structure.
“The new Department of Buildings is a chance to be transformative. It’s an opportunity to bring in or promote a change agent,” Mendelson said in the statement. “Simply moving over the head of the Department’s dysfunctional predecessor-agency misses that chance.”
In D.C. Council oversight hearings and at public forums in recent years, Chrappah has been taken to task over some of the agency’s shortcomings. Scores of residents have complained about DCRA’s troubles with properly regulating vacant and blighted buildings (costing the city millions in tax revenue), and a 2019 D.C. Inspector General report found that the agency did not always track or collect fines related to building code violations.
D.C.’s problems with vacant, blighted properties haven’t gone away, residents and officials say
These issues, among others, were part of the reason the D.C. Council in 2020 voted to separate the two agencies. In a memo at the time explaining her choice to veto the legislation, Bowser acknowledged that some people were dissatisfied with DCRA but accused the council of overlooking “significant progress over the past several years in improving processes and operations.”
Still, lawmakers voted unanimously to override her veto.
Because so many residents engage with DCRA, individual complaints run the gamut. At a hearing last week to discuss the city’s progress with establishing the DOB and DLCP, which combined will have a bigger staff and larger budget than the former agency, several advocates spoke up about their hopes for the split and pressed Mendelson to closely monitor the transition.
“We believe this kind of continued oversight is needed to keep DOB on the right path,” said Christina Simpson, a policy attorney at the Children’s Law Center, which works with families to get landlords to repair housing code violations that threaten children’s health.
Lawmakers are taking additional steps to bolster operations at the new agencies. Mendelson and D.C. Council member Anita Bonds (D-At Large) introduced a bill in July that would require the Department of Buildings to establish a tiered “proactive inspection program,” which would mandate more frequent inspections of multifamily rental properties that are old, in low-income areas or have a history of housing code violations or stop-work orders. It also would include those where the owner has failed to pay property taxes in the last two years.
At the hearing, Chrappah noted that an explanation of the new agencies’ duties can be found on a dedicated transition website. He also promised that businesses and individuals who are currently engaged with DCRA on licensing or permitting matters won’t need to start new applications or reenter information. He said the transition would be “seamless.”
Chrappah said he has filled 285 out of the 379 positions available in the new agencies so far. He said his team is behind on hiring, but said many workplaces are facing similar staffing issues.
“When these challenges are coupled with splitting up one of the largest agencies in District government, there’s simply no getting around the fact that … we are probably looking at a couple of years of additional work beyond the immediate scope of our legislative mandate,” he said. “We just ask for some patience, because a transition of this magnitude usually takes a few years. We are on the brink of pulling this off in 90 days.”
In addition to his qualms over the new agencies’ leadership, Mendelson stressed the need for the staff of DOB and DLCP to have a clear sense of purpose and mission.
“There’s a chance to rededicate the employees to the mission of the new agencies,” he said in an interview. “But will that happen?” | 2022-09-30T23:33:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | As DCRA splits, Mayor Bowser appoints leaders for new agencies - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/30/dc-dcra-split-chrappah-bowser/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/30/dc-dcra-split-chrappah-bowser/ |
Man shoots self at gun show, police say
Gun discharged by accident, according to Virginia State Police.
A man shot himself in the foot Friday in an accident at a gun show in Northern Virginia, the state police said.
The man was taken to a hospital with a non-life-threatening wound, according to the police. The incident occurred about 3:45 p.m. at a gun show at the Dulles Expo Center, the police said. The center is on Route 28 in Fairfax County.
The magazine had been removed from the firearm, but a round remained in the chamber, the police said.
No one else was injured and the incident remains under investigation, police said. | 2022-09-30T23:33:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Man accidentally shoots self at gun show, Va. police say - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/30/man-shoots-self-gun-show/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/30/man-shoots-self-gun-show/ |
Ian hits South Carolina as Florida reels from earlier assault
A man stands in front of storm surges in Myrtle Beach, S.C., as Hurricane Ian made landfall in the state on Friday. (Melissa Sue Gerrits for The Washington Post)
Hurricane Ian made landfall for the second time this week in a second state on Friday, crashing into coastal South Carolina as a Category 1 storm that brought lashing rains and storm surge but appeared unlikely to wreak the sort of devastation that was still emerging in Florida.
There, the vast parameters of the damage became more evident as emergency crews pulled people and bodies from streets — some still flooded and others dry but strewn with wreckage. About 34,000 Floridians had filed for federal emergency aid, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said. At least 10 people had been determined to be victims of the storm as of Friday evening, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said, but officials cautioned that confirming causes of death was a slow and deliberate process and said the toll was likely to rise as medical examiners completed more autopsies.
“We’re just beginning to see the scale of that destruction” in Florida, President Biden said Friday. The disaster, he said, was “not just a crisis for Florida, this is an American crisis.” Indeed, the storm, while weakened, was expected to drive north into Virginia and other East Coast states after crossing over the Carolinas.
That destruction could be seen across Florida. Damage to a 3-mile causeway cut off Sanibel, a battered barrier island off the Southwest Coast of Florida, from the mainland. DeSantis said barges were ferrying heavy equipment to clear debris there, and a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue team that arrived by helicopter was continuing to go door-to-door on the island and two others nearby, Captiva and Pine Island, after rescuing 42 people on Thursday.
Near North Port, south of Sarasota, the impact of Ian’s torrential rains was still building as water overflowing from inland swamps rapidly enveloped homes. Good Samaritans launched boats and kayaks from the berm of the highway to try to rescue stranded residents.
In Central Florida, where Ian dumped more than 17 inches of rain early Thursday, floodwaters caused by rising rivers and lakes, along with some oceanfront storm surge, trapped hundreds of people in their homes. Evacuations from hospitals, assisted-living centers, and low-lying communities continued into Friday. The National Guard and Osceola County sheriff’s deputies were rescuing residents from retirement homes in Kissimmee, south of Orlando, using airboats and trucks with high clearances.
“So far we’ve had to do nearly 300 rescues of people trapped in flooded areas,” Daytona Beach Police Department spokesman Tim Ehrenkaufer said, adding that heavy rains that preceded Ian poised the area for flooding.
“The water was already high, so there was nothing left to absorb it,” he said. “Then the hurricane brought too much rain in too short of time. There was nowhere for all that water to go.”
More than 1.7 million customers in Florida still remained without power, including about 99 percent of Hardee County, DeSantis said. More than 33,000 people were staying in 257 shelters, according to a Friday morning update from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Lee County, home to Fort Myers, was without water because of a water main break, DeSantis said; water production facilities were not operating in at least four other counties, and boil-water notices were in effect in 19, FEMA said. Tankers were ferrying water to hospitals in the area, the governor said.
“This is something that is going to be a big deal for a long time,” DeSantis said Friday morning in Lee County, where he described “homes just washing away. Destroyed, yes, but sometimes these things, you see the home and you know it was there — some of these things just disappeared.”
Floridians lined up at gas stations in the hardest-hit areas, some of which faced fuel shortages. DeSantis said “massive amounts” of fuel were on their way to the state.
After weakening over Florida on Thursday and then gaining strength in the Atlantic Ocean, Ian made its second landfall near Georgetown, S.C., at 2:05 p.m., packing 85 mph winds as the first hurricane to strike South Carolina since Matthew in 2016. The National Hurricane Center had warned the storm would bring a “life-threatening” surge and damaging winds, and as it approached, it produced a 4-foot surge in Myrtle Beach and flooded some streets in downtown Charleston.
In the state’s beach towns, residents had prepared for flooding, piling sandbags at the doors of shops and restaurants. Ahead of landfall, President Biden had urged residents to “please listen to all the warnings.” But shortly after the storm came ashore, Gov. Henry McMaster (R) expressed relief.
“A lot of prayers have been answered — this storm is not as bad as it could have been, but don’t let your guard down yet,” he said. “We are not out of the woods yet. There is water on the roads, still heavy winds, and it is still dangerous in many parts of the state.”
Hours later, Ian weakened slightly to become a “post-tropical cyclone,” the National Hurricane Center said, and rain began to ease near the coast as it moved west. But the Hurricane Center said downpours would pelt inland areas even as its winds weakened, with up to 8 inches expected in central South Carolina, North Carolina and southern Virginia.
The center warned that “dangerous storm surge, flash flooding and high winds are still in the forecast.”
On Friday morning, most businesses on Folly Beach, a South Carolina island, were closed.
Brian Hawkins, stood outside Bert’s Market — which had stayed true to its tagline, “We may doze, but we never close” — with a cup of coffee in hand. The owner of a charter fishing company, Hawkins said he wasn’t concerned about Ian until Thursday, when he began securing surfboards and items in his yard. At 4 p.m., he went to the island’s boat landing to fill up sandbags from the truckload of sand the city provided.
“One truckload was not enough,” said Hawkins, 46. “By 5 p.m., they were out.”
Hawkins said he lost at least three days of fishing charters, but he had seen worse on the island, where he’s spent most of his life.
More than 147,000 people were without power in South Carolina on Friday evening, according to data from PowerOutage.us. Wind and rain were strengthening across North Carolina, which had more than 140,000 power outages as of 4:30 p.m. Friday, according to the state’s Emergency Management office.
As Hurricane Ian steamed into the Carolinas, it dredged up traumatic memories of other big storms. But few anticipated a similar scale this time.
“I don’t expect anything crazy to happen, but I’m prepared for more than what’s forecasted,” fishing guide Christian Wolfe, 28, said.
Florence dropped almost 30 inches of rain on Wilmington in September 2018 and flooded or washed out every road into the city of 118,000 people. The storm turned the region into an island for more than a week and caused 54 deaths.
Some of those unhappy memories lingered for locals on Friday as the wind picked up and Ian’s track shifted further east, bearing closer to the region with each new update from the National Hurricane Center. Local officials said they were ready for anything but did not expect a disaster.
“We are far more prepared for extreme weather now than we were during Hurricane Florence,” New Hanover County Commissioner Rob Zapple said Friday morning, as the rain and wind picked up noticeably. The county was opening shelters and convened its emergency operations center to better manage the county’s disaster response, he said.
In the past four years, the county also streamlined its storm watershed. “We can’t stop the water from coming in, but we have made sure that it has an easy way out,” Zapple added.
Still far from clear Friday was the scope of the death toll from Ian. Kevin Guthrie, Florida’s top emergency management official, said Friday morning that one person in Polk County was confirmed to have been killed by the storm, and that 12 in Charlotte County and eight in Collier County also might have been victims.
Guthrie said emergency crews had so far been able to carry out only “hasty searches,” and determining exact causes of death was the job of medical examiners. Guthrie described a Coast Guard swimmer diving into a house where water had risen to the roof finding what “appear to be human remains. We do not know exactly how many.” He added: “We want to be transparent, but we just don’t know that number.”
Separately, Sarasota County said the deaths of two people there — both elderly residents whose oxygen machines were disabled when power failed — “appear to be related to this catastrophic weather event.” And Carmine Marceno, the sheriff of Lee County, tweeted that his jurisdiction had seen 21 deaths, but five were “not storm-related.” The sheriff’s department did not respond to requests for clarification and it was unclear whether the deaths in these counties were included in the state’s tally.
In some parts of Florida, Ian’s aftermath was becoming worse than its direct impact. The storm passed over north central Florida on Wednesday, but on Friday morning, Amber Harper and Dallin Osborne were filling sandbags to try to stop the rising St. Johns River from filling their home.
The 1958 coquina-shell-stone house in Astor weathered the winds from the storm, as did all of the oak and cypress trees on the shore of the river. But the Saint Johns was slowly inching up. It had already wrecked their dock, yard and patio, and it was close to reaching the front door before they put down nearly a dozen 40-pound sandbags.
“When we left yesterday the river was rising, but it wasn’t up to the back door, and now it is,” Harper said of the house her family had owned for more than 30 years. “I was emotional for sure, because I’ve never seen it like this.”
After piling the sandbags in front of the door, their next task was to try to get Harper‘s car out of the flooded front yard.
“We have family over in Daytona Beach, and their house is flooded as well,” Harper said. “Everybody’s just trying to do the best they can to save what they have.”
Rozsa and Craig reported from Florida, Samenow from Washington and Brulliard from Boulder, Colo. Also contributing to this report were Stratton Lawrence in South Carolina, Rory Laverty in North Carolina and Praveena Somasundaram and Andrea Salcedo in Washington. | 2022-10-01T00:26:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Search and rescue efforts mounted in Florida as Ian heads north - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/30/hurricane-ian-damage/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/30/hurricane-ian-damage/ |
Mackenzie Hughes, of Canada, hits from the 18th fairway during the second roun of the Sanderson Farms Championship golf tournament in Jackson, Miss., Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
Hughes ended last year at No. 39 in the world, but the Canadian slipped enough this year that he needed to rely on a captain’s pick for the Presidents Cup matches in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Hughes now lives.
He was overlooked and Hughes didn’t hide the disappointment when asked about it after his round Friday. Trevor Immelman used his last pick on another Canadian, Taylor Pendrith, who missed four months with an injury this summer. Immelman cited Pendrith’s power being a good fit for Quail Hollow.
“I thought a good putter would have done well in that format,” Hughes said. “But that’s not for me to decide if I’m a good fit. I just use it as fuel. I want to have a great season and I’m off to a nice start.
Detry’s objective is to be in Rome next year for the Ryder Cup. The 29-year-old from Belgium is a PGA Tour rookie, though he has been seasoned on the European tour and won the World Cup in Australia four years ago with close friend Thomas Pieters.
Getting his card through the Korn Ferry Tour means Detry won’t have access to every tournament, and his priority will change every few months depending on how he fares.
He tied for fifth at Wentworth and tied for 12th at the Fortinet Championship, and he goes into the weekend in Mississippi tied with Hughes, so it’s a solid start.
Mark Hubbard (69), Garrick Higgo (66) and Scott Stallings (67) were two shots behind, while Mississippi native Davis Riley managed a 71 in the morning and was in the group three shots behind with Nick Hardy, one of Detry’s close friends from their college years at Illinois. | 2022-10-01T00:27:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Hughes birdies last 2 holes to catch Detry in Mississippi - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/golf/hughes-birdies-last-2-holes-to-catch-detry-in-mississippi/2022/09/30/6d749fae-411d-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/golf/hughes-birdies-last-2-holes-to-catch-detry-in-mississippi/2022/09/30/6d749fae-411d-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html |
Bills' Jackson returns to practice week after neck injury
Buffalo Bills cornerback Dane Jackson (30) reacts after an injury during the first half of an NFL football game against the Tennessee Titans, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Jeffrey T. Barnes)
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The Buffalo Bills’ injury report was lengthy on Wednesday.
However it couldn’t compete with the width of Dane Jackson’s smile.
In a little more than a week, the Bills starting cornerback went from feeling helpless in having his head immobilized while being rushed to the hospital by ambulance, to returning to practice.
And maybe, just maybe, Jackson might be able to play on Sunday, when the injury-thinned Bills (2-1) travel to face the Baltimore Ravens (2-1).
“I’m here. I’m alive. I’m standing. Everybody seen the hit. They know it could’ve been a lot worse,” Jackson said, referring to how his head viciously snapped back after being struck by teammate Tremaine Edmunds in a 41-7 win over Tennessee on Sept. 19.
“Just for me to be here, nothing structural, walking, back in the locker room with my teammates, this is a blessing,” he added. “I can’t do nothing else but smile.”
As for the possibility of playing, Jackson wouldn’t rule it out in saying he’s taking things day by day after practicing in a red non-contact jersey.
Coach Sean McDermott expressed caution by saying he’ll ramp up Jackson’s practice time each day so long as there are no setbacks.
Jackson’s mere presence on the field was a welcome sight for the Bills in more ways than one, beginning with the relief players expressed in seeing their teammate healthy.
“He’s got some angels over him for sure,” pass rusher Von Miller said, noting he eventually exchanged jokes with Jackson by saying he must have the neck of a Slinky. “It’s just a true blessing that he was able to come out all right.”
Edmunds told The Associated Press he’s stayed in touch with Jackson each day since the collision, in which the linebacker dived in and struck Jackson in the helmet after the cornerback tackled Titans receiver Treylon Burks.
“It’s good to see him out with a smile on his face, and back playing the game he loves,” Edmunds said.
The Bills could use some encouraging news after releasing an injury report that listed 15 players, seven of whom did not practice.
The team is particularly thin in the secondary.
Aside from Jackson, a third-year player who opened the season starting in place of Tre’Davious White (left knee), rookie starter Christian Benford has already been ruled out after breaking his hand in a 21-19 loss at Miami on Sunday. Backup cornerback Cam Lewis was limited in practice because of injuries to his forearm and knee.
Starting safety Micah Hyde was placed on the season-ending reserve-injured list last weekend, while fellow starter Jordan Poyer’s status is uncertain because of a foot injury.
That leaves open the prospect of Buffalo starting a patchwork secondary for a second straight week, and against a Lamar Jackson-led offense which has scored an NFL-leading 99 points.
No worries, said nickel cornerback Taron Johnson, a fifth-year player who is suddenly the unit’s healthiest elder statesman.
“I feel no pressure at all. I’ve got some good guys around me. I trust those guys,” Johnson said. “I feel like they’ve played a little bit now, so they know what to expect.”
The defense held up for the most part in limiting the Dolphins to 212 yards, and Tua Tagovailoa to 186 yards passing. The only notable breakdown came in the fourth quarter, when Tagovailoa hit Jaylen Waddle for a 45-yard pass on third-and-22 to set up the Dolphins’ go-ahead score.
The performance left veteran cornerback Xavier Rhodes impressed while watching from home before being signed to the Bills practice squad on Wednesday.
“As a young group, you usually mess up and make multiple errors. But it was just one,” Rhodes said. “That’s a sign of being good. Those guys are actually listening, actually paying attention in meetings and coaches communicating and teaching them where they need to be and how they need to be.”
Rhodes is a nine-year veteran and has been without a team since his contract expired with Indianapolis in March. The 32-year-old isn’t sure if he’ll be ready to suit up this weekend.
“I’m trying to cram it all in and get my feet wet, and we’ll see,” Rhodes said.
For Jackson, he said it felt as if he’d missed a month since last putting on pads.
Also on Jackson’s mind were the panicky feelings of uncertainty he had of not knowing the severity of the injury while being loaded into the ambulance.
“I was just really worried about my future at that point. I wasn’t worried about anything football-related,” he said.
“I was worried about my son at home, my mom. I know everybody was crying. My girl was right next to me. So it was an emotional roller coaster,” Jackson said, noting his girlfriend accompanied him in the ambulance. “It was a lot of emotions running through my mind. And I’m just happy I’m OK.”
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Paolo Espino’s reliability endures, but Nats’ pitcher remains winless | 2022-10-01T01:05:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Bills' Jackson returns to practice week after neck injury - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nfl/bills-jackson-returns-to-practice-week-after-neck-injury/2022/09/28/b4301da4-3f85-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nfl/bills-jackson-returns-to-practice-week-after-neck-injury/2022/09/28/b4301da4-3f85-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html |
Quince Orchard remains on another level with 35-0 win at Seneca Valley
Quince Orchard running back Isaiah Blackman-Boyd breaks through the Seneca Valley defense for a big run in the fourth quarter. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
Only a select few football games on Quince Orchard’s schedule this fall can or will be described as “competitive.”
The No. 5 Cougars, a local powerhouse and the reigning Maryland 4A champions, are mostly unmatched in Montgomery County. Few teams have the size, let alone the talent, to slow this Cougars squad. Much of the time, Quince Orchard is simply looking to sharpen its skills for a few regular season tests and the playoffs.
A rainy Friday night in Germantown looked to be one of those regular season tests, but Quince Orchard made another declaration of its dominance, putting the county’s talent gap on display in a 35-0 win over Seneca Valley.
“We came out with energy and intensity from the first play tonight,” senior quarterback Savan Briggs said. “We’re out here every week to show everyone how good of a team we are.”
Seneca Valley, a neighboring rival with a proud football history, had played well this fall, outscoring opponents 201-24 on its way to the program’s first 4-0 start since 2015. The momentum, the emotion, the weather — all of it had the potential to make for an upset. The Cougars never welcomed that possibility.
When a team is this good, it is competing for more than just a victory week to week. The Cougars (5-0) now have won 19 straight dating back to the start of last season, and each Friday serves as proof of their stature within the state.
“We want to make something special this year and carry on a legacy,” senior linebacker Kendall Johnson said. “That’s what goes along with winning state championships.”
Seneca Valley has not only reached said level, it used to live on it. The program won 12 state titles between 1976 and 2002. While the Eagles have not been quite as elite in recent years, they still have posted a winning record in 16 of the last 18 seasons. They are one of the true teams to beat in Montgomery County, but that doesn’t mean much against Quince Orchard.
The Cougars have not surrendered a point this season, and their defense bottled up Seneca Valley’s high-powered offense. A persistent rain kept the game mostly on the ground, and Quince Orchard’s physicality and size up front gave it an unmistakable edge on both sides of the ball.
Despite the weather, the Cougars got most of their points from the arm of Briggs. He threw four touchdown passes in the first half, giving a gritty and physical game a jolt with a well-timed play-action bomb or a quick throw in the red zone. Quince Orchard led 28-0 at the break, turning the second half into a familiar mix of protecting a lead and draining a clock. | 2022-10-01T01:57:59Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Quince Orchard remains on another level with 35-0 win at Seneca Valley - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/30/quince-orchard-remains-another-level-with-35-0-win-seneca-valley/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/30/quince-orchard-remains-another-level-with-35-0-win-seneca-valley/ |
Lucas Johansen celebrates a second-period goal against the Red Wings on which he contributed the primary assist. (Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
DETROIT — Midway through preseason, a familiar cast of Washington Capitals veterans finally made their debuts in a 2-0 win Friday night over the Detroit Red Wings, a result that included experienced players shaking off some rust and prospects fighting for roster spots.
John Carlson scored the game’s first goal with 6:25 left in the second period off a tic-tac-toe setup from mainstay Evgeny Kuznetsov and prospect Lucas Johansen. Lars Eller capped the scoring with an empty-netter with 1:06 remaining.
The Capitals’ next preseason game is Saturday at Columbus.
Here are some takeaways and notes from Friday’s win:
Vets looks solid
Alex Ovechkin has never needed much time in the preseason before he finds his form. Against the Red Wings, he looked as spry as ever in his preseason debut. He took the game’s first shot on goal and finished with four. Headed into training camp, Ovechkin said he was happy with his offseason workouts and felt fully prepared headed into his 18th NHL season. Against the Red Wings, he played on a line with Kuznetsov and T.J. Oshie.
Oshie could take over that right winger role on the top line with Tom Wilson (knee) out to start the season, but it appears more likely that newcomer Connor Brown will get those top minutes and Oshie will fit on the second or third line.
Erik Gustafsson could be the key piece for the Caps' defense
Darcy Kuemper played his first game in a Capitals uniform. He didn’t face a lot of shots in the first period, but he had his first big save early in the second when he stopped Pius Suter from point-blank range. While he wasn’t tested much, Kuemper stopped all nine shots he faced before he was taken out of the game with 8:30 left in the second.
“It was just nice to get some game action again,” Kuemper said. “First real action with this group in front of me. I loved the structure we played with today. We played tight and it wasn’t a ton of work but nice to get back out there for sure.”
Young blue liners make their case
While the Capitals’ blue line has five returning players from last season, a handful of young defensemen are trying to earn their spots. Johansen, Vincent Iorio and Bobby Nardella have all flashed potential throughout preseason. All three blue liners played against the Red Wings and all were paired with a seasoned defenseman.
Johansen skated with Carlson while Iorio was paired with Martin Fehervary and Nardella with Nick Jensen. Nardella, who struggled with injuries last season in the American Hockey League, has been a surprise in camp. He had two assists Wednesday against Philadelphia and has kept up with the pace of NHL play. Despite his injuries last season, he finished with six goals and 17 assists in 44 AHL games.
Johansen, who had the primary assist on Carlson’s goal against Detroit, has been looking more comfortable as camp has progressed. The Capitals’ 2016 first-round pick made his NHL debut last season but only played in one NHL game before playing the rest of the season in the AHL. He still looks AHL-bound this season, but if he continues to improve, he could make his case to be part of Washington’s blue line.
“It’s nice to get a couple games in already, I’m trying to get in as many as I can,” Johansen said. “The more games I play the better off I’ll be … [playing with Carlson] he is a world-class player. Makes it easy for everyone out there. Great communicator and one of the best in the world to do it, so it’s fun.”
While the Capitals’ young players have flashed, it could be tough to fit them into Washington’s veteran-heavy forward group. Convincing arguments can be made that forward Aliaksei Protas should stay up in Washington instead of going down to the AHL, but for him to play full-time NHL minutes, second-year forward Connor McMichael would likely be removed from the projected lineup.
McMichael played in 68 games last season with Washington but hasn’t locked in his spot during preseason. McMichael is in a competition battle for second-line center with newcomer Dylan Strome but so far in camp, it appears Strome has the edge.
Protas, who can play wing and center, has played in all three of the Capitals’ preseason games and has been noticeably efficient throughout training camp, using his speed and physicality in key spots. He could be a dark horse candidate to make the lineup opening night.
Camp cuts
Washington trimmed its training camp roster to 40 players Friday afternoon, cutting 22 players with its season opener a week and a half away. There were no surprises, with 14 players being sent to training camp in Hershey, Pa., including Capitals Coach Peter Laviolette’s son and Matthew Strome, the younger brother of Dylan Strome.
The Capitals also placed four players on waivers for the purpose of loaning them to Hershey: forward Michael Sgarbossa, goaltender Hunter Shepard, forward Riley Sutter and forward Mike Vecchione. | 2022-10-01T02:41:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Capitals get their vets into the preseason mix in a win over Red Wings - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/30/capitals-get-their-vets-into-preseason-mix-win-over-red-wings/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/30/capitals-get-their-vets-into-preseason-mix-win-over-red-wings/ |
Battle-tested Coolidge scores late TD and conversion to top Bell
Colts 15, Griffins 14
Running back Sean Brooks scores with 1:31 remaining. He then had a two-point conversion to help Coolidge beat Bell. (Tramel Raggs)
With roughly four minutes remaining and Coolidge trailing Bell by a touchdown Friday, the Colts looked to be in trouble. They had led for much of the first half but couldn’t get out of their own way in the second, and now they were facing third down from their own 18-yard line.
Two ugly incompletions to begin their last-gasp drive prompted Coach Kevin Nesbitt to rip off his headset. “C’mon man,” he yelled, “we can’t go out like this.”
The Colts didn’t respond verbally but immediately found their rhythm as senior quarterback Jeremiah Roberson completed passes of 18, 30 and 28 yards. Then running back Sean Brooks finished the drive with a four-yard touchdown and ran in a two-point conversion with 1:31 remaining. Coolidge’s defense held on, and the Colts knocked off visiting Bell, 15-14, in Northwest Washington.
“I’m not going to lie to you,” Nesbitt said. “After losing to Bell in the Gravy Bowl last year, our guys wanted this one bad. It definitely wasn’t perfect, but I’m so proud of these guys for just banding together and making plays when it mattered most.”
When Bell opened the game with a methodical six-play, 57-yard touchdown drive, capped off by a 28-yard strike from Demiko Suggs to fellow senior Natavis Harley, it seemed as if the Griffins might be on their way to their third straight victory in the series.
But the Colts answered back with a score of their own a few drives later to take a 7-6 lead into the half.
After Coolidge opened the third quarter with a three and out, Bell retook the lead on a five-yard touchdown run from junior James Stephens.
“When they got that touchdown, it definitely deflated us a little bit,” Brooks said. “But at the same time, we’ve been in close games and played from behind, so we weren’t scared of the moment or nothing.”
From a competition standpoint, Coolidge (4-2) and Bell (5-1) had played vastly different early-season schedules: The Colts had faced three teams from the D.C. Interscholastic Athletic Association’s Stars division, going 1-2. The Griffins, meanwhile, had feasted on inferior opponents, outscoring them 196-0.
The Colts were battle-tested, and it seemed to help down the stretch.
“When we were taking L’s versus Dunbar and Roosevelt, Coach just kept telling us to keep our heads up and that them games was going to prepare us for teams like Bell,” senior wide receiver Anthony Nicholson said. “I guess tonight proved he was right.”
Brooks finished with 74 yards rushing, while Nicholson had 73 receiving.
The Griffins were paced by a 100-yard rushing performance from freshman Antonio Washington.
“We simply did not finish the game,” Bell Coach Daniel Tyson said. “We had our chances down the stretch, and we didn’t finish. We will see them again.” | 2022-10-01T03:29:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Battle-tested Coolidge scores late TD and conversion to top Bell - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/30/battle-tested-coolidge-scores-late-td-conversion-top-bell/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/30/battle-tested-coolidge-scores-late-td-conversion-top-bell/ |
Stone Bridge romps in what could be the final ‘Battle of the Burn’
Stone Bridge celebrates in the rain following the Battle of the 'Burn (Spencer Nusbaum)
The turf at Stone Bridge started the night wet and only got wetter. The expectation of a Bulldogs win started high and only got higher. And the Bulldogs concluded the 19th — and final, for the foreseeable future — “Battle of the ’Burn” against Ashburn rival Broad Run with a 62-6 romp, their 15th win in the rivalry.
“This rivalry means a lot, as a senior this is my last time playing in it and I couldn’t have asked to go out a better way,” Stone Bridge senior Zeke Wimbush said.
The home crowd, donning powder blue and ponchos, entered the game ready to ignite the rivalry’s final flame. Despite the No. 12 Bulldogs’ historical advantage and success early this season, recent history provided hope for the Spartans — teams split their previous four meetings. Broad Run (1-4), which entered with a losing record for the first time since 2012, opted against renewing the rivalry game for at least the next two seasons.
Rain was just about the only thing that could stop Stone Bridge — a slippery field foiled a would-be pick-six from junior Myles Turpin on the 1-yard line on the first play of the game. The Bulldogs never punted or turned the ball over, and Turpin, as well as seniors Zeke Wimbush and Colton Hinton, finished with multiple touchdowns.
Both coaches said before the game they cared little of the final number on the scoreboard. Early in the first quarter, football became secondary following a hit on Broad Run’s Devin Ellison that spun the sophomore to the ground, where he remained for nearly 25 minutes before being carried off on a stretcher. Myron Curtis, Broad Run’s first-year coach, confirmed after the game that Ellison suffered only a minor injury. Curtis declined to offer any further detail.
“Our prayers went out to him and his family,” Wimbush said after the game. “It takes the life out of the whole stadium.”
From that point on, the game took on a different tone. The home band and speakers remained silent for nearly an hour after Ellison’s departure. The crowd cheered again, but with less ferocity, when junior Troy Marquez’s 62-yard touchdown extended the Bulldogs’ lead to 28-0 at the end of the first quarter. In the second half, as a drizzle turned into a downpour, Stone Bridge effectively ran out the clock with a crowd that, because of the score and weather, had almost entirely dispersed.
“Man, it was cold,” Wimbush said. | 2022-10-01T03:29:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Stone Bridge romps in what could be the final ‘Battle of the Burn’ - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/30/stone-bridge-romps-what-could-be-final-battle-burn/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/30/stone-bridge-romps-what-could-be-final-battle-burn/ |
Our brother has three dogs that are not house trained. When we go down “to open the cabin for the season” we end up throwing away rugs, pillows, deodorizing furniture, and cleaning up our brother and his dog’s messes. Our brother has hoarding tendencies.
He has not offered to do maintenance projects in lieu of rent, and the house and grounds have fallen into disrepair. He does not reply to our emails or phone calls and when we try to deal with him in person, he becomes very defensive and brings up childhood slights rather than discuss the current situation.
We are almost at the point of wanting to sell the summer cabin, so we don’t have to take on our brother’s messes and behavior. But, it would be a shame to lose our summer vacation cabin that we and our children have enjoyed for over 60 years.
Disgusted: If this property is jointly owned by your five family members with no specific leadership structure, then you are going to need consensus — as well as the assistance of a lawyer to sort through your options.
You should start by researching your legal, practical and personal options, and call a meeting (virtual or in person) with the other owners (not including your brother) to discuss this openly and try to form a consensus about what to do about this property, and how to try to handle your brother — who seems to have spiraled into a bad place and is now controlling all of you.
Grieving: You haven’t known “Andy” very long — and you might not know him very well, but you should check in with him. Invite him out for coffee with just the two of you, or ask if he’d like to come to your home for drinks or dinner.
Been There: I am aware that some women have conceived children through donation without disclosing to their partners. Good advice. | 2022-10-01T04:21:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ask Amy: My brother lives in the family vacation home year-round - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/10/01/ask-amy-brother-vacation-home/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/10/01/ask-amy-brother-vacation-home/ |
Three years ago, one of her children died of an accidental drug overdose. This was devastating for everyone in my family — but for me, it was like one of my own children had died. Here was the worst moment of my sister’s life, and I couldn’t help her because I was also consumed by grief. I didn’t have any room left for hers.
We have since resolved a great deal of the problem, but since her child’s death, she says she is “enlightened.” She says that there is nothing worse than burying your child, and I agree. However, she also incessantly tells me — along with other relatives and friends, and even the letter carrier — how they should be feeling.
How to manage this? I don’t want to restart the argument or break our careful peace treaty, but OMG — how do you tell someone, “I get that your child is gone, and I don’t want to minimize it, but right now I want to be mad that there’s a hole in my roof and I have to spend $2,000 to fix it.” Or, “Just because your child is dead doesn’t mean you get to decide how everyone else feels!” But, like, nice. Not aggressive.
Grief competition is an unseemly and fruitless enterprise. Miss Manners supposes that its so-called winners take comfort in their singular despair — but what a miserable and lonely prize that is.
“Well, I know that there is little comparison to what you have endured, but when other people are upset, you're invalidating their feelings when you tell them that yours are worse. I would think that you of all people should understand how terrible that feels and not want to inflict it upon anyone else.” | 2022-10-01T04:21:50Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Miss Manners: My sister brings up her grief whenever anyone complains - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/10/01/miss-manners-sister-late-child/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/10/01/miss-manners-sister-late-child/ |
Is Florida’s ‘hurricane shark’ real? The video is, at least.
Video taken on Sept. 28 shows a large fish with shark-like qualities swimming in a flooded suburban area of Fort Myers, Fla., during Hurricane Ian. (Video: Dominic Cameratta via Storyful)
For years, there has been a deluge of fake videos and memes online after major storms claiming to show sharks swimming in flooded streets. So when a video apparently of a shark in an inundated backyard in Fort Myers, Fla., surfaced during Hurricane Ian this week, gathering millions of views on Twitter, viewers were skeptical.
But this time, the recording was real — even if it remains unconfirmed whether it was a shark, according to the Associated Press. The news agency interviewed Dominic Cameratta, a real estate agent who filmed it with his cellphone, and reviewed the clip’s metadata to confirm it was filmed this week.
The video shows a fish that looks to be 4 feet long, with sharp dorsal fins, flipping and flopping in the water. “I didn’t know what it was,” Cameratta said. “I zoomed in, and all my friends were like, ‘It’s like a shark, man!’”
Experts interviewed by the AP voiced mixed opinions on whether it was indeed a shark. George Burgess, a former director of the Florida Museum of Natural History’s shark program, said the fish appears to be a juvenile shark. But Neil Hammerschlag, the director of the University of Miami’s shark conservation program, said it was difficult to tell what it was.
Sharks, dishwashers and guns: A running list of viral hoaxes about Hurricane Florence
Images purportedly showing sharks in urban areas after hurricanes and major floods have been repeatedly debunked since at least 2011, according to Snopes, a fact-checking website.
One image of a shark swimming in a water-filled highway was uploaded after Hurricane Irene hit Puerto Rico in August 2011. The same image has been widely recirculated after subsequent storms in different areas — in 2016, it was in Daytona Beach, Fla.; a year later, in Houston; and in 2018, it was in Wrightsville Beach, N.C.
Snopes reported that the original image from 2011 was also a hoax. It incorporated a 2005 photograph of a kayaker being trailed by a great white shark.
Hurricane Ian has devastated Florida, killing at least 23 people, according to state officials. It made its second landfall in the United States on Friday, hitting coastal South Carolina as a Category 1 storm with lashing rains and strong winds. | 2022-10-01T05:01:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Video appears to show shark in Florida backyard during Hurricane Ian - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/10/01/hurricane-ian-shark-florida/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/10/01/hurricane-ian-shark-florida/ |
FILE - Wrestler Antonio Inoki, left, and world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali shake hands after a 15-round boxing- wrestling fight on June 26, 1976, at Tokyo’s Budokan hall. A popular Japanese professional wrestler and lawmaker Antonio Inoki, who faced a world boxing champion Muhammad Ali in a mixed martial arts match in 1979, has died at 79. The New Japan Pro-Wrestling Co. says Inoki, who was battling an illness, died earlier Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022. (AP Photo, File) (Anonymous/AP) | 2022-10-01T05:01:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Popular wrestler and politician Antonio Inoki dies at 79 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/popular-wrestler-and-politician-antonio-inoki-dies-at-79/2022/10/01/8664af02-4142-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/popular-wrestler-and-politician-antonio-inoki-dies-at-79/2022/10/01/8664af02-4142-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html |
Analysis by Tobin Harshaw | Bloomberg
Seven months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we’re faced with a serious paradox: As things go from bad to worse for President Vladimir Putin’s troops on the ground, he remains overwhelmingly popular at home. But what does overwhelming popularity actually mean in a nation with virtually no political opposition, little free press and a siege mentality?
For an answer, I turned to the people behind some of those polls: Denis Volkov, director of the Levada Center in Moscow — which has been surveying Russian public opinion monthly since before Putin assumed the presidency — and his frequent collaborator Andrei Kolesnikov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Moscow Center. And their answer was ... well, it’s complicated. Here is a lightly edited transcript of our conversation:Tobin Harshaw: Putin gave a speech this week proclaiming that Russia was annexing four territories in Ukraine . How is this being received by the Russian people?
Andrei Kolesnikov : There was a double motivation: Electoral, which is designed to provoke joy over the fact that Russia is regaining its ancestral lands, and military, which should support the electoral. But there is no joy. It is a bloodbath.
TH: Do you feel you are able to get an accurate picture of public sentiment, or are people who may be displeased by Putin’s actions too intimidated to say so?
Denis Volkov: The social climate has become more tense. But up until now the response rates, which we calculate for each poll according to the recommendations of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, haven’t changed much since February. Also, our additional research does not back up assertions that people who do not approve of the country’s leadership are more likely to refuse to take part in a poll, or that polls only represent people who are prepared to engage and answer questions. So, I believe that polling in Russia is still informative.
We try to supplement polling with qualitative data from focus groups. This helps us to listen to the language people use, explanations they make. Also, we regularly use open-ended questions in our surveys to get people’s reactions, not just making them choose from the predetermined options. This helps to make our research more nuanced and adaptable to the changing situation.
TH: The data in the new September poll on Russian attitudes toward the war show some change since the invasion : Those who “definitely” or “mostly” support has dropped from 81% to 75%, and those who mostly or definitely do not support has risen from 14% to 20%. Still, that’s an overwhelming majority that favors the invasion, so is the change significant?
AK: When analyzing big polls, it’s a good idea to look at the details. Less than half of Russians definitely support the special operation. An average of 30% are wavering, hesitant, passive conformists who have no opinion of their own and are often afraid to have one in the face of very strict authoritarianism. But they are the reservoir of discontent.
TH: Have opinions changed because of the Ukrainian counteroffensive and Putin’s order for mobilizing more forces?
The news of mobilization came as a shock, and we see a significant rise of pessimism and uncertainty about the future, as people realize that the war is much closer that they used to think. Yet, this has only limited effect on the ratings of the authorities. Putin’s approval rating went down from 83% to 77%, approval of the government from 68% to 63%, and so on.
The support for the military operation didn’t change much, but the number of people supporting peace negotiations rose from 44% to 48%, shifting the balance of opinion slightly in favor of the talks. The limited scale of these changes can be explained by the rally-behind-the-flag effect that happened in spring and is still in place.
AK: First of all, passivity and indifference: “The boss knows best, his opinion is my opinion; I do not want war, but Putin had nowhere else to go — NATO was at the gate.”
TH: You note that only 9%–10% of respondents say they are “prepared to attend a protest.” Can you explain why?
DV: The price of open protest is very high. The nationwide ban on holding mass events introduced during the coronavirus pandemic has not yet been lifted; on this ground, officials refuse to grant permission for any antiwar rallies. Taking part in unsanctioned protests is punishable by hefty fines and prison sentences for repeat offenses. Incitement of others to take part in unsanctioned protests and “the discrediting of the Russian Armed Forces” have also been criminalized.
AK: For the moment, there are no scenarios for Putin’s departure. He has, of course, gone too far with the militarist craze, and replaced public mobilization with military mobilization, which causes frustration and dissatisfaction among the population. But now all the power is concentrated in his hands. The elites are disunited, do not trust each other, are under sanctions — and all they can do is to be near Putin.
Russia is unlikely to go the way of the Arab Spring in 2011. Putin’s power will degenerate, mobilization will undermine confidence to a certain extent; if he can end the war by fixing the losses and calling it a victory, public opinion will accept this with relief and mechanically continue to support him. Putin needs to offer something for the elections of 2024, and it seems that it should be something peaceful and material, given the clearly impending problems with the economy, rather than purely military.
AK: In recent years, fear of a world war has come second on the list of fears of Russians (second only to “illness of loved ones”). In January 2022, 65% said they feared a world war. By comparison, even in post-Crimea 2015, 32% of respondents said they were afraid of a world war. Putin’s nuclear blackmail should inspire the masses, making them proud of how strong we are. But here, as with military mobilization, he may overstep the mark, and nuclear war will be feared more than he will be feared himself. And this, too, would to some extent undermine the foundations of his overly bellicose regime.
• Putin, Nukes and Keeping the West Strong for Ukraine: Tobin Harshaw
• Putin’s Ukraine War Forces Ugly Bargains on Food and Fuel: Liam Denning
• Russian Draft Dodgers Are Europe’s Newest Refugees: Andreas Kluth
Tobin Harshaw is a Bloomberg Opinion editor and writer on national security and military affairs. Previously, he was an editor at the op-ed page of the New York Times and the newspaper’s letters editor. | 2022-10-01T06:32:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How Does Putin Stay So Popular While Losing the War in Ukraine? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-does-putin-stay-so-popular-while-losing-thewar-in-ukraine/2022/10/01/647642d2-414e-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-does-putin-stay-so-popular-while-losing-thewar-in-ukraine/2022/10/01/647642d2-414e-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html |
The fierce exchanges came during a fast-paced televised debate Friday evening — the only such meeting scheduled between the two candidates in the Texas governor’s race
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), right, debates Democratic challenger Beto O'Rourke ahead of the U.S. midterm election in Edinburg, Texas, Sept. 30, 2022. (News Nation/Pool via REUTERS)
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Friday defended busing migrants out of state to liberal cities, while his Democratic rival, Beto O’Rourke, called Abbott’s rhetoric on immigration “hateful” and said his conduct in the aftermath of a mass shooting should disqualify him from serving in the state’s top job.
The contentious exchanges came during a fast-paced televised debate Friday evening — the only such scheduled meeting between the two candidates competing in one of the most closely watched contests of the fall. The hour-long exchange, in Edinburg, near the state’s southern border, was dominated by disputes over guns and immigration. It was largely consistent with the competition in recent months, in a state still reeling from a mass shooting in May.
“There should be accountability up and down the ballot, beginning with Greg Abbott,” O’Rourke said as he accused the two-term governor of failing to act to prevent the deadly mass shooting at a school in Uvalde, Tex., and to take meaningful actions in the aftermath of it to prevent another one. “I think he has lost the right to serve this state in the most important position of public trust.”
Abbott, who is leading in most polls, sought to blame many of the state’s woes on President Biden, invoking his name four times during the first 12 minutes of the debate — largely to blame Biden for the increase in migration across the southern border.
Abbott used a legal argument to push back on a demand from O’Rourke and some of the shooting victims’ families who want the state to raise the age limit for buying certain firearms to 21. Florida passed a similar measure in the aftermath of the Parkland mass shooting.
“No parent should lose a child, we want to make sure we do everything we can to make sure that doesn’t happen again,” Abbott said of the shooting. “We want to end school shootings. But we cannot do that by making false promises.”
Abbot said law enforcement officers present at the schools should face consequences for their inaction. “There needs to be accountability for law enforcement at every level,” he said.
O’Rourke has centered much of his campaign on gun control since the May massacre at Robb Elementary School left 21 dead, including 19 children. Hours before Friday’s debate, O’Rourke held a news conference with the victims’ families.
In addition to raising the age for firearms purchases, O’Rourke is proposing to require universal background checks and enact red flag rules that allow officials to temporarily confiscate weapons from people deemed a threat to themselves or others.
O’Rourke evaded a question about his previously stated support for confiscating AR-15-style weapons, though he did not reiterate that position.
The debate pitted O’Rourke, a former presidential candidate, against a Republican who some see as a future White House aspirant. Yet there was nobody in the audience at Abbott’s request, O’Rourke said during the debate.
Abbott is seeking a third term as governor and has focused much of his campaign on his push to secure the southern border. During the debate, Abbott argued that his programs to stem immigration are needed, but argued they’re only necessary due to federal failures. He has spent about $4 billion on Operation Lone Star and deployed about 10,000 members of the National Guard to the border amid a major increase in crossings.
Abbott has also drawn headlines by busing migrants to New York, Chicago and Washington — including sending some to be dropped off in front of Vice President Harris’s residence.
“There will be other cities in the future that also will be on the receiving end of the migrants,” Abbott said. “We will continue to have to move migrants.”
Abbott also said that smaller communities in Texas needed help handling the influx. “They needed relief,” Abbott said. “Busing was one of the ways of providing them relief.”
O’Rourke characterized the program as a taxpayer-funded stunt that amounts to what he called “political theater for his political career.”
“We don’t need any more stunts. We need solutions,” O’Rourke said.
At one point, O’Rourke directly confronted Abbott about how he is treating migrants who come to the state.
“I’ll tell you this hateful rhetoric, this treating human beings as political pawns, talking about ‘invasions,’” O’Rourke said before he was cut off. “That’s how people get killed at the Walmart,” he said, referencing a 2019 mass shooting in El Paso by an accused gunman who said he was targeting Mexicans.
Relatively little time during the exchange focused on abortion, even though Texas has implemented a restrictive ban that has drawn national attention.
But O’Rourke indicated that it is a defining issue. “This election is about reproductive freedom,” he said. “If you care about this, you need to turn out and vote.” | 2022-10-01T06:32:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Abbott and O’Rourke clash on immigration, guns in only scheduled debate - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2022/10/01/texas-debate-abbott-orourke/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2022/10/01/texas-debate-abbott-orourke/ |
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — New England quarterback Mac Jones was ruled out for the Patriots’ game Sunday at Green Bay despite making a surprise return to the practice field.
NEW YORK — Aaron Judge didn’t come close to hitting his 62nd home run, going 1 for 2 with a pair of walks as the Baltimore Orioles beat the New York Yankees 2-1.
JACKSON, Miss. — Mackenzie Hughes shot a 9-under 63 for a share of the lead in the Sanderson Farms Championship.
THE COLONY, Texas — Charley Hull has forced herself to work a little harder on the putting and she saw it pay off with eight birdies in her round of 7-under 64 that gave her the 36-hole lead in The Ascendant LPGA.
ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — England’s Richard Mansell shot a 4-under 68 in wind and rain on the Old Course to open a two-shot lead halfway through the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
BOSTON — Blake Griffin has agreed to a contract with the Boston Celtics, a person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press. | 2022-10-01T06:33:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Friday's Sports In Brief - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/fridays-sports-in-brief/2022/10/01/21dae7ea-414c-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/fridays-sports-in-brief/2022/10/01/21dae7ea-414c-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html |
A new report says Russian birch wood is routed through Asia before being shipped to American stores.
By Michael Tatarski
Plywood allegedly made from Russian birch is being loaded on a ship in Haiphong, Vietnam, for export to the United States in May 2022. (Obtained by Environmental Investigation Agency)
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — Russian birch wood has continued to flow to American consumers, disguised as Asian products, despite U.S. economic sanctions imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, a new report says.
The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a nonprofit watchdog group based in Britain, has found that most birch products currently being exported from Vietnam to the United States originate in Russia. According to Vietnam customs data, roughly 40,000 cubic meters of birch wood is transported every month from Russia and China into Vietnam, where it’s assembled into furniture and plywood.
These chairs and bed frames end up on the shelves of major American retailers, the EIA said in a report, which was shared exclusively with The Washington Post.
The group’s investigators spoke to five Chinese companies accounting for 60 percent of China’s birch veneer exports to Vietnam and concluded that over 90 percent of their birch is sourced from Russia. One Chinese wood factory owner told the group that all of the birch their company uses comes from Russia but is repackaged in China and re-exported to Vietnam with China listed as the country of origin.
U.S. hunt for Russian oligarchs' huge fortunes faces barriers offshore
“They [American importers] don’t track sources of original materials,” the manager told the EIA. “We have been doing this all the time.”
In June, Russia’s Federal Forest Management Agency asserted that the country’s timber industry has not been significantly affected by sanctions.
“The Russian forestry industry complex has already been oriented toward friendly markets and, where the restrictions emerged, it has already partially realigned,” Pavel Chashchin, head of the agency, told Tass, a state-owned news outlet. “The process of establishing new export channels will continue.”
In construction, birch harvested from Russia’s vast forests has long been considered the best source of plywood — a material used in floors, ceilings and partitions, as well as for decorative purposes on items such as doors and cabinets.
Before the invasion of Ukraine, the United States imported hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of birch plywood from Russia annually, trade data shows. Driven by strong demand, these imports surged in the early months of 2022 before changing course in April, when the Biden administration raised tariffs on Russian birch from 10 percent to 50 percent. From March to April, even as direct U.S. imports of Russian birch plunged, birch plywood imports from Vietnam grew by 206 percent, said the Decorative Hardwoods Association, which represents American hardwood industries.
Ngo Sy Hoai, vice president of the Vietnam Timber and Forest Product Association, a nongovernmental trade organization in Vietnam, did not respond to questions on where companies are sourcing their birch, saying only that “Vietnamese plywood producers may import certain volumes of birch wood from various sources for plywood surfacing.”
Phuc Xuan To, a senior policy analyst at Forest Trends who has studied Vietnam’s wood industry for years, confirmed the EIA’s findings. Sawed birch timber imports from China to Vietnam increased in the first half of this year, and it’s highly likely that birch originated in Russia, To said.
Western sanctions are wounding but not yet crushing Russia’s economy
Russian birch is also appearing under deceptive labels in markets outside the United States, according to advocacy groups. Companies in Britain have recently received more offers of birch “from the Far East,” said Timber Development UK, which represents companies throughout the timber supply chain in Britain.
“Given that birch forests are concentrated in Northern Russia and Eurasia; it is almost certain the birch contained in the plywood being offered has in fact originated in Russia,” the trade association said in a statement warning members against running afoul of British sanctions.
While China also exports birch, the EIA said the world’s biggest traders widely preferred Russian birch, which is seen as being more consistent and durable.
In March, Earthsight, another watchdog group from Britain, reported that some of Russia’s largest forestry companies are owned by oligarchs with close ties to President Vladimir Putin.
Mining tycoon Alexei Mordashov, who was blacklisted by the European Union in March, holds major assets in Sveza, one of Russia’s biggest exporters of birch plywood, Earthsight said. While Sveza’s direct exports to Europe have declined since the start of the year, company leaders recently told reporters that it has been actively redirecting supply to Asia and Africa. “I have absolutely nothing to do with the emergence of the current geopolitical tension,” Mordashov said in a statement in April.
Telecommunications billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov’s family controls Sistema, parent company of Segezha, a logging firm that exports to the European Union and the United States. In April, after being sanctioned by Britain, Yevtushenkov gave up shareholder control over the Sistema conglomerate by transferring 10 percent worth of assets to his son. The Segezha group released a statement around the same time declaring that it did not consider itself affected by British sanctions. “Segezha Group continues its business as usual,” the statement said.
Vietnam has strong political, defense and economic ties with Russia dating to Soviet times. At the U.N. General Assembly in September, Vietnam was among 35 countries that abstained from the vote condemning Russia for its attack on Ukraine.
The abrupt increase of exports from Vietnam at a time of plunging Russian supply caught the attention of the EIA, which has been monitoring the relocation of Chinese manufacturers to Vietnam in recent years, said Alex Bloom, an analyst with the agency.
“We were well aware from previous investigations that enormous amounts of Russian timber, particularly birch, are used in Chinese factories for exported plywood,” she said. “After American anti-dumping tariffs went into effect on Chinese hardwood plywood [in 2017], a lot of those Chinese factories migrated to Vietnam to avoid those tariffs.”
Thomas Chung, an advocate at the EIA who focuses on Vietnam, said the repacking of birch described by Chinese companies not only violates U.S. trade rules and legislation but could also be considered illegal under Vietnam’s timber legality assurance system.
“There is the requirement to know the origin of a wood product as part of a due-diligence process when importing timber or wood products into Vietnam,” he said. “This means that even when intermediary markets are used, the origin should be known. Any rebranding should be considered illegal.” | 2022-10-01T06:33:56Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Russian timber bypasses U.S. sanctions through Vietnam and China - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/01/russia-sanctions-birch-wood-vietnam-china/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/01/russia-sanctions-birch-wood-vietnam-china/ |
FILE - China’s ambassador in Geneva ambassador Chen Xu makes a media statement criticising the U.S. for attacking China’s candidate to head a United Nations agency that tracks intellectual property in the digital age, in Geneva, Switzerland, Feb. 26, 2020. Like rarely before, Western countries are leading a push among the 47 member nations of the U.N.’s top human rights body to single out and scrutinize human rights in China — over allegations of abuses in western Xinjiang — and Russia, where a domestic crackdown on dissent over the Ukraine war has stifled independent media and activist groups. (AP Photo/File) (Uncredited/AP) | 2022-10-01T08:04:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Western push on China, Russia at UN rights body faces test - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/western-push-on-china-russia-at-un-rights-body-faces-test/2022/10/01/fc46af78-4155-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/western-push-on-china-russia-at-un-rights-body-faces-test/2022/10/01/fc46af78-4155-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html |
Ukraine live briefing: Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian territory condemned...
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a ceremony in Moscow on Sept. 30, 2022, to declare the annexation of four regions of Ukraine. (Grigory Sysoyev/Sputnik/pool via Reuters.)
LONDON — President Vladimir Putin’s declaration of the annexation of four regions in eastern and southern Ukraine signals the onset of a new and highly dangerous phase in the seven-month old war, one that Western officials and analysts fear could escalate to the use of nuclear weapons for the first time in 77 years.
Putin has previously threatened to resort to nuclear weapons if Russia’s goals in Ukraine continue to be thwarted. The annexation brings the use of a nuclear weapon a step closer by giving Putin a potential justification on the grounds that “the territorial integrity of our country is threatened,” as he put it in his speech last week.
He renewed the threat on Friday with an ominous comment that the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki created a “precedent” for the use of nuclear weapons, echoing references he has made in the past to the U.S. invasion of Iraq as setting a precedent for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
U.S. and Western officials say they still think it unlikely that Putin will carry out his threats. Most probably, they say, he is hoping to deter the West from providing ever more sophisticated military assistance to Ukraine while the mobilization of an additional 300,000 troops allows Russia to reverse or at least halt its military setbacks on the battlefield.
But the threats appear only to have strengthened Western resolve to continue sending weapons to Ukraine and the Ukrainian military is continuing to advance into Russian-occupied territory. Even as Putin was announcing the annexation in Moscow on Friday and newly conscripted Russian troops were arriving in Ukraine, Ukrainian troops were in the process of encircling Russian soldiers in the eastern city of Lyman, extending their reach from their recent advances in Kharkiv into the newly annexed region of Donetsk.
In all four regions that Putin said he was annexing — Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — Russia only controls part of the territory.
Now that the areas being fought over are regarded by Moscow as Russian, it is possible to chart a course of events toward the first use of a nuclear weapon since the 1945 atomic bombing of Japan.
“It’s a low probability event, but it is the most serious case of nuclear brinkmanship since the 1980s” when the Cold War ended, said Franz-Stefan Gady, a senior fellow with the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. “It is a very dangerous situation and it needs to be taken seriously by Western policymakers.”
U.S. and European officials say they are taking the threats seriously. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday that there would be “catastrophic consequences” if Russia resorts to the use of nuclear weapons. He refused to specify what those would be but said the precise consequences had been spelled out privately to Russian officials “at very high levels.”
“They well understand what they would face if they went down that dark road,” he said.
U.S. has sent private warnings to Russia against using a nuclear weapon
European officials say the threats have only strengthened their resolve to support Ukraine.
“No one knows what Putin will decide to do, no one,” said a European Union official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive subject. “But he’s totally in a corner, he’s crazy … and for him there is no way out. The only way out for him is total victory or total defeat and we are working on the latter one. We need Ukraine to win and so we are working to prevent worst case scenarios by helping Ukraine win.”
The goal, the official said, is to give Ukraine the military support it needs to continue to push Russia out of Ukrainian territory, while pressuring Russia politically to agree to a cease-fire and withdrawal, the official said.
And the pressure is working, “slowly,” the official said, to spread awareness in Russia and internationally that the invasion was a mistake. India, which had seemed to side with Russia in the earliest days of the war, has expressed alarm at Putin’s talk of nuclear war and China, ostensibly Russia’s most important ally, has signaled that it is growing uneasy with Putin’s continuing escalations.
But the annexation and the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of extra troops have also served as a reminder that the Western strategy hasn’t yet worked enough to convince Putin that he can’t win, said Alexander Gabuev, a senior fellow with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who was based in Moscow until earlier this year.
The West had been hoping that Ukrainian successes would force Putin to back down, but instead he is doubling down. “Time and again we are seeing that Vladimir Putin sees this as a big existential war and he’s ready to up the stakes if he is losing on the battlefield,” Gabuev said.
“At the same time I don’t think the West will back down, so it’s a very hard challenge now. We are two or three steps away” from Russia failing to achieve its goals and resorting to what was once unthinkable.
Those steps to secure its positions include Russia pushing hundreds of thousands more men onto the battlefield; escalating attacks on civilian targets and infrastructure in Ukraine; and perhaps also embarking on covert attacks on Western infrastructure.
Although the United States and its European allies have refrained from making direct accusations, few doubt that Russia was behind the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea, said the E.U. official.
“I don’t think anyone has doubts. It’s the handwriting of the Kremlin,” he said. “It’s an indication of, ‘look what is coming, look what we are able to do.’ ”
Nuclear weapons would only likely be used after mobilization, sabotage and other measures have failed to turn the tide, and it’s unclear what Putin would achieve by using them, Gady said.
Despite some wild predictions on Russian news shows that the Kremlin would lash out at a Western capital, with London appearing to be a favored target, it is more likely that Moscow would seek to use one of its smaller, tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield to try to gain advantage over Ukrainian forces, said Gady.
The smallest nuclear weapon in the Russian arsenal delivers an explosion of around 1 kiloton, one fifteenth of the size of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, which would inflict massive destruction but on a more limited area.
Because the war is being fought along a vast, 1,500-mile front line, troops are too thinly spread out for there to be an obvious target whose obliteration would change the course of the war. To make a difference, Russia would have to use several nuclear weapons or alternatively strike a major population center such as Kyiv, either of which would represent a massive escalation, trigger almost certain Western retaliation and turn Russia into a pariah state even with its allies, Gady said.
“From a purely military perspective, nuclear weapons would not solve any of Vladimir Putin’s military problems,” he said. “To change the operational picture one single attack would not be enough and it would also not intimidate Ukraine into surrendering territory. It would cause the opposite, it would double down Western support and I do think there would be a U.S. response.”
That’s why many believe Putin won’t carry out his threats. “Even though Putin is dangerous, he is not suicidal, and those around him aren’t suicidal,” said Ben Hodges, a former commander of U.S. Army Europe.
Pentagon officials have said they have seen no actions by Russia that would lead the United States to adjust its nuclear posture. | 2022-10-01T08:04:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Russia’s annexation puts the world ‘two or three steps away’ from nuclear war - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/01/europe-putin-nuclear-threats/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/01/europe-putin-nuclear-threats/ |
“You chose a good time to come back,” the Waitrose cashier said ironically when I told her this was my first week living in the UK since 1990. And that was before the Queen died and the pound collapsed to a record low.
Between the cost of living crisis, communal riots in Leicester and politically inspired market turmoil, it must seem from afar as though British society is coming apart at the seams. So I risk ridicule when I say that my initial impressions of life back in Britain are overwhelmingly positive.
It’s all about perspective. After the suffocating atmosphere of post-2020 Hong Kong, following its sharp turn away from liberal values and embrace of a miasma of restrictive Covid social-control policies, arrival in the UK has felt like one long exhalation. It is a relief to be once again in a place where daily life at least is, for want of a better word, normal.
What has struck me most since landing is the diversity. The driver who took me and my luggage from Heathrow to our corner of north London was from Afghanistan. Our landlord is from Romania. The business owner who sold me fitted carpets was born in Pakistan. The hairdresser I went to last week is Iranian. A man from Hungary showed me how to use the drying machines in the local launderette. When we finally tracked down the big bags of Thai rice that are a staple of supermarkets in Hong Kong, it was in a converted newsagent run by a Kenyan Indian. I could go on.
After living for decades as a member of a small (albeit privileged) minority in Asia, it is an exhilarating change. The Finchley ward where we have settled is 61% white according to the 2011 census, but it doesn’t feel like that to me. There is no sense of dominance by any group. Many of the food stores that dot the high road have a Middle-Eastern flavor; Chinese traditional medicine, Thai massage and Turkish barber shops jostle among the grocery sellers. The children’s playground at nearby Victoria Park on a Sunday afternoon is an ethnic and linguistic cornucopia. Last weekend, I spent some time chatting to a Chinese emigre from Tangshan. A week earlier, I overheard a woman from Hong Kong talking about how her family had to leave the city.
The second most striking aspect I have found about moving back is the general good-naturedness of people. The neighbors have been friendly and welcoming to my Anglo-Chinese family; shopkeepers have gone out of their way to be helpful; only once has a (white) driver made a V-sign at me so far. No one could accuse Hong Kong of being laid-back, even at the best of times. Britain is noticeably more relaxed.
At ground level, people seem preoccupied with living their lives in peace and rubbing along with their neighbors as best they can, which isn’t difficult when others have the same objective. From what I have seen, those who have arrived from unstable or autocratic societies are the most likely to appreciate their freedom to do that, unmolested by the arbitrary exercise of state power.
Contrast that with the situation in Hong Kong, where barely a day goes by without some fresh example of wanton dystopian nastiness. Fancy watching a football match? Get ready for the police to film you in case you boo the national anthem. Pensioners getting together to chat in a park? Be prepared to pay a fine for breaking the (unscientific and randomly applied) social-distancing rules. Mourning the Queen by lighting candles outside the British consulate? An officer will be along to douse them.
Forgive the judgment of a neophyte, but the UK’s cultural diversity strikes me as an immense latent strength. In the absence of ethno-nationalism or other forms of tribal loyalty, there has to be some other glue to hold society together. That, to me, inevitably means values. By virtue of its history, the UK may rightly be seen as a colonial bully in some parts of the world, but at home and at the level of ordinary people, there are certain characteristics that have long been seen as typical of British society, among them: tolerance, kindness, decency and respect for the individual. I see these much in evidence around me in north London.
Am I too starry-eyed? Perhaps. First impressions can be superficial, without question. I live in a relatively affluent part of the capital, and remain part of a privileged socioeconomic group. Moreover London, being one of the most diverse cities on Earth, isn’t representative of the UK as a whole, which is 87% white. I am just starting to get to know my homeland again, and may yet have to encounter more troubling undertones of Britain’s ethnic and social makeup. The Brexit vote stands as a testament to anti-immigrant feeling.
Maybe my euphoria at finally getting here — after a six-month wait for visas — is generating an aura of goodwill to which others are responding. I’ll admit that on holidays in the UK in the past, I have occasionally found people to be grouchy and rude. Give it three months, one colleague advised. Wait until the nights draw in, the temperature drops and the rain becomes more persistent.
There’s no question that Britain has deep and serious problems, and I wouldn’t wish to diminish the hardship of struggling citizens by suggesting everything in this country is fine. Social cohesion may be tested as winter sets in and the full impact of soaring fuel bills is felt. That’s without even considering the fresh economic and market instability triggered by the tax cuts of the Truss government.
For all that, this newcomer sees reasons for optimism. At times of crisis, it’s common for a government minister to stand before the media and insist that the fundamentals are sound. The fundamentals of the UK really are sound, in my estimation. I don’t mean the economic fundamentals (which quite possibly aren’t) but something even more basic: the way that people relate to each other on a day-to-day level, freely and openly, unencumbered by fear or apprehension of authorities, and (more often than not) with courtesy and consideration.
In a democracy with freedom of speech and rule of law, mistaken policies can be corrected. The UK has shown some worrying illiberal tendencies in recent years, like many countries around the world, but in the end it is still a free society. Those who have spent time in unfree societies will know the difference.
“You can live here,” as the Algerian craftsman who came to assemble some furniture said, concluding a conversation about the pain of rising costs and the challenges the UK’s influx of Hong Kong migrants will face. I knew exactly what he meant.
The Hard Way Home to the UK From Hong Kong: Matthew Brooker
The UK Government Spooked the Markets Big Time. Can It Recover?: Therese Raphael and Dan Hanson
Trussonomics Will Pinch British Wallets and Wardrobes: Andrea Felsted | 2022-10-01T09:36:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Why I’m Glad to Be Living in Crisis Britain - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/why-im-glad-to-be-living-in-crisis-britain/2022/10/01/db0d5992-415f-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/why-im-glad-to-be-living-in-crisis-britain/2022/10/01/db0d5992-415f-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html |
Former Brazilian president Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, running for a third term, and his wife Rosangela da Silva greet supporters in Salvador on Friday. (Stringer/Reuters)
Brazilians head to the polls Sunday to choose between two very different candidates for president representing starkly different visions for Latin America’s largest country as it tries to emerge from a devastating pandemic facing an uncertain economic outlook.
Incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, the right-wing populist who rose from the political fringes to the presidency in 2018 on promises to fight corruption and develop the economy, is trying to fight off a strong challenge from Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, the left-wing former two term-president who has cast himself this year as a defender of Brazil’s young democracy.
For months, Bolsonaro has cast doubts on election security. His lawyer told The Washington Post this week that Bolsonaro can lose only by fraud, and in the event of a Lula victory, they would use “all legal measures” to challenge it.
The first round of the election is this Sunday, Oct. 2. There’s no early voting before Election Day. If no candidates reach 50 percent of the vote, the top two will go to a second round in four weeks, on Sunday, Oct. 30.
What offices are being contested?
In addition to president and vice president, Brazilians will elect a third of the Senate, all 513 members of the House of Deputies, state governors and state legislators. The congressional races will be decided in a single round; gubernatorial races may go to a second round, also Oct. 30, if no candidate reaches a majority.
Who are the front-runners for president?
There are 11 candidates, but two are clear front-runners. Lula, 76, is a lion of the Latin American left. A charismatic politician, he was raised in poverty, served as a metal worker and union leader and was president from 2003 until 2010. His administration is remembered for massive social welfare programs, funded by a regional commodities boom, that lifted millions out of poverty.
Lula was convicted of corruption and imprisoned in April 2018 as part of the “Lava jato” investigation into a massive kickbacks scheme involving Brazil’s oil company Petrobras that ensnared politicians and business executives across Latin America. His imprisonment sidelined him from running for president that year. He was ordered released by Brazil’s Supreme Court in November 2019 and his conviction was annulled in April 2021.
Bolsonaro, 67, is a former army captain and congressman who captured more than 55 percent of the second-round vote in 2018 to win the presidency. He’s known as the “Trump of the Tropics” for his plain-spoken, sometimes abrasive style, his ties to Trump strategists — most notably Stephen K. Bannon — and his affinity for Brazil’s former military dictatorship.
It’s a title both Bolsonaro and Donald Trump have embraced. The former U.S. president endorsed the Brazilian incumbent last month: Bolsonaro “has done a GREAT job for the wonderful people of Brazil,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “When I was President of the U.S., there was no other country leader who called me more than Jair seeking Tariff & Tax cuts, Trade Renegotiations, Strengthened Drug & Border Policies (to put the “bad guys” in jail!), Military Help, & more.”
As president, Bolsonaro has presided over the accelerating deforestation of the Amazon. And he’s been accused of mismanaging the coronavirus — dismissing it, promoting its unproven and potentially harmful treatment with hydroxychloroquine and discouraging the use of vaccines — in a country that has suffered more than 685,000 deaths from covid-19.
Who’s going to win?
Throughout the campaign, polls have consistently shown Lula leading Bolsonaro, currently by double-digit percentage points, with the margin widening as Election Day approaches. It’s possible that Lula could win outright in the first round.
Christopher Garman, managing director for the Americas at the Eurasia Group, points to the global inflation shock in the second half of 2021. That drove real income in Brazil down, which hit low-income families the hardest. Inflation is now falling and Brazil’s economy is recovering, but real income has not returned to pre-pandemic levels.
“We’re seeing this across many countries,” Garman said. “Being an incumbent in this environment is tough.”
Nick Zimmerman, a global fellow at the Wilson Center’s Brazil Institute, says several factors have coalesced for Lula. The former president has cast himself as the democracy candidate; he has built a broad coalition, enlisting former political rivals such as his running mate, Geraldo Alckmin, a center-right former governor of São Paulo, to defeat Bolsonaro.
“He’s become the big-tent candidate,” Zimmerman said. “Bolsonaro has really polarized the Brazilian populace. The economy, though it is improving as of late, hasn’t done very well. The pandemic was brutal in Brazil.
“It’s a little bit of the perfect storm.”
Bolsonaro’s rhetoric leading up to the election has raised concerns of backsliding in the world’s fourth-largest democracy.
Throughout his presidency, Bolsonaro has questioned the integrity of the electoral process — apparently to lay the groundwork for claims of fraud if he loses, raising concerns of a Jan. 6-type insurrection or a coup.
Bolsonaro’s lawyer, Frederick Wassef, told The Washington Post that any Lula victory would be challenged by his client using “all legal measures.” At times, Bolsonaro has said he will respect the electoral outcome. But he has also said that if he doesn’t win 60 percent of the vote on Sunday it might be because “something unusual” had happened at Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court.
On Wednesday, Bolsonaro’s party claimed, without proof, that election results could be manipulated by government employees and contractors “without leaving a trace,” the New York Times reported. The Superior Electoral Court swiftly rejected the claims.
Bolsonaro is an incumbent president who “has developed a narrative of election fraud” and attack on election institutions for years, said Zimmerman, who also worked at the White House National Security Council as the director for Brazil and Southern Cone Affairs during the Obama administration. “This has been part of his arsenal for quite some time.”
Beyond Brazil’s economy, recovery from the pandemic and young democracy, the fate of the Amazon is in play. The “lungs of the world,” the vast rainforest, 60 percent of which lies in Brazil, plays a pivotal role in curbing climate change by soaking up carbon dioxide. Bolsonaro has described it as a resource to be exploited to lift Brazilians out of poverty. Deforestation, driven largely by cattle ranching, a vital sector of the Brazilian economy, reached a 15-year high on Bolsonaro’s watch.
About 17 percent of the Amazon has been deforested. If the loss reaches 20 to 25 percent, scientists warn, the rainforest could reach a tipping point, at which the ecosystem changes from rainforest to open savanna. | 2022-10-01T09:36:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Brazil election 2022: What you need to know - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/01/brazil-election-2022-primer/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/01/brazil-election-2022-primer/ |
They removed derelict lobster traps, marine rope and other waste on Key Biscayne Beach that washed ashore from the severe winds
Andrew Otazo, 35, with the lobster traps he, Manny Rionda and two strangers piled up at Key Biscayne Beach, Fla. (Manny Rionda)
So far, he has removed more than 22,000 pounds of trash from South Florida’s coastal ecosystem. He says he’s just getting started.
‘Plogging’ is the Swedish fitness craze for people who want to save the planet. It’s making its way to the U.S. | 2022-10-01T10:10:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Hurricane Ian left trash on the beach. They picked up 310 pounds of it. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/10/01/beach-litter-hurricane-ian-miami/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/10/01/beach-litter-hurricane-ian-miami/ |
A guide to how words like Hispanic and Latinx came about
The Washington Post consulted experts to develop a glossary explaining the history and importance of terms like Hispanic, Latino, Latinx and Latine
For decades, Latinos living in the United States have sought ways to identify themselves that encompassed their pan-ethnic community.
Although culturally diverse, Hispanics rallied in the 1960s for a unifying term that would grant them census representation and governmental support in education and health care, said Catherine S. Ramírez, chair of the Latin American and Latino Studies program at the University of California at Santa Cruz.
However, that effort has also led to discrimination, as Hispanics and Latinos were othered and lumped together with negative stereotypes. “I happen to have older-generation parents,” said Call Me Latine website creator James Lee, 32. “They named their children names that were White-sounding, instead of what’s typically Spanish speakers’ names. That is the consequence of some of that racial discrimination that they faced.”
In recent years, the purpose of finding a community name has shifted. As more people identify as nonbinary, teens and young adults began looking for labels that coincided with gender fluidity, such as Latinx and Latine.
Linguistic purists may decry the newer terms as Americanized bastardizations of Latino culture.
No “right” term exists as language evolves.
Based on guidance from Spanish, Latin American studies and linguistics professors, The Washington Post has compiled a glossary of terms used to characterize the Hispanic and Latino community.
People may identify with multiple terms in the glossary, and it by no means is exhaustive. Nationality, age, gender, region and academic level can all affect which term or terms people prefer. For example, Ana Valdez of the nonprofit Latino Donor Collaborative might say she’s Hispanic or Latina when speaking to those who aren’t. But for those who are in the community, she might say she’s Mexican American.
Hispanic people originated from or have ancestors who originated from a Spanish-speaking country. Many Hispanics are also Latino, but there are some Spanish-speaking countries not located in Latin America, such as Equatorial Guinea and Spain.
The term Hispanic made its first census appearance in 1970. It’s gender-inclusive, but some linguists find it limiting because it implies that the group being described consists only of Spanish speakers. It excludes Indigenous people whose families have lived in countries before they were colonized and neighboring countries like Brazil that primarily speak other languages.
Latino can be used to describe male or mixed-gender groups of people who originated from a country in Latin America. Latina applies to individuals and groups of women and girls from Latin America. Many Caribbean people identify as Latino or Latina, but not all.
Latino and Latina gained traction around the same time as Hispanic. Their benefit is that they include some countries that the term Hispanic left out — such as Brazil, where Portuguese is the national language.
They follow Spanish language patterns in which masculine words end in “o” and feminine words end in “a.”
In recent years, the terms have become a subject of debate, with critics saying they prioritize male identities and are not gender-inclusive.
“Using the male form as the default, or even using the masculine and the feminine forms, are an erasure of women and people who don’t identify with the gender binary,” said Jennifer Leeman, professor of Spanish linguistics at George Mason University.
Latinx is a term that can be used to describe people of all genders who have Latin American roots, as well as people whose ancestors are from multiple Latin American countries.
Latinx is popular in academic circles and among some younger Latinos because of its ability to be gender-inclusive, but outside academia, a large majority of Latinos don’t use the term to describe themselves. Awareness of the term has grown in recent years, said Pennsylvania State University history professor A.K. Sandoval-Strausz.
But a 2020 Pew Research Center study found that less than a quarter of Americans who said they were Hispanic or Latino were familiar with Latinx.
‘Latinx’ not a preferred term among Hispanics, survey says
When Penn State faculty surveyed students to decide what to call the Latin American studies department, they ultimately opted for Latina/o instead of Latinx because few of the students recognized Latinx, Sandoval-Strausz said.
Spanish words typically don’t end in “x,” and some Spanish speakers consider Latinx unpronounceable.
Some linguists have pushed back against the notion.
“Latinx communities in the United States have always played with language, mixing standard and nonstandard varieties of Spanish and English to create the culturally rich varieties of what many lovingly refer to as Spanglish,” said Anne Garland Mahler, associate professor of Spanish at the University of Virginia.
Latine is also a gender-neutral term, but the “e” ending is viewed as a more common and grammatically correct Spanish ending, such as in the word estudiante, which translates to “student in English. Spanish speakers can see the word and know to pronounce it as “Latin-eh,” said Lee from George Mason.
It also reflects the nonbinary vocabulary used by LGBTQ people in Latin America, Mahler said. For example, nonbinary people may use the pronoun elle instead of the masculine él or the feminine ella.
Latin@ is shorthand for Latino/a or Latina/o. Latin@ was used on the internet. But its popularity has fizzled, namely because it’s difficult to pronounce. “Latin-ow” is an option for saying it aloud, said Ramírez. | 2022-10-01T10:11:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Is it Hispanic, Latinx or Latine? The complexities of Latino identity - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/10/01/hispanic-latino-latinx-latine-words-history/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/10/01/hispanic-latino-latinx-latine-words-history/ |
A boy wades through water on a flooded street, as hurricane Ian bears down on Charleston, S.C., on Friday. (Jonathan Drake/Reuters)
“If every Realtor was required to tell people, ‘You should know over the period of your mortgage your home will flood at least once, maybe twice,’ I think people would go, 'Whoa, what?” said Rob Moore, a senior policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group. “But due to policy failures in state capitals and in Washington we have made it extremely difficult for people to not only find that information but to even tell people about it.”
In Norfolk, where tidal flooding regularly makes roads impassible, the effects of climate change along the more-than 200-mile shoreline can’t be ignored. Officials overhauled the zoning regulations in 2018 to direct development to higher ground in the city. They adopted a scoring system that evaluates proposed projects based on their ability to withstand flooding and other hazards. The city is also planning to protect its downtown by building a system of storm surge barriers, levees, and pump stations. | 2022-10-01T11:07:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | More Americans are moving into hurricanes’ path as climate change risks mount - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/10/01/development-growth-florida-south-ian/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/10/01/development-growth-florida-south-ian/ |
Ian bringing heavy rain into Mid-Atlantic as Florida, S.C. take stock
Myrtle Beach, S.C., saw flooding on Friday as Hurricane Ian came ashore. (Melissa Sue Gerrits for The Washington Post)
A diminishing Ian is expected to bring heavy rains across parts of the eastern U.S. on Saturday as residents and officials continue to assess the damage it wrought across Florida and along coastal South Carolina.
Ian made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane near Georgetown, S.C., on Friday afternoon, about 48 hours after it made an initial strike on U.S. shores. Though a weaker storm than the version that sliced through Florida like a buzz saw, Ian still brought damaging winds and significant storm-surge flooding — a rise in ocean waters over normally dry land — to the Palmetto State.
After moving onshore in South Carolina, Ian became what is known as an extratropical low-pressure system, meaning it is no longer being fueled by warm ocean waters but will carry loads of tropical moisture inland across the Mid-Atlantic over the weekend.
More than 60,000 customers remained without power in South Carolina on Saturday morning, according to data from PowerOutage.us.
Several inches of rain are forecast to fall on Saturday in Appalachian North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. Rain is expected to stretch throughout the Chesapeake Bay region and into southern New Jersey. There is potential for as much as 6 inches and “considerable” flooding in parts of western North Carolina and southwestern Virginia, the National Hurricane Center said.
Maximum sustained winds of 35 mph are occurring over the waters east of North Carolina and Virginia, the Hurricane Center said in a Saturday morning update.
Major flooding is not forecast to abate in parts of central Florida until early next week. Some places that had record amounts of rainfall include 17 inches in Union Park, near Orlando, and 15 inches south of Daytona in New Smyrna Beach, according to the National Weather Service.
Restoration of more than 1.7 million power outages across the state as of Friday evening was ongoing, as were rescues of people trapped in homes, assisted-living centers and low-lying communities. Tampa International Airport resumed operations on Friday after shutting down on Tuesday afternoon, but many flights were delayed.
Ian is forecast to dissipate by early Sunday. Hurricane season extends through Nov. 30. As of now, there are no other tropical systems the Hurricane Center expects to strengthen soon. | 2022-10-01T11:07:55Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Hurricane Ian brings heavy rain to Va., N.C., as Florida, South Carolina assess damage - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/10/01/hurricane-ian-virginia-north-carolina-damage/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/10/01/hurricane-ian-virginia-north-carolina-damage/ |
Punta Gorda rebuilt under stricter state codes after Hurricane Charley devastated the community in 2004
Charlotte High School, which had to be rebuilt after it was destroyed by Hurricane Charley in 2004, stands largely unscathed after Hurricane Ian, in Punta Gorda, Florida on Sept. 29, 2022. (Bradley Brooks/Reuters)
When Hurricane Ian barreled into Punta Gorda and the surrounding west Florida coastline on Wednesday, the powerful storm lingered over the city north of Fort Myers for hours. It pummeled the area with torrential rain and roaring winds: One gust reached 135 miles per hour, among the highest recorded in the state.
But once the storm passed, the sight of Punta Gorda may have surprised some people. While it had typical post-hurricane storm debris, downed trees and several flooded streets, a number of homes and buildings appeared largely intact and many showed only minimal damage to their exteriors.
Those who saw videos and photos of the city shared on social media also noticed the apparent lack of widespread structural destruction.
“I can’t believe the eye went directly over Punta Gorda, and all these houses are still standing!!” one Twitter user wrote in response to an aerial video that showed part of the city the morning after the storm.
A first look a Punta Gorda, FL this morning as sun rose. #Ian #HurricaneIan @DJIGlobal pic.twitter.com/V3nq0ld9im
— Justin Hobbs (@YourWXJustin) September 29, 2022
How is it possible that the coastal city wasn’t more devastated by a storm that ranks among the most powerful to ever strike the United States? One major factor, according to some experts, are modern building codes.
Searchers hunt for victims of Hurricane Ian amid a swath of destruction
In Florida, the “turning point” for building codes came after Hurricane Andrew struck the state in 1992, said Kathy Baughman McLeod, senior vice president and director for the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center.
Andrew, which caused dozens of deaths and an estimated $26 billion in damages, resulted in a statewide building code that included some of the toughest storm-specific codes in the country. The storm was a “game-changing hurricane,” said Baughman McLeod, who lived through Andrew and Hurricane Charley, among others, when she resided in Florida.
For Punta Gorda, the critical rebuild came after Hurricane Charley decimated the city in 2004.
“Charley was almost like a spring cleaning event,” said Joe Schortz, a resident of Punta Gorda and owner of a local construction and remodeling business. “Charley destroyed a lot of the older homes with the winds.”
Many of the homes and buildings were reconstructed to modernized building codes that were improved again in 2007, Schortz said. And in the aftermath of Ian, the buildings left still standing seemed to have at least one thing in common, he said: “Everything with a 2007 code and beyond pretty much was fine.”
On Sept. 28, meteorologists faced dangerous conditions while covering Hurricane Ian in Punta Gorda, Fla. (Video: The Washington Post)
At Charlotte High School, which was rebuilt after Charley, a plaque testifies to its commitment to a more resilient future.
“This school has risen from the rubble to reawaken as the magnificent, enduring structure you see today,” the plaque reads. “Never again will the winds be feared, never again.”
The high school survived Ian with barely any structural damage, according to a report from Reuters.
But Punta Gorda didn’t escape unscathed. Much of the city is without power and water, Schortz said. Meanwhile, “quite a few places did get ravaged,” he said. Many of those structures, however, survived Charley and likely weren’t upgraded to improve their defenses in the event of another direct hit.
Buildings constructed using modern codes have a slew of structural advantages that can help them better withstand extreme weather, including major storms. For instance, updated codes often have stricter requirements around “structural load continuity,” which involves ensuring that a roof is well-connected to walls and the walls are well-connected to the structure’s foundation, Rajkovich said. Even a small failure in the “building envelope,” or the walls, roof, foundation, doors and windows, can lead to catastrophe.
A broken wind or door, for example, can allow wind pressure to get into a building, he added.
“Then, there’s no real place for that wind pressure to get out of the building again,” he said. “Once it basically blows the door open, it’s trying to find a place to exit and it will do that pretty violently. Often, it will blow a hole in some other part of the house and at that point, it’s really open to the elements.”
Hurricane Andrew transformed Florida’s building codes. The Champlain Towers collapse could usher in a new era of regulations.
With scientists predicting that climate change will likely lead to more frequent and intense storms, in addition to other types of extreme weather events, Rajkovich and other experts said updating codes and rebuilding in a way that reflects those more challenging conditions can help communities adapt and become more resilient.
“Our built environment protects us as human beings,” Baughman McLeod said. “The stronger that built environment is against the winds and the water and the rain, the more we survive and the more protected our economic assets are.
“Building codes are one of the strongest ways that government can protect people and property from climate-driven hurricanes.”
The Biden administration has launched a National Initiative to Advance Building Codes, which, in part, provides incentives for state, local, tribal and territorial governments to update their standards and modernizes the way federal buildings are constructed.
David Hayes, who just finished a stint as special assistant to the president for climate policy, noted in an interview Thursday that only 30 percent of the communities in the United States have adopted modern building codes.
“It’s just a plain old practical thing, but it’s essential,” he said. “When you build back now after this crisis, will the infrastructure be able to withstand the next Ian that’s coming along? That question has not been asked in previous administrations. It’s being asked and answered in this one.”
While Rajkovich said the importance of modernizing building codes can’t be understated, he and other experts noted that how you rebuild is only one way to improve resilience. It’s also important, he said, to consider whether it’s safe to stay in vulnerable areas and to bolster natural coastal protection such as wetlands and mangroves, among other things.
“This isn’t just a Florida issue. This is a national issue,” he said. “Thinking about a national strategy for resilience is really important for this country to be able to adapt to climate change.”
Rich Matthews in Punta Gorda, Fla. contributed to this report | 2022-10-01T11:08:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Why many homes and buildings in Punta Gorda still stand, even after Ian - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2022/10/01/punta-gorda-hurricane-ian-damage/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2022/10/01/punta-gorda-hurricane-ian-damage/ |
Head Start grantees cited for child abuse, lack of supervision
By Donna St. George
Art supplies for pre-K students in D.C. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
At one Head Start center, a bus driver allegedly left a child unattended on a vehicle long enough to develop frostbite. At another Head Start location, teachers reportedly referred to students by demeaning nicknames, including “mustache girl” and “chancho” — “pig,” in Spanish — and hit scared children with a stick.
The incidents are among 1,029 analyzed in a new report on the nation’s 57-year-old Head Start program, which provides early-childhood education to children from low-income families. It was issued by the Office of the Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The report that found 1 in 4 recipients of Head Start grants saw an incident of child abuse, lack of supervision or release of a child to an unauthorized person from October 2015 to May 2020, with the most common citation being lack of supervision. In one episode, a 4-year-old left a school building alone for 5 to 10 minutes, running into the street, the report said.
More than 450 incidents involved some form of child abuse. Among them, physical abuse or corporal punishment was most frequent, with 374 incidents that involved actions such as hitting, spanking, shaking or slapping a child. Verbal or emotional abuse — such as humiliation, threats or profane language — came up in 102 incidents, and 54 involved prohibited disciplinary practices, which include taping a child’s mouth, binding a child or using food or toilet training to punish or demean. Eight incidents included sexual abuse, the report said. (Some incidents involved more than one type of infraction.)
Head Start enrolls children from birth to age 5 and is often located in child-care centers or school settings. The program is administered by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), which awards grants and oversees grant recipients.
The report, released Sept. 28, found that the roughly 1,600 recipients of U.S. funds did not always promptly report incidents to ACF, as required — and that some incidents were not reported at all. One example: A child who was not properly supervised fell in a bathroom and needed stitches, but the Head Start grantee did not report it; it came to light through an anonymous complaint.
How a Maryland school system lost its Head Start grant
“Accurate information about incidents that threaten children’s safety is critical for effective oversight,” the report said.
The analysis by the Inspector General’s office relied on monitoring data that the ACF office of Head Start collects. To dig into whether some incidents went unreported, the authors did a sampling in Florida and Texas that compared ACF data with child-care monitoring data and child welfare data. They found 130 incidents from 2017 to 2019 were not reported to ACF. But the report’s authors said the true number may be higher because of complexities in matching data. “It is likely that we did not identify every incident in a Head Start center in these two states,” the report said.
The OIG report said that Head Start served about 861,000 children in fiscal year 2021 and had a fiscal year 2022 budget of $11 billion.
In a six-page response that was part of the report, the ACF pushed back on the numbers, saying that, over the period examined, its 1,600 grant recipients operated 20,000 centers. While it said all child safety incidents are unacceptable, it calculated that the incidents affected fewer than one in 1,000 children.
When problems surfaced, it said Head Start grantees took “contemporaneous, immediate and appropriate actions in the vast majority of cases.” The agency said that the report found only 7 percent of all grantees had adverse findings for multiple years.
In a statement to The Post, the agency said Head Start programs are “extraordinarily safe” and that more than 99 percent of children are not affected by a safety incident.
A model for how to spend federal money on early education already exists
“The Administration for Children and Families takes every child safety incident seriously,” the statement said. “Staff swiftly respond to any allegations to ensure children involved receive the support they need.”
As part of corrective action plans, grantees improved administrative procedures and staff training, and took disciplinary action. The report said Head Start staff members were fired or resigned in 75 percent of child abuse incidents, 52 percent of unauthorized release infractions and 41 percent of lack of supervision incidents.
The National Head Start Association, a nonprofit that represents children and families, grant recipients and staff members, echoed the agency’s points about the framing of the report and said ACF had recently strengthened its emphasis on reporting. “Children are safe in Head Start programs,” said Tommy Sheridan, deputy director of the association.
The inspector general report recommended improvements to Head Start — with which the ACF concurred — including providing better guidance to grantees and imposing more serious consequences when they fail to report. It said that Head Start needs to do better at sharing data with states to spot unreported incidents, and that it needs to report incidents in “blended” classrooms that serve both Head Start and other children, even when the victim is not a Head Start child.
Prince George's takes action against staff in troubled Head Start program
During the period studied in the report, one of the troubled programs that had multiple violations was located in the public schools of Prince George’s County, Md. The school system relinquished a $6.4 million grant, after a 2016 federal review found that teachers used corporal punishment and humiliated children, and the school system had not taken sufficient steps to correct problems.
In one instance, a teacher forced a 3-year-old who wet his pants to mop up his own urine in front of the class — then texted a photo to his mother. “LOL,” the teacher messaged. “He worked that mop tho!”
Head Start staff made two children who played during nap time hold heavy objects over their heads for an extended period, according to an overview of findings. In another case, a 5-year-old left a school unnoticed and walked home alone.
With Prince George’s school officials essentially losing their grant, other organizations bid to fill the void. In 2018, Easterseals DC MD VA and the Lourie Center for Children’s Social & Emotional Wellness announced that they had received a combined $33.5 million in federal grants to operate programs for five years for 418 economically disadvantaged children a year. | 2022-10-01T11:08:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Head Start grantees cited for child abuse, lack of supervision - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/10/01/head-start-abuse-inspector-general/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/10/01/head-start-abuse-inspector-general/ |
Harris’s official mission on her Japan-Korea trip was to bolster the U.S. partnership with the two nations
Michelle Ye Hee Lee
Vice President Harris hosts a roundtable discussion with Japanese business executives from companies in the semiconductor industry at the Chief Mission Residence in Tokyo on Sept. 28. (Leah Millis/AP)
SEOUL — Vice President Harris and her team laid out the goals of her four-day trip to Asia before she left the United States: honor Japan’s assassinated former prime minister Shinzo Abe, bolster America’s partnerships with Japan and South Korea, and promote America’s economy and security.
Beyond the merits, the issue gave Harris an opportunity to burnish her credentials on a subject she has seized on politically at home. Harris has struggled to find an issue that would stamp her as a forceful leader, and in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision she has become a more visible advocate for abortion rights and women’s issues. The Asia trip provided a way to make the case without ruffling feathers at home — but the diplomacy was tricky.
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At nearly every stop, the lack of women on the Japanese and South Korean side was strikingly visible. At a business roundtable in Japan, Harris and an aide were the only women participating at an event filled with male Japanese CEOs dressed in near-identical suits. The attendance at Abe’s funeral was so male that local reporters wrote about the snaking lines for men’s bathrooms and the nearly empty women’s bathrooms.
Exhibit A of Harris’s gender argument was, of course, Harris herself. She has made history as the first woman to hold a nationally elected office in the United States. On Thursday, she became the highest-ranking American woman to tour the demilitarized zone that divides the Korean Peninsula, the latest in a conveyor belt of firsts during her 20 months as vice president.
Japanese and South Korean societies are among the most male-dominated among the world’s leading economies. They consistently rank last and second-last, respectively, among industrialized democracies on gender parity in society, health care, pay equity and professional development. Observers often note the paltry support for women seeking careers past their early 30s, when they face social pressure to drop out of the workforce.
While the U.S. Congress is 27 percent female — still hardly a reflection of the population — women in Japan make up less than 10 percent of the 465-member parliament. There are two women in Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s 19-member cabinet, falling short of the record of five women. Women are rare in corporate boardrooms in Japan.
Gender was an even more closely watched issue ahead of Harris’s trip to South Korea, where women’s rights was a key topic in this spring’s presidential election.
Harris brought up the broader issue of gender inequality in private talks with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, according to a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to address a delicate conversation. “In the room, it seemed that Yoon understands this was an issue, understood the priority we place on it, and seemed genuine in expressing that he wanted to work with us,” the official said.
Yoon’s office says he raised the gender issue with Harris himself. Ahead of Harris’s roundtable with women leaders in South Korea, the presidential office said Yoon told Harris that he hoped the event “produces a valuable outcome” for his country.
During his campaign, Yoon vowed to abolish the country’s Ministry for Gender Equality and courted so-called “anti-feminist” male activists for their support. He has said he does not believe systemic “structural discrimination based on gender” exists.
But he has faced increasingly powerful challenges to that view. During President Biden’s trip to Asia in May, Yoon stumbled over his response to a question about whether South Korea can be a world-leading democracy if it is so hard for women there to advance.
“If you look at the public official sector, especially the ministers in the cabinet, we really didn’t see a lot of women advancing to that position thus far. Probably in various regions, equal,” he said, according to the official translation. “Opportunities were not fully ensured for women, and we have actually a quite short history of ensuring that. So what we’re trying to do is to very actively ensure such opportunities for women.”
South Korea’s record creates a particular culture clash with the Biden administration, whose Cabinet includes a record number of women, including the first female treasury secretary and the first female intelligence director.
Harris’s husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, came to South Korea in May for Yoon’s inauguration, and he spoke to the Korean Joongang Daily about the impact of Harris’s role.
“I was just here at the embassy meeting, the folks that work here and the women in the military, all coming up to me, some with tears in their eyes, grabbing my hand, telling me to make sure I tell her what she means to them,” Emhoff said. “The fact that my wife was able to go from district attorney to attorney general to senator to now vice president of the United States of America shows women all across our country, but all across the world, what is possible.”
In July, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen visited Tokyo and Seoul with a clear push for women’s professional and leadership advancement, making the case that economies are stronger when they allow women to enter, thrive and lead. “Even among the world’s most advanced economies, it is still far too uncommon for women to rise to the top,” a statement on her Twitter account read in part.
For Harris this week, gender equity was not the only issue that brought together domestic politics and foreign policy. Harris spent the four-day trip doing what Biden had done nearly four months before, attempting to bolster America’s security and economic interests in areas such as electric vehicles and semiconductors.
Japanese and South Korean officials have voiced concerns about Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which gives tax credits to people who buy U.S.-made electric vehicles, and Harris sought to allay those worries. And on her last full day in Tokyo, Harris met with Japanese tech leaders and said the United States is looking for new investments and partnerships in semiconductor manufacturing.
“The citizens and the people of our countries rely on products without even knowing sometimes how reliant those products are on semiconductor chips,” Harris said during a meeting at the residence of the U.S. ambassador to Japan.
Later that day, in a speech on the USS Howard destroyer, Harris pledged to intensify “unofficial ties” with Taiwan, days after Biden said his administration would use military force to defend the island if China invades.
“China has flexed its military and economic might to coerce and intimidate its neighbors,” Harris said on the deck of the destroyer, during a visit to the largest U.S. Navy installation outside the United States. “And we have witnessed disturbing behavior in the East China Sea and in the South China Sea, and most recently, provocations across the Taiwan Strait.”
Harris also stressed security during her tour of the demilitarized zone that divides the Korean Peninsula, citing an “ironclad” commitment to advance South Korea’s security goals. | 2022-10-01T11:46:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Harris, on Asia trip, promotes a political priority--women’s rights - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/01/harris-japan-korea-women-rights/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/01/harris-japan-korea-women-rights/ |
A coronavirus booster vaccination is administered on May 13 in Silver Spring. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)
Through good science and luck, there is welcome alignment between the prevalent coronavirus strain and the booster shot to combat it. The bivalent boosters available from Pfizer and Moderna have been tweaked to target the BA.4/5 variants, and so far, no major new variants have stormed onto the scene. But the vaccines are useless if the public doesn’t get them.
The new bivalent boosters are off to a slow start. In Minnesota, vaccine uptake is running way behind that of the first booster doses, with fewer than 4 percent of those 12 and older up to date on their shots. In Florida, only about 37,000 out of 20 million eligible people have gotten the bivalent booster dose.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says only about 7.6 million Americans in all have rolled up their sleeves for the new dose in the weeks since it became available. The Biden administration ordered 171 million doses. The Pfizer shot is available for those 12 years old and above; the Moderna for 18 years old and more. Both manufacturers have asked for regulatory authorization for shots for younger patients.
Two experts at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign wrote in the Chicago Tribune that many people are “taking a wait-and-see approach.” Waiting might be justified for some people, including those who suffered covid-19 recently. The CDC guidance is to get it sometime between recovery from covid and three months later. The CDC also suggests waiting two months from the last vaccination, but it might be fine to wait longer. Studies have shown previous vaccines began to wane in effectiveness after five or six months. And there is no harm in getting a booster and the flu shot at the same time, but in different arms.
President Biden’s recent declaration that the pandemic is over might have left many people with the mistaken impression they don’t need the booster. The pandemic is not over, and the BA.4/5 variants are still infecting and sickening people. Another reason for reluctance could be that bivalent vaccines are new and were not subjected to large human clinical trials before deployment. But new scientific studies based on humans have been coming out and showing the boosters are stimulating an immune response. Yet another reason for the low uptake is simply fatigue and vaccine hesitancy, much of it based on disinformation and irresponsible anti-vaccine campaigns.
The bivalent boosters are worth getting. They keep people out of hospitals, save lives and combat the pandemic. Had a major new variant arisen, the current bivalent formula might have been overtaken. But luckily, a new threat hasn’t appeared, though the virus is still evolving, and might yet present a new and dangerous variant.
Don’t forget: This could well be the last free shot; it is the final one Congress has funded. Chasing the virus with new boosters every few months is not a long-term strategy, but it is all we have at the moment, until a next-generation vaccine is developed that can fight all or most variants and provide long-lasting protection. Right now, skipping the booster is rolling the dice. Why take the chance?
Opinion|No, President Biden, the pandemic is not over | 2022-10-01T12:30:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Don't skip your covid bivalent booster shot - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/01/covid-bivalent-booster-shots/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/01/covid-bivalent-booster-shots/ |
Maryland Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wes Moore speaks during a rally for the Democratic National Committee at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, Md., on Aug. 25. (Alex Brandon/AP)
In Maryland’s gubernatorial race, Democrat Wes Moore has excited voters with an uplifting life story, soaring rhetoric, impressive credentials from a career spent outside politics and a progressive agenda that relies on an expansive, ambitious government. The Republican, first-term state Del. Dan Cox, has cast himself as Donald Trump’s acolyte, running with the former president’s endorsement and amplifying his lies about election integrity.
The candidates are not merely a study in policy contrasts. They exist in different worlds. Mr. Moore has staked out the aspirational high ground as a liberal intent on tackling high crime, unaffordable housing, child poverty, and the racial wealth and opportunity gaps. Mr. Cox’s political views are rooted in hard-right resentment — at President Biden’s 2020 victory, which he falsely denies; at pandemic mask and vaccine mandates, which saved countless lives; at critical race theory, a chimera wielded to stoke racial anger; at climate change forecasts, which he regards as phony.
The Post endorses Mr. Moore, a charismatic first-time candidate whose grasp of Maryland’s challenges far surpasses that of Mr. Cox.
This is not a close choice.
Mr. Moore, 43, led a major philanthropic outfit, Robin Hood, which dispenses tens of millions of dollars annually to fight poverty in New York City. As an officer and paratrooper in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, Mr. Moore led troops in Afghanistan in his 20s and earned rave reviews from his superiors, one of whom assessed him as a “top 1% officer [and] the best lieutenant I’ve encountered during Operation Enduring Freedom.”
In this race, Mr. Moore offers the best bet for an executive in the mold of the popular term-limited incumbent, Gov. Larry Hogan (R). That might seem paradoxical given that they belong to rival parties and hew to different ideological lines. Yet by instinct and temperament, Mr. Moore, like Mr. Hogan, seems inclined to tamp down the incendiary tribal politics that has polarized the nation.
Mr. Moore sought, and received, the endorsement of the Maryland Fraternal Order of Police, the main police union, despite the unease on his party’s left flank with law enforcement. He has broached the idea of cutting Maryland’s inheritance tax, an idea that, whatever its wisdom on the merits — we have our doubts, given the $50 million annual hit to state coffers — would appeal to lawmakers and voters well beyond Mr. Moore’s core Democratic base.
Undeniably, Mr. Moore is a liberal. But assertions that he is a “socialist,” as Mr. Cox claims, strain credulity, as a glance at his résumé attests. In addition to his work as a nonprofit CEO, Mr. Moore spent more than five years as an investment banker in New York, was a White House fellow during the administration of President George W. Bush, and founded a fee-based enterprise to help students from disadvantaged backgrounds in their transition to college.
Those are as plausibly the credentials of a Republican as a Democrat, and they justifiably raise the expectation among Marylanders that as governor he would aspire to appeal to a broad constituency.
It is impossible to say the same about Mr. Cox, a 48-year-old former high school teacher who practices law in Frederick. He called then-Vice President Mike Pence a “traitor” for not having impeded the certification of a legitimate election, and Mr. Cox has demonstrated his affinity with QAnon, the crackpot fable that conjures an international cabal led by Democratic pedophiles.
Mr. Moore is easily the more substantive of the two candidates. His website presents detailed analyses and prescriptions for protecting veterans, and elderly and disabled Americans, juicing the economy, improving health care and education, alleviating poverty and the racial wealth gap, and reforming criminal justice. He would fund savings accounts for every baby born to impoverished families and invest heavily to upgrade Morgan State University in Baltimore, the state’s biggest historically Black institution of higher education.
Our endorsement does not come without reservations. We don’t agree with Mr. Moore across the board, and he was not our top pick in the crowded Democratic primary he narrowly won in July. On transportation, a key concern for traffic-weary commuters in the Washington suburbs, he vows to ease congestion but seems determined to satisfy special interests that reliably oppose major highway and transit proposals. He’s had little to say about supporting Metro, on which hundreds of thousands of residents from Montgomery and Prince George’s counties depend, after federal pandemic subsidies run dry next summer.
If he wins, as it is expected he will, Mr. Moore also must be held to account when his campaign promises meet hard fiscal and economic reality. He has laid out an ambitious blueprint for improving public schools and other social challenges, yet it’s unclear how the state would afford it all. Some of his proposals seem pie-in-the-sky, including a plan for clean energy investments that could drive up electric bills by depriving Marylanders of cheap power from neighboring states.
Beyond his stances on issues, Mr. Moore offers a personal history that is compelling and inspirational. A young boy who struggled after his father’s death, he spent a chunk of his childhood amid poverty in the Bronx and won a Rhodes Scholarship after graduating from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. In his late 20s, he wrote “The Other Wes Moore,” a memoir contrasting his own dizzying trajectory with that of another young man of the same name who grew up in Baltimore and was convicted of killing a highly decorated police sergeant.
The book’s opening passages preview a “story of two boys living in Baltimore” and “on the same streets.” Those lines, among others, have been the springboard for controversy — specifically, that Mr. Moore disingenuously cultivated the impression that he was born or grew up in Baltimore. In fact, he did not live in Baltimore until he was 20 years old, as a college student. Still, he spent substantial time there as a teenager during school breaks from a military academy in Pennsylvania. He clearly identifies with the city, where he has lived for a decade.
Mr. Moore has the makings of a fine governor. He is hands-down the better choice in November’s election. | 2022-10-01T12:30:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Washington Post endorses Wes Moore for Maryland governor - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/01/wes-moore-maryland-governor-endorsement-2022/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/01/wes-moore-maryland-governor-endorsement-2022/ |
Jacques Pépin, at 86, finds a new way to express his love — of chicken
The celebrated French chef not only loves cooking poultry, he loves painting pictures of his feathered friends. His latest book is an homage to chicken and egg.
MADISON, Conn. — During the pandemic, Jacques Pépin’s knives did not dull. The French chef concocted more than 250 cooking videos on Facebook, where he now has 1.6 million followers. Recently, he finished an 11-day cruise where he was the entree, so to speak, hosting demonstrations while an all-Pépin channel streamed in travelers’ staterooms.
Still debonair if a bit creakier, Pépin turns 87 in December. He is among the last of the first wave of culinary legends who became household names — Julia Child, Craig Claiborne and Pierre Franey. For four decades, he’s been a constant in many American kitchens. Pépin democratized formal technique. He instructed legions of American professional and home chefs, not in a constellation of exorbitant white-cloth restaurants but through cookbooks, and hosting 13 separate public television series.
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Pépin may have made his name as Child’s TV kitchen comrade, but he has evolved beyond Poulet à la Crème and Maman’s Cheese Soufflé, while still celebrating the yumminess of both. He understands that a modern chef embraces change — even the microwave and Instagram.
Mention retirement and he looks mystified, possibly annoyed, an eyebrow cocked: “Retire from what? Retire from doing what I love? Retire from cooking?”
And he is always publishing. His latest: “Jacques Pépin Art of the Chicken: A Master Chef’s Paintings, Stories, and Recipes of the Humble Bird.” It is a book most fowl. This gallinaceous volume — possibly his 32nd, who can keep count? — includes a gallery of his paintings of chickens, anecdotes from his remarkable life and recipes that are more story than instruction.
As its title suggests, “Art of the Chicken” celebrates his paintings, which he has done for five decades, and his lifelong love of the chicken — the Bresse bird that’s a delicacy from his home region near Lyon. “Proust had his madeleine. I have chickens,” he writes. “As a chef, I stand in awe of the humble bird’s contributions to world cuisine. As an artist, I marvel at the iridescent colors and varied beauty of its plumage.”
Like any true French chef worth his sel, Pépin has no issue adoring and cooking the same “gentle, convivial and docile” beast. His portrait of “Stately Chicken” faces his recipe for Gizzards, Gizzards and More Gizzards. Pépin no longer keeps chickens on his property — too much travel, too many tenacious raccoons — but collects fresh eggs from a neighbor. How he loves eggs! He writes: “If you asked me to choose a single ingredient that I could not do without, it would likely be the egg.”
Pépin originally created his paintings — mostly oils and acrylics — for himself and for menus. Though painting is a hobby, he isn’t shy about showing off his work — in his books, at a local library exhibition and for sale to partially benefit the Jacques Pépin Foundation, which supports teaching diverse and marginalized students culinary skills to help secure gainful employment. Painting “remains forever as a testament to your creativity,” writes Pépin, a member of an informal celebrity artisans league that includes George W. Bush, King Charles III and Tony Bennett.
Paintings are everywhere in his house, a former brick factory that he once shared with Gloria, his wife of 54 years. She died in December 2020, and photos of her blanket the walls. There are frequent mentions of her in his latest book — which is dedicated to Gloria — though not of her passing. How did he fare during the pandemic? “Not well,” Pépin says barely above a whisper, his 8-year-old miniature poodle, Gaston, resting in his lap.
His longevity and ever-expanding catalogue of books allowed him to update lessons in print, to teach new cooks and to reach younger audiences. “Cooking changes all the time,” he says over a glass of rosé. (With ice!) Pépin changed, too. “He gets new vegetables. He tries new things. He’s always curious,” says his friend, photographer and videographer Tom Hopkins. “As he gets older, he embellishes less and simplifies more.” For lunch, Pépin feasts on a tomato from his garden, cradled in olive oil and blessed with coarse salt.
“I’m very Cartesian. I like to break down a recipe and show how it is done,” he says. “The paradox here is that I can do that recipe five times, and I will never do it exactly the same way but it will come out the same way. When you work in a restaurant, you don’t have a recipe. You do it from training, from instinct. It’s about adjusting balance.”
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His Chicken Bercy recipe, offered without measurements, relies on the home cook’s instincts. It reads in its entirety: “This classic chicken preparation is made by cutting chicken into pieces and sautéing them with shallots and butter until all the pieces are uniformly and nicely browned. After that, it is deglazed with a dry white wine, some demi-glace is added, and finally it’s garnished with sliced mushrooms and small pork sausages and finished with a splash of lemon juice and a piece of butter.”
When a chef pens a library of more than 30 books, it’s understandable that recipes may be revised and stories retold. Why not? Novelists revive characters all the time. Pépin’s latest book revisits tales shared in his 2003 memoir, “The Apprentice,” not to be confused with the TV show that helped launch a presidency. Pépin and his editor, Sarah Kwak, decided that for this book, they would abandon formal recipes in favor of art and stories. “This feels more intimate. He’s talking you through it. It’s how he would tell you to make something when you’re eating with him,” she says.
As he chats readers through recipes for chicken Kiev, chicken liver mousse, eggs en Cocotte and other gustatory delights, Pépin shares the tale of his rise to culinary glory. He left school at age 13 to begin the arduous climb through the ranks of professional French kitchens. He proved to be a remarkable success. In 1959, he arrived in the U.S. The plan: stay a year or so to learn English. He has lived here ever since.
“I’m very existentialist this way,” he says. “You make a decision in life that you’re responsible for, and it may send you into an entirely different area. That’s what life is all about.”
Pépin turned down an offer to become the White House chef creating state dinners for Jackie Kennedy. Instead, he opted to work at Howard Johnson’s, perfecting chicken pot pie for the masses. Then again, Pépin had already served as chef for President Charles de Gaulle.
He regrets not a single fried clam. He worked at HoJo for a decade, rising to executive chef. The experience taught him about American industrial kitchens while exposing him to a more diverse workforce, which he champions through his foundation. It allowed him to study at Columbia University at night. Ultimately, he earned an undergraduate and a master’s degree in French literature.
In 1974, he crashed his car into a deer. The accident nearly killed him and put an end to cooking full time in professional kitchens; endless hours on his feet were no longer an option. The gastronomic existentialist adapted. He became a restaurant consultant. He authored cookbooks. He discovered television. Television discovered him. Audiences were besotted. He collected an Emmy (resting on the fireplace mantle), and 16 James Beard Awards, many for his television work. Does he still eat venison? But of course.
A great irony of Pépin’s culinary odyssey is that while his television partner and occasional comic foil Child became synonymous with French cooking in this country, the immigrant from Bourg-en-Bresse quickly embraced the bounty of his new home and its gamut of international cuisine. His recipes came to extol supermarket staples. In the fridge, he keeps the caviar next to the beer.
The caviar, he stresses, is not beluga but a far more affordable paste blend of roes, marketed with his endorsement. Raised in modest circumstances during World War II, the son of a cabinetmaker and a mother who was a professional cook, Pépin admits to “tightfistedness” and discards little, freezing vegetable tops and chicken bones in milk cartons to use later for stock.
“A recipe is a moment in time,” he says, changing constantly in its execution and evanescent. A meal provides pleasure and then — poof! — it’s gone, a memory. “I so wish I could taste the food that I cooked when I was 25 and cooking for de Gaulle,” he sometimes tells his daughter, Claudine.
He eats almost everything, provided it does feature too much heat, cinnamon, nutmeg or coconut. “I’m pretty much a glutton,” he says. He’s not one to complain in restaurants — imagine the despair it would cause — but Pépin is no fan of “punctuation cooking,” nouvelle cuisine run amok with squeeze-bottle calligraphy. “They touch the food too much. You don’t want to torture it.”
He has relaxed his cooking, but not his style of entertaining. Pépin is a member of a spirited boules club that plays weekends from June to September and consists of about 40 players. He maintains a court on his property, situated between his two full kitchens. Games and festivities last from 1 p.m. well into the evening. When he hosts, it’s a sit-down dinner, prepared by three people: Pépin, his daughter and son-in-law.
“It is a very precise and organized thing. There are passed hot and cold hors d’oeuvres,” Claudine says. “We have to have a first course, served on a separate plate. Maybe there is a cheese course, and salad or dessert. We have stemmed glassware and cloth napkins. That’s up to 200 plates.” Cleanup extends into the wee hours.
When she dared to suggest that they use paper napkins, she recalls, “I got the look,” though she did succeed in substituting bamboo plates for china. Pépin, who abhors wasting food, plans the shopping and menus so efficiently that, Claudine says, “we never have any leftovers. Ever.”
This season, he is promoting “Jacques Pépin Art of the Chicken” on television, at talks and book fairs. “I’m very old. I’m going to be 97 in 10 years,” he says. Yet this book will not be the final word on a cooking career that has endured for more than seven decades. It’s not even his last word on chicken.
He recently submitted the manuscript for his next book — to be published next fall — which will return to a more conventional form: fewer chickens, recipes for budget-minded cooks (those who share his “tightfistedness”), with measurements. And paintings, though not as many.
Jacques Pépin Art of the Chicken
A Master Chef’s Paintings, Stories, and Recipes of the Humble Bird
By Jacques Pépin
Harvest. 228 pp. $30 | 2022-10-01T12:39:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Jacques Pepin, at 86, talks about his new book, 'Art of the Chicken' - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/10/01/jacques-pepin-book/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/10/01/jacques-pepin-book/ |
Some people in Florida were surprised and left unprepared by Hurricane Ian’s sudden shift south
Newly married Justin and Karinna Smith walk with their luggage after riding out the storm at the Lover’s Key Resort near Fort Myers Beach, Fla. (Thomas Simonetti/For The Washington Post)
When Justin Smith checked the weather on Tuesday, he wasn’t worried. The report from WINK News on DirecTV said Hurricane Ian was a threat to Tampa, some 100 miles to the north of Fort Myers Beach, where he was honeymooning with new wife Karinna Smith.
“We were there on our honeymoon,” Smith said. “We were trying to have a good time, not be glued to the TV watching the weather.”
The danger the couple faced as well many others who did not evacuate underscores the challenges of communicating forecasts for storms like Ian. Research shows people often cling to an initial version of forecasts, often missing key updates and changing threats. And meteorologists can struggle to convey the uncertainty in their predictions of a storm’s path and potential, in part because hurricane forecast cones and other tools of communication aren’t as useful as they could be for storms like Ian, whose track toward Florida was difficult to pin down even a day ahead of landfall.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is working to improve communication of uncertain, fast-changing threats, but the task is not straight forward. It involves refining messages and optimizing graphical information to simplify the complex for very diverse audiences and keeping them apprised of important changes. The latter was critical in the case of Ian since small deviations in the predicted track would significantly alter what communities would be affected.
“There were a lot of alternate futures that were possible,” said Kim Klockow-McClain, a research scientist at NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory. “Communication is not as simple when there are a lot of possible outcomes.”
Gina Eosco, a program manager and social scientist at the agency, said it can be a challenge for forecasters to overcome what she called “optimistic bias,” when people focus too much on early forecasts suggesting low risks of storm impacts, and miss updates signaling new and changing hazards.
“It can trick your brain into thinking you can relax and you may not pay as much attention to the forecast,” Eosco said. “And so it’s possible people didn’t hear that message.”
Laura Myers, a senior research scientist at the University of Alabama who studies communication around disasters, applauded the Hurricane Center’s work tracking the storm and broadcasting its threats. And she echoed Eosco, saying people often “anchor” their expectations to early forecasts and then are caught unaware when storm predictions change.
“[Forecasters] know that people are going to cling to that and then walk away and not come back to the information,” Myers said. People form their own “scale of risk aversion” and go back to their daily lives despite broadcast meteorologists encouraging them to check back in for updates, according to Myers.
“If they are shocked about impact, it’s because they anchored,” she said.
That said, the Hurricane Center’s archive of Ian forecasts show that, as its predictions of the storm’s path shifted, meteorologists did not begin to emphasize risks to the area around the eventual landfall point until about a day in advance.
It wasn’t until Tuesday morning, while Ian was passing over western Cuba — that the Hurricane Center extended a hurricane warning southward to cover the stretch of southwestern Florida coastline that would soon be devastated. Even then, the centerline for the predicted storm track passed through Tampa and wasn’t over Fort Myers until 11 p.m. that night.
In the days before that, what would become ground zero for Ian’s devastation was at the edge of areas the Hurricane Center warned were in the storm’s path. Areas to its south, including Naples — which endured a record ocean surge — were left out.
That meant some, like the Smiths, were caught unaware by Ian’s intensity. Smith said he received none of the National Weather Service text alerts that are supposed to broadcast imminent hazards to any cellphones in their path. And he said he got no alarm from hotel staff.
“They didn’t knock on our door,” Justin Smith told The Washington Post. “They didn’t call that room. They didn’t do anything. By the time that we found out we didn’t have a rental car or anything like that, so we were kind of stuck.”
While some meteorologists suggested it was a failure of the Hurricane Center, others stressed that represents a misunderstanding of what the forecast cone actually means. There is a 60 to 70 percent chance a storm’s eye will remain within the cone’s boundaries — meaning in about one out of three cases, the storm will move outside of the cone.
The problem is that the forecast cone is not well-designed for unpredictable storms like Ian, Klockow-McClain said. The width of the cone is based on the Hurricane Center’s past error in storm forecast track predictions, but with Ian, that meant an underestimation of potential error.
“The problem is, with that graphic, we’re communicating about how we’ve done in the past. We’re not saying a whole lot about the uncertainty of the current situation,” Klockow-McClain said.
“Our research has indicated that most people appreciate the worst case scenario,” Myers said. “They appreciate knowing there is a chance that they would be included in the impacts and what the impacts might be.”
Myers said more should be done to educate the public about hurricane meteorology and risks outside of active weather events, so that when storms strike, they aren’t overwhelmed with too much information.
“If you don’t do that in advance and don’t do it in as many different ways as you possibly can, you’re going to have issues with understanding,” Myers said. Even then, it is not guaranteed that the warnings with be properly interpreted.
NOAA has invested heavily in efforts to narrow gaps in communication and improve public perception and understanding of forecasts, Eosco said. Before and after storms, NOAA conducts a multi-wave project to increase their understanding of how well people understood risks, and what actions they took during a hurricane, she said.
And that goes along with Hurricane Center work to improve graphics and messaging around hurricane risks, including adjusting forecast cone images to include wind field sizes so people understand how far dangerous conditions will extend. And the Center has moved to stress that forecast cones are fallible, and that risks extend throughout them and beyond them, though that message doesn’t always get across to the wider public.
“I’m thrilled that if there has to be a hurricane, that we have the ability to learn something from it so that we should improve our communication for future storms,” Eosco said. “If we can find an opportunity of hope here to learn something from it so we can improve such situations and reduce societal impact, that is the type of opportunity NOAA wants to take.”
Meena Venkataramanan contributed to this report. | 2022-10-01T12:39:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Here’s why Ian’s track was hard to predict, and harder to communicate - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/10/01/hurricane-ian-forecast-accuracy-cone/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/10/01/hurricane-ian-forecast-accuracy-cone/ |
An angry mob broke into a jail looking for a Black man—then freed him
This broadside was put up by abolitionists in 1854 when Anthony Burns, who had escape his enslaver and moved to Boston, was recaptured. A riot broke out in an attempt to free him. (Boston Public Library)
He called himself Jerry. He was a skilled cabinetmaker in Syracuse, N.Y., before he got a better-paying job making wooden barrels. He was a light-skinned Black man with reddish hair in his early forties, and as far as anyone knew, he didn’t have any family.
But in the eyes of the law, his name was William Henry, and he was another man’s property. On Oct. 1, 1851, the struggle against slavery in the United States centered on this man’s body, and his forceful liberation became a community holiday, “Jerry Rescue Day,” marked with poetry, song and fundraising.
Since 1843, Jerry’s life had been marked by escape. First he fled his enslavement in Missouri. He may have also narrowly avoided recapture in Chicago and Milwaukee, according to one account. During the winter of 1849-1850, he arrived in Syracuse, a city well known for its strong antislavery bent.
The painful, cutting and brilliant letters Black people wrote to their former enslavers
Even with the high number of White and Black abolitionist leaders and supporters living there, Jerry was still met with at least some racism from co-workers, who saw him as competition. He also had a few run-ins with the law, getting arrested for theft and assault. It isn’t clear how much truth there was to the charges; in any case, he was always soon released.
In late 1850, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, making escape from slavery a federal matter and requiring assistance from local officials in any state, including ones where slavery was illegal. Daniel Webster, a Northern politician who supported the law, predicted a confrontation over its enforcement would happen in Syracuse, according to historian Angela F. Murphy, who wrote a book about the rescue.
“He gives this really thundering speech about how the Fugitive Slave Law would be enforced, even in Syracuse,” Murphy told The Washington Post. “He said even at the next national antislavery convention” — set for October in Syracuse — “it’s going to be enforced.”
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As September gave way to October, the city was packed, not only with hundreds of abolitionists there for the convention but also with thousands of farmers and their families in town for the county fair.
Jerry was working through his lunch break when local police and federal marshals came to detain him . At first, he didn’t resist, probably figuring it would go like his other arrests. Then they arrived at a federal commissioner’s office, and he recognized a White neighbor of his former enslaver. Jerry had been sold in absentia, and the new owner had sent the neighbor up to collect his property.
By this point, a lot of Northern cities had “vigilance committees” — multiracial groups that kept an eye out for slave catchers. One of these committee members spotted Jerry on the way to the office and ran to the church where the convention was being held. Soon, church bells across the city were ringing to alert the whole town.
As a crowd gathered outside the office, prominent abolitionists like Gerrit Smith, Rev. Samuel J. May and Rev. Jermain Wesley Loguen — himself a fugitive slave — along with a handful of lawyers pushed their way inside to aid Jerry at a hearing.
Why Christmas was the best time of year to escape slavery
There isn’t much they could have done, legally speaking, and most likely everyone knew it. Before the hearing could even get going, members of the vigilance committee made a first attempt to free Jerry, taking advantage of the chaotic and crowded room to push him outside. He ran down the street, still handcuffed.
Authorities caught up to him, roughed him up and tried to take him back to the hearing. A fight broke out between police and the crowd, both sides pulling on Jerry’s body until his clothes were torn off. Eventually, police dragged him, bloodied, back into a cell, where they added leg irons.
The sight of the brutality “actually turn[ed] some people into supporters of the move to rescue him,” Murphy said. Many White residents at the time opposed slavery but preferred a gradual, legal approach rather an immediate emancipation that almost by definition required violence, or at least the threat of it.
Jerry began to scream. He shouted. He begged for the crowd outside to help him. He was “in a perfect rage, a fury of passion,” May, the abolitionist and a Unitarian minister, recalled later. May was allowed in the cell to calm Jerry, which didn’t work until May made it clear another attempt to free him was in the works.
In Syracuse, a road and reparations
The hearing resumed at 5:30 p.m. Jerry’s attorneys began raising objections to anything they could to slow it down. Outside, the sun was low in the sky, and the crowd had grown to thousands. Rocks began flying through the windows. After a rock flew past his head, the commissioner adjourned the hearing until the next morning.
Still, the crowd did not disperse; it grew. Some arrived with weapons, others picked up an ax or iron rod from a nearby hardware store with an abolitionist owner. A battering ram appeared. At 8:30 p.m., someone shouted, “Now!”
They smashed windows, rammed the doors and pulled bricks right out of the building’s walls. The marshals inside got off a shot or two, hitting no one, before basically giving up. No one was killed, though one marshal suffered a broken arm when he jumped out of a second-story window. Another, hiding inside the cell with the prisoner, opened the door and pushed Jerry out.
The rescuers carried Jerry to a waiting carriage, which rushed him out of town to a safe house, where his chains were removed. Soon he was on the Underground Railroad to Canada, and safety.
Though it hasn’t been a feature of too many history textbooks, the “Jerry Rescue” was national news at the time. In general, Syracuse residents were happy about it, jokingly asking, “Where’s Jerry?” as they passed one another on the street. More than a dozen organizers were eventually indicted, including Loguen, who fled to Canada. He denied the charges and even said he would return to stand trial if authorities would promise not to send him back into slavery.
“Jerry Rescue Day” became a feather in abolitionist Syracuse’s cap — residents had defied the Fugitive Slave Act and won! — and the city still memorializes the incident with a statue.
This mob, which broke into a jail to liberate rather than lynch, was not unique. Harriet Tubman herself helped storm a jail to free Charles Nalle near Troy, N.Y., in 1860. In 1854 in Milwaukee, abolitionists stormed a jail and freed Joshua Glover, a formerly enslaved man who had been living in nearby Racine for years. And in Boston that same year, thousands rioted after a failed attempt to free a young man named Anthony Burns. His forced return to Virginia solidified opposition to slavery for many Bostonians, including Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.
“We went to bed one night old-fashioned, conservative, Compromise Union Whigs and waked up stark mad Abolitionists,” one observer wrote. (Burns was later sold to abolitionists and freed.)
Usually, the violence of the Civil War is said to have begun on April 12, 1861, with shots fired at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. But perhaps it really started with these battles in the North, where the fight for a man’s freedom could not have been more literal.
More on the history of slavery
She sued her enslaver for reparations and won. Her descendants never knew.
At 88, he is a historical rarity — the living son of a slave | 2022-10-01T12:39:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 'The Jerry Rescue': A mob broke into a jail to free an enslaved man - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/10/01/jerry-rescue-syracuse-slavery/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/10/01/jerry-rescue-syracuse-slavery/ |
They include two unique fossils from an armored plant-eating ankylosaur and a carnivorous theropod
Tony Fiorillo makes a mold of a footprint in 2021 as colleague Paul McCarthy looks on. Fiorillo and his colleagues believe the print was left by magnoavipes, a giant crane-like bird that flew over beaches in Aniakchak, Alaska, roughly 70 million years ago. (Emily Schwing for The Washington Post)
This summer, paleontologist Tony Fiorillo and his team discovered a few new prints along the coastline of a small bay toward the eastern end of Alaska’s Aleutian island chain.
“I’m very excited because it allows us to do a statistical analysis with the robust data,” said a member of Fiorillo’s team, Yoshitsugu Kobayashi, a paleontology professor at Japan’s Hokkaido University Museum. “With a few [prints], it’s like you’re sharing a whisper from dinosaurs, but if you have a huge number, it’s like screaming. The dinosaurs are telling us something.”
The team is collecting data to explain how enormous reptiles were able to survive 75 million years ago in a climate that more closely resembled present-day Seattle or Portland, Ore. A wet and rainy climate and relatively temperate weather doesn’t seem ideal for multi-ton reptiles, but dinosaurs thrived here, Fiorillo said.
Fiorillo, the executive director of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science, has spent 10 field seasons at Aniakchak. The area has intrigued him since he first discovered a dinosaur footprint here in 2002. “Walking these couple of miles, there’s just a truly remarkable frequency of tracks on the beach and in the cliffs,” Fiorillo said, “And I would be a little hard pressed to think of that kind of density in track abundance” elsewhere.
At Aniakchak, the geologist is focusing on a 300-meter-thick (328-yard-thick) section of layered sedimentary rock. “So we know the age of the 300-meter section,” he said, but what’s missing is a layer, or several, within that section that can help provide more details about how and when the climate changed here.
On a trek for Arctic dinosaur footprints in Alaska preserve
Fiorillo and his team will present some of their findings at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Denver. The four-day event begins Oct. 9. | 2022-10-01T12:40:19Z | www.washingtonpost.com | A quake may have uncovered 30 new dinosaur tracks in Alaska - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2022/10/01/alaska-earthquake-dinosaur-tracks/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2022/10/01/alaska-earthquake-dinosaur-tracks/ |
An artist's rendering of Perijasaurus lapaz, a sauropod. Remnants of the dinosaur were found in a mountainous region in Colombia. (Jorge González)
Perijasaurus was up to 39 feet long and lived in the region about 175 million years ago. The specimen is similar to other, smaller sauropod fossils found in India, northern Africa, Europe and southern South America.
The unusual story behind a newly identified dinosaur’s name | 2022-10-01T12:40:25Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Peace accord in Colombia leads to discovery of new dinosaur species - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2022/10/01/dinosaur-discovery-colombian-peace/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2022/10/01/dinosaur-discovery-colombian-peace/ |
One man’s (unused) motion-sickness bag is another’s treasure
( and Courtesy of the Air Sickness Bag Virtual Museum/Washington Post Illustration)
Steve Silberberg was flying from Boston from San Francisco as a college student in 1982 when he took note of the small bag in front of him.
So he swiped the bag — United, light blue, instructions helpfully written on the surface — and put it on his door. Friends started offering bags from their own travels. Thus, the collection that became the Air Sickness Bag Virtual Museum, now numbering more than 3,200 specimens, was born.
“One can tell a lot about an airline’s image from their Air Sickness Bags,” Silberberg, 61, writes on one of the two sites dedicated to his hobby. “Some barf bags are no more than a baggie with a twist tie, while other sickbags could win international design competitions. Are they art? I think so.”
He’s not the only one. Contrary to his thought four decades ago, other collectors around the world share his offbeat enthusiasm, posting their own prized possessions online, trading for new finds and even connecting in person at airline memorabilia events during pre-pandemic times.
Hotel Bibles are still a thing, but probably not for much longer
But the global community of “baggists,” as some call themselves, is small and not growing — in part due to an aging cohort and because fans say bags just aren’t that great anymore. Instead of the branded or whimsically designed ones from the past, many airlines are providing plain white options.
“I think it’s shrinking a bit because of a lack of new bags,” said Bruce Kelly, 79, a retired corrections worker in Anchorage whose maintains Kelly’s World of Airsickness Bags online. His collection tops 7,300, which many of the world’s top enthusiasts have dropped by to see.
Kelly said he believes there were somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 baggists at one point. He’s not sure how many are active now.
Paul Mundy, a Germany-based communications specialist who works in international relations, has nearly 2,500 bags in a collection that started by necessity. (“Have you flown with the toddler?” he asked a reporter with a 2-year-old. “Try it. And you will become interested in airsickness bags, too.”) But he only grabs a new bag on the rare occasions that he flies and hasn’t updated his site, Bagophily.com, for several years.
“The problem is that bag collecting is a sedentary activity,” said Mundy, 64. “You’re either sitting on a plane, which is bad for your varicose veins, or you are sitting in front of a computer thinking up stupid jokes to write about bags and that is sedentary as well.”
The long, slow death of the hotel minibar
In an email, museum registrar Tomohiko Aono said airsickness bags were a “by-product of the limitations of aircraft” in the earlier days of aviation, when planes had to fly at altitudes below 10,000 feet and were more likely to encounter bad weather and turbulence — all contributors to motion sickness.
“As for why they’re popular with collectors, the sky is the limit on possible reasons—as those reasons tend to be very personal,” wrote Megan Callan, assistant director for museum affairs, in an email. “But some might be: they’re small and relatively easy to maintain; they’re [easily] obtained as a memento of one’s journey; and they can display the evolution of both aircraft and airlines, through the use of logos, service marks, and other designs.”
Bag fans agree that one of the top collectibles was produced by the now-defunct Finnaviation, an elegant design showing the profile of a blue reindeer spewing what looks like a pile of sugar cubes. Kelly calls it “the barfing reindeer.”
“You look at it and you say, okay, I know what this is for,” said Silberberg, who lives in Saco, Maine.
A series of cartoonish bags produced by Virgin Atlantic in the mid-2000s is also popular, featuring designs customized to certain routes the airline wanted to promote. Some include vomitous imagery.
The Golden Age of airplane food is over
“Who says something functional can’t be fun? Well, you can’t get much more function than the airline sick bag, so we decided it was time to inject a little creativity into this familiar item,” the airline wrote on the back of its bags in the series. The 20 iterations were the result of an online competition called “Design for Chunks.”
Mundy’s collection includes one bag said to be from Air Force One, though he calls the plastic bag tucked into an envelope “very disappointing.” Not a presidential seal to be found.
“It’s terrible,” he said. “It could be such a prolific play for collectors, but it’s not.”
He’s hoping to take a trip to parts of Africa that he hasn’t yet visited and add to his collection that way.
For Silberberg, the favorite is a bag from the space shuttle obtained by a friend with a family connection to the space agency. The “emesis bag,” as a tag calls it, includes a drawing of a suited-up astronaut.
“This is the trophy bag!” he wrote on the website. “Can you tell that this bag has made my life worth living?”
Silberberg, who owns a company that takes people on fitness-focused backpacking trips, said his ownership of the domains airsicknessbags.com and barfbags.com leads to donations from people who want to purge their own collections. He calls donors or swappers “Patrons of Puke.”
The virtual museum has earned Silberberg a small measure of fame; he is even featured in this year’s Dull Men’s Club Calendar for July. But he’d really love to bring the museum to a brick-and-mortar existence.
“I don’t know if it’ll ever happen, but you know, someday I would love to have a one- or two-room museum off the interstate in the middle of nowhere,” he said. “Where I just sat there all day and people in their Winnebago would show up on their way to an actual vacation and stop in.” | 2022-10-01T12:40:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Meet the people collecting airplane barf bags - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/10/01/airplane-barf-bag-museum/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/10/01/airplane-barf-bag-museum/ |
Wes Moore leads Dan Cox in Md. Gov. race by a 2 to 1 margin, Post-UMD poll finds
Moore shored up support among Democrats and about a fifth of Republicans in a lopsided contest. Political scientist: ‘It’s hard to see how Cox can win.'
SILVER SPRING, MD: Democratic nominee for Maryland Governor Wes Moore speaks during a Maryland Democratic Party's "Blue in '22" post-election unity event in downtown Silver Spring, MD on August 1, 2022. (Craig Hudson for The Washington Post)
Maryland Democrat and political newcomer Wes Moore holds a 32-percentage point lead over Donald Trump-aligned Republican Dan Cox in the governor’s race five weeks before Election Day, a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll finds.
Moore, a veteran and best-selling author, appears to have consolidated support among the Democrats who make up the majority of the electorate, with the poll finding 86 percent of registered Democrats saying they would vote for him if the election were held today.
But 22 percent of registered Republicans also say they would vote for him in November, leaving Cox with a slim — if existent — path to victory.
Michael Hanmer, director of the University of Maryland’s Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement, which co-sponsored the poll, said, “the election is still far enough away for a number of things to change, but given the fundamental features of this race, unless there is a shocking revelation, it is hard to see how Cox can win.”
Detailed crosstabs of poll findings
The poll of 810 Maryland registered voters, conducted by telephone Sept. 22-27, with 79 percent reached on cellphone, finds 60 percent say they would vote for Moore, with 28 percent supporting Cox and 9 percent undecided. The poll’s margin of sampling error is plus or minus four percentage points.
The huge advantage for Moore mirrors President Biden’s 2020 victory in Maryland, when Trump lost by 33 percentage points, one of the largest statewide spreads in the country.
But it marks a departure from Maryland’s typical gubernatorial contests. While the state swings deeply Democratic in national elections, midterm elections are generally hotly contested and voters have elected GOP governors in three of the past five cycles.
Cox, a backbench state lawmaker inspired by pandemic shutdowns to run for governor, has neither shored up his own party nor assembled the cross-party coalition of Republicans, independents and conservative Democrats that gave two terms to outgoing Gov. Larry Hogan (R).
Moore leads in The Post-UMD poll across most regions of the state. His support peaks in the populous Democratic strongholds of Prince George’s County at 78 percent, with 68 percent support in Montgomery County and 60 percent among voters in Baltimore and other parts of central Maryland. Cox and Moore are about even in the rest of the state (45 percent to 43 percent), but Cox leads by 15 points in the more rural areas of Southern Maryland and the Eastern Shore.
Voters have markedly more positive perceptions of Moore than Cox. About 3 in 10 voters have no opinion of either candidate, but 51 percent express a favorable opinion of Moore, nearly double the 28 percent who have a favorable opinion of Cox. Roughly 4 in 10 have an unfavorable impression of Cox; less than 2 in 10 dislike Moore.
The poll finds a large gender gap in support for the candidates, with women supporting Moore by more than 3 to 1 (68 percent to 20 percent), and men backing Moore by 14 points (50 percent to 36 percent).
Walter Oliva Martinez, 30, sees Moore as a politician who understands the needs of marginalized communities.
“There are people in power who don’t care about poor people, those who need help,” said Martinez, a registered Democrat and small business owner from Baltimore County. “There are some [politicians] who run because they want to make money. But then there are those who become [politicians] because they want to do something, they care about the rights of humans.”
Martinez said Moore, who hails from Baltimore and could become the state’s first Black governor, knows the economic struggle of many African Americans. Moore has made reducing income inequality a chief promise and campaigns on “leaving no one behind.”
“He is coming from an African American family and knows how hard life can be … the same [goes] for the Hispanic community,” said Martinez, who grew up in foster care. “We need someone who knows the community and will help.”
Forest Cox, 55, a registered independent, said he was drawn to the Republican nominee’s defense of the constitution and his antiabortion position.
A truck driver from Baltimore County with no relation to the candidate, Cox said that while Trump’s endorsement of Dan Cox caused him to take a deeper look at the freshman legislator’s campaign, it was Cox’s positions that won his vote. “I’m not a sheep. Just because Trump supports him doesn’t mean I am.”
The poll finds 58 percent view Cox’s ideas and policies as similar to the former president’s, 15 percent say he is different and 27 percent have no opinion.
Economy is leading concern
Cox’s support is relatively strong among voters who rank the economy as their top issue, and voters are more focused on it than any other issue.
The economy was the most important issue for 24 percent of registered voters in The Post-UMD poll, and half of those voters say they would vote for Cox, compared with 39 percent who support Moore. With inflation at a 40-year high, the stock market tumbling and a potential recession looming, political experts see the economy as an issue with potential to boost Cox’s showing in November.
“The windows [of opportunity] are really just on the economy and taxes and some sort of catastrophic mistake from Wes Moore,” Hanmer said of Cox’s chances.
Daniel Polyasko, 39 and a registered independent from St. Mary’s County, said he’s worried about gas prices, the cost of groceries and rising interest rates and doesn’t think Democratic leaders are as fiscally responsible as Republicans.
“Just everything in general is really going up and kind of scary,” he said. Polyasko plans to vote for Cox, who also shares his views on not teaching students about gender identity and structural racism.
But the poll shows a vast majority of voters who are concerned about other issues intend to pick Moore on Election Day.
One in 5 voters are most concerned about threats to democracy — voters’ second-most important issue after the economy — and 82 percent of those voters say they would vote for Moore. Cox has called the 2020 election “stolen” and has yet to commit to accepting the results of the November contest.
“He’s way out there,” John Jackson, 61, said of the Republican nominee. Jackson, a Democrat from Charles County, said since the 2016 election and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, his No. 1 issue has become the preservation of democracy, which he believes Cox would threaten if elected governor.
“He is endorsed by Trump, believes in QAnon conspiracies and is an election denier,” Jackson said. “That’s the kind of person we do not want in the State House.” Cox has attended an event with QAnon speakers, but has said he is not a conspiracy theorist.
Jackson said his vote for Moore is more of a vote against Cox. “They are both political neophytes,” he said. “But in Moore’s case, a) I can support an African American and b) I’m going with someone who is going to be on the left of election deniers.”
This year, voters are more animated about the possibility of electing the state’s first Black governor than eight years ago, when then-Lt. Gov Anthony G. Brown, who is Black, was on the ticket. Forty-four percent say it is somewhat or very important for Moore to pass that milestone, compared with 33 percent in 2014 for Brown.
Voters’ other top concerns when selecting a nominee are crime and public education, each motivating 14 percent, with abortion at 11 percent and taxes at 8 percent.
Majority backs abortion rights
Victoria Hite, 21, is a self-described “pro-gun, pro-police” registered Republican who says she plans to vote for Moore because, like her, he supports abortion rights.
She worries that Cox, if elected, would limit reproductive rights in Maryland and create barriers to abortion access for women who may come from other states. Hite, a full-time student, said the former president’s endorsement of Cox did not carry any weight in swaying her to consider Cox.
“Overall Trump’s performance was lacking, in my opinion,” she said. “If they are not for women and our right to choose, I would have a hard time going with them.”
Cox introduced 14 bills to limit funding or roll back access to abortion over the past four years and describes himself as “100 percent” against abortion. Moore supports putting abortion rights into the Maryland constitution, a position that the poll showed aligns with a majority of voters.
Seventy-eight percent of voters support such a state constitutional amendment, with 16 percent opposed.
By a somewhat smaller margin, voters also roundly disagree with the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which ruled there is not a constitutional right to abortion. Sixty-seven percent oppose the ruling, and 29 support it.
Hogan posts high approval ratings
Hogan is poised to leave office in January with the highest approval ratings of any governor in the two decades The Post has polled voters.
Seventy-three percent of registered voters approve of the job he is doing, with 36 percent “strongly approving” of his tenure. His approval rating is high among all political affiliations, including 77 percent among independents and 70 percent among Democrats.
Hogan gets approval from 74 percent of registered Republicans, but his fellow partisans do not prefer him over Trump in a potential presidential matchup. In such a hypothetical race for the White House — Hogan is weighing a 2024 bid — 59 percent of Republicans say they would vote for Trump, compared with 35 percent for Hogan.
One of the governor’s signature transportation projects got net favorable views from voters: 50 percent support his plan to add tolled express lanes to Interstate 270 and the Beltway in Maryland, with 42 percent opposed. The project received about the same support now as it did in 2019.
Cox seen as ideological, Moore as center-left
Hogan was the just the second Republican in state history to win a second term and voters largely viewed him as a center-right figure, polling showed.
Despite Democrats’ greater than 2-to-1 advantage in party registration, Maryland voters most commonly identify their views on politics as moderate at 44 percent, with 31 percent identifying as liberal and 23 percent as conservative.
Voters also view Cox as more ideological than Moore. Fifty-five percent of voters say Cox is conservative, with 36 percent saying Cox is very conservative. Moore is viewed as more of a centrist: 43 percent of voters consider Moore as liberal, 25 percent middle-of-the-road.
Moore’s 32-point advantage over Cox in The Post-UMD poll is larger than his 22-point advantage in a Sept. 8-12 poll by Goucher College.
The surveys were both largely administered by live interviewers on cellphones and landlines, but The Post-UMD poll was conducted two weeks later and its methodology differed somewhat from the Goucher poll. Comparing the findings, The Post-UMD poll finds greater support for Moore than the Goucher poll among registered Republicans (22 percent in The Post-UMD poll vs. 6 percent in Goucher), White voters (53 percent vs. 42 percent), as well as women and voters without college degrees. | 2022-10-01T13:09:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Wes Moore leads Dan Cox in Md. Gov. race by a 2 to 1 margin, Post-UMD poll finds - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/10/01/maryland-poll-moore-cox/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/10/01/maryland-poll-moore-cox/ |
Coral Vita, a for-profit company, aims to grow corals up to 50 times faster than in nature, improve their resilience to climate change and provide large-scale restoration services through land-based farms
Story by Allyson Chiu
Illustrations by Stef Wong
GRAND BAHAMA, Bahamas — Sam Teicher hovers over a section of Rainbow Reef, his yellow and black scuba fins stilling in the turquoise waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Contrary to the reef’s colorful name, the corals below him make up a bleak palette of grays. He looks up from the broken, stick-like pieces and uses one hand to make a slicing motion across his throat. Dead.
Leaving the coral graveyard behind, Teicher swims to another area of the reef nearby, carefully steering clear of healthy elkhorn corals that dot the seascape.
Tiny, yellow fish dart away as he moves closer to a cluster of finger-sized staghorn corals — a critically endangered species essential for reef-building — protruding from a plate attached to the reef. Teicher gestures toward the lemon-hued branches, then points at himself. Ours.
The small collection of corals is one of many that were farmed on land and then planted onto reefs near Grand Bahama island this year by Coral Vita, a company founded by Teicher and fellow Yale University graduate Gator Halpern that is trying to help drive restoration of coral reefs — vital ecosystems that are being decimated around the world by climate change.
Efforts to revive coral reefs have existed for decades. Traditionally, restoration has involved growing corals in the ocean, with natural growth rates per year ranging from less than a centimeter to up to 10 centimeters, depending on the species. But as the threat against reefs has intensified, researchers are introducing innovative methods to farm, grow and plant healthy corals more efficiently.
These advances include growing them in tanks on land, or using advanced techniques to boost growth rates and resiliency to the changing environment. Coral Vita’s founders say they are integrating a range of these approaches — such as cutting corals into small pieces, a process known as “microfragmentation” — to grow corals up to 50 times faster than in nature, improve their resilience to climate change and provide large-scale restoration services through land-based farms.
The idea behind a farm model that combines science and production technology is to “reframe the process of coral farming from kind of a coral-gardening style that it traditionally has been and move it more towards a coral-factory-style setup,” says Halpern, 32, the company’s president.
In another twist, Coral Vita is operating as a for-profit company — an approach to funding that has drawn some skepticism within a field dominated by nonprofit organizations and research institutions that are typically funded by grants and philanthropic donations. But Teicher and Halpern say their for-profit model, which can generate revenue from various sources including restoration contracts and ecotourism, is necessary to repair reefs on a massive scale.
Traditional coral farming has “a very important role to play,” Halpern says.
But Teicher, 32, the company’s “chief reef officer,” says a for-profit model may unlock sources of funding that could help make the field less dependent on grants and donations at a time when climate change and human activity, such as overfishing and pollution, are rapidly degrading coral reefs.
While reefs occupy less than 1 percent of the ocean floor, but are home to more than 25 percent of marine life. They also provide a host of essential resources to people, such as food, coastal protection, and income from tourism and fisheries.
Coral can be particularly vulnerable to rising ocean temperatures. If the water is too warm, corals will expel the algae that live in their tissues. These algae not only give corals their vibrant colors, but also serve as a source of nutrients. Without their plant partners, corals turn white, a process known as coral bleaching, and can die over time.
Mass die-offs of coral reefs, which are also affected by disease and ocean acidification, would have far-reaching ecological, economic and security consequences, scientists say. Their demise could deplete biodiversity, eliminate a major source of food and income for people, and leave coastal areas even more vulnerable to powerful waves and extreme weather.
[Climate change killed 14% of the world’s coral reefs in a decade, study finds]
Since launching its pilot farm in Freeport on the island of Grand Bahama in 2019, months before a powerful hurricane devastated the island, Coral Vita has attracted global attention. The company was recognized last year as one of five inaugural Earthshot Prize winners, an environmental award established by Britain’s Prince William that gives awardees a million pounds (about $1.07 million in today’s dollar) each to fund their work.
“There are 100 countries and territories, more or less, with coral reefs,” Teicher says. “There need to be large-scale coral farms in every single one of them.”
[Earthshot Prize: These innovations could win 1 million pounds from Prince William]
Coral Vita — which has raised more than $4 million in funding from a roster of investors including Sustainable Ocean Alliance, Apollo Projects and Builders Initiative — planted their corals for the first time earlier this year. The company has grown its team to more than a dozen people, with plans to expand further. But Teicher says that it matters less whether Coral Vita is involved in these other farms, as long as “the impact is happening.”
“Coral restoration is not a silver bullet. We need to stop killing coral reefs,” he says.
But with scientists warning that climate change could largely wipe out the world’s coral reefs by 2050 without a major cut in greenhouse gas emissions, Teicher says the Coral Vita team is focused on another target: for there to be a “thriving restoration economy where reefs and communities are prosperous and healthy and surviving because we’re investing and taking care of them.”
“Hopefully, we can have a transformative model,” he says. “You can do for-profit for good.”
Scalable ‘smart’ farms
Signs at the intersections of weathered roads direct visitors to the Coral Vita farm, a collection of utilitarian structures sitting on about two-and-a-half acres of land that run along part of Grand Bahama’s extensive seawater canal system. Neat rows of turquoise and white tanks sit under nets of black shade cloth stretched over an open-air structure made of wooden beams. A chocolate brown, two-story building nearby houses the farm’s laboratory and indoor workspaces.
“It really is one of the most state-of-the-art facilities for coral restoration,” says Teicher, who strolls around the farm in a company T-shirt, navy board shorts and worn, brown flip-flops.
Typically, pieces of coral are grown in underwater nurseries before being planted on reefs — a common process that is low cost, doesn’t require complex technology and keeps the corals in their natural environment. Coral pieces are typically hung like ornaments from treelike structures made of PVC pipes before being transplanted back onto reefs or used as stock to grow more corals. But these corals are often vulnerable to the elements, as well as disease and predation, says Jessica Ward, the U.S. Virgin Islands coral manager at the Nature Conservancy.
Land-based nurseries — such as the Coral Vita farm, where corals are nurtured in tanks before being planted onto reefs — are becoming more common.
While the operations tend to come with a hefty price tag and are more labor intensive, they provide an opportunity to raise corals in a controlled environment where experimental methods could be used and “allows for scalability of restoration,” Ward says.
“Restoring reefs at scale means we can restore large areas of reef in a shorter amount of time than more traditional methods, and more efficiently, with the goal of getting reefs to a point where they are self-sustaining faster,” she says. “This is crucial to saving coral reefs in the face of myriad threats that are not abating, particularly climate change.”
The bits of coral growing in the tanks at Coral Vita’s farm are the product of microfragmentation, where cutting larger chunks of coral into small pieces stimulates growth in the same way human skin heals from a wound. Marine biologist David E. Vaughan, who is credited with discovering the method, says it is “a game changer for corals.”
In just a couple of years, microfragments cut from the same coral that are planted onto reefs can eventually fuse together to become a head of coral, a process that would take anywhere from 25 to 100 years to happen naturally, says Vaughan, who consulted for Coral Vita during its earlier years but no longer has financial ties to the operation.
What’s more, he says, even though these corals are “only kindergartners,” their size triggers them to act like mature corals and become reproductive during spawning season.
Coral Vita is also beginning to experiment with “assisted evolution,” or techniques aimed at accelerating adaptive processes that happen in nature. For corals, these methods largely focus on improving resilience to climate change, such as increasing heat tolerance, says Madeleine van Oppen, one of the researchers who published a foundational scientific paper on assisted evolution in 2015.
There is “no genetic modification, but it’s just speeding up what happens naturally,” says van Oppen, a professor at the University of Melbourne and the Australian Institute of Marine Science.
One approach, for instance, involves breeding the most heat-tolerant corals found on the reef to produce heat-tolerant offspring for restoration. These corals can be identified by exposing corals to environmental conditions that reflect a warming planet and observing how the specimens react.
Some worry that assisted evolution techniques "would create a super coral that will outcompete anything that is still there,” van Oppen says. “I personally think that’s quite unlikely. The improvements that we see are relevant, but not such that I think that they will just wipe out anything.”
[Scientists are weighing radical steps to save coral]
Additionally, the farm is outfitted with a high-tech aquaculture system, referred to by Coral Vita employees as the “life support system,” which supplies water to the tanks and can regulate water quality through temperature, pH and other adjustable settings.
The land-based system can be replicated elsewhere, Teicher says, with some adjustments for a region’s specific coral. “It can be very plug and play, which is really important for being scalable.” he says.
Selling restoration
The potential for scalability is critical to Coral Vita’s business plan, which is connected to the idea of “selling restoration as a service,” Teicher says.
While Teicher says that grants and awards have made up a “larger chunk” of the company’s revenue streams, Coral Vita signed its first restoration contracts with the Bahamian government and the Grand Bahama Port Authority in 2021. Though the payment amounts are “not that large,” he says that “for any island nation government to commit funds to something like coral reef restoration is amazing.”
[The professor who assigns value to nature — then persuades world leaders to save it]
The company has also been able to generate revenue through other sources. For instance, paying visitors can take an educational tour of the farm. Coral Vita also has an adopt-a-coral program, through which individuals and corporations can sponsor anything from small fragments to entire tanks. Last year, Teicher says, the coral adoption program brought in more than $60,000.
The work “speaks to their commitment to Grand Bahama, speaks to their commitment to the Bahamas, and it speaks to their commitment to sea life,” says Clay Sweeting, the minister of agriculture and marine resources in the Bahamas. “It’s a big task to undertake.”
The business, Teicher and Halpern say, has weathered its share of challenges.
“It’s been a long and rocky road to get here,” said Halpern, speaking over Zoom from Saudi Arabia.
“We’re not a for-profit because we get to make money and become rich,” he adds. “The amount of funding available in the philanthropic nonprofit space is a drop in the bucket in terms of the opportunity that exists to be able to make a difference if you’re able to harness the power of capitalism for the benefit of the environment.”
But the company’s for-profit model has prompted some skepticism.
“All the other groups that are working on these problems are doing it for the good of the planet and not to make a profit,” says Gail Woon, a marine biologist and founder of Earthcare, a nonprofit environmental education organization based in Grand Bahama. “I’ve always had a problem with that part of their project.”
It also remains to be seen if a for-profit approach such as Coral Vita’s can have its intended large-scale impact on the reef, says Vaughan, who now heads the nonprofit Plant A Million Corals Foundation, which he founded.
A farm operation that may have, at minimum, about a couple million dollars in start-up costs and plants fewer than 5,000 to 10,000 corals a year “isn’t the economic scale that we need to get this to,” Vaughan says, adding that hundreds of thousands of operations “costing couple of dollars a coral” will be required.
“This is a different philosophy and a different model, and if that is what gets corals planted to save our reefs, save our ocean and save our planet, great,” Vaughan adds. “We’re going to go and stick with the nonprofit model and try to get there faster with the ability to get to scale.”
Still, Woon says, she believes Coral Vita’s work holds promise. “It is scalable, and it is doable,” she says. “I want to see them be successful.”
Rocky beginnings
It all started in 2013 with a conversation between two friends in their first year of graduate school at what is now known as the Yale School of the Environment. They were hanging out on the back porch of a clapboard house on a tree-lined residential street in New Haven.
Despite being a scuba diver, Halpern, a San Diego native, had never heard about the possibility of restoring degraded reefs. Meanwhile, Teicher, who grew up in D.C. and also dives, had worked on a coral restoration project that used the traditional method of growing corals in underwater nurseries.
As Teicher recounted this experience to Halpern, the two realized they could try to take a different approach.
Armed with their idea and some funding from grants, the pair enlisted the help of coral experts such as Vaughan. Coral Vita landed its first investor in 2016 and others soon followed, including former Washington Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer, who now plays for the New York Mets, and his wife Erica.
Teicher and Halpern chose Grand Bahama as the site for the company’s first farm after evaluating factors such as water quality at restoration sites as well as potential for ecotourism and local and government partnerships. They moved to the seahorse-shaped island in 2018.
By May of the following year, the farm was open and operational, growing 24 native species of coral. (Most restoration projects in the Caribbean grow between two to five species, Teicher says.)
They experienced a coral spawning event, a natural phenomenon where corals in the ocean reproduce by releasing their eggs and sperm at the same time. School groups were touring the farm. Restoration inquiries were coming in.
Then, on Sept. 1, 2019, Hurricane Dorian slammed into Grand Bahama, generating a 17-foot storm surge that left much of the farm underwater. Despite their best efforts to secure everything, the company’s tanks were washed away and none of the corals survived — a year and a half’s worth of work lost.
“It just was destruction,” Teicher recalls.
Elsewhere on Grand Bahama, though, the devastation was much worse. Entire homes were gone. Dozens of people were dead, and even more were missing, numbers that are probably underestimates of the storm’s true toll. Emergency responders couldn’t reach parts of the island where roads were blocked by water and storm debris or that had been completely washed out.
Coral farming was no longer an immediate priority. “We’ll just go help people,” Teicher says, remembering the decision to pivot to assisting with relief efforts. “There’s nothing else to do but help people at this point. That’s what we could do.”
Alannah Vellacott, 32, Coral Vita's coral restoration specialist.
Teicher says he and other Coral Vita employees were among the first people to reach some of the island’s eastern settlements, including High Rock, which was one of the communities hit hardest by Dorian.
“Coral Vita turned into Rescue Vita,” says Alannah Vellacott, a marine ecologist and Grand Bahama native who was Coral Vita’s first Bahamian employee.
“I’m really, really grateful that they wanted to be those people for the Grand Bahamians that lived in the Eastern communities,” says Vellacott, 32, whose childhood home was destroyed during Dorian.
As the community of Grand Bahama began the process of recovering from Dorian, so did Coral Vita. The company recovered all but one of its coral tanks and began rebuilding in November 2019.
“I thought they would come in, see that it’s not worth it, or come in, run out of money,” Vellacott says. But “they stayed after Dorian,” she adds, eyes glossing over, voice thick. “It was then that I realized that they were actually going to stick around.”
Since reopening the farm in March 2020 and surviving the pandemic, “basically everything is finally where we want to be,” Teicher says on one sweltering August morning as he walks along a path by the coral tanks.
From February to July this year, Coral Vita completed its first out-planting session, planting roughly 5,600 corals grown at the farm across two areas of reef. While some permitting issues and inclement weather impacted their ability to hit their goal of planting 10,000 corals by the summer, Teicher says, the team hopes to have that many corals, and ideally more, planted by the end of the year.
But the company intends for its impact to go beyond the environment, its founders say.
Coral Vita works with other local environmental organizations, and more than half of its growing staff is Bahamian, according to Teicher.
“I don’t want to give my child an ocean that they cannot be fed by, be comforted by, that they can’t play in and have a great time,” says Vellacott, who grew up exploring mangroves in the backyard of her childhood home and the expansive ocean that surrounds the island. A gold conch pendant — “a reminder of who I am and where I came from” — and a signet ring that belonged to her father, a biology teacher, hang from a gold chain around her neck.
Vellacott looks out from the second story of the farm’s main building, motioning in the direction of the rows of tanks. “This is all going to be for my children, for my nieces and nephews, for future Bahamians, for this region,” she says.
“We’re not going to see restored reefs in our lifetime,” she adds. “None of this is for us. It’s for the future.”
Story editing by Dayana Sarkisova. Photo editing by Olivier Laurent. Illustration animation by Emma Kumer. Design and development by Hailey Haymond. Copy editing by Paola Ruano.
Allyson Chiu is a reporter focusing on climate solutions for The Washington Post. She previously covered wellness and worked overnight on The Post's Morning Mix team. Twitter Twitter | 2022-10-01T13:18:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Meet the coral farm restoring reefs wrecked by climate change - Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/interactive/2022/coral-farms-restoration-bahamas-coral-vita/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/interactive/2022/coral-farms-restoration-bahamas-coral-vita/ |
Lamar Jackson has elevated his offensive numbers this season. (Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
OWINGS MILLS, Md. — There is an argument to be made that Lamar Jackson is not only the best quarterback in the game right now but the best football player period. And if he comes anywhere close to maintaining his current level, we may be witnessing the greatest season anyone has ever seen.
Jackson, 25, is playing better than he ever has — better than he played during his unanimous 2019 MVP campaign — at a time when more is being asked of him. Jackson was hesitant to admit as much when I probed him about it after Wednesday’s practice, but he didn’t entirely dismiss the notion, either. Through three games, the Ravens quarterback leads the NFL in quarterback rating and passing touchdowns while also eviscerating defenses when they blitz — his supposed boogeyman — and dominating when throwing in the pocket, another supposed weakness, according to a lazy misapprehension about his game. He’s throwing efficiently from under center, too, a new wrinkle in offensive coordinator Greg Roman’s evolving system that could portend even more transcendence from his most gifted pupil.
Oh, and Jackson is tied for fifth in the NFL with 243 rushing yards — despite having far fewer attempts than most top running backs — for a staggering average of 9.3 yards per rush, more than twice the league average. Remove his five kneel downs, and he has 21 actual rushes for 248 yards and an astounding 11.8 yards per carry, while also ranking second in the NFL in air yards per pass, according to TruMedia. This is football’s version of Shohei Ohtani, so it was absolutely fitting that cameras captured baseball’s two-way GOAT wearing Jackson’s No. 8 jersey during the NFL’s opening weekend.
The Cardinals doubled down on the Kliff and Kyler Show. It isn’t working.
“You kind of get used to seeing him do this stuff, but you know it’s not normal,” veteran running back Justice Hill said. “He’s a once-in-a-generation player. It’s crazy to see what he does.”
Jackson’s 12 total touchdowns are more than any NFL team through three weeks save for the upstart Detroit Lions, who also have 12. He is the first player in NFL history with at least 10 passing touchdowns and 200 rushing yards through his team’s first three games. He is the only player in history with consecutive games of both three touchdown passes and 100 rushing yards, and in Week 2 he became the first player with 300 passing yards, three or more passing touchdowns, 100 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown all in the same contest. (Somehow the Ravens still lost to the Miami Dolphins, an indictment of the depths of a once-proud defense.)
A tall task awaits Sunday with the Buffalo Bills traveling to M&T Bank Stadium, but there are reasons to believe the Ravens’ passing game can maintain this ascent — and that Jackson’s campaign will continue to look significantly different than his prior MVP season. Roman and the Ravens have reinvented themselves on first down, going from a revolutionary three-headed monster rushing attack in 2019 to a newly aggressive air approach.
In 2019, Baltimore dropped back on first down just 39.3 percent of the time, the lowest in the NFL, riding a record-setting run game that often set up Jackson in third and short. The Ravens have struggled to run the ball nearly that well since injuries to top backs J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards before last season. This year, Jackson is dropping back on about 50 percent of first downs — nearly the NFL average — and has the league’s best passer rating on first down.
Jackson, still playing out the fifth-year option on his rookie contract and somehow just the 15th-highest-paid quarterback in the NFL this season, is taking more deep shots on early downs in general and running more play-action looks under center. And he lit up when asked about it.
“I love it,” Jackson said, beaming. “I feel like it’s very effective, because defenses don’t know whether you’re running the ball or dropping back to pass with the play action — stuff like that. So I feel like it’s helping us out a lot.”
Roman said, “I really think it adds a different dimension to what we can do moving forward.”
The Ravens still aren’t putting their quarterback under center as much as most teams, but the metamorphosis is striking nevertheless. Jackson set a career high with four passes under center two weeks ago — then set a new high with five last week. And there is every indication more is on the way.
“Greg had talked about that in the offseason, getting Lamar under center,” Coach John Harbaugh said. “That’s valuable for us. There’s a run game that goes with that; there’s a pass game that goes with that. It’s better in some short-yardage situations to be able to do that. We’ve usually done it in short yardage, but we’ve expanded it to first and second down now. So I think it’s been good for us. Like anything else, we have to keep building on it.”
Jackson was almost exclusively in pistol and shotgun looks at Louisville and said going under center in high school was not an option. “Nah, my center was too small,” Jackson cracked. The quarterback attempted 36 passes from under center in his previous four NFL seasons combined, but when you discount spikes to stop the clock and passes from goal line formations, he attempted to throw the ball downfield from under center just 18 times. This season he already is 11 for 12 when passing under center for 106 yards, two touchdowns and a sparkling 143.1 rating. He has attempted nine first-down throws under center and completed eight, a big reason the Ravens lead the NFL in yards per first-down play.
“Being under center, it’s a lot different with your footwork,” rookie practice squad quarterback Anthony Brown said. “Lamar’s thrown himself all in. He’s been diving into it every day. We work on it pre-practice and after practice and stuff like that. Lamar is a student of the game, and he loves football, and he’s going hard at it to do the best he can ever do. … He’s able to give a great fake, which he always has been, and he’s able to draw those backers and safeties down, and he’s able to throw it over top of them or throw it to the holes they create. It’s been really good.”
Overall, Jackson has been a demon on play-action passes, especially on first down, when he has some of the best numbers in the game, including an NFL-best 156.9 passer rating. “Our offense is always evolving,” Hill noted, “and we’re always looking for ways to expose defenses. And with Lamar at quarterback, anything is possible.”
Jackson, doing all of this despite a suspect offensive line and with no proven impact pass catcher save for tight end Mark Andrews, has made big gains dissecting opposing defenses when they blitz as well. His vulnerability to the blitz was a common refrain during his injury-shortened 2021 season, and defensive coordinators leaned into that strategy. Jackson has been blitzed on 41.4 percent of his drop-backs, the most in the NFL. He has responded by going 25 for 37 for 10.27 yards per attempt (fourth in NFL) with six touchdowns (first), no interceptions and a rating of 140.8 (second).
“Just a lot of studying, a lot of work out here on the field, and it’s translating over to games,” Jackson said of his gains against the blitz. Meanwhile, all the blitzing means Jackson sees more man coverage than any other quarterback, creating ripe running lanes to exploit.
So what do defensive coordinators try now? Most young quarterbacks, even the great Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen, struggle against dime coverages, or exotic looks with seven defensive backs on the field. The New York Jets tried some of that Week 1 against the Ravens; it didn’t work. Jackson has among the fewest drop-backs among qualified quarterbacks with five or more defensive backs on the field — expect that to rise — but has the third-best passer rating in those situations (106.5) with six touchdowns to one interception.
All of this raised the question I posed to the man himself: Is this the best Lamar Jackson has ever played? It prompted a pregnant, possibly telling, pause.
“It’s too early,” Jackson said. “It’s too early right now. It’s only three games. It’s too early.” | 2022-10-01T13:31:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How Lamar Jackson and the Ravens reinvented themselves - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/01/lamar-jackson-ravens-offense/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/01/lamar-jackson-ravens-offense/ |
Post Elizabeth: Palace video footage demands are an early red flag
WINDSOR, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 24: (NEWS EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NO SALES. NO USE AFTER OCTOBER 2 WITHOUT PRIOR APPROVAL FROM ROYAL COMMUNICATIONS) EDITORIAL USE ONLY. The photograph shall not be used without permission from Royal Communications. There shall be no commercial use whatsoever of the photograph (including any use in merchandising, advertising or any other non-editorial use). The photograph must not be digitally enhanced, manipulated or modified in any manner or form when published. The photograph is for free use until October 2, 2022. Thereafter the photograph is available only via Royal Collection Trust. In this image released by the Buckingham Palace, the ledger stone, following the interment of the late Queen Elizabeth II, is installed at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle on September 24, 2022 in Windsor, England. (Photo by Royal Collection Trust/The Dean and Canons of Windsor via Getty Images) (Handout/Getty Images)
Pageantry and spectacle are part of the British crown’s DNA. But the idea that footage of recent events honoring Queen Elizabeth II is not in the public domain might be the most ancient thing about the monarchy.
British broadcasters gave Buckingham Palace veto power over use of footage from the queen’s funeral, the Guardian newspaper reported last week. Although the unedited broadcast remains online temporarily — through platforms such as BBC iPlayer — what happens to the material in a few weeks is unclear. “Royal staff sent messages to the BBC, ITV News and Sky News during the event with the timestamps of footage they wished to exclude from future news broadcasts and social media clips,” the Guardian reported. Five video clips removed from circulation included members of the royal family.
Then came a bigger palace demand: that broadcasters “produce a 60-minute compilation of clips they would like to keep from ceremonial events held across the 10 days of mourning for the Queen. The royal household will then consider whether to veto any proposed inclusions,” the Guardian reported Sunday.
“Once the process is complete, the vast majority of other footage from ceremonial events will then be taken out of circulation,” media editor Jim Waterson wrote. “Any news outlets wishing to use unapproved pieces of footage would have to apply to the royal family on a case-by-case basis, even for material that has already been broadcast to tens of millions of people.”
Broadcasting the funeral and procession of the queen’s coffin from London to Windsor was such a massive undertaking that the BBC worked with ITV and Sky News. Some 28 million people in Britain watched the broadcast, along with more than 11 million in the United States.
As Newsweek noted, the location of some televised events are ultimately under royal control, which could have shaped permissions for filming. But the issues here are larger than respectful coverage of a family in mourning and whether footage is replayed of, say, a grandson-in-law of the queen seen checking his watch.
A critical question is who controls the historical record of public events, especially when footage of those events has already been broadcast. By dictating what video can no longer circulate, the palace might hope to quash unflattering moments such as the new king’s frustration with an inkpot when he signed documents related to his accession. Photos of the stone marking the final resting place of Queen Elizabeth II — seen at the top of this page — circulated this week with explicit instructions that they may be published until Oct. 2, after which point royal permission must be requested.
One of the challenges before the new king is how best to showcase the monarchy’s relevance today. It’s hard to think of a less 21st-century approach than a hereditary monarchy dictating what clips of public proceedings are ever seen again.
In honor of free speech on this side of the Atlantic, here’s Post video of one of those pen moments that went viral.
Britain's King Charles III appeared to be frustrated by a leaking pen during a visit to Northern Ireland's Hillsborough Castle on Sept. 13. (Video: Reuters)
In other royal news
Majestic monogram: The cypher of the new king was unveiled this week, with Charles III being represented by an intertwined C and R, with a smaller-size III set within the R, and a crown above the letters. The letters will be seen on state documents and public objects such as mailboxes. It draws on Latin, with a slight difference for kings and queens. Elizabeth II’s cypher was EIIR, which stood for Elizabeth II Regina. In Latin, regina means queen. Charles’s CIIIR stands for Charles III Rex, as rex means king in Latin.
Wales watch: Although the titles Prince and Princess of Wales might be new, the couple possibly better known as Prince William and Kate Middleton were in familiar territory on Tuesday when they visited a few places in Wales. One stop was Anglesey, where they lived as newlyweds. Last week, the couple were seen in Windsor, where they thanked volunteers and staff who helped organize the public committal service for the queen. Talking about the tributes to his grandmother, William said, “There are certain moments that catch you out. You are prepared for all but certain moments catch you out,” according to the Daily Mail.
In Canada, interest in the monarchy remains mostly an elite thing, writes Post contributing columnist J.J. McCullough.
In Bermuda, Britain’s oldest overseas territory, reactions to the queen’s death varied. “Talk of independence here has long ebbed and flowed,” reports Amanda Coletta. About 73 percent of voters rejected a break with the monarchy in a 1995 referendum.
Final marker: Buckingham Palace released a photo Sept. 24 of the ledger stone marking where Queen Elizabeth II has been buried, with her husband, within St. George’s Chapel on the Windsor Castle grounds. The castle reopened for public tours on Thursday. For those wondering why the queen had a lead-lined coffin: The practice dates to an incident involving the corpse of William the Conquerer in 1087 — that is, in pre-embalming days. A practical consideration of lead-lined coffins? Soldiers act as royal pallbearers in an effort to ensure the extra hundreds of pounds are carried without incident.
Must-see TV: The BBC released a documentary in May called “Elizabeth: The Unseen Queen” to coincide with the Platinum Jubilee celebrations this past summer. Thanks to special access to the queen’s personal collection of family videos and photos, the program included lots of previously unseen images — including young Princess Elizabeth riding her tricycle and jumping rope, her wedding in 1947, and, later, her coronation as queen. What’s notable now? Elizabeth reflected on some of the footage in May — and the audio commentary is even more powerful in the wake of her death.
Send me your tweets! Thank you to all the readers who shared guesses about the timing of Charles’s coronation. I admit, in expecting a ceremony this year, I probably didn’t give enough weight to winter weather considerations for large crowds. Another factor for delay might be the fact that the British government — which is dealing with some significant economic challenges at the moment — has already borne the costs of Platinum Jubilee celebrations and the queen’s funeral proceedings this year. Still, I think a coronation is likely to come sooner rather than later. Now, I’m expecting an announcement for spring. Tweet your predictions to me (@Autumnsan1).
Coverage from around The Post
King Charles is the epitome of inherited everything, writes critic Robin Givhan. At 73, he signals not the future but so much work that remains to be done in the here and now, thanks to “all the history and turmoil and empire-building he symbolizes. He’s the White male heir at a time when White male privilege at all levels has been vigorously called into question,” she writes. “He is a distillation of our contemporary grievances.”
The first British coins featuring King Charles have been minted, with general circulation expected around Christmas, reports London correspondent Karla Adam. An estimated 27 billion coins featuring Elizabeth II are circulating in Britain, so expect coins with her image to be in use for a long while. Whereas his mother faced right on coins, the new king faces left; the tradition of monarchs alternating direction on coinage dates to King Charles II. (Fun fact: The Royal Mint has made coins featuring monarchs for more than 1,100 years. The first was Alfred the Great.)
“The funeral itself was almost impersonal, honoring the institution more than the woman,” writes Monica Hesse. But perhaps there is another way to think about the spectacle, especially if you “have mixed feelings about the monarchy. If you, like me, wondered exactly what you were doing in front of your television at 5 o’clock in the morning.”
Does the world need a British monarchy anymore? This edition of the Post Reports podcast considers the legacy of Queen Elizabeth II, the colonial legacy of the monarchy and its future without her leadership.
Occupation: “Her Majesty The Queen.” The death certificate for Queen Elizabeth II was released Thursday, with “old age” the official cause of the 96-year-old sovereign’s passing at 3:10 p.m. on Sept. 8.
Opinion|Post Elizabeth: Why the queen fascinated | 2022-10-01T14:06:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Post Elizabeth newsletter: Palace video footage demands are a red flag - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/01/post-elizabeth-newsletter-palace-video-restrictions/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/01/post-elizabeth-newsletter-palace-video-restrictions/ |
Wanna get away? (Photographer: Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
As the pound and euro struggle relative to the dollar, opportunistic US travelers might be wondering if it’s time to book an international trip, and maybe even prepay for the hotel. Who wouldn’t love a travel deal — especially after paying through the nose this past summer?
But don’t think there are bargain-basement prices everywhere in the UK and Europe. Sure, the dollar may get you 20% more when dining or shopping, but in-demand hotels are still expensive. For example, high-end accommodations in places such as Paris and Capri have increased their rates by as much as 40% and are likely to keep them there, according to Melissa Biggs Bradley, founder of luxury travel agency Indagare.
If the main objective is to stay somewhere special at a hard-to-beat price, you’d be better off in countries like Sweden, Portugal or Turkey. According to travel experts, those destinations are offering the best value when taking currency changes as well as airfare and accommodations into account.
Take the Grand Hotel in Stockholm , a five-star hotel overlooking the Royal Palace, with rooms for less than $300 a night from now through April. Spring break in Lisbon? A nonstop roundtrip on several carriers from East-coast cities will cost less than $500.
For winter travel, Bradley suggests looking into ski resorts in Europe, such as Alta Badia in Italy, which might actually be cheaper all-in than domestic hotspots like Jackson Hole thanks to the strength of the US dollar.
Still, if you have your heart set on a more popular European destination, there are things to keep in mind to make sure you’re still getting somewhat of a deal.
First, think about whether you want to actually spend less on the trip than you ordinarily would have, or spend the same amount and “book up” — that is, stay in a fancier hotel than you had originally envisioned, or book a particular attraction or experience.
Also, consider when you’re going. Fall and winter are considered the shoulder season, of course, so flights tend to be cheaper then. Last spring, airfare jumped 19% from March to April, a record, but has been declining month-to-month since June, according to Scott Keyes, founder of Scott’s Cheap Flights. Keyes says he’s doesn’t expect fares to jump as much as they did last spring, and instead, to fluctuate more within the typical 5% increase or decrease.
Nonstop flights to London’s Heathrow airport are still close to $1,000 for most of this year and next, but if you’re willing to fly mid-week, you can save more than $300. And if you fly to Gatwick, low-cost carrier Norse Atlantic Airways currently offers flights as low as $400.
Remember, there’s no set day or time to book your trip that will magically guarantee the cheapest airfare. The best advice is to set a Google flight alert about six months out from travel and go from there.
If the price of a flight drops, you can sometimes rebook at a lower price and receive a voucher for the difference to put toward a future flight. That’s thanks to a pandemic-induced change by major US airlines that allows travelers to change an existing flight without incurring a fee. But you’re responsible for continuing to track the flight after booking and noticing that the price has gone down. And if you buy the most basic economy fare, you probably won’t be eligible.
In terms of prepayment, you might want to think twice about paying for your hotel now. Sure, you’ll get a more favorable exchange rate and lock in a lower price, but it’s usually no more than a 10% discount and almost always non-refundable. That just seems too risky given the state of the world.
Another helpful tip from Clint Henderson, an editor at The Points Guy: Check out combination hotel deals from airlines. Henderson says he’s stayed at high-end hotels including the Park Hyatt in Vienna and Adlon Kempinski in Berlin for drastically less thanks to hotel/airline package deals offered by American Airlines and Delta. You can sign up for emails from the carriers directly.
Finally, if you’re shopping for luxury goods in Europe, keep in mind that you’re eligible to be refunded at the airport for the VAT sales tax included in the price of the item at the store, as long as you fill out the relevant paperwork. (Sorry, London shoppers: The UK ended the VAT refund in 2021.)
Given the refund and the stronger dollar, consumers could see discounts of as much as 35% on designer labels bought in Paris or Rome compared to buying them at the brand’s store in the US, says Bradley. Just don’t get carried away and let “discount shopping” wind up costing more than the trip.
• Air Travel Is Awful. Transparency Can Improve It.: Thomas Black
• Airlines Keep Gouging Passengers. Regulate Them.: Adam Minter | 2022-10-01T14:11:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Portugal Beats Paris for US Travelers Seizing on a Strong Dollar - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/portugal-beats-paris-for-us-travelers-seizingon-a-strong-dollar/2022/10/01/c6faabba-4189-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/portugal-beats-paris-for-us-travelers-seizingon-a-strong-dollar/2022/10/01/c6faabba-4189-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html |
The Most American Flex Is a Fitness Fad
As exercise equipment maker Peloton Interactive Inc. struggles to reinvent itself, investors must decide whether it’s worth giving the fallen Wall Street star a second chance. Let history be their guide.
Not just the company’s history. Modern humans’ relationship with physical fitness provides a cautionary tale for future investors in the next big exercise craze — and rest assured, there will be another.
Why do Americans go to such extravagant lengths to stay in shape? The rise of the so-called physical culture movement in the late 1800s, along with its close cousin, “Muscular Christianity,” marked a newfound obsession with fitness in Western nations, particularly the United States.
These movements grew out of a strange amalgam of pseudoscience, theology and anxiety about the future of native-born Whites in late 1800s. Enormous numbers of immigrants were flooding into the US and many of these Whites expressed unease that “Anglo-Saxons,” as they referred to themselves, had become “overcivilized” and soft.
So native-born Whites increasingly embraced team sports, outdoor activities and mandatory physical education in public schools. Private groups like the Young Men’s Christian Association, or YMCA, also promoted exercise, opening a network of gyms that mixed religion and fitness.
Still, most Americans had little interest in gyms and regimented exercise. After all, they had limited leisure time in those days and got plenty of exercise in their everyday life by walking or doing manual labor.
Moreover, some figures in the physical culture movement seemed, well, weird. Consider Bernard McFadden, a sickly child who renamed himself Bernarr because it evoked the roar of a lion. He made a fortune promoting a regimen of weight-lifting, calisthenics, restrictive diets and brisk walks. He also published a magazine called Physical Culture that became the unofficial voice of the movement. “Weakness Is a Crime,” it declared to would-be readers. “Are You a Criminal?”
The eccentric bodybuilder, who courted controversy by promoting exercise for both men and women, was eventually overshadowed by another fanatic with an exclusively male clientele: the Italian immigrant Angelo Siciliano, better known as Charles Atlas. Both men gained fame and fortune hawking their programs, but they would soon be eclipsed by developments in the post-World War II era, when fitness became an abiding obsession of the White middle class.
The new ethos owed much to the suburban ideal of the 1950s. Initially, everything about the suburbs worked against fitness, from the growing dependence on the automobile, the use of buses to shuttle children to centralized schools and the advent of television. Even the single-story ranch houses that defined the era put an end to the exercise provided by going up and down stairs.
In her insightful account of this shift, historian Shelly McKenzie argues that much of the ensuing debate over fitness was framed by a new problem confronting the White middle class: “How could they enjoy the fruits of post-war affluence while also managing their bodies for optimal health?” The solution, observed McKenzie, was “the invention of exercise.”
The movement arguably began with a report by the US National Institutes of Health in 1952 that called attention to obesity as a serious health problem. A year later, a widely read study found an alarming gap between the levels of fitness in American and European children, with 56% of American children failing a standard set of tests versus only 8% of European kids.
The reason, the authored concluded, was simple: European children walked a lot, climbed stairs instead of taking the elevator and spent much of their free time playing outside; Americans did not.
This article eventually came to the attention of Dwight Eisenhower, who responded by forming the President’s Council on Youth Fitness. Its leaders, working with advertising executives and other corporate allies, orchestrated an effective public relations campaign that yoked physical fitness to the imperatives of the Cold War, arguing that American boys and men had to get into fighting shape if they were to defeat the Soviets.
But the campaign targeted girls and mothers as well. One spokesman for the program declared that it not only aimed to produce “healthful, vital, masculine men,” but also “active, healthful, vital, feminine women who can mother a vigorous generation.”
All of this marked a sea change in how many Americans viewed exercise and fitness. What had formerly been a subculture associated with eccentric impresarios like Bernarr MacFadden and Charles Atlas was quickly becoming a mainstream preoccupation.
It was also becoming a big business. One of the first to see the potential was the fitness fanatic Jack LaLanne, who opened his first gym in the 1930s. In the 1950s, LaLanne launched several televised programs in which he would perform exercises — he dubbed them “trimnastics” — with the audience following along.
LaLanne, who wore a form-fitting jumpsuit to show off his sculpted body, worked on a set that resembled a suburban living room, much like those occupied by his overwhelmingly suburban, female audience. He preached the virtues of exercise for maintaining “zest” in the “marital bed.” Long before the “Peloton wife” ad stirred controversy, LaLanne’s exhortations openly connected a woman’s physical condition to her sex appeal.
The 1950s also marked the moment when commercial gyms entered the mainstream. A new generation of entrepreneurs like Vic Tanny opened gleaming temples filled with the latest exercise equipment. Tanny, who believed that “good health can be merchandized just like automobiles,” counted half a million men and women as members by decade’s end.
Other fitness chains sought to overturn the age-old adage, “no pain, no gain.” High-end salons like Slenderella, which counted three million clients in 1956, promised women that their machines, which used vibrations or rollers, held out the promise of what McKenzie, the author and historian, has called “effortless exercise.”
A paradox defined these developments. The ease of suburban life left Americans out of shape. But if modern consumer society caused the problem, it could also solve it. For a price, Americans could buy fitness via gyms, exercise programs and other pursuits.
Some of these began modestly. The jogging craze, which required a relatively minimal investment, quickly grew into an entire industry worth half a billion dollars by the end of the 1970s. Other fitness fads, like the workout program founded by Jane Fonda, wedded celebrity culture to new videotape technology to build a mass following.
The fitness business, which encompassed everything from books, tapes, equipment, apparel and gym memberships, kept growing through the 1970s and beyond. Everything from Jazzercise to Nautilus weight-training machines to Pilates gained a following in subsequent years.
In 2022, the fitness business is bigger than it has ever been. In the US, gyms and fitness clubs generate annual revenue of nearly $40 billion; home-fitness equipment-makers generate nearly $5 billion more.
Set against this backdrop, Peloton is nothing more than the latest entry in a decades-long quest of affluent Americans to stay fit, no matter the price.
Peloton’s New Strategy Spins All Over the Place: Andrea Felsted
Peloton’s Real Rival Is Doing Laps of Central Park: Tim Culpan
Will New York’s Fitness Scene Stay Home?: Tara Lachapelle | 2022-10-01T14:11:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Most American Flex Is a Fitness Fad - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-most-american-flex-is-a-fitness-fad/2022/10/01/c7bfadf2-4189-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-most-american-flex-is-a-fitness-fad/2022/10/01/c7bfadf2-4189-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html |
By Tamela Baker, The Herald-Mail | AP
Ongoing construction at the visitors center at Antietam National Battlefield near Sharpsburg, Md. ,on Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. (Colleen McGrath/The Herald-Mail via AP)
SHARPSBURG, Md. — For the better part of 160 years, military historians have been poring over the movements of Union and Confederate soldiers through southern Washington County in the waning days of the summer of 1862 and piecing together the conditions that led to the worst single-day carnage in American history. | 2022-10-01T14:11:23Z | www.washingtonpost.com | For 4.5M Americans, ugliest day signaled a step to freedom - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/for-45m-americans-ugliest-day-signaled-a-step-to-freedom/2022/10/01/475443c6-4189-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/for-45m-americans-ugliest-day-signaled-a-step-to-freedom/2022/10/01/475443c6-4189-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html |
By Luke Weir, The Roanoke Times | AP
GALA, Va. — He won in the dogfights of World War II, he won in the Olympic boxing ring, and he won in Virginia Supreme Court, and now, a stretch of highway in Botetourt County is named in honor of Norvel LaFallette Ray Lee. | 2022-10-01T14:11:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Highway named after Botetourt’s ‘most famous native son’ - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/highway-named-after-botetourts-most-famous-native-son/2022/10/01/3cffe1f0-4189-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/highway-named-after-botetourts-most-famous-native-son/2022/10/01/3cffe1f0-4189-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html |
They’re in federal prison and they’re done staying quiet
One D.C. man in a federal facility describes a ‘revolving door of death and depression’ in a new report that offers a unique look into the nation’s prisons
A cell inside a federal prison in Coleman, Fla. (Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post)
When his chest started hurting and breathing became difficult, Shannon Derrell Williams considered his history of blood clots and worried he had a pulmonary embolism.
Then he tested positive for the coronavirus.
If Williams had been home in D.C. when he got that news, what happened next would have unfolded differently. But he was in one of the worst places in the country to suddenly fall ill — a federal prison. Soon, he found himself coughing and shaking in a “suicide cell” with three other men who had also tested positive for the virus.
“The cell was cold and the lights were on throughout the night,” Williams recalled in a written account. “When you’re sick with COVID, hydration is essential. But the water in the cell was disgusting and unhealthy … The water that came directly from the sink was literally hot and had to be cooled down first. Plus, it was filled with impurities. It was OK for brushing our teeth, but to drink? No. In addition to the warm temperature, you could actually taste something in it. Whenever the toilet water was dark brown (which was often), so was the water from the faucet.”
As Williams tells it, by the time he left that section of the prison, he had lost 25 pounds, was dehydrated and had missed doses of his high blood pressure medication.
“This place is a revolving door of death and depression,” he said.
On Thursday, the new director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons Colette Peters appeared before Congress for the first time and vowed to take responsibility for the work that is needed to fix the country’s crisis-plagued prison system. In her testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee during an oversight hearing she spoke of believing in transparency and acknowledged the “gravity of the alleged misconduct” inside the prisons in recent years.
“I am grateful for the opportunity to help bring greater reform, oversight, accountability, and further innovation to the bureau,” Peters said in her testimony. “While ensuring operation of safe and secure institutions is key to the bureau’s mission, it is also important to focus on employee wellness and ensure we treat those in our care with humanity.”
The openness Peters showed that day is encouraging. But a recent report by two D.C. organizations shows how much work she and lawmakers have in front of them to reform a system that often falls short of treating people “with humanity” — and then sends them back to their communities.
The report is unique in that it is filled with the voices of people who are often left out of prison-reform conversations: Those who are housed inside of them.
“This report fills a yawning void in a couple of respects,” said Pam Bailey, co-founder of the nonprofit More Than Our Crimes, which released the report with the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs. “First, it centers the voices of the individuals who are incarcerated inside. Everyone seems to talk about them, but few talk directly to and with them. They are among the most qualified experts on the problems of our system of incarceration, yet we don’t tap into their lived experience. Second, it documents that there is systemic abuse, neglect and corruption.”
Many of the people featured in the report have roots in D.C., which has a large stake in the issue. Since the city does not have its own prison, people convicted of local and federal crimes in the District are sent to facilities across the country.
In a recent column, I told you about two D.C. men who were killed in a Louisiana prison weeks apart. A relative of one of the men said her family received his body in a box but no answers about how the 39-year-old was fatally injured in federal custody.
A D.C. man died in a Louisiana prison. Then came a second death.
“The Federal Bureau of Prisons is in crisis,” Jonathan M. Smith, the executive director of the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, said. He pointed to reports of sexual assaults by staff, physical abuse of prisoners, excessive use of isolation and restraints, botched responses to covid-19, and a failure by the agency to effectively implement the First Step Act, which aims to lessen disparities in punishment for nonviolent drug offenses. “Our report documents the widespread nature of the problem and makes recommendations for oversight measures necessary to restore some semblance of human decency.”
A day before Peters testified, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced the Federal Prison Oversight Act, which would require the Justice Department’s inspector general to assess risks at 122 correctional facilities and establish an independent ombudsman to receive and investigate complaints.
The recent report, which is titled “Voices from Within the Federal Bureau of Prisons: a System Designed to Silence and Dehumanize,” supports the need for that independent scrutiny.
‘I’m angry & rageful & sad’: A Virginia inmate’s letters show why solitary confinement should concern us all.
In one account, a father describes staff members sexually assaulting his son with a baton while he was handcuffed and shackled.
In another account, a man tells of sitting on a waitlist for 12 years in hopes of getting dental care. “I was in prison for 15 years,” he says. “I went in with 28 teeth and came home with about 14.”
Several prisoners in the report address how simple solutions could have prevented painful situations.
Showing the need to shift the grievance system from a paper format to an online format, a man shared how he went on a hunger strike to protest how the staff purposely delayed getting to his grievance and then denied it for not being filed on time. He dropped from 207 pounds to 146 pounds and ended up hospitalized. “I am now in a wheelchair and use a cane, because I can’t walk a great distance without losing my breath and experiencing dizziness,” his account reads. “I get weak when washing my face, brushing my teeth and showering.”
Another man described a riot that erupted over a broken phone following a three-week lockdown as preventable. “What do you think would have been the prudent thing for the administration to do?” he said in his account. “Maybe … fix the broken phone? Add another phone? Extend the allotted call time? Let fewer people out at a time? Allow us to participate in other activities, like go to the library, enroll in a program, get some fresh air outside? … NOPE!! They did none of the above. Instead, they let all 120 guys descend on the phones and computers at the same time, knowing we’d be frustrated and anxious to talk to our loved ones after being denied the ability to do so throughout the entire Christmas holidays due to another lockdown.”
I asked Bailey if any of the prisoners feared they might face additional punishment for sharing their stories, since only a few chose to go by their initials. She said they all know of people who have faced retaliation from staff for complaining about what happens inside the prisons, but they didn’t care. They wanted to speak out.
“I hope this report informs people who don’t know just how bad the Federal Bureau of Prisons is,” she said. “Although there is a new director, it will be difficult to change such a huge, out of control system.”
After a veterinarian’s death, a D.C. bridge could get a suicide barrier | 2022-10-01T15:20:50Z | www.washingtonpost.com | They’re in federal prison and they’re done staying quiet - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/10/01/federal-prisoners-speak-out-report/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/10/01/federal-prisoners-speak-out-report/ |
Two snipers terrorized the Washington region for more than three weeks in October 2002. (Video: Amber Ferguson/The Washington Post)
Patrick McNerney, a homicide detective in Montgomery County, Md., was on duty the night of Oct. 2, 2002, when a call came in about a shooting outside a Shoppers Food Warehouse. Arriving about 6:30 p.m. at the supermarket, in the county’s Wheaton area, McNerney saw a sheet in the parking lot covering the body of James D. Martin, a program analyst for a federal climate agency. Martin, 55, lived nearby and had stopped for groceries on his way home from work. Witnesses said they heard a loud “boom” and that the victim, walking toward the store’s entrance, had crumpled to the pavement.
Like others in his homicide squad two decades ago, McNerney, who has since retired, was unusually puzzled on that warm autumn Wednesday: There were no signs of a robbery attempt. No one reported seeing Martin in an altercation. Security video showed no assailant. And police technicians found no spent cartridge or evidence of a gunman at the scene. The bullet that had severed Martin’s spine left a tiny entrance wound in his back and a large exit hole in his torso. To the detectives, all this suggested a long-range, high-powered rifle shot.
“There was really nothing much we could go on,” McNerney recalled recently. “There was no evidence out there. No eyewitnesses. No idea who we’re looking for. That night after we left, I remember thinking, you know, we’re really going to have to do a deep dive on his family. What’s going on with them? Is this a murder for hire? I mean, who knows? Everything was totally up in the air at that point.”
So it had begun — the reign of the D.C. snipers.
Browse The Post's 2002 coverage of the sniper shootings
Martin’s killer, a Jamaican immigrant named Lee Boyd Malvo, then 17, had been a good distance from the supermarket, lying in the trunk of a 1990 Chevrolet Caprice, a used junkheap modified into a roving assassin’s perch, with a removable rear seat and a rifle port in the trunk lid. Also in the dilapidated Chevy was Malvo’s mentor in murder, John Allen Muhammad, a 41-year-old Gulf War veteran consumed by rage over the loss of his children in a custody fight with his ex-wife, whom he despised.
In the course of three weeks, their indiscriminate sneak attacks would leave 10 dead and three injured in Maryland, D.C. and Virginia, crippling the terrified region and sparking a massive manhunt that was continually stymied and, in some ways, critically flawed.
Now, on the 20th anniversary of one of the biggest, most sustained public-safety crises in memory in metropolitan Washington — a generation after the wandering, unseen menace of Muhammad and Malvo disrupted life in the city and its suburbs for 22 days and nights — recollections of the ordeal have faded for many longtime residents. Countless newer arrivals, meanwhile, know little of it, having moved to the area after the communal nightmare blurred into history. But the wounded and the loved ones of the slain won’t forget, nor will those who helped track the elusive perpetrators, searching round-the-clock, up one blind alley and down another, as a fresh attack seemed inevitable and increasingly imminent with each passing hour.
“The tension was so thick,” said James Cavanaugh, then an agent at the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and a key figure in the investigation. “If they suddenly took the pressure off, everyone working the case would have got the bends.”
‘If this is a sniper case, we’ve got problems.’
Schoolyards and playing fields went silent in those fall weeks, just a year after 9/11, with outdoor youth activities canceled. No football, no recess in the crisp air. From Richmond to Baltimore, pedestrians scurried about, heads on swivels, some hustling from doorway to doorway against a ghostlike threat. You knew the crosshairs were out there someplace — scanning, scanning — maybe just over your shoulders. Gas stations shrouded their pump bays in giant tarps, shielding customers, while jittery motorists stuck in the open squatted like catchers to fill their tanks.
McNerney, the lead detective on the Shoppers Food Warehouse homicide, couldn’t have known on Oct. 2 that Martin, a husband and father who had planned to buy groceries for his church group, was victim No. 1 in the impending carnage. The rifle, as the world eventually learned, was a stolen Bushmaster XM15, a civilian version of the U.S. military’s M16. Equipped with a sighting scope, the .223-caliber weapon would prove lethal again and again, from long distances, even in the hands of a novice juvenile shooter.
The next morning, Thursday, Oct. 3, McNerney got a call at home from one of his sisters, a TV news assignment editor.
“She said there’d been a shooting at a Mobile station” in Montgomery’s Aspen Hill area, he recalled. Sleepily, “I said, ‘Anything strange about it?’ She said, ‘Yeah, people are saying it sounded like a cannon going off.’ And I’m thinking, ‘Oh, man, a loud boom’ — that was the telltale sign from the case I was working the night before. So not knowing anything else at the time, I just jumped in the shower and headed over to the scene. And from that moment on, I stuck with it to the very end. I mean, it was almost nonstop from there.”
The dead man at the Mobile station, Premkumar A. Walekar, was a 54-year-old taxicab driver who had been pumping gas. The slug that pierced his left lung and heart at 8:12 a.m. appeared to have been fired from afar. As it turned out, Walekar was victim No. 3. A half-hour earlier, in the county’s White Flint area, James L. “Sonny” Buchanan, 39, had collapsed while cutting grass at an auto dealership. Initially, Buchanan’s death seemed accidental. Witnesses heard a boom, as if his mower had exploded or had kicked up a heavy object that struck him. It took a while that morning for hospital personnel to determine that a bullet had torn into his back and come out through his chest.
How the 2002 D.C. sniper attacks unfolded
Malvo, now 37, was denied parole, after federal courts had ordered him resentenced and Virginia had passed a 2020 law creating the possibility of parole for juvenile offenders serving life sentences. “Considering your offense and your institutional records,” the parole board wrote, “the Board concludes that you should serve more of your sentence before being paroled.”Malvo shot and killed 21-year-old Keenya Nicole Cook in Tacoma, Wash., beginning a series of deadly attacks before Malvo and Muhammad came to the D.C. region.
When word reached the Walekar homicide scene that a landscaper had been gunned down in similar fashion six miles from the Mobile station, McNerney could tell from looking at his fellow detectives that they were feeling shivers of dread, as he was. “My God,” he remembered thinking, “if this is a sniper case, we’ve got problems.” Then, as police walkie-talkies squawked with urgent calls for help from elsewhere in the county, it was clear that their fears had been realized.
Victim No. 4: Sarah Ramos, a 34-year-old housekeeper, was shot in the head at 8:37 a.m. while sitting on a public bench near the Leisure World retirement community in Silver Spring, waiting for her employer to give her a ride.
Victim No. 5: Lori Lewis Rivera, 25, a nanny, was shot in the back at a Kensington gas station at 9:58 a.m. while vacuuming a minivan that belonged to the woman she worked for.
“I heard a huge, loud noise, like a bomb,” a witness in Kensington said that morning. “It wasn’t a bomb” but “it was that kind of noise.”
Another witness, in Silver Spring, gave detectives a description of a medium-size white truck, like a delivery vehicle, with a “box-type” rear that he said had driven away hurriedly from the scene of Ramos’s killing. Here was the origin of the mythical “white box truck,” thousands of which could be found cruising on the area’s roads. For days, police seemed intent on stopping every white box truck they saw, often ordering occupants to get out with hands in plain sight. It proved to be a time-consuming distraction in those tense weeks, when every minute mattered for investigators. No such vehicle had been used in the crimes.
From the Archives: Sniper witness allegedly made up story
The killing zone expands, and a child is shot
With 900,000 residents back then, Montgomery County, bordering Northwest Washington, was home to some of the D.C. area’s wealthiest families, as it is today. In the decade before the sniper scourge, the county usually recorded 10 to 20 murders annually, or one or two per month on average (in 1994, during the crack epidemic, the body count spiked into the 30s). On Oct. 2 and 3, though, five people had been fatally shot in 16 hours — four in just 2½ hours on one morning — all in a densely populated stretch of central Montgomery. Police Chief Charles A. Moose quickly mobilized his entire force, set up an operations center and sought assistance from federal officials.
“Our homicide rate just increased 25 percent in one day,” Moose, now deceased, told reporters. As journalists from all over the region swarmed into the county, McNerney recalled, “Everyone with a federal badge in D.C. was coming up Connecticut Avenue.” The FBI, ATF, the Marshals Service and the Secret Service joined in. Eventually even the Pentagon helped, with surveillance aircraft.
Before the manhunt gained much traction, however, the sniper rifle boomed yet again, at 9:20 that evening.
Victim No. 6: Pascal Charlot, a 72-year-old carpenter, was shot in the chest while standing on a street corner in the District’s Shepherd Park neighborhood, a block from the Montgomery line.
Who would be next? Where would the killer or killers strike? As a battalion of task force investigators, working out of Moose’s operations center, chased down hundreds of early leads and phone tips, the public fretted: Was anyone safe in the county? The terror, the anger, which seemed mainly confined to the Montgomery area on that first full day of mayhem, spread regionwide on Oct. 4 after another random shooting. The gunfire this time was in Virginia, 75 miles south of the initial killing zone, about halfway to Richmond. Just like that, the geography of the attacks had widened considerably, jolting authorities.
Victim No. 7: Caroline Seawell, 43, a mother of two, who survived her wound, was shot in the lower back while loading bags in her minivan at a Fredericksburg, Va., shopping plaza.
“You’re looking for a needle in a haystack,” McNerney recalled. “Now, you thought you were looking for a needle before? Suddenly you’re looking in a much bigger haystack — a gigantic one.”
Three days later, on Oct. 7, came perhaps the most stunning attack of those bloody three weeks — a shooting that sent an especially frightful signal to parents of schoolchildren, while vastly intensifying the horror pervading greater Washington. In Prince George’s County, Md., bordering Montgomery, the rifle boomed from a grove of trees near a middle school at 8:09 a.m. on a Monday, as students climbed off buses and out of cars to start a new week of classes. With the sniper(s) at large, the public learned that morning, kids were no safer than adults.
Victim No. 8: Iran Brown, the youngest target at 13, and also a survivor, was shot in the abdomen while walking from a school drop-off lane, clad in a football jersey and toting a backpack.
Near the wooded spot from which the bullet apparently had been fired, investigators found an occult Tarot card — the death card, bearing the image of a skeleton riding a white horse and carrying a black flag. The perpetrator(s) had left a printed message on it: “For you mr. Police/Code: ‘Call me God’/‘Do Not release to the Press.’ ” The code was meant to be used in future communications.
As forensics experts studied the card for clues, the killings went on, mostly in Virginia.
From the Archives: Anxious Parents Rush to School With Hugs, Tears
As investigation sprawls, opportunities are missed
The life-or-death drama unfolding around the nation’s capital seized global attention. Every day, a phalanx of investigators wearing grim expressions, fronted by the dour, combative Chief Moose, faced scores of news cameras and a cacophony of questions — and the officials usually said little, because they had nothing much to share. The more persistent the querying, the more obvious was Moose’s disdain for the press.
“I have not received any messages that the citizens of Montgomery County want Channel 9 or The Washington Post or any other media outlet to solve the case,” he said at one briefing, bristling with annoyance. “If they do, then let me know ... and we will turn the case over to the media and you can solve it.”
Victim No. 9: Dean H. Meyers, a 53-year-old civil engineer, was shot behind the left ear Oct. 9 while gassing up his Mazda at a Sunoco in Prince William County, Va., 40 miles southwest of Montgomery. No. 10: Kenneth H. Bridges, 53, an entrepreneur, was shot in the back Oct. 11 while fueling his Buick at an Exxon in Spotsylvania County, Va., close to where Seawell had been wounded in Fredericksburg. No. 11: Linda Franklin, a 47-year-old FBI analyst, was shot in the head Oct. 14 while putting packages in her Mercury at a Home Depot in Fairfax County, Va., just outside the nation’s capital.
“Looking back, it’s surreal the way it impacted the lives of millions of people in our region,” said J. Thomas Manger, who worked 18-hour days as Fairfax police chief during the sniper crisis. He recalled his wife phoning him at headquarters one evening to say she wanted to go out to get gas for her car. But he wouldn’t hear of it.
“I told her no,” said Manger, who has been chief of the U.S. Capitol Police since July 2021. “I told her, ‘I’ll run home and get gas for you.’ It was maybe 7 o’clock on a weeknight. I got the gas in Tysons Corner. And it was a ghost town. I mean, Tysons at 7 at night would be nothing but wall-to-wall traffic and people. But it was empty. I’m looking around, and I remember it was just creepy.”
By this point, almost every jurisdiction with a sniper shooting had set up its own “joint operations center,” each serving as a satellite of the mother ship JOC at ground zero — Montgomery County — where a triumvirate (Moose and the top agents in the Baltimore FBI and ATF offices) was overseeing the investigation regionwide. In Montgomery, the FBI deployed its Rapid Start Information Management System, with the goal of quickly prioritizing tens of thousands of tips and leads and transmitting them to the appropriate jurisdictions for follow up. But many investigators considered Rapid Start to be problematic and complained that its failings led to missed opportunities throughout the arduous case. “We used to call it ‘Rapid Stop,’” said Cavanaugh, who has since retired from law enforcement.
A 2004 report on the sniper dragnet by the nonprofit Police Executive Research Forum, a think tank, echoed those criticisms.
Rapid Start, which is no longer in use, “was unable to meet the demands of the sniper case,” the study found. “The complexity and scope of the investigation generated so many tips and leads that data entry operators were overwhelmed.” And when it came to prioritizing information, the system had “no basic analytic capabilities,” according to the report, which also described the investigation’s chaotic system for handling phone tips.
“Several call centers, including 911 centers and dedicated tip centers, were unable to keep pace with the workload and may have inadvertently disregarded calls from the suspects because call-takers were overwhelmed, inadequately equipped or trained,” the authors wrote. They said authorities neglected the need for “additional operators and dispatchers, as well as additional supervisors.”
Overall, though, the 200-page postmortem lauded the “professionalism [that] personnel demonstrated” in “a huge investigation spanning more than 2,500 square miles” that ultimately led to arrests in “one of the most traumatizing crimes in the history of the country.”
A break in the case
Indeed, Muhammad and Malvo had repeatedly called sniper tip lines and other numbers over the weeks, hoping to work out a $10 million payment for halting their attacks. But it was a struggle for them to reach anyone in authority. So they just kept locking and loading the Bushmaster.
Victim No. 12: Jeffrey Hopper, 37, passing through the area on a trip from Florida, was shot in the abdomen Oct. 19 while leaving a Ponderosa Steakhouse in Ashland, Va., 20 miles north of Richmond. He survived.
So frustrated were the snipers at not being able to contact upper-echelon officials about their $10 million demand that Malvo called a Catholic monsignor and began babbling anonymously about the difficulty they were having. In doing so, he indirectly gave investigators the break they’d been desperately hoping for. Malvo mentioned a robbery-homicide he’d committed in an Alabama liquor store in September, shortly before the D.C.-area killings began. After the monsignor relayed this story to the sniper task force, authorities phoned police in Alabama and learned that fingerprints from the store hadn’t yet been sent to the FBI for identification. The FBI processed them immediately, and they matched those of a Jamaican teenager, Malvo, who’d once been detained by U.S. immigration agents.
Malvo’s closest associate, Muhammad, lived in Washington state. Investigators learned that Muhammad thought of Malvo as a son and protege. An old Army buddy of Muhammad’s told them that, for several reasons, he suspected Muhammad had orchestrated the sniper rampage, with the aim of eventually murdering his hated ex-wife, Mildred Muhammad, who lived in Maryland with their three children. This and other evidence convinced authorities that Muhammad and Malvo were the long-sought killers.
A records check showed Muhammad owned a blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice with New Jersey license plates. The car had to be located — and quickly. But where was it?
Victim No. 13: Conrad E. Johnson, a 35-year-old bus driver, was shot in the abdomen Oct. 22 while standing in the doorway of an empty bus in Montgomery’s Aspen Hill, silhouetted in the dim early morning by the vehicle’s interior lights.
Johnson was the last to die — the final target. His widow, Denise Johnson, said recently that she had to reinvent life without her husband. Their two boys are now adults. She has not remarried.
“It’s a struggle, to be honest,” she said. “It still hits us to this day. It doesn’t lessen.”
But normalcy would return to the region.
About 3:15 a.m. on Oct. 24, two days after Johnson’s killing, heavily armed police and federal agents arrested Muhammad and Malvo at a highway rest stop north of Montgomery, where the snipers had been snoozing in the Caprice. They gave up without a struggle. The Bushmaster, with its attached bipod for added firing accuracy, was in the car, too. Ballistics tests would definitively link the rifle to all but a few of the 13 shootings, and authorities believe it was used in every case.
Besides the sniper killings, the two were implicated in nine other shootings, five of them fatal, in Washington state, Arizona, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Maryland. Most of those attacks occurred in September 2002 as the pair, headed for the D.C. area, zigzagged across the country toward infamy. Malvo, who was sentenced to nine life terms, is now 37 and incarcerated in Virginia, where his first application for parole was recently rejected.
“I was a monster,” he said in a 2012 prison interview with The Post. Describing himself as having been in thrall of the much-older Muhammad, Malvo said: “I was a ghoul. I was a thief. I stole people’s lives. I did someone else’s bidding just because they said so … There is no rhyme or reason or sense.”
Muhammad got six life terms in Maryland and a death sentence in Virginia for the killing of Dean Meyers. The ultimate penalty was meted out to him in a rural penitentiary on the evening of Nov. 10, 2009, in a stark, concrete blockhouse called L Unit, as Meyers’s brother, Bob Meyers, looked on.
The prisoner offered no last words. “They injected him, and pretty soon he was still,” Meyers recalled. | 2022-10-01T16:21:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The D.C. snipers terrorized a region. Here’s what it was like. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/10/01/dc-snipers-terrorized-region-heres-what-it-was-like/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/10/01/dc-snipers-terrorized-region-heres-what-it-was-like/ |
The armrests of Daniel Chester French's statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial are carved to resemble fasces. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
If an ancient Roman was somehow dropped into Washington in the year 2022, there’s a lot that would confuse him: the cars, the helicopters, the cellphones. But there’s something he’d recognize right away. If a Roman walked into the Lincoln Memorial and spied the massive statue of the president, he would note that the arms of Lincoln’s white marble chair are carved to resemble a bundle of wooden rods known as a fasces.
Those rods are ripe with symbolism. But what sort of symbolism?
That’s what Rutgers classics professor T. Corey Brennan explores in his new book, “The Fasces: A History of Ancient Rome’s Most Dangerous Political Symbol,” published by Oxford University Press. As you’d expect, there’s a lot of ancient Rome in Brennan’s book, but there’s a lot of the not-so-ancient U.S. in it, too, especially the nation’s capital.
The Founding Fathers took inspiration from Greek and Roman tropes — political, cultural, artistic. As a result, Washington bristles with fasces. The Lincoln Memorial alone is full of them, not just on Abraham Lincoln’s chair, but carved in multiple places on the monument’s walls and depicted in its murals.
“Washington is a bonanza for fasces-spotting,” Brennan said. “It’s hard to see any federal building from the New Deal period that doesn’t have the fasces in some place.”
A Roman who saw them adorning the shrine to Lincoln might form some unusual opinions about the man. He might assume Lincoln had been a lictor, a Roman official who served as a sort of bodyguard to elected magistrates. Lictors carried the fasces as a sign of their office. They also had a reputation for being thugs.
“The fasces is essentially a mobile kit for punishment,” Brennan said. “It consisted of a bunch of sticks to beat someone with and an ax to cut off his head.”
These components were bundled together with a leather strap to form a handy tool for torture.
Said Brennan: “It was an instrument of terror meant to induce fear.”
It should not be surprising that the word “fascism” is derived from “fasces.” When Benito Mussolini formed his National Fascist Party, he chose this ancient Roman tool (well, Etruscan, originally) as the party’s namesake and symbol.
Symbols can mutate over time and so it was with the fasces. By the time the U.S. was erecting and decorating its state houses, courthouses, post offices and bridges, the fasces had taken on a distinctly American personality. Rather than represent an enforcer, it came to represent unity. Most American fasces depict 13 rods, representing the 13 original states. Usually, there isn’t an ax.
Brennan traces this shift in the fasces’ personality to an Aesop’s fable popular during the Renaissance. In the fable, a father schools his quarreling sons by demonstrating that while a single stick can be broken easily, a bundle of sticks is too strong to break.
“It’s the notion that a bunch of sticks together is stronger than an individual one,” Brennan said. “In the Lincoln era, people really made a very big deal about this: the fasces as a symbol of unity.”
The fasces became a symbol of the abolitionist movement, much to the annoyance of some Southerners. When he was in Congress, future Confederate leader Jefferson Davis fought unsuccessfully to alter Thomas Crawford’s design for the base of the Freedom statue atop of the U.S. Capitol. It’s a bunch of fasces, bending slightly under the figure’s weight, but not breaking.
If the American flavor of fasces was ahistoric, so was Mussolini’s, Brennan said.
“His idea was imposing unity by means of authority,” Brennan said. Where the American fasces does away with the ax, the bladed weapon becomes essential in the fasces Mussolini spread across Italy in public works of art.
“The ax imposes unity on the coherent parts,” Brennan said.
Fascism was the evil engine driving World War II. The other symbol from that era — the Nazi swastika — was also appropriated, from India, where it was a mystical sign. Unlike the swastika, the fasces remains obscure in America, where it is a generic symbol of unity and good governance, Brennan said. The sergeant-of-arms of the House of Representatives has an 1849 mace composed of 13 ebony rods topped with a silver eagle astride a globe.
And yet, the fasces has been spotted at extremist gatherings.
“One reason it’s been attractive to extremist groups is that of all the symbols, it’s largely forgotten,” Brennan said.
As Brennan writes in his book: “There is nothing ‘fascist’ about the fasces in Daniel Chester French’s statue of a seated Lincoln in his Memorial, dedicated in Washington, D.C., on May 20, 1922, seven months before Mussolini’s ‘March on Rome,’ by which he seized political power in Italy. Wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the fasces to a hate rally in 2022 is a different matter.” | 2022-10-01T16:22:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The fasces, from ancient Rome to Mussolini's Italy to New Deal America - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/10/01/symbolic-fasces-lincoln-memorial/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/10/01/symbolic-fasces-lincoln-memorial/ |
Waves crash into a breakwater at Outlook Beach in Hampton, Va., on Sept. 30. (Billy Schuerman/The Virginian-Pilot/AP)
The remnants of Hurricane Ian is dumping heavy rains onto parts of the Washington region, leaving tens of thousands of people without power in Virginia on Saturday morning.
Dominion Energy reported that more than 35,000 of its customers were without power around 11:15 a.m. Saturday. The southeastern part of the state — including Norfolk, Newport News and Virginia Beach — was most affected, with more than 30,000 customers without power. More than 900 customers in the Richmond area and 141 in Northern Virginia also were without power.
Appalachian Power reported nearly 22,000 of its Virginia customers also had power outages, and Rappahannock Electric Cooperative reported 281 customers without power, according to outage maps.
Several inches of rain were forecast Saturday for Appalachian North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia, with the potential for six inches and “considerable” flooding in parts of western North Carolina and southwestern Virginia, according to the National Hurricane Center.
“Gusty” winds were hitting the central and southern parts of the Appalachian region Saturday morning, with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph off the coasts of North Carolina and Virginia, the Hurricane Center said. | 2022-10-01T16:22:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Hurricane Ian remnants hit Virginia, leaving thousands without power - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/10/01/virginia-hurricane-ian-forecast/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/10/01/virginia-hurricane-ian-forecast/ |
A crowd of 20,497 watched the Wizards and Warriors in a preseason game in Tokyo. (Philip Fong/AFP/Getty Images)
In Japan, 20,000-strong never once lose rhythm when it comes time to clap to a beat. They might have sounded militaristic throughout the weekend at Saitama Super Arena if it weren’t so clear how happy everyone was to be watching live basketball.
They came in droves sporting jerseys of the usuals (LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Russell Westbrook) and the classics (Patrick Ewing, Kobe Bryant) in addition to scores of Rui Hachimuras and Stephen Currys. They lined up outside the arena’s loading docks in the afternoon to wave at charter buses loaded with players then stayed long after the sun went down to wave goodbye.
But mostly, they clapped. People politely applauded while sitting on the edge of their seats, a logical — and genuine — demonstration in a county where rule-following and respect toward visitors are tenets of the culture. There was silence during free throws and when the announcer was speaking, but after? Encouraging clapping. Or perhaps it was congratulatory clapping. It sounded reassuring.
Rui Hachimura introduced at the Saitama Super Arena just outside of Tokyo. He presented Stephen Curry a bottle of wine after the pair addressed the crowd at center court. pic.twitter.com/QB3HI3niyS
NBA programming has aired in the country since the 1988-89 season and the league had hosted 12 regular season games between 1990 and 2003. A 1990 contest between Phoenix and Utah was the first regular season game played outside of North America by a U.S. sports league, according to the NBA.
But between Tokyo hosting the postponed 2020 Olympics — where the Japan women’s basketball team claimed the silver medal — this weekend’s games and next year’s FIBA World Cup in Tokyo, basketball is having a moment.
All that momentum seems concentrated inside of Saitama Super Arena for the time being.
The timing of the games contributed to the feeling, from one outsider’s perspective, that the country is at a turning point. Those deprived of basketball action and feting Hachimura during the Olympics made the stands at Saitama Super Arena shake over the weekend.
“You see how popular he is, when he spoke to the crowd they went crazy. It was a great moment,” Kerr said. “The game has been a global one for a long time, but the more international stars we can get the more popular the game becomes in that particular player’s country. Hopefully they’ll have more and more players coming from Japan to the NBA, because you can see it’s a basketball-crazed country here. People love it. It’s fun to be a part of.” | 2022-10-01T16:35:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | NBA's return to Japan signals pandemic turning point - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/01/nba-japan-pandemic-warriors-wizards/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/01/nba-japan-pandemic-warriors-wizards/ |
Fairfax County, Va., police search for evidence in a sniper shooting outside a Home Depot in Falls Church on Oct. 15, 2002. (Doug Mills/AP)
Twenty years ago, on Oct. 2, 2002, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo began shooting people, one by one, across the D.C. area. Their attacks over the next three weeks left 10 dead, three seriously wounded and a region terrorized, with schools locked down and residents afraid to pump gas into their cars.
Here is how the deadly shooting rampage unfolded, and how Muhammad and Malvo were apprehended and eventually convicted:
Malvo, now 37, was denied parole, after federal courts had ordered him resentenced and Virginia had passed a 2020 law creating the possibility of parole for juvenile offenders serving life sentences. “Considering your offense and your institutional records,” the parole board wrote, “the Board concludes that you should serve more of your sentence before being paroled.” | 2022-10-01T17:14:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | D.C. sniper attacks: A timeline of the violence and victims - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/10/01/timeline-dc-sniper-attacks/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/10/01/timeline-dc-sniper-attacks/ |
Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams at a Labor Day picnic in Atlanta on Sept. 5, 2022. (Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images)
ATLANTA — A federal judge upheld Georgia’s election laws in a ruling issued Friday evening in a blow to Fair Fight Action, the voting rights group founded by Stacey Abrams, who also is the state’s Democratic gubernatorial nominee.
Abrams’s group filed a lawsuit against Georgia’s secretary of state soon after her 2018 election defeat, arguing that Georgia’s absentee ballot policies — which require an “exact match” for names and addresses between voters’ IDs and voter registration records — represented “gross mismanagement” of the state’s election systems that violated Georgia voters’ constitutional rights.
A federal judge ruled in favor of the state, however, saying that the law was valid and that the “burden on voters is relatively low.”
“Although Georgia’s election system is not perfect, the challenged practices violate neither the constitution nor the [Voting Rights Act],” U.S. District Judge Steve C. Jones wrote in his decision.
“The Court finds that plaintiffs have failed to prove that the burdens imposed by [exact match] outweigh the State’s interests in preventing fraud,” Jones, an appointee of President Barack Obama’s, wrote in his decision.
The plaintiffs cited other problems with the law including the registration process for those with felony convictions; the state’s system for merging records; and the process of removing from voter rolls the names of those who had died.
He added that the state’s justifications for its use of several practices raised in the lawsuit “outweigh any potential burdens on voters.”
After the decision was issued, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) called the claims raised in the lawsuit “nothing but poll-tested rhetoric not supported by facts and evidence.”
Several of the policies — including “exact match” — raised in the lawsuit, have been largely abandoned since the 2018 gubernatorial race. Georgia’s election rules also have been overhauled several times since the lawsuit was filed, most notably in a sweeping 2021 election law that tightened voter ID requirements; added restrictions on requesting mail-in ballots; limited the use of drop boxes; and expanded the power of state lawmakers over local election policy.
The decision comes five weeks before Abrams’s rematch against Gov. Brian Kemp (R), who oversaw the state’s elections in 2018 as secretary of state and won the race by nearly 55,000 votes.
“From day one, Abrams has used this lawsuit to line her pockets, sow distrust in our democratic institutions, and build her own celebrity,” Kemp said in a statement on the decision. “Judge Jones’ ruling exposes this legal effort for what it really is: a tool wielded by a politician hoping to wrongfully weaponize the legal system to further her own political goals.”
Abrams criticized the court’s 288-page ruling, saying that it “explicitly lays out the hazards of a system rife with barriers that disproportionately impacted Black and Brown people.”
“Imperfection is no excuse for the discriminatory practices Georgians saw from the Secretary of State’s office in the 2018 elections,” she said in a statement on Friday.
Fair Fight Executive Director Cianti Stewart-Reid said the decision was “no doubt a significant loss for the voting rights community in Georgia and across the country” but promised that Fair Fight would continue programs to register and educate voters on the election process.
“Litigation is only one tool to fight against voter suppression,” Stewart-Reid said. | 2022-10-01T17:14:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 2018 Georgia voting law upheld after challenge brought by Stacey Abrams' group - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/01/stacey-abrams-georgia-voting-laws/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/01/stacey-abrams-georgia-voting-laws/ |
This photo provided by Administrative office of Pennsylvania Courts shows Max Baer, the chief justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Baer has died at age 74 only months before he was set to retire. The court confirmed Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022, that Baer died overnight at his home near Pittsburgh.(Administrative office of Pennsylvania Courts via AP) (Uncredited/Administrative office of Pennsylvania Courts) | 2022-10-01T17:14:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Max Baer, Pennsylvania Supreme Court's chief justice, dies - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/max-baer-pennsylvania-supreme-courts-chief-justice-dies/2022/10/01/e5b975fe-41a7-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/max-baer-pennsylvania-supreme-courts-chief-justice-dies/2022/10/01/e5b975fe-41a7-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html |
Experts said the measure, which bars companies from moderating content, could prove challenging for platforms to deal with
There are no similar federal laws.
Because the Texas law applies to any tech service with more than 50 million users, experts say it would also cover companies that have nothing to do with political speech, such as Pinterest, Etsy, and Yelp. Those companies are in an even tougher position than the large platforms because they don’t have the financial wherewithal to resist all the challenges they might face under the law, said Alex Feerst, former head of legal for the social-media platform Medium and a consultant for tech companies on content moderation issues. | 2022-10-01T17:16:25Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 5th Circuit ruling on Texas social media law has tech companies thinking - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/10/01/texas-social-media-impact/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/10/01/texas-social-media-impact/ |
An incendiary and racist message from the former president raised concerns about inciting more violence
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) with President Donald Trump in the Rose Garden after a meeting at the White House on Oct. 16, 2017. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Former president Donald Trump is facing blowback for an inflammatory online message attacking Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) that many viewed as a threat.
“He has a DEATH WISH,” Trump posted late Friday on his Truth Social platform, criticizing McConnell for agreeing to a deal to fund the government through December. He also disparaged McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, who served as Trump’s transportation secretary and was born in Taiwan, in racist terms, calling her “his China loving wife, Coco Chow!”
The post marked a further escalation in an increasingly strained relationship between the two Republican leaders. Trump has repeatedly impugned McConnell’s negotiating positions and called on GOP senators to replace him as their leader. They often had a tense working relationship during Trump’s presidency and fell out in the aftermath of the 2020 election, when Trump refused to concede and tried to overturn the results, and the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
McConnell’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday.
Incendiary statements from Trump have repeatedly inspired his supporters to turn to violence. Jan. 6 rioters, in the moment and in court proceedings, have said they believed they were acting on Trump’s wishes. Lawmakers of both parties have faced increasing threats after crossing Trump.
More recently, following Trump’s attacks on the FBI in response to a search of his Mar-a-Lago resort, a gunman tried to breach the bureau’s Cincinnati office while posting about it on Truth Social. He was later killed by police.
“He knows exactly what he’s doing, and his recklessness knows no bounds,” prominent Republican lawyer Robert Kelner wrote on Twitter, responding to Trump’s latest post about McConnell. “Despicable.”
Chao resigned from Trump’s Cabinet shortly after the Jan. 6 attack, saying the assault “deeply troubled me in a way I simply cannot set aside.” McConnell, in a speech after the following month’s impeachment trial, condemned Trump as “practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day,” although he did not vote to convict.
In this year’s primaries, McConnell tried unsuccessfully to recruit moderate Republican governors such as Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, Larry Hogan of Maryland and Doug Ducey of Arizona to run for the Senate. McConnell’s allies intervened in some races to oppose pro-Trump candidates, such as Eric Greitens in Missouri and Don Bolduc in New Hampshire, but did not weigh in against Trump-endorsed candidates such as Blake Masters in Arizona and Herschel Walker in Georgia. McConnell has publicly lamented that some of the party’s nominees are making it harder to win back control of the chamber, although he has lately expressed more confidence in the party’s chances. | 2022-10-01T18:06:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Donald Trump escalates attacks on Mitch McConnell with ‘DEATH WISH’ post - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/01/trump-mcconnell-death-wish/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/01/trump-mcconnell-death-wish/ |
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter at the Peanut Festival on Sept. 24 in Plains, Ga. (Jill Stuckey)
Former president Jimmy Carter is celebrating his 98th birthday Saturday by seeing family members and taking calls in his modest living room in Plains, Ga., the small town where he began his improbable campaign for the nation’s highest office nearly half a century ago.
Carter, who left the White House in 1981 after one term, has lived longer than any other U.S. president.
He and his wife, Rosalynn, 95, greeted well-wishers in public last weekend during the annual Peanut Festival in Plains. A Secret Service agent drove the Carters around in a red convertible. The Carter family still owns farmland where peanut grows.
“It was a gorgeous day. Everything came together,” said Stuckey, describing the event with the Carters’ children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren walking behind the car. “Some people’s jaws dropped when they saw them. People were clapping and some had tears.”
Friends said that Carter is following the news about Hurricane Ian and praying for those who are suffering because of the storm. For decades, the Carters worked with Habitat for Humanity, which builds affordable housing and helped rebuild destroyed homes after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Post Podcast: Jimmy Carter's faith
Carter’s post-presidency stands apart for how simply he continues to live in his hometown of fewer than 800 people.
Until recently, he taught Sunday school in his local church. Carter has overcome serious health problems, including in 2015 when he was diagnosed with melanoma that had spread to his liver and brain. After treatment, doctors said he defied the odds and announced later that year that he was cancer-free.
To mark his birthday, thousands of people posted personal messages to an online “Happy Birthday, President Carter!” site set up by the Carter Center.
“What strikes me is the depth of feeling people have for him,” said Matthew Degalan, a spokesman for the Atlanta-based Carter Center. “People look at him as a person of values and principles, and they miss that in politics today.”
Many admirers note that Carter was a visionary for putting solar panels on the White House, even as some criticized him for it at the time.
A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy who served on a submarine, Carter was expected to spend part of his birthday watching the Navy-Air Force football game and maybe his favorite baseball team, the Atlanta Braves, according to friends. | 2022-10-01T18:37:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Former president Jimmy Carter turns 98 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/10/01/jimmy-carter-birthday/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/10/01/jimmy-carter-birthday/ |
Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is taken from the field on a stretcher during Thursday night's game in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Jeff Dean)
Tagovailoa is in the NFL’s concussion protocols after suffering a head injury during Thursday night’s game at Cincinnati. He struck the back of his head on the turf on a first-half sack. Tagovailoa was taken from the field on a stretcher and transported by ambulance to a hospital. He was diagnosed with a concussion, according to the Dolphins. Tagovailoa was released that night from the University of Cincinnati Medical Center and accompanied the team on its flight back to Miami. He underwent further tests Friday.
He played in Thursday’s game four days after being cleared by team physician and the UNC, as required by the protocols, to return to a game Sunday against the Buffalo Bills in Miami Gardens, Fla. The UNC involved in the decision has not been publicly identified.
NFL, NFLPA to review if concussion protocols followed with Tua Tagovailoa
“Until we have an objective and validated method of diagnosing brain injury, we have to do everything possible, including amending the protocols, to further reduce the potential of human error,” former Cleveland Browns center JC Tretter, the NFLPA president, said in a statement Friday. “A failure in medical judgement is a failure of the protocols when it comes to the well being of our players.”
Tagovailoa left Sunday’s game in the first half after being shoved to the ground on a play by Bills linebacker Matt Milano. Tagovailoa got to his feet after the play but stumbled. He walked off the field with members of the medical staff. But Tagovailoa was cleared and returned to begin the second half. He and Dolphins Coach Mike McDaniel said afterward that Tagovailoa had injured his back, not his head.
The protocols outline a step-by-step process for evaluating a player suspected to have suffered a head injury. A player can return to a game if cleared by both the team physician and the UNC following several tests. The protocols say that a player may not to return to a game if he demonstrates “gross motor instability” that is “determined by [the] team physician, in consultation with the UNC, to be neurologically caused.”
Tretter said in his statement Friday: “What everyone saw both Sunday and [Thursday] night were ‘no-go’ symptoms within our concussion protocol. … We need to figure out how and why the decisions were made last Sunday to allow a player with a ‘no-go’ symptom back on the field.”
The NFLPA exercised its right last Sunday to initiate the joint review with the NFL as to whether the concussion protocols were followed properly. The league said Wednesday that the review was ongoing but it had “every indication” that the protocols had been followed properly.
Allen Sills, the NFL’s chief medical officer, said during a televised interview Friday that Tagovailoa underwent a long-form exam called the Sport Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT) in the locker room last Sunday. After returning to that game, Sills told the league-owned NFL Network, he was evaluated daily for a concussion leading up to Thursday’s game.
“It’s something that we’re reviewing together,” Sills said Friday. “What I can tell you is to reiterate that in real time, these evaluations, when a player is evaluated, they are examined and interviewed by both the team physician and this independent neuro-specialist. And those two confer, and they must both agree together in real time that a player is cleared in order for them to return to the game.”
Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa exits field on stretcher with head injury
“We want to be as transparent and as open about this as possible,” Sills said Friday. “We certainly want to learn, to improve, to get better. … And so if we find that we fell short or if we find that there are things that we need to change, we will certainly be up front about doing that.”
George Atallah, the NFLPA’s assistant executive director of external affairs, said in a statement Friday: “The whole point of our advocacy for more than a decade on the issue of concussions is to shift the culture of our game from one that was previously focused on the fastest path back to the field, to one that emphasized player care above all. | 2022-10-01T20:13:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | NFLPA fires independent doctor involved in clearing Tua Tagovailoa - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/01/nflpa-fires-independent-doctor-involved-clearing-tua-tagovailoa/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/01/nflpa-fires-independent-doctor-involved-clearing-tua-tagovailoa/ |
Russian President Vladimir Putin at a concert on Friday in Moscow to mark the annexation of four regions of Ukraine. (Maksim Blinov/Sputnik/Pool/Reuters)
The prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine in late September was approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin over the objections of his top security service, the FSB, which had concerns about a public backlash in Russia, according to senior Ukrainian and U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
The lopsided numbers in the exchange — almost four times as many Ukrainians released as Russians — and the type of Ukrainian soldiers involved, 108 from the Azov Regiment, concerned Russia’s Federal Security Service, the officials said.
When the exchange took place on Sept. 22, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed it as a “victory for our state” while the Kremlin came under rare criticism from pro-war nationalists who decried the release of fighters long characterized by Russia as battle-hardened neo-Nazis.
“The release … is worse than a crime … and worse than a mistake. This is RANK STUPIDITY,” Igor Girkin, who had led Russian proxy forces in eastern Ukraine against Kyiv’s military in 2014, wrote on social media.
The exchange occurred as Putin came under additional domestic pressure over his partial military mobilization of reservists to bolster his beleaguered war effort in Ukraine. Russian setbacks in the conflict have raised questions about the strategic wisdom of a leader long viewed as shrewd and cunning, albeit ruthless.
The revelation of the FSB’s objections to the transfer is the latest wrinkle in an unusual transaction that was facilitated by a diverse collection of power brokers including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The middleman exchanging messages between Moscow and Kyiv was Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, who is under sanctions by the European Union for his close ties to Putin. U.S. and Ukrainian officials view Abramovich’s interlocutor efforts as a means of improving his standing in the West.
Over months of deliberations, Abramovich flew to Riyadh and Moscow to arrange the agreement, dealing closely with the FSB’s director, Alexander Bortnikov, and Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak. During that time, Abramovich kept Ukrainian officials apprised of the Kremlin’s outlook even as some of Zelensky’s top aides doubted that Putin would ultimately approve the emerging deal, according to people familiar with the matter.
A spokeswoman for Abramovich did not respond to requests for comment.
The deal was postponed several times over two months of negotiations, said Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate.
“This was a complex operation requiring synchronicity and the simultaneous implementation of several stages in different countries,” he said.
Under the terms of the agreement, Russia released five commanders who led Ukraine’s defense of the strategic port city of Mariupol and became national symbols of resistance. They cannot leave Turkey until the end of the war but are not imprisoned and are free to move about the country.
The other Ukrainian soldiers were exchanged at Ukraine’s northern border with Russia while the 10 foreign nationals, including five Britons, two Americans, a Moroccan, a Croatian and a Swede, were flown to Saudi Arabia before being sent home, Yusov said.
Russia had branded the Azov fighters as terrorists after capturing them in May and vowed to put them on trial, making their release a particular sore spot for Russian nationalists.
“The fact that Azov commanders must now holiday in Turkey for the rest of the special military operation as a condition for their exchange is a bit of a mockery,” Dmitry Seleznev, a nationalist blogger, wrote on his Telegram channel after the trade was announced.
Besides the 55 Russian soldiers, Ukraine released Viktor Medvedchuk, the leader of a banned pro-Russian party in Ukraine who faced treason charges.
A senior State Department official said Medvedchuk’s release exposed the premium Putin placed on protecting an elite politician who served the Kremlin’s interests. “It is telling that Putin elected to trade his crony and one of his long-term proxies in Ukraine, Medvedchuk, for the heroes of Mariupol,” the official said. “It was very much celebrated in Ukraine to have those valiant fighters back home, and very much reviled in Moscow to see what Putin truly cares about.”
Andrew Weiss, a Russia scholar and author of the forthcoming biography of Putin “Accidental Czar,” said Putin’s trade for Medvedchuk aligns with his practice of rewarding loyalty.
“Putin is known to have a very sentimental streak, and he stays loyal to people well past their sell-by date,” he said. “Viktor Medvedchuk’s sell-by date was a long time ago in Ukrainian politics but he was seen as someone who had been loyal to the Kremlin and a good access point for Russian influence.”
Instrumental in the deal was Mohammed, Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, who sent his personal security team and his plane to Russia to pick up the prisoners, the senior Ukrainian official said.
Like Abramovich, the Saudi crown prince has sought to improve his standing in the West following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents.
“His interest is to renew his reputation,” said the senior Ukrainian official. “He offered the planes and the hotels to play the good guy in front of the U.S.”
The Saudi Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.
Ukrainian officials liked the idea of incorporating Saudi Arabia, as they have long been concerned about Riyadh’s drift toward Moscow.
“We want the Saudis and the Emiratis closer to Washington and farther away from Russia,” said the official, who noted that the decisions of India, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the UAE can make or break the Russian economy.
Serhiy Morgunov, in Kyiv, contributed to this report, | 2022-10-01T20:17:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Putin overruled FSB in prisoner swap with Ukraine - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/10/01/prisoner-exchange-putin-fsb-ukraine/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/10/01/prisoner-exchange-putin-fsb-ukraine/ |
President Russell M. Nelson, of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, waves to other general authorities prior to the Saturday morning session of the 192nd Semiannual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022. (Jeffrey D. Allred /The Deseret News via AP) (Jeffrey D. Allred/AP/Pool/The Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — Russell M. Nelson, the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, told members of the faith on Saturday that abuse was “a grievous sin” that shouldn’t be tolerated and would bring down the wrath of God on perpetrators. | 2022-10-01T20:17:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Mormon leader calls abuse 'abomination' amid policy scrutiny - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/mormon-leader-calls-abuse-abomination-amid-policy-scrutiny/2022/10/01/2ecb5e84-41bb-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/mormon-leader-calls-abuse-abomination-amid-policy-scrutiny/2022/10/01/2ecb5e84-41bb-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html |
In this July 20 photo, Gabriela Zambrano Hill, whose father Alirio Zambrano and uncle Jose Luis Zambrano were detained as part of the ‘Citgo 6′ in Venezuela speaks at unveiling of a mural in Washington DC featuring wrongfully detained US Nationals. (Craig Hudson for The Washington Post)
Vadell, the Zambrano brothers and Pereira were employees of Houston-based Citgo who were attending a meeting in 2017 in Venezuela when they were seized by masked agents who burst into their conference room. Heath, a former U.S. Marine corporal, was arrested on what the U.S. called “specious” weapons charges in 2020. Khan, a Florida man was arrested in January.
The two Venezuelan known as the “narco nephews,” Efraín Campo and Francisco Flores, nephews of Venezuela´s First Lady, Cilia Flores, were arrested in Haiti in 2015 in a DEA drug operation after attempting to smuggle cocaine into the United States. In 2017, they were sentenced to 18 years in prison after being convicted.
A senior administration official said Biden made “the difficult decision” to grant clemency to the two men.
“Today, we celebrate that seven families will be whole once more,” Biden said in a statement. “To all the families who are still suffering and separated from their loved ones who are wrongfully detained – know that we remain dedicated to securing their release.”
Senior administration officials told reporters those released "seemed stable but obviously they’re happy, their overjoyed to be heading home to their loved ones,” they said.
Venezuela released its own statement soon after confirming the news, calling it an act based on “humanitarian reasons.” The statement also confirmed that “two young Venezuelans unfairly imprisoned” in the US were freed as part of talks that started in March of this year between both governments.
“It became clear in the course of negotiations, that the release of two Venezuelans was essential to securing the release of these Americans," the U.S. officials said.
This appears to be another step into normalizing relations between the socialist country and the United States. In March, two Americans were freed following a visit to Caracas by a high-level U.S. delegation, the first one after the US cut off diplomatic relations in 2019 after the Trump administration recognized Juan Guaidó as interim president.
Viser reported from Washington. | 2022-10-01T21:52:25Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Venezuela frees jailed Americans including Citgo execs in exchange for Maduro family drug smugglers - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/01/venezuela-prisoner-swap-maduro/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/01/venezuela-prisoner-swap-maduro/ |
TCU wide receiver Gunnar Henderson (27) was one of several Horned Frogs to get behind the Oklahoma defense in a 55-24 rout. (Emil Lippe/Getty Images)
Bret Bielema (winner)
Mississippi’s fourth-quarter defense (winner)
Minnesota (loser)
UCLA (winner)
Boise State (winner)
There were enough questions coming into the season to think this wasn’t going to be a vintage Oklahoma team destined to land in the playoff.
The offense had a considerable makeover. There weren’t as many questions on defense, but still some differences. And there was a first-time head coach in Brent Venables, albeit one who had a considerable influence as the defensive coordinator at Clemson for a decade.
There’s a difference, however, between not being playoff-bound and not being able to stop anyone. And that’s the Rubicon the No. 18 Sooners have crossed since entering Big 12 play.
Last week’s 41-34 loss to Kansas State could be chalked up as an off day, a weird outcome against a program that routinely plays Oklahoma well. But Saturday’s 55-24 bludgeoning at TCU is another matter entirely.
The Horned Frogs (4-0, 1-0 Big 12) scored 27 points in the first quarter and 41 before halftime. They rolled up 668 total yards on the helpless Sooners, and averaged a cool 8.9 yards a snap.
TCU had four scoring plays of at least 62 yards, and it did it against a team that it was 1-10 against since entering the Big 12. There was no history of unusual success in this series for Oklahoma’s opponent.
The Sooners (3-2, 0-2) didn’t fare any better on offense, as quarterback Dillon Gabriel left after absorbing a late hit in the first half. Gabriel wasn’t great even before the injury — 7 of 16 for 126 yards — but with the way TCU moved the ball, it probably wouldn’t have mattered if any of Oklahoma’s recent Heisman-contending QBs was taking the snaps.
Any talk of a playoff berth has evaporated in Norman, and any chance to win the Big 12 is probably gone with another loss — including in next week’s Red River Whatchamacallit against Texas. Yet considering how things have gone the last two weeks, simply regrouping on defense is a far bigger priority for Oklahoma than wins or losses.
Not only did Bret Bielema lead Illinois back to his old stomping grounds at Camp Randall Stadium, but his Illini basically out-Wisconsined Wisconsin in a 34-10 rout.
Illinois controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, especially on defense. Wisconsin mustered just 2 rushing yards, and it’s not as if the numbers when sacks were removed (19 carries for 31 yards) were something for the Badgers to be proud of.
Meanwhile, the Illini (4-1, 1-1 Big Ten) doggedly stuck with the run, doing enough with the help of a few turnovers to create separation from the Badgers in Bielema’s first game in Madison since leaving for Arkansas after the 2012 season.
The No. 14 Rebels outlasted No. 7 Kentucky, 22-19, to improve to 5-0, and their victory ultimately came down to three plays in a scoreless fourth quarter.
On the first snap of the period, Otis Reese broke up a fourth-down pass from Kentucky quarterback Will Levis from the Ole Miss 32 to give possession to the Rebels.
On a third-and-2 with 2:55 to go at the Rebels 19, Levis lost a fumble to stymie what looked like it would produce — at minimum — the tying points for Kentucky.
And with 51 seconds left, Levis fumbled again, this time on a sack at the Ole Miss 25 to lock up the victory for the Rebels.
Mississippi plays three of the next four on the road — at Vanderbilt, LSU and Texas A&M, with an Oct. 15 home game against Auburn tossed in. It isn’t the easiest path to 9-0, but it’s plausible the Rebels take an unblemished record into a Nov. 12 date with Alabama.
No Mo Ibrahim meant more problems for the No. 21 Golden Gophers, who are probably the best team in the Big Ten’s West Division but find themselves in a giant scrum thanks to a 20-10 loss to Purdue in Minneapolis.
Minnesota (4-1, 1-1 Big Ten) rolled through September without incident, but it never got its running game on track against the Boilermakers without Ibrahim. The Gophers accrued 47 yards on 26 carries, and struggled to get traction on offense all day. A bye week could help Ibrahim get healthy, and Minnesota could surely use him as it pushes for a division title.
The Bruins were a bit of an unproven entity entering Friday. Their first four games were all victories, largely uneventful defeats of Bowling Green, Alabama State and Colorado and an escape at home against South Alabama.
So Chip Kelly’s bunch earned some credit — and its eighth consecutive victory dating back to last season — with a 40-32 defeat of No. 15 Washington. Dorian Thompson-Robinson threw for 315 yards and three touchdowns and tacked on a rushing score for UCLA (5-0, 2-0 Pac-12), which is off to its best start since 2013.
There’s plenty more to learn about the Bruins, who play host to Utah next weekend and then visit Oregon on Oct. 22 after an open date. For now, they’re doing their part to make the Los Angeles area a center of power in the Pac-12 (at least until they and Southern Cal bolt to the Big Ten after next season).
Where, exactly, did Friday’s 35-13 defeat of San Diego State come from? Considering where the Broncos were a week ago, the question isn’t unreasonable.
Boise State was coming off a 27-10 loss at UTEP that cost its offensive coordinator his job. Quarterback Hank Bachmeier entered the transfer portal a few days later. And it’s not as if the Broncos were great in the first half against the Aztecs, trailing 13-0 at the break while managing 43 yards on 13 carries.
Things were a bit different in the final 30 minutes, as Boise State (3-2, 2-0 Mountain West) rolled up 273 yards and five touchdowns on 31 carries. It led to the Broncos’ best rushing output since 2018, and in tandem with a defense that gave up just 114 yards might have revived the hopes of turning around a season that seemed ticketed for a lackluster finish throughout a forgettable September. | 2022-10-01T22:41:50Z | www.washingtonpost.com | College football winners and losers for Week 5 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/01/college-football-winners-losers-week-5/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/01/college-football-winners-losers-week-5/ |
Trump’s latest attack on McConnell sets a new standard of despicable
Former president Donald Trump during a rally in Wilmington, N.C., on Sept. 23. (Chris Seward/AP)
When you are dealing with someone for whom there is no bottom, it’s not exactly surprising to seem him hit a new low. Nonetheless, Donald Trump’s latest social media broadside against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) stands out for its odious recklessness.
On Friday, the former president posted on his Truth Social platform that McConnell has a “DEATH WISH” for having supported legislation to keep the government operating through mid-December — language that could easily be read by his highly combustible supporters as inviting violence against the GOP leader who seems to have taken up residence under Trump’s gossamer-thin skin.
Indeed, Trump portrayed the spending legislation, which passed the Senate 72-25, as a personal affront, saying McConnell cut the deal to pass it “because he hates Donald J. Trump, and he knows I am strongly opposed to” its provisions.
Trump then went for a racial smear against McConnell’s Asian American power spouse, Elaine Chao, who served as transportation secretary in his own administration, referring to her as “his China loving wife, Coco Chow!”
Outrageousness, of course, is Trump’s political brand, and ignoring his rants is usually the best thing to do. His spokesman insisted that his reference to a death wish referred to a political one, rather than literal one.
But to dismiss all of this as just Trump being Trump is to ignore what is really going on here. The Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his crazed followers, after a rally in which the then-president urged them to “fight like hell” to overturn the 2020 election result, should have put to rest any doubts that his words can summon violence. (Trump’s beef with Chao is fueled by the fact that she resigned from his Cabinet the next day.)
Knowing all of this, you have to wonder: Where are McConnell’s Republican colleagues in the Senate? Why do they remain silent when Trump does something like this? Is this sort of behavior by their party’s de facto leader acceptable to them, particularly coming fewer than 40 days before an election in which they are trying to pick up the single additional seat that would give them control of the chamber? Their timidity has fostered the free-fire environment in which Trump operates.
Also worth raising is the question of whether the stopgap spending bill was actually what triggered Trump’s eruption. It is probably no coincidence that Trump’s attack came just three days after McConnell threw his weight behind a badly needed piece of bipartisan legislation that would reform the antiquated Electoral Count Act of 1887.
That old law lays out the process for tallying and certifying electoral votes in presidential elections; its language, however, contains ambiguities, which is what Trump and his forces were trying to exploit on Jan. 6 — the day Congress met to certify the tally of the 2020 election. Among other things, Trump pressured Vice President Mike Pence, whose role in the exercise was supposed to be ceremonial, to throw out valid votes; Pence, properly, refused.
McConnell’s honorable decision to support reforming the Electoral Count Act, despite the fact that opposing it has become a litmus test of support for Trump, has greatly increased its chances of passing, because it now appears likely to easily muster more than the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster.
“Congress’s process for counting their presidential electors’ votes was written 135 years ago. The chaos that came to a head on January 6th of last year certainly underscored the need for an update,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “The Electoral Count Act ultimately produced the right conclusion … but it’s clear the country needs a more predictable path.”
The right conclusion, in this case, was that Joe Biden was legitimately elected president of the United States. But by refusing to accept Trump’s lies to the contrary, McConnell has guaranteed himself a continued place in Trump’s crosshairs.
No doubt Trump will escalate his dangerous and vile attacks on McConnell, because that is simply who he is. But let’s be clear that there is plenty of fault to go around. The Republican Party’s refusal to denounce him for it makes them complicit. | 2022-10-01T22:55:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Trump’s latest attack on McConnell sets a new standard of despicable - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/01/trump-mcconnell-attack/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/01/trump-mcconnell-attack/ |
Their first mission, on June 9, would be their last.
But the unit was ambushed, and in the ensuing firefight everyone scattered, the Americans said. Drueke, Huynh and their team leader began searching for a machine-gunner and sniper who’d gone missing, only to learn that other members of the unit had taken their vehicles — and most of their food and water — and returned to base without them, Drueke said.
A representative for Task Force Baguette denied that Drueke and Huynh were left behind, saying the team scattered in five groups and that each had to make it back to safety on their own “as nobody knew what happened to the others.” He declined to elaborate. In a tweet, the unit celebrated the Americans’ release, thanking them for their service and calling Drueke and Huynh “heroes.”
The Americans were blindfolded for most of the next few days, they said. Occasionally, their captors would take the blindfolds off, allowing them to catch a glimpse of their surroundings. The Russians hid their faces behind tan balaclavas. | 2022-10-01T23:21:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Alex Drueke, Andy Huynh detail Russian beatings, interrogation - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/10/01/alex-drueke-andy-huynh-russian-prisoners/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/10/01/alex-drueke-andy-huynh-russian-prisoners/ |
Howard swim team, in historic meet, elevates Black profile in the sport
Diver Cyrus Gibson and the Howard University swimming and diving team competed against Georgetown on Saturday in Battle at the Burr. (Michael A. McCoy for The Washington Post)
Among the first indications a special event was taking place at Howard were District police vehicles, lights flashing, blocking a handful of side streets along a stretch of Georgia Avenue in Northwest where the university’s athletic facilities are located.
Inside Burr Gymnasium, meantime, thumping beats reverberated over the sound system as students, parents, alumni and Bison supporters milled about in the corridors while other patrons patiently but eagerly waited in line to have their tickets scanned.
The draw on a soggy and overcast afternoon was a swim meet against crosstown rival Georgetown billed as “The Battle at the Burr,” where an announced crowd of 2,000-plus packed the seating area above the pool for the sold-out event organizers indicated was the most attended aquatics competition in school history.
Overflow viewing for the late-arriving set was available through windows lining the hallway on the main concourse and in front of a VIP section dubbed the “Splash Lounge” that welcomed special guests to the dual-meet season opener conducted in conjunction with Howard athletics hall of fame weekend.
One of the inductees was Nicholas Askew, the coach of the Bison men’s and women’s swim and dive teams. Not only did Askew hold a number of records at the time of his graduation in 2000, but he also has overseen exponential growth of the only swim and dive program at a historically Black college and university.
“That is really honest to goodness the mission,” said Askew, who over eight seasons on the Hilltop has embraced elevating the profile of Black and Brown swimmers and divers in a sport where traditionally they have been underrepresented. “We don’t just take it as, ‘Okay, we’re a Division I program, and we swim, and we dive, and we go home.’
“We have what I believe is a bigger obligation to the community. When you think about only two percent of USA Swimming and only two percent of NCAA swimming and diving is African American, that percentage to me, I want to be able to raise that percentage because I think swimming is a global sport.”
Askew was enshrined during a ceremony Friday night and honored again Saturday following the first event of “The Battle at the Burr,” the women’s 1-meter dive. Howard won the men’s overall title, 115-109, and lost on the women’s side, 148-76.
Since Askew took over Howard has broken more than 80 school records in both men’s and women’s events. Last season the men finished runner-up at the Northeast Conference championships in Geneva, Ohio, amassing 638.5 points and setting 17 school and three meet records.
Askew and his assistants were named NEC coaching staff of the year during the awards ceremony where the 400-free relay team celebrated a school-record time of 2:59.46. Miles Simon swam the first leg of the relay in 44.66, the third fastest time in school history.
Simon also was the featured attraction Saturday at the facility where his name appears on half of the 22 events listed on a plastic board hanging on the poolside wall recognizing Bison record holders. His lengthy list of accomplishments includes owning the school-record time in the 50 free and one of the fastest times in the country (19.72), set last season along with all his other marks.
“This is my first time being at a meet like this,” Simon said of the energy at Burr. “This is like a great experience. Our dual meets usually are always hype, but this is probably times ten, which is crazy. Being a part of it, just being on the block and knowing there’s a crowd that looks like me, that really supported me and helped me through my races.”
Last year Simon became the second swimmer in program history to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Trials. Despite specializing in the 200 individual medley, in which he holds the Bison record (1:49.55), Simon qualified in the 50 free in part thanks to a pivot related to the coronavirus pandemic.
Simon remained at his home in Atlanta during the height of the pandemic when students were exclusively learning remotely. There he did not have the aquatic resources offered at Howard, so he focused his attention on the 50 because the stroke, according to Simon, is less labor intensive to correct.
Back at Howard, the most raucous cheering Saturday unfolded during the 24th and final event of the meet, the men’s 200 individual free relay. With Simon swimming the lead leg, the Bison opened a commanding margin on the way to winning in 1:22.77, compelling the entire team, men and women, to dance in unison as fans joined in.
So too did the Hoyas, who waved across the pool to their opponent before members of both teams shook hands at the meet’s conclusion.
“This is a predominantly White sport, so us swimming and competing and doing our best and showing younger Black kids that there’s another sport to do, you don’t have to play basketball, you don’t have to play football,” Simon said. “Younger Black swimmers seeing swimmers like us will give them reassurance that they can do what we can do.” | 2022-10-01T23:21:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Howard swim team, in historic meet, elevates Black profile in the sport - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/01/howard-swimming-diving/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/01/howard-swimming-diving/ |
Nationals put on the hits, put a dent in Phillies’ playoff push
Luke Voit gets a high-five from teammate Joey Meneses after Voit's two-run homer in the first game of Saturday's day-night doubleheader against the Phillies. (Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
The pitch — an 0-2 fastball level with the top of Luis García’s shoulders — was one García had no business swinging at, much less hitting. But García turned on the inside fastball from Chris Devenski and sent it 404 feet into the right field bleachers, the last of three Washington Nationals home runs in a 13-4 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader.
Luke Voit hit a two-run homer in a five-run second inning and Joey Meneses added a solo shot in fifth as the Nationals (55-102) produced 14 hits and put a dent in the playoff hopes of the Phillies (84-73). The loss left the visitors tied with the Milwaukee Brewers for the National League’s final playoff spot entering the night games.
“That’s what I work for with my hitting,” García said through an interpreter. “To stay up the middle and away. There’s times, luckily, where on the inside pitch I just react. I was able to read the pitch early enough that I reacted and made good contact.”
García finished 3 for 5 with the homer, two singles, five RBI and two strikeouts. He entered October looking to finish strong after he had a modest .226 average in September. Before that, he had a .327 batting average in August, a month that included a brief stint on the injured list.
Boswell: Joey Meneses seems too good to be true. What if he's for real?
The Phillies manufactured a run in the first on a double steal. Kyle Schwarber opened the game with a triple. After Bryce Harper was intentionally walked, he took a healthy lead off first to draw a throw from catcher Riley Adams. Schwarber then sprinted home, beating García’s high throw (that went to the backstop). Both Schwarber and Harper were credited with a stolen base.
García made amends in the bottom of the inning, pulling a two-out RBI single to right to knot the score.
The Nationals broke the game open in the second behind a three-run double from Joey Meneses (3 for 4, four RBI) and a 440-foot bomb from Luke Voit.
The Phillies climbed back into the game with three runs in the fourth off Aníbal Sánchez, who eventually earned the win. But the Nationals kept hitting.
In the seventh, with Washington ahead 7-4, García hit a pitch that was nearly in the right-hander’s batting box — and somehow it found open grass for a single that sparked a three-run burst.
“I went into that at-bat with a lot of concentration,” García said. “I went up there to widen the zone a little bit. … I just kind of made contact and went with it that way.”
He finished off the afternoon by expanding the zone again on his eighth-inning home run. His three-hit day was the full García experience — questionable plate discipline yet positive results on pitches few hitters would even consider swinging at.
García’s chase percentage is at 41 percent, well above the league average of 28.4 percent. Manager Dave Martinez wants to see his second baseman show more plate discipline.
“For him, it’s all about consistency and looking for the ball up and not chasing,” Martinez said. “Come next year, his big thing is not to chase. We got to get him to stay in the zone.”
What’s the latest on Keibert Ruiz? Ruiz saw a specialist this week after suffering a testicular contusion that cost him the last few weeks of the season. He won’t be able to work out for another week, though Martinez said he is walking better. Martinez said the team will probably give him the option to go home instead of flying with the team for the final series against the New York Mets.
What did Martinez have to say about Nelson Cruz? Martinez said he is worried that Cruz might not be able to play again this season because of the eye injury that has sidelined him since Sept. 13. Martinez didn’t dismiss the possibility of a pinch-hitting appearance, but it depends on how the veteran feels.
“He was so important to our organization this year as far as helping with developing our kids, a great teammate in that clubhouse and finishing up this year. I don’t know what his plans are for next year, even though he says he wants to play. But I want him to finish up this year on the field. I think everybody deserves to finish up on the field.” | 2022-10-01T23:21:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Nationals put on the hits, put a dent in Phillies’ playoff push - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/01/nationals-put-hits-put-dent-phillies-playoff-push/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/01/nationals-put-hits-put-dent-phillies-playoff-push/ |
GREENVILLE, S.C. — Jaylan Thomas ran for 104 yards and three touchdowns and Samford held off Furman for a 34-27 victory on Saturday.
After Furman (3-2, 1-1 Southern Conference) jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter, Michael Hiers threw a 36-yard touchdown pass to Jay Stanton. Thomas added scoring runs from 28 and 14 yards out and Samford (4-1, 2-0) took the lead for good. Thomas' 44-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter stretched the Bulldogs’ lead 27-17. | 2022-10-01T23:23:29Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Thomas has 3 TD runs, leads Samford over Furman 34-27 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/thomas-has-3-td-runs-leads-samford-over-furman-34-27/2022/10/01/6b131a00-41d7-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/thomas-has-3-td-runs-leads-samford-over-furman-34-27/2022/10/01/6b131a00-41d7-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html |
Biden reinstates arts committee that disbanded under Trump
On Friday, the president signed an executive order reestablishing the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities and proclaimed October 2022 National Arts and Humanities month
President Biden speaks during a ceremony unveiling the official White House portraits of Barack Obama and Michelle Obama. (Al Drago/Bloomberg News)
The move to reestablish the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH) continues a kind of cultural repair led by the Biden-Harris administration, which has proposed large increases in funding to federal arts agencies, following the Trump administration’s attempts to eliminate that funding and shut down those agencies. The administration has also overturned Trump-era regulations that controlled the type of art that could hang in government buildings and the style of architecture that could be used in new federal construction. The reinstatement comes after two-and-a-half years of a pandemic that has left arts institutions reeling from decreased ticket sales and prolonged closures.
According to the executive order, the committee will be funded by the IMLS and will include no more than 25 nonfederal members. (Leaders of the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, the Kennedy Center and the National Gallery of Art will be invited to participate as nonvoting members.) The committee’s budget and membership have not yet been announced.
New chair of the NEA, Maria Rosario Jackson, wants Americans to live artful lives
In August 2017, the committee, which consisted of members appointed during the Obama administration, disbanded in response to Trump’s comments that there were “very fine people on both sides” at the Unite the Right rally, organized to protest the removal of a Confederate-era statue. In a mass resignation letter, the commissioners — including actors Kal Penn and John Lloyd Young, author Jhumpa Lahiri, artist Chuck Close and others — called out Trump’s support of “hate groups and terrorists.”
The reestablishment follows increased investment in the arts by the Biden administration, whose American Rescue Plan, signed in March 2021, allocated $135 million for the NEA and the NEH. The White House’s proposed 2023 budget calls for $203 million to be allocated to the NEA, higher than 2022′s record-breaking proposal of $201 million. | 2022-10-01T23:47:19Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Biden reinstates arts committee that disbanded under Trump - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/10/01/biden-reinstates-presidents-committee-on-the-arts-and-humanities/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/10/01/biden-reinstates-presidents-committee-on-the-arts-and-humanities/ |
Maryland quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa was solid in leading the Terps past Michigan State. (Julio Cortez/AP)
As the Maryland football program gradually rises from the doldrums of the Big Ten, Taulia Tagovailoa, more so than any other player, has fueled those leaps of progress. The Terrapins need their quarterback, and in this game against Michigan State, he didn’t have his top statistical outing in College Park but perhaps one of his most impressive performances.
Tagovailoa led the Terps to a 27-13 win over the Spartans, picking apart a secondary that has struggled to stop opposing passing attacks this season. He did so when his team needed to respond from its first loss of the season and after he had gotten banged up with minor rib and knee injuries just seven days ago. Wet conditions could have threatened Maryland’s prolific passing game, but Tagovailoa seemed unfazed. And he did all this after a whirlwind 48 hours in which his brother, Tua, suffered a frightening concussion in an NFL game. Two days later, Tagovailoa led the Terps the way he often has — with poise and productivity.
Maryland (4-1, 1-1 Big Ten) dispatched the Spartans who arrived at newly renamed SECU Stadium on a two-game losing streak in need of a victory. Tagovailoa and the Terps controlled much of the game, capitalizing on the Spartans’ lapses. Tagovailoa finished with 314 yards on 32-of-41 passing; he had just one touchdown but no major errors.
Maryland’s defense held Michigan State (2-3, 0-2) to just eight yards of offense during the third quarter while the Terps dominated possession and grabbed hold of a two-score lead. The Terps only scored on a pair of field goals from Chad Ryland in the second half, but they held the Spartans scoreless after the break.
With fewer than five minutes left in the game, when Maryland held a 27-13 lead and the Spartans couldn’t convert a fourth-down attempt, the Terps nearly sealed the game. Tagovailoa’s 26-yard third-down pass to CJ Dippre ensured Maryland could keep draining the clock as the team inched closer to a win.
Tagovailoa played this game two days after his older brother, the starting quarterback for the Miami Dolphins, suffered a concussion during a game in Cincinnati and had to be taken from the field on a stretcher. The scary scene in which Tua lay frozen on the ground with his hands splayed came four days after he was evaluated for a possible head injury in Miami’s previous matchup but was allowed to return to that game and then play again Thursday.
As the NFL and the Dolphins face intense scrutiny over the quarterback’s medical care, Tua wrote in a statement that he is “feeling much better and focused on recovering so I can get back out on the field with my teammates.”
Taulia, who is very close with his older brother, learned of the injury from College Park amid his preparation for this game against Michigan State. In his performance, Tagovailoa showed no signs of being affected by what was an undoubtedly emotional two days.
Tagovailoa stayed cool when surrounded by Michigan State’s pressure, and the Spartans’ struggling pass defense often left Tagovailoa with wide-open options downfield. Eight of his passes picked up at least 15 yards, and his offensive line only allowed one sack against a formidable Michigan State pass rush.
As Maryland marched down the field on its opening drive, Tagovailoa became the fastest quarterback in program history to record 6,000 passing yards as a Terp. Tagovailoa connected with his receivers on a pair of third-down conversions during that drive. Antwain Littleton II, a redshirt freshman running back, then powered up the middle on a fourth-and-1 play and scored from 15 yards out moments later. Early in the fourth quarter, the 235-pound running back barreled down the field for a 68-yard gain, but was forced out of bounds two yards shy of the goal line. He had four attempts to punch the ball into the end zone but landed inches short on fourth down, handing the ball back to the Spartans.
Even though Littleton couldn’t convert when Maryland’s touchdown hopes depended on it, he finished the game with multiple successful carries on third- and fourth-and-short situations. Those moments, in addition to sophomore running back Colby McDonald’s two-yard score in the opening quarter, highlighted Maryland’s rushing attack. The offense generated 175 yards on the ground — a third of which came on Littleton’s long run — and delivered in those key moments while Tagovailoa played well.
All three of Maryland’s often-used running backs — Littleton, McDonald and starter Roman Hemby — also got involved in the passing game with 10 catches for 66 yards between them. Tagovailoa distributed the ball to 10 Terps as he racked up his 10th career game with at least 300 passing yards, which tied the school record.
The Terps’ defense struggled at times early on but mustered enough stops — and benefited from enough special teams woes — for Maryland to enter halftime with a 21-13 lead. In the second quarter, the Spartans settled for a 33-yard field goal try, and Ben Patton’s attempt sailed wide right. The Terps’ defense let the Spartans cruise down the field for another red-zone opportunity, and this time, they finished the drive with an eight-yard touchdown pass to standout receiver Jayden Reed. But a bad snap on the failed extra-point attempt kept Maryland ahead.
After two straight touchdown drives to start the game, Maryland’s offense sputtered with just 15 total yards on the next two series. The unit rediscovered its groove on a methodical drive that began with 4:19 remaining in the half and featured 10 pass completions. The Terps capped that possession with Rakim Jarrett’s five-yard touchdown reception, adding to their cushion before the break.
On what could have been a huge swing in favor of the Terps, sophomore safety Dante Trader Jr. picked off Payton Thorne’s pass and returned it for a touchdown. The score was nullified by a personal foul call on Corey Coley Jr., who hit a Michigan State receiver as the ball was tipped into the hands of Trader. Michigan State retained possession, but Jakorian Bennett blocked the Spartans’ field goal attempt as time expired.
The wet conditions led multiple players to slip on the turf, but neither team managed to force a turnover. Tagovailoa played with calmness, connected with receivers in critical situations and never had a major lapse. The defense corrected its mistakes to deliver a strong second half. And now the Terps are looking at an upcoming slate of games — against Purdue, Indiana and Northwestern — that could help them keep their momentum rolling.
Maryland comes close, but not close enough to beat No. 4 Michigan | 2022-10-02T00:04:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Taulia Tagovailoa leads Maryland past Michigan State - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/01/taulia-tagovailoa-maryland-michigan-state/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/01/taulia-tagovailoa-maryland-michigan-state/ |
After Hurricane Ian took everything, one hard-hit block banded together
By Reis Thebault
Betsy Hayward and her husband John Riili try to salvage belongings from their RV mobile home on San Carlos Island in the Fort Myers, Fla., area, on Sept. 30, 2022. (Octavio Jones/For The Washington Post)
SAN CARLOS ISLAND, Fla. — Nearly everyone at Joe Fernandez’s place lost everything in the storm.
Many lived in the RV parks and mobile home communities clustered along Main Street on this small patch of land between Fort Myers and Estero Island. The water to the north is known as Hurricane Bay, and for one terrifying stretch this week the line between land and sea blurred. Ian, one of the most fearsome hurricanes to ever hit the country, turned this patch of southwest Florida into an epicenter of devastation.
And it left many who live here with no place to go. No place but Joe Fernandez’s. The motor sport shop became a shelter first, then a food pantry. By Friday night, it turned into a place to process, to grieve. A place to find strength and fellowship. Most at the impromptu gathering didn’t evacuate, and they swapped stories of survival over cans of hard seltzer and a bottle of Jack Daniel’s.
Their accounts are harrowing and hard to fathom: Twenty people huddled in a small apartment on the second floor of one of just a few two-story buildings while water climbed the steps. The sight of boats lifted from the nearby marina slamming onto houses in the storm surge. The sound of trapped residents pounding on windows as their homes flooded. Close calls and heroic rescues.
“This was some ‘Walking Dead’ type of apocalypse,” Fernandez, 32, said. “This is what it feels like.”
Every disaster tests the mettle of a community, and while authorities dealt with the gargantuan task of rescuing the stranded and finding the dead, many residents were forced to help each other. All along Ian’s destructive path, people banded together, sharing generators, fuel and medicine, emptying their cupboards and warming freezers for collective cookouts.
Often, in the wake of such catastrophes, fraying nerves and petty crimes receive outsize attention. But reports of fights at the gas pump or a looted store overshadowed a much more common characteristic of a hurricane’s aftermath: the tightening threads of a neighborhood’s social fabric. Residents swap insurance tips and help each other clear debris; they knock on doors and pass out water.
And this sort of camaraderie is even more important in vulnerable areas. Places home to the elderly or people without the means to evacuate. When a massive storm like Ian hits, neighbors in places like San Carlos Island are almost always the first responders.
San Carlos Island doesn’t have the glitzy, towering beach resorts like some of its neighbors. It’s home to snowbirds, service industry workers and a large commercial shrimping industry. Patrons of its waterside tiki bars can dock their boats outside and drink barefoot, and those that live there year-round are on a first-name basis.
A hurricane separated the island from mainland Florida in the 1920s and it’s now considered part of the town of Fort Myers Beach, which has emerged as a ground zero in Ian’s aftermath.
Fernandez and his brother, Yunior, have run Alls In Custom fixing up boats and bikes on the island for five years. The brothers are originally from Cuba, and left the island as children during the 1994 exodus. They were among the thousands who departed on feeble rafts and boats after Fidel Castro said anyone who wanted to leave the island was free to flee. The siblings and their relatives were apprehended about a dozen miles from Key West and held at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.
They’ve now spent more time in the United States than they did in Cuba, and Fernandez treats his San Carlos neighbors like extended family. Leaving the island was never a question — even in the thick of the storm.
Yunior recalled driving to his brother’s home when they lost contact and trying to convince him to join him at a safer spot inland. He refused.
“Any other person would’ve been like, ‘Let’s go,’” Yunior, 37, said. “But he was like just, ‘Do me a favor, bring back propane, bring back water. I’m gonna stay here and feed my friends.’”
As the floodwaters receded, Fernandez had a sense the community would need to rely on each other. The shop where he modified speedboats, four-wheelers and motorcycles with shimmering paint jobs and ornate designs was ruined by nearly 10 feet of floodwater. But he had several generators. He set them up and began inviting people over.
Utilizing what wasn’t ruined in the storm, he put together a phone charging station and a couple hoses, providing residents two essentials services they had lost when the power and water went out: a way to check in on friends and a place to shower. He cracked his freezer and began cooking sausage, chicken and fish. Hot meals had also been in short supply.
“I don’t care about the material stuff — I don’t know how I’m going to get it back, but …” he said, trailing off.
Soon enough his neighbors began to emerge — navigating through cracked streets and piles of debris to come together around his grill. They hugged. Once in a while someone cracked a joke, a bid to find some much needed comedic relief. But little by little, the reality of their ordeal began to sink in.
“All my people are accounted for,” Mike Smith said, pausing to blink back tears. “But it’s setting in, man.” The 46-year-old tallied his losses: the boat where he slept, the boat where he fished, his truck with $3,000 in tools for the contracting business he had just started.
“These guys are all my adopted family, I guess you can say,” he said, looking around. “Everybody here lost everything, literally lost everything.”
A few feet away, Christian Day worked the grill. It was a familiar spot for Day, a chef at an upscale restaurant in a Marriott nearby, but unusual conditions. For one, he didn’t have any spices. Another neighbor named Erika walked down the road to her home, where she, Day and more than a dozen other people, several cats and a dog rode out the storm together.
She returned with three jars: “Salt, pepper and Erika’s essence,” she said. “Same as in Emeril’s essence, except I’m not paying five bucks for it.”
Day described struggling through the ripping water in the middle of the storm and helping haul open a door to save someone trapped in a laundry room. The friends and neighbors huddled together set up patio chairs around a kitchen table and hoped their second-story refuge was high enough.
Later, when Day returned to his home off Main Street, he found a boat crashed through his living room.
A runaway boat hit Deborah Barton’s house, too, but that’s all she knows. She hasn’t been able to find her fifth-wheel RV since.
“It’s either under the boat or in the mangroves,” she said. Barton, 54, works at a bar on the island and has lived here for 23 years. She doesn’t have much of her own to give, but has been passing out water and canned goods to those who need them more. There are a lot of snowbirds on the island, she said, “but it’s also full of locals.”
“Servers, bartenders, everybody that lives down here, that’s what you’re seeing right now,” Barton said. “We all pull together and try to help each other no matter what.”
Several people at the cookout noted that they had not yet seen law enforcement or emergency response teams in their neighborhood, although rescue helicopters buzzed overhead, likely conducting missions in Sanibel Island, west of Fort Myers Beach, which was cut off from the mainland when Ian collapsed the only connecting bridge.
“We don’t count on the government, we hope the government comes through, but honestly, they’re rescuing people from Sanibel,” Barton said. “They’re pulling bodies out of the water. That’s their first priority, they’re still rescuing.”
She was in group texts with other locals, everyone checking in with one or two words: Alive. Alive. Homeless, alive.
An urban search and rescue team eventually arrived Saturday. Fernandez didn’t seem surprised that authorities went to other areas first: “You realize anything that’s tourism, it’s getting aid, it’s getting helped,” he said. “This is where everything gets stuck.”
People came and went on Friday, bringing gas and browsing the makeshift market set up on shelves in front of his shop. They carried dry socks, big cans of black beans, packets of ramen, tampons and hydrogen peroxide. Fernandez’s dogs — three pit bulls and a Rottweiler — picked at scraps from the grill. The scent of Cuban lechon asado wafted from the grill.
His parrot, Marcos, wore the week’s stress most visibly, squawking and ruffling patchy feathers.
Sitting on a salvaged picnic table, Fernandez called out to people passing by, inviting them in for roast pork, or just a good cry.
“These people,” he said, “they need something to lean on.” | 2022-10-02T00:13:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | After Hurricane Ian took everything, one hard-hit block banded together - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/10/01/hurricane-ian-florida-neighbors-band-together/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/10/01/hurricane-ian-florida-neighbors-band-together/ |
Nixon's return started a flurry of 39 combined points in the third quarter. He found an open gap in the middle of the field, broke free from the grasp of Baylor’s Devyn Bobby at the Oklahoma State 35 and outran everyone to the end zone.
After Nixon’s return, Baylor (3-2, 1-1 Big 12) responded with Blake Shapen’s 49-yard TD pass to Monaray Baldwin, who added a 70-yard catch-and-run score on another fourth-down play later in the third. True freshman Richard Reese had a 1-yard TD run on a short drive set up when Christian Morgan intercepted Sanders.
Oklahoma State: The Cowboys were solid coming off their open date and rose to the challenges of playing their first ranked opponent and leaving Stillwater for the first time. Oklahoma State made some highlight catches for Sanders, including Bryson Green’s contested leaping catch in the back of the end zone for an 8-yard TD on the Cowboys’ opening drive. On Johnson’s 49-yard catch in the third quarter, he reached back and through a defender to make the grab near the sideline, and when twisting and turning, his left foot slid out of bounds just short of the end zone. | 2022-10-02T00:53:19Z | www.washingtonpost.com | No. 9 Oklahoma St. beats No. 16 Baylor 36-25 in B12 rematch - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/no-9-oklahoma-st-beats-no-16-baylor-36-25-in-b12-rematch/2022/10/01/ccce80f2-41de-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/no-9-oklahoma-st-beats-no-16-baylor-36-25-in-b12-rematch/2022/10/01/ccce80f2-41de-11ed-8c6e-9386bd7cd826_story.html |
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