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The Post’s Christine Armario named deputy editor of America desk
Announcement from National Editor Matea Gold, Deputy National Editor Philip Rucker and America Desk Editor Cathleen Decker:
We are excited to announce that Christine Armario will join the America desk as a deputy editor, helping expand our reach and guide the team as it crafts deeply reported enterprise and covers major national breaking news.
Christine has worked for the last year as a deputy editor on the General Assignment team, quickly earning the trust of GA reporters as an unflappable presence during chaotic news developments and a thoughtful sounding board to discuss storytelling approaches. In that role, she has also worked closely with the America team, helping to lead coverage of the Surfside condominium collapse, natural disasters and shootings.
In between the relentless barrage of breaking news, Christine also guided deeper stories – like the harrowing tale of the sole survivor of a capsized migrant ship off Florida, the plight of Black activists in Cuba’s historic protests and the search for the last victim of the Surfside condo collapse.
She came to The Post from the Miami Herald, where she served as Latin America editor. She oversaw the paper’s coverage of Raúl Castro’s retirement and launched a data project on vaccine inequality in Latin America that went on to win a National Headliner Award for international reporting.
Before that, she worked for 12 years as a reporter at the Associated Press, reporting from Los Angeles, Miami and eight countries, including Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia, Honduras and Mexico. While based in Bogotá, she spearheaded a project following a Venezuelan mother and her daughter fleeing their nation’s crisis on foot – joining the pair over 10 days as they trekked across three countries to Peru. She broke stories on Colombia’s civil conflict, followed Fidel Castro’s funeral caravan across Cuba and covered three trips by Pope Francis.
Christine was the founding president of the NAHJ South Florida chapter. She is a graduate of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and began her career at Newsday on the police beat.
She was born in Miami to Cuban parents and grew up in four countries, a nomadic upbringing that inspired her to be a journalist. She is currently going to remain in Miami, where she enjoys scouring the city’s food scene with her husband.
Please join us in congratulating Christine on her new role, which will begin June 13. | 2022-05-31T20:16:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Post’s Christine Armario named deputy editor of America desk - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/pr/2022/05/31/posts-christine-armario-named-deputy-editor-america-desk/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/pr/2022/05/31/posts-christine-armario-named-deputy-editor-america-desk/ |
As Luhansk falls to the Russians, civilians are desperate to evacuate
Two women sit in a van as they wait to be evacuated from Bakhmut, a town in eastern Ukraine that has come under increasing fire as Russian forces try to encircle and seize the city of Severodonetsk. (Francisco Seco/AP)
BAKHMUT, Ukraine — Larisa Strelnikova arrived in this once peaceful town in an armored bus last week, dodging Russian shells and death.
For the past three months, the 79-year-old had lived mostly underground, taking cover in her basement as Russian forces bombarded her beloved city of Severodonetsk. One day, her neighborhood market was destroyed; another day, the bus station. Then a Grad rocket slammed into her building, setting her apartment on fire.
“People rescued me and sent me here,” she mumbled, still disoriented by the jarring turn of events in the winter of her life. She paused, then said: “I gave birth to my children there. One is dead. I don’t know where the other is. I can’t remember when I spoke to him last.”
As Russian forces push deeper into Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, hundreds are fleeing towns and villages every day, including areas once viewed as safe. Russian missiles and rockets are expanding their reach, striking civilian areas as far as 200 miles from the front lines. Severodonetsk and the communities that surround it are growing more desolate by the day.
Volunteers help evacuate elderly Ukrainians from Bakhmut in the Donbas region, where Russian forces are attempting a strategic push to capture territory. (Video: Sudarsan Raghavan/The Washington Post)
“Many of our evacuees wait until the last minute,” said Anatoliy Bezkrovny, the pastor of the Church of Grace in the nearby town of Pokrovsk, which has become a way station of sorts for those escaping. “When the shelling and explosions intensify, when they see their houses destroyed, they flee.”
The church received 900 evacuees in April. Now it is getting as many as 300 people a day.
Most are fleeing the region entirely, betting that the war will grind on for months and spread throughout Donbas. An escape route has taken shape, run by caring police officers and volunteers. Evacuees reaching Bakhmut are housed in churches or shelters, then taken to the nearest train station so they can travel to Dnipro, or continue to peaceful areas farther west.
For the elderly, leaving means they will probably never return again to their homes, a final farewell to the lives they built for decades.
“I don’t know where I will go now,” said Strelnikova, in tears, as two elderly women nearby listened, their faces etched with concern.
The civilian exodus from Ukraine’s east comes as Russian forces have captured the towns of Lyman and Svitlodarsk in recent days. They have surrounded Severodonetsk on three sides and are fighting fierce street battles with Ukrainian soldiers.
“Unfortunately, the front line divided the city in half,” Oleksandr Stryuk, head of Severodonetsk’s military administration, said in an interview with a local network. “But the city is still defending itself, the city is still Ukrainian.” An estimated 90 percent of the city’s buildings and all its “critical infrastructure” have been destroyed, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
If the Russians seize Severodonetsk, they will control nearly all of the Luhansk region and can threaten larger cities in the Donetsk region, the other part of Donbas. Authorities in Severodonetsk are frantically trying to get as many residents as possible to safety. On Monday, though, evacuations were temporarily halted as shrapnel from a Russian strike killed a French journalist who was traveling with a group of evacuees.
“In the military aspect, the situation is, unfortunately, getting worse,” said Serhiy Haidai, head of Luhansk’s regional war administration. “The closer the Russians get to Severodonetsk, the more opportunities they get for shelling. If before they only used Grads or artillery, now they also use mortars.”
“Their tactic is to turn the city into a desert and then take the territory.”
‘We hoped it would end’
Vyacheslav Todorov never expected to flee.
Five generations of his close-knit family were raised in Severodonetsk and they never left. Not when the Nazis occupied the city in 1942, known then as Liskhimstroi, and not when the city fell under Soviet rule and was given its current name in 1950. Nor did the Todorovs flee in 2014 when Severodonetsk was briefly captured by Russian-backed separatists.
So when Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, the family was determined to stay put and outlast the war.
All 11 members of the Todorov clan stayed together, even as the Russian bombardment intensified, even as the hours they spent in their basement stretched to entire days and nights. They stayed as the grocery stores and pharmacies shuttered. They stayed as electricity and running water disappeared, using generators to charge their cellphones.
When they ran out of supplies, they depended on charity from authorities. Whenever they could, they ordered food, gas and other necessities from Dnipro, 200 miles away, spending their savings on couriers who were willing to risk entering the city for a hefty price. When they ran out of gas, they piled up wood and cooked their food on a fire.
“We hoped it would end,” said Vyacheslav Todorov, 32. “That’s why we stayed.”
But the fighting drew ever closer. Ukrainian forces were in the city, firing rockets and artillery at the Russians from a trolley depot near their house. “The Russians were shooting at the places where the Ukrainian troops were located,” said Yevhen Todorov, 22, Vyacheslav’s foster son. “And then the Ukrainians would fire back.”
“More than half the city is destroyed,” chimed in Vyacheslav. “It’s like a new Mariupol,” he added, referring to the southern port city that was heavily bombarded for weeks and was finally seized by the Russians in mid-May.
Last week, after the family had spent three straight days in their basement, a shell struck a few feet away, shattering the windows of their home. “There were so many explosions,” said Vyacheslav. “We thought our house would get destroyed.”
That’s when they finally decided to leave, along with their neighbors. Only one person stayed behind to look after his in-laws, who were too old to move. “They are still hoping to survive,” said Dmitry Todorov, Vyacheslav’s 65-year-old father. “But we lost our hope.”
They reached out to local police, who have evacuated an estimated 37,000 people from across Luhansk since the start of the invasion. “This is now our mission,” said Oleh Hryhorov, the Luhansk police chief. “The war has changed the life and duties of the policeman.”
The family — all 11 of them — left the city in a convoy of police cars.
In one of the vehicles was Larisa Strelnikova.
To escape, the convoy had to cross one of two bridges still connected to the city. The Russian forces had destroyed a third bridge a few days earlier and were now bombing the others.
“We were shelled the whole time on the bridge,” said Vyacheslav. “We were praying we would live.”
After they crossed and reached the city of Lisychansk, the 45 evacuees were placed in a police-escorted armored bus to take them to Bakhmut. The 35-mile stretch of road is a constant target of Russian artillery. “We heard the shelling all the time, a sort of whistling sound.” Vyacheslav recalled.
By nightfall, they had reached a bus station in Bakhmut, where two yellow buses waited to take them to a shelter for the night.
As they arrived, they heard sounds of eight successive shells slamming into different parts of the city, a reminder that they hadn’t fully escaped the war.
‘I am alone’
The following morning, the evacuees got back on the buses and traveled 47 miles southwest to Pokrovsk, where they were greeted by volunteers at the Church of Grace. They put down their meager possessions — whatever they could carry in their hands — in front of the building. Then they sat down to eat a breakfast cooked by the nuns — pancakes with poppy seeds, soup, pickled cucumbers, coffee and tea.
In one corner, Strelnikova sat with the two elderly women who were attentively listening to her story. Natalia Zinchenko, 70, had escaped with her 92-year-old mother-in-law, Nadia Dolupan, on the same armored bus. They, too, had seen their neighborhood market and the bus station destroyed. They, too, had nowhere to go.
Zinchenko’s granddaughter had fled weeks earlier, but Zinchenko and her mother-in-law didn’t want to be a burden on her. Strelnikova’s son, the last time she heard, lived in Svitlodarsk. It was now occupied by Russian forces.
“All three of us will stick together,” said Zinchenko, who needed help to walk because of her severe arthritis. Strelnikova smiled, unable to fight back her tears.
The three were waiting to go to the train station in Pokrovsk to travel to Dnipro later that afternoon.
As they sat, another elderly woman came over. Her name was Lydmila Koroboko and she was 87. “I don’t have any family,” she said. “I am alone.”
The three ladies invited her to come with them.
Bezkrovny, the pastor, watched the interaction and smiled. He had seen plenty of cases of elderly evacuees arriving alone and finding solace in others of their generation. He made a mental note to have some of his church’s volunteers meet the women in Dnipro.
“They will bring them to a nursing home or another church,” he said. “They will decide what to do with them.”
‘She should have stayed’
The day before, in Bakhmut, volunteers had come to evacuate Nelya Kamynin, along with 15 other residents of the city who wanted to flee. Among them was an elderly couple who had arrived two weeks before from the town of Popasna; now they were on the run again. At 92, Kamyina was the oldest of the group.
Volunteers had entered her apartment, where they found her nearly catatonic, a result of her age, said her son, Ihor Kamynin, a 58-year-old university lecturer who had come down from Kharkiv to care for her. After three straight days of intense Russian bombing, he heard reports on Telegram channels that Russian troops were moving toward Bakhmut. He decided then it was time to evacuate his mother.
“It’s becoming more and more dangerous here,” said Ihor, adding that his own house in Kharkiv had been partly destroyed. “This is the right decision.”
The volunteers wrapped Nelya up in a blanket and carried her down two flights of stairs, placing her in a large white van. Two hours later, there were two more elderly women lying next to her, and more evacuees in other vehicles.
Nelya was born here in 1930, when the city was called Artemivsk. The Nazis occupied it from 1941 to 1943 and her family house was burned down, Ihor recalled his mother telling him.
“At one point, she and other children and some elderly people hid in the cellar of a church,” he said. “The same situation might happen here. Only now, she can’t escape and hide in a cellar.”
His mother studied medicine and became a nurse. She lived for several years in Lithuania, where she met her future husband and Ihor’s father, who had fought in World War II. They returned to Bakhmut and had lived in the same apartment since 1963. She stayed there, even after her husband died. And she remained there, even as most of her neighbors left in recent weeks.
“They are not afraid of the city being captured,” said Ihor, referring to the neighbors. “They are worried about the shelling and being bombed.”
He had arranged for his mother to be cared for at a nursing home in Dnipro. He stepped inside the van and sat next to her as she lay there, her face turned upward. After picking up the other evacuees, the van took them to a hospital in the nearby city of Slovyansk to spend the night.
Nelya never made it to Dnipro, said her son. She died at the hospital the following day. Her last wish was to be buried next to her husband and parents in Bakhmut. Ihor said he asked the military, volunteers, anyone he could find. But no one would take her remains back to a war zone. She was buried in Slovyansk.
“I wish I never evacuated her,” said her son in a telephone call on Tuesday. “She should have stayed in Bakhmut.” | 2022-05-31T20:17:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | As Luhansk falls to the Russians, civilians are desperate to evacuate - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/31/ukraine-displaced-evacuees-russia-severodonetsk/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/31/ukraine-displaced-evacuees-russia-severodonetsk/ |
Russian soldiers Alexander Bobikin and Alexander Ivanov leave the courtroom after a hearing in Kotelva, Ukraine, on May 26. (Bernat Armangue/AP)
A Ukrainian court found two Russian soldiers guilty of “violating the laws and customs of war” on Tuesday and sentenced them to 11½ years in prison — the second verdict handed down in a Ukrainian war crimes trial held during the conflict.
The sentencing came as Ukraine’s chief prosecutor announced that Estonia, Latvia and Slovakia would become the newest members of a multinational investigation team, gathering and exchanging evidence in an effort to hold Russia accountable.
The two soldiers convicted Tuesday are in Ukrainian custody, and they stood trial in the Poltava region. Prosecutors accused them of shelling civilian sites in a town in the eastern Kharkiv region. The shelling destroyed an educational facility but left no casualties, prosecutors said. Alexander Bobikin and Alexander Ivanov pleaded guilty last week.
The verdict followed another last week in Kyiv, where a court found a 21-year-old Russian soldier guilty of war crimes and sentenced him to life in prison. The soldier, Vadim Shishimarin, had pleaded guilty to killing a 62-year-old civilian in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region early in the war. His lawyer said he intends to appeal.
Tens of thousands of investigators have fanned out across Ukraine to gather evidence. Iryna Venediktova, Ukraine’s prosecutor general, said Tuesday that her office receives 200 to 300 new war crimes cases each day, for a total of 15,000 so far. It has identified nearly 80 suspects.
Prosecutors and investigators around the world have lent their expertise to Ukrainian authorities and begun preparing cases for prosecution in courts elsewhere in Europe. Countries including France, Lithuania and the Netherlands dispatched investigators to Ukraine. The International Criminal Court, which opened a probe into violations of international law on both sides of the conflict, sent a team of 42, its largest-ever deployment.
Experts describe the slew of investigations as unprecedented in both scale and speed, unfolding even as the war rages.. The timing allows investigators to access fresh evidence, but fighting and Russian occupation has impeded access.
The scale of the efforts has raised concerns about duplication and overlap, which the joint investigation team — created in March and initially including Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland, is meant to address. The ICC last month joined the effort, which Eurojust, the European Union’s criminal justice agency, is coordinating.
The E.U. recently approved rules allowing the agency to store evidence related to war crimes and share it with judicial authorities. Eurojust, which will receive additional funds from the European Union, is also providing financial support to the joint investigation, said the agency’s president, Ladislav Hamran.
The IIC is working toward opening an office in Kyiv, prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan told reporters.
Venediktova expressed gratitude for the assistance. She asked for more equipment and laboratory capacity for DNA analysis.
At a news conference in The Hague, Venediktova said that she hopes the joint investigation will become a model.
Some legal experts have raised concerns about the proceedings in Ukraine’s first trials, however.
Under international law, prisoners of war cannot be tried for their participation in a conflict, though they can be prosecuted for war crimes. POWs must be treated humanely and have the right to a competent lawyer and fair trial.
Robert Goldman, a war crimes and human rights expert at American University’s Washington College of Law, said the first two trials in Ukraine have been noticeably fast, and that Shishimarin’s life sentence, harsh beyond the typical confines of European jurisprudence, appeared to mean the court was “holding him responsible” for the broader conflict.
Shelling a civilian target, for which the other two soldiers were prosecuted, can be complicated to prove, he said. To count as a war crime, prosecutors must show that the defendants deliberately targeted civilian infrastructure or launched a disproportionate attack with disregard for the civilian impact.
“Again you’ve got in a matter of days people who are tried and convicted for a very serious crime, which is a war crime,” Goldman said. “I have very real questions about the conduct of the trial and the adequacy of the defense.”
The defense said Bobikin and Ivanov had been following orders and appealed for leniency, according to Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne. Prosecutors had asked for 12 years, Reuters reported.
Venediktova also announced Tuesday that a Russian service member charged with rape will be tried in absentia in Ukraine. Mikhail Romanov is accused of killing an unarmed civilian and, with an accomplice, repeatedly raping the man’s wife and threatening to shoot the victim and her child.
Trials in absentia have occurred in the past, Goldman said, and typically defendants are retried if captured. But in this case and others, they raised concerns about fairness.
“There’s a real problem of trying someone for a crime where they can’t really mount a defense,” he said.
Moscow and Russian-backed separatists, now holding hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered in Mariupol, have indicated that they intend to put Ukrainians on trial for war crimes as well. The Russian justice system remains highly politicized and legal experts said it is unlikely the prisoners would get a fair trial.
Russian soldiers convicted in Ukraine could be included in a prisoner swap. Venediktova said Tuesday that Ukraine has “technical possibilities to exchange people,” though this does not fall under the purview of her office.
Andrew Jeong contributed to this report. | 2022-05-31T20:18:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | War crimes: Two Russian soldiers sentenced to prison in second trial in Ukraine - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/31/ukraine-russian-war-crimes-second-trial-sentencing/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/31/ukraine-russian-war-crimes-second-trial-sentencing/ |
How to create an inviting garden space for guests
Carmen Johnston, a Georgia-based garden designer and lifestyle expert, has been busy throughout the pandemic creating lush backdrops for family living and entertaining, whether it’s with plantings, flower beds or container gardens. Through her virtual business, Bespoke Garden Plans, Johnston collaborates with clients across the country to create custom gardens that match their location and needs. Johnston is the outdoor living designer for the 2022 HGTV Smart Home in Wilmington, N.C. She can answer questions on how to create an inviting garden space for entertaining and more. | 2022-05-31T20:42:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Tips for creating an inviting outdoor entertaining space - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/home/2022/06/09/inviting-garden-entertain-outdoors/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/home/2022/06/09/inviting-garden-entertain-outdoors/ |
At French Open, Coco Gauff graduates to her first Grand Slam semifinal
Coco Gauff blows a kiss to the crowd after beating Sloane Stephens in a French Open quarterfinal Tuesday in Paris. (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
PARIS — Ten days after celebrating her high school graduation with cap-and-gown photos snapped in front of the Eiffel Tower, Coco Gauff secured her first trip to a Grand Slam semifinal Tuesday by ousting fellow American Sloane Stephens, 7-5, 6-2, at the French Open.
For Gauff, 18, Paris has long been a warm and welcoming host. She was 14 when she won the French Open girls’ championship on the red clay of Roland Garros.
Tuesday on its biggest stage, Court Philippe-Chatrier, Gauff was in command from the start against the 29-year-old Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open champion and the French Open runner-up in 2018.
Gauff, the No. 18 seed, has yet to concede a set in the tournament and next faces unseeded Italian Martina Trevisan, a 28-year-old who advanced to her first Grand Slam semifinal by toppling 2021 U.S. Open finalist Leylah Fernandez, 6-2, 6-7 (7-3), 6-3.
Though 11 years of age apart, Gauff and Stephens are friends and frequent supporters of each other on social media. They had met on court just once before, with Stephens scoring a straight-sets victory at the U.S. Open last year.
In Tuesday’s reprise, Gauff bolted to an early 3-0 lead. In the second set, leading 3-1, Gauff went through a rough patch with her serve. Rather than let it unsettle her, she got more aggressive and creative with her ground game, varying her tactics and pace to disrupt Stephens until she reclaimed the momentum.
Though Gauff double-faulted six times, she was the steadier competitor, committing 23 unforced errors to Stephens’s 31.
“She’s athletic, she’s super confident, she’s a great player,” Stephens said, having predicted Gauff’s success after first seeing her play as a 10-year-old. “Obviously you can see someone and look at them and watch them and tell they have whatever it takes to be a top player.”
During her on-court interview afterward, Gauff was asked about her high school graduation, and she chose to speak directly to young fans and players.
“No matter how good or bad my career is, I think I’m a great person, and that’s a message to all young players,” she said. “Your results, or your job or how much money you make doesn’t define you as a person. As long as you love yourself, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks.”
Fernandez, 19, appeared to injure her right ankle during the first set against Trevisan and summoned the trainer, but she played on. Afterward, tournament officials announced the No. 17 seed would not take part in her post-match media obligations on the advice of her medical team, but in a statement released by the tournament on her behalf she called the outcome “hard luck.”
“I did feel [the foot issue] before the match, but I didn’t think much of it,” she said. “It just happened, and we are just going to have to learn from this.”
On Wednesday, 11th-seeded Jessica Pegula, the only other American still standing, will try to join Gauff in the semifinals. Pegula, 28, faces a huge hurdle in top-seeded Iga Swiatek. They split two previous meetings, both on hard courts. | 2022-05-31T20:59:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Coco Gauff advances to French Open semifinals - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/05/31/coco-gauff-french-open-sloane-stephens/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/05/31/coco-gauff-french-open-sloane-stephens/ |
Baltimore plans to sue ‘ghost gun’ part maker as state law takes effect
Ghost guns that were secured by D.C. police in 2020. (Astrid Riecken for The Washington Post)
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said Tuesday that the city plans to sue Polymer80, one of the country’s largest manufacturers of “ghost gun” kits — untraceable firearms that have proliferated on city streets and contributed to a surge of violence.
Officials plan to file the suit Wednesday, as the first phase of a state law to ban the sale, receipt and transfer of an unfinished frame or receiver that does not have a serial number by the manufacturer takes effect.
“Ghost guns are a devastating menace to the people of Baltimore,” Scott said in a statement. “The availability of these weapons — particularly to criminals, juveniles and other people who are prohibited from owning a firearm — presents a growing public health crisis. We do everything in our power to stop the companies involved in the proliferation of ghost guns and profit off of the destruction of our communities.”
Baltimore is the latest big city to sue Polymer80. Two years ago, the D.C. attorney general filed a lawsuit against the company, and last year Los Angeles also took the company to court.
Maryland’s largest city has reported more than 300 murders annually in the past seven years, and city officials are grappling with ways to stem gun violence. Police recovered 353 ghost guns last year and so far this year have seized 187 weapons with no serial numbers, according to a city spokesman. Earlier this year, the police chief said 69 acts of violence were connected to ghost guns that were recovered last year.
An official with Polymer80 did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The proliferation of ghost guns is “frightening. … I could spend hours telling you stories about how these ghost guns hurt our community and make our streets unsafe,” Police Commissioner Michael S. Harrison said during a news conference earlier this year.
The lawsuit and the enactment of the state’s new ban comes on the heels of two mass shootings in New York and Texas that claimed 31 lives and left the country reeling over holes in gun-control laws and the limits of laws on the books.
Maryland’s law requires previously purchased weapons to be properly imprinted with a serial number by a federally licensed dealer. Possessing an unserialized ghost gun, which are assembled from parts and sold in kits on the Internet, becomes illegal on March 1, 2023.
The legislation was a top priority for Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh.
🚨Maryland’s ghost gun legislation becomes effective June 1, banning the purchasing, transfer, or sale of any firearm or unfinished frame/receiver that isn’t imprinted with a serial number in accordance with federal law. By March 1, 2023, no one may possess such a weapon.
— Brian Frosh, Attorney General of Maryland (@BrianFrosh) May 27, 2022
Maryland Del. Lesley Lopez (D-Montgomery), who sponsored the House bill, said there has been a surge in youth-related gun violence in Maryland and across the country that is connected to ghost guns.
Last week, a student in Prince George’s County was arrested and accused of bringing a disassembled ghost gun to Fairmont Heights High School. Earlier this year, a teenager allegedly shot a 15-year-old Montgomery County student in a high school bathroom using a ghost gun.
Lopez ordered a Polymer80 frame of an assault rifle to see how easy it would be to get.
“I recently purchased, you know, medication for seasonal allergies, and that was more difficult than what it was to purchase the receiver online,” she said Tuesday. Lopez showed the gun part during a virtual news conference earlier this year to rally for the bill. “It just asked for a physical mailing address and my credit card information. Nothing more.”
Lopez said the company that sold her the ghost gun did not ask her age, if she had a protective order, whether she had a history of drugs or alcohol use, or if she was a citizen — all of which are markers for owning a firearm in Maryland. | 2022-05-31T21:04:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Baltimore sues ghost gun manufacturer - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/05/31/baltimore-ghost-guns-lawsuit/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/05/31/baltimore-ghost-guns-lawsuit/ |
Fight for laws to stop the killing. But also support the living.
Anna Richgels, 14, left, and Daniella Lacorte, 13, work on a computer at the Northeast Washington home of Capitol City Robotics coach Ryan Daza. (Astrid Riecken/For The Washington Post)
The Capitol City Robotics club recently competed in a world robotics championship in Dallas. The youngsters were surprised by the high-quality coding and craftsmanship of their peers from abroad. A duo from Taichung’s Mingdao High School in Taiwan built a robot that far bested the competition, and they won the world championship in the prestigious teamwork category.
“We were overwhelmed,” said Michael Daza, an eighth-grader with the D.C.-based robotics club. But the disappointment didn’t last long. “Now that we know what to expect, we’ll be ready next time,” he said.
No defeatist attitudes from these youngsters. No despair or hopelessness. In robotics, solving problems is the name of the game. And if the problem is systemic, they’ll design a new system if they have to. They’ll put together a new team. And fix it.
“If you work together as a team, it’s a lot better,” said Zahra Merchant, a member of the club who is in fourth grade.
That would be good advice for a group like, say, Congress, too. But the youngsters were simply talking about the skills they were learning in robotics — skills they were honing for a future that at times seemed as full of promise as peril.
Just a few days after the D.C. teams returned home, a gunman massacred 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, about 350 miles from where they had been competing in Dallas.
Like most people, the students were shocked and saddened. But as despair and frustration spread across the country, causing some adults to throw up their hands in hopelessness, the youngsters held fast to a belief that if you have the will to solve a problem, you will find a way.
“Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night with a new idea, a new way to try to solve a problem” Michael said. “I’ll usually get up and try it. I have actually begun to visualize solutions to problems.”
Afghan robotics team arrives safely in Doha: ‘The girls rescued themselves’
Just making it to the Vex Robotics World Championships in Texas had been proof of that. All told, 20,000 teams from 50 countries had vied for entry. Only 2,300 teams from 36 countries made the cut. The nonprofit, D.C. based robotics club had eight teams qualify — five of them all-female.
That was a big win right from the start.
Ryan Daza, a 45-year-old economist, quit his job as a data miner about five years ago and founded the robotics club. About 150 youngsters from schools throughout the D.C. area would meet on Sundays at a school in the District for practice sessions.
When the school was closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, Daza turned the basement of his home in Northeast Washington into a robotics workshop. He installed tables and benches. He purchased tools. He cleared out a sunroom to make space for the teams to test their newly constructed robots.
Members of the club would come to his home in shifts, adhering to social distancing and other virus protocols. For nearly two years, he worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week, to keep his club up and running. He purchased robotic parts and delivered them to members’ homes. He also found three garages in the city that the club could use to test the robots that were too large to operate in his basement.
He arranged tournaments remote and live; he found mentors and sponsors.
“I grit my teeth, squint my eyes and my brain just says ‘do it,' ” said Daza, who is club member Michael’s dad. “If I fail, I adapt and try again. When you’re trying to create something that did not exist before, that’s what you do. Just keep at it.”
The club continued to rack up wins at tournaments and eventually qualified for the event in Dallas.
Robotics is one of those subjects that can engage virtually any student, if properly taught. It promotes critical-thinking skills to solve complex problems through teamwork.
“In competitive sports, only 1 or 2 percent of participants can expect to become professionals,” Daza said. “In competitive science, its 100 percent.”
Despite the pandemic, the Capitol City Robotics organization has grown to more than 300 members. Kids as young as kindergarten are being taught robotics. And as they grow, so do their robots. Some are 8 feet tall. Daza has run out of space. He needs an area at least as large as a basketball court to serve as a new home for the club.
There is also a waiting list of more than 150 people waiting to join the club. Who knows? A robotics program just might keep a kid away from a gun. Care about these kids now, while they need help. Don’t throw up your hands. Help them.
By all means, pass whatever laws might help stop the killing. But don’t forget to support the living. The youngsters at Capitol City Robotics aren’t thinking about giving up. They are stepping up.
They didn’t gripe about how China and Taiwan seem more committed to teaching robotics in school than educators in the United States.
Nor do they complain about the unfairness of having problem-solving exercises that go far afield of robotics — such as how not to get killed by a gunman if you should find one on the loose in your school. Students in Taiwan are free of such wretchedness.
Each of the Capitol City Robotics teams have names — Michael is a member of the Techs; Zahra’s team is the Robokitties. Ila’s is called the Unhidden Figures, which is a way to signal progress and optimism. “Hidden Figures,” you may recall, was the title of a 2016 movie about a group of Black female mathematicians at NASA who only belated got credit for their role in making spaceflight history.
The nearly forgotten story of the black women who helped land a man on the moon
At Capitol City Robotics, about 75 percent of the members are people of color, and five of the eight robotic teams are all-girl.
“We are stepping out,” Ila said.
Walk with them.
In a season of rebirth, Veg Fest means new life | 2022-05-31T21:04:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | D.C. Youths Learn Life lessons through robotics - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/05/31/fight-laws-stop-killing-also-support-living/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/05/31/fight-laws-stop-killing-also-support-living/ |
James Butler asks court to compel his inclusion in D.C. mayoral debate
Democratic D.C. mayoral candidate James Butler. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)
D.C. mayoral candidate James Butler is asking local courts to allow him to be included in a planned debate Wednesday night that will feature the other three Democratic contenders for mayor, arguing that he was unfairly excluded.
The event’s organizers, Georgetown University and Fox 5 DC, have said Butler, a disbarred lawyer and former Advisory Neighborhood Commission commissioner who is running on a tough-on-crime platform, was ineligible to appear in the televised debate because he did not meet the criteria they established. Candidates either had to be participants in the city’s public financing program, secure 1,000 campaign donations or “poll at 3 percent or greater in an independent public poll” sponsored by a news organization.
Butler is the only mayoral candidate not using public financing, was not included in a February Washington Post poll about the race, and has not collected 1,000 donations.
On Friday, Butler filed a motion in D.C. Superior Court in an attempt to postpone the debate, in part arguing that he met the polling criteria in a Washington Informer Twitter survey on May 2, in which 41 percent of the 161 respondents said they would vote for Butler. He argues that the Twitter survey counts because Georgetown’s criteria did not specify how the polling needed to be conducted, although a university official told Butler later that day that Twitter polls do not meet their standard, according to court filings.
“This is a fight for free information for the people and voters of the District of Columbia,” Butler said at a news conference he held Tuesday. “They have a right to know who is on the ballot.”
Georgetown has filed to dismiss the case. Georgetown University spokesperson Ruth McBain said in a statement Tuesday that the requirements for the debate were announced in February and that only three candidates met the requirements: Mayor Muriel E. Bowser and council members Robert C. White Jr. and Trayon White Sr., all of whom have outraised Butler.
Lawyers for Georgetown in response to Butler’s filing said his request for the courts to intervene via a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction “fail to identify a precise cause of action against Georgetown and are legally deficient.” They moved to place Butler’s complaint in U.S. District Court instead of D.C. Superior Court because he invoked a federal equal opportunity law.
“[Butler] has a law degree and practiced for years before being disbarred,” lawyers for Georgetown wrote in a request to dismiss the case. “He should have been well aware of the need to plead a cause of action.”
The court has scheduled a preliminary hearing in the case at 11 a.m. Wednesday. | 2022-05-31T21:04:13Z | www.washingtonpost.com | James Butler asks court to intervene in D.C. mayoral debate exclusion - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/05/31/james-butler-court-debate-georgetown/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/05/31/james-butler-court-debate-georgetown/ |
A better name for Fort Bragg
A sign at the entrance to Fort Bragg in North Carolina in February. (Chris Seward/AP)
As a retired U.S. Army officer, I was, in general, pleasantly surprised on reading The Post’s May 25 news article “Panel proposes slate of diverse names for bases.” I was particularly pleased that Fort Hood in Texas will be named after Gen. Richard Cavazos, the Army’s first Hispanic four-star officer.
But I was disappointed that Fort Bragg in North Carolina might become known as Fort Liberty. In my opinion, it should be named after Gen. Roscoe Robinson Jr., the Army’s first Black four-star general, who after earlier duties at Fort Bragg was the commanding general of the 82nd Airborne Division there from 1976 to 1978. Also, his outstanding combat service resulted in award of the Bronze Star as a company commander in the Korean War and two awards of the Silver Star for heroism as a battalion commander in Vietnam.
The Post's View: Work to scrub the Confederate stain from military bases is off to a good start
Because the naming panel’s slate is only a recommendation, I hope that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark A. Milley, both of whom served in the 82d Airborne Division at Fort Bragg during their own distinguished military careers, will act to change Fort Liberty to Fort Robinson. Making this switch will not displace another deserving candidate, it is in keeping with the tradition of naming Army posts after deserving people rather than concepts, and, most of all, it is an opportunity to celebrate one of the nation’s truly great but too-little-known African American leaders and citizens.
Gerald Early, Easton | 2022-05-31T21:21:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | A better name for Fort Bragg - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/31/better-name-fort-bragg/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/31/better-name-fort-bragg/ |
Gas prices are through the roof. That’s just how Biden wants it.
A fuel delivery to an ARCO gas station in Riverside, Calif., on May 28. (Damian Dovarganes/AP)
Approaching his 500th day in office this week, Joe Biden is the least popular U.S. president at this point in his first term in the modern polling era. His approval rating might drop even further now that Americans are home from their Memorial Day weekend travels. According to AAA, this was one of the most expensive Memorial Day travel periods on record, with gas prices hitting $4.62 — the highest average price at the pump ever recorded.
But as Americans were struggling to put gas in the tank, President Biden appeared to praise high gas prices as a necessary part of our historic shift away from fossil fuels. “Here’s the situation,” Biden said at a Tokyo news conference on May 23, “when it comes to the gas prices, we’re going through an incredible transition that is taking place that, God willing, when it’s over, we’ll be stronger and the world will be stronger and less reliant on fossil fuels.”
An “incredible transition?” For Americans barely making ends meet, the only thing incredible about gas prices is how high they are.
But this was not just another Biden gaffe; it is administration policy. Testifying before Congress on May 19, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland repeatedly refused to say that gas prices are too high. Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) asked her point blank: “Do you believe that gas prices are too high?” The obvious answer was: “Yes, senator, of course they are.” But instead, Haaland hemmed and hawed. When Barrasso asked again, “It sounds [like] you’re unwilling to say that gas prices are too high,” she still refused to say they were. The message was unmistakable.
If the Biden administration cared about high gas prices, they would be doing everything in their power to increase domestic production. After a federal judge invalidated an offshore oil and gas lease sale in January, the administration chose not to appeal and has since canceled three transactions in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Alaska — taking millions of acres off the auction block. The Post called the move “a victory for climate activists intent on curbing U.S. fossil fuel leasing,” which “effectively ends the possibility of the federal government holding a lease sale in coastal waters this year.” Worse, the administration is about to let the nationwide offshore drilling program expire next month without a new plan in place.
This is exactly what Biden has promised his climate-obsessed left-wing base. While President Donald Trump opened 100 million acres of public land and water to exploration, Biden promised in 2020 to ban all “new oil and gas permitting on public lands and waters.” And one of his first acts in his first week as president was to halt all new federal leasing. It was only after a Louisiana judge struck down his moratorium last summer that his administration involuntarily resumed leasing. Releasing gas from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, as Biden has been doing, is little more than a symbolic measure, whose impact even he admits is “unknown.”
Taken together, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that Democrats welcome high gas prices as part of an intentional strategy to speed our transition away from fossil fuels. They don’t like the political blowback, so they are trying to divert blame onto Russian President Vladimir Putin, as Biden did in a Wall Street Journal op-ed this week. But many Americans are beginning to suspect that, just as the government deliberately raised the cost of cigarettes to curb smoking, Democrats want to see gas prices rise so that Americans will stop using fossil fuels.
Even if they were to succeed in using high gas prices to coerce more Americans into buying electric cars, there is no infrastructure to support those vehicles. Biden has set a goal of making half of all new car sales electric in less than 10 years. But there are fewer than 46,000 EV public charging sites in the United States, and just 5,627 fast-charging sites. We need 1 million fast-charging stations to support the administration’s goal, ABC News reports. The infrastructure bill Biden signed will produce just half that number by 2030.
And while raising the cost of smoking does not harm our national security, raising the cost of fossil fuels does. One of the great geostrategic developments of the early 21st century was our nation’s emergence as an energy superpower. On Trump’s watch, the United States supplanted Russia and Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest oil producer. This not only created jobs for Americans, it also transformed the national security landscape in our favor.
Now, Biden is desperately turning to the United States’ enemies for oil. In March, he sent officials to Venezuela to discuss lifting sanctions and allowing the country to sell its oil on the international market. And two weeks ago, his administration eased restrictions on Chevron, the main U.S. oil company in Venezuela, allowing it to enter talks about restarting production. Why would Biden want to increase our dependence on rogue states such as the Russian-, Chinese- and Cuban-backed regime in Caracas?
Simple. He doesn’t want to increase domestic production because he sees the crisis with Russia as an opportunity to speed our “incredible transition” from fossil fuels. In Tokyo, he just said the quiet part out loud. | 2022-05-31T21:21:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | High gas prices are part of the Biden administration's plan - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/31/gas-prices-biden-approval-clean-energy/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/31/gas-prices-biden-approval-clean-energy/ |
Listen to the hungry to help solve hunger
Donated granola bars, canned pasta and other nonperishable goods are pictured from a Food for Neighbors event in Herndon in 2018. (Debbie Truong/The Washington Post)
Regarding E.J. Dionne Jr.’s May 16 op-ed, “Can we think big on ending hunger?":
The author was right to celebrate the upcoming hunger conference as an excellent opportunity for a bipartisan and whole-of-government response to America’s hunger crisis. Now more than ever, people living in hunger need effective safety-net programs such as Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to keep working and to work better. Only a united political response can apply the lessons of the past 50 years to a renewal of the nation’s struggle against hunger.
This whole-of-government response shouldn’t be partisan. To end hunger, lawmakers must be informed by those with lived experience as well as the faith advocates who are often on the front lines of addressing hunger in rural and urban communities across America.
Faith-based groups and communities helped meet some of the most crucial needs during the pandemic. They’ve seen firsthand how nutrition inequity disproportionately affects marginalized communities. Our members of Congress and other leaders should listen to this experience if they want to craft a nuanced and effective response that addresses the systemic factors driving hunger and delivers the aid that people need now.
Eugene Cho, Washington
The writer is president and chief executive officer of Bread for the World. | 2022-05-31T21:21:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Listen to the hungry to help solve hunger - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/31/listen-hungry-help-solve-hunger/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/31/listen-hungry-help-solve-hunger/ |
PM Update: Today was our hottest so far this year, and Wednesday will be similar
The Lincoln Memorial on its 100th birthday. (Jeanette Cook/Flickr)
It was like midsummer out there today. Powerful sunshine beat down from morning through afternoon, pushing temperatures upward into the mid-90s. Those temperatures are the hottest of the year so far, and they come on the early side for such intense heat. If you are not a fan, you might want to hide indoors through tomorrow.
Through tonight: An isolated shower or storm is possible this evening. That risk will diminish entirely with dark as skies remain largely clear overnight. Temperatures range from the upper 60s to mid-70s for lows. Winds are light out of the west.
Tomorrow (Wednesday): It will be another mainly sunny day. Perhaps some more clouds than today. Not enough to matter, as highs will again be mainly in the mid-90s. There will be an outside shot of a quick shower or storm in the heat of the day. Winds will be out of the west, around five to 10 mph.
Pollen update: Grass pollen is moderate/high at 12.78 grains per cubic meter of air. Tree pollen is moderate at 18.21 grains per cubic meter. Mold spores are low/moderate.
Scorching: Today’s temperature is a bit unusual for so early. It’s the hottest this early since 2011. Back then, the first time it was 95 or higher was May 30, when it reached 96. Before that, you have to go back to 2006 for a 95 in late May. The average first date for a high so hot is June 18. Last year, the first wasn’t until June 30. The average for 95-degree days per year is 11. | 2022-05-31T21:25:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | PM Update: Today was our hottest so far this year, and Wednesday will be similar - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/05/31/pm-update-today-was-our-hottest-so-far-this-year-wednesday-will-be-similar/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/05/31/pm-update-today-was-our-hottest-so-far-this-year-wednesday-will-be-similar/ |
Florida man threatened school shooting days after Uvalde, police say
A Florida man has been arrested and charged with threatening to carry out a mass shooting after police said he posted a photo online showing himself with what appeared to be a handgun, a rifle and a “tactical-style” vest.
The photo caption read, “Hey Siri, directions to the nearest school,” authorities said.
Officials with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that Corey Anderson, 18, was taken into custody Sunday after deputies received a tip about the post. Authorities said the weapons were pellet guns, which can resemble real firearms but are nonlethal.
Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister called the post “unacceptable.”
“This man intentionally instilled fear into our community as a sick joke, but be warned, this is no laughing matter,” the sheriff said in the statement. “We will do everything within our power to apprehend, and pursue charges on those who make school-based threats. Protecting students is our greatest priority. We take school threats very seriously, if you see something suspicious, please contact us immediately.”
Anderson is charged with a written or electronic threat to conduct a mass shooting or act of terrorism, a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Anderson bonded out but was sent to a facility for a mental evaluation, police said. It was not immediately clear Tuesday whether he had an attorney in the case. The Washington Post was unsuccessful in trying to reach him.
The arrest came five days after the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Tex., in which two teachers and 19 children were gunned down. Since then, there has been wave of threats across the country. Such threats are not uncommon, but these come as school administrators, staff members, students and their parents are unnerved by the recent bloodshed.
Elsewhere in Florida, about 120 miles south of Hillsborough County, authorities over the weekend arrested a fifth-grade student at Patriot Elementary School in Cape Coral after an alleged mass shooting threat.
The Lee County Sheriff’s Office said that the 10-year-old had sent a “threatening text message” and that he was charged with making a written threat to conduct a mass shooting.
Video shows the boy being led to a police vehicle.
“This student’s behavior is sickening, especially after the recent tragedy in Uvalde, Texas,” Sheriff Carmine Marceno said in a statement. “Making sure our children are safe is paramount. We will have law and order in our schools!”
A Massachusetts man was arrested over the weekend on a charge of making terroristic threats after police said he threatened on social media to commit a school shooting, Boston-based station WCVB reported. A high school student in Wellington Village, Ohio, was taken into custody after making threats against his school, police told Cleveland’s CBS affiliate. And a student in New York was arrested on charges of aggravated harassment after classmates said he told them he “wanted to obtain a firearm and shoot several students at the school,” authorities told the New York Post. | 2022-05-31T21:43:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Corey Anderson arrested for threatening Florida mass shooting, police say - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/05/31/florida-school-shooting-threat/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/05/31/florida-school-shooting-threat/ |
A Billionaire’s Windmill Tilt Is Breaking an Investment Drought
If you live by politics, you end up dying by politics.
Such is the fate of AGL Energy Ltd., Australia’s oldest utility and biggest polluter. The company Monday abandoned plans to de-merge its coal power plants and said its chairman and chief executive officer would both leave amid a review of its strategic direction.
That brings an end to a sorry episode that’s seen AGL lose nearly half its value since confirming the demerger program in June 2020. Part of the impetus for the change has been the shareholder activism of software billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes, Australia’s fourth-richest man, who launched a A$7.9 billion ($5.7 billion) takeover offer for the company in February to push it to decarbonize faster. Though that bid was rejected, an 11.3% stake held by Cannon-Brookes’s Grok Ventures meant the de-merger won’t pass shareholder approval, AGL said.
More important, however, has been the political shift ushered in by Australia’s election May 21, that brought the center-left Labor Party to power after nine years in opposition. Governing with a slim majority, new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is just two parliamentary votes away from needing climate-focused independents and Greens to pass legislation.
Despite being privately held, utilities are deeply dependent on the government to run their heavily regulated monopolies. AGL’s shares doubled in less than three years after the previous Labor government’s emissions pricing scheme was repealed in 2014. Its former Chief Executive Andy Vesey left abruptly in 2018 after clashing with politicians in the then-ruling conservative Liberal-National Coalition government about his plans to close an aging coal generator.
Before the election, AGL was lobbying the country’s energy regulator to water down forecasts the industry uses to plan its future needs, arguing they were too bullish on the pace of energy transition. Now, the strategic review will be looking at how to create value “in an environment where pressure on decarbonization and energy affordability is accelerating.”
The pro-fossil fuel policies of the previous government — led by Scott Morrison, who once brandished a lump of coal on the floor of parliament to taunt his opponents — left Australia’s utilities in an impossible position. The country’s vast landmass, long coastlines and bright sunlight make it one of the world’s best locations for renewable power, with costs for wind and solar well below even the lowest-priced gas and coal-fired generation.
In a situation where almost the entire grid is renewable-powered in 2030, even the most expensive wind-and-solar plants backed up with batteries and transmission will be cheaper than all but the very cheapest gas plants in a low-renewables network, according to a government review last year.
As a result, there’s been no investment case to build anything except renewable power and the transmission networks to support it as existing plants gradually wear out — but poorly designed regulations have been driving investors away. Spending on new large-scale renewables generation fell for the third consecutive year in 2021 to $2.2 billion, according to BloombergNEF — barely more than a third of 2018’s peak level. Wind power, the backbone of any future zero-carbon grid in Australia, saw not a cent of investment in the fourth quarter of last year.
A government that’s not at war with the technology and economics of the 21st-century power sector ought to make a difference. Transmission spending, essential to providing the grid infrastructure that renewable projects need to obtain predictable pricing, fell by about half after 2015, with no more than about 16% of expenditure going to the growth that the network needs. Unblocking that bottleneck — especially in New South Wales state, where Brett Redman, a former AGL chief executive who developed the junked de-merger plan, now runs the closely held grid operator — ought to unleash a fresh wave of zero-carbon generation projects.
Cannon-Brookes’s presence as AGL’s biggest investor is the last push that was needed to accelerate this transition. His proposal to close the company’s coal fleet by 2030 sounds radical, given that AGL accounts for nearly a tenth of Australia’s emissions — but in truth, its largest divergence from existing plans will be closing a single plant east of Melbourne when it’s been operating for four decades, rather than six decades.
Australia’s power sector has been stymied for too long by governments that held back the tide of energy transition. AGL’s now-abandoned de-merger program was the perfect embodiment of that era, a shift modest enough to prevent howls of complaint from Canberra, but insufficiently ambitious to convince investors it represented a workable plan. Its valuation, just 5.8 times forecast earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, is now at some of the lowest levels it’s ever plumbed. With the prospect of a viable future ahead at last, that low estimate is due for a re-rating.
Michael Bloomberg, the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, has funded campaigns for the closure of coal-fired power globally.
• DeSantis’s Move on Solar Is a Political Calculation: Liam Denning
• Tech Billionaire Sees a Power Industry Ripe for Disruption: David Fickling | 2022-05-31T21:47:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | A Billionaire’s Windmill Tilt Is Breaking an Investment Drought - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/a-billionaires-windmill-tilt-is-breaking-an-investment-drought/2022/05/31/76281fc0-e125-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/a-billionaires-windmill-tilt-is-breaking-an-investment-drought/2022/05/31/76281fc0-e125-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html |
World Digest: June 1, 2022
5 men convicted as members of ISIS cell
A German court convicted five men of membership in a local cell of the Islamic State group that received orders from a leading figure of the militant group in Afghanistan.
The Düsseldorf regional court sentenced the Tajik nationals, ages 25 to 34, to lengthy prison terms.
The longest sentence of nine years and six months was handed to Sunatullokh K., whose surname wasn’t released because of German privacy rules. He was also convicted of planning to kill a man who had made critical comments about Islam. The attack was foiled by authorities.
The other men, identified as Muhammadali G., Azizjon B., Farhodshoh K. and Komron B., were sentenced to between 44 months and 8½ years in prison for membership in a terrorist group, with some also convicted of involvement in plans to carry out a contract killing in Albania that was later abandoned.
Prosecutors said the men honed their military skills in paintball games and that participants in those included “other people from the Islamist scene” who were in contact with the gunman who killed four people in an attack in Vienna in November 2020.
Shiite Berri wins parliament speaker
Lebanon’s new legislature narrowly elected veteran Shiite Muslim politician Nabih Berri for a seventh term as speaker of parliament, in a chaotic first session that showed the deep political divisions likely to impede decision-making.
Berri, 84, won 65 votes in the 128-member parliament, where the role of speaker is reserved for a Shiite Muslim under an unwritten sectarian power-sharing pact.
It was the slimmest majority ever won by Berri, reflecting the makeup of a new parliament in which the Iran-backed armed Shiite movement Hezbollah and its allies lost the majority they won in 2018 and independent newcomers gained a dozen seats.
Tuesday’s session was the first since the new parliament was elected on May 15, in the first vote since Lebanon’s economic collapse and the Beirut port explosion of 2020 that killed more than 215 people.
Mexico bans vaping: Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador signed a decree outlawing the sale of e-cigarettes, continuing the government’s anti-vaping policy. Mexico had already prohibited imports of the devices since at least October. Even before that, consumer protection and other laws had been used to discourage sales. Despite Tuesday’s decree, many Mexicans import or buy vaping cartridges or fluid under the table or online domestically.
Union calls strike in Tunisia: Tunisia’s powerful UGTT union on Tuesday called a national strike in June in public services and state firms after the government refused to increase wages, an escalation that may hinder the government’s efforts to reach a deal with the International Monetary Fund. Tunisia faces its worst financial crisis and is seeking a $4 billion loan from the IMF seen as necessary to ward off national bankruptcy, in exchange for unpopular reforms, including food and energy subsidies cuts and wage freezes.
Police clash with protesters in Istanbul: Turkish police clashed with protesters around Istanbul’s main Taksim Square as they gathered to mark the anniversary of nationwide anti-government demonstrations that began nine years ago in nearby Gezi Park. The 2013 demonstrations were the biggest popular challenge to then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rule. Erdogan, who is now president, has equated the protesters with Kurdish militants and those accused of orchestrating a coup attempt in 2016.
Rwanda warns Congo on attacks: Rwanda will retaliate if it suffers further attacks from the Democratic Republic of Congo, its foreign minister said, after accusing Congo of firing shells across the border in May. Congo summoned Rwanda’s ambassador and suspended RwandAir flights to Congo over the weekend in what it said was Kigali’s support for M23 rebels carrying out a military offensive in its eastern borderlands. Rwanda denies the claims, accusing Congo’s army of fighting alongside the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, an armed group founded by ethnic Hutus who fled Rwanda after participating in the 1994 genocide. | 2022-05-31T21:48:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | World Digest: June 1, 2022 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/world-digest-june-1-2022/2022/05/31/2fcf932e-e0fc-11ec-9611-6f35e4fddfc3_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/world-digest-june-1-2022/2022/05/31/2fcf932e-e0fc-11ec-9611-6f35e4fddfc3_story.html |
A ‘Dynamite’ guest at the White House: BTS meets with Biden on anti-Asian discrimination
Members of the K-pop supergroup BTS join White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre during the daily briefing on May 30. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
A horde of eager journalists began to crowd the aisles of the White House briefing room Tuesday long before the daily parrying session with reporters would begin — and they weren’t there for Brian Deese.
For one afternoon, the White House became an exclusive stage for global K-pop phenomenon BTS, with each of the 49 briefing room seats becoming the most coveted tickets in town. The group had been invited by the administration to raise awareness of the prevalence of anti-Asian discrimination.
“We are BTS,” said RM, whose formal name is Kim Nam-joon and is considered the megagroup’s de facto leader, as he stepped up to the briefing room lectern. “It is a great honor to be invited to the White House today to discuss the important issues of anti-Asian hate crimes, Asian inclusion and diversity.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who opened up for the group, noted that while “many of you many know BTS as Grammy-nominated international icons, they also play an important role as youth ambassadors, promoting a message of respect and positivity.”
The other group members then took turns delivering their own messages in Korean. Then RM returned to the lectern.
“I think equality begins when we open up and embrace all of our differences,” he said. “Everyone has their own history. We hope today is one step forward to respecting and understanding each and every one as a valuable person.”
After their star turn in the briefing room, BTS headed to the Oval Office to meet with the president himself on the last day in May, designated as Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Before joining the news briefing, BTS filmed content with the White House digital team and got a tour of the grounds, according to a White House official.
The group’s visit with Biden — which, somewhat inexplicably, was closed to press coverage — was the latest example of this White House leveraging the power of celebrities to bring attention to key priorities.
Last July, the administration enlisted singer Olivia Rodrigo to promote coronavirus vaccinations. And just last week, the White House brought actress and singer Selena Gomez to highlight mental health, with Gomez appearing in a three-minute video with Biden, first lady Jill Biden and Vivek H. Murthy, the surgeon general, to discuss the issue.
But at some points Tuesday, the anti-discrimination message the administration wanted to convey was a bit overshadowed by the sheer hysteria inside the briefing room — and outside the White House gates.
Outside, hundreds of fans — mostly young girls — gathered in hopes of snagging a distanced glance at the K-pop group, and as they waited in the scorching sun, they chanted the names of the seven members and screamed, “BTS! BTS!”
Inside, scores of interested journalists, many of them of Korean descent, packed the aisles at least a half-hour before the briefing was supposed to begin — making the already cramped room even more stifling. Veteran journalists quipped that the briefing room hadn’t been that crowded since the days of Sean Spicer as press secretary, when the sessions became must-see TV for all the wrong reasons, at least for the Donald Trump administration.
Tuesday’s live stream of the White House briefing usually attracts a few hundred interested viewers. But well ahead of the start of the 2:30 p.m. session, about 11,000 had settled in for the show. Ten minutes before the briefing, about 71,000 were online. A couple minutes after the official start of the briefing — which started a few minutes behind schedule — a whopping 197,000 were watching.
More than 300,000 were still on the live stream as Deese, the White House’s director of the National Economic Council, stepped up to the lectern and began to speak. (The viewership numbers declined precipitously the longer Deese talked about inflation.)
“Okay, so I get to go home and tell my kids that BTS opened for me,” Deese said, as reporters laughed. “I did not expect that when I woke up this morning. And I know that you’re all here to talk about trimmed mean inflation, and you’re as excited about that as you are for them.” | 2022-05-31T21:48:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | A ‘Dynamite’ guest at the White House: BTS meets with Biden on anti-Asian discrimination - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/31/dynamite-guest-white-house-bts-meets-with-biden-anti-asian-discrimination/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/31/dynamite-guest-white-house-bts-meets-with-biden-anti-asian-discrimination/ |
One flaw of a push to uproot voter fraud is there’s not much to uproot
Dozens of Trump supporters calling to stop the vote count because of alleged fraud in Harrisburg, Pa., on Nov. 5, 2020. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Two days before the 2020 election, I was in Scranton, Pa., talking to voters about the contest between President Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Each campaign had a footprint in the city, with offices about half a block apart. Biden’s team was encouraging volunteers to go knock on doors and remind voters to cast their ballots. Trump’s team was passing out lawn signs.
One thing that struck me at the time was the caveat that Trump’s supporters applied to the upcoming contest. Trump would win, they said — unless there was rampant fraud. The Democrats would try to steal the election, I was told, and the Trump supporters were worried about it.
It’s not new that people in Pennsylvania would fret about purported voter fraud, certainly, but the uniformity of that response was not surprising at that point simply because of how often Trump himself had elevated it. The election would be stolen, he said, over and over — and, when he lost, it said it had been.
But he and his team had tried to do something about it. The expiration of a consent degree that barred the Republican Party from monitoring election sites (after an early 1980s effort by the party to intimidate Black voters) led Trump and his campaign to encourage people to sign up to monitor polling places near them to prevent fraud.
In Scranton, I ran into a group of people who told me they planned to do exactly that. One was Larry Stange, then 61. He didn’t vote in 2016 but was happy enough with Trump’s presidency to prioritize both voting and trying to uproot fraud in 2020.
Often, people describe plans to volunteer that never pan out. But Stange was a man of his word: On Tuesday, he showed up at a polling place near Scranton and kept an eye out for fraud. He later spoke with a reporter from the Scranton Times-Tribune about the experience.
“As of 7 p.m., the Moscow Republican hadn’t observed anything he considered suspicious or improper while voters in Scranton Ward 3 Precinct 1 cast their ballots,” reporter Jeff Horvath wrote of Stange. He quoted Stange praising the election workers and the functioning of the polling site.
In other words, no fraud was found.
There are a lot of reasons for that, of course. The biggest one is that in-person voter fraud is rare to the point of essential nonexistence. Trying to keep an eye out for fraud at a polling place is a bit like trying to keep an eye out for alien abductions. Studies have shown that absentee ballot fraud is more common — but still very, very rare. Being stationed at a polling place on Election Day, though, Stange wasn’t going to see any sort of fraud from mail-in voting anyway.
While I certainly can’t say that I know with certainty that Stange’s evaluation of the likelihood of fraud was sincere, it certainly appeared to be. The president he strongly supported said he worried about the threat of fraud and called on people to help combat it, and Stange enlisted in the fight. Then, eyes open on Election Day, he told a reporter that he didn’t actually see any fraud.
Allies of Trump’s have continued to push for election monitoring efforts in the wake of the 2020 vote. The New York Times reported over the weekend that a lawyer named Cleta Mitchell was pushing for a national effort to inspect elections broadly, from polling places to election staff. Mitchell was very close to Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 loss, including participating in his infamous call in early January 2021 during which he encouraged Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” just enough votes to give him the state.
According to the Times, the program Mitchell is advocating would go further than simply monitoring polling places. In Virginia last year, activists in heavily Democratic counties pressed election officials on the minutiae of the process, an effort Mitchell has championed. While it strained resources and frustrated elections officials, there is no indication that it actually uprooted any fraud.
As a Republican official told the paper, the effort would probably “come down to whether [volunteers] are truly interested in knowing the truth about elections or they’re interested in propagating propaganda.” This is important: For how many election cycles will volunteers be willing to spend hours trying to spot fraud that never turns up? There is a legitimate concern about intimidating voters and aggravating officials, certainly, but organizing people to commit volunteer time is far harder than it might seem. That’s particularly true when people think their time isn’t being well used.
It’s useful to step back and recognize that I’m simply plucking a silver lining out of this massive storm cloud. That huge energy is focused on doing as much as possible to uncover nonexistent fraud is a problem broadly in that it undermines confidence in elections for no good reason and is a problem specifically because it encumbers the already difficult job of elections administrators. Even if good-faith actors are interested in ensuring no one cheats — having been unfortunately convinced that lots of people cheat — there are downsides. There are also certainly people who approach the issue from a position of simply hoping to make it more likely that their side will win.
Out of curiosity, I looked up Stange’s Facebook page to see how he responded to Trump’s (and Mitchell’s) documented efforts to steal the 2020 election by overturning the results in swing states. On Nov. 30, Stange declared that the 2020 contest was “the least transparent election in US History, the biggest cover up ever.” He cited debunked accusations and insisted Republican poll watchers in such places as Philadelphia were “intimidated” and “harassed.”
Not in Scranton’s Ward 3, Precinct 1, however, where Stange was stationed and saw nothing untoward. Like crime and like inept members of Congress, the bad things always seem to be occurring somewhere else. But rest assured that they’re happening. | 2022-05-31T21:49:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | One flaw of a push to uproot voter fraud is there’s not much to uproot - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/31/one-flaw-push-uproot-voter-fraud-is-theres-not-much-uproot/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/31/one-flaw-push-uproot-voter-fraud-is-theres-not-much-uproot/ |
The U.S. Supreme Court building is shown, May 4, 2022 in Washington. (Alex Brandon/AP)
The Supreme Court on Tuesday put on hold a Texas law that bars social media companies from removing posts based on a user’s political ideology, while a legal battle over whether such measures violate the First Amendment continues in lower courts.
The vote was 5 to 4. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil M. Gorsuch, said he would have allowed the law to go into effect. Justice Elena Kagan would have let a decision from the lower court to stand for now, but did not detail her reasoning.
The appeals court’s order, which did not specify its legal reasoning, shocked the industry, which has been largely successful in batting back Republican state leaders’ efforts to regulate social media companies’ content-moderation policies.
Unanimous appeals court panel says major parts of Florida's social media law likely unconstitutional
The tech companies similarly have called the Texas law “an unprecedented assault on the editorial discretion of private websites (like Facebook.com, Instagram.com, Pinterest.com, Twitter.com, Vimeo.com, and YouTube.com) that would fundamentally transform their business models and services,” according to the Supreme Court application filed by two organizations, NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA).
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) noted that the Supreme Court has said social media sites are gatekeepers of a digital “modern public square.” He said the state law is focused on businesses’ conduct and does not violate the First Amendment, which protects private companies from government regulation of speech.
Meanwhile, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Republicans who crafted the law have argued that it will prevent conservative viewpoints from being banned on social media.
The Supreme Court’s response is being closely watched by policymakers who are eager to regulate social media, but whose proposals have collided with the free speech protections afforded by the First Amendment.
The Texas law was signed into law in September amid an escalating debate over how the world’s largest tech companies should police their platforms. Democrats have argued that the companies need to be more aggressive — especially in the wake of the pandemic, national reckoning on race and 2020 election — in stopping the spread of disinformation and hate speech.
Out of power in Washington and angered by tech platforms’ decisions to suspend former president Donald Trump’s account in the fallout of the Jan. 6 attacks, Republicans have increasingly turned to state houses to address their long-running accusations that Silicon Valley companies are biased against their political views. Attacks on the tech industry have become central to the party’s political messaging and fundraising during the 2022 midterm elections. | 2022-05-31T21:49:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Supreme Court puts Texas social media law on hold while legal battle continues - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/31/supreme-court-texas-social-media-law/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/31/supreme-court-texas-social-media-law/ |
“Today’s the best I’ve felt,” Smeltzer said. “My fastball velocity and fastball command is the best it has been, I was able to move the ball up and down and my changeup was good.”
“We didn’t do a good job of controlling the top half of their lineup, and they did a pretty good job of controlling the top half of our lineup,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “When that happens, it is an uphill battle.”
“The good thing about Devin is that he throws strikes,” Sanchez said. “All his pitches were working today and he attacks the hitters. That plan works for us.”
“I’m seeing the ball a lot better right now, and I’m definitely getting my good swing off in more at-bats,” said Torkelson, who raised his batting average from .176 to .211. “This game can knock you down fast, but sameness is greatness. Stay the course and results are going to happen.”
Twins: Shortstop Carlos Correa was placed on the COVID-19 list and replaced by infielder Jermaine Palacios, who made his major-league debut in the first game. Kepler returned after missing Monday’s game with a sore quadriceps. ... Sonny Gray (shoulder) played long-toss catch and is scheduled to do the same Wednesday.
“I didn’t even know that record, but it is impressive,” he said. “Every park is different, and I don’t look to do anything better in this park than in any other.” | 2022-05-31T21:50:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Kepler's 3 RBIs help Twins beat Tigers 8-2 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/mlb/keplers-3-rbis-help-twins-beat-tigers-8-2/2022/05/31/c0ea72f2-e11f-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/mlb/keplers-3-rbis-help-twins-beat-tigers-8-2/2022/05/31/c0ea72f2-e11f-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html |
British Columbia to decriminalize limited possession of illicit drugs
A cyclist rides past hundreds of flags symbolizing the more than 10,000 people who have died of toxic drug overdoses in British Columbia, Canada, during a demonstration by the drug user advocacy group Moms Stop the Harm in Vancouver, British Columbia, on April 14. (Jesse Winter/Reuters)
TORONTO — The possession of small amounts of several illicit drugs, including cocaine and opioids such as fentanyl or heroin, will be temporarily decriminalized in British Columbia, the federal government said Tuesday, in what it cast as a “bold” step to “turn the tide” in the province’s overdose crisis.
Carolyn Bennett, Canada’s minister of mental health and addictions, said Ottawa had granted the provincial government’s request for an exemption from the federal Controlled Drugs and Substances Act for three years, starting Jan. 31, 2023.
As of that date, adults 18 and older in Canada’s westernmost province will be allowed to carry a cumulative total of up to 2.5 grams of some drugs for personal use without being arrested or charged, or having their drugs confiscated. The illicit drugs include opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA, also known as ecstasy.
The trafficking, production, exportation and importation of those drugs will remain illegal, as will the possession of any quantity of those drugs at airports, near child-care facilities and primary and secondary schools, or by members of the military.
“This is not legalization,” Bennett told reporters at a news conference in Vancouver. “We have not taken this decision lightly.”
Canada’s other health crisis: As overdoses surge, officials call on government to decriminalize illicit drugs
The move, a Canadian first, came six years after British Columbia declared a public health emergency in response to soaring overdose deaths. Since then, deaths have climbed dramatically. A record 2,236 people died of an overdose in 2021 — up 125 percent from public health emergency declaration in 2016.
Drug overdoses are the leading cause of death for people ages 19 to 39, according to provincial officials, and the crisis has led to a decline in the life expectancy at birth for men in recent years.
Nationally, nearly 27,000 people have died of an overdose from January 2016 to September 2021.
A growing chorus of people, including the nation’s police chiefs, have called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to decriminalize the possession of illicit drugs for personal use, though he had long been noncommittal.
Vancouver Mayor Stewart Kennedy was among them. He told reporters that every Monday, he receives an email with the number of people who have overdosed in the city and the number who have died. Once, Kennedy’s family member was among the statistics. This Monday, he learned there was an agreement on decriminalization.
“I can tell you I felt like crying, and I still feel like crying,” Kennedy said. “This is a big, big thing. … It marks a fundamental rethinking of drug policy that favors health care over handcuffs.”
In its submission to Health Canada requesting the exemption, the province said punitive drug polices disproportionately affect marginalized communities, and don’t ultimately address what’s a public health issue. It said federal drug laws were having the opposite effect of their intent and making drug overdoses more likely.
“Criminalization and stigma lead many to hide their use from family and friends and to avoid seeking treatment, thereby creating situations where the risk of drug poisoning death is elevated,” it said.
At the heart of Canada’s fentanyl crisis, extreme efforts that U.S. cities may follow
The submission said the pandemic has exacerbated the crisis by reducing access to treatment services and driving people to use drugs alone in perilous situations, while border closures have created a more unpredictable street supply.
The 2.5 gram threshold is below the 4.5 gram limit that the province had requested. In its submission, it said that thresholds that are too low have been ineffective “and diminish progress” on the objectives of decriminalization.
“The evidence that we have across the country and [from] law enforcement … has been that 85 percent of the drugs that have been confiscated have been under 2 grams,” Bennett said, “and so we are moving with that.”
She said the government will be monitoring the threshold and whether decriminalization is meeting its aims.
Canada, which in 2018 legalized cannabis for recreational use, has been more receptive to a harm-reduction approach to overdoses than the United States.
British Columbia’s Crosstown Clinic in Vancouver gives pharmaceutical-grade heroin to patients for whom other types of treatment have proved ineffective.
Provincial officials, fearing a resurgence of overdose deaths during the pandemic, altered guidelines last year so doctors could prescribe some patients a take-home “safe supply” of drugs such as methadone and the opioid hydromorphone, to reduce the use of contaminated street drugs. | 2022-05-31T21:50:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | British Columbia decriminalizes limited possession of cocaine, opioids - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/31/british-columbia-decriminalize-cocaine-opioids-meth/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/31/british-columbia-decriminalize-cocaine-opioids-meth/ |
Jury goes home for second day; Depp remains in U.K. for concerts
Johnny Depp's attorneys Camille Vasquez and Ben Chew, right, talk in the courtroom as jury deliberations continued Tuesday in the Fairfax County Courthouse. The jury will resume deliberations on Wednesday morning. (Jim Watson/AFP/Pool/AP)
Some of Johnny Depp’s fans remain committed to staying at the Fairfax County Courthouse, even when the actor is across the globe.
On Tuesday night, Depp played his third U.K. concert with Jeff Beck, whom he started appearing with at shows over the weekend. Meanwhile, the jury resumed deliberations in his defamation trial against his ex-wife Amber Heard; though after about seven hours they went home and will resume their work Wednesday at 9 a.m.
Even though Depp was nowhere in sight, some of his loyalists — who have been a fervent presence throughout the lengthy trial — showed up early in the morning to wait in line to get in the courtroom, knowing there was little chance they would see the actor in person.
“Johnny’s not here, so a lot of people are like, ‘meh,’” said Francesca Shanks of Luray, Va., who settled in with a book outside the courtroom. “I’m here to support him and hope he gets the verdict he deserves.”
Depp, 58, is suing Heard, 36, for $50 million for defamation after she wrote a 2018 op-ed in The Washington Post that referred to herself as a public figure representing domestic abuse. Heard countersued Depp (who denied all allegations of abuse) for $100 million for defamation after his attorney called her claims a hoax.
Depp’s daily appearance in the courthouse has led to a circus outside of it. While the scene quieted a significant amount on Tuesday, the frenzy didn’t disappear completely. A gigantic “Pirates of the Caribbean” pirate ship appeared on the street, and dozens of news cameras lined up outside. Court TV and Law & Crime started “verdict watch” on their respective streams. Someone set up a cluster of microphones in front of the courthouse in case the verdict is reached, and the attorneys want to have a news conference.
A handful of fans and curious observers sat in the hallway outside courtroom 5J, where the seven-week trial has been taking place, and compared notes on what they knew about Depp’s status. When Depp’s legal team walked by, one reporter asked whether the actor was still in the country, and attorney Camille Vasquez replied he was not.
Another fan reported that Vasquez told them earlier that the actor “might” return Wednesday if deliberations continued.
Depp’s representative did not a return a request for comment on whether he will return for the verdict; Heard’s representative declined to comment on the record whether the actress will be in attendance.
Jhoane Garcia of Fairfax lives nearby, and has shown up frequently throughout the trial, and waved to Depp’s attorneys as they walked by. Lately, she said, she has found herself as drawn to the actor’s legal team than Depp himself. “I’m going to stay here only because I wanted to say hello — they’re going to leave after the verdict,” she said. “And I just wanted to say goodbye.”
Fans debated whether they would commit to spending Wednesday at the courthouse. At least one had to work, but another admitted she always tells herself she won’t come back, and then winds up returning anyway.
Shanks, who said she slept in her van overnight to guarantee entry to the courtroom, was just glad she was there for one more day to support Depp, whether he was in attendance or not. She said the trial had solidified her view that Depp, despite being a celebrity, is just a regular person who goes through hard times: “He still seems like he’s one of us.” Evidence such as his vulgar text messages did nothing to change her view, she said.
There was only one break in deliberations during the day, when the jurors asked whether a question on the verdict form was about the op-ed’s headline (“Amber Heard: I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change”) or the entire op-ed. The judge clarified that it was specifically about the headline.
‘The world is watching’: Depp-Heard jury faces a difficult task | 2022-05-31T22:22:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Depp-Heard jury goes home for second day - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/05/31/johnny-depp-amber-heard-trial-jury-deliberations-waiting/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/05/31/johnny-depp-amber-heard-trial-jury-deliberations-waiting/ |
The Supreme Court search for a leaker springs its own leak
An antiabortion advocate prays outside the Supreme Court building in Washington on May 31. (Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
Frustrations appear to be mounting at the Supreme Court four weeks after Politico published a leaked draft opinion by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. which would overturn Roe v. Wade. As reported by CNN’s Joan Biskupic, officials at the high court are moving to “require law clerks to provide cell phone records and sign affidavits,” an alarming development that has prompted some clerks to consider lawyering up.
The scoop by Biskupic rests on “three sources with knowledge of the efforts” — meaning that the contours of the leak investigation are leaking. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. announced that investigation, directed by Supreme Court Marshal Gail Curley, one day after Alito draft hit the Internet. “To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it will not succeed,” said a statement from Roberts.
Cellphones these days don’t observe boundaries, harboring data and information from people’s personal and professional lives. The invasiveness of the court’s digital pat-down, reports Biskupic, is unclear at this point. Given the implications of the probe, it’s no wonder that the clerks — each justice has a contingent of four — are “freaking out,” said CNN chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin.
The Supreme Court leak investigation doesn’t carry the consequences of the national security leaks that have made headlines over the years. Those commonly involve disclosures of classified information and constitute violations of federal law. The Supreme Court investigation, by contrast, appears to be confined to an employment matter; if outed, the leaker may lose his or her job and perhaps be subjected to blackballing in the legal community or, depending on ideological circumstance, hailed as a hero. There’s nothing classified, after all, about a Supreme Court draft document; it contains arguments, not revelations about confidential intel sources.
“If all they did was print it out and give it to Politico, there is no crime that is committed,” says Mark Zaid, a lawyer who has represented clients in government leak cases.
Phones are a logical starting point for those seeking to limit unsanctioned communications. During his eventful tenure as White House press secretary during the Trump administration, Sean Spicer grew concerned that staffers were leaking information, including plans to hire Republican operative Michael Dubke as communications director. So Spicer instituted random phone checks for his team members, news of which leaked quite promptly to Politico.
Spicer lasted six months as press secretary.
For another example of how leakers respond to anti-leaking efforts, dial back to the Trump-era State Department, which drafted a memo for then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on the perils of unauthorized disclosures. It promptly found its way to The Post.
Thanks to this dynamic, the quest to punish the Politico leaker may turn out to be the most-leaked-about thing the Supreme Court has done in some time.
In his statement, Roberts called the leak of the draft opinion “an affront to the Court and the community of public servants who work here.” Demanding a handover of cellphones, too, could prove to be an affront to the Supreme Court’s workforce. Biskupic reports that the investigative steps under consideration applies to clerks. But what about the justices themselves and administrative staff who may have had access to the material? “To be fair, they should ask all the justices for their personal cellphones,” says Zaid, who says that if he were a Supreme Court clerk, he would now be talking to fellow clerks about “why none of us should turn over our personal cellphone data to the government.”
After the draft opinion was published by Politico, commentators speculated on just who would run the risk of breaking the Supreme Court’s norm against disclosing the organization’s work product before it was released through long-standing procedure. Perhaps it was someone concerned that the conservative five-justice majority behind Alito’s draft was in danger of fraying — and the leak might serve to cement it. Perhaps it was someone who wanted to raise alarm on the left about the apparent demise of Roe.
Whatever the case, this has been a leaky time at the court. In addition to the original draft opinion, there have been additional, anonymously sourced stories on internal goings-on over the past few weeks, including Biskupic’s piece. Perhaps the investigation — along with any sanctions it may impose — will stifle the loose-lipped activity and return the court to its tradition of less astounding leaks.
Perhaps not, too. “Presumably, whoever did it — other than it being an accident or a very serious inadvertent mistake — one presumes it was motivated by very strong ideologies on either side,” says Zaid. “And if that’s the case, there’s nothing that’s going to stop that from happening again in the highly partisan, polarized environment that we’re in.” | 2022-05-31T22:39:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The Supreme Court's desperate move to grab clerks' cell phones - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/31/supreme-court-clerks-phones-abortion-decision-leak/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/31/supreme-court-clerks-phones-abortion-decision-leak/ |
We must safeguard our schools from predators
Eva Mireles, left, and Irma Garcia were teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Tex. They were both fatally shot during a mass shooting at the school on May 24. (Courtesy of Lydia Martinez Delgado; Courtesy of Jose Garcia)
In the early days of reporting about the elementary school massacre in Uvalde, Tex., news stories typically led with 19 children slain followed, almost parenthetically, by “and their two teachers,” as though they were afterthoughts.
It is possible that I, too, have been guilty of this unintentional slight and wanted to take a moment for them.
Irma Garcia, 48, and Eva Mireles, 44, deserve our sorrow and outrage, too. Both veterans of the classroom, they taught fourth-graders together for the past five years. Garcia was finishing her 23rd year at Robb Elementary School; Mireles, her 17th. They, and the children they tried to protect, had just two more days before the start of summer vacation.
Garcia left behind a husband, Joe Garcia, and four children. And now her husband is dead, too, leaving their children, including a seventh-grader, to a future without parents. Two days after his wife was murdered, Joe Garcia died of an apparent heart attack. Mireles, described by friends and family as a “warrior” for her students, leaves behind an adult daughter, a husband and three pets.
That’s not much to say about two women who had dedicated their lives to the noblest profession. As though we don’t ask enough of teachers in addition to their daily lessons — parenting, health care, counseling, feeding and nurturing — we now seem to expect proficiency in hostage management, violence mitigation and, now, a willingness to die.
Our children are our most precious asset, and we don’t have them for very long. If we are to be a nation of universal education, then we need to be able to count on our public officials to make sure the schools we send them to are safe. And we need to be sure that the invaluable teachers we ask to guide our children’s educations aren’t living under a death threat.
When teachers die in the line of duty, it is a heartbreaking tragedy. But when children die, it is too much to bear. There is simply no way to adequately process this atrocity. I feel like I’ve been screaming inside my head ever since the news broke.
We can talk about the lone gunman with mental problems. We can attest to the millions of responsible gun owners and the many other variables when we discuss our singularly U.S. mass-murder problem. But consider this: Over Memorial Day weekend, gun violence, including at least 12 mass shootings, left 8 people dead and 55 injured, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
But we don’t have a gun problem?
Here’s more: As of 2018, there were more civilian-owned guns in the United States than there were people. That means that every man, woman and child could own a firearm and we would still have 67 million left over, according to the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. And you know the numbers have only increased since then.
Listening to NPR shortly after the killings, I heard a woman from Uvalde call the dead children “our babies.” That’s the way townspeople had begun referring to them, she said. And I said aloud, “They’re my babies, too.” Every child belongs to all of us. And, if I were dictator for a day, any crime against any child would be designated a crime against humanity. Our humanity as well as theirs.
By definition, a “crime against humanity” is committed by the state, usually against civilians. And, obviously, the state didn’t kill the children of Sandy Hook, Parkland, Columbine or Uvalde. But when the state fails to ensure the safety of children at a public institution, is it not fair to suggest that the state is guilty by proxy?
If the state can enforce truancy laws, ought not the state be held liable when the school attendance it requires results in a student’s murder?
I realize I’m treading into a minefield, but like you, I can’t stand it anymore. I can’t stand the mass murder of children, of teachers, and movie- and concertgoers, of grocery shoppers, gay nightclubbers, and church and temple worshipers. My God. Have I left anyone out?
Adding to the trauma, we have learned that more of Uvalde’s children might have survived if police had acted sooner. Instead of confronting the gunman, police forces waited an hour, thinking that the situation was contained, they have explained. It was contained, all right. Two classrooms contained a crazed high school dropout wearing a tactical vest and toting an AR-15-style rifle, or “America’s Rifle,” as the NRA put it in a January 2016 blog post.
We can’t protect every building or every venue with concertina wire and sharpshooters. Nor can we ensure that 100 percent of gun owners are of sane mind. But the very least we can do is make sure every school in this country is safe from predators, no matter the cost. And, yes, train and arm the teachers who are willing. No more fooling around. | 2022-05-31T22:39:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | After Uvalde, we must safeguard our schools from predators - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/31/uvalde-teachers-ar15-rifle/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/31/uvalde-teachers-ar15-rifle/ |
White House scrambles on inflation after Biden complains to aides
Biden’s team launches a flurry of events after president fumes privately that administration isn’t doing enough to show concern on high prices.
President Biden and Jerome H. Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve, in the Oval Office Tuesday. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)
The White House launched a new push Tuesday to contain the political damage caused by inflation after President Biden complained for weeks to aides that his administration was not doing enough to publicly explain the fastest price increases in roughly four decades.
Aiming to demonstrate to the public that it is responding to its concerns, Biden met with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell in the Oval Office, wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal about inflation and sent top aides across major networks to push the administration’s economic message.
The flurry of activity comes after Biden has privately grumbled to top White House officials over the administration’s handling of inflation, expressing frustration over the past several months that aides were not doing enough to confront the problem directly, two people familiar with the president’s comments said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.
The flurry of moves reflects a new urgency within the White House as it grapples with the growing likelihood that high inflation will extend through the midterm elections, eclipsing Biden’s agenda and undermining his ability to tout his accomplishments — and that there may be little Biden can do about it.
With price hikes reaching 8 percent in April, the pressures appear unlikely to abate soon amid the ongoing fallout of the war in Ukraine, coronavirus lockdowns in China and a surge in gas prices likely to be exacerbated by the summer driving season, all factors beyond the president’s control.
Fuel prices hit a record high Tuesday, with a gallon of gas now costing $4.62 on average — a 52 percent increase from last year — according to AAA, after the European Union announced progress on a deal to ban Russian energy imports.
How policymakers repeatedly misjudged inflation
That leaves Biden struggling to show that at least he understands that Americans are suffering and is doing what he can.
On Tuesday, the administration’s top economic officials fanned across cable news channels and appeared in the White House press briefing room to underscore their efforts to fight the price increases.
While not announcing any new measures to combat inflation, the White House insisted the American economy is in strong position for the Federal Reserve to tame high prices, because high growth and low unemployment create a buffer against future interest rate hikes.
Appearing with Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen in the Oval Office, Biden said he and the central bank share a “laser focus” on addressing inflation. “My top priority … is addressing inflation in order to transition from a historic recovery to a steady growth that works for American families,” Biden said.
But the message was complicated, because while the president sought to take credit for the Fed being well-positioned tackle inflation, he also emphasized that he is not interfering with its policies, as President Donald Trump was accused of doing.
Biden said his inflation plan “starts with a simple proposition: Respect the Fed and respect the Fed’s independence, which I have done and will continue to do. … I’m not going to interfere with their critically important work.”
The new activity comes after Biden had complained to aides that they were not doing a good job explaining the causes of inflation and what the administration is doing about it. A White House spokesman declined to comment on Biden’s instructions to his aides on inflation.
An NBC News poll released earlier this month found that 33 percent of Americans approve of Biden’s handling of the economy, while 23 percent approve of his handling of the cost of living.
A Washington Post-ABC News poll in early May found that more than 9 in 10 Americans are concerned, at a minimum, about the rate of inflation, which has been at a 40-year high for months. That included 44 percent who say they are “upset” about the problem.
In what might be worse for the president and his party, 68 percent said they disapprove of Biden’s handling of inflation, compared with 28 percent who approve.
The White House has grappled unevenly with how to respond to this threat since it emerged last summer. The administration initially downplayed the extent of the problem, inaccurately saying it would prove “temporary.”
When price increases persisted, the administration pivoted last fall to acknowledging that inflation was real but arguing that the Democrats’ Build Back Better legislative agenda was best suited to respond to families’ cost pressures.
Since Build Back Better collapsed after opposition from Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Republicans at the end of December, the White House has scrambled to find new responses to inflation, highlighting its actions to improve supply chain bottlenecks and its investments through the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
The White House has also stressed all the ways the American economy is quickly rebounding, as the unemployment rate plummets and gross domestic product surges. But that, too, is a tricky message, as the administration tries to simultaneously celebrate a booming economy and acknowledge that people are suffering.
The White House messaging has also been inconsistent in part because its attention has been seized by such powerful events as Russia’s aggression and a pair of horrific gun massacres. Yet unrelenting inflation threatens to undermine a central part of Biden’s political identity — that he knows and understands the problems of working-class Americans.
This week, the White House is making a “concerted effort” to “communicate our accomplishments to date on the economy,” while emphasizing Republican economic proposals that the administration believe will help create a favorable contrast, according to a White House official, who described the administration’s planning on the condition of anonymity to reveal internal deliberations. Democrats argue that Republicans embrace low taxes for the wealthy while paying little attention to the needs of ordinary Americans.
The administration’s top economic officials — including Yellen, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo — will be appearing on television this week as part of that push. Those appearances started in earnest Tuesday.
In recent weeks, Biden and his allies have taken particular aim at Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who runs the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, and his 11-point conservative policy platform that includes language White House officials say could raise taxes on all Americans.
“It’s the ultra-MAGA agenda,” Biden said in a speech in early May.
Biden aides are also ramping up their push on Capitol Hill for an economic bill that would tackle the high cost of prescription drugs, child care and other items — remnants of Biden’s once-expansive Build Back Better agenda. The bill probably would be supported only by Democrats, and party leaders believe that would let them make the case that they are fighting to help ordinary Americans while Republicans are standing idly by.
But even those close to the administration acknowledge the messaging changes might not be enough to address voter unrest, and some in the White House orbit are pushing for more dramatic action.
The White House openly toyed with embracing a federal gas tax holiday to bring motorists relief at the pump but eventually abandoned that idea. Internal debates have erupted among administration allies over whether to adopt a more full-throated populist message and blame corporate greed for higher inflation.
While Biden has occasionally criticized consolidation in such industries as meatpacking, he has never been comfortable with a sharply anti-corporate stance and has largely shied away from the rhetoric deployed by such liberal leaders as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
The White House has taken some actions to alleviate inflation, including a large release from the nation’s oil reserves and waiving ethanol rules to generate more fuel supply. Those steps do not appear to have materially altered the trajectory of high prices.
But much of the response has been rhetorical. Biden has taken to calling the rising cost of fuel “Putin’s price hike,” for example, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the strain on gas prices from Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“It seems like they’ve given up doing anything and have settled into figuring out what the best thing to say is,” said one person in close communication with senior White House economists, speaking on the condition of anonymity to reflect private conversations. “There’s almost more debate about the right narrative than the right policy stance.”
Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said the Biden administration “is doing as good a job as possible.” But rising prices are “psychologically debilitating” for Americans, he added, and the White House needs to be persistent in explaining to the public why inflation is so high.
“People are using inflation as a political cudgel, so it’s just complicated people’s understanding of what’s going on,” Zandi said. “But I think the American people understand this is the number one financial issue. They’re not going to feel good about anything until inflation is back down to something that is more comfortable.”
Republicans have argued that the Biden administration lost credibility on the question of inflation long ago, when it initially dismissed it as a “transitory” effect of the economy reopening after the pandemic, only for high prices to become a long-lasting and stubborn problem.
Conservative economists and many centrist experts also argue that Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan last year exacerbated inflation by overstimulating the economy and driving up demand. And GOP economists dismissed the notion that Biden’s promise to let the Federal Reserve do its job is an inflation-fighting strategy.
“'Trust the Fed’ is not a plan. It’s not something the White House is doing to get inflation under control,” said Donald Schneider, who served as a top aide to House Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee. “It’s consistent misdirection, and people can see through it. … It’s too little, too late.”
Some critics of the White House’s economic management, such as former treasury secretary Lawrence H. Summers, praised Biden for refraining in the Fed’s affairs. But it remains unclear whether the central bank has the latitude to tame inflation without causing a recession, and if that were to occur, it could prove an even worse headache for the Biden administration.
“I don’t think there’s a durable reduction in inflation without a meaningful reduction in wage growth,” Summers told The Washington Post on Tuesday. “When inflation’s been above four percent and unemployment’s been below four percent, we’ve always had a recession within the next two years.”
He added, “I think the likelihood is that we’re not going to get through this with a soft landing. … Given where we have been, it is going to be very difficult to get through this.” | 2022-05-31T23:01:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | White House wrestles with stubborn inflation - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/31/biden-inflation-frustration/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/31/biden-inflation-frustration/ |
Dissecting Kevin McCarthy’s case for bucking the Jan. 6 panel’s subpoena
It relies on warmed-over arguments that have failed before, and in one specific case actually misquotes a top Democrat on the committee
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) speaks to officers at the end of a “Back The Blue Bike Tour” in honor of National Police Week earlier this month. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
It comes as precisely zero surprise that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and his GOP colleagues who have been subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 committee are resisting testifying. And it’s not clear under what circumstances the committee could even compel them to cooperate in time, given their investigation is due to conclude before the 2022 midterms.
But it’s worth a look at how McCarthy justifies his actions — a case that’s strained at times, and relies heavily upon arguments that judges previously rejected. On Friday night, McCarthy posted an 11-page letter from his lawyer, laying out his reasoning. Essentially, it boils down to the idea that the committee is not properly constructed.
“Unfortunately, the words and actions of the Select Committee and its members have made it clear that it is not exercising a valid or lawful use of Congress’ subpoena power,” the letter states. “In fact, the Select Committee is not even operating in compliance with the rules its own members voted to put in place.”
It’s an argument that has been seeded and fertilized on the right since shortly after the Capitol insurrection — from the moment Republicans suddenly rejected a bipartisan commission modeled on the 9/11 Commission that their own McCarthy-appointed GOP colleague had negotiated. They’re now attempting to harvest the crop in some high-profile cases.
In the letter, McCarthy’s lawyer argues that committees generally have broad authority to investigate and issue subpoenas, but that this one comes up short in a few ways: It doesn’t have 13 members and five Republicans, it doesn’t technically have a ranking member, and it purportedly doesn’t serve a “valid legislative purpose.”
The letter notes that the committee’s authorizing resolution states, “The Speaker shall appoint 13 members to the Select Committee, 5 of whom shall be appointed after consultation with the minority leader.” It notes that the committee had neither 13 members nor five Republicans. (This is because House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected two of McCarthy’s five picks due to their efforts related to overturning the election, and McCarthy later withdrew all five. Pelosi went on to appoint GOP Trump critics Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.)
But earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, ruled that this didn’t invalidate the committee. In a case involving the Republican National Committee, he said legal precedent suggests that the word “shall” shouldn’t be understood to mean the committee must have those numbers to legally operate.
McCarthy’s letter also cites the lack of an official GOP ranking member. Cheney has been given the title “vice chair,” but the committee’s authorizing resolution describes areas in which the committee’s chair should work with a “ranking minority member.”
But again, a similar claim was rejected in the RNC case. Kelly wrote that Cheney’s technical title aside, “the Court must defer to the Select Committee’s decision to treat Representative Cheney as the ranking minority member for consultation purposes.”
Lastly comes a key phrase: “valid legislative purpose.” Republicans have long argued that the committee doesn’t serve one, and McCarthy does here too.
His reasoning differs somewhat from the RNC’s. While the RNC essentially argued that the investigation was a pretext for harming Republicans, McCarthy’s lawyer scales that back somewhat. He merely argues that the committee has repeatedly said it wants to tell the “story” of Jan. 6 — a noun several committee members have used — and that it is in search of crimes. Exposing things and serving as law enforcement, he says, aren’t valid legislative purposes.
This argument is more difficult to compare to past ones. But Kelly essentially ruled that whatever the committee aims to do or whatever ulterior motives it might have, that doesn’t matter as long as it has a distinct valid legislative purpose, which he said was “apparent enough.” And he wasn’t the first to rule that the committee has a valid legislative purpose; multiple judges have also rejected arguments to the contrary.
We noted at the time of Kelly’s ruling that the RNC’s argument on that count was pretty strained, and Kelly treated it as such, saying it did “not come close” to showing what the RNC maintained. And here, too, the words of the committee members are being stretched.
For instance, at one point the letter states, “Select Committee Member Jamie Raskin has stated, ‘We will expose every facet … and support the story of the worst presidential political offense.’” But a look at the citation reveals some, well, creative editing. Raskin didn’t connect those two thoughts so directly; in fact, he didn’t even write precisely those words or place them in that order.
In an April tweet, he spoke of exposing facets of Jan. 6 after the part about the “worst presidential political offense.”
We now have evidence to support the story of the worst presidential political offense against the Union in American history.
The @January6thCmte hearings in June will expose every facet of the assault against our democracy and Constitution on 1/6.
— Jamie Raskin (@jamie_raskin) April 29, 2022
“We now have evidence to support the story of the worst presidential political offense against the Union in American history,” Raskin said. “The @January6thCmte hearings in June will expose every facet of the assault against our democracy and Constitution on 1/6.”
Raskin has made it pretty clear that he thinks there was an offense here. But his reference to how the committee will “expose every facet” doesn’t so directly and necessarily refer to what Donald Trump did; it could be read much more generally, to describe the committee’s intent to thoroughly investigate all aspects of the insurrection. The letter also misquotes Raskin’s tweet, inserting a “We” in place of “The @January6thCmte hearings in June” and adding an “and” before “support.”
It should be noted that just because multiple judges rejected similar arguments doesn’t necessarily mean a future judge will reject these ones from McCarthy. Ultimately, though, the legal arguments here might be somewhat immaterial. The committee will struggle to get several Republicans’ testimony in time for a variety of reasons.
Still, it’s worth understanding how Republicans who have tried to undercut the committee’s legitimacy from the start are making their case. And here, it’s largely via warmed-over arguments that haven’t particularly worked for them in the past — at least in court.
This case probably will work, if only politically — and if only because it will delay the proceedings in a way that’s proven valuable for Republicans fending off Trump investigations. | 2022-05-31T23:01:38Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Dissecting Kevin McCarthy’s case for bucking the Jan. 6 panel’s subpoena - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/31/mccarthy-letter-jan-6/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/31/mccarthy-letter-jan-6/ |
Norton: D.C. leaders’ disagreement leaves RFK Stadium plan in lurch
Meagan Flynn
Michael Brice-Saddler
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser and Council Chairman Phil Mendelson in 2021. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)
Disagreement between D.C.'s mayor and council chairman has for months prevented the introduction of a bill in Congress that would allow the city to purchase and develop the derelict RFK Stadium site, according to Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.).
The stalemate centers on the inability of D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) to agree on a plan to acquire the site, ultimately leaving 190 acres of land dormant in the heart of a city struggling with affordable housing and other issues.
Norton said in an interview she will not introduce legislation until Bowser and Mendelson can reach an agreement, noting that they appear to differ about how to use the land and whether to try to attract the Washington Commanders to the stadium site.
“I’m stuck on stupid here — I can’t move until they move,” she said of D.C. leaders. “It would be in their best interest to move now while we have control of the House, the Senate and the presidency.”
In interviews, Mendelson and the city’s deputy mayor for planning and economic development, John Falcicchio, blamed each other’s offices for the lack of unity.
Bowser has made clear that she wants the Commanders to return to D.C. at RFK Stadium, which is National Park Service land, but D.C. cannot negotiate a deal unless Congress allows the city to purchase the land. Several council members — including Mendelson — have said they do not want to use local resources to build a stadium for the Commanders, a team that remains under investigation in Congress for alleged sexual harassment and financial improprieties. Mendelson also has said he’s open to discussing a deal that would prepare the land for the Commanders, but wouldn’t support their possible move into the city until the National Football League releases the findings of its sexual harassment investigation into the team and its owner.
The delay by D.C.'s leaders is just the latest speed bump for the Commanders stadium search, which has been complicated by reputational issues. The team has struggled to drum up a competition between D.C., Maryland and Virginia, and on Tuesday, a key Virginia General Assembly leader said the body would again delay voting on legislation meant to entice the Commanders to the state. Maryland has a plan to spend $400 million to develop the area around FedEx Field, where the team plays now, but not build the stadium itself.
But as other jurisdictions forge ahead on stadium efforts, the disagreements between Mendelson and Bowser about land use — and apparently poor communication — have stunted D.C.’s ability to formulate a plan of its own.
On March 8 and April 6, staffers for the mayor, congresswoman and Mendelson held calls about the legislation, according to Mendelson. During one call, a staff member in Norton’s office urged the mayor’s staff to brief Mendelson, given Norton would not move forward without his and the mayor’s buy-in.
In a letter dated April 12, Falcicchio outlined the legislation to Mendelson, noting it would amend the current RFK lease, which runs until 2038, and allow the city to obtain full control of the land from the federal government within five years. It would also remove land-use restrictions, allowing D.C. to begin development in the meantime. The D.C. Council would still need to vote on how to use the land and to approve development contracts.
“Mayor Bowser has been abundantly clear that the RFK Campus should be put back to productive use to address our housing and economic needs, and with this Legislation, we have a framework to move this forward,” Falcicchio wrote in the letter. “It is critical that we coalesce around this Legislation and push for its passage this year while the political environment may be best suited for success.”
“[My office] stands ready to brief you on this momentum and the path forward if you are interested in learning more,” Falcicchio added.
But Mendelson said he found the letter disingenuous. He noted Falcicchio in the letter never mentioned bringing the Commanders back to the District, a move Bowser has publicly championed since the team changed its name Feb. 2.
“What’s the expression?” Mendelson said. “I wasn’t born yesterday.”
Mendelson never responded to the letter. Falcicchio, who said he thought the letter qualified as a briefing, said the first time he’d heard about the chairman’s discontent was from a reporter.
“We communicated with the chairman last month in writing where we stand with the legislation,” Falcicchio said. “We continue to work on the legislation. We stand ready to brief the chairman, who seems convinced that the best way to communicate is through The Washington Post.”
Asked why he hasn’t contacted the mayor’s office himself, Mendelson — who, along with Bowser, is running for reelection — said he has been busy with other issues, such as the city’s redistricting process and finalizing the 2023 budget.
“This is not my initiative,” he added.
The city’s efforts to acquire RFK ramped up at the end of last year, according to three people involved in the negotiations who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they didn’t want to imperil the ongoing deliberations. The team and mayor’s office, according to those people, planned to advocate to attach the legislation to Congress’s omnibus spending package.
A Commanders official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing negotiations, confirmed the team met with Falcicchio’s staff regularly, as often as weekly, in the months leading up to Congress’s introduction of its spending package in early March. But the package passed without the legislation attached. In the letter Falcicchio sent Mendelson a month later, he wrote the new proposal was to attach it to a coronavirus relief bill moving through Congress.
Both Norton and a spokesman for House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) — whose committee has jurisdiction over the bill — said they were never involved in any discussion or approached about any plan to include the legislation in an omnibus spending package or covid relief bill, indicating that it was probably not a serious proposition.
“If it didn’t come through me, it’s not going to happen,” Norton said. “So I don’t know what they’re talking about.”
The spokesman for Grijalva, Jason Johnson, said “any further action on the land would follow a process with transparency and public input. That process would start with a public hearing.”
“The future of the RFK Stadium site is an important matter for the District of Columbia, and like any decision about the future of public land, Congress has to ensure a fair, equitable and transparent process,” Grijalva said in a statement. “Any future development plans should be supported by local residents and broadly reflect the public interest.”
Since the omnibus effort, the Commanders official said, the team has been on standby while waiting for city leaders to act.
“As I have said before publicly, it is unconscionable that the District government cannot determine nor provide a public, social, and economic good for the communities that surround the RFK parcel and the entire city,” Commanders team president Jason Wright said in a statement. “For too long, that site has been left idle, robbing it of the enormous opportunity to build a true gateway across the river and deliver social and economic growth for Wards 7 and 8. Whether the future of that site includes us or not, we stand united with District leadership in helping to secure rights to that property so the city can properly control their own economic destiny.”
Still, even if the mayor’s office briefed the council in a way that was satisfactory to Mendelson, the chairman said he couldn’t guarantee the council’s support. In early March, when Mendelson said he became aware of the meetings between Falcicchio’s staff and the Commanders, he surveyed council members and found them divided over how to use the land.
According to Mendelson, some members opposed any effort to obtain the land because they either wanted it to remain a public park and/or they did not support the Commanders — and they believe “the mayor’s true design is to attract the football team.”
In the letter, Falcicchio wrote the mayor’s goal was to address “a growing need for affordable housing and jobs for our residents.” He pointed out acquiring the land would help the mayor’s efforts in the area, including the Hill East redevelopment project, and noted several additional initiatives she included in the budget, including $60 million for a new sports complex with a gymnastics training facility, an indoor track, climbing walls and boxing.
In a recent Washington Post survey of candidates for mayor and the council, 21 of 24 respondents said taxpayers should not subsidize construction or development to support a new Commanders stadium — including Mendelson and three current members of the council. Bowser supported helping develop the land, as the city did at Audi Field.
“I support bringing the Commanders back to DC and would be willing to prepare the land for their use, but will not pay for stadium construction or subsidize it,” Bowser wrote in response to the questionnaire. “Regardless, I call on the federal government to transfer the land so we can use it to maximize recreation, retail & affordable housing.”
While the disagreement between Bowser and Mendelson remains the most immediate hurdle, Norton faces a twofold challenge with the legislation. She said that, even if she were to introduce a bill, she expects to face skepticism from many within her own party.
Norton has described the bill as home-rule legislation to empower D.C. to use the RFK site for development however it would like — but many Democrats still see it as a proposal that could ultimately benefit the Commanders. Because of the ongoing sexual harassment and financial improprieties investigations on the House Oversight and Reform Committee — on which Norton sits — Democrats aren’t necessarily inclined to take any actions that could help the team.
“All [Bowser and Mendelson] have to do is give me a bill they both agree upon — then I will have a lot of challenges still here in the Congress,” Norton said. “I can’t move anything in the Congress if I can’t get my own city officials to agree on a bill.” | 2022-05-31T23:05:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Norton says D.C. leaders’ disagreement is leaving RFK Stadium plan in lurch - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/05/31/commanders-stadium-dc-norton-bowser-mendelson/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/05/31/commanders-stadium-dc-norton-bowser-mendelson/ |
Nationals’ Joe Ross will have Tommy John surgery for a second time
Joe Ross's elbow issues will cause him to have a second Tommy John surgery in the past five years. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post)
NEW YORK — After gathering multiple opinions on his injured right elbow, Washington Nationals starter Joe Ross will have Tommy John surgery for the second time, Manager Dave Martinez told reporters Tuesday. Ross, 29, is in his final year of team control and is expected to become a free agent in the fall. He will not be able to throw a pitch before that happens.
“No date yet, but he wants to get it repaired and fixed,” Martinez said before the Nationals faced the New York Mets at Citi Field. “And now after the surgery, it’s a whole lot of healing and strengthening to get him ready to get on a mound again as soon as possible.”
Ross’s most recent major league appearance came in a suspended game here Aug. 11. Since, he has been sidelined by a partial tear of his ulnar collateral ligament, then by having a bone spur removed from his elbow in March. After undergoing his first Tommy John surgery in July 2017, Ross returned about 14 months later. A similar recovery period would keep him out until next summer.
For most of this season, the Nationals had Ross and Stephen Strasburg on identical rehab schedules. But when they each started for minor league affiliates May 24, Ross threw two solid innings and then felt elbow pain in the third. He finished the outing 29 pitches short of Washington’s best-case plan. The immediate MRI exams offered little optimism.
Little by little, Nats want prospect Cole Henry to pitch a full season
Still, Ross wanted to talk with a few doctors before making his decision. Now he’s set to have the surgery performed by Neal ElAttrache in Los Angeles.
“He got different opinions,” Martinez said. “They all came back the same.”
Even with Ross’s impending free agency, would Martinez, in a perfect world, want to see the righty through his full recovery?
“Absolutely,” he answered. “I’ve talked to him already about what his plans are after the surgery. I told him, ‘I’d love to have you here close.’ He’s got a guy in Dallas he works with religiously, but I would love for [him] to be around the guys and get some work in here, so we can keep eyes on [him]. But we feel like he’s a National. Right now, he still is a National. We’re going to keep it that way.”
That’s not Martinez saying Ross will be on the team beyond this season. Those sorts of details will be worked out later (though Ross could opt to return on a prove-it minor league contract, giving him and the Nationals a chance to see what’s left in his arm). Martinez’s answer felt more like a good-faith idea — if not a totally realistic one — for a player who has been with the organization since 2014 and started Game 5 of the World Series in 2019.
When healthy, Ross mixes a hard sinker, a slider and a change-up that’s ever developing. But from here, there’s no telling if he’ll pitch for the Nationals again or what his next chance might look like. He has made 76 starts for them across six seasons and has a 4.26 career ERA. | 2022-05-31T23:06:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Joe Ross will have Tommy John surgery again - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/05/31/joe-ross-tommy-john-surgery/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/05/31/joe-ross-tommy-john-surgery/ |
Russia is building a ‘fun and tasty’ McDonald’s replacement
As the fast-food chain moves to complete the sale of its Russian stores, patent filings hint at a possible new direction
People pass a closed McDonald’s in Moscow. (Yuri Kochetkov/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
Less than two weeks after McDonald’s struck a deal to sell hundreds of its Russian restaurants to a local buyer, a picture is starting to emerge of how the discarded burger joints will be run without American involvement.
“The only way,” “fun and tasty,” “the same one” and “free checkout” are among the phrases turning up in Russian trademark filings, which the state-owned newswire, RBC, described as applications for a new name.
It’s unclear whether the filings reflect possible new restaurant names as opposed to marketing slogans. Representatives of the fast-food chain did not comment on the filings. Nor was it clear whether the filings were submitted by the Siberian-based buyer of 850 local stores or some other entity altogether.
In a Telegram post, RBC cited a statement to the press service of McDonald’s Russia: “At the moment, we are working on creating a new brand and have already sent applications for the registration of several names. In the future, one of all registered names will be selected.”
Still, the filings suggest Russia is taking steps to forge a new identity for the restaurants in the ashes of the Chicago-based company’s decades-long partnership with McDonald’s, experts say.
“Russia is trying to play the story up as ‘we can do better in our own way, and the big bad Western capitalists aren’t needed,’ ” said Christine Farley, an American University professor specializing in intellectual property.
Hundreds of companies have cut ties with Russia in the wake of Moscow’s Feb. 24 invasion of neighboring Ukraine. Some, like energy giants BP and Shell, have written off massive investments there. A Google subsidiary filed for bankruptcy after its bank accounts were seized. McDonald’s opted to sell its Russian assets to a local buyer in the hopes of an orderly transition that would protect jobs and minimize the collateral damage to its business.
In a May 16 letter to the “McFamily” of franchisees, employees and suppliers, McDonald’s President and CEO Chris Kempczinski framed the decision to leave as a rebuke of war in Ukraine and the humanitarian crisis it has created. He also pointed to an “untenable” business climate that has rendered some basic transactions impossible amid a barrage of Western sanctions. It is the first time that McDonald’s, which has a presence in more than 100 countries, has abandoned a major international market, he said.
It’s “impossible to ignore the humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Ukraine,” Kempczinski wrote.
Days later, the company said in a statement that it had entered into a sale and purchase agreement with a Russian licensee, Alexander Govor. Under the agreement, Govor will acquire the entire McDonald’s restaurant portfolio and operate the restaurants under a new brand. He previously operated 25 McDonald’s restaurants in Siberia.
The agreement remains subject to regulatory approval. McDonald’s Russia said last week that it plans to reopen restaurants to the public as soon as June 12 under a new name that will be introduced separately, according to Reuters.
A month into the war, these companies still wrestle with exiting Russia
It remains to be seen whether the new business will bear the hallmarks of the brand known for Big Macs and Chicken McNuggets.
Kempczinski made clear that no Russian businesses can use the McDonald’s name, its logo, branding or menu as the “de-Arching” of its restaurants gets underway. But attorneys familiar with Russia’s government and legal system are skeptical that authorities there will respect U.S. companies’ intellectual property rights.
The trademark documents, reviewed by The Washington Post, were registered by a business entity called “McDonalds OOO,” a business classification similar to LLC. Several of them seem to reference various unique aspects of how McDonald’s has functioned in Russia, but with a very Russian take on it, D.C.-based trademark attorney Josh Gerben said.
One trademarked phrase translates roughly to “free checkout,” a Russian saying that cashiers use to indicate they are ready to take a customer’s order, Gerben said Tuesday. Another translates roughly to “the same one.”
“It shows that the successor to McDonald’s in Russia is looking to have a clean start,” Gerben said. “It does not appear that they’re trying to use the McDonald’s brand going forward, but they might be doing something that has a nod to the past.”
The first McDonald’s in Russia opened in January 1990 when it was still the Soviet Union. The restaurant was an instant hit with Russians, and thousands stood in line to get their first taste of a “Big Mak” in Moscow’s Pushkin Square.
In his letter, Kempczinski did not rule out a return to Russia, nor did he specify what would have to change for McDonald’s to come back. | 2022-05-31T23:10:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Russia is building a 'fun and tasty' McDonald's replacement - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/05/31/mcdonalds-russia-brand-name/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/05/31/mcdonalds-russia-brand-name/ |
New academy will train workers who mediate conflict on D.C. streets
The D.C. Peace Academy hopes to train 150 people by the end of 2023
Nneka Grimes, center, chats with fellow students in a classroom at the D.C. Peace Academy, which will provide 13 weeks of intensive training to violence intervention workers deployed on the front lines of the city’s most dangerous neighborhoods. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)
As violent crime surges in D.C., a new privately funded academy will provide 13 weeks of intensive training to violence intervention workers deployed on the front lines of the city’s most dangerous neighborhoods.
The D.C. Peace Academy, launched Tuesday, offers education and other services to the people who are tasked with mediating conflicts and engaging one-on-one with those most at risk of committing crimes.
The first academy cohort includes 25 workers from across the city who have at least six months of experience in the field and are members of violence intervention organizations that contract with the D.C. government. Street outreach and violence intervention workers are typically hired because of deep roots in the communities in which they work.
The curriculum, developed in large part by local community leaders, is designed to enhance negotiation and conflict resolution skills, officials said. It also offers mental health services to those going through the course to help cope with the trauma they may experience through their work, which often comes with personal risk.
“This is the first time I really feel like we have something for us, by us,” Lashonia Thompson-El, executive director of Peace for DC, said at the Tuesday academy launch in Southeast Washington. “This program allows us to center the voices of those most central to gun violence.”
The academy is privately funded by Peace for DC, a nonprofit founded by local restaurant owner Roger Marmet after his 22-year-old son, Tom, was killed by a stray bullet in 2018. The nonprofit has raised half a million dollars to support the academy, Marmet said, with each cohort of 25 people costing about $250,000.
The funding goes toward teachers, life coaches, cognitive behavioral therapy and a payment of $150 per week to each participant to help with costs, such as child care and parking, while they’re enrolled in the course. Marmet said he hopes to the academy will have trained about 150 people by the end of 2023.
The launch comes at a critical moment in Washington. Homicides are up 7 percent compared with the same time last year, and summer, a season when crime traditionally spikes, is quickly approaching. D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) is under mounting pressure to reverse the troubling rise in violence, with a contested primary election in a few weeks and many voters naming public safety as their chief concern. Critics have said Bowser lacks a singular plan to fight crime, with officials now conceding that her signature initiative, Building Blocks, was little more than a theory.
A recent report commissioned by an independent D.C. agency offered a comprehensive gun violence reduction plan for the city, and recommended that the District increase the number of violence intervention workers and create an academy to train them. Top D.C. officials have not committed to following through on the plan but said it will play a role in their own work to develop a wholistic strategy.
D.C. Director of Gun Violence Prevention Linda Harllee Harper said the D.C. Peace Academy was an example of the power of collaboration between private organizations and the government, but added that the city is still working on developing a gun violence prevention plan. As part of that effort, the D.C. government has partnered with the University of the District of Columbia to launch its own four-week hybrid program to train cohorts of violence interrupters — which she described as “supplemental” to the Peace Academy.
Nneka Grimes, a 32-year-old outreach worker in Ward 5 through the National Association for the Advancement of Returning Citizens, sat in a room on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue in Southeast Washington where she and 24 others received laptops for their first academy training. Grimes said she had received training through her organization, which contracts with the Office of the Attorney General, but is eager to learn more about how to teach violence interruption to people in her community.
“I feel like I took my bachelor’s and this is my master’s class,” she said. “It’s the next level.” | 2022-05-31T23:14:42Z | www.washingtonpost.com | D.C. Peace Academy will train workers who mediate conflict on D.C. streets - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/05/31/dc-peace-academy-launch/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/05/31/dc-peace-academy-launch/ |
Samella Lewis, tireless champion of African American art, dies at 99
‘Art is not a luxury as many people think,’ she said. ‘It is a necessity.’
Artist and art historian Samella Lewis, left, with her son Claude in 2019, at an opening celebration for the Broad Museum exhibition “Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, 1963-1983" in Los Angeles. (Randy Shropshire/Getty Images for The Broad Museum)
When Samella Lewis began teaching art history in the 1950s and ′60s, Black artists were often shut out of major American museums, passed over in favor of European masters and White abstract expressionists. Artists of color had few opportunities to reach a wide audience, she later recalled, and “there was no African American museum west of the Mississippi.”
So Dr. Lewis, a New Orleans native with a PhD in fine arts, began building alternative institutions, aiming to promote and preserve the work of Black artists like Sam Gilliam, Jacob Lawrence and her mentor Elizabeth Catlett. Settling in Los Angeles in the mid-1960s, she founded three galleries for artists of color, created the city’s Museum of African American Art, published a landmark survey of contemporary Black art and wrote one of the first textbooks on African American art history.
“Art is not a luxury as many people think,” she said, according to the website Black Art in America. “It is a necessity. It documents history — it helps educate people and stores knowledge for generations to come.”
A tireless champion of African American art, Dr. Lewis was also an accomplished painter and printmaker in her own right, with works in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, both in New York City. She was 99 when she died May 27 at a hospital in Torrance, Calif., after suffering a kidney ailment, according to her son Claude.
In a life that was guided by her devotion to art and social justice, Dr. Lewis taught in Jim Crow-era Florida while working with a Tallahassee branch of the NAACP — enraging members of the Ku Klux Klan, who shot out the windows of her home, according to her gallery Louis Stern Fine Arts.
Her activism continued after she moved to Upstate New York, where she co-founded an NAACP chapter while teaching at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh in the late 1950s, and after she moved to Southern California a few years later. While coordinating education programs at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, she picketed the museum, according to her son, “because they had hardly any African American art — or any art by anyone of color.”
To promote African American artists, Dr. Lewis made short documentary films about sculptors including Barthé and John Outterbridge. She also partnered with printmaker Ruth Waddy to interview dozens of artists for the book “Black Artists on Art” (1969), a two-volume survey of the contemporary scene that she released through Contemporary Crafts Gallery, a publishing house and exhibition space that she co-founded with actor Bernie Casey.
The book was intended “to promote change,” she wrote, “change in order that art might function as expression rather than as an institution” — and thereby serve entire communities, rather than amuse or enrich a privileged few. Her own work featured poignant depictions of African American life, including scenes of fieldworkers like the man portrayed in her 1968 linocut “Field,” who is shown raising his arms toward the sun and clenching one hand in a defiant fist.
“The artist is an interpreter,” Dr. Lewis later wrote, “a voice that makes intelligible the deepest, most meaningful aspirations of the people,” and “a channel through which their resentments, hopes, fears, ambitions, and all the other unconscious drives that condition behavior are expressed and become explicit.”
Dr. Lewis reached a wide audience with her 1978 textbook “Art: African American,” which built on the work of African American art historian James A. Porter and outlined more than two centuries of Black American art, beginning with the colonial era. Revised and expanded as “African American Art and Artists,” it became a staple of college classes, assigned in art and African American studies courses for years.
“Thanks to Samella Lewis,” artist and art historian Floyd Coleman wrote in a foreword for the book’s 2003 edition, “we gain deeper appreciation for and understanding of the richness and diversity that African American art adds to American civilization.”
The daughter of a farmer and a seamstress, Samella Sanders was born in New Orleans on Feb. 27, 1923. (Many sources give her birth year as 1924, although her son Claude said that her birth certificate was given belatedly and incorrectly took a year off her age.)
While in high school she met an Italian portrait painter, Alfredo Galli, after lingering at the window of his shop in the French Quarter. He spoke no English, she recalled in an oral history interview, but was impressed by her draftsmanship and taught her and a classmate free of charge for two years. “He really worked with us and warned us against the evils of modern art,” she said with a laugh. “But he taught us technique, and that was priceless.”
Dr. Lewis went on to study art at Dillard University in New Orleans, where she met Catlett and her then-husband, fellow artist Charles White. When the couple moved to Virginia to take a teaching job at the Hampton Institute (now a university), Dr. Lewis followed them, continuing her studies with further guidance from Viktor Lowenfeld, an influential art educator who taught her “to paint from the heart,” as she later told the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
She received a bachelor’s degree in 1945 and later studied fine arts at Ohio State University, earning a master’s degree in 1948 and a doctorate in 1951. Two years later, she helped organize the National Conference of Artists, a gathering of Black artists and teachers, while chairing the fine arts department at Florida A&M University.
Pursuing her interest in East Asian art, Dr. Lewis traveled to Taiwan on a Fulbright fellowship in 1962 and later moved to Los Angeles to study Chinese, getting a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Southern California. By 1970 she had joined Scripps College in nearby Claremont, where she became the school’s first tenured African American professor and taught art history for more than 15 years.
Backed by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, she founded the Los Angeles Museum of African American Art in 1976. The museum acquired works by Barthé and painter Palmer Hayden, among other Black artists, and is now located inside a Macy’s shopping store at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw mall, in line with Dr. Lewis’s mission to bring art to the people.
“The ordinary American sees museums as some people view church — a special occasion and not an everyday affair,” she told the Los Angeles Times in 1986. “I think if we’re going to ask people to be interested in the arts and culture and have them as a substantive part of their lives, we must make it available to them.”
Dr. Lewis also founded the journal Black Art: An International Quarterly, now known as the International Review of African American Art, and directed the Clark Humanities Museum at Scripps College. She donated part of her personal art collection to the school, including works by Catlett, Faith Ringgold and Carrie Mae Weems, and in 2007 Scripps launched the Samella Lewis Contemporary Art Collection in her honor.
Her husband of more than six decades, Paul Lewis, died in 2013. In addition to her son Claude, survivors include another son, Alan; and three grandchildren.
Dr. Lewis was awarded the Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement last year by the College Art Association, a professional group for the visual arts. She was still working until her health deteriorated about three years ago, her son said, and had long viewed her books, documentaries, gallery exhibitions and artworks as a single unified project.
“I can’t stop,” she told the Times-Dispatch in 1997. “All of it is a work of art.” | 2022-05-31T23:19:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Samella Lewis, tireless champion of African American art, dies at 99 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/05/31/artist-samella-lewis-dead/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/05/31/artist-samella-lewis-dead/ |
June Randolph, civic leader in Occoquan, Va., dies at 101
She helped the historic town rebuild after Hurricane Agnes in 1972
By Bart Barnes
June Randolph, a citizen activist of the historic river town of Occoquan, Va., who played a vital role in its development over the last half-century, including recovery from a hurricane disaster, died May 23 at a care center in Woodbridge, Va. She was 101.
A grandson, Lee Sullivan, said she had a form of dementia and stopped eating and drinking.
A resident of Occoquan since 1954, Mrs. Randolph was a former mayor, town clerk, town treasurer, town council member, member of the architectural review board, and member and chairwoman of the planning commission.
She settled in Occoquan, on the river town that separates Fairfax County from Prince William County, because it was then an easy commute for her husband, who worked at the Pentagon. For a period, they lived aboard his sailboat on the Occoquan River, which flows into the Potomac River.
A key element in Mrs. Randolph’s vision for future development occurred a half-century ago when Hurricane Agnes devastated Northern Virginia in June 1972, causing extensive property damage in Occoquan and neighboring communities.
“After Agnes, the town was at a turning point,” Occoquan Mayor Earnie Porta said. Local businesses such as banks and hardware and grocery stores were wiped out.
“So the town could have become entirely residential and lost the commercial and business area that distinguishes a town from a residential subdivision,” Porta said. “June was instrumental in preserving Occoquan’s status as a historic mixed-use community, which I would argue is a fundamental characteristic of most vibrant towns.”
As chair of Occoquan’s planning commission, Mrs. Randolph headed the review board that produced zoning regulations and amendments that helped establish Occoquan’s identity as a mini-mecca for tourists, with specialty shops, restaurants, historic preservation, a museum and art exhibits in the wake of the damage done by Hurricane Agnes. There are an estimated 100 shops in historic Occoquan.
“She was a town icon,” Porta said.
Janet June Watson was born in Morgantown, W.Va., on June 4, 1920. Her father owned a coal mine and later, during the Depression, a candy store. Her mother was a homemaker. She graduated in 1942 from West Virginia University and moved to Washington during World War II.
She worked for the FBI and was a Navy Wave during the war, then in 1948 married Hoyt W. Randolph, with whom she had three children. He died in 1979 and a son, Hoyt W. Randolph Jr., died in 2021.
Survivors include two children, Elizabeth Coulson of Aquia, Va., and Marshall Randolph of Wellesley, Mass.; seven grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
In addition to her governmental jobs, Mrs. Randolph was a founding board member and first president of the Occoquan Historical Society and the first president of the Woodbridge Women’s Club. (Woodbridge is the neighborhood in which Occoquan is located.) She also started a bridge card game club.
With her husband, she did newspaper crossword puzzles nightly. She helped a convert a church that was no longer used into a city hall and another old building into a museum. | 2022-05-31T23:19:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | June Randolph, civic leader in Occoquan, Va., dies at 101 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/05/31/june-randolph-died-occoquan/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/05/31/june-randolph-died-occoquan/ |
A clever effort to try to de-Putinize Trump
By David Kendall
Michael Sussmann, a cybersecurity lawyer who represented the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign in 2016, outside the federal courthouse in Washington on May 31. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)
David E. Kendall, a lawyer at Williams & Connolly, represents 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
Well, that was a quick acquittal! The Michael Sussmann prosecution brought by Trump administration special counsel John Durham tried to generate a Clinton-conspiracy bang but ended with a not-guilty-verdict whimper.
The actual case against Sussmann was both narrow and paper-thin from the start. He was charged with lying to the FBI’s general counsel in a one-on-one, unrecorded meeting on Sept. 19, 2016, about whom he was speaking for — not on the report he presented about mysterious communications between the Trump Organization and a Vladimir Putin crony’s Russian bank (which the FBI later declared unsubstantiated).
While the alleged lie was simple, straightforward and could have been explained in two pages, it was encased in 27 pages of dark and inchoate allegations of wrongdoing by a number of Clintonites. What was the lie? Not that Sussmann provided false evidence of Donald Trump’s alleged collusion with the Russians — that was neither alleged nor proven. Not that there was a vast conspiracy to falsely besmirch Trump as seeking Russian assistance — that was neither alleged nor proven. Not that there was a successful deception of the FBI — many witnesses testified they were well aware of Sussmann’s many Democratic connections and clients. The Durham indictment charged only that Sussmann had failed to tell the FBI general counsel why he was meeting with him. The jury saw through the fog of misdirection and innuendo in the indictment’s overstuffed allegations and quickly returned a not-guilty verdict
Then-Attorney General William P. Barr had asked Durham in 2019 to investigate government intelligence gathering into Russian interactions with Trump’s 2016 campaign — and later promoted Durham to special counsel. The Sussmann prosecution was in fact a clever effort to de-Putinize Trump, by suggesting that he and his successful presidential campaign were the victims of a nefarious Democratic conspiracy to tar it with false and unmerited allegations of Russian assistance. Durham’s counterfactual scenario generated endless speculation and fulmination among the MAGA faithful, including by Trump, but it collapsed when proof had to be introduced in open court subject to the rules of evidence.
Paul Waldman and Greg Sargent: John Durham’s flop is only the latest of many Trump coverup failures
With his oversized and oblivious ego, the former president has never acknowledged the reality that the Russians zealously tried to help him defeat Hillary Clinton. In a 2016 presidential debate, he denied the Russians were releasing hacked emails to injure the Democrats, positing that it could have been done by “someone sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds.” At a joint news conference with Putin in July 2018, after another special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, had indicted 12 Russian military intelligence officers for U.S. election interference, Trump announced that he believed Putin’s denials and not the unanimous conclusions of the U.S. intelligence agencies.
Despite the setback of the Sussmann verdict, it’s possible that Durham will ultimately draft a report that does in words what he has so far been unable to do in court — proclaim Trump is a victim and that the allegations of Russian support for him were a “hoax” of the Democrats or the “deep state.” Such a report will have all the appeal and credibility of a self-published memoir. A future whitewash in a special counsel report is bound to fail in light of the overwhelming, undeniable and ineluctable amount of evidence of Russian government efforts to help Trump and harm Clinton. The U.S. intelligence community, except for the FBI, made this announcement in October 2016, and the FBI joined the assessment in January 2017.
Mueller’s final report detailed “numerous links between the Russian government and the Trump Campaign.” He obtained indictments in 2018 of 13 Russian individuals and three companies operating a troll farm in the United States to help the Trump campaign and then the indictments of the 12 Russian military intelligence officers who had directed the effort. He obtained six convictions of Trump officials who had connections to the Russians. The bipartisan Senate Select Committee on Intelligence found that “the Russian government engaged in an aggressive, multifaceted effort to influence, or attempt to influence, the outcome of the 2016 presidential election” to favor Trump.
The myopia of the Durham prosecutors was never more dramatic than when they argued that Sussmann’s actions in contacting the FBI were part of a Democratic effort to create an “October surprise” to torpedo the Trump campaign.
There was, of course, a truly dramatic and lethal surprise that October, but it came at the expense of the Democratic candidate and, many polling experts think, tipped the election to Trump: On Oct. 28, 2016, then-FBI Director James B. Comey announced he was reopening the Clinton emails investigation — at a time when the bureau had studiously kept secret its own three-month-old investigation of the Trump campaign’s dealing with the Russians.
No wonder the jury reached its verdict so quickly. | 2022-05-31T23:23:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | David E. Kendall: Michael Sussmann case was wrong from the start - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/31/sussmann-durham-hillary-fbi/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/31/sussmann-durham-hillary-fbi/ |
Do we need to see what the guns do to children?
Pallbearers carry the casket of Amerie Jo Garza, who died in the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School. (Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Images)
Perhaps, the country needs to see the bodies.
In the aftermath of the Uvalde mass shooting in which 19 children and two adults were killed, we’ve seen the grief-stricken parents and the makeshift memorials to their chubby-cheeked children. We’ve seen the images of the big burly men carrying the casket of a child. We saw adults with their head bowed in mourning as they entered a visitation for a kid. And still, we are a country adrift.
As unconscionable as it may be to our sensitivities, to our understanding of what it means to be decent and humane in the face of unspeakable and bottomless grief, perhaps actually seeing what guns do to children, what AR-15s do to tiny bodies, would be the gruesome catalyst for action. Perhaps that indelible horror would be enough to jolt those with the power to enact legislation that curtails the sale of assault-style weapons, raises the legal age to purchase guns, makes background checks less porous and recognizes that guns have become a deadly cultural addiction that requires broad spectrum intervention.
It’s an extraordinary human being who can, in the midst of profound grief, make the decision to transform their child into a symbol, into a motivating factor. Mamie Till did that when her 14-year-old son Emmett was lynched in Mississippi during the early days of the civil rights movement. When his body was returned to Chicago for the funeral, Till left his casket open with his beaten, swollen and disfigured face visible. She allowed his body to be photographed and the image published by Jet magazine so the world could see the kind of systemic brutality that too many of her fellow citizens knew about but had been responding to with a shrug.
Too many Americans are shrugging in the aftermath of the mass shootings in Uvalde and Buffalo. They’re shrugging off the massacres before them and the ones that have already happened in their wake. The shootings in Michigan and Oklahoma, Florida and Tennessee didn’t turn into multiday, we-interrupt-the-scheduled-programming stories because the victims didn’t reach into the double digits and they were teenagers and adults instead of children — and because these things happen so often that it now takes some novel kind of mayhem to break through all the routine deadly chaos.
Do we need the sight of a body, damaged beyond recognition, to force us to focus and take action? Would that even do it? It’s not a certainty that we are salvageable.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) attended a prayer vigil in Uvalde and offered honey-toned condolences to the grieving families. But he stalked away from an interview with a reporter from Sky News when the subject turned to gun laws and the British reporter asked why the United States is uniquely afflicted with so many mass shootings. Cruz, an actual politician, seemed aggrieved that he’d been asked about the politics of gun regulation, leaving one to wonder whether he believes his job as a senator is to simply pray away the guns.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) spent the greater part of an hour-long news conference several days ago detailing the many ways in which the state’s social safety net is supporting those effected by the Uvalde shooting. Those who are grieving would be able to access counselors, mental health specialists and social workers who could guide them through the tangle of insurance benefits and worker compensation forms. There would be financial help flying in family members for memorial services and paying for burials and finding lodging. Indeed, Texas would be doing all of those supportive things that any victim of violence would find important and helpful but that they typically don’t receive with such full-throated urgency and with a gubernatorial promise to make accessing aid both convenient and straightforward.
After Abbott pointed to all the things he was doing to help the residents of Uvalde in their pain, he deflected questions about the legislation that he signed last year that relaxed gun regulations, noting that it had absolutely nothing to do with the shooting at Robb Elementary School because the shooter used an AR-15-style weapon and the legislation he signed was focused on handguns. But the reality is that all of it’s related — the rifles, the handguns, the semiautomatic weapons. Our laws perpetuate a culture in which guns outnumber people in this country and a gun-obsessed minority is willing to shrug off the deaths of other people’s loved ones. And Abbott’s answer seems to be that if enough bodies fall at once, he and other leaders in the state will make sure that the grieving survivors have a “one-stop shop” for all their post-mortem needs, as if this man-made disaster can be cleaned up and put to rest like it’s just a seasonal hurricane blowing through.
We are being set up to believe that Uvalde was overwhelmingly a failure of law enforcement rather than a massive cultural failing. For more than an hour, the police did not attempt to breach the classroom where the shooter was killing children and teachers. The first officers on the scene did not immediately go in after the gunman. They didn’t go in as children called 911 asking for help. There was no climax of cinematic heroism in which a lone cop kills the bad guy and saves the day. Law enforcement eventually shot 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, but only after he left a hellscape of death.
There are a multitude of unanswered questions. But we do know this: Ramos killed his victims with an AR-15-style rifle that he was able to legally buy just after his 18th birthday. And more than one expert has described the terrible damage this warrior’s weapon is capable of doing to the human body. A shot fired from a handgun might enter and exit the torso cleanly; it might miss vital organs. Bullets fired from an AR-15 are akin to an explosion within the body. They cause maximum damage. The family of those killed in Uvalde were asked to provide DNA samples to identify the victims. There was maximum damage.
The children who survived saw that damage. The first responders saw it. The shoppers in the grocery store in Buffalo saw the damage because the shooter used the same style of gun. So did the survivors of Parkland, Fla., Newtown, Conn., and Orlando.
They saw the bodies. And they are forever changed.
We remain unchanged.
Over the years, the public has seen the detritus of violence such as the blood stains and the police tape. We’ve seen the tears, the mounds of flowers, the stuffed animals left at gravesites. We saw President Barack Obama weep after the school shooting in Newtown. After Buffalo, we saw an angry and frustrated Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn) plead with his Republican colleagues for meaningful gun control legislation. In the last few weeks, we’ve seen the president and first lady lay flowers at the scenes of devastating crimes in both Buffalo and Uvalde. We’ve seen the video of desperate parents and the surviving children — their smiles gone.
And still nothing. So what is left? Perhaps if we are forced to see the dead, really see them, we will be moved to do all that we can for the living. Have we grown so uncaring that if forced to bear witness to the children who have been lost that we won’t respond? It’s too much to believe that we’d lay down all our weapons. But perhaps we’ll do more than shrug. | 2022-06-01T00:24:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Do we need to see what the guns do to children? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/05/31/do-we-need-see-what-guns-do-children/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/05/31/do-we-need-see-what-guns-do-children/ |
Judge in New York hands man longer sentence
Judge hands man longer sentence
A federal judge on Tuesday increased her sentence for a New York City man who planned to join the Islamic State and attacked an FBI agent to 25 years, after a federal appeals court called the original 17-year sentence “shockingly low.”
Fareed Mumuni, 27, pleaded guilty in 2017 to discussing plans to travel overseas to join the militant group and trying to stab an FBI agent after authorities arrived at his residence in the New York City borough of Staten Island in 2015 to execute a search warrant.
The United States brands the Islamic State a foreign terrorist organization.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn successfully appealed Mumuni’s 2018 sentence, with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit arguing that U.S. District Judge Margo Brodie had improperly second-guessed whether Mumuni truly planned to kill FBI Special Agent Kevin Coughlin, who survived the attack.
“I got lucky,” Coughlin said in the sentencing hearing Tuesday.
Mumuni told Coughlin he was sorry. “I can’t apologize enough for what I’ve done,” said Mumuni, the son of immigrants from Ghana who once interned as a paralegal at the Staten Island district attorney’s office and had been studying to be a social worker and working as a home health aide when he was recruited to ISIS.
Prosecutors on Tuesday asked Brodie to sentence Mumuni to the 85 years recommended by federal guidelines.
Anthony Ricco, a lawyer for Mumuni, urged Brodie to reduce the sentence, arguing that Mumuni had rehabilitated himself.
Election fraud case fails at appeals court
Friday’s opinion from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, first reported by Colorado Politics, found that eight plaintiffs from across the United States had no standing to assert that the outcome of the election “violated the constitutional rights of every registered voter in the United States.”
The lawsuit relied on baseless conspiracy theories spread by Trump and his supporters that the election was stolen in favor of Joe Biden. Among others, it named Facebook and Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems, whose election machines remain the focus of some of the most fevered unfounded speculation about voting fraud.
Shooting kills 1, hurts 2 after graduation
“Multiple subjects were detained at the scene for questioning. No arrests have been made as of this writing,” police said in a news release.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) noted that the shooting came two weeks after four people were wounded in a shooting outside another high school graduation at Southeastern Louisiana University. | 2022-06-01T00:24:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Judge in New York hands man longer sentence - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/judge-in-new-york-hands-man-longer-sentence/2022/05/31/96035d32-de2d-11ec-a744-f4da26d516e8_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/judge-in-new-york-hands-man-longer-sentence/2022/05/31/96035d32-de2d-11ec-a744-f4da26d516e8_story.html |
Mark Rypien and Danielle Wade attended an ESPY awards event in 2018. (John Sciulli/Getty Images)
Mark Rypien’s longtime domestic partner filed a lawsuit against the former NFL quarterback, accusing him of years of physical and mental abuse.
In the lawsuit, filed in mid-May at a state courthouse in Spokane, Wash., Rypien’s partner was identified as Danielle Wade. She has used his last name at times, and the 59-year-old Rypien has referred to her publicly as his wife, but they never married.
In 2019, after he was charged with domestic violence, the couple signed a joint letter as “Mark & Danielle Rypien” and declared “he did not commit any crime.” In the letter, they stated “Mark suffers from what we suspect is [chronic traumatic encephalopathy] and that does leave us with some challenging situations to navigate.” Rypien pleaded not guilty to the fourth-degree assault charge, in which he was accused of hitting Wade while he was driving a car they were in, and the case was dismissed.
Wade’s lawsuit revisited that episode as one instance on a list of alleged acts of abuse but also as an example of the “media power” wielded by the Super Bowl-winning quarterback, particularly in eastern Washington, where he was raised and starred in college. That local celebrity status also factored into Wade’s inability to sever their relationship, per the court filing, which claimed she was effectively bound to him by “fear, by public marital duty, loyalty and by the caregiver role she was assigned, even while being traumatized herself.”
The 2019 letter was referred to in the lawsuit with quotation marks as a “joint” statement crafted by Rypien’s defense attorney, suggesting that Wade was not an active participant. Rypien was accused of violence against her in 2020 and of resisting Wade’s efforts to “bring the public ‘husband and wife’ relationship to a conclusion” between February 2021 and February 2022.
According to the court filing, the two met in 2002 and were living together by the following year. After Wade came to understand that Rypien had been diagnosed with brain injuries and was “likely” suffering from CTE, per the lawsuit, he “began to tell [Wade] about his desire to hurt others, which [she] perceived as warnings to her.”
‘That’s when I got really scared’: Deshaun Watson accusers speak to HBO
2008 marked the “first time [Wade] felt significant pain and fear for her life” because of an alleged act of abuse by Rypien, according to the lawsuit, which then detailed other violent episodes as part of “a pattern of physical abuse [that] developed alongside emotional abuse.”
“Danielle Wade was with Mark Rypien for over 18 years. She continues to have empathy for him,” an attorney for Wade, Mary Schultz, said in a statement Tuesday. “But his past trauma does not give him license to inflict trauma on her. Injuries resulted, and those injuries have to be addressed. … The NFL and the media focus on a player’s trauma, but behind that player is a well-known wake of traumatized companions and family members who do not and cannot speak out, but who suffer very real injuries from the players’ conditions.”
An attorney for Rypien said in a statement (via the Associated Press) that the former quarterback “categorically and unequivocally condemns domestic violence.”
“He had a relationship with Danielle Wade that ended recently,” the statement read. “During this relationship, Mr. Rypien acknowledged and apologized for actions that were harmful to Ms. Wade for which he is truly sorry. He has full faith in the judicial system and hopes the parties can reach a just resolution so that they can move forward living their separate lives.”
Wade was described in the lawsuit as remaining “fearful of threats from [Rypien], as well as from fans and supporters seeking favor with [him].”
Her legal team stated in the filing that Wade needed to bring her lawsuit for damages because Washington’s “committed intimate relationship dissolution remedies are not tailored for damage relief in this kind of partnership.” The suit wants Rypien’s alleged years of abuse to be treated as a “single unitary continuing tort of domestic violence against [Wade],” as opposed to separate acts for which, in many cases, the state’s statute of limitations has expired.
A sixth-round pick by Washington in the 1986 draft, Rypien became the team’s full-time starter in 1989 and led it to the NFL championship after the 1991 season. A two-time Pro Bowl selection with Washington, Rypien was waived in 1994 after refusing to accept a pay cut. He latched on with Cleveland and played for three other teams before his career ended in 2002.
In 2018, Rypien went public with his mental health struggles, which included at least one attempt to take his own life. He credited Wade with saving him in that episode by forcing him to vomit out more than 100 sleeping pills he had swallowed and chased with a bottle of wine.
At the time, Rypien also acknowledged a 2017 incident that led to police filing a domestic violence report.
“Part of this thing is getting the right medications. When you use something that doesn’t address that? That impulse control? You go from zero to 60 very quickly,” Rypien said then of that incident, for which charges were eventually dropped. “I don’t remember that night. I remember losing control.” | 2022-06-01T00:50:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Mark Rypien faces abuse accusations in longtime partner’s lawsuit - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/05/31/mark-rypien-partner-lawsuit/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/05/31/mark-rypien-partner-lawsuit/ |
What’s Behind Vietnam’s Latest Anti-Corruption Fight
Analysis by Philip J. Heijmans | Bloomberg
Vietnam’s Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong has likened his anti-graft campaign to a “blazing furnace,” one that’s caught hundreds of senior officials, business executives and others in its blast over the years. While the country’s position has improved by more than 30 spots over the past decade on a global corruption perception index, it was still at 87th place last year out of 180 ranked. Now as Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing economy seeks to bolster its appeal as a destination for foreign investment in the midst of mounting trade tensions between the US and China, the fight seems to be flaring again.
1. What is Vietnam targeting?
Trong, who won a rare third term last year, said in a televised speech last year that “each party cadre and member needs to shoulder the responsibility of being a role model. The higher the position and rank, the more responsibility one must take.” Eight inspection teams have been set up to deal with corruption cases, including at party committees and agencies, according to the Central Steering Committee on Anti-Corruption. More than 1,200 cases have been investigated this year, with more than 730 involving more than 1,500 defendants brought to court. Police have detained a number of executives as part of investigations into alleged stock price manipulation.
2. Who’s in the cross hairs?
In April police detained deputy Foreign Affairs Minister To Anh Dung over alleged bribery while he organized repatriation flights for Vietnamese abroad during the pandemic. The following month a former deputy health minister was sentenced to four years in prison for his role in a trading ring for counterfeit medicine. The Finance Ministry fired State Securities Commission Chairman Tran Van Dung for alleged “serious wrongdoings,” amid an ongoing investigation into stock trading. Soon after the head of the Vietnam Stock Exchange was fired for what the Ho Chi Minh City bourse called “very serious” shortcomings at work. Among the executives who have been detained are the former chairman of Bamboo Airways and its parent FLC Group JSC, Trinh Van Quyet; Tri Viet Securities former chief executive officer Do Duc Nam and Louis Holdings former chairman Do Thanh Nhan. Authorities have said they are also investigating cases involving a military medical university, former high-ranking coast guard officials and property fraud.
3. What’s at stake?
Vietnam has warned that corruption could put the party’s legitimacy and hold on power at risk as the public grows more intolerant of graft -- echoing President Xi Jinping in neighboring, communist China. Aside from that, Vietnam, a country of roughly 100 million people, has much to gain economically if it can bolster its image as place to do business. Global manufacturers have been exploring ways to diversify their supply chains away from China, which has been caught up in pandemic lockdowns and a trade war with the US, and Vietnam has benefited. Its exports are equivalent to more than 100% of GDP, according to World Bank data, making it one of the most trade dependent countries in the world. Vietnam has also been seeking to have its stock market classified as emerging market -- up from the current frontier status, which is the lowest and riskiest rung -- and this could bring greater foreign investment. As a participant in the US’s new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, Vietnam also has an opportunity to increase its links to its former wartime foe -- its largest export market.
4. How serious is the crackdown?
People are sitting in jail, and some have been sentenced to death. But in Vietnam’s closely controlled, one-party state, it’s difficult to say if there’s any other motivation beyond building legitimacy. Freedom House, a US-based advocacy group, ranks Vietnam as “not free,” with a score last year of only 19 points out of 100. Human rights groups repeatedly accuse the government of tamping down on dissent. Transparency International, a Berlin-based anti-corruption group, gave it a score of 39 out of 100 last year, from 31 in 2012 -- the year then-Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s government was tainted by a series of scandals. Arrests picked up again after a new administration took power in 2016:
• Nguyen Xuan Anh, party chief in the central city of Danang, was removed from his post.
• Nguyen Xuan Son, former chairman of state-owned PetroVietnam and the ex-chief executive of Ocean Commercial Joint Stock Bank, was sentenced to death after being convicted for embezzlement.
• Ha Van Tham, the bank’s former chairman, was given a life sentence after being found guilty of the same charges.
• Former politburo member Dinh La Thang, another former PetroVietnam chairman, was sentenced in 2018 to 18 years for violating state regulations.
In 2021 the anti-corruption committee disciplined 618 party members for “corruption or intentional wrongdoings.” It also reported prosecuting 390 graft cases and recovering at least $400 million in assets.
5. Will there be more?
The campaign is showing no signs of slowing. The Communist Party Central Committee on May 10 announced it was forming anti-corruption steering committees in every province. In his speech last year, Trong referenced “morality” some 40 times and said that he’d ordered more “aggressive, drastic and prompt” action in the fight against graft. Tran Khanh Hien, head of research at VnDirect Securities Corp., said the government’s moves this year have boosted confidence among foreign investors. But she added they would also want to see “how persistent and serious the authorities are.” | 2022-06-01T03:53:06Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What’s Behind Vietnam’s Latest Anti-Corruption Fight - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/whatsbehind-vietnams-latest-anti-corruption-fight/2022/05/31/08bd6f78-e150-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/whatsbehind-vietnams-latest-anti-corruption-fight/2022/05/31/08bd6f78-e150-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html |
CHICAGO — Courtney Vandersloot scored 18 points, Candace Parker grabbed 11 rebounds and the Chicago Sky beat the short-handed Mercury in a WNBA Finals rematch.
INDIANAPOLIS — Ariel Atkins scored a season-high 28 points, Elena Delle Donne scored 13 of her 19 points in the first half and the Mystics beat the Fever. | 2022-06-01T03:53:50Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Aces beat Sun in matchup of top teams in each conference - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/wnba/aces-beat-sun-in-matchup-of-top-teams-in-each-conference/2022/05/31/209b4486-e159-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/wnba/aces-beat-sun-in-matchup-of-top-teams-in-each-conference/2022/05/31/209b4486-e159-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html |
Ask Amy: My spouse tested positive for coronavirus on a trip so I left
Dear Amy: My spouse and I recently went to Egypt and Greece. Three days before we were to return home, we conducted coronavirus self-tests, because he had some sniffles.
He tested positive. I did not. We were faced with a choice: Either I rebook quickly and return home the next day (in case I should also become positive in the following day or so), or I stay and risk getting infected.
We also have a dog who had already been boarded for 15 days and if we both had to stay in Greece it would have probably added five to 10 days to him being stuck in a kennel.
We decided that I should return home, which I did. He only stayed a few more days, and returned home as soon as he tested negative.
Accused: This question brings up an important topic that all traveling families should discuss and consider before they leave home: “What should we do if covid hits one or more of us while we’re away?”
[Find the latest coronavirus guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]
She says he's a great man, but she doesn't approve of our relationship. She always had a certain idea of what kind of man I'd end up with, and he doesn't fit her mold. I know there's no changing her mind.
She and I recently had a heart-to-heart talk and she asked if I was still planning on going through with marrying him. I asked her if she'd be at the wedding. She said that if I'm marrying him, she's not sure.
Amy, I want my mom to be there more than anything. She’s the only one who raised me, and I love her. Thankfully, her answer isn’t a direct no, but I’m so worried.
Dejected: Now that you and your mother have discussed this, and she has made her views clear, you should not bring it up again.
“He doesn't fit my mold” is not a legitimate reason to oppose a marriage.
Concerned: Yes, it is possible that this young adult is depressed. In my response, I wrote: “Does she need counseling? Help her to find it.” | 2022-06-01T04:19:13Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ask Amy: I left a trip without my husband after he tested positive - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/06/01/ask-amy-desertion-husband-vacation/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/06/01/ask-amy-desertion-husband-vacation/ |
Live updates:Russia-Ukraine war live updates: U.S. will send advanced rocket systems to ...
Live updates:Russia takes territory in eastern Ukraine; U.S. to send long-range rocket s...
Severodonetsk in eastern Ukraine, seen during heavy fighting on May 30. (Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images)
Russian forces have gained control of most of Severodonetsk, an eastern Ukrainian city that is key to Moscow’s strategy in the region, a local leader said Tuesday evening.
Severodonetsk, in the Luhansk region, is one of the area’s last large cities still under partial Ukrainian control. Russian troops have been making quick progress toward the city center after days of shelling and ground assaults.
Earlier Tuesday, Luhansk’s regional governor, Serhiy Haidai, said Russia controlled about half of the city. Hours later, he said “most of Severodonetsk” — perhaps as much as 70 percent — was under Russian rule.
“Almost 100 percent of the city’s critical infrastructure has been destroyed, 90 percent of the housing stock has been damaged, 60% of which critically, i.e. it cannot be restored,” Haidai wrote in a post on Telegram.
U.S. military officials have assessed that the coming weeks could bring a decisive phase in the war. Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said “the next several weeks will be very, very critical … for the outcome of this battle that’s shaping up.”
Looming ground battle is crucial phase in Ukraine, U.S. officials say
President Biden on Tuesday confirmed that the United States is sending medium-range advanced rocket systems to Ukraine after officials there requested such weapons, saying they were necessary to fight back against Russia in the country’s east.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday that Severodonetsk is “at the epicenter of the confrontation.”
“The situation in the Donbas direction is very difficult,” he said in his nightly address.
Some military analysts have argued that Russia’s focus on Severodonetsk is a tactical error. The Institute for the Study of War, a D.C. think tank, said withdrawing from Severodonetsk and focusing finite military resources on more strategically important areas in the Kharkiv region would be “strategically sound, however painful.”
Zina Pozen contributed to this report. | 2022-06-01T04:23:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Russia controls most of Ukraine’s Severodonetsk, Luhansk governor says - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/31/severodonetsk-luhansk-donbas-ukraine-russia-war/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/31/severodonetsk-luhansk-donbas-ukraine-russia-war/ |
The West’s fixation on the war in Ukraine stands in contrast with its tacit disregard for the situation in Afghanistan. The world watched with horror as the Taliban swept to power in Kabul at the end of last summer, marking a brutal coda to two decades and trillions of dollars worth of American-led state-building and counterinsurgency. In Washington and various European capitals, there was fury at the Biden administration for its chaotic withdrawal and lamentations for the plight of Afghan women and girls, once more in the draconian grip of a fundamentalist militia bent on curtailing their freedoms.
But that was about it, and in recent months, the wealthy nations of North America and Europe have instead focused their energies and a considerable amount of financial muscle on reinforcing the government in Kyiv. All the while, though, conditions in Afghanistan have gone from bad to worse over the past eight months.
The Taliban takeover came with a shuddering collapse of the Afghan economy. The international funding that had long propped up the country’s frail government was cut off, while the United States and its allies froze Afghanistan’s more than $7 billion of foreign reserves. Millions of Afghans are now unemployed, including a vast swath of public sector workers. The banking system is no longer functional and cash is in short supply.
A United Nations report last month calculated that nearly half the country’s population is facing acute hunger, a problem exacerbated by an ongoing drought and the supply disruptions linked to the war in Ukraine. The U.N.'s World Food Program now estimates that some 18 million people will be in need of urgent food assistance in June. That number likely includes almost 10 million Afghan children, according to a report last month from Save the Children. Mounting hunger and spiraling poverty have forced desperate families into unthinkable scenarios, including forcing families to put their young children to work and to seek dowries for girls as child brides. According to one estimate by several aid agencies, more than 120,000 children have been bartered for some sort of financial incentive in the eight months since the Taliban captured Kabul.
#Afghanistan: 18 million people urgently need food in June. But we only have $$ for 10 million people. Fuel, food & shipping prices are skyrocketing. We're already taking food from the hungry to feed the starving. @WFP needs $1.2 billion to save lives ASAP. pic.twitter.com/wz0l9iWX6s
— David Beasley (@WFPChief) May 31, 2022
Aid agencies are clamoring for more funding to boost their faltering efforts in Afghanistan. But there are limitations to what they can do in a country whose de facto government is both unrecognized by the international community and seemingly intent on furthering its extremist agenda. The Taliban reimposed strict rules on women, include mandating garb from head to toe, while preventing girls from attending school after the sixth grade.
“We are essentially engaged in a form of cooperation without recognition and trying to make the best possible for an increasingly desperate Afghan population,” Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Development Program (UNDP) told me at a panel on the situation in Afghanistan that I moderated at the World Economic Forum last week.
Steiner said the United Nations is “unequivocal about the fundamental human rights that we expect a country like Afghanistan to uphold,” including the rights of girls to attend educational institutions. But, at the same time, international organizations are trying to help ordinary Afghans navigate “a highly informal survival economy” that has plunged the bulk of the country into destitution.
“We cannot abandon 40 million Afghans simply on the principle of moral outrage,” he said. “We are there because we see the desperation of the Afghan people. And while the international community finds a way with the Taliban to conclude a process of political rapprochement, we are trying to essentially intervene in an economy that has to keep people alive.”
Yet for many Western governments, pouring further funding into Afghanistan is a non-starter. “Some Taliban officials have called for international investment to ease unemployment and inflation,” reported my colleague Susannah George. “But for most companies and banks, economic sanctions on Taliban leaders are the most significant barrier to investment.”
In February, President Biden signed an executive order formally setting aside some $3.5 billion of Afghan foreign reserves frozen by the U.S. Treasury to help “the welfare of the people of Afghanistan,” while leaving the rest available to the families of 9/11 victims. But it is unclear exactly how that funding will be transferred to Afghanistan, with the Biden administration keen on it not reaching the Taliban. Afghans have expressed outrage at the administration for exploiting Afghan reserves for its domestic political purposes.
We are outraged.
President Biden's decision to set aside half of Afghanistan's frozen reserves to 9/11 families is short-sighted, cruel, and will worsen a catastrophe in progress, affecting millions of Afghans, many of whom are on the verge of starvation.
Our statement: pic.twitter.com/0PAyWNOZmY
— Afghans For A Better Tomorrow (@AfghansTomorrow) February 11, 2022
Steiner believes that sort of cash injection into the Afghan banking system would “without doubt … have a major impact” on the Afghan economy and go toward stabilizing a perilous situation. That view was echoed by Hina Rabbani Khar, minister of state for foreign affairs in Pakistan’s new government. “You want to ensure that the implosion doesn’t happen in a way that makes things worse,” she said during the same panel, criticizing the Biden administration’s move. “Spending $1 trillion on a 20-year adventure and then freezing [$7 billion] in reserves doesn’t sound very smart to me.”
In a separate interview with the Financial Times, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani bemoaned the West’s “boycotting” of Afghanistan and suggested that early dialogue with the Taliban government may have dissuaded its leaders from pursuing their current approach, including the restrictions on women’s rights. “We believe if we had engaged earlier, we wouldn’t have allowed such things to happen,” Mohammed said. “Right now it’s very important not to let the situation get worse and maybe we end up with a very chaotic situation in Afghanistan.”
Absent a change in the wider world’s engagement with the Taliban, he warned, things will get far worse. “We will see maybe a rise of extremism. We will start to see an economic crisis, which has already started, and this will just drive the people to more radicalization and conflict,” Mohammed said. “This is what we are trying to avoid.”
Khar brushed off criticism of Pakistan’s historic role in giving sanctuary to the Afghan Taliban and insisted that her country cannot escape “its geography.” She said the prevailing situation could be another redux of Afghanistan’s earlier traumas, as it endured decades of conflict and humanitarian disasters. “We have all shown that none of us have been able to learn any lessons from history,” Khar told me. | 2022-06-01T04:23:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The West has a hand in Afghanistan’s bleak state - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/01/west-has-hand-afghanistans-bleak-state/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/01/west-has-hand-afghanistans-bleak-state/ |
Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine showed the world that a resurgent Russia means, of necessity, an imperialist Russia. And it revived discussions about whether Russia needs to be “decolonized,” or perhaps “defederalized,” to bury its imperialist ambitions and subdue its military threat. A breakup of today’s Russia, similar to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, is seen as a possible, for some even the most desirable, outcome of a failed Ukraine invasion. Regrets are voiced that the US didn’t make it a goal in the 1990s, when post-Soviet Russia lay in ruins and struggled to hold onto one, tiny secessionist region: Chechnya.
These discussions bring on a sense of literary deja-vu — a Russia turned into a quilt of statelets has been almost too easy to imagine since the Soviet Union came apart with such seeming ease. In the 2013 novel “Telluria,” Vladimir Sorokin, one of the most uncannily precise prophets of Russia’s turn to fascism, had one of the characters write of the Russian empire:
If she, this splendidly ruthless giantess in her diamond diadem and her snow mantle, collapsed conveniently in February, 1917, and disintegrated into several states of manageable size, everything would have turned out in the spirit of modern history, and the peoples held down by czarist power finally would have come into possession of their post-imperial identities and lived in freedom. But that’s not how it went.
In “Telluria,” Russia is finally split into mostly autocratic principalities of “manageable size” after a series of domestic shake-ups. Not even Sorokin saw a lost war of invasion as a trigger for a breakup of Russia. And yet a defeat in Ukraine, accompanied by Western economic pressure, could realistically lead to an economic disaster like the one that set off the Soviet Union’s collapse, and could thus strengthen the centrifugal tendencies that Putin is so proud of having stifled by establishing his “vertical of power.”
There are good reasons why it might make sense even for the Russian people — especially those who do not live in Central Russia.
In a way, Putin hasn’t just unleashed the breakup discussion by his irrational attack. He has also enabled it intellectually by talking of “historical Russia,” which in his view includes much of modern Ukraine. If it’s possible to discuss a core Russian state, rather than the country in its current borders, then it can be argued that this core is in fact much smaller than today’s Russia — if one peels off all the country’s imperial conquests, some of which, including the takeover of much of Siberia, predate 1721, when Russia officially became an empire.
In a way, the inclusion of some territories in the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic — the entity that became the Russian Federation when the Soviet Union gave up the ghost — is as much a Soviet-era accident as the higher-grade statehood of ex-Soviet republics such as Ukraine, Uzbekistan or Moldova.
Tatarstan, the populous Russian region on the Volga, is a case in point. Last year, 55% of schoolchildren in its capital, Kazan, chose Tatar as their native language. Is this place, conquered by Ivan the Terrible in 1552, really part of core Russia in any more meaningful way than, say, Kazakhstan was? Many locals would argue otherwise.
Is Tuva, which joined the Soviet Union only in 1944 and lived through separatist riots in the early 1990s, part of Russia’s historical core? Is Dagestan, conquered in the early 19th century, where fewer than 4% of schoolchildren take Russian as native language classes? Wouldn’t all of these places have been independent states today had the Communist founders of the Soviet Union constituted them as “union republics” rather than “autonomous republics” within Russia?
All these questions are fodder for the policy makers of Russia’s geopolitical rival nations. Fomenting nationalist (or anti-colonial, as it can be framed) sentiment in a Russia weakened by a less-than-successful war would make sense on several levels — more sense than in the 1990s. An aggressive, irrational leader finding his way to the top in Moscow is no longer a theoretical danger; it’s easy to see how it can happen again. The best way to guard against that possibility is to defeat Putin both militarily and ideologically. By using the same kind of historical talking points that Putin uses to justify Russia’s imperial ambitions, it would be possible to turn his main ideological weapon against him. At the same time, the Ukraine campaign so far shows that the Russian military struggles to supply its troops and fight effectively across Ukraine’s vast expanse. What would Putin do with multiple secessionist rebellions in a country as enormous as Russia?
It could be argued that splintering Russia would not really remove its revanchist ability to pick itself up after bad defeats and major territorial losses — and become a threat to its rivals again. It did so after the Bolshevik Revolution and the punishing Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the Central Powers, and it did so again after the Soviet project wound down. A Russia dismembered will not necessarily stay that way; extreme nationalist and populist forces may even be empowered by such a humiliation, and they will inherit Russia’s nuclear arsenal, which won’t simply disappear even if Russia disintegrates. But those who entertain the “decolonization” of Russia aren’t necessarily thinking centuries ahead. A couple of decades might be enough to integrate Russia’s neighbors into the Western world and build stronger defenses against further imperialist resurgence.
As a Russian, I get an uneasy feeling from all this talk of my country’s dismemberment, as if Russia were a cancer patient lying semiconscious on an operating table with only multiple amputations able to stop the tumor from metastasizing further. I hate the idea that the only way to stop our being a threat to neighboring countries is to break us up — and I hope it’s not the imperialist in me that rebels at the thought. Russia’s vastness and diversity are foundational to our nationhood as it exists today. “Manageable size” is not us.
And yet, on an intellectual level, I understand that many Russian people might actually be well served by the Russian Federation’s dissolution. As Putin strengthened his “vertical” after his predecessor Boris Yeltsin’s offer to Russia’s regions of “as much sovereignty as you can swallow,” the recentralization bled Russia’s periphery. Only 23 of Russia’s 85 regions aren’t funded by federal subsidies this year, most of them with a predominantly ethnic Russian population (Tatarstan is the exception). This creates the impression that a majority of the provinces, and in particular those with distinct national identities, would be helpless if separated from the center. But that’s just how the Putin system operates, sucking money out of the periphery and then “generously” redistributing some of it back.
Viktor Suslov, a top economist at the Russian Academy of Sciences, has built up a body of work showing how this happens. In a 2018 paper, he and his collaborators argued that Russia’s Central Federal Region, which includes Moscow, acts like a black hole that absorbs about 35% more resources from other regions than it gives back. Siberia, the Ural region, the Far East and the Northwest (which includes St. Petersburg) each contribute 10% to 13% more than they receive. Unsurprisingly, Suslov is based in Novosibirsk, the center of one of the regions whose lifeblood is drained by the great Moscow pump.
It’s not clear whether a fairer redistribution of resources — and an end to the mass migration of people following the money to Moscow — can be achieved without a radical decentralization, perhaps even a full breakup. Some of Russia’s constituent parts may even end up with more reasonable political systems than the quasi-monarchy to which Moscow keeps reverting — although many won’t, as was demonstrated in the 1990s when regional kingpins became far more authoritarian than the erratic man in the Kremlin. In the Urals, Siberia and the Far East, the unruly spirit of pioneers and ex-convicts is still alive. Omsk artist Damir Muratov’s “United States of Siberia” flag — white snowflakes on a field of blue, green and white stripes — is more than a Jasper Johns send-up: One can actually imagine the country that would fly it.
I still hope against hope that democracy, an end to aggressive imperialism, a commitment to the equal development of territories and a true equality of all ethnic groups are possible within Russia’s current borders. This hope, however, may well be no more than an atavism. Russia doesn’t carry its size well. Perhaps it will never learn. | 2022-06-01T06:55:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Is Breaking Up Russia the Only Way to End Its Imperialism? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/is-breaking-up-russia-the-only-way-to-end-its-imperialism/2022/06/01/e1962c3e-e170-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/is-breaking-up-russia-the-only-way-to-end-its-imperialism/2022/06/01/e1962c3e-e170-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html |
By Isabel Debre and Jon Gambrell | AP
RAS AL-KHAIMAH, United Arab Emirates — In the dusty, northern-most sheikhdom of the United Arab Emirates, where laborers cycle by rustic tea shops, one of the world’s largest yachts sits in a quiet port — so far avoiding the fate of other luxury vessels linked to sanctioned Russian oligarchs.
The display of lavish wealth is startling in one of the UAE’s poorest emirates, a 90-minute drive from the illuminated high-rises of Dubai. But the 118-meter (387-foot) Motor Yacht A’s presence in a Ras al-Khaimah creek also shows the UAE's neutrality during Russia's war on Ukraine as the Gulf country remains a magnet for Russian money and its oil-rich capital sees Moscow as a crucial OPEC partner. | 2022-06-01T06:56:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Sanctioned Russian oligarch's megayacht hides in a UAE creek - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/sanctioned-russian-oligarchs-megayacht-hides-in-a-uae-creek/2022/06/01/80ed5ac8-e171-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/sanctioned-russian-oligarchs-megayacht-hides-in-a-uae-creek/2022/06/01/80ed5ac8-e171-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html |
In this photo provided by the information office of Myanmar’s military, four injured people can be seen lying on the pavement after an explosion at a bus stop in downtown Yangon on May 31, 2022. One person was killed and nine wounded when what authorities described as a handmade bomb exploded. The military and its foes blamed each other for the blast. (Myanmar Military True News Information Team via AP) (Uncredited/Myanmar Military True News Information Team) | 2022-06-01T06:56:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Yangon bombing spurs accusations from Myanmar govt, foes - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/yangon-bombing-spurs-accusations-from-myanmar-govt-foes/2022/06/01/c6a634f4-e171-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/yangon-bombing-spurs-accusations-from-myanmar-govt-foes/2022/06/01/c6a634f4-e171-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html |
RALEIGH, N.C. — Three months after declaring he was “fully committed” to the PGA Tour, Dustin Johnson is among 42 players in the field for next week’s LIV Golf Invitational, which offers a $25 million in prize money that’s backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte fired coach Miguel Angel Ramírez on Tuesday just 14 league games into the season.
NEWARK, N.J. — The New Jersey Devils have hired Dr. Angus Mugford as their senior vice president of player development and performance and promoted former Olympian Meghan Duggan to director of player development. | 2022-06-01T06:56:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Tuesday Sports in Brief - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/tuesday-sports-in-brief/2022/06/01/f6e08672-e173-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/tuesday-sports-in-brief/2022/06/01/f6e08672-e173-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html |
A flag flies outside a pub in Windsor, England, ahead of Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee celebrations this week. (Tom Nicholson/Reuters)
LONDON — She might not use this exact term, but Queen Elizabeth II is about to get a ginormous victory lap — a huzzah of applause, featuring a miles-long horse parade, 3,200 bonfires and a serenade at Buckingham Palace by Sir Rod Stewart.
Thousands and thousands of street parties, garden lunches and park picnics are planned for Sunday. The amount of jubilee pudding and coronation chicken, fizzy Prosecco and stout ale to be consumed? Almost incalculable.
Britain is most decidedly in the mood for a bash, not only to honor the queen’s record-breaking reign, but as a release after two grim pandemic winters, three full national lockdowns and about covid 180,000 deaths, many of them lonely.
Of course, not everyone in Britain likes the idea of the monarchy. Republicans with a small “r” abound. But they really do like their queen here.
Also in the ratings dumpster: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, fresh off a police investigation that determined that he and 82 others in his Downing Street orbit violated pandemic lockdown rules, with gatherings that in an official report involved vomiting, fisticuffs and lots of booze.
As images of queen are projected onto the plinths at Stonehenge and Marble Arch, her “pageant masters” are getting ready to light beacons across Britain.
Bleachers have been erected around Buckingham Palace and Prince William has been practicing his horseback riding in preparation for the Trooping of the Colour, the Thursday morning military parade on the Mall that will include 1,400 officers and soldiers, 200 horses and 400 musicians.
Royal biographer Robert Hardman, the author of a new book, “Queen of Our Times,” told The Washington Post that Elizabeth has a quality of being “ever-present,” an almost “subliminal” background, for many Brits.
“The fact that she’s just there on the coins and stamps, the bank notes pictures, government buildings, even the national anthem at sporting events, it’s about her. …. Whenever there’s any sort of national coming together for a happy or sad reason, she’s usually at the heart of it,” he said.
Among the two dozen or so royal families left in the world, none are as well known as the stars of “The Crown,” the enduring, dysfunctional House of Windsor.
For her part, Elizabeth has signaled she has no plans to retire — her Uncle Edward made “abdication” a dirty word.
The queen’s own health scares in recent months set the country on edge. After a brief hospitalization, a sprained back, a bout of covid and what palace spokespeople referred to as “episodic mobility problems,” many people feared she might not make it to her jubilee.
On Queen Elizabeth II’s 96th birthday, a look at her life and legacy
“I think there’s a realization that this is the last major event and it’s a way to say thank you,” said Ian Middleton, 58, an airline pilot whose jubilee festivities included a visit with his dog to a pop-up “corgi cafe” in London.
The four days of the official jubilee celebrations will be rooted in tradition.
On Thursday, the main event kicks off with the Trooping the Colour parade that has marked the official birthday of Britain’s monarch for over 260 years. This is British pomp at its best, concluding with a Royal Air Force flyover watched by the royal family from the balcony of Buckingham Palace.
Much has been made about who will and won’t be on the balcony this year. The palace said only “working royals” will be allowed — so no Prince Andrew or Prince Harry or his wife, Meghan.
In the evening, more than 3,200 beacons will be lit across the kingdom, including one called “The Tree of Trees,” a six-story-high display of 350 saplings, which will be lit in a special ceremony at Buckingham Palace (and later planted around the British Isles).
On Friday, the royals will attend a church service at St. Paul’s Cathedral, home to the country’s largest church bell, which will ring out across the land.
On Saturday, the royals will attend the Epsom Derby, a prestigious horse race, where some of the queen’s own horses may compete. It would take a lot to peel the queen away from her beloved horses, but, if reports in the Sun tabloid are true, she may give the event a miss to celebrate the first birthday of her great-granddaughter Lilibet, Prince Harry and Meghan’s daughter.
Later that evening, thousands will gather in front of Buckingham Palace for a live concert with acts including Duran Duran, Rod Stewart and Queen, whose guitarist Brian May famously played “God Save the Queen” from the roof of the palace during the queen’s Golden Jubilee.
On Sunday, a pageant procession will weave through central London, featuring acts including Ed Sheeran, who will play his ballad “Perfect” as a tribute to Prince Philip and the queen. More than 85,000 people have registered to host “Big Jubilee Lunches” the same day, though far more will be held. The royal family will show up at some.
What all these events have in common is that most Brits will be raising a toast to the only monarch they have ever known. | 2022-06-01T07:48:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Platinum Jubilee: A last bash for Queen Elizabeth II and the party Brits need - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/01/queen-elizabeth-platinum-jubilee-schedule/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/01/queen-elizabeth-platinum-jubilee-schedule/ |
With World Cup berth in sight, Ukraine returns for postponed playoff
Ukrainian players celebrate after taking the lead during a benefit match against German club Borussia Mönchengladbach. (Sascha Steinbach/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
Six months after its most recent competitive match, the Ukraine men’s soccer team returns to action Wednesday as its circuitous World Cup qualification path winds through Scotland.
Ukraine and Scotland will meet in Glasgow after their initial contest was postponed by FIFA in March because Ukraine could not field a team after Russia invaded weeks before. The winner of Wednesday’s match will face Wales on Sunday for a place in this year’s World Cup in Qatar, where that team will join England, the United States and Iran in Group B.
“Ukraine is still alive,” defender Oleksandr Zinchenko told BBC’s “World Football” podcast. “… I can promise all the Ukrainian people that every one of us is going to give everything to win the game and to make them proud of us, and just maybe for a few seconds we would like to give them this smile.”
Several Ukrainian players reportedly considered joining the country’s army following Russia’s invasion. Oleksandr Petrakov, the team’s 64-year-old coach, was turned away when he tried to enlist. Instead, the team was granted permission to travel beyond Ukrainian borders to prepare for Wednesday’s game and try to secure the country’s first World Cup berth since 2006.
The invasion triggered the postponement of the Scotland match in March and officially shuttered the Ukrainian Premier League in April.
National team players from UPL powers Shakhtar Donetsk and Dynamo Kyiv continued to compete through a government-backed tour meant to raise money for Ukraine’s military and help refugees displaced by the war. Those players later convened with the rest of the national team for a month-long training camp in Slovenia. Last month, Ukraine played exhibitions against clubs in Germany, Italy and Croatia for its first games since beating Bosnia and Herzegovina on Nov. 16. During a road win against German club Borussia Mönchengladbach, Gladbach fans erupted in cheers, chanted Ukrainian songs, painted yellow-and-blue flags on their cheeks and sported Ukrainian scarves.
“It distracts the [Ukrainian] people from the war, and it distracts the players from the war,” Petrakov told The Washington Post after the match.
In a first, women are in line to referee at the men’s World Cup
Ukraine’s highest-profile players — including Zinchenko, a Manchester City left back, and West Ham United forward Andriy Yarmolenko — joined the team for its final qualification push.
Immediately in its way is a Scottish team whose football association has voiced support for Ukraine and said it will not play a scheduled UEFA Regions’ Cup game against Russia under “current circumstances.” Scotland and Ukraine also are scheduled to meet in a Women’s World Cup qualifier, rescheduled from April 8 to June 23.
When their men’s teams meet, two wins from a place in the World Cup, the stakes will be clear. But players on the Ukrainian sideline won’t be the only ones thinking about their country.
“Before the game, there will be a lot of emotion around Ukraine, and I’m sure the Tartan Army will applaud their national anthem and then sing their hearts out and get behind the team — and it’s really important for us that they do that,” Scotland Coach Steve Clarke told reporters Tuesday.
“But I’m desperate to go to Qatar with Scotland and my staff are desperate to go and most importantly our players are desperate to go to the World Cup finals, and that’s what we focus on.” | 2022-06-01T08:09:50Z | www.washingtonpost.com | With World Cup berth in sight, Ukraine returns for postponed playoff - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/01/ukraine-scotland-world-cup/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/01/ukraine-scotland-world-cup/ |
The bunting’s out, and the Victoria sponge is on the Union Jack platter. But don’t count on the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee lifting consumers as much as past Royal celebrations have.
Although Brits are set to mark the occasion — commemorating 70 years of Queen Elizabeth’s reign — with a four-day weekend, the UK’s gloomy economic backdrop means any feel-good factor may be short lived.
After two years of Covid restrictions, the bank holiday will be a time for large gatherings with friends and family. That means greater demand for attire — one needs the right dress or suit for those garden and street parties. When Prince William married Kate Middleton in April 2011, the flurry of events sparked a rush for new outfits, according to British retailer Next Plc.
It helps that fashion is having a moment, as women are ditching their pandemic sweatsuits and spending on trendy going-out wear. The current crop of floaty dress styles works well with sneakers — handy for outside events — but those seeking more formal footwear could give sales a boost too. High heels might be returning with a vengeance.
All those parties also mean more demand for food and drink. The Diamond Jubilee in 2012 generated a 10% increase in supermarket sales in the week leading up to the festivities, according to data provider Kantar. This time around, Brits are expected to stock up on barbecue foods — which also tend to be higher margin — as well as on alcohol and soft drinks. At the 2012 Jubilee, sparkling wine sales more than doubled from the year earlier, according to Kantar, and the tipple is even more popular today than it was 10 years ago.
Consumers will also be reaching for indulgent desserts and cakes, either baking them from scratch and raising demand for supplies, or buying them from a shop. Wm Morrison Supermarkets Ltd. has seen decorations, its Clarence the Corgi cake and its Victoria Sponge — renamed the Elizabeth sponge — all sell well. Tesco Plc said it expected Brits to spend on Scotch eggs, scones, gin and party hats.
Meanwhile, pubs have been granted an extension to remain open until 1 a.m. from Thursday through Saturday. With many companies’ paydays hitting at the same time, this could be a big weekend for bars and restaurants, which could give a much-needed upswing after a dip in trade following Easter.
Springboard, which tracks shopper numbers, estimates that foot traffic will increase by 8% across all UK retail destinations this week, compared with the week earlier. High streets are predicted to lead the way, with a 10% advance, also likely thanks to schools’ half-term holiday.
The UK shouldn’t expect a lasting lift to consumer confidence or to retail and hospitality, however.
For a start, many people have taken the two-day bank holiday as an opportunity to get away. With pent-up demand for leisure travel, especially to sunnier climes, a large chunk of the population is expected to be out of the country during the festivities.
It’s worth remembering, too, that past Royal occasions have kicked off big summers of sport. The Diamond Jubilee was followed by the Olympics. In 2018, the World Cup came hard on the heels of the marriage of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. That year was also blessed with a heatwave to get people socializing outside and splashing out on shorts and suntan lotion. This year, the World Cup won’t start until late November.
But perhaps the biggest dampener on the celebrations is the cost-of-living crisis. Prince William’s wedding, the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics occurred as Britain was emerging from the financial crisis. Perhaps that’s why consumers felt comfortable treating themselves.
The economic backdrop now is dark. Inflation means rising prices for that celebratory shop, which could well dent how much Brits put into their baskets. For example, the average amount spent on a bottle of sparkling wine in 2012 was £5.20 ($6.56), according to Kantar. Now it’s £7.05.
Of course, the situation could be saved by soaring temperatures. Nothing lifts the British spirit like a bout of hot weather, although right now the forecast looks mixed.
While the government’s promise of winter fuel support has eased some concerns about spiraling living costs, conditions are likely to still become more challenging in the autumn, as people turn their heating on and lockdown savings get depleted by summer vacations.
Add in rising borrowing costs, and even if the Jubilee does get shop and restaurant tills jingling this week, it will likely mark a last hurrah rather than a sustained surge in spending. | 2022-06-01T08:27:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Jubilee Parties Won’t Rescue the UK Consumer Economy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/jubilee-parties-wont-rescue-the-uk-consumer-economy/2022/06/01/5d7fb18a-e17b-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/jubilee-parties-wont-rescue-the-uk-consumer-economy/2022/06/01/5d7fb18a-e17b-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html |
The Kensington, Md., community also has a variety of housing styles and beautiful trees and green spaces
Bryan Clopton walks his dog, Dixie, in the Rock Creek Hills neighborhood of Kensington, Md. Rock Creek Hills is about one mile from Chevy Chase, three miles from Bethesda and 10 miles from downtown D.C. (Craig Hudson for The Washington Post)
Erica Weiss’s favorite things about Rock Creek Hills during the pandemic were the jokes and the dinosaur. Weiss, 53, is a health writer and editor who moved to the Kensington, Md., neighborhood in 2009.
“During the pandemic, because everyone was just walking around, there were two things that were super special about the neighborhood. One was this guy who wrote a joke every single day,” said Weiss, who was laughing as she referred to the “bad dad jokes.” Another family had faux dinosaur bones on their lawn that they dressed up for holidays and special occasions.
Rock Creek Hills’ enthusiastic spirit goes beyond jovial lawn decorations. The Rock Creek Hills Citizens’ Association (RCHCA) throws two major events a year, according to Weiss, who helped organize them in the past. There is a spring fling, which had to be postponed this year because of the weather, and a Halloween party.
“Usually 150 to 200 people come, and it’s just a really nice chance to see everybody. Obviously, the pandemic slowed things down, but it’s one of my favorite things about the neighborhood” Weiss said.
Weiss is partial to the Halloween party because of the parade of children’s costumes and the joy that it brings younger families. She notes that a lot of young, enthusiastic parents have moved into the neighborhood and enjoy these activities.
One of those new residents is Jonathan Sears. Sears, 36, works for a commercial real estate lender and moved to the neighborhood 14 months ago.
He grew up in nearby Chevy Chase, Md., and rode his bike around Rock Creek Hills when he was young. A big reason for his family’s move to the neighborhood was his familiarity with it.
“My son is going to go to the elementary school that I went to growing up, and I had friends in this neighborhood,” Sears said.
His two children, who will be turning 6 and 3 in July, will attend private schools, but Sears wanted the comfort of having good public schools nearby. His daughter enjoys going to Kensington’s Noyes Library for Young Children, a one-room library that’s full of books and activities for early childhood development.
But for all its camaraderie, Rock Creek Hills has a dark past. Like many surrounding areas, it has a history of racial covenants restricting non-White residents.
According to a 2020 Washington Post article, Peter Chatfield, an attorney who represents government whistleblowers and a former president of the RCHCA, has found around 400 such covenants that applied to Rock Creek Hills. One from May 6, 1946, declares that property “shall never be used or occupied by . . . negroes or any person or persons, of negro blood or extraction, or to any person of the Semitic Race, blood or origin, or Jews, Armenians, Hebrews, Persians and Syrians, except . . . partial occupancy of the premises by domestic servants.”
The covenants haven’t been enforceable since the Fair Housing Act passed in 1968. However, many of them remained. A Maryland law that took effect in 2020 allows homeowners to go to court to have them removed for free.
Removing the racial covenants “is good but long overdue,” Sears said. “I doubt it has brought extra diversity into the neighborhood, as buyers don’t really look at those things before moving in. I am pleased to see a good amount of diversity in the neighborhood mostly in the form of race and religion. I think you get as much diversity as you can here, even though you’re never really going to get much economic diversity due to high home prices.”
Mary Beth Taylor, a real estate agent with McEnearney Associates, has been walking by her Rock Creek Hills home for years. She originally moved to the neighborhood in 1990 but wanted to downsize and was able to do so in the neighborhood.
“I had a four-story house, and I decided I wanted one-story living, and I didn’t have to look any farther than my own backyard,” Taylor said. She moved into her modern ranch-style home in 2018.
“We really have a little of everything,” Taylor said. Adding that the neighborhood is a mix of housing styles — Colonial, Cape Cod, ranch and split-level. This variety made her short move possible.
Taylor notes that when people are looking at Rock Creek Hills, they do so because of the location and “the beauty of the neighborhood.” The community is flush with old, beautiful trees and green spaces.
Rock Creek Hills is located about a mile from Chevy Chase, three miles from Bethesda and 10 miles from downtown D.C.
“I’m very happy I stayed here; I love it here,” Taylor said.
Living there: According to the RCHCA, the northern and eastern parts of the neighborhood are bounded by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the southern part of the neighborhood is bounded by Rock Creek Park and the Capital Beltway, and the western border follows Connecticut Avenue and Fredrick Avenue.
Taylor says that 24 homes have sold in the neighborhood in the past year. The most expensive was a six-bedroom, five-bathroom house that sold for just under $1.9 million. The least expensive was a three-bedroom, two-bathroom ranch-style house that sold for $750,000.
Two homes are for sale. The less expensive is a four-bedroom, four-bathroom Colonial listed at $799,000, and the other is a five-bedroom, six-bathroom rambler listed at $2.2 million.
Schools: Rosemary Hills and North Chevy Chase elementary, Silver Creek Middle and Bethesda-Chevy Chase High.
Transit: The MARC train runs through downtown Kensington, just outside the neighborhood boundaries. Montgomery County Transit’s Ride On routes service Rock Creek Hills. The closest Metro station, Medical Center on the Red Line, is under three miles away.
If you’d like your neighborhood featured in Where We Live, email kathy.orton@washpost.com. | 2022-06-01T12:09:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Neighborhood profile: Rock Creek Hills - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/01/where-we-live-rock-creek-hills/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/01/where-we-live-rock-creek-hills/ |
Maurice Broaddus used his experience as a teacher and community volunteer to shape his new novel.
“I love watching middle-schoolers become young leaders,” said Maurice Broaddus, an author and teacher in Indianapolis, Indiana.
That’s certainly true of Bella Fades, the 13-year-old protagonist of Broaddus’s new novel, “Unfadeable.” And it’s true of Bella Faidley, the former student who inspired the savvy character.
For Bella, the hard part is being heard. Grown-ups dismiss her because she’s a kid. She shouts and stomps, so they figure she’s just acting out.
A life of activism
This concern has been fueled over the years by work with homeless teens, and jobs as a scientist and later a middle school teacher.
Inspired by community
All these experiences come together in the book. City neighborhoods spring to life. Real people are mentioned, such as the artist William Ryder. Quick-witted M is based on two friends, and Broaddus dedicates the book to them and to Bella, his former student. The protagonist is a homeless (or unhoused) teen, similar to those Broaddus worked with. Like some of his friends, Bella is a street artist; her tag, or special signature, is “Unfadeable.” | 2022-06-01T12:09:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | ‘Unfadeable’ author has long been helping kids find their voices - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost/2022/06/01/unfadeable-author-has-long-been-helping-kids-find-their-voices/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost/2022/06/01/unfadeable-author-has-long-been-helping-kids-find-their-voices/ |
Ady Barkan is a political activist. (Jonas Jungblut/For The Washington Post)
Ady Barkan, 38, is a political activist and co-founder of Be a Hero, a political action committee that supports liberal candidates and causes. As an organizer for the Center for Popular Democracy in 2017, Barkan confronted then-Sen. Jeff Flake on a plane about his vote on a tax bill, an encounter that was captured on a video and went viral. Barkan was diagnosed in 2016 with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a terminal neurodegenerative disease also known as Lou Gehrig’s. Barkan speaks through a computer that tracks his eye movements. He lives in Santa Barbara, Calif., with his wife and two young children.
At 32 years old, you were diagnosed with ALS and given just three to four years to live. Can you talk about your darkest moment — and what kept you going?
That first week was atrocious. Being diagnosed with ALS removed the ground from under our feet. It destroyed the stable life that [my wife] Rachael and I had built and the decades of a future that we thought we would have together. I struggled to grapple with the fact that while my world was upended, life around me continued on. There came a point when I realized that asking “Why me?” was not a productive or helpful endeavor. There is nothing I can do to change the fact of my ALS. My diagnosis is unjust, but the world is, too. Millions of people meet fates far worse than mine simply by circumstance of their birth. It isn’t fair or good or right, but I started to have more of a sense of perspective. Yes, I had received a death sentence, but it renewed my passion and commitment to reducing injustice elsewhere because too many communities across our country face death sentences in different ways.
You were an activist long before you were diagnosed with ALS. How did health care for all, Medicare-for-all become a focus for you, and how did your experience battling ALS, up close and personal, influence that?
I knew our health-care system was broken before my diagnosis, but having a serious illness clarified just how cruel our system really is. Rachael and I wasted away so much of that early, precious time on the phone with our insurance company navigating infuriating bureaucracies that are set up to deny us care. My insurance denied me a ventilator, stating that it was experimental, and then two weeks after that, they rejected access to an FDA-approved ALS drug. I protested inside their headquarters and sued them, and eventually secured 24-hour home care. Even good health insurance, which I have, does not cover the cost of my care. And paying out of pocket would have left us bankrupt. My outcome is the exception, but the challenges we face fighting insurance companies for services we are rightfully owed are not.
As your health has declined, how have you wrestled with balancing your sometimes-grueling schedule as an activist with spending the limited time you have with your family?
I am lucky to be able to spend lots of time with my two wild and happy kids and my brilliant wife. In the afternoons, I take Carl and Willow to their favorite beachside playground. And in the evenings I teach Carl how to play chess. I’ve been able to be a part of the big moments of my family’s life that I didn’t think I’d ever get to see. As a father, I find myself thinking a lot about the kind of world my children will inherit. I want Carl and Willow to be proud of me. One of the best gifts I can leave behind is a world that is more just, more equitable and more loving. Of course, my children know me as their silly dad, but I also want them to be able to know who I am and how their existence motivated me to fight for a better world until my last breath.
What have you found that people misunderstand about ALS?
The biggest misconception is that ALS is a rapid death sentence. With new technologies, and with home care, I have found that ALS is manageable. I am fortunate to have 24-hour home care, which makes it possible for me to participate in my family’s daily life and in conversations like this one with you today. Because of the prohibitively expensive costs associated with home care, my reality is not available for the vast majority of others who require around-the-clock care. Instead, seniors and disabled people who require care are forced into unsafe institutions like nursing homes where people are merely warehoused. That’s why I’ve been working with my organization, Be a Hero, to pressure Congress to fund home- and community-based services so that seniors and disabled people have the option to live at home, be with their families, and lead the independent and dignified lives they deserve.
Do you see success on that front in the near term?
We have a couple more months [before congressional midterm elections] to try to win now, but either way it will be a long-term struggle to win everyone the health care they deserve.
You’ve said that the paradox of your situation, as your ALS has progressed, is that the weaker you’ve gotten, the louder you’ve become.
I learned that my having ALS forced people to listen to me with newfound attentiveness. The first speech I gave without my natural voice was at the first-ever congressional Medicare-for-all hearing, where I presented my testimony. Soon after that, I got to interview every major Democratic presidential candidate on their health-care plans and, with that, deliver clarity to voters who saw health care as their top issue. And because of that work, I got to address the American people at the Democratic National Convention and make the case on prime-time TV for Medicare-for-all.
Having campaigned hard to defeat President Trump and get a Democratic majority in Congress, how do you feel about what this administration and Congress are accomplishing now? And what needs to change?
Thanks for asking this question. I want to say this: The work of building a more just society must continue after the election is won. What’s different today is that we have a president who is willing to listen, and we’ve elected more policymakers who are willing to center those closest to the pain. Out of necessity, under the former president, we organized for our survival. Today, we’re still organizing for our survival, but also for our freedom, dignity and independence.
That’s why Democrats must meet this moment to deliver on funding for home- and community-based services and popular reforms to expand and strengthen Medicare. These are not only wise political moves, but morally just actions. And truth be told, it’s the least of what is owed to the millions of voters and volunteers who mobilized last year to deliver Democrats the House, Senate, the presidency on the promise of change. I am disappointed that we haven’t accomplished more. It’s evidence that we need to build more power.
Has your journey affected your outlook of what is possible?
Having ALS made me realize how time is the most precious resource that we have. We are in the midst of the worst public health crisis in 100 years. Our democracy is crumbling before our eyes. And every day brings news of another climate catastrophe. We do not have the luxury of time. Rather than changing my outlook on what is possible, these past few years have heightened my sense of urgency to secure the basic human rights we need.
What did the experience of confronting your own mortality so early on teach you that you are grateful for — and that you might share with others?
I am grateful to have a beautiful and full life with my [family]. And because I have access to 24-hour home care, I am able to lead an independent and dignified life and continue to contribute meaningfully to the fight for justice. Although I am dying of ALS, I realized that I could transcend my body by hitching my future to yours. I learned we could transcend the darkness of this moment, of any moment, by joining the struggles of past and future freedom fighters. By coming together in pursuit of a better world, we could tell a different story about who we were — who I was. I could make meaning even out of my ALS. And together we could make meaning out of our time on Earth.
I’ve heard you talk about hope more as a hammer than as a lucky lottery ticket, and I wonder if you could explain the importance of that distinction.
That line is from Rebecca Solnit’s book “Hope in the Dark,” which offered me hope in my bleaker moments. Like Rebecca says: Hope is a hammer that we use in an emergency to break the glass, sound the alarm and spring into action. Hope is not a state of mind; it’s a state of action. You have to wield it, do something with it, for it to be powerful.
Florida’s LGBTQ law is ‘intentionally vague,’ says group challenging it
It’s time to reboot America, former U.S. representative Will Hurd says | 2022-06-01T12:09:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ady Barkan on activism, ALS and hope in the face of crisis - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/06/01/als-activism-ady-barkan-politics-midterms/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/06/01/als-activism-ady-barkan-politics-midterms/ |
Why am I the only parent volunteering?
Q: My kids are 6 and 8. All I hear from other parents is how stressed out and burdened they are. I couldn’t agree more. Parents are dropping from pre-pandemic activities such as coaching teams, attending PTA meetings and being troop leaders. But they’re signing up their children! Kids of these ages are behind in social-emotional growth and are playing a sloppy game of catch-up, in my opinion.
I get it; I am one of the burned-out parents. I work full time, I’m a homeroom parent for both children and a troop leader, and my spouse travels 50 percent of the time. I’m exhausted, but I’ve prioritized my kids as much as I can. Every weekend, at least one child gets to invite a friend over, and we host periodic movie nights. The parents are always grateful to have a night off or, as they put it, time working on being with friends again, but no one ever reciprocates.
My 6-year-old is trying to invite himself to his friends’ houses, which is awkward. I’m starting to get a chip on my very hunched shoulders at carrying these burdens for all of these families. Are there any polite ways to broach with other parents that everyone can’t be the “drop-off” parents? Or should I assume that these parents either don’t want to have my kids over or that no one has the energy?
I’d hate to see these kids fall even further behind on how to interact with peers and build genuine friendships by refusing to continue inviting people over. But what gives? In olden times, there were patterns to this relationship-building, and if it felt too one-sided, that was a hint to move along. Is that still in play?
A: Thank you for your note; it sounds as if you wrote in just in time. Your resentment is building, and you know that is not a good place to be when making decisions regarding your children (and other parents).
One thing is true: Every parent, child and family is emerging from the past two years differently. You have a couple of theories about these families: You assume they are burned out and have no energy, you assume they don’t want to reciprocate and don’t want to be around your children, and you assume (all?) children are behind socially and emotionally and aren’t catching up very well.
There is a sense of urgency in your letter, and I understand how you feel. Your children had their whole lives turned upside down. School, learning, friendships and all kinds of experiences that bring joy and frustration were all taken away. I understand your frustration and urgency, but they are leading you down an unhealthy rabbit hole.
You ask, “What gives?” The truth is, aside from your assumptions, we don’t know what gives. You haven’t asked them, so we don’t know why these parents aren’t reciprocating with playdates. We do know that the only person you can control is yourself. From your letter, it sounds as if you are headed straight to burnout and have hoisted too many activities and expectations upon your shoulders. Before you worry about other families, read “Set Boundaries, Find Peace” by Nedra Glover Tawwab and have a sit-down with yourself. (There’s also a workbook.) Where can you pull back? Which expectations aren’t working? Which ones are?
I am reminded of a mother friend of mine who was stressed about her son’s friend going everywhere with the family, and there was zero reciprocation. The other parents never asked my friend’s son for a playdate; the other parents never sent money or even a thank-you. They just kept sending their son over to my friend’s house. And my friend was sick of it. She had to make a hard choice: Make her son happy and keep the child around while accepting the way things were, or choose something else. Her “something else” was not confronting the other parents, because they were in their own crisis, so she decided to have the friend over a little less and accept the situation as it was. By working through your own boundaries, you will be able to respond, rather than react, to other friends appropriately.
As you admit in your note, you are exhausted. Ask yourself: “What good is my parenting hustle if it makes me exhausted and resentful?” Contrary to what you think, you don’t need to be a room parent or a troop leader; you don’t need to host playdates and work full time while your husband travels. You can’t dump these projects out of the blue, but where is there wiggle room for opting out?
There is nothing honorable about suffering to make your children happy, and, although you assume no one else will step up, you don’t know whether that’s true. But let’s say it is true. Let’s say you stop being a troop leader, and everything falls apart. Is that 100 percent your problem? Given enough time and consideration, shouldn’t leadership be able to replace you? Call it your ego, hubris or insecurity, but you are placing too much pressure and importance on yourself. You can stop. You can put it down and watch your children’s worlds continue to spin.
This time in your life is either going to teach you some good lessons to help you move forward, or you are going to become increasingly resentful, angry and unhealthy. I would love for these parents to see your struggles and offer you support. I would like for others to step up to these leadership positions. But, in my experience, when we see someone doing it all, we tend to think, “Well, they look like they have it handled,” and we look away.
Scrounge up your courage and ask for help. Email a parent: “Hey, can Ralph and Jake come over to your house on Friday for a movie? I have a dinner with my spouse.” Email troop leadership and say: “I am feeling stretched thin and would like to bring on a co-leader.” Resist emailing the teacher, because teachers have enough on their plates, but ask the other parents to step up and help. You should only send these emails once you are centered in your own boundaries and you know what you want and what you do not.
Finally, look at the panic regarding your children and your need to catch them up. It is true that many children have fallen behind and are at risk for some serious problems, so I need you to dig into that and ask: “Whose problem is this?” If your children are at risk because of learning and social-emotional challenges that predate or developed during the pandemic, that requires one response. If your children seem to be muddling along, but you seem to be the one with all the worries, that is something else entirely. I don’t know, so I can only encourage you to look at this fear and reality-check it. Good luck. | 2022-06-01T12:09:38Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Why am I the only parent volunteering? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/parenting/2022/06/01/parent-overburdened-volunteering/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/parenting/2022/06/01/parent-overburdened-volunteering/ |
Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle in April. (Dominic Lipinski/Pool/AP)
LONDON — The United Kingdom is preparing to celebrate its longest-reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, at her Platinum Jubilee. Millions are set to throng central London for a bonanza of events showcasing the 96-year-old royal and the best of British pomp and pageantry.
Elizabeth’s era will be toasted across the nation and commonwealth with four days of events. Onlookers in London will try to catch a glimpse of royal family members on the Buckingham Palace balcony, while others will attend concerts and street parties or simply enjoy the national holiday.
Here’s everything you need to know about the celebrations.
Let’s back up. What even is a jubilee?
When is the Platinum Jubilee, and how long will it last?
What is the Platinum Jubilee schedule?
Will all the royal family attend the Platinum Jubilee celebrations? | 2022-06-01T12:22:17Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What is Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee? Your royal guide. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/01/jubilee-platinum-queen-elizabeth-guide/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/01/jubilee-platinum-queen-elizabeth-guide/ |
1 BOOK LOVERS (Berkley, $17). By Emily Henry. Two adversarial book professionals from New York City keep running into each other during a small-town vacation.
5 KLARA AND THE SUN (Vintage, $16.95). By Kazuo Ishiguro. Solar-powered robot Klara, an Artificial Friend, is selected as a companion for a sickly child.
9 CIRCE (Back Bay, $16.99). By Madeline Miller. This follow-up to “The Song of Achilles” is about the goddess who turns Odysseus’s men to swine.
10 PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION (Berkley, $16). By Emily Henry. Two college best friends who had a falling out reunite for one more vacation together.
6 MAUS I: A SURVIVOR’S TALE: MY FATHER BLEEDS HISTORY (Pantheon, $16.95). By Art Spiegelman. The Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel recounts the ordeal of the author’s father during the Holocaust.
7 INVISIBLE CHILD (Random House, $20). By Andrea Elliott. A journalist chronicles the life of a young woman who is caring for her siblings while living in poverty.
9 TALKING TO STRANGERS (Back Bay, $18.99). By Malcolm Gladwell. An examination of why humans are so bad at recognizing liars and lies.
10 EDUCATED (Random House, $18.99). By Tara Westover. A memoir by a woman from a survivalist family who earned a PhD at Cambridge.
6 THE NAME OF THE WIND (DAW, $10.99). By Patrick Rothfuss. Kvothe the Kingkiller tells the story of his rise to near-legendary heroism.
8 CHILDREN OF DUNE (Ace, $9.99). By Frank Herbert. A new generation rises to power in the third book of the Dune Chronicles.
9 BRIDGERTON: THE DUKE AND I (Avon, $9.99). By Julia Quinn. In Regency London, a young lady and a duke agree to a false courtship, which develops into something more.
10 THE CATCHER IN THE RYE (Little, Brown, $9.99). By J.D. Salinger. The classic novel of teenage angst.
Rankings reflect sales for the week ended May 29. The charts may not be reproduced without permission from the American Booksellers Association, the trade association for independent bookstores in the United States, and indiebound.org. Copyright 2022 American Booksellers Association. (The bestseller lists alternate between hardcover and paperback each week.) | 2022-06-01T12:39:42Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Washington Post paperback bestsellers - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/washington-post-paperback-bestsellers/2022/05/31/72302c38-e110-11ec-9f63-cd8ed77beb31_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/washington-post-paperback-bestsellers/2022/05/31/72302c38-e110-11ec-9f63-cd8ed77beb31_story.html |
Star Wars cast, fans show support for Moses Ingram after racist messages
Moses Ingram in a scene from “Obi-Wan Kenobi.” (Disney Plus/AP)
The Star Wars movie franchise, its cast and fans are speaking out in support of actor Moses Ingram, who said she was targeted by a wave of racist abuse online for her role in the new “Obi-Wan Kenobi” series.
Moses Ingram’s unrelenting journey from West Baltimore to Hollywood
Ewan McGregor became the latest co-star to voice his support, saying he was “sickened” by the way Ingram was treated and slamming the messages as “horrendous.” He called Ingram — who has also starred in “The Queen’s Gambit,” one of Netflix’s highest-rated programs of all time — a “brilliant actor.”
“I just want to say as the leading actor in the series, as the executive producer on the series, that we stand with Moses,” he said in a video posted to the Star Wars Twitter account that has since been viewed more than 5 million times.
“We love Moses, and if you’re sending her bullying messages, you’re no Star Wars fan in my mind,” he said.
McGregor’s support came after the Star Wars franchise addressed those harassing the star. “We are proud to welcome Moses Ingram to the Star Wars family,” the franchise tweeted Tuesday, adding that producers were “excited for Reva’s story to unfold.”
“If anyone intends to make her feel in any way unwelcome, we have only one thing to say: we resist,” the tweet read.
Ingram took to her Instagram Stories to describe the abuse last week, saying she felt “there’s nothing anybody can do to stop this hate” and that the comments were fueling self-doubt. “I question my purpose in even being here in front of you saying that this is happening,” she said in the video, which is no longer visible as Instagram Stories expire after 24 hours.
“I think the thing that bothers me, is this feeling that I’ve had inside of myself — which no one has told me — but this feeling that I’ve just got to shut up and take it. That I’ve just got to grin and bear it. And I’m not built like that,” Ingram said as she thanked her fans for supporting her.
On social media, many used the hashtag #WeLoveYouMosesIngram to share their admiration of the 29-year-old, whom they called “talented” and “an icon.”
Star Wars, which has long grappled with issues of race and gender, has pledged to increase diversity in its cast amid backlash.
Black British actors John Boyega and Thandiwe Newton and Kenyan Mexican actor Lupita Nyong’o have all stepped into the Star Wars universe in recent years. Kelly Marie Tran, who became the first Asian American actress to land a major Star Wars role, said she too was targeted by trolls on social media and deleted all of her Instagram posts in 2018 — leading to speculation that the abuse she faced online was the catalyst.
Kelly Marie Tran deleted her Instagram posts. Is it tied to harassment of Star Wars actresses?
Addressing the move in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter last year, Tran said she decided the Internet wasn’t “good for my mental health. I’m obviously going to leave this.’”
And Boyega, who told GQ magazine he faced death threats during his time playing former stormtrooper Finn, delivered an impassioned speech in front of thousands at a huge Black Lives Matter protest in London’s Hyde Park in 2020 following the death of George Floyd.
“I need you to understand how painful it is to be reminded every day that your race means nothing,” the actor said before telling crowds around him, “I don’t know if I’m going to have a career after this.” | 2022-06-01T13:01:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Star Wars co-stars back Moses Ingram after racist comments - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/06/01/star-wars-moses-ingram-racism-ewan-mcgregor/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/06/01/star-wars-moses-ingram-racism-ewan-mcgregor/ |
Navigating the economy
(Jeff Hinchee for The Washington Post)
It is a challenging time to try to make sense of the U.S. economy, with trends from persistent inflation to soaring gas prices creating a feeling of uncertainty for many Americans. To help readers get a clearer picture of what’s happening and what could come next, The Washington Post is producing a series of animated guides exploring these important topics in a straightforward, comprehensible way.
Click on the links below to read our Econ 101 explainers. This list will be updated as they publish.
Inflation: How prices took off
Over the past two years, the U.S. economy has faced its biggest challenges in a generation on multiple fronts. It contracted too fast. Then it grew too quickly. This has forced millions of Americans to live through something they never have before: a period of high inflation. Here’s what caused prices to take off, and what could come next. Read the story.
Pump shock: How gas prices drove us to the brink
Gas prices have more than doubled in two years, adding enormous costs to the millions of people who drive cars and trucks every day. The impact has played out differently in each U.S. state. Let’s take a look at the factors that sent gas prices soaring. Read the story. | 2022-06-01T13:01:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Econ 101: Explaining inflation, high gas prices and more - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/01/econ-101-financial-explainers/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/01/econ-101-financial-explainers/ |
(Animations by Andre Rucker for The Washington Post)
$37.95 to fill up a 15-gallon car
Data from EIA and AAA
This series is an examination of some of the most prominent economic themes of the year, explaining to readers their origins and impact during this highly uncertain period. These topics affect the finances of all Americans, and understanding what is happening can make you better prepared for what happens next.
In February 2020, before the pandemic took hold in the United States, gas prices remained low: about $2.50 a gallon. Filling up a midsize sedan with gas cost around $38.
Then the pandemic hit. The world shut down. Oil prices fell sharply because there was little demand. Production also slowed. There was simply less need for gas because people weren’t going anywhere. It cost about $29 to fill up a car, but people weren’t filling up as often.
Americans hit the road again in 2021. Vaccines became widely available, which meant many felt comfortable traveling again, especially by car or van. More vehicles of all types took to the road. More planes took off. Demand for gas climbed, but supply couldn’t catch up. So gas prices rose. It cost $45 to fill up a car.
In early 2022, things seemed to stabilize. Prices went down a little. But then Russia invaded Ukraine in late February. Prices shot back up. A full tank of gas can now cost more than $70, $80 or $90, depending on your car and where you live.
Gas prices are highly sensitive, so even the smallest shift in supply or demand can change what you pay at the pump on a daily basis. Other factors, like how far you live from a refinery or your state’s gas taxes, also play a role. Alaska, for example, charges 8 cents per gallon in state taxes, while California commands more than six times that, at 51 cents per gallon. There are also more specific considerations: California, for example, requires its own costlier fuel blend, which drives up prices even more.
In late May, the average gallon of gas in the United States was $4.62. It was $4.24 in Texas, $4.46 in Virginia and $6.17 in California.
Even if the price of oil comes down, the disparity in gasoline prices will continue in different parts of the country. Prices can be particularly high in the summer, which is bad news for the millions of travelers hopping into their cars to go to the beach, visit grandma or even go to work.
In Washington and around the country, leaders are split over how to respond to the high prices. Some governors are calling for the suspension of gas taxes to temporarily lower fuel prices, though that will pull money away from road projects. The White House is releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and taking steps to ease some emissions rules over the summer to increase the availability of gas. Republicans have called for more domestic oil production as a way to decrease reliance on imports.
Animations by Andre Rucker for The Washington Post.
Contributions from Damian Paletta and Rachel Siegel. Editing by Jen Liberto. Art direction, design and development by Emily Wright. Design editing by Virginia Singarayar.
Abha Bhattarai is the economics correspondent for The Washington Post. She previously covered retail for the publication. Twitter Twitter | 2022-06-01T13:01:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Why gas prices are so high - Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2022/why-gas-prices-so-high/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2022/why-gas-prices-so-high/ |
Karin Brulliard
Joe and Irma Garcia in an undated photo. Irma Garcia was one of two teachers killed in their fourth-grade classroom at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Tex., by an armed 18-year-old man. Joe Garcia, her husband, died two days later on May 26 from a heart attack. (John Martinez), (John Martinez)
UVALDE, Tex. — Irma Garcia died first.
She was one of the teachers at Robb Elementary School killed by a gunman, along with a co-worker and 19 students in the South Texas town of Uvalde. Students who survived more than an hour barricaded in her classroom with the gunman said afterward that she died shielding students from the bullets.
Two days later, her husband Joe had just returned home after laying flowers on the cross bearing his wife’s name in the schoolyard, when he seized and fell, dead of a heart attack at age 50. His family has said he died of a broken heart.
This week, the small town near the Mexico border began the grim process of burying its dead — with people pouring in from all over the country to donate food and water and flowers for the funerals and to pray at the two impromptu memorials that have risen in the town.
On Tuesday, the tandem farewell began for the Garcias, with a joint visitation and rosary at a local funeral home, and a funeral Mass planned for Wednesday at Sacred Heart Catholic Church.
The couple were longtime attendees at Sacred Heart and were married there 24 years ago. Irma, 48, had spent her entire 23-year teaching career at Robb Elementary, and had been named teacher of the year and received other awards. Joe was described as a dedicated dad and doting husband who worked at the H-E-B grocery store in town.
They left behind four children — the oldest, Cristian, 23, a Marine, Jose, 19, a Texas State University student, Lyliana, 15, a high school sophomore and Alysandra, 12, a seventh-grader.
The double loss of the parents has resulted in an outpouring of grief and support for the children who have been left behind. A Go Fund Me organized by Irma’s cousin, Debra Austin, started with a goal of $10,000 and now has received donations of nearly $2.8 million.
“Their family was an all-American family,” Irma’s nephew, John Martinez, told The Washington Post in an interview this week. “They’re great people. The entire family, they’re all great people. They don’t deserve this.” | 2022-06-01T13:02:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Funeral for Irma Garcia and Joe Garcia takes place in Uvalde today - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/01/garcia-funeral-uvalde-school-shooting/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/01/garcia-funeral-uvalde-school-shooting/ |
'Trust’ at the Supreme Court? The court’s self-destruction continues.
A view of the Supreme Court on May 31 in D..C. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
The leak last month of Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito’s stunning draft opinion eviscerating decades of precedent on abortion and the right to privacy revealed the magnitude of the court’s descent into radical partisanship. Now, we have more evidence from inside sources that the court is coming apart at the seams and further eroding its stature with Americans.
According to a CNN report, the court’s leak investigators are “taking steps to require law clerks to provide cell phone records and sign affidavits.” Understandably, “some clerks are apparently so alarmed over the moves, particularly the sudden requests for private cell data, that they have begun exploring whether to hire outside counsel.”
That answer should be yes. Clerks should absolutely hire counsel to advise them about their rights and recourse if they refuse to provide the requested information. And while the court is not, so far as we know, conducting a criminal investigation, the demand that clerks sign a statement under penalty of perjury can put them at risk if they are anything less than 100 percent truthful.
While the court is entitled to “examine any government-owned cell phones or e-mail accounts,” prominent whistleblower attorney Mark S. Zaid tells me, “there would be no legal right (absent a warrant) that would … compel a clerk to turn over any personally owned information.” Zaid recommends that “as many clerks and staff as possible decline as a group to turn over their personal data,” to create "safety in numbers.”
Leah Litman, University of Michigan law professor and co-host of the podcast Strict Scrutiny, finds the court’s conduct outrageous. “It’s insanity. Say no,” she tells the clerks. “Get a lawyer; try to talk to your justice about how insane it is for the federal government to say to an employee, ‘Hand over your personal phone so we can investigate these leaks,’ when some of the justices themselves are going on record, with the press, to speak about the inner workings of the court.”
This unprecedented, unseemly dragnet suggests that the justices have no idea how much danger their crumbling reputations are in. (Their arrogance and overt partisanship already have become the best argument possible for term limits for justices.) If the justices need such heavy-handed tactics and cannot rely on the word of their clerks, the Supreme Court has become just another D.C. workplace roiled in political finger-pointing and blame-casting. Yes, the scandal of the leak undermined the credibility of the court, but a ham-fisted attempt to rectify it will only make things worse.
Recall that weeks ago, Justice Clarence Thomas — husband of “big lie” adherent Virginia “Ginni” Thomas — groused that the leak would hurt the court internally. He lamented that when you lose trust, “especially in the institution that I’m in, it changes the institution fundamentally. … You begin to look over your shoulder. It’s like kind of an infidelity, that you can explain it, but you can’t undo it.” Now, add this mistreatment of clerks to the list of infidelities at the court.
The list is long: the “infidelity” of refusing to adopt a strict code of ethics and to recuse oneself from cases implicating a spouse’s conduct. Also, the “infidelity” of deliberately misleading senators during one’s Supreme Court confirmation process by insisting, apparently with fingers crossed behind one’s back, that Roe v. Wade was settled law. The court’s loss of trust is far bigger than the leak, and it points to a body that is less an august, independent judicial institution than a partisan operation trying to game the law and deflect blame.
By the way, if the chief justice is truly interested in ferreting out the truth, rather than cast aspersions on young lawyers and imperil their entire careers along the way, he should demand that the justices turn over cellphones and sign affidavits, too. It’s only fair … unless, of course, this invasion of privacy is just too offensive for the justices to contemplate.
Donald Trump has nothing left but spite | 2022-06-01T13:02:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Searching clerks' cellphones shows a Supreme Court in crisis - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/01/supreme-court-investigation-clerks-cellphones/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/01/supreme-court-investigation-clerks-cellphones/ |
Bills in red states punish climate-conscious businesses
Good morning and welcome to The Climate 202! ICYMI, yesterday we reported on how Democratic state lawmakers are promoting bills targeting the fossil fuel industry for climate damage. Today we're looking at what their Republican counterparts are doing in this space:
When Tesla chief executive Elon Musk tweeted recently that environmental, social and corporate governance is a “scam” that has been “weaponized by phony social justice warriors,” his rhetoric echoed that of some Republican state lawmakers.
Indeed, in statehouses across the country, GOP lawmakers are promoting bills to punish companies that divest from fossil fuels or otherwise consider climate change in their business decisions. The raft of legislation is thrusting corporate climate action into the nation's broader culture wars over reproductive rights, critical race theory and other contentious issues.
Like many conservative causes, the trend started in Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott (R) last year signed legislation requiring the state's retirement and investment funds to divest from businesses that cut ties with or “boycott” fossil fuel companies.
“Elon Musk is right: ESG is a scam,” the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative group that backed the measure, said in a video posted to Twitter last week. “What's an ESG score? It determines how compliant a business is with the woke mob's agenda.”
Conservative lawmakers in 15 other states have introduced similar legislation, the New York Times reported. Here's what to know about proposals in two red states — and what they could mean for business leaders concerned about the financial risks posed by climate change:
Oklahoma cracks down on ‘energy discrimination’
Earlier this month, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) signed into law the Energy Discrimination Elimination Act, which requires the state to stop doing business with financial firms that are “discriminating” against fossil fuel companies. The measure tasks the state treasurer with creating a list of such firms.
“Oil and gas has been the main driver of the economy and the state of Oklahoma for the last 100 years,” state Sen. Mike Allen (R), who sponsored the bill, said in an interview with The Climate 202. “And so I don't want to do business with people that are trying to put us out of business.”
When asked about climate change, Allen said he broadly agrees with the views of Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), who notoriously brought a snowball onto the Senate floor in 2015 to illustrate his belief that global warming is a hoax.
The American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization that works with conservative state lawmakers, considered a draft model policy last year that resembles Allen's bill and has the same title. However, Allen said he had not consulted with the council about the measure.
Joe Trotter, the council's task force director for energy, environment and agriculture, told The Climate 202 that it's not yet clear whether a similar draft policy will be considered at the organization's July meeting in Atlanta.
Louisiana lawmaker eyes energy ‘prosperity’
In Louisiana, state Rep. Danny McCormick (R) has sponsored House Bill 25, which would prohibit the state's retirement systems from investing in companies that have policies against doing business with fossil fuel firms.
In an interview with The Climate 202, McCormick said he was so impressed with the Texas bill that he asked lawyers in the Louisiana legislature to “mimic” that measure. He also expressed skepticism of the scientific consensus that climate change will have — and is already having — catastrophic effects around the globe.
“I don't know if we've proved that man-made climate change is significant enough to be concerned about at this time,” McCormick said. “Prosperity is tied to affordable energy. And if we make energy unaffordable, it's going to impoverish so many people.”
After the bill was introduced in January, members of the House Retirement Committee expressed concerns that it “may be tying the retirement system's hands when it comes to future investing,” McCormick said. The bill is now “basically dormant for this session,” he said, adding that he hopes to reintroduce it in a future legislative session.
‘Insanely politicized’
Ivan Frishberg, chief sustainability officer at Amalgamated Bank, an employee-owned lender that doesn’t do business with fossil fuel companies, told The Climate 202 that ESG investing has “always been a little bit of a political football when it comes to fiduciary rules.” He noted that Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama both issued guidance on the matter, while President Donald Trump's Labor Department issued rules making it harder for retirement plan managers to consider ESG factors when investing on their clients' behalf.
However, Frishberg said sustainable investing has become “insanely politicized” in recent months, particularly after a coalition of financial institutions pledged to align $130 trillion in funds with global climate goals at the COP26 summit in Scotland last fall.
“The politicization of this and the forces behind it,” he said, “are going to get so much more serious than we would've ever thought.”
New restrictions on outdoor water use go into effect today for more than 6 million residents in the Los Angeles area amid a climate-change-fueled extreme drought, The Washington Post's Joshua Partlow reports.
The rules, set by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, limit outdoor watering to one day per week in many jurisdictions. The goal is to slash water use by 35 percent as California enters its third consecutive year of severe drought. If conditions don't improve by September, officials have warned that further cuts could be imposed or outdoor water use could be banned entirely.
The restrictions come as roughly 76 percent of the American West experiences severe to exceptional drought, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Drought Monitor. Major reservoirs along the Colorado River, including Lake Mead and Lake Powell, have dropped to their lowest levels in decades.
Trump policies caused U.S. climate ranking to plummet
After four years of President Donald Trump stalling action meant to tackle climate change at the federal level, the United States’ environmental performance nosedived compared to other countries, according to a report from researchers at Yale and Columbia universities, Maggie Astor reports for the New York Times.
The 2022 edition of the Environmental Performance Index ranked the United States 43rd overall, with a score of 51.1 out of 100, compared with 24th place and a score of 69.3 in the 2020 edition. Meanwhile, a climate category measuring progress to combat global warming revealed an even greater plunge, with the nation falling to 101st place from 15th, trailing behind most other wealthy Western democracies.
The climate analysis was based on data through 2019, and the previous edition was based on data through 2017, meaning the change largely reflects Trump's rollbacks of environmental regulations and does not capture President Biden's reinstatement or expansion of climate rules.
Gasoline prices rise after E.U. cracks down on Russia
The price of gasoline rose across the country on Tuesday after the European Union agreed on a plan to cut about 90 percent of Russian oil imports to member nations, excluding pipeline deliveries, amid the war in Ukraine, The Post’s Hamza Shaban reports.
The U.S. average for a gallon of gasoline on Tuesday reached $4.62, which is 52 percent higher than last year, according to AAA. Even as crude oil prices began to fall in the weeks after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the price of gas remains elevated.
Some economists call this trend the “rockets and feathers” phenomenon. They note that while a sudden jump in crude prices can quickly push up gas prices, when oil falls, gas prices tend to come down slowly, like a feather.
HHS to open office with environmental justice focus
The Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday said it will create an Office of Environmental Justice to address environmental inequities in health, continuing President Biden's prioritization of environmental justice across the federal government, Ella Nilsen reports for CNN.
The office will be led by interim director Sharunda Buchanan, a former official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who specializes in environmental health issues such as lead exposure.
Buchanan said she hopes the office will bring new resources to communities, particularly low-income communities and communities of color, that are overburdened by environmental hazards such as elevated lead exposure and inadequate wastewater treatment.
“I want to work alongside these communities,” Buchanan told CNN. “I like to say that environmental justice and health equity are inextricably linked. If you find an environmental justice issue, you're going to inevitably find a health issue.”
Russia widens Europe gas cuts and halts Dutch, Danish and German contracts — Reuters
Meet the top-paid energy trade and environmental leaders — Timothy Cama and Robin Bravender for E&E News
California drought resurrects decades-old plan for controversial sites reservoir — Louis Sahagún for the Los Angeles Times
Colorado residents, watch out for (rather adorable) stowaways!
Heading to the mountains? Watch for stowaways when you get back to your vehicle!
Last week, a Durango man who spent the day hiking in La Plata Canyon looked under the hood of his truck after seeing his check engine light come on and found two marmots.
📷 Matthew Mulholland pic.twitter.com/LbqjMDNElW
— CPW SW Region (@CPW_SW) May 31, 2022 | 2022-06-01T13:02:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Bills in red states punish climate-conscious businesses - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/01/bills-red-states-punish-climate-conscious-businesses/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/01/bills-red-states-punish-climate-conscious-businesses/ |
The Nationals designated Austin Voth for assignment Tuesday afternoon. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)
NEW YORK — Nine years after he was drafted, and 92 appearances since he first pitched for the Washington Nationals, Austin Voth was designated for assignment Tuesday. It’s fair to ask why the Nationals kept putting this decision off. One of the key reasons offers a look into their thought process during a rebuilding year that’s been short on wins and full of disappointment.
According to multiple people in the organization — including front office members and major league staff — Voth’s underlying metrics made a midseason trade seem possible. Statcast ranks his curveball spin rate in the 96th percentile. His fastball ranks in the 84th. If he strung together some good weeks, the thinking went, a data-minded club might offer a low-level minor leaguer for a chance to mold Voth and his unteachable spin into an effective reliever.
When plotting potential trades, this seemed to offer more upside than Washington dangling any of its veteran castoffs. Voth just never clicked this season, his ERA ultimately spiking to 10.13 through 18⅔ innings.
The state of the Nationals is clear-cut. After losing 10-0 Tuesday to the New York Mets, their 18-33 record was the worst in the National League and second worst in the majors. Come July, they are expected to trade most players who are attracting interest. Continuing to pitch Voth, though, was a stark reminder of how much rebuilding in 2022 has been placed ahead of competing. Washington also held on because, with no more minor league options, Voth couldn’t be removed from the roster without being placed on waivers.
In his last five appearances, he allowed two runs on three hits, two runs on three hits, five runs on four hits, three runs on three hits and three runs on three hits. The Nationals lost all of those games.
“I’m getting hammered on missed locations,” Voth said Monday afternoon, a few hours before he was knocked around by the Mets at Citi Field. “That’s about it.”
Nationals’ Joe Ross will have Tommy John surgery for a second time
At this stage, it was logical to see if a struggling, fringe reliever such as Voth could have netted anything. A “player to be named later” would have been considered a win. But if the Nationals felt Voth’s spin rates could land him elsewhere — perhaps with a team known for fixing players by maximizing a unique skill — it’s worth asking why they couldn’t solve the 29-year-old themselves.
Since the beginning of the 2020 season, in 12 starts and 67 relief appearances, only four pitchers have pitched at least 100 innings and have a higher ERA than Voth’s 6.45. So once the Nationals DFA’d him Tuesday, did Manager Dave Martinez, a reflection of his staff, feel at least some responsibility for how that happened?
“Absolutely,” Martinez said. “For me, I was more frustrated because I sat down with him daily to try to figure it out. We looked at all kinds of stuff, all kinds of numbers. We tried some things with him and he was open to them. You saw some signs that maybe this was going to work, and unfortunately it didn’t. It’s tough. I really believe he was going to get through it and it just didn’t happen.”
Obviously, spin isn’t everything, even if higher rates typically make it harder for hitters to square up pitches. High-spin pitchers still need sharp command to float in the majors, let alone succeed. Voth admitted to missing way too many spots with his four-seamer, cutter and curve. In past years, like when he lapsed as a starter in 2020, he’d often lament his inconsistent mechanics. On Monday, he mentioned some early season soreness that messed with his arm slot.
Think about how much has to be in tune for a pitcher to dominate. Similarly, a lot contributes to someone getting crushed.
“Stuff didn’t work out here and it’s always a tough call,” Martinez said. “I felt like we gave him a lot of opportunities, and he was very grateful, very understanding. But it’s tough because he’s one of the few remaining guys who were in the playoffs and World Series with us, and such an unbelievable human being.
“That was a hard one. I wish him well. I told him: ‘Selfishly, I’d love to have you back, but if you get an opportunity to go pitch someplace else, best of luck to you.’”
From here, Voth, a fifth-round pick in 2013, goes on waivers and has a week to be traded or claimed. If he’s not, he will likely have to choose between free agency or a minor league assignment with the Nationals. Had Voth rebounded this summer, would there have been a trade partner out there, ending a near-decade-long relationship with a bit of recouped value? Was a better version of Voth really more attractive than, say, Jordan Weems or Reed Garrett on a roll in June or July?
Multiple people in the Nationals front office would have answered yes to both questions. But in Voth’s place, Weems, 29, now gets a shot to prove himself for the Nationals or someone else. Garrett, also 29, remains with the Class AAA Rochester Red Wings but could earn a chance soon. Tuesday night, Weems struck out Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso in a one-two-three sixth. Remarkably, it felt notable that the inning was so clean. | 2022-06-01T13:02:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Nationals' Austin Voth experiment comes to an end - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/01/nationals-austin-voth/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/01/nationals-austin-voth/ |
Her session with reporters was held the morning after 13-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal's 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (4) quarterfinal victory over defending champion Novak Djokovic in Tuesday’s night session. The match lasted 4 hours, 12 minutes and finished after 1 a.m. on Wednesday, leaving some of the 15,000 or so spectators unable to use public transportation to get home. | 2022-06-01T13:03:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Amelie Mauresmo: Women's tennis has less 'appeal' than men's - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/tennis/french-open-director-claims-womens-matchups-less-appealing/2022/06/01/1cf7bbee-e19e-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/tennis/french-open-director-claims-womens-matchups-less-appealing/2022/06/01/1cf7bbee-e19e-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html |
My husband is in a Russian jail for speaking the truth
By Evgenia Kara-Murza
The author, Evgenia Kara-Murza, with her husband, Vladimir Kara-Murza, in November 2021. (Family photo/Evgenia Kara-Murza)
Evgenia Kara-Murza is the project manager of the Free Russia Foundation and wife of detained Russian opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza. This article is based on remarks made at an event at the National Endowment for Democracy on April 28.
On April 11, my husband, Vladimir Kara-Murza, was arrested by Moscow police on spurious charges of “failing to obey the orders of law enforcement.” But we know the real reason. The day before, he had given an interview to CNN in which he called the government of Vladimir Putin “a regime of murderers.”
Within days, the authorities leveled new and more serious charges against Vladimir. His alleged crime? Criticizing Putin’s bloody invasion of Ukraine. The regime, which is trying to conceal the reality of its actions from the Russian people, has issued a law targeting anyone who dares to refer to this war as a war. Yet Vladimir has shown again and again during his years of fighting the Putin regime that he has never been afraid to speak the truth — no matter the consequences.
In May 2015, Vladimir suddenly fell ill after a lunch meeting in Moscow. He began vomiting violently and was soon diagnosed with a multiple-organ failure. It didn’t take us long to figure out that he had been poisoned - though doctors were never able to determine the precise nature of the toxin. After three weeks in an intensive care unit and another three in the neurology department of Moscow’s First City Hospital, Vladimir was transported to the United States for rehabilitation.
Excerpts from Vladimir Kara-Murza's columns: The truths he spoke that Putin wants suppressed
Yet a few months later, leaning on his cane, having relearned how to walk and hold a spoon, he returned to Russia. When I think of courage, this is what comes to mind. I saw it again when he decided to return to Russia after his second poisoning in 2017 — and again in February, when he returned after the outbreak of the war.
The reason in each case was simple: He believes that, as a Russian politician, he needs to be where people are fighting this regime. He believes that he must assume the same risks, and face the same challenges, confronted by Russians back home. He believes in his country and his people. He is a patriot — one who believes that the Russian people deserve to be free, and that patriotism should not be ceded to the Neanderthal nationalists and their thugs.
He went back after the invasion began because he wanted to show that the Russian people does not support this war. In one of his recent articles, he cited the example of Natalia Gorbanevskaya, one of the Soviet-era dissidents who demonstrated in Red Square against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968: “A nation minus me is not an entire nation. A nation minus ten, a hundred, a thousand people is not an entire nation. So [the authorities] could no longer say that there was nationwide approval for the invasion …”
Now, since the beginning of the war, there have been more than 15,000 arrests of people opposing the war in Ukraine all across Russia — despite the opinion polls showing that more than 80 percent of Russians supposedly approve of the invasion. One young man was arrested for making a silent protest with a copy of Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace.” A young woman was detained for holding up a blank sheet of paper. A Saint Petersburg artist is facing up to 15 years in prison for switching price tags as a local supermarket with antiwar messages. These people make their protests knowing full well that they will get arrested, they will get beaten up, thrown in jail, tortured, humiliated.
Vladimir knows the risks, but he knew that he needed to be there with these people. He wants to remind us of a simple fact: You cannot trust opinion polls conducted in a totalitarian state where there is no free speech, where there is no free independent media, no access to independent, objective information. The many Russians who rely on television as their main source of information have not had access to objective information for years. They have become thoroughly brainwashed.
Vladimir Kara-Murza from jail: Russia will be free. I’ve never been so sure.
They hear the exact same message on every channel: The West wants Russia’s demise, wants to see Russia on its knees. Russians hear this message on state-controlled channels over and over and there are no alternate messages available. Putin knew what he was doing. His propaganda machine has been working tirelessly over two decades to create this warped image of reality for the Russians. We are now seeing the effects of this decades-long propaganda.
Vladimir wanted to be where people are fighting this evil regime. He wanted to show that you should not be afraid. Never be afraid, because fear is what makes us back down. Fear is what makes us keep silent in the face of something monstrous. When you keep quiet in the face of something monstrous, you become complicit. Vladimir could never do that.
In occupied Kherson, Russia is imposing a grim, hopeless reality | 2022-06-01T13:27:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Evgenia Kara-Murza: My husband is in a Russian jail for speaking the truth - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/24/evgenia-vladimir-karamurza-prison-speaking-truth-putin-russia/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/24/evgenia-vladimir-karamurza-prison-speaking-truth-putin-russia/ |
By Samantha Drake
A poster from legendary lawman Eliot Ness’s unsuccessful run for mayor of Cleveland in 1947 hangs in the Cleveland Police Historical Society. (Piet van Lier/AP)
His name graces the atrium of the U.S. Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) headquarters in Washington, D.C. Ness is so ingrained in American culture that, curiously, there’s even a craft beer named after him: Eliot Ness Amber Lager out of Cleveland. The Ness legend is largely fiction, however. He was never an FBI agent, as many people believed; he worked for the Bureau of Prohibition, the forerunner of the ATF tasked with stopping the sale and consumption of alcohol between 1920 and 1933. Ness also rarely carried a gun.
“Eliot Ness was involved in trying to disrupt the flow of beer and look for evidence of bootlegging but never found enough evidence to build a strong case against Capone on those charges,” Jonathan Eig, the author of “Get Capone: The Secret Plot That Captured America’s Most Wanted Gangster,” told me. Instead, Capone was sent to prison for tax evasion. “Ness was one of the smaller players, to be honest, in building the case against Capone.” But a story about the Internal Revenue Service accountants who gathered evidence against Capone would be pretty boring, he notes.
An upcoming festival in Coudersport, Pa., is doing its part to reconcile Ness the larger-than-life lawman and the real-life federal agent with integrity who still serves as a role model. One part of his legend is true: Ness and his team did earn the nickname “The Untouchables” because they couldn’t be bribed, unlike many other contemporaries.
The Eliot Ness Fest, scheduled for July 15-17, acknowledges the entertaining Hollywood fiction while putting Ness’s achievements in historical context. Thousands are expected to converge on the small Pennsylvania town this summer for a three-day event celebrating Ness’s career. The Eliot Ness Fest is also a family-friendly tribute to law enforcement, wrapped up in Roaring Twenties cosplay.
Stephen A. Green, an organizer of the event who’s the president and CEO of the Eliot Ness Museum, calls it “an opportunity to relive one of the most glamorous and violent periods of the country’s past.” It includes films, a parade and historical enactments. The festival this year coincides with the 50th anniversary of ATF; Associate Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer Thomas Chittum will deliver the keynote address.
In addition to Chicago, Ness is associated with Cleveland, where he served as the city’s public safety director in the 1930s and ’40s. Ness lived in Coudersport only for about the last year of his life. But Coudersport is the birthplace of Ness’s “Untouchable” legend.
Ness moved to the scenic town in north-central Pennsylvania with his third wife and their 10-year-old son to pursue a business opportunity. Before he died of a heart attack in 1957 at age 54, Ness met with writer Oscar Fraley multiple times at the Hotel Crittenden, located in the center of town just across the street from where the Eliot Ness Museum now stands. They talked about Ness’s crime-fighting days and made plans to write a book about his experiences.
The lawman had resisted sharing his story, but he was deeply in debt and needed the money the book would bring in, says A. Brad Schwartz, the co-author with Max Allan Collins of “Scarface and the Untouchable: Al Capone, Eliot Ness, and the Battle for Chicago” and “Eliot Ness and the Mad Butcher: Hunting America’s Deadliest Unidentified Serial Killer at the Dawn of Modern Criminology.”
Ness didn’t approve of the exaggerations in Fraley’s draft, but he’s nevertheless credited as a co-author of the resulting book when it was published shortly after his death. These days, many people who know his backstory agree that “The Untouchables” is a highly embellished tale of Ness’s part in bringing Capone to justice.
“There were plenty of people who were still alive who remembered the real history and knew Eliot Ness had nothing to do with it,” Schwartz told me. Getting Capone was a team effort by the Prohibition Bureau, the Treasury Department and the Bureau of Investigation, the agency that became the FBI, he explains.
“What’s been lost in the fight is all of the work he did to modernize, to professionalize and to reform law enforcement,” Schwartz says. Ness’s work on the Capone case was ahead of its time in trying to make law enforcement less brutal and corrupt. It also laid the foundation for the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act to prosecute organized-crime figures.
Ness didn’t resurface in the media again until 2014, when three U.S. senators proposed naming the ATF headquarters in D.C. after Ness. But the Chicago City Council passed a resolution introduced by city Alderman Edward M. Burke protesting the move, which revived the debate over what Ness did and didn’t do in the Capone case. Ultimately, ATF named its headquarters after Ariel Rios, the first ATF agent killed in the line of duty after the ATF became an independent bureau. (Burke was indicted on federal racketeering and bribery charges in 2019 and is awaiting trial.)
In recent years, ATF has been instrumental in setting the record straight on its most famous agent and celebrating his achievements. The bureau named the atrium after Ness when the building opened in 2008. A portrait of Ness created from a collage of ATF agents’ photos is on display. “Clearly, there’s a mythology that’s built around Eliot Ness,” acknowledges ATF’s Chittum. “That’s not lost on any of us.”
Chittum told me he jumped at the chance to speak at this year’s Eliot Ness Fest. The man and the myth serve an important storytelling function that allows the bureau to highlight bigger issues, he says. “Ness is also a symbol of ethical law enforcement. In an era where there are a lot of questions about the legitimacy and credibility of law enforcement, I think it’s worth celebrating the honest cop.”
Samantha Drake is a freelance writer in Doylestown, Pa. | 2022-06-01T13:49:19Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Eliot Ness festival explores the man and the myths - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/05/31/eliot-ness-festival-mythology-facts/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/05/31/eliot-ness-festival-mythology-facts/ |
A bison crosses a road near Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park. (Erik Petersen for The Washington Post)
An Ohio woman visiting Yellowstone National Park was gored by a bison and thrown 10 feet into the air after she got too close to the animal, park officials said Tuesday.
The 25-year-old woman from Grove City, Ohio, whose name the National Park Service has not released, approached a female bison near a boardwalk at Black Sand Basin on Monday morning, according to a news release. While the Wyoming park requires visitors to stay more than 25 yards away from bison, the woman approached within 10 feet of the animal, park officials said. Two other people also were within 25 yards of the bison, the Park Service said.
When the woman approached the bison at the boardwalk just north of the Old Faithful geyser on Memorial Day, the animal charged her.
“Consequently, the bison gored the woman and tossed her 10 feet into the air,” the Park Service said.
The woman suffered a puncture wound and other injuries and was taken to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center, which serves as the hospital for Yellowstone.
NBC News reported that the woman died of her injuries Tuesday. As of Wednesday morning. The Park Service had yet to say publicly whether the woman died.
“The incident remains under investigation, and there is no additional information to share,” the park service said in a news release. “Wildlife in Yellowstone National Park are wild and can be dangerous when approached.”
Neither an NPS spokesperson nor hospital officials immediately responded to requests for comment early Wednesday.
Bison, the largest mammals in North America, have injured more people at Yellowstone than any other animal, according to the Park Service. Bison are unpredictable and enormously strong. And although they can weigh as much as one ton and stand around six feet at the shoulder, bison can run up to 35 mph, which is “three times faster than humans,” NPS says. They can also jump up to six feet vertically “and can quickly pivot to combat predators,” according to the National Wildlife Federation.
Yellowstone is the only place in the United States where bison have continually lived since the prehistoric age, according to the Department of the Interior. Between 2,300 and 5,500 bison live in Yellowstone, according to NPS. The Yellowstone bison are considered special because “they’re the pure descendants (free of cattle genes) of early bison that roamed our country’s grasslands,” Interior says.
Monday’s incident is the first reported this year of a visitor being gored by a bison after getting too close to the animal, NPS says. It is unclear whether the two other people inside the 25-yard limit also were injured.
Yellowstone park officials have stressed that visitors must give animals space if the animals come near campsites, trails, boardwalks, parking lots or developed areas. Visitors should stay more than 25 yards away from all large animals, such as bison, elk, bighorn sheep, deer, moose and coyotes, according to NPS. The Park Service advises guests to stay at least 100 yards from bears and wolves.
“If need be, turn around and go the other way to avoid interacting with a wild animal in close proximity,” NPS said in its news release. | 2022-06-01T14:24:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Yellowstone National Park bison gores visitor on Memorial Day, tosses Ohio woman 10 feet in the air - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/01/yellowstone-bison-gores-woman/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/01/yellowstone-bison-gores-woman/ |
In this stellar group of European writers, two worthy of the Nobel
Savor the mastery of ‘The Aphorisms of Franz Kafka,’ ’533 Days,' ‘The White Room’ and ‘The Lure of the Unknown’
(Yale University Press; Cadmus Press; Princeton University Press)
Here’s a brash overgeneralization: American writers tend to charge at life freestyle, while Europeans approach it with an ironic half smile and perhaps a glance at their libraries. Think Bruce Willis vs. Alan Rickman in “Die Hard.” Yes, I know that’s a dated stereotype, but the bespoke elegance of the four books below — a novel, a diary, a volume of aphorisms and a collection of essays — brought it irresistibly to mind. Moreover, two of the authors merit Nobel Prize consideration — the 73-year-old Zoran Zivkovic and the 88-year-old Cees Nooteboom — and two are early 20th-century masters, Algernon Blackwood (1869-1951) and Franz Kafka (1883-1924).
The narrative seductiveness of Zoran Zivkovic
I’ll stop there. Like Zivkovic’s other novels and stories, “The White Room,” is artfully constructed — it observes the classical unities of time, place and action — and enchantingly mysterious. But this is true of all the fiction by this World Fantasy Award winner: In “The Papyrus Trilogy,” for instance, killings in a Belgrade bookstore lead the investigating detective to a sinister secret society. If you’re a fan of Borges, M.C. Escher or Haruki Murakami, you should definitely be reading Zoran Zivkovic, all of whose works are available in handsome editions from Cadmus Press.
As a fiction writer, Nooteboom may be best known for 1994′s eerie and erotic novella, “The Following Story,” in which a classics scholar falls asleep one night in Amsterdam and magically awakes the next morning in Lisbon. More recently, he’s brought out the highly personal travelogues, “Roads to Santiago,” “Roads to Berlin” and “Venice.” I once enjoyed lunch with this much-traveled cosmopolitan, during which he spoke — in perfect English — about his long sojourn in Japan. In “533 Days,” Nooteboom divides his attention between the horticultural — there’s a lot about cactus — and the cultural, but I like him best when he reflects on writers and writing: “With Borges, as with Kafka, you can always be certain that after just a few lines a thought will come along that you cannot ignore. Something sticks, you have to pause, you have to read it again.”
‘Is That Kafka?’: a new book reveals a pool-playing moviegoer afraid of mice
“It is not necessary for you to leave the house. Stay at your table and listen. Don't even listen; just wait. Don't even wait; be utterly still and alone. The world will offer itself to you to be unmasked; it cannot do otherwise; it will writhe before you in ecstasy.”
‘A Voyage to Arcturus’ may have sold 596 copies in its first printing, but it deserves a wider audience | 2022-06-01T14:32:50Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Michael Dirda on Kafka, Algernon and other European writers - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/06/01/michael-dirda-kafka-algernon-european/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/06/01/michael-dirda-kafka-algernon-european/ |
4.4 million Americans quit or changed jobs, new Labor Department figures show
‘Now Hiring’ signs are displayed in front of restaurants in Rehoboth Beach, Del. Americans’ feelings about the economy deteriorated in May amid concerns about job prospects, but remained relatively strong even as high inflation bites, according to a survey released May 31. (Stefani Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images)
Job openings remain near record highs with 11.4 million job openings, as the tight labor market continues to be a bright spot for the U.S. economy.
Some 4.4 million Americans quit or changed jobs in April, according to a report released Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, using their leverage in a labor economy where job openings continue to outnumber job seekers by close to two-to-one.
Employers reported hiring 6.6 million people in April. Layoffs, meanwhile, fell to an all-time low of 1.2 million, as businesses sought to keep the workers they did have.
“The labor market remains strong even though things are cooling off a bit,” said Nick Bunker, an economist at the jobs site Indeed. “We’re still very much in a worker’s and job-seeker’s market.”
The latest figures come as the U.S. job market notches month after month of solid growth. U.S. employers added 428,000 jobs in April — the 12th consecutive month of at least 400,000 new jobs. The unemployment rate is at a pandemic low of 3.6 percent.
U.S. unemployment rate remains at pandemic low of 3.6 percent
Abigail Josephine worked at an animal hospital in Chattanooga, Tenn., for less than a month before quitting her veterinary technician job in April. The tight labor market, combined with a stressful work environment made the decision relatively easy, she said. The 20-year-old applied for several other positions but finally put in her notice even without another offer.
“At first I was unsure about quitting,” Josephine said. “But I came home crying, and my husband told me that no job was worth my mental health like that.” | 2022-06-01T14:32:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Job openings in April remained near record highs, U.S. employers reported - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/01/jolts-job-quits-april/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/01/jolts-job-quits-april/ |
Brazil’s teenagers have had a tougher few years than most. Covid-19 losses have been heavy. School closures over the past two years have been long even by regional standards, and access to remote learning inadequate, leaving many cut off. When I recently questioned a class of high-school seniors in the country’s northeast, they painted a familiar picture — struggles to get online in the early weeks, constant worries about falling behind, nagging pressure to contribute to falling household income.
And yet, not long into the new academic year, here they all were talking to me about it — together, in a Friday afternoon geography class, at the Prof. Jeronimo Gueiros School in the hinterland town of Garanhuns, in the state of Pernambuco. Anxious, perhaps, but present.
Given soaring global dropout rates, especially among older students, that’s no small feat anywhere. But it’s impressive in a country that has been among the hardest hit by the pandemic, one where government spending on basic education shrank in the first year of Covid-19 to its lowest in a decade. A mid-2020 study carried out by the National Youth Council found that 28% of Brazilian students between 15-years-old and 29-years-old were considering not returning once restrictions were lifted. At the end of that year, more than five million 6-year-olds to 17-year-olds across the country were out of school or unable to access education.
There’s a real-life cost for students: Learning loss translates into billions of reais of foregone future earnings. But Brazil too pays a heavy price. It urgently needs to improve human capital to boost weak productivity, and that’s a problem that improved logistics and simpler taxes alone cannot fix. The country was dealing with high dropout rates and poor outcomes even before the pandemic, with the majority of students finishing without the minimum skills in language and math. Racial and regional disparities have only worsened.
The government of President Jair Bolsonaro, never much interested in education other than as a tool to woo evangelical voters, has offered little. And yet some of Brazil’s regions and cities, leaning on existing successes, are finding their own way out — like Pernambuco.
Under Brazil’s decentralized educational structure, states are generally responsible for the final years of school, and Pernambuco, with monthly household income well below the national average, has emerged as one of the top performers in recent years. That’s largely down to the decision made over a decade ago to bet on expanding “integral”, or full day, high schools like this one in Garanhuns, which provide three meals, activities and homework supervision, a model that is extended also to vocational institutions.
Compared with teenagers studying in the split-shift day more familiar to many Brazilian high schoolers (a system that helped the country cope with exploding demand for secondary places and overcrowding in the 1990s), they get more hours of math, Portuguese language and science. Significantly improved test scores in a study carried out by economist Leonardo Rosa, now at Sao Paulo’s Insper, and colleagues at Stanford University, suggest that the focus works. A separate analysis found students in this form of education have a 63% chance of getting into higher education — 17 percentage points ahead of others — and attainment gaps between racial groups are narrower.
Investment in converting existing institutions into full-day high schools helped the state’s results for the last year of school jump from among the lowest ranks in 2007 to the third spot a decade later, out of 26 states and a federal district. The percentage of 19-year-olds who completed secondary education went from just over a third in 2008 to 56% in 2014.
Post-pandemic, these schools are a crucial part of efforts to fix the damage wrought, and more.
The state wasn’t spared during Covid-19. According to Marcelo Barros, Pernambuco’s secretary for education, upper-secondary school dropout rates jumped from around 1.5% to 20%, worsened by the failure of generous pandemic aid from the government to require any form of school participation, though normal assistance does. The state had to use small allowances to support nutrition, something its integral schools had done far more effectively, and to find away around families’ limited internet — making access free for educational content through an app. It had to cope with new children coming in from private schools as parents lost jobs.
Few students and teachers adapted easily. In parts of the semi-arid backcountry, children could not access even classes beamed out on television (they depended on worksheets collected on market days). Many struggled to concentrate. Even in Garanhuns — a reasonably prosperous town by the standards of a hardscrabble district, in a state which moved quickly to provide guidelines, train teachers and support online classes — one education department official put learning loss at as much as five years.
It fits the national picture, with losses worse for disadvantaged groups and those with uneducated families, compounded by sharp regional differences when it came to reopening. By the end of last year, 88% of students in a national poll reported their schools had reopened at least partially, but in the northeast as a whole the level was 77%, compared to 97% in Brazil’s wealthier southeast.
Now, Pernambuco is getting back on track, and its efforts are worth noting — beyond Brazil.
Among the successful programs here is “busca ativa,” or active search, which tracks down and brings back missing students, using mothers or people within the community. It’s a model that UNICEF and municipal leaders, normally responsible for younger schoolchildren, have used nationally. Pernambuco’s post-pandemic high-school version has been a clear success, thanks to administrators, churches, local leaders and classmates — cutting the high-school dropout rate to base levels, Barros said. When we spoke in March, it was already down to 3.5%, and that has since dropped back to 1.5%. Using the wider community, teachers explained, made it possible to reinforce the importance of education, to reassure families that schools were returning safely and, crucially, to use informal networks to find those who changed address and phone number at short notice, often to escape debts.
Then there is the question of the attainment gaps that widened dramatically during the pandemic. Closing those involves the continued use of hybrid learning, including television — the state set up a handful of simple studios during the pandemic, building on pre-pandemic distance-learning structures. But there’s low-cost intervention at school too, with simple measures like “monitoria,” an initiative through which schools pick a handful of higher-performing students to assist a small number of classmates in exchange for a small stipend. Some 7,000 have been handed out for Portuguese language and mathematics.
And the backbone of recovery here is the embrace of full-day school, which now covers 75% of upper-secondary students — a level at which the state says everyone who wants a place can access one, with intermediate options for those who cannot do a full five-day week. Officials and teachers use longer hours to fit in extra support. Crucially, it’s also easier to captivate students with personal development options beyond the core curriculum, sport or entrepreneurial efforts for which they would otherwise have little time — one school I visited had set up a working marketing and advertising agency. There’s a hugely popular study abroad program for public high school students too. While everyone suffered learning loss, more vulnerable children are far more likely to drop out as a result, making engagement key.
Pernambuco was not the only bright spot to emerge as states and municipalities scrambled to make up for the absence of a coordinated, national effort to support remote learning or even regulate school closures over Covid-19. Officials in Maranhao, Brazil’s poorest state, focused on supporting caregivers, who are often uneducated, so those relatives in turn could help students under six, leaning on regular broadcasts on television, radio and social media. The wealthier state of Sao Paulo, with one of the largest school systems in Latin America, held near-daily virtual meetings with the state’s education secretary to address questions, and has used rolling assessments to keep on top of changing needs as students return. Meanwhile, it’s also expanding full-time schools: “It should be like the Brazilian approach to football. We need to widen the base, to spend more time playing, if we want to win,” as one Sao Paulo official told me.
At the national level, the picture is less optimistic. Education hasn’t been a priority for the Bolsonaro government as the pandemic ebbs. Not enough is done to encourage teaching to learning level, rather than grade or age. As Insper’s Rosa points out, there’s a fiscal challenge, given the investments required for recovery efforts that look out to the long term, like expanding full-day high schools. Inclusion remains a major concern, with the most vulnerable still not accessing even the most basic public services, meaning they are often not even counted as truants. In Ferraz de Vasconcelos, in the sprawling working-class outskirts of Sao Paulo, I found volunteers at Gerando Falcoes, an ambitious social enterprise that promotes entrepreneurial and leadership skills, spending hours simply getting families to the starting blocks. The appearance of homeschooling in Brazilian debate, meanwhile, suggests a worrying willingness to invest in culture wars, not access, let alone improved countrywide standards.
Back in Garanhuns, the job is only starting. Drug-related violence is a problem in this town, surrounded by hills and cattle farms, and money is tight at home — not everyone has been able to stay in full-day school, even if they haven’t dropped out. But the benefits of carrying on, at least in this packed classroom, are clear.
“We want to do better than our parents,” one boy told me from under a thick fringe and a baseball cap, when I ask them about plans for higher education. “So there’s no choice but to study.”
• Brazil’s Messiest Election Yet Puts Democracy on the Line: Clara Ferreira Marques
• Latin America’s Schools Are Flunking Covid: Mac Margolis
• Immigrant Dropouts Are Hidden Covid Casualties: Francis Wilkinson | 2022-06-01T14:33:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Brazil Has a Model for Reversing the Pandemic’s Toll on Schools - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/brazil-has-a-model-for-reversing-the-pandemics-toll-on-schools/2022/06/01/f24f29a2-e1b3-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/brazil-has-a-model-for-reversing-the-pandemics-toll-on-schools/2022/06/01/f24f29a2-e1b3-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html |
The US didn’t invite Taiwan to join the framework, even after more than 50 senators wrote to President Joe Biden last month urging him to include the government in Taipei.
The new initiative allows for greater tailoring of the conversation and the unique characteristics of the US-Taiwan trade relationship, the official said, adding that the administration takes an adaptable approach to IPEF participation.
The US’s interactions with Taiwan are all unofficial and take place through the American Institute for Taiwan and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US. China’s Communist government has protested Washington’s deepening bilateral engagement with the island, which it regards as part of its territory despite never controlling it. | 2022-06-01T14:33:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | US and Taiwan to Deepen Trade Ties, Plan June Washington Meeting - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/on-small-business/us-andtaiwan-to-deepen-trade-ties-plan-june-washington-meeting/2022/06/01/e30dd442-e1aa-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/on-small-business/us-andtaiwan-to-deepen-trade-ties-plan-june-washington-meeting/2022/06/01/e30dd442-e1aa-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html |
In a small Dutch town, a fight with Meta over a massive data center
The view from the farm stables of Hilde and Leon de Geus, who live close to the field where Facebook's parent company, Meta, wanted to build a data center in Zeewolde, the Netherlands, on May 21, 2022. (Ilvy Njiokiktjien for The Washington Post)
AMSTERDAM — In December, over the objections of many locals, the Dutch farming community of Zeewolde approved an enormous data center for Meta, the Silicon Valley parent of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. The data center, to be built on farmland spanning the length of 245 U.S. football fields, was to be powered completely by clean energy, part of the Netherlands’ pitch as a nation that it can help support Europe’s computing needs while also protecting the environment.
But the project’s persistent opponents have managed to oust the sitting local government, spur some national lawmakers to push for curbing data centers and prompt the tech giant to postpone its plans — for now.
The faceoff over what would be the largest data center in the Netherlands — known as a “hyperscale” because it spans at least 10,000 square feet and boasts more than 5,000 servers — highlights the emerging fight over how to sustain cloud computing and data streaming while protecting the environment, even if these centers use renewable energy. And as Dutch officials seek to reconcile eliminating carbon from their energy sector by mid-century while building 20 to 25 new or expanded data centers, Zeewolde has emerged as a test of what’s possible.
Michiel De Vries, professor of public administration at Radboud University in the Netherlands, said that establishing massive data centers to power new technology “has huge environmental side effects. The question is how governments could, should and do respond to plans of high-tech companies to make such investments in their territory.”
Surrounded by a small lake and a deciduous forest, the town of Zeewolde didn’t exist until 1979, when its first inhabitants arrived at a planned community built on land recovered from the sea. It grew from a place with no electricity or tap water to one with roughly 22,000 residents, many of whom raise onions, sugar beets and potatoes, or cattle.
It is also the country’s only city that generates more renewable power than it consumes in fossil fuels, hosting one of the country’s largest onshore wind farms. While this made it an attractive site for Meta — which aims to serve tens of millions of European Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp users with a single data center — it has raised questions about whether Dutch officials can reconcile their quest to dominate this corner of the computing market with the nation’s sustainability goals.
De Vries estimated that, according to Meta’s projections, the data center will consume at least 1.3 terawatts of electrical power per year, which would tap a huge share of the country’s renewable energy.
“That is equal to the total energy consumption of all households in the city of Amsterdam,” De Vries said in a phone interview. “That’s not a trifle.”
The Netherlands, which is a little larger than Maryland, already hosts approximately 200 data centers, including Google and Microsoft hyperscales. The government has been “very eager” to recruit such projects, De Vries said, offering low taxes and cut-rate electricity prices.
These operations account for about 2 percent of the country’s energy demand, according to Martien Visser, a lecturer in energy transition at Hanze University of Applied Sciences in Groningen, and use 10 percent of its wind power.
Visser added that the Netherlands aims to increase its wind energy supply between now and the end of the decade through offshore turbines, but said that a major expansion of data centers could sap that additional supply.
While local leaders in Zeewolde had been talking to Meta, formerly known as Facebook, since 2019, these plans attracted national attention only late last year when its local council voted to change the zoning plan to reassign agricultural land as an industrial area. The move would clear the way for the national government, which has the authority, to sell the land, to transfer it to Meta.
Farmers and other residents, as well as organizations such as of LTO Noord, a business association for the region’s farmers and horticulturists, objected ahead of the vote.
LTO President Jaap Lodders said in an interview that owing to its sea-rescued roots, the soil in Zeewolde is uniquely rich — the best in the country — and should be reserved for agriculture. But land is not the only resource at stake.
“We are also concerned for the water quality,” he said. “The local canal water would be used for cooling, but to protect the cooling systems it will be treated with chemicals, then returned to the canal. But we have no guarantee it will be clean.”
Local Zeewolde activist Susan Schaap, who has lived in Zeewolde for 25 years, has been leading the charge against the building of the center for more than a year as chair of the DataTruc Zeewolde Foundation, a community protest group. The organization has sought to mobilize support for this cause through a website, a petition and — somewhat ironically — a Facebook page.
“We use Facebook against Facebook,” she said in an interview. “Because of the noise we made — we just kept yelling and screaming to put the focus on this issue — now people in the government in The Hague are scratching their heads and thinking, ‘Maybe we need to think about a new policy concerning hyperscales.’”
Now, these projects are facing stricter scrutiny. In February the country’s minister of housing and spatial planning, Hugo de Jonge, said he would place a nine-month moratorium on granting applications for new data centers while he reviews how they fit in with a national plan that charts future development given climate impacts and other challenges.
But de Jonge made it clear this pause did not apply to the Zeewolde project, since the national minister of internal affairs, who holds the authority to sell the land in question, assured the local government last August that the sale could go through.
Voters in Zeewolde, however, had other plans. In March, the elected officials who had backed the data center lost in a landslide to Leefbaar Zeewolde, a party that ran on its opposition to the project.
Shortly after those local elections, Christine Teunissen, a senator with the pro-environment Partij voor de Dieren (“Party for the Animals”) brought a motion to the floor asking the government to make the planned Meta data center subject to the government’s ongoing environmental review.
The motion, which said the project would impose a “heavy burden on energy supplies, fertile agricultural land and scarce freshwater supplies” passed by a vote of 13 to 4.
“Ten minutes after the vote, there was a message on our national news that Meta was pausing its plans to put the data center there,” Teunissen recalled in an interview.
Meta issued a statement emphasizing its focus on maintaining good relations with local residents.
“We strongly believe in being good neighbors, so from day one of this journey we stressed a good fit between our project and the community is foremost among the criteria we consider when initiating and continuing our development processes,.” the company said. “Given the current circumstances, we have decided to pause our development efforts in Zeewolde.”
Stijn Grove, managing director of the Dutch data center association, said many who oppose these operations still rely on them in their everyday lives.
“Even though everyone is working from home, everyone is on their mobile phone constantly, watching Netflix … and still they don’t want data centers,” he said. “There’s a real disconnect in this world.”
Grove said he would welcome a national policy, rather than the current piecemeal approach.
“Make a central policy on digital infrastructure, because we all need it. But we push it to lower layers of government, and then it spreads, and nobody is responsible, and things get messy,” he said. “And that’s what you saw in Zeewolde. You cannot have on the one hand a goal where you say we want to be digitally advanced, and then on the other hand you don’t have a policy on the digital infrastructure that is needed for that.”
Sen. Arda Gerkens, who belongs to the Socialist Party and voted in favor of the motion, acknowledged the nation needs data centers but says the government should weigh which data centers they allow and what resources they absorb.
“[Meta’s plans] would mean that the existing sustainable energy would go to this particular data center instead of going to households,” she said. “If you have scarce sustainable energy and scarce landscape, then you should look at the added value of such a data center. And basically, Facebook doesn’t have an added value. Not in my opinion.”
De Vries, the professor, said that the government could establish some standards for these sites.
“You can say you cannot use drinking water,” he said. “Put solar panels on your roof. Build big walls to reduce the noise levels. Build a nice data center, not just a block of bricks — something that’s not so ugly.”
In the end, the planning minister will decide whether Meta can buy land in Zeewolde. “If Hugo de Jonge says we will sell it, then Meta can go on,” Teunissen said.
Some in Zeewolde, such as farmer Leon de Greus, still hope the company will build the computing center. In an interview, he noted that the community always planned to use part of the site for an industrial purpose, and a data center would be a less disruptive option than a distribution warehouse or some other businesses.
“We are happy with Meta as a neighbor, and I hope they will come,” he said. “I’ve seen the plans for the data center,” he says.” I was surprised. It’s beautiful. It’s green. There are trees, there’s wood and water. … The cows can still walk around. It’s fantastic.”
But for now, local activist Schaap is relieved by Meta’s decision to reassess its plans. “It’s not up to Mark Zuckerberg to decide whether the data center is welcome here or not,” she said, referring to Meta’s chief executive. “We don’t want it. Seventy percent of the people in the village don’t want this thing here.” | 2022-06-01T14:33:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | In a small Dutch town, a fight with Meta over a massive data center - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/05/28/meta-data-center-zeewolde-netherlands/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/05/28/meta-data-center-zeewolde-netherlands/ |
The good, the bad and the ugly of Biden’s inflation plan
President Biden meets with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to talk about the economy in the Oval Office on May 31. (Leah Millis/Reuters)
Inflation, at this point, is a problem without a presidential fix. But it is also the issue at the forefront of voters’ minds, so no president can get away with shrugging it off by declaring it “not my problem!”
This is the fundamental problem facing President Biden. Most voters do not care that inflation is an international problem, not just one afflicting the United States. Likewise, they will not grasp that the alternative to an aggressive fiscal stimulus plan during the pandemic was a sustained recession and high unemployment.
So how has Team Biden been handling this knotty economic and political challenge? With a combination of the good, the bad and the ugly.
Let’s start with the good. Biden is now regularly reminding voters that he is focused on inflation. He wrote a cogent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal to remind voters that he understands their financial pain and assured them that he is doing whatever he can to solve it. He also met with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Tuesday, followed by a news briefing with Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council. By putting Powell front and center and telling voters that “the Federal Reserve has a primary responsibility to control inflation,” Biden is reminding informed voters that it is the Fed’s job to reach a 2 percent inflation rate.
Also in the positive column are Biden’s efforts to stress cost-containment strategies for consumers, such as his administration’s historic release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and attempts to cajole ports and retailers into fixing supply chains. Should the China competitiveness bill finally make its way through Congress, Biden will be able to stress the advantage of domestic chip production as well.
But all is not rosy. In the “bad” category is the administration’s repeated reference to deficit-cutting as an inflation-fighting tool. As The New York Times reported, “Deficits, which are financed by government borrowing, are not inherently inflationary: Whether they push up prices hinges on the economic environment as well as the nature of the spending or cutback in revenue that created the budget shortfall.”
And while deficit reduction might make long-term policy sense (requiring significant tax increases and entitlement reform), it’s far from clear this is a political winner. If the point is to stress to voters that the government won’t repeat its gigantic fiscal stimulus (thereby not boosting aggregate demand), Biden should say so. (He might also be raising deficit reduction as a sop to West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, the Democratic senator who still has not come around on a vastly reduced Build Back Better plan.)
The “ugly” has not yet occurred, but it is likely coming. Biden’s proposal to forgive student debt, possibly for people with incomes as high as $150,000 ($300,000 for a couple), would be utterly off-message. It would undercut the notion that Biden is exercising fiscal restraint and would represent a reverse Robin Hood scheme wherein poorer taxpayers, the majority of whom lack a college education, subsidize richer, college-educated Americans.
Respected economists across the political spectrum have reiterated that this would be bad policy and unpopular. Jason Furman, former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Barack Obama, told Newsweek: “The perpetual deferral of interest on student loans is just about the worst policy. It is costly, unjustified, and has added to inflation. Some targeted forgiveness of student loans while resuming interest payments for everyone else would be a less bad policy that would at least help ensure that the biggest beneficiaries of college and graduate school are paying the cost of the likely very beneficial investment they made in higher education.”
Inflation is a no-win problem for Biden. He’s not going to convince many voters that the economy would be much worse if he had not championed the American Rescue Plan, nor will he convince many voters that inflation is largely the fault of the Fed’s miscalculation. The best he can probably do is keep up his “I care" message, highlight the good jobs numbers, root for the China competitiveness bill, avoid an egregious misstep on student loan forgiveness — and pray Manchin finally agrees to something that would help bring down energy and prescription drug costs. | 2022-06-01T14:34:29Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The good, the bad and the ugly of Biden’s inflation plan - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/01/good-bad-ugly-biden-inflation-plan-economy/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/01/good-bad-ugly-biden-inflation-plan-economy/ |
French Open director Amelie Mauresmo: Women’s matches are less compelling
Amelie Mauresmo is in her first year as the French Open’s tournament director. (Michel Euler/AP)
PARIS — For 30 weeks in 2006, Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo was ranked No. 1 in the world, a champion of that year’s Australian Open and Wimbledon.
But in her first year as the French Open’s tournament director, Mauresmo has not proved to be the champion of women’s tennis that many expected.
During a news conference at Roland Garros Wednesday morning, Mauresmo, 42, defended her decision to schedule only one women’s match (compared to nine for men) for the night sessions that are new this year, saying that she found women’s tennis currently less attractive and less appealing than men’s.
“In this era that we are in right now, I don’t feel — and as a woman, former woman’s player, I don’t feel bad or unfair saying that right now you have more attraction, more attractivity — can you say that? Appeal? — for the men’s matches,” Mauresmo said, asked about the gender imbalance in the scheduling of the feature night match on Court Philippe-Chatrier.
Mauresmo, who retired from the pro tour in 2009, went on to explain that when she was planning the daily schedule for the 15-day Grand Slam event, she looked for women’s matches most days that she felt had star-power and appeal to ticket-buyers and broadcasters alike.
“My goal was when I was doing the schedule every day to try and see, and from the first rounds, from the first round, when the draw came out, to try and see what match in the woman's draw can I put there, honestly,” she said. “The confrontation or the star that I could put there. You know, you have all those parameters.”
The lone women’s match Mauresmo choice for the featured night session, which is scheduled to start at 8:45 p.m. local time, was a second-round clash between veteran French player Alizé Cornet and 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia.
“It was tough for more than one night to find, as you say, the match of the day,” Mauresmo said. “ When you have this — it’s an interesting one, because as I was saying, the fact that it’s right now a one-match night session is tough on this. It is tough.”
Mauresmo was named director of Roland Garros by the French Tennis Federaton in December 2021. Her contract runs through the 2024 French Open.
She is the second woman to take the reins of one of the sport’s four Grand Slams. The U.S. Open named Stacey Allaster its first female tournament director in June 2020. Mauresmo also expanded women’s role in tennis as coach of former No. 1 Andy Murray for a time.
The schedule issue at this year’s French Open has become a significant point of contention for players and fans alike.
Tuesday’s highly anticipated quarterfinal between 13-time French Open champion and top-ranked, defending champion Novak Djokovic didn’t start until 9 p.m. in Paris. That was its scheduled start time, to accommodate the requests of broadcasters, rather than an unscripted, delayed start forced by earlier matches running late.
With men’s Grand Slam matches contested in the best-of-five-set format, they can easily last more than four hours, as did Nadal’s four-set victory, which he closed in a tiebreaker after four hours, 12 minutes.
Women’s tennis has seen an exodus of top names in the past 12 months.
Serena Williams, the sport’s 23-time Grand Slam champion, hasn’t competed in 11 months, not since her first-round loss at Wimbledon last year. Now 40, she has yet to announce plans for her return to the game.
In March, top-ranked Ashleigh Barty, a three-time Grand Slam champion, shocked the sport with her abrupt retirement, at age 25, just months after winning the Australian Open.
Mauresmo’s 16-year pro career (1993-2009) overlapped that of many of the women’s game’s most marketable stars in recent decades, including Venus and Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova.
At French Open, Carlos Alcaraz is a star-in-waiting who may not wait much longer | 2022-06-01T14:34:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Amelie Mauresmo: Women’s tennis matches less compelling - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/01/french-open-women-amelie-mauresmo/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/01/french-open-women-amelie-mauresmo/ |
John Madden’s influence on EA’s Madden games went way beyond the cover
The three cover options for the upcoming "Madden NFL 23." (Washington Post illustration; EA Sports)
ORLANDO — Clint Oldenburg remembered his first trip to meet John Madden, the former NFL head coach and namesake of the video game mega-franchise for which Oldenburg works. In 2012, Oldenburg, then just an intern, and a team of Electronic Arts developers traveled to Madden’s Oakland offices to present a new feature they planned to incorporate into the upcoming edition of the game, a new AI blocking behavior they called “ID The Mike.”
One of Oldenburg’s colleagues introduced him to present the feature to the former coach, and no sooner had Oldenburg noted the feature’s name than Madden began waving his hands. The meeting came to a hard stop.
“Let’s not go any further,” Madden said. “I want to know, can you, or anyone in this room, tell me what it means to actually ID the Mike?”
Oldenburg, a former NFL offensive lineman before pivoting his career to game development, took the challenge in stride, explaining what Madden already knew: IDing the Mike is simply when an offense identifies the middle player among the linebackers in a defensive formation to get on the same page.
Madden stared him down, then smiled.
“And from that moment on, for the next 10 years until he passed, coach and I had a great relationship,” Oldenburg said. “We were on a first-name basis. He would call to talk to me and ask me how the game was doing, and it’s because I passed his football quiz. I will never forget that.”
When news of Madden’s death last December began to spread across the EA offices, developers flooded their Slack channels with tributes and discussion. "An immediate reaction was, ‘What are we going to do for coach in our game?' ” Oldenburg said.
During a presentation to media, Madden pro players and influencers in Orlando in late May, EA revealed the upcoming game would feature three covers, all of them depicting the Hall of Fame coach. One features the jubilant Madden being carried off the field by his players after winning Super Bowl XI. Another harks back to his days in the broadcast booth. The third, reserved for the game’s premium version, features Madden’s likeness from the original game’s cover, with the jubilant coach bursting through a black, white and gold background of play diagrams.
All three versions of the cover feature a handwritten note scrawled on the front: “Thanks, Coach.”
For more than a decade, the cover reveal for the latest Madden game has been a cultural phenomenon in the United States, a marketing decision that carries with it an outsize measure of national relevance for the athlete selected. The news of the cover reveal is often accompanied by an ESPN SportsCenter segment as well as a wave of online articles (and, as some believe, a curse).
Madden was featured on the cover of the early iterations of the game, before EA began to highlight players in 2001. Recent covers have included quarterbacks Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson.
Madden, the former Super Bowl-winning coach of the Oakland Raiders, first leant his name to the video game series in 1988 with the stipulation that the game be realistic and representative of actual NFL football. That started with a requirement that the game feature 11 players on each side of the ball, a massive computational challenge for the hardware of the early 1990s. Once solved — thanks in part to the help of developers at Bethesda Softworks and their game “Gridiron!” — it launched the best-selling sports franchise in video game history, with more than 30 installments produced since then.
Madden did more than merely lend his name to the series, however. Each year, developers from EA would meet multiple times with Madden to discuss new features going into the games and make sure they passed muster with the man the developers affectionately called “coach” — both out of respect and to differentiate the man from the franchise.
“What he was always most passionate about was the fundamentals of the game,” Oldenburg said of Madden during an interview at EA’s new Orlando office building, a structure those at EA call “The house that Madden built.” “He would always ask questions like, ‘We don’t have any illegal tackles going on, right?’ Or, ‘This specific play I saw watching football that I thought was a dirty play, we don’t have that in Madden, right?’ or ‘How are we teaching this concept?’ He was always very aware of his game as a teaching tool of the sport, but teaching it the right way.”
Another time the coach halted a PowerPoint presentation when a marketing slide featured clip art of a football play diagram. “Is that play in 'Madden’?” he asked.
“There were only six players on the field and some had arrows and X’s, and it just wasn’t a real football play,” Oldenburg recalled. “And he was like, ‘That play can’t be in my game. If that’s from the playbook, take it out. That’s not a real play.’ We stopped our creative review for the year with Coach Madden to discuss a diagram in a PowerPoint deck. That’s how much into the details he was around authenticity. And we never made that mistake again.”
Those conversations between the EA developers and Madden continued until 2021, when he passed away on Dec. 28. Oldenburg recalled the last time he talked with the coach. With covid-19 still prohibiting travel and in-person meetings, the conversation took place over a matter-of-fact phone call in August to discuss how the team would integrate the NFL’s Next Gen Stats for the upcoming game.
“I think I was watching a bowl game or something, and it popped up on the bottom line. And it definitely hit me like we had lost somebody really important," Oldenburg said. “Everyone has so much respect for what he has meant to us." | 2022-06-01T14:35:17Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Madden NFL cover was just part of John Madden's influence on EA's video game series - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/06/01/john-madden-23-cover/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/06/01/john-madden-23-cover/ |
Residents grapple with trauma after a hate crime, and the loss of a vital grocery store
Story by Jacob Bogage
Videos by Zoeann Murphy
Photos by Libby March
BUFFALO — Route 33 tears through the heart of Buffalo’s East Side, a scar in a segregated city that nearly demolished a Black community.
The highway devastated the economies of Black Buffalo’s commercial centers and sucked value from historic real estate, spitting grime and grease onto the windows of neighboring homes.
The East Side, where the Black population here has concentrated for more than 70 years, is hemmed in by Main Street to the west and Eggert Road to the east. Route 33 cuts a gnarly gash between the two. The effect is a community stuck in what locals describe as a cycle of poverty and neglect.
Then the East Side was attacked.
An 18-year-old gunman opened fire on Tops Friendly Market grocery store on Jefferson Avenue on May 14, killing 10 shoppers and employees — all of whom were Black — and injuring three more.
A week later, police say, another 18-year-old in Uvalde, Tex., shot dead 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school. Over Memorial Day weekend, there were 15 more mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive, marking a bloody start to another American summer.
Buffalo, locals say, is a poignant case study of some of the worst aspects of the country’s gun violence epidemic. Investigators say the slayings here were motivated by racist hate, and that the alleged gunman purchased his weapon legally in Pennsylvania.
“We like to call this food apartheid because the absence of these grocery stores is reflective of the range of policy choices and decisions that public and private sector leaders made,” Henry-Louis Taylor Jr., a professor of urban planning at the University at Buffalo, said.
“The consequences of not having this store open,” said QueeNia AsheeMa’at, a local activist, “is going to be greater than we can all imagine.”
“There is so much need,” said Andrae Kamoche, senior pastor at Rehoboth House of Prayer, a Buffalo church. “And it didn’t just start with the shooting Saturday.”
“There’s a quote,” said Alexander J. Wright, who runs the African Heritage Food Co-op in Niagara Falls, “that says, ‘The fork will kill you faster than the bullet.’ And here in Buffalo, we’re experiencing both, both the fork and bullet.”
It’s a struggle that reveals larger challenges for urban Black communities across the U.S., still struggling with the impacts of redlining that often blocked minorities from homeownership and urban renewal projects that tore up existing neighborhoods and depressed wages and property values.
The tough economic conditions led businesses to locate in more affluent areas where consumers had more spending power, opening the door for others that experts consider “predatory.” The East Side — a community of about 130,000 people — has four major grocery stores, according to a Washington Post analysis, and a couple dozen smaller stores with more limited selection.
Tops was the only major grocery store within Route 33, and one of few places on the East Side for residents to fill prescriptions — another service it supplied in a chronically underserved area. Weighted by population, Buffalo’s majority White areas have 22 percent more pharmacies than its majority Black areas, according to The Post’s analysis of data gathered by market research firm Data Axle.
Percentage of the population that is Black
Small neighborhood grocery
Major grocery
ONTARI0
was constructed in the
Note: Major grocery stores are stores with at least 10
employees and chain full-service stores, such as Wegmans
and Tops. Other food stores included corner stores.
Convenience and variety stores were not included.
King Park
Note: Major grocery stores are stores with at least 10 employees and chain full-service stores,
such as Wegmans and Tops. Other food stores included corner stores. Convenience and variety
stores were not included.
Fruit Belt
Note: Major grocery stores are stores with at least 10 employees and chain full-service stores, such as Wegmans and Tops.
Other food stores included corner stores. Convenience and variety stores were not included.
Even before the shooting, Buffalo’s East Side was a “food desert,” experts say, a term used to describe areas that lack convenient and affordable healthy foods, especially fresh fruits and vegetables. Finding nutritious food is so difficult, residents said, that this shock to local commerce could force thousands of households toward hunger.
Elected officials and civil rights leaders here have pledged to hold accountable not just alleged shooter Payton Gendron, but also the right-wing figures who inspired his attack, and the gunmakers and distributors and social media platforms they say enabled it.
But some locals see another accomplice, one that has bolstered Buffalo’s racial division: “the 33.”
“How did this guy know to come to this grocery store?” said activist David Lewis. “He researched it. He found out we all lived here. And that’s because we’re segregated.”
Many residents of Buffalo's East Side say without Tops, they will struggle to access fresh food.
‘I live in front of a chasm’
To know Buffalo’s East Side is to know its minor celebrities.
In a past life Stevo Johnson, a charter school teacher, helped style Mary J. Blige. Sirgourney Cook, the first lady of Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church, is a trained opera singer and performed backup for Jennifer Hudson.
Cariol Horne, a former police officer, stopped a White officer in 2006 from choking a Black detainee to death. She was fired for her actions, then beat back her dismissal in a lawsuit that was resolved in 2021.
There’s a reason they all live here. The Great Migration brought Black families to Buffalo shortly after the Civil War, then again in massive numbers after World War II. They settled on the East Side, said Taylor, the urban studies professor, because that was the city’s industrial hub. They worked and lived alongside mostly White European immigrants, sometimes in the same boardinghouses. There’s evidence, Taylor said, that Blacks taught themselves to speak and write German to better communicate with their neighbors and co-workers.
Before Route 33 was built, Humboldt Parkway at Northland was a leafy thoroughfare that connected the East Side to other parts of the city. (Courtesy of The Buffalo History Museum)
Route 33 changed the character of the Parkway and so many other parts of the East Side. “It slices through all of those neighborhoods creating a path of destruction and devaluation,” said Henry-Louis Taylor Jr., a professor of urban planning at University at Buffalo. (Courtesy of The Buffalo History Museum)
LEFT: Before Route 33 was built, Humboldt Parkway at Northland was a leafy thoroughfare that connected the East Side to other parts of the city. (Courtesy of The Buffalo History Museum) RIGHT: Route 33 changed the character of the Parkway and so many other parts of the East Side. “It slices through all of those neighborhoods creating a path of destruction and devaluation,” said Henry-Louis Taylor Jr., a professor of urban planning at University at Buffalo. (Courtesy of The Buffalo History Museum)
Eyeing the postwar suburban boom in the 1950s, area political leaders planned a highway — Route 33 — connecting downtown Buffalo to a new airport built in the White suburbs. They chose to run it through the East Side because it had the lowest property values, Taylor said, a common metric urban planners use when deciding where to place major infrastructure projects without disrupting civic life.
The choice may not have been racially motivated, Taylor said, but disproportionately harmed Black Buffalonians nonetheless; Blacks were largely concentrated on the East Side because of existing financial and legal restrictions on housing. City leaders dug out part of Humboldt Parkway, a historic and scenic green strip that connected the city’s park system, for the highway’s route.
“It slices through all of those neighborhoods creating a path of destruction and devaluation,” Taylor said.
“The tearing up of the parkway ... would not have happened if that had been in a White community,” added New York State Assembly Majority Leader Crystal D. Peoples-Stokes (D), who represents the East Side.
Today, Buffalo’s East Side is a shell of its former self, with vacant storefronts and empty homes. The highway is a constant source of frustration for residents due to its noise and air pollution.
White workers fled to the suburbs: Amherst, Williamsville, Clarence, Orchard Park. Black families faced steep obstacles to move into those areas, either because of the price of homes or discriminatory financial structures. Funding for schools followed White families out of the city. Businesses did, too. Over time, as property values fell around the highway and rose in the suburbs, it became harder for families to sell their homes and buy in more affluent areas.
By 2020, Buffalo was the 17th most segregated city in the country, according to data collected by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley.
“I live in front of a chasm,” said Emere Nieves, a food security activist whose home borders Route 33. Weekly, she scrapes solidified scum from exhaust pipes off the windows on her oversized porch. “It was colossal what they did, and it was idiocrasy.”
As food runs low, neighbors mobilize
The morning after the shooting, Buffalo’s East Side needed to eat. At a prayer vigil, volunteers arrived with dozens of Paula’s Donuts, an iconic sweet treat here. Two neighborhood safety groups, the Peacemakers and Buffalo FATHERS (Fathers Armed Together Helping to Educate, Restore, and Save), started a cookout, flipping burgers and hot dogs on a three-sided grill.
“We’ll be here as long as it takes for this supermarket to reopen,” said Lenny Lane, a retired firefighter and co-founder of the FATHERS, “and we don’t know how long it will take. But we’re not going back the way it was. It can’t be just a new coat of paint.”
Inside Family Dollar next door across Landon Street, the mood was more desperate. One mother looked for milk and eggs and fresh fruit with her children. Another asked a cashier if the store sold chicken or beef; it did not. Another customer asked for help identifying what food items he could buy with money from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps.
“I don’t know,” the cashier said. “This is not what we usually do.”
In the days after the shooting, East Side residents came together to get food to their neighbors through cookouts and free food distributions. But residents acknowledged that the loss of Tops was creating a desperate sense of need. “When you create these distant travels to get foodstuffs, you increase the cost of it,” Henry-Louis Taylor Jr. said. “If somebody is paying 40, 50 percent of their income on housing, when they get to the store and they look at a bottle of orange juice for, say, $4, and a bottle of pop for $2, they’re buying the pop every day and twice on Sunday. They’re going to make unhealthy food choices, many people.”
Neighbors with cars — reliable public transportation is not a given here — took friends to the McDonald’s less than a mile away on Main Street.
Tops set up a shuttle to take shoppers from the East Side Tops to another in North Buffalo, but the offer, locals said, was not very enticing. The shuttle ran only a few times an hour, and dropped off back at Jefferson Avenue, leaving customers to haul the groceries back home.
By Tuesday, World Central Kitchen, the food relief agency run by celebrity chef José Andrés, arrived to hand out hot meals on the corner of Jefferson Avenue and East Utica Street, a major intersection.
A sign advertises a free food pickup on the East Side.
Locals work for long-term relief
Officials have promised relief, and soon. Tops spokeswoman Kathleen Sautter said in an emailed statement that the store was dedicated to resuming service on the East Side as soon as possible, but executives still don’t know when that will be. Law enforcement has closed the building indefinitely to investigate the shooting.
“Our engineers and construction management team are working closely with local contractors and equipment suppliers to establish the quickest possible timeline for reopening,” Sautter said. “We hope to have a clearer understanding of that timeline in the coming weeks.”
But community members have already begun planning for the future. A group of neighbors is petitioning for a second Tops on the East Side.
“Somebody asked me today, what do I want to see in six months?” said the Rev. Julian Cook, the senior pastor at Macedonia Missionary. “I want to see talks of another grocery store, of another grocery option in the community, a viable grocery option. I’m not talking about putting some fruits and vegetables at a bodega.”
Others are working with officials to get rid of part of the highway. Gov. Kathy Hochul’s (D) 2022 budget includes $1 billion to cover a portion of Route 33 and lay green space on top of it, recreating a portion of the old Humboldt Parkway.
The project will take years to complete, and New York is competing with other states for funding as part of President Biden’s $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan.
But tunneling the highway is only a start, community leaders say. The East Side still needs to attract businesses to the area. To do that, residents need more buying power. That requires generational wealth, Taylor said, which means affordable homeownership on property that can appreciate. Residents are already wary of gentrification.
East Side residents fought for five years to bring this Tops to their neighborhood and are bracing for another fight to get more supermarkets into their area. In the meantime, neighbors are working together to make sure everyone has access to fresh food.
In the meantime, community members say they’ll continue working to help one another, even if government officials and private businesses don’t step in.
One recent morning, Andrae and Sharifah Kamoche, husband and wife and the senior pastors of Rehoboth House of Prayer, backed a U-Haul truck into the Family Dollar parking lot and unloaded, by their math, 3,200 pounds of fresh food. A local produce wholesaler donated the items for them to distribute around the city. That afternoon, they had cucumbers, lemons, bananas, oranges and melons.
“The blessings of the Lord,” Andrae said to one client, handing her a crate of 36 cucumbers. “Take a whole box.”
More than 60 years after it was built, state and city officials are working together to get rid of part of the highway and recreate a portion of the old Humboldt Parkway.
Photo editing by Karly Domb Sadof. Video editing by Angela Hill. Copy editing by Jamie Zega. Text editing by Amanda Erickson. Data analysis by Sahana Jayaraman and Ted Mellnik. Graphics reporting by Hannah Dormido. Graphics editing by Tim Meko. Design and development by Jake Crump. Design editing by Madison Walls.
Jacob Bogage writes about business and technology for The Post, where he has worked since 2015. He previously covered the automotive and manufacturing industries and wrote for the Sports section. Twitter Twitter
Zoeann is an Emmy award winning visual journalist on staff at The Washington Post. She reports largely on humanitarian and environmental crises as well as covering breaking news. She has worked in over 20 countries. In recent years, she’s focused on migration, climate change and natural disasters. Twitter Twitter | 2022-06-01T14:58:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Buffalo's East Side struggles without Tops grocery store after shooting - Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2022/buffalo-shooting-tops-food-desert/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2022/buffalo-shooting-tops-food-desert/ |
The House Committee on Oversight and Reform has been investigating allegations of sexual harassment and financial improprieties involving the Commanders and their owner, Daniel Snyder. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
The House Committee on Oversight and Reform requested Wednesday that Washington Commanders owner Daniel Snyder and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell appear before the committee at a hearing scheduled for June 22.
“Since we launched our investigation in October, the Committee’s goal has been to uncover the truth about the culture of harassment and abuse at the Washington Commanders, to hold accountable those responsible, and to better protect workers across the country,” Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), the committee’s chairwoman, said in a written statement. “The Committee has worked tirelessly to obtain critical information, including the findings of the internal investigation conducted by attorney Beth Wilkinson, only to be met with obstruction from the Commanders and the NFL at every turn.”
The committee said it made its request in letters to Goodell and Snyder.
“We must have transparency and accountability, which is why we are calling on Mr. Goodell and Mr. Snyder to answer the questions they have dodged for the last seven months,” Maloney said. “The hearing will explore how Congress can act to prevent employers from silencing victims of workplace misconduct and ensure that what happened at the Commanders organization does not happen again.”
Neither the NFL nor the Commanders immediately responded to requests for comment Wednesday morning.
“For seven months, the Committee has been stonewalled by NDAs and other tools to evade accountability,” Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), chairman of the subcommittee on economic and consumer policy, said in a statement. “Mr. Snyder and Mr. Goodell need to appear before the Committee to address these issues and answer our questions about the pervasive workplace misconduct at the Washington Commanders, and how the NFL addressed these issues.”
The FTC has not commented on its response to the committee’s request for an investigation beyond acknowledging the receipt of the committee’s letter. The offices of attorneys general Jason S. Miyares (R) of Virginia and Karl A. Racine (D) of the District of Columbia have announced they are conducting their own investigations. Along with Maryland’s attorney general, Brian E. Frosh (D), they were copied on the committee’s letter to the FTC, as was Goodell.
Congress details allegations of Commanders’ ‘unlawful’ conduct to FTC
Several owners said last week they would support a meaningful penalty for Snyder imposed by the league—perhaps a significant suspension—if the latest allegations are corroborated by White’s investigation. Multiple owners said they were not aware of any efforts within the ownership ranks to canvass votes for a prospective effort to remove Snyder from ownership of his team. Such a move would require 24 votes among the 32 NFL teams.
Tanya Snyder has represented the team at league meetings since then. She did not attend last week’s meeting in Atlanta after testing positive for the coronavirus, a person with knowledge of the situation said then. | 2022-06-01T15:29:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Daniel Snyder, Roger Goodell requested to appear at congressional hearing - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/01/committee-hearing-snyder-goodell/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/01/committee-hearing-snyder-goodell/ |
12-year-old boy struck by car in Southeast D.C.
The boy was transported to a local hospital unconscious, but breathing, police said.
A vehicle struck a 12-year-old boy just before 8 a.m. Wednesday on a thoroughfare in Southeast D.C., according to D.C. police.
The boy was transported to a hospital unconscious but breathing, police said. The incident, which took place on the 1300 block Pennsylvania Ave. SE, is under investigation, police said. | 2022-06-01T15:33:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 12-year-old boy struck by car Wednesday morning in Southeast D.C. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/01/juvenile-crash-southeast-dc/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/01/juvenile-crash-southeast-dc/ |
The final, brutal collapse of GOP’s big Michael Flynn conspiracy theory
President-elect Donald Trump’s then-national security adviser-designate Michael Flynn arrives at Trump Tower in New York on Jan. 12, 2017. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Among the many GOP efforts to counterprogram the Russia investigation with thinly constructed conspiracy theories, one of the most persistent ones was the so-called unmasking of Michael Flynn.
The idea was that Obama administration officials deliberately targeted Trump associates — and particularly Flynn — by requesting the disclosure of their names in intelligence reports before Trump took office, doing so for political purposes. This fed into long-running allegations of the government “spying” on Trump, who chose Flynn as his national security adviser.
We knew before that this theory had fallen apart. We now know just how spectacularly.
BuzzFeed News late Tuesday revealed a previously top-secret Justice Department report that details the findings of a review ordered by Trump’s attorney general, William P. Barr. The report is a resounding rejection of the conspiracy theories, which were seeded and fertilized throughout Trump’s four years in office by Trump allies and GOP members of Congress.
Essentially, the idea was that the Obama officials might have sought the identity of Flynn in intelligence detailing his December 2016 calls with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and then leaked details for political purposes. (Flynn would later plead guilty to lying to the FBI about these calls.) And there were valid questions early on about the Obama administration’s use of unmasking, as we wrote in 2017.
But the allegations almost always went beyond the known facts. And now the Justice Department report affirms that the allegations went way beyond what actually happened, too.
In his newly revealed report from September 2020, then-U.S. Attorney John Bash found “no unmasking requests made before Election Day that sought the identity of an apparent associate of the Trump campaign.” He said much the same about the transition period between Election Day 2016 and Trump’s inauguration in January 2017.
Bash said the FBI’s version “is consistent with my review of unmasking records, which did not reveal any unmasking request corresponding to a report discussing those communications.”
Bash’s big conclusion: “I have not found evidence that senior U.S. officials unmasked the identities of U.S. persons contained in intelligence reports for political purposes or other inappropriate reasons during the 2016 election period or the ensuing transition period.”
Flynn’s contact with Kislyak was first revealed by Washington Post columnist David Ignatius on Jan. 12, 2017. In a telephone call, the two discussed sanctions during a conversation that might have run afoul of an unenforced federal law called the Logan Act. But speaking to the FBI later, Flynn denied having discussed sanctions. He pleaded guilty to that offense, but Barr’s DOJ later made the extraordinary decision to try to have the case dismissed, and a lame-duck Trump pardoned Flynn.
Bash’s report comes after we already knew his review had resulted in no criminal charges. The Washington Post’s Matt Zapotosky and Shane Harris reported in October 2020 that the review had quietly concluded. Now we know it didn’t just come up shy of chargeable crimes; it also found virtually nothing to substantiate the various claims made by Trump and his allies.
And that’s pretty far afield from how this was often pitched on the right. Often, it wasn’t just “this seems fishy”; it was that “this is a proven scandal.”
Following Ignatius’s report, a Bloomberg News columnist reported in April 2017 that former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice had requested unmaskings in intelligence reports related to Trump’s campaign and transition period. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) declared it to be a “smoking gun” and claimed it amounted to “spying on Trump campaign.”
Smoking gun found! Obama pal and noted dissembler Susan Rice said to have been spying on Trump campaign.
https://t.co/SHJ41vhQu7
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) April 3, 2017
The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board went so far as to declare that “Rice would have had no obvious need to unmask Trump campaign officials other than political curiosity.”
Rice didn’t do herself many favors by making some confusing comments about the matter. But even at the time, it was apparent that there were actually plenty of reasons for to believe this was business-as-usual for someone in her position.
The conspiracy theory simmered for a couple years, until Republican senators in the 2020 election year released a list of Obama administration officials who had allegedly requested Flynn’s unmasking — information that had been provided by then-Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, a Trump loyalist.
And again, plenty on the right, despite the dearth of any truly damning information, skipped right over any plausible alternative explanations for how Flynn’s name would’ve become known. They did so even as The Washington Post’s Ellen Nakashima broke the news that Flynn’s name had never been masked in the first place. They did so even as one of their own, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), asked why Grenell’s list conspicuously “did not contain a record showing who unmasked General Flynn’s identity for his phone call with Ambassador Kislyak.”
Conservative journalist John Solomon declared that a “crime is certain to have been committed.” Fox News’s Laura Ingraham wagered that such information had definitely been illegally leaked to the media. Paul again invoked the smoking gun: “We sort of have the smoking gun because we now have the declassified document with Joe Biden’s name on it.” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) called it “bigger than Watergate.”
Bash’s report finds not only that there was no inappropriate unmasking, but also that the claims about all those Obama officials supposedly requesting unmaskings in Grenell’s declassified report were badly overcooked.
“Most critically, all but one of the requests that listed a senior official as an authorized recipient of General Flynn’s identity were made by an intelligence professional to prepare for a briefing of the official, not at the direction of the official,” Bash wrote, adding: “Nothing about the content suggests that officials were seeking derogatory information about General Flynn or were otherwise inappropriately targeting him.”
There was indeed something of a high temperature wafting over the supposed scandal, but rather than smoke, it was hot air. | 2022-06-01T15:38:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Another big Trump conspiracy theory meets its predictable demise - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/01/flynn-unmasking-bash-report/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/01/flynn-unmasking-bash-report/ |
Texas runoffs
Ky. Democrat wears noose in ad highlighting nation’s history of lynching
Democrat Charles Booker speaks to a group of supporters in Louisville on May 17 after his victory in the Kentucky primary. (Timothy D. Easley/AP)
Charles Booker, the Democratic nominee challenging Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), wears a noose in a new campaign ad in which he seeks to highlight the nation’s painful history of lynching and Paul’s opposition to a 2020 bill to make it a federal hate crime.
“The pain of our past persists to this day,” Booker says in the ad. “In Kentucky, like many states throughout the South, lynching was a tool of terror. It was used to kill hopes for freedom.”
The camera pans to reveal a noose around Booker’s neck.
“It was used to kill my ancestors,” he says. “Now, in a historic victory for our commonwealth, I have become the first Black Kentuckian to receive the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate.”
“My opponent?” Booker continues, as images of Paul flash on the screen. “The person who single-handedly blocked an anti-lynching act from being federal law.”
The ad does not mention that Paul supported an updated bill, known as the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, that passed in the Senate in March and is now law. Paul did single-handedly hold up the legislation in 2020, saying he was concerned it could be applied too broadly.
In March, Paul acknowledged to the Louisville Courier-Journal that “it wasn’t a popular stand to slow this bill down” in 2020 but that he still thought it had been the right thing to do. Paul later co-sponsored the updated bill, which was introduced by Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.).
“In the end, I think the compromise language will hopefully keep us from incarcerating somebody for some kind of crime that’s not lynching,” Paul told the newspaper. “We just wanted to make sure that the punishment was proportional to the crime, and I guess it’s just good news that it finally worked out.”
President Biden signed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act into law in March, noting that it had taken more than a century of failed efforts to pass a federal law that expressly prohibited lynching.
“For a long time, lynching was pure terror to enforce the lie that not everyone, not everyone belongs in America, not everyone is created equal,” Biden said then in a Rose Garden ceremony after the bill’s signing. “Innocent men, women and children hung by nooses from trees, bodies burned and drowned and castrated. Their crimes? Trying to vote, trying to go to school, trying to own a business or preach the gospel. False accusations of murder, arson and robbery. Simply being Black.”
The new law amends the U.S. Code to designate lynching a hate crime punishable by as many as 30 years in prison. More than 4,000 people, mostly African Americans, were reported lynched in the United States from 1882 to 1968 in all but a handful of states. Ninety-nine percent of perpetrators escaped state or local punishment.
Booker and Paul will face off in the November general election. Paul faced four challengers in the May 17 Republican primary but won handily. Booker, a former Kentucky state representative and Louisville native, was unsuccessful in his attempt to be the Democratic Senate nominee in 2020 but also easily won his primary race last month.
Booker’s new ad also calls Paul out for once comparing expanded health care to slavery and for his past criticisms of the Civil Rights Act.
Felicia Sonmez and Eugene Scott contributed to this report. | 2022-06-01T15:38:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Democratic candidate Charles Booker wears a noose in campaign ad to highlight nation's painful history of lynching and criticize Sen. Rand Paul (R). - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/01/kentucky-campaign-ad-lynching-paul/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/01/kentucky-campaign-ad-lynching-paul/ |
Tens of thousands displaced by resurgence of fighting in eastern Congo
People near Goma on May 24 flee fighting between Congolese forces and M23 rebels. (Moses Sawasawa/AP)
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Tensions between the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighboring Rwanda, and the sudden reemergence of a once-feared rebel group in eastern Congo, have raised fears of another wide-reaching conflict in the volatile Great Lakes region.
The tensions erupted last week after M23 rebels attacked Congolese forces near Goma, the largest city in Congo’s mineral-rich east that borders Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and Tanzania. The United Nations and Congolese forces have long struggled to contain the violence in the east, which is driven by dozens of armed groups and complicated by national and ethnic rivalries.
The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Friday that more than 72,000 people have been displaced by the fighting in North Kivu province.
Congo’s president, Félix Tshisekedi, summoned Rwanda’s ambassador on Friday, suspended RwandAir flights and barred overflights by the national carrier, blaming Kigali for backing M23. Rwanda has denied supporting the ethnic Tutsi militia, which was accused by the U.N. of summary executions, rape and the use of child soldiers during a brutal insurgency a decade ago. But the group has been mostly quiet since laying down its arms in 2013.
“We are possibly seeing a stumbling into a conflict that was not intended to be a conflict,” said a former U.S. government official focused on Africa, who has direct knowledge of regional talks. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of negotiations. “It appears that Rwanda has stirred up the M23, not so much to start a war, but to get attention,” he said.
The attacks by M23 came after Rwanda announced that two of its soldiers were being held in eastern Congo by the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a rival militia founded by Rwandan Hutus who were involved in human rights atrocities against the Tutsis.
“We call upon authorities of the Democratic Republic of Congo that work closely with these genocidal armed groups to secure the release of the RDF soldiers,” read a statement from the Rwandan government on Saturday.
“The Rwandans claim they were captured from a border post in Rwanda, while the Congolese, after not saying anything for several days, now claim they were arrested while inside Congo,” the former U.S. official said. “There is very little trust and everything has been interpreted in the worst possible light, and this is where one miscalculation leads to other miscalculations.”
Rwanda’s foreign minister, Vincent Biruta, told reporters on Tuesday that Kigali was interested in working with Congo to restore stability, but cautioned that it would use force if necessary.
“If attacks continue we will not sit idly by,” Biruta said, according to Reuters. “Rwanda will have the right to respond to protect the security of the country, to protect the security of its citizens and we have the means to do that.”
While U.N. investigators previously found that M23 was backed by Rwanda and Uganda when the group was most active in 2012, it is unclear to what extent that remains the case.
Senegal’s president, Macky Sall, who chairs the African Union, expressed alarm about the escalating violence. “I call for calm and dialogue between the two countries, and for the peaceful resolution of the crisis with the support of regional mechanisms and the African Union,” he tweeted on Sunday.
Relations among the Great Lakes neighbors have improved in recent years. Kenya has proposed an East African intervention force to deal with militia activity, and Congo joined the East African Community trade bloc in March.
But the region’s fragile calm was tested late last year after Tshisekedi allowed Ugandan troops into eastern Congo to take on an Islamist rebel group blamed for a deadly bombing in Kampala.
The following month, Burundian soldiers crossed the border into eastern Congo to battle the RED-Tabara rebel group, which has used the area as a base to launch attacks inside Burundi. Rwandan President Paul Kagame has also warned he would dispatch soldiers into the area, according to a recent report from the International Crisis Group, or ICG.
Nelleke van de Walle, ICG director for the Great Lakes region, said tensions between Congo and Rwanda flared again after it appeared that Kinshasa was moving closer to Uganda and Burundi, leaving Kigali feeling marginalized.
“Rwanda also has anti-Kigali rebel groups on Congolese soil, and Rwanda has mentioned in the past that it wants to fight those groups as well,” she said. “What could be challenging is if Rwanda becomes involved on the military front in eastern DRC.”
Rwanda and Uganda are not only interested in tackling militias in eastern Congo, said van de Walle, but are also keen to tap the area’s vast mineral wealth. “The fact that Tshisekedi allowed the Ugandans to come into the DRC to conduct military operations, but also to conduct road works to improve trade between eastern DRC and Uganda, also adds to the mix,” she said.
As larger powers have battled for control of eastern Congo over the decades, civilians have borne the heaviest cost, often fleeing to Rwanda and Uganda and confined to refugee camps for years on end.
Families had just started returning to their land before the latest fighting in North Kivu, the UNHCR said. Now, they are again forced to abandon their homes, shops and fields, which many depend on for food. “This cycle of violence and displacement has become a repeated source of despair and danger,” the agency said.
Joel Smith, a UNHCR spokesman who just returned from eastern Congo, warned the humanitarian situation is dire.
“The large scale of the displacement is leading to many families sheltering in schools and churches that are already overcrowded; some are even sleeping outside” he said. “Major needs include shelter and access to clean drinking water and food, for which additional funding is urgently required.”
The U.N.’s special envoy to the Great Lakes, Huang Xia, briefed the Security Council late Tuesday on the situation in eastern Congo and is expected in Rwanda later this week.
What Rwanda does next, said van de Walle, will be critical. The government in Kigali has recently started connecting the Congolese military with the FDLR, which she said could be used as a pretext to cross into eastern Congo.
“That would be a dangerous development,” she added. | 2022-06-01T16:04:13Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Tens of thousands displaced by resurgence of M23 in DRC - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/01/drc-fighting-m23-rebels-kivu/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/01/drc-fighting-m23-rebels-kivu/ |
The Capital Pride parade takes place June 11, but there are many ways to celebrate before then. (Astrid Riecken for The Washington Post)
The Capital Pride parade and street festival garner much of the attention every June, but there’s much more to Capital Pride than its tent-pole events and “official” dance parties at local nightclubs. This is a guide to some of the events happening in and around the D.C. area before Pride holds its official opening party June 10.
Annapolis Pride Parade and Festival: Maryland’s capital city held its first Pride Parade and Festival in 2019, drawing more than 6,000 spectators, according to organizers Annapolis Pride. After two years of cancellations, it finally returns. The centerpiece is a parade on West Street, roughly between Westgate Circle and Church Circle, beginning at noon, followed by a festival and block party with multiple stages of live music, comedy and dance. The festival officially runs from noon to 5 p.m., but afterward, there’s outdoor dining on West Street and Market Space, and parties featuring drag shows and DJs. While the main event is only on Saturday, there are events all weekend long, include a family-friendly pre-Pride meet-and-greet at the Graduate Hotel on Friday night and a pop-up beer garden Sunday afternoon. Noon. annapolispride.org. Free.
Alexandria Pride Festival: Alexandria spreads its Pride events throughout the month — look for an after-hours event at Torpedo Art Factory on June 10 and a “make your own Pride patch” event for teenagers on June 21 — but the central event takes place at the Charles Houston Recreation Center, with music, spoken word, hands-on art activities, food and a drag queen story time for children ages 3 to 8. 1 to 4 p.m. visitalexandria.com. Free.
Live at the Library: Pride Night at the Library of Congress: The Library of Congress’s new after-hours series features Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart in a discussion with journalist James Kirchick, the author of the recent “Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington,” and special displays of items from the library’s collection that were used in Kirchick’s book. The library requires timed tickets for entry, and that goes for Live at the Library, too: Guests must reserve a time slot in advance but can stay as long as they want. (A new time slot opens every 15 minutes, and at press time, there were between 25 and 63 spaces available in the individual time slots after 5 p.m.) 5 to 8 p.m. loc.gov. Free; reservations required.
Films on the Green: ‘Matthias & Maxime’ at the Sylvan Theater: The Embassy of France and the Québec Government Office in Washington are co-sponsors of this screening on the National Mall. The 2019 film, nominated for the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, follows the repercussions after two longtime friends are asked to kiss as part of a short film. The film is shown in French with subtitles. In case of rain, it will be rescheduled for June 15. Film begins at sunset. villa-albertine.org. Free. | 2022-06-01T16:04:38Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Pride month festivals, movies and events take place before D.C.'s Capital Pride celebrations - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/01/pride-month-celebrations-dc/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/01/pride-month-celebrations-dc/ |
FILE - Actor Catherine Deneuve appears at the photo call for the film “The Truth” at the 76th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Aug. 28, 2019. Deneuve will receive the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement award at the 79th Venice International Film Festival in September, organizers said Wednesday. Deneuve, now 78, was a key figure in the French New Wave thanks to collaborations with directors like Jacques Demy, Luis Buñuel and François Truffaut. She won the festival’s Golden Lion in 1967. (Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP, File) | 2022-06-01T16:05:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Catherine Deneuve to receive Venice Film Festival honor - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/catherine-deneuve-to-receive-venice-film-festival-honor/2022/06/01/c8215308-e1b8-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/catherine-deneuve-to-receive-venice-film-festival-honor/2022/06/01/c8215308-e1b8-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html |
FILE 0 This image provided by Georgia Department of Corrections shows Virgil Delano Presnell Jr., who had been scheduled to be executed on May 17, 2022, for killing an 8-year-old girl in May 1976. But the day before he was to be put to death, a judge issued an order temporarily staying the execution .(Georgia Department of Corrections via AP, File( (Uncredited/Georgia Department of Corrections) | 2022-06-01T16:05:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Georgia high court won't hear appeal from death row prisoner - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/georgia-high-court-wont-hear-appeal-from-death-row-prisoner/2022/06/01/49a1400a-e1b9-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/georgia-high-court-wont-hear-appeal-from-death-row-prisoner/2022/06/01/49a1400a-e1b9-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html |
Tom Cruise plays Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in "Top Gun: Maverick." (Paramount Pictures, Skydance and Jerry Bruckheimer Films)
The resounding success of “Top Gun: Maverick” could represent a tipping point in Hollywood’s relationship to China. The cinematic celebration of U.S. military superiority has been a monster success, even though it wasn’t released in the Middle Kingdom. It’s about time American studios recalibrated their priorities to be less reliant on Chinese censors and Chinese moviegoers.
The $300 million worldwide opening puts the picture roughly three-quarters of the way to profitability in just four days in theaters. That’s a big number by any measure these days; importantly, for our purposes here, the Paramount Pictures- and Skydance Media-produced picture hit that mark without making a single penny in China.
This might come as a surprise to some culture warriors who knew little about this picture aside from the fact that Pete “Maverick” Mitchell’s (Tom Cruise) flight jacket from the iconic original had been altered in the trailer to erase any mention of Japan or Taiwan. The alteration, observers assumed, occurred because the film was funded in part by Tencent Holdings, a Chinese firm.
Keen viewers at early screenings, however, noticed a couple of things. The first was that during the title cards that preceded the picture, Tencent’s logo was nowhere to be found. The second was that the flags of Japan and Taiwan were back in place on Maverick’s jacket. That these two things were related felt obvious, but it was nice to get confirmation from Erich Schwartzel at the Wall Street Journal.
Kathleen Parker: Do you feel a need for speed? I know I do.
“Tencent executives backed out of the $170 million Paramount Pictures production after they grew concerned that Communist Party officials in Beijing would be angry about the company’s affiliation with a movie celebrating the American military, according to people familiar with the matter,” Schwartzel reported.
Having lost Chinese funding and being uncertain of receiving a Chinese release, someone somewhere decided the juice was no longer worth the squeeze and undid the vandalism to Mav’s jacket. In addition to simply making aesthetic sense, the move also earned the picture some goodwill with American audiences who have grown tired of having their blockbusters defaced by Chinese censors.
And “Top Gun: Maverick” is just the latest film to achieve box-office success after rejecting Chinese demands in exchange for a run in that nation’s theaters. Word has it that China asked Sony Pictures to remove a sequence in “Spider-Man: No Way Home” that prominently featured the Statue of Liberty.
Anyone who has seen “Spider-Man: No Way Home” understands the impossibility of that request. The entire climax of the picture, involving three generations of Spider-Men doing battle against three generations of Spider-Man villains, takes place on a Statue of Liberty that has been remodeled in tribute to Captain America. Indeed, the request is so impossible as to make it feel like a de facto rejection of the picture by Chinese censors.
Luckily for Sony and their partner Disney, it didn’t really matter: “Spider-Man: No Way Home” was the first unabashed domestic hit of post-pandemic theatrical life, grossing more than $800 million in the United States alone. On top of that, it added another billion-plus worldwide, for a total of $1.89 billion. Combined with the fact that Disney’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” has also grossed nearly $900 million worldwide so far without a Chinese release, we’re starting to see what a post-China future looks like for Hollywood: not that different, but a little more independent.
This isn’t to say that the Chinese box office will cease to play a fiscal role in America’s dream factory. Universal is undoubtedly excited that the latest “Jurassic World” has already secured a release date in China, and it’s hard to imagine the “Fast and Furious” movies, also from Universal, failing to receive a release there, as that series is practically built on a global, pan-national appeal.
But the success of “Top Gun: Maverick,” the two most recent Marvel Cinematic Universe pictures, and other productions that have eschewed Chinese censorship such as Quentin Tarantino’s opus “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” suggests that Hollywood has less to fear from losing the Chinese marketplace than it might have thought.
And, perhaps just as important, America’s movie studios can reclaim the moral high ground as champions of American values at home, and the outlaw quality that makes Hollywood a beacon in unfree societies. “Top Gun: Maverick” will undoubtedly be seen in China — but as samizdat. Bootleg DVDs and digital files of Pete Mitchell acting like a maverick within the system won’t earn Hollywood much in the way of money. But they will serve as a reminder that one of America’s greatest attributes is our commitment to individual success even in determinedly hierarchical structures.
In the end, Iceman (Val Kilmer), Maverick’s rival-pilot-turned-dear-friend was right: As Ice said in the original, Maverick is dangerous — to Chinese aspirations of global hegemony. And that’s exactly why the world needs Pete Mitchell in the cockpit of an F-18 Super Hornet. | 2022-06-01T16:05:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | "Top Gun: Maverick" proves Hollywood doesn't need China - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/01/top-gun-maverick-proves-hollywood-doesnt-need-china/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/01/top-gun-maverick-proves-hollywood-doesnt-need-china/ |
A brief history of failed efforts to make Trump the Russia probe’s victim
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a rally on May 28 in Casper, Wyo. . (Chet Strange/Getty Images)
Donald Trump began assailing stories about Russia’s effort to aid his 2016 election even before he took office as president. A few weeks after the election was over, the first reports about that interference emerged, prompting Trump — smarting over having lost the popular vote — to disparage the idea that his victory was a function of anything other than his own aptitude. When BuzzFeed published the dossier of reports compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, Trump’s fury escalated. The Russia allegations were a “WITCH HUNT,” he wrote for the first time that same day. On the day following, he suggested that intelligence agencies had released the document, an act akin to “living in Nazi Germany.”
This was more than a week before he even became president.
Over time, a pattern emerged. Trump would make broad claims about how investigations into Russian interference — and, we later learned, contacts between his campaign team and Russian actors — were contrived to damage him personally. His allies would then scramble to prove him right either in the abstract or to validate the specific claims he’d made, however loosely they could.
And over and over and over those efforts to cast Trump as the victim of a plot aimed at undermining his candidacy or his presidency came up short.
Two things bear mentioning at the outset. It is true that the investigation into Russian interference and possible overlap with Trump’s campaign team suffered from flaws and errors. It’s quite possible that no massive investigation could escape some level of error of the sorts exposed by the scrutiny paid to the Russia investigation, but it is true that the scrutiny paid here did reveal questionable actions and decisions that don’t alter our understanding of what occurred.
The other thing worth mentioning is that the details were never the point. Trump’s play from the outset was to raise doubt and then simply refit the evidence as needed. His supporters always champion how he turned out to be “right” about various things, a function of ignoring all the times he was obviously wrong — the kid guessing a number between 1 and 10 who guesses each number and then claims he nailed it. The operating assumption is that Trump is right about being unfairly targeted by the Russia probe and so any new claim that bolsters that assumption is elevated — even after being debunked — until a new, not-yet-debunked claim emerges.
What triggered the Russia investigation is simple. Russia actively sought to influence the 2016 election both through the much-hyped but less-significant effort to contribute to the social media conversation and through the hacking of the Democratic Party and a top adviser to Hillary Clinton. As this was known to be going on, federal investigators began investigating whether people close to Trump might have been actively working with Russia. People like Paul Manafort, his campaign manager and consultant to Russia-linked actors; and like Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser who’d previously been identified as a target for Russian intelligence efforts and who traveled to Moscow in early July 2016; and like George Papadopoulos, another adviser who had been told by a guy who was helping him set up a meeting between Trump and Russia’s president that Russia had some of Clinton’s emails. That Russia had hacked the Democrats was known by mid-June 2016 and the Russia probe was opened by the end of July.
In the years since, that simple explanation for the investigation has been muddied by a variety of alternate theories, claims that objective analysis has shown to be either false or irrelevant to the central question.
These are those claims.
Michael Flynn was “unmasked” and Trump was spied on
One of the first egregious claims Trump made about the Russia investigation was that it involved having the “wires tapped” at Trump Tower during the campaign. This would become a pattern: Trump would take an overblown claim from conservative media and inflate it further. (There is no evidence that Trump Tower was wiretapped; the government has repeatedly denied that it did so.)
Within days, Trump was claiming that his unfounded assertion was proved right not by evidence of wiretapping but by evidence that communications involving a member of his transition team, Michael Flynn, had been “unmasked” by the administration of Barack Obama. It’s always been odd to try to conflate this with wiretapping Trump Tower unless you recognize the intermediate step: Trump Tower was wiretapped, meaning that Trump was spied on, meaning that anyone working with Trump being spied on validates the claim. This is how it works.
The “Flynn unmasking” argument was clunky, too, because it depended on understanding how surveillance works. The government monitors communications with people like the Russian ambassador. But since the CIA and NSA aren’t supposed to surveil American citizens, the identities of Americans talking to the ambassador are “masked,” which is to say anonymized. Other officials can ask that the identity be unmasked, however, to understand who’s talking to that ambassador in the first place. Which Obama officials did, learning the person talking to Russia’s ambassador was Flynn. (Incidentally, Flynn had visited Moscow in late 2015, sitting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a dinner.)
This was trumpeted repeatedly as the Obama administration spying on Flynn and, therefore, Trump. But a review from Trump’s own Justice Department later determined that there was no evidence that the unmasking was politically motivated. That Flynn later lied to investigators about the conversation, though, led to his pleading guilty to making false statements.
The Steele dossier and the Carter Page warrant
Shortly after the “unmasking” brouhaha, Trump’s irritation about the Russia probe led him to fire FBI Director James B. Comey (though Trump claimed this was about how the FBI handled the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server). Shortly thereafter, special counsel Robert S. Mueller III was assigned to investigate Russian interference and possible overlap with Trump’s campaign team — an assignment made by a Trump appointee aimed at protecting the investigation from interference.
In the public sphere, the dossier published by BuzzFeed had attracted outsize attention, despite obvious questions about what it alleged. Most media outlets treated it with skepticism or treated it as unconfirmed. As time passed and many of its claims remained unsubstantiated or had been undermined, it gained unexpected importance — among Trump’s defenders. After all, if the dossier could be identified as the primary trigger for the Russia probe and it was contrived, that made the entire investigation dubious.
This line of argument became more appealing after it was learned that Steele had been hired by a firm called Fusion GPS that was itself hired by a law firm working for Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic Party. The line of argument skipped a few middle steps to become that Clinton had paid for a dossier of false claims — perhaps itself seeded by Russian intelligence! — and triggered the Russia probe.
The problem is that this assertion both ignores the known predicates for the Russia probe, and it doesn’t fit with the timeline of when the probe began. The FBI didn’t obtain the dossier until mid-September 2016, according to an internal inspector general report, after the Russia investigation was already underway.
In 2018, it was revealed that the dossier had been an important part of an application to obtain a warrant surveilling Carter Page. That warrant, obtained under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), included allegations from the dossier as a reason to surveil him. (The application acknowledged that Steele was “was likely looking for information that could be used to discredit” Trump’s campaign.) The warrant was granted and later renewed several times.
Only after Page left the campaign, however. When allegations from the Steele dossier were made public (apparently by Steele), Page resigned from the campaign. It was after that point that the surveillance warrant was granted. This problem with the timeline has been attributed to some multidimensional chess — that the warrant was a back door to investigate others close to Trump, for example — but that Page had previously been identified by a Russian intelligence agent as a possible recruitment target seems salient.
The dossier’s allegations have by now been shown to not be credible. There are valid questions about including its claims in the FISA warrant. But neither that warrant nor the dossier itself were predicates for the Russia investigation itself. For years, Trump and his allies have claimed that the Russia investigation stemmed from the dossier because it was sketchy and because it was paid for indirectly by lawyers working for Clinton. But that doesn’t make it true.
The text messages from FBI officials
A few months after Robert S. Mueller III took over the Russia investigation, we learned that an FBI officials working on his team had been removed. That official, Peter Strzok, was a counterintelligence officer who’d also been central to launching Crossfire Hurricane — the internal code name for the Russia investigation — in the first place. He was removed by Mueller after it was discovered that he’d exchanged messages disparaging Trump and other elected officials with another FBI official, Lisa Page.
Those messages launched a slew of arguments aimed at undermining the Russia investigation broadly. Strzok was accused of ginning up the probe out of animus toward Trump, a belief that a later investigation by the Justice Department inspector general found to be unwarranted. His exchange with Page in which he referred to the need to probe possible links between Trump’s campaign and Russia as being akin to a young person getting an “insurance policy” was repeatedly cited as evidence he wanted to blackmail Trump — though he explained credibly under oath that he was simply stating that they couldn’t allow the possibility of a connection to go unexamined in the event that Trump actually won (which at the time seemed unlikely).
The huge trove of messages (which, despite a different set of rumors, were not intentionally destroyed) allowed for Trump supporters to pick out various phrases as sinister or significant even when they weren’t. There was a brief flurry of attention paid to a message about “OCONUS lures” — an apparent reference to informants outside of the continental United States (OCONUS). But this was part of Strzok’s job and was not shown to be related to the Russia probe.
That particular idea gained some traction after it was revealed that the FBI had employed a confidential informant to probe members of Trump’s team. This was dubbed “Spygate,” and became Trump’s new explanation for how he was right about having been under surveillance all along. (Trump told an ally that he liked to call the informant a “spy” specifically for the pejorative connotations.)
That informant, though, only reached out to Carter Page and George Papadopoulos after they were already on the FBI’s radar screen. That same inspector general report determined that there was “no evidence that the FBI used CHSs” — confidential human sources — “or UCEs” — undercover employees — “to interact with members of the Trump campaign prior to the opening of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.”
“After the opening of the investigation,” it continues, “we found no evidence that the FBI placed any CHSs or UCEs within the Trump campaign or tasked any CHSs or UCEs to report on the Trump campaign.”
The John Durham investigation
As should be obvious, that inspector general report did a lot to undercut the narratives promoted by Trump and his allies. So, as soon as it came out, Attorney General William P. Barr released a statement in concert with U.S. Attorney John Durham undercutting its determinations.
By then, Durham had already been tapped to conduct an investigation into the investigation: to figure out if Trump’s efforts to cast himself as unfairly targeted held water. The inspector general report, by making an objective assessment that it didn’t, stepped on Durham’s (and therefore Barr’s and therefore Trump’s) toes, hence the statement.
Durham and Barr began scouring the available evidence, going so far as to travel to Italy to evaluate whether the understood predicate for the investigation — Papadopoulos being told that Russia had Clinton emails — was valid. But, for months, no alternate explanation emerged.
Before Trump left office, Durham’s role was shifted to special counsel, giving him the same protection from President Biden that Mueller had from Trump. But Durham has not produced much. He obtained an indictment against Igor Danchenko, one of the sources for the Steele dossier and one against an attorney who worked for the law firm employed by Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Which brings us to this week.
Clinton did it
In October 2020, the campaign looming, the political ally Trump put in charge of the national intelligence directorate released a letter pointedly suggesting that the Russia investigation was a function of Clinton’s campaign. The evidence? Apparently that the CIA had identified discussion among Russian sources alleging that Clinton had approved a campaign message trying to link Trump to Russia on July 26, 2016.
This was, in fact, five days before Crossfire Hurricane was launched. But it was after there were already numerous public questions about Trump’s connections to and sympathies toward Russia and Putin. That Russia got intelligence that Clinton had made linking Trump to Russia part of her campaign strategy in late July is both unremarkable (her campaign manager, Robby Mook, had already raised it in television interviews) and unrelated to the FBI probe.
The appeal here is obvious, though, as it was with the Steele dossier. Blaming Clinton for the Russia probe scratches two itches at once: casts Trump as innocent and Clinton as guilty.
Durham’s indictment of Michael Sussman, the attorney who worked for the firm hired by Clinton’s campaign, prompted a flurry of similar allegations. He’d come to the FBI with a dubious claim about a connection between Trump’s private company and a Russian bank — which to Trump supporters became proof that Clinton had tried to gin up this controversy and therefore the Russia probe. But that allegation was incidental to the Russia investigation (far more even than the Carter Page FISA warrant), coming months after the investigation began. During Sussman’s trial, Mook testified that Clinton had approved a messaging campaign elevating the dubious claim, an admission that titillated Fox News types. But it was completely irrelevant to the Russia investigation. Like the October 2020 story, it was about campaign messaging, not federal investigations.
The Sussman prosecution included other efforts to elevate minor points as dispositive of Trump’s having been unfairly targeted. There was the flutter of excitement over the Trump White House having been surveilled by Sussman as hinted at in a Durham court filing — but that didn’t happen. Instead, researchers who were clients of Sussman’s had obtained data from the White House during the Obama administration that they’d analyzed.
One would think that, by that point, Trump’s allies would be skeptical of new assertions about how the Russia investigation began. After all, not only have there been repeated claims about what happened that have been shown to be baseless, there’s been nothing that has undercut the official story about how the probe began (even after Barr and Durham went to Italy in apparent hopes of doing so).
But, again, the point isn’t the evidence. The point is the belief that Trump was unfairly accused. That belief is not driven by evidence, so it can’t be undercut by a lack of evidence.
It is still important to note that there is no evidence for it. And not for lack of trying to find some. | 2022-06-01T16:05:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | A brief history of failed efforts to make Trump the Russia probe’s victim - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/01/brief-history-failed-efforts-make-trump-russia-probes-victim/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/01/brief-history-failed-efforts-make-trump-russia-probes-victim/ |
‘Capehart’ with Michael R. Jackson
Michael R. Jackson won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Drama for his play, “A Strange Loop.” The Broadway show is nominated for 11 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. On Thursday, June 9 at 4:00 p.m. ET, Jackson joins Washington Post associate editor Jonathan Capehart for a conversation about how his work in musical theatre examines issues of identity, race and sexuality.
Playwright, Lyricist & Composer, “A Strange Loop” | 2022-06-01T16:06:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | ‘Capehart’ with Michael R. Jackson - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/06/09/capehart-with-michael-r-jackson/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/06/09/capehart-with-michael-r-jackson/ |
How Democratic Senate candidates can put democracy on the ballot
Demonstrators hold signs at a rally for the For the People Act in front of the Supreme Court in June 2021. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
While the White House has rightly focused on the economy, the multi-pronged crisis of democracy has not abated. Laws to suppress voting and subvert elections have taken root, the Supreme Court is working to rewrite voting rights and 2020 election deniers are on the ballot in dozens of races.
Democratic Senate candidates would be wise to zero in on these efforts. They should make the GOP’s campaign to diminish the rights of millions of Americans a central issue of the midterm elections.
With few exceptions, Republican Senate incumbents have repeatedly voted to block debate on voting rights; cheered the prospect of stripping women’s constitutional protection against forced births; countenanced the defeated former president’s attempted coup (by, among other things, acquitting him in the second impeachment trial); and refused to consider reasonable police reforms despite ample evidence of systematic abuse. These are not popular positions, but thanks to the filibuster, Republicans have stymied bipartisan attempts at reform.
A savvy Democratic Senate candidate would run on a “restore democracy” platform aimed to empower voters. Such a campaign would begin with a commitment to reform the filibuster to overcome resistance from Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. However the reform is styled (e.g., demanding that cloture opponents physically hold the Senate floor, carving out exceptions for constitutional issues), the goal would be the same: The Senate minority should not be able to block reforms that protect or restore constitutional rights.
Democrats would be wise to be specific about the types of reforms achievable. As public opposition to forced births surges, they should pledge to provide federal statutory protection for access to abortion (favored by more than 60 percent of voters). Meanwhile, a limited package of voting reforms (e.g., protection for election workers, nonpartisan redistricting, reauthorization of the preclearance process under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act) can be coupled with clarification of the Electoral Count Act to reaffirm the vice president’s limited role, prevent losers from soliciting phony alternative slates and raising the number of lawmakers needed to challenge electoral votes.
Among the most important reforms would be a redesign of the Supreme Court, which has self-destructed as a result of unbridled disregard for precedent, abuse of the so-called shadow docket and the justices’ refusal to adopt the strict ethics code applicable to other federal court judges. The court’s credibility has dropped like a stone, and court reform enjoys an astounding level of support, with 67 percent of voters favoring term limits and 74 percent supporting a mandatory code of ethics.
Democratic candidates should also consider a widely popular reform proposal floated by the presidential commission on the Supreme Court. While the commission’s members could not reach consensus on solutions, it noted that “[p]roposals for staggered eighteen-year terms ... would ensure that all Presidents have the opportunity to appoint two Justices to the Supreme Court in each term they serve. This predictability, proponents argue, would strike a more appropriate balance than the current system between two important features of our constitutional system of checks and balances: judicial independence on the one hand and long-term responsiveness of the judiciary to our democratic system of representation on the other.” Such a reform would provide relief from justices motivated by partisan zealotry and reduce the stakes of court confirmation fights.
In short, Democrats should enthusiastically take on Republican senators’ obstruction, disdain for democratic principles and radical mission to deprive millions of Americans fundamental rights. The system “doesn’t work,” largely because an extreme right-wing minority is holding the Constitution hostage and the Supreme Court has run amok. Vowing to return voters to power would be constitutionally sound and politically wise. | 2022-06-01T16:12:55Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | How Democratic Senate candidates can put democracy on the ballot - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/01/how-democratic-senate-candidates-can-put-democracy-ballot/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/01/how-democratic-senate-candidates-can-put-democracy-ballot/ |
Virginia Democrats elect historic party leader in House of Delegates
Virginia Del. Don L. Scott (D-Portsmouth), shown speaking in the House of Delegates in January, was chosen by his party on Wednesday as House minority leader. (Steve Helber/AP)
A previous version of this article incorrectly reported that Del. Don L. Scott Jr. is the first African American to serve as leader of Virginia House Democrats. He is the first African American man to do so. The article has been corrected.
RICHMOND — Democrats in the House of Delegates elected Del. Don L. Scott Jr. (D-Portsmouth) as their leader on Wednesday, marking the first time an African American man has served in the role.
Scott led the effort last month to oust former Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax) as House minority leader, in part over Democrats’ failure to hold onto their majority in the House in last fall’s elections.
Virginia Democrats leadership fight grows after House ouster
He beat out two other veteran lawmakers for the role: Del. Charniele Herring (D-Alexandria), who is Democratic caucus chairwoman, and Del. Richard C. “Rip" Sullivan Jr. (D-Fairfax).
Several Democrats said they supported Scott as the best leader to help the party regain a majority in the House.
Scott told reporters that he intends to be an inclusive leader who helps Democrats do a better job of communicating and achieving their priorities.
“There are too many people that are hurting, there are too many people that need us, and when we don’t do the things that we promise to do, then real people hurt,” he said.
Scott accused Gov. Glenn Youngkin and other Republicans of using the pain of inflation and other ills as political talking points, and said Democrats instead want to solve problems such as keeping communities safe, providing excellent education and expanding access to health care.
“We don’t want to fight the culture wars,” he said, and took a swipe at Republicans for failing to work for gun control in the wake of recent firearm violence.
“The same people who said they did not want people to wear a mask will have our children wearing body armor pretty soon, because they want to arm teachers to fight,” he said.
A spokesman for House Republican leadership declined immediate comment on Scott’s new role.
Scott, a lawyer, is part of a new wave of House Democrats elected since Donald Trump took the White House in 2016 and energized opposition to his Republican administration. He won his seat in 2019 and again last year in a safe Democratic district.
Known as a fierce floor debater, Scott cast himself early in this year’s legislative session as a voice of opposition to the policies of Youngkin. After Youngkin invoked unity and religion when he was sworn in as governor in January, Scott made an impassioned floor speech imploring Youngkin to stop using race as a way to fire up conservatives, citing his continued campaign against racial equity policies in public schools.
“So far, what I’ve seen from his day-one activities is not someone who is a man of faith, not a Christian, but someone who wants to divide the commonwealth,” Scott said in that speech.
Youngkin responded by walking across the Capitol for a private meeting with Scott in his legislative office. The two shook hands, and Scott said later he was looking for a more cooperative tone from the governor. But as the legislative session played out, Scott continued to serve as a provocative voice against Youngkin’s policies, particularly in the areas of race and criminal justice.
Scott brings a unique background to the role: A former Navy officer who was born in Texas, Scott served time in prison on drug charges in the 1990s. He had his civil rights restored by then-Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), and went on to a prominent role in legal and community circles in Portsmouth.
After hard-charging start, Youngkin faces tricky work of relationship building
Democrats selected Scott as their leader Wednesday morning in a closed caucus meeting. Each candidate for the leadership role made a speech to the delegates — Sullivan appearing by way of a recording because he was on a personal trip overseas. The vote was conducted by secret ballot.
With the General Assembly about to convene to take up the state budget, Democrats ran out of time to tally the results of the caucus vote. They made the final count later Wednesday during a break in the floor session.
Virginia lawmakers to vote on tax cuts in compromise state budget plan
Soon after the vote, both the House and the Senate began debate on the budget, which includes billions in tax relief as well as more money for teachers and other public employees and record spending on education.
The budget deal, reached by House and Senate negotiators in the weeks since the General Assembly wrapped up its regular session March 15, also includes language setting out new penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana.
Youngkin is hoping to get at least a modest victory on his campaign for sweeping tax cuts. Republicans who control the House of Delegates had passed a package of tax breaks that cost about $3 billion more than those passed by the Democratic-controlled Senate, leading to a stalemate that prevented lawmakers from agreeing on a budget during this year’s regular legislative session.
Last week, negotiators said they had finally reached a compromise deal that gives Youngkin some but not all of his wishes. The centerpiece: increasing the standard income tax deduction, which Youngkin had wanted to double. The legislature’s proposed budget would fall just short of that, increasing it from the current $4,500 for individuals and $9,000 for joint filers to $8,000 and $16,000, respectively.
But the increases would take place only if state revenue continues to grow by certain amounts, and would end before the 2026 tax year.
The agreement also calls for cutting the 1.5 percent state tax on groceries but not the additional 1 percent grocery tax that localities may levy. Youngkin had wanted to eliminate both.
Lawmakers did not agree to suspend the state’s gasoline tax, which Youngkin had proposed. But they went along with his proposal to reduce taxes on military pensions, which they would phase in over several years.
The General Assembly’s proposed budget also achieves a longtime goal of Democrats: making 15 percent of the earned income tax credit refundable for low-income working families. | 2022-06-01T17:31:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Virginia Democrats elect historic party leader in House of Delegates - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/01/virginia-general-assembly-budget-vote/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/01/virginia-general-assembly-budget-vote/ |
As revolution broke out, these sisters were doing it for themselves
Marie-Victoire Lemoine painted herself and her sister at work in their Paris studio in 1789
When artists are overlooked because (for instance) they are women, it can leave frustrating gaps in the historical record. This 1789 painting by Marie-Victoire Lemoine (1754-1820) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is a case in point.
Needless to say, 1789 was a big year in France. There’s no sign of the storming of the Bastille in Lemoine’s painting. But the upheaval in French society brought on by the revolution would transform opportunities for female artists over the following decades.
Before the revolution, in 1783, two exceptional women, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard and Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, had been admitted to the Royal Academy. They were just the third and fourth women to be admitted in the institution’s 150-year history. Wanting to promote the cause of women artists, Labille-Guiard painted a work (also at the Met) that is a clear forerunner to Lemoine’s: It showed the artist herself, seated at an easel, with two female students behind her.
Lemoine’s 1789 canvas conveys a similar message: female capability. (It also features the same type of oval-backed, green upholstered chair.) For a long time, people believed the painting was intended as a tribute to Vigée Le Brun. But it is now believed to show Lemoine herself (standing) with her younger sister Marie-Élisabeth, who was also an artist.
Lemoine stands, palette in hand, in front of a large canvas still in an early stage of execution. I love pictures within pictures because they allow the painter to play games with different levels of illusionism. They can either bring the fiction to the surface or trick you, by implied contrast, into believing in it even more.
This unfinished canvas-within-a-canvas is mostly just sketched white lines. Only the kneeling figure with her extended arm has been painted in. The subject is clearly classical (the standing figure wears a laurel wreath). And that in itself feels significant. Women who chose to paint were encouraged to become proficient at still life and portraiture (Lemoine shows her skill in both genres here). But the most prestigious genre was “history painting” (classical and religious subjects), and history painting was still largely the preserve of men. Lemoine shows that she was willing to buck that trend.
The figures’ poses in the canvas on the easel seem to echo the overall picture: a standing figure looming over a seated woman. The overall painting is in a lovely key of mauve and green. This harmony is echoed in the pattern on the tablecloth, the flowers in the vase, the curtains and the chair. To me, the seated artist’s head seems a little too small in relation to her sister behind, but perhaps this was deliberate?
Given the wider turmoil, Lemoine had to wait a few years, but her painting was finally shown at the Salon of 1796. By that time, the Royal Academy had been abolished and women’s access to training, exhibiting opportunities and the market had started to expand significantly.
Compared to men, however, women remained at a disadvantage, and no one had heard of Lemoine when this painting came on the market in 1920. It had remained in her family since her death a century earlier. When it was lent to an exhibition in 1926, it was given the title “Madame Vigée Le Brun in her studio giving a lesson to her pupil Mademoiselle Lemoine.” But in fact, Vigée Le Brun was never Lemoine’s teacher, so this speculative title has since been rejected. Scholars settled instead on the idea that the painting shows Lemoine and her sister.
If they’re correct, the painting can be placed at the start of a long and fascinating story about female siblings in France (among them the great Impressionist Berthe Morisot and her sister Edma) studying art together, sharing studios, registering at the Louvre, and providing each other with crucial moral support in an art world, and a wider society, dominated by men.
The Interior of an Atelier of a Woman Painter, 1789
Marie-Victoire Lemoine (b. 1754). At Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. | 2022-06-01T17:35:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Perspective | Marie Lemoine painted herself and her sister as the French Revolution raged - Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/interactive/2022/marie-victoire-lemoine-interior-atelier-woman-painter/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/interactive/2022/marie-victoire-lemoine-interior-atelier-woman-painter/ |
Former White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Dan Scavino, former trade adviser Peter Navarro and former Trump strategist Steve Bannon refused to comply with subpoenas seeking their testimony. So did Meadows, even as he initially complied with the committee’s request for text messages. Their matters were referred to the Department of Justice for potential criminal prosecution. Bannon has been indicted and is set to go on trial in July on two counts of contempt, which can potentially carry a penalty of up to a year in jail plus a fine. More recently, the committee announced it was subpoenaing five Republican House members. Those include the Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy, who spoke to Trump by phone during the Capitol riot. McCarthy resisted complying with his subpoena, challenging the committee’s legal standing. Trying to compel testimony from sitting members of Congress is legally complicated and underscores a key facet of the case: Lawmakers were participants in some of the events on Jan. 6 and have information germane to the probe. | 2022-06-01T17:35:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What the Jan. 6 Committee Has Done, and What’s Next - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/what-the-jan-6-committee-has-done-and-whats-next/2022/06/01/c20cd89c-e1cd-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/what-the-jan-6-committee-has-done-and-whats-next/2022/06/01/c20cd89c-e1cd-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html |
Why Croatia Sees Joining the Euro as Path to Security
Analysis by Jasmina Kuzmanovic and Alexander Weber | Bloomberg
Croatia, which is the European Union’s newest member country and whose economy is highly dependent on foreign visitors, is in a hurry to adopt the euro as its national currency. The move, which the government is targeting for 2023 and which the EU is treating favorably, would vault it into the EU’s core, making payments easier and cheaper and giving its financial system a safety net in future crises. The country, whose top tourist attractions include Split and Dubrovnik on its Adriatic coast, also aims to join the Schengen zone, which removes barriers to travel around Europe.
1. How close is Croatia to joining the euro?
Croatia wants to swap its national currency, the kuna, for the euro on Jan. 1, 2023 -- eight years after Baltic state Lithuania became the latest addition to the 19-member currency bloc. The former Yugoslav republic of 3.9 million people is very close to attaining its goal: In 2020 it joined the euro-area waiting room known as ERM-2, and on June 1 the European Central Bank said Croatia meets euro-zone entry requirements. The European Commission, the European Union’s executive body, recommended that Croatia join the euro next year, and the move now just needs approval from EU governments.
2. Why does Croatia want to join?
Croatia began its push for the euro as soon as it won accession to the EU in 2013 -- a step that was delayed by the bloody 1990s wars sparked by the Yugoslav breakup. Like elsewhere in the continent’s east, the move is partly aimed at cementing a Western alignment after about half a century of communist rule following World War II.
3. What about the economic logic?
That’s arguably even more compelling. The country relies more than any other EU state on tourists, who generate a fifth of gross domestic product and find holidaying much easier when they needn’t grapple with exchange rates. Meanwhile, most private and corporate bank deposits are held in euros, along with more than two-thirds of debt totaling about 520 billion kuna ($74 billion). Euro-area membership would lower interest rates, improve credit ratings and make Croatia more attractive to investors, according to central bank Governor Boris Vujcic.
4. What are the pros?
Adopting the euro would formalize a chunk of economic activity that’s already carried out using the common currency -- from apartment and car sales to short-term rentals for vacationers. It would trim foreign-exchange costs outside tourism to the tune of about 1.2 billion kuna a year, according to the central bank. Croatia would gain access to ECB liquidity and potential bailout financing from the European Stability Mechanism during periods of crisis. With Greece’s troubles now largely in the rear-view mirror, there’s popular support to switch to the euro. Almost all political parties back the move.
5. And the cons?
In terms of monetary policy, there’s not much to lose by relinquishing control to the ECB since the kuna’s exchange rate has been locked in a tight trading band to the euro and, before that, to Germany’s mark since the 1990s. Croatia’s expected euro adoption will cost local banks about 1 billion kuna annually in lost conversion fees, but the switch will reduce currency risks and improve stability, according to the national association of banks. Euro adoption is also expected to cost banks between 80 and 100 million euros (between $85 million and $106 million) in one-time expenditure aimed at adapting their IT services and ATM networks.
6. What hurdles has it had to face?
For Croatia, which was the last country to join the EU in 2013, inflation has proved the biggest challenge after the war in Ukraine sent the prices of energy and other commodities soaring. It’s a problem gripping the whole euro area: Consumer prices there jumped by a record 8.1% in May. The commission and the ECB confirmed in separate reports that Croatia fulfilled the requirement for price stability, with inflation remaining sufficiently in line with other euro members over a one-year period. The ECB cautioned, however, that policy makers must remain watchful.
7. Are other countries eager to join?
One certainly is: Bulgaria. But it has pushed back its timetable by a year to 2024 after being accepted into ERM-2 at the same time as Croatia. Romania has also expressed a desire to follow eastern European peers Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia into the currency bloc. Despite being obligated to join themselves at some point, however, the biggest countries in that region aren’t rushing. Poland, for one, attributes its ability to survive the 2008 global financial crisis without a recession to it retaining an independent monetary policy.
8. What would Croatia’s new coins look like?
The coins would feature the checkerboard pattern that, found on Croatia’s coat of arms, is considered one of the oldest national symbols in Europe. They’ll also have images of a kuna, or weasel in the Croat language, and will feature Nikola Tesla, one of the world’s great inventors, who was an ethnic Serb born in the present-day Croatian town of Smiljan. Serbia’s central bank has said it would take action if Croatia was allowed to use Tesla’s image.
• Bloomberg articles on the European Commission’s recommendation on Croatia, the country’s central bank urging citizens to move their savings into banks, and its plans for euro coins.
• A Bruegel analysis of the euro coming of age.
• A Brookings Institution study on whether European integration increases people’s life satisfaction in Croatia and elsewhere. | 2022-06-01T17:36:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Why Croatia Sees Joining the Euro as Path to Security - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/why-croatia-sees-joining-the-euro-as-path-to-security/2022/06/01/f6706ea8-e1ca-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/why-croatia-sees-joining-the-euro-as-path-to-security/2022/06/01/f6706ea8-e1ca-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html |
The actor (”Girls Trip,” “Matrix” films), who hosts the Facebook Watch talk show with her daughter, Willow, and Adrienne Banfield Norris, her mother, said that millions of people are living with alopecia and what she called the “shame" that surrounds it. The condition, particularly for Black women, can affect a person’s perception of themselves and force them to frequently confront others’ perceptions about beauty, hair and race and culture. | 2022-06-01T17:36:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Pinkett Smith talks hair-loss 'shame,' outcome of Oscar slap - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/pinkett-smith-talks-hair-loss-shame-outcome-of-oscar-slap/2022/06/01/3d5ef5fc-e1c4-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/pinkett-smith-talks-hair-loss-shame-outcome-of-oscar-slap/2022/06/01/3d5ef5fc-e1c4-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html |
Doja Cat appears at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards in Las Vegas on April 3, 2022, from left, Drake appears at the Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas on May 1, 2019, and Ari Lennox appears at the 2021 Soul Train Awards in New York on Nov. 20, 2021. Doja Cat scored six nominations for the BET Awards. Drake and Lennox are the second-most nominated acts, scoring four nods each. The BET Awards will be held on June 26 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo) (Uncredited/AP) | 2022-06-01T17:36:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Doja Cat, Drake, Ari Lennox lead BET Awards nominations - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/doja-cat-drake-ari-lennox-lead-bet-awards-nominations/2022/06/01/d9409058-e1c8-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/doja-cat-drake-ari-lennox-lead-bet-awards-nominations/2022/06/01/d9409058-e1c8-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html |
How people of color are shaking up France’s film industry
By Rokhaya Diallo
Omar Sy takes a picture during the photocall for "Father & Soldier," during the 75th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France on May 19. (Stephane Mahe/Reuters)
Rachid Bouchareb, the trailblazer
Aïssa Maïga, the advocate
Jean-Pascal Zadi, the disruptor
Houda Benyamina, the audacious
Omar Sy, the star
Lyna Khoudri, the face of the future
In 2000, during the César Awards (the French equivalent to the Oscars), actor Luc Saint-Eloy delivered a powerful speech to the largely White audience calling out the invisibility of Black and brown actors on French screens. “Imagine, in this country, a TV showing exclusively images of Black People… with Black people stories for Black people... Imagine that you are absent, invisible… But rest assured, we are the one playing the role of the absent. And this is not a fiction,” he said.
Two decades later, French cinema still has enormous blind spots and is often criticized for not reflecting contemporary France. But, as I saw firsthand while attending the Cannes Film Festival this year, the conservative French film industry is slowly being shaken up. Here are some of the inspiring creators of color leading that charge.
In 2006, Cannes was stirred by a film that explored a part of untold French history. Bouchareb’s “Days of Glory” depicted the story of North African soldiers enlisted by colonial France to fight in the Second World War. The images not only created room for a new narrative in French cinema, but also changed the destiny of the people the film was based on: Then-president Jacques Chirac subsequently decided to increase the pensions of African soldiers who were still alive, after his wife was moved by the film in a presidential screening.
Born in Paris to an Algerian family, Bouchareb this year presented his film “Our brothers” at Cannes. It magisterially mixes archives with fiction to remind France about the tragic destiny of two French men of North African origin killed by the police the same day in 1986. The screening was met with a standing ovation, which said much about the need for France portray itself more fully.
In 2018, a splendid wave of blackness climbed the legendary red steps of Cannes. In a gathering organized by Maïga, 16 Black French actresses raised their fists and chanted “My Profession Is Not Black,” the title of their collective book recounting how prejudices and stereotypes were still large obstacles to Black women in cinema.
Two years later, on the stage of the Cesars, actress Maïga stood fiercely in front of an icy and overwhelmingly White audience and pointed out the misrepresentation of minorities on French screens.
Indeed, throughout her career, Maïga has relentlessly advocated for inclusion in cinema. The 47-year-old actress was at Cannes this year as part of Elisabeth Subrin’s “Maria Schneider, 1983” and the audacious short film “Nô Feminist,” written with Boulomsouk Svadphaiphane, which tackles the appropriation of the female work.
In June 2020, as the Black Lives Matter movement was spreading around the world, French theaters reopened after being closed for 100 days due to covid-19. Unexpectedly, the most successful French film shortly after was a small-budget production, directed by an unknown filmmaker. In “Simply Black,” alongside an incredible cast, Zadi used his unique sense of humor to question the complexities of the black identities and activism in France — topics that are still taboo. Never before had a French film addressed race so openly.
Awarded a César in 2021 as the best male newcomer, Zadi greeted his Black predecessors and recited the names of several Black victims of police brutality. This year, Zadi was at Cannes as an actor in two films: “Final Cut” by Michel Hazanavicius and “Smoking Causes Coughing” by Quentin Dupieux.
“Cannes is ours!” When granted the 2016 “Camera d’Or” at Cannes for best first film, self-taught filmmaker Benyamina could not hide her joy. Back at Cannes this year, the 41-year-old co-directed the documentary “Salam” with Anne Cissé about Mélanie Diam’s, the prominent French female hip hop artist who, after almost breaking down, suddenly decided to withdraw from the public sphere and find herself in her new spirituality. Her decision caused much surprise and confusion, as did her choice to convert to Islam and to wear the headscarf — another topic seldom discussed with nuance in French media, but one Benyamina and Diam’s courageously shine a light on.
Internationally recognized as the lead of the Netflix series “Lupin,” Sy first became popular as a comedian before conquering the hearts of the masses in the 2011 film “The Intouchables” (the second most ever viewed film in French theaters and the most viewed French film abroad). The first Black person to win a best actor Cesar and voted France’s favorite celebrity, Sy could have chosen to stay quiet about burning issues. Yet, when a young Black man, Adama Traoré, died in police custody in 2016, Sy was one of the first to publicly express his sadness and has since been a close supporter of the Traoré family. In 2020, he launched an appeal against police brutality on the cover of one of the main weekly newsmagazines, L’Obs.
Sticking to his ideals, Sy was back to Cannes this year as the main character in Mathieu Vadepied’s “Father and Soldier,” which tells the story of two Senegalese soldiers enlisted by France during World War I. Sy, born in France to Senegalese and Mauritanian parents, uses his maternal tongue Fulani in his role.
Khoudri is one of the most promising and versatile actresses of the young French generation. She won the Cesar of the best female newcomer in 2020 for her role in Mounia Meddour’s “Papicha," in which she played a student in the 1990s in Algeria, during the rise of violent religious extremism. The story echoed her own life; the 29-year-old was born in Algeria but hastily left the country for France in 1994 with her parents. And Khoudri has also had the opportunity to work on films separate from her identity, something still uncommon for actresses of color.
In Cannes this year, she stars in Bouchareb’s “Our Brothers” and Cédric Jimenez’s “November.” “All my film choices are political,” she says.
Indeed, more and more French artists and creators of color are navigating their careers in this way, with great critical and commercial success. This trend was on full display during the 75th Cannes Film Festival — and French cinema will certainly be the better for it. | 2022-06-01T17:36:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Cannes Film Festival: How people of color are shaking up France’s conservative film industry - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/01/cannes-film-festival-french-cinema-people-of-color/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/01/cannes-film-festival-french-cinema-people-of-color/ |
How Democrats can salvage their doomed gun-reform effort
If I asked you which congressional Democrats are proposing to change America’s gun laws in the wake of the Buffalo and Uvalde massacres, would you be able to answer? Probably not. You may have seen news stories saying they’re advocating for a package of reforms and are trying to win Republican support for some kind of response.
This effort is almost certain to fail, and well beyond not producing gun-safety legislation. It could demoralize the Democratic base, reinforce the Republican position that horrific gun violence is something we just have to live with, and make it harder for the gun-safety movement to win future victories.
There’s another course Democrats could take: For now, they could put aside their long list of reforms and focus on one thing. Not an omnibus package, but a single proposal that everyone understands, wouldn’t be hard to implement, has public support, might incrementally bring down deaths, and makes Republicans who oppose it sound like monsters.
The proposal that fits this bill is a national law requiring anyone to be 21 years old to purchase a semiautomatic rifle.
It’s one of the things Democrats are proposing — but it’s part of a grab-bag of ideas. In the House, Democrats are pushing the Protecting Our Kids Act, which would also crack down on straw purchases, limit “ghost guns,” require parents to store guns safely, close a bump stock loophole, and limit sales of large-capacity magazines. In the Senate, the focus is narrower but still includes numerous ideas.
All of which are perfectly worthwhile. But when it all falls in the face of Republican stonewalling, Democrats will have nothing to show for it.
And it will fall, because the more you include, the easier it becomes for Republicans to oppose it. They don’t have to justify their position in detail. They can just say, “Democrats want to restrict law-abiding people’s rights in a hundred ways, I can’t sign on to that.”
Which is exactly what they’ll do. They’re already laying the groundwork even as they pretend to engage in good-faith negotiations. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters Tuesday that senators are “discussing how we might be able to come together to target the problem, which is mental illness and school safety.”
In other words, Republicans won’t consider limitations on guns, but they might be willing to throw a few million dollars at states to buy new locks for elementary school doors.
So make them answer this question, again and again and again: Why exactly do teenagers need to buy AR-15s?
You might say, “You won’t get 10 Republican senators to sign on to even that, so the Republican filibuster will succeed.” And it probably will. But at the very least, the chances are a little bit higher that with enough public pressure, some of them might be willing to agree to that one proposal.
But public pressure must be focused. You’ll never get the public to understand, support and rally around a bill that does 12 different things.
If this is the only proposal on the table for now, every Republican will get asked the same question: Why does a teenager need an AR-15? Only a few Republicans have been asked so far, and they have no idea how to answer.
This ought to be a no-brainer. Federal law already requires you to be 21 before buying a handgun from a licensed dealer, or 18 from a private seller. It wouldn’t require any new bureaucracy to make the rule uniform: You must be 21 to buy a handgun or a semiautomatic rifle from anyone, period.
All of us (or at least everyone who isn’t a libertarian nut) agree that there should be some age minimum for purchasing weapons of war. We know teenagers have poor impulse control while their brains are still developing. At the very least, we should be able to say that 18 is too young, and 21 is the absolute minimum we can tolerate.
After the Parkland massacre in 2018, polls asked people whether they thought you should have to be 21 to buy a gun. Support for the idea ran between 70 and 80 percent.
Because the idea is simple to understand and so popular, even if such legislation fails in Congress, we could have a real debate about it. That could create momentum for similar legislation at the state level.
Some states already require people to be 21 before buying guns; New York is moving to increase the age for buying a semiautomatic rifle from 18 to 21. This can and should be a focus of lobbying (in states where such legislation might be possible) and ballot drives (in red states where the GOP legislature won’t do it but voters might). Changing the minimum age for gun purchases can be a focus for organizing and mobilizing support, one that has a good chance of yielding results, if not everywhere then at least in some places.
It’s not too late for Democrats to abandon the doomed-to-failure grab-bag approach they’re now pursuing. They probably assume this is the only opportunity they’ll have to pass any gun legislation for who knows how long, and that’s why they’re throwing everything they can into the mix.
But that’s precisely why they’ll lose, politically and substantively, unless they change course. It’s not too late, but it soon will be. | 2022-06-01T17:36:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | How Democrats can salvage their doomed gun reform effort - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/01/democrats-salvage-doomed-gun-reform-effort/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/01/democrats-salvage-doomed-gun-reform-effort/ |
“We are not trading Juan Soto,” Mike Rizzo said Wednesday on 106.7 The Fan. “We made it clear to his agent and to the player.” (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
“We are not trading Juan Soto,” Rizzo said. “We made it clear to his agent and to the player. I understand these journalists, they’ve got to fill a blank sheet of paper every day. It’s a good thing to get some attention on a story but we have every intention of building this team around Juan Soto.”
“He’s got barrel recognition. He’s got pitch recognition. He’s got the power, the quickness, the bat speed, the balance. He’s got the whole hitting package,” Rizzo said. “He’s as good as anybody that’s ever played the game. He’s as good as anybody in the league. And he’s a National and we’re proud of that.” | 2022-06-01T17:37:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | GM Mike Rizzo says Nationals aren't trading Juan Soto - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/01/mike-rizzo-nationals-not-trading-juan-soto/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/01/mike-rizzo-nationals-not-trading-juan-soto/ |
On the first day of the Atlantic season, the National Hurricane Center says there are high chances of a depression or storm forming in the Gulf of Mexico
Forecast rain in Florida resulting from a likely tropical depression or the potential Tropical Storm Alex from the National Weather Service. (WeatherBell)
Wednesday marks the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season, and, like clockwork, the first tropical depression or named storm is on the verge of forming.
The potential storm would be born from showers and thunderstorms that are grouped just east of the Yucatán Peninsula and are expected to consolidate into a more concentrated area of low pressure as they shift north and east over the Gulf of Mexico in the coming days. The remnants of Hurricane Agatha, which slammed into southern Mexico on Monday as the country’s strongest May storm on record, are being drawn into this system.
Gusty winds and an ocean surge also are possible in South Florida, assuming that a tropical storm forms; environmental conditions probably will not support a hurricane.
The evolution of the potential gulf storm
Crossing southern Mexico, Agatha weakened from a hurricane to remnant thunderstorms. These remnants are being drawn into the Central American Gyre, positioned over the Yucatán Peninsula, the western Caribbean and the Bay of Campeche in the southern gulf. The gyre is a general area of counterclockwise spin in the atmosphere with showers and thunderstorms.
That spin is expected to become more concentrated in the days ahead while it slips between Cancún and the western tip of Cuba, probably pinching off into a new vortex that could become a tropical depression. That’s the precursor to a tropical storm. If whatever materializes produces sustained winds of at least 39 mph, it will be named Alex.
Water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico are running a degree or two above average, and hostile high-altitude winds should slacken near and south of the low-pressure center. That could foster very gradual development, and the system could become a tropical storm by early Saturday. Around that time, it should be moving ashore in South Florida or slipping near the Keys.
Much of the heavy rainfall may occur north of the storm’s center and should arrive over the Florida Straits and the southernmost counties of the Florida peninsula Friday morning. Most of the rain will exit near the Bahamas late Saturday.
Longer-range models suggest the storm may parallel the southeast coast and pass near or east of the Gulf Stream and intensify as it sweeps northeast over the open North Atlantic, but confidence for that scenario is low.
The start of the Atlantic hurricane season
June 1 marks the beginning of the annual Atlantic hurricane season, and atmospheric scientists have warned that 2022 could be the seventh straight year of above-normal storm activity. The presence of the climate pattern La Niña, which favors enhanced rising motion and calm upper-level winds favorable for hurricane development, could supercharge the season.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration projects 14 to 21 named storms — compared with 14 in an average year — and three to six major hurricanes rated Category 3 or higher.
Seven safety tips to prepare for hurricane season | 2022-06-01T17:38:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Alex may form and drench Florida as Atlantic hurricane season begins - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/06/01/tropical-storm-gulf-alex-agatha/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/06/01/tropical-storm-gulf-alex-agatha/ |
By Karla Adam | Jun 1, 2022
For over nine decades, Queen Elizabeth II has been making appearances on the Buckingham Palace balcony. The photos serve as a kind of royal family album, marking celebratory moments: birthdays, weddings, coronations and other major state occasions. They are also a meaningful markers of royal deaths, divorce and disgrace.
A new page will be added to that album on Thursday, when family members gather to celebrate the queen’s Platinum Jubilee, an unprecedented 70 years on the throne. Palace spokespeople have said only senior working royals and their children will be included — so no Prince Andrew, stripped of his titles, or Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, who quit their royal responsibilities and moved to California.
Here is a look at the balcony photos that illustrate the changing face of the British monarchy.
Elizabeth made her public debut on the balcony when she was 14 months old. She appeared with her parents, then the Duke and Duchess of York, and her grandparents, George V and Queen Mary. The young princess wasn’t in line to become queen. But her father became King George VI after the abdication of his brother King Edward VIII.
May 6, 1935.
Len Puttnam/AP
Many of the early balcony photos that include Elizabeth are in black-and-white, a reminder of her longevity. In this one, at age 9, she looks out at a hat-waving crowd during her grandfather’s Silver Jubilee. King George V died about a year later.
Nov. 20, 1947.
Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten married on Nov. 20, 1947. The bride was 21 and the groom was 26. Elizabeth first met Prince Philip of Greece when she was 8 and then again when she was 13.
“Tolerance is the one essential ingredient of any happy marriage,” Philip said during a toast to his wife for their 50th wedding anniversary. “You can take it from me, the queen has the quality of tolerance in abundance.”
The queen said of Philip, “he has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years.”
Elizabeth became queen immediately following the death of her father in 1952 — Britain is never without a monarch. But the coronation, which has a religious aspect to it, usually occurs after a period of mourning. There was live TV coverage of the queen’s coronation on the BBC on June 2, 1953, a seminal moment in the history of British broadcasting. She was 27 years old. The waving children in the front of the balcony are Prince Charles and Princess Anne.
The queen celebrated her Silver Jubilee in 1977. As is often the case during jubilee years, she and Philip embarked on a global and domestic tour. The United Kingdom was struggling economically at the time, so the jubilee was widely seen as helping to buoy the nation’s spirits. This was also the year the queen became a grandmother. Today, she has four children, eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
Bob Dear/AP
Lady Diana Spencer made her first appearance on the balcony in June 1981, a month before her wedding to Charles, the queen’s eldest son and heir to the throne. The royals reportedly have a strict “no ring, no bring” rule for the balcony, but Charles and Diana were engaged in this photo. They reportedly met just 13 times before he proposed.
Dave Caulkin/AP
Prince Andrew, the queen’s second son, and Sarah Ferguson were married July 23, 1986. They divorced 10 years later, though they still live together on a royal property in Windsor, England. Earlier this year, the queen stripped Andrew of his military titles and patronages following allegations that he committed sexual abuse. He has not been invited to take part in this year’s balcony family gathering.
Mauro Carraro/Cover Images/AP
This Trooping the Colour photo from 1987 features Ferguson, then-wife of Andrew; Princess Diana, who died in a car crash in 1997; and Prince Harry, who is no longer a front-line royal and thus not invited to make a balcony appearance during this year’s jubilee. Prince William and his aunt, Princess Anne, are both taking part in the ceremonial inspection of the troops.
Britain celebrated the queen’s Golden Jubilee, marking 50 years on the throne, in 2002. The final day of festivities drew a million-strong crowd, and even those who want Britain to become a republic conceded it was a success. “If we are going to have a monarch in this day and age, then a long period of rule by a decent, prosaic, uncontroversial, rule-bound and dutiful one like Elizabeth II is probably as good as it is likely to get,” the Guardian newspaper said in its editorial.
Children on the balcony have a habit of stealing the show. In this photo, family friend and flower girl Grace van Cutsem, 3, covers her ears as she stands in front of newlyweds Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.
Only five other members of the royal family joined the monarch on the balcony for her Diamond Jubilee: Charles and his wife, Camilla; William and his wife, Catherine; and Harry. Normally, Philip would have been expected to appear on the balcony, but he had fallen ill.
It has long been said that Charles has plans for a “slimmed-down” monarchy when he becomes king. But in practice, that has been happening already for some time.
A month after the blockbuster wedding of Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex appeared on the Buckingham Palace balcony for the first time together, in June 2018. In January 2020, they stepped down as senior royals. The queen rejected Harry and Meghan’s “half-in, half-out” proposal, but also made it clear that the Sussexes remain much-loved members of her family.
The traditional Trooping the Colour — and subsequent balcony shot — was canceled in 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic. There was still a splash of pomp, with a reduced military parade held in the grounds of Windsor Castle. During the pandemic, the queen shifted her primary residence from Buckingham Palace in London to Windsor, 22 miles west. She doesn’t appear inclined to return to big-city life.
Editing by Chloe Coleman, Marisa Bellack and Reem Akkad | 2022-06-01T17:57:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Platinum Jubilee: The story of the royal family through their balcony photos - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2022/platinum-jubilee-queen-balcony-photos/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2022/platinum-jubilee-queen-balcony-photos/ |
Live updates Jury reaches a verdict in the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial
Why is the trial in Fairfax County?
Depp will not appear in person for verdict
Depp-Heard jury reaches a verdict
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard during their 2022 trial in Virginia. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images; Jonathan Ernst/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
Travis M. Andrews
The jury for Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s defamation trial reached a verdict Wednesday, and are set to reconvene in the Fairfax County Courthouse at 3 p.m. to reveal their findings. It will bring an end to the seven-week trial that brought emotional testimony recounting Depp and Heard’s tumultuous relationship and its fallout.
Depp, 58, first sued Heard, 36, for $50 million over an op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post in 2018 in which she referred to herself as a public figure representing domestic abuse. Heard countersued Depp for $100 million after the actor’s lawyer, Adam Waldman, called her accusations a hoax. The trial was held in Virginia, where the printing presses and servers of The Washington Post are located. (The Post was not a defendant in the suit.)
Is this ‘Thunderdome’ or the line to get into the Depp-Heard trial?
Heard returns to stand as case wraps; closing arguments begin Friday
‘She’s a person’: Amber Heard’s supporters endure insults, mockery
By Emily Yahr2:05 p.m.
Depp’s lawyers wrote in their complaint that they filed in Fairfax County because The Washington Post — which is not a defendant in the suit — is printed at a plant in Springfield, and its online servers are in Virginia; the print edition also has a wide circulation in the state. (Heard’s attorneys argued for the trial to take place in Los Angeles, where she and Depp lived.)
In March, Depp’s lawyers argued against Heard using Virginia’s anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) law, which gives defendants immunity from frivolous lawsuits when they speak out about matters of public interest that are protected under free speech. Depp’s lawyers said the law shouldn’t involve private matters like the one between Heard and Depp. A judge ruled against Depp’s side, saying that Heard’s op-ed was about domestic violence, which is a matter of public interest, and she can use that argument of immunity with the jury.
In 2020, The Post’s Justin Jouvenal reported that the Virginia legislature passed bills aimed to tighten its anti-defamation laws, in response to Depp’s and other high-profile lawsuits. Jouvenal wrote that free speech advocates were worried that the state had become “a magnet for dubious litigation aimed at punishing critics and blunting aggressive media coverage on topics of public concern.”
By Helena Andrews-Dyer1:57 p.m.
Johnny Depp will not be in the Fairfax County Courthouse Wednesday to hear the verdict in his defamation trial involving ex-wife Amber Heard, according to a source close to the actor.
“Due to previously scheduled work commitments made before the trial, Mr. Depp will not be physically present for today’s 3pm verdict and will be watching from the United Kingdom,” the source said.
Depp left Virginia after closing arguments on Friday and flew to England. He was spotted over the weekend playing guitar with British rock star Jeff Beck at a concert.
By Caitlin Moore1:45 p.m.
The jury for Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s defamation trial has reached a verdict. The seven jurors are set to reconvene in the Fairfax County Courthouse at 3 p.m. to reveal their findings. | 2022-06-01T18:06:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial verdict: Live updates - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/06/01/johnny-depp-verdict/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/06/01/johnny-depp-verdict/ |
Tennis balls that were thrown over the White House fence during an abortion rights rally in 1992 are among the items for sale at an estate sale at the former home of the late Irvin Williams, who for 46 years was the head gardener at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The balls are marked with pro-choice and anti-Bush sentiments. (John Kelly/The Washington Post)
The oddest — and, in my opinion, the most historic — object up for grabs at the estate sale at the Herndon home of the late Irvin Williams, the longest-serving head gardener in White House history, is a bag of 13 tennis balls. Historic and, as it turns out, timely.
Williams retired in 2008. In his 46 years overseeing the White House grounds, he had accumulated a lot of stuff connected to his job, from wooden Easter eggs imprinted with Bill Clinton’s signature to thank-you notes from Pat Nixon.
Williams died in 2018 at age 92. His widow, Dorothy, has moved out of the Herndon house they shared. An estate sale gets underway there on Friday. Earlier this week, I went over to check out the inventory.
The Williamses collected a lot of stuff: Depression glass, clocks, ceramic cookie jars, Little Red Riding Hood salt-and-pepper shakers, auto vases (little glass bud vases that adorned the interiors of fancy cars a century ago). What makes it an only-in-Washington estate sale is the White Housiana. That includes White House Christmas tree decorations, photos, invitations, signed presidential letters and “President Nixon: Now more than ever” campaign buttons.
Then there are those tennis balls, in a plastic bag labeled “protest balls,” priced at $120 for the lot. I think they belong in the Smithsonian.
On April 5, 1992, an estimated 500,000 people marched in Washington in support of abortion rights. At some point during the rally, some of the protesters headed to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW to deliver a message. They wrote their sentiments on tennis balls and threw them over the White House fence.
That’s when the balls entered Irvin Williams’s domain.
“I guess during the first George Bush presidency, there was a protest and these people were throwing little messages onto the White House lawn,” said Irvin’s son Richard Williams, 68. “For some reason he picked everything up and he brought some home. I didn’t learn about them till after my dad had passed. I was in the garage looking in a cabinet and I said, ‘What’s in this box?’”
Some of the writing on the balls is a bit rude — one of the tamer ones I can quote reads, “Bush’s tush is made of mush” — but most of the messages are fairly straightforward, including “I believe Anita Hill” and “Pro-Choice.”
Richard said his father also brought a few living things home from the White House. There’s a big magnolia tree by the driveway that may have grown from a cutting taken from the Jackson magnolia, a magnificent specimen that had to be cut down in 2017. And the previous Vienna house the family lived in — Irvin, Dorothy and their five kids — had another resident: a dog named Pushinka.
Pushinka was a gift from Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to John F. Kennedy in 1961. The mutt was the puppy of Strelka, one of the dogs the Soviets had shot into orbit. After JFK’s assassination, his widow, Jacqueline, apparently didn’t want the dog anymore. She asked Williams if he would take her.
“Pushinka was our family pet for a lot of years,” Richard said.
She was a bit snarly at first, he added.
“My first time trying to pet her, she snapped at me,” he said. “She was very good with adults; then eventually she came around to the kids.”
Details of the Williams estate sale can be found at caringtransitionsnova.com.
Marilyn, ready for her close-up
Speaking of estate sales, there’s an interesting exhibit at the Artspace gallery in Richmond: artwork from the collection of Frances Wessells. Wessells is a dancer and choreographer who helped found the dance department at Virginia Commonwealth University. She’s 102 years old and is moving from her home in Crozier, Va. The artwork that once filled it is on display — and for sale.
That includes her own sculptures and work by other artists, most notably her late husband, John Bailey. Bailey created the mural of Marilyn Monroe that since 1981 has looked down upon the intersection of Connecticut Avenue and Calvert Street NW in Woodley Park. Among the items at Artspace are an original 2001 John Bailey gouache painting of the Marilyn mural ($550), along with signed screen prints ($200) and artist’s proofs ($150).
Artspace (at 2833-A Hathaway Rd., Richmond) is open from noon to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays. The Wessells collection is up through June 18. For information, visit artspacegallery.org. | 2022-06-01T18:36:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Collectibles gathered by Irvin Williams, White House head gardener, are on sale in Herndon - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/01/white-house-gardener-estate-sale/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/01/white-house-gardener-estate-sale/ |
By Sam Rasoul
A hand-painted sign along a road near Bent Mountain, Va., un April 2018 protests the Mountain Valley Pipeline Project. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)
Sam Rasoul, a Democrat, represents Roanoke in the Virginia House of Delegates.
The recent decision by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to conditionally approve an amendment requested by Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) may have confused some. After so much bad news for the troubled pipeline — which is billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule — FERC’s decision might have seemed like a rare bit of good news for this dangerous, expensive, unnecessary project.
Thankfully, it was not.
Though FERC granted permission for MVP to change the construction method used for crossing some of the streams and wetlands along the pipeline’s path, the regulator also made it clear that no construction could begin unless the pipeline convinces the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reinstate authorizations vacated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in recent decisions.
Getting those authorizations will be a time-consuming process — assuming that MVP can even convince federal regulators that it won’t harm endangered species or can safely cross sensitive national forests. And then those decisions would need to survive near-certain legal challenges.
The fact is that MVP is years from completion under the rosiest of scenarios, and it is likely to never finish construction.
MVP’s backers like to present the pipeline as a fait accompli, often claiming that the pipeline is more than 90 percent complete. But in most recent compliance reports, the company itself says that only 55.8 percent of the pipeline has been completed to full restoration.
Even that gives an inaccurate picture, because the pipeline is riddled with gaps along its 303-mile route — including those stream crossings that FERC just said can’t be worked on unless federal authorizations are restored.
In addition, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has said that MVP won’t be able to receive a U.S. Clean Water Act Section 404 permit until those authorizations are restored.
MVP is not inevitable as things stand now. It is essentially dead in the water. Though FERC has yet to act on multiple requests to issue a stop work order for the project, the reality is that little work is currently possible.
This fall, MVP will need to ask for another extension of its Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity from FERC — which just faced some tough questions from D.C. Circuit Court judges over its decision to grant the first extension in 2020 without a complete assessment of widespread erosion caused by the pipeline’s construction.
FERC should make the right call this time — and put the final nail in the coffin of a project that has run roughshod over the people and places of West Virginia and Virginia.
MVP was a horrible idea from the beginning: a mammoth pipeline going through sensitive land and extreme terrain. With demand for fracked gas holding steady or declining, this pipeline never made sense to anyone but the investors who backed it — and even some of them seem to be having second thoughts by now.
In February, NextEra Energy said it was reevaluating its estimate in MVP after it recorded an $800 million loss following the 4th Circuit decisions. Earlier, MVP developer Equitrans said it was reevaluating the proposed MVP Southgate project, which would extend the pipeline into North Carolina.
The communities that have been fighting this pipeline for nearly a decade have put up with enough: fear, uncertainty, the loss of property, hundreds of water quality violations and more. It is time to give them the peace of mind they deserve and end this floundering project.
FERC should refuse this extension. | 2022-06-01T18:41:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | It’s not too late to call it quits on the Mountain Valley Pipeline - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/01/its-not-too-late-call-it-quits-mountain-valley-pipeline/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/01/its-not-too-late-call-it-quits-mountain-valley-pipeline/ |
A Capitol police officer walks in front of the Virginia Capitol as the sun rises Feb. 4, 2019, in Richmond. (Julia Rendleman for The Washington Post)
A couple of weeks ago in this space, I wrote about three items to watch in Virginia politics. One of the big items on that list — the state budget and, in particular, the tax issues that kept lawmakers divided long past the end of the legislative session — is finally moving toward resolution.
The whispers about the General Assembly being on the verge of agreeing to a “very good budget” that would include “meaningful tax reduction” appear to be true. The outlines of the tax deal show that everyone gets a win but had to give up something in the process.
For Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), it means most of the tax on groceries will be repealed — but not the 1 percent local governments are allowed to charge. Though full repeal would have been the right and proper thing to do, doing away with the state’s 1.5 percent portion is still a win.
The personal income tax deduction is rising, too. As the Virginia Mercury’s Graham Moomaw reported, “the standard deduction for single filers [would rise] from $4,500 to $8,000. For married couples filing jointly, it would rise from $9,000 to $16,000.”
Again, the governor gets most of what he wanted here. The original proposal was for the deduction to rise to $9,000 for individuals and $18,000 for joint filers. And it’s a big concession from the Senate, which wanted to study how an increased deduction would affect state finances.
The compromise includes items only a state legislator could find appealing.
One is ending the higher deduction in 2026. A second is the inclusion of a provision that, as Moomaw wrote, “would slightly scale back the amount of relief offered to taxpayers if the state’s budget picture worsens heading into new budget years in 2022 and 2023.”
The deduction sunset was in the original House bill. That might seem like a bow to prudent budgeting. Except it’s nothing of the sort. As I wrote back in April, the sunset would take effect right after the 2025 gubernatorial election, guaranteeing that extending the new, higher amount becomes a campaign issue.
The sunset also sends a strong signal that the deduction isn’t genuine tax reform but short-term economic stimulus.
One of the more troubling items that gained bipartisan traction in the regular session was a bill that would have put the commonwealth in the stadium business with Washington Commanders football team owner Daniel Snyder.
That legislation looks like it’s being delayed — not killed outright, as it should be, but not getting any closer to reality, either. As The Post’s Laura Vozzella reported, “the delay suggests that the proposed taxpayer-subsidized stadium has become a tougher sell in Richmond than in January, when a pair of bills emerged with powerful bipartisan support.”
In normal times, such backing almost guarantees that even the most cockamamie idea can make its way to a governor’s desk. And let’s not forget that Youngkin was eager to sign a bill larded with enough taxpayer-funded incentives to convince Snyder to build his Xanadu in Virginia.
But it’s difficult, even for Virginia’s corporate-welfare friendly pols, to overlook the investigations into a “variety of allegations” against Snyder and his team.
The Commanders welfare project, then, is mostly dead. But as Miracle Max taught us long ago. “mostly dead is slightly alive.”
Meanwhile, Paul Goldman’s lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the 2021 House of Delegates elections is still breathing and inching closer to its first birthday.
Goldman, my former writing partner, filed his suit on June 28. The issue before the court now is whether Goldman has standing to sue, which means a ruling on the merits might occur right around the time the case is old enough to attend preschool.
That’s a shameful way to handle a voting rights case — almost as shameful as the bipartisan hostility to the idea that Virginia voters deserve fair and equal representation in their General Assembly. | 2022-06-01T18:41:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Tax cuts are probably coming to Virginia, but Dan Snyder gets benched - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/01/tax-cuts-are-probably-coming-virginia-dan-snyder-gets-benched/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/01/tax-cuts-are-probably-coming-virginia-dan-snyder-gets-benched/ |
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