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Joe Bussard accompanies one of his records with an "air trumpet" at his home in Frederick, Md. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)
Join the crowd, crow. People have been not knowing what to think about Bussard for decades. His singular obsession has entranced some and baffled others. If you weren’t interested in his passion, Bussard probably wasn’t interested in you.
In the basement of his Frederick, Md. home, Joe Bussard, 85, plays a 78 rpm recording from 1936 of "Everybody Ought To Pray Some Time." (Video: Joe Heim/The Washington Post)
“I was like, okay, whatever, eye roll, and then damn, if he wasn’t right,” White recalled in a phone interview from Nashville. “Thirty seconds into this song, l was like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. What is this? Who recorded this? What is the speaker we’re listening to this through? What amplifier are you using? Because, damn, you weren’t kidding me, it sounds like this band is in the room with us right now.
He bought from dealers and at estate sales, but mostly he drove on twisty back roads through the hollers of West Virginia and Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley and down through the Deep South of Georgia, the Carolinas and Mississippi. He asked everyone he met if they had "any of them old records,” and they’d point him up to an attic or down the road to their cousin’s house or to an abandoned five-and-dime in town.
Editing by Katy Burnell Evans. Photo editing by Mark Miller. Copy editing by Emily Morman. Video by Joe Heim and Amber Ferguson. Design by J.C. Reed. | 2022-06-05T11:23:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Joe Bussard amassed thousands of 78 records over a lifetime devoted to preserving early American roots music - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/05/joe-bussard-record-collector-78s/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/05/joe-bussard-record-collector-78s/ |
High stakes, low attention: Dynamic Democratic field vies for Md. governor
Democrats are eager to win back the governor’s mansion after losing three of the past five elections. Party leaders are warning voters to ‘choose carefully,’ but most voters aren’t paying attention.
People arrive at the Maryland Democratic Party’s annual gala in Upper Marlboro, Md., on May 26. (Craig Hudson for The Washington Post)
Bruised from losing the governor’s mansion in three of the past five elections, the Maryland Democratic Party invited U.S. Sen. Cory Booker to headline their annual gala ahead of a high-stakes primary that has gone largely ignored.
“I saw all the people who are running for governor,” the famous New Jersey senator said last month, “and I thought the ballot’s gonna be longer than a CVS receipt.”
The enormous, dynamic field has been battling under the radar of a disengaged electorate for months, raising millions and touting impressive résumés but unable to attract attention.
Several deeply qualified candidates would have been runaway front-runners in recent cycles, when Democratic victories were all but assured. But with national political head winds favoring Republicans, even those potential front-runners are worried the party may not prevail in November after losing by nearly 12 points four years ago to a Republican governor who remains deeply popular.
“We have to choose wisely,” state Party Chair Yvette Lewis told the 700 Democrats gathered at an oversized ballroom in the stronghold of Prince George’s County.
Maryland Democrats dominate state government and voter registration. They hold super majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly and boast 54 percent of the electorate, with 20 percent unaffiliated and just 24 percent registered Republican.
In national elections, Maryland is deeply blue: President Biden won by 33 percentage points in 2020; Hillary Clinton by 26 in 2016; and Barack Obama by 26 and 25 in 2012 and 2008, respectively.
And yet the state party faces a conundrum: Democrats lost the governor’s mansion more times than they’ve won it in the past 20 years. Term-limited incumbent Republican Gov. Larry Hogan won two consecutive terms, hyper-focused on pocketbook issues in a state with other liberal policies fortified into law. There have been three open governor’s seats in the past 28 years, and they’ve each been decided by fewer than four percentage points.
Inside Larry Hogan’s victory: The numbers behind a GOP win in a blue wave
The drive to find a winning candidate has attracted an unusually distinguished field, observers say.
The 10-way race this year includes two former presidential Cabinet secretaries — one also a former Democratic National Committee chairman — a former attorney general, a celebrity author and former nonprofit chief, a philanthropist and policy wonk, a philosopher and former presidential candidate, a nonprofit program manager, the state’s tax collector who served 35 years in state government and a former county executive.
On the campaign trail, the Democrats have emphasized their electability in November and how critical it is for a Democrat to be in control as climate change intensifies, gun violence rises, inflation hits record highs and many Maryland students are in academic and mental health crises triggered by the pandemic.
With abortion rights poised to be overturned by the Supreme Court and Hogan withholding $3.5 million to train new providers, Democrats say securing abortion access is paramount.
There’s been no public polling in the race, but every poll released by candidates to tout their relative strength has reached the same conclusion: voters are overwhelmingly undecided.
It’s not clear many have been paying attention at all, candidates say, and a court battle that pushed the primary until the height of summer on July 19 didn’t help.
“It’s going to be abysmal,” former attorney general Doug Gansler said of turnout.
As he made his way to the recent Democratic “All Blue in ’22” gala, hundreds of campaign signs dotted the highway and volunteers waved candidate signs. Gansler said a woman stopped him and asked about the election, wondering “if voting was today.”
“She said she didn’t want to miss voting,” Gansler said. “People aren’t paying attention.”
Meanwhile, candidates are pulling out all the stops.
Author and former nonprofit chief Wes Moore, for example, has a fundraiser with longtime friend Oprah Winfrey on June 14. He remotely attended a forum at the vote-rich retirement community of Leisure World on Thursday night, even though he tested positive for the coronavirus earlier in the week and at times looked ill enough that viewers suggested he should be off-screen when it wasn’t his turn to speak.
Former U.S. education secretary John B. King Jr. has been working the small Democratic clubs in the rural, Republican stronghold of the lower Eastern Shore, pitching his education-centric platform and discussing systemic racism.
Former U.S. labor secretary Tom Perez, who was also DNC chair, has been recording ads in Spanish, trying to boost Latino turnout, which he said drops to roughly 14 percent in gubernatorial elections. He has been visiting small Democratic clubs, just like other candidates, hunting for every vote.
At the District 33 Democratic Club’s meeting in Anne Arundel County recently, Perez waited for his turn to speak, listening to five announcements for fish fries, ice cream socials and T-shirt sales, plus pitches from a central committee candidate, a school board candidate, a member of the local charter review commission, and a candidate running to be vice president of the Crofton Civic Association.
“I’m having flashbacks to my four years on the DNC,” Perez told the crowd of two dozen. “We were broken, and we had to rebuild trust, and we did it one county at a time.”
He was just the first to visit the club, whose president hopes to have all 10 candidates make a direct pitch.
“We have a richness of candidates,” club President Carole Brown said. “It’s hard to sort it out.”
On the trail, candidates talk candidly about racism, income inequality and mental health, a bluntness that both represents a cultural evolution on those critical issues and their efforts to cut through the crowd.
“People in this country have too little because some people have too much,” Jerome M. Segal, a retired philosophy and public policy professor, and author who has also worked in federal government, said during a forum at Coppin State University. “We’re not going to pussyfoot around,” he added.
Later in the same forum, former Prince George’s County executive Rushern Baker answered a question about homelessness by saying Democrats need to open their own neighborhoods to shelters since, “they’re as liberal as hell until you want to bring some homeless people in there for the night.”
A Baker campaign ad about crime calls the murder epidemic in Baltimore “the slaughter of young Black men” and says “because they’re Black, nobody in power gives a d---.”
The blunt talk created tender moments, too.
Comptroller Peter Franchot drew laughs when he candidly told the Leisure World retiree crowd how he’d discussed “pulling the plug” with his wife if he were ever incapacitated, but when it came to addressing mental health he silenced the room.
“I never talk about this,” Franchot said, revealing for the first time in a public forum that his sister died by suicide. “I still look at her future, and how much did she miss? And how much did we miss?”
At a forum sponsored by a Black sorority group, candidates were asked about addressing mental health. Jon Baron, a philanthropist and public policy expert, deviated from his normal campaign trail approach to emphasize a results-oriented solution. Instead he opened up about his own bout of anxiety.
And Ashwani K. Jain, a former Obama administration official and program manager for the National Kidney Foundation, directly tells voters that a state growing younger and more diverse needs a candidate like him — a 32-year-old person of color — to represent them, and be the country’s youngest governor.
Most candidates are leaning heavily into the idea they not only embody the Democratic Party, but that they can be the one to win in November.
Gansler and Baker each ran once before for the Democratic nomination and finished second to a candidate who went on to lose the general election to Hogan.
“The last election we lost by the largest margin any Democrat has ever lost in the state,” Gansler said this week. “This is going to be the most Republican year of our lives. And we need to make sure we have candidates that can actually win. … We cannot live in La La Land and think we can just throw up someone” on the ballot, he said.
The candidates’ first and only televised debate will be Monday, June 6, aired on Maryland Public Television. | 2022-06-05T11:23:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Talented Maryland Democrats crowded into governor's race - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/05/maryland-democrat-governor-primary/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/05/maryland-democrat-governor-primary/ |
What happened to P.E.? It’s losing ground in our push for academic improvement.
Could smart coaches and Internet giants revive our youth with vigorous, addictive exercises?
An empty school gymnasium. (iStock)
I didn’t like daily high school physical education classes. I was a poor athlete. I made the tennis team but lost every match against opponents from other schools. I would have preferred anything to P.E. exercises.
Many classmates shared my view. But I didn’t realize until lately that our anti-P.E. bias has come to rule our education system.
In her delightful new book “You Are Your Own Best Teacher!: Sparking the Curiosity, Imagination, and Intellect of Tweens,” social scientist Claire Nader offers startling statistics. Decades ago, daily P.E. was the norm. These days, she said, only 4 percent of elementary schools, 7 percent of middle schools and 2 percent of high schools have daily P.E. the entire school year. Twenty-two percent of schools have no P.E. at all.
What happened? As a nation, we have never been that keen on exercise. Late 19th-century P.E. programs, for instance, excluded girls for fear more muscles and competitive urges would masculinize them. Daily P.E. for both sexes became common by the middle of the 20th century, but the bipartisan push to raise academic achievement allowed school districts to reduce or eliminate gym classes, and save money by hiring fewer P.E. teachers.
“When money gets tight, P.E. is one of the first to go,” said Terri Drain, past president of SHAPE America, which supports professionals in P.E., health, recreation and dance. The organization provides guidance and research and leads lobbying on health issues in Congress.
By 2007, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation reported only 36 percent of children were doing the recommended one hour of physical activity a day and 30 percent participated in a sport on a regular basis.
Ken Reed, policy director of the sports reform project League of Fans, noted “Type 2 diabetes was once considered an adult disease. However, because more kids are overweight and obese, the incidence of the disease has increased dramatically in children and adolescents.”
Studies have also found a positive correlation between physical activity and both mental health and academic achievement. “A 20-minute jog around the school building would do more to improve test scores than 20 extra minutes of cramming for the test,” Reed said.
Why a little bit of exercise can help academically for kids with ADHD
Some studies also indicate that the way we have been doing P.E. can have negative consequences, such as an increase in teasing when kids are forced to use locker rooms.
I am not sure how we fix this. It requires tough love, rarely encouraged these days. When I told my high school’s cross-country coach I was quitting the team because all that running was boring, he said he wouldn’t permit it. That wouldn’t work in today’s schools. Even then, a teacher’s pet like me could have gotten the decision overturned. But I didn’t want to cross that formidable coach, the nationally known Connie Smith. I stuck it out and got an unexpected taste of glory.
After cross-country season, I went back to regular P.E. It devoted a week to long-distance running, ending with a two-mile race up and down our hillside campus. To my astonishment, those cross-country team laps gave me so much endurance that I won. It was the only first-place finish of my life and my only A ever in P.E.
How sports can help high schools
Schools are still focused on academic gains. Few are likely to allot more class time for exercise. After-school sports seem the only hope. My children were on high school and after-school teams. My grandsons will likely do the same because it looks good on college applications. But what about the 70 percent of high-schoolers who don’t participate?
In her book, Nader has many suggestions for what 9- to 12-year-olds can do on their own to improve their educations. On the P.E. issue, she urges them to gather their friends and lobby teachers and principals. “You start by saying that your mission is to save lives, to improve health, to stimulate educational brain activity,” she said, “and to increase the likelihood that P.E. for kids now will lead them to play more participatory sports later as adults.” Letters to school officials and the media can also work, she said.
I think it will take more than that to inspire a national movement for more physical activity, particularly among children. But there are ways. I am now doing vigorous hikes four days a week, carrying a 12-pound bag, because I have become addicted to hitting small yellow balls into round holes. The lady I married 55 years ago gets her exercise walking with me and pointing out which bushes my shots landed in.
Can such obsessions be implanted in the young? Tech geniuses, such as the one who owns my newspaper, have found ways to interest people in all kinds of new daily habits. Can they invent something that makes moving around irresistible? Our grandchildren are already in their grip, so I have hope.
Whatever those entrepreneurs do will have to be subtle and cunning, like the Fitbit craze. My high school coach somehow got me to stick with running. Clever people like him could brainstorm attractive activities that have the effect we hoped P.E. would have. But they will need to find a better name for it. | 2022-06-05T11:27:25Z | www.washingtonpost.com | As physical education classes fade, how can we keep kids active? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/06/05/physical-education-classes-schools/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/06/05/physical-education-classes-schools/ |
Such eye conditions are preventable — if treatment starts early
A mobile clinic is helping low-income students to see clearly — one pair of glasses at a time
Pandemic complications
Eye exams for children are required under federal law to be covered by most private health plans and Medicaid. Vision screenings are mandated for school-age children in 40 states and the District, and 26 states require them for preschoolers, according to the National Center for Children’s Vision and Eye Health at Prevent Blindness, a nonprofit advocacy organization.
Still, many children who are struggling to see clearly are being overlooked. The pandemic has only exacerbated the issue since in many places classes moved online, and for many students in-school vision screenings are the only time they get their eyes checked. Even when campuses reopened, school nurses were so swamped with coronavirus testing that general screenings had to be put to the side, said Kate King, president-elect of the National Association of School Nurses.
5 things parents need to know about kids and glasses
The problem is most prevalent among preschoolers, according to the national center. It points out that the federal survey of children found that 61 percent of children 5 and younger had never had their vision tested.
Kindergarten, Connolly said, is a critical time to check a child’s vision because they are old enough to cooperate with eye exams and it is the time when vision problems are more likely to be identifiable.
The CDC survey also found that 67 percent of children with private health insurance had their vision screened, compared with 43 percent of those who were uninsured.
Learning ability concerns
Computer screen time is damaging eyes — especially for children
A stretch to purchase
D.C. schools partnership looks to provide glasses for students in need
The issue goes beyond poor eyesight and overlooked vision problems. There is a strong link between children’s vision and their development — especially the way they learn. Struggling to see clearly can be the beginning of many downstream problems for children, such as low grades, misdiagnosed attention-deficit disorders or lack of self-confidence.
In a 2020 study, students who had “bad academic performance” were twice as likely as those with “good academic performance” to admit that they cannot see the blackboard properly. Additionally, those who performed poorer academically were also twice as likely to get tired or suffer headaches while reading, according to the study.
King, who works at a middle school in Columbus, Ohio, said that students’ vision problems were being overlooked even before the pandemic.
Of all the optometrist referrals she sends home, she said just about 15 percent of children are taken to an eye doctor without her having to reach out to parents again. “An overwhelming majority actually don’t follow up and don’t get a comprehensive exam,” King said.
This article was produced by Kaiser Health News, a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, an endowed nonprofit organization that provides information on health issues to the nation. | 2022-06-05T11:27:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Child vision screening fell off during the pandemic - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/06/05/child-vision-testing-pandemic/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/06/05/child-vision-testing-pandemic/ |
Former FBI agent Alfred Baldwin testifies on May 25, 1973, on Capitol Hill before the Senate Watergate Committee. (AP) (Anonymous/AP)
In the second episode of “Gaslit,” the new STARZ limited series about Martha and John Mitchell, starring Julia Roberts and Sean Penn, there’s a scene set in the Howard Johnson across the street from the Watergate. In a hotel room there, a lookout named Alfred Baldwin misses the plainclothes policemen who enter the building to arrest the burglars in the Democratic Party headquarters.
Baldwin, played by Ivan Martin, has always been a major figure in Watergate lore, but in the decades after the scandal, he fell into obscurity — so much so that his death was announced just recently even though he died in January 2020 at age 83.
While his role as the lookout was also famously portrayed in a famous scene in the movie “All the President’s Men,” few have known that Baldwin’s work with the break-in team came about only because he had washed out as a bodyguard for the irascible Martha Mitchell.
Once Martha fired Baldwin, the people at Richard M. Nixon’s Committee to Re-Elect the President (known to Nixon critics as “CREEP”) kept him on to do surveillance work on war protesters — Baldwin went undercover by dressing up as a hippie — and ultimately asked him to work on the Watergate operation. He acted as a lookout and produced transcripts of conversations picked up by the bugs left in the Democratic headquarters after the first break-in. (The arrests took place during a second break-in.)
Baldwin was identified as a potential bodyguard for Martha Mitchell just a month before the break-ins began. James McCord (depicted by Chris Bauer in “Gaslit”), a former CIA eavesdropping expert and CREEP’s director of security, had the job of locating bodyguards for both John Mitchell, the attorney general-turned-1972 campaign chairman, and his wife, Martha, a regular speaker for the administration who often drew enormous crowds as a quirky and colorful figure among a staff of mostly dour, buttoned-up men.
McCord was having trouble finding a good candidate for the protective detail because of Martha Mitchell’s reputation for drinking and abusing employees. McCord consulted a roster of ex-FBI agents in New York and was turned down by one after another. According to later FBI reports, one of the interviewees contacted by McCord said that the job requirements were simple: “age — late thirties or early forties” and “athletic background.”
At least five former agents were interviewed before McCord landed on the 36-year-old Baldwin. Baldwin was from New Haven, Conn., a hapless lawyer and ex-FBI agent who was divorced and floundering. In the ex-FBI agent registry, Baldwin underscored that he could be available on short notice for any new security assignments. McCord was desperate.
The vetting process was next to nonexistent. McCord called Baldwin on May 1, 1972, and asked him to come to Washington for an interview as “a matter of urgency.” Baldwin drove that night to D.C. and met the next morning with McCord and John Mitchell’s assistant Fred LaRue.
The Nixon White House plotted to assassinate a journalist 50 years ago
Baldwin was told that Martha Mitchell would be traveling to the Midwest that day, and he was hired on the spot. McCord issued him a .38-caliber snub-nosed revolver. “You will need this while you are with Mrs. Mitchell,” McCord said. “You know how to use one of these?” Baldwin assured him he did.
On the train ride that evening to Michigan, Mitchell, who did not like flying, made her way back to Baldwin’s compartment. According to her personal secretary, Kristen Forsberg, Mitchell and Baldwin chatted over drinks.
They were alone together on the trip the next day from Detroit to New York City, when the train hit and killed a pedestrian. Baldwin grew morose. Forsberg later told the FBI that after they arrived, an annoyed Mitchell “mentioned that Baldwin kept bringing up the subject of the accident repeatedly.”
The next day, Baldwin accompanied her to a luncheon at the Waldorf. Mitchell saw Baldwin laughing and joking with a couple there, and that was the final straw. She told Forsberg that she considered Baldwin “pushy, vocal and someone who would not stay in the background.” He was sacked after one trip.
“That’s it,” Mitchell said in exasperation. “I’m not taking any more recommendations from McCord.”
In a deposition for a lawsuit filed by Democrats after the break-in, Mitchell complained about McCord’s choices for her bodyguards, calling them “these horrible creatures.”
Richard Nixon’s message to Kevin McCarthy: The truth always comes out
McCord felt sorry for Baldwin and tried to find him other assignments for CREEP. Baldwin, in costume, mixed with war protesters during the week the Pentagon was bombed by the Weather Underground.
And then, fatefully, Baldwin found himself in a hotel room listening from early morning to midnight to bugged telephone conversations from the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate across the street. It turned out that the burglars had put the listening devices in the wrong office, and most of what Baldwin listened to were calls between secretaries and husbands or boyfriends. The transcripts of these calls were so disappointing that a second break-in was ordered for the night of June 16-17, 1972 — 50 years ago this month.
Baldwin missed the plainclothes undercover cops who showed up to investigate a call that the security guard Frank Wills (played by Patrick Walker in “Gaslit”) placed when he noticed a door in the basement had been taped open for a second time.
Legend has it that Baldwin was watching TV when the policemen arrived, but Baldwin always denied it. What we do know is that once the lights started flashing in the DNC, Baldwin tried too late to warn the burglars by walkie-talkie. “They got us,” was the last transmission from McCord and his group.
The FBI traced a number in the Howard Johnson phone logs to Baldwin’s Connecticut home. By July 5, he was fully cooperating with investigators. He would play a major role in breaking the case open.
When Baldwin appeared before the Senate Watergate Committee in the summer of 1973, he told the panel that his life was “shattered.” “I cannot now find employment and I have been without funds,” Baldwin said. “My family has been disgraced.”
Arguably, more than Baldwin’s personal life was shattered; his failure as a lookout and his early cooperation with investigators were key links in a chain that resulted in Nixon’s resignation two years later. In a “but for” world, maybe Watergate never would have happened had Martha Mitchell kept Baldwin as her bodyguard.
On the other hand, it is hard to say that McCord and his bosses — G. Gordon Liddy and Howard Hunt — might have found a more competent watchman. Baldwin testified that when he was introduced to Liddy and Hunt, McCord tried to use aliases to protect their identities.
But when Liddy and Hunt arrived, McCord introduced Baldwin as “Al” rather than his alias, Bill Johnson. Then McCord could not remember the aliases of Liddy and Hunt. So McCord gave up and “just introduced us under our personal names,” Baldwin testified.
In an operation of this caliber, can you really pin all the blame on a distracted lookout? | 2022-06-05T11:27:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Martha Mitchell of 'Gaslit' fired bodyguard Alfred Baldwin—spurring Watergate - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/06/05/gaslit-martha-mitchell-baldwin-watergate/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/06/05/gaslit-martha-mitchell-baldwin-watergate/ |
Beware partisan ‘pink slime’ sites that pose as local news
Why you should ask more questions before posting that enraging story on social media
With stories as with hot dogs, you may want to ask what’s inside and where it comes from. The beef product often criticized as “pink slime” as seen in a Nebraska factory in 2012. (Nati Harnik/AP)
It’s always tempting to share news that comes across our social media feeds when it not only seems outrageous but also confirms our biases, fears or suspicions.
“See?!” we seem to say, as we retweet or post, this latest exciting development is just what we knew could happen all along!
But there’s a question we need to ask these days before sharing one of these scintillating stories with friends and followers: Is it true?
Increasingly, “articles” that look like news may be something entirely different — false or misleading information grounded not in evidence but in partisan politics, produced not by reporters for a local newspaper but by inexperienced writers who are paid, in essence, to spread propaganda.
Last week provided a case in point when what looked like a legitimate news story went viral.
Published in the “West Cook News,” the story purported to reveal that a Chicago suburban school would soon be giving students different grades depending on their race. It started like this:
It found a ready audience. “But of course,” tweeted the conservative author Andrew Sullivan, as he shared the story to his hundreds of thousands of followers.
He was far from alone in promoting the story. There was a big problem, though. It wasn’t true.
The school issued an unequivocal statement, denying the story. While school board members have considered all sorts of research about grading practices — the bogus story relied on out-of-context material presented in a meeting for discussion — the school “does not, nor has it ever had a plan to, grade any students differently based on race.” Georgetown professor Donald Moynihan debunked the story point-by-point: “The piece has failed the most basic journalistic standard: it has not provided evidence either for the sensationalistic headline or its core claims.”
Some of those who shared it later expressed regret or deleted their original posts, as Sullivan did, but of course it’s always impossible to put the viral genie back in the bottle.
This single incident was bad enough; what’s worse is what it shows us about our poisoned news environment. While fact-based, accountable local newspapers are struggling to survive — many of them facing budget cuts or closure — what’s known as “pink slime” sites are sneakily trying to fill the void. They traffic in falsehood and exaggeration, paid for by political groups, especially on the right.
“These sites are insidious,” said Alan Miller, the founder and CEO of the News Literacy Project, the D.C.-based nonprofit organization that works to make students and the public smarter news consumers and better citizens.
Named after a meat-processing byproduct used as filler — in other words, it looks like meat but isn’t — pink slime news sites are often funded through secret and politically motivated “dark money” contributions. And they are growing fast. In 2020, the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia Journalism School identified at least 1,200 such sites.
With names like Des Moines Sun and Illinois Valley Times, they leverage the trust that people have for local newspapers, built up over many decades, to boost their own dubious credibility. Their content is “rooted in deception, eschewing hallmarks of news reporting like fairness and transparency,” according to a New York Times investigation that referred to them as “Pay-for-Play” outlets. Most of them, for example, don’t disclose the funding they get from advocacy groups. Davey Alba, one of the reporters who co-wrote the Times investigation, noted that the “West Cook News” is part of a network of local sites run by Republican operatives.
Meanwhile, of course, local newspapers are shrinking or dying. Between 2005 and the start of the pandemic, about 2,100 newspapers were closed, as I detailed in my book, “Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy.” And while many legitimate and admirable news sites have sprung up to help fill the gap, it isn’t always easy for news consumers to know the difference.
I asked Alan Miller for his advice to news consumers.
First, he said, take a pause when you see a story that gets your blood pressure jumping: “Don’t let your emotions take over. If something makes us angry, anxious or excited that’s when we are most vulnerable to being manipulated.”
Then, he suggested, spend a minute doing your own research. Glance at the comments to see if anyone has done a fact check or has credibly challenged the findings. Use a search engine to see if any other news outlets have covered this story. Try to find the original source of the story or ask the person who shared the post for evidence supporting the claim. Ask yourself if it seems too good to be true.
You don’t need to take all of these steps, he noted, acknowledging that this is more work than most people are likely to undertake. But “doing any of them will be beneficial.”
The News Literacy Project has managed to reach tens of thousands of educators and, through them, potentially millions of students. Since older people are most likely to share false information, according to research published in 2019 in the journal Science Advances, the News Literacy Project is working with an affiliate of AARP and hopes to expand the partnership.
There’s really only one solution, after all: skeptical awareness.
News consumers must cultivate their own ability to know the difference between journalistic meat and fraudulent filler.
And, whatever their politics may be, those who care about truth need to slow down — way down — before sharing content that appeals to their emotions or preconceived ideas. It’s increasingly likely that it may be nothing but slime. | 2022-06-05T11:27:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Beware partisan ‘pink slime’ sites that pose as local news - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/06/05/pink-slime-west-cook-news-school-race-grading/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/06/05/pink-slime-west-cook-news-school-race-grading/ |
Jim Shalleck in Clarksburg, Md., on Oct. 5, 2021. (Andre Chung for The Washington Post)
Democrats have held the office of attorney general in Maryland for nearly 70 years, a winning streak very likely to hold this year if Republicans nominate an extremist with past ties to a racist hate group, which is possible. Fortunately for GOP primary voters, they have a much better choice on the ballot: Jim Shalleck.
Mr. Shalleck, who was a prosecutor for 24 years at the local, state and federal levels, is a conservative who regards himself as a traditional Republican, meaning in part that he has not fallen for the Trumpist fantasy that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Beyond that, he is a lawyer with broad courtroom experience, a sense of decency and a commitment to public service. Before resigning to seek his party’s nomination for attorney general, he was president of Montgomery County’s Board of Elections for six years; he also ran unsuccessfully for county executive in 2014.
He has our endorsement in Maryland’s July 19 Republican primary.
The office of attorney general in Maryland, staffed by more than 450 lawyers plus support staff, has a broad range of responsibilities, including litigation and prosecutions covering antitrust; civil rights; consumer protection; investment and Medicaid fraud; and environmental crimes. It also represents the state in an array of matters, from contractual disputes to criminal appeals.
Mr. Shalleck’s own priority is narrower — to address Maryland’s spike in violent crime, especially in Baltimore and Prince George’s County. That is undoubtedly a grave concern to residents who, like Mr. Shalleck, are disturbed by the quotidian carnage.
Criminal prosecution is not central to the attorney general’s brief — in Maryland, as in most states, it is handled at the local level, by elected state’s attorneys offices. Still, Mr. Shalleck says he would redeploy 40 to 50 lawyers from the attorney general’s office to assist local prosecutors, something permitted under the state’s constitution only if authorized by the governor or the legislature. His plan would divert resources from critical areas of the attorney general’s office. Yet given the terrible toll of homicide and gun crimes, it could conceivably make sense — particularly in a jurisdiction such as Prince George’s, where the state’s attorneys office has struggled to manage its caseload.
We worry Mr. Shalleck’s vision of the job is somewhat crimped. But there is no denying his prosecutorial experience, which includes stints as chief of the homicide bureau in the Bronx, handling white-collar crime in the New York State attorney general’s office and federal antitrust work at the Justice Department.
In any event, his background, world view and priorities are vastly more relevant, and grounded in sanity, than that of his GOP primary rival, Michael Anthony Peroutka, a debt-collecting attorney who served a term on the Anne Arundel County Council. Mr. Peroutka, who was active in a racist group called the League of the South, insists “Dixie” is the true national anthem; thinks public schools are infused with communist dogma and should be dismantled; believes Christian dictates should prevail over state law; and is an adherent of creationism. He is unfit for public office. | 2022-06-05T11:28:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Washington Post GOP primary endorsement for Maryland attorney general: Jim Shalleck - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/05/jim-shalleck-maryland-gop-attorney-general-endorsement-2022/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/05/jim-shalleck-maryland-gop-attorney-general-endorsement-2022/ |
The Supreme Court gives tech a win — and a reason to worry
The Supreme Court on May 16. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)
The Supreme Court gave the technology industry a win this past week, but one so narrow that it felt almost like a loss — and raised alarming questions about the future of free-speech protections in the United States.
A 5-to-4 ruling blocked temporarily a Texas law that bars large social media services from removing posts based on the views they express. The outcome is the correct one, but the court’s narrow majority and ongoing litigation on the issue suggest the fight is not over. The legislation in question now awaits a decision on the merits by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. Considering these ongoing proceedings, and that an 11th Circuit panel recently struck down a similar law passed in Florida, it seems likely that questions about the government’s authority over what tech platforms can do with the content on their sites will soon find their way back to the Supreme Court.
These cases would seem to present an ideal opportunity for the court to issue a robust defense of the First Amendment, which should guarantee social media companies freedom from broad government mandates on how they regulate the content they host on their private platforms. But, shockingly, only five justices signaled their willingness to uphold this principle in their preliminary look at the Texas law, and they did not explain their votes. Instead, the dissenters did all the talking, and it was not encouraging. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., joined in his dissent by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil M. Gorsuch, discounted the extent to which sacrosanct First Amendment protections apply to large social media companies. The influence a few firms have over the public square might require some response. Yet infringing on those firms’ right to free expression is not an answer the Constitution permits.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s (R) argument — that social media sites should be classified as common carriers and thereby compelled to host all legal material — is perplexing, given conservatives’ opposition to the same concept when it comes to questions such as net neutrality. He and his allies apparently decided that the technology companies they have accused of liberal bias don’t deserve the same prerogatives as other corporate actors. But to compel Facebook, Twitter and others to disseminate hate, harassment, foreign-state propaganda and even white-supremacist manifestos is as contrary to this nation’s founding values as forcing a big-box store to celebrate Pride Month, or to disdain it.
There’s room for responsible regulation of Internet services. Indeed, there’s even a need for it. Technology companies in their Supreme Court petition asked the justices to go too far in their favor — precluding even reasonable requirements for transparency or appeals processes as they regulate the speech on their sites. But Texas’s effort to dictate to companies what they must and must not allow people to say doesn’t protect free speech. It imperils free expression.
The Editorial Board on Big Tech
The Buffalo massacre shows how far social media sites still have to go
Lack of a federal privacy law opens the door to dystopia
Elon Musk would let Trump back on Twitter. He should explain more. | 2022-06-05T11:28:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The Supreme Court blocked an alarming Texas tech law — but the fight isn't over - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/05/texas-tech-law-supreme-court-free-speech/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/05/texas-tech-law-supreme-court-free-speech/ |
President Biden on June 1. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
The Summit of the Americas, 2022 edition, opens on Monday in Los Angeles, but President Biden is still struggling to finalize the list of leaders who will attend. His counterparts in key countries, notably Mexico, are threatening to boycott unless the United States accepts attendance by the Cuban, Venezuela and Nicaraguan dictatorships. Mr. Biden stands accused of feckless leadership at a time when the United States must orchestrate regional responses to mass migration, covid-19 and inflation.
Mr. Biden should not welcome the region’s tyrants to a meeting for democratically chosen leaders. The attempt to make him do so is symptomatic of more than just long-standing regional disagreements over whether and how to isolate dictators, however. The world, and the Western Hemisphere, have changed since December 1994, when President Bill Clinton presided over the first Summit of the Americas in Miami. At that moment of post-Cold War triumph for the United States and its democratic capitalist model, a consensus in favor of free trade and free elections reigned; Cuban communism, in economic free fall due to the loss of Soviet subsidies, appeared doomed. As the summits recurred every three or four years, U.S.-Latin American trade promotion deals spread from Mexico to the Andes. Moderate politics flourished; absolute poverty rates fell.
That relative harmony lies in the past. Today, Latin America is increasingly torn between populists of the left, such as the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who is balking at attending the summit, and the right, like Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who is coming. They gradually gained traction by discounting the successes of the U.S.-led post-Cold War order, and blaming it for stubborn economic inequality and government corruption. To a degree that would have astonished attendees at the 1994 summit, much energy on the region’s left reflects the lingering influence of Cuba’s regime, which did not collapse, but instead found a new sponsor in the first nation to abandon democratic capitalism, oil-rich Venezuela. Indeed, the late Hugo Chávez, who held power in Caracas from 1999 to 2013, spawned a regional bloc of “Bolivarian” regimes that not only opposed U.S. influence but also invited its rivals — Russia, China and even Iran — into the hemisphere.
Recent elections in Peru and Chile devolved into contests of the ultraright and ultraleft, which were won by left-wing candidates — who have quickly gotten bogged down in partisan quarrels. Even Colombia, previously a stalwart U.S. ally and bastion of democratic stability, is not immune to polarization and populism. Its first round of presidential elections May 29 narrowed the field to two candidates: a former leftist guerrilla, Gustavo Petro, and a self-made construction magnate, Rodolfo Hernandez, of vague right-wing leanings and a pugnacious, Trump-like persona. Whoever wins the June 19 runoff will have done so by promising to repudiate free trade and Bogota’s tough anti-Venezuela stance.
In short, it’s hard to get the Americas together because the Americas are coming apart. Yet the Biden administration must understand that the institutional challenges facing Latin America are not altogether unlike the ones confronting this country, with its own growing distrust of elites and multiple threats to democratic stability. This perspective may even help maintain and enhance U.S. regional influence, which remains vital both for its own sake and to limit that of Russia and China. That long-term project can’t be completed at next week’s summit, but it could be started. | 2022-06-05T11:28:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The U.S. can’t get the hemisphere together because it’s coming apart - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/05/us-cant-get-hemisphere-together-because-its-coming-apart/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/05/us-cant-get-hemisphere-together-because-its-coming-apart/ |
History shows the push for gun control faces long odds
Gun rights groups have overwhelmed public opinion for decades
Perspective by Joanna Paxton Federico
Joanna Paxton Federico is a doctoral student at Rutgers University studying policy responses to mass school shootings.
An attendee tries out a gun on display at the National Rifle Association's annual convention in Houston on May 29. (Callaghan O'hare/Reuters)
In the wake of the deadly elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Tex., many Americans are once again calling for stricter gun regulation. At an emotional news conference, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr questioned the integrity of senators blocking a vote on HR 8, a background-check measure supported by 90 percent of Americans. Many critics have pointed to the National Rifle Association’s large donations to prominent Republicans as the primary cause of the Senate stonewalling HR 8 and other overwhelmingly popular gun laws.
But understanding the NRA’s influence requires looking beyond spending. For more than a century, the organization’s war against gun control has included everything from legislative campaigns to lawsuits and judicial activism to even casting aspersion on the expertise of everyone from public opinion pollsters to epidemiologists. These varied efforts have enabled the NRA to override popular opinion and scholarly consensus to bend firearms policy in its favor.
Completely obstructing firearm regulations has not always been the NRA’s objective. Instead, up until the late 20th century, it focused on limiting legislation’s impact on “law-abiding citizen” gun owners. This legal agenda was first elaborated in 1911 by Olympic sharpshooter and Harvard-trained lawyer Karl T. Frederick in response to New York’s Sullivan Act requiring licenses for concealable firearms (which the Supreme Court probably may overturn in June).
Frederick himself did not believe in the “general promiscuous toting of guns” and did not oppose all licensing. Yet, when he rose to be president of the NRA in the 1930s, he lobbied to exempt handguns and pistols from the “burdensome” permitting requirements proposed in President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal for Crime.”
Prominent organizations, including the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, supported handgun licensing. But Frederick’s D.C. negotiations and a flood of angry telegrams from NRA members swayed Congress. When a last-minute draft bill exempting handguns emerged, it stunned many observers. A representative of the women’s clubs declared, “If a million riflemen can get the feature (handguns and pistols) taken out, two million club women can have it put back in.”
This proved to be untrue, and the first federal gun law, the National Firearms Act (NFA), passed in 1934 without handgun registration.
When Congress drafted the NFA, it was difficult to ascertain exactly how many Americans supported gun registration. But four years later, utilizing the new method of scientific sampling, a Gallup poll found that 79 percent of respondents supported the inclusion of handgun registration in a proposed federal gun law expansion. Nevertheless, lawmakers again excluded the measure from the 1938 Federal Firearms Act.
In the decades since, polls have consistently shown that a majority approve of firearm safety measures. But, in a mismatch that scholars have dubbed the “gun control paradox,” Congress has ignored these public preferences. A communications scientist, Hazel Erskine, wrote in 1972, “It is difficult to imagine any other issue on which Congress has been less responsive to public sentiment for a longer period of time.”
One reason for this mismatch may be the NRA’s aggressive attempts to impugn the polls and the pollsters themselves. In 1959, Gallup reported that 14,000 Americans died each year as a result of gun violence. Their polling showed approval of gun permitting at 75 percent overall and 68 percent for gun owners. NRA members quickly wrote to newspapers attacking the validity of this information.
At the organizational level, the NRA published an article in its house magazine, the American Rifleman, dubbing the survey propaganda and evidence of the public’s ignorance. Behind the scenes, the NRA leadership sought to have the ethics committee of the American Psychological Association investigate George Gallup.
The NRA began conducting its own polls in the 1970s to counter what it claimed was bias from mainstream pollsters, the Johnson administration and gun control advocacy groups. Scholarly analysis of NRA data found it similar to that of other polls — but the NRA’s interpretations of data were dubious.
The organization once again had succeeded in excluding a gun registration clause from the 1968 Gun Control Act, but in the 1970s, a new, more hard-line generation of NRA members sought to go further in fighting firearm regulation. They established a formal lobbying arm in 1975.
This shift came at a time when the Republican Party was increasingly rejecting gun control and adopting extremist gun rights views once the preserve of the far right. Since this period, the NRA and the Republican Party have been deeply intertwined.
During the late 1970s and 1980s, the NRA began promulgating a rare and extreme interpretation of the Second Amendment as guaranteeing an individual right to armed self-defense. To that point, courts had overwhelmingly held the Second Amendment to apply narrowly to militias. But a handful of NRA-affiliated lawyers began to flood law journals with articles espousing an individual right. Through a web of mutual citation, the authors created the false impression of wide support for their scholarship.
In the 1990s, riding a wave of public support, the Clinton administration overcame NRA opposition to pass several new gun regulations. The Brady Bill had the backing of President Ronald Reagan, who had been severely injured in an assassination attempt. And the Violence Against Women Act and the Assault Weapons Ban were understood by many as components of a law-and-order approach to curbing high rates of violent crime.
But the NRA lobbied successfully to eliminate certain proposed components of these laws and crucially secured sunset provisions that allowed it to kill the Assault Weapons Ban a decade later.
After the passage of President Bill Clinton’s gun laws, and amid mounting lawsuits against gun manufacturers, the NRA — which ostensibly represents gun owners, not gun manufacturers — began borrowing strategies from the tobacco, oil and chemical industries.
During appropriations hearings in 1996, House Republicans argued that public health research on gun violence duplicated existing executive branch efforts, and questioned why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would research injuries of any sort, since they weren’t “diseases.”
In the end, the NRA’s self-described “point-man,” Rep. Jay Dickey (R-Ark.), introduced an amendment prohibiting federal funding for research that might “advocate or promote gun control.” The amendment led to a dramatic decline in studies of gun violence and Dickey came to regret that his actions may have impeded lifesaving research. But by then, the anti-public health stance was firmly entrenched in the Republican Party.
The reduction in research on guns has enabled the NRA and Republicans to skew blame for an emerging epidemic of school shootings that escalated with the 1999 Columbine attack toward violent media, dangerous youths, mental illness or cultural decline, and to emphasize policing and target hardening as remedies. The primary federal response to the Columbine attack was to provide grants for school resource officers (SROs). Little data supported the measure — local police and an SRO had not prevented or disrupted the attack at Columbine — and not much has emerged in the years since. A Washington Post analysis found only two instances between 1999 and 2018 in which an SRO had taken down an active shooter with return fire. Recent studies suggest SROs may do more harm than good.
Despite Republican arguments, the public has still tended to respond to mass school shootings with calls for gun regulation, but their words have not translated into significant policy change. A study found that in the year-long “policy window” after a mass shooting, states saw a 15 percent increase in the number of firearm-related bills introduced. However, the bulk of those bills were Republican-written laws to loosen gun restrictions. So ingrained are pro-gun views within the GOP that it has become an article of faith that armed bystanders can disrupt mass attacks.
Reflecting the success of pro-gun forces, the NRA also pushed through a ban on lawsuits against gun manufacturers in 2005.
In 2008, the Supreme Court adopted the NRA’s individual rights view of the Second Amendment in Heller v. District of Columbia, easing passage of once-extreme gun rights laws. Following the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Republicans in the state passed a law allowing for teachers and volunteers to carry guns in schools.
However, at the same time, the student protest movement that emerged after the Parkland shooting pressured federal lawmakers into an official “clarification” that opened the door to federally funded gun violence prevention research after a two decade freeze. Under pressure, Florida Republicans also enacted some new gun restrictions.
The invigorated environment of injury prevention research and activism, coupled with the growing disillusionment with gun rights-allied Republicans’ obstructionism and ineffective policing, may mean that gun-control groups will finally match the offensive of gun rights groups such as the NRA. But a century of history suggests an uphill battle. | 2022-06-05T11:28:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | History shows the push for gun control faces long odds - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/06/05/history-shows-push-gun-control-faces-long-odds/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/06/05/history-shows-push-gun-control-faces-long-odds/ |
Teacups and corgis lit up the sky. Prince Louis stole the show. A famous gold carriage.
Britain's Queen Elizabeth along with members of the Royal Family watches the special flypast by Britain's RAF (Royal Air Force) from Buckingham Palace balcony following the Trooping the Colour parade, as a part of her platinum jubilee celebrations, in London, Britain June 2, 2022. Paul Grover/Pool via REUTERS (Pool/Reuters)
LONDON — Britain pulled out all the stops to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s 70-year reign. In the skies over Buckingham Palace, drones formed the shapes of floating teacups and giant corgis. On the ground, a parade starred 1,400 troops, hundreds of horses and a swarm of royal super fans.
Sunday marks the end of a string of Platinum Jubilee celebrations that was a four-day holiday, which also featured street parties and picnics throughout the country. Here’s a look at some of the most memorable moments from the spectacle:
70 jets form “70” in the sky in dramatic military fly-over
The Royal Air Force “flypast” formed the number “70” above London during the Trooping the Color spectacle Thursday — much to the delight of some locals who saw them roar over their houses and to the queen who smiled as she marveled at the spectacle along with crowds on the Mall.
The Red Arrows of the Royal Air Force also performed during the jubilee celebration, leaving a trail of red, white and blue behind them. Emotional crowd members told The Washington Post that the queen has been “a constant for 70 years in a very changing and frightening world."
The fighter jets were too loud for little Prince Louis
With his eyes closed tight and his hands placed firmly over his regal ears, Prince Louis let the world know that the fly-past over Buckingham Palace in honor of his Great-granny’s birthday was way too loud.
The prince, who is the youngest child of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, appeared to let out a scream as the Queen, seemingly unaware of his meltdown, beamed alongside him on the world-famous balcony.
And the 4-year-old prince didn’t stop there. He was also seen pulling faces, saluting, waving to crowds. The Times of London called him the “royal jester," while The Sun could only find one, very British word for his display: cheeky.
On social media, one viewer described Louis as “the face that launched 1000 memes,” while others said he simply stole the show.
A ‘breathtaking’ light show above Buckingham Palace
A message reading “Thank you Ma’am” lit up the sky above Buckingham Palace Saturday night as a star-studded music concert unfolded. Drones also formed the shape off a giant corgi — the queen’s favorite dog — and huge floating teapot and teacup.
Different images were projected onto the palace during the music concert, known as “Platinum Party at the Palace,” which saw a host of celebrities including Alicia Keys, Queen (the band, not the monarch) and Diana Ross perform on stage in front of thousands.
An estimated 11 million people watched from their homes on Saturday evening, the BBC reported, while thousands more flooded the Mall to witness the display, which was widely hailed as a “breathtaking” tribute to the Queen’s sprawling reign.
Heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles delivered a tribute to his “mummy” and Prince William also hailed his grandmother’s reign. “Occasionally this country just nails it,” tweeted Sky News journalist Mark Austin.
The Queen, Paddington Bear and ‘ma’amalade’ sandwiches
The Queen sat down for tea with Paddington Bear at the palace and Britain went wild. Two British icons, at the same table, discussing a mutual love for marmalade — or should we say “ma’amalade” sandwiches. It was a comedy sketch that took some viewers by surprise, and showcased how at 96, the monarch still has her sense of humor.
The mystery of what the queen keeps in her handbag was finally solved, as the Elizabeth was filmed pulling out a sandwich from her bag in the sketch — before the unlikely pair went onto play the beat to the opening of the song “We will rock you” by Queen on their floral teacups and saucers as the band in real-life played outside the palace.
Famous golden carriage closes out huge street carnival
Among the last striking moments of the four-day weekend, Britain’s famed Gold State Coach appeared Sunday to close out the celebrations at the Jubilee Pageant, which will serve as a carnival involving children and art groups from local communities.
The elaborate coach, which is seven meters long and weighs four tons, is the third oldest surviving coach in the United Kingdom and features engraved lion heads, palm trees and cherubs on its roof.
It is rarely seen on the streets of London but when it is, it is pulled by eight horses and moves at a walking pace.
The Queen used the #GoldStateCoach to travel from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey for her Coronation in 1953. pic.twitter.com/SYmO1FbT1l
— Royal Collection Trust (@RCT) June 5, 2022
– William Booth, Karla Adam and Adela Suliman contributed to this report. | 2022-06-05T14:17:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Queen's Platinum Jubilee key moments: Paddington and Prince Louis - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/05/queen-jubilee-photos-key-moments/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/05/queen-jubilee-photos-key-moments/ |
Joe Manchin Was Right, and Democrats Should Admit It
NEW YORK, NY - DECEMBER 12: U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) walks into Trump Tower on December 12, 2016 in New York City. President-elect Donald Trump continues to hold meetings with potential members of his cabinet at his office. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) (Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images North America)
Senator Joe Manchin officially said no to the president’s signature Build Back Better legislation late last year, but progressives remain furious at him. While it is too much to ask them to thank the moderate senator from West Virginia, if they want to get anything done this year, they might acknowledge that he was basically right — about the bill itself and inflation.
Manchin’s behavior during President Joe Biden’s tenure hasn’t been perfect. It’s also true, however, that the bill the House passed was bad. Had it become law, inflation would be even worse today, and most of the money involved would have been wasted on temporary initiatives.
Yes, it would also have accomplished some useful things — especially on prescription drugs and energy production — but by most accounts Manchin remains interested in acting on those issues, and there is some hope of getting something done. For the party to get to yes on that agenda is going to require all sides to get past some bitterness and recrimination. And a good way to start that would be for progressives to admit that Manchin was right to be worried.
Here it’s worth recalling some specifics: After the White House initially proposed a raft of programs whose 10-year cost amounted to more than $3 trillion, congressional leaders agreed to aim for a more modest $1.8 trillion figure. They achieved that not by pruning individual proposals, but by scheduling them to phase out.
Had the House bill become law, for example, a new program to subsidize child-care costs for parents of children under 3 years old would have been phased in over a couple of years and then vanished in 2028. A new program to split the cost of providing preschool to 3- and 4-year-olds would have expired in the same year. A program to offer additional nutritional assistance to poor kids over the summer months would have expired in 2025, along with increased subsidies for low-income users of Affordable Care Act exchanges. Boosts in the child tax credit and earned income tax credit would have lasted through the end of 2022.
The goal was to create a scenario under which 10 years’ worth of tax increases could “pay for” temporary spending programs in the hope that the programs would prove so popular as to be extended or made permanent.
But while the impact of that structure was to ensure that while Build Back Better was deficit-neutral over the 10-year period, the year-to-year impacts were quite varied. According to analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the bill as written would have raised the deficit by about $155 billion in 2022 and continued to generate $100-billion-plus deficits through the end of 2026. Then, as tax increases continued but programs phased out, those short-term deficit increases would be offset by long-term deficit cuts.
Mechanically, this would have served to further stimulate an economy that is already experiencing inflation.
In the short term, that would have meant inflation in the first half of this year even higher than what the US is now experiencing. In the longer term, the Federal Reserve could and would have offset that inflationary impact by increasing the pace of interest rate increases, reducing private and public investment and the productive capacity of the economy.
And while permanent new social programs financed with redistributive taxation would have been somewhat inflationary, since low-income people consume a larger share of their income than rich people, Democrats would at least have created something of lasting value for their trouble. The perversity of Build Back Better is that by spiking inflation for the sake of creating a multitude of short-term programs, it would simply have created political backlash that ensured the programs weren’t expanded.
It’s all well and good for Democrats to lament that their unified control of government didn’t create a universal preschool program or a child-care subsidy program or an expanded child tax credit. But it’s not Manchin’s fault these things didn’t happen — their own legislation wouldn’t have created them. It was a bad bill.
Democratic members of Congress were perfectly aware of this at the time. The bill came together because most Democrats didn’t want to pick and choose among programs — their expectation was that Manchin would pick and choose for them. That would allow each non-Manchin member to tell disappointed advocacy groups that it was Manchin’s fault that their preferred program didn’t make the cut.
It would have been convenient for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and dozens of other mainstream Democratic members of Congress. But Manchin didn’t want to wear the black hat any more than they did.
He was also of the view that the White House and the Fed were underestimating inflation risk in the economy. In retrospect, he was obviously correct.
All this time, it’s worth noting, the one piece of the legislation that Democrats made sure to keep permanent was providing tax credits to subsidize the production of zero-carbon energy. This was structured to try to be more neutral between technologies than America’s current climate subsidies, to be permanent rather than temporary, and to be far simpler and more efficient than the current system. This part of the puzzle was well-designed in its parameters, is at least somewhat anti-inflationary in its implications, and is easy to pay for in the context of a package that in the aggregate reduces the deficit by taxing the rich.
Manchin has never rejected these ideas outright, and his staff continues to negotiate with other senators about their exact design. Anyone who cares about inflation, climate change or the Biden administration’s legacy should hope that he and his interlocutors can get to yes. A good starting point would be for everyone to admit that this approach isn’t just a second-best alternative to Build Back Better, it’s actually superior — and that the senator from West Virginia has had a point all along.
• The Democrats Should Blame Themselves, Not Joe Manchin: Ramesh Ponnuru
• The Case for Manchin’s Intransigence: The Editors
• Manchin’s Climate Catchphrase Is Complete Nonsense: Liam Denning | 2022-06-05T14:30:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Joe Manchin Was Right, and Democrats Should Admit It - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/joe-manchin-was-right-and-democrats-should-admit-it/2022/06/05/39eae94e-e4d0-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/joe-manchin-was-right-and-democrats-should-admit-it/2022/06/05/39eae94e-e4d0-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
By Katherine Lutge | AP
Vice President of Feed the Streets, Tamra Gore, refills a hygiene pantry on 26th street on Wednesday, May 25, 2022, in Richmond, Va. Gore said they are planning on unveiling a new hygiene pantry next month. (Armond Feffer/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP)
RICHMOND, Va. — Behind a church in Church Hill stands a pink and blue cabinet; inside are tampons, socks, toothpaste, deodorant, sunscreen and other hygiene essentials for community members to use. On the glass it says, “Take what you need, leave what you can.”
The idea came from Tamra Gore, 31, vice president of the nonprofit Feed the Streets RVA.
“We wanted to do something that was needed and hadn’t been done,” Gore said. “We kind of merged the idea of the book nooks into something that was an essential need, which is hygiene products.”
Feed the Streets RVA provides a plethora of support to the community, including organizing angel tree drives, providing hot meals, handing out hygiene kits, hosting clothing drives and helping people pay their bills during the pandemic. Recently, it helped restore a basketball court behind Mount Olivet Church, which is where the hygiene pantry resides.
“We believe that we should respond and support people to meet their basic human needs, so we do a lot of outreach with feeding folks; feeding the mind, feeding the body and feeding the soul,” Gore said.
Located at 1223 N. 25th St., the hygiene pantry is the first of what Gore hopes will be many around the city. There’s another in the works, and she says the group would love to have a pantry in each major area of Richmond.
“We want to make sure all the logistics are taken care of, so that it can be functional and that it can be a long-term thing,” Gore said. “We don’t want to put up a pantry and then forget about it. We really are interested in making these pantries accessible around Richmond — so people can take what they need, leave what they can, judgment-free — and spread a little love around the community.”
The hygiene pantry has been open for about a month, and Gore says the support from the community has been “heavy” on both the volunteer and the community-use side.
“We have gotten so many shares on Instagram and Facebook,” she said. “We have had community members come in and refill the pantry. We had people donate monetarily, and asking, how can we help?”
The pantry is checked and restocked daily. Gore says Feed the Streets RVA spoke with the community to determine what specific items are needed; socks were a top request.
“We really believe that everyone deserves to feel clean, to look their best and to have what they need,” Gore said. “It’s summertime, things are expensive, inflation is hitting us, and we just don’t want anyone to feel self-conscious or not have access to a way to take a shower or a way to smell good.”
Health was another factor behind the pantry, Gore says, because poor hygiene can lead to health problems.
Feed the Streets RVA was started by a group of friends who grew up in Richmond and share a passion for giving back. Most of them attended Old Dominion University with Gore and, in 2016, they filed to be a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
“My passion has been to give back for as long as I remember,” Gore said.
The executive board is a team of eight who volunteer their time on top of their full-time jobs to organize communitywide service projects. Feed the Streets RVA also has a roster of 250 volunteers.
“Sometimes we don’t realize how easy it is to do something,” Gore said. “You know building the pantry seems like such an out-of-the-box idea which a lot of people had never seen before, but when you bring people together to do it, you just have to have heart and awareness. So we are all about educating the community.”
Gore says that in order for Feed the Streets RVA to be community conscious, the group has to involve the community members. Looking ahead to summer, Feed the Streets RVA has more events and outreach planned. For more information about the group’s work, visit www.feedthestreetsrva.org. | 2022-06-05T14:30:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Virginia nonprofit opens hygiene pantry - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-nonprofit-opens-hygiene-pantry/2022/06/05/a262a40e-e4cf-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-nonprofit-opens-hygiene-pantry/2022/06/05/a262a40e-e4cf-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
Democrats should be clear: A radical GOP is holding the country back
President Biden speaks about mass shootings, from the White House on June 2. (Evan Vucci/AP)
Washington is broken. Politicians can’t get anything done. They don’t listen to voters.
Voters have been making these complaints for decades, but never have they been truer than they are today. The preferences of a supermajority of voters, whether that’s investigating an armed insurrection to topple our democracy or securing the right to vote or passing reasonable gun measures or respecting women’s physical autonomy, are almost never translated into legislative output.
Worse, the results — a society rife with guns, the criminalization of abortion, attempts to subvert elections — are moving the country in ways that threaten the lives and rights of Americans.
Consider the latest Gallup polling on abortion: “After a decade in which Americans’ identification as ‘pro-choice’ varied narrowly between 45% and 50%, the percentage has jumped six points to 55% in the latest poll, compared with the prior measure a year ago. Pro-choice sentiment is now the highest Gallup has measured since 1995 when it was 56% — the only other time it has been at the current level or higher — while the 39% identifying as ‘pro-life’ is the lowest since 1996.”
In addition, more than half of voters — a first in Gallup polling history — think abortion is morally acceptable. Even more noteworthy: “The latest data show Americans are less likely than a year ago to say abortion should be illegal in all circumstances, falling six points to 13%, the lowest Gallup has recorded for this position since 1995. At the same time, the 35% wanting it legal under any circumstances is the highest in Gallup’s trend by one point, after increasing slightly each of the past three years.”
Put differently, if the leak of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.’s draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade was meant to “lock in” right-wing justices on the decision, it accomplished the opposite among ordinary Americans. There will undoubtedly be a furious backlash against the court itself for so aggressively attacking settled law and popular values.
Similarly on guns, President Biden reflected the overwhelming sentiment of the American people when he asked on Thursday night, “For God’s sake, how much more carnage are we willing to accept? How many more innocent American lives must be taken before we say ‘enough’? Enough.”
The items he called for (e.g., a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines; raising the age to purchase all firearms to 21; universal background checks; safe-storage and red-flag laws; a repeal of protections for gun manufacturers from liability) garner, in some cases, more than 80 percent approval.
Biden briefly touched on the reason that the overwhelming support for gun regulation fails to translate into law: “My God, the fact that the majority of the Senate Republicans don’t want any of these proposals even to be debated or come up for a vote, I find unconscionable,” he said. He warned that “if Congress fails, I believe this time a majority of the American people won’t give up, either. I believe the majority of you will act to turn your outrage into making this issue central to your vote.”
That’s the nub of the problem. Our democracy doesn’t work when the will of the majority is consistently ignored (repudiated, even) by a minority out of step with the nation’s views and values. This takes place primarily with four antidemocratic tools: (1) the electoral college, which has installed Republican presidents who lack majority support; (2) the Senate’s advantage toward thinly populated, overwhelmingly White states; (3) the filibuster, which effectively gives the minority party a veto over the majority; and (4) lifetime tenure of Supreme Court justices.
The problem is not lily-livered Democrats or “polarization." Our democracy is being thwarted again and again by an increasingly radical, antidemocratic GOP driven by white grievance and nostalgia for a pre-civil-rights America.
If Democrats, including the president, want to end this paralysis, they must be clear about the need for fundamental reform, including elimination of the filibuster and establishment of term limits for Supreme Court justices. Democrats should say it plainly: We cannot have what we collectively want by overwhelming majorities unless we have enough Democrats in power to fix our democracy. You want the right to choose? Gun regulations? We need people in the House and Senate determined to stop the tyranny of the minority and reflect the supermajority views of the people.
The impending overturning of abortion rights and the spate of gun massacres have underscored that a radical White minority has far too much power. If Democrats cannot excite their base to remedy that problem and make the case to all Americans that the GOP has become a destructive force to our democracy, then our country is in deep trouble. And the slaughter of little children will continue. | 2022-06-05T14:31:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Democrats should be clear: A radical GOP is holding the country back - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/05/abortion-guns-gop-democrats-must-focus-on-gop-extremism/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/05/abortion-guns-gop-democrats-must-focus-on-gop-extremism/ |
Carl Edwards Jr. is thriving in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Carl Edwards Jr.’s first relief appearance this season for the Washington Nationals didn’t go the way he probably envisioned it.
The day he was called up to the majors, he gave up three runs in the sixth inning against the New York Mets with Washington leading by a run and eventually earned the loss. After the game, Edwards made a promise.
“I do know one thing, and one thing that’s a fact: It won’t happen again,” Edwards said on May 10.
So far, Edwards has made good on that pledge: He hasn’t allowed a run in the 12 outings since. He’s allowed only two hits during that stretch. He has still walked six batters — but he has also struck out 12.
Success at the major league level isn’t new to Edwards. He was part of the bullpen that helped the Chicago Cubs win the 2016 World Series and earned the win in Game 7. But after appearing in 131 games with the Cubs over the next two seasons, Edwards was traded to the San Diego Padres at the trade deadline in 2019. He made five relief appearances with the Seattle Mariners in 2020 and seven more in 2021 between the defending champion Atlanta Braves and Toronto Blue Jays, where he dealt with abdominal and oblique injuries.
Edwards signed with the Nationals on a minor league deal in February. When he started the season in Class AAA Rochester, the Braves presented him with a World Series ring before a minor league game even though he recorded only one out for the team.
“It feels different because I was with the Cubs and it was a 108-year curse,” Edwards said Thursday about receiving a ring from the Braves. “I reached out to [the Braves] and told them thank you but, you know, I wasn’t there.”
Another chance with Washington reunited him with some familiar faces — Dave Martinez and pitching coach Jim Hickey — who worked with him while he was in Chicago.
Both Martinez and Hickey said they knew Edwards would be a valuable bullpen arm if he could stay healthy and pound the strike zone. He didn’t make the team’s Opening Day roster, but when he gave up one run in 14 ⅓ innings in Rochester, the Nationals gave him a shot.
So far in the majors, although it is a small sample size, he’s thrown a career-high 53.2 percent of his pitches in the zone; the major league average is 48.5 percent. His success inside the zone has set up his pitches outside of it — he’s gotten batters to make contact with 65.4 percent of the pitches outside of the zone, seven percent higher than league average.
“When we were in Chicago, Joe Maddon was convinced that he would, at some point, be the closer and all he had to do was get into the strike zone,” Hickey said. “And you can see, when he is in the strike zone, he’s really, really difficult to hit.”
Edwards mixes a fastball with a natural cutter action that tops out around 96 miles per hour with a curveball. He’s also added a change-up to his arsenal this year. It’s always been a pitch Edwards could throw, but one he didn’t decide to start using in games until this year.
Hickey said the pitch almost functions like a sinker because he throws it at 90 mph and called the pitch “a weapon to induce groundballs” which in turn helps keep his pitch count down.
“Two, three, four years ago, he would have been looking for two [or] three strikeouts, and it would have been 23 pitches, 24 pitches,” Hickey said. “And then that impacts your availability for tomorrow or to go two innings. So [the change-up has] made them a little bit more efficient, but also he’s made himself more efficient with the better strike throwing.”
Edwards has quickly become one of Martinez’s most trusted relievers. On Saturday with the team trailing by one, Martinez said he called down to the bullpen to see if Edwards Jr. could enter and preserve the one-run deficit. Edwards agreed to come in and pitch, even though Martinez had planned to not use him because he’s pitched so much recently. The Nationals eventually won the game.
Aside from his performance on the field, Hickey said he’s seen a new level of focus from Edwards that’s natural for a ballplayer as he grows older.
“I think you see just a little bit of a maturation as a pitcher, as a person,” Hickey said. “And he’s been a 2016 world champion, an integral part of that team, to being in the minor leagues. So it gives him a little bit of perspective.”
Hickey said some players take being in the majors for granted, thinking they’ll be in the league for 10 years when they reach the majors at a young age.
Edwards said he’s learned a lot since he was a young pitcher for the Cubs. But for him, his success boils down to enjoying himself and not worrying about the outcome. If it doesn’t go his way, he’ll reset for the next day.
“Just going out there and having fun playing the game,” Edwards said about his approach. “Just not taking nothing for granted. That’s all we can do. It’s only so much we can control and I just control what I can control and let everything else play itself [out].” | 2022-06-05T14:31:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Carl Edwards Jr. pitching well as a Nationals reliever - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/05/carl-edwards-jr-nationals/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/05/carl-edwards-jr-nationals/ |
The county council is reviewing amendments to a police accountability bill, and community members have concerns about the board member selection process
Beverly John, coordinator for the Prince George's County Coalition for Police Accountability, demonstrates at the Wayne K. Curry administration building in Prince George's County on May 12. (Jasmine Hilton/TWP)
As the deadline to pass a police accountability bill in Prince George’s County nears, lawmakers and community members continue to spar over how it will be implemented and what it will look like. Much of the concern appears to be focused on who will serve on a soon-to-be-created police accountability board and what powers board members will have.
Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks has developed a list of 11 nominees for the County Council to consider for confirmation to the board, but community members have asked for more public involvement in the process.
“The importance of establishing this board is to restore the trust within the community,” Kenneth Clark, a pastor and civil rights advocate, said at a council meeting Tuesday. “If you want the community to get involved, to police their own community, you have to include the community in the process.”
Clark was one of many members of the community who spoke as the council met earlier Tuesday to hear public testimony and discuss the legislation that would establish a Police Accountability Board (PAB) and an Administrative Charging Committee (ACC) that would review alleged police misconduct.
Police accountability legislation, passed in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by police, has aimed to create ways for civilians to be involved in the police disciplinary process. Across the state, counties are implementing the boards required under the Maryland Police Accountability Act of 2021, passed by the General Assembly and expected to be implemented on July 1.
The current mechanism for citizen oversight in the county is the Citizen Complaint Oversight Panel (CCOP), which is in the process of being repealed and replaced. According to the law, the CCOP has independent investigatory powers in reviewing complaints of police misconduct, which activists are advocating to fold into the PAB, and with adequate funding.
According to a draft bill, the PAB, made up of civilians, would meet quarterly with law enforcement officials and agencies within the county “to improve matters of policing.” They would also receive police misconduct complaints, review disciplinary outcomes and make recommendations for policy changes to “improve police accountability.”
The ACC will be responsible for determining whether an officer should be administratively charged after reviewing the law enforcement agency’s investigatory findings of misconduct complaints involving an officer and a civilian, and, if so, recommend discipline, according to the draft bill. The PAB would also have the ability to appoint a civilian to a three-member trial board, a body that determines how an officer is disciplined.
Gina Ford, communications director for Alsobrooks (D), said in a statement Tuesday that the county received 96 applications for the PAB over a three-week period in January. A panel consisting of the Office of the County Executive, County Council staff and local police chiefs interviewed 35 individuals who were then scored before recommendations were made for seven members to be selected.
“Realizing the talent pool and the need for increased diversity, the number was expanded to 11,” Ford said.
A background check was conducted on each of the 11 nominees, and all passed, Ford said. The members now await a confirmation process by the county council where the names would be made public.
However, at Tuesday’s meeting and at a separate car rally last month outside of the offices of the council and county executive, community members expressed frustrations. They say residents were not included in the membership selection process, such as being able to provide input or knowing what criteria were used to pick those on the board. They also argue that because the selection process began before the legislation that would establish the board was introduced, criteria for applicants were subject to change. The initial draft of legislation was proposed by the County Executive in mid-March, John Erzen II, deputy chief of staff for Alsobrooks, said in an interview.
“The meat and potatoes of who these people are, that the County Exec selected, is still a mystery,” said Tamara McKinney, a community activist who serves as co-lead for Concerned Citizens for Bail Reform, in an interview.
Erzen said the county began the recruiting process early to meet the July 1 deadline. He said the applications stated that the legislative process was ongoing and not yet complete.
“This is what has been done for every board that has been put together,” Erzen said of the process.
Councilman Edward Burroughs III (D) expressed concerns over the current selection process.
“I think it’s important to decentralize power from any one person,” Burroughs said in an interview. “The state law says the governing body will determine the composition [of the board]. The governing body is the county council and the executive. [The county executive] has to play a role, but does not have to appoint all the members.”
At the council meeting, members of the Prince George’s County Coalition for Police Accountability, made up of members of the Maryland Coalition for Justice and Police Accountability and local organizations, advocated for amendments to the draft bill related to membership and investigatory powers for the PAB.
The amendments recommended by the coalitions call for the PAB to “reflect the racial, gender, gender-identity, sexual orientation, and cultural diversity of the County," according to a document from the Prince George’s County Coalition for Police Accountability. The amendments also say the board should have the power to “hold explicit independent investigatory powers and authority to recommend discipline to the ACC at their discretion,” and the power to “issue subpoenas, interview witnesses, and employ any other investigative powers necessary to complete their obligation to review outcomes of disciplinary matters as considered by the ACC."
Yanet Amanuel, public policy director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, said to the council that the state law “creates a basic framework but does not set a ceiling for what you all can do.”
The coalitions also advocated for adequate funding for the board. On Wednesday, the council passed a $5 billion budget, including funds for the PAB and ACC.
Members of the Fraternal Order of Police also spoke at the council meeting, saying a suggested amendment preventing former police officers serving on the board should be tossed.
Angelo Consoli, FOP Lodge 89 president, said in an interview that police agree with a disciplinary board but favor the state law, which does not prohibit former police from being on the board.
“You can’t sit there and say, ‘We can’t have a cop on there because he has a bias,’ but then you’re saying you’re gonna put every other group on there that actually has a bias against the police,” Consoli said.
The coalitions however want amendments so that no former police officers or anyone who was previously employed by law enforcement would be allowed to serve.
“The PAB should be free to consult ... with expertise if needed,” Beverly John, coordinator for the Prince George’s County Coalition for Police Accountability, said at the council meeting. “But they should not be on this board, because I believe it would just taint the process.”
The council’s committee of the whole will meet on Monday to take action on a proposed list of amendments.
The proposed list of amendments includes much of the community demands, such as funding for an independent legal counsel and giving the board the power to issue subpoenas and independent investigatory powers.
The county proposal document also suggests amending the board selection process, having each council member submit a list of three names to the county executive, having the county executive appoint one from each list and “a public engagement process.”
Vice-Chair Sydney J. Harrison said officials care about implementing the bill the “right” way and briefly shared his own experience with police brutality about 30 years ago. The councilman said he was using a pay phone at a Wendy’s when “a police officer slammed me on the ground, who put a gun to the back of my head.”
“We’re trying to eradicate bad behavior,” Harrison said at the council meeting Tuesday.
For mothers and families directly affected by police violence, a demand for police accountability has been ongoing for decades. They hope this bill will send a message.
Dorothy Copp Elliott, a community advocate whose 24-year-old son, Archie “Artie” Elliott III, was shot 14 times and killed by Prince George’s County police in 1993, spoke at the council meeting. The mother said “not any part” of her life has gone untouched since the death of her son.
“It is my fervent hope that police who wantonly kill and commit criminal acts be held accountable, indicted and sentenced according to the law,” Elliott said. “There must be effective and lawful policing without depriving a citizen of his or her life. We deserve better, and we demand better.” | 2022-06-05T15:57:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Prince George's residents outline demands for police accountability bill - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/05/police-accountability-prince-georges-county/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/05/police-accountability-prince-georges-county/ |
Britain's Queen Elizabeth II reacts as she watches a special flyover from a Buckingham Palace balcony as part of her Platinum Jubilee celebrations. (Daniel Leal/AFP/Getty Images)
Queen Elizabeth II has had more jubilees than I’ve had hot dinners. Her majesty just wrapped up her big Platinum Jubilee weekend, marking 70 years on the throne. Many more of these celebrations and they’ll have to start using some of the lesser-known metals: Bismuth Jubilee, anyone?
I happened to be living in England for Elizabeth’s Silver Jubilee in 1977, when she had been monarch for a mere 25 years. My father was serving as an exchange officer from the U.S. Air Force, and we lived on a Royal Air Force base.
I was 13 when I moved there, and the next two years turned me into an Anglophile, obsessed with English music, television, cars, fashion, etc. In 2007, I dragged my own family to England for a year. Now one of my daughters lives in London and is engaged to an Englishman.
I’ve spent the last four decades trying to understand my Anglophilia. I sometimes wonder whether I would have become a Francophile, Sinophile or Greenlandophile if I’d spent those impressionable years in Paris, Beijing or Nuuk.
A large part of being a teenager — this teenager, anyway — is wishing you were special but feeling that you aren’t. Going to school in a foreign country can help with that. When I arrived in the summer of 1976, I was literally the only American at Hinchingbrooke School, which made me a mini-celebrity. England wasn’t drowning in American culture then the way it is now. People weren’t sick of us yet.
As the only Yank, I was assumed to be good at basketball and therefore was automatically drafted for the school team. I can still remember the gobsmacked expression on my teammates’ faces when we played another school that also had an American on its team, but one who actually knew how to play basketball. As this ringer dribbled downed the court, drained shots, dunked, they looked at me with a mixture of fury and pity.
I was the only American at the school until a girl named Jennifer arrived, her father also a U.S. Air Force exchange officer. It pains me to confess that I immediately broke up with my English girlfriend — named Bryony! — and started dating Jennifer. You can take the boy out of America …
I still go to England at least once a year, to visit my daughter and the friends I’ve made there. Anglophilia typically doesn’t survive repeated exposure to England. And it’s true there have been times when I’ve been tired of London, drenched by English “sunshine,” irritated by the English attitude toward customer service.
Still, I return. I think part of the reason I like England so much is that I don’t really have to care about it. When it does something stupid — Brexit, say, or Boris Johnson’s lockdown parties — I don’t take it personally. It’s just a plot development on “Masterpiece Theatre,” not a breaking news alert on CNN.
You’re probably wondering: Did I ever meet the queen?
No, but I did see her once. During the Silver Jubilee, there were all sorts of commemorative events. One was a royal review of the Royal Air Force, when Elizabeth and Prince Philip visited an RAF base to inspect the troops and watch a flyover. We went, too.
RAF personnel were lined up on a parade ground in orderly rows, standing ramrod straight. The summer of 1977 was a hot one in Britain, a country that doesn’t really know how to deal with the sun. (Mad dogs and Englishmen and all that.) It was a broiling day, and several airmen fainted. They just collapsed, crumpling in place as instantly as if they’d been felled by a sniper’s bullet.
I remember my father later saying they must have had their knees locked. Top tip: Never lock your knees while at attention.
I didn’t meet the queen, but my father did meet Princess Margaret. It was while he was a student at the RAF Staff College in Bracknell, where he spent a year before taking up his assignment.
The college had officers from air forces around the world — Iran, Australia, the United States — and Margaret had come to inspect it. (Royals are always inspecting things.)
The students were lined up to meet her. Margaret worked her way down the line, shaking hands and making small talk. (Royals are good at small talk.)
When she got to my father, the aide accompanying her explained that Maj. Kelly was an officer from America. Margaret asked, “How many of you are there?”
My father answered “Two hundred million,” thinking she meant “What is the population of the United States?”
What she’d meant was how many Americans were attending the RAF Staff College. (The correct answer was “Four.”)
“She looked at her aide and winced a little bit,” my father said later.
Then she moved down the line. The Royals are nothing if not troupers. And the superest trouper of all is Queen Elizabeth. Happy Platinum Jubilee, your majesty. | 2022-06-05T16:19:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Living in England as a teenager set me on my path toward Anglophilia - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/05/platinum-jubilee-musings/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/05/platinum-jubilee-musings/ |
A 52-year-old man was killed Friday in an ATV crash in Silver Spring, Montgomery County police said.
Officers responded around 5:14 p.m. to a report of a single-vehicle crash on private property in the 1100 block of Briggs Chaney Road, police said. The man, Paul Benedict Herbert of Silver Spring, sustained life-threatening injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said, adding that an investigation is underway and that no foul play is suspected.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore will conduct an autopsy to determine the cause and manner of death, police said. | 2022-06-05T16:19:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Silver Spring man dies in ATV crash - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/05/silver-spring-man-killed-atv-crash/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/05/silver-spring-man-killed-atv-crash/ |
Maryland man dies in boat crash in West River
A 21-year-old Maryland man died in a boating accident Saturday evening in Anne Arundel County, police said.
Officers from the Maryland Natural Resources Police responded around 6 p.m. after a white center console boat struck a channel piling in the West River near Parish Creek, causing one of the six occupants, Nick Barton of Crofton, to fall into the water, police said.
Officers and divers, along with allied agencies, searched the area and later located Barton deceased in the water, police said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. The MNRP was assisted by the U.S. Coast Guard, Anne Arundel County Fire Department and Maryland State Police. | 2022-06-05T17:28:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Maryland man dies in boat crash - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/05/maryland-fatal-boat-crash-west-river/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/05/maryland-fatal-boat-crash-west-river/ |
Rafael Nadal — gracious, charming and brilliant — is the best of tennis
Spain's Rafael Nadal won his 22nd Grand Slam title at the French Open. (Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP via Getty Images)
Bjorn Borg, who won in Paris six times, also won Wimbledon five times — but never the U.S. or Australian Open. Rod Laver won on grass and clay and no doubt would have on hard courts had majors been played on them during his career. Laver could have won playing on an ice-skating rink — or any other surface.
Sampras won 14 major titles — but never got to the final in Paris. Before Sampras came along, Roy Emerson held the record for men’s Grand Slam singles titles — at 12.
On Sunday, Nadal won one for the 14th time — in Paris. His record in French Open finals is now 14-0 after his crushing 6-3, 6-3, 6-0 victory over Casper Ruud. Ruud, who is 23, actually led 3-1 in the second set before Nadal simply took his game to another level, winning the final 11 games of the match. The Norwegian didn’t play poorly the first two sets, but he had no chance. Nadal winning in Paris on the tournament’s final Sunday is as absolute as summer rain in London. It is inevitable.
Seeding Nadal No. 5 in Paris is roughly the same as telling Tiger Woods to go play the AAA Korn Ferry Tour — after he won his first Masters by 12 shots.
Statistics are overused nowadays, but a handful of Nadal’s numbers go beyond breathtaking. He is 112-3 at Roland Garros (what?), but he has also won eight majors off the red clay: two Australian Opens; two Wimbledons and four U.S. Opens. That’s as many majors as icons Connors, Andre Agassi and Lendl each won total, and one more than McEnroe.
Federer turned 40 in August and had lost in the Wimbledon quarterfinals to Hubert Hurkacz in straight sets — including 6-0 in the third. He then announced that he needed knee surgery, again, and hoped to play again in 2022. He still hasn’t played and, as McEnroe noted on the NBC telecast Sunday, there’s a good chance we will never see him again in a major championship.
After his semifinal loss to Djokovic at Roland Garros, Nadal had pulled out of both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open with recurring foot issues. Many wondered if his career might also be over.
Thus, Djokovic’s path to a 21st major victory and the record in major wins appeared clear. He was 34, healthy and going for a calendar Grand Slam in New York. His two great rivals were older and injured. But then Daniil Medvedev whipped him in the U.S. Open final and his refusal to be vaccinated in the midst of the pandemic got him deported from Australia before the Australian Open.
Nadal then came from two sets down in the Australian final against Medvedev and became the first man to get to 21 major wins. Sunday, he got to 22 — and, apparently, at 36, is still counting. He’s now halfway to a calendar Grand Slam, a feat that hasn’t been accomplished on the men’s side since Laver did it in 1969 at a time when three of the four majors were still played on grass.
Djokovic, who has won at Wimbledon six times, will no doubt be poised to take him down there. And, although Nadal won one of the two greatest matches of all time (along with McEnroe-Borg in 1980) in the 2008 final at the All England Club, grass is still the toughest surface for him because he can’t wear people down the way he does in Paris — and to a lesser extent in New York and Melbourne — over shorter rallies and shorter matches.
That is a discussion for another day. Sunday was a day to revel in Nadal’s extraordinary career, his ability to come back time and again — whether from injury or from a point in which his opponent appeared to be in control. That’s the greatness of Nadal: You can get him down, but it is almost impossible to get him out.
At one point, late in Sunday’s match, as Nadal went through his meticulous pre-point routine — drying his hand and racket on a towel, walking to the precise point where he wanted to receive, wiping his brow and then, finally, standing in position to receive — NBC’s Dan Hicks commented on the consistency of that intricate routine.
What’s more, in a sport that has often lacked grace in its champions, Nadal is never anything but gracious in victory and defeat. He finished his victory speech Sunday by thanking the fans in French — which the crowd adored. He is as charming as he is brilliant. | 2022-06-05T18:25:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Rafael Nadal's 22nd Grand Slam title title pushes him higher in tennis pantheon - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/05/rafael-nadal-french-open-grand-slams/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/05/rafael-nadal-french-open-grand-slams/ |
Gareth Bale celebrates after Wales goes up 1-0 during the World Cup qualifier against Ukraine. (Michael Steele/Getty Images)
Wales captured a World Cup berth in the pouring rain in Cardiff on Sunday, beating Ukraine 1-0 in a taut, emotional game that was decided by an own goal.
Wales advanced to the World Cup for the first time in 64 years, joining England, the United States and Iran in Group B in November’s tournament in Qatar. Wales will play the U.S. team on opening night of the World Cup, Nov. 21.
Although this game was played in Cardiff, the partisan crowd was respectful of Ukraine, a sentimental favorite whose players have family and friends in a war zone.
Ukraine took the attack to Wales in the first half, but was unable to do what it wanted on offense. Meanwhile, Gareth Bale, who has five goals in his last five appearances for Wales, came through after Dan James won a free-kick on the edge of the goal area. Bale fired a kick that Ukraine captain Andriy Yarmolenko deflected into the net for an own goal.
The difference late in the game for Wales was goalie Wayne Hennessey, who made a stunning save at the 83-minute mark against Artem Dovbyk with Ben Davies blocking the rebound.
Wales players and officials understood that there would be considerable cheering for Ukraine and had given 100 tickets to the game to Ukrainian refugees living in Wales.
“Most of the world want Ukraine to get through,” Wales Manager Robert Page said, acknowledging that his team is not the favorite. Wales First Minister Mark Drakeford had noted that, while he supports the Welsh team, the game offered the “opportunity for us to reaffirm our support for Ukraine as it fights Russia’s unprovoked and brutal act of war.”
The FAW Welsh Association also invited the United Kingdon’s Ukrainian ambassador to Britain to attend the match, to which Ukraine advanced after an emotional 3-1 win Wednesday over Scotland. That meeting came six months after Ukraine’s previous competitive match and after its contest with Scotland was postponed from March because Ukraine could not field a team after Russia’s invasion.
Several Ukrainian players reportedly considered joining the country’s army following the invasion in February. Oleksandr Petrakov, the team’s 64-year-old coach, tried to enlist but was turned away and the team was granted permission to travel outside to prepare for last week’s match as it hoped to secure the country’s first World Cup berth since 2006.
Ukrainian midfielder Oleksandr Zinchenko fought back tears last week as he spoke of how his country’s determination to “never give up” inspired the team, whose players took the field with the flag of Ukraine draped over their shoulders. “We want to go to the World Cup, want to give these incredible emotions to the Ukrainians,” Zinchenko said last week, “because they deserve it so much at this very moment.”
Players for both teams had said they would try to treat this as just a game. “If we could click our fingers and take away the pain the Ukraine are going through, we’d do it in a heartbeat,” Page said. “But when it comes to football and the whistle goes [off], we’ll want to win that game. Business is business.”
Whatever happened on the pitch and in their homeland, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has given his approval to restart the country’s soccer leagues in August. | 2022-06-05T18:38:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Wales tops Ukraine's national soccer team in World Cup qualifier - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/05/ukraine-soccer-world-cup-wales/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/05/ukraine-soccer-world-cup-wales/ |
The actress who became America’s sweetheart in “Dirty Dancing” explores how her looks — and her alteration of them — affected her career
Jennifer Grey in the mid-1970s. From “Out of the Corner.” (Photo by Klaus Lucka for Interview)
As the daughter of Broadway star Joel Grey, Jennifer Grey caught the acting bug early, at age 6. That’s when her father originated the role of the slick, menacing Master of Ceremonies in “Cabaret” onstage, in 1966. As Jennifer Grey writes in her keenly observed memoir, “Out of the Corner,” her Saturday treat was to sit in his dressing room while he transformed himself with false eyelashes, lip pencil and Dippity-do gel.
Grey rose to fame in her mid-20s with a pair of films that became touchstones of the 1980s. She was the perfectly snotty sister in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” in 1986, and a year later she was adorable, endearing, sexy Baby, mambo queen of the Catskills, in “Dirty Dancing.” That surprise hit, pairing her with heartthrob Patrick Swayze, transformed her.
Viola Davis reveals the trauma that shaped her as an actor
“For one thing,” she writes, “there didn’t seem to be a surplus of parts for actresses who looked like me.” That is, Jewish. Or rather, a bit too Jewish. So she did what so many Jews have done for ages — what both her parents had done, in fact: Grey got a nose job. She was almost 30, a celebrity, yet out of work. She told her doctor not to radically alter her looks, and he didn’t. Success! Grey started getting hired again. When a medical problem arose about a year later, another surgery was necessary — and the doctor wasn’t so careful this time. Now her life truly tanked, because she’d become unrecognizable.
“Out of the Corner” is meant to be a tale of triumph, and it is, once Grey climbs out of career-crash hell. Swayze’s character, Johnny, famously proclaimed in “Dirty Dancing” that “nobody puts Baby in a corner,” but that’s where Grey ended up in real life. Alone. Rejected, as she tells us, by an ultra-conformist industry, and not helped by her own tendency toward self-destruction. She takes us on a wild ride through her star-studded youth (belting show tunes with Stephen Sondheim), her star-studded coke binges, and her many bad romances, featuring Johnny Depp, Matthew Broderick and a creepy zillionaire who flew the teenage Grey to Rio, where she tumbled into a bizarro situation involving her comic idol Gilda Radner.
“Is there no statute of limitations on how long people think they are entitled to ownership of my face? … Overnight, I was basically reduced to a punchline.”
Grey had only ever wanted to be an actor. But barely out of her 20s, she had no work, no backup plan. What followed was a prolonged period of self-reflection. She got sober, and found an acting coach and a husband. (The marriage lasted 20 stable years.) She discovered happiness and meaning in later adulthood, not as an actor, but as a mother — and a dancer. At 41, she gave birth to a daughter, and at 50 she won season 11 of “Dancing With the Stars,” despite rupturing her lumbar disc near the end. America’s sweetheart, all over again. She hadn’t danced seriously in 20 years, she writes. But she did what dancers do: She worked her tail off. She polished her innate talent. She dug deep into a passion for physical expression and music.
Sarah L. Kaufman is The Washington Post’s dance critic and author of “The Art of Grace.”
Out of the Corner
By Jennifer Grey
Ballantine. 352 pp. $30 | 2022-06-05T18:55:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Jennifer Grey's 'Out of the Corner' book review - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/06/05/jennifer-grey-memoir/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/06/05/jennifer-grey-memoir/ |
Alexandria City High School awards posthumous diploma to slain student
Luis Mejia Hernandez, who was fatally stabbed in May, was set to graduate from Alexandria City High School this month. (Courtesy of Osmin A Mejia Romero)
Alexandria City High School on Saturday awarded a posthumous diploma to Luis Mejia Hernandez, an 18-year-old who was fatally stabbed weeks before he was set to graduate.
“These last few days have been especially difficult and saddening,” Alexandria Superintendent Gregory C. Hutchings Jr. said at the ceremony. “We were looking forward to seeing Luis cross the stage today … with his fellow Titans to receive his diploma, a milestone that we know Luis was striving to achieve.”
Hernandez was stabbed during a brawl outside an Alexandria shopping center on May 24. Alexandria police said the fight, which involved 30 to 50 people, broke out around midday at the Bradlee Shopping Center. Hernandez was transported to the hospital, where he later died.
On Saturday, the school’s principal, Peter Balas, asked the graduating class of 2022 to hold Hernandez in their thoughts.
“The loss of Luis … is heartbreaking,” Balas said. “Graduation is a milestone that all families look forward to, and we are shocked and saddened by this tragic loss. We share our deepest condolences and love with Luis’s family.”
Students later cheered as Balas said Hernandez would receive the first diploma of the ceremony, held at EagleBank Arena on George Mason University’s campus in Fairfax. The slain student’s uncle, Guillermo Romero, accepted the certificate, raising it above his head as the crowd applauded.
Hernandez’s father, Osmin Mejia, said in an interview Sunday that his son had planned to continue working at the Los Tios Grill in Alexandria to save money for college.
“He was considering university,” Meija said. “Luis wanted to be an engineer.”
Meija said he was too distraught to attend the graduation. Police have not shared any information about the investigation into his son’s death, Meija said.
A 16-year-old Alexandria City High School student has been charged with Hernandez’s murder, police said Wednesday. The suspect, whose name has not been released, is being held at the Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Center.
Marcel Bassett, a spokesman for the Alexandria police, said Wednesday that police are still investigating a motive for the stabbing and the cause of the brawl. No other arrests have been made in connection with the fight.
Saturday’s graduation marked the first since Alexandria City High School changed its name from T.C. Williams High School. The ceremony was also the first in-person, indoor graduation since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
“These past few years haven’t been without their difficulties,” Balas told graduates Saturday. “Throughout these many changes, you all endured. I hope you can look back and remember that you were there for each other, lifting each other up, as you made your way in an uneasy world.” | 2022-06-05T19:00:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Alexandria City High School awards posthumous diploma to slain student - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/06/05/posthumous-diploma-for-slain-student/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/06/05/posthumous-diploma-for-slain-student/ |
A Ukrainian soldier peers through binoculars on the front line in Krasnohorivka, in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, on June 3. (Anna Kudriavtseva/Reuters)
History is littered with nations that launched wars in the expectation of a quick and painless victory, only to bog down in a conflict far more protracted and far less successful than anticipated. Think of Napoleon in Spain and Russia, Germany in World War I and II, North Korea in the Korean War, Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War, the United States in Afghanistan and Iraq. Once the initial spasm of optimism faded, these conflicts all turned into wars of attrition in which the side that could endure and inflict the most punishment prevailed.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine, now more than 100 days old, has followed this pattern. Russian dictator Vladimir Putin gambled on a bungled blitzkrieg toward Kyiv that failed. In those heady, early days, the world marveled at Ukrainian heroism, symbolized by the troops who responded to a Russian demand for surrender with the immortal words: “Russian warship, go f--- yourself.” Pictures of Ukrainian tractors dragging captured Russian tanks become an Internet sensation.
The battlefield picture is grimmer than a month ago but far brighter than three months ago. Yes, the Ukrainians have lost some ground — but they have also regained ground. They have driven the “orcs,” as they call the invaders, out of northern Ukraine and are retaking villages in the south. Ukrainian troops have even reclaimed part of Severodonetsk, a city in the far east that had looked lost a week ago.
During the past 100 days, we have swung from excessive pessimism to excessive optimism and now to excessive pessimism again. This is not the moment to lose faith in Ukraine. This is the moment to redouble our support for its freedom fighters.
President Biden has generally done an excellent job of supporting Ukraine. He has expertly marshaled allies and persuaded Congress to provide $54 billion in aid since the invasion began. And he has been right to avoid getting embroiled in direct combat with the Russians; hence his refusal to declare a no-fly zone. But he is still hobbled by excessive caution in the provision of aid. | 2022-06-05T19:04:38Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | This is no time to hesitate in Ukraine - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/05/ukraine-putin-donbas-artillery/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/05/ukraine-putin-donbas-artillery/ |
Jan. 6 attack part of ‘extremely well-organized’ conspiracy, Cheney says
Members of the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection meets on Dec. 1, 2021. From left are Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.). (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said there was an “extremely broad” and “extremely well-organized” conspiracy by then-President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election — and that the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol was just one instance in “an ongoing threat” to democracy.
Cheney’s remarks, which aired Sunday, come days before the committee begins prime-time, televised hearings throughout June that will feature live witnesses, pretaped interviews with key figures, including Trump family members, and previously unseen video footage. The hearings mark the culmination of an inquiry that has involved more than 1,000 interviews and reviews of more than 125,000 records.
Cheney said she felt certain that the evidence laid out in the hearings would compel Americans to pay attention, even as she suggested that many of her fellow Republicans have “pledged their allegiance” to Trump over the country.
“I think there is absolutely a cult of personality around Donald Trump,” Cheney told Costa. “And I think that, you know, the majority of Republicans across the country don’t want to see our system unravel. They understand how important it is to protect and defend the Constitution.”
Rep. Liz Cheney, vice-chair of the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, says in an interview with @costareports that there “is absolutely a cult of personality around Donald Trump” in the Republican Party pic.twitter.com/u0XAmZRzCJ
Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), another member of the Jan. 6 select committee, said the committee hoped the hearings would counter Trump’s continued propagation of the baseless assertion — what some of his critics call the “big lie” — that widespread voter fraud cost him the 2020 election. Schiff also said there was a great deal the American public had not yet seen about the Jan. 6 attack.
It is unclear who remains open-minded about the events of Jan. 6, with polls showing little bipartisan agreement over the insurrection. Several high-profile Republicans have refused to cooperate with the committee, with varied consequences. The Justice Department announced Friday that it had indicted former Trump adviser Peter Navarro but would not pursue charges against former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows and former communications chief Daniel Scavino Jr.
Schiff said Sunday that he could not confirm or deny which witnesses would appear before the committee during the public hearings and called the Justice Department’s decision not to pursue charges against Meadows and Scavino “a grave disappointment” that could impede the panel’s work.
“I can say that certainly one of the themes that we will be fleshing out is the fact that in advance of the sixth, that there was an understanding of the propensity for violence that day, of the participation of white nationalist groups, of the effect that the continued propagation of this ‘big lie’ to rile up the country and rile up the president’s base was likely to lead to violence,” he said.
For the few Republicans who have tried to hold Trump accountable for his role in the Jan. 6 attack, the blowback from their party has been swift. Of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after Jan. 6, four are leaving Congress rather than seek reelection. Others face tough primary challenges.
Rep. Tom Rice (S.C.), who was one of those 10 Republican lawmakers who voted to impeach Trump, acknowledged Sunday that he could lose his seat over the vote but said it would still be worth it. Only if Trump apologized, Rice said, would he consider supporting the former president again.
Rice said his impeachment vote “wasn’t that hard” after he thought about Trump’s inactivity on the day of the insurrection, including putting the lives of then-Vice President Mike Pence and Pence’s family members at risk and watching police officers defending the Capitol being beaten for hours.
“The more I read about that, the more I learned about — it was clear to me what I had to do,” Rice said. “I was livid. I’m livid today about it. Now, I took an oath to protect the Constitution, and I did it then and I would do it again tomorrow.”
Jacqueline Alemany, Josh Dawsey and Amy Gardner contributed to this report. | 2022-06-05T19:04:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Rep. Cheney says Jan. 6 Capitol attack was part of ‘extremely well-organized’ conspiracy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/05/jan-6-hearings-liz-cheney-adam-schiff/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/05/jan-6-hearings-liz-cheney-adam-schiff/ |
Two men dead in separate homicides in D.C.
D.C. police are investigating two homicides that took place in the District over the weekend.
On Saturday at 5:39 p.m., officers responded to a report of a shooting in the 500 block of 23rd Place NE, according to police. Upon arrival, they found Jerome Quigley Jr., 39, of Northeast D.C., suffering from apparent gunshot wounds, police said, adding that he was transported to a hospital for treatment and later pronounced dead.
At 1:28 a.m. Sunday, officers responding to a call in the 2100 block of 13th Street SE found an adult male victim suffering from apparent puncture wounds to the leg and waist, police said, adding that DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services found no signs consistent with life and that the victim was transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The victim’s identity is being withheld pending notification of next of kin, police said.
The department offers a reward of up to $25,000 to anyone providing information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible for each homicide committed in the District. Anyone with information about these cases is asked to call police at 202-727-9099 or send a text message to the department’s text tip line, 50411. | 2022-06-05T19:47:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Two homicides in District over weekend - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/05/homicides-district-weekend/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/05/homicides-district-weekend/ |
It’s past time for a ban on assault weapons
Damian Jones, Head of School at the Edmund Burke School in D.C. welcomes students back to the building on May 4. (Robb Hill for The Washington Post)
Regarding the June 1 news article “Texas officials now say door not propped open”:
In 2022, there have already been at least 27 school shootings that resulted in firearm-related injuries or deaths. My school, Edmund Burke School in D.C., counts among these.
The numbers over the past years are terrifying. Some past tragedies have become iconic: Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, Columbine. And, of course, Robb Elementary. Even in these cases, the smiling faces of the innocent youths lost senselessly fade from our collective memory.
Although the public tends to forget, victims of school shootings rarely overcome the trauma. I can’t go to the class I sheltered in on April 22, and loud and sudden noises frighten me. Yet I was lucky. Many students were not.
The disgraceful deaths in school shootings are part of a larger U.S. phenomenon: death by gun violence. This is the No. 1 cause of death for children in the United States.
There are many reasons enraged people hate others. But U.S. gun violence is not the result of rage; it is the result of easy access to powerful guns. The person who targeted my school community used guns manufactured to kill many at war in a few seconds. How is it possible that my country, with this history of school massacres, allows these guns to be easily purchased? Is the profit from producing and selling a gun more valuable than the life of a child like me?
We have gone to the moon. Let’s put a ban on assault weapons.
Jehanne Batini, Washington | 2022-06-05T20:05:25Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | It’s past time for a ban on assault weapons - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/05/its-past-time-ban-assault-weapons/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/05/its-past-time-ban-assault-weapons/ |
Patents protect people’s access to life-saving medicine
In his May 29 Outlook essay, “Spring cleaning 2022: The patent system,” Joseph E. Stiglitz argued that patents impede the “widest dissemination of the benefits of innovation” and that a “publicly funded monetary prize for scientists” would be a better alternative.
Mr. Stiglitz’s proposal is completely unfeasible and unproven. Private investors poured more than $129 billion into medical research and development in the United States alone in 2018, more than three times the U.S. government’s contribution and more than 20 times the entire World Health Organization budget. There’s simply no replacement for private capital in drug development. Moreover, history has shown that entrepreneurship and a dynamic marketplace are more likely to foster invention than government-dangled prizes.
And without intellectual property protections, no investor would back risky R&D projects, where the end product costs more than $1 billion to develop, on average, and has just a 12 percent chance of succeeding in clinical trials. If our IP system is scrapped and investors flee, then the public really will pay — in lives lost without access to cutting-edge treatments.
John Stanford, Washington
The writer is executive director of Incubate, a Washington-based coalition of life-science venture capitalists. | 2022-06-05T20:05:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Patents protect people’s access to life-saving medicine - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/05/patents-protect-peoples-access-life-saving-medicine/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/05/patents-protect-peoples-access-life-saving-medicine/ |
PORTSMOUTH, Va. — The U.S. Coast Guard said Sunday afternoon it had suspended its search for a missing boater in the Chesapeake Bay.
The Coast Guard announced the search for 63-year-old Christopher Martin Young a day earlier, saying it had commenced after a boat with “signs of recent occupancy” was found beached near Factory Point, Virginia. | 2022-06-05T20:35:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Coast Guard suspends search in Chesapeake Bay for boater - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/coast-guard-suspends-search-in-chesapeake-bay-for-boater/2022/06/05/24f01356-e50d-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/coast-guard-suspends-search-in-chesapeake-bay-for-boater/2022/06/05/24f01356-e50d-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
For some Afghan refugees, there is no safety net
Afghan refugees meet with workers in the processing center inside an Afghan refugee camp at Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, N.M., on Nov. 4, 2021. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)
Glenn Kessler’s May 29 Fact Checker column on the categories of Afghan refugees, “Numbers behind last year’s chaotic Afghanistan evacuation come into focus,” was informative, but it missed a significant category: U.S. citizens.
Our nation evacuated families led by an American citizen. These evacuees also came through the airport chaos to land in the United States. But now what? They have no rent subsidies. They have no credit references here. It is difficult to find jobs for those who speak little English, even if they are citizens. Their work experience can be impressive, though it was in Afghanistan, as are their professional references. How do refugees get to the jobs they find? What about their relatives — who are not citizens yet cannot safely return to Afghanistan because of their U.S. ties? They must apply for longer-term residency and work permits.
There is no safety net in the United States for those whose work with our government put them and their families at great risk in their home country.
Sue Marcus, Fairfax | 2022-06-05T20:36:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | For some Afghan refugees, there is no safety net - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/05/some-afghan-refugees-there-is-no-safety-net/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/05/some-afghan-refugees-there-is-no-safety-net/ |
More than 50 feared dead in church attack
Gunmen opened fire on worshipers and detonated explosives at a Catholic church in southwestern Nigeria on Sunday, leaving dozens feared dead, state lawmakers said.
The attackers targeted St. Francis Catholic Church in Ondo state just as the worshipers gathered on Pentecost Sunday, legislator Ogunmolasuyi Oluwole said. Among the dead were many children, he said.
The presiding priest was abducted, as well, said Adelegbe Timileyin, who represents the Owo area in Nigeria’s lower legislative chamber.
Authorities did not release an official death toll. Timileyin said at least 50 people were killed, though others put the figure higher.
In Rome, the Vatican press office said Pope Francis “prays for the victims and the country, painfully affected at a time of celebration.”
It was not clear who was behind the attack. Although much of Nigeria has struggled on the security front, Ondo is widely known as one of Nigeria’s most peaceful states. The state, though, has been caught up in an increasingly violent conflict between farmers and herders.
At least 49 killed in blaze at cargo depot
A fire at a container depot near a port city in southeastern Bangladesh has killed at least 49 people, including nine firefighters, and injured more than 100 people, officials and local media reported Sunday, as efforts to extinguish the blaze continued into a second night.
The inferno at the BM Inland Container Depot, a Dutch-Bangladeshi venture, broke out around midnight Saturday after explosions in a container full of chemicals. The cause of the fire could not be immediately determined. The depot is near country’s main Chittagong seaport, more than 125 miles southeast of the capital, Dhaka.
Multiple rounds of explosions occurred after the initial blast as the fire continued to spread, said Brig. Gen. Moin Uddin, director general of the Bangladesh fire service and civil defense. The explosions shattered windows of nearby buildings and were felt as far as 2 1/2 miles away, officials and local media reports said.
In 2012, 117 workers died when they were trapped behind locked exits in a garment factory in Dhaka. The country’s worst industrial disaster occurred the next year, when a garment factory outside Dhaka collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people.
Pyongyang test-fires
8 short-range missiles
North Korea test-fired a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles from multiple locations toward the sea on Sunday, South Korea’s military said, extending a provocative streak in weapons demonstrations this year that U.S. and South Korean officials say may culminate with a nuclear test.
Possibly setting a single-day record for North Korean ballistic launches, eight missiles were fired over 35 minutes from at least four locations, including from western and eastern coastal areas and two inland areas north of and near the capital, Pyongyang, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
Hours later, Japan and the United States conducted a joint ballistic missile exercise aimed at showing their “rapid response capability” and “strong determination” to counter threats, Japan’s Defense Ministry said.
North Korea has long condemned the allies’ combined military exercises as invasion rehearsals and often countered with its own missile drills.
Pakistan army says 7 militants killed near Afghanistan border: Pakistan's military said security forces killed seven militants in two operations near the border with Afghanistan. Five militants were killed in a raid on a hideout in Bannu district, the gateway to North Waziristan, the military said. Two militants were killed in a shootout in a tribal district of North Waziristan. North Waziristan and its surroundings were a sanctuary for militants for years until a military operation to clear the area in 2014. | 2022-06-05T22:07:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | World Digest: June 5, 2022 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/world-digest-june-5-2022/2022/06/05/4cda25aa-e4d1-11ec-a079-71f26b28893d_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/world-digest-june-5-2022/2022/06/05/4cda25aa-e4d1-11ec-a079-71f26b28893d_story.html |
Maryland powers past Wake Forest to stay alive in its NCAA regional
NCAA baseball tournament: Maryland 10, Wake Forest 5
Maryland's Chris Alleyne connects for a two-run homer during Sunday afternoon's eight-inning rally. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)
Throughout the best season in program history, Maryland’s baseball team relied on home runs and big innings to secure the opportunity to host an NCAA tournament regional for the first time.
So, staring at elimination Sunday afternoon in College Park, the Terrapins turned to what they do best to surge past Wake Forest, 10-5.
“I’m never worried when we’re down — especially a three-run lead like that,” said reliever David Falco Jr., who pitched a season-high 3⅓ innings. “One inning is all it takes. We saw it today. I’m on the bench looking at the score, and I have zero worries about our team’s ability to hit and score runs.”
Falco’s faith is justified. Maryland (47-13) uncorked a six-run rally with two outs in the eighth inning to extend its season by at least one game. The Terps, the double-elimination regional’s top seed and the No. 15 seed nationally, will face Connecticut at 7 p.m. Sunday. The Huskies (48-13) defeated Maryland, 10-5, on Saturday night to send the Terps to the losers’ bracket. The Terps need to beat the Huskies twice — on Sunday night and again Monday — to advance to the super regionals.
Svrluga: For Rob Vaughn and Maryland baseball, this dream season is just the start
The Terps blasted five home runs, including a pair in the pivotal eighth, to oust the Demon Deacons (41-19-1). All but four of the game’s 15 runs were pushed across on homers, a fitting development for a Maryland team that entered the day ranked third nationally in home runs per game (2.17) and plays in a cozy bandbox shoehorned into the center of campus that long has been a hitter-friendly venue.
The Terps are well-built for their facility, and the eighth inning was a stellar illustration. After Wake Forest’s Seth Keener set down the first two batters, Ian Petrutz drew a walk. Bobby Zmarzlak then launched a home run onto the roof of the ancient Varsity Team House beyond the left field wall to tie the score at 5 and send the Demon Deacons deeper into their bullpen.
“We kind of needed that one thing to bounce our way a little bit,” Maryland Coach Rob Vaughn said. “I looked at our team when Bob was up and I thought he was going to hit it in the bleachers — not on top of the team house — so I said, ‘If you don’t think he’s going into the bleachers, you’re nuts.’ Sure enough, he hammered that thing.”
Just as important was Kevin Keister’s four-pitch walk to greet Gabe Golob, who then yielded Luke Shliger’s RBI double and Chris Alleyne’s 23rd homer of the season as Maryland went up 8-5.
Golob was done, but the Terps weren’t. Camden Minacci was summoned from the bullpen and allowed two walks and Troy Schreffler Jr.’s RBI double to right.
“We had the game right where we wanted it — four outs to go and a two-run lead and nobody on — and just couldn’t close it out,” Wake Forest Coach Tom Walter said. “Just too many free passes.”
Falco struck out seven, including the side in the ninth, to earn the win. He gave up three hits in his scoreless outing, and about the biggest obstacle was having to manage his downtime during the Terps’ marathon eighth inning.
“With our hitters, you get a lot of big innings,” he said. “A lot of times when I’m pitching, it happens like that. So I’ve gotten a lot of practice with that.”
Petrutz led off the ninth with a homer into the temporary bleachers in left-center to add an insurance run.
Wake Forest quickly took a 2-0 lead on Maryland starter Nick Dean with a single and two doubles from the first four men he faced. But the right-hander settled down to retire 13 of the next 15 batters to keep the Terps in it.
He pitched most of his stint with a tie score after Maryland senior Maxwell Costes’s two-run shot in the second. But Wake’s Pierce Bennett smashed a solo homer in the fifth, and Brock Wilken knocked a two-run blast an inning later to make it 5-2.
Wake Forest starter Teddy McGraw departed after throwing 99 pitches and allowing two runs (one earned) in six innings. Keener yielded Keister’s leadoff homer in the seventh off the roof of the training facility in left on his second pitch, hinting at the misery that awaited the Demon Deacons’ bullpen.
It also was a glimpse of the strategy Maryland plans to follow as it looks to advance to its first super regional since 2015.
“Getting to a regional final isn’t the goal of this thing,” Vaughn said. “We did this thing last year and were in the exact same spot and came up short. We’re going to have to slug our way to tomorrow, and if you get to tomorrow, all bets are off. It gets wild on Monday.” | 2022-06-05T22:20:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Maryland baseball powers past Wake Forest in NCAA regionals - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/05/maryland-baseball-regionals-wake-forest-uconn/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/05/maryland-baseball-regionals-wake-forest-uconn/ |
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) has been pushing for more stringent gun rules since the Sandy Hook massacre nearly 10 years ago. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.), another member of the small group of senators hashing out a potential deal, said on CBS’s “Face The Nation” that the discussions, while “intensive,” do not “guarantee any outcome.”
The negotiators — and Democratic leaders — have seized on a growing sense of national outrage following the May 14 attack that took 10 lives at a Buffalo supermarket and the May 24 massacre of 19 children and two teachers inside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Tex. Other shootings with multiple victims have followed, including incidents in Tulsa; Ames, Iowa; and overnight Saturday in Philadelphia and Chattanooga, Tenn. By one measure, there have already been more than 200 mass shootings in 2022.
Public polling shows consistently strong support for expanding background checks for gun buyers. Surveys taken after mass shootings frequently show strong support for tighter gun laws — 54 percent vs. 16 percent wanting less strict laws, according to a May CBS News/YouGov poll taken after Buffalo but before Uvalde — though that support tends to recede as public attention fades.
Having seen previous attempts at negotiation fizzle as violent incidents left the headlines, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) signaled last month after the Uvalde shooting that he had limited patience for extended talks. He gave the group 10 days — until the Senate returns on Monday from a week-long recess — to show substantial progress toward an agreement.
Murphy said he spoke to Schumer on Sunday morning and that the deadline has been extended, modestly. “He still feels like we need to come to an agreement by the end of this week,” Murphy said, adding, “I think that’s entirely possible.” Schumer spokesman Justin Goodman declined to comment.
Sen. John Cornyn (Tex.), who is leading the talks for Republicans, said in an interview Thursday that he shared a sense of urgency. “I think we need to act, and we need to act relatively quickly,” he told The Washington Post. “We could lose this opportunity to do what we could to save lives, which to me is what this is all about.”
In an interview Friday, the key Democrat negotiating a federal red-flag provision, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), said he was encouraged by the progress that had been made on that aspect of the negotiations.
Blumenthal said he and Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) had come to an agreement between the two of them on a basic framework for legislation that would create a system of incentives, grants and federal standards for states that create their own red-flag laws. But he said details were still being hashed out as the discussion moved to a wider group of bipartisan negotiators. A spokesman for Graham did not respond to a request for comment.
As for background checks, talks are still underway. Any deal would be much more limited than previous expansion proposals, such as the legislation drafted in 2013 by Toomey and Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.).
Biden urges Congress to act on guns in prime-time address
Scott Clement, Ellen McCarthy and Amy B Wang contributed to this report. | 2022-06-05T22:37:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Senators say gun deal is within reach, but without Biden’s wish list - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/05/senators-say-gun-deal-is-within-reach-without-bidens-wish-list/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/05/senators-say-gun-deal-is-within-reach-without-bidens-wish-list/ |
Quin Snyder resigns as Jazz coach, citing need for ‘new voice’
Utah Jazz Coach Quin Snyder, left, is departing the franchise after delivering six playoff trips during a successful eight-year tenure. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
The first domino has fallen in a Utah Jazz offseason that appeared primed for significant changes.
Quin Snyder announced Sunday that he will not return as coach of the Jazz, ending a successful eight-year tenure that produced six postseason appearances.
In a lengthy statement issued by the Jazz, the 55-year-old Snyder said that “it is time” for him to move on, even though he was under contract for the next two seasons.
“What drives me every day is our players and their passion for the game,” Snyder said. “Their desire to constantly work to improve and their dedication to the team and the Jazz. I strongly feel they need a new voice to continue to evolve. That’s it. No philosophical differences, no other reason. After eight years, I just feel it is time to move onward. I needed to take time to detach after the season and make sure this was the right decision.”
Snyder accumulated a 372-264 (.585) record in Utah, his first stop as an NBA head coach, and guided the Jazz to the second round of the playoffs in 2017, 2018 and 2021. Despite fashioning a high-level offense around all-star guard Donovan Mitchell and a strong defense around all-star center Rudy Gobert, Snyder couldn’t get the Jazz over the hump in the postseason.
Analysis: As Warriors seek to even Finals with Celtics, all eyes turn to Draymond Green
Utah finished with a league-best 52-20 record in 2020-21, only to blow a 2-0 series lead to the Los Angeles Clippers in the second round. The Clippers were missing all-star forward Kawhi Leonard, who went down with a knee injury midway through the series.
This year, the Jazz regressed, finishing 49-33 and losing to the Dallas Mavericks in six games in the first round. That defeat prompted speculation about whether Mitchell or Gobert might be traded this summer and furthered questions about Snyder’s future.
Long a pillar of consistency, the Jazz, which has had just three coaches since 1988, has undergone changes at the ownership and management levels in recent years. Qualtrics co-founder Ryan Smith purchased the franchise in 2020, and former Boston Celtics executive Danny Ainge arrived as CEO last December.
The Jazz joins the Charlotte Hornets as the only teams with coaching vacancies, after the Los Angeles Lakers hired former Milwaukee Bucks assistant Darvin Ham last month. | 2022-06-05T22:46:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Quin Snyder resigns as Utah Jazz head coach - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/05/quin-snyder-resigns-utah-jazz/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/05/quin-snyder-resigns-utah-jazz/ |
Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy (88) falls on a shot by New York Rangers center Ryan Strome (16) during the first period in Game 3 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoffs Eastern Conference finals Sunday, June 5, 2022, in Tampa, Fla. Defending for Tampa Bay is Jan Rutta (44).(AP Photo/Chris O’Meara) | 2022-06-05T23:40:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Palat scores late, Lightning beat Rangers 3-2 in Game 3 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nhl/palat-scores-late-lightning-beat-rangers-3-2-in-game-3/2022/06/05/8ca39e92-e520-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nhl/palat-scores-late-lightning-beat-rangers-3-2-in-game-3/2022/06/05/8ca39e92-e520-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
Cheney says Jan. 6 attack was part of an ‘extremely broad’ conspiracy
Cheney says Jan. 6 was part of a conspiracy
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said there was an “extremely broad” and “extremely well-organized” conspiracy by President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election — and that the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol was just one instance in “an ongoing threat” to democracy.
Cheney’s remarks, which aired Sunday, come days before the committee begins prime-time, televised hearings throughout June that will feature live witnesses, taped interviews with key figures — including Trump family members — and previously unseen video footage. The hearings mark the culmination of an inquiry that has involved more than 1,000 interviews and reviews of more than 125,000 records.
Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), another member of the Jan. 6 select committee, said the panel hoped the hearings would counter Trump’s continued propagation of the baseless assertion — what some of his critics call the “big lie” — that widespread voter fraud cost him the 2020 election. Schiff also said there was a great deal the American public had not yet seen about the Jan. 6 attack.
— Amy B Wang
Execution still set for wheelchair-using inmate
His lawyers said Atwood, who uses a wheelchair because of a degenerative spinal condition, would undergo excruciating suffering if he were strapped to a gurney while lying on his back during his lethal injection execution.
Liburdi wrote that the Constitution “does not require a pain-free execution,” and that Atwood’s position will be similar to what he typically assumes in his cell to limit pain.
Atwood is also asking the Arizona Supreme Court to delay his execution while his lawyers pursue claims that he is innocent. That court denied a stay late last week but is now considering the new claim.
Democrats challenge candidate's paperwork
The state Democratic Party said Sunday that construction company co-owner Tim Michels failed to include his correct mailing address on the nominating forms, making thousands of signatures invalid.
Michels’s campaign dismissed the complaint as frivolous. The campaign acknowledged that some of the nominating forms list his physical address in the village of Chenequa instead of his official mailing address that is in the nearby town of Hartland, but it said all of the forms include the campaign’s post office box mailing address.
The state’s bipartisan elections commission will consider the challenge Friday.
Wis. man charged in January killings: A 34-year-old Wisconsin man has been charged in the deaths of six people who were found slain in January at a Milwaukee duplex.
The six victims were found with gunshot wounds on Jan. 23.
Investigators linked Birkley to the killings with cellphone data that included a selfie that appeared to have been taken in the basement of the home where the bodies were found several hours after the victims were thought to have been killed on Jan. 20. | 2022-06-05T23:55:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Cheney says Jan. 6 attack was part of an ‘extremely broad’ conspiracy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/cheney-says-jan-6-attack-was-part-of-an-extremely-broad-conspiracy/2022/06/05/f628ce36-e3af-11ec-9f63-cd8ed77beb31_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/cheney-says-jan-6-attack-was-part-of-an-extremely-broad-conspiracy/2022/06/05/f628ce36-e3af-11ec-9f63-cd8ed77beb31_story.html |
Australia’s Minjee Lee cruises to her first U.S. Women’s Open title
Minjee Lee: “It’s just super, super special and just a great honor. It’s been my dream since I was a little girl. It’s the one that I always wanted to win.” (Chris Carlson/AP)
SOUTHERN PINES, N.C. — Minjee Lee had just completed her second round at the U.S. Women’s Open when she glanced at her cellphone and noticed a text message from her golfing mentor and childhood idol, Karrie Webb.
“Let’s go Aussie,” it read.
Following those words of encouragement from the Hall of Famer and fellow Australian, Lee started her final round at Pine Needles golf club Sunday with back-to-back birdies, withstood an unusual unsteady stretch and played a mostly carefree back nine to secure her second major championship.
The fourth-ranked standout, who set the tournament’s 54-hole record Saturday, fired an even-par 71 on Sunday for a 13-under 271 total, four shots clear of Mina Harigae of the United States. Lee logged a second victory in her past four starts at major championships, and she has finished no lower than 12th place in that stretch.
Sunday's leader board
Lee, 26, won the Evian Championship in France last year, rallying from a seven-stroke deficit in the final round to beat Jeongeun Lee on the first playoff hole. She backed that improbable showing with a tie for fifth at the Women’s British Open at Carnoustie in Scotland.
“I mean, I’m speechless,” Lee said during Sunday’s trophy ceremony. “I can’t believe it right now. It’s just super, super special and just a great honor. It’s been my dream since I was a little girl. It’s the one that I always wanted to win.”
Hye-Jin Choi was third at 7 under; at 1-under 70, she produced the only final round below par among those near the top of a leader board that featured players from nine countries — including Sweden’s Ingrid Lindblad, the low amateur at 1-under 283 — in the top 13.
Lee removed virtually any drama when, leading by three at the start of the round, she birdied the 392-yard par-4 12th thanks to landing her approach within nine feet and sinking the putt. That got her to 14 under.
One hole earlier, Harigae had bogeyed the 374-yard par-4 to fall to 8 under. She had entered the last round in second place — three shots behind Lee, who on Saturday broke by one stroke Hall of Famer Juli Inkster’s 54-hole record of 200 set at the 1999 U.S. Women’s Open at Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point, Miss.
Lee collected her 11th professional victory, and her second this year, as well as a record $1.8 million winner’s check that was part of a record overall purse in women’s golf at $10 million — an increase of $4.5 million from last year.
“To start aggressively, I think it was the right move,” said Lee, whose cushion expanded to as many six shots on the back nine en route to joining Webb and Jan Stephenson as the only Aussies to win major championships. “Then after that I had quite a big lead, so I was able to just play my game just to finish.”
The relatively relaxing victory began to unfold when Lee opened a five-stroke margin after two holes, but she made a bogey at the par-3 fifth with an errant tee shot that landed in the right rough, then followed with another at the par-4 seventh when her drive settled in the dirt in front of a clump of high grass.
Unable to control the spin as she would have liked, Lee missed the green on her approach; the ball came to rest on the fringe, and she putted to 12 feet. She missed the ensuing par putt for just her seventh of nine bogeys at the tournament considered the most rugged test of golf in the world.
Only three players had fewer bogeys this week than Lee, who led the field in scrambling and was tied for third in greens in regulation, hitting 57 of 72 (79.2 percent). She was tied for ninth in putts per hole (1.64) and sank 44 of 47 putts from five feet or closer.
“She got off to a very hot start,” said Harigae, who earned a career-high payday of $1.08 million as the runner-up. “Maybe that bogey on that par-3, maybe it opened the door a tiny little, cracked open the door for me a little bit, but she was just super solid out there.”
Lee’s first bogey on her inward nine came at the par-3 16th, but she had forged such a cushion over Harigae that her lead was five even following a rare missed putt for par.
Billy Horschel's big eagle secures a big win at the Memorial
She also missed a short putt for par at the 18th but calmly sank the comebacker for her only round of the tournament not below par. Then she raised her arms and hugged her caddie moments before several fellow players, including world No. 3 Lydia Ko of New Zealand, doused her with champagne.
Ko finished fifth at 5 under — one shot behind Jin Young Ko, the world No. 1 who’s still seeking her first triumph at the U.S. Women’s Open.
“I think she played amazing,” Lydia Ko said of Lee. “It’s hard even if you have a comfortable lead going into the last day. For her to be so composed, coming off a win a couple tournaments ago as well, it just shows what kind of world-class player she is. I’m sure this is not the last time she’s in contention in majors and is the one hoisting the trophy.” | 2022-06-06T00:35:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Minjee Lee wins her first U.S. Women's Open title - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/05/minjee-lee-us-womens-open-champion/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/05/minjee-lee-us-womens-open-champion/ |
Foxconn’s EV Push Takes It Back to the Future
Yet Foxconn has a plan to reverse its margin decline by going back to the core business that Terry Gou started almost 50 years ago, one that preceded the iPod and iPhone and was driven by a boom in computers, early games consoles and even dot-matrix printers. If Gou’s successor, current Chairman Young Liu, is right then today’s electric vehicles might be akin to the PCs of the 1990s — and could become a catalyst for levels of profitability not seen in 20 years.
Despite hiring up to a million workers to slot together all the parts of a smartphone, Foxconn’s device-assembly business isn’t all that profitable and has razor-thin margins. Instead, the company makes better money from manufacturing or procuring the parts that go inside, and charging clients a premium over the cost. Putting the final product together is seen more as an extra service for the client, one that allows Foxconn to command greater control over the entire process and the components that go inside.
At its annual shareholder meeting last week in Taipei, Liu — who took over from Gou in 2019 — spent a lot of time talking about the company’s EV plans. In the past three years it’s opened factories or inked manufacturing deals in the US, Mexico, Taiwan, China, Indonesia and Thailand. Clients include American startups Lordstown Motors Corp. and Fisker Inc. as well as European carmaker Stellantis NV. Almost no mention was made of smartphones, let alone Apple, which accounts for half its revenue.
Liu’s ambitions are bold, bordering on fantastical. Within three years he expects Foxconn to ship 500,000 to 750,000 EVs, take 5% of the global market, and garner NT$1 trillion ($34 billion) in annual sales from the sector (equivalent to 15% of 2021 total revenue). Even more ambitious, he is targeting a two-thirds increase in gross margin to 10% — a figure not seen since 2005, two years before the iPhone was released.
Foxconn is also betting on the chips used in cars, which have been in short supply over the past two years. By the end of 2023, it’ll be operating at least three semiconductor manufacturing fabs, using the older technologies best suited for automotive components. It may fail. While Liu himself is an electrical engineer by training, the company’s chip prowess is unproven — especially when compared to Goliaths like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and United Microelectronics Corp. But success here would set it up for even greater power, and profits, given that the average car has more chips inside than all the devices in the average household put together.
• Tesla Is Hedging Its Global Supply Chain Bets: Anjani Trivedi
• Technology Companies Have Found a Road Out of China: Tim Culpan
• Manufacturers Are Embracing DIY Supply Chain: Brooke Sutherland | 2022-06-06T01:10:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Foxconn’s EV Push Takes It Back to the Future - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/foxconns-ev-push-takes-it-back-to-the-future/2022/06/05/6c24556a-e52c-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/foxconns-ev-push-takes-it-back-to-the-future/2022/06/05/6c24556a-e52c-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
In this photo provided by South Korea Presidential Office, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, center, attends at the National Security Council (NSC) meeting at the presidential office in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, June 5, 2022. North Korea test-fired a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles from multiple locations toward the sea on Sunday, South Korea’s military said, extending a provocative streak in weapons demonstrations this year that U.S. and South Korean officials say may culminate with a nuclear test explosion. (South Korea Presidential Office via AP) (Uncredited/South Korea Presidential Office) | 2022-06-06T01:10:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | US, S. Korea fire missiles to sea, matching North's launches - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/us-s-korea-fire-missiles-to-sea-matching-norths-launches/2022/06/05/6c521186-e530-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/us-s-korea-fire-missiles-to-sea-matching-norths-launches/2022/06/05/6c521186-e530-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
SAN FRANCISCO — Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri and Boston Celtics coach Ime Udoka both spoke out Sunday against the decision by Nigeria’s government to withdraw its basketball teams from international competitions for two years and potentially eliminate any chance of qualifying for the 2024 Olympics.
FIBA, basketball’s global governing body, said it had no choice last week but to replace Nigeria from the 12-team field for the Women’s World Cup that will occur later this year and replace it with Mali. The men’s national team has been trying to qualify for next year’s men’s World Cup — a major step toward making the ‘24 Games. | 2022-06-06T01:11:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Udoka, Ujiri angry over Nigerian basketball dysfunction - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nba/udoka-ujiri-angry-over-nigerian-basketball-dysfunction/2022/06/05/13db2d18-e52a-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nba/udoka-ujiri-angry-over-nigerian-basketball-dysfunction/2022/06/05/13db2d18-e52a-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
Mystics forward Myisha Hines-Allen, pictured in a game against Chicago last month, had 13 points in Sunday's road loss. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)
CHICAGO — Myisha Hines-Allen scurried around the court at Wintrust Arena on Sunday morning, staging a makeshift photo shoot. The Washington Mystics forward was behind the camera as she implored teammates and staff members to strike a pose.
This was the energetic and gregarious Hines-Allen everyone is used to. This season has been a struggle for her, but she has stayed positive, and Sunday was a good day — at least individually.
The Mystics lost their second in a row — and their third in four games — in a 91-82 defeat to the Chicago Sky, but Hines-Allen was a bright spot. She returned to the starting lineup after coming off the bench in four of the previous five games to notch 13 points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals.
“She’s got to shoot the ball with confidence and not be as easily discouraged if she misses one early or something like that,” associate coach Eric Thibault said. “I liked it in the last couple of games; she shot the ball a little quicker, looking for her own. But [she has] just got to get out of her own head and play a little bit more.”
With Elena Delle Donne sidelined, Hines-Allen rejoined the starting five. There was no hesitation even after she opened the game 1 for 4 from the field. She credited her teammates for insisting she shoot her way out of her slump.
“I just kept shooting the ball, and it’s something I have to continue to do,” Hines-Allen said. “I’ve put in the work already. So it’s like [I need to] trust my work.”
The 26-year-old acknowledged that the early part of this season hasn’t been easy. Hines-Allen knows she’s better than how she has played, and she wouldn’t be the first pro athlete to feel more pressure to perform after signing a new contract. The Mystics gave her a three-year deal averaging $175,000 in the offseason.
“I am a confident person, but for any competitor, anybody, it’s just like when you know you’re capable of doing something and you’re not living up to what you know you can do — it sucks,” Hines-Allen said. “And now you’re in your head, and then that translates to not playing defense.
“So I feel like, for me, I’m going to keep shooting the ball, but it’s also setting good screens for my teammates to get open. I can do more than just shoot the ball, put the ball in the basket. I can facilitate. I can rebound. I can defend multiple positions. So, for me, it’s not even just focusing on the offensive side.”
The defensive side failed the Mystics (7-5) in the third quarter Sunday as they gave up 31 points and let the Sky (7-3) pull away. Washington had several execution breakdowns and turnovers at crucial moments coming out of timeouts when Thibault — who again filled in for his father, Mike, who remains in the WNBA’s health and safety coronavirus protocols — had a chance to draw up a play.
Kahleah Copper, the 2021 WNBA Finals MVP, finished with 15 points for the defending champs, and Candace Parker had another all-around gem with 12 points, 13 rebounds and six assists. Former Mystics star Emma Meesseman added 13 points and six assists.
“We talked at half about raising our intensity a notch,” Thibault said. “It felt like kind of a sleepy first half for both teams a little bit, but instead they hit us with a run. We were sloppy. We talked about stuff we wanted to execute coming out of half, and we were just really sloppy, throwing it into their hands and stuff like that. We’re going have to figure out a way to play both ends of the court at the same time.”
Delle Donne was scheduled to play Sunday, but the Mystics held her out after Friday’s loss to New York. The two-time MVP has been on a load-management program as she returns from a pair of back surgeries. This was not a setback; the team merely decided to play it safe with just one day off between games and the travel to Chicago.
Back in the rotation
Tianna Hawkins had been the odd woman out of the rotation recently; she didn’t play a minute in the Mystics’ previous two games. Before that, she scored 10 points in 15 minutes of a loss at Connecticut on May 28.
Hawkins came off the bench midway through the first quarter Sunday and was aggressive. She finished with a game-high 21 points on 8-for-13 shooting.
“I take pride in staying ready,” she said. “The biggest thing is preparation — whether I’m paying 20 minutes, 10 minutes, zero minutes. I’m always getting extra shots and making sure my conditioning is up so, when my name is called, it’s not a surprise.”
Protocol updates
Alysha Clark (seven points in 17 minutes) returned after missing three games following a positive coronavirus test. She was in the WNBA’s protocols for two games and missed another while working back into game shape.
Clark acknowledged the timing was particularly bad — she was just getting back into a groove after a delayed start to the season while recovering from a foot injury that kept her out last season.
“I knew this summer … that this was going to be an up-and-down season,” she said. “... So I was prepared. I knew there were going to be obstacles throughout the season. I was annoyed in the beginning — just like, the timing is terrible. I finally felt like I was moving a little bit [better]. [I kept] that perspective mind-set of it, of just being, ‘All right, this is one of the downs that you’re going to have in this up-and-down season.’ ” | 2022-06-06T02:06:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Mystics drop second straight to Sky - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/05/mystics-sky-myisha-hines-allen/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/05/mystics-sky-myisha-hines-allen/ |
CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Tim Elko double in two runs in the bottom of the seven and Ole Miss used two freshmen pitchers to keep Miami in check and the Rebels knocked the overall No. 6 seed into the loser’s bracket with a 2-1 win on Sunday in the Coral Gables Regional. | 2022-06-06T02:41:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Elko drives in 2, Ole Miss beats No. 6 Miami 2-1 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/elko-drives-in-2-ole-miss-beats-no-6-miami-2-1/2022/06/05/f2dcee98-e534-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/elko-drives-in-2-ole-miss-beats-no-6-miami-2-1/2022/06/05/f2dcee98-e534-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
Golden State Warriors guards Jordan Poole, left, and Stephen Curry celebrate Poole's half-court shot during Sunday's Game 2 win over the Boston Celtics. (Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
This was the dilemma for the Golden State Warriors, who spent 72 hours licking their wounds after the Boston Celtics mounted a dramatic comeback in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. The Warriors have long had a habit of getting series off on the right foot and closing out wins in crunchtime, but they looked and sounded unsettled as they processed their unusual predicament — before finally seizing control in a dominant third quarter to respond with a 107-88 victory Sunday night.
Within seconds of Game 2 tipping off, Golden State made it clear that it planned to bring maximum urgency: Draymond Green wrestled Al Horford to the floor for a jump ball, the opening salvo in what would be a busy night for Golden State’s defensive captain. Green engaged in subsequent scuffles with Grant Williams and Jaylen Brown, drawing a technical foul for his repeated extracurricular activities. Yet a nervy haze remained over Chase Center for most of the first three quarters: Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson committed sloppy turnovers and forced the occasional shot, while Golden State’s perimeter defense kept losing track of Boston’s three-point shooters.
For Boston, the blowout was a continuation of its tendency to let up after victories and a reminder that it takes more than three-point shooting to win a title. The scoring balance that defined Boston’s Game 1 victory eluded the Celtics, who leaned heavily on Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown while receiving only scattered contributions from their starting frontcourt. Tatum shook off a poor shooting performance in Game 1 to score a team-high 28 points by hitting an array of tough shots, but Brown proved to be a bit too eager, shooting 5 for 17 from the field, and Al Horford and Robert Williams III combined for just four points inside.
“[The Warriors] were better defensively,” Horford said. “We missed a lot of easy ones around the basket. I need to be better in that area, and I will be next game. [Green] is going to do what he does. We’re not worried about him. We’re going to do what we do. [Our third-quarter play] is something we have to fix.”
Kerr made several tweaks to his rotation in response to the Game 1 defeat, reinserting backup guard Gary Payton II to help fill the gaps for forward Andre Iguodala, who sat out with a swollen knee. Kerr also turned to backup forward Nemanja Bjelica, who provided a pair of first-half buckets by finding seams to the hoop. Moving the ball in search of cutters was a common theme for the Warriors, who settled in early by finding center Kevon Looney for open looks at the rim.
“We knew our backs were against the wall,” Payton said. “We can’t go to Boston down 2-0. [Green] lit the fire under us. He lights it and everyone else follows.”
Buckner: Celtics’ Game 1 win shows how unpredictable NBA Finals will be
Curry again handled the bulk of the scoring for the Warriors, breaking open a close game by scoring 14 of his game-high 29 points in the third quarter. The two-time MVP made five three-pointers, helping to overcome a poor shooting night from Thompson, who finished 4 for 19 from the field (and 1 for 8 from three-point range). Curry’s consistent probing and Poole’s long-range three helped Golden State outscore Boston 35-14 in the pivotal third quarter.
“We didn’t get as much penetration into the paint,” Udoka said. “Turnovers and poor offense contributed to [Golden State’s] runs. A team that scores as well as they do, we don’t need to help them out.” | 2022-06-06T03:24:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Warriors rout Celtics in Game 2 to tie NBA Finals - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/05/warriors-celtics-nba-finals-game-2/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/05/warriors-celtics-nba-finals-game-2/ |
No risk is seen to the public, according to the health department
This 2003 electron microscope image shows mature, oval-shaped monkeypox virions, left, and spherical immature virions, right, obtained from a sample of human skin associated with the 2003 prairie dog outbreak. (AP)
The first infection with a virus from the family that includes monkeypox has been reported in the District of Columbia, city officials said.
The resident is isolating and “does not pose a risk to the public,” the D.C. Department of Health said.
The case of orthopox, the family of viruses that includes monkeypox, was reported Saturday in someone who said they had recently traveled to Europe, according to the department.
The samples that were collected have been sent to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for further testing and confirmation of the monkeypox virus, the health department said.
Virginia reports case of monkeypox, state’s first in recent uptick
Monkeypox is a rare but potentially serious viral illness that can be transmitted from person to person through direct contact with body fluid or monkeypox lesions. It is difficult to transmit and easier to contain than highly transmissible viruses such as the coronavirus.
Monkeypox rarely is deadly and because of its similarities to smallpox, it can be treated with antivirals and vaccines stockpiled in the event of a smallpox outbreak. Vaccines can be administered shortly after exposure to prevent serious illness.
There are currently 25 confirmed cases of monkeypox in the United States, the city’s health department said.
It was not immediately clear how likely it was that any orthopox infection would be monkeypox. | 2022-06-06T04:12:59Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Possible monkeypox case found in the District, officials say - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/06/05/monkeypox-dc-cases-travel-europe/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/06/05/monkeypox-dc-cases-travel-europe/ |
By Julhas Alam | AP
Firefighters work to contain a fire that broke out at the BM Inland Container Depot, a Dutch-Bangladesh joint venture, in Chittagong, 216 kilometers (134 miles) southeast of capital, Dhaka, Bangladesh, early Sunday, June 5, 2022. Several people were killed and more than 100 others were injured in the fire the cause of which could not be immediately determined. (AP Photo) (Uncredited/AP) | 2022-06-06T05:44:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Depot fire latest to spotlight Bangladesh industrial safety - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/bangladeshs-latest-depot-fire-raises-concern-over-safety/2022/06/06/a754a4f6-e553-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/bangladeshs-latest-depot-fire-raises-concern-over-safety/2022/06/06/a754a4f6-e553-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
The Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England all preside over inflation rates that have surged to quadruple their 2% targets. One of their brethren is highly skeptical of their chances of success in calming price increases. It may turn out that they’ve been lucky rather than good in achieving price stability in recent years — and their luck has run out.
A few weeks ago, Jeremy Rudd, a senior economist at the Fed, published a paper that does little to inspire confidence in the ability of policy makers to prevent stagflation from afflicting their economies. Moreover, one of his conclusions — that anchoring inflation expectations has little effect on prices — suggests the current mania among central bankers for raising interest rates may exact a cost on growth without a corresponding benefit of achieving their chief policy goal.
Rudd examined a surge in US inflation in the second half of 1960, noting parallels between then and now. It’s his assessment of what’s been learned in the intervening period — or rather, what remains unknown — that’s most striking:
Perhaps the most sobering fact, though, is how little practical benefit six decades’ worth of additional experience has provided us: Our understanding of how the economy works — as well as our ability to predict the effects of shocks and policy actions — is in my view no better today than it was in the 1960s.
The current bout of rising prices has certainly caught today’s central bankers napping. Figures last week showed consumer prices in the euro zone rising at a record pace of 8.1% in May, up from 7.5% in the previous month and faster than the 7.8% anticipated by economists. In the UK, the Bank of England expects inflation to surpass 10% in the coming months. And economists expect the US to post its fourth consecutive increase of more than 8% on June 10.
It’s understandable, if not forgivable, that the forward guidance policy makers are currently delivering is all over the place. “For me, I think a pause in September might make sense,” Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said on May 23. Contrast that with Fed Governor Christopher Waller’s comments last week that “I support tightening policy by another 50 basis points for several meetings,” and the path for at least the next three US central bank decisions is as clear as mud, as Jim Bianco of Bianco Research alluded to in a tweet:
But both Dutch central banker Klaas Knot and Slovakian policy maker Peter Kazimir are refusing to rule out half-point increases, while Austrian central bank chief Robert Holzmann said on Friday that “a 50 basis-point rise would send the necessary clear signal that the ECB is serious about fighting inflation.”
Rudd’s April 9 research note echoes a paper he published in September in attempting to debunk the notion that expectations are drivers of inflation, a proposition he called “arrant nonsense.” His more recent work calls into question how effective policy makers can expect to be in reacting to unforeseen — and arguably unforeseeable — shifts in the economy:
Perhaps the most useful lesson from the 1960s inflation experience is how difficult it is to successfully conduct economic policy in the real world and in real time. Policymaking unfolds on a ‘darkling plain,’ and its practitioners—as well as those who seek to advocate an alternative course—will invariably be burdened by a highly imperfect understanding of how the economy works; noisy and revision-plagued data; and outcomes that cannot even be specified in advance, let alone be assigned a credible probability weight. Of course, policymakers face an additional burden that these others don’t: They are the ones responsible for making consequential decisions, and they are the ones held accountable for the results.
If major economies do slump into stagflation, policy makers will have failed to do their jobs. Nevertheless, as tempting as it might become for some politicians, questioning their independence to set monetary conditions would be the wrong reaction.
• The Bank of England Taketh Away. Rishi Sunak Should Giveth: Mark Gilbert | 2022-06-06T05:44:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Central Bankers Don’t Know How to Tackle Inflation - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/central-bankers-dont-know-how-to-tackle-inflation/2022/06/06/55f48678-e556-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/central-bankers-dont-know-how-to-tackle-inflation/2022/06/06/55f48678-e556-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
Construction and property sales have been the biggest engines of economic growth since President Xi Jinping came to office almost a decade ago. Home prices have skyrocketed as an emerging middle class flocked to property. The boom led to speculative buying as new homes were pre-sold by property developers who turned more and more to foreign investors for funds. In 2020 China tightened financing rules for developers to crack down on reckless borrowing, fearful that a collapse could undermine the financial system. But many developers didn’t have enough available cash to cover their liabilities. A sales slump that began during the pandemic was deepened by aggressive measures to contain Covid-19, aggravating the liquidity crisis. A default last year at one of the biggest, China Evergrande Group, shocked the market (China only started letting companies default on bonds in 2014). The ripple effects have hit other private developers, including Sunac China Holdings Ltd. in May. As of June 1, every Chinese firm defaulting in 2022 has been a developer except for E-House China Enterprise Holdings Ltd., which provides real estate services.
2. Why the need for credit risk hedging tools?
Private companies are still facing a cash crunch because of slumping new home sales, while high interest rates have closed off the offshore bond market to many builders. Regulatory measures have mainly targeted higher-rated firms, with underwhelming results. For example, attempts to encourage banks to increase their support for mergers and acquisitions in the property sector found little resonance. A similar crisis in 2018 spurred China’s regulators to re-energize efforts to provide investors with ways of hedging risk. Now they are again encouraging the use of such tools as a way to restore confidence and help private firms raise funds in the bond market, according to the official Shanghai Securities Journal.
Credit-default swaps (CDS), which allow traders to place bets on the creditworthiness of a company or a group of companies, have been around for decades in developed markets but are little used in China. Instead, credit risk mitigation warrants (CRMW) are the most common hedging tools. Despite being widely known as China’s CDS, the instrument is not exactly that. A CRMW offers insurance against default linked to a specific bond or loan obligation, while a CDS (which China introduced in 2016) can be linked to an issuer or its various debts. The Shenzhen Stock Exchange added to the arsenal in May with something called credit protection warrants for privately owned developers, which have the same goal of enhancing investor confidence.
Private developers including Longfor Group, Seazen, Midea Real Estate and Country Garden have been on the front line this year in selling domestic bonds protected by risk-hedging derivatives, signaling regulatory support. A June 1 report by S&P Global Ratings called the guarantees “symbolic in that they only cover part of the transactions.” But it said such support “could prove important” if investors see it as a “validation” of which developers are in the best shape. As of June 1, 54.8 billion yuan ($8.2 billion) of CRMW have been sold in the interbank market since 2018, Bloomberg-compiled data show. They have been gaining in popularity -- 20.5 billion yuan of CRMW were sold in 2021, up from 11.6 billion yuan in 2020. But it’s still a tiny amount compared to China’s onshore bond market, which is valued at 138.2 trillion yuan according to data from the People’s Bank of China. | 2022-06-06T05:44:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How China Is Reviving Tools for Hedging Credit Risk - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-china-is-reviving-tools-for-hedging-credit-risk/2022/06/06/c8b04dc0-e559-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-china-is-reviving-tools-for-hedging-credit-risk/2022/06/06/c8b04dc0-e559-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
How did Facebook become a business worth $1 trillion at one point last year? Not just by fulfilling its mission of “connecting people,” but by keeping them hooked on the site, sometimes for hours on end.
Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube and Twitter Inc. have spent years perfecting the art of building habit-forming products, whether through the social affirmation of “likes,” the allure of a never-ending newsfeed or the way YouTube hits your dopamine receptors each time it recommends a new video.
Guillaume Chaslot, an engineer who left Google in 2013 after helping to design YouTube’s recommendation algorithm, remembers being told to program it to encourage larger amounts of time spent by people on the site. “When you optimize for time spent, then you optimize for addiction,” he says. “At the time, I did not even realize that.”
But now, several years into a broad backlash against Big Tech platforms over their safety, more consumer internet services seem to be disregarding the pressure to be “sticky,” in Silicon Valley parlance, or to reward attention-seeking behavior. It’s a promising trend.
BeReal is a social app developed in France where all users are told to post a photo of themselves and their surroundings at one randomly appointed time each day. Instead of perfectly angled selfies on the beach, you get double chins, laptop keyboards and crowds of bus commuters — in other words, the mundane moments of everyday lives. As of May 2022, BeReal had been downloaded more than 10 million times and is growing steadily among teens and college students in the US, UK and France, according to app analytics firm data.ai.
The once-a-day routine is also what has driven tens of millions of people to play Wordle, the hit puzzle game now owned by New York Times Co. that updates itself daily, and which encourages players to share yellow-and-green grid emojis of their results.
Both web services could be fads, of course. Remember the apps Dispo, YikYak and Peach? If not, that’s because social media and internet platforms are a fickle business, filled with flameouts that couldn’t attain long-term appeal with consumers.
If you find that hard to believe, consider that the metaverse, which Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg is pivoting his entire company toward, doesn’t seem to have much addictive potential. For one, entering virtual reality is cumbersome. After strapping a headset like the Oculus Quest 2 to your face, you wait several minutes while a game like Beat Saber loads on the headset which, speaking from my own experience of regularly using a Quest 2, becomes noticeably heavy and uncomfortable after about an hour.
It’s true that 20 years ago the internet’s early skeptics argued that getting online was too complicated to plug into our daily lives. But I still don’t buy Facebook’s vision that people will spend large chunks of their day working, socializing and playing in the metaverse, because the transition from an all-encompassing virtual reality to our physical reality is clunky.
The metaverse being built by Facebook has serious problems that need ironing out. There have been incidents of harassment, creepy behavior and a worrying number of children visitors. And Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen has warned that the metaverse will be habit-forming in the future. But I expect it to be about as addictive as computer games, which have been shown to have narrower incidents of addiction disorder, potentially affecting 0.3% - 1% of the population of the US, UK, Canada and Germany, according to one 2016 study.
The moral paradox of Facebook is that its addictive quality has lead to both widespread harm and astonishing financial success. Meta earned $39.4 billion in profit last year, on sales of $117 billion. Its founder is currently the world’s 15th richest person. But its future money-making potential with the metaverse is an open question when putting on a VR headset doesn’t hit the same dopamine reward pathways in our brains as glancing at a smartphone dozens of time each day.
How will Meta attain the same level of ad revenue from the metaverse if people aren’t visiting it anywhere near as frequently as Facebook or Instagram? That question may be fueling broader skepticism about the metaverse’s future business potential: Meta’s shares have sunk 43% since the start of the year, a sharper decline than Alphabet (down 22%) and Amazon Inc. (down 23%) in the latest tech market rout.
We’re Giving Elon Musk Too Much Attention: Mark Gongloff
Google Is Sharing Our Data at a Startling Scale: Parmy Olson
It’s Awkward Being a Woman in the Metaverse: Parmy Olson | 2022-06-06T05:44:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Wordle, BeReal and Even Facebook: Apps Get Less Addictive - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/wordle-bereal-and-even-facebook-apps-get-less-addictive/2022/06/06/568cc99c-e556-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/wordle-bereal-and-even-facebook-apps-get-less-addictive/2022/06/06/568cc99c-e556-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
A firefighter works to contain a fire that broke out at a container depot in Chittagong, about 130 miles southeast of the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka. (AP)
Dozens of people were killed and hundreds injured when a huge fire broke out at a container depot in Bangladesh over the weekend, authorities said. The death toll had reached 49 but was expected to rise with many of the injured in critical condition.
The cause of the blaze at the BM Inland Container Depot in Chittagong, about 130 miles southeast of capital, Dhaka, was not immediately clear. The company, which is jointly owned by business executives from the Netherlands and Bangladesh, did not respond to a request for comment Monday morning.
Fire officials suspect the blaze may have begun in a container of hydrogen peroxide and spread quickly to other containers, Reuters reported.
Bangladesh has a patchy industrial safety record, and fires are not uncommon. A flurry of tragedies a decade ago shined a spotlight on the country’s ready-made garment industry and the lax enforcement of safety rules. Exports, especially the garment industry, are the backbone of Bangladesh’s cash-strapped economy.
Although steps have been taken to improve the situation for the many thousands of factory workers, there were still more than 21,000 fire-related incidents in 2020, according to the Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defense.
At least 52 workers were killed last year in a fire at a food and beverage factory, which the International Labor Organization said highlighted the “urgent need” for authorities and building owners to ensure that workplaces are built and operated in compliance with national fire safety codes.
Fires in Bangladesh raise concerns over garment worker safety
Rescue workers including firefighters and police officers were among those killed in Saturday’s blaze, witnesses told Reuters. The fire triggered a huge explosion and rapidly spread, with chemical-filled containers combusting one after another.
Images from the scene showed upturned and burned-out containers and debris scattered over the ground as firefighters worked through Sunday to contain the blaze. Drone footage showed flames still smoldering across the container depot and thick smoke rising into the air.
Azad Majumdar in Dhaka, Bangladesh, contributed to this report. | 2022-06-06T07:02:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Bangladesh container depot fire leaves 49 dead, hundreds injured - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/06/bangladesh-fire-container-depot-chittagong/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/06/bangladesh-fire-container-depot-chittagong/ |
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson during Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in London on June 5. (Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images)
LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday evening will face a vote of no confidence by Conservative lawmakers following anger over lockdown-breaking parties at Downing Street and discontent with his leadership.
The stunning development came after enough Conservative lawmakers submitted letters of no confidence to trigger the vote. The vote, which will take place between 6 and 8 p.m. local time (1 and 3 p.m. Eastern time), could see Johnson step down as prime minister a little over two years after he led the party to a whopping majority at the 2019 general election.
A confidence vote is triggered when 15 percent of the Conservative’s parliamentary party — or 54 lawmakers — submit letters to the chair of the 1922 Committee, a powerful group of backbench Conservative lawmakers.
U.K. ‘Partygate’ report blames No. 10 for boozy lockdown parties
Speaking to reporters, the chair of the group, Graham Brady, said that he had told Johnson on Sunday evening that the threshold for a vote had been met.
In response, a Downing Street spokesman said, “tonight is a chance to end months of speculation and allow the government to draw a line and move on, delivering on the people’s priorities.”
“The prime minister welcomes the opportunity to make his case to MPs and will remind them that when they’re united and focused on the issues that matter to voters, there is no more formidable political force,” he said.
At least half of the Conservative lawmakers must vote “no confidence” for Johnson to lose his position. If he survives, then no further vote is allowed for a year. This rule can be changed.
Brady told reporters that some of those calling for a no-confidence vote had said it should only take place once jubilee celebrations for Queen Elizabeth II had come to a close.
In a scathing letter posted on social media, Jesse Norman, once one of Johnson’s longtime supporters, said that the prime minister’s policy priorities were “deeply questionable” and that he had presided over “a culture of casual lawbreaking” at Downing Street. | 2022-06-06T08:33:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Britain’s Boris Johnson to face no-confidence vote from his own party - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/06/boris-johnson-tory-leadership-vote/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/06/boris-johnson-tory-leadership-vote/ |
A missile fired from an undisclosed location on South Korea’s east coast on June 6 during a joint live-fire exercise between South Korea and the United States. (Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Republic of Korea)
TOKYO — The U.S. and South Korean militaries test-fired eight ballistic missiles on Monday, matching North Korea’s weapons tests the day before, in a stern show of force marking the hardening line toward Pyongyang.
U.S. Forces Korea and the South Korean military fired one U.S. missile and seven South Korean missiles eastward into the sea to demonstrate the two countries’ ability to “respond quickly to crisis events,” the U.S. military said Monday.
On Sunday, North Korea fired off a battery of eight short-range missiles, as it continues to build and test new weapons to evade existing missile defense systems.
It was the 18th round of missile launches in 2022 alone. Pyongyang has conducted an unprecedented number of tests, in line with leader Kim Jong Un’s five-year plan for the program.
Biden visit to Seoul showcases hardened stances on North Korea
“The South Korea-U.S. combined firing of the ground-to-ground missiles demonstrated the capability and posture to launch immediate precision strikes on the origins of provocations, even if North Korea launches missiles from various locations,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday.
Monday’s response by the United States and South Korea underscores the countries’ intent to act in lockstep to North Korea’s missile tests — a shift since the inauguration of South Korea’s new conservative president, Yoon Suk-yeol, who has vowed to take a firmer approach to the North than his pro-engagement predecessor.
“Even at this moment, North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats are getting sophisticated,” Yoon said Monday. “North Korea’s nuclear and missile [programs] are reaching the level of threatening not only peace on the Korean Peninsula but also in Northeast Asia and the world.”
The U.S. and South Korean militaries launched ground-to-ground Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles from South Korea’s northeastern Gangwon province, firing eight missiles within a 10-minute period starting at 4:45 a.m., South Korea’s military said.
North Korea on Sunday fired eight suspected ballistic missiles east into the ocean within a 35-minute period from 9:08 a.m. from four locations, the South Korean military said.
In response, Japan’s Self Defense Forces on Sunday held a joint military drill with the United States. Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said North Korea’s actions “cannot be tolerated.”
China draws North Korea closer than ever as Biden visits region
North Korea has not yet released information about its latest launch. The reclusive country has halted the regular release of information about its missile tests in recent weeks.
Last week, the U.S. and South Korean militaries held a three-day naval exercise in international waters off Okinawa aimed at reinforcing the allies’ response to North Korea’s mounting weapons ambitions, the South Korean military said.
The joint drill was the first in more than four years, underscoring efforts by the Yoon government to align closely with the United States on matters related to North Korea. Pyongyang views the exercises as “hostile” acts toward the country and cites them as reasons to continue developing its weapons capabilities.
Intelligence officials from the United States, South Korea and Japan have said that North Korea appears to have completed preparations for its seventh nuclear test, which would be the first since 2017.
Officials from the United States, South Korea and Japan met in Seoul on Friday to reinforce the three countries’ ties amid signs of the upcoming nuclear test. The United States has advocated greater sanctions on North Korea in response to its violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions banning ballistic missile tests.
Relations between the United States and North Korea have remained deadlocked since 2019, when nuclear negotiations fell apart.
The Biden administration so far has not shown a willingness to give North Korea the sanctions relief it seeks. Yoon has said the “ball is in Chairman Kim’s court” to jump-start negotiations again. Kim has not indicated any desire to engage with either country in the absence of sanctions relief. | 2022-06-06T08:33:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | U.S., South Korea fire ballistic missiles in warning to North Korea - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/06/north-korea-ballistic-missile-us-south-korea/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/06/north-korea-ballistic-missile-us-south-korea/ |
A rainbow-colored version of the Rays' sunburst logo was worn by a Tampa Bay player during a Pride Night game against the White Sox. (Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)
“A lot of it comes down to faith, to like a faith-based decision,” said Adam, a 30-year-old in his fifth major league season. “So it’s a hard decision. Because ultimately we all said what we want is them to know that all are welcome and loved here. But when we put it on our bodies, I think a lot of guys decided that it’s just a lifestyle that maybe — not that they look down on anybody or think differently — it’s just that maybe we don’t want to encourage it if we believe in Jesus, who’s encouraged us to live a lifestyle that would abstain from that behavior, just like [Jesus] encourages me as a heterosexual male to abstain from sex outside of the confines of marriage. It’s no different.
The event at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg was timed to take place near the start of Pride Month. In a statement last week, President Biden said an “onslaught of dangerous anti-LGBTQI+ legislation has been introduced and passed in States across the country.”
The Rays’ home state made headlines earlier this year when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed legislation referred to by some as the “Don’t Say Gay” law. Parents “should be protected from schools using classroom instruction to sexualize their kids as young as 5 years old,” DeSantis said in a statement.
Critics have said the Parental Rights in Education bill, which bans discussion of LGBTQ issues in classrooms for kindergarten through third grade and includes restrictions for older students, has intentionally vague language meant to marginalize, stigmatize and silence LGBTQ people.
Rays center fielder Kevin Kiermaier, who reportedly wore the rainbow-accented uniform Saturday, said after that game that the Pride Night event “shows that we want everyone to feel welcomed and included when you come to Tropicana Field.”
“My parents taught me to love everyone as they are,” the 32-year-old Kiermaier said (via mlb.com). “Go live your life. Whatever your preferences are, go be you.”
The team also recently spoke out on the issue of gun violence. In the wake of mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde, Tex., the Rays issued a statement last month saying “we cannot become numb” to such episodes and pledging to make a donation to a national gun violence prevention organization. | 2022-06-06T09:43:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Several Tampa Bay Rays players opt out of Pride Night uniforms - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/06/tampa-bay-rays-pride-night-jason-adam/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/06/tampa-bay-rays-pride-night-jason-adam/ |
A liberal D.A. finds voters’ moods have changed even in San Francisco
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin ponders a question at his recall campaign headquarters in San Francisco on May 26, 2022. (Eric Risberg/AP)
SAN FRANCISCO — Chesa Boudin ducked into the Lucky Pork Store, established in 1949, seeking some help.
The district attorney is in trouble. On Tuesday, he faces a recall election a little more than halfway into his first term, one shaped by the pandemic and a sense among this city’s often fearful, always frustrated residents that his approach to prosecution is too lax for the times.
In fluent Spanish, Boudin made his pitch. “They are attacking me,” he told Hipolito Barraza, the store’s manager.
“With millions, I heard,” Barraza replied.
“We have less than one week and we need your support,” Boudin said.
“And then we work together,” Barraza said with a smile.
This is what the stretch-run to hold onto his office looks like for Boudin. He was elected in 2019 as a “progressive prosecutor,” the term given to about a dozen or so district attorneys across the country who have sought to reduce what they view as overly punitive sentencing and overall incarceration rates, which have affected people of color disproportionately.
The recall campaign has revealed a city debating the nature of crime, how to measure its dips and spikes, and who to blame for perceptions of danger. Other primary contests statewide are turning on similar questions, as California again attempts to find the balance between deterrence and fairness, a twisting course that has charted its politics for decades.
After pioneering so-called “three-strikes” laws in the 1990s that toughened sentencing, state voters, facing drastically overcrowded prisons, agreed in 2014 to soften some sentences and recategorize some felony crimes as misdemeanors.
Like most big U.S. cities, San Francisco has seen a rise in homicides during the pandemic, although rates remain far below those of past decades, and other cities have experienced bigger per capita jumps. Overall violent crime here remains at some of the lowest levels it has been in four decades.
Property crime, which deepened during the pandemic as stay-at-home workers left the city largely empty, is declining gradually to pre-covid levels. Residential burglaries remain higher than pre-pandemic levels — and terrifyingly, often happen when residents are at home. The nature of those break-ins adds to a prevailing sense here that the city’s law enforcement agencies have only a loose handle on the overall problem.
The state of the streets, including many of the major commercial ones, remains heartbreaking, an open-air stage of human misery defined by homelessness, mental illness and drugs. In 2020, twice as many people died here of drug overdoses than died of covid-19. All of that has sharply altered the political environment.
“The themes that were salient to voters when Boudin was elected — criminal justice reform, over-incarceration, police conduct — are not the same issues salient with voters now,” said Jason McDaniel, an associate professor of political science at San Francisco State University. “What’s most salient now is this feeling that things are just not going well, whether it’s with covid, the economy, homelessness, or other issues. That’s a shift.”
The in-or-out verdict on Boudin has also prompted a fresh argument about the use of the recall, a time-tested method of civic democracy in this state that was first envisioned as a way to rid the government of corruption and limit the influence of big-money special interests. No cause is needed to mount one.
Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) easily defeated a recall effort against him. Boudin’s contest is the second recall effort in this city alone this year, the first successfully removing three members of the San Francisco school board.
“This says a lot more about the playbook that police unions and Republican operatives are using these days than it does about my policies,” Boudin said in an interview, conducted between vote-seeking stops in the city’s Mission District.
“There’s going to be a backlash,” he said. “They can’t win elections so they are relying on recalls and other measures to strip those we have elected of power.”
Public drama is not new to the prosecutor. Boudin was born to David Gilbert and Kathy Boudin, who in the early 1980s were members of the Weather Underground, a violent anti-imperialist group characterized by the FBI as a domestic terrorist organization.
When Boudin was a little more than a year old, his parents participated in the 1981 robbery of a Brink’s truck in a suburb about 35 miles north of New York City. The failed effort left the armed guard and two police officers dead.
Kathy Boudin pleaded guilty to murder and robbery. She was released from the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in 2003 and died last month. David Gilbert, was convicted of murder and robbery. After more than forty years in prison, Gilbert was released from the Shawangunk Correctional Facility late last year.
Boudin was raised by Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers, who co-founded the Weather Underground organization in the 1960s.
Chesa Boudin, a former public defender in San Francisco, followed another liberal prosecutor into the job: George Gascon, a former Los Angeles police officer now serving amid similar controversies as the district attorney there.
Like Boudin, who is 41, Gascon faces resistance within his office, much of it from front-line prosecutors who believe new charging rules are too lenient. But Boudin’s predicament is more dire, according to recent polls.
Boudin has made the recall itself part of the message, arguing that it is a distraction from solving the city’s most pressing social problems.
“My primary argument isn’t that this is unfair to me, but that it will do nothing to make us safer,” he said. “What is happening is undermining democracy and undermining public safety.”
Boudin’s opposition took shape about a year into his tenure when a sputtering Republican-led effort to recall him gave way to another led by Democrats, who account for 63 percent of the electorate in the city. The main organization is called San Franciscans for Public Safety, which by late May had spent $3.8 million on the “Yes on H” campaign, as the recall effort is officially known.
Other groups that have raised money in favor of the recall will push total spending against Boudin to more than $4 million.
The money is coming from venture capitalists, some of them Republican, doctors and lawyers, and many real estate developers and associations. About 80 percent of its donors are from San Francisco.
Boudin may be able to spend only half that amount in seeking to keep his job, although McDaniel, the political science professor, noted that given the attention the race has received and the apparent gap in the polls “money is not going to determine the outcome of this race.”
Among the leaders of the primary recall group is Brooke Jenkins, a homicide prosecutor in Boudin’s office until last fall when she left over a dispute involving whether to allow a man convicted of murdering his mother to argue insanity during sentencing.
Jenkins contended that he should not be allowed to do so, worrying it would lead to a far earlier release for someone she believes was very dangerous. Boudin, she said, eventually told her to allow the insanity argument in sentencing.
Jenkins said much of the energy behind the recall derives from a sense that Boudin does not hold himself accountable for the crime experienced every day by residents, including a frightened and vulnerable Asian American community that has long viewed this city as a sanctuary.
There have also been major incidents — such as a coordinated smash-and-grab theft ring that struck tourist-rich Union Square late last year — that have dominated the debate over crime.
One case involved Troy McAlister, then 45, who on New Year’s Eve of 2020 ran a red light and killed two women crossing a street in downtown San Francisco. Police at the time said McAlister, who fled the scene, was armed and had alcohol and methamphetamine in his system.
Law enforcement records showed that McAlister was on parole at the time, and that Boudin’s office had declined to file charges against him for several alleged crimes in the previous months. Boudin said he had referred those cases to the parole board for consideration. But the killings helped galvanize opposition to his tenure.
“This is about San Franciscans wanting a district attorney who’s actually dedicated to prioritizing public safety,” Jenkins said. “People’s issue with Chesa is that he has been tone deaf to their pleas for accountability. They think things have gone a bit too far with crime and they don’t feel as though he is setting the right tone.”
If Boudin is recalled, Mayor London Breed (D), with whom he shares a strained relationship, will appoint his replacement until next year’s election when he would have been on the ballot. Asked if she is a contender to replace Boudin, Jenkins replied: “I trust the mayor to make the right choice.”
The turnout for the recall is projected to be very low, a mix of recall fatigue and the fact that the top-of-the-ticket races for governor and U.S. Senate are lightly contested. Early voting patterns have shown that more conservative neighborhoods have participated more heavily so far, but Boudin won his first race with a heavy election-day turnout.
What Boudin is doing now, as much as time allows, is spending his days on the streets. As he walked along Mission Street last week, Boudin waved as a few people shouted his name in support. A Prius honked a horn in his favor. The scent of weed, carried on a brisk wind from an open-air crafts market, joined a few “we’re with you” calls from vendors. This is a neighborhood that must vote heavily for Boudin if he is to have a chance.
Outside La Coroneta Taqueria, Tommy Ak, a 49-year-old taxi driver, wanted a word with Boudin. His car has been broken into three times in the past two years, his wife’s car on another more recent occasion.
“The problem with car break-ins in San Francisco has existed for many, many years,” Boudin said. “We have seen them fall, but not fast enough.”
The two shook hands. Asked if he planned to support Boudin, Ak, a three-decade San Francisco resident, said he did. “He can’t do everything himself,” Ak said.
It is easy to find merchants who have experienced crime in recent years. Nahil Hanhan, 64, owns Oxford Street Designer Menswear on Market Street. Three times thieves have drilled through her steel door, taking about $10,000 in merchandise in all.
“They are getting away with it,” said Hanhan, who has already cast her mail-in vote for the recall. “That’s the problem. When they get away with it they just come back.”
In pandemic times, crimes against Asian American residents here have risen sharply and many feel a frightening unpredictability in a city they have known and loved for generations. Boudin is suffering perhaps most among these voters, who for differing reasons helped propel the school board recalls.
“They spit at me — they spit at me on elevators, on the streets,” said Henry Wong, 74, who once worked for the late comedian Robin Williams and calls Boudin “the worst district attorney the city has ever had.”
“These are crimes,” said Wong, a lifelong San Franciscan who has already voted for the recall. “And he doesn’t care. It’s just so easy to break the law.”
But there are also voters who want Boudin to get more of a chance, and do not believe he has during the dark years of the pandemic. Walking his two Shar-Pei dogs on the lawn in front of City Hall, Terence Greiner, homeless until two years ago, said he thinks “anyone elected into office should be allowed to finish their term.”
“Otherwise why elect them in the first place?” said Greiner, who is 53 and currently on disability. “And it seems to me there was just as much crime before he took office as there is now.”
Peter Milewicz, 74, walks with a cane, as he did on this recent afternoon along Mission Street. He shook Boudin’s hand.
“I’m pulling for you,” said Milewicz, who worked with young psychiatric patients before retiring. “And I want this garbage to go away.”
He has lived in the city for 30 years and has already cast his vote against the recall.
“I have hope he can survive this, but I wouldn’t bet the farm,” Milewicz said. “It takes a lot more than a couple years to undo something as unfair as our justice system.” | 2022-06-06T10:00:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Chesa Boudin faces uphill battle in San Francisco D.A. recall - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/06/cehsa-boudin-recall/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/06/cehsa-boudin-recall/ |
As high-profile massacres capture the nation’s attention, those affected by routine gun violence say they feel left out of the conversation
Artist Martin Swift cleans up before an unveiling ceremony for the Limestone of Lost Legacies Mural in Washington in 2019. The mural, painted by Swift, memorializes teens who died from gun violence. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)
Fifteen-year-old Malachi Jackson was fatally shot on a Monday night in April, blocks from his home in the heart of the bustling Columbia Heights neighborhood in Northwest Washington. Malachi’s mother saw the police lights and ran toward the area. By then, her son, a freshman in high school, was already lying dead on the ground.
The family sketched a plan for a vigil 12 days later: purple, gold and white balloons. An opening prayer. Two songs. A reading from scripture. A young man talking about gun violence.
At the end, the family added “Words from the (Mayor),” hoping the city’s highest-ranking official would offer remarks.
The police chief came. The mayor did not. There was no street memorial — the family feared that Malachi’s assailants would destroy it. Classes at Theodore Roosevelt High School, where the teen was enrolled, resumed after spring break with mental health specialists on campus.
After a shooting at a Buffalo supermarket left 10 dead, and a shooting at an elementary school Uvalde, Tex., left 21 dead, including 19 students, the nation once again found itself in the throes of a debate over guns and gun violence. Hundreds of thousands of dollars poured in to accounts meant for the victims and their families; the president and members of Congress vowed action.
But in the nation’s capital and other major cities, the response to everyday gun violence, like that which killed Malachi, rarely sparks the outrage needed to sear the daily tragedies into the national consciousness, those affected by it say.
“The two mass shootings that just happened gained attention around the world,” said Alvoncia Jackson Sr., a minister who eulogized her grandson at his funeral. “They’re rallying. They’re marching for harder gun laws. But when it’s a shooting on a city street, nothing happens. … Nobody is standing to speak for us.”
Slow motion massacre: Shot dead at 14, Steve Slaughter fell victim to the scourge of everyday gun violence
On Friday, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) appeared at a gun violence awareness event in Anacostia and noted that she has sat alongside the president to press for more anti-gun-violence measures.
“I think that all of us need to be challenged to do more,” the mayor said.
Her office said Bowser typically does not attend vigils but that she does often talk privately with grieving families, declining to detail the private conversations.
Each week the death toll rises. Malachi was the 46th person killed in the city this year; police arrested and charged a 16-year-old in the slaying. The next month, another child was killed by gunfire. By June 1, more than 315 people had been shot, 70 fatally, each violent death quickly fading from public view. Many victims’ families say that their loved ones’ deaths are caused by the same thing as high-profile mass shootings — a proliferation of easily obtained firearms, often in the hands of the young — and that they want the nation’s sustained attention.
“Children are dying on our streets. Teenagers and guns. Children and guns. Where are they getting the guns? How are they getting the guns?” Jackson said.
D.C. is hardly alone. Over Memorial Day weekend: More than 50 shot in Chicago, nine dead. Seven shot in Baltimore, four dead, including a 17-year-old killed at the city’s Inner Harbor tourist hub. Ten shot in the District, two dead.
‘A mass shooting is a mass shooting’
Everyday gun violence most impacts communities of color. The same is true of mass shootings, defined as those that have at least four victims. In the District this year, there were three mass shootings that left 14 people wounded this year through May 26, according to D.C. police. Last year, police said there were 13 mass shootings in the District that left 63 people injured. Nationwide, more than 30 mass shootings occurred after Uvalde; among the latest were deadly shootings in Philadelphia and Chattanooga, Tenn., and at a hospital in Tulsa, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research group.
Residents and activists accuse lawmakers of failing to act because these everyday killings mostly occur in low-income communities of color. Ryane Nickens — a D.C. resident who lost two siblings to gun violence in the ’90s and now runs the TraRon Center, an after-school program for children impacted by gun violence — said the violence that permeates cities like D.C. is linked to systemic racism and poverty.
11-year-old fatally shot in Southeast D.C. after anti-violence July 4 cookout
“They have been traumatized by gun violence since birth. It is different [than Buffalo and Texas] but it’s the same pain, the same anger,” Nickens said. “It is hard for America to talk about its history with violence and race and how that has caused the trauma and pain we are seeing in Black and Brown communities.”
And local residents yearn to be part of the country’s wrenching discussion.
“A mass shooting is a mass shooting, even when it’s in what we call the ‘hood',” said John Ayala, who lost his 11-year-old grandson, Davon McNeal, to a stray bullet three years ago at a Fourth of July stop the violence cookout in Southeast Washington.
Ayala joined Bowser at the Friday event in Anacostia, which was branded by city officials as a “peace campaign for a safer, stronger summer.” Bowser called on Congress to move on stricter gun control measures, asserting that the only use for an AR-15-style firearm is “to hunt people.”
All shootings, she said, are “tragic, whether it was 19 kids or little Davon.”
In District classrooms, teachers say their students are consumed by the issue of gun violence. At Thurgood Marshall Academy in Southeast Washington, a predominantly Black school that has lost multiple students to gun violence in recent years, history teacher Karen Lee asked her students to write an end-of-the-year essay about a change they want to see in the city.
More than half of her 17 students wrote about gun violence, calling on the government to enact laws that make guns harder to access. Lee said her students regularly come into class casually discussing shootings they heard the night before in their neighborhoods, or stray bullets that punctured their homes.
“Until our kids are safe in the city, there’s not enough attention being paid to gun violence,” Lee said.
'It makes me angry:' After death of classmates, students say they feel unsafe on their commutes
After two Thurgood Marshall students were killed in 2018, Lee and her students started an advocacy group called Pathways 2 Power. At the time, the group commissioned a mural in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, honoring five D.C. teens who had been killed.
Now, current students go to other city high schools to talk about the mural and teach their peers how to become anti-gun-violence activists and how to brainstorm solutions to curb the violence.
“Similar to the shooting in Texas, what happens in D.C. should motivate Congress to do something,” said Ra’mya Davis, a senior at Thurgood Marshall and Pathways 2 Power leader, whose 23-year-old godbrother was fatally shot in the District last year. “They live in D.C.”
After 17 people were killed in 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., students visited Thurgood Marshall ahead of the anti-gun-violence March for Our Lives rally.
Their classmates are murdered, then they take the SATs: How gun violence shapes academics
Zaire Kelly, a 16-year-old senior at Thurgood Marshall, had been killed in a robbery on the way home from an SAT prep class the year prior; the Parkland teens were hoping to learn more about the violence that afflicts Southeast Washington.
“The students went in pretty skeptical about what these White kids were saying,” Lee said. “But they instantly found ways to relate to each other beyond just this trauma. They created powerful moments and connections where both really understood the impact of gun violence in a much fuller way.”
‘No more crime, no more tears’
Bowser has pushed a series of initiatives to reduce crime, using traditional policing, outreach workers tasked with calming tensions in neighborhoods, and programs to help people deemed most at risk of committing violence. Her administration recently circulated a “Roadmap to Reducing Violent Crime in the District” and called on officials to “disrupt the cycle of violence, poverty and incarceration” by offering expedited services to those most in need.
Four of the 81 homicide victims in D.C. as of Friday were younger than 18, and all of them were shot. DeShaun Francis, a 16-year-old from Alexandria, was killed in Southeast while with a relative. Khalil Rich, 16, was killed in March after his grandmother in Maryland reluctantly allowed him to move back to the District.
Justin Johnson, a 16-year-old rapper with a record deal, was trying to move to Atlanta because he feared for his safety on Savannah Terrace in Southeast, according to his manager.
He was fatally shot in an apartment hallway on May 26.
The teenager was a smart student who excelled in math but was often restless because he finished his work early, according to Daniellea Valdez-Catlett, an assistant dean at the D.C. middle school he attended.
His music consumed him, she said, and “the streets were a little more enticing.” She described a dual life between the classroom and the neighborhood outside. In his rap videos, Justin — whose stage name was “23 Rackz” — flashes wads of cash and guns.
“The scholar persona of him never went away,” Valdez-Catlett said. “He didn’t lose any of his intelligence. He didn’t lose any of his wit.”
His recording manager, Collin “Squirl” Anderson, said Justin sang about the life he lived outside of school. Embedded in his lyrics, he said, were desperate pleas to escape. Anderson said Justin called him in Atlanta the night before he was killed, worried he had become a target.
Thousands of bullets have been fired in this D.C. neighborhood. Fear is part of everyday life
“I think he knew,” Anderson said.
The day after his killing, fellow sophomores at Ballou High streamed into classes upset, shaken and talking about his death, said teacher Nina Graham.
Johnson was new to the school, so many students didn’t know him well, but they listened to his music and knew he died near their homes.
“This is happening every day in my community and not enough is being done to stop it,” Graham said. “Our students at Ballou deserve a lot better — they are incredibly smart, resourceful and funny kids. They deserve the best, and we’re not giving it to them.”
Octavia Snead, who allowed her grandson Khalil to return to the District before he was killed in March, said people in cities “are living with shootings every day.”
She said she wants leaders to create more jobs and get guns off the street. Most of all, she wants to be heard at the Wilson Building, in the halls of Congress and at the White House.
“I feel ignored,” Snead said, noting complaints about dirt bikes “get more attention than the murder of our children.”
Snead said she, too, was heartbroken over the little lives lost in Texas, “seeing those baby faces flash across the TV screen, and knowing what happened to them.”
“Why is it so easy for children to get their hands on guns but they’re not able to receive a proper education?” Snead said, referring to the 18-year-old shooter. “That’s frustrating.”
Jackson, Malachi’s grandmother, said she plans to push for action, and attention. Later this month, she is planning an event in Marvin Gaye Park in Northeast Washington. She will again call on elected leaders to do something.
The event is called “No more crime, no more tears.” | 2022-06-06T10:09:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Amid high-profile shootings, those affected by routine gun crime feel ignored - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/06/everyday-gun-violence-mass-shootings/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/06/everyday-gun-violence-mass-shootings/ |
Park rents are doubling or tripling, as high demand, low inventory and a rise in corporate owners take a toll on one of the nation’s biggest sources of affordable housing
Sue Veal, 69, gardens at home in Rochester, N.H., on May 17. She moved to a mobile home park six years ago, after her husband died. She bought the mobile home for $119,000 but says lot rent has gone up from $395 a month to more than $480 since she moved in. (Cheryl Senter for The Washington Post)
For nearly 30 years, Virginia Rubio has lived in a trailer park in Forks, Wash., where monthly rent teeters around $350. Now it’s shooting up to $1,000.
Rubio, a retired home-care aide who lives on food stamps and $860 in Social Security each month, says there’s no way to make the math work. She owns the mobile home she shares with her partner and adult daughter but will soon have to give that up if she can’t afford to rent the plot of land underneath it.
“With an increase like this, I don’t know what we can do," said Rubio, who is 75. "We’re all afraid of losing our homes.”
A factory-built home as a means to affordable housing
Mobile homes have long been one of the country’s most affordable housing options, particularly for families who do not receive government aid. About 20 million Americans live in manufactured homes, which make up about 6 percent of U.S. residences, according to federal data. Some experts suggest those numbers could soon rise as more people are priced out of traditional houses and apartments.
Mobile homes prices range from less than $25,000 in Nebraska, Iowa and Ohio, to more than $125,000 in Washington state. Overall, they tend to be three to five times cheaper than traditional single-family homes, according to an analysis of census data by LendingTree.
But rising demand for affordable housing has put particular pressure on the market. Nationally, the average sales price of manufactured homes has risen nearly 50 percent during the pandemic, from $82,900 to $123,200, census data shows. Meanwhile, average new home prices rose 22 percent in that period, according to government figures.
However, less is known about how much mobile homeowners pay to rent the land under their homes. Lot rents typically rise between 4 and 6 percent a year, according to industry sources, though there is little data on exact costs or price increases. That lack of transparency is complicated by the fact few cities or states have rules governing rent increases at mobile home parks.
“Land prices are going up, housing costs are going up and that’s spilling into mobile homes,” said Casey Dawkins, a professor of urban studies and planning at the University of Maryland. “There’s also an overall shortage of affordable housing, particularly in cities and the suburbs around them.”
At the same time, park owners and operators are facing higher costs for utilities, workers and property taxes, all of which are likely being factored into higher rents for lots, according to John Pawlowski, managing director at real estate research firm Green Street Advisors.
In many cases, residents like Rubio said they own the trailer they live in but don’t enjoy the perks of homeownership — like locked-in monthly payments, tax breaks and appreciating home values — or the flexibility or protections associated with renting. They said they often felt caught in a state of limbo: Their mobile home is their biggest investment, yet it’s useless if they can’t afford to rent the land on which it sits. Moving a mobile home — if it is new enough to be moved at all — can cost as much as $15,000, which means residents are often beholden to the parks where they live. Many municipalities also have rules governing when and how trailers can be transported.
“You have a captive audience in mobile home parks,” said Kate MacTavish, an associate professor at Oregon State University whose research focuses on affordable housing and trailer parks. “They may own their homes, but they can’t just pick up and move.”
Rents are rising everywhere. See how much prices are up in your area.
Christy Andrews thought she was making a sound investment when she scooped up a mobile home for $5,000 in Torrance, Calif., six years ago. But now she says it was a big mistake. Her lot rent — the monthly fee she pays for the plot of land where her trailer is parked — has nearly doubled, to $1,700, in the six years she has lived at Knolls Manor and now takes up nearly all of the $1,900 a month she receives in Social Security disability checks.
“It’s horrible,” said Andrews, 43, who left her sales job in the aerospace industry because of kidney failure. “There’s no way to keep up. Do you pay rent or get your medicine or buy gas to take your kid to school?"
The only way to move, she said, would be to give up the only home she has ever owned. Nearby rents are astronomical: Studios can easily cost $2,000 a month, and two-bedrooms are closer to $3,000. Many of her neighbors have been evicted and end up homeless, she said, and she fears she’ll soon be living in her Chevy Tahoe with her rescue dogs, Jozie and Nyah.
Bessire & Casenhiser, which manages Knolls Manor, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Private-equity firms including Stockbridge Capital, Carlyle Group and Apollo Global Management have been rapidly buying up mobile home parks over the last decade, often using funding from government-sponsored lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Once they take over, one of their first moves is to raise rent, said MacTavish of Oregon State.
But industry groups say those rent increases are often necessary to cover the costs of improving and maintaining property grounds, particularly when parks change hands.
“When new owners come in, they’re doing infrastructure upgrades, they’re improving the streets and adding amenities, all of which are very important as these communities age,” said Lesli Gooch, chief executive of the Manufactured Housing Institute. “When a community does change hands, often times it’s because of a significant need for improvement and a lack of capital from the existing owners to make such improvements.”
Intensifying housing shortages during the pandemic have given park owners additional leverage to increase rents, MacTavish and others say, as rising home prices force renters out of apartments and houses. As a result, many smaller, independent park operators are also finding they can raise rents without cutting into potential demand.
A billion-dollar empire made of mobile homes
“These creditor owners will keep squeezing you and squeezing you until you run out of money,” said Barbara, 78, who lives in a mobile home near Los Angeles where monthly rents went up nearly $200, or 15 percent, as soon as an institutional investor took over last year.
Like many others in the 55-and-older community, Barbara — who asked to be identified by her first name because she fears retaliation — lives on a fixed income. She retired in 2014 from a decades-long career in commercial real estate and lives on $1,700 a month in Social Security.
She sold her two-bedroom condominium two years ago and used that money to buy a $295,000 mobile home. Since then, she has spent another $30,000 turning it into her “forever dream home." But with lot rents rising, she says she isn’t sure she’ll be able to afford staying there for much longer. Many others are making similar calculations: There are already 14 mobiles for sale in her park.
“I don’t know what to do, I really don’t,” she said. “I was going to put this up for sale, but then where do I go? I used up all of my cash to buy this.”
Few municipalities and states have rules governing rent increases or evictions at mobile home parks, although that is beginning to change. Vermont, for example, requires that park owners notify residents of plans to sell and allow them a chance to buy the property. Others, like Oakland, Calif., are revising zoning laws to allow manufactured housing in more parts of town.
“Many municipalities continue to ignore mobile home parks, and that, in no small part, has to do with the stigma around them,” said MacTavish of Oregon State. “It is one of the only forms of affordable housing we have, yet we don’t embrace it in ways that would make it work much better for families.”
The circumstances surrounding mobile homeownership are yet another way the housing market has worsened long-standing inequities. While homeowners enjoyed cheaper mortgages during the pandemic, loans for buying manufactured homes often come with higher interest rates, limited opportunities to refinance and fewer protections than those for typical mortgages, according to a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau report. Mobile homeowners are also more likely to fall behind on housing payments than those who own site-built homes, the CFPB found. And because most residents own their homes but rent land, not being able to cover rent costs can often mean losing homes that they do own.
Rents are up more than 30 percent in some cities, forcing millions to find another place to live
“Almost across the board, park residents are renting the land under their homes,” said Esther Sullivan, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Colorado at Denver whose work focuses on mobile homes. “So a missed lot payment puts not only their housing at risk, but can also wipe out their accrued wealth."
In Rochester, N.H., Sue Veal, 69, bought a mobile home in a 55-and-older park for $119,000 six years ago.
Listed rents have risen steadily — 50 percent over six years — even as the park does away with services like recycling collection. But demand is on the upswing: A friend in the park recently sold their mobile home in a day, for $220,000 in cash, nearly double what they paid for it a few years ago.
“Prices are going up, but people are going to have nowhere to go,” said Veal, a retired biotech quality assurance manager who now receives about $2,000 a month in Social Security. “We’re all worried about a future where our money is going to run out.”
Four reasons your rent is going up
Linda denOuden traded in a two-bedroom apartment near Portland, Ore., for a mobile home last year thinking it would be a good way to save money after her husband died. She used money she received from his life insurance policy to buy a $70,000 unit. But her lot rent is going up nearly 10 percent to more than $1,000 a month, making it just about impossible for her to make ends meet on Social Security and a small pension.
The 68-year-old has started putting off routine doctors visits and mammograms to save money. It has been years since she went to a dentist.
“Living on a fixed income means there is no room for extra expenses,” she said. “I am one catastrophe away from losing everything I have left. It’s a never-ending worry I live with every day.” | 2022-06-06T10:18:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Rents at mobile home parks are soaring as affordable housing demand grows - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/06/mobile-manufactured-home-rents-rising/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/06/mobile-manufactured-home-rents-rising/ |
Two-bedroom, two-bath condo in Reston lists at $399,000
The 1,047-square-foot unit has an open floor plan with hardwood floors in the living and dining area. (HomeVisit)
The combination of walkability, amenities, good condition, a second bedroom and a parking spot can be elusive for home buyers whose budget tops out at $400,000 in the D.C. region.
In Northern Virginia’s Fairfax County, the median sales price for a home was $695,000 in April, according to Bright MLS. But with patience and persistence, it’s possible to find a home in a location you want without going above your comfort level on the price.
For example, the condo at 12001 Market St. #259 in Reston Town Center is priced at $399,000. Monthly condo fees are $498 and annual property taxes are $4,907.
One-bedroom condo in Chevy Chase, Md., lists for $299,900
The condo fees include access to an exercise room, party room, swimming pool and all of Reston’s community centers, swimming pools, tennis courts, trails and activities. In addition, the fees cover water, trash and snow removal, management, reserve funds, common area maintenance and concierge services. The building is pet-friendly, and this unit includes two garage parking spaces.
Located in the midst of Reston Town Center, residents can take the elevator or walk downstairs to restaurants, shops, a movie theater and an open plaza with outdoor concerts, festivals, a farmers market and other events in warm weather in a space that becomes an ice-skating rink in winter. The Reston Regional Library is within walking distance, along with the Reston Town Center Metro station on the Silver Line, which is anticipated to open later in 2022.
The 1,047-square-foot unit has two bedrooms and two bathrooms. The unit has an open floor plan with hardwood floors in the living and dining area, ceiling fans and bedrooms set on either side of the living area for privacy. The kitchen has a tile back splash, stainless-steel appliances including a gas range, and the gas water heater was recently replaced. The unit has its own washer and dryer, gas heat and central air conditioning.
Assigned schools include Lake Anne Elementary, Langston Hughes Middle and South Lakes High.
More photos are available here.
For more information, contact real estate agent Carl Bender with Compass at 703-593-6699. | 2022-06-06T10:18:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Two-bedroom, two-bath condo in Reston lists at $399,000 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/06/two-bedroom-two-bath-condo-reston-lists-399000/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/06/two-bedroom-two-bath-condo-reston-lists-399000/ |
Will a squabble between siblings over a home lead to an eviction?
If you’re an owner, you should have the right to stay in the home. If you’re a renter, then you may not. (iStock)
Q: I bought a house with a friend in 2012. Recently, he sold his 50 percent interest to my sister, making her my new partner in the property.
More Matters: Father trying to help children cope with financial stress of managing estate
So, having established that you can’t be a renter and an owner simultaneously, we wonder if you are still on the property’s title. You purchased the home with a friend in 2012, and at that time we’re sure your name was listed on the title along with your friend’s name. You and your friend likely were co-owners of the home.
What percentage of the property did each of you own? We’re going to assume you were equal owners. When your friend sold his interest in the home to your sister, she would have received the 50 percent of the property he owned. You would have still owned 50 percent of the property.
Of course, if you purchased the home with your friend, you would be on that deed from 2012, but you would not be on your friend’s deed when he transferred his 50 percent interest to your sister. You’ll have to determine whether you ever were on the title to the home and if you ever intentionally or unintentionally conveyed your ownership interest in the home to your sister or someone else.
More Matters: How to use a government online portal to review your property records | 2022-06-06T10:18:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Will a squabble between siblings over a home lead to an eviction? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/06/will-squabble-between-siblings-over-home-lead-an-eviction/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/06/will-squabble-between-siblings-over-home-lead-an-eviction/ |
Ronald Reagan offers a blueprint for dealing with Russia after Ukraine
Russia is nearing a humiliating defeat. What comes next?
Perspective by Simon Miles
Simon Miles is assistant professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. He is author of "Engaging the Evil Empire: Washington, Moscow, and the Beginning of the End of the Cold War."
President Ronald Reagan meets with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev at the Geneva Summit in 1986. (Universal History Archive via Getty Images)
In Donbas, Russia’s offensive in eastern Ukraine is hamstrung by insufficient personnel, rock-bottom morale, failing equipment — and a formidable Ukrainian military bolstered by Western weapons. Although territory will continue changing hands, this will be Russia’s last offensive. Yet, the Kremlin’s stockpiles will enable it to keep the conflict simmering long after its forces are exhausted.
For the past three months, the most pressing question for the United States and its allies has been how to keep Vladimir Putin’s armies at bay. Now, the time has come to ask how to deal with Russia going forward. And while that relationship will not be a new Cold War — the old Cold War had an ideological component, especially in the Soviet Union, which is absent today — American policymakers and their allies can learn a great deal from their 20th-century predecessors. Facing a similar challenge, Ronald Reagan implemented a mixture of carrots and sticks — a blend of competition and cooperation — which once again fits the situation.
When Reagan won the presidency in 1980, he was no optimist when it came to the United States’ prospects in its contest for global influence with the Soviet Union, nor were most Americans. After all, Reagan had won the 1980 presidential election thanks to a struggling economy, shaky energy sector and the sense that Washington was being caught flat-footed around the world — exemplified by the Iranian hostage crisis.
While Reagan was a longtime Cold War hawk, he also abhorred the idea of nuclear war and hoped to improve superpower relations. In office, Reagan engaged with the Soviet Union to keep tensions under control, but also to lock in U.S. advantages through diplomatic agreements. Reagan recognized that achieving this latter goal required the United States to expand and flex its military power. Doing so would allow him to exploit and prey upon the Kremlin’s numerous — and often self-inflicted — weaknesses.
Reagan confronted a moment not unlike our own today. In Afghanistan, the Soviet invasion had already gone sour. Wisely, Reagan offered the Soviets no face-saving off-ramp from the mess of their own making. Instead, he pressured the Kremlin leadership to scramble for any exit they could find — letting the Soviets lose and then take stock. The United States supplied the Afghan resistance, the mujahideen, with Stinger antiaircraft missiles, and though their significance on the battlefield has been mythologized, they did erode the advantage provided by the Soviets’ helicopters. Equally important, Reagan understood the power of an underdog story to rally public opinion and invited Afghan leaders for a meeting in the Oval Office.
By the time the Soviet withdrawal began in the spring of 1988, no one — including the Kremlin — had doubts about the limits of Soviet military power.
While the Soviets were flailing in Afghanistan, Reagan was expanding upon Jimmy Carter’s military buildup. He knew that building U.S. forces further emphasized the weaknesses of Moscow’s military. Washington’s naval strategy presented the Kremlin with a 360 degree threat: Soviet aggression in Europe, for example, could beget retaliation in the Soviet Far East, thanks to U.S. capabilities at sea. Investments in precision-guided munitions and the Strategic Defense Initiative made plain what the U.S. advantage in high-tech industries meant, not just economically but militarily. Most important, the Soviets grasped this disparity and understood that matching Washington’s power would require a buildup that was simply economically unfeasible.
But this is only half the story of Reagan’s management of U.S.-Soviet relations. He also sought to build trust and to understand Soviet needs and realities — a crucial component in the beginning of the end of the Cold War.
In early 1983, for example, the president personally intervened in the case of a group of Christians from Siberia seeking to emigrate to practice their religion freely. If the Kremlin allowed the group — holed up in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow — to leave the country, Reagan promised Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin that he would not make political hay out of the concession. Moscow gave ground and Reagan kept his word. Reagan was particularly animated by the issue of religious freedom and used it as an ideological cudgel against the Soviet Union every chance he got, but he also built trust, assuring Moscow that Washington could be a good-faith interlocutor, despite Cold War competition.
Reagan’s mixture of carrot and stick set the table for real gains once Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985, giving the president a negotiating partner who shared his vision of a nuclear-free world. Gorbachev understood that the Soviet position in the world had diminished due to the military, economic and technological superiority of the United States. The agreements they reached were far from equitable, and always in Washington’s favor: The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987, for example, saw the Soviets destroy three missiles for every U.S. munition and preserved the major U.S. and NATO advantage in air- and sea-launched weapons. With less and less leverage each month, that was the best Gorbachev could do.
Reagan’s military buildup and willingness to aid the Afghans had provided leverage that the Soviet leader simply couldn’t match. Even so, Reagan’s willingness to engage in negotiations, build trust by keeping his word and try to understand the Soviet perspective made Gorbachev comfortable negotiating with him and led to major breakthroughs.
As the war in Ukraine shifts, President Biden and his foreign policy team will need to settle in for a lengthy period of turbulence in U.S.-Russian relations. Vladimir Putin has made it clear that he will not accept Ukrainian statehood, and he and his spin doctors have framed the “special military operation” as just one front in a struggle with the West. Nikolai Patrushev, the closest thing Putin has to a national security adviser, has gone even further, insisting that the United States is determined to stamp out Russian sovereignty and culture. Only by nationalizing — and militarizing — the state and its economy, Patrushev claims, can Russia resist U.S. efforts to subjugate the world. This is a grim view of the future from one of the few who reliably has Putin’s ear.
But at the beginning of the 1980s, the world looked fairly bleak from the Oval Office as well, with the prospects for cooperation with Moscow scarcely better. Though not without missteps, by the end of Reagan’s eight years, the careful balance between competition and cooperation had put the Cold War on track to a largely peaceful conclusion.
The similarities between the two moments provide the contours of a strategy for the Biden administration. As in Afghanistan in the early 1980s, Russia faces the prospect of a humiliating defeat in Ukraine. The United States is aiding Russia’s foe, not only with weapons and equipment, but with solidarity and support — as it did with the Afghans in the 1980s. Reagan’s example suggests that the United States allow Russia to lose its war and force Putin to face the consequences of his actions. But Reagan also offers another, equally important lesson: When Russia finally comes to understand the limits of its power, the United States would be wise to be ready to come to the table and negotiate. | 2022-06-06T10:18:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ronald Reagan offers a blueprint for dealing with Russia after Ukraine - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/06/06/ronald-reagan-offers-blueprint-dealing-with-russia-after-ukraine/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/06/06/ronald-reagan-offers-blueprint-dealing-with-russia-after-ukraine/ |
The U.S. having territories perpetuates inequality and colonialism
Nothing has changed in more than a century
Perspective by Anders Bo Rasmussen
Anders Bo Rasmussen is author of "Civil War Settlers: Scandinavians, Citizenship, and American Empire, 1848-1870" (Cambridge University Press, May 2022), a former Fulbright Scholar at New York University and associate professor of American history at the University of Southern Denmark.
People demanding statehood for Puerto Rico gather at the premiere of the Broadway musical “Hamilton” in San Juan, Puerto Rico. (Dennis M. Rivera Pichardo for The Washington Post)
On April 21, the Supreme Court rejected Caribbean-residing American citizens’ right to Supplemental Security Income (i.e. disability benefits), arguing that the Constitution and legal precedent, combined with “long-standing historical practice,” precluded residents of U.S. territories from accessing certain federal benefits programs.
The decision highlighted the complex economic, political and cultural relationship between the U.S. government and American territories. U.S. policy, as Justice Neil M. Gorsuch noted in his concurring opinion, has too often rested “on ugly racial stereotypes” predicated on exploitation of island residents in the mold of European colonial powers, instead of American constitutional ideals.
Yet, while we take for granted that Caribbean islands such as Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John are U.S. territory, their role within an American empire has since the start sparked fierce debates. One of the earliest examples of this came when the Lincoln administration attempted to annex what decades later became the U.S. Virgin Islands.
As the Civil War was coming to an end in 1865, new expansionist possibilities in the Caribbean emerged. The strengthened and growing American empire saw opportunities to establish a naval base on St. Thomas after Denmark’s hold over its West Indian “possessions” had been weakened by an 1864 military defeat at the hands of Otto von Bismarck and allies.
In addition to providing military advantages to the United States, Secretary of State William Seward believed that the benefits of a St. Thomas coaling station would trickle down to the islands’ inhabitants. In Seward’s view, bringing St. Thomas into the “domain of the United States” would increase the residents’ access to American markets, protect their property and give them the same advantages “enjoyed by other citizens.” And so, on Jan. 7, 1865, Seward attended a Washington dinner at which he met with the Danish envoy, Waldemar Raasloff, to discuss a confidential proposition for the purchase of St. Thomas.
However, the shock of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination on April 14, 1865, and the attempt at Seward’s life that same evening considerably delayed negotiations. When he returned to politics, Seward became politically tied to Lincoln’s successor, Andrew Johnson, and by extension, involved in a battle with the Republican-controlled Congress that centered on federal Reconstruction policies.
Seward, however, continued his work on Caribbean expansion and traveled to St. Thomas and several other West Indian islands in January 1866. By summer, the secretary of state was ready to make an offer to Danish politicians for the purchase of St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John. The Danish envoy had suggested $20 million as a minimum amount, but since the islands, according to American military officials, could just be taken by force, the small European state lacked leverage. Seward, in turn, offered just “five millions of dollars of gold” and added that the negotiation had to be “by Treaty” and would “require the constitutional ratification of the Senate.”
After another round of negotiations, and Seward’s acquiescence to a referendum on the islands before annexation, the parties signed a treaty to transfer the islands of St. Thomas and St. John (St. Croix was strategically and commercially less important) to the United States in exchange for $7.5 million in gold on Oct. 24, 1867. The treaty seemed to benefit everyone, even the local population, which voted overwhelmingly for American annexation. Denmark got an economic boost, a plebiscite precedent for transfer of territory that would help in regaining what became Northern Germany and an apparent foreign policy success. The United States got a Caribbean naval base, increased economic opportunity and an expanded population.
Only congressional ratification remained.
The Constitution gave the Senate the power to “advice and consent” on treaties, and figures such as Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Charles Sumner reasonably expected to be heard. Indeed, just a few months earlier, Sumner had expressed the wish that the Alaska purchase, in which a treaty had been negotiated without Senate consultation, would not set “a precedent.”
While Johnson spoke warmly about the West Indian acquisition in his third annual presidential address to Congress on Dec. 3, 1867, domestic political tension escalated the next year, further undermining congressional support for ratification. On Feb. 21, 1868, three days before the deadline for ratifying the St. Thomas treaty, Johnson removed Secretary of War Edwin Stanton from office. Shortly thereafter, between Feb. 29 and March 3, 1868, the House of Representatives reviewed and — for the first time in American history — adopted articles of impeachment against a sitting president. Though Johnson narrowly survived the impeachment proceedings, the trial swallowed almost all domestic political energy until the middle of May and left little, if any, room for discussions of the Danish-American treaty.
Still, Danish politicians and diplomats held out hope for ratification and devoted significant resources, albeit no bribes, to building support for the treaty in Congress. Danish envoys even commissioned a book, “The Danish Islands: Are We Bound in Honor to Pay for Them?” which opened with Lincoln and Seward initiating negotiations to purchase the Danish West Indies and a basic argument: American politicians had wanted to buy the islands, Denmark had reluctantly sold, now the only honorable course of action was to ratify the signed treaty.
Danish diplomats sensed that the honor argument resonated personally with Sumner, because it built on his 1867 point that “a bargain once made must be kept” in relation to Alaska. Danish efforts, however, proved futile despite meetings with high-ranking American officials and two appearances before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in early 1869.
By then, support had vanished in the White House, too. Newly inaugurated President Ulysses S. Grant considered the St. Thomas treaty a scheme of the previous administration and declined to support it, despite his own interest in West Indian annexation.
The matter concluded in 1870. During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting in March, Sumner argued against the imperialism inherent in visions of Caribbean expansion, which he saw as a distraction from efforts to bring constitutional civil rights to the Reconstruction South, and his committee reported the St. Thomas treaty “adversely” to the Senate. Sumner’s decision officially put an end to the process as “the Senate declined to ratify it,” and a Grant administration treaty to acquire Santo Domingo suffered the same fate in June 1870. Still, the Republican Party’s support for territorial growth remained strong but for years was mostly limited to the American mainland — where its policy of land-taking was bolstered by several Homestead Acts after 1862.
In the wake of Seward’s failed attempt at noncontiguous expansion, St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix experienced decline, demographically and economically. High mortality rates, not least among children, were exacerbated by poor work conditions and lack of access to medical care. In October 1878, low wages, caused by a rigid contract labor system, led to widespread revolts among Black agricultural workers on St. Croix. Danish authorities quelled the uprising, known as the Fireburn Strike, only through military force, which demonstrated their precarious hold over the islands.
In the late 19th and early 20th century, when European powers such as Germany and France looked to gain Caribbean footholds, it renewed American interest in the region. After the Spanish-American War, which brought about the annexation of Puerto Rico (as well as Hawaii, Guam and the Philippines) in 1898, World War I provided the necessary additional impetus. By 1916, American emissaries and politicians, after hinting that St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix could just be taken by force, successfully negotiated a treaty that on March 31, 1917, transferred the islands to the United States.
The political atmosphere in the country had changed enough that the Senate ratified the treaty. But while it settled that these Caribbean islands were American territory, it raised a whole new swath of questions about how to treat them — and their citizens. While much has changed over a century, the basic question of equal treatment for citizens in American territories has essentially remained the same.
The United States still hasn’t fully integrated the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico or many other noncontiguous territories. Consequently, these relationships, as evidenced by the recent Supreme Court decision, continue be more aligned with those of Old World colonial powers than with Seward’s ideal of similar advantages enjoyed by all citizens. | 2022-06-06T10:18:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The U.S. having territories perpetuates inequality and colonialism - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/06/06/us-having-territories-perpetuates-inequality-colonialism/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/06/06/us-having-territories-perpetuates-inequality-colonialism/ |
The Buffalo shooting showed that at least some people are ready to commit violence for this conspiracy theory
Analysis by Tarah Williams
Nazita Lajevardi
Roy Whitaker
A man mourns at a memorial to the victims of a mass shooting at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo in May. (Lindsay Dedario/Reuters)
In the latest shooting targeting minority groups, a White man allegedly opened fire recently in a Buffalo grocery store in a predominantly Black community. Before he was accused of killing 10 people and injuring three, the suspect apparently wrote a screed, revealing that he was radicalized by white supremacist media and inspired to commit violence by the “great replacement” conspiracy theory.
Although we do not know how widespread belief in the great replacement conspiracy theory is, shooters have used it to rationalize violence before. Because of this link to violence and white supremacy, these ideas are often considered to be extreme, believed only on society’s fringe. But when we looked closely, we found evidence that a non-trivial segment of the Western population embraces some of the more benign aspects of these beliefs.
To estimate how widespread these beliefs are among the American public, we examined two national surveys.
First, with support from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), we fielded a survey using a probability-based online panel through the Ipsos KnowledgePanel service to a random national sample of 1,027 adults in April. These panels recruit respondents using address-based sampling and then weight the results to the federal government’s Current Population Survey estimates.
Then, we used the 2021 American Values Survey from PRRI. The 2021 AVS also used Ipsos’s KnowledgePanel to gather a probability-based online sample of 2,508 American adults in September, weighted to match the CPS. Here is what we found.
A substantial portion of White Americans fear diversity
In our survey, we find that more than a trivial number of Americans feel threatened by the idea of a diversifying America. Some researchers find that learning about the growth of the non-White population in the U.S. leads some to more conservative policy positions and party identification. Others simply understand American identity in a limited way.
Whites in our survey were particularly likely to fear a diversifying nation. Among everyone surveyed, 31 percent agree “strongly” or “somewhat” with the statement, “Immigrants are invading our country and replacing our cultural and ethnic background.” Among Whites, 37.3 percent somewhat or strongly agree. In the survey, 31.2 percent of all respondents agree strongly or somewhat with the statement, “Efforts to increase diversity always come at the expense of whites.” Among Whites, 38.9 percent agree.
In our sample, 14 percent of all respondents somewhat or strongly agree that “the idea of an America where most people are not white bothers me.” Among Whites, 16.8 percent do.
Over one-third of respondents in our sample (34.6 percent) somewhat or strongly agree that “the idea of an America that is not a Christian nation bothers me.” Among Whites, that was noticeably higher, 40.3 percent.
Although these figures show that the majority of Americans reject narrow conceptions of the national fabric, a solid minority rejects pluralism and fears what it means for the United States.
The two parties promote different perspectives on demographic change and replacement
Our results suggest that partisanship influences those different views of diversity. In the figure below, we show the responses to two of the questions above for Democrats (in blue) and Republicans (in red). As you can see, across the board, a majority of Democrats strongly disagree with components of the great replacement conspiracy theory.
Republicans, however, are much more divided. A majority agree that efforts for diversity come at Whites’ expense and that immigrants are replacing American culture. Additional analysis suggests that an increasingly non-Christian, non-White nation bothers them.
Those who fear demographic change are also more likely to say violence is necessary
But are fears about demographic change linked to support for violence? For that we looked at the Public Religion Research Institute’s 2021 AVS survey, which found that 18 percent of respondents agree, “Because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.” Its survey also included a question posed to half of the sample about how demographic change would affect the country. Noting that the White share of the U.S. population is decreasing, the survey asked whether respondents believe that change would be “mostly negative,” “mostly positive” or that it “doesn’t matter either way.” Fully 60 percent said the change does not matter either way.
However, the 19 percent of the sample who believe demographic change is mostly negative were much more likely to agree that patriots may need to resort to violence — about one-third of that 19 percent agree. Surveys always have a margin or error, but these estimates suggest that those who both reject a diversifying America and think violence is called for make up around 6 percent of the U.S. adult population (with margin of error, between 3.5 and 8.5 percent), or roughly between 10 and 20 million people.
How 'great replacement' theory led to the Buffalo mass shooting
Our evidence suggests that roughly 6 percent of U.S. adults — which is not a trivial portion — lament diversity and endorse violence. More broadly, nearly a third of White U.S. adults are apprehensive about demographic replacement. The Buffalo shooting shows how the threat many perceive from pluralism can turn into real world violence, with a tragic loss of lives, leaving people of color feeling vulnerable to attack daily.
But it also draws attention to a broader pattern of beliefs held by some Americans today. People who fear replacement are likely to reject a diverse national fabric. Until this sense of fear and White grievance are addressed, we are likely to see more violence targeted at minorities.
Tarah Williams (@tarahwilliams01) is an assistant professor of political science at Allegheny College and a public fellow at the Public Religion Research Institute.
Nazita Lajevardi (@NazitaLajevardi) is an assistant professor of political science at Michigan State University and a public fellow at the Public Religion Research Institute.
Evan Stewart (@EvanStewart23) is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts Boston and a public fellow at the Public Religion Research Institute.
Roy Whitaker (dwhitaker@sdsu.edu) is an associate professor of Black religions and American religious diversity at San Diego State University and a public fellow at the Public Religion Research Institute. | 2022-06-06T10:19:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Does 'great replacement' theory inspire domestic terrorism? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/06/buffalo-shooting-replacement-theory-violence-whites-blacks-terrorism/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/06/buffalo-shooting-replacement-theory-violence-whites-blacks-terrorism/ |
In his first Broadway role, the Maryland native hits it big, in the title role of the musical “MJ.”
Maryland native Myles Frost, posing onstage at the Neil Simon Theatre in Manhattan, has been Tony nominated for his portrayal of Michael Jackson in the Broadway musical “MJ: The Musical.” (Anna Watts for The Washington Post)
NEW YORK — The Manhattan audition destined to change 21-year-old Myles Frost’s life came to a sudden, scary halt. And it was his mother, 230 miles away, who charged to the rescue.
Armed with her son’s EpiPen, Charmayne Strayhorn hopped in the car with Frost’s teenage sister, Morgan Peele, and drove 3½ hours from Montgomery County, Md., to a service area near Exit 8A on the New Jersey Turnpike. There, she handed the medicinal auto-injector to Frost’s manager. He delivered it to the budding young actor, who, during the audition, had felt his throat closing and then broke out in hives. He had to retreat to his hotel room, struggling to bounce back.
Frost most certainly did when the tryout resumed the next day. And that is how a Broadway neophyte won the role of pop megastar Michael Jackson.
There was also, of course, that other minor detail: When the allergies attacked, Frost was in the midst of blowing away Lynn Nottage and Christopher Wheeldon, the book writer and choreographer-director of “MJ,” the bio-musical that has been playing to wildly enthusiastic full houses at Broadway’s Neil Simon Theatre since December. When the Tony Awards nominations were announced last month, “MJ” racked up 10 nominations, second only to the 11 for “A Strange Loop,” and included nods for best musical and for best actor in a musical: one Myles Frost.
I wasn't looking forward to the new Michael Jackson musical. Then I saw it.
“We were beginning to despair of finding someone who fit the role,” Nottage recalled recently of that fateful spring 2021 audition. “And this very unassuming man walked into the room, and right in front of our eyes he transformed into Michael Jackson. We kind of turned to each other with our mouths open. And we said, ‘What did we just see?’ ”
What they saw was a young man of extraordinary natural gifts and a serene, guileless confidence.
“I didn’t know who these people were,” Frost, now 22, said via Zoom about facing a panel that included two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Nottage and ballet-world star Wheeldon. “I walk in, I have my little white fedora, and I say, ‘Hi, my name is Myles Frost, and I’ll be auditioning for the role of Michael Jackson.’ Chris [Wheeldon] and I laugh at this now because, you know: You introduce yourself and say what you will go for — and they’re like, 'Yeah, we know that!’ ”
‘MJ’ director Christopher Wheeldon on how he brought Michael Jackson’s dancing to life
The opportunity and responsibility that have been heaped on an untested talent are remarkable. Imagine it: The first time you stepped on the musical theater stage was as a high school freshman and you got the part of Seaweed in “Hairspray” in a production at Thomas S. Wootton High School in Rockville. (“I’ll be completely honest with you. I’d never heard of a ‘musical’ before,” Frost recounted.) Then, while an undergraduate at Bowie State University in Maryland, you’re selected for the gargantuan assignment of convincing 1,400 Broadway customers, eight times a week, that you are MJ incarnate. Singular voice, sequined glove, slinky moonwalk and all.
“I matured in that moment,” Frost said of the phone call from Wheeldon with the offer. “I think that was the first time I’ve ever experienced maturity in real time. I felt myself becoming an adult. In that moment, I felt like, ‘Okay, it’s time to get out of the college party mentality.’ Like this is the beginning of Myles Frost as a grown man.”
In “MJ,” he is Jackson as a grown man. Two other actors play younger versions of the pop idol at various points in a vibrantly danced show that revolves around rehearsals for Jackson’s 1992 world tour. The focus is on Jackson’s artistic development and only tangentially touches on the allegations of sexual abuse of boys that embroiled him in police investigations and lawsuits. Frost has had to contemplate that facet of the star’s story without internalizing it — because the exertions in becoming MJ are so intense.
“If there was any time to be like, ‘What did I get myself into?,’ it’d be when I was offered the role,” Frost said. “It was such a deep moment for me because I thought about all the different possibilities. You know, I thought about the allegations. I thought about the physical demands of this, then understanding that I’d be doing this more times than Michael did.”
But not taking on the role was never a serious consideration. “I don’t believe that God puts you through anything that you can’t handle,” he added.
The path to Broadway started in the maternity wing of a Washington hospital. Frost grew up in nearby Prince George’s and Montgomery counties, the son of a single mom who worked as a systems engineer. Charmayne Strayhorn had a fierce love of God and an equally fierce faith in her children’s gifts: Around the neck of newborn Myles — named by her and then husband Irving Frost for jazz great Miles Davis — Strayhorn fastened a special little bib.
“A Star is Born,” it read.
Critics would validate the inscription two decades later. “Mimicking Jackson’s breathy intonations — the voice of a man in charge who forces you to lean in, to hear — Frost is magnetic and earthy and mysterious,” I wrote in my opening-night review. “You feel the eerie presence of someone who might any second float away in a 'Wizard of Oz’ balloon basket.”
Strayhorn insists she sensed it prenatally. “He was active inside of me — you could just see my belly just roll,” she said in a Zoom interview from her home in Gaithersburg. “And I just felt like he was special in that way. Didn’t know to what degree of course, but at an early age, I instilled in him that you’re a star. And you can do whatever you want to do.”
For Frost, that belief gave him a solid backbone, whether he was pursuing his youthful passions for golf and piano, or charting a path to a career as a recording artist. “She’s always been like that from since I was a child,” he said. “She always supported me in any and everything and was always there when I needed anything. Just like you’re born with talent, I think being born into a world with a mother like that is definitely a gem.”
Mother and son acknowledge that financial constraints required them to move around a lot with Frost’s sister (who’s 17 and wants to be an entertainment lawyer). But Strayhorn’s disciplined approach to parenthood kept day-to-day struggles from blurring his focus. “He had his moments of being a teenager, but he was a really nice kid offstage, with an incredible family that offered him a lot of support,” recalled drama teacher Jessica Speck, who taught at Wootton at the time and directed Frost in “Hairspray.”
Carla Ingram was Wootton’s chorus teacher and the person who first pointed Frost toward the stage. One day, she found him playing the grand piano in the chorus room. “She walks in and says, ‘Well, I hope there’s a voice behind that piano playing,’ ” Frost recalled. “I say yes, and she said, 'That’s great because we need more kids for this musical. We’re doing “Hairspray.” ’ Oh? Like I never heard of it.”
“It was the right voice at the right time,” said Ingram. “His poise and his energy are so positive.”
Years before, Strayhorn had sent Frost to audition for commercials. But it wasn’t until he was a teenager and posting his performances on YouTube — singing Jorja Smith’s “On My Mind,” for instance, and the Usher and Alicia Keys song “My Boo” — that people in the business began to take some notice and Frost took lessons from actor-producer Leland Thomas. Those efforts led to the audition for “MJ,” after Ephraim Sykes, the actor originally cast to play Jackson, left the production.
As a result, that newborn’s bib became a prophecy — culminating, perhaps, on Sunday night, when the Tonys are doled out.
“They told me that Michael Jackson didn’t understand starting at zero and working his way to 100 percent,” Frost said. “Michael only understood coming into the room at 100 percent and then seeing how far he could go.
“There was no way I could go through this process and not adopt that ideology, of always starting at 100.”
MJ, book by Lynn Nottage. Directed and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon. At Neil Simon Theatre, 250 W. 52nd St., New York. mjthemusical.com/tickets. The Tony Awards will be broadcast June 12 on CBS and Paramount Plus. | 2022-06-06T10:19:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Myles Frost was born to play Michael Jackson. A Tony nod confirms it. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/theater-dance/2022/06/06/myles-frost-michael-jackson-mj/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/theater-dance/2022/06/06/myles-frost-michael-jackson-mj/ |
Pete Buttigieg says blaming doorways for school shootings is ‘insanity’
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg speaks during a news conference at the White House on May 16. (Al Drago/Bloomberg)
The May 24 massacre in an Uvalde, Tex., elementary school thrust the nation into collective shock and grief, only to be followed by a spate of deadly shootings. The unrelenting bloodshed has renewed a push for broader gun control, but some lawmakers have focused their calls on improving school infrastructure — something Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg decried Sunday.
“The idea that us being the only developed country where this happens routinely — especially in terms of the mass shootings — is somehow a result of the design of the doorways on our school buildings is the definition of insanity, if not the definition of denial,” Buttigieg said Sunday during an interview with “This Week” on ABC.
“Have one door into and out of the school and have that one door, armed police officers at that door,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) said May 25 during an interview with Fox News’s Jesse Watters. “If that had happened … when that psychopath arrived, the armed police officers could have taken him out and we would have 19 children and two teachers still alive.”
Cruz also called for the installation of bulletproof doors and glass to help prevent shootings. His appeal for a single entry point at schools was echoed by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and former president Donald Trump, who said “schools should be the single hardest target in our country” during his speech at a National Rifle Association convention in Houston days after the attack.
State and local lawmakers on both sides of the aisle commented on the events surrounding a mass school shooting in Uvalde, Tex., on May 24. (Video: Adriana Usero/The Washington Post)
In the wake of one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) wrote a letter to Mike Morath, the commissioner of the Texas Education Agency, asking for the implementation of “heightened safety measures” in schools, including “weekly inspections of exterior doors to verify they are secure during school hours.” Last week, Abbott also called on the state’s legislature to address topics such as school safety, mental health and firearm safety through a series of “special legislative committees,” The Washington Post reported.
Republicans’ focus on hardening entry points in schools follows an ongoing investigation into the attack in Uvalde, where doors have taken center stage, the Associated Press reported. Police have offered different accounts about how the shooting played out, at first saying the gunman had entered the school through a back door propped open by a teacher and later stating the door had not properly locked after the teacher closed it.
Since the school shooting in Texas, there have been at least 33 other mass shootings — defined as those in which at least four victims are injured or killed — in the United States, including more than a dozen over Memorial Day weekend. This past Saturday and Sunday, shootings killed at least 10 people in Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Michigan and South Carolina. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there hasn’t been a single week in the United States without a mass shooting so far this year.
The “horrific scourge of gun violence in this country,” Buttigieg said Sunday, has shaken up cities, where mayors are “taking the steps that you can locally” to reduce violence. Yet there’s only so much they can do without federal action, he added.
“You’re also looking at Washington to say, ‘Will anything be different this time?’ ” said Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind. “Will we actually acknowledge the reasons why we are the only country, the only developed country, where this happens on a routine basis?”
Congress is preparing to take up gun-control legislation, with talks in the Senate being led by senators John Cornyn (R-Tex.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). While the lawmakers are working on a proposal to encourage states to implement red-flag laws to keep guns out of the hands of people deemed to be a threat to themselves or others, the plans would likely not include renewing the federal assault weapons ban or significantly expanding federal background checks, as President Biden has called for, The Post previously reported. | 2022-06-06T11:36:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Pete Buttigieg says blaming doorways for school shootings is 'insanity' - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/06/buttigieg-shooting-doors-uvalde/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/06/buttigieg-shooting-doors-uvalde/ |
Post Politics Now Biden heads west this week; guns, Jan. 6 on the radar for Congress
The latest: What a gun deal might look like, if it comes together
On our radar: Cheney thinks evidence in Jan. 6 hearings will compel attention
Take a look: Gun safety a hot topic on the Sunday news shows
On our radar: What’s happening at the Summit of the Americas
Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), center, flanked by Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) speak as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol meets on March 28. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Today, the Senate returns to Washington with a bipartisan group of members still trying to craft a congressional response, limited as it may be, to a spate of mass shootings. On the House side, members of the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob are preparing for its first public hearing, in prime-time later this week, on what led up to the deadly events of that dark day in democracy.
President Biden, meanwhile, has no public events on his schedule Monday but is heading to Los Angeles later this week for the Summit of the Americas, a gathering of western hemisphere nations that the United States is hosting for the first time since 1994. His trip will also include an guest spot on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” — Biden’s first in-studio appearance on a late-night talk show since taking office.
2:30 p.m. Eastern: White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre holds a briefing for reporters. Watch live here.
2:25 p.m. Pacific (5:25 p.m. Eastern): Vice President Harris hosts a roundtable in Los Angeles with faith leaders on reproductive health care.
Talks are expected to continue in coming days among a bipartisan group of senators with the hope of forging a congressional response to recent mass shootings. If a deal comes together, what might it look like? The Post’s Mike DeBonis has the latest. He writes:
The sense among senators is they have a limited window to reach a consensus and need to show substantial progress by the end of the week.
The public hearings scheduled to begin this week by the House select committee on the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol will feature live witnesses, taped interviews with key figures — including family members of former president Donald Trump — and previously unseen video footage.
The Post’s Amy B Wang reports that the hearings mark the culmination of an inquiry that has involved more than 1,000 interviews and reviews of more than 125,000 records — and that Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the panel’s vice chairwoman, feels certain that the evidence laid out in the hearings will compel Americans to pay attention.
Amy writes:
Cheney said there was an “extremely broad” and “extremely well-organized” conspiracy by then-President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election — and that the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol was just one instance in “an ongoing threat” to democracy.
“We are not in a situation where former president Trump has expressed any sense of remorse about what happened,” Cheney told CBS News’s Robert Costa in an interview that aired Sunday.
You can read Amy’s full story here.
On June 5 lawmakers from both sides of the aisle discussed what legislation could be included in a planned gun control Senate package. (Video: The Washington Post)
Efforts to forge a congressional response to the mass shootings were a featured topic on the Sunday talk shows, with guests including Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), the lead negotiator among Senate Democrats. Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.), another member of the small group of senators hashing out a potential deal, also appeared.
President Biden heads west this week to Los Angeles for the Summit of the Americas, a gathering of Western Hemisphere nations that the United States is hosting for the first time since the summit began in Miami in 1994 with President Bill Clinton.
The Post’s Missy Ryan, Cleve R. Wootson Jr., Mary Beth Sheridan and Karen DeYoung offer a preview of the gathering, which presents Biden with an opportunity to focus on foreign policy priorities other than the war in Ukraine. Our colleagues write:
Through the summit, U.S. leaders and others from North, Central and South America and the Caribbean are supposed to explore economic relationships and general goals for the Western Hemisphere. Discussions are expected to cover topics such as democracy, clean energy, politics, migration and recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. …
The summit will help indicate how far the White House plans to go in assisting nations where decades of inequality and corruption, along with the calamitous toll of the pandemic, have fueled waves of popular discontent. | 2022-06-06T11:36:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Biden heads west this week; guns, Jan. 6 on the radar for Congress - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/06/congress-guns-insurrection-biden-americas/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/06/congress-guns-insurrection-biden-americas/ |
How to repair damaged shed siding
A reader wants to know how to fix this siding. (Reader photo)
Q: I have a shed with fiber cement siding that is disintegrating a few inches around the bottom. The rest is in good shape. We previously replaced half a panel, using bent metal channel and caulk, then painted it over. We also tried a PVC board along the bottom, bent metal channel and caulk. Is this the best alternative? A different contractor wanted to attach PVC on the outside of the siding. Wouldn’t this collect water and rot out above?
South Arlington, Va.
A: From the close-up picture you sent, it’s clear that the siding on your shed is not fiber cement, but OSB, or oriented strand board. It’s made of thin flakes of wood layered and glued together, topped by a thin laminate textured to resemble T1-11 plywood, which resembles rough-cut boards aligned vertically, side by side. The T1-11 look is also available in fiber cement panels, which are made from Portland cement, sand, water and cellulose fibers (wood pulp). But the crumbling wood fragments at the base of your shed’s wall leave no doubt about what material you have.
OSB siding is relatively strong. It comes pre-primed, which saves time when building. And, unlike fiber cement panels, it can be cut with the same tools you’d use for wood. These features, as well as the cost, make OSB siding a bestseller for siding on garden sheds.
At the Lowe’s in Alexandria, LP SmartSide OSB siding in the T1-11 style is $40.83 for a 4-by-8-foot sheet about ⅓ of an inch thick. Plywood in a similar look costs pennies less ($39.72), and it’s thicker, a little over ½ inch. But it’s sold without a finish, because people can opt to stain rather than paint it. Fiber cement siding is more expensive, at $57.38 for a sheet of HardiePanel Sierra 8.
OSB and fiber cement siding come pre-primed, because they must be painted; staining is an option only with plywood siding, because it has a layer of wood to stain. All three materials swell when they become damp. Plywood generally shrinks back into shape once it dries, provided the adhesive between the layers is rated for exterior use. Manufacturers treat OSB and fiber cement products to resist moisture, but the protection isn’t perfect. And if the products do absorb moisture, they will swell and become permanently distorted.
One problem in your case is the way the siding meets the base of the shed. Siding on sheds usually sticks out more than the foundation or floor, which allows rain to run down the siding and onto the ground. It’s similar to what campers have learned about tents and the tarps underneath: If the tarp is not completely covered by the tent, it will collect water.
Your shed, though, has a base that extends past the wall. It appears that there is flashing at the base, with one long edge of metal extending up behind the siding, and another wrapped around the base of the shed. This keeps water out of the shed’s interior. If installed correctly, it could also help protect the siding. But the bend between the wall and the base must be more than 90 degrees, sloping away so water drains at the base of the siding. This kind of flashing usually comes with a suitable bend, but installers who don’t understand the nuances of the angle can force the metal into a right angle — or less than one — when they nail it on.
What can you do? If you can find matching siding, it might be possible to cut off the lower portion of the damaged siding using a circular saw — or to hire someone to do this for you. Check for nails before you decide where to cut, and nail a straight board below where you will run the saw to use as a guide. Set the blade depth to the thickness of the siding or a little less; you can clean up the back of the cut edge with a utility knife. Once the old wood is out, check the angle of the flashing. If it is not draining water away from the shed, replace it, nailing it to the wall in a way that keeps an angle along the base that will shed water.
Before you cut the replacement siding, factor in allowances for the top and bottom edges. At the top, between the new piece and the old siding, you will need Z flashing, which tucks behind the upper piece and covers the top edge of the new piece. In sizing the replacement, allow for a gap of ¼ inch between the top siding and the part of the Z flashing that extends below it. Also allow for a gap at the bottom edge of the replacement. Although ¼ inch might be enough here, too, a wider gap, say ⅜, will be easier to keep clean of debris.
Siding is usually installed from the ground up, so when there is a horizontal seam, such as in eave ends of sheds, the Z flashing between sheets is set on the top edge of the bottom piece over a bead of caulk, then held in place with the wide heads of roofing nails driven into sheathing, with no nails through the flashing.
If you’re doing a patch job, you’ll need to set the flashing on the top edge of the replacement piece and wiggle the top of the metal up and under the lower edge of the original siding. Prime the cut edges, and be sure to leave that ¼-inch gap, so the lower edge of the original siding can dry.
If you can’t find matching siding to use as a replacement around the bottom of your shed, PVC board could also work, assuming you can find material that’s as thick as the siding. Install Z flashing between the board and the siding above, and leave a ¼-inch gap. PVC won’t absorb moisture, so a gap at the bottom is probably not critical. | 2022-06-06T11:45:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Tips for repairing shed siding - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/home/2022/06/06/tips-repairing-shed-siding/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/home/2022/06/06/tips-repairing-shed-siding/ |
The Biggest Threat to the US Economy Is Policy Makers
WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 01: U.S. President Joe Biden meets virtually with baby formula manufacturers at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on June 01, 2022 in Washington, DC. Biden, along with other administration officials, met with executives from manufacturers including ByHeart, Bubs Australia, Reckitt, Perrigo Company and Gerber to discuss the ongoing baby formula shortage. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) (Photographer: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images North America)
Something still feels off in this economy. It’s booming in many respects, with a strong labor market, healthy corporate and household balance sheets, and a lot of consumption. But some, like JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon, are worried we’re seeing the calm before the storm. There are signs things could get gnarly. Inflation is at a 40-year high, shelves are empty, real wages are shrinking and labor is in short supply.
Government and monetary policy will play an important role in how this works out, but those policies are also the biggest risk to US growth going forward.
In their natural state, economies grow more than they shrink. Humans are remarkable for their ability to innovate and their desire to make their lives better. But growth isn’t guaranteed. Many countries have adopted policies that undermined growth. In the early 20th century, for example, Argentina had the same GDP per capita as Canada; now Canada’s per capita GDP is more than five times Argentina’s, in part because of the South American nation’s feckless fiscal and monetary policies and decades of political instability following the Great Depression. Haiti and the Dominican Republic’s economic fortunes diverged after the 1960s. Rich countries have been fortunate to have the right policies — and some luck — that foster growth. Often policies will change after a big shock like the pandemic. Right now, the US economy has a lot of potential, but much will depend on the policies public officials implement.
In the short run, policy makers need to do something about inflation. It was bad policy, in part, that brought about high Inflation in the first place, including excessive stimulus in 2021. Then the Federal Reserve was too slow to respond.
When faced with inflation in the 20th century, the Fed repeatedly caused recessions by coming in too late and too hard. A mild recession may be unavoidable at this point because the Fed got so far behind the curve this time, too. How it manages rate increases in the next few years will determine the course of inflation and the severity of a downturn, if one occurs. The more the Fed miscalculates, the smaller the bullseye gets: Raise rates too high and the economy contracts; don’t go high enough and prices will keep rising and inject more uncertainty into markets — which can cause a recession, too.
Additional risks are coming from fiscal policy in Washington. President Joe Biden says his inflation strategy consists of letting the Fed do its job, fixing the supply-chain bottlenecks and controlling deficits (how he’ll do the last is unclear, since higher taxes or big spending cuts can slow the economy). There’s a chance these policies could help the economy, depending on how they’re executed. But price controls proposed by Senator Elizabeth Warren would only discourage production and create more shortages. Canceling student debt isn’t going to do anything to help inflation, either.
Though a near-term recession would be painful, core aspects of the economy are robust enough that it shouldn’t be too long or deep. Policies that could undermine longer-term growth are far more worrying. The desire to re-shore production, maintain the former administration’s tariffs — or even add more — along with subsidies for domestic production translates to higher prices and less resiliency because there is less trade, which means fewer goods. It also makes US industry less innovative and efficient since Americans don’t need to compete as much with firms in other countries.
Now add to all this the recent antitrust push. Traditionally, the government has gone after firms whose monopoly power harmed consumers. The new fashion is to target firms that get so big they crush any potential competition. Competition is good for growth, and there are legitimate concerns about unfair practices that regulation should address. But the problem with the new antitrust approach is that it often targets firms (at least in the rhetoric we’ve been hearing) simply for being large.
Big is not necessarily bad. In fact, a more global, tech-driven economy creates greater returns to scale and some bigness may be required. Bigger may be necessary in an economy where access to proprietary data and a lot of users is needed to make products better. Bigger can also mean lower costs. Shrinking American firms and depriving them of scale may be another strike against American competitiveness.
The US economy remains among the most innovative and dynamic in the world. It’s still a top destination for global talent and aspiring entrepreneurs. The enduring popularity of the dollar and dollar-dominated assets reflects an economy that is expected to keep growing. But past performance does not guarantee future growth. The right policies can help dig us out of our current predicament, but after that, policy makers just need to get out of the way.
Biden’s Economic Hubris Gives Way to Humility: Karl W. Smith
Who’s to Blame for a Recession, Biden or Powell?: Daniel Moss | 2022-06-06T11:49:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Biggest Threat to the US Economy Is Policy Makers - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-biggest-threat-to-the-us-economy-is-policy-makers/2022/06/06/ed3f5ce8-e587-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-biggest-threat-to-the-us-economy-is-policy-makers/2022/06/06/ed3f5ce8-e587-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
Biden is pushing for countries to adopt a zero-emissions goal for shipping by 2050. But environmentalists want action at home.
A dozen cargo ships wait in the San Francisco Bay to enter the Port of Oakland, Calif., in March 2021. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
When the first American-made lake freighter built in more than 35 years launched in Sturgeon Bay, Wis., last year, the 639-foot ship was outfitted for the future. The M/V Mark W. Barker’s larger hatch openings and spacious flat-bottomed hold meant that, unlike most freighters transporting iron ore and limestone on this route, it could hold unusual cargo — in particular, wind turbine blades.
But for all its modern updates, this ship won’t tap renewable energy from the large-scale wind farms planned for America’s coasts. It sails on diesel oil, the same fuel that powers most ships on the nation’s waterways.
This contrast between a fossil-fuel powered freighter and its next-generation future cargo is the new normal for the shipping industry, a major source of greenhouse gas emissions that is proving hard to clean up. As sales of electric cars increase and renewable energy proliferates, only a few shippers have begun to try zero-emission fuels and wind-propulsion technology. Efforts to cut carbon emissions through international regulations have met resistance from shipbuilders, oil companies and countries aligned with the handful of major shippers dominating the industry.
The lack of progress has fueled a debate about whether the United States should force carbon cuts on its own, using its leverage as an international trade hub. During last autumn’s U.N. climate talks, the Biden administration pledged to work with the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the U.N. agency that regulates international shipping. But the administration also suggested it might address the industry’s emissions itself, writing in its public commitment, “the United States is also exploring ways to support decarbonization of international maritime and aviation energy use through domestic action.”
Yet evidence of this action is hard to find.
Biden officials are wary of taking steps that might increase costs, disrupt trade or lead to a case that would reach the Supreme Court’s conservative majority, which has been skeptical of the federal government’s authority to regulate carbon emissions. And the industry’s unique structure — ship owners often register their vessels in other countries, like Panama or the Marshall Islands, where taxes and oversight are minimal — makes it difficult for one nation to act alone. Instead of taking the lead, the administration is waiting for the IMO to act first.
“We need the administration to move on this,” said Madeline Rose of the environmental group Pacific Environment. “They are working to spur the clean fuel transition, really putting a lot of money and time into the fuels of the future. But they have still made no public commitment to using their full domestic powers of regulation to reduce ship emissions."
As a global body, the IMO remains best positioned to set a worldwide zero-emission target for ships. But the agency is heavily influenced by the shipping and fossil fuel industries. Financing for its green ships initiative comes from Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter. The IMO has long resisted calls to phase out fossil fuels; it aims to cut ship emissions in half by 2050, compared with 2008 levels.
Experts say the target doesn’t deliver the reductions necessary to avoid catastrophic climate impacts. State Department officials are pushing the London-based organization to impose a 2050 deadline for shippers to eliminate their emissions, aligning the industry with the Paris climate agreement. Officials from more than 100 countries will discuss whether to raise their ambition at the group’s virtual meeting this week.
But even if they reach a more aggressive target, which won’t be set until next year, it could be years more before they agree on additional rules to meet it. Meanwhile, vessel emissions are rising.
Ships release about 1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, according to the IMO, roughly equal to Texas and California’s combined annual carbon output. While worldwide shipping accounts for nearly 3 percent of greenhouse gas emissions today, experts say it could reach 17 percent or more by 2050 as global trade expands and other industries reduce their fossil fuel consumption.
During the pandemic, Americans went on a shopping spree that snarled supply chains and jammed key ports from Southern California to South Carolina. An analysis by London shipbroker Simpson Spence Young found that increased port congestion, longer trade routes and higher travel speeds caused global shipping emissions to rise by nearly 5 percent last year, surpassing pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
The uptick in emissions underscores the challenges presented by an industry that carries about 90 percent of the world’s trade, most of it in vessels burning molasses-thick bunker fuel made from the dregs of refined petroleum products.
Customers are pressuring the industry to reduce its carbon footprint, and a small number of shippers are experimenting with alternative fuels such as hydrogen and ammonia. The Danish firm Maersk has ordered a dozen ships that can run on both conventional fuel and what the industry calls green methanol, which is made using renewable energy and captured carbon dioxide. Smaller vessels are leading the way, advancing new technology that may later guide the decarbonization of cargo ships. Crowley Maritime, the company building the first fully electric U.S. tug boat, expects it to be operational by mid-2023. The first hydrogen fuel cell passenger ferry in the United States will begin serving stops along San Francisco’s waterfront this summer.
But carbon-neutral fuels cost more, are not widely available and require significant upgrades to the infrastructure at ports and on the ships themselves. The bipartisan infrastructure law President Biden signed last year included billions of dollars to support hydrogen development, which may eventually lower its cost in the United States. Although it provides $2.25 billion to modernize American ports, only one of the projects receiving funding so far includes upgrades that would directly reduce emissions from ships.
For more than a year, Angelo Logan and other environmental justice advocates have been pushing Biden officials to act.
Logan lives in Long Beach, a portside community where adults are hospitalized because of asthma at higher rate than across California, according to a 2019 health survey. Other members of the nationwide activist network hail from inland port and seaport communities on the East Coast and in Texas, where air pollution from thousands of diesel engines on ships, trucks and cargo-handling equipment poses a constant threat. Although the Environmental Protection Agency regulates these pollutants separately from greenhouse gas emissions, supporters of stronger regulation say the two are linked — tighter pollution controls could be impossible to meet with diesel engines, forcing the industry to adopt zero-emission fuels.
“We need this administration to really hunker down and get aggressive,” Logan said in an interview.
Environmentalists and others say that by waiting for the international agency to act, the U.S. is ceding the authority it has to lower shipping emissions on its own and bolstering the industry’s arguments for delay. They want Biden to set specific targets for all ships calling on American ports to zero out their greenhouse gas emissions, as well as new rules requiring ships to turn off their engines and plug into the power grid while docked.
The Moving Forward Network, where Logan works as campaign director, is pushing the EPA to require all new marine engines to stop emitting carbon dioxide by 2035. Agency officials haven’t made any commitments.
"Are they listening? Are they meeting with us? Do they say they care? Yes,” Logan said. “Do their actions demonstrate that? No.”
The world is running out of options to hit climate goals, U.N. report shows
Yet the EPA’s power is limited. The Clean Air Act doesn’t give it authority over the majority of vessels docked in American ports. It can regulate only domestic ships, which make up a small fraction of the global problem. Between that and the fact that cars and trucks remain the single largest source of U.S. carbon pollution, ship emissions are not anywhere near the agency’s top concern.
The EPA decided not to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from oceangoing vessels during the Obama administration, and officials say the agency has no plans to change its approach. A spokesperson said in an email that the agency works with the State Department and the Coast Guard to achieve greenhouse gas reductions through international negotiations.
Many of the steps climate activists demand require congressional approval, which they concede is unlikely. But there are less controversial routes to lower emissions, they say.
One of the simplest ways to reduce a ship’s fuel consumption, and its carbon emissions, is to slow it down. The administration could lower travel speeds in federal waters, activists said, or offer shippers incentives to adopt zero-emission technologies. It could also enforce greenhouse gas emissions limits within the 200-mile offshore buffer zone established years ago to limit air pollution from ships.
Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.), whose district includes the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, plans to introduce a bill this month that would establish the nation’s first monitoring and reporting system for carbon emissions from large ships, modeled on the European Union’s.
“We’re beginning to say we want to be a player in this game and we want to set standards,” Lowenthal said in an interview. “But we’re not going to be so far out there that it would divert traffic from the U.S.”
For environmentalists in the U.S. and abroad, the E.U.'s approach has become a model of what’s possible. The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, last year announced that it would tackle shipping emissions independent from the IMO by bringing them into its emissions-trading scheme.
This proposal — the details of which still have to be negotiated before it becomes law — would charge shippers for every ton of carbon dioxide they emit, beginning in 2023. It would apply to ships passing between European ports and also to 50 percent of the inbound and outbound emissions from all other large vessels. A second proposal would require ships to start switching to low-carbon fuels by 2025.
Europe’s move has sent shock waves through the industry.
“It really is suboptimal for an international industry like maritime to have each country acting on its own,” said Jennifer Carpenter, chief executive of American Waterways Operators, the national trade association representing tugboat and barge owners in the U.S. The industry needs a “clear target,” she said, otherwise “we risk a balkanized approach, because folks are going to say I can’t wait.”
In the United States, advocates say they have little hope of the Biden administration or Congress copying Europe’s approach. Instead, they are looking to California.
According to Southern California air-quality regulators, ship traffic is on pace to be the top source of smog-causing pollutants by 2028. But because of the pandemic, this timeline is in flux. If the region continues to experience massive port congestion, ships could become the area’s dominant polluters as early as 2024.
Aoife O’Leary, an attorney and economist who focuses on the shipping industry, said states have extraordinary power to regulate the fuel ships use near their coastline. California has long-required that vessels within 24 miles of its coast use cleaner fuel to protect nearby communities.
“Even if you only have this rule for 24 nautical miles, you’ve created a market for zero emission vessels,” O’Leary said. “There are things that could be done instantly to bring down emissions that just aren’t being done.”
California started regulating oceangoing vessels in 2007, when it approved a rule requiring most visiting ships to connect to shore power. One year later, it ordered ships calling on its ports to switch to low-sulfur fuel. The California Air Resources Board recently set the nation’s first zero emissions standard for ferries and mandated cleaner engine upgrades for tugboats and other harbor vessels.
Bonnie Soriano, chief of the board’s freight activity branch, said regulators are now having “serious discussions” about whether to write tougher rules reigning in ship emissions.
“It’s becoming a bigger piece of the pie, as other sources are cleaned up faster," she said. | 2022-06-06T11:50:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Greenhouse gas emissions from ships is increasing while the U.S. waits for world leaders to act - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/06/06/shipping-carbon-emissions-biden-climate/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/06/06/shipping-carbon-emissions-biden-climate/ |
How Sylvia Bugg of PBS would spend a perfect day in D.C.
By Rudi Greenberg
Sylvia Bugg’s career at PBS began in the pages of this very newspaper when she answered an ad in The Post’s jobs section for an administrative assistant role in the programming department. Nearly three decades later, Bugg now oversees non-children’s content for PBS as chief programming executive and general manager. The 51-year-old Montgomery County resident lives and breathes content, helping to curate and develop the prime time (and streaming) slate for PBS — everything from “PBS NewsHour” to “Sanditon” to Ken Burns.
“I have a pillow at home that says, ‘Content is king and distribution is queen,’ and I love that pillow,” Bugg says. “We want to create a space where all Americans have an opportunity to consume our content — it’s free.”
Bugg is on her third stint at PBS (she had roles at Discovery and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in between) but estimates she’s “probably done the majority of the jobs in programming” at PBS during the 15 (cumulative) years she’s worked there. Impressive, considering the Brunswick County, Va., native moved to the area fresh out of college in 1992 in search of a summer job. After living with her Pentagon staffer aunt and uncle in Prince George’s County for a spell, Bugg moved to Alexandria with her sister, ultimately putting down roots in MoCo.
“When I think about going around the Beltway, I’ve lived all around it,” Bugg says. Washington “has always been an area that I’ve been attracted to, from job opportunities to it being so accessible for travel and not being too far away from home. It’s also a great treasure of arts and culture.”
On a dream day in the District, Bugg will hop on the Metro and set out to explore some of D.C.’s cultural gems.
First of all, I’d sleep in later than normal. I tend to get up very early. Whether it’s work or the weekend, my body’s conditioned to wake up super early. So sleeping in for me is probably 8 or 9 a.m. I don’t really eat breakfast. I haven’t taken Metro in years now, and I sort of miss riding the Metro, versus driving down into the city. I can read on the train: On my to-read list would be the new Viola Davis book. I’d get on at the Shady Grove stop, and I’m going to do the Red Line all the way down to Gallery Place.
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I’ll stop there because my first adventure would be the National Portrait Gallery. There’s something about it that is just beautiful. Some of my favorite exhibits are the first ladies gallery and the presidential portraits. I love that I can learn about different aspects of history. The last time I was there, I just stared at a portrait of Toni Morrison for quite a while and then Frida Kahlo — that oil on canvas — I just enjoyed that so much. It’s always fun when I go there. My learning through the work that I’ve done at PBS is reinforced in that experience, so I’d spend a good two-plus hours at the Portrait Gallery. There’s good people watching in there, too, because it’s such a great space.
I’m probably starting to want to eat something. There’s a cafe at the Navy Yard, Mah-Ze-Dahr Bakery, and they have the best croissants. The reason why I talk about these croissants is that I have a colleague here at PBS, she was born in France, and she told me about this place. I’m thinking, okay, she’s from France, and she’s saying these are the best croissants ever? I need to try them. Some croissants and coffee will get me through lunchtime. The croissants are fresh, and they have so many types — like chocolate-filled — but I just try to go for a regular croissant with some salmon and capers.
I saw “Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience” in Miami months ago. I got tickets for the New York location with some girlfriends from college, but then omicron happened. I want to go to the D.C. exhibit because I would love to see that again. Even if you don’t know Van Gogh’s work, or you just want to be in a different sort of art space, it’s great. All of the senses awaken. You can put on the VR headset and it takes you into this virtual reality experience. It’s a great way, to me, to show how art is so accessible.
The last place before I’d be ready to have a dinner thing would be going to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, which I find to be a place of inspiration, of knowledge, of learning. I remember when it first opened, like many things here in D.C., you just sort of let the crowds go through and then you decide that you want to be part of it. Being in that space, I find it very serene and calming.
For dinner, I’m going to Nobu. I’ve been to the New York Nobu. I’ve been to the Miami Nobu. D.C.’s is in a good location, and I liked it a lot. So I probably would hit there and then a show at Arena Stage. I like the chef’s omakase, where you can get a sample of a whole bunch of different small plates and bites. They have a sea bass there that is amazing. And they have this crispy, thick rice appetizer — I think it might be a little fried — and it’s so good. Nobu is always a good go-to.
There have been a fair amount of August Wilson’s plays I’ve seen at Arena Stage over the years. They have one that’s coming up [in July] called “American Prophet,” and it’s sort of a musical that uses some of the speeches and writings from Frederick Douglass and is directed by Charles Randolph-Wright, who has done a bunch of amazing stage productions at Arena. This one sounds terrific. I would love to take that in — I love that stage. Then I’ll hop back on the Red Line and finish off the day. | 2022-06-06T11:50:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | PBS chief programming executive Sylvia Bugg's perfect day in D.C. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/06/sylvia-bugg-dream-day/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/06/sylvia-bugg-dream-day/ |
(Hoang Nga/EyeEm/Getty Image)
When it comes to the human body, age is just a number. Thanks to the regenerative powers of human cells, our bodies constantly create new cells — to the tune of about 330 billion a day.
But until now, researchers haven’t known much about how long the cells of one of the most important organs, the liver, live. Research in the journal Cell Systems reveals that humans’ livers are forever young, clocking in at less than three years old despite their hosts’ biological age.
German researchers studied the livers of 33 adults who were between ages 20 and 84 when they died. They isolated the nuclei of liver cells called hepatocytes — the workhorses of the human liver. Hepatocytes make up the bulk of the human liver and perform a dizzying variety of tasks, from aiding with metabolism to taking part in the body’s immune response.
Your liver is an important, unique organ. Here’s how to keep it healthy.
The researchers wanted to know whether hepatocytes are long-lived, like neurons or the heart’s muscle cells, or whether they’re more transient. Previous studies had focused mainly on rodent livers, leaving unanswered questions on the life cycle of human liver cells.
When the scientists dated the cells, they found an average age of about three years regardless of the age of the person who generated the cells. The hepatocytes “show continuous and lifelong turnover, allowing the liver to remain a young organ,” they write.
The turnover depended on the type of liver cell. Ninety-five percent of the cells with two complete sets of chromosomes turned over within a year, but up to 12 percent of a cell subtype that have more than one pair of chromosomes can survive up to a decade.
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“As this fraction gradually increases with age, this could be a protective mechanism that safeguards us from accumulating harmful mutations,” Olaf Bergmann, a research group leader at the Dresden University of Technology’s Center for Regenerative Therapies said in a news release. “We need to find out if there are similar mechanisms in chronic liver disease, which in some cases can turn into cancer.”
All in all, the researchers project, our bodies produce about 700 million hepatocytes each day — not bad for a three-pound organ. | 2022-06-06T11:50:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The liver ages more slowly than the body - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/06/06/liver-cells-lifelong-turnover/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/06/06/liver-cells-lifelong-turnover/ |
Official portrait of the Supreme Court in April 1988. The first two seated justices on the left, Thurgood Marshall and William Brennan, both retired under Republican President George H.W. Bush, shifting the court rightward and putting Roe v. Wade in danger. (James K.W. Atherton/The Washington Post)
The prospect that the Supreme Court could soon overturn Roe v. Wade has some abortion rights supporters wishing liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had heeded pleas from Democrats to retire while the party controlled the White House. President Donald Trump’s replacement of Ginsburg with Amy Coney Barrett cemented a powerful conservative majority on the court, probably altering abortion rights for a generation.
But three decades ago, two liberal justices made an even more surprising decision: They retired under a Republican president. And many observers were convinced they that doomed Roe to be overturned.
When Thurgood Marshall, the first Black justice, retired in June 1991, President George H.W. Bush replaced him with Clarence Thomas. The change gave the court not just another conservative vote, but also a beacon for a hard-right worldview, whose opposition to abortion has now taken firm root on the court. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.’s leaked draft opinion that would overturn Roe cites half a dozen of Thomas’s previous opinions.
Marshall’s retirement caught everyone off guard. Marshall, nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967, had always called his job a “lifetime term” from which he would never retire.
“Marshall never talked about retiring, even vaguely,” said Susan Low Bloch, a Georgetown Law professor and former clerk for Marshall. “I remember being very surprised when he announced it. It came out of the blue.”
Had Marshall stayed on the court for another 1½ years, a Democratic president, Bill Clinton, would have chosen his successor. (As it turned out, Marshall died four days after Clinton’s inauguration.)
Marshall’s surprise retirement came a year after his good friend and fellow liberal Justice William J. Brennan stepped down, allowing Bush to appoint David Souter, whom White House chief of staff John E. Sununu called a “home run for conservatives.” The twin departures left the court with just one justice who had been nominated by a Democratic president: Byron White, who was conservative on many issues and had voted against Roe in 1973.
It was a shocking transformation for a court that, when it unanimously struck down public school segregation in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, had only one GOP-nominated justice. (Marshall successfully argued that case on behalf of the NAACP.)
And it seemed to put Roe in grave danger.
So why had Marshall decided to step down such a short time before the end of Bush’s term?
Justice Ginsburg thought Roe was the wrong case to settle abortion issue
He gave a simple reason: At 83, he was getting old. “The strenuous demands of Court work and its related duties required or expected of a Justice appear at this time to be incompatible with my advancing age and medical condition,” he wrote, employing the exact language Brennan had used in his resignation letter.
Or as Marshall later put it: “What’s wrong with me? I’m old! I’m getting old and coming apart.”
But there was a political factor, too. In the middle of 1991, few strategists thought a Democrat could win the next year’s presidential election. Republicans had occupied the White House for all but four years since 1968. And Bush was popular, fresh off the U.S. victory over Iraq in the Persian Gulf War.
“Calculations that President Bush is a prohibitive favorite to win reelection in 1992 have not changed, but Democratic strategists increasingly are viewing 1992 as the platform for 1996 — when most expect the Democrats’ presidential prospects to be much brighter,” Ronald Brownstein wrote in the Los Angeles Times in May 1991.
“Bush looked pretty invincible,” recalled Bloch, who served as a pallbearer at Marshall’s funeral. If Marshall thought Democrats had a good chance to win back the White House, she said, she is “100 percent certain” he would have stayed on the court.
After Bush named Thomas to the seat, the Senate confirmed him 52-48, following accusations of sexual harassment by Anita Hill.
Just as now, Democrats fretted about the court’s conservative direction and the threat to Roe. Rep. Les AuCoin (D-Ore.) said when Marshall announced his retirement, “Sadly, I believe it's also the final chapter in the high court's protection of reproductive rights in particular and the right to privacy in general.”
So far, Souter seemed likely to vote against Roe. After one year on the bench, the New York Times wrote that Souter “has proven to be among the more conservative members of the Court on decisions like the recent one allowing the Bush Administration to prohibit family planning clinics that receive Federal funds from advising women about the availability of abortions.”
But Souter wound up saving Roe, almost exactly one year after Marshall announced his retirement. In a June 1992 case concerning a Pennsylvania abortion law, the court in Planned Parenthood v. Casey affirmed Roe’s “central holding,” while allowing states to impose some new restrictions on abortion. Souter co-wrote the opinion with Sandra Day O’Connor and Anthony M. Kennedy — both nominated by Ronald Reagan, a staunch abortion foe.
Overturning Roe, the three justices wrote, would come “at the cost of both profound and unnecessary damage to the Court's legitimacy and to the Nation's commitment to the rule of law.”
Thomas joined three other conservative justices in calling for Roe to be ruled unconstitutional.
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Meanwhile, the court’s remaining liberal justices — Roe author Harry A. Blackmun and John Paul Stevens — joined the court’s opinion in part, providing the margin for the 5-4 ruling. Each wrote an opinion arguing the court should have struck down the Pennsylvania restrictions.
Blackmun and Stevens had been nominated in the 1970s by Republican presidents Richard M. Nixon and Gerald Ford, respectively, a sign of how much less politicized — and scrutinized — Supreme Court nominees had been in that decade. Blackmun acknowledged the changing times in his opinion.
“I am 83 years old,” he wrote. “I cannot remain on this court forever, and when I do step down, the confirmation process for my successor may well focus on the issues before us today.”
In the last 30 years, four liberal justices have retired, and each timed his departure so that a Democrat could name his replacement. Blackmun retired in 1994, paving the way for Clinton to nominate Stephen G. Breyer. This year, the 83-year-old Breyer retired, allowing President Biden to choose his successor, Ketanji Brown Jackson.
As for Souter, who became a reliable liberal vote, The Post reported during the 2008 campaign that he told a friend, “If Obama wins, I’ll be the first one to retire.” He did just that, allowing President Barack Obama to replace him with Sonia Sotomayor in 2009. The next year, Stevens retired, and Obama named Elena Kagan to his seat.
The decisions by Marshall and Brennan to retire under a Republican president are clearly from another era.
“It wasn’t lost on either Brennan or Marshall that there was a Republican president who would nominate someone that they might not want to see sitting in their seat,” Bloch said. “But it was a different time — they were not as focused as much as they are now on who would replace them. It wasn’t as strategic and planned as it looks now.”
More on the history of abortion
Who was Jane Roe, and how did she transform abortion rights?
‘Call Jane’: Underground network helped women get abortions before Roe | 2022-06-06T11:50:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Thurgood Marshall and William Brennan endangered Roe v. Wade by retiring - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/06/06/thurgood-marshall-william-brennan-roe/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/06/06/thurgood-marshall-william-brennan-roe/ |
Children’s museum apologizes for selling Juneteenth watermelon salad
The Indianapolis museum acknowledged ‘the negative impact that stereotypes have on Black communities’
The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. About 29 percent of the city's residents are Black, according to census data. (The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis)
A couple of hours after the museum published the Facebook post, a Black woman replied in the comments section with a photo of the salad sitting in the museum’s food court. “So y’all decided ‘hey let’s celebrate by perpetuating offensive stereotypes.’ Y’all really thought this was a good idea?”
Not long after, the museum conceded it was a bad idea. A spokesperson told The Washington Post in an email that the museum had apologized, permanently removed the salad from the food court menu and recommitted to its decades-long effort toward diversity and inclusion. In an apology posted to its website Saturday, the museum said that, although serving the watermelon salad was based on staff members’ family traditions, it acknowledges “the negative impact that stereotypes have on Black communities.”
“We deeply regret the hurt and the pain that the food offering in our food court has caused, and we apologize. It is unacceptable that this took place in our museum,” the spokesperson told The Post.
Since the Jim Crow era, watermelons have been weaponized as a racist trope to belittle Black people, according to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Before being twisted into a stereotype, watermelons symbolized Black people’s self-sufficiency and freedom following Emancipation, emerging from the fact that many formerly enslaved people grew and sold them to make a living. Threatened by this, some White Southerners co-opted the symbol, mutating it into the racist trope that endures to this day, the museum said.
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Juneteenth, which became a federal holiday last year, is tied to the emancipation of enslaved people. A portmanteau of “June” and “nineteenth,” the holiday celebrates June 19, 1865, the day roughly 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston, Tex., announcing that more than 250,000 enslaved people in the state had been freed more than two years earlier when President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. It is a day that has come to symbolize the end of slavery in the United States.
“Juneteenth marks our country’s second independence day,” a 2019 article from the National Museum of African American History and Culture explained.
Several of the hundreds of people commenting on the post by the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis said they were offended by the museum marring the holiday, which is also known as Jubilee Day, with a still-potent racist trope.
“There should have been a label explaining the history and meaning behind this menu item and it should not have been on the shelf before that label was ready,” it wrote. “We understand how this appears with no context and we apologize.”
The reply included such a label titled “Honoring Juneteenth,” which read, “Red food are the most prominent features of Juneteenth menus: red velvet cake, strawberry, watermelon, red soda.” Then there’s a quote attributed to Natelegé Whaley, a cultural journalist: “Red is a color that evokes cultural memory of bloodshed by our enslaved ancestors through the transatlantic enslaved person trade.” The museum’s reply has been edited to remove the image of the label. The quote is from Adrian Miller, a culinary historian who made the statement in an article written by Whaley.
The woman who made the initial complaint, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Post, replied, saying she knows certain foods have been traditionally served to celebrate Juneteenth but asked why the museum hadn’t chosen one of the others.
“Nice backpedaling but It’s extremely tone deaf to not realize that many of your patrons possibly (and do) find this offensive due to stereotypes that still currently exist,” she wrote, adding: “A watermelon salad to represent the blood of my ancestors. Oh yay!” | 2022-06-06T11:50:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Indianapolis children's museum apologizes for selling Juneteenth watermelon salad - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/06/museum-juneteenth-watermelon-salad/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/06/museum-juneteenth-watermelon-salad/ |
Sean Bickings, right, drowned in the Tempe Town Lake in Tempe, Ariz., after police did not jump in to rescue him, officials said. (City of Tempe )
“I’m going to drown. I’m going to drown,” said Bickings, 34, according to a transcript of video from the May 28 incident released by city officials.
“Okay, I’m not jumping in after you,” an officer, identified as Officer 1 in the transcript, said moments later, after directing Bickings to grab onto a bridge.
Now, three Tempe police officers have been put on “non-disciplinary paid administrative leave” as the Arizona Department of Public Safety and the Scottsdale Police Department investigate the officers’ response at the City of Tempe’s request, city officials said. The city has not released the names of the officers.
In a statement, Police Chief Jeff Glover and City Manager Andrew Ching called Bickings’s death a “tragedy.” Glover met with Bickings’s mother last week, according to officials.
The Tempe Officers Association, the city’s police union, did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Sunday.
Just after 5 a.m. on May 28, Tempe police officers responded to an apparent disturbance between Bickings and a woman at the Tempe Center for the Arts, which sits on a promenade along the Tempe Town Lake, a reservoir in the city. In its statement, the city referred to Bickings as “unsheltered.”
Body-camera footage released by the city shows officers approach and speak to a woman who identified herself as Bickings’s wife. As she picked up her belongings off the ground, she explained that she and Bickings sometimes have disagreements but said that he did not physically harm her.
Two of the officers then walked over to Bickings, who was seated on a bench facing the water, according to the body-camera footage. By this point, the officers were running the couple’s names for outstanding warrants, a standard procedure, according to the city. The police later said Bickings had three outstanding warrants, the Arizona Republic reported.
But those did not come up during Bickings’s encounter with police, according to the body-camera footage, which shows the officers trying to make small talk with Bickings as they ran the check.
That’s when Bickings slowly climbed over a short fence dividing the boardwalk and the water. When one of the officers asked what Bickings was doing, Bickings replied that he was going “for a swim.”
“I’m free to go, right?” Bickings asked.
“How far do you think he’s going to be able to swim?” one of the officers asked, according to the footage.
Two of the officers then walked onto the bridge Bickings had swum under and watched him, according to the body-camera footage, which at that point ends “due to the sensitive nature of the remaining portion of the recording,” officials wrote at the end of the video.
Instead, the city provided a transcript of the remaining portion, which indicates that Bickings became increasingly distressed as he remained in the water. Bickings told the officers he was going to “drown,” according to the transcript.
“No, you’re not,” an officer, identified as Officer 2, replied.
Officer 1 then directed Bickings to “go to the pylon and hold on.”
“I’m drowning,” Bickings said.
“Come back over to the pylon,” Officer 2 said.
“I can’t,” Bickings said. “I can’t."
“Okay, I’m not jumping in after you,” Officer 1 said.
Bickings then begged for help and said moments later, “I can’t touch. Oh God. Please help me. Help me.”
Bickings’s partner then joined the officers and begged them to help Bickings, according to the transcript. The officers told her to persuade Bickings to swim toward the bridge pylon. She tried and became increasingly upset. At one point, according to the transcript, Bickings’s partner tried to jump over the railing to help Bickings but did not end up doing so.
“I’m just distraught because he’s drowning right in front of you and you won’t help,” Bickings’s partner said.
“No, no, no. Swim,” the woman replied, using an expletive.
“You’re not helping,” Officer 2 said.
Moments later, Officer 1 said that Bickings “went underneath and hasn’t come up since about 30 seconds ago.”
For the remainder of the transcript, the officers did not address Bickings. Bickings’s partner continued to tell the officers that she loved Bickings.
“He’s everything I got,” she said. “I can’t lose him, he’s going to die.”
Officials said Bickings swam no more than 40 yards before he became distressed and "soon went under and did not resurface.”
The Arizona Republic reported that a team with Tempe Fire Medical Rescue pulled Bickings’s body out of the water just before 11:30 a.m. | 2022-06-06T11:50:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Three Tempe, Arizona police officers on leave after man drowns on their watch - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/06/tempe-police-bickings-drowning/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/06/tempe-police-bickings-drowning/ |
What the Arizona GOP’s response to Uvalde reveals
Arizona state Rep. Kelly Townsend addresses delegates at a budget planning convention in Phoenix in 2017. She's now an Arizona state senator. (Bob Christie/AP)
Republican legislators in Arizona have offered more than thoughts and prayers to the innocent victims massacred in Uvalde, Tex. They have praised law enforcement for their actions despite ample evidence that the police waited far too long to intervene, blamed the violence on the absence of God and renewed their push to bring more guns into schools.
Take state Sen. Kelly Townsend, a far-right Republican whose nonsensical ideas include, most recently, using vigilantes to watch over ballot drop boxes in the upcoming midterms. Four years ago, in the days following the rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., she compared mass shooters to women who have abortions: Neither, she said, has any regard for human life.
After the killings at Robb Elementary, Townsend suggested that we arm “whoever at our schools, whether it’s veterans who are volunteering, whether it’s the police, whether it’s arming the teachers.” Her colleague, state Sen. Rick Gray, the GOP majority leader, said school shootings happen because “for decades, we’ve been teaching our children in school that there is no God.”
Meanwhile, calls by Democrats for action on 13 stalled gun control bills — one of them includes prohibiting some domestic violence offenders from owning firearms, which sounds like a no-brainer to me — have been wholly ignored. Such is the predicament for Democrats of being the minority in both legislative chambers in a deeply polarized purple state where extremists are not only the loudest, but also increasingly the prevailing voices in Republican politics.
Case in point: Gov. Doug Ducey, a conservative who has not fallen off the deep end, has not had any luck passing a piece of legislation that would allow judges to take away guns from people who are considered to be a danger to themselves or others. His fellow Republicans in the House have twice refused to move it forward.
I talked to state Sen. Raquel Terán (D), whose path to elected office grew out of her role as a community organizer fighting for immigration reform at a time when Arizona became a national symbol of intolerance. She framed the dominant version of Republican politics in Arizona these days around control — “control of our bodies, control of what we read and talk about in schools.” (Gun control? Not so much.)
That brings up an interesting irony. Some Republicans say that teachers should be able to carry guns in the classroom and teach lessons on religion, yet they cannot be trusted to openly talk to students about issues of race and ethnicity. According to a bill recently approved by the House, violators could lose their teaching license. As state Sen. Christine Marsh (D), a former teacher of the year, so eloquently said, “Give me a break.”
Arizona is far from the only battleground state, but it might be the one where the pendulum has swung the most rightward since 2020. That’s when Arizona voters chose a Democrat for president for only the second time since going for Harry S. Truman in 1948 (the other was Bill Clinton).
Former president Donald Trump still enjoys a strong following in Arizona, though. With term limits, Ducey is serving his second and last term, and the leading Republican gubernatorial candidate, a journalist-turned-conspiracy theorist named Kari Lake, features Trump’s image and endorsement on her campaign signs.
Terán, whose Senate district is one of the most diverse in the state, grew up in Douglas, a small Arizona city on the U.S.-Mexico border that is similar to Uvalde. They are both working-class communities with about 16,000 residents who are mostly Hispanic.
She stood silently on the state Senate floor the other day holding a picture collage of the 19 children murdered in Uvalde; two teachers died as well. She told me that she worried she would break down, so she let other Democratic colleagues do the talking.
She did cry when we spoke a few days later, telling me about her mother, who works in a school cafeteria, and her nieces and nephews, whose faces remind her of the children slain in Uvalde. “My neighbors in Douglas, my constituents, they’re the people of Uvalde,” she said.
She lists some of their needs: a reliable, sustainable water supply; a strategy to mitigate the wildfires that are a mortal threat in parts of the state; and affordable housing. Phoenix and its surrounding communities saw, in April, the biggest cost-of-living increase in the country compared with the same month last year and have logged one of the highest rent hikes since the start of 2021.
“People can’t afford a place to live,” Terán said.
I asked what she would do if she had a magic wand. She paused, talked about meeting basic needs, but then settled on something less tangible, but, in many ways, more important: “I’d protect our democracy.”
The threat is real. On Thursday, Trump endorsed Republican Blake Masters in the U.S. Senate race to unseat Arizona Democrat Mark Kelly. The former president extolled Masters for supporting his stolen-election fantasy. | 2022-06-06T11:50:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | What the Arizona GOP’s response to Uvalde reveals - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/06/arizona-republicans-uvalde-response/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/06/arizona-republicans-uvalde-response/ |
As American cities struggle to recover from the pandemic, Denver’s problems spill over onto its buses
By Eli Saslow
Suna Karabay operates a No. 15 city bus on Colfax Avenue in Denver in May. Karabay, a native of Turkey, has driven the route for nearly 10 years. (Stephen Speranza for The Washington Post)
DENVER — Suna Karabay touched up her eye makeup in the rearview mirror and leaned against the steering wheel of the bus to say her morning prayers. “Please, let me be patient,” she said. “Let me be generous and kind.” She walked through the bus to make her final inspection: floor swept, seats cleaned, handrails disinfected, gas tank full for another 10-hour shift on the city’s busiest commercial road. She drove to her first stop, waited until exactly 5:32 a.m., and opened the doors.
“Good morning!” she said, as she greeted the first passenger of the day, a barefoot man carrying a blanket and a pillow. He dropped 29 cents into the fare machine for the $3 ride. “That’s all I got,” he said, and Suna nodded and waved him onboard.
“Happy Friday,” she said to the next people in line, including a couple with three plastic garbage bags of belongings and a large, unleashed dog. “Service pet,” one of the owners said. He fished into his pocket and pulled out a bus pass as the dog jumped onto the dashboard, grabbed a box of Kleenex, and began shredding tissues on the floor.
“Service animal?” Suna asked. “Are you sure?”
“What’d I tell you already?” the passenger said. “Just drive the damn bus.”
She turned back to face the windshield and pulled onto Colfax Avenue, a four-lane road that ran for more than 30 miles past the state capitol, through downtown, and toward the Rocky Mountains. Forty-five years old, she’d been driving the same route for nearly a decade, becoming such a fixture of Denver’s No. 15 bus line that her photograph was displayed on the side of several buses — a gigantic, smiling face of a city Suna no longer recognized in the aftermath of the pandemic. The Denver she encountered each day on the bus had been transformed by a new wave of epidemics overwhelming major cities across the country. Homelessness in Denver was up by as much as 50 percent since the beginning of the pandemic. Violent crime had increased by 17 percent, murders had gone up 47 percent, some types of property crime had nearly doubled, and seizures of fentanyl and methamphetamine had quadrupled in the past year.
She stopped the bus every few blocks to pick up more passengers in front of extended-stay motels and budget restaurants, shifting her eyes between the road ahead and the rearview mirror that showed all 70 seats behind her. In the past two years, Denver-area bus drivers had reported being assaulted by their passengers more than 145 times. Suna had been spit on, hit with a toolbox, threatened with a knife, pushed in the back while driving and chased into a restroom during her break. Her windshield had been shattered with rocks or glass bottles three times. After the most recent incident, she’d written to a supervisor that “this job now is like being a human stress ball.” Each day, she absorbed her passengers’ suffering and frustration during six trips up and down Colfax, until, by the end of the shift, she could see deep indentations of her fingers on the wheel.
Now she stopped to pick up four construction workers in front of “Sunrise Chinese Restaurant — $1.89 a Scoop.” She pulled over near a high school for a teenager, who walked onto the bus as she continued to smoke.
“Sorry. You can’t do that,” Suna said.
“It’s just weed.”
“Not on here,” Suna said. The girl tossed the joint onto the sidewalk and banged her fist into the first row of seats, but Suna ignored her. She kept driving as the bus filled behind her and then began to empty out after she passed through downtown. “Last stop,” she announced, a few minutes before 7 a.m. She was scheduled for a six-minute break before turning around to begin her next trip up Colfax, but when she looked in the rearview mirror, there were still seven people sleeping on the bus. Lately, about a quarter of her riders were homeless. The bus was their destination, so they rode until someone forced them to get off. “Sorry. Everyone out,” Suna said again, speaking louder, until the only passenger left was a man slumped across two seats in the second row. Suna got up to check on him.
“Sir?” she said, tapping his shoulder. He had an open wound on his ankle, and his leg was shaking. “Sir, are you okay?”
He opened his eyes. He coughed, spit on the floor, and looked around the empty bus. “We make it to Tulsa?” he asked.
“No. This is Denver. This is the 15 line.”
The passenger stumbled onto his feet. “Do you want me to call you an ambulance?” Suna asked, but he shook his head and started limping toward the doors.
“Okay. Have a good day,” Suna said. He held up his middle finger and walked off the bus.
Five days a week she drove back and forth on the same stretch of Colfax Avenue, stopping 38 times each way, completing every trip in a scheduled time of 72 minutes as she navigated potholes by memory and tried to make sense of what was happening to her passengers and to the city that she loved. She’d started reading books about mental illness and drug abuse, hoping to remind herself of what she believed: Addiction was a disease. Homelessness was a moral crisis. The American working class had been disproportionately crushed by covid-19, rising inflation and skyrocketing housing costs, and her passengers were among the victims. She thought about what her father had told her, when she was 19 years old and preparing to leave her family in Turkey to become an immigrant in the United States. He’d said that humanity was like a single body of water, in which people were made up from the same substance and then collected into different cups. This was her ocean. It was important not to judge.
And for her first several years in Denver, that kind of compassion had come easily to her. She felt liberated driving the city bus, which Muslim women weren’t allowed to do back home in Ankara. She loved the diversity of her passengers and built little relationships with her regulars: Ethiopian women who cleaned offices downtown, elementary-school children who wrote her thank you notes, Honduran day laborers who taught her phrases in Spanish, and medical students who sometimes asked about her heart ailment. But then the pandemic closed much of Denver, and even though Suna had never missed a day of work, many of her regulars had begun to disappear from the bus. Two years later, ridership across the city was still down by almost half, and a new wave of problems had arrived in the emptiness of urban centers and public transit systems, not just in Denver but all across the country.
Philadelphia was reporting an 80 percent increase in assaults aboard buses. St. Louis was spending $53 million on a new transit security plan. The transportation union president in Tucson said the city’s buses had become “a mobile refuse frequented by drug users, the mentally ill, and violent offenders.” The sheriff of Los Angeles County had created a new transit unit to keep passengers from having to “step over dead bodies or people injecting themselves.” And, meanwhile, Suna was compulsively scanning her rearview mirror, watching for the next crisis to emerge as she began another shift.
Two teenagers were burning something that looked like tinfoil in the back of the bus. A woman in a wheelchair was hiding an open 32-ounce can of beer in her purse and drinking from it with a straw. A construction worker holding a large road sign that read “SLOW” sat down in the first row next to a teenage girl, who scooted away toward the window.
“This sign isn’t meant for me and you,” the construction worker told the teenager, as Suna idled at a red light and listened in. “We can take it fast.”
“I’m 15,” the girl said. “I’m in high school.”
Suna leaned out from her seat and yelled: “Leave her alone!”
“All right. All right,” the construction worker said, holding up his hands in mock surrender. He waited a moment and turned back to the teenager. “But do you got an older sister?”
Suna tried to ignore him and looked out the windshield at the snow-capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains and the high-rises of the city. She hadn’t been downtown on her own time since the beginning of the pandemic, and lately, she preferred to spend entire weekends reading alone in her apartment, isolating herself from the world except for occasional phone calls with her family in Turkey. “I used to be an extrovert, but now I’m exhausted by people,” Suna had told her sister. Increasingly, her relationship with Denver was filtered through the windshield of the bus, as she pulled over at stops she associated mostly with traumas and police reports during the pandemic.
There was Havana Street, where, a few months earlier, a woman in mental distress had shattered the windshields of two No. 15 buses, including Suna’s, within five minutes; and Billings Street, where, in the summer of 2021, a mentally unstable passenger tried to punch a crying toddler, only to be tackled and then shot in the chest by the toddler’s father; and Dayton Street, where Suna had once asked a man in a red bikini to stop smoking fentanyl, and he’d shouted “Here’s your covid, bitch!” before spitting in her face; and Downing, where another No. 15 driver had been stabbed nearby with a three-inch blade; and Broadway, where, on Thanksgiving, Suna had picked up a homeless man who swallowed a handful of pills, urinated on the bus, and asked her to call an ambulance, explaining that he’d poisoned himself so he could spend the holiday in a hospital with warm meals and a bed.
“Hey, driver! Hit the gas,” a passenger yelled from a few rows behind her. “We’re late. You’re killing me.”
She stared ahead at a line of cars and checked the clock. She was two minutes behind schedule. She inched up toward the brake lights in front of her and tried to focus on a mural painted on the side of a nearby building of a woman playing the violin.
“Hey! Do you speak English?” the passenger yelled. “Get your ass moving or get back to Mexico.”
She kneaded her hands into the steering wheel. She counted her breaths as they approached the next stop, North Yosemite Street, which had been the site of another episode of violence captured on security camera several months earlier. An intoxicated and emaciated 57-year-old woman had jumped out in front of a moving No. 15 bus, shouted at the driver to stop, and then pushed her way onboard. She’d started cursing at other passengers, pacing up and down the aisle until a man twice her size stood up in the back of the bus and punched her in the face with a closed first, slamming her to the floor. “Who ain’t never been knocked out before?” he asked, as the woman lay unconscious in the aisle, and then he stood over her as the other passengers sat in their seats and watched. “Here’s one more,” he said, stomping hard on her chest. He grabbed the woman by the ankle and flung her off the bus, leaving her to die of blunt-force trauma on the sidewalk. “We can keep riding though,” one of the other passengers had told the driver, moments later. “We got to go to work, man.”
Now, Suna pulled over at the next stop and glanced into the rearview mirror. The belligerent passenger was out of his seat and moving toward her. She turned her eyes away from him and braced herself. He banged his fist into the windshield. He cursed and then exited the bus.
Suna closed her eyes for a moment and waited as three more passengers climbed onboard. “Thanks for riding,” she told them, and she shifted the bus back into drive.
Each night after she finished making all 228 stops on Colfax, Suna went home to the silence of her apartment, burned sage incense, drank a calming herbal tea and tried to recover for her next shift. Meanwhile, many of her passengers ended up spending their nights at the last stop on the No. 15 route, Union Station, the newly renovated, $500 million gem of the city’s transportation system and now also the place the president of the bus drivers’ union called a “lawless hellhole.”
The station’s long indoor corridor had become the center of Denver’s opioid epidemic and also of its homelessness crisis, with as many as a few hundred people sleeping on benches on cold nights. The city had tried removing benches to reduce loitering, but people with nowhere to go still slept on the floor. Authorities tried closing all of the station’s public bathrooms because of what the police called “a revolving door of drug use in the stalls,” but that led to more people going to the bathroom and using drugs in the open. The police started to arrest people at record rates, making more than 1,000 arrests at Union Station so far this year, including hundreds for drug offenses. But Colorado lawmakers had decriminalized small amounts of drug possession in 2019, meaning that offenders were sometimes cited with a misdemeanor for possessing up to four grams of fentanyl — enough for nearly 2,000 lethal doses — and then were able to return to Union Station within a few hours.
The city’s latest attempt at a solution was a mental health crisis team of four clinicians who worked for the Regional Transportation District, and one night a counselor named Mary Kent walked into Union Station holding a small handbag with the overdose antidote Narcan, a tourniquet and referral cards to nearby homeless shelters.
“Can I help you in any way?” she said to a woman who was pushing a shopping cart while holding a small knife. The woman gestured at the air and yelled something about former president Barack Obama’s dog.
“Do you need anything? Can we help support you?” Kent asked again, but the woman muttered to herself and turned away.
Kent walked from the train corridor to the bus platform and then back again during her shift, helping to de-escalate one mental health crisis after the next. A woman was shouting that she was 47-weeks pregnant and needed to go to the hospital. A teenager was running naked through the central corridor, until Kent helped calm her down and a transit police officer coaxed her into a shirt. During a typical 12-hour shift, Kent tried to help people suffering from psychosis, schizophrenia, withdrawal, bipolar disorder, and substance-induced paranoia. She connected many of them with counseling and emergency shelter, but they just as often refused her help. Unless they posed an immediate threat to themselves or others, there wasn’t much she could do.
An elderly man with a cane tapped her on the shoulder. “Somebody stole my luggage,” he said, and for a few minutes Kent spoke with him and tried to discern if he had imagined the suitcases or if they had in fact been stolen, both of which seemed plausible. “Let’s see if we can find a security officer,” Kent said, but by then the man no longer seemed focused on the missing suitcases, and instead, he asked the question she got most of all.
“Where’s the closest public bathroom?” he said.
“Oh boy,” she said, before explaining that the one in Union Station was closed, the one in the nearby public park had been fenced off to prevent loitering, the one in the hotel next door had a full-time security guard positioned at the entrance, and the one in the nearby Whole Foods required a receipt as proof of a purchase in the store. The only guaranteed way to protect a space from the homelessness crisis was to limit access, so Union Station had also recently approved a plan to create a ticketed-only area inside the station to restrict public use starting in 2023.
Kent walked outside onto the bus platform, smelled the chemical burn of fentanyl, and followed it through a crowd of about 25 homeless people to a woman who was smoking, pacing and gesticulating at an imaginary audience. A few security officers walked toward the woman, and she moved away and shouted something about the devil. Kent pulled a referral card from her bag, went over to the woman and introduced herself as a clinician.
“What can we do to support you right now?” she asked.
“Nothing,” the woman said. She walked to the other end of the platform, threw a few punches at the air and boarded the next bus.
The job, as Suna understood it, was to drive and keep driving, no matter what else was happening to the city, so the next morning, she pulled up to her first stop at 5:32 a.m. and then made her way along Colfax, stopping every few blocks on her way downtown. Billings Street. Havana Street. Dayton. Downing. Broadway. She finished her first trip and turned around to start again. A woman with an expired bus pass yelled at her in Vietnamese. Two passengers got into an argument over an unsmoked cigarette lying on the floor. Broadway, Downing, Dayton, Havana, Billings. She shifted her eyes back and forth from the rearview mirror to the road as she made her second trip, her third, her fourth, her fifth, until finally she reached the end of the line at 4:15 p.m. and turned around to begin her final trip of the day. She stopped at Decatur station to pick up three women, closed the doors, and began to pull away from the stop
“Hey!” a man shouted, standing outside at the bus stop. He wore a basketball jersey and a backward cap. He banged on the bus and Suna stopped and opened the door. “Hey!” the man repeated, as he climbed onboard, cursing at her. “What the hell are you doing pulling away? I was standing right there.”
“Watch your language,” she said. “Where’s your bus fare?”
He paid half the fare and then cursed at her again. He walked to the first row of seats, sat down and glared at her.
“What are you staring at?” he yelled. “Go. Drive the damn bus.”
“I’m not your pet,” she said. “You don’t tell me what to do.”
She pulled out from the bus stop and looked away from the rearview mirror toward the mountains. She counted her breaths and tried to think of what her father had said about humanity being a single body of water. She’d dealt with more difficult passengers during the pandemic, including some earlier that same morning, but that was 11 hours and 203 stops ago, and as the passenger continued to rant, she could feel her patience beginning to give way.
“You’re so stupid,” the passenger said, and she ignored him.
“You idiot. You’re just a driver,” he shouted, and she pulled up to an intersection, hit the brakes, and turned back to him. “Why are you calling me names?” she asked. “F-you. F-that. You don’t know a single good word.” She told him to get off the bus or she would call the police. “Go right ahead,” he said, and he leaned back in his seat as she picked up her phone and gave her location to the officer. She hung up, squeezed the steering wheel, and continued driving toward her next stop.
“You dumb ass,” he said. “You bitch.”
“Just shut up!” she shouted. “You can’t talk to me that way.” Her hands were shaking against the wheel and she could feel the months of exhaustion and belittlement and anger and sadness welling up into her eyes, until she knew the one thing she couldn’t do for even a moment longer was to drive. She pulled over to a safe place on the side of the road. She turned off the ignition and put on her hazard lights. She called a supervisor and said that she was done driving for the day, and that she would be back for her next shift in the morning.
She opened the exit door and turned back to the passenger. “Get off,” she said, blinking back tears, pleading this time. He stared back at her and shook his head.
“Fine,” she said, and she stood up from her seat and walked off the bus. | 2022-06-06T12:50:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | As American cities struggle to recover from the pandemic, Denver's problems spill over onto its buses - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/06/bus-denver-pendemic-violence/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/06/bus-denver-pendemic-violence/ |
A Secret Service shooting offers a harrowing portrait of the mental health crisis among America’s youth
Ilmiya Yarullina’s son, Gordon Casey, 19, was fatally shot by U.S. Secret Service officers during an incident in April in Northwest Washington. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)
Pain, fatigue and frustration poured into the texts Ilmiya Yarullina pounded out to her son after his latest drug relapse. She was kicking him out after cycling him through schools, psychologists, psychiatrists and drug treatment for nearly a decade.
Yarullina hoped the ultimatum might push Gordon Casey, 19, toward rehab and break the cycle of mental health and drug issues that kept pulling him down.
“Before you snort, smoke, inject … remember to pack up. All leftovers will be donated to Salvation army,” she texted in mid-April. “ENOUGH.”
By Wednesday, April 20, Yarullina hadn’t seen Casey in days and was regretful.
She was driving to report him missing when she heard a radio report: U.S. Secret Service members had fatally shot a man allegedly wielding a pole at the home of Peru’s ambassador in Northwest Washington. He was not identified.
“Poor soul,” Yarullina thought.
That poor soul turned out to be her son.
As the CDC, the U.S. Surgeon General and others have warned of a major crisis in teen mental health, Yarullina shared the story of Casey’s final days, his mental health evaluations and school records to provide an intimate and unvarnished look at what many families are facing.
The proportion of high school students suffering from persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness increased 40 percent from 2009 to 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The National Center for Health Statistics reports that the suicide rate among youths increased by 57 percent between 2008 and 2018. A survey released Tuesday showed 7 in 10 public schools are seeing a rise in youth seeking mental health treatment, but only half were able to provide needed services.
Schools are struggling to meet rising mental health needs, survey shows
Yarullina, a single mother, blames herself for Casey’s fate. But she said she was also stymied by an underfunded and uneven mental health system in which quality care is often too hard to access and schools are ill-equipped to handle teens like her son, whose brain was “wired differently.” She said families often receive too little support to navigate such complicated terrain.
“I’m going through his texts and it’s awful what I did. It was the cruelest thing a mother can do,” Yarullina said of the messages she sent her son telling him he had to move out. “As a parent going through this, you need a lot of support. I didn’t have that support. I was always alone.”
Drugs and anxiety
Yarullina cried at the kitchen table in her Germantown home, surrounded by family members and pieces of Casey’s short life. They included family photos, reports of diagnoses and one final item: a freshly printed certificate that listed Casey’s manner of death in black block letters, “HOMICIDE.”
She said the quiet, skinny teen with blond hair struggled at school but thrived in his job working for a cafe near the Watergate complex in Washington. He threw himself into running the shop, a jack-of-all trades who rang up orders, washed floors and made pizza on any given day.
The problems that ultimately led Casey to the ambassador’s residence began about seven years earlier, his mother said.
Yarullina said Casey had done well through elementary school, but by seventh grade his A’s and B’s turned into C’s and D’s, and he started missing classes. Yarullina said Casey was anxious about school, and records show it was bad enough that he would come home with stomachaches.
By eighth grade, Yarullina said, Casey discovered drugs and was smoking marijuana to soothe the apprehension. At the end of the school year, she said, Casey was badly beaten and robbed by teens while trying to buy pot. Yarullina said — and evaluations show — that Casey’s anxieties only worsened. He feared leaving home and had flashbacks to the attack.
Yarullina resolved to home-school Casey for ninth grade, taking leave from her job as a drug safety physician at a pharmaceutical company. Casey grew even more withdrawn. Yarullina said her son sat in his room all day and played video games. She said she tried mightily to engage him.
“A typical kid on a good day has to go get a haircut, has to meet up with friends, has to be able to go shopping with the family for food,” Yarullina said. “The door was shut and he did not come out whatsoever for anything, even for family gatherings.”
When Casey was 15 in 2018, his issues came into sharper focus.
He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder related to the assault, as well as generalized anxiety disorder, which causes debilitating anxiety around routine activities that in Casey’s case was severe enough to manifest into physical symptoms, according to a psychological evaluation. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and substance-use disorder diagnoses were eventually added to the list.
A grandmother’s killing: Covid’s mental health crisis hits one family
Casey spent his middle years of high school in special-education schools, which Yarullina thinks only worsened his issues. At one school, Yarullina said therapy was of such poor quality that Casey’s progress sputtered. Yarullina said she pleaded for daily therapy sessions, but officials told her Gordon was only entitled to one hour of individual therapy a week.
Yarullina, who has a medical degree, said she often struggled to find private psychologists for Casey, too.
Experts say one of the contributing factors to the nation’s mental health crisis among teens has been the isolation of the coronavirus pandemic, and Casey struggled, too. Yarullina said virtual learning was difficult. Casey’s anxiety made it hard for him to show his face during Zoom sessions.
Things worsened in the summer of 2021.
One night in June, Casey and his best friend, Kennedy Merritt-Millet, 18, were out in Burtonsville, Md., when an altercation broke out among a group of teenagers. Merritt-Millet tried to intervene and was shot, police said, by an 18-year-old.
Yarullina said Casey held Merritt-Millet in his arms until his friend was taken to a hospital, where he died. The alleged shooter and another teen were charged in the incident, which is pending in court.
Pair of 18-year-olds charged in fatal shooting of teen
Emma Schultz, 18, Casey’s girlfriend, said the death exacerbated his mental health and drug issues.
“He didn’t really care about anything in life anymore,” Schultz said.
‘I don’t care’
Casey started what was to be his senior year of high school at Rockville’s Sheppard Pratt School for teens with emotional disabilities in the fall of 2021, but it quickly unraveled.
Casey was also cited for a number of minor rule violations and suspended for having a cellphone and violating rules by giving a fellow student a ride, according to records. Frustrated by the school’s approach, Yarullina and Casey reached a mutual agreement with the school to withdraw. He lasted just a day at his next school.
A spokeswoman for Sheppard Pratt said federal law prevented the school from commenting on Casey’s time there, but she said, “Our educators, therapists and behavior specialists ensure that each of our students receive the optimal, most appropriate education possible to grow and achieve to their maximum potential.”
In late November, Yarullina said Casey began exhibiting signs of paranoia. He told her one night that neighbors were spying on them through an air vent, and another time that he had searched the attic for intruders. Then, one night, she heard loud voices coming from Casey’s room.
Yarullina banged on the door and a friend of Casey’s ran out in a panic, she said. Casey had previously purchased a gun, and he had been holding it when, in a fit of paranoia, he accused the friend of having a relationship with his girlfriend. The friend’s mother said the teen was forced to wrestle the gun away from Casey.
Yarullina said she got an order for an emergency mental health commitment for Casey. He had taken cocaine and was diagnosed with drug-induced psychosis, a condition in which an illicit substance can cause delusions or paranoia. Following a period in mental health treatment, Casey went for drug counseling.
He returned home for Christmas and his birthday in December. He promised his family he would continue therapy, and Yarullina said a new psychiatrist warned him to stay away from stimulants — they might trigger an even worse bout of drug-induced psychosis.
Yarullina said things were looking up for a couple of months. Casey started talking about going to rehab and college. He seemed to be turning a corner.
But then he texted Yarullina on Friday, April 15, telling her that he had taken ecstasy because he and his friends planned to go to a concert. Yarullina said she was tired after so many false hopes. She unleashed a torrent of texts the next day telling him to move out.
One text included a story from a parent whose son died of a fentanyl overdose.
“I put every effort into you not turning out this way,” Yarullina wrote.
Casey did not return home, but went to work the next three days and texted with Yarullina. On Tuesday, Yarullina said, she got a strange call from Casey. He said someone had drugged him and he couldn’t work. Yarullina said Casey thought he was going to be fired from the job he loved.
Casey called Schultz that night and told her he was confused, had been drugged and wanted to jump off a building. Schultz said she told him she would help, and they met at a Safeway supermarket in Maryland around midnight. She noticed Casey had bought $100 worth of food.
“He said, ‘I don’t care. I’m spending all my money, every last penny. I got kicked out and I’m fired,’” Schultz said.
Schultz tried to persuade Casey to come home with her, but he threatened to leave her unless they went to buy ecstasy, she said. Scared for him to be on his own, she said, she agreed.
Schultz said Casey bought the ecstasy, which he told her was laced with bath salts, synthetic drugs that have been linked to paranoia and delirium in some users. Casey took the drug and started to act strangely by the time they parked near Schultz’s home in Northwest Washington, she said.
Casey accused her of recording their conversation for the FBI, Schultz said. They went for a walk, but Casey eventually bolted away from her and began laughing and dancing in the middle of the street. She returned to the car around 4 a.m. to wait for him.
Gunfire at the embassy
Shortly before 8 a.m. Wednesday, the Secret Service Uniformed Division, tasked with protecting diplomatic embassies and residences across the D.C. area, answered a report of a burglary in progress at the home of the Peruvian ambassador on Garrison Street NW, the Secret Service said in a statement. It was reported that windows had been broken out in the residence.
The officers encountered Casey armed with “a long metal pole,” the statement said. The officers commanded Casey numerous times to drop the pole and then repeatedly used their Tasers to try to stop him, but he “continued to charge toward the officers,” the statement said.
D.C. police said two Secret Service officers fired at Casey and struck him in the torso. Casey died on the scene. D.C. police investigate all homicides in The District and have turned the investigation over to the U.S. attorney’s office, which declined to comment on whether charges might be filed.
The Secret Service declined to identify the officers who fired on Casey, but a spokesman said they were trained in handling people suffering mental health crises. Secret Service officers do not have body cameras, and D.C. police said there is no video of the incident.
Secret Service fatally shoots man at Peruvian ambassador's residence
The day after the shooting, two D.C. police detectives showed up at Yarullina’s home. She thought they were there to start the missing-person investigation, but instead they showed her a photo of Casey and asked whether she had heard about what had happened at the ambassador’s residence.
A cold feeling came over Yarullina, then devastation.
Yarullina said she is waiting for the investigation to conclude before commenting on how the Secret Service handled the shooting, but she keeps thinking about why schools, psychologists, psychiatrists and she herself failed to reach Casey.
She thinks schools need to invest in more preventive mental health counseling, and that teenagers like Casey who don’t thrive in traditional learning environments need more alternatives. She said instead of lecturing her son, she simply should have hugged him more.
“It’s our kids,” Yarullina said, “and we are losing them.” | 2022-06-06T13:03:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | After Gordon Casey, 19, was fatally shot by Secret Service, his mother shared the story of his final days - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/06/secret-service-shooting-peru/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/06/secret-service-shooting-peru/ |
Informing yourself is the best way to ensure that you’re agreeing to a living situation that will work for you.
Perspective by Robert Pinnegar
If you see a term in the agreement that you don’t understand, look it up, and don’t be afraid to ask your property owner questions. (iStock)
Leases are legally binding contracts that serve as the cornerstone of the relationship between the resident and property owner. That’s why it’s important to fully read and understand the terms of a lease, whether you’re an experienced renter or preparing to lease for the first time. Not only is every lease different, but these agreements also often include legal jargon that can be confusing at first glance.
Here are some common lease terms that renters should know before signing on the dotted line. Please note that the content of this article is for general interest and information purposes only and is not intended as legal or other professional advice. Any questions regarding a leasing contract, including the terminology of a leasing contract, should be directed to local counsel.
Automatic renewal/notice to vacate: Typically, renters must give a 60- or 90-day notice that they will not be renewing their lease, depending on the notice date written in the lease, and any applicable state or local laws. In the case of automatic renewal, if you don’t give notice, you may be automatically bound to your lease for another term or subject to a month-to-month agreement.
Deposit requirement: Deposits are sums of money that many rentals require in the event of damage to the home or unpaid rent. If these circumstances do not arise, the deposit is likely to be refunded between 14 and 60 days post-move out, depending on the state in which you live.
More Pinnegar: Renting in retirement: What you should consider
Grace period: This term denotes the period of time between your rent’s due date and when the property owner can begin charging a late fee. Some charges can be activated the day after the due date, although most grace periods vary between three and five days depending on your lease, state mandates and local laws.
Guest: A guest refers to an individual whose name is not on the lease and is not responsible for paying rent but may visit occasionally. Leases should have a guest policy that outlines rules such as what kinds of guests are allowed, how many are allowed, how many consecutive nights a person can spend and the maximum number of residents living in the space.
Lessor and lessee: A lessor refers to the property owner or manager while a lessee is the resident.
Month to month: A month-to-month lease is a one-month rental agreement that automatically renews on a monthly basis until ended by either the renter or the property owner. A notice to vacate normally still applies despite the shorter lease term.
Pet deposit/breed restrictions: A pet deposit is a one-time fee that a resident pays upfront to have a pet live in their home. This charge may be refundable depending on whether the pet causes any damage. Your rental home may also restrict certain breeds of non-service animals — generally dogs — or impose restrictions on weight and number of pets.
Prorate: A prorated rent means that a resident is paying according to the number of days they’ve occupied the home in a specific time period rather than the full typical monthly payment. This is often applied if the resident moves in or out mid-month, hence not needing to pay the full month’s rent.
More Pinnegar: Apartment trends to watch in 2022
Quiet enjoyment: This term refers to a renter’s implied right to live in their home peacefully without being disturbed by the property owner or ongoing outside disturbances. This may include unannounced visits by the property owner, ongoing construction that has exceeded the expected completion date, consistently disruptive neighbors or other factors that disturb a resident’s enjoyment.
Right of entry: A property owner has the right of reasonable entry to inspect the home, make repairs or show the home to a prospective renter, purchaser or contractor. Entry is generally limited to reasonable times and, except in the case of an emergency, the property owner must give notice of intent to enter depending on the lease agreement and applicable state and local laws.
Utilities: If you see the term “utilities included,” this generally means that services such as water, gas, electricity, sewage and/or sanitation may be included with your rent so you only have to pay one bill. In some cases, other services — like Internet and cable — may also be included, but it’s best to check with your property owner to find out which utilities are covered.
Sublet: A sublet or sublease is a contract that allows a resident to lease their home or part of the home to another individual while their name is still on the lease. This may occur when a resident has to move out early or has to live out of the home for an extended period and needs someone to cover the rent. Subletting is not always allowed and should be discussed with your property manager.
Although lease terms may seem daunting, informing yourself is the best way to ensure that you’re agreeing to a living situation that will work for you. If you see a term you don’t understand, look it up, and don’t be afraid to ask your property owner questions.
Robert Pinnegar is president and CEO of the National Apartment Association in Arlington, Va. | 2022-06-06T13:20:56Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Common lease terms renters should know before signing on dotted line - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/05/30/understanding-rental-lease-jargon/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/05/30/understanding-rental-lease-jargon/ |
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, back center, stands with heads of state during a family photo session at the CEO Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru, on Saturday, April 14, 2018. The conference brings together leading CEOs and heads of state from the Americas region to analyze opportunities to promote economic growth and investment. (Bloomberg)
When the General Assembly of the United Nations voted to condemn the invasion shortly after it started, 35 countries abstained. It wasn’t just China and fellow dictatorships such as Cuba and Nicaragua, but also India, South Africa and Senegal. Others, including Ethiopia and Morocco, didn’t vote at all. A combination of Russian arms supplies, Chinese investment and American inattention persuaded too many governments that their interests weren’t served by aligning with the US.
It’s part of a wider pattern. The Summit of the Americas, taking place this week in Los Angeles, was seen partly as a way to atone for Donald Trump’s refusal to attend the event in 2018. It’s instead become another source of friction, with the region’s leaders balking at US efforts to manage the guest list. President Joe Biden’s administration has little goodwill to fall back on and continues to struggle with basics like appointing ambassadors. Obstructionist senators are partly to blame for that — but the White House doesn’t disguise the fact that it has other priorities.
In May, a US-ASEAN summit in Washington fizzled, ending with just $150 million of new initiatives for Southeast Asia. The Biden administration is now talking up its Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity — an initiative notable for its lack of ambition, which left many of America’s would-be partners distinctly unimpressed. Last year’s promise of a summit with Africa’s leaders to counter China’s triennial Forum on China-Africa Cooperation gathering has gone nowhere.
Resources aren’t infinite, but supporting closer cooperation with the developing world would be money well spent. Whether it’s weaning countries off Russian weapons, improving food security for the planet’s poorest people, or promoting efforts to address climate change, the benefits would be huge. The Global South’s unnerving tolerance of Putin’s crimes marks a failure on the part of the US and its friends. It needs urgent attention.
Europe’s Partial Russian Oil Ban Is Flawed But Necessary: Clara Ferreira Marques and David Fickling | 2022-06-06T13:21:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The West Must Bridge the Global Divide Over Ukraine - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/the-west-must-bridge-the-global-divide-over-ukraine/2022/06/06/6467b58e-e599-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/the-west-must-bridge-the-global-divide-over-ukraine/2022/06/06/6467b58e-e599-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 06: A view of the U.S. Capitol during the sunrise on January 06, 2022 in Washington, DC. One year ago, supporters of President Donald Trump attacked the U.S. Capitol Building in an attempt to disrupt a congressional vote to confirm the electoral college win for Joe Biden. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) (Photographer: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images North America)
The House select committee investigating the attempt by former President Donald Trump to overturn the 2020 election and stay in office despite losing — in other words, to effectively subvert or overthrow the Constitution — is finally ready to present its findings, beginning with a prime-time hearing this Thursday. That will be followed by three daytime hearings next week, one more the following week, and then a final prime-time event on June 23.We don’t know everything the committee will lay out, but what we do know is bad enough. Just Security’s Ryan Goodman and Justin Hendrix have an excellent outline of what’s been revealed so far— and the questions that still need answering. The first key point: As they say, this isn’t just about the attack on the Capitol, “but instead a much broader and more multifaceted effort to stop the transfer of power.” Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein add context by putting the riot (and Watergate) in perspective as threats to the republic. And while Trump is out of office, the attempts by him and his associates to undermine the rule of law has not abated. That includes a great number of Republican elected officials, and more who are candidates this year. So the topic of these hearings is serious indeed.Most people, of course, won’t watch these events. And those most likely to seek them out overwhelmingly already think that Trump is guilty. Nevertheless, if the committee does its job, lots of people who aren’t trying to watch will still wind up seeing clips and highlights and related coverage. And while even a perfect presentation won’t change everything — the Senate Watergate hearings appeared to have had little or no direct effect on Richard Nixon’s popularity; the big changes were driven by events before and afterward — don’t fall for the cynical idea that the committee doesn’t matter at all.This isn’t about the midterms. No matter how effectively the committee does its job, the plain fact is that no one is likely to base their votes on it this November. Most voters are solid partisans who almost always vote for their party, and others have multiple concerns, from inflation to gun safety to abortion to the pandemic. Very few people can be persuaded that their senator or representative is mainly important because of how they would vote on core democratic issues.This is about the Republican Party. We can probably break Republican party actors down into three groups. There’s a small faction led by Liz Cheney that actively opposes Trump and authoritarianism. There’s a larger group, almost certainly less than half the party, that actively supports Trump and the turn against democracy. And then there’s a large middle group, including a lot of business interests, which isn’t thrilled with Trump’s excesses but doesn’t really think he and his allies are a threat to the Constitution; considers what Democrats do to be similar if not worse; and thinks that most of what’s happening is the normal gave-and-take of parties seeking advantage. Many in this group really do think of themselves as strong proponents of democracy; it’s at least possible that they can be convinced to try to turn the party around.It’s also about “neutral” elites, especially in the media. Strong norms within many professions, including at media outlets that are not aligned with either party, call for neutrality between the political parties — but don’t require neutrality about the rule of the law or democracy. Plenty is at stake, then, in convincing journalists at these outlets that accurate coverage requires proponents of Trumpism to be treated as opponents of democracy rather than of the Democratic Party. These journalists are the one big exception to general indifference about the hearings. They’ll pay attention, and collectively add what they learn to their assessment of what being neutral really means.There’s an overlapping norm here too, which is the “mainstream” bias of the neutral media; they treat things very differently depending on whether they consider them in or out of the mainstream, which itself is subject to revisions over time. (So for example the media used to treat lesbians and gays as weirdos or worse, but now tends to treat opponents of sexual minorities as weirdos or worse; their perception of the mainstream changed.) This can apply to basic facts, too. Sometimes party spin achieves the goal of mainstreaming arguments over facts, and sometimes if fails to do so. If the committee does a good job of laying out the evidence, these journalists will be one group that is open to persuasion, and that could make a big difference in their coverage going forward. Among other things? As much as Republican politicians want to be seen as solidly on the party team, at least some of them are wary of appearing to be too far out of the mainstream.I’ve been complaining for months that the committee hasn’t put enough emphasis on its public-education rule, and that these hearings are too little, too late. But political scientist Norm Ornstein argues that “By focusing on a powerful narrative and not just on uncooperative witnesses, limiting the hearings to fit the publics attention span and doing some in prime time, the committee is doing this the right way.”I hope he’s correct. | 2022-06-06T13:21:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Here Come the Jan. 6 Hearings - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/here-come-the-jan-6-hearings/2022/06/06/32202ce0-e595-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/here-come-the-jan-6-hearings/2022/06/06/32202ce0-e595-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
Free speech can’t trump every other value on campus
By Alicia Plerhoples
Georgetown University's law school. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
Alicia Plerhoples is a professor at Georgetown University Law Center.
How does a school react when freedom of speech and matters of equity collide?
That’s exactly what happened in January when law scholar Ilya Shapiro, who was days from starting a leadership position at Georgetown University Law Center, tweeted that any of President Biden’s potential nominees to the Supreme Court would be “lesser black women.”
Now, we have an answer — but not a good one: After an administrative review, Georgetown Law last week ended Shapiro’s paid leave and again welcomed him to his new job as executive director of the Center for the Constitution. In doing so, the law school trampled over values of equal educational opportunity. Reinstating the author of such a disparaging tweet is not a triumph for freedom of speech, and it drastically reduces the value of the Center for the Constitution, which will effectively no longer be open and equally welcoming to all tuition-paying students, particularly Black women.
We have seen this thinking before. On campuses and in other public squares across the country, free-speech rallying cries typically come at extraordinary costs to marginalized groups. Elevating freedom of speech while discounting every other value often means accepting the denigration of women, people of color and Indigenous people.
I have been on the Georgetown Law faculty for 10 years and am one of three vice presidents of the University Faculty Senate. After Shapiro posted his tweet, many faculty members, including me, called for the rescission of his employment contract. Shapiro had not yet begun working at the law school, and we felt he had already defied Georgetown’s “commitment to more fully embrace diversity, equity and inclusion.”
Others came to Shapiro’s defense, citing Georgetown’s policy on speech and expression, which upholds the “untrammeled verbal and nonverbal expression of ideas.” These supporters were the expected conservatives and libertarians, but liberals, too; the lionization of free speech cuts across ideology.
Ultimately, the university found that Shapiro did not violate its policies of nondiscrimination and anti-harassment because he was not employed by the school at the time of his tweet and thus not subject to those policies. (It’s unclear how he could thus be protected by the university’s free speech policy, but I digress.)
So how should Georgetown uphold its commitment to equity while still valuing free speech? The line between nondiscrimination and freedom of speech is not always clear. But in some instances, statements cause enough institutional harm and personal pain that they make a person unfit for a job in educational leadership.
Shapiro now heads a major program at Georgetown Law that conducts lectures and conferences on constitutional law, sponsors student fellows and serves as a clearinghouse for judicial clerkships. These are critical opportunities for law students. Retaining Shapiro in the role closes off the center’s offerings (not to mention any elective course Shapiro teaches) to our Black female students — and probably to many other women and students of color — who saw and understood his tweet to mean that Black people and women are of “lesser” intelligence and import.
These students will have not only suffered mental anguish as they internalize yet another authority figure belittling their capacities based solely on race and gender, but also possible adverse career consequences should they avoid Shapiro’s center, as would any rational person who wishes to avoid amplifying the discrimination they already face.
And for all the talk about Shapiro’s right to untrammeled speech, little has been devoted to Black women’s right to the same. Shapiro’s tweet adds to the stereotypes our Black female law students face daily. His characterization of Black women — and his presence — could easily have a chilling effect on the speech of these students, who already have far too many complexities and challenges they must consider when they speak in law school.
Some will point to the fact that Shapiro deleted his tweet and apologized as evidence that our Black female students will suffer no educational loss at Georgetown because of his presence. After all, mind-sets are not fixed. With self-reflection, dedication and hard work, people can learn from their mistakes and correct the damage those mistakes did.
Of course, we should all be able to make mistakes, interrogate our own biases and work to do better. But is that happening in this instance? Shapiro’s post-reinstatement victory lap in the form of a Wall Street Journal op-ed perpetuating dangerous notions of victimhood indicates otherwise.
Teaching Georgetown Law students is a privilege. And all students deserve to walk into our lectures, our conferences and our classrooms knowing that they will be respected as individuals — not judged by their race or gender. For all free speech is worth, this is the most basic and essential value of higher education that Georgetown should uphold. | 2022-06-06T13:21:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Ilya Shapiro is back at Georgetown Law. Free speech can't trump every other concern. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/06/ilya-shapiro-georgetown-law-free-speech-equity-inclusion/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/06/ilya-shapiro-georgetown-law-free-speech-equity-inclusion/ |
A Nationals sale could be hindered by the MASN mess — or help solve it
The Nationals' stadium and star make the team a tantalizing purchase. But its TV rights deal could give potential bidders pause. (Greg Fiume/Getty Images)
If the Lerner family sells the Washington Nationals in the near future, the buyers will be acquiring an enviable set of assets. Despite occupying last place in their division, the Nationals are recent World Series winners, boast one of the game’s biggest stars and are located in a thriving city with a stadium just a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol. Forbes estimates the team is worth around $2 billion.
But there is an albatross the new owner may have to contend with: MASN. Mid-Atlantic Sports Network broadcasts the Nationals’ games. Unlike other baseball teams, most of which sell their local TV rights to a regional cable network, the Nationals’ rights are bound to the network, a contentious arrangement put in place when the team moved from Montreal in 2005. And the network is controlled by the Baltimore Orioles.
“I don’t think you’d be able to close on a sale without a resolution one way or another [on MASN],” said Robert Malandro, a managing partner at Whitecap Sports Group, an investment bank that has consulted with major league teams on sales. “If someone is going to spend $2 billion, I would think they would need some certainty on the media rights.”
That could be in the works, according to two people with knowledge of the MASN agreement, who said they believe there will be an attempt to settle the dispute as an investment bank hired by the Lerners explores a sale.
Whether any attempt to settle will be successful is another matter.
A decade ago, the Nationals sued MASN over tens of millions of dollars in rights fees that they believed MASN owed them. That lawsuit is ongoing. Meanwhile, the relationship between the network and the Nationals has become so acrimonious that the sides are also embroiled in a separate lawsuit over how the network’s profits are distributed.
Aside from the legal disputes, MASN has frustrated the Nationals and their fans with cost-cutting in recent years. Coverage for games has been trimmed, and this season MASN tried to cover games without sending announcers on the road, resulting in technical difficulties.
Neither team is reaping financial benefits, at least compared with some other franchises. According to a person with knowledge of the finances, the Nationals and Orioles received around $60 million apiece last year for their TV rights. In comparison, the Philadelphia Phillies in 2014 signed a 25-year, $2.5 billion rights agreement with Comcast.
A deal for the O’s
Before the Nationals’ arrival in 2005, the Orioles had sole reign over a regional TV territory that stretched from Delaware to North Carolina. Orioles owner Peter Angelos reached an agreement with Major League Baseball to compensate his franchise for sharing its geographic territory with a new team.
Enter MASN. The Nationals and Orioles are part-owners of the network, with the Nationals owning 23 percent and the Orioles 77 percent. The Nationals’ stake increases annually by 1 percentage point until it tops out at 33 percent.
There was skepticism from the start. According to a summary of an MLB executive committee meeting the same day the agreement was signed, multiple owners, including Jerry Reinsdorf of the Chicago White Sox and Bill DeWitt of the St. Louis Cardinals, expressed reservations about the deal because of its length and potential impact on the sale price of the Nationals.
Yet the deal went through. And it makes clear that a sale of either team would not unwind it.
“In the event that either the Orioles, the Nationals, or the RSN are sold ...” the agreement reads, “all subsequent purchaser(s), assignees or transferees shall be unconditionally bound to all terms and conditions of this Agreement.” The meeting summary refers to the length of the deal as “in perpetuity.”
In a joint statement to The Washington Post, MASN and the Orioles reaffirmed their position that the agreement is necessary and firmly in place.
“The adverse effects that MLB’s decision to relocate the Expos to Washington inflicted on Baltimore, the state of Maryland, and the Orioles will continue indefinitely so long as the Nationals play in Washington,” the statement reads. “Accordingly, under the 2005 MLB-Orioles Settlement Agreement, MASN’s exclusive ownership of both the Orioles’ and the Nationals’ telecast rights throughout the Orioles’ Exclusive Home Television Territory continues in perpetuity, regardless of who the owners are of each Club.”
The Nationals declined to comment.
Commissioner Rob Manfred could undo the agreement under the “best interests of baseball” clause, an ambiguous yet broad power outlined in the MLB constitution. But one person familiar with the commissioner’s office’s thinking said MLB probably would have a hard time doing that because the Orioles have been successful arguing in court that MLB is not an unbiased party to adjudicate MASN disputes.
The upshot, according to two people familiar with the contract, is that the MASN deal is extremely difficult to unravel absent a negotiated settlement.
A changing landscape
Still, there are reasons to believe a new deal could be reached. It starts with the rapidly shifting media landscape.
MASN is an independent RSN, which means the company only operates a single cable channel. Cord-cutting has made life difficult for all RSNs but perhaps even tougher for MASN, which does not have the scale to help it negotiate with cable distributors as do Comcast or Bally’s, which own multiple sports networks.
According to research firm Kagan, S&P Global Market Intelligence, MASN’s subscriptions have fallen from 5.6 million in 2018 to 3.6 million this year. And anyone who has watched MASN in recent years has noticed the network has responded by cutting costs; there is no analyst on pregame and postgame shows for the Nationals, and the TV set beyond center field that hosted that coverage was dismantled.
“If MASN was owned by Comcast, this wouldn’t be happening,” said Bill Isaacson, a partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, who has worked on RSN litigation. “You would see much more money pumped into it.”
That could have been a possibility. According to two people familiar with the discussions, MASN had conversations around a decade ago about selling itself to Comcast for more than $1 billion. The deal that was discussed would be paying both teams more in rights fees than they are getting from MASN currently. It’s unclear why that deal fell apart.
Any new deal would have to overcome several complications. The Orioles, worried the team would struggle to sell TV rights on its own in the small market of Baltimore, have long insisted that any settlement continue to compensate them for the Nationals’ place in the market and that the teams’ rights remain partnered. The Nationals, meanwhile, would like to free themselves of any link to the Orioles and to operate their TV rights like any other team.
According to the person familiar with the commissioner’s office’s thinking, MLB is sensitive to the idea that a settlement would require more protection for the Orioles than simply returning the Nationals’ rights to them and would need to ensure both teams had viable TV revenue.
But the Nationals also have a new form of leverage. In addition to MASN’s outlook, a New York court found that MASN owes the Nationals some $100 million in backpay for rights between 2012 and 2017. The Orioles are appealing, but the Nationals’ TV rights since 2017 could be an entirely new lawsuit. Perhaps the outline of a settlement could be found in forgiving that payment in exchange for amending the MASN deal.
Another wrinkle: Angelos is 92, and rumors of the Orioles’ own interest in a sale have circulated around baseball lately. If the Angelos family were interested in selling the Orioles, they could collect a big payday in advance of a sale as part of a settlement — or new Orioles owners could be more interested in a settlement.
The same is true of the Nationals: Prospective owners could negotiate directly with the Orioles as part of the buying process. Malandro suggested prospective Nationals buyers who weren’t interested in those talks could approach their bids another way: Offer one price if a deal is worked out and another if there is no deal before the sale. | 2022-06-06T13:22:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | With MASN in the mix, a Nationals sale could get messy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/06/nationals-sale-masn-orioles/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/06/nationals-sale-masn-orioles/ |
Buttigieg is the White House’s best messenger. He should be front and center.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg speaks during a news conference at the White House on May 16. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
President Biden is a less-than-ideal messenger five months out from the midterms, partly because of his meandering speaking style and partly because he lacks the go-for-the-jugular instinct that Democrats desperately need. The vice president does not want to upstage the president and has (fairly or not) not won over the American people.
Meanwhile, Biden is stuck with lousy approval ratings, resulting in great frustration among Democrats. As my colleague Dan Balz asked, “Is it a problem of messaging or of policy, of words without impact or simply a sign of a weary and unhappy electorate that has stopped paying close attention to a president?” Whatever the answer, the White House seems tongue-tied as the Republican Party engages in performative politics designed to whip up its base.
The good news is that there is a voice in the administration who is consistently on point, aggressive (without getting nasty) and likable: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. The bad news is that his job doesn’t normally lend itself to providing message discipline for the White House and the party.
Buttigieg illustrated his skills on Sunday in an appearance on ABC News’s “This Week.” Asked whether Biden should be doing more on inflation, Buttigieg concisely explained that it is the president’s top priority, reeled off actions Biden has taken on fuel prices and quickly pivoted to a point Biden makes too infrequently: The GOP has no “concrete” plan to fight inflation.
“We’ve heard something from Sen. Rick Scott about raising taxes on lower and middle-income Americans," Buttigieg said. "There’s a continued push to ... remove the ACA. And you have, you know, continued culture wars.”
He returned to the point later in the interview: “There is our approach, which is to find solutions, to invest in our supply chains ... to do everything that we can to lower costs for American families, like the cost of insulin and prescription drugs,” he said. “And then there’s the other path that congressional conservatives have put forward, which doesn’t really speak much to inflation. It’s, you know, raising taxes on lower- and middle-class families, making a lot of political hay out of the very real challenges that families are feeling and going to war with Mickey Mouse.”
Buttigieg also deftly responded to the charge that Biden has not done anything to lower gas prices. He argued that the release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and the waiving of ethanol restrictions helped “stabilize" fuel prices. Moreover, he stressed that “the price of gasoline is not set by a dial in the Oval Office,” but by oil companies that are choosing not to fully exploit their oil leases. In response to that, Buttigieg pointed out, “the president has called for a ‘Use it or lose it’ policy” that puts a price on unused permits. But, he argued, “so far congressional Republicans have blocked action to do something like that.”
Buttigieg delivers the succinct message Biden struggles to convey: The White House brought back the economy. The president empathizes with families’ economic pain and does everything humanly possible to address inflation while allowing the Federal Reserve to do its job as the primary inflation fighter.
Buttigieg even told Democrats how to defend their record:
Just as the administration did to promote the infrastructure bill, it could increase Buttigieg’s appearances or even elevate him with a couple of other able communicators (e.g., director of the National Economic Council Brian Deese, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm) to lead the charge on lowering costs for families.
Still, there’s only so much a transportation secretary can do. Biden might consider giving him a promotion as others leave (or are urged to leave). Since he’s the best messenger the administration has, Buttigieg needs a post commensurate with his talent, even if it means booting out less adept advisers. | 2022-06-06T14:21:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Buttigieg is the White House’s best messenger. He should be front and center. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/06/buttigieg-inflation-white-house-best-messenger/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/06/buttigieg-inflation-white-house-best-messenger/ |
FILE - This 2003 electron microscope image made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows mature, oval-shaped monkeypox virions, left, and spherical immature virions, right, obtained from a sample of human skin associated with the 2003 prairie dog outbreak. British health officials reported 73 more monkeypox cases on Monday, June 6, 2022, raising the total to more than 300 across the country. (Cynthia S. Goldsmith, Russell Regner/CDC via AP, File) (Uncredited/CDC) | 2022-06-06T14:53:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | UK: 73 new monkeypox cases, biggest outbreak outside Africa - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/uk-73-new-monkeypox-cases-biggest-outbreak-outside-africa/2022/06/06/7686949c-e5a3-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/uk-73-new-monkeypox-cases-biggest-outbreak-outside-africa/2022/06/06/7686949c-e5a3-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
The right sees democracy at more risk, thanks largely to ‘fraud’ claims
Within his party, Donald Trump is winning the fight with the House Jan. 6 committee.
Police with guns drawn watch as rioters try to break into the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
Rep. Liz Cheney, conservative daughter of a central pillar of the Republican establishment, offered a warning during an interview that aired Sunday.
“People must pay attention. People must watch, and they must understand how easily our democratic system can unravel if we don’t defend it,” Cheney (R-Wyo.) said on “CBS Sunday Morning.” She was referring to the upcoming hearings from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. The effort by former president Donald Trump and his allies to undermine the 2020 election, she said, was “an ongoing threat” that she found “chilling.”
Cheney was articulating a position we’ve heard often since the 2020 election: that there exists a threat to American democracy from Trump’s insistences about the election having been tainted by fraud or otherwise “rigged” against him. That there are people willing to set aside the results of elections in favor of their preferred outcomes who are actively working to make doing so easier. It is the goal of the committee Cheney vice-chairs to make that eminently defensible position better understood.
But the fight is almost certainly already lost. Over the past year, partisan views of the risk to American democracy have not moved, while support for Cheney’s position from members of her party has softened. In the debate over what poses the biggest threat to American democracy — rampant fraud of the sort theorized for self-serving reasons by Trump or attempts to undercut the election process — Republicans are far more concerned about the former.
And in fact, they are more likely to express concern about democracy in general as a result. In other words, not only has Trump’s argument carried the day with his party, his false fraud claims have managed to spark more concern about democracy than has the months-long examination of the very real attempt to steal the 2020 election on his behalf.
It’s not unusual that there should be a partisan divide over an investigation, of course (much less anything else). The investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III was viewed through a sharply partisan lens, with Republicans becoming less likely to view Trump’s actions negatively as the investigation moved forward.
Something similar is at play with the investigation into the Jan. 6 riot — which is really a broader investigation into the ways in which Trump sought to retain power after losing in 2020. Early on, Republicans expressed discomfort with the attack. Months of efforts to reshape that opinion, though, had an effect, including the refusal of House Republican leaders to acquiesce to a broadly bipartisan investigation of what happened.
Polling from YouGov found that the percentage of Republicans who viewed the attack at the Capitol as a threat to democracy fell from 24 percent in 2021 to 18 percent this year. Importantly, Republicans were twice as likely to go from saying in 2021 that it was a threat to saying this year that it wasn’t than they were to have moved from saying it wasn’t a threat last year to saying it was this year. Ten percent of respondents moved from threat to non-threat; only 5 percent moved from non-threat to threat — despite everything we’ve learned and despite the investigations by the House committee.
Last October, polling from Grinnell College conducted by Selzer & Co. found that Republicans were 86 points more likely to say that American democracy was under threat than they were to say it wasn’t. That’s a spread 30 points larger than among Democrats or independents.
Other polling at the time, as from NPR and PBS NewsHour conducted by Marist, found a similar (if less broad) partisan gap.
In that same poll, Marist asked about fundamental concerns about the democratic process. For example, they asked how much Americans felt that elections were fair. A majority of Republicans said they had not much or no trust in the fairness of elections — this, nearly a year after the 2020 contest and well after it was obvious that no rampant fraud had occurred.
Republicans, though, told Quinnipiac University that they saw Trump’s post-election efforts to question the legitimacy of elections not as undermining democracy but — as Trump himself insisted — that he was trying to protect the system.
It cannot be stated enough that Trump’s claims about fraud are entirely baseless and that his vaguer arguments about the election having been stacked against him are little better. But he has been effective at creating a demand economy for claims about how he lost a second term through deviousness, and allies have rushed to meet that demand.
By the beginning of this year, that meant that Americans overall told CNN and its pollsters from SSRS that they had only a little confidence in elections to reflect the will of the people. This question can be interpreted in a lot of ways; those who believe electoral systems are exclusionary for certain voting groups, for example, might agree that elections don’t reflect the will of the people. But that nearly three-quarters of Republicans held that view suggests that much of the concern stems from accusations about election tampering.
In that same poll, Republicans were 32 points more likely to describe democracy as being under attack. Democrats and independents were slightly more likely to say either that democracy was being tested or is in no danger.
Even that, though, is bad news for Cheney and the Jan. 6 committee. A year into the investigation of the Capitol riot and Democrats didn’t have the same sense of urgency as party leaders.
Shortly after the first anniversary of the attack, a Fox News poll found that independents were about split on which party would do a better job protecting democracy, giving a nonsignificant edge to the GOP. That partisans preferred their own parties is not really remarkable. That independents saw it as a toss-up, though, suggests how ingrained the fraud-vs.-stealing rhetorical divide is.
For the first anniversary of the attack, Quinnipiac asked how Americans viewed the investigation itself. Again, independents were about as likely to say that the events at the Capitol should never be forgotten as they were to say it was “time to move on” from the subject.
The House committee hopes that its upcoming hearings will lay out a convincing case for how democracy is threatened by Trump’s efforts to retain power. Here, again, we can point to recent history as a reason for skepticism: When Trump faced impeachment over his efforts to force Ukraine to announce an investigation into Joe Biden, weeks of hearings had little effect on partisan views.
It’s hard to escape the conclusion that, at least within his party, Trump’s already won this fight. | 2022-06-06T15:44:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Republicans see democracy at more risk, thanks to Donald Trump’s ‘fraud’ claims, giving the Jan. 6 committee a harder fight - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/06/right-sees-democracy-more-risk-thanks-largely-fraud-claims/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/06/right-sees-democracy-more-risk-thanks-largely-fraud-claims/ |
Pay dispute roils Canada soccer after first World Cup berth in 36 years
Sunday's Canada-Panama soccer friendly was canceled as the host players strive for better pay. (Darryl Dyck/AP)
A men’s soccer match Sunday between Canada and Panama was canceled two hours before it was set to begin after Canada’s players refused to take the field because of a dispute over contract negotiations.
Canada has qualified for the World Cup for only the second time, but its players say the country’s soccer association, Canada Soccer, dragged its feet on contract negotiations and did not present an offer until Thursday.
In a letter, Canada’s players called that contract offer “archaic.” They are asking for an “equitable structure with our women’s national team that shares the same player match fees, percentage of prize money earned at our respective FIFA World Cups and the development of a women’s domestic league,” as well as 40 percent of the team’s World Cup prize money.
“We want to apologize to our fans,” the team wrote. “Playing at home with your support, is everything to us. We hope Canada Soccer will take decisive steps to work with our team so we can be back on the field for our match on June 9,” a reference to the team’s scheduled CONCACAF Nations League game against Curaçao in Vancouver.
Canada Soccer President Nick Bontis told reporters Sunday night that the organization was “disappointed” with the team’s decision not to play and apologized to the team’s fans.
“Canada Soccer has been working with the players in good faith to find a path forward that is fair and equitable to all,” Bontis said. “We would like to have a facts-based discussion within the fiscal reality that Canada Soccer has to live with every day. Canada Soccer is committed to the principles of fairness and equity and we believe we presented a fair offer to the players. We benchmarked our offer against other national teams from around the world.”
The Canadian women’s team is also negotiating its contract with Canada Soccer, and in a statement Sunday night it said it will “not accept an agreement that does not offer equal pay” with the men’s team. Like the men, the women’s team is asking Canada Soccer to give its players more information about its financial situation, particularly regarding its agreement with Canada Soccer Business, an entity launched in 2018 to run the country’s top domestic league and handle Canada Soccer’s commercial rights and corporate partnerships.
According to reports, Canada Soccer Business — “which is tied to the owners of the five-year-old Canadian Premier League” — keeps much of the revenue generated by the national teams, a framework that Bontis defended.
“Canada Soccer’s relationship with Canada Soccer Business has been pivotal in building soccer and growing the game in this country,” Bontis said. “They have invested substantial funds and support to promote soccer in this country at a critical time for its growth. In partnership together, we have built a men’s professional league in this country, creating a domestic pathway for soccer talent from across Canada.”
Per TSN, Canada Soccer is set to receive more than $10 million from FIFA after qualifying for the World Cup (teams get more the further they advance in the tournament, with the winning team receiving $42 million). In its first contract offer to the players, Canada Soccer proposed giving them 10 percent of that money, adding that the players are demanding between 75 percent and 100 percent. Bontis called that proposal “untenable,” and that Canada Soccer countered with a proposal of “60 per cent of the FIFA World Cup prize money to be split between the two National Teams.”
Last month, the U.S. Soccer Federation announced a new labor deal with its men’s and women’s national teams that closed the pay gap between the two sides. The U.S. teams will pool the World Cup bonuses received from FIFA and split them equally. Previously, the men’s team received much higher World Cup bonuses than the women’s team — even though the latter was far more successful on the global stage — because FIFA pays much larger sums to men’s teams, citing the fact that the men’s tournament generates substantially more revenue.
The good feelings engendered by Canada’s first World Cup appearance since 1986 have been at least partially diminished, and not only because of the pay dispute. Sunday’s canceled game against Panama was itself a replacement. Canada originally was scheduled to face Iran, but that match was called off amid criticism of the decision to schedule that opponent. | 2022-06-06T16:02:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Canada men’s soccer game canceled as players demand more money - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/06/canada-soccer-labor-dispute/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/06/canada-soccer-labor-dispute/ |
At the same time, the minority that supports overturning Roe appears to have also grown — reinforcing the polarization of the issue
A leaked draft opinion on May 2 shows that the Supreme Court is poised to overturn federal abortion protections. Here's what would happen. (Video: Joshua Carroll/The Washington Post)
The Supreme Court could overturn Roe v. Wade any day now. The court is gradually releasing its opinions for this term, and a recently leaked draft opinion suggested Roe is on the chopping block.
And when or if it does so, the court’s decision will be announced even as support for abortion rights has exceeded or matched previous highs in several new polls.
Almost all of the polls, which were conducted after Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.'s draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson leaked a month ago, show support for abortion rights at least virtually tied with previous highs. But most also show it exceeding the support registered in previous polls. It’s not clear that this rise is because of the leaked opinion, but the intersection is notable.
A brief summary of the findings:
A Gallup poll released late last week showed the percentage of Americans who view abortion as “morally acceptable” has crested a majority (52 percent) for the first time since at least 2001. Those saying abortion is “morally” wrong has dropped from around 50 percent, where it has hovered for most of the 21st century, to 38 percent today. And the percentage of Americans identifying as “pro-choice” has hit 55 percent — the highest since 1995 (56 percent).
A Wall Street Journal-NORC poll released late last week showed new highs in support for access to abortion if the woman can’t afford more children (59 percent) or simply wants one for any reason (57 percent). Both had been below majority support for nearly four decades until recent years.
An NBC News poll last month showed a new high in the percentage who say abortion should always be legal (37 percent) and should be legal in at least most cases (60 percent). As recently as 2013, around half of Americans said abortion should be illegal in most cases.
An NPR-PBS-Marist College poll last month showed that 6 in 10 want abortion to be legal in at least the first three months of a pregnancy, compared with about 5 in 10 in 2019.
A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll, conversely, showed little change since 2019; around 6 in 10 said abortion should be legal in all or most cases. But it was conducted shortly before the leak, and the level of support for abortion rights both in 2019 and today tracked with the highest levels in the poll since the mid-1990s.
About the only major poll suggesting little or no change after the leaked opinion came from Monmouth University. Conducted very shortly after the opinion leaked, it showed a consistent 64 percent saying abortion should be legal with some limitations.
So why has support for abortion rights risen in almost all of these post-leak polls? It appears to be driven mostly by Democrats. Gallup showed 7 in 10 Democrats identified as “pro-choice” a year ago, but that number is now approaching 9 in 10. The number of Democrats who say abortion should be legal in most cases has increased from 69 percent to 82 percent.
The number of independents supporting abortion in most cases rose slightly — from 44 percent to 51 percent — but not as much as with Democrats. There was almost no change among Republicans.
In other words, abortion is now an even more polarized issue. The middle generally supports abortion rights more than it opposes them — and its support has increased slightly — but we haven’t seen some broad-scale shift among all Americans.
Which brings us to Roe. While support for abortion rights does appear to have grown, it doesn’t appear to have registered as much when it comes to support for the landmark abortion rights decision. As much as two-thirds of Americans have long supported upholding Roe, but some polls suggest support for it might even have declined slightly of late:
The NBC poll showed a slight decline in support for not overturning Roe — 63 percent — compared with 2013 (70 percent) and 2018 (71 percent).
The Marist poll showed a slight shift in favor of overturning Roe (33 percent) relative to 2020 (27 percent).
The pre-leak Post-ABC poll showed 54 percent supported upholding Roe, compared with around 6 in 10 in 2020 and 2021.
The Monmouth poll showed 36 percent would like to “revisit” Roe, compared with 31 percent in September.
“Revisit” could be read a number of ways, including potentially expanding abortion rights beyond Roe and a case affirming it, Planned Parenthood v. Casey. But the other polls suggest a bit of a narrowing gap on overturning Roe, even as support for abortion rights has increased.
As always with Roe, there’s the question of how much people truly understand it. Overturning it would send the issue back to the states, rather than outlawing abortion (though many red states seem poised to outlaw it, and some have already passed “trigger laws” that would immediately do so). It seems possible that people have come to understand that ending Roe wouldn’t necessarily eliminate abortion rights nationwide — so those who oppose legal abortion in most cases (but who might support allowing it in certain, narrow circumstances, such as in cases involving rape or incest) have rallied to the cause of overturning it.
But if and when the legislators take that support and channel it into abortion bans, they will be doing something that a strong majority of Americans don’t like — and apparently an increasingly strong majority, at that. | 2022-06-06T16:23:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Polls show abortion rights hitting new highs as Roe v. Wade endangered - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/06/abortion-rights-polling-support/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/06/abortion-rights-polling-support/ |
From Iceland, a Nobel winner’s rediscovered masterpiece
A new translation of “Salka Valka,” by Halldor Laxness, is a compelling story of a determined woman who has to make it on her own in a small fishing village.
Review by Jane Smiley
“Salka Valka” by Halldór Laxness (Archipelago Books; courtesy of Gljúfrasteinn Halldór Laxness Museum)
Perhaps Iceland can stake a claim to being the world’s “most intriguing” country. It is a thriving independent democracy on a small volcanic island that dangles like a locket from the Arctic Circle. It has a long and complicated Scandinavian history, and for about a thousand years, it has been churning out productive and original writers. One of my favorites of these is Halldor Laxness, who was born in 1902 and died in 1998, and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1955. Maybe it is no coincidence that he was born on William Shakespeare’s birthday. His best-known novel in English is “Independent People.” But this new one, just retranslated and published by Archipelago Books, is “Salka Valka,” which was written when Laxness was in his late 20s and focuses on the spunk and inner life of a woman who has to make it on her own in a small village in the north of the island, and is, though different from “Independent People,” just as interesting.
The story begins when Salka Valka and her mother, Sigurlina, show up in the village from somewhere Salka cannot remember. Salka is 8. She would rather go on to Reykjavik and is already aware that there are no adults that she can rely on, partly because her parents weren’t married. The village’s economy is based on the fishing industry, and no one is paid a salary — the money owed to them is deposited in the accounts of a general store owned by the man who also owns the fishing company, and that is where the local families get the few basics that they can afford. Sigurlina and Salka turn to the Salvation Army for aid.
What can we learn from Iceland? A lot, says a new book about that country’s women.
Laxness explores Salka’s inner life and the social and economic circumstances of the village as both change over the course of about 20 years. Her story is long and somber, but Laxness is adept at putting in some amusing observations. At one point, Salka is talking with her somewhat mysterious but longtime friend, Arnaldur, about a politician Salka thinks is a Marxist (Marxism vs. capitalism is an ongoing theme of the novel). He says, “We are the people of Ormar Orlygsson, who despises the victory the moment it is won, and Thorsteinn Sidu-Hallsson, who had no desire to flee the enemy army at the Battle of Clontarf, but instead sat down and tied his shoelace.”
Because it was written in the early 1930s, Laxness is reticent about the event that turned Salka away from the normal woman’s life that her mother is desperate for, but the reader can sense that some sort of sexual violation is the trigger. However, Laxness is not as interested in how Salka processes that event as he is in how her self-determination and strength take her through many events and decisions, and he is also interested in how citizens of this dark town survive their troubles and argue over which political system they think will work the best for themselves and their fellow villagers.
Laxness demonstrates that in the 1920s and ‘30s, choosing the Soviet model or the American model was an individual’s choice that depended on circumstances, personality and the difficulties of actually knowing what was happening outside the village, or the city, that a person might live in. Toward the end, Salka and Arnaldur get into an argument that explores whether the political and the personal can coexist. It feels exactly like the back-and-forth a brilliant a sophisticated 30-year-old writer would come up with about the nature of love and passion and what political truths they express. Undoubtedly, this aspect of “Salka Valka” was shaped by the trouble Laxness got into in 1929 for publishing an article in a Canadian magazine focused on Icelandic immigrants to the United States that was critical of the U.S. (Laxness lived for two years in Hollywood, trying to get his break, and was disturbed by the impoverished and homeless people he saw.)
‘Miss Iceland’ is an exquisitely detailed portrait of mid-century life in Iceland
Laxness was prolific — he wrote 22 novels, as well as stories, plays, poetry, travelogues, He also translated Ernest Hemingway’s works into Icelandic. But he was a seeker, like Salka and her fellow characters, eager to understand how the world works and how it can be made to work better.
For modern readers, especially those who are aware of what a prosperous and enlightened tourist destination Iceland has become, “Salka Valka” is a wonderful exposure to Iceland’s troubled past and to the Icelandic sensibility that comes from making the best of things even when there isn’t much to be made. Laxness’s characters are rough and honest, and “Salka Valka” is one of the most empathetic portraits of a girl and a woman that I’ve read by a male author. This new translation is readable and compelling.
Jane Smiley is the author of numerous novels, including “The Greenlanders,” which was influenced by Icelandic literature.
Salka Valka
By Halldor Laxness, translated by Philip Roughton | 2022-06-06T16:23:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Jane Smiley reviews "Salka Valka," by Nobel-winner Halldor Laxness - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/06/06/jane-smiley-iceland-novel/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/06/06/jane-smiley-iceland-novel/ |
Enedelia Soto-Quintanilla works as a therapist in the Texas county that includes Uvalde. (Joshua Lott/The Washington Post)
UVALDE, Tex. — In the days since a shooter killed 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school here, Enedelia Soto-Quintanilla has barely been able to keep up with the stream of residents who want to talk.
Soto-Quintanilla thinks that healing will take years of sustained attention from professionals like her. But she and other experts warned that limited mental health resources and insurance access could keep this care out of reach for much of the town.
“It takes time and we know that this is going to be a long journey,” said Alejandra Castro, the rural services manager of the Family Service Association, a San Antonio-based organization that has operated in Uvalde for 22 years. “We know that our services are going to be here long term.”
Since the shooting, therapists have flooded the town, offering counseling to grief-stricken residents. But most of those support organizations will leave in the next few weeks or months, Castro said. And while several public and private practices in this town offer behavioral and mental health services, experts say the town lacks inpatient treatment options, and enough psychiatrists specializing in children and adolescents.
“The school districts do have a little bit of mental health counseling … but it’s woefully underfunded and not sufficient numbers across our state to meet the needs within the schools,” said Mary Garr, CEO of Family Service, which works closely with school districts. “There’s much more that needs to be done, but we can’t grow mental health counselors overnight.”
Gov. Abbott's school shooting response under scrutiny
In news conferences after the shooting, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) promised to boost mental health resources in the region, saying that the state needed to “do a better job with mental health.”
At Uvalde Memorial Hospital, the emergency staff members who treated the 15 patients from the shooting, including seven children, are struggling to process the trauma of that hectic, terrible day, said Tom Nordwick, the hospital’s CEO.
One staff member admitted not knowing how to talk to his grandson who had lost a dear friend, Nordwick said.
Soto-Quintanilla, who is originally from northern Mexico and bilingual, admitted that the task of helping others has come with a toll, prompting her managers to consider hiring outside PTSD services for the counselors themselves, she said.
Karin Brulliard contributed to this report. | 2022-06-06T16:24:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Uvalde gutted by loss and grief - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/06/uvalde-mental-health/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/06/uvalde-mental-health/ |
This combination of photos shows scenes Broadway performances from the musical “Six,” top row from left, the Lynn Nottage play “Clyde’s,” and the musical “Paradise Square,” bottom row from left, the musical “MJ,” the play “”for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf,” and the musical “A Strange Loop.” (Boneau/Brian Brown/Polk & Co., The Press Room, O & M Co./DKC, Polk & Co. and Polk & Co. via AP) (Uncredited/Various) | 2022-06-06T16:24:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | On Broadway, more visibility, yes, but also an unseen threat - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-broadway-more-visibility-yes-but-also-an-unseen-threat/2022/06/06/1fb36258-e5ad-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-broadway-more-visibility-yes-but-also-an-unseen-threat/2022/06/06/1fb36258-e5ad-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
By Brian Broome
(Petula Dvorak/The Washington Post)
Another Pride season is upon us, and with it come the hundreds of companies eager to show how supportive they are of the queer community. I walked into my local Target last week and was assaulted by all the rainbows. Rainbow shirts and jackets, books, accessories and home décor. There was rainbow pet clothing. It was a lot to take in for a man who was there to buy toilet paper and gum.
As a gay man, I’m a bit ashamed to say that I don’t remember when the whole rainbow thing got started. I don’t remember when the flag was chosen, nor do I recall when people stared displaying it as a symbol of allyship. It just appeared all of a sudden, and I was told that I’m supposed to identify with it.
I have never bought anything decorated with rainbows. My disposition doesn’t allow for it.
But Target is certainly not the only outfit to sell rainbow-colored Pride merchandise. Even giants such as J.C. Penney and Kohl’s have gotten in on the act. This leads some to take offense. I mentioned the dazzling display of Target Pride merch to a younger friend after my visit, and she rolled her eyes. “They only want our money,” she said. “They have no real interest in the queer community. I’m so tired of corporate queer-for-profit nonsense.”
And this is where she and I don’t completely agree.
My first Pride parade was back in the early 1990s, and there wasn’t a rainbow or corporate sponsor in sight. It was a rainy and miserable day in Pittsburgh, and I was terrified to participate. Up until that point, I wasn’t fully “out” and had decided to march in the parade as a first step toward becoming so. My group was small; there was no place to hide. I didn’t want to do it. And it turned out there was reason to be afraid.
Best of The Post: Pride and profit are mixed — and so are the consequences
Our march took place in the downtown area on a Saturday afternoon. The people on the sidewalks were not kind. They heckled and yelled slurs. They pointed and laughed. One woman shook a Bible at me. I recall no altercations that day, but there easily could have been. People were allowed, even encouraged, to be openly hostile to queer people.
My young friend says she has no use for Pride gatherings today. “It’s overrun with straight people with their kids, and it’s basically just a joke,” she told me.
I understand what she’s saying. But my younger friend was fortunate enough to come out and immediately find community. After some difficulty, her parents have grown to accept their daughter and her partner. While fantastic for her, this is also the weakness of her argument. She doesn’t know what she doesn’t know.
Besides, does she not see the wave of anti-LGBTQ sentiment and lawmaking washing over the country? Right now, we should be welcoming the support of however many straight people and companies want to give it — and however they want to give it. I understand that there are some in the queer community who believe the rainbow-ification of the movement has declawed it. But it’s not a zero-sum game. For every rainbow keychain, someone is out there fighting the good fight.
In my youth, I could not have imagined a store selling merchandise celebrating what I had been led to believe was the biggest shame of my life. I wonder how a 13-year-old me would have reacted had I seen how positively normal it is to be gay — so normal that a department store is selling T-shirts about it. I wonder if those of us who marched in that parade would have held our heads up higher simply in the knowledge that we were not, as the hecklers said, sick and depraved.
I know queer people who are more “woke” will disagree. But if you never see yourself represented, you are most likely to believe what others say about you. Representation matters even if it comes in the form of a rainbow shirt on a dog. Somewhere that dog shirt is helping someone.
So, although I won’t buy rainbow merchandise, I’m glad it’s there assaulting my eyes in Target. Yes, it’s capitalism at work, and it’s soulless. But it’s there. I remember what it was like to feel totally alone. Some other kid might see it and realize they aren’t alone. And realize they are among others, many others. And that, somewhere, they can find acceptance. | 2022-06-06T16:24:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | This Pride Month, I'm embracing 'rainbow capitalism' - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/06/pride-month-rainbow-capitalism-acceptance/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/06/pride-month-rainbow-capitalism-acceptance/ |
Three variations of the AR-15. (Rich Pedroncelli/AP)
Another weekend in the United States of America has come and gone, and with it the lives of a dozen people killed by guns. A spate of mass shootings through Sunday killed at least 12 and wounded 38, and a number of those slain were teenagers or in their early 20s.
Yet at a gun store in Georgia, AR-15s are flying off the shelves, with customers lining up outside in anticipation of getting their hands on more firepower. To some of those shoppers, the very fact that such shootings appear to be on the rise — and are the focus of the media and politicians — is encouragement to arm up further.
Which is exactly how the gun industry apparently wants it to be.
This Georgia store is of interest because a local TV news crew aired an extraordinary segment over the weekend on its sales. The report captures in a very dark way the degree to which a maximally armed society is the industry’s barely disguised goal, and why some in the industry see fomenting social antagonism and division as key to pushing us further down that perilous path.
Sales of assault-style rifles have tripled since last week at this Adventure Outdoors store in Smyrna, Ga., according to the report. Gun sales overall are up 30 percent, and after President Biden delivered a speech Friday calling for more gun safety laws, the buying of AR-15s spiked.
“Folks were waiting at the door to purchase AR-15s,” the store’s owner says in the report, which was first flagged by Ron Filipkowski, a lawyer who closely tracks the right.
The owner also says customers should consider AR-15s precisely because they are semiautomatic. “If you deal with a mob of people possibly trying to take over your home,” he says, “to protect your family, you’ll want as much firepower as you can get.”
These sentiments appear to resonate with customers. One of them describes the AR-15 as “America’s rifle,” in that it is “what Americans choose to defend their homes with.” Another customer says this:
The way this president is driving this country, everybody needs to be carrying at this point.
Such sentiments appear partly driven by Biden’s proposal to revive the assault weapons ban, which expired nearly 20 years ago. Some customers probably want to stock up on AR-15s in the belief that buying them might soon be illegal.
Indeed, gun sales have historically spiked at such times. They surged after President Barack Obama’s election in 2008. They surged in 2012 and again in 2015, both times after mass shootings that led to renewed calls for gun safety laws. So we might be seeing yet another cycle of this.
But something else is also going on here. The gun customer’s claim above that “everybody needs to be carrying,” due to the way Biden is “driving” the country, increasingly could serve as the gun industry’s motto.
Our current moment is in part the result of the gun industry’s radicalization. It has marketed guns in a way designed to target younger demographics and to encourage the militarization of our culture, the increasing introduction of military-style weaponry into civil society.
But another component of the industry’s radicalization, as former gun company executive Ryan Busse argues, is its push toward ever-increasing firepower, toward a kind of fully armed society and the deliberate exploitation of social antagonisms to jet-fuel this trend.
You hear echoes of this in the customer’s suggestion that the AR-15 has become “America’s rifle,” and in the gun store owner urging the purchase of ever more firepower, on the idea that “mobs,” as opposed to lone intruders, will soon invade your home. You see, the threat can always be inflated further.
“There seems to be a particular ratcheting up now,” Busse told me. The goal, he said, is a “maximally armed public.”
Busse points out that the industry sometimes hails increased gun sales not just as a sign of business success, but as a positive societal development, as an indication that people who fear crime are doing right by themselves. At times, he notes, gun manufacturers hype the possibility of racial conflict to induce people to arm up further in preparation for that eventuality.
“They’re smart enough to never quite say, ‘Thank God, society is almost ready to come apart, we’re selling everybody guns!’” Busse told me. “It just gets so dangerously close.”
The industry’s defenders might argue that if sales are spiking, it really is because Democrats want to ban things like AR-15s. But even so, it’s difficult to imagine an assault weapons ban passing this Congress. If anything does pass, it will be much more modest: incremental improvements in background checks, incentives for “red flag” laws, and so forth.
What’s more, whatever role the specter of an assault ban plays in driving sales, it’s obvious that something much darker is at work here. The belief that “everybody needs to be carrying,” not just for self-defense but also because Biden is supposedly pushing the country to a place of full-scale civic breakdown, appears to be precisely what the industry wants to encourage in people.
If that Georgia saga is any indication, this might be having the desired effect. And it’s hard to avoid the sense that these virulent tendencies will get worse — perhaps much worse — before they get better. | 2022-06-06T16:24:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Surging AR-15 sales in Georgia reveal the gun industry’s dark side - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/06/surging-assault-weapon-sales-georgia-gun-industry/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/06/surging-assault-weapon-sales-georgia-gun-industry/ |
FILE - Solar panels face the sky on Jan. 26, 2021, in Burrillville, R.I., at ISM Solar’s 10-acre solar farm which is the first of its kind in the state. President Joe Biden plans to invoke the Defense Production Act to increase U.S. manufacturing of solar panels while declaring a two-year tariff exemption on panels from Southeast Asia. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)
The Defense Production Act lets the federal government direct manufacturing production for national defense and has become a tool used more commonly by presidents in recent months. President Donald Trump’s administration used it to produce medical equipment and supplies during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic. Biden evoked its authority last month to prioritize boosting the nation's supplies of baby formula amid a domestic shortage caused by the safety-related closure of the country’s largest formula factory. | 2022-06-06T16:24:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Biden waives solar panel tariffs, seeks to boost production - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-waives-solar-panel-tariffs-seeks-to-boost-production/2022/06/06/e5c76b9c-e5ad-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-waives-solar-panel-tariffs-seeks-to-boost-production/2022/06/06/e5c76b9c-e5ad-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
The Post’s Mike Hume named editor for Emerging News Products team
Announcement from Director for Emerging News Products Chris Meighan:
I am delighted to announce that Mike Hume will become editor for the Emerging News Products team. In this role he will focus on the development of new products and explore ways to reshape and bolster our current offerings. He will craft new product ideas, lead experiments and collaborate with editors around the newsroom to shape strategies for new and expanding coverage areas.
As Mike moves from Sports to ENP, he will bring Launcher, our video gaming and esports vertical, of which he is the lead editor. Mike conceptualized and founded the sub-brand two and a half years ago with the goal of rethinking and broadening coverage of the gaming industry while also attracting a younger audience to The Post. Under his leadership the team has published impactful stories on accountability, news, utility and the future of technology and entertainment. He will continue to grow and evolve Launcher for the time being, while we seek another editor to lead it long term.
Mike has spent the past eight years in Sports. Before founding Launcher, he led the department’s national team of writers covering NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and college sports. A hallmark of his time at The Post has been his drive to innovate and iterate. Whether it was as simple as creating a new conceit for one of his writers (such as Neil Greenberg’s “Perfect Bracket” preview of March Madness), a new coverage area (such as with fantasy football), a creative way to present information around a trending news story (the Colin Kaepernick Tracker) or popular discussion topic (NFL teams’ success in the draft), Mike has delighted in finding ways to present our audiences with insightful information in formats that have been useful and accessible.
Before coming to The Post, Mike worked at ESPN for six years, where he was responsible for managing ESPN Insider’s NFL, NHL and college basketball content. He’s also edited, wrote and blogged on the NHL, MLB and college basketball for ESPN The Magazine, ESPN Insider and ESPN New York.
Mike is a native of Connecticut and graduated from Georgetown University.
Please congratulate him on the new role, effective immediately. | 2022-06-06T16:25:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Post’s Mike Hume named editor for Emerging News Products team - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/pr/2022/06/06/posts-mike-hume-named-editor-emerging-news-products-team/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/pr/2022/06/06/posts-mike-hume-named-editor-emerging-news-products-team/ |
Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown and Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green had to be separated during Game 2 of the NBA Finals. (Jed Jacobsohn/AP)
SAN FRANCISCO — Draymond Green hit the Chase Center court for Sunday’s Game 2 intent on “setting the tone” defensively for the Golden State Warriors. Sure enough, he wrestled Al Horford to the hardwood to force a jump ball on the very first possession.
The Warriors evened the NBA Finals at one game apiece by combining Green’s intensity with Stephen Curry’s shot-making in a 107-88 runaway over the Boston Celtics. While Curry sealed the win with what Warriors Coach Steve Kerr called a “breathtaking” performance in the third quarter, Green’s physical antics on several plays got the attention of both the referees and the Celtics.
Midway through the first quarter, Green ran through Grant Williams while heading to the top of the key to set a screen, drawing a foul on the Celtics forward in the process. During the ensuing dead ball, Green received a technical foul for repeatedly pushing Williams away from him.
Then, shortly before halftime, Green became entangled with Jaylen Brown as the Celtics guard attempted a three-pointer. Green, who was called for a defensive foul, landed awkwardly with his right foot near Brown’s head. When Brown took exception to the extra contact, Green yanked at Brown’s shorts while he got to his feet.
The two players had to be separated, though both avoided extra discipline. Had the referees issued double technical fouls for the minor altercation, Green would have been ejected from what was a one-possession game at halftime.
“I'm just trying to play basketball,” Brown said. “I feel like that was an illegal play. I feel like they could have called it, but they let it go in terms of a technical either way. But I don't know what I was supposed to do there. Somebody got their legs on the top of your head and then he tried to pull my pants down. I don't know what that was about. That's what Draymond Green does. He'll do whatever it takes to win. He'll pull you, he'll grab you, he'll try to muck the game up because that's what he does for their team. It's nothing to be surprised about.”
Celtics Coach Ime Udoka was assessed a technical foul of his own midway through the third quarter when the referees missed an apparent reach-in foul on Green while he defended Brown on the perimeter. Udoka said that he received the technical “on purpose” for letting the referees “know how I felt throughout the game in a demonstrative way.”
As for the dust-up before halftime, Udoka implied that Green’s prior technical foul influenced the decision not to assess double technical fouls on Green and Brown.
“I was not surprised there wasn’t a double technical called,” Udoka said. “Not surprised at all, due to the circumstances.”
Former NBA referee Steve Javie endorsed the officials’ decision during the ABC broadcast, asserting that awareness of Green’s previous technical is “part of good officiating.”
“You have to consider that one player definitely has a technical foul,” Javie said. “Is this enough to call a double [technical] and eject the one player? Personally, I would say nothing and let it defuse.”
Green, of course, is no stranger to operating in gray areas during the playoffs. In the second round against the Memphis Grizzlies, he was ejected from Game 1 for a flagrant foul when he yanked Brandon Clarke out of the air by his jersey.
Most famously, the seven-time all-defensive team selection got in hot water at multiple points during the 2016 playoffs, twice kicking Oklahoma City Thunder center Steven Adams below the belt in the Western Conference finals before getting suspended for Game 5 of the Finals for a swipe to the groin of Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James.
“We know what Draymond brings to the game,” said Celtics forward Jayson Tatum, who played with Green on USA Basketball’s gold medal winning team at the Tokyo Olympics. “I love that about him. Obviously, I played with him. We tried to match that. I just felt like we weren’t getting the benefit of the doubt when we were trying to play with that physicality.”
Green finished with nine points, five rebounds and seven assists in 35 minutes, a modest line that didn’t truly reflect his impact on Game 2. Although he was whistled for just three fouls, Golden State’s blowout margin meant that both teams rested their starters for long stretches of the fourth quarter.
In a strategic tweak, Kerr deployed Green more often as a primary defender on Tatum and Brown in hopes of disrupting the Celtics’ offensive rhythm. After scoring 120 points in their Game 1 win, the Celtics managed just 88 points in Game 2, their lowest total of the 2022 postseason. Boston committed 18 turnovers and shot just 30-for-80 on the night, and Brown had one of his worst shooting performances of the playoffs, going 5-for-17 from the field. The Celtics will try to regain their offensive chemistry in Wednesday’s Game 3 at TD Garden.
“[The Warriors] switched the lineup,” Brown said. “They tried to put [Green] on me, be physical, muck the game up, pull me, grab me and, overall, raise the intensity. I feel like they got away with a lot of stuff tonight, but I’m looking forward to the challenge of the next game. All that stuff, the gimmicks, the tricks, we’ve just got to be the smarter team and the more physical team.”
There are other numbers but that tweet right there sums things up nicely. The Celtics couldn’t miss in the fourth, starting with Jaylen Brown and continuing down the roster to Derrick White, Marcus Smart, Payton Pritchard (?!) and the veteran Al Horford, who hit shot after shot on the eve of his 36th birthday to finish with 26 points. He was 6-for-8 from three and the Celtics hit their first seven attempts from long range in the fourth, ultimately using a 17-0 run to end the game well before the final buzzer. | 2022-06-06T16:25:17Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Draymond Green gets under Celtics' skin in Game 2 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/06/draymond-green-technical-fouls-nba-finals/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/06/draymond-green-technical-fouls-nba-finals/ |
By Joseph G. Allen
Latoya Carroll picks up her children after an early dismissal at Franklin Square Elementary/Middle School in Baltimore because of a lack of air conditioning in the building on May 31. (Vincent Alban/AP)
Joseph G. Allen is an associate professor and director of the Healthy Buildings program at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He co-wrote “Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Drive Performance and Productivity.”
The importance of good ventilation in schools for covid-19 is, by now, well understood. But the imperative to improve ventilation in schools goes far beyond preventing the spread of diseases. We also need it because of the rising threat of extreme heat, which too many schools are not prepared for.
In recent weeks, thousands of students were sent home early from schools in Baltimore, Philadelphia and Detroit because the buildings don’t have air conditioning. This happened in May, not in the summer months when heat waves usually arrive.
Two realities are hitting hard and fast: The first is that climate change is bringing more intense heat earlier in the season and for more days throughout the year. The second is that many school buildings in traditionally cooler-weather climates were actually designed to retain heat.
Consider that in Boston, where I live, the temperature surpassed 90 degrees Fahrenheit an average of 11 times a year between 1971 and 2000. By 2030, that number could rise to 40. By 2070, it could reach 90.
Last year was the hottest June ever in Boston, and our students are in school until the week before July. Now consider that nearly half of Boston’s public school buildings used in the summer don’t have air conditioning. What’s the plan here — close those schools for June in the coming years? And maybe September, too?
If that sounds far-fetched, check out Philadelphia’s actual stated plan: When it hits 90 degrees inside classrooms, the city aims to close the half of its schools without air conditioning but keep the other half open. This will only worsen inequities in the system simply because of differential investment in school infrastructure.
And the problem is not just missed school days. Heat also has an impact on student performance. One study of test performance among high-schoolers in New York found the likelihood of a student failing a test on a day hotter than 90 degrees was 12 percent higher than if the test was taken on a 72-degree day.
The same author co-wrote a study of 10 million students across the country and found a cumulative effect of heat: Test scores were even lower when there were three consecutive days of high temperatures. They were also lower when the temperature was higher in the years before the test. Air conditioning in schools “almost fully offsets” that impact, they found.
The problem is aggravated by the fact that in places with traditionally cooler climates — especially the Northeast and across the northern Midwest — we’ve designed our buildings to retain heat. Which makes sense. Or, rather, it made sense for the climate of the 20th century.
But now that’s working against us, as I wrote in my book, “Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Drive Performance and Productivity.” These buildings were typically built with materials with high thermal mass, such as brick and concrete, that help capture and retain heat. A terrific strategy for winter but disastrous in summer. Even worse, when temperatures stay high overnight, the building can’t “shed” heat, so the “indoor heat wave” continues days after the outdoor one ends.
It’s also not just K-12 schools facing this issue. Many colleges have dorms without air conditioning, yet they use the buildings all summer. When it hit 97 degrees in Rhode Island last June students at Brown University reported trouble sleeping and concentrating. Their experience fits with research I helped conduct, which found that students in dorms without air conditioning had scores about 10 percent lower both in terms of reaction time and in the speed in answering simple math questions.
There is concern that air conditioning could contribute to more greenhouse gas emissions, which would exacerbate the heat problem. But there are solutions here that we haven’t yet tapped. First and foremost, schools should be part of the “electrify everything” movement, with the goal of eliminating on-site combustion of fossil fuels. Heat pumps are in vogue because they can provide electric cooling and heating. And energy-recovery ventilation systems allow us to keep ventilation rates high for infection control while conserving energy to cool and heat the air. Simultaneously, we must continue our efforts to expand on-site renewable energy generation with solar panels and turn the electrical grid green. At that point, the energy use for air conditioning would have little environmental cost.
But our response to the climate crisis can’t be “no air conditioning in schools.” That would mean keeping kids out of school, and, thus, kids not learning. After the past two years of learning loss, can we really afford to lose months at the start and end of every school year because of heat?
The money is there. Billions of dollars allocated to schools for covid response as part of the American Rescue Plan remain unspent. And we know how to fix this.
The climate data is telling us that next year will be hotter than this year. That sentence will be true for the foreseeable future. Are we willing to let the costs to kids’ learning pile up? | 2022-06-06T17:24:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | No school should have to close because of extreme heat - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/06/no-school-should-close-because-extreme-heat/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/06/no-school-should-close-because-extreme-heat/ |
How Boris Johnson went from landslide victory to no confidence vote
Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his partner Carrie Symonds wave from the steps of number 10 Downing Street in London on Dec. 13, 2019. (Matt Dunham/AP)
December 2019: A landslide election
January 2020: First covid-19 case in Britain
April 2021: Allegations of corruption
December 2021: First ‘partygate’ allegations
May 5, 2022: Local elections
May 25, 2022: ‘Partygate’ report blames Downing Street
June 2022: Vote of no-confidence
The sudden rise of Boris Johnson once baffled political analysts. But now, the quick reversal of his political fortune may be even more jaw-dropping.
Dismissed as the clown prince of British politics for decades, Johnson secured an enormous parliamentary majority for his Conservative Party after calling an early general election in December 2019.
It looked to be a dramatic realignment of British politics as the right-wing Tory government took seats that historically went to the left-wing Labour.
Less than three years later, Johnson is facing a vote of no-confidence from his own party, with former allies dubbing his behavior during scandals an “insult to the electorate.”
A series of rowdy, lockdown-breaking parties at Downing Street during the pandemic served as the chief problem for Johnson, long known as a raconteur and rabble-rouser.
How the vote of
no confidence works
Tories needed 54 letters (15% of their parliamentary group) to challenge Johnson.
Johnson wins the vote
If Johnson gets a simple majority of members of parliament — 180 votes — he can stay as prime minister. Current rules say he cannot be challenged again for a year, though those rules can be changed.
Johnson loses the vote
He can stay as a caretaker for six weeks until a new leader is decided upon.
A very close vote, however, could force him to resign.
Only one candidate
Two candidates
The grass-roots Conservative Party membership decides the new Prime Minister.
Three or more candidates
Conservative lawmakers vote, eliminating the least voted until only two are left.
New Prime Minister
CHIQUI ESTEBAN/THE WASHINGTON POST
How the vote of no confidence works
But there is also more general discontent with Johnson’s leadership which has been compounded by other woes in Britain, including rapidly rising inflation.
Even if he wins Monday’s vote, few expect Johnson to still be in office by the time of the next general election — which legally must take place before Jan. 24, 2025.
Here’s how we got here.
Just months after winning a Conservative Party leadership race to succeed Theresa May, Johnson called an early general election.
He would go on to win 365 seats in Britain’s 650-seat Parliament, a win that not only served as the largest electoral win for the Tories since Margaret Thatcher but also inflicted a hobbling blow to the opposition Labour Party.
Johnson, a key backer of Britain’s exit from the European Union, argued that victory showed that Britain wanted to “get Brexit done” following the years of infighting and failed negotiations that had followed the 2016 vote.
While much of Westminster was still focused on Brexit negotiations, on Jan. 29 it was confirmed that a new threat had reached it: the coronavirus. The pandemic would go on to kill more than 170,000 people across Britain, with millions more infected.
Even Johnson himself would catch covid-19, becoming ill enough that he was out of the office for weeks and would spend time in an intensive care unit.
Though his illness created public sympathy, Johnson was also widely criticized for his handling of the pandemic.
In October 2021, a year-long inquiry conducted by two committees of the House of Commons called the pandemic “one of the most important public health failures the United Kingdom has ever experienced.”
In late April 2021, Johnson’s government was hit by allegations of corruption that hit close to home: His apartment.
Britain’s political spending watchdog began an investigation into whether funds used to pay for the refurbishment of 11 Downing Street were properly disclosed.
Months later, the Electoral Commission would conclude in December that Johnson’s Conservative Party had not properly reported donations and would impose a fine of more than $22,000.
Johnson’s government would soon become mired in multiple accusations of “sleaze.” Johnson’s decision to defend a colleague who had accepted payments from two companies he promoted while serving as a lawmaker added to the idea that the prime minister and his allies did not follow the rules.
The defining scandal for Johnson would be a series of parties that were held at Downing Street amid lockdowns and social distancing requirements.
British media soon dubbed it “partygate.”
The scandal quickly led to recriminations and resignations. Reports of an off-limits Christmas Party at 10 Downing Street in 2020 led a communications aide to resign after a video leaked of her jokingly talking about the gathering, long before official denials.
But the scandal showed legs, rolling onward as more details of illicit parties continued into the early months of this year.
Johnson’s approval rating sank, while as early as December polls were finding that a majority of the country thought the prime minister should resign.
Far from the heights of 2019, Johnson’s governing Conservatives were pummeled in local elections held May 5.
The Tories lost almost 500 seats for municipal councilors, with major defeats in two boroughs of London (Westminster and Wandsworth) that have long been considered the heart of the metropolitan Conservative Party.
Many within the party blamed Johnson for dragging down the party, but the issue was not just partygate. With inflation in Britain hitting record highs, critics argued that Johnson’s mismanagement was causing a cost of living crisis.
“We’ve sent a message to the prime minister, Britain deserves better,” Labour leader Kier Starmer said following the votes.
A long-awaited internal investigation released May 25 offered little reprieve for Johnson, laying the blame squarely on the prime minister’s office for hosting events at Downing Street that “should not have happened.”
The report, compiled by senior civil servant Sue Gray, detailed excessive alcohol consumption and partying until near dawn at the center of British politics. Someone was sick from alcohol on June 18, 2020; there was almost a fight at the same event, which Gray described as a “minor altercation.”
The report detailed 16 gatherings between May 2020 and April 2021 at the prime minister’s Downing Street office, his official residence upstairs or the nearby cabinet office.
There were nine photographs of the prime minister at parties in the report, including one of him raising a glass in a toast.
“The senior leadership at the center, both political and official, must bear responsibility for this culture,” Gray wrote, adding that some junior staff “believed that their involvement in some of these events was permitted given the attendance of senior leaders.”
A separate police investigation had already determined that 83 people violated lockdown rules, including the prime minister, his wife, Carrie, and Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
Johnson was fined for attending one party, though his critics argued that he had been let off too easily.
After weeks of speculation, it was confirmed that Johnson would face a vote of no confidence by his fellow Conservative Party lawmaker after at least 54 came out in favor of the motion.
The vote will be held in the evening of June 6, with Johnson needing a simple majority of 180 votes or more to remain in power.
Though many analysts believe Johnson had the votes to stay in power if it is anywhere near a close vote, he will probably face calls to resign anyway.
Former allies have come out against him, suggesting that despite his electoral win in 2019, he had since sullied the Conservative Party’s name.
“You are simply seeking to campaign, to keep changing the subject and to create political and cultural dividing lines mainly for your advantage, at a time when the economy is struggling, inflation is soaring and growth is anemic at best,” ex-minister Jesse Norman wrote in a letter released Monday.
The move against Johnson appeared to have been timed to avoid clashing with the Platinum Jubilee celebrations for Queen Elizabeth II. Johnson and his wife were booed when they arrived at a celebration for the jubilee Friday. | 2022-06-06T17:42:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How Boris Johnson went from landslide victory to no confidence vote - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/06/boris-johnson-landslide-no-confidence/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/06/boris-johnson-landslide-no-confidence/ |
The World Cup is scheduled to begin this fall in Qatar. (Giuseppe Cacace/AFP/Getty Images)
Soccer players do not get to choose where the World Cup is played. If they did, Qatar probably wouldn’t appear on many top 10 lists.
Put aside the logistical headache of packing 32 teams and hundreds of thousands of fans into one metro area for a tournament that typically takes place in at least 10 cities. Never mind the tournament was bumped from summer to winter — smack in the middle of most league seasons — because of the Arabian heat.
The broader concern in FIFA’s suspect selection of Qatar to host this year’s tournament centers on the country’s human rights record: migrant workers trapped in a restrictive employment system known as kafala; hundreds of deaths reportedly linked to stadium and infrastructure projects; gender inequality; and illegality of homosexuality.
In about five months, the U.S. men’s national team will arrive in Doha aiming to win group-stage matches and qualify for the knockout round. It’s a realistic goal. Of the four teams vying for two slots in the round of 16, only England is higher ranked.
Beyond the pitch, though, the players say they see the big picture and plan to use the platform provided by the planet’s most popular sporting event to illuminate human rights issues.
“This is a group that’s always been courageous,” center back Walker Zimmerman said last week during training camp in Cincinnati. “We are using opportunities at this camp to talk about, are there steps we want to take in Qatar? Are there things we want to do? We certainly want to be leaders, stand up for what we believe in.”
Soccer In a prime World Cup tuneup, USMNT plays Uruguay to a scoreless draw
The players say conversations will continue through the remainder of this camp, which ends after a June 14 visit to El Salvador, and pick up again in September when the team gathers in Europe for a week. In between, the core of the team is in regular communication.
They say they recognize the fine line speaking out while respecting their hosts.
“It’s obviously a different country with a different set of rules, but this group has always been adamant on being the change, always getting the word out there,” right back Reggie Cannon said.
It began in November 2020 in Wales, the team’s first game since the coronavirus pandemic started and social justice protests ignited in the United States and spread around the world. With “Be the Change” plastered across the front of their warm-up jackets, the players locked arms during the national anthem. “Be the Change” became their motto and mission.
A month later, they chose individual messages for the back of their jackets. Among the selections were “Black Players for Change,” “Unity,” and “We Are All Equal.”
“The guys really take it seriously and really believe that, if we want change, it’s up to the individual to take responsibility for it,” Coach Gregg Berhalter said at the time.
It’s a conscientious group, fueled in part by its diversity. In the current camp, 17 of the 26 players are Black or Latino. Midfielder Weston McKennie has been outspoken on racial issues and goalkeeper Zack Steffen, who is not in this camp, launched a foundation designed to help athletes who want to speak out about equality issues and contribute to “high-risk, minority communities,” according to its website.
On Sunday, the players issued a letter demanding Congress take action on gun violence.
“We’re an incredibly diverse group made up of so many backgrounds, and it’s a common cause that we can all believe in,” Zimmerman said. “When we have the unity that we have, we want to affect the United States on and off the field.”
The players believe they can effect change abroad, too.
When asked about making their voices heard before and during the World Cup , McKennie said: “We’ve definitely been in discussions. It started over a year ago and bringing in people to inform us of everything that’s going on [in Qatar]. We’ll definitely discuss within the team what kind of gestures and things we want to do at the World Cup and leading up to the World Cup.”
The U.S. Soccer Federation has provided experts to educate players about Qatar and has engaged with them in potential efforts to raise awareness of issues surrounding the event.
To ensure fair labor practices, the USSF said it has hired a compliance officer to vet Qatari vendors and companies they’ll contract during their multiweek stay.
“They’ve done a lot of educating for us about the issues going on there,” right back DeAndre Yedlin said of the federation. “Now we’ve made the [global] stage. We’re going to be there. We’re going to see what action we can take to help change, help make the change and be the change. Ultimately it’s bigger than the sport.”
Other national teams have used their popularity to make statements. Before respective qualifiers in March 2021, German players lined up to spell out “Human Rights” with T-shirts and Norwegian players wore shirts saying, “Human rights on and off the pitch.”
FIFA, which usually frowns on such acts, did not discipline either team, a sign it will, to a point, condone World Cup protests.
Zimmerman said the U.S. players will “decide as a group [whether] there [are] steps we can take, and those conversations will be ongoing through November.”
To Cannon, raising awareness of issues in Qatar is an extension of efforts he believes athletes should make while they hold a captive audience.
“I may not have that platform later to bring light to the issues I’ve experienced, my community has experienced,” Cannon said. “That’s important looking at the grand scheme of things. I know there is always a debate about leaving politics out of sports, but what I can do to help contribute to this world is use my platform I’ve garnered with the people I’ve touched with my experiences and shed light on the social issues that everyone in this world faces.” | 2022-06-06T17:55:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | USMNT see big picture with World Cup in Qatar - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/06/usmnt-world-cup-qatar-athlete-activism/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/06/usmnt-world-cup-qatar-athlete-activism/ |
JetBlue’s New Takeover Offer Puts Rival Bidder Frontier in Hot Seat
FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA - MAY 16: A JetBlue Airlines plane near a Spirit Airlines plane at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on May 16, 2022 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. JetBlue announced it is taking a hostile position in its effort to acquire Spirit Airlines. Spirit previously rejected a takeover offer from JetBlue, favoring an earlier deal to merge with Frontier airlines. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) (Photographer: Joe Raedle/Getty Images North America)
JetBlue Airways Corp. isn’t giving up in its pursuit of Spirit Airlines Inc. But a revamped bid raises more questions for Spirit shareholders trying to decide which offer to back.
JetBlue once again tweaked its proposal for Spirit in an effort to thwart the ultra-low cost carrier’s plans to sell itself to Frontier Group Holdings Inc. JetBlue is now offering to pay a $350 million breakup fee — up from $200 million — in the event antitrust regulators block the transaction. The move comes after Frontier amended its own proposal to add a $250 million reverse termination fee amid criticism from proxy firm Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. about the lack of one. But Frontier declined to rejigger the terms of its bid to bridge the wide financial gap between what JetBlue is offering. JetBlue is also proposing to pay about half of that $350 million fee upfront as a dividend payment to Spirit holders, should they vote to approve a transaction.
The bottom line is that JetBlue’s bid is still materially higher than Frontier’s, and it’s clearly motivated to fight for the chance to acquire Spirit. JetBlue is offering more than $30 a share in cash for Spirit (more on the specifics in a moment), or about $7 billion including the assumption of debt. Frontier’s stock-and-cash offer was valued at about $21 a share based on Friday’s trading prices. JetBlue likely faces a more challenging antitrust review, but both deals carry regulatory risks. JetBlue’s odds of closing a deal aren’t so impossible that Spirit shareholders can simply overlook the higher offer.
Read more: JetBlue Is Going to Force Up Price for Spirit
That said, the latest proposal from JetBlue carries some interesting asterisks. A footnote in the press release cautions that the dividend payment is “subject to any CARES Act limitations.” The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act of 2020 provided up to $25 billion in loans to passenger airlines but required limitations on share repurchases and barred carriers from paying dividends or other capital distributions with respect to common stock until a year after the loan had been repaid.
JetBlue participated in this financial aid program and repaid its borrowings from the government in September 2021, according to its regulatory filings. Asked about dividend payments last month at JetBlue’s annual meeting, Chief Financial Officer Ursula Hurley said, “at this point, we have no plans to pay dividends as we are unable to pay dividends, given the restrictions from the CARES Act financial support that we received throughout Covid.” This is at most a temporary restriction, and it’s not clear whether the limitations would extend to dividends paid to another company’s shareholders. JetBlue said it would pay $164 million ($1.50 a share) “up front” and “promptly” after Spirit shareholders vote to back a deal, but CARES Act considerations suggest that the payout could take slightly longer.
JetBlue’s press release also makes no mention of its initial $33-a-share offer. That bid was still on the table as of last month, pending due diligence, according to JetBlue’s previous update on its proposal. Monday’s offer is for a total of $31.50 a share —$30 paid upon closing plus the $1.50 a share from the prepaid reverse termination fee — “in a negotiated transaction.” It’s not clear what — if anything — happened to JetBlue’s willingness to pay $33 a share, but the absence of that particular number from Monday’s announcement is notable.
Finally, Spirit has repeatedly indicated that it finds the stock component of Frontier’s bid particularly attractive because it allows the company’s shareholders to participate in future upside for the combined company, whereas in JetBlue’s all-cash deal, investors’ financial payout would be capped at whatever the final terms end up being. The stock component of Frontier’s offer was also called out as a benefit for Spirit shareholders by proxy firm Glass Lewis & Co. And yet through all the twists and turns to date, JetBlue has declined to add a stock component to its offer. This is somewhat unusual as equity is traditionally considered an easier way to sweeten a deal than offering more cash, which would require raising more debt and bloating the balance sheet.
JetBlue’s reluctance to add a stock component may reflect a need to get permission from its own shareholders to make such an issuance and doubts about their willingness to sign off on such a plan. JetBlue shares have slid almost 30% since the airline’s pursuit of Spirit was first reported in early April.
Spirit shareholders are scheduled to vote on the Frontier deal on June 10. Frontier could make the decision a lot easier for them by finally taking JetBlue’s proposal seriously and raising its own offer.
The Rental Car Apocalypse Has a Terrible Sequel: Chris Bryant
Finally, Boarding Time for Singapore Airlines’ Flight to India: Andy Mukherjee
JetBlue Will Force Up Spirit’s Price One Way or Another: Brooke Sutherland | 2022-06-06T17:55:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | JetBlue’s New Takeover Offer Puts Rival Bidder Frontier in Hot Seat - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/jetbluesnew-takeover-offerputs-rival-bidder-frontier-in-hot-seat/2022/06/06/869561d6-e5b9-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/jetbluesnew-takeover-offerputs-rival-bidder-frontier-in-hot-seat/2022/06/06/869561d6-e5b9-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
Georgetown Law official resigns, had been cleared in probe into tweets
Ilya Shapiro, who had been on a four-month paid administrative leave, was cleared to rejoin the faculty Thursday
A sign for Georgetown Law School, in front of the McDonough building in D.C. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
Days after a Georgetown Law School administrator was reinstated following a months-long investigation into his tweets, he said he has resigned.
Ilya Shapiro, who was hired to lead the law school’s Center for the Constitution starting in February, said Monday in a resignation letter that remaining at the university “has become untenable.” He accused law school officials of creating a hostile environment for him because of his political views, making it impossible to perform the job for which he was hired.
Shortly before his start date, Shapiro came under fire for a series of tweets about President Biden’s promise to nominate a Black woman for the Supreme Court.
His posts prompted accusations of racism and investigations headed by the law school’s offices of human resources and institutional diversity, equity and affirmative action.
University investigators found Shapiro was not “properly subject to discipline” for his January tweets because they were posted before his employment started, thus clearing the author and lawyer to resume his post, William M. Treanor, the law school’s dean, said in an email to the campus Thursday.
Treanor added that Shapiro’s tweets “had a significant negative impact on the Georgetown Law community” and said Shapiro would participate in implicit bias, cultural competence and nondiscrimination programming.
That same day, Shapiro tweeted he would go to work Friday. By Monday, however, he announced his resignation.
“You cleared me on a jurisdictional technicality,” Shapiro wrote, adding that the report from the diversity office “and your own statements to the Law Center community — implicitly repealed Georgetown’s vaunted Speech and Expression Policy and set me up for discipline the next time I transgress progressive orthodoxy.” | 2022-06-06T17:55:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ilya Shapiro resigns from Georgetown Law - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/06/06/ilya-shapiro-georgetown-resigns/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/06/06/ilya-shapiro-georgetown-resigns/ |
MILAN — Milan’s famed Teatro alla Scala on Monday announced the celebration of next season’s gala premiere with the Russian opera “Boris Godunov,’’ in a move the opera house hopes will underline the separation of culture from politics.
La Scala’s 2022-23 calendar, set long before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, also marks the Milan opera house’s premiere of another Russian opera, Antonín Dvořák’s “Rusalka,” and includes a host of Russian stars singing roles in the Russian composition as well as other titles. | 2022-06-06T17:57:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Russian opera 'Boris Godunov' to open next La Scala season - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/russian-opera-boris-godunov-to-open-next-la-scala-season/2022/06/06/c891c796-e5b4-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/russian-opera-boris-godunov-to-open-next-la-scala-season/2022/06/06/c891c796-e5b4-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
Jireh Deng is pictured in a boxing gym in Long Beach, Calif. (Crys Lee)
I found comfort in my body in a place I didn’t expect: The boxing gym
Perspective by Jireh Deng
In fall of 2021, it had all become too much. I was taking 16 units of college classes and working full time, all while trying to navigate friendships and my identity. After several months, the stress started affecting my motor skills — and led me to get into three minor car collisions.
I remember one night dreaming that I had careened off the edge of a highway — my stomach dropped out and my body was thrown into midair suspension. When I jolted awake, I was hyperventilating. The nightmare had felt so real: The other times I had nearly died in real life, I’d dosed off while driving because of pure exhaustion.
After the third collision, I immediately dropped one of my classes. Amid all the other stresses at the time, something about these collisions had unmoored my sense of reality; I no longer trusted myself. I decided more in my life needed to change.
So I finally picked up boxing as a hobby, a goal I had put off for months. When I walked into a small gym in Long Beach, Calif., I wasn’t sure what to expect outside of the usual stereotypes of ultramasculine boxing gyms. All I knew is that I wanted to learn a new skill and implement a regular exercise schedule for my own health.
As an East Asian person who is visibly gender nonconforming, my subconscious often runs through a checklist of safety clues whenever I enter a new space. Am I the only person of color? Are there other people who dress expansively in a queer-friendly way?
Perspective | What I’ve learned since coming out as nonbinary
The same happened when I stepped into that boxing gym for the first time. I looked around: The walls of faded news clippings and posters of famous boxers exuded the type of self-aggrandizing machismo energy I expected to find there. But there was also the trainer at the front desk, an Asian American woman who was wearing a Pride hat, and a handful of women already warming up for the class. The tension in my shoulders relaxed a bit.
Still, it took some time for me to open up. Like everyone else, returning to in-person work, in-person school and in-person relationships last fall meant renegotiating space and boundaries. I had always been the “yes person” who wanted to show up for everyone and everything, but I was overextended. At that point, even the thought of sustaining conversation filled me with dread.
But I kept going back to the gym. And showing up anyplace consistently means that you have to talk to people eventually. Slowly, I began forming friendships with the women at the gym. I admired many of them because they were serious, there to put in the work like me. I saw them come in consistently — learning the combinations and hitting with more precise technique than many of the men who were boxing alongside us.
I soon learned that we all came from very different backgrounds. There were doctors, social workers, software programmers, actors, teachers, students or writers like me. It’s what made the gym so special; it was a hodgepodge of people from all walks of life and age groups coming together to learn how to box. And perhaps that’s why, amid this amazing, strong, random mix of people, this gym felt quintessentially like mine.
In the past eight months, it’s become a ritual. Five times a week, I’ll log off my computer at around 5:30 p.m., change into my workout clothes, drive to the boxing gym, try to find street parking and wrap my hands before I hit the bag.
In front of the bag, the problems and anxieties I face throughout the day suddenly seem so small. I can take a step away from the dread and doom on my Twitter timeline — as a journalist, I’m forced to witness and process all the terrible things in the world — and I can focus on the variables and outcomes I can control. Jab, cross, slip left, slip right, right hook, uppercut. My feet are steady and balanced as I throw repeated combinations.
What’s more, after sparring (gently) with 6-foot-tall men who are at least 100 pounds heavier than me, I feel like I can face almost anything. With the rise in anti-Asian violence and the dangers of my visibility as a gender nonconforming individual, I don’t want to walk into foreign spaces already afraid. In this way, learning to protect myself is also a political act of defiance: I refuse to play the role of a victim, or to rely on the police for my personal safety.
It’s not just my health and strength that have improved since I joined, either — but also my relationship to my body and gender identity. I’ve long harbored complicated feelings about my weight and appearance, but learning how to box has made me grateful for the ways I am able-bodied.
Whenever I step into the boxing gym and see all the other bodies, so many different shapes and sizes, I, too, am just a body that’s learning how to throw a proper punch. My limbs aren’t gendered boy or girl; I’m allowed to simply exist.
In fact, my gym friends became the first people I started consistently using they and them pronouns to describe myself with. Before, I’d been in denial about my gender and my body dysmorphia, but boxing every day forced me to be more physically present than ever. At the gym, it’s useless to try to keep up appearances, to pretend to be something you’re not when you’re sweating profusely and wheezing from the exercise. We’re all just trying our best and supporting others to do the same. I’ve never felt so safe showing up as my fullest self.
There’s the camaraderie when we all suffer through an especially grueling workout, and the choir of groans that rise when we hold a plank at the end of class. I’ve spent as long as two hours there, going to multiple classes; I’ve gossiped with the gym manager until everyone else has gone home; I’ve grabbed drinks with friends after jujitsu. These are the people who’ve seen me — even when I didn’t recognize myself when I first walked in.
The agility I’ve gained isn’t just about my reaction speed as a fighter, but about my ability and resilience to adapt in stressful situations. I feel like I’m finally behind the wheel of my own life, replete with the energy to show up for my friends and family. For myself.
Indeed, for the first time in my life, I’m giving back to my authentic self — one hour a day at the boxing gym at a time.
Jireh Deng is an artist, writer and journalist who works at NPR and CapRadio. | 2022-06-06T19:04:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Pride Month essays: Finding comfort in my body in the boxing gym - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/06/06/pride-month-boxing-gym/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/06/06/pride-month-boxing-gym/ |
Dave Smith, whose Prophet-5 synthesizer powered ’80s pop, dies at 72
He also helped create the MIDI electronic system that allowed drum machines, keyboards, sequencers — an entire orchestra of machines — to talk to one another.
Dave Smith, left, and Tom Oberheim at the 2015 National Association of Music Merchants show. (Jesse Grant/Getty Images for NAMM)
Dave Smith, an engineer who helped create the Prophet-5 synthesizer, which became a staple of 1980s pop music, as well as the MIDI electronic system that allowed drum machines, keyboards, sequencers — an entire orchestra of machines — to talk to one another, died May 31 at a hospital in Detroit. He was 72.
The cause was complications from a heart attack, said his wife, Denise. Mr. Smith, a resident of St. Helena, Calif., had been in Detroit to attend the Movement electronic music festival.
The Prophet line of synthesizers, designed by Mr. Smith and John Bowen for Smith’s company Sequential Circuits in the late 1970s and ’80s, were the first commercially marketed synthesizers that were polyphonic — meaning that musicians could play harmony and full chords. Each unit had programmable memory that allowed the user to store and reuse sounds at any time.
Throughout the 1980s, Mr. Smith’s analogue instrument became pervasive in the pop charts, gracing hit albums such as “Thriller” (1982) by Michael Jackson, “Like a Virgin” (1984) by Madonna and “Abacab” (1981) by Genesis, as well as Vangelis’s music for the film “Blade Runner” (1982) and several scores by horror film auteur John Carpenter.
A computer programmer and fledgling bass player, Mr. Smith became fascinated with Wendy Carlos’s “Switched-On Bach” (1968), a hit album of J.S. Bach pieces performed on a Moog synthesizer.
“It was just so lifelike the way [Carlos] played was just, it sounded like an acoustic instrument,” Mr. Smith said in 2014 at a Red Bull Music Academy event. “We all know what’s electronic and what’s not. It just had this life into it that was just amazing to hear and the way she played it.”
Because the Moog models from that era could only play one note at a time, it took Carlos nearly five months to record her Bach album — something Mr. Smith discovered when he bought a Minimoog.
“The funny thing was, when the Minimoog first came out, since it had a keyboard on it, a lot of people would go up to it, and the first thing they’d do is play a chord, and only one note would play, and they’d go, ‘What’s going on? Is this broken?’ ” he explained.
Intent on solving this problem, he quit his day job in 1974 and began work on a new line of synthesizers.
Robert Moog Dies at 71; Created Electronic Synthesizer
In the early 1980s, with Roland Corp. engineer Ikutaro Kakehashi, Mr. Smith introduced MIDI — Musical Instrument Digital Interface — the multichannel cables that allowed an interface between synth technology from different manufacturers.
Keyboard players, quick to seize on the new technology, often appeared onstage surrounded by stacks of keyboards and sequencers that created a decadent array of sounds. Guitarists weren’t left behind, as MIDI-based guitar synthesizers soon followed. For their work on MIDI, Mr. Smith and Kakehashi shared a technical Grammy Award in 2013.
In the 1990s, Mr. Smith also built one of the first software-based synthesizers that could be installed on a personal computer, Reality, for the company Seer Systems.
David Joseph Smith was born in San Francisco on April 2, 1950, and grew up around the Bay Area. His father was an English instructor, and his mother was a homemaker and later an interior designer.
He had a bachelor’s degree in computer science and electrical engineering from University of California at Berkeley.
In addition to his wife of 33 years, of St. Helena, survivors include two children and four siblings.
Yamaha purchased Sequential Circuits in 1987 and closed it in 1989. Mr. Smith later worked for Korg, where he helped design the company’s Wavestation synthesizer, popularized by the band Depeche Mode. In 2002, he started a new company, Dave Smith Instruments. The company was rebranded Sequential in 2018 after Yamaha returned the brand name rights to Mr. Smith.
“My goal in all my instruments is that they have a unique personality, great sound and be fun to play,” Mr. Smith told Keyboard magazine in 2021. “That’s what all music is about if you think about it, so the instruments should reflect that.” | 2022-06-06T22:07:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Dave Smith, whose Prophet-5 synthesizer powered ’80s pop, dies at 72 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/06/06/dave-smith-dies-keyboard/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/06/06/dave-smith-dies-keyboard/ |
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