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And yet, it’s right that governments and multilateral fora, along with Ukraine itself, are focusing on rebuilding.
It’s clear that degrading Ukraine’s economy is part of Russia’s plan, as rocket attacks on the huge grain silo of Mykolaiv and the theft of grain stocks demonstrate. Vladimir Putin has also refused humanitarian corridors, blocked grain exports and attacked factories, plants and social infrastructure, along with roads, ports and railways.
Ukraine’s gross domestic product is expected to contract by 45% this year, and 99% of companies in the country have reported losses. Roads, railways, grain elevators, telecommunications networks, real estate, schools and hospitals have been damaged, destroyed or seized by Russian forces. Maritime transport has been shut down. Millions have fled the country; millions more are internally displaced. A running tally by the Kyiv School of Economics puts key infrastructure loss at $105 billion.
And that will only be a small part of the total bill. The U.S. spent 5% of Europe’s GDP over a period of four years on the Marshall Plan after World War II — around $179 billion in today’s money. Amounts five, six or 10 times that are being bandied about for the rebuilding of Ukraine. Some quarters are pushing to put frozen Russian assets to use for the purpose, though the legal basis for doing so is dubious.
That doesn’t have to be the case in Ukraine. It may be Europe’s poorest economy, but at least it doesn’t have the kind of baggage of countries trying to rebuild due to internal conflict. Its greatest strength is its democracy and civil society, and the war has magnified the importance of both.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s government also has received high marks since the start of the war for both competence and vision — and anyone who has followed Ukraine’s bumpy post-Soviet trajectory will know just how unusual that is. From the first day of Russia’s attack, it moved to safeguard financial stability and simplify taxation, making it easier for those displaced to access services.
To attract serious investment again, investors will obviously need to feel safe from Russian artillery attacks. But Ukraine’s government must also prepare the way with a range of institutional reforms. The agenda looks similar to what foreign donors, the European Union and EBRD wanted before the war, including judicial reform, corporate governance reform and privatizations in banking and other areas of the economy where the state remains dominant.
But change won’t be easy, and not just because Ukraine is fighting; it also has to kick old habits and structures. The country came 122 out of 180 on Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index in 2021, with 23% of public-service users saying they paid a bribe in the previous 12 months.
To be fair, the government has been trying harder. There is a round-the-clock hotline so that citizens can address corruption issues and an electronic register that allows the public to inspect the assets of public officials and civil servants. Innovations such as the open-source e-procurement system ProZorro (a play on the Ukrainian word for transparently, prozoro) put the UK’s to shame.
Still, Ukraine has a very long way to go. Talks about EU membership may be motivating, but they’re likely to be slow and contentious. The country will have to press on with reforms even without that carrot.
The big prize, if Ukraine can get it, is the third word in the “build back better” slogan. Ukraine wants its reconstruction program to be a catalyst for greener, more sustainable growth. Given the country’s educated workforce and strength in IT, that’s not unrealistic. Diversifying away from fossil fuels is also a security imperative, though one that will take time. Ukraine’s supply of nuclear energy, which already accounts for 50% of the energy needs of the country, must be modernized and more renewable energy sources built.
How funds are administered may be secondary to what Ukraine does with them, but the vehicle matters, too. The authors of a blueprint for Ukraine’s reconstruction, published by the Center for Economic Policy Research, proposed having an EU-authorized independent agency, similar to the Economic Cooperation Administration that administered the Marshall Plan. The European Commission’s proposed RebuildUkraine Facility — to be led jointly by Ukraine and the European Commission, and to coordinate aid from EU member states, international financial institutions and multilateral groups such as the G7 — seems to fit that bill, though it’s doubtful it will be free from political interference.
But Europe’s big talk on rebuilding belies the reality that successful reconstruction can’t take place in the absence of security. For all the focus on money, US security guarantees were the critical complement to the postwar aid program, as Benn Steil, author of a book on the Marshall Plan, has argued. Ukraine is not likely to have that luxury, at least not for a very long while. It will have to spend a large share of its own budget on security.
Rebuilding Ukraine will be slow, expensive and fraught with risks. But the alternative is unthinkable. And the longer the war drags on, the higher the costs will be. While it’s important to prepare for reconstruction, the biggest downpayment the democratic world can make to Ukraine’s future stability is investing in the country’s defense now.
• Merkel Will Enter History as the Neville Chamberlain of Our Time: Andreas Kluth
• We’ll Need Sanctions and Stamina to Defeat Putin: Clara Ferreira Marques | 2022-06-10T05:37:38Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Rebuilding Postwar Ukraine Must Start Now. Here’s How - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/rebuilding-postwar-ukraine-must-start-now-heres-how/2022/06/10/02c29882-e87b-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/rebuilding-postwar-ukraine-must-start-now-heres-how/2022/06/10/02c29882-e87b-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
FILE - Britney Spears and Sam Asghari arrive at the Los Angeles premiere of “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” at the TCL Chinese Theatre, Monday, July 22, 2019. Spears and her partner Asghari announced in a joint post on Instagram, Saturday, May 14, 2022, that they had lost their baby during pregnancy. The announcement came a little over a month after the couple revealed they were expecting a child. (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File) | 2022-06-10T05:38:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Britney Spears marries Sam Asghari in California - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/britney-spears-marries-sam-asghari-in-california/2022/06/10/7fc431c0-e875-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/britney-spears-marries-sam-asghari-in-california/2022/06/10/7fc431c0-e875-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
Officer is first police victim to testify publicly before House committee probing the attack on the Capitol
U.S. Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards testifies as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds its first public hearing in Washington on June 9. (Andrew Harnik/AP)
Nearly emotionless, U.S. Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards sat before the House Jan. 6 committee Thursday night and watched dramatic video footage of the harrowing moments as she battled the pro-Trump mob.
The horde stormed angrily against bicycle rack barricades and four of her Capitol Police colleagues. Edwards was knocked violently backward, suffering a concussion that affects her still. Then the mob moved to the next line of police defense, and Edwards did too, continuing the struggle.
“It was something like I had seen out of the movies,” Edwards told the committee and a prime-time national television audience during testimony that was both gripping and gut-wrenching. “I couldn’t believe my eyes. There were officers on the ground they were bleeding. They were throwing up. … I saw friends with blood all over their faces. I was slipping in people’s blood.”
With her testimony, Edwards, 31, became for many the first police face to appear on a national stage to discuss the viciousness of the attack on the Capitol. She was one of about 140 Capitol and D.C. police officers who were injured in the riot. Other officers have testified previously, but not on this stage — the first of multiple public hearings being orchestrated by the committee as it seeks to build a case that former president Donald Trump and his allies conspired to carry out a coup.
The House committee interwove her responses to Rep. Liz Cheney with video taken from various sources, and Edwards provided plenty of clear recollections of how the mob approached her, insulted her, bullied her, and eventually powered its way up to the Capitol.
Edwards joined the Capitol Police in 2017, after beginning her career in public relations. She is from Atlanta and graduated from the University of Georgia.
Edwards was one of the first officers to come forward and criticize her own department for its lack of preparation, speaking as a member of the officers’ union.
In February 2021, Edwards told USA Today that officers in her division had asked commanders on Jan. 5, 2021, about handling armed rioters, and was told there was no plan. She told the newspaper that she was riot-trained but was deployed without equipment, a common problem for Capitol Police officers that day. One school bus packed with riot gear was locked and couldn’t be opened by frenzied officers, an investigation later disclosed.
Edwards also noted that Capitol Police leadership did have warnings about the pending storm, but didn’t inform the front-line officers. Although Deputy Chief Yogananda Pittman told Congress that there was “a strong potential for violence and that Congress was the target,” officers weren’t prepared and help wasn’t summoned quickly enough.
In her testimony Thursday night, Edwards recounted how a group of Proud Boys, wearing orange knit hats, approached her and four other officers at the Peace Circle barricade. None of the officers wore protective gear. She named Joseph Biggs, a Proud Boys leader facing federal seditious conspiracy charges, as one person who confronted her and stirred up the crowd.
Edwards recalled the huge mob turning on the police and hurling insults, prompting her to suggest to a colleague that they call for reinforcements.
“I know when I’m being turned into a villain, and that’s when I turn to my sergeant,” she said. “And I stated the understatement of the century. I said, ‘Sarge, I think we’re going to need a few more people down here.’”
The gathering crowd began to press against the barricades, and the video played by the committee showed the officers struggling to hold on to the bike racks.
Edwards said one of the bike racks struck her in the head, and she can be seen on the video falling onto one of the stone steps.
“I felt the bike rack come on top of my head and I was pushed backward, and my foot caught the stair behind me and my chin hit the handrail, and at that point I had blacked out, but the back of my head hit the concrete stairs behind me,” she recounted to the committee.
When she regained consciousness, Edwards said “adrenaline kicked in” and she rushed to support other officers who had been pushed back by the rioters.
The video showed her glancing over at her colleague, officer Brian D. Sicknick, who had apparently been sprayed in the face with an irritant. Then Edwards was sprayed in the face as well. Sicknick would later suffer two strokes and die.
“When I fell behind that line … I can just remember my breath catching in my throat because what I saw was just a war scene,” Edwards said. “It was carnage. It was chaos.”
Edwards began her testimony with a tribute to her grandfather, a Marine who was wounded in the battle of Chosin Reservoir in the Korean War, and that he “answered the call at a great personal cost.” She said “he lived the rest of his days with bullets and shrapnel in his legs, but never once complained about his sacrifice. I would like to think that he would be proud of me. Proud of his granddaughter that stood her ground that day and continued fighting even though she was wounded, like he did many years ago.”
When she was done testifying, Edwards and Sicknick’s longtime partner, Sandra Garza, shared an extended embrace. Lawmakers on the panel approached the front line of officers who bore witness to the insurrection — and the hearing — and expressed gratitude for their service and presence.
Isaac Stanley-Becker and Jacqueline Alemany contributed to this report. | 2022-06-10T06:25:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards recounts Jan. 6 attack - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/10/capitol-police-caroline-edwards-jan6-attack-testimony/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/10/capitol-police-caroline-edwards-jan6-attack-testimony/ |
The Dalit filmmaker challenging India’s caste discrimination
Director Pa Ranjith on the set of his film "Sarpatta Parambarai," released in 2021. (Neelam Productions)
CHENNAI, India — Pa Ranjith was often reminded by his mother not to reveal his caste. Instead, he did what few had dared to do in the film industry. He made his identity central to his work.
He is the first commercially successful Dalit filmmaker in India, featuring Dalit characters as heroes and highlighting caste oppression, which remains entrenched in the country despite decades of affirmative action and anti-discrimination laws.
Inspired by Black artists from America’s civil rights era, Ranjith has created a thriving cultural center in the southern state of Tamil Nadu meant to empower the Dalit community, formerly known as “untouchables.” The aim is to transform a popular culture that has always typecast or ignored people from lower castes. He has established a publishing unit for young Dalit writers and poets, an anti-caste band, and a YouTube channel showcasing Dalit life and food, among nearly a dozen initiatives.
“I have food habits, music, art that is different from what is shown in popular culture,” Ranjith said on a recent afternoon at his office in a historical neighborhood in Chennai, the state’s capital. “This is not talking about casteism. This is my culture.”
Dalits are at the bottom rung of Hinduism’s discriminatory and hierarchical social system, in which a person’s place is determined at birth. They suffer violent abuse from upper-caste groups for acts as mundane as growing a mustache or riding a horse at a wedding. They often struggle to find housing, access basic services or marry outside their caste. Many are still forced to toil as scavengers, cleaning sewers and septic tanks by hand.
The caste system has proved resilient not just in India but also in Indian diaspora groups in the United States and elsewhere.
“Struggle is a part of every Dalit life. My life is [a form of] resistance,” Ranjith said. “I’m not only a person — I’m a repository of [discrimination] stories.”
This year, as Ranjith marks a decade in the film industry, he has kept busy. Hundreds turned up for an arts festival he hosted in April as part of the celebrations for Dalit History Month, modeled on Black History Month in the United States. The director made his Cannes Film Festival debut last month, and an upcoming movie on the life of a tribal leader will be his first foray into Bollywood.
In “Kaala,” or “Black,” the actor Rajnikanth plays a Dalit character from a Mumbai slum who takes on a corrupt politician. (Video: Wunderbar Films | Lyca Productions)
Now he is inspiring others to share their stories on different platforms.
On a recent afternoon, at the office of Neelam Social, the Ranjith-backed YouTube channel, a 21-year-old woman named Abisha was rapping about her people.
Outta sight, outskirts is where we are forced to reside;
Refugee in our own lands,
You’ve snatched away all our rights.
Abisha has filmed a documentary about a musical instrument played by Dalits during protests and told stories about the eviction of slum-dwellers in Chennai, which inspired her to write the rap song.
“This may reach only a small set of people, but it’s necessary to create a ripple effect,” said Abisha, who uses just one name. “My voice is important because if I don’t do this, no one else would.”
One of the channel’s most popular shows is about Dalit food. A recent episode featured beef, which became a part of the community’s diet over centuries of segregation but is now banned in many parts of India. Cows are considered sacred in Hinduism, and Dalits often face violence from vigilantes in the name of cow protection.
Riding a horse is tradition for Indian grooms — except Dalits, who face caste violence. One district is fighting back.
In another corner of Chennai, where most film studios are based, Ranjith built the Koogai library. “Koogai” means “owl” in Tamil and is the name of a popular novel about the tyranny of caste.
“People who come from small towns and villages to work in the Tamil film industry but don’t know where to go or what to do come here,” said Moorthy, 33, one of the supervisors at the library, which has books on cinema and hosts workshops and film screenings.
Moorthy, who also goes by one name, was raised by a single mother in a rural area. He arrived in the city with big dreams of working in the film industry but not much else. He failed.
When he returned to Chennai years later in 2018, the library was just taking off. He found a space to learn and grow.
Last year, he bagged his first film assignment as an assistant director. “Ranjith paved the way for us and groomed us,” Moorthy said. “In the next decade, the most important directors in the industry will be from Koogai.”
For all of Ranjith’s ambition, the 39-year-old father of two is unassuming, dressed in a white cotton shirt and blue slacks. His office space is modestly furnished, without any movie paraphernalia. There are books everywhere, as well as a bust and a photograph of Bhimrao Ambedkar, the chief architect of India’s constitution and its most revered Dalit leader.
Ranjith’s career took off after the success of his first two films, which industry insiders credit with changing caste representation in Tamil movies.
A rare all-woman newsroom puts Indian documentary in contention for Oscar
He is a “damn good filmmaker” and a “pioneer,” said film critic Baradwaj Rangan. “He created a path for others to make films about their identity without being afraid.”
The director’s biggest break came when he was approached by Rajnikanth, a film star idolized by millions of fans globally. The duo went on to collaborate on two hugely successful blockbusters.
In “Kaala,” or “Black,” Rajnikanth plays a Dalit character from a Mumbai slum who takes on a corrupt politician. The other film, “Kabali,” was one of India’s top-grossing films.
“Earlier the producers didn’t want to invest in such films because they would not make money,” Ranjith said. “My idea is simple. Do it in an engaging and entertaining way for a mainstream audience.”
The director’s unapologetic views often draw a backlash, particularly from Hindu nationalists, who view his critique of caste discrimination as a criticism of Hinduism.
He has been accused of “vicious Hinduphobia” and faced a police complaint for remarks against an ancient Hindu king.
But criticism doesn’t bother him. People make him out to be an “angry person,” he said. “I’m not.” He is simply stubborn and committed to his goal, he said, which he shares with his idol, Ambedkar.
“Equality,” he stated simply. “That’s the legacy I want to leave behind.” | 2022-06-10T07:13:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Filmmaker Pa Ranjith is creating a cultural center in Tamil Nadu to empower the Dalit community - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/10/india-dalit-filmmaker-caste-paranjith/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/10/india-dalit-filmmaker-caste-paranjith/ |
Russia-Ukraine war live updates Putin links territorial aims to Russia’s imperial past; Ukraine losing up to 200 fighters daily
Putin compares himself to Peter the Great, czar who expanded Russian territory
Update from key battlefields: Situation in Severodonetsk is critical, mayor says
Situation at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is ‘untenable,’ head of IAEA says
Three people were killed in a Russian rocket strike late May in Slovyansk, a city in the eastern Donetsk region where Russian forces are making a renewed push in recent days. (Heidi Levine for The Washington Post)
María Luisa Paúl
President Vladimir Putin compared himself to Peter the Great, the emperor who led Russia’s 18th-century territorial expansion, in a speech that underscored his revanchist ambitions. “It’s impossible — do you understand — impossible to build a fence around a country like Russia,” Putin said Thursday about efforts to constrain its economy. He also suggested the West would remain reliant on Russian energy for some time, despite concerted efforts to slash fossil fuel imports from the country after the invasion.
Ukraine is taking heavy blows on the battlefield and losing between 100 and 200 fighters daily, an aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. Those figures are sharply higher than recent estimates provided by other officials. The eastern city of Severodonetsk, the locus of the Russian war effort, is under such intense bombardment that evacuation is impossible for the roughly 10,000 civilians trapped there, its mayor said Thursday. The Kremlin’s forces also advancing toward the cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk, where the boom of artillery could be heard on streets.
A Kremlin-aligned official in Luhansk, the eastern region that is almost fully under Russian occupation, said Ukrainian grain will soon be shipped to Russia via rail, with an initial batch leaving as early as Friday. Kyiv and its Western partners have regularly blasted Moscow for looting the Ukrainian harvest, and Zelensky on Thursday called on the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization to expel Russia.
A top U.S. energy security official said the spike in global energy prices could mean Russia is making more money from its fossil fuel exports despite Western sanctions.
The head of the U.N. atomic energy agency expressed “grave concern” Thursday about the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, where Ukrainian managers are working under “extremely stressful and challenging” conditions.
Britain said it was “deeply concerned” about the death sentences given to two Britons fighting with Ukraine who were captured by Russian forces in Mariupol. A third foreign fighter, a Moroccan national, was also sentenced to death.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has often invoked history to justify his invasion of Ukraine, compared himself in a speech on Thursday to Peter the Great, Russia’s first emperor who expanded the country’s territory through protracted war.
Putin — whose hometown of St. Petersburg bears the czar’s name — made the lofty comparison on the 350th anniversary of Peter’s birth, offering insight into how the Russian president views his place in history and how he apparently intends his invasion of Ukraine to burnish that reputation.
In the 18th century, Peter launched what is now called the Great Northern War, a 20-plus-year conflict with Sweden that ended in Russia’s conquering of a swath of the Baltics. In his Thursday speech, Putin sought to draw a parallel with the war in Ukraine.
“What was he doing?” Putin asked a room full of young Russian entrepreneurs. “Taking back and reinforcing. That’s what he did. And it looks like it fell on us to take back and reinforce as well.”
By Rachel Pannett and Amy Cheng2:31 a.m.
The defense of the eastern city of Severodonetsk, which is central to the Kremlin’s goal of capturing eastern Ukraine, continues in the face of fierce artillery bombardment and airstrikes. Russia is moving to staff local government positions with supporters in territories it already occupies, according to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank. Such a move would lay the groundwork for their forcible integration into Russia.
Severodonetsk: Civilian life in the city, one of Ukraine’s last holdouts in the Luhansk region, has been shattered by intense fighting. Residents have no access to electricity or water services and little food, Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk told local media Thursday. Evacuation is impossible with a key bridge under fierce shelling, he said, adding that some 10,000 Ukrainians remain in the city.
Elsewhere in Donbas: Images collected by U.S. satellite company Maxar Technologies show cratered fields and entire city blocks pulverized in Luhansk and Donetsk, where Russia’s attacks have been focused in recent weeks. In Rubizhne, just up the road from Severodonetsk, before-and-after pictures show parts of the city reduced to rubble.
Slovyansk: Russian forces are advancing toward this city in the Donetsk region, where pro-Russian media reports Moscow is making a new push. The boom of artillery was heard there and in neighboring Kramatorsk, according to a Washington Post reporter on the ground. The ISW forecasts that successfully attacking Slovyansk will be difficult due to challenges crossing the Siverskyi Donets river.
Kherson: Ukraine said Thursday its troops launched a successful counterattack against Russian forces around Kherson and have reclaimed some of the territory it previously lost in this southern region. The ISW said this week that Moscow is stepping up operations in part of the region following Ukrainian counterstrikes.
Zaporizhzhia: Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, expressed “grave concern” about a nuclear power plant in this southeastern city Thursday. He said the situation is “untenable” as Ukrainian managers are operating the plant under “extremely stressful and challenging” conditions.
By Paulina Villegas2:30 a.m.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, expressed “grave concern” Thursday about the lack of security and guards at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine.
“The current situation is untenable,” Grossi said during a meeting with the agency’s board of governors, adding that the Ukrainian managers are operating the plant under “extremely stressful and challenging” conditions.
In a report, Grossi outlined the issues that the agency has found at the plant.
“Every day that vital maintenance work is delayed; every day that supply-chain interruptions cause a break in the delivery of vital equipment; every day the decision-making ability of Ukrainian staff is compromised” could result in the “increased” risk of an accident or a security breach, he said.
Five out of seven “indispensable” security pillars have been compromised at the plant, he added.
“There can be no delay in this,” Grossi said, claiming that the sharing of safety information between the Zaporizhzhia plant and the IAEA has been interrupted for more than a week.
Although Grossi said that the agency had not found any indication of “diversion of declared nuclear material,” or proliferation concerns, he warned that the Ukrainian regulator has “lost control over” the nuclear material at multiple facilities across the embattled country.
Overall, he said, the armed conflict has caused significant damage to Ukraine’s nuclear facilities and infrastructure. | 2022-06-10T07:13:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Latest Russia-Ukraine war news: Live updates - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/10/russia-ukraine-war-putin-news-live-updates/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/10/russia-ukraine-war-putin-news-live-updates/ |
Territorial Defense member Antonina Romanova, 37, shows a unicorn insignia on their uniform symbolizing the LGBTQ community, at home in Kyiv. Ukraine, on May 25. (Edgar Su/Reuters)
KYIV, Ukraine — War often creates previously unthinkable alliances. As the saying goes: The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Taras Karasiichuk, 38, one of Ukraine’s founding generation of LGBTQ rights activists, found himself entering into one amid Russia’s invasion.
He and friends from across the spectrum of sexuality raised money for the Azov Regiment, a volunteer military unit that has proved to be one of Ukraine’s strongest, but whose ranks include members of far-right groups — the same ones that have terrorized the LGBTQ community here for almost a decade.
“The whole battalion knows they’ve gotten money from ‘the gays,’ and they are fine with it. I say if they can organize a successful resistance to Russia, it’s good,” he said. “It may shock your typical Western liberal activist, but when you witness war, your values change. You realize your roots are in a nation and that having a strong one is very important.”
As pride month gets underway around the world, and LGBTQ communities take stock of accomplishments and challenges, Ukraine’s is contending with a strange new reality. War here is causing tragedy and hardship for every Ukrainian, but it may accelerate their movement for equal rights.
There are practical factors — for instance, Ukraine has formally applied to become a member of the European Union, a process that would require steps toward greater rights and protections for LGBTQ people. But more powerful, said activists who have organized the community for the past decade, is a budding sense of national unity that is inclusive and tolerant — and unlike Russia in every way.
For Ruslana Panukhnyk, 34, who directed Kyiv Pride from 2016 to 2020, the war has helped her explain to people outside the community why she fights for LGBTQ rights, even as war threatens Ukraine’s survival.
“People always say, ‘now is not the time,’ year after year, and maybe especially this year,” Panukhnyk said. “But every day is the day for freedom. Tolerance and acceptance of differences are the foundation of democratic societies. If we do not enshrine that, how different are we really from Russia?”
Because of the war, this year’s Kyiv Pride march will take place in Warsaw, and LGBTQ organizations from across Eastern Europe will combine their usual messages with a broader one about freedom, opposition to war and human rights. It will also commemorate the many LGBTQ soldiers fighting in the war, including those who have been killed.
Kyiv’s first pride march was meant to take place in 2012, but it was violently dispersed by far-right gangs. Svyatoslav Sheremet, 44, was brutally beaten, and TV cameras captured seven attackers kicking him and stomping on his limp body.
After years of despair and repeated violent confrontations with right-wing opponents, Sheremet is optimistic about the trajectory of LGBTQ rights in Ukraine.
“It sounds crazy, but the war will help us,” he said in an interview.
He is currently organizing the movement’s political lobbying in Ukraine’s parliament, and he said the E.U. application process might be the driver of long-sought wins. By the end of next year, he expects the introduction of a bill to extend partnership rights to same-sex couples as part of a multipronged strategy to comply with expectations that the 27-nation union requires of members.
Currently, homosexuality is not criminalized in Ukraine but, rather, goes unmentioned in its penal code. Only one supportive clause exists in Ukrainian law, which protects LGBTQ people from discrimination in the workplace. That language came after years of lobbying by Sheremet and others.
In brutalized Bucha, a psychologist helps heal hidden wounds
Societal change is a slower process, and Ukrainian activists have few illusions about undoing the homophobia that is deeply entrenched here. Recent surveys show that less than a fifth of Ukrainians believe homosexuality should be accepted by society. That puts Ukraine behind its neighboring countries, which are often cited as examples of conservatism on the issue.
“Hungary and Poland are homophobic if you compare them to, say, Canada,” said Lenny Emson, who is directing this year’s Kyiv Pride. “But here, in a city of millions of people, you might see just one or two rainbow flags.”
Last year, however, about 7,000 attended Kyiv’s pride march, Emson said. It is a long way from the years of having to run and hide as the smattering of attendees sought cover from opponents armed with bats and sticks.
Emson cautioned against seeing war’s unifying effects as something permanent. Before Russia’s invasion, there had been an uptick in beatings of LGBTQ people by police, shattering a sense of protection built over years of pride parades in which police were the only force between attendees and potential assailants.
“It does feel like there was the beginning of a backslide before the war, especially with the police,” Emson said. “It’s very disappointing, because that is something we had worked especially hard on — we were succeeding with the police.”
For now, Emson and other activists are throwing their efforts behind the joint Warsaw-Kyiv parade at the end of this month. On a recent day, they met in Podil, Kyiv’s bohemian district, and debated the merits of various banners and logos.
News came in through someone’s social media feed that Ukrainian antiaircraft missiles had prevented a rocket attack in the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia, where a fierce Ukrainian counteroffensive is attempting to reverse Russian gains.
It was a moment of cheer. One organizing committee member searched through files on his laptop to show off a new flag intended for sale at the march in Warsaw. It was half Ukraine’s and half rainbow stripes, and emblazoned across it were the words “Armed Ukrainian Queers Destroy Moscovian Imperialism.”
Kostiantyn Khudov contributed to this report. | 2022-06-10T07:13:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ukraine's LGBT rights movement contends with war's mixed impact - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/10/ukraine-lgbt-rights-war-european-union/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/10/ukraine-lgbt-rights-war-european-union/ |
Live updates:Russia-Ukraine war live updates: Putin links territorial aims to Russia’s i...
A banner depicting Peter the Great in St. Petersburg. (Olga Maltseva/AFP/Getty Images)
The myth of Putin is punctured
The Russian head of state also noted that Peter’s conquest of Swedish-controlled land — which is now St. Petersburg — was not initially recognized by other European powers. That appeared to be a nod to the international community’s refusal to recognize Russian control of Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula which Putin annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
But his increasing estrangement from the West stands in stark contrast to Peter’s embrace of Europe. The czar was the first Russian ruler to visit European countries, according to the Kunstkamera museum which Peter founded three centuries ago. The Russian monarch cultivated diplomatic ties with the continent, admired European art and culture, and sought to attract European scholars to live in Russia.
He also shifted the seat of Russian power from Moscow to St. Petersburg to bring his empire “geographically, economically and intellectually closer to Western Europe,” said French historian Francine-Dominique Liechtenhan. | 2022-06-10T08:09:38Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Putin invokes Peter the Great, draws parallel to Ukraine war - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/10/russia-putin-peter-the-great-ukraine-war/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/10/russia-putin-peter-the-great-ukraine-war/ |
The Warriors are too cool to worry. It might be time to start.
Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors have reason to worry after a Game 3 loss. (Michael Dwyer/AP)
BOSTON — The core of the Golden State Warriors, with their swagger off the charts and shared history that have produced rings, never let us see them sweat. When they dropped Game 1 of the NBA Finals on their home floor, there was no panic. Their level of worry registered slightly above speed-walking inside an airport to catch a flight, but far below the feeling you might get while under the hands of a hair colorist on her first day on the job.
Even after Game 3 on Wednesday night, when the Boston Celtics stayed in control for a 116-100 victory and a 2-1 series lead, the what-me-worry Warriors collectively shrugged. Draymond Green casually said his performance reminded him of excrement. Klay Thompson, because he has the aura of a surfer just roused from a nap, spoke of some serious vibes. And Stephen Curry laced up his Fendi sneakers, walked slowly into the interview room and confessed that he probably aggravated the same injury that caused him to miss the final 12 games of the season.
Wait. Did Curry, who might deserve Finals MVP win or lose because he’s shining so bright during this series, admit that he felt as though he strained a muscle in his left foot again? The 34-year-old superstar — who has to run around and do most of the scoring because his veteran teammates aren’t doing it consistently enough — may have a busted wheel? Errr, maybe it’s time to start sprinting for that plane after all.
The Warriors may never say it publicly, but now it’s okay to panic. To be concerned — very, very concerned — about Game 4 on Friday night, and about the outcome of this series.
Curry will play in Game 4, he declared Thursday after getting a night’s sleep and time to evaluate what happened during the loose-ball scramble with Celtics big man Al Horford. While Curry was going to his knees to secure the ball, Horford toppled over his left foot. The two-time MVP recognized the same pain he felt in March, when Boston’s Marcus Smart similarly crashed into Curry’s foot while going for a loose ball.
This time, Green said he heard Curry screaming. Teammates gathered over him as he laid on his back, grimacing.
The wailing and the wincing were the scariest sights and sounds for Warriors fans, but by then they should’ve picked up on the earlier warning signs.
The degree at which Curry’s mouthpiece hangs from his lips can serve as an appropriate barometer for the Warriors’ emotional state. Though he will stick it out after making big threes, on Wednesday night the jutting piece of plastic indicated a heightened sense of concern.
In the third quarter, Green picked up one of his six fouls, and Curry walked toward the team’s sideline, shaking his head, slightly spreading his arms, his protruding mouthpiece telling the story of his frustration. Fans keenly aware of their star’s emotions might have used his mouthpiece as their anxiety interpreter.
If that method is too abstruse, then Warriors fans could have sensed their team’s fate by watching Green’s performance.
Through much of this series, Green has been diminished into just a vocal role guy. He’s played like a podcaster who loves talking about NBA hoops, rather than an actual NBA player. While Green imposed his will as a bully in Game 2, his tactics failed miserably Wednesday night as the Celtics proved they couldn’t be intimidated twice in a row. Green finished with two points, four rebounds and three assists — and as the host of The Draymond Green Show, he summed up his night like a good podcaster who knows how to capture an audience.
“Like s---,” Green said of his play. Five-year-old Draymond Jr., sitting beside his father, didn’t flinch at the profanity. Because children know the truth, too.
Thompson, the other half of the Splash Brothers, kept his postgame interview G-rated. And he didn’t care much for the vulgarity hurled at Green by Boston fans, who regularly chanted “F--- you, Draymond!”
“Dropping f-bombs with children in the crowd,” Thompson said, in his Zen-like manner. “Real classy. Good job, Boston.”
Though Thompson showed concern for the children of Boston and their impressionable ears, he didn’t seem all that worried about his team being in a 2-1 hole. Instead, his mind wandered back to happier times.
Thompson believes in the power of positive memories, and when going through a slump, as he did through the opening two games, he’ll often watch YouTube clips of his better shooting performances. Trailing in the Finals would be no different: Thompson cued up a souvenir from seven years ago.
“We’re not going to overreact. We’ve been in this situation before,” he said. “Getting big 2015 vibes.”
That year, the Warriors trailed 2-1 to the LeBron-led Cleveland Cavaliers but bounced back to win the series 4-2. Good vibes. However, Thompson must have glossed over the vibes from 2019 — the last time the Warriors faced a 2-1 hole.
During the Finals matchup with the Toronto Raptors, the Warriors were hampered by injury. Kevin Durant tore his right Achilles in Game 5. The next game, Thompson sustained an ACL injury. Toronto wrapped up the championship in six games. Durant, a free agent, decided to do his rehabilitation across the country with the Brooklyn Nets. Thompson would miss the next two seasons.
Curry’s left foot does not compare to the Durant and Thompson injuries. Even so, if Golden State’s best player returns Friday night but is somewhat limited by the discomfort, the Warriors could be in more trouble than first expected.
“Well, we need him if we want to win this thing,” Thompson said. “I know Steph is going to do everything he can in his power to play. I am really hoping he’s okay because he’s our identity, and without him, it will be very difficult.”
The Warriors’ core pieces are veterans who know what they can accomplish. They’re too good to overreact out of fear. On Friday, they very well could start the game with the urgency of high school seniors during the last days of school — and get away with it. Then again, it wouldn’t hurt if the Warriors treated the Finals like finals week and showed a little more concern. | 2022-06-10T09:14:55Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The unflappable Warriors might be in trouble in the NBA Finals - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/10/warriors-steph-curry-panic/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/10/warriors-steph-curry-panic/ |
Gas prices keep inflation at highest level in 40 years in May
Government data to be released Friday morning comes amid growing fears of a recession and stunted economic growth
Gas prices are seen at a Salt Lake City gas station June 8. (Rick Bowmer/AP)
As the national average for a gallon of gas climbs toward $5, new government data to be released Friday is expected to show that inflation remained at a 40-year high in May.
Inflation could clock in close to the March peak of 8.5 percent, compared with the year before, in the latest snapshot from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, known as the consumer price index. The inflation benchmark eased slightly in April, giving policymakers some nascent hope that inflation had finally peaked. However, there are few signs that it has dropped in a meaningful way, raising the urgency for policymakers to rein in prices.
“March inflation may have been the peak, but it’s likely to be a rocky peak,” said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM.
If anything, the stunning run-up in gas prices has become one of the most visceral ways people feel inflation in their daily lives. In some parts of the country, particularly on the West Coast, it’s becoming more common to drop $100 to fill up a gas tank. The national average has set a record every day since May 28, according to AAA, although prices are still below 2008 levels, when adjusted for inflation.
Rising gas prices, plus the cost of rent, airfare, groceries and practically everything else, have put pressure on the Biden administration and Federal Reserve to stabilize inflation.
The Biden administration has declared inflation its top economic priority and has taken steps to lower prices at the pump, by tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and allowing blended biofuels to be sold. President Biden has largely blamed the surge on the Russian invasion in Ukraine, dubbing it “Putin’s price hike” that is spilling over into all sorts of sectors beyond energy and food, namely airfares.
“The fingerprints of that war and Russia’s choices are going to be all over the number,” one senior White House official said.
But for everyday drivers, gas prices act as a kind of billboard for the rising cost of living.
Most Americans expect inflation to get worse in the next year and are adjusting their spending habits in response to rising prices, according to a poll conducted by The Washington Post and George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government. That kind of psychological toll is one of the reasons inflation has become a major political threat to Biden and congressional Democrats going into the midterms this year.
Friday’s data also comes amid growing fears of stunted economic growth worldwide. On Tuesday, the World Bank slashed its annual global growth forecast to 2.9 percent, from January’s 4.1 percent, and warned that the global economy may suffer from 1970s-style stagflation, a dangerous combination of weak growth and rising prices. And on Thursday, the European Central Bank announced it will raise interest rates at its July meeting by a quarter of a percentage point in its fight against inflation.
Much depends on whether the Federal Reserve manages to cool down the economy without acting so forcefully that it causes a recession. The Fed is on a path to raising interest rates seven times this year and will enact the third of those hikes coming next week. It is expected to raise rates by half a percentage point, similar to its May meeting, signaling aggressive moves are needed to keep inflation from becoming more persistent and entrenched in the economy.
There are some encouraging signs. Used-car prices — which made up a bulk of inflation for much of the past year — have fallen in recent months and are expected to continue dropping as semiconductor shortages improve. The red-hot housing market is also starting to cool, as a run-up in mortgage rates discourages aspiring buyers from competing for the few homes available.
There are also limits to what the Fed can do to curb rising prices. Interest rate hikes cannot boost oil supply, bring more people into the labor market or end a war. Energy prices around the world have been rising for months, a reflection of the continuing ripple effects from Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.
And though the Fed is in charge of controlling inflation, rising prices have soured Biden’s approval ratings for months and the White House has struggled to convince Americans that the economy is working for them.
At the same time inflation is so high, the labor market is unsustainably hot, with roughly two job openings for every person looking for work. The Fed’s goal is that higher interest rates can slow down hiring by making it more expensive for businesses to invest and hire. | 2022-06-10T09:41:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | As gas prices near $5 a gallon; inflation is expected to remain at 40-year highs in May - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/10/inflation-may-cpi-fed-gas-prices/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/10/inflation-may-cpi-fed-gas-prices/ |
The committee’s first prime-time hearing included previously unaired footage from security cameras and a documentary filmmaker
Elyse Samuels
“Jan. 6 was the culmination of an attempted coup,” Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the House select committee examining the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, said Thursday in his opening remarks at the panel’s first prime-time hearing. “The violence was no accident.”
“As we provide answers to American people about January 6th, it’s important we remember exactly what took place. That this was no tourist visit to the Capitol,” Thompson said.
Security camera footage
Footage recorded by security cameras outside the U.S. Capitol presented a never-before-seen bird’s-eye view of the riot — from the time the mob first gathered near the Peace Monument to the moment it pushed past police lines and entered the building.
“We just had protesters at Peace Circle breach the line,” a previously unheard audio communication from U.S. Capitol Police played over the video. “We need backup.”
Rioters break past police lines on the west side of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Video: The Washington Post)
“We are going to give riot warnings,” D.C. police Cmdr. Robert Glover, who goes by the call sign Cruiser 50, shouted into his radio. “We are going to try and get compliance, but this is now effectively a riot.” He made the call around 1:37 p.m., according to the committee. Over the course of more than an hour and a half, from the time he arrived on the scene, Glover would request backup at least 17 times, according to a previous Washington Post analysis of events, as the mob on the west side of the complex grew to at least 9,400 people, outnumbering officers by more than 58 to 1.
Security footage recorded from the east side of the dome showed a similar scene at 1:59 p.m., according to the committee. Video shows rioters pushing past metal police barricades and streaming toward the building’s entrance. The American flag, as well as flags reading “Don’t tread on me” and “MAGA,” wave in the wind above the mob.
Rioters pushed past police barricades on the east side of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Video: The Washington Post)
The committee also played clips of security footage from inside the Capitol, including the evacuation of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s office and the moment that rioters breached a window and entered the building.
People are evacuated from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's (R-Calif.) office on Jan. 6, 2021. (Video: The Washington Post)
Similar internal security footage, showing the proximity between rioters and lawmakers, was played during the second impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump. The Post’s previous video investigation first revealed the 41 minutes between when rioters entered the Capitol and the evacuation of lawmakers to safety.
Body-camera footage
In one video, recorded deep inside the scaffolding that held risers on the west side of the Capitol at 2:27 p.m., a D.C. officer said, “We can’t hold this. We’re going to get too many f---ing people.” The officer, identifiable as part of the D.C. force by his yellow vest, pointed down at the police line and shouted over the roar of the crowd, “Look at this f---ing vantage point. We’re f---ed.”
Officers from D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department discuss the vast sea of rioters at the U.S. Capitol on on Jan. 6, 2021. (Video: The Washington Post)
Body-camera footage recorded a minute later shows rioters pushing against police. One shoved an officer with such force that another officer had to carry his colleague away from the mob. A rioter then attempted to take the officer’s night stick out of his grasp, dragging him in circles for several seconds as police were overrun. The line of defense fell at 2:28 p.m., according to The Post’s previous reporting and the bird’s-eye footage shown by the committee.
Officers from D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department are overrun by rioters at the U.S. Capitol on on Jan. 6, 2021. (Video: The Washington Post)
A filmmaker’s perspective
Nick Quested, a British documentary maker, was in Washington filming a right-wing extremist group, the Proud Boys, for a project on American polarization and had unique access to members of the group on the eve of Jan. 6 and throughout that day. He provided the committee with footage he and his crew recorded. ABC News first published some of Quested’s footage on Thursday before the hearing.
“I am not allowed to say what is going to happen today,” a woman standing in front of the Washington Monument tells the filmmakers. “Because everyone is just going to have to watch for themselves. But it’s going to happen. Something is going to happen.”
Quested and his crew followed the Proud Boys from the Washington monument, east toward the Peace Monument, across the first metal barricades, onto the inaugural platform and finally inside the Capitol. He recorded the crowd winding up a staircase, chanting “Nancy! Nancy! Nancy!” The next shot is of the rioters flooding the halls outside of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office.
Rioters move up a staircase and past House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) office on Jan. 6, 2021. (Video: Quested/Jan. 6 Committee)
“I documented the crowd turn from protesters to rioters to insurrectionists,” Quested testified on Thursday. “I was surprised at the size of the group, the anger and the profanity.”
Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards recounted her experience and the injuries she and her colleagues sustained that day. In the last 15 minutes of the hearing, Thompson asked Edwards to share one memory from that day. “What I saw was just a war scene. It was something like I had seen out of the movies. I couldn’t believe my eyes,” she said. | 2022-06-10T09:45:23Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Jan. 6 committee shares new video - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/06/10/jan6-new-video/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/06/10/jan6-new-video/ |
Post Politics Now After dramatic first night, Jan. 6 panel plans several more high-profile hearings
On our radar: What’s next for the Jan. 6 committee
Take a look: Highlights of Thursday night’s prime-time hearing
Analysis: The challenge of weaving together thousands of hours of testimony
Noted: Trump says Jan. 6 was ‘the greatest movement in the history of our Country’
Noted: Cheney, facing a primary contest, issues challenge to fellow Republicans
The House Jan. 6 committee holds a public hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on Thursday. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Today, following a rare evening congressional hearing in which members of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol blamed that day’s violence squarely on former president Donald Trump, the panel is planning additional high-profile hearings starting next week. Topics will include how Trump sought to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to halt or delay the electoral certification of Joe Biden’s win and other ways in which Trump sought to use his powers to overturn the presidential election results.
Meanwhile, President Biden remains in Los Angeles, where he is hosting the Summit of the Americas, a gathering of Western Hemisphere nations. Biden also plans an event Friday focused on inflation, an issue that has dogged his presidency.
10:45 a.m. Pacific (1:45 p.m. Eastern): Biden delivers remarks on inflation at the Port of Los Angeles. Watch live here.
1:05 p.m. Pacific (4:05 p.m. Eastern): Biden joins other leaders at the Summit of the Americas to adopt a migration declaration.
5 p.m. Pacific (8 p.m. Eastern): Biden participates in the first of two fundraising receptions for the Democratic National Committee.
Thursday’s hearing was just the first in a series planned by the House Jan. 6 committee. Hearings are also scheduled for Monday, Wednesday and Thursday of next week.
A hearing next week is scheduled to focus on President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign to persuade Vice President Mike Pence to halt or delay the electoral certification of Joe Biden’s win. On Jan. 6, 2021, Pence presided over a joint session of Congress that counted the electoral college votes. Trump has repeatedly argued that Pence could have thrown out the votes of several key states in which Biden prevailed. Pence said he lacked the authority to do that, a position held widely by legal experts.
Other hearings are expected to focus on how Trump used the vast levers of presidential power to subvert the election, including a failed plan to oust the attorney general, who had said there were no signs of fraud in the 2020 election, and replace him with an ally who would say the opposite.
The committee is also expected to focus attention on security lapses that left the U.S. Capitol Police underequipped and outnumbered by the surging mob.
In a CNN interview after Thursday’s hearing, the panel’s chairman, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), shared one other tantalizing detail about what’s yet to come.
CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Thompson if there would be witnesses that describe conversations between extremist groups that committed violence on Jan. 6 and “anyone in Trump’s orbit?”
“Yes,” Thompson replied.
The Post’s Mahlia Posey pulled together highlights of the first prime-time hearing by the House Jan. 6 committee that ran nearly two hours Thursady. You can take a look above.
Throughout its June hearings, the House Jan. 6 committee has to weave together thousands of hours of testimony, tens of thousands of documents, information from more than 1,000 different people they interviewed — and make it all coherent, compelling and as concise as Congress can be.
The Post’s Amber Phillips says that in its first prime-time hearing, the committee did that expertly. Amber writes:
Over a period of two hours on Thursday (relatively short, for a congressional hearing), the committee aired snippets of about a dozen pretaped interviews, ranging from Trump’s former attorney general to his son-in-law Jared Kushner (who said he thought the White House counsel’s threats to resign over the election fraud push was “whining”) and his daughter Ivanka Trump (testifying that she accepted the Justice Department’s assessment that the election wasn’t stolen), from Trump campaign officials to attackers who are now serving jail time for breaching the Capitol.
They also showed the public new footage of the attack, splicing images of determined rioters yelling obscenities and waving Trump flags as they marched, with body-camera footage from panicked Capitol Hill police officers.
And in between all of that were two live witnesses: [Filmmaker Nick] Quested and Capitol Hill police officer Caroline Edwards, who was one of the first attacked and who returned to the line of duty repeatedly.
You can read Amber’s full analysis, which includes other takeaways from the night, here.
In a statement Thursday night, former president Donald Trump derided what he called the “Unselect Committee” and seemed to embrace the violence of the insurrection.
He repeated his false claims that the election was rigged and said the Jan. 6 panel should be studying “the reason that people went to Washington, D.C., in massive numbers, far greater than the Fake News Media is willing to report.”
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), whose decision to join Democrats on the House Jan. 6 panel has earned her a serious primary challenge and former president Donald Trump’s enmity, pulled no punches Thursday night when speaking about fellow Republicans who have dismissed the committee’s work.
“I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible — there will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain,” Cheney said.
Cheney, who serves as vice chairwoman of the committee, has drawn a primary challenge in her Wyoming congressional district from Harriet Hageman, an attorney and former member of the Republican National Committee.
Trump has endorsed Hageman and held a rally in support of her in Wyoming late last month.
The Hageman campaign is helmed by a coterie of Trump allies, including Tim Murtaugh, Bill Stepien, Nick Trainor and Justin Clark. In a recent interview, Trump boasted about his ability to defeat Cheney and said the “people of Wyoming cannot stand her.”
Closing her remarks Thursday, Cheney referred to a painting that hangs in the Capitol Rotunda, depicting George Washington voluntarily relinquishing power by resigning his commission in the Continental Army, a sign of his desire to peacefully transfer power.
“The sacred obligation to defend this peaceful transfer of power has been honored by every American president,” she said. “Except one.” | 2022-06-10T10:50:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | After dramatic first night, House Jan. 6 panel plans several more high-profile hearings - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/10/jan6-committee-hearings-biden/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/10/jan6-committee-hearings-biden/ |
Fox News didn’t just ignore the Jan. 6 hearing. It did something worse.
Video still from “Tucker Carlson Tonight” showing Carlson and guest Darren Beattie. (Fox News)
Fox News didn’t need to announce that it wasn’t going to cover Thursday night’s prime-time hearing from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. The network has been all-but-completely ignoring the subject for 17 months; skipping this hearing was a continuation of a pattern, not a break from one. But it nonetheless announced that coverage would be shunted to Fox Business and the network’s streaming platform, and it shrugged at the various scoldings that followed.
Part of that was probably timing. The hearing began just as Tucker Carlson’s show kicked off, and few people in America have been more energetically engaged than Carlson in casting the Jan. 6 riot as not worthy of discussion. Or as largely innocuous, save for some vandalism. Or maybe it’s a government false flag aimed at casting Republicans as racists or something. Rhetorical consistency is not Carlson’s strength, but that is happily for him not a limitation for his job.
How did Carlson’s show go? He transitioned quickly into his frustration that the committee wasn’t addressing the real questions, in his estimation.
“What did happen, exactly, on Jan. 6? What’s the truth of that day?” Carlson said. “Well, that’s still unknown. From the extensive video we have of Jan. 6, it’s clear that some in the crowd, more than a few, were encouraging protesters to breach the Capitol. To commit felonies.”
And here we go. You may recall that Carlson spent numerous episodes last year claiming that the riot was a function of FBI instigators, people easily identified as such thanks to their appearing as unindicted co-conspirators in federal charging documents. But that was nonsense: Both because FBI embeds wouldn’t be identified in that way and because some of those co-conspirators were easily identifiable. One was obviously the wife of a man charged for his role in the riot; when Carlson later hosted the couple so that they could complain about their persecution, no one mentioned that Carlson had previously called the woman a secret federal agent. Carlson, of course, never corrected his falsehood.
If you’re wondering whether Carlson would have the temerity to reintroduce his most infamous allegation about the insurrection, he did.
“In the case of a man called Ray Epps, we know his name, but they’ve never been charged,” Carlson said of the people in the crowd allegedly instigating violence. Epps didn’t actually do that; he was on video the night before saying that people should go into the Capitol the following day — but he didn’t urge the Capitol breach on Jan. 6 itself. Thanks to an article from a right-wing website run by a former Trump administration official who left his position after being linked to white nationalists, Epps became a target of rabid attacks from Carlson and others that alleged he was a federal agent. He wasn’t. But, months after that became clear, here’s Carlson trying to imply that Epps was some nefarious figure, even comparing Epps — who isn’t known to have broken any laws — with the Michigan gubernatorial candidate arrested this week for his alleged role in the Capitol riot.
Over the course of the hour, there were no commercials, nor were there commercials in Sean Hannity’s hour that began at 9 p.m. No reason was given for this, although Carlson did mention that unusual pattern toward the end of his show. Why not air commercials? Well, one reason would be to keep people glued to Fox News — and therefore not changing the channel to a network that was showing the hearing.
For much of the show, the hearing was shown on-screen as Carlson and his guests spoke over it. Often, the view was not of the committee members, witnesses or the video display at the front of the hearing room. Instead it was often a shot of the audience. One NBC News producer went back after the fact and synced Carlson’s show with what was being shown in the hearing room. During footage showing rioters breaking into the Capitol, Fox switched to the camera showing the audience. When the hearing showed information that didn’t need sound, Fox more than once cut away from it.
Not having commercials meant having more guests. And what a lineup! A who’s who of the Carlsonverse. The Federalist’s Sean Davis. Former Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, Fox News’s favorite Democrat. Matt Schlapp, chairman of the Conservative Political Action Coalition, recently back from Hungary. Young Turks reporter Michael Tracey. And, at the end of the hour, Darren Beattie — the guy booted from the Trump administration who wrote that first Ray Epps story.
Beattie encouraged viewers to have their friends go to his website and read his allegations about a federal false-flag operation.
“Tell them to look you in the eye and say that the feds weren’t involved in this,” Beattie said. “It’s a clear hoax. We know what’s happened, but there’s unfinished business and we need to expose the feds for what they’ve done.”
He and Carlson agreed that there were questions that weren’t being asked. But, Carlson assured his viewers at another point, everyone knew why the riot occurred: because people had simple questions about the election! Like that Joe Biden got 10 million more votes than Barack Obama??? How could that happen??? (Population growth and anger at Trump, but you probably knew that.)
But this is what Fox News spent the hour doing. In a break from simply not informing its audience about the riot and the effort by Trump to block Biden’s election, the network decided instead to actively promote an obviously wrong alternate assessment of what happened at the Capitol that day. It hyped doubt about the election results, promoted debunked conspiracy theories and ironically cast the committee’s work as lies and propaganda.
Fox News didn’t ignore the hearing, as expected. Its audience would have been better served if it had.
Noted: How Republicans have responded so far to the Jan. 6 committee
10:57 AMAnalysis: How damning was the Ivanka Trump testimony?
10:41 AMOn our radar: What’s next for the Jan. 6 committee
10:11 AMTake a look: Highlights of Thursday night’s prime-time hearing
10:09 AMAnalysis: The challenge of weaving together thousands of hours of testimony | 2022-06-10T11:16:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Fox News didn’t just ignore the Jan. 6 committee hearing on the Capitol attack. It did something worse. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/10/fox-news-didnt-just-ignore-jan-6-hearing-it-did-something-worse/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/10/fox-news-didnt-just-ignore-jan-6-hearing-it-did-something-worse/ |
A baby vanished after her parents’ murder in the ’80s. She’s been found.
'Baby Holly’ disappeared after authorities said her father was found beaten to death and her mother was strangled.
Donna Casasanta poses in front of a painting showing her late son, Harold Dean Clouse, with his wife, Tina Gail Linn, and their daughter, Holly Marie Clouse, at Casasanta's Edgewater, Fla., home on Friday, Jan. 14, 2022. (Patrick Connolly/Houston Chronicle via AP)
Months after family members stopped hearing from Tina Gail Linn Clouse and Harold Dean Clouse Jr. in late 1980, a German shepherd discovered a decomposed arm in east Harris County, Tex., and brought it home.
A subsequent search of the Houston-area property where the arm was found turned up the bodies of a young couple, the Houston Chronicle reported. It appeared that the man had been beaten to death and that the woman had been strangled.
For decades, the bodies went unidentified, until last year when DNA analysis identified the remains as those of the young Clouse couple. What puzzled their family members after the discovery, however, were the whereabouts of the couple’s infant Holly, who had gone missing with Tina and Harold in 1980.
On Thursday, the Texas Attorney General’s Office announced that Holly, now 42 and a married mother of five, has been found living in Oklahoma, the Chronicle reported. She was adopted after being left at a church by two members of a nomadic religious group, officials said. Her adoptive parents are not suspected of any wrongdoing, according to investigators.
Officials with the Texas Attorney General’s Office notified Holly of her familial connection to the Clouses on Tuesday, the Chronicle reported.
“Finding Holly is a birthday present from heaven since we found her on Junior’s birthday,” Harold’s mother, Donna Casasanta, said in a statement, using a nickname for her son. “I prayed for more than 40 years for answers and the Lord has revealed some of it … we have found Holly.”
An investigation into Holly’s parents’ deaths is ongoing, officials said at a news conference Thursday.
The case highlights the high number of unsolved killings in the United States, First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster told reporters Thursday. He said 270,000 murder cases have gone unsolved nationwide, including 20,000 cases in Texas. The Washington Post reported in 2018 that out of nearly 55,000 homicides committed across the country in a decade, only half resulted in an arrest.
Tina and Harold met in New Smyrna Beach, Fla., fell in love and had Holly before borrowing Harold’s mother’s sedan and moving to Lewisville, outside Dallas, in 1980, the Chronicle reported. They kept up communication for a time, but that October, Casasanta stopped hearing from the couple, she told the paper.
A few months later, members of Tina and Harold’s family received a call from a woman in Los Angeles identifying herself as “Sister Susan,” Webster said Thursday. Sister Susan said that Tina and Harold had joined their religious group, were giving up their possessions and wanted to cut off contact with their families. Sister Susan added that she had the couple’s car and would return it to Florida in exchange for money, Webster said.
The Chronicle reported that it was Casasanta whom Sister Susan contacted and that she agreed to meet the mysterious woman at the racetrack in Daytona Beach, Fla., late at night. According to Webster, police were notified before the meeting.
Webster added that investigators believe the group roamed around southwestern states, including Arizona, California and possibly Texas. The group was spotted in Yuma, Ariz., in the early 1980s, Webster said, noting the female members would sometimes be seen around town asking for food. | 2022-06-10T11:29:50Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 'Baby Holly' found alive after her parents were killed in the 1980s - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/10/baby-holly-alive-texas-cold-case/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/10/baby-holly-alive-texas-cold-case/ |
Molly Smith announces an exit after 25 years leading Arena Stage
The long-serving artistic director at one of America’s flagship regional theaters will depart in July 2023
Molly Smith, onstage at Arena Stage, the company she has run for nearly 25 years. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)
Molly Smith, who has led Arena Stage for nearly a quarter-century as a champion of American plays and the force behind a glittering transformation of its Southwest Washington complex, announced Friday that she will leave the job in July 2023.
Her departure signals a rare turnover in the artistic leadership of one of the nation’s most important nonprofit theaters, a company birthed by the revered Zelda Fichandler with two others at the dawn of America’s regional theater movement in the early 1950s. In 72 years, only three people, Fichandler, Douglas C. Wager and Smith, have served as artistic head, a remarkable record of stability that has helped Arena maintain its status as a versatile player on the national scene. During Smith’s years at the helm, Arena could birth a play about conservative Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia and a Broadway hit such as “Dear Evan Hansen.”
“As I was moving into my 25th anniversary, it just kept coming to me: Is this the right time to retire?” the 70-year-old Smith said in a Zoom interview. “There are so many things that I want to do in my life, and I have all of this vitality in order to do it. Being at Arena for 25 years, there’s an elegance about it.
“And also the fact that so many of the things that I wanted to do, I’ve been able to do. I wanted to get the new center built. I wanted to bring in tons of writers. I wanted to bring a diversity of voices. I wanted to change the audience base. And we’ve been able to do that.” Among her plans: to travel widely and maybe, at some point, direct again. The last show she will have staged as Arena’s artistic leader was the recent revival of the musical “Catch Me If You Can.” (Her first show was a September 1998 revival of Tennessee Williams’s “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”)
Smith’s decision rattled many who’ve come to think of her as a fixture in the Washington theater community. “It was a shock in a way, because we’ve got such a great partnership,” said Edgar Dobie, Arena’s executive director, who has worked with her for a dozen years. “I think Molly took stock, and she’s got so much to point to, in terms of legacy and real accomplishments. And as you know, she’s an adventurer, as well.”
Decker Anstrom, chair of Arena’s board of trustees, said he and Smith agreed that the word for her departure was “bittersweet.” “I think what perhaps is not understood is the relationship she’s built between Arena and the broader artistic community,” Anstrom said. “I’m always amazed at the playwrights she attracts, the actors she can attracts. I hope that legacy carries over to the next leader.”
A search for Smith’s successor will commence next month, Anstrom added, in a process that he hopes will allow a new artistic director to be named and installed before Smith leaves in a little over a year. That length of preparatory runway is proving essential these days. The word in theater circles is that mounting pressures in the business — over financial resources, arts worker pay, political sensitivities and attention to racial and gender inequities — has made leadership jobs less attractive to some experienced candidates. (Even though the salary for artistic directors of Smith’s status can reach the mid-six figures; in 2018, her compensation was $424,000, according to tax records.)
Smith, who ran a theater company in Juneau, Alaska, for 19 years before arriving at Arena in 1998, is the dean of artistic directors among D.C.'s front-line theater companies, and one of the longest serving of any, large or small. As much as any Washington theater leader in recent memory, she has put her own signature on her theater, leaving with a reputation for more deeply entwining Arena’s identity with that of the nation’s capital. Her appetite for American plays with political themes, her desire to find work that speaks to the city’s diverse audiences, will be aspects of her legacy. It is no small sign of the bond Smith forged with official Washington that the late associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Ruth Bader Ginsburg — a devoted Arena patron — presided over Smith’s wedding in 2014 to Suzanne Blue Star Boy.
“It’s an important moment to be able to pass the baton to someone else, who also has a pioneering spirit and who was really interested in continuing to innovate and make changes and put their own distinctive stamp on the organization,” Smith said.
The most concrete of her achievements involves actual concrete: the stunning $135 million renovation of Arena’s home on the Southwest Waterfront in 2010. In concert with architect Bing Thom, Smith oversaw the enclosure of Arena’s two existing theaters, the Fichandler Stage and the Kreeger Theater, and a new third theater, the Cradle, all under a soaring, 45-foot-high glass skin. Re-christened the Mead Center for American Theater, the redevelopment took a decade to come to fruition and was made possible by an initial $35 million donation by the late philanthropists Gilbert and Jaylee Mead.
“We started out with 80,000 square feet,” Smith said, of the preexisting campus on Maine Avenue SW and Sixth Street SW. “We now have 200,000 square feet. And without the transformational gift from Gil and Jaylee, we would not have been able to do it.”
During the renovation, Arena Stage moved to temporary digs in Crystal City and the Lincoln Theatre on U Street NW. When the complex reopened in Southwest in fall 2010, Smith inaugurated it with an enchanting revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!” It was, in a sense, a bold choice, starting a new era under an ultra modern shell with a foundational American musical. Although Smith came to her love of musicals only after she arrived at Arena, the selection was consistent with the mission she devised for Arena, as a platform for American work. And in casting a Black actress, Eleasha Gamble, as Laurey and a Latino actor, Nicholas Rodriguez, as Curly in “Oklahoma!” Smith was prefiguring a national movement that would open more roles to artists of color.
“I started thinking, ‘Okay, people don’t talk about Rodgers and Hammerstein in the same way that they talk about Eugene O’Neill; I’m going to start doing that,’ ” she recalled.
Her interest in new American drama led her in 2016 to announce her Power Plays initiative: 25 original plays and musicals — one for each decade of America’s history — to be commissioned over 10 years. Some of those pieces, such as Lawrence Wright’s “Camp David” and Aaron Posner’s “JQA,” about John Quincy Adams, subsequently have been produced elsewhere. A diverse array of playwrights, including Katori Hall, Mary Kathryn Nagle and Karen Zacarías, have received pivotal boosts from Smith and Arena.
Not every Arena production hit it big, of course, but Smith sometimes found rewards simply by sliding an idea into the public’s consciousness, as she felt she accomplished with Nagle’s 2018 “Sovereignty,” about America’s contentious history with Indigenous tribal rights.
“One thing that I loved about ‘Sovereignty’ is the number of people who stopped me afterward and said, ‘I feel so ignorant about Native American people,' " Smith said. “Or somebody who would call me later and say, ‘Listen, I Googled things that were in the play, and I suddenly realized that it’s true, and I’m shocked and I have to start reading more.’ So I felt like it was a quiet revolution.”
It’ll be up to her successor to ensure that the revolution continues. | 2022-06-10T16:04:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Molly Smith announces an exit after 25 years leading Arena Stage - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/theater-dance/2022/06/10/molly-smith-retiring-arena/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/theater-dance/2022/06/10/molly-smith-retiring-arena/ |
Officials said the alleged gunman shot co-workers at Columbia Machine in Smithsburg, Md. He is in stable condition at the hospital and in custody of law enforcement.
By William Wan
Dana Hedgpeth
Washington County Sheriff's deputies investigate following a shooting at Columbia Machine in Smithsburg, Md. (Colleen McGrath/Herald-Mail/AP)
SMITHSBURG, Md. — Investigators on Friday were trying to piece together what happened and determine a motive in a shooting the previous day that left three people dead and a fourth with life-threatening injuries at a factory in Western Maryland.
Troopers later found a handgun in the suspect’s vehicle, and Mullendore said the weapon used at the factory and in shooting the trooper was a semiautomatic handgun but did not release the make and model.
The deceased were identified as Mark Allan Frey, 50; Charles Edward Minnick Jr., 31; and Joshua Robert Wallace, 30. The fourth victim’s name was not released, and there were no updates on the person’s condition Friday.
Sheriff officials identified the suspected gunman as a 23-year-old man from West Virginia, but did not release his name Thursday because he had not yet been charged. Officials did not say where the victims resided.
Efforts to reach family and friends for Wallace and others for comment were unsuccessful Thursday night. A woman who identified herself as Wallace’s mother said she was too upset to speak. “I just can’t right now,” she said, her voice choked with sobs.
Columbia Machine’s website says it designs and manufactures concrete products including mixers and molds and it serves customers in more than 100 countries. In 2019, Columbia Machine bought the Smithsburg facility, which had been a family-run business called Bikle Manufacturing that started in 1971.
Rick Goode, Columbia Machine’s CEO, said in a statement that he and others at the company are “deeply saddened” about the shooting.
“We are working closely with local authorities while the investigation continues,” Goode said. “Our highest priority during this tragic event is the safety and well-being of our employees and their families.”
The only sign of the violence that had taken place inside the factory was a small bouquet of yellow flowers propped against the chain-link fence. It had been left near the entrance that morning by a man who said he didn’t know the victims but grew up in Smithsburg and felt the need to do something, anything, to show that they mattered and that people cared.
Joanie Gerber, whose grandfather started Bikle Manufacturing and then sold the business to Columbia Machine, said Friday that she was “deeply saddened by what has happened.” She heard of the tragedy when her husband called her while she was at the grocery store.
“He said, ‘There was an incident at the building,’ ” Gerber recalled. “I was upset and sickened.”
Gerber said one of the victims — Frey — had worked for her grandfather and for her, having been a machinist there for 25 years, and that she’d gone to the local high school with him.
“Mark was a very good employee,” she said. “He was a steady employee. You could count on him.”
She added: “He sticks to something. If he said he was going to be there, he was.” Gerber said Frey grew up in Smithsburg and was an avid hunter who “deeply cared for his family.”
Neighbors say there is often loud banging coming from the manufacturing facility — the sound of drilling and metal grinding on metal — which is why many didn’t even know a shooting had occurred until police arrived.
“We didn’t hear gunshots or anything out of [the ordinary],” said Kim Gravely, who lives three houses down from the plant. She said she didn’t know there was a shooting until her sons saw police cars swarming the two-lane street they share with the facility.
Aaron Mace, owner of the auto body shop that has operated directly across the street from the facility for 34 years, said his family bought their shop’s property from the Bikle family years ago, quietly sharing the corner of Bikle Road with them until the plant was sold.
“I grew up here. Things like this just don’t [happen] here in Smithsburg,” Mace said. “It’s a small town. Everyone knows each other and sticks together.”
The shooting in Maryland is the latest in a series of mass shootings that have occurred across the country and prompted a nationwide discussion on access to firearms. The succession started in May at a supermarket in Buffalo that left 10 dead, followed by a shooting in Uvalde, Tex., that left 21 dead, including 19 children. That was followed by another shooting at a hospital in Tulsa that left four people dead.
For the Smithsburg incident, the evidence response team from the FBI’s Baltimore field office was at the scene, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also was assisting.
Meagan Flynn, Erin Cox, Alice Crites, Justin Jouvenal, Peter Hermann, Jasmine Hilton, Monika Mathur, Dan Morse, Ian Shapira and Clarence Williams contributed to this report. | 2022-06-10T16:17:25Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Smithsburg shooting: Investigation continues into fatal shooting at Columbia Machine - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/10/shooting-smithsburg-columbia-machine/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/10/shooting-smithsburg-columbia-machine/ |
They were torn apart during the frantic race to escape Afghanistan’s collapse. The Biden administration has no clear path to reunite them.
By Abigail Hauslohner
Fowzia, sitting in her apartment in California, was separated from much of her family when she and her daughter left Afghanistan during the U.S. withdrawal. (Preston Gannaway for The Washington Post)
SAN JOSE — The last time Fowzia saw her husband, she was suffering an asthma attack in the dusty mayhem outside Kabul’s airport. He had shoved his way through the crowd to reach her, his face caked in grime and fear. Seconds later, an ambulance whisked her inside.
The administration says reunifying Afghan families like Fowzia’s is among its foremost priorities, as U.S. officials continue to negotiate evacuations — the administration calls them “relocations” — from Afghanistan despite the lack of any diplomatic or military presence there.
Thousands of Afghans were evacuated to the U.S. Will America let them stay?
‘Sorry, the gate is closed’
For many, luck alone determined who escaped — and who did not. Some men who worked for the Afghan security forces were offered spots on flights out, or were asked to assist in the evacuation of people and sensitive equipment, before they had time to collect their families, advocates say. Others deemed it too risky to bring young children to the airport, electing instead to leave them in the care of their wives, hopeful they would be able to join them later. A number were beside their child or spouse one minute — and without them the next.
But she has no idea how she will survive in the long-term — financially or emotionally. Husseini’s husband and two young daughters were left behind. “I kept asking them, ‘Please bring my husband, please bring my children,’ ” Husseini said, describing the sense of dread upon realizing that only she, one daughter and her 19-year-old sister-in-law made it inside the airport. “They said, ‘Sorry, the gate is closed.’ ”
Husseini, who was pregnant at the time of the evacuation and recently gave birth to a baby boy, said she asked the local resettlement agency how she could get the rest of her family out of Afghanistan. “They said you have to wait until you get a green card,” she said — a status that immigration experts said could be years away, as Husseini has yet to apply for asylum in the United States, and does not know how.
‘What about my kids?’
The family lost all of their luggage and several lost their shoes, including Fowzia. Sultan, her son-in-law, recounted struggling to protect his wife, Parwana, who was seven months pregnant, “because everyone was pushing, pushing.” At one point, she realized she was holding just the handle of her purse — the purse itself had been ripped free.
Kabul airport attack involved a single bomb with ‘disturbing lethality,’ Pentagon inquiry finds
Sultan and his wife and toddler made it into the airport the following day — also because of a medical emergency. The child had begun vomiting and was treated for severe dehydration. They, too, said they were assured “your family will eventually come” as U.S. personnel encouraged them to claim seats on an outbound flight. When they landed at a military base in Qatar, a TV was airing news of the suicide bombing.
‘Everyone has an excuse’
Since the withdrawal ended Aug. 31, the Biden administration says it has been able to move about 9,000 more Afghans out of the country. For the past two months, such relocations have occurred at a rate of about 350 people per week, according to a U.S. government official familiar with the ongoing efforts who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity citing internal policy.
But many separated Afghans and their attorneys have complained about the lack of a clear process for extracting those left behind. They have grievances with President Biden, too, because he recently created a program to facilitate the swift relocation of refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine but has not taken comparable measures to aid those left behind in Afghanistan.
“They say, ‘I’m really sorry about your wife and daughter, but we can’t do anything for them right now,’ ” said Ahmad, a former Afghan government official who arrived in California with his two sons, ages 9 and 2. His wife and 6-year-old daughter were left behind. “I have filled out every form. … I have emailed maybe 200 organizations,” including members of Congress, government agencies and the White House, he said. “Everyone has an excuse.”
Biden welcomes Ukrainian refugees, neglects Afghans, critics say
Husseini, who has grappled with months of survivor’s guilt, worries that might come too late. She and her sister-in-law have used their limited cash assistance from the U.S. government to send two wires of $200 to her husband and two young daughters, but her husband — a former government employee — is out of work, and they, like other Afghans, are going hungry.
The financial struggle is compounded for single parents who arrived alone with small children, Afghans and advocates said. “Right now I don’t have any job because there is no one to watch my baby,” said Ahmad, who is living in Los Angeles. He has inquired at local day cares, but they charge hundreds of dollars a week. “My wife and daughter are in Afghanistan, and I have to support them, too. … They need to get groceries. I will do any job I can find,” he said. | 2022-06-10T16:22:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Thousands of Afghan families remain severed after messy U.S. exit - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/10/afghan-families-separated-biden/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/10/afghan-families-separated-biden/ |
I read with interest the May 29 Metro article about the town of Pound, Va., and its future, “With lawmakers ready to end dying town, residents debate whether it’s worth saving.” I have learned from The Post about small or relatively distant places in our region that I have not visited. But I expected the print edition to include a map to locate it for readers.
When I began reading The Post decades ago, articles about any place not very well known reliably included maps credited to a Post employee, but I realize they have been missing for a long time. Maps make an article complete and coherent as to the basic who-what-where-when-why elements. Does The Post now consider maps too expensive to create or expect readers to look them up online?
John Davis Malloy, Washington
Regarding the May 29 Washington Post Magazine article “Suspicious Minds”:
With the state of current news stories focusing on the war in Ukraine, gun violence and the potential loss of women’s right to choose, one of the always reliable joys is Elvis Presley’s music. I’ve been enjoying it since I was a kid shrieking to a record of “Don’t Be Cruel.”
The most encouraging news regarding Elvis’s legacy: At the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, there is an area where they show clips of Elvis performing. The kids next to me were mesmerized and couldn’t wait to Google Elvis when they got home. Elvis lives!
Joan April, Chevy Chase
We need to clean up our act
Regarding Outlook’s May 29 “Spring Cleaning” essays:
Let’s start by cleaning out the sexist attitude of the illustrator who appeared to portray all the household cleaners as female.
Sally Rutherford, McLean
A term of art
The June 1 Metro article “Man killed in collision of watercrafts” must be referring to a hitherto unnoticed dangerous water pastime such as making macramé bathing suits, because “craft” is both the singular and collective for waterborne vessels.
Tom Fulham, Alexandria
Burying the troubling truth
The May 28 Metro article “A fight over hallowed ground” was interesting but incomplete. There are several other notorious people buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Norman Mayer threatened to blow up the Washington Monument in 1982 before being shot and killed by police. He was interred in one of the cemetery’s columbariums. Frank Eugene Corder crashed a small plane onto the South Lawn of the White House in 1994 before also being placed in a columbarium. A German prisoner of war from World War II, Anton Hilberath, died in the D.C. area in 1946 and was buried at Arlington in Section 15. Additionally, there are hundreds of Confederate soldiers and several Confederate officers laid to rest in the nation’s most hallowed ground.
Adam Hermann, Elkridge
Remembering ‘e.bob’
I was surprised to find one aspect of E. Robert Wallach’s career elided from his June 2 obituary, “Lawyer and adviser was convicted, freed as key figure in Wedtech scandal.”
In 1984, President Ronald Reagan nominated Edwin Meese to become attorney general. Allegations arose that Meese had engaged in insider trading. Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee sent a letter to John Shad, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to investigate such allegations. Jake Stein, a prominent D.C. lawyer, was appointed to investigate.
As a young member of the SEC’s Enforcement Division, I was assigned to investigate the allegations related to Meese. Wallach, with other lawyers, was in charge of defending Meese. In that capacity, I had numerous occasions to interact with Wallach (and remember his quirky signature, “e.bob”).
In any event, my investigation concluded that there was insufficient evidence of insider trading relating to Meese, and Meese was subsequently confirmed as attorney general.
Marc Chafetz, Washington
Regarding the May 28 news article “Iran works to squash protests over rising food prices”:
I’m used to Post reporters overlooking obvious questions, but I was really hoping for an explanation of how “the government has cut subsidies … as much as 300 percent.” I’d love to cut my own expenses by 300 percent.
Mark Glander, Silver Spring
Blue Bell is always the right choice
This is a quibble, but as a native Philadelphian, I couldn’t resist.
The caption for the photograph accompanying the June 1 editorial “Mr. Oz’s borrowed election strategy” referred to “Bell Blue, Pa.” I think it’s Blue Bell, Pa., but this was still an excellent editorial.
Susan Malka, Vienna
Patching things up
The June 2 Metro article “U.S. military may retire patch that references Union-Confederate divide” reported on the debate about retiring the blue/gray patch of the 29th Infantry Division alongside the renaming of military posts in the South, which will cease honoring Confederate generals.
But there is an instructive bit of symbology to the 29th patch. An original brigade in the division was the 116th Virginia, a unit that traces its origins back to the Stonewall Brigade of rebel general Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. He was a helluva good general and devout churchgoer, but he was a traitor and supported the Southern cause, which was slavery.
So, though the general or his Confederate battle flag should not be militarily perpetuated, the North-South amalgam of the 29th might offer a lesson. The 29th fought with notable bravery in World Wars I and II and in conflicts following. Perhaps the unit could be given a specific mission: to use the blue/gray symbol to signify men and women of all races, religions, ethnic origins and gender preferences working in all ranks as a symbol of unity.
Further, the unit and its geographic base here will serve and train to specifically protect our country’s freedoms and our nation’s capital region against the kind of lamebrained insurrection we saw after the last presidential election.
Stan Heuisler, Baltimore
Big words, please
Kudos to The Post and Mike Lester for finally enlarging the printing on the newspaper in the “Word O’ the Day” panels of the “Mike du Jour” comic. Previously, even a magnifying glass couldn’t capture those subtle plays-on-words and puns printed on the newspaper held by the fry cook. Sometimes the newspaper headlines are funnier than the Word O’ the Day. Those who still read the print copy appreciate this readable bit of humor.
Bobe Glenn Lesak, Potomac
I know that policies of reporting ages of people in news articles and photographs have likely changed in recent years, but, given the captions on the May 31 front-page photographs, I am having trouble making sense of The Post’s policies. The caption for the top photo, of three women at a flower shop in Uvalde, Tex., included the ages of all three women. As all three women are clearly adults, their exact ages do not seem very relevant to the photo. The caption for the second photo on the front page, of two men in Buffalo, Wyo., did not include the men’s ages.
An incomplete job
The May 29 Business article “A big, dangerous job” should have examined the best practices for handling of nuclear waste, a.k.a. spent fuel. The article challenged the efforts of a company working in a difficult area and on the next generation of cleaner, safer nuclear energy production.
Holtec International has taken on a new line of business purchasing and dismantling older nuclear plants. But it moved into this area after establishing the company as the world’s leader in the safe handling and containment of spent nuclear fuel. Furthermore, that reputation is built on the more than 100 engineering patents developed by the company’s co-founder and chief executive, Kris Singh.
Nearly all of Singh’s patents pertain to the safe containment and disposal of spent radioactive fuel. Singh’s innovations and Holtec’s success have been focused on this area for more than 35 years, ever since he and Holtec's co-founder, University of Pennsylvania engineering professor Alan Soler, wrote a definitive engineering book on heat exchange equipment that’s still in use today.
Once spent fuel rods are cooled off for a few years in pools of water, they can be safely contained in Holtec’s storage casks forever with the fission-generated heat transferred and dispersed through the structure while the radioactivity is contained within interlaced walls of concrete, steel and other materials. That is a story waiting to be told.
David Sostman, Olney
The home front
Despite my daily attention to the war in Ukraine, in reading “An incremental way to peace despite Putin and the persistence of war,” Michael S. Neiberg’s May 29 Book World review of “Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace” by Christopher Blattman, I was struck not by its relevance to conflicts between nations but by its application to the “culture war” that is tearing the United States apart and to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.
According to Blattman, conflict begins when intangibles such as honor, vengeance or a sense of injustice overwhelm the bias for peace. Wars begin, Neiberg summarized, “when one side grows overconfident in the material or moral advantages it believes it has over an opponent.” Wars occur when one side overestimates its own strength or underestimates its opponent’s.
I could not help but see how all these conditions played a part in the rise of Donald Trump and MAGA and the campaign to take America back, primarily from the progress being made by people of color as evidenced by a Black president and the growth of the immigrant population, but also from the liberal progress toward social tolerance and empowerment of marginalized groups and women. I hope time will prove that Trump overestimated his strength, but he undoubtedly succeeded in creating what Neiberg described as a problematic factor in causing war: increasing “misperception in the other through deception, bluster and bluff.”
Neiberg found Blattman’s model to be a “clear, concise way of thinking about human conflict.” Alas, it does not provide us with a path toward peace.
Dan Thompson, Wheaton
Another enjoyable piece about the weather, this time over the Memorial Day weekend, by Martin Weil appeared in the May 31 Metro article “Summer’s unofficial opener closes on a comfortable note.” But incredibly, in the very same Metro section, Weil also included a detailed physics lesson in a well-written obituary [“Shared Nobel Prize for explanation of nucleus’s structure and behavior”]. Weil’s journalistic talents are so appreciated.
Sue Borsuk, Glen Burnie
Incredible credulousness
Those who wish to better understand the media’s role in contributing to inaction following mass shooting events need only look at the May 28 front-page headline about the Uvalde, Tex., shooting. In characterizing the long delay of law enforcement in confronting the shooter as an “error,” “Amid carnage, a fateful error,” the credulous headline writer echoed statements from Texas officials who clearly are invested in avoiding or minimizing responsibility for their actions. Further, this characterization occurred when there were still many unanswered questions concerning the specific events, at a minimum making such a judgment premature.
Headlines matter. The Post would better serve its readers if it stuck to the facts in its headlines and at least refrain from characterizing events until all those facts are in.
Jeffrey Buck, Annapolis | 2022-06-10T16:23:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Readers critique The Post: The town of Pound deserves to be on the map - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/readers-critique-post-town-pound-deserves-be-map/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/readers-critique-post-town-pound-deserves-be-map/ |
Differences dominate Summit of the Americas
Analysis by Cleve R. Wootson Jr.
Welcome to The Daily 202! Tell your friends to sign up here. We have White House reporter Cleve Wootson in for Olivier today. The first American landings in Cuba of the Spanish-American War happened on this day in 1898. The troops camped at Guantánamo Bay.
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — The leaders from up and down the western hemisphere were all set to dive into a menu of Pacific halibut, aged sheep’s milk cheese and crème fraîche chantilly at the lavish Getty Villa on Thursday night, but first President Biden wanted to talk about unity.
He had met with many of the leaders in person — in bilateral meetings at the U.S.-hosted Summit of the Americas that day, in previous interactions as vice president, or even in a welcoming ceremony earlier in the evening — and waxed philosophical about his optimism.
“I thought today was a good day,” he said, holding the microphone in the villa’s columnated plaza that peeked out over a sliver of the Pacific Ocean. “I used to always kid Barack – President Obama. I’d always say to him all politics is personal, meaning that it makes a difference when you get to know someone, whether you agree or not, it makes a difference to look in their eyes and understand a little more what’s in their heart.”
And in the gathered leaders’ hearts, he said before putting down the microphone, were more similarities than differences.
But those differences have come to dominate the story of the ninth Summit of the Americas.
Earlier this week, the Biden administration made the decision not to extend invitations to Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The summit is about solutions and cooperation between the world’s democracies, the administration has said, and the trio of authoritarian countries' government systems most assuredly are not. “The president’s principled position is that we do not believe that dictators should be invited,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
Accusations of hypocrisy
But since the administration drew its line in the sand, other nations have been rebuking Biden and the United States for what they see as an unfair or even a hypocritical stance.
The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, announced he would not attend the summit hosted by his country’s neighbor to the north, although he will visit the White House next month.
Leaders of other nations attended the summit but chose to question or challenge Biden’s decision to his face.
At a plenary gathering, John Briceño, the prime minister of Belize, said the summit belongs to “all of the Americas” and that it was “inexcusable” that some countries were barred from attending. The influence of the gathering, he said while standing just a few feet from Biden, was “diminished by their absence.” Later, he added, “Geography, not politics, defines the Americas.”
Speaking at the same session, Argentine President Alberto Fernández proposed that host countries not be allowed to exclude other countries from the summit. He said the United States’ decision to not invite the trio of countries was particularly cruel as they tried to recover from the epidemiological and economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Venezuela, he said, had been helping to fuel his continent in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the resulting roller coaster of energy prices.
“We definitely would have wished for a different Summit of the Americas. The silence of those who are absent is calling to us,” Fernández said.
Others have pointed out that the United States can be hypocritical about which countries to label “authoritarian.” The administration has faced questions about why it continues to deal with oil-rich Saudi Arabia — even reportedly planning a presidential trip to a nation whose crown prince is accused of being the architect of the murder and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
Biden draws contrast with Trump
Adding to the tension, Biden is trying to transform the United States’ relationships with its neighbors on this side of the globe. Former president Donald Trump — who Biden alluded to several times throughout a long Thursday at the summit — had little appetite for international alliances, and at times openly disparaged other countries, sometimes in crude and insulting terms.
Biden, on the other hand, told fellow leaders multiple times that he was at the summit to listen to what they had to say about issues of common interest, and spent longer-than-expected talking to a conglomeration of Caribbean countries, along with Vice President Harris.
And he stressed that the democracies present would still be able to provide results for their citizens.
“International travelers flying to the United States will no longer need to show proof of a negative coronavirus test before boarding their flights to the U.S., a senior Biden administration official said Friday, ending one of the nation’s last pandemic-related travel requirement. The requirement will end at 12:01 a.m. Sunday,” Lori Aratani reports.
“Inflation in May reached a new peak of 8.6 percent, compared with the year earlier, remaining at the fastest pace in 40 years, with energy and food prices soaring to new levels,” Rachel Siegel reports.
Trump dismisses Ivanka’s disbelief in election conspiracy theory, calling her ‘checked out’
“Former president Donald Trump attempted to minimize his daughter Ivanka Trump’s interview with the House Jan. 6 committee, particularly a video clip in which she said she did not believe that the 2020 election was stolen,” Eugene Scott and Jon Swaine report.
“The former president wrote in a post on Friday on Truth Social, his conservative social media site, claiming that his elder daughter had not studied the election results.”
“In an address to Russian entrepreneurs Thursday — the 350th anniversary of Peter’s birth — Putin appeared to link his bloody invasion of Ukraine and Russia’s imperial past. Putin, whose hometown of St. Petersburg bears the czar’s name, praised Peter’s empire building and suggested that land taken by the czar rightfully belonged to Russia,” Amy Cheng and Reis Thebault report.
“The congressional Jan. 6 committee held its first prime-time hearing Thursday night about the attack on the Capitol and the events leading up to it. Here are six takeaways from the first of June’s hearing, after nearly a year of investigation,” Amber Phillips writes.
The committee holds Trump responsible for the attack
How the committee plans to tell its story
A sharp attack on Trump’s Republican defenders
How Trump influenced the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys
The production value of night one
The committee says more is to come
“After conducting 1,000 interviews and gathering 140,000 documents over the course of the year, the committee launched its presentation with a blunt reminder of the vicious violence unleashed by the mob that day. Setting the tone was a chilling compilation of never-before-seen video of a mob surging into the building, including new security footage of aides scattering in fear inside the office of Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), a Trump ally,” Rosalind S. Helderman and Jacqueline Alemany report.
“Rohit Chopra’s title is director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which regulates consumer finance. From that perch, he has built substantial sway at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which oversees about 5,000 banks, and the Federal Trade Commission, the antitrust watchdog,” the Wall Street Journal's Ryan Tracy and Andrew Ackerman report.
“Mr. Chopra, 40, combs laws and regulations searching for old or dormant provisions he can use to advance his policies. He has cultivated a network of former staffers and helped place them in powerful jobs. He embraces rhetoric and tactics some other bureaucrats view as out of bounds, and pillories skeptical colleagues as going easy on industry.”
“Exceptions for rape, incest and life endangerment are codified in the Hyde Amendment as the only reasons the federal government will pay for abortions through Medicaid. For decades, surveys have shown that large majorities of Americans support these carve-outs, even in heavily Republican states,” the New York Times's Jan Hoffman reports.
White House outlines coronavirus vaccine plan for children under 5
“With the goal of the first shots being given the week of June 19, the Biden administration has already made 10 million doses available to states and health providers, with roughly 85 percent of children in that age group living within five miles of possible vaccination sites, according to White House estimates shared with reporters,” the NYT's Noah Weiland reports.
U.S. accelerated expulsions of Haitian migrants in May
“The Biden administration expelled nearly 4,000 Haitians on 36 deportation flights in May — a significant increase over the previous three months — after renegotiating agreements with the island nation, which has been crippled by gang violence and an expanding humanitarian crisis,” the NYT's Eileen Sullivan reports.
“The move, announced Thursday before a possible visit by President Joe Biden to Israel and the occupied West Bank, is bureaucratic in nature. But it means the Palestinians will deal directly with the U.S. State Department in Washington rather than first go through the American ambassador to Israel,” the Associated Press's Laurie Kellman and Matthew Lee report.
“The Biden administration has opted not to go with former President Donald Trump’s red, white and blue paint scheme for the Air Force One replacement after a new study showed it could drive up the cost, according to an administration official,” Politico's Lara Seligman and Lee Hudson report.
“Sen. Jon Tester’s spokesperson, Roy Loewenstein, said the Montana Democrat would vote for [Steven] Dettelbach ‘because our law enforcement agencies need to be fully staffed with leaders who will combat crime and support our brave folks who keep Montana communities safe.’ Sam Runyon, a spokesperson for Sen. Joe Manchin, also said Thursday that the West Virginia Democrat would support Dettelbach’s nomination,” Politico's Marianne Levine reports.
The Smithsburg shooting, visualized
“Three employees of a concrete molding company in Western Maryland were found dead Thursday following a report of a shooting that left a fourth hospitalized with critical injuries, according to Washington County Sheriff Douglas Mullendore,” Justin Jouvenal, Jasmine Hilton, Clarence Williams and Peter Hermann report.
As a Roe reversal looms, RBG admirers wrestle with her legacy
“With the Supreme Court poised to reverse Roe v Wade, Ginsburg’s decision not to step down during the Obama administration looms large in the estimations of some of her admirers, who see it as enabling the destruction of large parts of Ginsburg’s legacy. The unintended — but not unforeseeable — result was that Donald Trump was able to name Ginsburg’s successor, who may wind up as the fifth vote to overturn the landmark 1973 abortion-rights ruling,” Michael Schaffer writes for Politico Magazine.
“The reservations are being aired at a crucial moment in the Senate negotiations, with Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and John Cornyn (R-Tex.) aiming to strike a handshake deal in the coming days that would allow a bill to pass Congress by the end of the month. Among those who have objected are the No. 3 Senate Republican leader, John Barrasso (Wyo.), and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a prominent conservative leader in the House,” Mike DeBonis and Leigh Ann Caldwell report.
At 1:45 p.m., Biden will speak about inflation “and the actions the Administration has taken to lower prices and address supply chain challenges” at the Port of Los Angeles.
Biden will join “heads of delegation to adopt a migration declaration” at 4:05 p.m.
At 4:30 p.m., he will take a photo with heads of delegation at the Summit of the Americas before hosting a leaders retreat and luncheon at 4:45 p.m.
Biden will then attend a Democratic National Committee reception at 8 p.m. and another at 10:10 p.m.
Late night takes on the first public Jan. 6 hearing | 2022-06-10T16:23:06Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Differences dominate Summit of the Americas - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/10/differences-dominate-summit-americas/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/10/differences-dominate-summit-americas/ |
By Mark Scolforo | AP
In this photo provided by the LGBT Center of Central PA History Project Collection at the Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections, Richard Schlegel is seen in his office at the Pennsylvania Department of Highways. Pennsylvania’s historic preservation agency has removed a roadside marker that was installed in 2021 to honor Schlegel, a gay rights pioneer, after a state senator raised concerns about his 30-year-old remarks sympathetic to pedophilia. (Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections via AP) (Uncredited/Dickinson College Archives)
HARRISBURG, Pa. — A roadside historical marker installed less than a year ago to honor a gay rights pioneer has been removed after a state senator raised concerns with Pennsylvania’s state history agency about the man’s 30-year-old memories of an early sexual encounter with another boy. | 2022-06-10T16:23:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Pennsylvania pulls gay pioneer's marker over 1993 interview - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/pennsylvania-pulls-gay-pioneers-marker-over-1993-interview/2022/06/10/873616b8-e8ce-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/pennsylvania-pulls-gay-pioneers-marker-over-1993-interview/2022/06/10/873616b8-e8ce-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
Skippylongstocking is one of two stalkers in the Belmont Stakes field. (Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
Saturday’s Belmont Stakes will feature the return of Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike, but not the Preakness Winner, Early Voting, the latter pointing to a summer campaign at Saratoga instead of contesting the final leg of the Triple Crown. The field of eight horses, led by morning line favorite We the People and a few short-priced contenders, will suppress the payoffs of the trifecta and superfecta, forcing us to be laser-focused with our selections. To cover all combinations in a 50-cent trifecta or 10-cent superfecta would cost just $168 each, a low enough sum for deep-pocketed bettors and super teams to make sure all viable permutations are accounted for.
We won’t cover all combinations, but we will look to maximize the most likely outcomes and focus on two specific scenarios for Saturday’s big race.
In the first scenario, We the People, the lone front-running horse on paper, gets loose on the lead and is able to dictate the pace on his own terms, leaving plenty of energy in the tank for a late run. Front-runners, as a reminder, are horses whose best performances are run on the lead. Stalkers are content to sit two to three lengths off the pace before making a move for the front. Pressers like to run in the middle of the pack before contesting the race. Closers are usually found behind the first and second flight of horses, conserving their energy for a late kick entering the stretch.
Stalkers
Lone speed horses, like We the People in this field, can be dangerous at any distance, from 4½-furlong sprints to1½-mile routes. Of course, if We the People wins, the exotic payoffs will be modest at best, since he is a 2-1 favorite on the morning line.
In the second scenario, the race holds true to historical form and a horse who inherited between two and three times more speed than stamina from its ancestors — known as the horse’s dosage index, a numerical expression of a horse’s pedigree first described in the Daily Racing Form in 1981 — wins the final leg of the Triple Crown.
Since 2012, when the Kentucky Derby adopted its points system for qualifying — and not including 2020, when the Belmont Stakes was run at a truncated 1⅛ miles — half of the horses entered in the Belmont had a dosage index between 2.00 and 3.00. Yet that group has accounted for eight of the nine winners. Horses in that range this year include Nest (3.00 dosage index), Skippylongstocking (3.00) and Mo Donegal (3.00). Among that qualifying group, only Skippylongstocking, 20-1 on the morning line, figures to go off at double-digit odds. (We the People has a dosage index of 4.33.)
With all that in mind, here’s how I would structure my bets on race day. Depending on your bankroll, you can increase the amount wagered on each bet or go with the minimum outlay as indicated.
Trifecta betting strategy
Minimum bet is 50 cents
1 with 2, 3, 5, 6 with 2, 3, 5, 6 for $6
3 with 2, 5, 6 with 2, 5, 6 for $3
2, 5, 6 with 3 with 2, 5, 6 for $3
2, 5, 6 with 2, 5, 6 with 3 for $3
Superfecta betting strategy
1 with 2, 3, 5, 6 with 2, 3, 5, 6 with ALL for $6
3 with 2, 6 with 1, 2, 5, 6 with ALL for $3
2 with 3 with 5, 6 with ALL for $1
2 with 5 with 3 with ALL for 50 cents | 2022-06-10T16:23:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Belmont Stakes picks, trifecta and superfecta bets - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/10/belmont-picks-trifecta-superfecta/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/10/belmont-picks-trifecta-superfecta/ |
Transcript: ‘Capehart’ with Michael R. Jackson
MR. CAPEHART: Good afternoon, and welcome to the “Capehart” podcast on Washington Post Live. I am Jonathan Capehart, associate editor at The Washington Post. “A Strange Loop” by Michael R. Jackson bills itself as a “big, black and queer ass American musical.” It’s big all right. Not only did the critically acclaimed play win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2020, but the show about a Black gay man dreaming of writing a musical only to be hounded by his own thoughts is nominated for 11 Tony Awards--the most on Broadway this season.
Joining me now is the Pulitzer Prize-winning, Tony-nominated writer of "A Strange Loop," Michael R. Jackson. Welcome to "Capehart" on Washington Post Live.
MR. JACKSON: Hi, Jonathan. It's so nice to be with you.
MR. CAPEHART: Nice to see you. So, let's jump right on--right on into this. The protagonist of "A Strange Loop" is a theater usher named Usher. And here's how variety describes him, and by extension the play. Quote, "As the protagonist, Usher wrestles with ambition, expression, shame, lust, self-loathing, and parental expectations. He shares his complicated, cutting feelings about everything from homophobic Christian teachings to the White gaytriarchy, to Tyler Perry. Usher shares these complicated feelings through six Thoughts. Describe the Thoughts and how he copes with them.
MR. JACKSON: The Thoughts are an ensemble of six. They sort of portray everybody in the world sort of abstractly and concretely. There are characters that sort of embody his daily self-loathing. There's a character called "financial faggotry." There's a character who's called "the supervisor of your sexual ambivalence." And there's also--they play, you know, his parents, his brother, his brother's baby mama, a character called "sympathetic ear" who gives him, like, really good advice. Just sort of the gamut of people who Usher sort of both meets in real life and also thinks about and dramatizes.
MR. CAPEHART: All right. So let's go back to the beginning, to 2003 when "A Strange Loop" was a monologue called "Why I Can't Get Work." Why and how did it evolve over the last 18 years?
MR. JACKSON: It--you know, that original monologue was really sort of me at that time. I was 23 years old and just trying to make a little life raft for myself in a really sort of uncertain time in my life. I felt unseen. I felt unheard. I felt misunderstood. And that monologue was just an attempt to sort of make some sort of sense out of what was going on. And I just was so interested in the themes that I was exploring that when I began writing songs once I went to grad school, and those songs still have that same sense of searching of self, that it just made sense for them to feed into the monologue. And then that sort of alchemy sort of started a whole process of evolving into the musical.
MR. CAPEHART: So, loops are infinite, but all musicals must come to an end. What creative challenges did you face writing the conclusion of "A Strange Loop"?
MR. JACKSON: It was very difficult because I was drawing from personal experience to try to write this fictional story. But I didn't really know what Usher's problem was, and I didn't know what Usher's problem was because I didn't know what my problem was. And it took me many years of writing and rewriting and stopping and starting and therapy and all these things to come to the conclusion that actually Usher's problem was that he had no problem, because he sort of viewed himself as a problem, and it wasn't until the he realized that he wasn't a problem that he actually would change. And that sort of--I had to get to that place in my own life to have any kind of objectivity about the story that I was trying to tell.
MR. CAPEHART: And one big--and one big change that "A Strange Loop" took in the 18-year journey was how it actually starts. Before--correct me if I'm wrong--before the opening scene was Usher dealing with the hustle and bustle of patrons in--coming into the theater for a performance. Now the start of "Strange Loop," the hustle and bustle around Usher aren't the patrons. It's his--it's the Thoughts.
MR. JACKSON: That's right. You know, and that sort of sets the stage for the kind of structure that you're seeing Usher deal with throughout the piece, which is that the line between art and reality is very blurry. And I sort of--once I realized that the Thoughts had to be the audience's way into the piece, that really set a lot of things in motion.
MR. CAPEHART: All right, so the play, as I said at the opening, is billed as, quote, "The big, Black and queer ass American musical." But, Michael, you have a song in the show called "Inner White Girl." We have a clip of it. Let's take a look. We'll talk about it on the other side.
MR. CAPEHART: In the legal profession, what I'm about to ask you would be called a leading question. So, Michael, why can't Usher be, quote, "vulnerable and luscious, wild and unwise like a White girl?"
MR. JACKSON: Well, the answer is that he can. He just doesn't know it yet. He has to sort of get to the place where he's giving himself permission to be as free as he wants to be and as free as his, you know, art will allow him to be and beyond. But at that particular point in the musical, he's still sort of stuck in this mindset that he can't be, you know, quote-unquote, "like the White girls who can do anything" in their music, in their [audio distortion] and in their art,
MR. CAPEHART: Right? You told Newsweek that you hope to, quote, "open people's eyes to different representations of Black men," adding, quote, "I definitely am somebody who's interested in widening the lanes for all Black representations and Black male representation in particular." Talk more about that.
MR. JACKSON: Yeah, I mean, I think certainly, you know, in culture, in art and entertainment there tends to be, in my view, really limited representations, whether that's by, you know, design. It's not like I'm trying to prescribe what the representation is. But I definitely noticed that I don't always see Black male representation really running a full, full gamut, which also means having representations that might actually bother people, or might challenge their--you know, what they want to see. I don't--I don't--I'm just interested in seeing the whole rainbow.
MR. CAPEHART: And that's what I love--I should say as a matter of full disclosure I have seen "A Strange Loop," and we'll talk more about that in a moment. But one of the brilliant ways of showing that representation is through those six Thoughts where you see six different representations of Blackness, and in most cases of Black maleness, and you know--and then you have Usher who is completely different from all of those. So that's what I loved about the six Thoughts.
We got to talk about something else you do in this play, and that is, well, Tyler Perry. So in the play, Usher's parents want him to write a Tyler Perry-style gospel play. But he's not too--he doesn't like that idea. What--
MR. JACKSON: And also his agent.
MR. CAPEHART: And his what? Yes, that's right, his agent. Right, his agent. So what does Tyler Perry represent to Usher, and why was it so important for you to address Tyler Perry specifically?
MR. JACKSON: Well, you know, the answer to that--because a lot of people over the years--and I think even I have sort of, like, had to think even more deeply about this, from where I started to where I am now. There are a lot of people who think that, like, I have, like, this, like personal vendetta against him, which it isn't, though in the piece it may come across that way through Usher. But it's really about actually taking Tyler Perry's work very seriously. And because it's--and doing that because it's often held up often by Black communities as sort of like the end all, be all of what one can do as a Black artist because he has cultivated such a large audience, and he's a billionaire. And so therefore, whatever he's doing is what everybody else should be doing. And I've heard like a variation of this idea over the years, and I just think that I just wanted to sort of problematize [phonetic] that and satirize that and just explore what it would mean to sort of like reckon with his work and try to form another idea outside of that through Usher, who's so obsessed with trying to write what he terms "real life," and he feels that Tyler doesn't write real life. And so he wants to sort of go up against, you know, the Goliath and see what he can do, see what he can make.
MR. CAPEHART: So when I was listening to all the references to Tyler Perry, to my mind, I thought, wow, Michael R. Jackson is out there having this conversation through this play about Tyler Perry that seems to be going on in the larger Black community about Tyler Perry. On the one hand, there are folks like, yeah, he's the pinnacle of success. He's a billionaire. He's done all these movies. And then you have other people in the Black community who are like, oh, my god, Tyler Perry, what are you doing to us with these cartoonish characters--cartoonish characters in your--in your movies and--yeah, in your movies. Am I getting that right?
MR. JACKSON: Well, the movies, TV, the stage plays. I've seen all of them. So, like, you know, he's known to most people as like, you know, the filmmaker or the TV person, but he started off writing stage plays and building his audience. And I saw some of those very early, you know, in my career and when I was younger, and I just was very mystified by them. But they also reminded me of like church plays from back home. And so when I would hear people say things like, oh, I love his work because it's real life, I felt like this weird disconnect because I was like this is many things, but real life it's not.
MR. CAPEHART: Right, right. Let's talk about another song. This one is called "Memory Song." The lyrics shift from "One lone Black gay boy I knew who chose to turn his back on the Lord," then it shifts from that to, "All those Black gay boys I knew who chose to go back on"--"who chose to go on back to the Lord." Break down what you're doing there.
MR. JACKSON: Yeah, so that song is its own "Strange Loop" because it began inspired by a friend of mine who I went to graduate school with who had written a song about being a young Black gay man who was sort of having, like, a conflict between his sexuality and sort of religious upbringing or something. And I just was really struck by it. And so in my notebook, I was watching him perform the song in class, and I wrote in my notebook, "All those Black gay boys I knew who chose to go on back to the Lord." And I wrote that because it reminded me of boys that I knew back home who were constantly having this sort of like, a back and forth with themselves where they would like have sexual encounters with other men or a young boy or other teens or older men. And then they'd, like, go and pray for forgiveness, and it was this whole cycle. And I was very interested in that.
And it--but then I thought about myself, who also was coming out, but I wasn't really--the conflict was that I needed to get away from the sort of religious overtones of everything. And so I wanted to sort of celebrate sort of this community that I was from, but also that I felt a little set apart from in a way. But then also what ended up happening just in the general arc of the show was that the very friend who had inspired the song like 15 years ago passed away from AIDS-related complications, because he had been sort of hiding his HIV diagnosis and had not been seeking medical treatment for it, and things sort of came to a head. And suddenly that song changed like without me even having to do anything.
And so there's this--I, for me personally, how I experienced it is that there's, you know, Usher, you know, who chose to turn his back on the sort of--the ideology that he was raised with, and then there's his, you know, cousin Darnell, you know, who was sort of consumed by the fire of that ideology. And I just sort of wanted to show that duality.
MR. CAPEHART: Mm-hmm. So, one of the things that has stayed with me, the word that has stayed with me ever since I saw "A Strange Loop" is the word subversive, and subversive in a really good--in a good way, that I found there are a lot of things about "A Strange Loop" that pull you in, in one way, but then the more you take it in, the more you realize, oh, wait a minute, what's happening here? And nothing symbolized that more than the gospel number in the show where the refrain--and it's a full-on gospel number, church row choir, the whole thing. People in the audience are clapping. But at one point, I was like, do y'all know what you're clapping to? Because the refrain in the gospel song is "AIDS is God's punishment."
MR. JACKSON: Yes.
MR. CAPEHART: Can you please--
MR. CAPEHART: Go ahead.
MR. JACKSON: "AIDS is God's punishment." Yes, that's what the lyric is.
MR. CAPEHART: And so just as a playwright, were you surprised that the audience continues to clap through this song that is just filled with damnation?
MR. JACKSON: Well, I don't--I wouldn't say that I'm surprised. That's not the word I would use. I would say I'm curious, because they're invited to clap. They're invited to have whatever authentic response that that they want to that moment, because that's also what Usher is creating as he's making this gospel number in his gospel play, because he's trying to sort of show what it feels like to be a young Black gay man in that sort of environment. And what it feels like is beautiful music that makes you want to clap, but also hateful ideology. And so putting those two things together creates a third thing that the audience has to deal with, and that's sort of the cognitive dissonance of those two things coming together, and the joy and the pain of it.
And like, I don't have any sort of judgment upon how people respond to that, because that's when they really get to be a part of the show. And they can be a part of it however they want. And they also get to look at their neighbor, and like, have a feeling about that. And their neighbor can look at them and have a feeling about that. And that creates a whole other loop that goes up. That energy goes to the stage. It comes back. And the audience is fully in it. And so I find it thrilling to be honest. It's always different every night.
MR. CAPEHART: Uh-huh. Let's talk about Jaquel Spivey. He plays Usher. And in an interview, he corrected a reporter who said you had quote, "written a role that's based around the Black queer experience." And Jaquel corrected him and said, "I think we have to be specific. The fat, Black queer experience." Why is this an important distinction?
MR. JACKSON: Well, because--it's because of, you know, the representations out there of, you know, Black gay men. They usually tend to be, you know, Instagram thirst traps and sort of very conventional body types. And I think an important part of the story is for a lot of--there are quite a lot of Black gay men out there and Black queer people out there who are not, you know, a size zero and for whom their bodies, as much as that's, like, such a part of how we as queer people express ourselves, there's a lot of rejection. And I think that it was just important for people to see that and to feel that, because it's very easy to dismiss, you know, in this sort of Instagram thirst trap world that we live in.
MR. CAPEHART: Mm-hmm. And the--and the one thing--and we showed in the inner White girl piece that we showed, you can see Jaquel, and Jaquel is unlike any other Broadway leading man right now, or ever.
MR. JACKSON: That's right.
MR. CAPEHART: A fat Black queer man in a leading role, and he's nominated for a Tony.
MR. CAPEHART: We've never--there's never been anyone like him in--at that level on the Broadway stage, has there?
MR. JACKSON: There has not.
MR. CAPEHART: And he's only 23 years old.
MR. JACKSON: He is. He just turned 23 in November, yeah.
MR. CAPEHART: And just graduated from college last year.
MR. JACKSON: Yeah, he's incredible.
MR. CAPEHART: And talk about why this young person was able to capture your imagination and fill out the role of Usher.
MR. JACKSON: It's because he brings such an incredible vulnerability and openness and intelligence to this role. He really--and it's also because Jaquel the person knows his own boundaries that he's willing to go super far with Usher. And like, he knows where he begins and Usher ends. And so he's willing to sort of paint all the colors of this character with everything inside of him that he draws on to make this character and so--and it's really--it's just--it's super thrilling because Jaquel is just one of those actor's actors. He's just really, really dialed in and just so smart and so creative and so musical.
MR. CAPEHART: As I mentioned before, I have seen "A Strange Loop." Not only have I seen 'A Strange Loop." I was in the audience on the very first night it was performed on the Broadway stage. At previews, the energy in the audience was off the charts. But there were--at the end of the show, the ovation lasted for longer than five minutes. I think it was the director who came out and talked about the number of Broadway debuts that happened that night, including Jaquel's. And now he's nominated for a Tony. Another Broadway debut that night--and correct me if I'm wrong--was L Morgan Lee, who is the first out transgender person ever nominated for a Tony, for a leading actress?
MR. JACKSON: That's right. Well, no, featured actress.
MR. CAPEHART: Featured actress, featured actress. What does it mean to you to not only have created a musical that has captured the imagination of Broadway, but has given--has fostered these careers with so many Broadway debuts, so many Tony nominations, and for a lot of folks, their first one?
MR. JACKSON: It really means the world to me, not just because of, you know, the representations that are out there--which to be clear, that's like, so important for people to see and for other people to see and to have to look up to--but it's just because most of this cast has been with me working on this piece, some of them for about 14 years. And they stayed with me and stayed with me and developed this piece and developed this piece, and their talent has been sort of hidden, you know, from--you know, from the world for so long. And so for these folks like L Morgan Lee, for John-Andrew Morrison, to be recognized for what I had seen in them for all these years, it is just one of the joys of my life, because that's how it should be. Like, the really great people should be able to have opportunities sort of rise to the top, and that's what we're seeing with them and so many other people nominated in our show.
MR. CAPEHART: Michael, you are a Black gay playwright who graduated from NYU and once worked as an usher on Broadway and dealt with conservative religious parents, just like your main character, Usher. But you say "A Strange Loop" is not autobiographical. Come on.
MR. JACKSON: It's not, because--look, I guess the best way I could describe it is that, if I were--I'm not comparing myself to Picasso--but if I were Picasso, and I made a self-portrait that was like really sort of distorted, and then I showed that to you, and would you say that's an autobiography, or is that like a perception? It's a self-portrait. It's something different than, you know--it's not "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." That's more one-to-one ratio of events to real life. I definitely drew from personal experience to write the show. But I fictionalized quite a lot. There's things I moved around because it made for a better story. But also the character himself is somebody who's dealing with his own distorted point of view, and so he's just showing you what he sees through the lens of self-hatred. And so is that--is that real? Is it reality? Is it--is it--what is it? I think it's something different.
So, I think that autobiography, if I were to use it, I would say emotionally autobiographical, because I'm just writing what it feels like. Whether that's actually what's true cinéma vérité in front of you, no, it's not that. But it's what--it feels like that. It feels like his parents are like that. It feels like men on Grindr are like that. It feels like his agent and Tyler Perry and all these things. That's what it feels like. And to some degree, if it feels like that, that's what it is.
MR. CAPEHART: Michael, last question for you. You told Newsweek you've never seen your story represented on stage. What does it mean to you to have a play of your own on stage, but not just on stage, but receiving rave reviews and sitting on 11 Tony nominations?
MR. JACKSON: It feels really good, and it feels good because it seems like a validation of all the time that was put into making it. I mean, years and years of--hours and blood, sweat and tears, false starts and stops, a pandemic, an out-of-town tryout--you know, all the things that have happened in the world, the various changes in my own life. Like I started this piece right before America went to war with Iraq. I went through two Bush terms, two Obama terms, the beginning of the Trump term. Like so much has happened. And I kept writing this piece.
And so for it to be recognized after all of that feels like such a win. Especially because we live in such a product-oriented, you know, time and everybody wants to be number one right out the gate and all this stuff, I'm proud of the fact that I had, like, 18 years to spend essentially on one work of art to try to make it be as good as I possibly could make it and to share it with people and that what people are feeling that they--are resonating with it is that it's something that's really well made and of high quality. And that's something that I feel very strongly about as an artist.
MR. CAPEHART: Well, as someone who has seen "A Strange Loop," it is well made. It is of high quality. It is grounded in truth which was--which will make it timeless. Michael R. Jackson, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer of "A Strange Loop," thank you so much for coming to "Capehart" on Washington Post Live.
MR. JACKSON: Thank you, Jonathan.
MR. CAPEHART: And thank you for joining us. To check out what interviews we have coming up, head to WashingtonPostLive.com. Once again, I’m Jonathan Capehart, associate editor at The Washington Post. Thank you for watching “Capehart” on Washington Post Live. | 2022-06-10T16:24:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Transcript: ‘Capehart’ with Michael R. Jackson - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/06/10/transcript-capehart-with-michael-r-jackson/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/06/10/transcript-capehart-with-michael-r-jackson/ |
Deluge put Ellicott City on edge as flood control projects continue
High water is seen in a river that runs near historic Ellicott City. A flood warning was sounded in Ellicott City but the flood did not occur on June 8. (Kevin Richardson/Baltimore Sun)
Brenda Franz drove home in Ellicott City through pouring rain Wednesday night, barely able to see through the windshield. She found a pond in her front yard but was relieved there wasn’t a lake in her basement.
“I think we dodged a bullet,” she said Thursday.
Franz, who owns one of the oldest antique shops in Old Ellicott City, knows the damage a flood can cause. She had to be rescued from her shop with a 70-foot-ladder truck and taken away in an ambulance during a flood in 2018, as a wall of water slammed the streets usually filled with cafe diners and shoppers. That flood killed one person, two years after two people died in a flood in 2016.
Wednesday evening, up to 2 to 4 inches of rain fell in less than two hours — deluging Washington, D.C.'s northern suburbs. Officials issued flash flood warnings, and high water was reported in Laurel and Columbia. In Ellicott City, the rate of rainfall was reminiscent of some moments during the 2018 flood, though overall not nearly as much water came down. It was a scary reminder of how things have turned deadly twice in recent years, and how quickly they could again in a town that has yet to substantially address its flood vulnerability.
The soaking, which was accompanied by tornado warnings, produced minimal damage and no injuries, Howard County Executive Calvin Ball (D) said at a news conference Thursday. “Though yesterday’s storm was nerve wracking for many, the systems that we’ve put in place together worked as intended, especially here in Ellicott City.”
Ball said an outdoor tone alert system, installed in 2019, warned people of the impending danger, and police quickly closed Main Street. He said county crews have worked diligently in recent years to keep the area streams cleared of debris, so they can efficiently carry water downhill past homes and businesses.
The downpours also drenched a Halsey concert at Merriweather Post Pavilion in nearby Columbia, which was called off after water poured through the ceiling and swamped the pit by the stage, leaving many concertgoers in ankle-deep water.
Ellicott City pledged to rebuild in 2018, but difficult decisions lay ahead
A former mill town, Ellicott City began and prospered on the strength of water that flowed into the Patapsco River. In 1772, three Quaker brothers established a flour mill on its banks, and Ellicott’s Mills, as it was known then, was born.
The town sits below steep hills at the convergence of four creeks that flow into the Patapsco. The earliest and most destructive flood recorded there came in 1868, when the river rose 5 feet in 10 minutes and killed 43 people. Many floods have followed.
The deluges of 2016 and 2018, however, were caused not by the rising river but by water rushing in from above. The 2016 storm turned Main Street into a fearsome river, devastating the historic downtown.
Climatologists say the earth’s warming has increased the intensity of rainstorms in the United States and will continue to do so. “Expected increases in the severity and frequency of heavy precipitation events will affect inland infrastructure in every region …” said the federal government’s 2018 National Climate Assessment.
“This is partly because of climate change, and us ignoring 50 years of climate change,” David Carney, owner of the Wine Bin and past president of Ellicott City Business Owners Association. “We are now paying for this wrath of severe weather, and it’s going to continue. So we need to do what we can to mitigate it.”
County officials say that in recent years they have secured $167 million in federal, state and local funding for flood mitigation, including a $75-million loan the county obtained last month through the Environmental Protection Agency.
Over the years, many residents and business owners have blamed development at higher elevations for the flooding, noting that rooftops and parking lots do not soak up water the way woods and fields do. Instead, it flows to land below. Development is part of the problem, confirmed a flood analysis commissioned by the county after the 2016 storm. But the study said the bulk of the floodwaters would have come even had the watershed been undeveloped.
The flood control plans include a handful of retention ponds, to hold water and then release it slowly, along with a huge drainage conduit, dubbed the North Tunnel, to carry water safely into the Patapsco.
Construction on two of the retention ponds has started, including one near the intersection of U.S. routes 29 and 40 northwest of downtown.
“When you drive by it at that intersection there, it just looks like a huge cavern,” Franz said. “Like you’d never want to fall in there because you’d never, ever get out.”
Franz, who owns a three-story downtown building built in 1890 that houses Attic Antiques ’N Things and the Doll Hospital, said she is optimistic the flood control steps will be effective.
“I mean, I hope I never have to experience it again,” she said. “And I’m thinking the measures they are taking to mitigate this are going to work, I really do.”
Severe storms trigger flooding Wednesday in Maryland
County Council member Liz Walsh (D), whose district includes Old Ellicott City, said she is glad the two retention ponds are under construction, but she wishes more were accomplished by now, given the devastation caused by the 2016 flood.
“I will never understand the glacial pace of government, especially in safety matters,” she said.
Walsh, who lives uphill from the river, said that aside from the economic importance of protecting downtown, she fears for the residents who live downhill from her.
“Sitting there in the dark in their living rooms, trying to glean what’s going to happen next from the sounds they can hear from the river behind them, or, you know, how fast the stones are moving,” she said. “I just cannot begin to imagine what that’s like to have lived in that circumstance for as long as they have.” | 2022-06-10T16:51:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Fast rains underscore need for Ellicott City flood control - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/10/ellicott-city-flood-projects-underway/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/10/ellicott-city-flood-projects-underway/ |
Texas teachers are asked to do it all. But some things, we can’t.
By Madeline Vosch
(Holly Stapleton for The Washington Post)
Madeline Vosch is a writer and teacher based in Austin.
I work at a Title I public high school in Texas that is 70 percent Hispanic, and where 60 percent of the students are categorized as economically disadvantaged. There is so little I can do for my students, but so much I’m supposed to do.
Something is wrong with the heating and cooling system. My classroom is always freezing. Some days in winter, it’s 55 degrees inside; even in late May, it’s cold. So I become a HVAC tech: I bring in a space heater. Students stand in front of it, warming their hands as if at a hearth.
Early in the school year, my students tell me they’re hungry. “I’m sorry I’m so out of it, Miss,” one says. “I haven’t eaten since yesterday morning.” I bring snacks, stock my classroom with granola bars and Goldfish. I learn which teachers bring ramen noodle cups, which offices keep oatmeal.
One day, a student misses lunch and tells me she’s going straight to work after school. She won’t eat until midnight; her bank account is empty. I walk her to the vending machines, pay for her Pringles — a small token from my small paycheck. My fellow teachers and I become a food pantry, spread out across the school.
In fall 2021, my school district defied Gov. Greg Abbott (R) by implementing a mask mandate. I’m not legally allowed to ask my students whether they’re vaccinated, though I can tell them I am. I remind them, again and again, that their masks must go over their noses. We keep the desks pushed apart except in classes where there are so many students, it’s physically impossible. If a student gets covid, I have to notify everyone they’ve been in contact with. I become a public health worker, trying to contain the virus.
Some students in my classes work full time, are their families’ primary breadwinners. One student, not yet a senior, will work 10-hour days this summer because she wants to send money to her younger sisters, who live in a different town. When she and others ask me about budgeting, I become a financial adviser.
No one in the school is allowed a locker — it could be used to store weapons. We have lockdown drills and lockout drills. I become a safety marshal, a commander of a tiny army, the last thing standing between my students and whatever is to come.
My classroom is on the second floor. My students tell me that if there’s a shooter, they’ll run, they’ll jump out the window, despite what we practice. “Miss,” they say, “it’d be so dangerous to stay. The shooter has been in the drills. They’d know where we’d be hiding.”
Opinion: At school, we prepare to be shot at. This is how it feels.
I try to explain the physics to them — that where we are is higher than they think. But I’m not a science teacher. I can’t tell them which risk is greater: jumping or standing still.
I’ve had to think about this scenario more than I care to say. How many seconds it would take to run across the room to lock the door. Where I would move the desks to best protect my students. What I could say if a student tried to run. How to keep them calm and quiet, keep them from calling their parents. What I would do if a student were locked out and I couldn’t let them in.
Once the classroom door is locked, we’re told, we can’t let a student back in — no matter what. The shooter could be standing next to the student, using them to get inside the room.
In that moment, I’d become a powerless god. The last person they might ever see, telling them no, I can’t do anything. I cannot keep you safe.
I can help my students find apartments, apply for jobs. I can walk them through college applications. I can tell my undocumented students how to get financial aid without a Social Security number. I can call a trans student by their correct name, can sit with them when they tell me the nurse dead-named them over and over, that it made them panic, that they just want to go home. I can tell them I’m sorry, it’s not okay for the nurse to do that.
But I can’t think of what to say to them about the shooting in Uvalde, Tex., because this happens again and again, and no one does anything. There is nothing I can say to a student who stops coming to school because they don’t feel safe.
One of the teachers in Uvalde, who lived through one of the worst things imaginable, told a reporter: “That’s my baby, too. They are not my students. They are my children.”
These are my kids. We teachers, we staff, try to feed and care for these students because they’re ours, because they are beloved. But the roots of the problems they face grow outside the classroom walls.
We are asked to tell children who come to school hungry that if they work hard, they can have a different life. Meanwhile, the school is falling apart around us. We barely have the resources to teach and yet we are asked to take on more. In the next school year, teachers in my district will have one less planning period; they have to teach an additional class because the district can’t afford to hire enough teachers. | 2022-06-10T17:05:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Texas teachers are asked to do it all. But some things, we can’t. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/texas-teachers-school-shootings-keeping-students-safe/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/texas-teachers-school-shootings-keeping-students-safe/ |
Rich Strike is prepping for the Belmont Stakes after taking some time off following his Kentucky Derby win. (Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
By now, four years after Justify won the Triple Crown and retired to stud after racing only six times in his life — and going 6-0 — it can feel jarring just to read the schedule of Determine, who in 1954 became the first gray horse to win a Kentucky Derby. A deft, smallish colt bought for $12,000 by California auto mega-dealer Andrew J. Crevolin, and schooled by eventual Hall of Fame trainer William Molter, Determine awakened on May 1, 1954, for his ninth race of the calendar year alone.
“I don’t think we’ve ever raced in a shorter time period than five weeks’ rest and some of them have been six and seven,” Dawson said. “As an owner, I was a little anxious and I was thinking, Well, if we got a great horse, maybe we ought to run in this race or that race. And (trainer) Eric (Reed) was incredibly calm and convincing. And, of course, you know, I mean, why have a trainer if you don’t listen to him?”
And amid a culture with a heightened awareness of animal wellness, Rich Strike’s Preakness absence drew a further layer of support. “We applaud the Rich Strike team for putting the welfare of the horse first and choosing not to run in the 147th Preakness,” Marty Irby, executive director of Animal Wellness Action, said in a statement. “Their decision to ‘give him more recovery time and rest’ is refreshing to see, and we have no doubt that Rich Strike will go down in the history books as one of the most famous American racehorses of all time.”
By the time Thunder Gulch made his way to a win both by two lengths and decisive, and gave trainer D. Wayne Lukas the fifth of his six consecutive Triple Crown race wins (with four different horses) at the time, Thunder Gulch had been the only horse to race in all three Triple Crown races. | 2022-06-10T17:18:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Rested Rich Strike can make history at the Belmont - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/10/rich-strike-belmont-rest-triple-crown/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/10/rich-strike-belmont-rest-triple-crown/ |
After months of preparation, Cheney tries to convince fellow Republicans and Wyoming voters of a chilling conspiracy
By Paul Kane
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) vice chair of the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurrection, arrives for a vote on Capitol Hill on June 8. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
For weeks, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) has been, in the words of those close to her, “obsessed” with investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.
She has devoted more than half of her working hours to collecting evidence, leafing through thousands of pages of testimony, writing scripts for the hearings and strategizing on how best to convince her constituents and fellow Republicans that the events of that January day were part of a chilling conspiracy overseen by former president Donald Trump to undermine democracy.
On Thursday night, at the first in a series of congressional hearings, Cheney narrated that case with a dispassionate but propulsive presentation of facts, often showing evidence from videotaped depositions from the former president’s inner circle admitting his claims of voter fraud had no merit. She teased the investigation’s biggest findings and sharply criticized her fellow Republicans for the roles that they played — including enabling and continuing to support Trump.
“There will come a point when Donald Trump is gone,” Cheney said, “but your dishonor will remain.”
These hearings, which continue Monday, could mark the pinnacle of Cheney’s political career or the end of it.
The former rising star of the GOP has already been alienated by party leaders, abandoned by longtime supporters and consistently attacked by Trump and his allies, who are backing a primary challenger Cheney will face in August. While most of the nine other Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after Jan. 6 have either decided not to run for reelection or mostly avoided discussing the former president, Cheney has made her role as the vice chair of the select committee investigating the insurrection central to her pitch to voters. She is trying to convince them she’s on the right side of history — and that her Trump-free approach to conservatism is the right one.
“These issues around what happened on January 6th and around Donald Trump and the danger that he poses, those matter to every American,” Cheney told supporters at a campaign event in Cheyenne, Wyo., on Saturday. “And I just feel very strongly about my responsibility.”
In more than 20 conversations with lawmakers, political operatives, foes and friends of the Wyoming Republican, they uniformly describe her as obstinately and surgically focused on extinguishing Trump from the modern conservative movement that he has largely redefined in recent years, with little introspection regarding the forces bigger than Trump that facilitated her ousting from the Wyoming Republican Party earlier this year.
Cheney has said the deadly assault of the U.S. Capitol crossed the party line for her and that she has a nonpartisan duty to set the record straight for the people who were “betrayed and lied to” by Trump. Cheney participated in several private meetings with GOP leaders in the days leading up to the attack and was in the House as insurgents tried breaking down the doors, helping other lawmakers put on gas masks because tear gar has been deployed nearby.
Democrats run the select committee, but they deferred to Cheney — the daughter of a former Republican vice president they still revile — at the opening hearing to methodically lay out the case against Trump.
“She’s had a huge head start on the rest of the committee in understanding these events, because she knows the players and understands the internal political culture of the GOP — this is very familiar terrain for her,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has told others that he understands Cheney’s position, but “it’s the only thing she cares about,” according to one adviser. “That doesn’t help anyone.”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told Cheney after her impeachment vote that he would try to protect her if she would drop the Trump attacks, but she declined, people familiar with the matter said. He has privately described her as “obsessed” with Trump and with destroying his political power, they said. Cheney has repeatedly criticized McCarthy for going to Mar-a-Lago to see Trump soon after the attack, helping the president’s public redemption.
Cheney explained her motives in personal terms at the Saturday campaign event, pointing to Jan. 6 as the moment she realized the peaceful transfer of power was no longer a guarantee.
“I looked at my boys in the weeks after January 6th; it became very clear that we might suddenly have to question that,” Cheney said. “And I am absolutely committed to do everything I can do, everything that I am required and obligated to do to make sure that we aren’t the last generation in America that can count on a peaceful transition of power. It is hugely important.”
‘Trump is wildly popular in Wyoming’
Days before the opening hearing, Cheney stood in Cheyenne’s Old West Museum, surrounded by 19th-century horse carriages, and told a small crowd of supporters and warned that Trump “can’t be anywhere close to that power again.” The crowd of about 70 supporters included mostly traditional Republicans, including a few who supported her father’s first campaign more than 40 years ago, as well as some independent-leaning voters.
“What we do in Wyoming is going to matter so much,” she said. “I cannot overstate how much what we do is going to matter, because it’s going to matter from the perspective of our democracy as a whole. It’s going to matter. People are going to watch Wyoming.”
In Wyoming’s Aug. 16 primary, Cheney faces Harriet Hageman, an attorney and former Republican National Committee member whose campaign is guided by Trump advisers. The former president attended a large rally for Hageman in late May and has claimed that “the people of Wyoming cannot stand” Cheney.
After Georgia losses, Trump sets sights on ousting Cheney in Wyoming
Cheney advisers describe the race as a difficult one, and Trump has claimed the congresswoman is lagging in the polls. Cheney has held back her vast campaign war chest but last week began what is expected to be a massive TV ad campaign that makes only indirect reference to “standing up to bullies.”
She has not been able to hold large, publicized campaign events, partly for security concerns, and is instead gathering dozens of supporters at a time and then using her digital media team to blast video snippets of the event out to supporters around the state.
Cheney, 56, has long had a complicated relationship with Wyoming. She attended middle school in the state but mostly grew up in the Washington suburbs of Northern Virginia. Her father, Dick Cheney, went from junior White House aide to the youngest presidential chief of staff ever, for Gerald Ford, before returning to Wyoming and winning the state’s sole House seat in 1978.
Liz Cheney’s political viewpoint was formed in her father’s orbit of conservative hawks, particularly once he became secretary of defense in 1989 and then George W. Bush’s vice president. She worked as a State Department deputy assistant secretary focused on Middle East affairs, at a time when wars were launched in Afghanistan and Iraq. She embraced the belief popular among many neoconservatives that all people yearned for democratic governance freed from their autocratic regimes, justifying U.S. military action in many parts of the world and leading Trump to derisively label her a “war monger.”
In the Obama administration years, Cheney began to carve her own identity, particularly as an acid-tongued partisan commentator on Fox News who belittled the White House. In 2013, she tried to challenge Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) but withdrew from the race amid an angry backlash. She then ran for her father’s former House seat in 2016 and won, saying her star power would help the state.
Tim Stubson, a former state representative who lost to Cheney in 2016 but now supports her, said he recalls Cheney saying: “I have a national voice. I have a national presence. I can use that for the benefit of the state of Wyoming.”
“That was her pitch,” Stubson said. “And that’s exactly what she did.”
As Cheney was first running for office, Trump became the party’s presidential nominee. Stubson remembers her carefully embracing most of Trump’s conservative policies but not his outrageous behavior — later earning her praise from Trump’s family members and senior advisers at a fundraiser in the Wyoming resort town of Jackson in 2019.
Trump won the state by 46 percentage points in 2016 — slightly better than Mitt Romney did in 2012 — and then by 43 percentage points in 2020.
What Wyoming really thinks of Liz Cheney
Over that time, Wyoming’s Republican Party has been slowly taken over by conservatives who identify more as Trump supporters than Republicans. The state party is now led by Frank Eathorne, a member of the Oath Keepers who stood on the Capitol’s West Front during the insurrection, walkie-talkie in hand. Cheney has heavily focused on investigating his role, advisers say.
“This [takeover] was planned over several years, very organized and very dedicated,” said Joe McGinley, a former Natrona County Republican Party chairman who runs a medical practice in Casper, Wyo. “And they had a long-term goal to take first, the county parties, then the state party, then the legislature, and then all of the other elected positions.”
Earlier this month, a group of breakaway Republicans held a candidate forum that included loud heckling of an incumbent state representative wearing a mask — his immuno-suppressing medications make him susceptible to severe outcomes if he develops covid — and even more jeering when he said the state government should accept federal funding, the largest source of state revenue. A long-shot candidate for governor parked his campaign truck, with the motto SOVEREIGN WYOMING painted across the front, outside the event.
With so many voters tilting in this direction, McGinley believes Cheney’s best hope is to attract a pool of new voters for the primary — soft Republicans who do not normally participate in primaries, as well as some crossover votes from independents and Democrats who can register as Republicans up until the day of the Aug. 16 primary. That, however, could require a major shift in Cheney’s current message. Many of those soft Republican voters, according to McGinley, need to be drawn out on local issues.
“This is not about President Trump,” McGinley said. “This is about Wyoming. This is about Wyoming needs. This is about Wyoming jobs. Wyoming is struggling under the Biden administration with oil and gas under attack and coal under attack.”
Some in Wyoming say Cheney hasn’t been as visible as she was in the past, and even advisers and allies wish she was campaigning more, although others note there are concerns about her safety and the reaction of some voters in parts of Wyoming.
Cheney’s work on the committee has helped her develop a national following and raise a record $10 million for this election so far, with almost $7 million in the bank, a figure that has probably grown over the past two months.
Cheney raised more than $7.2 million last year, an astonishing amount for a state with fewer than 600,000 residents, according to Open Secrets, an independent political funding analyst. A little more than $200,000 came from Wyoming donors, according to the analysis — a statistic her opponent has loudly advertised.
Bobbie Kilberg, a prominent Virginia donor, held a fundraiser for Cheney in a hotel ballroom earlier this year. It was moved from Kilberg’s home because so many people wanted to attend after the Republican Party censured Cheney and announced it would not support her reelection, she said, and 212 people raised $532,000. The crowd included Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Joe McCain, the brother of the late senator John McCain of Arizona.
“There are a lot of Republicans, quiet Republicans who don’t like confrontation, who have had it,” Kilberg said.
At the event, she said, Cheney offered a fiery denunciation of Trump and his behavior.
“She talked at the fundraiser about respect for the constitution, the rule of law. She said that Donald Trump had not adhered to any of that — his behavior was inexcusable — people had to stand up, and people had to be accountable,” Kilberg said. “She did not shy away in any manner shape or form in her feelings or beliefs that Donald Trump had not respected the rule of law.”
A person involved with the Hageman campaign said Cheney could triumph if Democrats decide to cross over in large droves. Still, Cheney faces a problem of basic math. In the last midterm elections, about 115,000 people voted in the GOP primary, while 17,000 voted in the Democratic primary.
“If it’s 20 percent, we’re okay; if it’s 30 percent, it gets closer,” the person added, trying to predict how many Democrats will ultimately cross over. For their part, Cheney’s team has not tried to go after crossover voters, according to people familiar with their strategy.
In the crowd at Cheney’s Saturday campaign event was Harmon Davis, 75, a retired pulmonologist who didn’t support her in 2016 because he considered her “a carpet bagger” who wasn’t familiar with the state.
Davis described when he had a change of heart: “When she started to behave like a thinking, courageous leader, and was able to not have to swallow the party politic and was able to speak her mind about things, and to stand up.”
But Cheney seems to have lost many more supporters, including Doug Cooper, a Wyoming rancher who volunteered for her original campaign, held a dinner for her team at his house and had her cellphone number. He now plans to vote for Hageman.
“Until Jan. 6, I was pleased with what she was doing, but she has put all her political assets against Trump. It’s a bad deal,” Cooper said. “I feel that she’s really a traitor to us. … I went from an ardent supporter to as strong an opponent as you can find.”
Cooper said Trump was right to raise questions about the validity of the 2020 election results and said Democrats deserve some of the blame for the Jan. 6 attack.
Cheney’s two mortal sins, he said, were voting to impeach Trump and then continuing to criticize him. Cooper said he had tried to email emailed Cheney directly about his concerns but didn’t hear back, and had repeatedly talked to her staff repeatedly about his concerns.
“Trump is wildly popular in Wyoming,” he said. “She’s alienated herself from a large portion of the Republican Party. Liz has got a problem.”
‘She’s a conservative, and I’m not.’
Despite Cheney’s continued conservative convictions — just look at her voting record — she has become somewhat of a hero to liberals who have contributed to her campaign or commended her courage for joining the Jan. 6 committee.
She has received mostly rave reviews from her Democratic colleagues, who describe her as one of the most aggressive members. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who invited Cheney to be on the committee and appointed her as the vice chairwoman, described the Republican’s leadership as “excellent.” Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) called her “very smart, very hard-working, thoughtful.” Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) said there are “few people in Congress I can think of who I enjoy working with more than Liz.”
The carefully calibrated story of Jan. 6 presented by panel
That doesn’t mean that her new Democratic friends have deluded themselves into believing that Cheney’s now a Democrat. She’s been less “liberated,” according to a person involved with the investigation, and more constrained by her belief system than the other Republican on the committee, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), who is retiring from Congress.
“It’s been great working with her, but we don’t agree on many, many other issues, as I’m sure you know,” Lofgren said. “She’s a conservative, and I’m not.”
Cheney did not want the committee to investigate Ginni Thomas, a conservative activist and the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, according to people involved with the investigation. Cheney did not think it was fair to target the justice without evidence that he was involved, according to those involved, but some Democrats instead saw this as an effort to protect her hardcore Republican credentials. Cheney has also clashed with Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.) over how much to focus on Trump vs. other Republicans, according to those involved.
“She drives a hard bargain,” said a person involved with the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly. “People’s impression of Dick Cheney — that he is a control freak — Liz Cheney has got some of that.”
Back at the Old West Museum in Cheyenne, Cheney said issues central to Wyoming “matter a huge amount” in her reelection — but nothing will be more important than investigating Trump.
“I have huge respect for the voters of Wyoming,” Cheney said, “so I think that I owe them the truth, and I owe them honesty about how important this is.” | 2022-06-10T17:18:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Rep. Liz Cheney tells America why Jan. 6 should terrify them - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/10/liz-cheney-jan-6/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/10/liz-cheney-jan-6/ |
A message on Malaysia's mandatory death penalty for drug trafficking adorns the perimeter wall of the historic Pudu Jail in Kuala Lumpur in 2007. (Tengku Bahar/AFP/Getty Images)
“This shows the government’s emphasis on ensuring that the rights of all parties are protected and guaranteed,” Law Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, said in a statement, adding that relevant laws would be amended to reflect the cabinet’s decision..
"Singapore executes intellectually disabled man despite outcry" | 2022-06-10T17:44:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Malaysia death penalty: Government rolls back ‘mandatory’ death sentences - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/10/malaysia-mandatory-death-penalty/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/10/malaysia-mandatory-death-penalty/ |
The US House of Representatives committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the nation’s Capitol is aiming to prove that the violent attack was a direct result of former President Donald Trump’s false claims about a stolen election. Following a series of hearings that began on June 9, the committee of seven Democrats and two Republicans will report its findings sometime before the midterm elections on Nov. 8, likely in September at a final hearing. Trump and his Republican allies continue to call the probe a witch hunt focused on scoring political points.
It’s conducted more than 1,000 interviews and collected more than 100,000 documents, including emails and texts. At its first public hearing, in July 2021, it heard testimony from police officers at the Capitol who came under attack. It’s issued at least 99 subpoenas for witness testimony and document production; in four instances where the recipient hasn’t complied, the Democratic-controlled House has voted to pursue charges of contempt of Congress, with two of those cases leading to indictments.
Chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, says the panel seeks to “tell the American people the full story of January 6th and ensure that nothing like that day ever happens again.” One focus is what role Trump and his advisers played in efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election -- which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden -- or to organize the events that preceded the storming of the Capitol while Congress was certifying Biden’s victory. Another is what explains the 187 minutes of inaction before National Guard troops and additional police were sent to the Capitol. Other areas of inquiry include whether any lawmaker gave a tour of the Capitol on Jan. 5 to members of the public casing the building for the next day’s incursion, and whether there were crimes or violations of campaign finance law in the funding of events to promote claims the presidential election had been stolen.
At the June 9 hearing, held in primetime to maximize television viewership, the committee showed taped testimony in which former Attorney General William Barr says he told Trump there was no evidence of significant election fraud. Other footage revealed that Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, and former aides also say they didn’t believe claims about a stolen election. The committee produced accounts from Trump aides painting the former president as angry at his own advisers when they urged him to publicly urge the mob to stand down. Earlier, the committee released text messages sent or received by Trump’s White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, on Jan. 6 or in the days leading up to it. The texts, provided to the committee by Meadows, show members of Congress and others pleading for Trump to call on his supporters to stop the assault. Other texts show Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, advocating for invalidating the results of the 2020 presidential election. The committee revealed in March it had uncovered a more-than-seven-hour gap in White House telephone logs of Trump calls during the riot -- a period when lawmakers were urgently trying to get him to quell the mob. Thompson confirmed in January that the committee had inquired about a reported draft executive order -- never issued -- that would have directed the National Guard to seize ballot boxes used in the 2020 election.
“Those who invaded our Capitol and battled law enforcement for hours were motivated by what President Trump had told them: that the election was stolen and that he was the rightful president,” the committee’s vice chair, Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming -- one of the panel’s two Republican members -- said during the June 9 hearing. “President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack.” She had previously said Trump “could have, at any moment, walked those very few steps into the briefing room, gone on live television, and told his supporters who were assaulting the Capitol to stop.” Not doing so, she said, was a “serious dereliction of duty.” Some panel members say they hope the evidence will increase pressure on the Justice Department to pursue criminal charges against Trump or his allies, but the department faces a high bar in charging any of them, due to the protected nature of presidential conversations.
Former White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Dan Scavino, former trade adviser Peter Navarro and former Trump strategist Steve Bannon refused to comply with subpoenas seeking their testimony. So did Meadows, even as he initially complied with the committee’s request for text messages. Their matters were all referred to the Department of Justice for potential criminal prosecution. Bannon and Navarro were indicted; Bannon is set to go on trial in July on two counts of contempt, which can potentially carry a penalty of up to a year in jail plus a fine. The Justice Department told the committee that Meadows and Scavino won’t be indicted because they have been cooperating with the department -- though in exactly what way was not explained, Bloomberg reported. Also subpoenaed are five Republican House members, including the Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy. McCarthy resisted complying, challenging the committee’s legal standing. Trying to compel testimony from sitting members of Congress is legally complicated and underscores a key facet of the case: Lawmakers were participants in some of the events on Jan. 6 and have information germane to the probe.
In remarks echoed by other Republicans, McCarthy argues the committee is partisan and “not conducting a legitimate investigation.” Some of those refusing to cooperate cited Trump’s claim of executive privilege, the limited right of a president to decline requests from Congress and the courts for information about internal White House talks and deliberations. Longtime Trump confidante Roger Stone invoked his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination. Trump’s onetime lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said he invoked attorney-client privilege to refuse to answer some questions. Part of what could be motivating the resistance is a desire to delay the committee’s progress, since its clock it ticking. All 435 House seats will be on the ballot in November, and Democrats could lose their majority. Republicans have been clear that, should they gain House control at the start of 2023, they would shut down an investigation they view as a partisan waste of taxpayer dollars. | 2022-06-10T17:52:55Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What the Jan. 6 Committee Has Done, and What’s Next - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/what-the-jan-6-committee-has-done-and-whats-next/2022/06/10/d88a99a2-e8de-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/what-the-jan-6-committee-has-done-and-whats-next/2022/06/10/d88a99a2-e8de-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
Justice Dept. declines to reopen probe into Bijan Ghaisar’s shooting
Ghaisar’s family had hoped the Merrick Garland-led department would reconsider the 2019 decision to close the case.
U.S. Park Police officer Lucas Vinyard, left, is shown firing his handgun, as U.S. Park Police officer Alejandro Amaya, right, aims at Bijan Ghaisar's vehicle in 2017. (U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia) ( and US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia/US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia)
The Justice Department announced Friday that it would not reopen the federal investigation into the 2017 shooting death of Bijan Ghaisar by two U.S. Park Police officers in Fairfax County.
The department under then-Attorney General William P. Barr declined charges in 2019, but after new leadership was installed by the Biden administration, Ghaisar’s family, members of Congress and a coalition of civil rights groups had asked officials to reconsider the case.
The decision, relayed to the family by Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke in a letter on Thursday, puts a definitive end to the criminal prosecution of Park Police Officers Lucas Vinyard, 40, and Alejandro Amaya, 42.
A lawsuit filed by the Ghaisar family against the Park Police, which was put on hold while the criminal case against the officers was pending, may now resume in federal court in Alexandria. But the same judge who dismissed the criminal case last year, Senior U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton, will also hear the civil case, which by law is heard by a judge, not a jury.
Ghaisar, 25, was an accountant from McLean who was driving alone down the George Washington Memorial Parkway in Alexandria on Nov. 17, 2017, when his Jeep Grand Cherokee stopped suddenly in a lane of traffic and was struck from behind by a Toyota Corolla. Instead of exchanging information, Ghaisar drove off, and police began looking for him.
Vinyard and Amaya spotted him in Old Town Alexandria and pursued him down the parkway with their lights and sirens on. Ghaisar stopped and then drove off twice, as Amaya ran at him with his gun drawn, a video recorded by a Fairfax police cruiser shows. During a third stop in the Fort Hunt neighborhood, Ghaisar again started to drive away from the officers, the video shows, and Vinyard and Amaya both fired five shots into the Jeep.
In a news release, the Justice Department pointing to the high legal bar to prosecuting officers charged in on-duty shootings, using the same language as it did in 2019 in explaining why it would not file federal criminal civil rights charges. The department said that prosecutors would have to prove that the officers “willfully used unreasonable force” and that they “acted with the deliberate and specific intent to do something the law forbids.”
Video shows Park Police fired nine shots into Bijan Ghaisar’s Jeep at close range, killing him
As in 2019, the department said Friday, “Mistake, misperception, negligence or poor judgment are not sufficient to establish a federal criminal civil rights violation.”
In her letter to the family Thursday, Clarke said, “We are aware of no information obtained since the closure of the federal investigation that warrants reopening it at this time.”
After the Justice Department’s decision in 2019, Fairfax prosecutors took up the case and in October 2020 obtained involuntary manslaughter indictments against Vinyard and Amaya. The case was removed to federal court, because federal officers are entitled by law to have their cases heard there, and Hilton dismissed it in October. He ruled that the officers had done only what was “necessary and proper” in their duties as Park Police officers.
The officers, who have never spoken publicly about the case, remain on paid leave. The Department of Interior has begun proceedings to fire them, the officers’ union said last year, but no decision has been reached.
The Ghaisars and their lawyer did not immediately comment Friday. The lawyers for Vinyard and Amaya said they had not been notified of the decision and were preparing a response.
David Nakamura contributed to this report. This story will be updated. | 2022-06-10T17:53:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Justice Department declines to reopen Bijan Ghaisar investigation - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/10/justice-department-declines-reopen-ghaisar/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/10/justice-department-declines-reopen-ghaisar/ |
District officials say they will tear down the dilapidated RFK stadium by 2021, a move they say is driven by a need to save money and not to advance plans for the Redskins to build a new football stadium. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) has laid the legislative groundwork for the District to acquire the 190-acre, federally owned RFK campus on the city’s Northeast riverfront. That’s great news because the city can make good use of the land. The worst option, however, would be any deal that allowed Daniel Snyder to build a glitzy new stadium so his Washington Commanders could return to town.
By all measures, the District has gotten along quite well since Snyder’s National Football League team fled to FedEx Field in Landover in 1997. The last thing D.C. needs is a professional sports franchise heavily laden with outside-the-stadium failure. That’s sure to come as long as Snyder remains in the picture.
The “No Admittance” sign was hung this week in a letter sent to Norton from a majority of the D.C. Council. “We all hope that the Washington Commanders can address its ownership’s many off-the-field failures — in particular, its failure to provide a safe working environment for women — and, secondarily, can return to its former glory on the field,” wrote council member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6) and six other city lawmakers. They added, “One of the last large undeveloped parcels of land in the District, must be utilized in the best interest of District residents.”
Suffice to say, the District’s interests may be incompatible with Snyder’s. The last time talks turned to building a new stadium on the existing RFK site in 2018; the owner sketched out a vision of a moat-surrounded, state-of-the-art stadium anchored in a sprawling entertainment and commercial district on the banks of the Anacostia River — much of it under his control.
Oh, yes, and the city — while not expected to spend a dime on stadium construction — would have had to shell out tens of millions of dollars to pay for infrastructure development. That was then.
Some city leaders say there are better uses for the property: parks, recreation, affordable housing, commercial opportunities — with residents fully consulted on the plans.
Tweeted Allen: “Putting tax dollars toward the bottom line of a billionaire’s team with an ugly history of racism and misogyny does not benefit District residents.”
The council’s majority, however, won’t necessarily have the last word. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) has made it known that she would like to have the Commanders back on Washington soil. But she is a political realist and can count votes, too. With Snyder in the package, the Commanders are going to remain on the outside looking in.
For that, Snyder can thank himself.
His ownership record, as I wrote before, is a tale of how to run down a successful franchise, while making out like a bandit along the way.
From team management, coaching staff and player selection, to the despicable treatment of women (among other charges, cheerleaders said they were used as escorts on a trip where stadium suite owners and sponsors were invited to observe them topless during a required photo shoot), Snyder is a top contender for the title of World’s Worst Sports Team Owner.
The team’s 2020 acquisition of Washington Commanders defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio isn’t turning out so hot, either.
Tweeted Del Rio in response to a report about the Jan. 6 hearings: “Would love to understand ‘the whole story’ about why the summer of riots, looting, burning and the destruction of personal property is never discussed but this is ???”
Leaving little doubt about what he was getting at, Del Rio said to reporters: “Why are we not looking into those things if we’re going to talk about it? Why are we not looking into those things? Because it’s kind of hard for me to say — I can realistically look at it, I see the images on TV, people’s livelihoods are being destroyed, businesses are being burned down. No problem. And then we have a dust-up at the Capitol. Nothing burned down, and we’re not going to talk about — we’re going to make that a major deal.”
It’s hard to understand how an attack on the U.S. Capitol intent on destroying our democracy, that left dead and wounded in its wake, could be reduced to a “dust-up.” Or that protests in response to police shootings of Black Americans are in any way comparable to a violent insurrection.
But that’s the way the Washington Commanders defensive coordinator sees it, although he has now said some of his words were “irresponsible and negligent.” Snyder has said nary a word.
All of which is just cause for the District to say with finality: “Yes to the RFK site; no to Daniel Snyder.” | 2022-06-10T17:53:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | D.C. is better off without the NFL — especially if it comes with Daniel Snyder - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/dc-rfk-stadium-site-washington-commanders-nfl-not-welcome/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/dc-rfk-stadium-site-washington-commanders-nfl-not-welcome/ |
Pink Floyd, ‘Music from The Committee, No. 1’: The week in one song
The Jan. 6 committee’s first hearing
This image from video from a police-worn body camera from the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol was played as an exhibit as the House select committee investigating the attack on the Capitol held a hearing on June 9 in Washington. (AP)
The Jan. 6 committee holds its first hearing, in prime time. | 2022-06-10T17:53:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Week in One Song. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/10/week-in-one-song/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/10/week-in-one-song/ |
Julie Vitkovskaya named assistant editor for visual enterprise
WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 21: Julie Vitkovskaya in the studio at The Washington Post November 21, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)
Announcement from Senior Editor for Visual Enterprise Ann Gerhart:
I’m delighted to announce that Julie Vitkovskaya has been promoted to assistant editor for visual enterprise. She will help drive and edit timely, memorable and affecting visual storytelling off the news, a key area of coverage expansion. Julie will partner with me to identify opportunities for fresh visual approaches to news, pull together teams from multiple desks, and offer vision, guidance and editing as we invent story forms and accelerate their adoption across the newsroom. She will report to the senior editor for visual enterprise and work closely with the collective of visual enterprise editors on Foreign, Climate, National and Business, other editors on visual desks and journalists of all skill sets to convene and coordinate coverage, refine workflows and reach new audiences.
Julie is ideally qualified for this new role, which she already has begun. She brims with ambitious and inventive ideas for making our news report more visually dynamic, and she is a nimble collaborator who flourishes through teamwork. In her seven years here, she has been integral in producing some of The Post’s most important journalism, creating a variety of new ways for readers to absorb that journalism and acting as a liaison between visual teams and section editors.
As a project editor, she managed and launched two multi-part, deeply layered prize-winning series, “The Afghanistan Papers” and “2°C: Beyond the Limit,” proving how deftly she can organize and mediate teams and lead them to meet deadlines. She produced “George Floyd’s America,” managing photo, video and graphics, and reported, researched and produced compelling packages that place human stories front and center, in “10 lives, interrupted” and “50 astronauts, in their own words.”
As deputy digital editor for foreign and national security from 2016 to 2018, she worked frequently with graphics to collaborate on breaking news stories. She kept current a tracker of the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia and elevated investigations on what Obama and Trump knew of Russian interference in the 2016 election. She also wrote a weekly national security brief for Apple.
Born in Russia, Julie came to the United States when she was 8. She is a graduate of Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and spent two years in South Korea working at an English-language newspaper as a Princeton in Asia fellow. | 2022-06-10T17:54:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Julie Vitkovskaya named assistant editor for visual enterprise - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/pr/2022/06/10/julie-vitkovskaya-named-assistant-editor-visual-enterprise/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/pr/2022/06/10/julie-vitkovskaya-named-assistant-editor-visual-enterprise/ |
50th Anniversary of Watergate: Inside the Case
With Richard Ben-Veniste & William Cohen
They were key players investigating the political scandal of the 20th century. Join Washington Post Live to hear from former House Judiciary Committee member William Cohen (R-Maine) and Richard Ben-Veniste, former chief of the Watergate Task Force, as they reflect on the 50th anniversary of the Watergate break-in, which eventually led to Richard Nixon becoming the only U.S. president to resign from office.
Richard Ben-Veniste
Former Chief, Watergate Task Force
Former Congressman (R-Maine) | 2022-06-10T17:55:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 50th Anniversary of Watergate: Inside the Case - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/06/10/50th-anniversary-watergate-inside-case/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/06/10/50th-anniversary-watergate-inside-case/ |
Flowers, messages, balloons, stuffed animals, toys and other items on May 31 were left by mourners commemorating the students and teachers of the Robb Elementary School’s mass shooting in Uvalde, Tex. (Joshua Lott/The Washington Post)
Police officer Patrick Skinner’s June 5 Outlook essay, “Our ‘best case scenario’ in school shootings is badly misguided,” correctly pointed out the main cause of murders in the United States is the number of guns on the street. However, he should have added that we have incredibly strong evidence for this: the number of murders in almost every other wealthy developed country.
The gun-homicide rate per 100,000 people in the United States is about four, while for 18 other countries (including Canada, Britain, France and Japan) the number is less than 0.5. For Britain, it’s 0.04!
The big difference is those countries restrict gun ownership and we don’t. This is the statistic gun-safety advocates should focus on because it puts to a lie the need for better mental health care and similar ideas for reducing gun murders.
Of course, if right-wing gun elites want to assert that Americans are just plain crazier than the rest of the world, they should put that on their bumper stickers.
Philip S. Church, Fairfax
Kathleen Parker wrote in her June 5 op-ed, “Yes, it has come to this. It’s time to arm teachers.,” that the combination of “smarts, strict adherence to protocol and training” will enable armed teachers to take on active shooters. She even compared “militarized maniacs” to coyotes, foxes, bobcats and bears, when it comes to defending our children and stopping a killer.
Unfortunately, Ms. Parker had not read the Outlook essay by Patrick Skinner, a police officer, former Capitol Police officer, former CIA operations officer and former member of the Coast Guard. Officer Skinner emphasized that no amount of training can prepare a teacher for an active shooter. He noted that in the dozens of school shootings since Columbine, best practices (run, hide, fight) have failed. He pointed out that even trained “good guys with guns” did not prevent a person with a semiautomatic weapon with high-capacity magazines from killing 19 children and two adults and injuring 17 others.
According to Officer Skinner, more guns never lead to more safety. Bullets couldn’t care less about the intended target. Shootings in classrooms, malls or movies theaters result in much chaos.
He concluded that common-sense gun-safety measures, such as restricting access to high-capacity weapons and ammunition, is a no-brainer, because hoping that police or teachers “will run into a room and shoot a guy who is shooting children ... has never worked and it never will.”
Karen Gibbs, Lusby | 2022-06-10T18:10:17Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Listen to the police for common-sense gun reforms - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/listen-police-common-sense-gun-reforms/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/listen-police-common-sense-gun-reforms/ |
A path to taking control of women’s bodies
Abortion rights supporters march Sept. 1 outside the Texas Capitol in Austin. (Sergio Flores for The Washington Post)
If anyone is looking for proof that pro-forced-birth zealots (a more accurate term than “pro-life”) will not stop until they have stripped away every vestige of privacy and reproductive rights across the United States, they need look no further than Robert P. George and Josh Craddock’s June 6 op-ed, “Even if Roe is overturned, Congress must act to protect the unborn.”
Contrary to their opening salvo, no blue state is considering “legislation to permit abortion to the very point of birth.” No, what such states are doing is ensuring that women have full access to medical care, a right protected by the same 14th Amendment that Mr. George and Mr. Craddock repeatedly invoked. That also happens to be a position that most Americans endorse, though that is apparently irrelevant for the authors.
They employed similar rhetorical sleight of hand by claiming that it is “a false, pseudo-originalist approach” for their critics to claim that the 14th Amendment does not protect the unborn “because it was most immediately intended to protect Black Americans.” In fact, that is a completely accurate statement. Even a cursory reading of the post-Civil War legislative debate confirms that the rights of the unborn were not a consideration at all for supporters of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments.
Beyond such grotesque distortions, only once in their sweeping endorsement of a federal constitutional ban on abortion did the authors bother to refer to mothers or women. In their world, apparently, the rights of the unborn do not just outweigh those of adults. They replace them. And as such, Mr. George and Mr. Craddock’s closing paean to securing “equal justice for all” rings horribly hollow.
Steven Alan Honley, Washington
In their op-ed, Robert P. George and Josh Craddock argued that Congress should enforce what they claim is the 14th Amendment’s use of the word “person” as including any child living in the womb. They then leaped to the additional claim that a child begins at the point of conception.
Setting aside historical issues that their argument skated over, it should be noted that nowhere did the authors mention that Congress should help women who have unwanted pregnancies, or, for that matter, any pregnancy. In focusing on what they call unborn children, they seemed to overlook that women, too, are “persons” and that their needs also should be met. The authors surely could have added at least a sentence urging Congress to provide pregnant women and mothers comprehensive health care, financial assistance and protections from employers who threaten their jobs.
Overlooking that women are people might have been accidental. Many readers will think otherwise. The op-ed’s argument was consistent with a long history of viewing pregnancy as a problem that women must deal with themselves within rules written by men. If men do not want to pay for the costs of pregnancy or, like Mr. George and Mr. Craddock, include them in weighing whether pregnancies should be continued, they should say so. It is not only women who have a moral choice.
Bob Lyke, Washington
The 14th Amendment, the Civil Rights Act of 1866, etc., were measures to cleanse the human rights principles compromised by the federalists in the founding documents establishing inequities in the representation for slave owners and the toleration of slavery, i.e., treatment of people as property. These amendments were to extend the rights and fruits promised by the Constitution to the Black population emancipated in the Civil War. These are not exhaustive delineations of personhood or their fruits. These amendments were about correcting the abuses of slavery in interpreting personhood.
The Victorian laws of England do not align well with the law codes of most of Europe. Most of European law derives from the various codifications of the Roman Empire. Roman law considered the unborn a “potential person.” And, once born, the child would immediately acquire inheritance rights; the unborn had no right to inherit property.
The use of “infant” or “child” for all stages of pregnancy should have been left behind with many other Victorian misconceptions. The essence of personage lies in identifying human form. The umbilical cord is the crux of the matter for human form. The Victorians don’t seem to notice that mature people, children and infants, for all intents and purposes, don’t have umbilical cords. Check it out! They don’t! And, ethically, that umbilical cord makes a big difference in how choices are to be made.
The human conception and development might be illegitimate, undesired, planned and/or controlled. No one is more interested than the main invested person: the mother.
Bruce Mathews, Catonsville
In their op-ed, Robert P. George and Josh Craddock made an eloquent argument for “the equal rights of our tiny sisters and brothers at the dawn of their lives.” They did so referring many times to “unborn children,” with only one dismissive occurrence of the word “mother” and a wonderfully reductive single use of the word “womb.” Like the Constitution they so carefully parse, they never use the word “woman.”
The obvious result of calling abortion “homicide” is that the “womb” will not have rights superior to those of the zygote. Criminalizing any form of reproductive choice inevitably requires criminalizing the pregnant person for seeking it. Very soon, the woman’s right to lifesaving medical care will be sacrificed to save the fetus.
Many analysts have shown in painful detail the financial and emotional damage to women forced to give birth and the damage to the interests of their existing children and to their larger communities. The suffering is the point.
As birth control methods are increasingly restricted by these same self-righteous men, it is clear that punishing any woman or girl who has sexual relations is the purpose of the antiabortion movement.
Somehow, it became a “Christian” tenet of faith to police the sex lives of women and gay people. Yet the only thing I recall Jesus saying about sexual mores was when the Pharisees prepared to stone an “adulteress” (note that the male involved was apparently blameless) and offered Jesus the honor of casting the first stone at her. He said, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.”
Katherine Crump-Wiesner, Washington
Robert P. George and Josh Craddock claimed that the life of a fetus begins at conception. When life begins is a difficult question best left to experts.
Happily, one unquestioned expert has dealt with this issue: Immanuel Kant. “Critique of Pure Reason,” 1781 edition, Pages 341 to 405 of the German text, especially 384, discusses at great length the state of the soul in the life of a human being, the soul in and before the birth of that being, and the soul in and after that being’s death. Kant shows that he cannot provide answers to these questions. But neither, he establishes, can anyone else.
A claim that life begins at any given time should not be treated as a statement of fact.
Wilbur H. Friedman, Rockville | 2022-06-10T18:10:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | A path to taking control of women’s bodies - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/path-taking-control-womens-bodies/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/path-taking-control-womens-bodies/ |
The Rock Creek Hills neighborhood in Montgomery County on May 30. (Craig Hudson for The Washington Post)
The June 4 Real Estate article on the Rock Creek Hills neighborhood of Montgomery County, “A place of greenery and good humor,” noted that racially restrictive covenants, which made it illegal to sell houses to Black people and other minorities, had been found in many deeds in the neighborhood. The article also noted that such covenants were made illegal by the 1968 Fair Housing Act and a 2020 Maryland law. In doing so, the article might have left the misimpression that such covenants remained as an effective tool to maintain segregation until the Fair Housing Act.
Actually, the Supreme Court in a 1948 ruling (Shelley v. Kraemer) declared that racially restrictive covenants were unenforceable by states because they violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution, making such covenants ineffective as a tool to maintain segregation in U.S. neighborhoods.
However, and unfortunately, many powerful forces, then, as now, remain to prevent the true integration of American society and neighborhoods.
Edwin Stromberg, Takoma Park | 2022-06-10T18:10:23Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Racial covenants in Montgomery County were outlawed long ago - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/racial-covenants-montgomery-county-were-outlawed-long-ago/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/racial-covenants-montgomery-county-were-outlawed-long-ago/ |
Tracking children through educational software already is illegal
Regarding the May 31 editorial “Collecting data from children”:
The Software & Information Industry Association agrees that the practice of using students’ personal information for noneducational purposes should be illegal — and it is. The United States prohibits the “tracking” outlined in the Human Rights Watch report by way of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, as well as school district policies, dozens of state laws and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
In addition, the report’s flawed methodology rendered its conclusions grossly misleading. In several instances, when determining whether “tracking” occurred, the researchers looked at public-facing, marketing-oriented websites intended for adults — parents or school IT leaders — instead of the educational platforms used by students. Contrary to the report’s assertions, the platforms used by students do not include these “tracking” technologies, which are already illegal in the United States under several laws.
Sara Kloek, Washington
The writer is vice president for education and children’s policy at the Software & Information Industry Association. | 2022-06-10T18:10:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Tracking children through educational software already is illegal - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/tracking-children-through-educational-software-already-is-illegal/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/tracking-children-through-educational-software-already-is-illegal/ |
Who’s to blame for the rural crime wave?
(Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)
When we think about crime, most of us envision pictures of urban scenes: a shooting in a bar, a carjacking on a street corner, organized thefts from downtown stores. So when crime becomes an “issue” — not just a thing that happens but a topic of political argument and debate over policy solutions — that context determines what we decide ought to be done about it.
Which is why some new reporting in the Wall Street Journal is such an important challenge to the way we’ve been thinking about crime, now that it has again become a political issue. As the Journal reports, the increase in crime, particularly homicides, that came with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 has not just been an urban phenomenon. Rural areas too have experienced more murders in recent years, leaving many communities reeling.
Here’s the big picture:
Violent crime isn’t just rising in the nation’s cities. Murder rates across the rural U.S. have soared during the pandemic, data show, bringing the kind of extreme violence long associated with major metropolises to America’s smallest communities.
Homicide rates in rural America rose 25% in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It was the largest rural increase since the agency began tracking such data in 1999.
The individual stories are awful: shootings, stabbings; old victims, young victims; places where a murder happens only once every few years suddenly reporting a half-dozen homicides in a single year.
So how do we explain this? None of the things conservatives blame for crime — progressive prosecutors, lenient Democratic politicians, police feeling disrespected by racial justice protests, a lack of religious piety — are present in these places.
If — as we’ve all been told again and again — voters are fed up with “soft on crime” Democrats and are ready to “send them a message” in November’s midterm elections, to whom should a message be sent about the rural crime wave? And what should that message be?
The causes of the rural crime wave are as complex as those of urban crime, but at heart they’re about the pandemic. It isolated people from the friends, family and institutions that traditionally provide support. For many it caused sickness and grief. It elevated everyone’s stress level, brought new mental illness, left people feeling angry and powerless. Many took those experiences and tensions out on each other.
You’ve probably seen the effects in small ways in your own life no matter where you live. People seem angrier and meaner, getting into arguments in public and driving more aggressively. You don’t even have to bring in the polarization of our politics; for instance, pedestrian fatalities increased by 21 percent from 2019 to 2020, then rose 11.5 percent in 2021, according to preliminary data, reaching the highest level in four decades.
I’m reasonably certain people didn’t start mowing pedestrians down with their cars because Democrats are “soft” on reckless driving. And I’d sincerely like to hear what Republicans think of the rural crime wave, both why it has happened and what might be done about it.
My guess is that they wouldn’t say it’s a failure of political leadership. After all, in many if not most of the affected rural areas, every public official — from the sheriff to the mayor to the county council all the way up to the House member, the senators and the governor — is a conservative Republican.
But when crime goes up in urban areas, Republicans point the finger at local and national Democrats, saying it must have been their policy choices that produced the crime. Turn on Fox News and you’ll learn that cities run by Democrats are hellholes of lawbreaking and mayhem, where atomized individuals scurry around in constant fear for their lives.
But that’s not true; in fact, by some measures New York City is one of the safest places in America. And the states with the highest homicide rates are Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Missouri and Arkansas. Although the governor of Louisiana is a conservative Democrat, the rest are run by Republicans; every one has a Republican legislature. Have they failed to bring down crime because they aren’t “tough” enough?
Speaking of failure, back in 2016, Donald Trump told rural Americans that if they elected him, he would solve all their problems, bring back all the jobs that had been lost and turn their communities into paradise. Yet they still struggle with lack of economic opportunity, high rates of drug addiction and violence.
Addressing those rural problems would require an examination of “root causes” — a focus that conservatives have always regarded with contempt when we were talking about urban crime. But no one is saying that rural White people just need to be punished more harshly so they finally learn to straighten up.
The truth about crime is one that doesn’t lend itself easily to political arguments: It’s complicated. We’d all do well to remember that. | 2022-06-10T19:02:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Who's to blame for the rural crime wave? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/blame-rural-crime-wave/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/blame-rural-crime-wave/ |
RFK Stadium in September 2019. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
There is a pretty good record of redeveloping underused and run-down federal land in the District of Columbia into vibrant neighborhoods. Look at the transformation of the Navy Yard and the former Walter Reed Army Medical Center into flourishing urban areas filled with bustling businesses and new life. The 190-acre RFK Stadium campus is desperately in need of a similar transformation. But whether the District will get the chance to make productive use of the crumbling stadium and its miles of abandoned parking lots remains up in the air.
Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) has for several years urged federal officials to cede control of the land, owned by the National Park Service but leased to D.C. in 1988 for 50 years. The lease is limited to a sports stadium, open space and recreation uses. After D.C. United moved to a new soccer stadium, D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) introduced legislation that would allow D.C. to purchase the property at fair-market value and leave up to the city how to use the land, such as for housing, retail or a sports and entertainment venue. The bill failed to advance. Ms. Bowser this year redoubled efforts, partly out of the belief that the prospects would be better while Democrats still control Congress and the White House.
Unfortunately, apparent disagreement between Ms. Bowser and D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) has left the plan in limbo. Ms. Norton said she cannot introduce legislation until Ms. Bowser and Mr. Mendelson agree on the bill’s terms and conditions. A major sticking point between Ms. Bowser and Mr. Mendelson seems to be whether the District would try to lure the Washington Commanders back to their old home at the RFK site. Ms. Bowser favors the team’s return and would use city funds to build infrastructure but not the stadium; Mr. Mendelson said he is open to a deal that would prepare the land for the Commanders but first wants the National Football League to release the findings of its sexual harassment investigation into the team.
No question there is much to debate about whether the District should welcome back the team. Is a stadium the best use of this valuable, centrally located property? Has the team, under investigation by Congress for sexual harassment and financial improprieties, become so degraded under the ownership of Daniel Snyder that it is not worth having? For now, the team’s toxicity is such that a majority of the D.C. Council opposes bringing it back. A push in the Virginia legislature to subsidize a new stadium there imploded in the wake of the latest Commanders controversy, over a coach’s inflammatory comments about the Capitol insurrection.
Questions about the Commanders don’t have to be decided now and should not muddy efforts to get city control of the land. No development can happen until the city has authority over the property, and specific plans — for housing, for retail, for a stadium — would be subject to a lengthy process with layers of approval and much public debate. Unless the city has ability to chart a future for RFK, it will continue as a wasteland of missed opportunities. Surely that is something Ms. Bowser and Mr. Mendelson can agree on. | 2022-06-10T19:02:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | What to do with RFK Stadium? First, D.C. must take control. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/what-do-with-rfk-stadium-washington-dc/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/what-do-with-rfk-stadium-washington-dc/ |
Rangers fan arrested after punching of Lightning fan caught on video
James Anastasio, left, was arrested after a Tampa Bay Lightning fan was punched on Thursday night, according to police. He faces multiple counts, including assault. (Screenshot via Twitter/@ScottKaplanOn)
As New York Rangers fans poured out of Madison Square Garden on Thursday night, the thousands in attendance were visibly frustrated after the Tampa Bay Lightning came one game closer to the Stanley Cup finals. But for one fan from Staten Island, his anger boiled over into an incident that left a Lightning fan unconscious.
Now, after video of the incident has been viewed by millions on social media, New York police announced Friday that James Anastasio was arrested after the Lightning fan was struck and an eyewitness was hit in the face. Police say the witness tried to stop Anastasio from leaving the arena.
A New York Police Department spokesperson confirmed that Anastasio, 29, faces multiple charges, including two counts of assault, two counts of disorderly conduct and two counts of harassment.
Anastasio did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday. It’s unclear whether he has an attorney.
The Rangers have squandered a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals, losing three straight to Tampa Bay. The Lightning scored twice in the final five minutes to secure a 3-1 win on Thursday night. Toward the end of the game, two separate fights broke out between the teams.
And the fighting didn’t stop when the final horn sounded.
At 10:50 p.m., a 37-year-old male eyewitness saw two men “engage in a verbal dispute,” police told The Post. It’s unclear what was said between the men. Anastasio, who was wearing a red Rangers shirt in the video, was walking in front of a 26-year-old fan in a blue Lightning jersey who has yet to be publicly identified.
Then, the video shows, Anastasio stopped walking, turned around and landed a violent left hook to the side of the Lightning fan’s face. The Lightning fan dropped his Bud Light can and fell hard in one motion, with his head bouncing off the ground and making a loud thud noise.
“The dispute escalated into a physical encounter, with one individual punching a 26-year-old male in the face, causing him to fall to the floor and lose consciousness,” police said.
In the video, Rangers fans watched in horror as Anastasio clubbed the Lightning fan and tried to walk away. Many yelled expletives as Anastasio, while others pleaded for security and medical attention for the man.
“Oh no!” one fan said.
“What … is wrong with you?” another is heard yelling at Anastasio.
While some fans could be heard on the video wondering if the man was dead, police said the Lightning fan was left temporarily unconscious and suffered “pain and bruising,” but he was not hospitalized.
When Anastasio attempted to run away, the 37-year-old witness, described by the NYPD as a good Samaritan, “tried to stop him from fleeing.” But like the Lightning fan, the witness was met with a punch to the face.
“The perpetrator punched the Samaritan in the face before fleeing,” police said.
Anastasio was eventually arrested inside Madison Square Garden at 11:45 p.m. Thursday, according to authorities.
Natalie Ravitz, a spokeswoman for Madison Square Garden, told The Post in a statement that “an abhorrent assault took place against a Tampa Bay fan at the conclusion of the game — followed by a second assault against an individual who bravely intervened.” Ravitz said Anastasio has been banned for life from MSG and all other venues associated with the company.
“We ensured the victims received appropriate medical care and have followed up to provide support from our guest services team,” she said. “All guests — no matter what team they support — should feel safe and respected in The Garden. This has and always will be our policy.”
A video of the incident posted to Twitter has been viewed more than 3.5 million times as of Friday afternoon. The incident, which caused “Staten Island” to trend on Friday, was met with shock from fans. Brandon London, a former NFL player who hosts a digital show for the New York Post and SNY, was baffled over a video he could only describe as “disgusting.”
“I still don’t understand why fans fight,” he said in a video. “You have zero control over the game! Why are you fighting? | 2022-06-10T19:06:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Staten Island man James Anastasio arrested after attack on fan after Lightning-Rangers game - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/10/rangers-fan-punch-lightning-james-anastasio-video/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/10/rangers-fan-punch-lightning-james-anastasio-video/ |
Student loan borrowers anxious as decision lingers on debt cancellation
People gather June 7 for the monthly “Cancel Student Debt — All of It for All” action outside the White House as President Biden considers whether to cancel some education debt. (Paul Morigi/Getty Images)
Updated with a comment from the White House.
Every night before bed, Victor DeMarco has been scrolling through his Twitter feed looking for one thing: news about student debt cancellation.
DeMarco, 31, checks the accounts of activists, reporters, the White House, President Biden and his press secretary.
It’s a familiar routine: Scan for updates. Refresh page. Wait.
“The waiting, the not knowing, anticipating a decision, it’s giving me anxiety. I know I’m not alone,” said DeMarco, a traveling nurse in Kansas City, Mo., with $68,000 in student loans.
Since taking office, Biden has fueled speculation about whether he’ll deliver on a campaign promise to cancel some of the $1.6 trillion held in federal student debt. In April, the president told a meeting of Hispanic lawmakers that he was open to canceling student debt, then later told reporters he’d have an answer on additional forgiveness “in the next couple weeks.”
But more than a month later, a decision has not been announced.
Natalia Abrams, founder of the Student Debt Crisis Center, an advocacy group, said the delay will increase stress and anxiety. “Borrowers need to know so they can plan their financial lives,” Abrams said.
The Washington Post has reported that White House officials are planning to cancel $10,000 in student debt per borrower for Americans who earned less than $150,000 in the previous year, or less than $300,000 for married couples filing jointly. People with knowledge of the matter say the income caps are in flux as some Democratic lawmakers implore the White House to abandon means-testing.
The people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the deliberations, say the Biden administration is still sussing out the political impact and logistics of executing the policy. As a result, they say, a decision is no longer imminent.
“The President understands firsthand the burden student loan debt can put on families, and the Administration is continuing to assess options for cancellation,” said Abdullah Hasan, a spokesman for the White House. “No decision has been made.”
Activists and liberal lawmakers are clamoring for Biden to wipe away some student debt before the pandemic-induced moratorium on loan payments ends Aug. 31. About 41 million borrowers are benefiting from the pause on paying off their federal student loans that began two years ago under the Trump administration.
Hasan noted that Biden has kept the moratorium in place during his time in office and has already provided 1.3 million borrowers a total of $25 billion in debt relief.
Advocates say that rather than repeatedly extend the moratorium, Biden must relieve as many people as possible from the burden of education debt. Critics of debt cancellation argue that lavishing loan forgiveness on college graduates is an irresponsible and costly policy, one that does nothing to fix the troubled lending system.
With his federal student loan payments on pause since March 2020, DeMarco has paid off $42,000 in private education debt and has been building his savings. He and his wife are keen on purchasing a home but are reluctant to move forward until they have a clearer picture of what will happen to his federal loan balance.
Before the moratorium, DeMarco was handing over $1,000 a month to the Education Department to repay loans he took out for a bachelor’s in health science from Truman State University and a nursing degree from William Jewell College.
The moratorium arrived at a crucial time. DeMarco has spent much of the last two years caring for coronavirus patients in intensive care units across the country. The work was grueling, he said, and the last thing he needed was to worry about his loans.
“The prospect of having any debt erased, especially after risking my life on the front lines … it would be life-changing,” DeMarco said. “Ten thousand may not seem like much with what I owe, but it would help.”
At an event hosted by the Bipartisan Policy Center on Monday, Undersecretary of Education James Kvaal acknowledged that broad-based debt cancellation would help many borrowers. “At the same time,” he added, “and I think the students and other advocates of broad-based would tell you, we also need permanent solutions.”
Higher-education experts worry that delaying a decision on cancellation could hinder other policy priorities at the Education Department.
For instance, the administration plans to help 7.5 million people exit default on their federal student loans, sparing them from the seizure of wages, tax refunds and Social Security benefits. Sarah Sattelmeyer, a higher-education project director at the think tank New America, said the department should have a clear accounting of its portfolio of defaulted loans in designing the initiative, dubbed Fresh Start.
“We need to know what’s happening with cancellation before they can execute that policy,” Sattelmeyer said. “If [Biden] forgives $10,000 in debt, that wipes out about half the default portfolio. That would make Fresh Start a very different program to pull off.”
She is also concerned that dragging out an announcement on cancellation will further erode borrowers’ trust, especially as the Biden administration seeks to reform the federal student loan system.
“If you are rebuilding a system and asking people to have faith in it, this is damaging,” Sattelmeyer said.
Sarah Lippitt, 36, of Tucson, said she had given up on the possibility of cancellation, skeptical about the president’s commitment to the policy. She started to come around after seeing articles about the White House reviewing Biden’s authority to act or weighing restrictions. Her hope, however, is turning to pessimism.
“It’s been hard because they just keep going back and forth, and every few months they just bring it up. I don’t know if they are doing it to fire up the base … but at this point, I’m not very optimistic,” said Lippitt, an account manager at a charitable nonprofit who owes $40,000 in student loans.
Lippitt has also been frustrated by the string of last-minute extensions of the payment pause by the Biden administration. While she is grateful for the reprieve, she said, the uncertainty has left her in financial limbo.
“I know that I have this $450 payment every month and it changes our family’s budget, what we’re going to spend, what we’re going to save,” Lippitt said. “Every time I think they’re going to reinstate it and then there is another pause at the last minute, it makes it really hard to plan.”
This week, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona signaled that another extension may be on the table. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) on Tuesday questioned Cardona about when the moratorium will end, during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the Education Department’s fiscal 2023 budget request.
“I don’t have any information now to share with you. … I know we have a date, and it could be that it’s extended,” Cardona told lawmakers. “Borrowers will have ample notice.”
Abrams at the Student Debt Crisis Center is skeptical. She said Biden’s track record of keeping borrowers in the dark until the last minute does not inspire trust, whether it’s a decision on the moratorium or debt cancellation.
Biden “has created unnecessary confusion and stress for many families,” Abrams said. “Borrowers need to know what their futures hold as soon as possible.” | 2022-06-10T19:24:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Delay on student debt cancellation decision has borrowers anxious - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/06/10/student-debt-cancellation-borrowers-anxious/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/06/10/student-debt-cancellation-borrowers-anxious/ |
Dove chocolates are seen during production at Mars Wrigley factory on March 29, 2019, in Elizabethtown, Pa. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)
A tanker truck spilled tons of liquid chocolate on a Polish highway. Here’s what that looked like.
It is still unclear how the workers got stuck in the tank and how much chocolate was in it at the time. PennLive reported that dispatchers believed the chocolate was about waist-level. Dispatchers also believed that it was dry chocolate, according to NBC’s “Today.”
‘Willy Wonka, that you?’ A ton of chocolate leaked from a factory and flooded a German street. | 2022-06-10T19:24:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Two workers rescued from chocolate-filled tank at Mars Wrigley factory in Pennsylvania - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/10/workers-trapped-chocolate-tank/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/10/workers-trapped-chocolate-tank/ |
When we reimagine American public space as a fortress, we lose
‘Hardening’ the built environment won’t defeat mass murderers anyway
Perspective by Philip Kennicott
Philip Kennicott is the Pulitzer Prize-winning art and architecture critic of The Washington Post. He has been on staff at The Post since 1999, first as classical music critic, then as culture critic.
Jess Suttner for The Washington Post
America’s gun culture, with its Second Amendment extremism, is killing our children. It also threatens an essential precondition for democracy: its public space. The fortification of the public realm, which accelerated after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, is likely to speed up once again as designers respond to citizens’ fear of mass shootings. Gun violence is reaching ever deeper into zones traditionally deemed safe — public schools, hospitals, houses of worship and entertainment venues — and so architects may be forced to undo or subvert values that have governed the profession over the past century. Ideals of openness, flow, transparency and access will no longer be sustainable. Everything must be “hardened.”
The word and its variants became a mantra after the shooting in Uvalde, Tex., as politicians dedicated to a no-limits gun culture struggled to define a response to the May 24 mass murder of schoolchildren and their teachers. “Schools should be the single hardest target in our country,” said former president Donald Trump at the annual National Rifle Association convention, held only days after the Uvalde massacre. He was repeating and amplifying the response of other politicians who champion the Second Amendment above all other civic virtues: that schools fortify their entrances even to the point, as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) advocated, of single-entry buildings. “We also know that there are best practices at federal buildings and courthouses, where for security reasons they limit the means of entry to one entrance,” said Cruz. “Schools, likewise, should have a single point of entry. Fire exits should only open out. At that single point of entry, we should have multiple armed police officers. Or if need be, military veterans trained to provide security and keep our children safe.”
It’s not hard to imagine what this will look like, and how it will be extended from schools to hospitals, shopping centers and places of worship. Access to routine medical appointments will require the sick, frail and elderly to wait in line to pass through magnetometers and single-entry portals bristling with armed guards. Plan to arrive at your church, synagogue or mosque extra early, to get through armored checkpoints. And perhaps this will be the death knell for retail shopping. Why queue for 20 minutes to enter a department store when you can just order online?
The rapid embrace of the “hardening” rhetoric shows how quickly we are rethinking the basic aesthetics of our built environment. In November 2001, only weeks after the terrorist attacks in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, former senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York echoed the Periclean ideal of democracy when he said: “Architecture is inescapably a political art, and it reports faithfully for ages to come what the political values of a particular era were. Surely, ours must be openness and fearlessness in the face of those who hide in the darkness.”
Today, to maintain the primacy of the constitutional right to bear arms, some political leaders envision children passing through military-style checkpoints every morning before school. “Andrew will harden the schools,” former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani said of his son, who is running for governor, adding that as mayor he himself had put “cops in every classroom” (he put unarmed school safety officers in each school).
None of the efforts to harden public space will actually do what we need them to do. Architects can improve security within buildings to a degree, but this is mainly through slowing rather than preventing access for attackers. The margin of improvement could be incremental changes to the body count. In future shootings, perhaps only a half-dozen children will die, rather than 19 at Uvalde, or 20 at Newtown, Conn., or 14 at Parkland, Fla.
But even that is doubtful, because gunmen will follow the crowds. Mass shooters are domestic terrorists, and they will be as resourceful as the suicide bomber in Afghanistan who blew up a crowd last summer outside a Kabul checkpoint as U.S. troops attempted to screen people entering Hamid Karzai International Airport. Or they will follow the lead of the most lethal single mass shooter in U.S. history, who killed 58 people and wounded more than 400 at an open-air country music event in Las Vegas.
Ultimately, the goal of defending internal spaces against gun violence may be obsolete, as Second Amendment absolutists push to erase any distinction between gun-free and fully armed spaces.
Architects have been responding to these threats for years, with curiously atavistic changes to the built environment. After the slaughter at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, the old school was razed and rebuilt with security enhancements. Among them, the building was positioned to take advantage of high ground, to improve sight lines and increase the chances that intruders can be identified as they approach the school. Its entrance was fronted by a rain garden, spanned by three foot bridges, to slow and funnel access to the space.
The first of these changes — improving sight lines — recalls one of the basic defense mechanisms of walled cities, fortresses, castles and compounds, since humans first began living behind enclosed walls. The second response, a rain garden with three bridges, evokes an idea common to the pre-democratic design of aristocratic or court architecture. The new Sandy Hook school requires children to pass through a sequence of gateways for access, including bridges similar to those that link a procession of courtyards at the Forbidden City in Beijing.
With money, and design insight, some of these architectural responses can be disguised as aesthetic enhancements. The 2005 redesign of the Washington Monument grounds by the Olin Studio defends the obelisk against car bombings with low granite security walls elegantly embedded in the 72-acre green space. One hardly notices them.
But the changes coming may be far more intrusive. The extensive retrofitting of our civic infrastructure will not only take an environmental toll, as buildings are razed and rebuilt or wholly renovated, it will continue to sort institutions into those with resources to do things well and those that must make do with provisional, haphazard and insufficient remedies. It will further enhance the power of security experts, who at the behest of our leaders have already robbed Americans of essential public places, including the west terrace of the U.S. Capitol and the front entrance to the Supreme Court. And it will further corrode democracy, as more and more people, at all stages of life, from preschool to senescence, are forced into repeated, humiliating and demeaning encounters with undertrained and often rude security personnel.
The greatest loss is to the ideal of public space as a meeting place free of authoritarian intrusion or oversight, a locus for the free flow of ideas and a leveling ground where some distant memory of “all men are created equal” is felt and enjoyed by citizens of an increasingly unequal polity. Universal, unregulated access to guns makes public space untenable. No matter how robust the fortification, mass murderers will find the gaps, reducing the entire public realm to an ungovernable Hobbesian hellscape of perpetual violence. Individual buildings will no longer be stitched together in an urban unity but isolated in a sea of mayhem. This is how ancient empires collapsed — with myriad small-scale efforts to fortify and defend public spaces that were no longer governable by larger entities.
This isn’t an overheated dystopian daydream. Because we can’t address the single, obvious and most effective solution to the problem — limiting civilian access to weapons of war — we are stuck in a civic feedback loop. Mass murder fuels calls for hardening space, which not only fails to prevent mass murder but corrodes the civic trust and rational thinking that might break the cycle.
Does this mean an architecture of stone walls, turrets and moats? No, but it does mean the proliferation of their 21st-century equivalents, including surveillance cameras, robust security databases, facial recognition technology, artificial-intelligence systems, and, of course, “hardened” entrances, thicker walls, more safe rooms and one-way doors for egress — which may or may not work when you need them.
More fundamentally, the nature of our relationship to buildings will change. Good buildings, especially schools, libraries, houses of worship and places of entertainment, used to greet us with a promise: Enter and learn, enter and pray, enter and engage with art, theater, dance or music. Now, they will greet us just as we greet our fellow citizens, with wariness and suspicion. | 2022-06-10T19:25:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | When we reimagine American public space as a fortress, we lose - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/06/10/uvalde-harden-schools-architecture-public-space/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/06/10/uvalde-harden-schools-architecture-public-space/ |
Also important: what Trump *didn’t* do
In this Jan. 6, 2021, photo, President Donald Trump gestures as he arrives to speak at a rally in Washington. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
The House select committee investigating the attack at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 doesn’t really need to prove that President Donald Trump was to blame for the riot. Separating Trump out of the events of that day means focusing extremely narrowly on the initial acts of violence and ignoring 1) why the rioters were at the Capitol and 2) why they were so angry. It is declaring innocent the guy who supplied all the matches, poured out all the gasoline and kept chanting “cool kids start fires.”
Many Americans don’t accept that, of course. Many Republicans think Trump doesn’t bear primary blame for the riot, thanks to some combination of focusing only on the acts of violence, believing it to have been spurred by people who didn’t support Trump or seeing the complaints of the rioters as justifiable (and not recognizing that view as a function of Trump’s false claims about the election).
We’re far enough from the events of the riot by now that views of what occurred are largely cemented and that the most popular media outlet among Republicans is actively helping its viewers to ignore the committee’s work suggests that the cement will remain intact. Committee vice chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) could make as robust a case for Trump’s culpability as might be imagined but most Americans will either already or never accept the argument.
Which is why some of the committee’s most important work might be showing not what Trump did but what he didn’t do.
Let’s say, just for the sake of argument, that tens of thousands of people showed up in Washington without Trump cajoling them to. Let’s say they were there because they thought the election had been stolen, even without Trump having said a word to that effect. And let’s say that, once there, a subset of the group marched on the Capitol and broke inside, intent on disrupting the finalization of Trump’s election loss as Congress counted the electoral votes.
What might you expect the president of the United States to do? The Capitol, just over a mile down the street from the White House, is being overrun by angry rioters and members of Congress and the vice president are inside. They are at risk. What would you expect the response from the chief executive to be?
Perhaps something like this?
“He was very animated and he issued very explicit, very direct, unambiguous orders. … He was very animated, very direct, very firm to [Army] Secretary [Christopher] Miller: Get the military down here, get [National] Guard down here, put down this situation, etc.”
That’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark A. Milley, telling the Jan. 6 committee about a phone call he had with a senior administration official on the day of the riot. But that forceful insistence on addressing the riot didn’t come from the president. It came from Vice President Mike Pence.
Trump, Cheney said during Thursday’s hearing, “did not call his secretary of defense,” “did not talk to his attorney general,” “did not talk to the Department of Homeland Security,” “gave no order to deploy the National Guard that day,” and “made no effort to work with the Department of Justice to coordinate and display and deploy law enforcement assets.”
Pence demanded action. Trump demanded nothing.
Why? Why wouldn’t the president want immediate action to stem the violence? Messages from allies were flooding his chief of staff’s phone, demanding he do something. But he didn’t. Why not?
We know the probable answer, of course. Trump didn’t take any action because he preferred the riot to the vote-counting. In a conversation with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as the riot was underway, McCarthy demanded that Trump take action to halt the attack.
“I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are,” Trump told him according to legislators who spoke with McCarthy.
For hours, there’s no record of what Trump was doing on that day. There is no record of calls from the White House, though Trump apparently used aides’ cellphones during the period of the riot. Some of that time was spent crafting mixed messages about the day’s events, like a belated video asking that rioters leave the Capitol — as he offered them praise. In his book “Frankly, We Did Win This Election,” journalist Michael Bender reports that Trump simply ignored many demands that he do more.
Trump could have done three things on that day. He could have kept pushing the rioters forward, offering more tweets like his one soon after the Capitol was breached disparaging Pence. At the other end of the spectrum, he could have done what Pence did, demanding immediate action to protect the safety of legislators and the security of the Capitol. Or he could have done what he did: little to nothing, avoiding criticism for actively stoking the riot as it was underway while reaping the benefit he enjoyed: seeing his furious supporters fight to keep him in office.
The benefit went further than that, of course. He and his allies used the delay to press legislators to reject the electoral votes submitted by the states. The riot soothed his insatiable desire to have his ego stroked but it also delayed the inevitable, kept open the last window of hope for Trump to stay president.
Even setting aside any blame Trump deserved for the riot, he had a motive for allowing it to continue and the evidence suggests that he took no action to prevent it from doing so. To continue the initial analogy: he stood by holding a fire extinguisher as the fire continued to burn — at times roasting marshmallows to make s’mores.
Without Trump, there was no riot at the Capitol. Without Trump’s intervention, the riot was almost certainly worse than it otherwise would have been. And that’s a choice that cannot be defended by waving away his responsibility for the riot in the first place. | 2022-06-10T19:37:19Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Also important for the Capitol riot probe: what Trump *didn’t* do that day. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/10/also-important-what-trump-didnt-do/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/10/also-important-what-trump-didnt-do/ |
Supporters of gun control rally in front of the Supreme Court on Dec. 2, 2019. (Andrew Chung/Reuters)
The Constitution is not a suicide pact, Justice Robert H. Jackson wisely observed in a 1949 free-speech case. As the Supreme Court prepares to decide its first gun rights case in a dozen years, an updated version of Jackson’s motto should be: The Constitution is not a mass suicide pact.
That is, the protections of the Bill of Rights, including the Second Amendment, need not be interpreted in a way that forecloses reasonable limits and regulations. On that score, it’s worth quoting Jackson’s admonition in full: “There is danger that, if the Court does not temper its doctrinaire logic with a little practical wisdom, it will convert the constitutional Bill of Rights into a suicide pact.”
There have been few times in the history of the Supreme Court when its doctrinaire logic was more in need of tempering and practical wisdom.
Any day now, the court is poised to decide New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, a challenge to a New York law requiring that people seeking licenses to carry a concealed handgun show “proper cause,” defined as a “a special need for self-protection.”
The opinions are probably in their final stages, so this column is an eleventh-hour plea to the justices to pause and consider — in light of the massacres in Uvalde, Tex., and Buffalo, and the nationwide epidemic of gun violence — the consequences of their ruling. The language they use matters enormously, not so much for the pending case but for the scope of what other gun regulations will be deemed permissible.
I’m under no illusion here. The court did not take this case to uphold the New York law. Conservative justices have been itching to further define the contours of the Second Amendment for years. They have one legitimate point — and one scary gripe.
The legitimate point is this: Since the court found in 2008 in District of Columbia v. Heller that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to bear arms in self-defense, the lower courts have been left without further guidance about what approach to apply in assessing the constitutionality of gun laws.
The scary gripe is that as the lower courts have coalesced around a standard for reviewing gun regulations, they have focused on the Heller court’s admonition that the Second Amendment “is not unlimited.” As a consequence, lower courts have overwhelmingly rejected challenges to the constitutionality of gun restrictions — leading some conservative justices to bemoan courts’ supposed treatment of the Second Amendment as a “second-class right.”
But the courts — including a number of judges appointed by Republican presidents — were just doing their jobs as set out in Heller. “Nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on long-standing prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms,” Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the five-justice majority. And, he added in a footnote, “We identify these presumptively lawful regulatory measures only as examples; our list does not purport to be exhaustive.”
Heller, in my view, was wrongly decided, but this language could leave, in the hands of justices willing to elevate practical wisdom over doctrinaire logic, significant room for reasonable regulation. Then again, this is not the court that decided Heller. The limitations it imposed on gun rights, as Justice John Paul Stevens revealed later, were added at the insistence of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, the price of his joining the majority.
But today, there are six conservative justices, not five. Kennedy has been replaced by Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh; as an appeals court judge, in a follow-on case to Heller, Kavanaugh wrote a dissenting opinion asserting that the District’s ban on assault weapons violated the Second Amendment because such firearms are in “common use” and were not historically regulated. Likewise, he said, the District’s mandatory gun registration law was unconstitutional “because the vast majority of states have not traditionally required and even now do not require registration of lawfully possessed guns.”
And Justice Amy Coney Barrett, as an appeals court judge, wrote a dissent arguing that a man convicted of felony mail fraud should not have been stripped of his right to have a gun without any indication that he posed a danger — notwithstanding the court’s seeming support in Heller for “long-standing prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons.”
Where does that leave things? As I said, the New York law, similar to that in six states, is almost certainly going down. The critical question is how. Will the conservative justices use the opportunity to cut back on the kinds of permissible gun regulations outlined in Heller? If so, their timing could not be worse — or the impact more unfortunate.
No, Republicans, prairie dogs don’t matter more than murdered children | 2022-06-10T20:16:29Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | A New York Supreme Court case could expand gun rights -- and the timing couldn't be worse - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/supreme-court-second-amendment-brett-kavanaugh/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/supreme-court-second-amendment-brett-kavanaugh/ |
A Starbucks location in Louisiana in April. (Matt Rourke/AP)
Howard Schultz, chief executive of the coffee giant, disclosed the company’s intentions in a conversation with the New York Times DealBook DC policy forum on Thursday, citing an increasing mental health problem and staff safety among the reasons for the decision.
The decision would reverse a 2018 policy the company implemented that opened up its seats — even its porcelain ones — to anyone after the company was embattled in a public controversy following the arrest of two Black men at a Philadelphia store. The men had arrived at the store early for a business meeting. One asked to use the restroom but was told by a manager that restrooms were only for paying customers.
The men settled with the city of Philadelphia, agreeing to a symbolic payment of $1 each and a commitment from the city to fund $200,000 for a grant program for high school students aspiring to become entrepreneurs. Starbucks later announced that it had reached an agreement with the men that included an undisclosed financial settlement.
The government not stepping up to the plate means business leaders like him have to do more to protect the people who work for them, he said.
“What I realize more and more is that the government is no longer going to solve any of these problems,” Schultz said. “[Business leaders] have to do more for our people.” | 2022-06-10T20:25:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | CEO Howard Schultz says Starbucks might close its bathrooms to the public, for ‘safety’ - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/10/starbucks-bathrooms-schultz/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/10/starbucks-bathrooms-schultz/ |
Coach Ron Rivera, left, fined defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio for comments in which he described the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol as “a dust-up.” (John McDonnell/The Washington Post)
Commanders Coach Ron Rivera fined his defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio $100,000 on Friday for comments in which the coach minimized the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol as a “dust-up” and compared it to the racial protests that followed George Floyd’s murder in 2020.
In a statement released by the team, Rivera said he met with Del Rio Friday morning about his comments two days earlier, and Del Rio apologized.
“Coach Del Rio did apologize for his comments on Wednesday and he understands the distinction between the events of that dark day and peaceful protests, which are a hallmark of our democracy,” Rivera’s statement read. “He does have the right to voice his opinion as a citizen of the United States and it most certainly is his constitutional right to do so. However, words have consequences and his words hurt a lot of people in our community. I want to make it clear that our organization will not tolerate any equivalency between those who demanded justice in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the actions of those on Jan. 6 who sought to topple our government.”
The fine will be donated to the United States Capitol Police Memorial Fund, which supports families of officers hurt or killed in the line of duty.
Del Rio, who has often been vocal about his political beliefs and ideologies on social media, responded to a tweet on Monday in which he questioned “the whole story” of why the “summer of riots, looting, burning and destruction of personal property is never discussed” but the Jan. 6 attack is.
When asked about the tweet by reporters on Wednesday, following a team practice, he doubled down, saying: “Why are we not looking into those things? Because it’s kind of hard for me to say — I can realistically look at it, I see the images on TV, people’s livelihoods are being destroyed, businesses are being burned down. No problem. And then we have a dust-up at the Capitol. Nothing burned down, and we’re not going to talk about — we’re going to make that a major deal.”
Speaking to reporters earlier on Wednesday, Rivera initially declined to discuss Del Rio’s tweets but said he was “not necessarily” worried they’d affect the locker room. The team did not respond not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday or Thursday after Del Rio’s comments to reporters.
The fallout from his remarks was swift and strong, with current and former players speaking out in dismay. A current NFL player, who previously played for Del Rio and wished to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the issue, told The Post the comments irked but didn’t surprise him, “because I’ve heard these for the last two, three years. He’s been consistent. … People died, and he wants to call it ‘a dust-up.’”
The player added that he’d have trouble playing for Del Rio again “because he doesn’t support me as a human being,” and said the coach would never have made those comments “if he didn’t feel like he had a bunch of people agreeing with him.”
Del Rio issued an apology on Twitter late Wednesday, saying that his reference of the Jan. 6 attack as a “dust-up” was “irresponsible and negligent.” But his previous comments continued to make waves throughout the week.
The player added that he’d have trouble playing for Del Rio again “because he doesn’t support me as a human being,” but said Del Rio wouldn’t have said those comments “if he didn’t feel like he had a bunch of people agreeing with him."
Two Virginia senators said on Wednesday they could no longer support legislation intended to entire the Commanders to build a new stadium the state in the wake of Del Rio’s comments. The bill was pulled entirely a day later, and State Senate Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax) cited Del Rio’s remarks as one of the deciding factors.
Also on Thursday, the president of the NAACP, Derrick Johnson, issued a statement calling for Del Rio to resign or be fired because of his comments. And Rod Graves, the executive director of the Fritz Pollard alliance, a diversity group that works closely with the NFL on its minority hiring, said Del Rio’s comments “go against the values” of the alliance and the NFL.
“His comments do not reflect the organization’s views and are extremely hurtful to our great community here in the DMV,” Rivera said in his statement. “As we saw [Thursday] night in the [Jan. 6 Committee] hearings, what happened on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was an act of domestic terrorism. A group of citizens attempted to overturn the results of a free and fair election, and as a result, lives were lost and the Capitol building was damaged …”
“I feel strongly that after our conversation this morning, he will have a greater understanding for the impact of his language and the values that our team stands for.” | 2022-06-10T20:51:19Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Commanders fine Jack Del Rio $100K for Jan. 6 ‘dust-up’ comments - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/10/del-rio-fined-commanders/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/10/del-rio-fined-commanders/ |
Vanessa G. Sánchez
Volunteer Cheri Vanderhall waits for voters to arrive at Emery Heights Community Center in D.C.'s Ward 4 on June 10. (Vanessa G. Sanchez/The Washington Post)
The first day of early voting in D.C. began on Friday — but at some polling places, no one was there.
At Bald Eagle Recreation Center in Ward 8, poll workers taped up “Vote Here” signs all along the large patriotic mural of an eagle, but for the first half-hour of early voting, not a single voter arrived. At Turkey Thicket Recreation Center in Ward 5, often one of D.C.'s busiest polling places, Ward 5 Council candidate Vincent B. Orange strode up to the crowd of volunteers waiting for voters and boomed, “Hey, where’s all the people?”
This election is an experiment in the District: It’s the first time the city has mailed a ballot to every registered voter for a primary election, after trying it out in 2020 during the Ward 2 special election and later, the general election. In the District, where the vast majority of voters are Democrats, the party’s primary is the main event. And this year — the first primary with universal mailed ballots — it seems that some voters are participating in that event from the comfort of their homes.
As of Thursday, 16,864 voted by mail and 6,548 used drop boxes, according to the Board of Elections — a fraction of the 114,890 ballots cast in total in the 2020 primary or the 89,513 cast in the 2018 primary, the most recent to be held in a nonpresidential election year. But many election volunteers predicted that voters would either hold their ballots and cast them by drop box rather than in person, or vote on Election Day — June 21.
Of course, some still came to the polls for the first of 10 consecutive days of early voting on Friday, driven by their desire for change or their eagerness to reelect their favorite leaders. The ballot includes the mayoral race, in addition to attorney general, council chairman, and council seats for wards 1, 3, 5, and 6, as well as an at-large seat.
Gail Perkins, one of 35 people who had voted at Turkey Thicket by 11 a.m., said her concern about rising violence led her to the polls. “It’s just devastating for me and all mothers,” said Perkins, who wore her Spingarn Class of 1972 T-shirt to mark her lengthy history in D.C. “It’s just absurd how we’re losing our babies. Who would have thought we’d be coming to a time like this?”
While Perkins wishes that Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) would make crime her top priority, which she doesn’t think has happened, she still felt strongly that Bowser would be a better choice to address the problem than her main challengers, council members Robert C. White Jr. (D-At Large) and Trayon White Sr. (D-Ward 8). “I know that she has the experience. Both of the Whites, I don’t have anything against them, but I don’t think they have the experience to run a city,” Perkins said.
She was less certain who to vote for to represent her ward on the D.C. Council, and she questioned candidate Gordon Fletcher when she saw him outside the polls. “You a Washingtonian?” she asked. (The answer: No, but he has lived in the District for about 20 years.) Then: “What do you think about the crime? What’s up with that?” Fletcher said he would work on social-emotional learning and job training to help prepare young people to avoid crime, and Perkins nodded approvingly. “Absolutely. They don’t have any alternatives,” she said. “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.”
Julia Bainum, a D.C. teacher, came to vote against Bowser after a difficult school year in which the mayor championed keeping schools open after last year’s pandemic closures. “A lot of teachers have felt not super supported by her. We didn’t really have enough of a plan for what reopening would look like. It just felt chaotic,” Bainum said.
She voted for Robert White, noting that he advocated for closing schools during the winter omicron surge if they hit certain coronavirus metrics. “A break would have been helpful. A lot of people got covid,” she said.
Still, while the Washington Teachers’ Union endorsed White, Bainum said she was “not especially” excited about him. “He has a boarding-school proposal that I’m not sure how I feel about. I’d rather focus on the schools we already have.”
In Columbia Heights, hospitality worker Frank Mills, 36, voted for Trayon White, saying he has been impressed by his leadership as a Ward 8 council member. “His work within his ward, which happened to be some of the lower-privileged and more disadvantaged neighborhoods and communities in Washington, D.C., shows his commitment,” Mills said. “If he had a broader scope or a wider advantage to better our city, I truly feel like he would do so.”
His Columbia Heights neighbor, Valree Smith, 61, felt that both Trayon White and Robert White were too unproven. “Quite frankly, the other people on the ballot do not have enough history of running things,” she said. She voted for Bowser.
Early voting continues through June 19. | 2022-06-10T20:51:25Z | www.washingtonpost.com | On first day at the polls, D.C. voters weigh change or consistency - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/10/dc-early-voting-mayor-election/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/10/dc-early-voting-mayor-election/ |
Desecration of Hindu temple is investigated
Pakistan’s foreign ministry said Friday that authorities were trying to trace and arrest people who this week desecrated a Hindu temple at a home in the port city of Karachi, drawing condemnation from India.
In a statement, the ministry said that an investigation was underway, and that those who attacked the temple Wednesday before fleeing “will not escape justice and the government will deal with them with the full force of law.”
The statement came a day after New Delhi condemned the incident. Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson at India’s External Affairs Ministry, expressed concern Thursday over the vandalization of the temple, saying it was “another act in the systematic persecution of religious minorities” in Pakistan.
Anger has been growing in Pakistan against India since last week, when two spokespeople for India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party made comments seen as insulting to Islam’s prophet and his wife Aisha.
Pope cancels trip to Congo, South Sudan
Pope Francis canceled a planned July trip to Africa on doctors’ orders because of knee problems, the Vatican said Friday, dashing the hopes of the faithful there and raising further questions about the health and mobility of the 85-year-old pontiff.
Francis has been using a wheelchair for a month because of strained ligaments in his right knee that have made walking and standing difficult and painful.
Leader dodges queries on theft scandal
Embroiled in controversy, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa refused to answer questions Friday about an alleged coverup of a theft of large amounts of cash from his farm, saying only that he will appear before his party’s integrity committee over the accusations.
Ramaphosa, 69, endured a second day of being shouted down in Parliament by opposition members before being peppered with questions from the media over the growing scandal.
He has confirmed that the theft took place and has denied any wrongdoing. He has said the money came from the sale of animals from the game farm. But Ramaphosa has dodged all questions seeking specific information about the robbery and the source of the money.
Pakistan's ex-ruler Musharraf critically ill: Pakistan's former military ruler, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, is critically ill and has been hospitalized in Dubai since last month, his family said Friday. They asked for prayers for Musharraf's health while denying media reports back home that he is on a ventilator. Musharraf has been living in the United Arab Emirates since 2016, when he was allowed to leave Pakistan on bail to seek medical treatment abroad. A death sentence against him, handed down in absentia in 2020 in a treason case related to the state of emergency that Musharraf imposed in 2007 while in power, was later overturned. Musharraf's family said he has been suffering from amyloidosis, a chronic metabolic disease in which abnormal proteins build up and damage organs such as the heart, kidney and liver.
Israeli divers haul trash from ancient site for Oceans Day: Divers visiting the ancient seaport of Caesarea on Israel's Mediterranean coast occasionally find treasure, but on Friday they searched for trash. Twenty-six scuba-diving volunteers removed about 100 pounds of garbage from between the sunken pillars and submerged ruins of the historic site of Caesarea Maritima as part of a United Nations World Oceans Day initiative. Dozens of other volunteers at sites along Israel's Mediterranean coast and on the Red Sea reefs in the Israeli resort of Eilat removed an additional 330 pounds of trash, including plastics, glass and old fishing nets.
Czech police seize 1,852 pounds of cocaine: Czech police seized 1,852 pounds of cocaine hidden among bananas delivered to several supermarkets, police said Friday. "Supermarket workers found molded cocaine cubes in boxes with bananas this afternoon," police said on Twitter, where it also posted pictures of some of the seized drugs. Police said the shipment would have a value of $85.15 million on the black market. | 2022-06-10T20:56:42Z | www.washingtonpost.com | World Digest: June 10, 2022 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/world-digest-june-10-2022/2022/06/10/0d0642c8-e8c9-11ec-b037-e344f38e0a4f_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/world-digest-june-10-2022/2022/06/10/0d0642c8-e8c9-11ec-b037-e344f38e0a4f_story.html |
Ghana’s tragic turn toward anti-LGBT extremism
Ghana's president, Nana Akufo-Addo, addressing the U.N. General Assembly in 2019. (Frank Franklin II/AP)
Under the administration of President Nana Akufo-Addo, Ghana has been meticulously exporting an image of the country as a safe destination for Black people and Ghanaians in the diaspora. For years, the nation known as the Black Star of Africa has been seen as a beacon of tolerance and peace.
But no matter how bright stars shine, they all fade and die eventually. A horrifically repressive anti-gay bill in Ghana is a tragic example of how my father’s homeland is rapidly succumbing to the gravitational pull of fundamentalist hatred of LGBTQ people.
First, some context. Many African countries have anti-gay laws still on the books from their colonial eras. Ghana, a religiously conservative country and former British colony, has long outlawed “unnatural carnal knowledge,” though the law has rarely been enforced. In recent years, a few African countries have started to remove those colonial-era laws. Mozambique did so in 2015, followed by Botswana and Angola in 2019.
Not so for Ghana. Local LGBT activists told me things took a dark turn in 2019, after the World Congress of Families, a U.S.-based Christian group, organized a conference in Ghana. The group’s goal was to push harsh criminal punishments for LGBTQ behavior, as it succeeded in doing in Uganda and Nigeria several years ago. “They confidently said they were going to do the same thing in Ghana” said Alex Donkor, the executive director of LGBT+ Rights Ghana, an advocacy group, who was at the conference.
In 2021, through fundraising and collected donations, LGBT+ Rights Ghana opened a community resource center for LGBTQ people in Accra. “We wanted a safe space, a place where we could provide support for each other,” Donkor told me. When the center opened and word got out, it was raided by law enforcement, following claims it was a recruitment center for a gay agenda. The center was quickly shut down.
A few months later, a coalition of religious leaders introduced a bill called the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill. It is one of harshest and most wide-ranging anti-LGBTQ legislations I have seen in my career as a journalist writing on human rights.
The bill promises jail time and fines for anyone who goes against “human sexual rights,” which includes “sexual intercourse between or among persons of the same sex,” and identifying as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, pansexual, nonbinary, queer, an ally “or any other sexual or gender identity that is contrary to the binary categories of male and female.” Those who engage in gay sex could spend three to five years in jail. It outlaws LGBTQ organizations. The bill provides state support for conversion therapy. Cross-dressing and same-sex affection such as holding hands can come with a jail sentence of six months to a year.
As of now, the bill is still at the committee level in Parliament, and in private deliberations. There is bipartisan support for the bill among the two major parties. Many churches and other religious institutions also openly support anti-gay measures.
This matter hits home for me. I started my journalism career in Ghana nearly 15 years ago. I am stunned to see current and former journalists, some that I used to work with, using their platforms to help spread this hate and misinformation against LGBTQ people in Ghana. Some journalists have even gone so far as to create an organization called Journalists Against LGBT.
They allow charlatans such as Samuel George, a member of Parliament and one of the co-sponsors of the bill, to get away with falsehoods and ridiculous claims, such as that the government is paying for anal repair procedures for gay people. The bill is a serious threat to media freedom and freedom of expression in Ghana, as it also criminalizes any sort of advocacy in print, electronic media or speech on LGBTQ issues — with a punishment of up to 10 years in prison.
So yes, under the new bill, I could go to jail for writing this column.
Ghana was not always like this. But now, I fear for my LGBTQ friends there — and the bill is not even law yet. One friend told me she now stays out of sight, avoiding crowded places. She got herself a car, because she doesn’t trust Uber drivers she doesn’t know. Last year, in the city of Ho, 21 people were arrested for attending a legal support training for activists. They were jailed for three weeks. This week, LGBT+ Rights Ghana put up billboards calling for equality and freedom. Anti-LGBTQ politicians called on the police to tear them down.
What or who is motivating Ghana’s politicians to push this agenda? They should be spending political energy on things that actually matter, such as improving roads, building better health-care systems and fixing Accra’s annual flood problem. Ghanaians are suffering under runaway prices for goods, with inflation at the highest level in 18 years. Yet politicians are focusing on oppressing Ghanaian citizens simply for being themselves.
Should Ghana pass this law, the Black Star of Africa would be setting an insidious precedent for state-sponsored abuses. Ghana wants people in the diaspora to return, but the message is clear: Come here only if you’re straight.
Opinions about Africa
For African Americans tired of U.S. hostility, Ghana is still calling
This crumbling African slave fort should be preserved to honor the enslaved | 2022-06-10T20:56:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Ghana's tragic turn toward anti-LGBT extremism - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/ghana-lgbt-homophobia-law/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/ghana-lgbt-homophobia-law/ |
WASHINGTON — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol has laid out a roadmap for the hearings this month as it examines President Donald Trump’s responsibility for the melee and the damage that resulted for law enforcement officers, members of Congress and others in attendance that day. | 2022-06-10T20:57:25Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What's next for the Jan. 6 panel: More hearings, more Trump - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/whats-next-for-the-jan-6-panel-more-hearings-more-trump/2022/06/10/19f525aa-e8f9-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/whats-next-for-the-jan-6-panel-more-hearings-more-trump/2022/06/10/19f525aa-e8f9-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
Transcript: 50th Anniversary of Watergate: Inside the Case
MR. BALZ: Hello, and welcome to Washington Post Live. I’m Dan Balz, chief correspondent here at The Post. We are beginning our coverage of the 50th anniversary of the Watergate break-in with two men who helped assemble the legal case against President Nixon. Richard Ben-Veniste was chief of the Watergate taskforce in the Office of Special Prosecutor. Secretary William Cohen was a freshman on the House Judiciary Committee, newly elected in 1972 from the state of Maine. Gentlemen, welcome. Thank you both for being with us.
MR. COHEN: Good to be with you, Dan.
MR. BALZ: So, let's begin at the beginning. June 17, 1972, the burglars are arrested at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate building. Richard, how did you first hear about it, and what did you think about it?
MR. BEN-VENISTE: I first heard about it when I was a US attorney assistant in New York City, and thought it was a crazy intrusion. But before we get into the substance, let me just say, if I may be permitted, what a great honor it is to share this conversation with Bill Cohen, who is a great American patriot and defender of the Constitution.
MR. COHEN: Richard, thank you very much. And I would say the same. My admiration for you goes just as strongly in your direction.
MR. BALZ: Thank you, both.
Secretary Cohen, you were running for office that summer when the news broke about the break-in? How did you hear about it? What did you think about it? And frankly, did it ever come up in the context of your campaign?
MR. COHEN: It did not. I had just been elected to be the Republican nominee for the congressional district, and I had planned a 650-mile walk all the way from New Hampshire to Canada. So, my focus was on how was I going to conduct that walk, how would I be able to endure it physically, et cetera. And so my focus was just on relating to the people of Maine. I was staying at homes picked at random individually every night. And so my focus was on connecting to the people of Maine and my district. And the issue what happened, I hadn't heard about it, read about it. But it really wasn't central to anything I was thinking or saying. And, frankly, it was dismissed initially as just a, quote, “third-rate burglary.” And that's what it had seemed--it had seemed to me at the time.
MR. BALZ: The investigation initially was under the auspices of the US Attorney's Office with Judge Sirica presiding in the courtroom. Later, Elliot Richardson, newly appointed attorney general, appointed Archibald Cox as the special prosecutor. Richard, why the shift? What was the mandate for Archibald Cox? And how did that office get put together?
MR. BEN-VENISTE: The appointment of a special prosecutor I think flowed from the fact that Judge Sirica was very unhappy with the presentation before him in the Watergate break-in case, where the original burglars were being tried. He believed that there were higher-ups involved, and yet there was no questioning about higher-ups. There was no mention of anyone beyond the seven who were indicted. And therefore, there was a lot of political concern about whether things were being cabined that should not have been. And the Democratic majority in the Senate made clear to the president that in order to confirm his appointment of Elliot Richardson as attorney general, Richardson would have to agree to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Watergate matter with a degree of independence that would allow for exploration of all the evidence, no matter how high it went.
MR. BALZ: And let me ask you both this question. There were ultimately multiple investigations. There was the special prosecutors’ investigation. There was the Senate Select Committee under Senator Sam Ervin, and then ultimately there was the House Judiciary Committee in the impeachment proceedings. To what extent did these investigations cooperate with one another, get in each other's way? Richard, could I start with you? And then, Secretary Cohen, I'd like to ask you that and then follow up with another question to you.
MR. BEN-VENISTE: Well, first, it started with the FBI, which did a remarkable job. The US Attorney's Office in the District of Columbia then continued the investigation and made a lot of progress. The problem was at the--at the very highest levels of the Justice Department the investigation had been compromised and information was flowing back to the White House about the investigation and instructions were given to the prosecutors that they could not go beyond the original authors of the break-in as far as those who were arrested. And so each of the institutions you've mentioned played an important role. There was no coordination between us as the special prosecutor who took over on the federal investigation side with the Senate committee. In fact, Archibald Cox was upset that John Dean was granted immunity by the Senate. But we managed to prosecute him anyway. And Dean, to his credit, despite the fact that he could have fought for years because of the various promises that had been made to him by others, agreed to plead guilty to one count felony and cooperate with the prosecution. And so he became our primary witness in the trial. And then, once we had the tapes, essentially, the matter was sealed, because no one could get away from their tape-recorded conversations showing their culpability in a criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice.
MR. BALZ: We'll get to the tapes in a minute. Secretary Cohen, so the special prosecutor is moving forward. At that point, the Ervin committee is starting to hold public hearings that were riveting the country that summer. What's going on in the House, and particularly in the House Judiciary Committee at that point?
MR. COHEN: Well, it really didn't start to get energized in the House until Saturday Night--the Saturday Night Massacre. There had been an impeachment resolution that had been introduced by Father Robert Drinan. But Tip O'Neill then said let's not move on that. And so we really were not doing much of anything other than watching what was taking place on--during the Ervin committee hearings. But once the Saturday Night Massacre took place where Elliot Richardson resigned, Bill Ruckelshaus resigned, and Mr. Cox was fired, that set in motion, really the directive came to start looking into what an impeachable offense is. And so we really weren't active until that moment. As far as I'm concerned, I was not.
MR. BALZ: You raised the next point that I was going to get to, which is the Saturday Night Massacre. Nixon was obviously angry and frustrated at this point about the demands for the tapes, and decided to get rid of Archibald Cox. He asked Elliot Richardson to do it. Richardson declined and resigned. He asked Bill Ruckelshaus, who was the deputy attorney general to do it. He declined. He tried to resign but was fired before he could actually resign. It was left to Robert Bork, who was then the relatively new solicitor general to carry out the deed. As you mentioned this evening, the--October 1973 became infamously known as the Saturday Night Massacre. I'd like everybody to listen to how John Chancellor of NBC News reported the events of that day and evening.
MR. BALZ: Richard, walk us through that moment. I mean, this is an extraordinary moment in the history of the country. Nothing like this has ever been seen before. We're in the middle of a very, very fraught investigation. Suddenly the leader of this investigation, the special prosecutor, Archibald Cox, has been fired. What's going on in the office at that point? What's the mood? How do you think you're going to be able to go forward?
MR. BEN-VENISTE: Well, we didn't know how we would be able to go forward. In fact, while Archibald Cox was fired, we were not, because we were Justice Department employees and Nixon didn't have the right to fire us. But he said that our office was disbanded. The FBI showed up in force, therefore trumping the rule of law with force. We'd never seen anything like this and--in this country, and we never expected to see anything like it again, until January 6th. And that was quite extraordinary. So the use of force instead of allowing a proper appointed special prosecutor to carry out his responsibilities--so the American public, the press, and the Congress--which had been interested to some extent, of course, in the Ervin committee hearings, were not galvanized by those hearings, and still continued to give the benefit of the doubt to the sitting president.
Now, with the resignation of two very important law enforcement officers in the country, and the firing of an independent special prosecutor, people began to ask quite, quite properly, what was Nixon hiding? And so there was a dramatic shift, in my view, following this Saturday Night Massacre where people began to suspect there was a whole lot more to the Watergate affair than had been led on, as Bill Cohen said earlier, this White House characterization as a third-rate break-in, was in fact a reflexive reaction by the government of Richard Nixon to cover up and to hide not only who was behind Watergate, but a variety of other violations of laws serious in nature, that even Attorney General John Mitchell characterized as the “White House Horrors.” These included the break-in of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office, the proposed firebombing of the Brookings Institution, the use of thugs to rough up anti-war demonstrators, the use of the IRS against political enemies of the president, the unlawful wiretapping of journalists. And the list went on and on and on with an enemies list compiled by the White House to use the power of government against individuals whose only offense was to oppose President Nixon politically.
MR. BALZ: Secretary Cohen, you indicated that this was a dramatic event. How did it affect attitudes inside the Congress? To what extent did it in fact move the investigation toward an impeachment in a significant way?
MR. COHEN: Well, the House Judiciary Committee was then charged with determining whether or not impeachment proceedings should be initiated against the president. If I can just add a personal note here, once Elliot Richardson resigned and a new prosecutor had to be appointed, Leon Jaworski was appointed by Richard Nixon. The Democrats, certainly on the committee, and I think representing a broader spectrum in the--in the House itself, were opposed to having Jaworski appointed, that Nixon should not have the right to appoint a special prosecutor. It should go through a court system. The Washington Post, by the way, was opposed at that time to having Jaworski appointed. And on a personal level, it was the very first op-ed I had ever authored to The Washington Post, and I wrote an op-ed saying that the Democrats were wrong; they should not interfere with Jaworski being appointed, because, as Richard just mentioned, the staff was not dismissed. The staff was still there, and Jaworski would beholden--be beholden to that staff. So, I wrote an op-ed and The Washington Post, I guess for one of the first times, reversed its editorial position and supported the recommendation I had made. And Dave Broder, the great Dave Broder came to me and said, how did you do that? And all I did was basically say that now Jaworski was a captive of Richard Ben-Veniste and the other staff members who were going to pursue that to the end. I haven't discussed that before, but that's how that came about.
MR. BALZ: That’s a fascinating story.
MR. BEN-VENISTE: Well, I don’t know if he was my captive, but he was the captive of the evidence. And once we got not only a new special prosecutor, but before he arrived, we got the first tranche of tapes, because Nixon did a 180 and then said all right, I will give you the tapes. And he gave us most of them without 18 and a half minutes, which was deliberately deleted from one of them. But he gave us enough. And I sat down and listened, I think as the first person outside of a small coterie of folks at the Nixon White House, to what was on those tapes, and particularly the so-called cancer on the presidency conversation, where John Dean tried to convince the president to end the coverup and to allow people to come forward and take their medicine, but stop it before the president himself was engulfed by the cancer of the Watergate coverup. And yet, Nixon on tape in his own voice, irrefutable evidence, said, no, you need to continue to pay hush money to the burglars. And by the way, here's how you can get away with lying under oath before the Senate and the grand jury.
MR. BALZ: Richard, there's a vivid scene in Garrett Graff’s new book about Watergate, which is a wonderful, comprehensive history of the whole scandal, that you and a few others were gathered in your office listening to the tapes for the first time and struggling, I suspect, to actually hear them because they're scratchy, and they're not perfect audio. But it felt as though in reading about that that you were even more shocked than you thought you might be by what you were hearing and that you and others came out of that with a much firmer conclusion about what Nixon had done and his culpability. Is that right?
MR. BEN-VENISTE: Absolutely. Absolutely right, Dan. We didn't know what would be on those tapes, if anything. It could have all been a ploy to get rid of Cox and there would have been nothing there. And so we listened to those tapes. And as a federal prosecutor before Watergate, you know, I had heard surreptitious tape recordings, and they are of various different qualities. But the March 21 conversation was so explosive. It had Nixon saying, look, you need to continue paying hush money to the burglars so they don't give up who was behind ordering the break-in in the first place and reveal all the other untoward things, illegal things that they had done.
And that night, a final payment to Howard Hunt, one of the burglars, in the amount of $120,000 I believe, was made. So Nixon at that point, as far as we know, there was no evidence of his ordering the Watergate break-in or anything other than what we could surmise from other people's testimony. But nothing approached the fact that here is Richard Nixon, the president of the United States, ordering the continuation of an illegal obstruction of justice, and that obstruction of justice then goes forward. Not only that--and Jaworski, who we called in immediately to listen to the tape, and he sat there in stone silence, shaking his head from time to time--heard Nixon in the most cavalier way explain away how one might try to avoid a charge of perjury while still being untruthful before the grand jury and congressional committees. Never was there any conversation about doing the right thing other than Dean trying to end the conspiracy, in which he played an important role himself and had agreed that he would have to go to jail and take the consequences. But Nixon refused and the coverup continued. So, it was absolute evidence of Nixon's active role, not only knowledge of but active role in continuing the obstruction of justice.
MR. BALZ: Secretary Cohen, how important were the tapes in affecting the attitudes and positions of people on the Judiciary Committee? And if the tapes had never been released, would Nixon have been impeached?
MR. COHEN: I don't think so. Because if the tapes hadn't been released, we would have been left with the edited transcripts. And so you had not only expletives deleted--by the way, which are important--it gives tone and texture to what was really being said--but also irrelevant portions being omitted. So, who is to decide what's irrelevant? And at one point, President Nixon tried to get a deal worked out with the special prosecutor that John Stennis would listen to the tapes. Well, of course, John Stennis was hard of hearing for openers, and so that didn't go down very well.
But ultimately, within the committee itself, it was still very divided. Republicans for the most part said this is just the Democrats trying to overturn the election because they lost so heavily. This is not something that hasn't been done before. We've got to hang together. I think--well, we voted. Ultimately the Rodino letter that was approved voted to send a second letter to the president to get the tapes. And once we heard the tapes, I sat down, as other members did--I had the headphones on, as you pointed out, very hard to hear--and I went through the transcripts that we had and measured those against the words that we saw on the page. And it became very clear to enough of us on the Judiciary Committee, enough Republicans to make it bipartisan to say that impeachment proceedings should go to the House for a vote and then to the Senate.
But without that, I think there was enough doubt in the--on the Republican side. Certainly, there was still Tom Railsback, Henry Smith, Ham Fish Jr, et cetera, and Caldwell Butler in particular, members who were really concerned with the edited transcripts. But once the tapes came through, I think that pushed even the most conservative of the Republicans to say that they were impeachable offenses that we believe needed to be brought to the full House, and then to the Senate.
MR. BALZ: Before we get to the Articles of Impeachment themselves, Richard, there's one other big event that happens in the spring of 1974, and that's when seven senior members of the Nixon administration are indicted. HR Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, John Mitchell, Chuck Colson. What was the thinking about doing all of those as one big indictment as opposed to serial indictments? And what was the shape of the evidence that allowed you to go forward with such an impactful decision?
MR. BEN-VENISTE: Well, our coverup indictment that charged a conspiracy to obstruct justice did in fact include the individuals that you mentioned. And the interesting part of it was that Leon Jaworski was very reluctant to name Richard Nixon. But we on the task force--and this may go back to Bill's earlier point--said to Jaworski, that, look, the evidence is clear that Nixon has participated in the conspiracy actively. We can't hide that. And indeed, these tapes might not be admissible as evidence in a court of law if the participants in the conversation, were not members of the conspiracy themselves. So, we need to do the right thing here. The right thing is to name Richard Nixon as an unindicted co-conspirator, even though we had made the decision that with an active investigation in Congress, the more appropriate method of dealing with presidential criminality would be through the impeachment process. But as far as the criminal indictment of the others were concerned, these tapes were essential evidence. And I agree with Bill that if the tapes had not existed, if Nixon had not installed the taping system, if we had not found out about it through the testimony of one of Nixon's aides, Alex Butterfield, if Nixon had destroyed the tapes rather than holding out, holding out and then ultimately capitulating, I believe he would have been able to serve out his term as president, a wounded president. Nevertheless, I don't think there would have been the votes to remove him from office with a two-thirds vote of the Senate.
MR. BALZ: We're nearly out of time, so I want to jump forward. Ultimately, the House Judiciary Committee votes three articles of impeachment. There's a smoking gun tape released. Nixon resigns.
Secretary Cohen, let's come up to the present day. We've had two presidents impeached since then, Presidents Clinton and Trump. Twice in all cases, they were acquitted by the Senate. We're in a very polarized environment. Is the impeachment process any longer a viable tool to hold a president to account?
MR. COHEN: Well, I think the impeachment process itself is being invoked too frequently. I quoted Lord Chancellor Somers during the House investigation back in '74. He said impeachment is like Goliath’s sword to be removed from the temple on great occasions only. And I think that when we start talking about Bill Clinton or the attempt to impeach Donald Trump, it's just being used too frequently and not on great occasions. I think today, for example, the investigation underway against former President Trump is different. And ultimately, it comes down to the rule we tried to follow during the Nixon impeachment. The notion is power has to be entrusted to someone, but no one can be trusted with power. That is fundamental to our founding fathers, why they devised a system of checks and balances because they understood human nature, that power is pursued by ambitious people, that power that goes unchecked will be abused. And therefore, we have to find a way to check it as much as possible.
And so that was a lesson coming out of Watergate. You had President Nixon, who said I prefer--I want loyalty. Over competence, I want loyalty. You had president--former President Trump saying I want loyalty. Call me "You're fired." I wanted loyalty to me. And so the notion we have gotten away from is the commitment to the Constitution as opposed to the individual. And that I think is the lesson of Watergate. I think it's a lesson that we could derive throughout. But really, impeachment has to be used on great occasions. And those occasions come when you absolutely pursue a policy, which not only tries to subvert the Constitution subtly, covertly, but to do it openly through the use of force, as we saw with the assault on January 6th. So, I think impeachment is a process that needs to be there. But we need to respect it and hold it for the really important occasions, which go to the central part of placing loyalty to the Constitution, not to any president.
MR. BALZ: That’s very helpful advice.
MR. BEN-VENISTE: Well, I agree. There's also--there’s also a criminal responsibility. And particularly after a president has left office, he is vulnerable to prosecution. Nixon, for all of his authoritarian tendencies and his criminality did not, in my view, pose an existential threat to our democracy. Donald Trump, on the other hand, does and did. And that’s a very significant difference. There's a difference in 50 years gone by of our respect for the truth and the rule of law and the education of Americans, as to what it means to be a patriotic American. And we have lost a great deal there. And without getting into a long discussion of that, we were in danger, serious danger in the events leading up to January 6th. And if in fact a few things had gone the other way, we would have been in a horrendous mess. And we need to straighten that out through education and through individuals like Bill Cohen, who put America first, party second. That has to be the rule.
MR. BALZ: Well, we'll see where the January 6th Committee ends up, and we'll see where the Justice Department ends up in this current moment. Unfortunately, we are out of time. I want to thank both of you, Richard Ben-Veniste and Secretary William Cohen for being here on the first of three episodes that we're going to be doing looking at the history of the Watergate break-in and the Watergate scandal. Gentlemen, thank you again very much for being with us.
MR. BEN-VENISTE: Thank you so much.
MR. COHEN: Thank you, Dan.
MR. BALZ: Again, I’m Dan Balz. And thank you, all of you for watching and being with us today. To check out what future programming we have, go to WashingtonPostLive.com. You can look there and register and see what other events are coming up. Once again, thank you and good day. | 2022-06-10T20:58:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Transcript: 50th Anniversary of Watergate: Inside the Case - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/06/10/transcript-50th-anniversary-watergate-inside-case/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/06/10/transcript-50th-anniversary-watergate-inside-case/ |
Transcript: Future of Work: New Ways of Leading & Innovating
MS. ABRIL: Hello, and welcome to Washington Post Live. I’m Danielle Abril, tech at work writer for The Washington Post. Today we have two segments on the future of work, so I encourage you to stick around. First, Ellyn Shook, Accenture’s chief leadership and human resource officer, joins us to discuss leadership amid a changing workplace.
Welcome to Washington Post Live, Ellyn.
MS. SHOOK: Thank you so much for having me. I'm delighted to be here.
MS. ABRIL: Absolutely.
And remember, we always want to hear from you, our audience. You can share your thoughts and questions for guests by tweeting @PostLive.
So, with that, I want to go ahead and get started with a really hot button topic that's getting a lot of buzz from workers, and that's the four-day workweek, Ellyn. Earlier this week, the UK announced that it's launching the largest four-day workweek experiment to date. Previous studies on the matter suggest benefits to worker productivity and wellness. But what are your thoughts on the four-day workweek?
MS. SHOOK: Look, I think the four-day workweek is certainly something that organizations should consider. But I think most importantly, organizations really need to understand that there's no one size fits most. And when considering the experiences that people need and want to be successful and be productive, they have to really think about what the individual needs and wants. And that really is how we think about our own workforce of 699,000 people.
MS. ABRIL: So that's a great segue into the question I wanted to ask you about how the pandemic changed the way Accenture workers do their jobs. How is Accenture operating right now?
MS. SHOOK: So, you know, I think we had a head start on kind of the future of work, if you will, because we've been working in remote teams for decades to serve our clients. So, you know, we have global clients, our workforce is global, and teams, you know, have not been necessarily co-located to do the work that we do for our clients. So, we had a head start in understanding how you work remotely.
What wasn't happening at that time was that everybody was or largely everybody was working from home. That was not true. We were at client sites, in our delivery centers, and some people at home. So, we had a head start. And we took the lessons that we knew to accelerate how to, you know, ensure that people felt human connection. That was the first thing that we focused on during the pandemic. So, if you remember, one of the biggest vocabulary words that came out early during the pandemic was "socially distant." What we did was, we struck that word from the Accenture vocabulary, and we said we're not socially distant; were physically distant. So, we immediately turned our attention to how do you form strong human connection in a completely remote workforce. And we've carried those lessons through, and now what we're practicing is called an omni-connected experience, which really transcends space and place, and allows all of our people to have equal opportunity to contribute, make an impact, and grow their careers, regardless of where they're working.
MS. ABRIL: So, are there any requirements for employees to come in, or are some fully remote?
MS. SHOOK: First of all, we do believe that being physically together at certain times is beneficial. So, we do have people that work fully remote for some very few jobs. But we do also believe that there are times and for certain reasons that people should come together. But the way we think about it is not about this many days coming in or that many days from home. What we really think about is how do we earn the commute back? You know, 88 percent of our people said flexibility was the most important thing. So really thinking about how do we earn their commute to get them back in for certain things like, you know, collaboration or creativity time together.
MS. ABRIL: Got it. So, if workers are largely flexible and sort of able to work from home when it makes sense, I'm curious, the one thing that keeps coming up in conversations is how organizations sort of create a culture when a lot of people are, you know, working remotely. And you mentioned that--sort of that connection element. How are you, you know, continuing Accenture's culture when so many people are distributed?
MS. SHOOK: Yeah, I think we just published a piece of research a few weeks ago that really explored this concept of whether culture happens in space and place. And what the research really found was culture doesn't happen in space and place. Culture happens through human connection. And one of the most important findings in the research was this: Only one in six employees--one in six only--feel a human connection to their work, even though most people are either--have a technology connection to work or they're physically in a workplace. And what was really, frankly, for me shocking, it was--it was the most interesting finding in the research was that the people who are and have been working on site in a physical workplace feel the least connected. So, 42 percent of people who are in a physical workplace feel least connected, all the way through to people who are fully remote. Only 22 percent of people do not feel human connection when they're fully remote. And so what the research really showed us very clearly is that organizations really need to not think about culture happening in space, but culture happening through human connection. And of course, there's a huge financial business case associated with being able to do that.
MS. ABRIL: That makes a lot of sense. I want to also ask about how this change and shift affected your leadership style. Can you tell me, you know, did your approach to leadership change after the pandemic?
MS. SHOOK: Well, I would say the pandemic is still going on. But throughout the pandemic, what really emerged, I think, you know, we've always had empathy as an important leadership characteristic. But what really changed during the beginning of the pandemic through to today is that compassion is the most significant emerging leadership characteristic of our time. And the way I describe that is simply empathy, which we've had, plus action, equals compassion. So, it's not only about listening. It's about learning and acting on the needs of our people.
MS. ABRIL: And maybe this is just to tack on what we were talking about in terms of culture. But I'm curious, will office life and Accenture look anything like it did before the pandemic? Are we just in a new phase completely?
MS. SHOOK: Look, what I want to do is not look backwards. I would like to look forward and take all the lessons that we learned about do to you unlock human potential and use those lessons to create experiences for our people that inspire them to continue to learn and grow their careers with us. And so I do think that, you know, we will not go backwards, we will not look back to the time before the pandemic as the model. We're taking those lessons forward with us.
And again, this concept of earning the commute, why do people come into a physical workplace? They come for the human connection. They come for time with creativity. You know, I was talking to my colleague, David Droga, who's the founder of Droga5, and now the CEO of Accenture Song. And what he says is that, you know, creativity does not happen linearly. And while we were all dependent on collaboration tools during the pandemic, like Teams or Zoom, if you think about those tools, they allow conversations to happen in a linear fashion. They do not allow people to spar and come back and forth, you have to--it's unnatural, right? Only the person speaking is highlighted. You have to come off view, which people tended to forget to do all the time. And so that spirit of connection and creativity I think are really the types of things that are going to take place when people come together. It's not to say creativity doesn't happen remotely. Certainly, that would be ridiculous, because, you know, the most beautiful pieces of art have been created by individuals who have been alone in a workspace. But, you know, the kind of creativity that spurs innovation, that solves the world's most significant business challenges of our time happens when people are together.
MS. ABRIL: And do you think these shifts would have--would have happened inevitably? I mean, you said you were sort of already on this path, but things sort of maybe accelerated when the pandemic hit. Do you think this would have happened regardless of whether COVID hit us or not?
MS. SHOOK: Yeah, I think that the technology--you know, the acceleration of the pace of technology allowed us to accelerate exploring future of work for sure. And you know, out of times of disruption sometimes comes innovation that would have never happened. And so I'm an optimist. And I believe that while the trauma of the pandemic--both, you know, people, the loss of life, the mental health trauma that will be ongoing for many years after the pandemic, the one silver lining is that we learn new ways of working and we learned how to connect to each other in different ways.
MS. ABRIL: And in terms of the tech itself, you know, you talked about some of the struggles, the linear elements of, you know, doing things remotely and having, you know, Teams or Zoom meetings or whatever it is that you're doing. Do you think that we have all the tech we need for this more flexible future? Or do you think there needs to be some tech advancements and developments here, and what would those be?
MS. SHOOK: Well, I like to think of it as like, not the people that are working remotely, but I think you also need to be very inclusive of people who don't have that choice. And people that need to show up, whether they are people who work in bank branches, or people who work in a hospital or people who work in a manufacturing facility, you know, you need to be inclusive of thinking about what flexibility is and how technology can help with their flexibility as well. And I think there's a long way to go there. By putting technology tools in the hands of people, you can really think about a more nuanced view of what flexibility means not just on site/off site but how do I create a schedule that works better for me as a human being, as a parent, as a student. And I think those types of technology skills that allow for more agility and scheduling and more agility in location.
Imagine being a hotel company in a city like mine. I live in New York City. There's lots of hotels here in New York City, and hotel companies having multiple brands. Imagine if employees could access cross-brand schedules so that they could create a schedule that was more flexible for them. And I know there are a lot of considerations associated with that. But I think those are the types of technology tools that are going to be on the horizon, which will allow workplace flexibility to be much more inclusive of all workers, which I think is critically important, especially at a time where we're still in a talent market that has not been as hot in this country since post-World War 2.
MS. ABRIL: So, I want to talk about the workers themselves. You know, there was a labor shortage, and now we're starting to see some slowdowns, and even in some cases some pausing of hiring within the tech industry. What is Accenture seeing here? Is this--are we at some kind of turning point for the tech industry?
MS. SHOOK: Look, I am not going to make a prediction right now, because there are so many factors that are affecting, you know, work and workplace. I can tell you that over the course of the past two years, we added 200,000 people to our workforce. And while the talent market has been constrained, we have not been. And what I think employers need to focus on is this holistic view of what employees need. And we like to ask a very simple question of ourselves, and we help our clients ask that same question: Are employees net better off by working for your company?
And the way net better off is defined is really interesting, because it has six dimensions to it, and two of them are something that employers have always been focused on: the job and the paycheck. But when you're in a volatile talent market, some of the other things become super important, like are people getting market relevant skills. So, in a downturn, could they transfer their skills to another industry, another organization that might need the skills in a different way, so providing market relevant skills. This concept of emotional and physical resiliency is so important to people.
And while companies have learned that they need to look at their employees more holistically, more companies have looked at--not all companies--but more companies have recognized that employees still say only one in--only 25 percent, one in four employees feel that their employers are looking after them. And in times of volatility, I think it's those times where responsible businesses and responsible leaders double down on caring for their people, because the cycles are--you know, these are cycles. Economic cycles are cycles. And the way people are treated during very good times and very difficult times will be long remembered as an economic cycle, you know, comes to--comes to a transition.
MS. ABRIL: Yeah, definitely. And I, you know, want to ask about how Accenture is navigating this particularly interesting time when workers are actually demanding more from their employers, not just from the sense of what you're talking about in terms of how they're being treated, but taking stances on hot button issues. You know, lately, we've seen a lot about abortion. We've seen a lot about gun ownership and gun regulation. How is Accenture navigating this?
MS. SHOOK: Yeah, I mean, every year I wait for the Edelman Trust index to come out to see what that says to see how people feel that they have trust with a lot of institutions, whether it's government or media or employers. Employers have been at the top of the trust index now for at least two years. Why am I talking about that? I talk about trust in cycles like this, because you need to have transparency with your people in order to build trust, and I think trust is the most important currency of our time.
So, we do have a very sophisticated learning framework. I talked a little bit about it. It's listen, learn and act. And you know, issues that are important to our people are important to us. And the way we consider them is through a cross-functional team. We think about our core values, we think about our people, we think about our clients, and we think about our communities. And that's how we go about assessing, you know, how we navigate important issues that are very important to our people and important to our communities and our business.
MS. ABRIL: Ellyn, we have a little time left for one last question, so I’ve got to squeeze this one in.
MS. SHOOK: Okay.
MS. ABRIL: What do you think are the biggest challenges as we embark on this new era of work?
MS. SHOOK: I think the biggest challenge is for, one, employees to use their voice, you know, to ask for what they need, because only through employees asking and employers listening can we really unlock the full potential of people.
MS. ABRIL: I think that's a great note to end this on. So, I want to thank you so much, Ellyn, for your insight, for your time, and for joining us here on Washington Post Live.
MS. SHOOK: Thank you so much, Danielle, for having me.
And thanks to all of you for joining us. Please stay with us for the next segment of this conversation with Drew Houston, founder and CEO of Dropbox.
MS. KELLY: I'm Suzanne Kelly, CEO and publisher of The Cipher Brief, a media organization focused on national security. You know, we all had to make some pretty significant changes in how we do business once the pandemic hit, and it really shook things up for large organizations as well, who sometimes had to send tens of thousands of employees home. So, it's my pleasure now to welcome Tiffany Davis, who is division vice president of human resources at ADP, to talk about how ADP was able to kind of utilize lessons learned from the pandemic to really support the thousands, tens of thousands of employees who had to work remotely.
Tiffany, welcome.
MS. DAVIS: Thank you so much, Suzanne. It's a pleasure to be here today.
MS. KELLY: You know, I really want to hear from you straight away about the lessons learned that are being heeded by human resources leaders and how they're looking now from what they've learned since the pandemic to support a workforce of today.
MS. DAVIS: Thank you so much. Such a great question. I'll start out by saying it was such a great opportunity to work for an organization like ADP, which I thought that we did a phenomenal job when the pandemic did approach us and some of the challenges that we were up against. But from an HR leader or an executive standpoint, there were two probably lessons that I would identify here.
I think, one, it was a significant opportunity for us to think about business continuity and contingency planning and really thinking about from the standpoint of we do a great job of making sure our associates have the tools and resources that they need while in the office. But it was a great time for us to think about what are those tools and resources that were needed for associates in a home environment. So, I will tell you something that we learned on the journey and we continue to evolve.
The second thing I would actually say is it was another time for us to really focus in for our leaders who are leading our employees every single day and really supporting them and leading with heart and also engaging with moments that matter. There were so many different things that were happening in people's lives that were outside of the work that they do every single day at ADP, and it was a shift around as a leader. How do you have those conversations? How do you engage? How do you actually make sure that you were supportive? And so the development of that type of framework through the pandemic has really just helped--equipped us not only as HR leaders, but also for our leaders that are managing our employees each and every day. So those are two things that I would say from a lesson learn perspective that we continue to evolve, and I know that other organizations are doing as well.
MS. KELLY: It would seem to me that if there was any part of an organization that had really the opportunity for innovation and growth that was presented by the pandemic, it was the HR department. So how are the ways that HR leaders sort of captured that opportunity at ADP?
MS. DAVIS: Another great question, Suzanne. Innovation, I would say, has been our middle name over the course of the pandemic and I think will continue to be our middle name. But one of the things that I would start out with saying is in HR, what we tried to do is focus on the importance of our HR executives, leaders, and associates, having the opportunity to be closely connected to our employees during this time. And one of the ways that we've actually had the opportunity to do that is to make sure that we could automate some of our more manual tasks, or nonvalue-added tasks, I would say, to the associate experience.
We've also played a role in making sure that we have those same conversations on the business front. When we think about all of the personal challenges and all of the things that our employees have had to balance, how do we also make sure their experience is also--make sure that that experience is just worthwhile and also that they feel like that they can get their work done in an effective way? And so we have played a role in working with our businesses to make sure that automation occurs so that we can remove friction points and that we can also remove tasks from their plates to make sure that they could be effective in this environment.
MS. KELLY: You know, we live in a world today where we have so much data at our fingertips, I think more than we ever have in human history. It's an issue in national security. And I'm interested to hear how data was really driving efficiency now for human resources as well.
MS. DAVIS: So one of the things that I'm most excited about, Suzanne, is one of the things that we underwent during the midst of this pandemic, is we took the opportunity to really survey our employee population to really get their perspective and opinion on their sentiments around HR. And so we've evolved that survey. It's not that we haven't done it before, or prior to the pandemic, but we've evolved what that survey actually looked like.
So, it's comprised of two elements. The first side is what we call HR NPS, or net promoter score. And that really focuses on asking our employees, based on your experience with HR, what's your likelihood of recommending a family member or a friend to ADP. And the second part of that survey is what we call the HRXPS, which is really around the experience with HR.
And there are a couple of experience questions that we actually asked that are based into about five categories, and those categories are really around as an HR--as an associate, I'm sorry, or employee, that you actually see the value that HR brings, that you feel supported--do you feel like that you get what you need from a growth perspective, that you're given what you need from a tools, support, resources, experience, vantage point, and that also HR plays a role in making you feel safe, which we know was very important in the midst of the pandemic.
And while we have had phenomenal results, I would say that it's been great data that we can leverage not only from the numeric standpoint of what the score actually says, but the comments have been instrumental, and how we have continued to design the work that we do as HR leaders and executives, but also how we continue to evolve our brand and interactions with our associates and employees. So again, something I continue to be excited about but has been instrumental from a data perspective.
MS. KELLY: I love to hear about how data is really driving efficiency across organizations as well. Tiffany Davis, division vice president for human resources at ADP, thank you so much for your time.
MS. DAVIS: Thank you so much, Suzanne. It's a pleasure.
MS. KELLY: Back to my colleagues now at The Washington Post.
MS. ABRIL: Welcome back. For those of you just joining us, I'm Danielle Abril, tech at work writer for The Washington Post. We're pleased to have Drew Houston, co-founder and CEO of Dropbox, with us here today. Welcome to Washington Post Live, Drew.
MR. HOUSTON: Thank you, Danielle. Great to be here.
And a quick reminder to you, our audience, we always want to hear from you. You can share your thoughts and questions for guests on Washington Post Live by tweeting @PostLive.
So, I want to start off, Drew, with this policy that you guys called virtual first. It's been working since 2020 for you all. Can you explain how this virtual first model works?
MR. HOUSTON: Sure. So, I mean, like everyone here, we were--the pandemic comes, lockdown. The world--it is clear that the world was going to be different afterwards. And I think a lot of--obviously, a lot of the things, most of the things about the pandemic were difficult, but I think we're all surprised by the degree to which, you know, if you're lucky enough to work--to be able to work from a screen, that companies were able to function, and there are a lot of good things about not having to commute and being able to get new kinds of flexibility at work and other benefits.
And so it's such a dramatic change and such a big crisis. We looked for, you know, what's the silver lining and how might work change permanently as a result of this now that, you know, before COVID, we were working out of physical offices, but it seemed like after COVID, we’d permanently be working from screens. So, we thought about how do we get the best of both worlds? How do we get the best of the remote experience where you have flexibility and also get the best of the in-person experience, because one thing we missed during lockdown, one thing that was really painful was not being able to see other people in person. And I don't think there's any substitute for that. There's a lot of great things about the convenience of being on Zoom, but it's very hard to build relationships on Zoom compared to face to face.
So, what we did is basically, we decided that the primary orientation of the company would become remote, so you could keep working from home, don't need to commute to the office, don't have to come in every week. But about 10 percent of the time we want folks to meet face to face, through off sites or community events, things like that. We call the model virtual first. And we launched it in October 2020, which was pretty early for these things. And we finally--now that things have started to reopen, we've been able to really start reintroducing the in-person experience. I was at an off site for a couple days earlier this week. We just had a big community event, a few hundred people in San Francisco. So, it's been working really well.
MS. ABRIL: And so I know you explained a little bit of the background of what went into this process, but I'm curious if you--now that things are sort of returning to some new sense of normalcy, have you considered like a return to office situation that a lot of folks are going to? Why or why not?
MR. HOUSTON: Basically, no, at least not in the way that a lot of companies are doing it. So, as I said, our model is you work primarily from home, and then we have--then we want you to spend around 10 percent of your time face to face. This is a little different from what companies are doing where, you know, they’re coming into the office--asking people to come into the office two, three days a week. The challenge of that model--and we explored that model--is it's--we believe it's easy to get the worst of both worlds when you do something like that. Because if you--if everybody’s working two days a week in the office, if it's--if it's the same two days a week, then it's inefficient--right?--because you have like, the majority of the week the office is completely empty. But if it's not and you come into a half empty office, then it sort of defeats the purpose of community if most of the people aren't there.
And I think we found something that we were not envisioning, which is that people just moved away--right?--they spread out. Virtually all organizations have some--you know, are on their way to having a double-digit percentage of remote employees, even if they would have been very anti-remote work before the pandemic. And so the problem with that is if you have people commuting, and then one of the team members is outside of commuting distance or can't make it and your commute to the office to be back on Zoom but without your snacks or your dog. And you know, in a world where we've all gotten used to this flexibility and where companies are offering it, I think companies need to adapt.
MS. ABRIL: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I will tell you working with my dog is wonderful.
Do you think anything gets lost? You know, some folks we hear from when they talk about the hybrid model or return to office, they talk about their worries of either losing a sense of culture or losing a sense of collaboration, camaraderie. How are you balancing that, given your policy?
MR. HOUSTON: I think that's a really important concern. And I think as I said earlier, there's no substitute for the in-person experience. I mean, I think that's something that many of us are discovering, or will discover, as things start to reopen and we spend more time together and that there's a lot of conversations or relationship building that you just can't do over Zoom. Like, you can't really do a dinner over Zoom or like, meaningful experiences the same way.
So, importantly, we're virtual first. We're not remote only. And I think all companies should think about how do they get the benefits of both, because for things like building relationships, collaboration, convening people, it’s just--it’s not the same doing that virtually.
MS. ABRIL: Understood. And do you think you would have gotten to this model even if the pandemic hadn't hit, or do you think this was a direct result of the pandemic?
MR. HOUSTON: I think a little of both. So, I mean, COVID took us through this one-way door where before we worked out of offices, and now we work primarily out of screens. That shift to using more technology, spending more time on screens had been in place for a long time, and that and just digital transformation more broadly was already underway. It got pulled forward dramatically due to COVID. But I mean, I don't think anyone would have predicted the death of like the five-day office workweek from COVID. I certainly don't think that we would have seen the degree of change that we saw. I mean, it's one of the biggest changes to knowledge work since that term was invented 60 years ago.
And I think it's--I think it's an exciting opportunity. I mean, there's so many negative things about the pandemic, but one of the positive things I think we'll look back on this period is it’s an opportunity to really rethink the nature of work, the nature of the workweek. I mean, so much of how we work has sort of descended from these industrial kind of factory mindsets, dictating how and where people do their work. And so the decoupling of work from physical space, I think, will have a lot of benefits.
MS. ABRIL: And in terms of I know you talked about, you know, the in-person activity happening mostly, you know, at off sites and things like that. What can you tell me about the office itself? Are you guys still using the office? How does that look now?
MR. HOUSTON: Yeah, I mean, we basically--we completely rethought our physical space. So, we've reduced our physical footprint by like, 80 percent. So basically, we don't--we don't have individual workspaces. So, you don't--you don't walk into the office and see rows of desks the way you would have before. We turned the office into convening and collaborative spaces that we call studios. And so people can come in and do off sites, or they can do community events, hold talks, or happy hours, things like that. And so it's more of a vibrant and collaborative place. And we’ve started rolling it out, and I think people are still figuring out exactly what to use studios for and what to go off site, another place. I think, you know, we're running a lot of experiments, like all companies are. But so far, it's been resonating.
MS. ABRIL: Makes sense, yeah. I'm very interested in how people are, you know, reevaluating their space, given these new ways of working. You mentioned something about how employees moved. That was an unexpected thing that happened during the pandemic. And one of the things that we're seeing is, in some cases, compensation changing as a result. Is Dropbox changing compensation based on where employees are?
MR. HOUSTON: Well, we've always had a market-based compensation--or approach to compensation. And so there are differences in cost of living or differences in pay depending on where you live that are dictated by the market. So that that general approach hasn't changed.
I mean, we've certainly seen a mix shift. We're hiring a lot more from other locations. And one of the great things about the flexibility that we have post-COVID and models like ours, like virtual first, we've seen that we've been able to unlock pools of talent in lots of different places. So, I think on balance--so we'll continue to be market driven. I think there's a question of, you know, I think there's a continuum from like if you're doing the same job, same pay to having it be completely--or having very different pay based on location. I think the market will kind of decide. I think it'll kind of be in the middle, is where I think it's going. But I think it's great for everyone. Employees--or companies have access to more talents. Great jobs are available to a lot more people and a lot more places. They're not--a lot of the opportunity that you've seen in tech and other sectors isn't now--isn't just limited to being within a, you know, however many mile radius of San Francisco or New York or other tech hubs. So, I think there are a lot of benefits.
MS. ABRIL: So, with that, are you seeing a change in your talent pool or the candidates applying? And how do you expect that to change over time as you continue to hire?
MR. HOUSTON: Yeah, I mean, I think we've been able to--as I said before, we've been able to reach a lot of great candidates. And actually, our recruiting has become a lot more efficient as well. So, we've seen offer accept rates increase a lot. We found ourselves getting access to execs that live in place--execs and talent more broadly, engineering, design, all kinds of folks who otherwise wouldn't have applied to Dropbox because we didn't have an office in their location. So, it's been a huge benefit to us from a recruiting and--recruiting and retention standpoint.
MS. ABRIL: Got it. And so I want to quote something you previously said. You once said, “Instead of the tools helping us do the work, the tools kind of became the work.” Can you explain what you meant here?
MR. HOUSTON: Sure. Well, I think--I think probably many of you know what I'm talking about. In a world where we're always on and always connected, technology has brought that kind of advance for us. There's a lot of good things about that. It's enabled a lot of flexibility we've been talking about. But more communication, more collaboration, more tools aren't always better. And I think when you look at the experience of what's going on under our Zoom windows or under our videos, it's just--and you look at the tabs in--the hundred tabs in your browser and hundred tools on your screen, the--your digital environment has become a very chaotic place, and I think it's a lot more distracting and overwhelming than it needs to be. So, a lot of what we're focused on at Dropbox is thinking about, all right, how do we help you organize your working life beyond your files? How do we help you take care--not have a hundred tabs everywhere?
And I think more broadly, we need to--when we think about how do we move to these virtual models, one challenge is, you know, kind of ironically, we found that people in some cases were working more or without good boundaries, or when the boundary between--the physical boundary between home and work is completely dissolved, then work can spill over into every waking moment. And that's actually not good for--it’s not good for employees. It's not even good for companies if people don't have a sustainable pace. So, I think you need to set guidelines within your company about how do you communicate, how do you turn off some notifications, how do you encourage people to find a sustainable pace.
One thing we do is we have core collaboration hours. So we try to--we ask people to fit all their--to try to fit all their recurring meetings within a few hour block during the day so that you don't have--especially for people that are working across different time zones that you don't have this sprawl. So I think it's not just the physical environment or what do you do remotely, what do you do in person. I think the other mechanics of how you operate and how people work together need to change. And I think a lot of the technology that we're using needs to help us save, get back to the vision of helping us save time, helping us be more organized, instead of overwhelming us.
MS. ABRIL: So that actually leads to--directly to my next question, which is, what tech is needed for the future of work? And does it already exist? Is it just a reorganization of the tech we have, or are there things that don't exist yet that we need?
MR. HOUSTON: I think we need smarter tools. And I think we need to look--again, look at our digital environments. We're living and--we're working from our screens all day, and when you look at--just look at that experience, there's a lot of room to clean it up. I mean, at Dropbox, what we think about is--you know, I started the company 15 years ago, because I kept forgetting my thumb drive and I had all these files I needed to get to from different devices on different operating systems. But today, those hundred files on my desktop have turned into hundred tabs in my browser, as I was saying. So, we see an opportunity for Dropbox to help you organize all your cloud content, because we see people using files, but also Google Docs, and Figma, and Airtable, and all these new tools. And there's a lot of benefits that these tools provide, but then some of the challenges are that some basic experiences like search don't really work very well, because you have like 10 search boxes where you used to have one. There's no single view of all your stuff. So, you have to go--if you want to see what's--get a view of all your stuff, in many cases, it's scattered across your Dropbox or Google Drive, your OneDrive, all these different things. And so we need a new organizing layer.
And to me, it reminds me a lot of imagine--it's hard to remember but like, imagine life before Kayak or flight search, imagine having to go to like 10 different airlines, do the same search to try to pull all these things together yourself. In a lot of ways, our productivity tools are really fragmented like that. So, we see a big opportunity to better organize all your content, all your stuff at work, and then more broadly find ways to help you organize your working life.
MS. ABRIL: Yeah, I could definitely use some help there.
MR. HOUSTON: I think we all could.
MS. ABRIL: What would you say has been the biggest lesson for you within these past two years?
MR. HOUSTON: You know, I think there's no playbook for running a company during a pandemic. I think we're all still figuring it out. And I think there's a lot--you know, but the--I'd say that the lesson is really to find the silver lining and--in any kind of crisis. And so there's--again, as I was saying, there's so many bad things that happened with the pandemic. But, you know, at the same time, it ripped up the floorboards in all these ways that were bad, but it gave us--it also gave us an opportunity to think--to not have to put them back down in the same places, so certainly thinking about what are the opportunities that are creating the crisis through the through the change that it brings.
And then when you operate under uncertainty, I think a lot--it's--the companies that have an advantage are the ones that can adapt and respond quickly. And so, you know, we're still learning with our virtual first model. But we made an aggressive bet pretty early on, and we've been [unclear] pretty quickly. And I think a lot of what's frustrated employees is when--or what we've heard from other folks who have joined Dropbox is that they're really frustrated that their companies not making a decision, or always saying like, you know, will tell you in three months. So, I think being able to find the silver lining in a crisis and in an any time of uncertainty focus on adaptability more than getting the right perfect answer I think were important lessons for us.
MS. ABRIL: Got it. And we have time for one quick question. So, I know you mentioned all the tech challenges and the things that Dropbox is focused on in terms of developments. But beyond the actual features and productivity and technical challenges, what do you think are the biggest challenges as we embark in this new era of work?
MR. HOUSTON: Well, I think it's finding the right balance across a lot of the tradeoffs that we've been talking about, right? So how do we make sure that we get the right level of in-person connection? You know, is the right number 10 percent of the time face to face, or 20, or 40, or 5? No one really knows. I think the world is running millions and millions of experiments, and we're going to learn a lot.
And then I think that the challenge is of sustainability, right? There's this epidemic of knowledge worker burnout that we've seen alongside the rise of a lot of this technology. And I think technology brings a lot of benefits, but I think there are also a lot of challenges. So how do we have a sustained--how do we build our environments such that they help us focus, right? How do we--how do we build--how do we get the things on our screen to help us focus instead of making focus impossible? So, I think there's a lot to figure out and it's--I think it's a really fertile time for--a creatively fertile time to solve some really important problems.
MS. ABRIL: Yeah, a lot of food for thought there are, a lot of questions to ask ourselves, and a great time to do it.
Well, unfortunately, that's all the time we have. Drew Houston, thank you so much for being here with us today.
MR. HOUSTON: Great, thanks, Danielle.
And thanks to all of you for joining us, as well. To check out what interviews we have coming up, please head to WashingtonPostLive.com to register and find more information about all our upcoming programs. I’m Danielle Abril. Thanks again for joining us. | 2022-06-10T20:58:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Transcript: Future of Work: New Ways of Leading & Innovating - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/06/10/transcript-future-work-new-ways-leading-innovating/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/06/10/transcript-future-work-new-ways-leading-innovating/ |
The ratings suggest a quantifiable success for committee members hoping to engage the public in their investigation
Nearly 19 million television viewers watched the first prime-time hearing of the House select committee probing the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — a quantifiable success for the Democratic-led team of lawmakers who hoped their investigation would jolt the nation’s attention.
The major broadcast networks — ABC, CBS and NBC — cleared their popular prime-time entertainment schedules to broadcast the hearing, without commercial interruption, from 8 to 10 p.m., Eastern time, as did cable news channels such as CNN and MSNBC.
The only major cable news outlet not to cover the hearing was Fox News, whose conservative opinion hosts pointedly attempted to counterprogram it — showing soundless glimpses of the hearing-room audience while they and their guests floridly disparaged the committee’s efforts. (“The dullest, the most boring, there’s absolutely nothing new, multi-hour Democratic fundraiser masquerading as a Jan. 6 hearing,” Fox host Sean Hannity declared.)
Instead, Fox dispatched two of its news anchors to host hearing coverage on much-less-watched sister channel Fox Business Network, where it drew 223,000 viewers as opposed to the 3 million who watched Fox News.
Viewers who tuned in to the hearing saw never-before-seen video footage of the day’s carnage, witness interviews conducted by the committee, and snippets of newsworthy audio from key players.
Certain moments from the hearing continued to generate headlines and attract eyeballs on Friday, such as recorded testimony of Ivanka Trump telling investigators that she didn’t believe the election was stolen.
The hearings — there will be several more after Thursday’s debut, though not all will be in prime time — have been compared to previous congressional committee sessions that have captivated the public, such as the Senate Watergate Committee hearings of 1973 and the Army–McCarthy hearings of 1954.
But the media industry has changed drastically since then. Fifty years ago, most Americans regularly watched one of the big three broadcast networks. Now, a smaller pool of viewers is split between several broadcast channels, cable channels and myriad digital platforms, many offering the public a chance to see the hearings in bite-sized clips.
Viewers who flipped between channels found a striking uniformity in presentation of the hearing, with networks mostly keeping an unblinking camera on the proceedings of the committee, distinguishing themselves only with their choice of anchors and pundits to analyze the hearing after its conclusion at 10 p.m.
Those in the television business had particularly lofty expectations for Thursday’s broadcast considering the behind-the-scenes role played by former ABC News president James Goldston, who helped hone the committee’s presentation for a television audience.
“The tone was sober. The thematic through-line was tight and focused. The timeline video was hard to watch but not exploitative, in my view,” said Andrew Heyward, former head of CBS News. “All in all, I felt the production reinforced the gravity of the moment without sensationalizing it.”
Industry watchers expressed some advance skepticism about viewership, considering the trends of recent decades. While some 71 percent of Americans told Gallup that they watched some of the Watergate hearings live back in 1973, the first televised hearing of Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial drew only about 13 million viewers in 2019, though it aired starting in the lesser-watched morning hours. Former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s testimony in July 2019 also drew nearly 13 million viewers, which was shy of the 19.5 million TV viewers who watched former FBI director James B. Comey’s testimony in 2017.
While he thought Thursday night’s hearing made for compelling television, industry analyst Brad Adgate cited both increased polarization and the proliferation of new video services to explain the drop from the Watergate-era viewing highs.
The second hearing of the committee is scheduled for Monday morning at 10 a.m., giving it a lower television profile. “It will be difficult to sustain the numbers going forward, but I anticipate a sizable audience and a lot of social media buzz,” Adgate said. | 2022-06-10T22:09:38Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Nearly 19 million watched the first Jan. 6 hearing in prime time - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/06/10/nearly-19-million-watched-first-jan-6-hearing-prime-time/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/06/10/nearly-19-million-watched-first-jan-6-hearing-prime-time/ |
The Supreme Court building in Washington on May 20. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Regarding the June 6 op-ed “Even if Roe is overturned, Congress must act to protect the unborn”:
The Supreme Court’s conservative justices are about to overrule Roe v. Wade and remove a woman’s right to an abortion, a right that has existed for the past 49 years. This will, as a practical matter, deprive many women of the right to determine the timing and size of their family; force some women to carry a pregnancy to term even in cases of rape, incest or potentially life-threatening injury; and force some women to travel several hundred miles to another state where they can legally access an abortion.
Last year, when the Taliban came back to power in Afghanistan, its leaders announced that girls would continue to be allowed to access education. Within a few months, it was clear that Afghan girls would be allowed to go only to primary school but not continue to high school or beyond. The Taliban wants very young girls to be wives and baby breeders. The Taliban took away rights that existed for 20 years.
If the Roberts court takes away rights that have been taken for granted in our culture and pulls away a foundation that girls in the United States have relied on to finish their education, obtain job-related licenses, take jobs to earn money, serve in the military, or establish a career or business, are our justices no better than the Taliban?
Jill Gordon, Tinton Falls, N.J.
This antiabortion argument forgot that women are people too | 2022-06-10T22:18:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The court would be taking away a fundamental right of women - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/court-would-be-taking-away-fundamental-right-women/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/court-would-be-taking-away-fundamental-right-women/ |
Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) during a televised hearing of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, in D.C. on June 9. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
The Jan. 6 committee’s riveting televised opening night might not have converted the pro-Trump revisionists, but it has left them without excuses. The evidence is overwhelming that a sitting president gathered a violent mob and charged it with intimidating members of Congress and his own vice president into illegally reversing the outcome of a presidential election on the basis of an obvious lie.
There is only one narrative about Jan. 6 that history will accept: the evidence meticulously gathered and presented by the House select committee.
In some ways, pressing the case against former president Donald Trump is not hard, because he confirms its general outlines. He still seems to regard the riot as the highest expression of MAGA loyalty to his person. He still insists he should be reinstated as president. He still seems to believe former vice president then-Vice President Mike Pence was a weak-kneed traitor for refusing to overturn the constitutional order. Because Trump can’t admit error, he often effectively admits guilt.
The response of congressional Republican leaders to Thursday’s hearing — that it is more important to focus on inflation than sedition — has demonstrated their vast political and moral shallowness. The juxtaposition of testimony by U.S. Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards (“I was slipping in people’s blood”) and a tweet from Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee account (“All. Old. News.”) was telling.
One imagines a 20-something GOP staffer straining (and failing) to be clever. The contrast between the police officer’s sacrifice and the tweeter’s infantile partisanship raises some questions: Is anyone teaching young Republicans that public service can be honorable and costly? Why doesn’t some mature public official shake these shills and urge silence in the presence of patriotic virtues they don’t possess?
Another comparison was obvious throughout the committee hearing: Trump and Pence. In his rambling, over an hour-long remarks to the “Stop the Steal” crowd, Trump pressured Pence to reverse the election’s outcome more than 10 times — then continued doing the same on Twitter. As the committee revealed, one of those tweets was relayed, via bullhorn, to the rioters, who took up the chant “Hang Mike Pence.” According to the committee’s vice chair, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), Trump was pleased by their stated intention.
For several hours on that fateful day, Trump ceased to be the American president. He was an insurrectionary leader watching his work unfold in coordinated violence. He refused to take the advice of some his closest advisers, who urged him to recall his forces from their assault on the Capitol. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark A. Milley, noted Trump’s absence in the chain of command. At a key moment, Trump was interested only in serving his wildly implausible mission of retaining power, not protecting the legislators, staff and police officers at the Capitol. In contrast, Pence attempted to take charge and fill the gap of leadership.
It is hard to heap praise on Pence. He was the loyal lieutenant to the worst president in history. But beneath a quivering mass of compromise, there was a core of principle, particularly in defending the Constitution. The same might be said of the otherwise egregious Attorney General William P. Barr, who dismissed the claim of widespread election fraud to Trump as so much barnyard excrement. Or White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, who repeatedly threatened resignation over the worst Trump excesses.
What are we to make of such highly flawed men, driven at last to unexpected integrity? However we view them, the problem with a second Trump administration would be their absence. Over time, Trump grew better at purging officials who showed signs of independence and character. In a second term, officials would be screened for total loyalty — to Trump rather than the republic.
The final contrast highlighted in the first hearing was between Cheney and the absent House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). McCarthy, you might remember, initially held Trump responsible for the attack on the Capitol, and told colleagues he would raise the prospect of resignation with the president. This was followed by an abject and humiliating apology visit with Trump, McCarthy’s opposition to the Jan. 6 committee and his refusal to comply with a committee subpoena.
One darkly humorous moment in the evening’s video presentation came in the clip of McCarthy’s leadership office staffers fleeing in fear as the insurrection unfolded. It was the symbolic representation of a leader who stands for fear. Fear of provoking Trump’s ever-shifting anger. Fear of offending the MAGA lunatics in his own caucus. Fear of showing the slightest hint of independent thought, which might cost him a chance at the house speaker’s crown. Whatever his political future, McCarthy will be remembered as his generation’s most pathetic, unprincipled and contemptible political figure.
Compare him with Cheney during the hearing. She was calm, methodical, factual and morally grounded — fully aware of the political risks that may come on the road of duty, and courageously prepared to accept them. She is our indomitable, irreplaceable, unsinkable Liz. | 2022-06-10T22:18:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | History will accept only one Jan. 6 narrative. This committee has it. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/house-january-sixth-committee-evidence/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/house-january-sixth-committee-evidence/ |
Layla Salazar was among the 19 children killed in the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Tex. (Dario Lopez-Mills/AP)
Regarding the June 6 Style article “Back at the beginning — again, and again, and again”:
Like so many people, I am having great difficulty absorbing the fact that so many lawmakers are putting their personal ambitions above their pledge to serve when it comes to voting for reasonable gun laws. These lawmakers should be required to study unedited photographs of the victims and see the extensive damage that was inflicted on their bodies. Possibly, these images would explain to them why the weapons should be banned. They could then describe to their constituents what these photos showed them in explaining their decision to support strong gun laws. Given that many of the Uvalde, Tex., victims had to be identified using DNA, the damage must have been massive and horrifying. The images of their slaughtered friends and teachers that the surviving children witnessed must be traumatic, and they will be carrying them for the rest of their lives.
Annette Bowen, Bethesda | 2022-06-10T22:18:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Lawmakers should be made to see the results of gun violence - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/lawmakers-should-be-made-see-results-gun-violence/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/lawmakers-should-be-made-see-results-gun-violence/ |
On new golf tour, paydays outweigh principles
Australia's Greg Norman at a golf event in Britain on June 8. (Paul Childs/Action Images/Reuters)
After reading of Greg Norman’s troubled upbringing and tortured relationship with his father, I cannot help but feel a measure of sympathy for the man [“Chaos agent,” Sports, June 5].
However, nothing I learned excuses Mr. Norman’s willingness to assist the murderous and misogynistic Saudi regime in its blatant attempt to engage in “sportswashing.” Just as Russia and China have manipulated the Olympic Games as a tool to normalize their horrendous records in matters relating to human rights and international law, Saudi Arabia is now willing to spend a virtually unlimited sum of money to purchase acceptance into the world community — despite its own abysmal history in regard to human rights — by virtue of the fledgling LIV Golf Tour.
Mr. Norman’s comment that “we’ve all made mistakes,” as an excuse for the state-sanctioned butchery of Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi, defies description, as does his claim to be interested only in the rights and well-being of tour players. This is about money — the Saudis have it, and some golfers have apparently decided to overlook bloodstains on the cash that they are lining up to receive.
That is their right, but I would suggest that rather than the Roman numeral for 54 (the number of holes that will make up one of their tournaments), “LIV” should instead stand for “Linksters Ignoring Vivisection,” and their logo should be a bone saw superimposed over a dollar sign.
Scott Kenyon, Vienna
Opinions about Jamal Khashoggi
Turkey betrays Jamal Khashoggi. Biden must not. | 2022-06-10T22:18:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | On new golf tour, paydays outweigh principles - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/new-golf-tour-paydays-outweigh-principles/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/new-golf-tour-paydays-outweigh-principles/ |
There is work being done to fix Social Security
There is no basis for The Post’s claim that fixing Social Security is “on just about no one’s to-do list in Washington” [“The Medicare and Social Security disaster,” editorial, June 5]. Just about no one? How about the chair of the House Ways and Means Social Security subcommittee, Rep. John B. Larson (D-Conn.), who has introduced a bill to extend the solvency of the Social Security Trust Fund by asking the wealthy to contribute their fair share in payroll taxes? How about the bill’s more than 200 co-sponsors in the House? That’s hardly “no one,” though it is true that no Republicans have stepped forward to support this common-sense fix.
Polling has indicated that Americans already support the kind of reforms in Mr. Larson’s bill. They want high-income earners to contribute more. They want a more accurate cost-of-living-allowance formula that helps seniors stay ahead of inflation. They want benefits boosted, not cut. For decades, Social Security has kept retirees, the disabled and their families out of poverty. Today’s young adults will rely on their Social Security benefits as much, if not more, than their parents and grandparents do. The surest way to avoid potential “disaster” for current and future beneficiaries is for Congress to take decisive action — and pass Mr. Larson’s bill.
Max Richtman, Washington
The writer is president of the nonprofit National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. | 2022-06-10T22:19:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | There is work being done to fix Social Security - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/there-is-work-being-done-fix-social-security/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/there-is-work-being-done-fix-social-security/ |
This image from video from a police-worn body camera from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol was played as an exhibit during a House hearing on June 9. (House Select Committee via AP) (AP)
Back in the wispy-willowed past, before the tea party and its many offspring, Republican Party loyalists were mainly focused on hunting down what they called RINOs, or Republicans in Name Only. That is, elected officials who didn’t regurgitate every GOP talking point or bend to the litmus gods of True Conservatism — defined, more or less, as what angry White men want.
Fast-forward through the Obama years — a relatively breezy rest stop on America’s hell-fired highway to Trump Town — and truth became the new RINO. Under Donald Trump, who never met a lie he wouldn’t, you know, grab, truth was the enemy and truth tellers were apostates. But truth is nothing if not relentless, and it dogged Trump all the way to his failed 2020 reelection, whereupon he invented the “big lie.” (Hey, little lies are for chumps!)
“Mike Pence deserves it,” Trump reportedly said when he saw rioters on TV chanting “Hang Mike Pence.” This isn’t quite the same as ordering his death, of course, but it’s further evidence that the unhinged commander in chief by then had lost any sense of reality. Several people in the Oval Office at the time begged Trump to stop the assault. Others repeatedly told him that his imaginary stolen election was a lie. Then-Attorney General William P. Barr bluntly said it was “bulls--t.”
Testimony by insiders and even family members, as well as film and video footage from Jan. 6, revealed a more hostile and organized attack on the Capitol than most Americans had previously understood. Oath Keepers and Proud Boys helped spearhead the assault, and some Proud Boys had cased the Capitol to find the best entry points. They arrived at the “peaceful protest” dressed for war, wearing helmets, bulletproof vests and riot gear. Oath Keepers stashed weapons around the area in case they were needed.
Much of this is now familiar to people who watched the first hearing live on Thursday night. Unfortunately, a large portion of the TV-viewing public knows nothing of the sort. They are parked instead around their favorite baptismal font at the Church of Tucker Carlson, where untruths are dispensed from a barking head that alternates between expressions of utter confusion and manic hilarity. Carlson’s minions wouldn’t have heard a word from the committee on Fox News because Carlson and Sean Hannity in the following hour wouldn’t allow it.
I don’t want to lock horns with Tucker because, oh my, Mr. Carlson, what big horns you have! But if what happened on Jan. 6 amounts to a quarrel over semantics, then the “big lie” must be bothering Tucker more than I reckoned. I defer to Merriam-Webster, which defines “insurrection” as “an act or instance of revolting against civil authority or an established government.” | 2022-06-10T22:19:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Trump and the GOP have given truth the heave-ho - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/truth-new-rino-trump/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/truth-new-rino-trump/ |
D.C. girds for protests, celebrations expected to draw large crowds
Izzy Armor, 20, cheers during the annual Capital Pride Parade in 2019. (Astrid Riecken for The Washington Post)
D.C. police are increasing their presence in the city, deploying civil-disturbance units and closing roads to gird for several large protests, events and celebrations that are planned in the nation’s capital over the next two weekends, top city officials said at a news conference Friday.
City officials said they are prepared to welcome the large crowds and maintain safety, but recommended residents and visitors travel by public transportation and be mindful of their surroundings.
“It’s going to be a busy weekend. We’re ready for it. … Let’s celebrate our D.C. values and have a lot of fun,” Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said adding later: “We are prepared, and we don’t live in fear.”
Police Chief Robert J. Contee III repeatedly discouraged visitors and event participants from bringing guns into the city, broadly acknowledging national incidents of gun violence.
“Firearms have no place at these events,” Contee said during a Friday news conference. “We’re not going to tolerate foolishness.”
Over the next two weeks, tens of thousands of people are expected to descend on D.C. for a wide variety of causes. They will protest gun violence — and demonstrate in support of abortion rights and living wages. They will march in the Capital Pride Parade, enjoy Columbia Heights Day, a neighborhood festival, and honor Salvadoran culture in Mount Pleasant. They will run in a 10k race to promote healthy lifestyles, dance in downtown streets at a music festival and celebrate Juneteenth, a day that has come to symbolize the end of slavery in the United States.
This rush of demonstrations and other mass gatherings comes at a time of heightened anxiety — following several high-profile mass shootings across the country, demonstrations at the Supreme Court and at the homes of particular justices, and the recent arrest of man authorities say traveled from California in an attempt to kill Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and FBI assistant director in charge Steven M. D’Antuono said in a joint statement Friday that their offices will not tolerate violence “under the guise” of a peaceful demonstration.
Bowser said that although people may be “feeling that fear,” city officials are prepared, and excited, to once again be welcoming residents and visitors to celebrate Pride events this weekend, including the Capital Pride Parade, which is scheduled to start near 14th and T streets NW at 3 p.m. Saturday.
On Saturday, supporters of March for Our Lives, the organization founded by student survivors of the 2018 mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla., will rally at noon near the Washington Monument. Organizers expect 50,000 people, according to a permit issued by the National Park Service.
During Pride events this weekend, many downtown streets will be closed to vehicular traffic.
These are the street closures for a 10k run, and these are the closures Capital Pride Parade and Block Party. On Sunday, there will be additional street closures, which are posted here, for the Capital Pride Festival. There will also be street closures, starting Monday, related to the Something in the Water festival from June 17 to June 19 on Independence Ave SW between 3rd Street SW and 9th Street SW.
For up-to-date traffic information, residents and visitors can go to twitter.com/DCPoliceTraffic. | 2022-06-10T22:22:42Z | www.washingtonpost.com | DC officials say city prepared for crowds ahead of protests, events - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/10/dc-police-marches-protests-pride/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/10/dc-police-marches-protests-pride/ |
Martin’s potato rolls face boycott calls over owner’s politics
(Noam Galai/Getty Images for NYCWFF)
From the Middle East to the Midwest, thousands of restaurants rely on the breads and buns produced by Martin’s Famous Pastry Shoppe, a family-owned wholesaler based in Pennsylvania whose pillowy potato rolls have become the preferred sandwich base for countless chefs.
Big national chains such as Shake Shack and the Hard Rock Cafe use products from Martin’s, according to the company’s own accounting. So do smaller, regional chains such as Clyde’s and Good Stuff Eatery in the Mid-Atlantic. So do celebrated smokehouses such as Franklin Barbecue in Austin and Bludso’s Bar & Cue in Los Angeles.
But whether big or small, restaurant owners were being asked to surrender their allegiance to Martin’s widely popular products after recent reports showed the family behind the company is a supporter, financially and otherwise, of Doug Mastriano, the controversial Republican nominee for governor of Pennsylvania.
In April, ahead of the Republican primaries in Pennsylvania, Spotlight PA reported that James Martin, the executive chair and former president of Martin’s, contributed $110,000 to Mastriano’s gubernatorial campaign. A month later, Billy Penn, a news site associated with public radio station WHYY-FM, reported that the executive’s wife and daughter also contributed to Mastriano’s campaign.
A first-term state senator and retired Army colonel, Mastriano won his primary in May, beating out eight other candidates for the GOP nomination. Endorsed by former president Donald Trump, Mastriano has embraced the baseless claims that Trump won the 2020 presidential election, including the important swing state of Pennsylvania, which Joe Biden narrowly won.
Mastriano has been a leader in trying to overturn the presidential election results in Pennsylvania. He helped to commission an unauthorized audit of voting machines in rural Fulton County, according to reporting from The Washington Post. He also allegedly urged fellow state lawmakers to throw out Pennsylvania’s election results and name their own winner, a likely unconstitutional plan, according to The Post’s Amber Phillips.
Mastriano not only attended the “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, 2021, but also reportedly spent thousands of dollars to rent charter buses to take people to the rally, which ended with Trump supporters storming the Capitol in what a House panel this week called an “attempted coup.” The insurrection led to the death of five people. Mastriano said he never entered the Capitol or crossed police lines, though video sleuths turned up evidence that seemed to suggest otherwise.
In February, the House committee investigating the insurrection subpoenaed Mastriano to appear for an interview. He reportedly agreed to it and turned over documents.
Mastriano’s hard-right politics go beyond denying the results of the presidential election. He supports a total ban on abortion, even when the life of the woman is at risk. He has promoted baseless QAnon conspiracy theories. After the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Tex., which left 19 children and two teachers dead, Mastriano retweeted a video clip of himself comparing gun control to Nazism.
These policies and actions, among other things, were more than enough for some to call for a boycott of Martin’s Famous Pastry Shoppe, whose history can be traced back to Pennsylvania Dutch country in 1955. Among the prominent boycott advocates is the author and chef J. Kenji López-Alt.
“I will not be buying any more Martin’s products, nor will I support any establishment that uses their buns until they change suppliers, and I’d urge you to do the same if you don’t want your dollars supporting this stuff,” López-Alt wrote on Instagram.
Martin’s did not respond to a request for comment, but on May 17, the day of the Pennsylvania primary, the company tweeted: “Just like our country as a whole, Martin’s company is made up of a diverse group of employees and stockholders, all of whom are free to support and vote for whomever they choose. Martin’s as a company does not donate to any particular political candidate or party, but we encourage and celebrate the opportunity we all have to vote and share in the election process.”
López-Alt’s post generated more than 25,000 likes and more than a few people who said they would join the boycott, despite their love for Martin’s rolls. Among the apparent supporters was chef and activist Tom Colicchio, whose verified account left this message on López-Alt’s page: “I bought my last last night.”
When reached via text to confirm that it was him who left the message, Colicchio wrote back, “It wasn’t.” He didn’t respond to a call for further clarification.
López-Alt declined to comment further.
Soleil Ho, restaurant critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, reported that some Bay Area chefs were already hunting for substitutions for their Martin’s products.
The Post tried reaching several chefs, pit masters and publicists for chains that, according to Martin’s site, buy from the wholesaler. Among those who didn’t return our calls or texts for comment: Aaron Franklin with Franklin Barbecue, Kevin Bludso with Bludso’s Bar & Cue, David Chang with Fuku and the media relations people for the Clyde’s Restaurant Group and the Hard Rock Cafe.
Their reluctance to talk could reflect a genuine business-moral dilemma for operators. As one restaurant owner explained anonymously because he was not authorized to speak: “I don’t think I’ve read one thing that hasn’t had nice things to say about the product. And yet I think there’s quite a bit [of concern] from a lot of people with respect to that person’s personal political contributions.”
Then the restaurateur bottom-lined the issue: “I don’t know how to make a good potato bun like that.”
The most prominent buyer of Martin’s roll is Shake Shack, which has evolved from a hot dog cart in Madison Square Park in New York City to a multinational chain. The company promotes its values on its website. It even notes that the company has a 100 percent score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index for its support of the LGBTQ Plus community.
Danny Meyer, founder of Shake Shack, declined to comment, but a spokesperson for the company sent a statement to The Post: | 2022-06-10T22:27:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Martin's potato rolls face boycott calls over owner's politics - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2022/06/10/martins-potato-rolls-boycott/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2022/06/10/martins-potato-rolls-boycott/ |
An employee works on a monkeypox vaccine at the company Bavarian Nordic near Munich on May 24. (Lukas Barth/Reuters)
Biden administration officials Friday warned that the U.S. monkeypox outbreak has worsened, with at least 45 cases of the viral illness identified in 15 states and the District, up from 20 cases a week ago. But they stressed that the risk to the public remains low and that public health agencies have the tools necessary to protect people.
“We have tests for monkeypox. We have vaccines for monkeypox, and we have treatments for monkeypox,” Raj Panjabi, who leads the White House global health security efforts, said in a briefing. “We have a multipronged approach to deploy those tools to ensure we’re fighting this outbreak as effectively as possible.”
More than 1,300 cases of monkeypox have been detected around the globe, as the disease — which has repeatedly emerged in Central and West Africa in recent decades, but rarely spreads among humans — appears to be gaining a foothold in countries including Germany, Portugal and the United Kingdom. The current episode is likely to become the worst-ever monkeypox outbreak recorded in the United States, surpassing a 2003 outbreak in which 47 cases were confirmed or detected in six states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But public health experts have stressed that monkeypox presents far less risk than the coronavirus pandemic, which has upended the world since 2020 and been linked to the deaths of more than 1 million Americans.
“My sense is that this isn’t going to be anything like what we have seen with covid. The general public does not need to get too worried about it at this point,” Don Milton, a University of Maryland environmental scientist who has advised the White House and others on combating the coronavirus pandemic, said in an interview.
“While [monkeypox] cases have continued to increase, I want to reemphasize that there have been no deaths yet associated with this outbreak,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in Friday’s briefing. “While the overall risk of monkeypox in the United States public is currently low, we do want people to be aware of the signs and symptoms and just seek care right away if they think they might have monkeypox symptoms.”
Monkeypox symptoms frequently include fever, headache and lesions that can persist for weeks. While federal regulators have not approved specific treatments for monkeypox, officials said that treatments and vaccines prepared to fight smallpox — a closely related virus that presents more severe symptoms — are available through the Strategic National Stockpile.
“The [Strategic National Stockpile] holds enough vaccine … to vaccinate millions of Americans if needed,” said Dawn O’Connell, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services. She said officials had more than 100 million doses of an older smallpox vaccine, ACAM2000, and about 72,000 doses of a newer smallpox vaccine that was also approved for monkeypox, Jynneos, in inventory. The stockpile also has reserves of antiviral treatments such as tecovirimat and cidofovir, officials said.
Federal officials said the monkeypox outbreak had been driven by Americans traveling abroad.
“I think that the majority of cases in the United States — so 75 percent or more — are still reporting an international travel exposure that likely resulted in their monkeypox infections,” said Jennifer McQuiston, incident manager for CDC’s monkeypox response.
A number of U.S. cases also have been linked to sexual contact, officials said, prompting them to warn about the risk that direct physical contact plays in spreading the virus.
But some experts have asked whether monkeypox also could be spreading through the air, echoing a debate that emerged early in the coronavirus outbreak. While CDC and other public health agencies initially said the coronavirus was not transmitted through the air, the agencies reversed themselves in 2021, and the Biden administration has increasingly warned that indoor air is a major driver of coronavirus infections.
CDC last week encouraged travelers to wear a mask as a precaution against contracting monkeypox but removed the recommendation this week, saying the guidance was unnecessary and leading to confusion.
Administration officials Friday said they had no reason to believe that monkeypox was spreading by air.
“When we consider airborne transmission at the CDC, we’re talking about small viral particles that become suspended in the air and can stay there for long periods of time,” Walensky said. “We have not seen documentation of that through our experience with this virus or with prior similar viruses.”
Outside experts such as Milton said they were critical of CDC’s decision to de-emphasize the possibility of airborne transmission for monkeypox, particularly because the World Health Organization has maintained that airborne spread could be possible.
“I really don’t understand it,” said Milton, citing evidence that smallpox has been transmitted by air. “If we don’t pay attention to the potential for short-range airborne transmission it could expand” the risk of who could contract monkeypox. | 2022-06-10T22:27:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Number of monkeypox cases grows, but U.S. officials say overall risk is low - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/06/10/monkeypox-cases-us-increase/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/06/10/monkeypox-cases-us-increase/ |
Langley’s second-half surge sends it to another boys’ soccer title game
The Langley Saxons are headed to the Class 6 championship. (Courtesy photo/Langley Athletics)
Langley Coach Bo Amato has an unchanging approach to halftime: No matter the game, no matter the situation, he gives the first half of the break to his players to talk among themselves.
On Friday afternoon, at halftime of the Class 6 semifinal, the players talked about patience. The Saxons had controlled the run of play against Landstown but the match was still scoreless. The locker room featured plenty of frustration and a bit of anxiety.
“We had to turn the frustration into motivation and trust that we were doing the right things,” senior defender Billy Oh said. “It was about being patient. We had to keep probing.”
The Saxons emerged from the locker room with a renewed energy and produced three second-half goals in a 3-1 win. They will face James River at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday at Freedom (South Riding) for a shot at the third state championship in program history and first since 2017.
“There was a bit more energy to get to the ball first in the second half,” Amato said. “And once you get that first goal it settles people down.”
Oh scored the Saxons’ first two goals, the former coming just a few minutes into the second half. Langley goalkeeper Amr Areikat sent a long punt bouncing toward goal, and the senior defender headed it home.
“[Areikat] caught the sweet spot and off it went,” Amato said. “He had a little wind assist, but yeah, he really caught a hold of one.”
Landstown leveled the game in the 56th minute, but Oh produced another header to restore the Saxon’s lead with 10 minutes remaining. Shortly after, junior midfielder Aidan Connolly sealed the victory a with a third goal.
“In the second half we just kept it in their side, you could sense a change,” Oh said.
In the first semifinal of the day, also played at Freedom, McLean had a resilient playoff run end with a 3-2 loss to James River in sudden-death overtime.
The Highlanders, who emerged from the area’s toughest region by upsetting Oakton and Yorktown, clawed back from a 2-0 halftime deficit to send the game to extra time. But the magic ended there, as the Rapids netted a golden goal to stop McLean just short of a title shot.
Class 5: Riverside rides scoring surge
It took 13 seconds for the Riverside Rams to show just how excited they were to be in the Class 5 semifinals.
When the state tournament schedule was released, the program realized it could play a home game if it made it to the semifinal stage. Having achieved this, the Rams looked comfortable and confident Friday as they put on a show for their home fans. They scored 13 seconds into the game and kept it rolling from there, pounding Hampton’s Kecoughtan High, 6-2, to earn a spot in Saturday’s Class 5 championship game.
“It was massive for us to be here at Riverside,” senior midfielder Alex Thissell said. “We all knew it was a special game, but we wanted to go out there and play like we normally do. Having our fans and students there was a big part of that.”
It was junior Jack Voci who started the barrage, gathering a rebound and poking it in before the Warriors could settle into the game.
“I think it was an intensity [James River] wasn’t expecting,” Riverside Coach Kieran Harris said. “The boys wanted to go out and set the tone. And that’s exactly what they did.”
Junior midfielder Alex Balkey made it 2-0 in the 20th minute as the Rams (15-6) never trailed and posted one of their highest goal totals of the season. Five players found the back of the net.
“We were surprised by six,” Harris said. “We knew we could probably get a couple of them, but not six.”
Riverside will travel to Briar Woods on Saturday to face Cox at 2:30 p.m. for the Class 5 title. This will be the second time the program has played for a state championship in the seven years since the school opened. The Rams won a Class 3 title in 2017.
“The next 24 hours is about rest, recovery, anything to keep our bodies staying healthy,” Thissell said. “The momentum from today is also huge to carry us to tomorrow.”
Class 3: Meridian moves on
In the Class 3 semifinals, the Meridian Mustangs punched their ticket to another state championship with a 4-1 win over Cave Spring in Spotsylvania.
Meridian led 1-0 at halftime and pulled away after the break, scoring two goals in the first 10 minutes of the second half. The Mustang defense has stepped up in the postseason, as Friday’s conceded goal was the first in the last four matches.
Meridian (19-1-1), the defending Class 3 champions, are chasing the 12th state title in program history. Six of those titles were won by Coach Frank Spinello, who plans to retire after this season. | 2022-06-10T22:27:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Langley’s second-half surge sends it to another boys’ soccer title game - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/10/langleys-second-half-surge-sends-it-another-boys-soccer-title-game/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/10/langleys-second-half-surge-sends-it-another-boys-soccer-title-game/ |
How the Jan. 6 hearing played out on the pro-Trump Web
Ironically, online accounts that helped organize the insurrection tried to debunk the evidence the Jan. 6 committee presented Thursday
Will Oremus
Rioters breach the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg News)
Former president Donald Trump’s supporters scrambled to defend him online in the hours after the Jan. 6 congressional hearings began, seeking to sow doubt about his involvement via the same social media channels that captured clear evidence linking him to the Capitol assault.
In so doing, they reinforced the unmistakable role social media played in the insurrection and made clear that his supporters are determined to remain a major Internet force, despite Trump’s ban from major platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
Trump War Room, a Twitter account once run by his reelection campaign, tweeted, “Trump and the rally had nothing to do with the Capitol breach!," defying the House committee’s effort to pin responsibility for the riot squarely on Trump.
On the message board Patriots.win — a spinoff of TheDonald.win, where members had shared ideas on how to sneak guns into Washington before the riot — a popular thread Friday called Jan. 6 “the most patriotic thing I’ve ever seen” and said anyone who disagrees is “an enemy of the nation.”
The outpouring of Trump support came in response to a hearing that brought together new testimony with previously unreleased footage to document both the gravity of the attack on the Capitol and Trump’s role in spurring it. It also underscored how the social media landscape has shifted in the 17 months since Trump was suspended by the leading online platforms for his role in fanning the violent attempts to overturn Joe Biden’s election as president.
The change was evident in the video montage the Jan. 6 committee showed of the attack, where a rioter could be heard shouting a Trump tweet over a megaphone to urge the crowd into the Capitol’s halls. The tweet, which Trump had sent minutes before, said that vice president “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done” and that “USA demands the truth!”
Trump had used Twitter aggressively to rally his supporters to overturn what he falsely labeled a fraudulent election, tweeting in December, “WE HAVE JUST BEGUN TO FIGHT!!!” and “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
Those tweets were widely shared by his fans, and congressional investigators on Thursday shared video testimony from rioters who said they saw them as calls to action. On the day before the electoral college had planned to seal President Biden’s victory, Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, had also emailed lawmakers with links to a YouTube video urging them to “put things right.”
On Jan. 6, Trump had tweeted that “they voted on a FRAUD. … BE STRONG!” It wasn’t until 2:38 p.m. that he finally urged the crowd via Twitter to “stay peaceful,” after rioters had already breached the Capitol in what a police officer said Thursday resembled a bloody “war scene.”
Later that evening, Trump had tweeted, “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots … Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!” Two days later, Twitter and Facebook suspended his account, citing the threat that he’d incite more violence.
An official inside Twitter, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak on the topic, told The Washington Post Friday that the company’s decision-makers had understood Trump’s tweets were playing a role in encouraging violence, but had not known at the time that they were literally being read out loud by the rioters.
On Trump’s fledgling Twitter clone, Truth Social, he posted a dozen messages after the hearing, criticizing it for showing “only negative footage” of the brutal siege.
Starting at 6:50 a.m. Friday, Trump called former Attorney General William P. Barr “weak and frightened” and defected blame for the riot. He also spoke dismissively of his daughter, Ivanka Trump, after she was shown on video saying she believed there was no evidence of fraud that could overturn Trump’s loss.
She “was not involved in looking at, or studying, Election results,” he wrote. “She had long since checked out.”
Before the hearing, Trump had written — or, in Truth Social lingo, “truthed” — that Jan. 6 “was not simply a protest, it represented the greatest movement in the history of our Country.” The morning after, he wrote that the assault “was not caused by me, it was caused by a Rigged and Stolen Election!”
But Trump could only shout to a diminished crowd: His Truth Social account has about 3 million followers, or less than 4 percent of the 88 million Twitter followers he had before his ban.
Joan Donovan, research director at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, suggested it would be difficult to overstate the importance of Trump’s tweets to the events of Jan. 6. “The power of Trump’s tweets to tell people, much like a military general, where to go and to keep the pressure on was clear to researchers,” she said. “And it was very clear when he tweeted about exiting the building and going in peace that people did start to listen and did follow his directives.”
The platforms’ response in the days after the attack took away much of that power, Donovan said. “It wasn’t just Trump that was deplatformed," but thousands of his supporters, and the social network Parler was removed from major app stores. “Trump’s infrastructure for messaging was blown apart that day. And it hasn’t quite been able to reassemble."
Some users Friday argued that Truth Social, which has promoted itself as a free-speech sanctuary to rival what they call Twitter’s censorious “cancel culture,” had worked to squash discussion of the hearing outright.
Travis Allen, an information security analyst in Kentucky, said his Truth Social account was suspended minutes after he replied to Trump’s account there Thursday night with a reference to the Jan. 6 hearing.
Allen, who said he is not a Trump fan, said he couldn’t remember specifically what he wrote but that he didn’t think it violated the site’s rules.
I didn’t “think the post was even notable,” he told The Washington Post on Friday. “It is the height of hypocrisy for Truth Social to claim to support ‘free speech’ and then ban users for talking about” the hearings.
The site on Friday did show some posts critical of Trump, though many others panned the congressional investigation as a “hoax.” In February, the site had banned an account poking fun at former congressman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), who resigned from Congress to become chief of the Trump company, with a salary of $750,000 a year.
Before the hearing, some pro-Trump influencers had urged their online followers to ignore it. Conservative radio host Dan Bongino posted to his Truth Social account a few minutes before the hearing started, “Don’t miss the hockey game tonight, it’s must-see TV!” That online attitude matched their cable counterparts on Fox News, which showed little of the hearing and labeled it an “ANTI-TRUMP SHOW TRIAL” and “SHAM.”
After the hearing, Trump allies sought to discount the findings — based on 1,000 interviews, 140,000 documents and hours of visual evidence — as biased or flawed. Ali Alexander, a conservative activist who’d organized a “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6 and testified to the committee in December, said on Truth Social that the committee had used “edited videos” and “faked audio” without giving any evidence to back those claims up. “Have you ever seen a video with more fake edits and SPLICES?” he wrote.
The video featured long strings of previously unseen footage from police body cameras and Capitol surveillance cameras that revealed brawls in grisly detail. “We can’t hold this. We’re going to get too many f---ing people. … We’re f---ed,” one officer said.
But much of the video also had come from social media, like Parler, the right-wing social network popular then with Trump supporters. In one clip, a man in a crowd encircling officers steps from the Capitol screams, “We were invited by the president of the United States.”
Want to regulate social media? The First Amendment may stand in the way.
Trump’s Truth Social in trouble as financial, technical woes mount
The Capitol siege was planned online. Trump supporters now planning the next one. | 2022-06-10T22:28:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Trump social media platforms tried to refute Jan. 6 evidence - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/10/trump-parler-getter-truth-social-jan-6/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/10/trump-parler-getter-truth-social-jan-6/ |
Live updates:Russia-Ukraine war live updates: Ukraine pleas for ammunition grow amid int...
Hopes that Ukraine will be able to reverse Russian gains are fading in the face of superior firepower
Demitry, an electricity worker, is lifted by a crane as he tries to repair cables near residential buildings that were heavily damaged by a rocket strike last month in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slovyansk on Friday. (Heidi Levine for The Washington Post)
SLOVYANSK, Ukraine — The euphoria that accompanied Ukraine’s unforeseen early victories against bumbling Russian troops is fading as Moscow adapts its tactics, recovers its stride and asserts its overwhelming firepower against heavily outgunned Ukrainian forces.
Newly promised Western weapons systems are arriving, but too slowly and in insufficient quantities to prevent incremental but inexorable Russian gains in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine, which is now the focus of the fight.
The Ukrainians are still fighting back, but they are running out of ammunition and suffering casualties at a far higher rate than in the initial stages of the war. Around 200 Ukrainian soldiers are now being killed every day, up from 100 late last month, an aide to President Volodymyr Zelensky told the BBC on Friday — meaning that as many as 1,000 Ukrainians are being taken out of the fight every day, including those who are injured.
The Russians are still making mistakes and are also losing men and equipment, albeit at a lesser rate than in the first months of the conflict. In one sign that they are suffering equipment shortages, they have been seen on videos posted on social media hauling hundreds of mothballed, Soviet-era T-62 tanks out of storage to be sent to Ukraine.
But the overall trajectory of the war has unmistakably shifted away from one of unexpectedly dismal Russian failures and tilted in favor of Russia as the demonstrably stronger force.
Ukrainian and U.S. hopes that the new supplies of Western weaponry would enable Ukraine to regain the initiative and eventually retake the estimated 20 percent of Ukrainian territory captured by Russia since its Feb. 24 invasion are starting to look premature, said Oleksandr V. Danylyuk, an adviser to the Ukrainian government on defense and intelligence issues.
“The strategies and tactics of the Russians are completely different right now. They are being much more successful,” he said. “They have more resources than us and they are not in a rush.”
“There’s much less space for optimism right now,” he added.
Ukrainian forces remain resolute. In a cafe in the front line town of Slovyansk, two Ukrainian soldiers on a break from the trenches nearby recounted how they were forced to retreat from the town of Dovhenke, northwest of Slovyansk, under withering Russian artillery fire. Thirty-five of their 100-strong unit were killed in the assault, typical of the tactics Russia is using. “They destroy everything and walk in,” said one of the soldiers, Vitaliy Martsyv, 41.
“There is nothing there,” said Andriy Tihonenko, 52, said of Dovhenke. “It’s all burned down.”
As troop fatalities mounted, the surviving soldiers felt “more motivated to hold our position,” Tihonenko said. To retreat after their comrades were killed defending the town, he said, would have felt like treating their deaths as insignificant.
But eventually, the defensive line was no longer effective, the two men said. With more than one-third of their force killed, the remaining soldiers had no choice but to pull back.
“Sometimes you feel down,” Tihonenko said. “But then you realize war is war — and you have to finish it.”
Russian artillery pummels Ukraine forces as Russia advances in eastern Ukraine
But the odds against the Ukrainians are starting to look overwhelming, said Danylyuk, the government adviser.
Russia is firing as many as 50,000 artillery rounds a day into Ukrainian positions, and the Ukrainians can only hit back with around 5,000 to 6,000 rounds a day, he said. The United States has committed to deliver 220,000 rounds of ammunition — enough to match Russian firepower for around four days.
The majority of the American M777 howitzer artillery guns that U.S. officials said would enable Ukraine to match Russian firepower are now in use on the battlefield, according to the Pentagon. Yet the Russians continue to advance.
Four of the more sophisticated and longer range HIMARS multiple-rocket launcher systems that the Ukrainians had long requested from the United States are on the way, along with three similar systems pledged by Britain. But the Ukrainians will first have to be trained how to use them, and they are still weeks away from reaching the battlefield, U.S. officials say. The Pentagon has hinted that more systems will be made available once the Ukrainians have demonstrated they can be used.
But the Russians started the war with about 900 of their own similar systems, and although the Ukrainians claim they have destroyed hundreds, the Russians still have hundreds left, Danylyuk said.
The Russians have meanwhile adapted their tactics in ways that have let them take full advantage of their firepower by remaining at a distance from Ukrainian positions, pounding them relentlessly, then taking territory once the Ukrainians have been forced to retreat.
The Russians are also doing a better job of combining their arms, of using close air support and deploying dismounted infantry, said Rob Lee, a former U.S. Marine now with the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
Russian officials have claimed they are advancing more slowly than during the initial invasion to avoid civilian casualties. Instead, however, the tactic helps reduce Russian casualties while inflicting heavy losses on the civilians who live in the towns and villages being targeted, analysts say.
“I’m afraid of every single boom or sound,” said Irina Makagon, as she sat in her kitchen in Kostiantynivka, a town near the front line that has suffered intense bombardments. She was sitting in her kitchen earlier this week when a boom and a whistle heralded an incoming shell that crashed into the house next door, killing a young man.
'They're in hell': Hail of incoming Russian artillery tests Ukrainian morale
The Ukrainians are still fighting well and can inflict tactical pain on the Russians when the opportunity presents itself, said Dmitri Alperovitch of the Silverado Consultancy, citing Russia’s disastrous attempt late last month to cross the Siverskiy Donets river; hundreds of Russians were killed and scores of military vehicles destroyed. The Ukrainians are also conducting successful drone strikes against Russian positions and supply columns, he said.
Russia has not released casualty figures since March. “But when you look at what’s happening, I’d be shocked if the Russians are sustaining casualties anywhere close to what the Ukrainians are right now,” Alperovitch said.
Manpower is less of a problem for the Ukrainians than the shortages of ammunition and equipment, said Danylyuk, who put the number of men who have signed up to potentially fight at 6 million. But Ukraine doesn’t have the equipment, including protective gear and guns as well as artillery systems, to field all those willing to volunteer. “We would be sending them to their deaths without equipment,” he said.
The Russians face manpower shortages too, after the heavy losses they suffered in the earliest days of the war. Western officials put the number of Russian deaths at 15,000 to 20,000 so far, with as many as a third of the original invasion force rendered unfit for combat due to injuries, capture and equipment losses after the disasters of the first two months.
But Russia has regenerated its forces to a greater extent than anticipated by many military analysts, bolstering its depleted army by as many as 40,000 to 50,000 men over the past two months, by increasing the age of the reserve force, deploying new forces and refurbishing units that had been decimated, Danylyuk said.
For now, the Donetsk River stands in the way of significant new Russian advances. Western officials say they expect that Russian troops will soon secure full control of the town of Severedonetsk and then are likely to turn their attention to the town of Lysyshansk, on the opposite bank of the river, which would put them in full control of the region of Luhansk. After that, they can be expected to target the larger region of Donetsk that Russia has partially controlled since 2014.
Lysyshansk will be a tougher challenge because the Ukrainians control the high ground, and the Russians’ artillery strength is less of an advantage in close urban combat, said Konrad Muzyka, director of the Warsaw-based Rochan Consulting defense consultancy. Russia may find it difficult to sustain its recent gains for much beyond that, given the losses it has suffered so far, he said.
But if the Russians manage to breach the river, they could start to make rapid advances, he said.
“The Ukrainians are resting their defense on the Donetsk river. If Russia successfully crosses the river, my concern is that the Russians will enter Donetsk with their full might, and then the Ukrainians might be overwhelmed,” he said.
Sly reported from London. Heidi Levine in Slovyansk contributed to this report. | 2022-06-10T22:48:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | As ammunition runs out, Ukraine's hopes dim on eastern battlefield - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/10/ukraine-ammunition-donbas-russia/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/10/ukraine-ammunition-donbas-russia/ |
After several days spent facing a diplomatic spat on democracy in Latin America, Biden confronted domestic crises over inflation and immigration.
President Biden speaks on inflation and the economy aboard the USS Iowa at the Port of Los Angeles on Friday. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES — President Biden laced into oil corporations and shipping conglomerates on Friday, accusing them of chasing excessive profits instead of lowering prices for consumers, adopting a newly aggressive populist tone after he and his administration found themselves battered by another disheartening inflation report.
Later, Biden linked arms with a slew of foreign leaders as they vowed to make conditions for migrants throughout the Americas more safe and humane, while stressing his administration’s efforts to crack down on the smuggling of those who are coming to the southern U.S. border in hopes of entering the country
Biden’s events and rhetoric Friday during the Summit of the Americas — a semiregular gathering of Western Hemisphere nations that the United States is hosting this year — shifted his focus from an international spat over democracy to vexing domestic issues that have dogged his presidency and helped drive down his approval ratings.
Friday’s event was staged at the Port of Los Angeles, allowing Biden to highlight his administration’s efforts to unclog supply chains that have delayed shipments and slowed the manufacturing of key consumer goods. He took an unusually combative tone against corporations — especially against oil and shipping companies — in an attempt to paint a portrait of corporate greed that was ultimately harming consumers.
“We’re going to make sure that everybody knows Exxon’s profits,” Biden said, noting that the massive oil company “made more money than God this year.”
He charged that oil companies are not taking full advantage of the leases they have on federal land. “They have 9,000 permits to drill. They’re not drilling. Why aren’t they drilling?” Biden asked. “Because they make more money not producing more oil. The price goes up, number one, and number two, the reason they’re not drilling is they’re buying back their own stock — which should be taxed, quite frankly — buying back their own stock and making no new investments.”
Oil companies have strongly denied that their actions are artificially driving up costs for Americans, saying prices at the pump are driven by sweeping global forces like the war in Ukraine and sanctions against Russia.
Five charts explain high inflation
In Washington this week, senior White House aides had sat down with chief executives of Exxon and Chevron, the latest in a regular series of meetings in recent months, according to a White House official. This week’s meetings were first reported by CNBC.
Biden also criticized shipping companies, suggesting that a virtual oligopoly in the industry had driven up prices for consumers. Nine major ocean shipping companies — dividing themselves into three consortia — have contributed to soaring costs of consumers, he said, calling on Congress to crack down on the foreign-owned shipping companies that Biden said brought in $190 billion in profits last year.
“Every once in a while, something you learn makes you viscerally angry — like, if you had the person in front of you, you’d want to pop them,” Biden said. “No, I really mean it.”
Biden’s tone reflected in part a growing frustration within the White House that the administration has been able to do little to slow the rise in the cost of gas, food and other goods, a trend that risks eclipsing the president’s message and badly hurting his party in the November congressional elections.
Behind the scenes, several prominent Democrats have been pushing to make attacks on the greed of oil and gas companies a centerpiece of the party’s message, in the hopes of making Democrats the party of fighting inflation by the midterms. They argue that the issue of gas prices needs to be reframed as a choice between Democratic support for proactive measures — like suspending the gas tax or prodding oil companies to drill on existing leases — and Republican opposition to taking action.
Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), who runs the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, circulated a white paper to her colleagues in the spring titled “Big Oil Price-Gouging Americans at the Pump,” with statistics showing the dramatic increase in company profits between the first quarters of 2019 and 2022.
“Oil and gas companies are padding their profits, and hardworking Americans are paying the price,” the document said. “Senate Democrats are committed to stopping oil companies from excessively increasing gas prices. Senate Republicans are committed to blocking legislation that would hold oil and gas companies accountable.”
Biden’s event Friday came as new figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that inflation reached 8.6 percent last month compared with a year earlier, contributing to the fastest hike in prices in the energy, housing and food sectors in four decades.
The rapid run-up in gas prices has become one of the most visceral ways people feel inflation in their daily lives and is emerging as a dominant policy and political problem for the Biden White House. As of Friday morning, the national average for a gallon of gas was $4.99, according to AAA.
In a written statement earlier Friday, the president acknowledged that inflation was not “coming down as shapely and as quickly as we must see.” As he has many times before, Biden named Russian President Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine as the prime trigger of rising prices, although inflation had started to dog the White House before the February incursion by Russia.
Later, Biden name-checked Putin three times during his speech at the Port of Los Angeles, as he highlighted his administration’s work to streamline supply chains and boasted of the improvements to American ports that is included in the bipartisan infrastructure law enacted last November.
“I’m doing everything in my power to blunt Putin’s price hike and bring down the cost of gas and food,” Biden said, standing on the deck of the USS Iowa, a battleship that has been transformed into a museum.
Biden has said combating inflation is his chief domestic priority this year. But his additional focus on migration, on the final day of the Ninth Summit of the Americas, also highlighted the Biden administration’s efforts to reduce the number of migrants arriving at the southern border.
Crucially, the administration has grappled with how and when to end a Trump-era policy that has allowed the United States to turn numerous would-be migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border under health restrictions related to the pandemic.
That policy, known as Title 42, remained in place after a federal judge in a ruling last month blocked the Biden administration from lifting it. The administration had planned to rescind the controversial policy on May 23, triggering protests from Republicans and some Democratic lawmakers that the nation could not handle the increase in asylum seekers that would materialize once Title 42 was removed.
On Friday, Biden sought a more welcoming tone, noting that a joint declaration signed by various nations at the Americas summit showed that “when migrants arrive on their doorstep, they can provide a place to stay, make sure migrants can see a doctor, they can find a place to work.”
At the same time, Biden underscored his efforts to go after smugglers.
“If you prey on desperate and vulnerable migrants for profit, we are coming for you,” Biden said. “We are coming after you.”
Kim reported from Washington. Michael Scherer contributed to this report. | 2022-06-10T23:10:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Biden grapples with inflation and immigration - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/10/biden-inflation-immigration/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/10/biden-inflation-immigration/ |
The former president called his daughter ‘checked out’ after investigators showed her accepting that his election fraud claims were false
A video of former White House adviser Ivanka Trump is shown on June 9 at the House select committee hearing investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack in Washington. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
“I said, ‘Whatever you want to do is okay with me.’ I didn’t even speak to them about it,” Trump recounted in an April interview with The Washington Post. “Don’t care what they said. Let them say the truth. I told them that: ‘Just say the truth.’ ”
But when the public got its first glimpse on Thursday night of what Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner had to say, the former president appeared less generous — issuing a statement that pushed back on her testimony.
“Ivanka Trump was not involved in looking at, or studying, Election results,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. “She had long since checked out.”
Trump was reacting to a short clip of Ivanka Trump that was played during Rep. Liz Cheney’s (R-Wyo.) opening statement, in which the former president’s daughter said she accepted Attorney General William P. Barr’s conclusion that there was no widespread fraud affecting the outcome — even as her father was continuing in public to falsely insist it had been stolen.
“It affected my perspective,” Ivanka Trump said in the clip. “I respect Attorney General Barr, so I accepted what he was saying.”
The discord marks a new twist on a close father-daughter relationship that has spanned family, business and politics, exposing a rift that has opened since the 2020 election, according to other Trump advisers. Before Jan. 6, Ivanka Trump broke with her father and siblings in avoiding baseless fraud allegations and attempts to overturn the election results. On the day of the Capitol riot, she repeatedly tried to convince the president to make a statement or video calling for his supporters to stop the attack, The Post has reported.
That tension could mount as the committee holds more hearings this month. Ivanka Trump’s descriptions of her efforts to press her father into action on Jan. 6 have made her a key witness for investigators, people familiar with her testimony said. The committee interviewed both Ivanka Trump and Kushner for hours and has also indicated that it will release transcripts.
“You’re probably going to get a heavy dose of Jared and Ivanka going forward,” said a lawyer representing other witnesses who spoke on the condition of anonymity because those discussions are confidential. Committee sources viewed Ivanka Trump and Kushner as sometimes helpful and at times frustrating, according to multiple advisers — but particularly useful in understanding Trump’s psyche.
Trump said in the Post interview that they didn’t tell him in advance about what they planned to say in testimony and that he viewed the committee’s focus on Ivanka as “harassment.”
The testimony’s impact was heightened on Thursday by the use of a video excerpt — a bold step for a congressional investigation that came as a surprise even to people closely following the probe. The clip made for one of the most dramatic moments in the first hearing, which drew a television audience of almost 19 million Americans.
“I don’t know if anybody walked in thinking they’re going to have videos shown on prime time,” said a former Trump White House adviser, who like others interviewed for this report spoke on the condition of anonymity to relay private discussions.
Representatives for Ivanka Trump, Kushner and Donald Trump did not respond to requests for comment. But another former Trump adviser disputed that Trump was angry with his daughter over the testimony. The aim of his statement, the former adviser said, was to emphasize that Ivanka wasn’t involved in legal discussions.
The committee also played a short clip of Kushner’s testimony in which he appeared dismissive of White House Counsel Pat Cipollone’s threats to resign in protest of some pardon discussions.
“I kind of took it up to just be whining, to be honest with you,” Kushner said in the video.
Trump has not made any public response to Kushner’s testimony. Privately, he has complained about Kushner’s role in the reelection campaign and the many White House efforts that Kushner has tried to take credit for, according to three people who have spoken to Trump.
Since Trump left office, his daughter and son-in-law have not attended meetings on political travel, spending or other parts of his political operation and have rarely spoken with his other advisers. The couple have reportedly bought an estate on an exclusive Miami-Dade island. One adviser who is regularly around the president said: “I’ve seen Jared one time.” But the former president still regularly talks to Ivanka Trump.
His post on Friday also appeared to defend his daughter’s testimony as “only trying to be respectful to Bill Barr” — whom Trump had much harsher words for.
Some other conservatives criticized the use of the video as a cheap shot. “The Ivanka Trump clip has gotten a lot of attention, but its inclusion was entirely gratuitous and clearly meant simply to embarrass her,” National Review’s editor in chief, Rich Lowry, said on Twitter.
In deciding to cooperate with the committee, Ivanka Trump and Kushner may have considered the investigators’ aggressive use of criminal contempt referrals for witnesses refusing to appear.
“They didn’t want to be in the same category as Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro,” the lawyer representing other witnesses said, referring to the former Trump advisers who’ve been indicted after defying the committee’s subpoenas.
Ivanka Trump has long participated in her father’s business ventures, including a New York condo project that recently drew prosecutors’ scrutiny but no charges, and the Washington hotel at the center of multiple conflict-of-interest investigations and lawsuits during his presidency. She also branched out to launch her own clothing line, and Kushner brought his own wealth, media ventures and family real estate empire.
As the couple sidestepped anti-nepotism rules to take White House jobs, Ivanka Trump initially presented herself as a moderating force. A onetime Democrat who supported gay rights and abortion rights, she later announced that she became a “Trump Republican” and opposed abortion, prompting speculation about her own political ambitions. The couple’s special treatment as the only advisers who could stake out their own positions and could not be fired was frequently a sore point for other staffers.
“They could float in and out when they wanted to, while the rest of everybody else didn’t have that luxury,” the former White House official said. “They sold the whole thing at the beginning as being the people who could moderate him. They clearly couldn’t do that. At the end, they knew they weren’t going to change his mind, so why be party to a bunch of this stuff?”
In another sign of the couple’s uneasy independence, they have in the past shown a rare willingness among Trump insiders to cooperate with investigators. During the special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, Kushner worked with well-respected lawyers who gave conciliatory public statements, in contrast to the more combative tone from Donald Trump’s legal team.
It’s not clear what other information Ivanka Trump gave investigators that could show up in upcoming hearings. The committee’s letter asking her to testify referenced Trump’s plan to impede the counting electoral votes, whether he sought to block the deployment of the National Guard and what he was doing in the days after the attack regarding ongoing threats of violence. | 2022-06-10T23:54:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ivanka Trump's Jan. 6 testimony prompts rebuke from Donald Trump - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/10/ivanka-trump-jan6-committee-testimony/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/10/ivanka-trump-jan6-committee-testimony/ |
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Maryland is launching a $28 million study for the next step in building a new crossing for the Chesapeake Bay at the current bridge site, Gov. Larry Hogan announced Friday.
“This is the critical next step which is needed in order to move forward so we can make a new Bay crossing a reality in the years to come, and it is just one more way that together we are truly changing Maryland for the better,” Hogan said. | 2022-06-10T23:58:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Hogan announces $28M study for new Chesapeake Bay crossing - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/hogan-announces-28m-study-for-new-chesapeake-bay-crossing/2022/06/10/a293555e-e90c-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/hogan-announces-28m-study-for-new-chesapeake-bay-crossing/2022/06/10/a293555e-e90c-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
What some Americans saw at the first Jan. 6 Congressional hearing
By Amanda Erickson
Christian Hayden, 35, watches the first Jan. 6. hearing in Philadelphia, Pa. (Hannah Yoon/The Washington Post)
Across the country, millions of Americans tuned in for the first congressional hearing on the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol.
Some were looking for accountability. Others wanted to know what congressional investigators uncovered. For many, the goal was simple. They wanted, they said, the truth.
We had reporters throughout the country watching with Americans in living rooms and at watch parties. Here’s what they thought about last night.
Tell The Post: What is the most important thing you've learned from the Jan 6 hearings?
Last night, Evan Nabrit gathered with a small group of 30-somethings in a West Philadelphia group to watch the hearing on C-SPAN. Three had been in the same room watching the insurrection in real time.
“What I keep tripping about is that they were all physically there,” said Nabrit, a 39-year-old graphic designer. “The congressional speakers and the people testifying — they were all there.”
He perked up when documentary filmmaker Nick Quested testified about his time embedding with the Proud Boys. “They were aware of themselves being documented?” he said. “The audacity.”
At the end of the hearings, Nabrit was satisfied. “That was what I wanted. I wanted to see an airing of the laundry, I wanted to see some naming of names, I wanted to see some acknowledgment of wrongdoing,” he said. “You can be from Mississippi and you can be from the Cheney family and agree that January 6 was a freaking coup attempt,” — Maura Ewing
Flower Mound, Tex.
At a sports bar here, last night’s hearing was broadcast on two large televisions, but no one watched. Elsewhere, conservatives said they did not want to comment on the hearing.
Ginny Webb, president of the Republican Women of Greater North Texas, was in D.C. on the day of the insurrection. “I was there,” she said Thursday morning. “It’s very important to me to see how they portray it.” But a few minutes after the hearing ended Thursday night, she emailed to say she hadn’t watched.
Aimee Ramsey, who lives in Dallas, had questions about the testimony of Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards, who described the scene as “carnage” and “chaos.” “What exactly did she expect when she signed up to be an officer?” Ramsey asked.
Tim McCormick, a 59-year-old who lives in Denton, Tex., did not watch the hearing but did read highlights of it after.
“They’re making it all about [Donald] Trump,” McCormick, 59, said. “The average American is saying, ‘Look, despite whatever you thought about the guy, he’s not in power. He got voted out. There was a smooth transition of power.’ It just seems like they’re rabid about Trump and that’s all they can see.” — Mary Beth Gahan
It took only two hours of the Jan. 6 committee hearing for Cristina Merlo, 53, to realize how little she knew little about the siege on the Capitol.
Merlo, a single mother of three in Highland Park, a Chicago suburb, said she was startled to hear former U.S. attorney general William P. Barr and Ivanka Trump, Trump’s daughter, both said they believed the election had not been stolen.
“To see how the family and friends started to step back early on — that was nothing I was ever aware of,” she said.
Video footage and audio was also more intensive than what she had watched on television on Jan. 6 and in the days since. “Seeing these militias and learning they felt they had been called by Trump — and they had arms stored at hotels in Virginia — those are things I never even read about,” she said.
Merlo said that based on what she watched Thursday, she plans to continue watching every day of the hearing as it continues into next week. — Mark Guarino
Madison, Ga.
As last night’s hearings kicked off, 14 people gathered to watch at Episcopal Church of the Advent. “I’m proud of these people,” said Dann Brown, 68, who has led this congregation for 13 years and serves as its rector.
Attendees paid close attention as Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), the committee chairman, and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), vice chair of the committee, laid out the agenda for the hearings.
Eston Clarke, 76, a retired health-care administrator choked back tears as he spoke after the hearing. “It’s the culmination and affirmation of the rule of law and democracy,” said Clarke, a Democrat. “These awful things happened, but they’re being accounted for through this committee.”
Jeanne Dufort organized the local watch event, one of many held all across the country. “I think they’re doing a good job of laying the story out,” said Dufort, 66, a real estate agent. “The degree to which they’re telling the story from the inside out, from saying, ‘This is what the president did. This is what he knew. These are the choices he made.’ ”
“I got very sad,” another attendee, Ruth Bracewell, said afterward. “I would have never thought this sort of thing could have happened.” — Mark Shavin
Priscilla Harris watched the first night of the Jan. 6 committee’s landmark hearings the same way she expects to watch all of the upcoming sessions — with an elderly dachshund asleep on her lap in her den in Tulsa and her cellphone set to speaker mode.
The 79-year-old is a lifelong conservative, with her delegate’s vest from the 1984 Republican National Convention framed on a wall.
On the other end of the phone line — and political spectrum — is her brother Dale Petersen, 73, who lives in Orlando. They love to watch political events together so that they can pause their TV broadcasts and discuss matters in real time.
Their snap judgments of the opening statements differed. Petersen liked both. His sister thought Thompson opined too much. “Seems like he’s reaching a conclusion before hearing anything — that’s what I’m seeing,” she said.
But Harris hung on every word of the point-by-point statements coupled with illustrative video clips presented by Cheney.
Her jaw dropped when Cheney quoted Trump’s reported reaction to insurrectionists’ calls for hanging then-Vice President Mike Pence: “Maybe our supporters have the right idea.”
At the conclusion of the first night, Harris went to the refrigerator and poured herself a small glass of white wine before settling in for a brief postmortem chat.
These two siblings, on opposite ends of the political spectrum, shared a major concern about the process — that it won’t be enough.
Harris then recalled how she “watched every word” of the televised Watergate hearings. But she said this isn’t the same American audience that was watching in 1973.
“Senator Sam Ervin made it so clear, every American knew by the end that Nixon was guilty,” Harris said. “But now it’s different. Because Trump supporters — no matter what you do, no matter what you say — they don’t believe. It’s the Trump supporters you’ve got to convince, or he’s going to be elected again.” — Andrea Eger
Shirley Welch spent the night glued to her TV.
At times she winced, like when she watched the young police officer get pushed down by the angry protesters, her head striking the Capitol steps.
And Welch laughed, disapprovingly, when she listened to the recorded voice of Trump praising the rioters.
“I’m hoping they can put him in jail, or at least get it where he can’t run again,” the 78-year-old grandmother of three said.
Welch is a bit of an oddity in this city, still a Republican stronghold in a state where some other big cities — Dallas, Houston, Austin — are becoming increasingly blue.
The retired hospital lab technician said she use to “lean” Republican. Then came Trump.
Welch said she was uplifted by the hearing and the two Republicans on the committee. She plans to watch the others but expressed little doubt that they will help heal the political divide in this country. “I still think this is a good thing. But it won’t change any minds,” Welch said as she stared at her TV, her 6-year-old siamese cat, Sophie, by her side. — Jack Douglas
Sitting alongside her 14-year-old grandson, Jan, a 68-year-old retired teacher in Fayetteville, Ark., broke into tears at the footage showing police officers brutalized by the mob storming the Capitol.
Her grandson, meanwhile, expressed shock at seeing for the first time the noose hanging from a gallows meant for Pence. “I think these things are character forming,” said Jan, who asked that her last name be withheld over privacy concerns, as the two-hour hearing concluded. “He was under the impression that [the riot] hadn’t been that violent. I think he was a little flippant about it.”
Though Jan had closely followed the impeachment trial of Trump, she learned new details about the insurrection — such as the testimony from Gen. Mark A. Milley and Barr — that indicated the extent of Trump’s knowledge of the events of that day. “I was concerned it might be difficult to prove Trump’s involvement in this,” Jan said. “But I think they laid it out very clearly.”
Her grandson, riveted by what he’d seen, said he wanted to watch more when the hearings continue next week. “Kind of like a ‘next episode’ kind of thing,” Jan joked. — Bret Schulte | 2022-06-10T23:58:50Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What some Americans saw at the first Jan. 6 Congressional hearing - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/10/jan-6-hearing-americans/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/10/jan-6-hearing-americans/ |
Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson to be next Hornets coach
Golden State Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson has agreed to be the next head coach of the Charlotte Hornets. (Nick Wass/AP)
The Charlotte Hornets agreed to a deal Friday to make Golden State Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson their next coach, according to two people with knowledge of the situation.
It will be a second head coaching stint for the 55-year-old Atkinson, who will inherit a young roster headlined by all-star guard LaMelo Ball. Atkinson previously coached the Brooklyn Nets for four seasons, compiling a 118-190 record from 2016 to 2020.
Charlotte also interviewed longtime coach Mike D’Antoni during its search for James Borrego’s successor. ESPN first reported Atkinson’s agreement, which it pegged as a four-year deal.
During a 13-year NBA career that included assistant coaching stops with the New York Knicks, Atlanta Hawks, Los Angeles Clippers and Warriors, Atkinson has cultivated a reputation as a player development expert with a hard-charging personality and a knack for culture building. In Brooklyn, he inherited a team that won 21 games in 2015-16 and delivered a playoff berth in 2019 with gradual improvement on the defensive end.
The Nets parted ways with Atkinson in 2020, as the high-profile free agency additions of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving opened a new era for the franchise. Atkinson was replaced by Steve Nash, who has been more deferential to Brooklyn’s stars.
Charlotte fired Borrego after four seasons in April. Borrego, who twice guided the Hornets to the East’s play-in tournament, delivered a 43-win season this year but occasionally clashed with his young players. Hornets General Manager Mitch Kupchak said in May that Borrego was fired because the franchise wanted to “seek out another voice” as owner Michael Jordan chases the organization’s first playoff appearance since 2016.
Atkinson, who joined the Warriors last July, is the team’s second assistant to land a top job during Golden State’s run to the NBA Finals. The Sacramento Kings last month hired Mike Brown, who has been with Golden State for six seasons. | 2022-06-11T00:00:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson to be next Hornets coach - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/10/kenny-atkinson-charlotte-hornets-coach/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/10/kenny-atkinson-charlotte-hornets-coach/ |
The family member was trying to pick up their student from Thomas Jefferson Middle School in Arlington
A family member possibly concerned about a lockdown at Thomas Jefferson Middle School in Arlington, Va., brought a firearm when coming to pick up their student Friday, according to the school’s principal, Keisha Boggan.
The family member damaged a door while attempting to enter the school, Boggan wrote in an email to Thomas Jefferson families.
Thomas Jefferson Middle School had been placed on lockdown at the recommendation of Arlington County police following an incident at a nearby convenience store. After 20 minutes, the school was instructed to be placed on “secure the building” status, with students kept in the building and outside doors locked. Shortly after, the school was placed back on “normal” status, Boggan wrote. The principal notified families through the school’s alert system of the lockdown.
Arlington County police were dispatched to the store at 12:21 p.m. for a report of an assault with injury, said a tweet from the department. The suspect produced a hammer, smashed a display case, stole merchandise and attempted to assault an employee.
“Thomas Jefferson Middle School was placed on a secure status as police investigated,” said the social media post.
Later, Thomason Jefferson Middle School administrators learned there was no threat to the middle school, and a person was taken into custody by police at the nearby 7-Eleven.
“Today was unsettling and traumatic for students and staff, as well as our families,” Boggan wrote. “The safety of our students and staff remains our priority.”
Arlington police were investigating the circumstances that led to the individual coming to the school.
The incident happened as the country grapples with a shooting last month at an elementary school in Uvalde, Tex., that left 19 students and two teachers dead. Several area schools have received threats of violence or reports of students with weapons in the past few weeks. Some schools have increased security and a police presence on campuses.
At Thomas Jefferson Middle School, counselors will be available to students once they return to school Monday. A scheduled eighth-grade dance will continue as planned tonight. The principal encouraged parents to process emotions and feelings with their students after the lockdown. She plans to further address the incident Monday.
“This should be a time to celebrate the conclusion of our school year, not one where we are paralyzed with fear,” Boggan said.
The last day for Arlington County middle schools is June 16. | 2022-06-11T01:21:06Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Worried family member brings firearm to locked-down Va. middle school - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/06/10/arlington-school-lockdown-family-gun/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/06/10/arlington-school-lockdown-family-gun/ |
This undated photo provided by Joo-Rei Mathieson shows herself when she was in childhood taken in South Korea. A Brothers Home intake document describes Mathieson as a lost street kid brought in by police. It notes, chillingly for a government-sponsored vagrants’ facility that survivors have told The Associated Press often worked children to death, that she’s “capable of labor.” She spoke no words for days, the document says, after entering Brothers, a now-destroyed facility in the southern port city of Busan where thousands of children and adults, most of whom were grabbed off the streets, were enslaved and often killed, raped and beaten in the 1970s and 1980s. (Courtesy of Joo-Rei Mathieson via AP) (Uncredited/Courtesy of Joo-Rei Mathieson) | 2022-06-11T03:02:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Survivor of abusive facility searches for lost Korean roots - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/survivor-of-abusive-facility-searches-for-lost-korean-roots/2022/06/10/3949ae30-e92b-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/survivor-of-abusive-facility-searches-for-lost-korean-roots/2022/06/10/3949ae30-e92b-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
Katerina Ang
Bolivia's former interim president Jeanine Áñez in 2019. (Natacha Pisarenko/AP)
Bolivia’s former interim president, Jeanine Áñez, late on Friday was convicted by a court of leading an alleged coup that deposed her left-wing predecessor, and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment after a closely watched trial.
Áñez, a conservative whose presidency was backed by the Trump administration, came to power after a political crisis in 2019 that saw the socialist incumbent Evo Morales flee into exile. The chaos following Morales’s attempt to serve a fourth consecutive term, which was barred by the constitution, saw Áñez, then a relatively obscure senator, take over the country’s highest office.
The 54-year-old Áñez was convicted of violating the constitution and “dereliction of duty,” according to Reuters. She has denied all wrongdoing and plans to appeal. Áñez left office after Luis Arce, who had been Morales’s finance minister, won the presidency in a landslide in late 2020. Áñez dropped out of that race due to poor polling and has been in detention for about a year.
“I have been accused of crimes that I have not committed, that were invented,” she said in testimony on Friday. “I had the government, but I never had power … it was simply a transitional government.”
In reality, Áñez replaced Bolivia’s top military brass, Morales’s cabinet ministers and heads of major state-owned enterprises within days of coming to power. Her government also jailed and prosecuted many left-wing critics and was accused of enacting the “politics of revenge.”
But Bolivians remain divided on the question of whether Áñez’s rise to the presidency was, in fact, a coup. And her treatment since being detained has also raised charges of retribution by her opponents.
Áñez’s mental and physical health has deteriorated in jail and she slit her wrists after being charged separately with genocide, prompting the European Union and the United States to urge the government to safeguard her well-being.
Genocide prosecution of former president tests Bolivia’s justice system
She was not allowed to participate in her defense in court, instead following the trial from prison. Earlier this week, her family said that she had been forced to attend the hearings while sedated with medicine.
The centrist former president Carlos Mesa, who was a losing candidate in the 2020 election, has criticized how the trial was conducted and urged international observers to intervene.
“The crimes for which Áñez was convicted, dereliction of duty and taking decisions contrary to the law, are very broadly defined in Bolivian law,” said Human Rights Watch researcher César Muñoz on Twitter. “They were misused by the Evo Morales government and the Áñez government in criminal cases that appeared to be politically motivated.”
He urged a higher tribunal to review the evidence and examine if Áñez’s rights were violated.
Herrero reported from Caracas, Venezuela, and Ang from Seoul. Samantha Schmidt contributed to this report. | 2022-06-11T03:35:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ex-Bolivia president Jeanine Áñez sentenced to prison after coup trial - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/10/bolivia-jeanine-anez-arce-coup/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/10/bolivia-jeanine-anez-arce-coup/ |
Carolyn Hax: Why does the cleaner partner get the extra housework?
Dear Carolyn: Please explain again why the person with the higher standards always has to do the work. My partner, P, doesn’t clean up the kitchen to what I consider basic standards; they do the pots and leave out condiments and any spices I might have forgotten to put away, and they don’t wipe down the counters or stove. If P cooks, they leave stuff out, including food packaging. (The trash can is right there!!!) I feel as if I do two or three days’ worth of cleaning when it’s my turn just to be sure we don’t get bugs.
I mentioned that I want them to get clothes in the hamper, and P said that I should “just let it go” and that they “don’t say anything about what [I do] that irritates them.”
I am not a neat freak, and I try to be patient, but I am getting very resentful that if I want a calm, clean space, it’s always my job. Worse: If it’s important to them, such as if they want a clean, uncluttered background for Zoom meetings, they do it, but they won’t help with what’s important to me, such as cleaning off the bookcase they pile stuff on that shows up in MY Zoom meetings.
I can’t be the only one facing this. How can I get them to help maintain standards that might be a bit higher than what they want, but less than I want?
— Higher Standards
Higher Standards: The person with the higher standards always has to do the work if they aren’t willing to leave it undone when the other person refuses to do it.
Note that this is all fact, no fairness.
If you want to get into the fairness issue, then you manage those facts, too — on your own, because you can ask other people to do things (presumably you have, a lot), but you can’t make them do anything.
So, the facts you need to manage are these:
1. If you are going to live with P, then you need to accept the unfairness of doing more to keep things as clean as you want them to be.
2. If you want both fairness and a calm, clean space, then you will need to live alone or with a different partner.
Obviously you don’t like that math, or else you would have left already — or learned to embrace the extra cleaning as a price you happily pay for P’s company or other contributions.
The one way around the bad fairness math is if there’s some chore or area of chores your partner does do well, gladly or out of necessity. When you have that to work with, then you can push all of that to P’s side of the ledger.
One caveat: When you have a slop box where you dump all the stuff P neglects to pick up, and cook your own meals, and do your own laundry and leave them to theirs, that’s effective — but also one step from the door.
Re: Cleaning Meanie: Did you notice that when you have “forgotten to put away” spices, it’s innocent forgetfulness, but when it’s your partner doing it, it’s negligence/meanness/laziness? Perhaps it’s worthwhile extending to your partner the same benefit of the doubt you give yourself.
Anonymous: Search “fundamental attribution error” for more on that. Thanks. But it only works if the frequency of each partner’s “forgetfulness” incidents roughly matches. | 2022-06-11T04:15:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Carolyn Hax: Why does the cleaner partner get the extra housework? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/06/11/carolyn-hax-cleaner-partner-housework/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/06/11/carolyn-hax-cleaner-partner-housework/ |
Miss Manners: I want to deflect my patients’ comments about my body
Occasionally when I meet a patient (most of whom are women), she will comment, “You're so skinny!” Or, in the course of a consultation, “Well, I'll never look like you!”
These well-meaning remarks make me feel awkward and interfere with my ability to build rapport. I usually just weakly smile, mumble something like, “Well, you know …” and try to return to the topic at hand. Can you suggest a better way to handle these unnecessary comments?
“We are each on our own path to good health, and it is pointless to make comparisons. Let’s focus instead on you and your unique goals.”
Out of compassion, however, Miss Manners suggests that you refrain from emphasizing your own good fortune by not eating a whole pie.
For example, if someone is blocking the aisle in the grocery, and I politely say, “Excuse me,” they might move but respond with, “You're fine.”
Or, when explaining to a customer that she would need her ID to renew her membership card, she said that she would need to go out to her car to get it. I reiterated that she would need to bring the ID in, and I got a response of “You're fine.”
No, you’re fine.
What you are describing is not a shower — one should not shower oneself — but more of an arrival party.
Miss Manners therefore suggests you wait until the baby’s arrival to do it. The invitation may be worded, “Please come to meet our new daughter, Willow Grace, on Sunday, Aug. 7, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.” | 2022-06-11T04:15:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Miss Manners: I want to deflect my patients’ comments about my body - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/06/11/miss-manners-patients-weight-body/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/06/11/miss-manners-patients-weight-body/ |
Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry notched the seventh 40-point game of his postseason career to lead a 107-97 Game 4 victory over the Boston Celtics on Friday. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
The two-time MVP has been the best player in these NBA Finals through four games, and he turned in his fiercest and most impressive performance yet to lead the Golden State Warriors to a 107-97 Game 4 victory over the Boston Celtics. Curry, who injured his foot in Game 3 when it got caught under Celtics center Al Horford, danced all over the parquet court Friday, scoring a game-high 43 points and hitting 7 of his 14 three-pointers in a captivating performance that left an expectant Boston crowd speechless by night’s end.
In the tightest game of this series, Curry displayed what he often calls his “championship DNA.” As Boston missed open looks from three down the stretch, Curry knocked in a one-legged runner, made a three-pointer from the right angle with just under two minutes left and then ran a pick and roll with Draymond Green to set up a layup for Kevon Looney in the game’s final minute. Curry finished off the win at the free throw line, notching his second career 40-point game in the Finals and the seventh 40-point showing of his playoff career.
“We’re focused on [Curry] and keeping others in check, but some of those of those were crazy shots that were highly contested,” Celtics Coach Ime Udoka said. “He came out bombing early.”
While the night eventually belonged to Curry, it began with the Warriors deploying a tried-and-true adjustment, pivoting to a smaller lineup by inserting forward Otto Porter Jr. in place of Looney, their typical starting center. Seven years ago, a similar Game 4 swap of forward Andre Iguodala for center Andrew Bogut helped Golden State dig out of a 2-1 series deficit to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2015 Finals.
The lineup change, which gave Porter his first start since March 16, didn’t have the same transformative impact. While the Warriors were seeking to improve their offensive spacing by splitting up Green and Looney, their two non-shooting starters, they gave up an uncontested layup to Marcus Smart on the first possession and quickly fell into an 11-4 hole. Warriors Coach Steve Kerr pulled the plug on the experiment shortly thereafter, swapping Looney back in for Porter, who finished with just two points in 14 minutes.
Of greater consequence than Golden State’s new lineup was Curry’s ability to play through a painful left foot injury sustained in Game 3. Curry’s optimism about the extent of his injury — he insisted it wasn’t as bad as a left foot sprain he suffered in March — proved well-founded, as he showed no ill effects. Curry smiled through an extensive pregame shooting routine and then came out firing in the first half. Sensing Golden State’s need for a lift, Curry drained back-to-back three-pointers late in the first quarter and screamed toward the baseline crowd.
“I think [Curry] was really laboring out there,” Kerr quipped sarcastically. “He really struggled. It never even looked like it was a factor.”
But Curry was only getting started, hitting an array of three-pointers to lead another Golden State push out of halftime. For the fourth time in the series, the Warriors outscored the Celtics in the third quarter, this time erasing a five-point halftime deficit to take a 79-78 lead into the fourth quarter. Curry’s fingerprints were all over that push, as he held his follow-through after drilling a three-pointer from the top of the key and sneaked into the left corner to hit another.
“The heart on that man is incredible,” said teammate Klay Thompson, who called this the best Finals performance of Curry’s career. “The things he does we kind of take for granted from time to time. To go out there and put us on his back, we’ve got to help him out on Monday. Wow. It’s shocking he wasn’t a first-team all-NBA guy, but whatever. Next year.”
Boston’s halftime lead would have been more one-sided if not for sloppy turnovers in the second quarter. Jayson Tatum epitomized the Celtics’ mix of hot outside shooting and poor decision-making, as he scored 16 points but committed four turnovers before halftime, including a giveaway under his hoop that led to a layup for Gary Payton II. By night’s end, the Celtics committed 16 turnovers and fell to 0-6 this postseason when turning the ball over more than 15 times.
Four Celtics finished in double figures, led by Tatum with 23 points, along with 11 rebounds and six assists, but their offense faltered down the stretch. After running away from Golden State in the fourth quarters of Game 1 and Game 3, Boston was outscored 28-19 in the final period, in part because it struggled to limit Golden State on the offensive glass. | 2022-06-11T04:33:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Steph Curry wills Warriors to Game 4 win, knotting NBA Finals - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/10/warriors-celtics-nba-finals-steph-curry-injury/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/10/warriors-celtics-nba-finals-steph-curry-injury/ |
Mystics trounce Lynx as Shakira Austin continues to thrive in Minnesota
Mystics center Shakira Austin, seen facing the Lynx earlier this season, notched six points and 13 rebounds in Washington's 76-59 win over Minnesota on Friday. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)
MINNEAPOLIS — Shakira Austin was the last Washington Mystics player on the Target Center floor after Friday afternoon’s shoot-around, working on her jumper and footwork. By the time she finished a media obligation and a marketing spot, she had missed the team bus back to the hotel.
The way the rookie has taken to the arena, it’s no wonder she would want to stick around.
Austin delivered another strong game, pulling down 13 rebounds to go with six points as the Mystics — playing without two-time MVP Elena Delle Donne — beat the Minnesota Lynx, 76-59.
Austin, the former Riverdale Baptist All-Met who was the third overall pick in the WNBA draft, has continued to impress. On a veteran team, the expectation was that the rookie wouldn’t need to take a big role so early. Instead, after a breakout game in the Mystics’ first trip here more than a month ago, she has earned her way into the starting lineup.
“Since the last time we were here [a 78-66 win May 8], it’s just definitely been a journey,” Austin said. “It’s definitely been some ups and downs. Losing and just trying to find our identity. Myself trying to get my groove back and continue to be aggressive.
“I feel last time against Minnesota, I just was playing efficient, playing aggressive. And right now I’m just getting back to that moment. To continue to just be there for my team, show up, be consistent, just put the work in.”
Those “downs” drove Austin to the film room, where she watched a mash-up of college clips. She remained in the lineup, but she seemed to labor a bit more with everything. The aggression seemed to wane as Austin continued to find her role.
“I know when I get in rough patches and I feel like I’m losing who I am on the court, I just like to go back and remember how easy it kind of is,” said Austin, who started her college career at Maryland before finishing at Mississippi. “The game’s really simple, and it’s just about preparation and putting the work in and also knowing that you have the skill to compete with everybody.”
The Mystics (9-5) never trailed in a choppy game. Minnesota (3-10) hung around in striking distance for much of the night, but Washington pulled away in the fourth quarter with Myisha Hines-Allen having her best game of the season. She finished with a season-high 17 points and six rebounds. Ariel Atkins added 12 points, and Elizabeth Williams had 11 points and six rebounds. Natasha Cloud had eight points and eight assists.
“It’s good for her confidence,” Coach Mike Thibault said of Hines-Allen. “It’s good for our team learning how we can use her. We’re kind of using more and more and more tonight like we did in the bubble and for the times that she was healthy last year. Put the ball in more hands a little bit more as a point forward in the fourth quarter.
“That was a big thing. She was able to penetrate or find people. Made a couple of threes. Those were all, you know, big plays.”
Austin joked and shouted, “About time!” in the postgame media session when discussing Hines-Allen. She had entered the game shooting career lows in field goal percentage and from behind the arc, but teammates and coaches continued to encourage her to be aggressive. Thibault said there was no hesitation in her decision-making against the Lynx.
“I was just shooting with confidence,” Hines-Allen said. “Just playing like I know I can play and just seeing the ball go in makes my job easier.”
Delle Donne update
Delle Donne left Wednesday’s game in the second quarter with lower back tightness, but Thibault said she felt much better the next day. He described the issue as muscle spasms and not anything structural. She didn’t make the trip to Minneapolis, instead going through her normal workout in Washington on Friday. Delle Donne is expected to play at home Sunday against the Mercury.
No Fowles
The Lynx played their first game of the season without Sylvia Fowles, the 2017 MVP playing her final season. Fowles is out indefinitely with a cartilage issue in her right knee. The seven-time MVP was averaging 16.5 points (10th in the league) and leading the WNBA in rebounding (10.3) and field goal percentage (64.1).
“Nobody is going to be Syl, per se,” Lynx Coach Cheryl Reeve said. “We talked about each player: Is there something they can do that Syl brought to the table that we could each kind of share the load in?”
All-star numbers
The league released the first round of all-star voting numbers, and Ariel Atkins was a notable oversight. Atkins was not among the top 30 vote-getters despite entering Friday ranked 13th in scoring (15.8) and shooting 41.3 percent from three-point range.
Delle Donne had the fifth-most votes, Austin was 29th and Cloud was 30th.
“If she’s not in the top 30, somebody’s missing the boat,” Thibault said of Atkins. “And our fans aren’t doing their job voting.
“I have no comment. We know who the best players are.” | 2022-06-11T04:33:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Shakira Austin continues to thrive in Minnesota as Mystics beat Lynx - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/10/washington-mystics-minnesota-lynx/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/10/washington-mystics-minnesota-lynx/ |
AUSTIN, TX - JUNE 10: Jesus Ferreira of the United States #9 celebrate his goal against Grenada in a CONCACAF Nations League Group D game at Q2 Stadium on JUNE 10, 2022 in Austin, Texas. (Ronald Cortes/Getty Images)
AUSTIN — If he had his druthers, Gregg Berhalter would have chosen far stiffer competition Friday for the last home appearance by his U.S. men’s national soccer team before the World Cup later this year.
But because the Concacaf Nations League is a mandatory competition and two group-stage matches had to be played this international window, the Americans had no choice but to play Grenada, the world’s 170th-ranked team.
Not exactly the best way to prepare for Wales, England and Iran in November.
Though there was little to gain, the match did provide yet another audition for the wide-open starting striker’s job at the World Cup. The level of competition cannot be ignored, but 21-year-old Jesús Ferreira scored four goals as the Americans overcame a sluggish start and routed the Spice Boys, 5-0, before an announced 20,500 at Q2 Stadium.
Haji Wright makes a 'beautiful' return to teammates of his youth
It was the most goals scored by a U.S. player since Landon Donovan in 2003.
Ferreira scored in the 43rd, 54th, 56th and 78th minutes, increasing his haul to seven in 12 appearances. His FC Dallas teammate, Paul Arriola, scored in the 62nd minute.
The victory extended the United States’ home unbeaten streak to 26, tying the program record set in 2015. They’ll cap this four-game stretch Tuesday with a Nations League match at El Salvador — an uptick in competition but still far from World Cup quality.
The Americans (1-0-0) are the tournament’s defending champion and heavily favored to top El Salvador (1-0-1) and Grenada (0-2-1) in group play, which carries into next spring.
Of greater importance, of course, is positioning themselves for the World Cup.
The final tuneups will come in friendlies in late September against Asian teams that qualified for the World Cup. The identities of those opponents will be announced soon. One friendly will be played in Germany, the other in Spain. (Because of their own Nations League schedule, European teams aren’t available for friendlies.)
After starting this camp with difficult friendlies against World Cup-bound Morocco and Uruguay, Berhalter said this week the emphasis in the Nations League games would be on “our mind-set, our intensity, what we’re bringing to this game. We’re evaluating our mentality” against lesser foes.
The Nations League best serves small countries that otherwise have a hard time arranging matches with bigger teams. But bigger teams that have qualified for the World Cup have little use for these early-stage matches.
Berhalter used Friday’s match to start a mix of regulars and reserves. Christian Pulisic and Tyler Adams weren’t even in uniform, and Walker Zimmerman, Yunus Musah and Tim Weah were on the bench.
The Spice Boys’ lineup included players from clubs in England’s fifth and sixth divisions, the U.S. second division and Grenada’s domestic league.
For most of the first half, the visitors hung in there. They were no threat going forward, but thwarted the U.S. push. The Americans played hard but not very well, failing to synchronize the attack or show polish in and around the penalty area.
The most clever move was Berhalter’s no-look, behind-the-back bounce pass to a Grenadian player for a throw-in.
The breakthrough finally came in the 43rd minute. Arriola pounced on the ball at the top of the box. His cross was deflected back to Ferreira, who shifted to his left to create a pocket of space, then ripped a left-footed, 10-yard shot into the far corner for his fourth goal in 12 appearances.
Arriola was the orchestrator again in the 54th, threading a through ball to Ferreira for a composed finish. Ferreira’s best goal came two minutes later. Off Kellyn Acosta’s corner kick, Ferreira placed a 16-yard one-timer into the top upper corner.
Arriola scored on a backside run, set up by Luca de la Torre’s pass, and Ferreira added his fourth by dragging the ball into the net from close range, assisted by Brenden Aaronson.
Ferreira’s performance will undoubtedly raise the stakes for the starting job at the World Cup. Ricardo Pepi, Jordan Pefok, Josh Sargent, Gyasi Zardes, Haji Wright and Daryl Dike remain in the running, but with just a few matches left, Ferreira on Friday pulled into the lead.
Notes: Aside from Pulisic and Adams, the other player not in uniform was center back Erik Palmer-Brown (hamstring soreness). …
The pairing of Cameron Carter-Vickers and Aaron Long was the 20th center-back combination deployed by Berhalter in his 3½-year tenure. …
Earlier Friday, Carter-Vickers agreed to a four-year deal with Glasgow Celtic. He had spent last season on loan from Tottenham Hotspur to the Scottish champions, who had an option this summer to purchase his contract. …
The U.S. team will remain in Austin until Sunday afternoon before chartering to San Salvador. All 26 players are expected to travel. | 2022-06-11T04:33:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | USMNT routs Grenada in Nations League as Jesús Ferreira scores four - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/11/usmnt-grenada-nations-league-jesus-ferreira/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/11/usmnt-grenada-nations-league-jesus-ferreira/ |
Pentagon chief says Taiwan policy unchanged, U.S. will not force countries to pick sides
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, right, with his Vietnamese counterpart in Singapore on June 10. (Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images)
SHENZHEN, China — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin insisted that U.S. policy on Taiwan has not shifted, even as he invoked parallels between the East Asian security situation and Ukraine at a defense summit in Singapore.
“I really want to highlight that our Taiwan policy has not changed,” Austin said, in response to a question from German Marshall Fund Asia Program director Bonnie Glaser Saturday morning at the Shangri-La Dialogue. He said that any unilateral change to the status quo on Taiwan “would be unwelcome and ill-advised.”
Austin also accused China of taking a more “coercive and aggressive approach” in its regional territorial claims. He said that the United States would back smaller countries against pressure from Beijing, but that they should not be forced to choose a side in the U.S.-China rivalry.
Many Southeast Asian countries — including Austin’s host, Singapore — have said they do not wish to pick between the United States, the region’s traditional security guarantor, and China, their top trading partner.
Chinese defense minister Wei Fenghe is scheduled to make a rebuttal Sunday morning with a speech outlining China’s vision of regional security. Beijing has long argued that China is trying to make a peaceful rise and says that it is the United States that is the aggressor.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has fanned fears that China may make a similar move on Taiwan, the self-governing island which it claims as part of its territory. Such an invasion seems unlikely in the near-term, security experts say, but it remains a closely watched flash point as it could draw the United States into conflict with China.
President Biden raised eyebrows last month by saying the United States would respond militarily to a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, in an apparent shift from Washington’s long-standing stance of strategic ambiguity. Biden has made similar remarks in the past only to have his staff walk them back and Austin pointedly repeated the White House’s position on Saturday. | 2022-06-11T05:07:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | U.S. stance on Taiwan unchanged, Pentagon chief says - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/11/austin-china-defense-shangrila-indopacific/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/11/austin-china-defense-shangrila-indopacific/ |
What to watch this weekend: ‘Barry’ Season 3 concludes on HBO
Saturday, June 11 & Sunday, June 12, 2022 I The 75th annual Tony Awards airs on Sunday on CBS
Planet Earth: Dynasties (BBC America at 8) Hyenas band together to survive in Zambia.
Would I Lie to You? (CW at 8:30) Guests include Laura Benanti, Maulik Pancholy, Becky Ann Baker and Chris Gethard.
Amy Schumer’s Parental Advisory (Netflix) The comedian hosts a showcase of fellow stand-ups including Ron Funches and Lil Rel Howery to joke about their family lives and parenthood.
Caribbean Summer (Hallmark at 8) A woman heads out on a Caribbean vacation but realizes her accommodations are a scam until she runs into the real property owner — and finds more than a place to stay.
Dirty Little Secret (Lifetime at 8) A mother’s hoarding is a closely held secret, which vexes her daughter.
Riverdale (CW at 8) Betty plans a serial killer convention; Cheryl learns something new about Tony and Fangs; Archie and Tabitha upend Percival’s control of his workers.
Becoming Elizabeth (Starz at 9) A period drama set in the days following the death of England’s King Henry VIII and his children, including the (spoiler alert) future Queen Elizabeth I, who are thrust into a power struggle for the throne.
Dark Winds (AMC at 9) A crime drama, based on the Leaphorn and Chee novel series by Tony Hillerman, set in the Navajo Nation.
Barry (HBO at 10) The walls are closing in on Barry Berkman (Bill Hader, pictured) as all of the people who want him dead are converging in the Season 3 finale.
Gaslit (Starz at 7:59) Martha tries to keep the family together; Dean and Mo look ahead to better days; G. Gordon Liddy sends Dean off with a gift.
75th annual Tony Awards (CBS at 8) Oscar winner Ariana DeBose hosts the ceremony, this year at Radio City Music Hall, dedicated to theatrical performances.
Time 100: The World’s Most Influential People (ABC at 8) The magazine unveils its annual list of influential figures, hosted by Simu Liu.
The Booze, Bets and Sex That Built America (History Channel at 8) Profiles of the people behind some of the illicit activities of modern America including Jack Daniel and Adolphus Busch.
I Won’t Let You Go (Lifetime at 8) A woman hopes her husband will protect her from a stalker ex-boyfriend, but nothing seems to be keeping him at bay.
Evil (Paramount Plus) Season 3. | 2022-06-11T06:04:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What to watch this weekend: ‘Barry’ Season 3 concludes on HBO - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/tv/2022/06/11/what-watch-this-weekend-barry-season-3-concludes-hbo/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/tv/2022/06/11/what-watch-this-weekend-barry-season-3-concludes-hbo/ |
Kremlin security chiefs are making radical changes in how history is taught
Schoolchildren enter the Museum of the Great Patriotic War (also known as the Victory Museum) in Moscow on March 17. (AFP/Getty Images) (-/AFP via Getty Images)
RIGA, Latvia — As President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine drags on, Russia’s teachers are being turned into front-line soldiers in an information war designed to mold children into loyal militarized nationalists. The nation’s powerful security chiefs, leading propagandists and parliamentary hard-liners are pushing radical changes to the education system, as the Education Ministry takes a back seat.
Schools have been ordered to carry out “patriotic” classes parroting the Kremlin line on the war, and teachers who refuse to give the classes have been fired. Textbooks are being purged of almost all references to Ukraine and its capital, Kyiv.
Russia’s parliament rejected as unsatisfactory the Education Ministry’s plan on how it would review history textbooks, calling this a matter of “national security” and requesting the head of Russia’s foreign spy service to take charge.
And the powerful chief of the Russian Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, a close Putin ally, has demanded sweeping changes to education, as part of a whole-of-government effort to shape loyal citizens from cradle to grave.
Anton Litvin, a Moscow father of two, had a nice home and good job, but when the government began using schools for propaganda in the war against Ukraine, he quit and left the country. He said he was revolted by the thought that his children could be brainwashed by lessons about “patriotism” and Putin’s take on history. The breaking point came when teachers sent home brochures urging him to sign his 8-year-old son up for summer camp with the Young Army, a military youth group launched by the Defense Ministry in 2015.
“I don’t want my kids to join the regime at this young age and to be someone’s soldiers to fight against peaceful people,” said Litvin, who sacrificed his job at a prominent Moscow aeronautics company and is now a stay-at-home dad in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, looking for a new job.
Since 2013, Putin has driven changes to the teaching of history as part of a campaign to build a national identity based on the Soviet Union’s role in defeating the Nazis in World War II. But after the invasion of Ukraine, the tempo of change in schools was “like a waterfall,” Litvin said.
“Everything is getting worse. It’s like it’s going back to the Soviet Union,” he said. “Children are taught that war is good, actually, from the perspective of our government.”
Russia’s efforts to militarize students underscores the Kremlin’s long-term ambitions: not just cementing Russian support for the war but also building a generation of youth loyal to Russia’s increasingly totalitarian regime — unlike many Russian millennials today who oppose the regime and the war.
Putin constantly plays on Russian nostalgia for past Soviet power to justify the war, but his “is not a new Soviet regime. It is much closer to a fascist regime and what they’re doing now is a different sort of propaganda,” said Grigory Yudin, professor of political philosophy at the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences. “They’re trying to actively militarize children to engage them in this war, to engage them in support for this war.”
Patrushev, the Security Council chief, last month demanded a major overhaul of Russia’s education system to develop a new “patriotic” generation. He urged the adoption of a comprehensive system to “implement the state’s program at all stages of a person’s maturation and formation as a citizen.”
A key proponent of the invasion known for his anti-Western rhetoric, Patrushev said teachers were at the forefront of a “hybrid war being waged against Russia.” But many of them, he complained, “manipulated” children and distorted history. He criticized the history curriculum and lamented that textbooks did not cover Soviet heroism in World War II properly.
Then, amid complaints that the Education Ministry had fallen short, Russia’s upper house of parliament asked on Thursday that Sergei Naryshkin, head of the Foreign Intelligence Service and chairman of the Russian Historical Society, take charge of reviewing history textbooks, because “the current situation requires a special attitude” to teaching.
“Today, it is one of the components of the country’s national security,” said Ekaterina Altabayeva, deputy chairwoman of the Science, Education and Culture committee.
The main impact of changes to textbooks and curriculum is expected after the summer break.
“There’s a whole revolution going on now in the Russian education system, because it’s been rapidly changing since February,” Yudin said. He added, “They want to get back control over young minds, and they also need these people as cannon fodder.”
While the Education Ministry has ordered teachers to give patriotic lessons that reflect the Kremlin’s line on Ukraine, they have been a hard sell at times.
One history teacher in a Moscow high school, for example, failed to persuade several students in his class, including a 17-year-old named Nikita.
“I don’t trust my history teacher. He is more of an overly-patriotic propaganda man,” Nikita said, adding students paid no attention to the patriotic lessons. The student declined to give his surname to avoid problems at school. “I just stood up and left the classroom. Two others did the same.”
But many students were wary of openly opposing the war, he added. “My friends do not support the war. We try to be careful. For instance, I don’t want my classmates to know what my thoughts are.”
For some, the mandatory sessions on the war are an onerous but unavoidable duty.
“Both teachers and students, I think, understand that it’s not a real lesson. It’s not about learning. It’s something else, an obligatory event,” said a Moscow history teacher, Alexander. He said teachers were given guidelines on teaching history, “but what we say is not officially regulated.”
But officials seem determined to curb teachers’ freedom to decide how they teach history. Just days after the February invasion, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova summoned teachers to meetings where they were ordered to toe the government line on the war.
Some teachers who refused to teach the patriotic lessons were fired. Patrushev has warned that authorities could target school heads whose students did not have books about World War II or could not name Russian war heroes from past centuries.
“History is a subject that the authorities are always trying to use for propaganda purposes,” said Dmitry, a teacher from provincial Russia, where most people support the war. “History teachers are much more vulnerable than other teachers.”
Textbook publishers, meantime, are carrying out a Soviet-style purge of almost all references to Ukraine. After the invasion, management at Russia’s main text book publisher Prosveshchenie — meaning Enlightenment — ordered editors to slash references to Ukraine and Kyiv, according to a report by the independent Russian media Mediazona in April, based on interviews with three editors.
One editor said that “we have a task to make it look as if Ukraine simply does not exist,” the outlet reported.
In shattered Chernihiv, Russian siege leaves a city asking, ‘Why?’
Russian textbooks have just a page about the millions of people shot or jailed illegally in Soviet times, according to Marina Agaltsova, a lawyer with Memorial, a renowned nonprofit dedicated to exposing Soviet-era repression that was shut down by authorities last year.
“If you have only one small stain on the big, glorious history of the Soviet Union, of course you would think that the Soviet Union is a great state, and we all have to get back to that state,” she said.
Memorial historian Nikita Petrov said Russia’s insistence that students unquestioningly accept the Kremlin’s version of history was “dangerous.”
In late 1970s, Petrov, then a chemistry student, had got his hands on a smuggled copy of British historian Robert Conquest’s “The Great Terror” about the Stalin-era purges. Smuggled books on Soviet history were like gold to him, he recalled. He decided that becoming a historian was more important than being a chemist.
“In the Soviet Union, history did not exist as a science. Facts were hidden and not revealed. And people did not know historical facts. They knew only what they were told,” he said.
He spent years uncovering the Stalin-era execution of his great-grandfather. Lawsuits seek to bury the evidence.
Russia’s ‘foreign agent’ law now threatens rights group that survived even Soviet pressures
Putin’s war propaganda becomes ‘patriotic’ lessons in Russian schools | 2022-06-11T06:38:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Russian security chiefs militarizing school children, censoring textbooks - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/11/russia-schools-textbooks-war-propaganda/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/11/russia-schools-textbooks-war-propaganda/ |
Boris Johnson’s Thatcherite Housing Ideas Won’t Go Very Far
LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 07: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson welcomes The President Of Poland, Andrzej Duda (not shown) to Downing Street on April 07, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by Aaron Chown - WPA Pool/Getty Images) (Photographer: WPA Pool/Getty Images Europe)
In the words of Noel Coward’s chirpy song of doom, “there are bad times just around the corner” for Boris Johnson.
The prime minister ends the week as walking wounded, having narrowly survived a no-confidence vote on his Conservative party leadership on Monday. If such a test was long in the cards, the ferocity of the uprising has taken even a leader known for his boosterism by surprise.
The opinion polls and 41% of his MPs may be against him, but Johnson is usually at his most resourceful when his back is against the wall. Can he stop the rot?
First, the prime minister must find a clearer strategy for survival. On the evidence so far, he has no plan other than personal defiance, a play for time and scattershot policy proposals.
The background for this political mortal combat is grim. An OECD report published this week predicts that the UK will experience the lowest growth of the G7 countries next year (at 0%), driven by double-digit inflation. Household incomes, which have hitherto propped up the stuttering economy, will fall sharply in real terms.
That’s hardly favorable ground on which to fight a general election two years hence, and Johnson will be grateful to survive that long. His former Brexit minister David Frost, now the darling of the party’s nervy right wing, warns that the prime minister will be out by October unless he delivers “a 10-year Conservative plan” for changing Britain.
In the short term, two by-elections in Tory-held seats at the end of June are predicted to result in victory for Labour in the north and perhaps for the newly resurgent Liberal Democrats in the southwest. The House of Commons Privileges Committee will also decide whether Johnson misled Parliament over the Partygate scandal — a resigning matter, even if Johnson isn’t the resigning type.
In a wide-ranging speech in Blackpool on Thursday, the prime minister set out to prove that his government still has a purpose. Yet it begged many of the same old questions.
Johnson’s former chief adviser Dominic Cummings once compared him to “a shopping trolley smashing from one side of the aisle to the other.” Despite his large House of Commons majority, rebellious factions in his party were already vetoing contentious legislation. After an unconvincing victory on Monday, dare the prime minister follow any bold course that might tip more MPs against him?
A natural big spender, Johnson is being urged by his party’s powerful right wing to fund tax cuts from state expenditure cuts. They demand “red meat” and the juicer the better — recent tax rises must be reversed and VAT on fuel bills slashed. At Blackpool, Johnson paid ritual obeisance to this wing by accepting that the tax burden was too high. But he stood by his fiscally orthodox chancellor who wants to postpone income tax cuts until next year. Watch for the next wobble.
The centerpiece of his speech, however, was a proposal to revive “The Right to Buy,” an iconic policy associated with Margaret Thatcher that allowed millions of tenants in social housing to buy their homes at a discount. In the 1980s, that drove a wedge between aspirational working-class voters and the Labour party, their former political home. The electoral logic of home-ownership remains the same: 57% of those who own their homes outright and 43% of those with mortgages voted for the Tories in 2019, while large percentages of social renters and private tenants plumped for Labour.
But much has changed since the great homeownership push by Maggie. From a high point in 1991, owner-occupation has fallen, especially among the young. Among those aged 35 to 44, the figure stood at 78% some 30 years ago. Today, it’s at 56%. For those under 34, it is much less than half. The cost of a deposit also keeps rising — during the pandemic it typically rose to 110% of the average annual wage.
In his Blackpool speech, Johnson proposed that millions of households will be given the right to buy the property they rent from housing associations, as they currently can with council houses. The housing benefit those with lower incomes receive from the state might also go toward the purchase of their property.
However, this idea was trialed before by an earlier Conservative administration and abandoned as too cumbersome and expensive. How will the current government compensate largely private housing associations for property sold to tenants? Money is already tight and Johnson has also pledged to replace properties sold with new housing stock.
In theory, the economic logic is compelling. A new report from the Centre for Policy Studies think tank estimates that only 2.3 pence is spent by the state in incentivizing home-ownership for every pound that subsidizes renting. Long-term savings to the Treasury are set at £140,000 ($172,480) for every house sold. Yet over the medium-term it would cost £3 billion to fund the program, and the government is offering £500 million at best.
The key policy is also risky. Having first-time buyers put down a smaller deposit has also been tried before. Last time around, it helped stoke house price inflation and lost insurers billions when the bubble burst. The Treasury is wary of taking on the responsibility of insuring against defaulters.
The simpler solution is to build more houses and continue to relax planning rules, as Johnson promised in a key plank of his party manifesto. Yet here too, he is torn.
After furious opposition from many of his MPs and the by-election loss of a southern seat to the Liberal Democrats last year, Johnson abandoned his plans for a bonfire of the planning regulations that restrict building in desirable (Tory) neighborhoods. In his Blackpool speech, he even backed away from the government’s existing target to build 300,000 homes a year.
Meanwhile, the prime minister boasts that he is going all-out for growth, while he’s pledged to revise the Northern Ireland protocol he himself negotiated with the European Union. Does he appease his Brexit Right by tearing up his deal and risking a trade war with Brussels that will hit the economy? Or will he count on his pro-European MPs and the House of Lords to vote down the legislation and save him from himself?
The achievements he has under his belt all derive from his executive authority — forcing Brexit through, appointing Kate Bingham to deliver the fastest pandemic vaccine program in Europe, and throwing his weight behind arming Ukraine from the outset. Unless he can revitalize his appeal as commander-in-chief of his party, Johnson will be facing a political firing squad. | 2022-06-11T07:35:17Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Boris Johnson’s Thatcherite Housing Ideas Won’t Go Very Far - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/boris-johnsons-thatcherite-housing-ideas-wont-go-very-far/2022/06/11/89c4a146-e94c-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/boris-johnsons-thatcherite-housing-ideas-wont-go-very-far/2022/06/11/89c4a146-e94c-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
BOSTON — Stephen Curry scored 43 points to lead the Golden State Warriors to a 107-97 victory over the Boston Celtics in Game 4 of the NBA Finals, sending the series back to San Francisco knotted at two games apiece.
WASHINGTON — Washington Commanders defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio has been fined $100,000 by the team for his comments about protests in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd and the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
PHILADELPHIA — Rhys Hoskins hit a pair of solo home runs and Kyle Schwarber added a three-run shot to lead the red-hot Philadelphia Phillies to their eighth straight win, 7-5 over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
NEW YORK — Pinch-hitter Jose Trevino finally broke a stalemate in the 13th inning with a game-winning single that gave the New York Yankees a 2-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs.
AUSTIN, Texas — Jesús Ferreira tied the United States’ international record with four goals and the Americans beat Grenada 5-0 on Friday night in a World Cup sendoff, a CONCACAF Nations League match 164 days before their opener in Qatar.
ST. ALBANS, England — Former U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau became the latest big name to sign on with the Saudi-funded breakaway series LIV Golf, and Charl Schwartzel remained on course to win the maximum prize of $4.75 million at its inaugural event outside London.
TORONTO — Wyndham Clark closed with an unlikely par save to take a one-stroke lead over defending champion Rory McIlroy and four other players into the weekend in the RBC Canadian Open.
GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP, N.J. — Australian rookie Stephanie Kyriacou shot a 6-under 65 to take the first-round lead in the ShopRite LPGA Classic at Seaview Hotel and Golf Club.
MADISON, Wis. — Steve Flesch shot a 7-under 65 to take the first-round lead in the PGA Tour Champions’ American Family Insurance Championship. | 2022-06-11T07:35:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Friday's Sports In Brief - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/fridays-sports-in-brief/2022/06/11/7a0e2830-e956-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/fridays-sports-in-brief/2022/06/11/7a0e2830-e956-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
Amid Ukraine war, husband and wife doctor team runs frontline hospital
Ievgeniia Sivorsk
A man who had a heart attack in the hospital in Slovyansk, Ukraine, on June 8. (Heidi Levine/FTWP)
SLOVYANSK, Ukraine — The doctors could have left months ago.
Before sandbags barricaded their patients’ windows and the booms of artillery echoed day and night. Before camouflaged ambulances sat waiting outside, ready for their next call to retrieve the wounded. Before the water was knocked out in a strike and civilians poured into their hospital with gruesome wounds — an old woman with shrapnel in her knee, another with a piece lodged in her neck.
Some 70 percent of this hospital’s staff have already fled — leaving Ukraine, or heading west to relative safety further from the front line.
Valentyna and Arkady Glushenko’s children have begged them to do the same — to run, to leave their work behind, “to stay alive.” But even as Russian forces push closer, with positions now just about seven miles from this eastern city, the two doctors are refusing to budge.
“If the general runs away from the hospital, what happens to the army?” Arkady said with a shrug one morning this week, the near-constant sound of outgoing shelling reverberating just outside his first-floor office window. “I have to help people. It doesn’t matter if they are army or civilians. It doesn’t matter gender, faith or who you are.”
The Glushenkos are among a dwindling number of civilians willing to stay in this enclave in eastern Ukraine, where the threat of a Russian takeover looms ever closer.
Over the last several weeks, Russian forces have made major territorial gains, pushing outgunned Ukrainian soldiers back from key positions and using artillery to destroy infrastructure in small cities and towns along the way.
Street battles are raging in the city of Severodonetsk. Other nearby cities, including Lysychansk and Bakhmut, have come under intense shelling. Russian forces have also set their sights on Slovyansk — a town that pro-Russian forces briefly controlled during their 2014 assault on the Donbas region. At that time, they infiltrated the hospital, eventually using part of it as their base as Ukrainian doctors tried to use the facilities to treat many wounded civilians, Arkady said.
When the soldiers were finally forced out by Ukrainian troops, the building was left in disarray. “The doors were smashed; there was dirt everywhere,” Arkady recalled.
This time around, with the city still in Ukrainian hands, the hospital staff who stayed behind are avoiding thoughts of a worst-case scenario and instead throwing their full focus into the task at hand. “They’re not here right now,” Arkady said of the Russians. “So let’s just not bring it up.”
Arkady, 62, and Valentyna, 58, met at this hospital decades ago. He was an ambitious first-year surgical resident; she was his intuitive operating room nurse. They married in 1984, and she gave birth to their first son that same year and another four years later. Arkady persuaded Valentyna to return to medical school to become a doctor. She focused on gynecology while he worked as a surgeon and cared for their sons. The intensity of the job meant she learned at a young age that she would need to make personal sacrifices for her career.
She said she worked so many shifts that she “didn’t see my kids grow up.”
Eventually, she was promoted to director of the hospital. Arkady became director of surgery.
The couple experienced difficult times in Ukraine’s early days as an independent nation. In the early 1990s, Valentyna recalled, they went some six months without pay. They worked shifts in the hospital while bartering vegetables from their garden for food and supplies.
But they could never have imagined the circumstances they now find themselves in as they treat mainly civilians wounded in Russia’s war on Ukraine — the vast majority injured by shelling. They and the other staff who opted to stay behind are continuing to treat patients even as they contend with the enormous risk of Russian assault, including its personal consequences.
Dmitry Smirnov, a 27-year-old radiologist working in the hospital, learned through Telegram that his house in the nearby Russian-occupied city of Lyman had been destroyed.
A dwindling number of pregnant people are left in Slovyansk, with many having relocated to safer cities further from the front line. When one woman delivered a premature baby three weeks ago, there was no neonatal doctor to treat the newborn. Instead, Valentyna found the mother and baby a spot in an ambulance with a badly wounded soldier. The three were transported together to Dnipro, a city some four hours away.
Hospital staff has had to adjust to its new wartime reality. In the basement of the hospital, they have set up an operating room in the bunker, which is prepared to accommodate patients for most major surgeries or childbirth.
With no running water, the staff washes their hands with water from plastic bottles. When the power was cut last week, they rushed to transport many elderly patients to hospitals further from the front line, fearing they could no longer properly care for them and knowing they needed to free up more beds for incoming urgent cases. When a water truck pulled up outside, staff rushed to fill up buckets and other containers.
Still, Arkady said, it beats the conditions in 2014, when they had to collect rain.
About 10 miles to the south, in the city of Kramatorsk, the few doctors who stayed behind are coping with similar conditions and a flood of wounded troops straight from the front line.
Mykhailo Skliar started his residency at Hospital No. 3 expecting to slowly hone the basics of trauma medicine by treating household injuries and other more common accidents.
Instead, he was thrown into the role of wartime doctor — treating soldiers grievously wounded in the fighting and civilians caught in the middle, including those with severe wounds from rocket attacks. In April, he responded to the brutal shelling of his city’s train station that killed dozens of people, including children.
“People were lying down in the hallway. A lot of blood was on the floor,” he said. “It was a complete mess. Every staff member was preoccupied with every patient.”
He provides first-response treatment for soldiers wounded on the battlefield before they are transferred to better-equipped facilities in Dnipro. Often, he doesn’t even learn the fate of the people he treats.
On Thursday, he admitted a middle-aged soldier named Roman, who had been shot in his left lung. He required a tube in his chest cavity and was scheduled to be transferred to Dnipro the next day. He breathed shallowly in his bed, his chest covered in bandages. “It’s hard to speak,” he groaned. In the hallway outside his room, bloody fatigues sat in a cardboard box next to a discarded bouquet of flowers.
Later that afternoon, another soldier arrived in an ambulance, his bloody face wrapped in bandages after he was hit with shrapnel.
Skliar’s best friend, Dmitry Oleksyuk, 26, is a fellow trauma resident. The two have lined up their schedules to work together and support each other through the most difficult days of the war. The day of the train station attack, Oleksyuk said, “the first child brought in was a 4-year-old boy whose leg was missing.”
The anguish that comes with treating such cases is a feeling few other people understand.
“We can relate to each other and reveal more to each other,” he said of Skliar.
The war has left Skliar hardly able to recognize the younger, and maybe more innocent, version of himself. “You feel completely different compared to your state before the war,” he said. “I will never see medicine as I saw it before … sometimes you’re a janitor, nurse and doctor all at the same time.”
He feels mixed emotions over the doctors who chose to flee earlier on, he said. Some are living in relative safety while he spends so much time at the hospital treating the wounded that he barely engages with the world outside.
“It feels like life is going on without you,” he said. “You know you’re doing an important job, but you feel like you’re missing out.”
Sometimes, Arkady said, he catches himself thinking “the weather is nice” or “it’s quiet.”
“The next thought is: ‘I hope the war stops,’ ” he said. “But then I realize it’s not going to stop, not today or tomorrow.”
Heidi Levine and Anastacia Galouchka contributed to this report. | 2022-06-11T08:10:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ukraine Husband and wife doctor team runs frontline hospital - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/11/ukraine-hospital-husband-wife-team/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/11/ukraine-hospital-husband-wife-team/ |
Eight no-hitters and 59 wins: Oklahoma’s case as softball’s all-time best
The Oklahoma softball team celebrates its second straight Women's College World Series title after defeating Texas on Thursday. (Brian Bahr/Getty Images)
After winning games by 19, 20 and 21 runs, Oklahoma softball offered a more subtle showing during its Thursday victory over rival Texas, a 10-5 win that secured a second straight national title for a team whose achievements are extraordinarily extensive.
Indeed, numbers help capture the historic quality this team.
This season’s journey to the school’s sixth national title spanned 62 games — 59 of them wins, and 41 ended by mercy rule. It had 155 home runs, 33 shutouts and eight no-hitters — a reflection of its hitting prowess as much as the skill of its pitching staff.
Along the way, star slugger Jocelyn Alo smashed her NCAA career-record 122nd home run — and a host of other records. All-American Tiare Jennings set a Women’s College World Series record with 15 RBI. And freshman phenom Jordy Bahl finished the year with a 22-1 record, a 1.16 ERA and 207 strikeouts in 145 1/3 innings.
Those stats and superlatives invited questions about Oklahoma’s place among the best in the school and sport’s history. Some players avoided direct answers after the win, but Coach Patty Gasso flipped the question on inquiring minds.
“I’m going to let you decide,” Gasso told reporters. “You guys all have the stats and all that stuff. I could rank them very, very high, if not the highest, because everything they do looks so easy to me, and they do it so fast.”
The trophy stays 𝐈𝐍 𝐍𝐎𝐑𝐌𝐀𝐍 🏆 pic.twitter.com/49OO4Y2vsb
Oklahoma lost three games this season, including one to then-No. 18 Texas in mid-April and another to a top 10 Oklahoma State team a month later in the Big 12 title game. The latter, a 4-3 defeat, represented one of the team’s lowest scoring outputs this season, and marked the first time the Sooners had not won the regular season and tournament titles since 2012.
“This team is not happy with the defeat,” Gasso said after the loss. “That is something they always seem to bounce back even stronger. They did that at Texas. They want to win championships. When someone takes it from them, they respond.”
Oklahoma responded once regionals began, crushing its next six opponents by a 113-11 margin — sans a 7-3 Game 1 defeat to UCLA in the first game of the semifinal, which, on the brink of elimination, the Sooners avenged with a 15-0 drubbing of the Bruins later that day.
Why focus on the losses? Because they’re easier to count than the records.
Alo has been a prolific record reviser during this year’s College World Series. Entering Thursday’s game, she already held at least five WCWS records — or shared them with Jennings. She’s the only player in NCAA Division I softball history to lead the country in home runs in three different seasons.
Her team has had more home runs, more total bases and more runs scored than any other in a WCWS game. And that’s after the Sooners opened the season with a 38-0 record, the best start in Division I history. This season, the Sooners led the country in batting average (.371), ERA (1.05), home runs per game (2.5), runs per game (9.34) and slugging percentage (.734).
Between stars such as Alo and Jennings, who led Division I in RBI (Alo’s 85 were second and senior Grace Lyons tied for sixth with 70), Oklahoma’s firepower was a well known commodity before this season. If there was a question as to whether the team could repeat, it centered around its pitching after the program returned just one of its primary pitchers (Nicole May).
But Gasso reloaded with Bahl, who was named an all-American this season, and Hope Trautwein, a North Texas transfer who last year recorded the first all-strikeout perfect game in NCAA Division I history. All three rank in the top 10 in ERA, led by Trautwein (second), Bahl (fifth) and May (10th). For May’s part, she earned the 20-0 win against Texas A&M on May 22, which sent the Sooners onto the super regional, and marked the largest margin of victory in NCAA tournament history.
PURE DOMINANCE 😮 @ou_softball will have a chance to win back-to-back #WCWS titles tonight 🏆 pic.twitter.com/q0g4Mvay61
UCLA became the only team in Division I softball history to win three consecutive championships between 1988 and 1990. Alo, one of five “super seniors” on the team after being granted an additional year of eligibility because of the pandemic, departs. But Jennings is a sophomore, as is Jayda Coleman, whose leaping robbery helped secure the school’s fifth title in the past nine World Series.
When asked where the 2022 Oklahoma softball team fits in the annals of softball history, Alo was more definitive than her teammates. But she left the door open.
“I would say with me being a senior, I think this is the best team,” Alo said. “But one thing about Sooner softball, and I’ve seen it year in and year out, is they just continue to get better. I don’t know what holds next year, but I know that they could be a run for the best team too.” | 2022-06-11T09:15:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Oklahoma softball smashed pitches, records en route to NCAA title - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/11/oklahoma-softball-championship/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/11/oklahoma-softball-championship/ |
Drivers adjust routines to cut costs as D.C. gas prices reach $5
The numbers are the highest recorded in the region, forcing motorists to seek out cost savings
Average gas prices in the D.C. area have surpassed $5, with a gas bill of more than $190 seen at an Exxon station on Michigan Ave NE in Washington. (Gaya Gupta/The Washington Post)
The average price for a gallon of gasoline hit $5 for the first time Friday across the Washington region, reinforcing a shift in behavioral changes as motorists increasingly turn to carpools, public transit and other methods to find financial relief.
Prices in the D.C. area ranged from about $4.93 in some outer suburbs to $5.21 in the District, according to AAA, mirroring a national rise ahead of the summer travel season. The numbers are the highest recorded in the region, forcing motorists to seek out cost savings amid a broad jump in the cost of several consumer goods.
Travis King, 43, commutes nearly two hours each day from his home in Spotsylvania County, Va., to his health care job in Rockville, Md. Unable to reduce his driving, about three months ago he decided to switch to a more fuel-efficient car. The price of fuel has also threatened earnings from two family-owned businesses, which his wife operates during the week.
“We’ve had to up the prices of our products,” he said on a recent morning, filling up a portion of his tank at a Wawa station in Fredericksburg. “If I’m paying this amount for gas, I’ve got to offset that somewhere.”
Are higher gas prices affecting your travel plans this summer?
Whether driving less or reducing costs elsewhere, King is among millions of motorists adjusting their lives to become more fuel-efficient as fuel prices surge.
The average price for a gallon of gas stood Friday at $4.81 in Virginia and $4.99 in Maryland, according to AAA. The average for the metro area was $5 — about $2 higher than a year earlier — while Washington gas prices are hovering about 2 cents above the national average.
California had the nation’s most expensive gas, at $6.42 a gallon, while Georgia was the lowest at $4.43 a gallon, according to AAA.
“We have a bit of a perfect storm brewing regarding gas prices and the impact on travel,” said Bill Eisele, senior research engineer at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. “We have this ubiquitous inflation right now across all goods and services — housing is up, groceries are up and now gas is up.”
Spiking gas prices sting drivers nationwide, tapping pocketbooks and patience
Christopher Knittel, a professor of applied economics at the MIT Sloan School of Management, cited two main economic and geopolitical factors that have contributed to the rise at the pump.
“The war in Ukraine has injected a lot of uncertainty into oil markets and has led to less Russian oil being put on the world market, so that’s put upward pressure on oil prices,” he said.
The world’s demand for oil is also rising more than two years into the pandemic, Knittel said, a period that also coincides with a rise in travel demand. Production slowed at the start of the pandemic as driving levels plummeted, but now supply is struggling to keep up.
AAA Mid-Atlantic spokeswoman Ragina Ali said gasoline demand is continuing to grow as drivers fuel up for summer travel.
“Despite record-high gas prices, we are not seeing a reduction in gasoline consumption,” she said Friday. “We have seen, if anything, an increase in the last week.”
Rising gas and energy prices last month contributed to a jump in inflation, which reached 8.6 percent compared with a year earlier — the fastest pace in 40 years, according to federal data released Friday. Airfare, used cars and new vehicles were among the other largest contributors to the rise.
There is likely little relief in sight for motorists. Eisele said gas prices also tend to go up in the summer because of the switch to summer-grade gasoline — a cleaner, reformulated blend offered by stations during the warmer months that is more expensive to produce.
“That’s another unfortunate layer to this drama that’s unfolding,” he said.
Increasing gas prices have ushered in changes to the way people move around.
A nationwide Washington Post-Schar School poll conducted between April 21 and May 12 — when Washington-area gas prices were about 57 cents lower — showed more than 6 in 10 drivers are deciding to drive less, while more than 3 in 10 said they are driving more slowly, which can boost fuel efficiency. About 2 in 10 drivers have carpooled because of rising gas prices.
Khalil Thompson, a consultant who lives in D.C., said he avoids fully filling up his tank and tries to stretch $20 worth of gas to last a week — often limiting driving to dropping off his daughter at school. He said he’s started walking, rather than driving, to the grocery store.
“I don’t go out as much anymore,” Thompson said. “I minimize my driving to bare essentials.”
Some commuters who rely on their car for work have cut back on other costs in response to the rising prices.
David Chase was driving about 100 miles round trip every weekend from his Gaithersburg home to see his family on the Eastern Shore. With the cost of gas rising, his family has cut back on the tradition.
His three roommates have also started to consolidate their driving trips to save money. Instead of grocery shopping individually, he said, they will ask each other to pick up items if someone is planning to shop.
“I don’t go out as much to buy groceries or run errands,” Chase said. “As much as we can, [we] compact the trip to one visit.”
Experts said also they expect continued flexibility with remote work, an option made more accessible by the pandemic.
With an 80-mile commute to D.C. each day, Monica Stearns, a college administrator from Winchester, has been working from home when she can. To ease the effects of higher commuting costs, she said she’s weighing how to offer her staff more flexibility.
“We’re utilizing telework when we can, remote working, and being flexible in terms of the timing they come in so they can take advantage of off-hours,” she said.
The rising prices have led some motorists to give alternatives such as Metro and Capital Bikeshare another look. While it’s not clear how much gas prices are contributing to ridership increases, leaders of both organizations say elevated fuel costs are making public transportation more appealing.
Capital Bikeshare recorded its highest pandemic-era ridership in May, as did the San Francisco area’s Bay Wheels. New York’s Citi Bike approached its all-time single-day record last weekend.
“Bikeshare has always been among the most affordable options for traveling a few miles around the region — and today’s gas prices make it even more appealing,” Dominick Tribone, Lyft’s general manager for Capital Bikeshare, said in a statement.
Despite multiple safety and service issues, Metro also has seen an increase in average ridership over the spring. Average weekday rail ridership increased 85 percent from January to May, while average weekday bus ridership more than doubled over the same time frame. The timing also coincides with a rise in office work as restrictions have loosened more than two years into the pandemic.
Greg Gant, an engineer and YMCA instructor who lives on Capitol Hill, said he switched to public transportation this month to get to work after gasoline prices became too high. He tracks his gas expenses using an app — paying well over $5 a gallon to fill up his tank with premium gas.
He said he hopes to switch back to driving, but for now, the price of gas is “just too much.”
Experts said high gas prices could lead people to seek out more environmentally friendly alternatives to their gas-guzzling commutes. Knittel said more people in urban areas likely will seek out public transportation options.
“There are a fair bit of investment costs to learn the system and organize rides,” he said. “I would expect that a fair number of commuters would start to invest the time and effort in learning what is their best public transit options available to them, and then the next response to that is to lobby or certainly put pressure on policymakers to improve public transit systems.”
Thompson said he plans to continue limiting his driving in hopes that fuel demand will wane in the coming months and price relief will follow.
“I’m just trying to get through the summer,” he said. “I’m hopeful something will change by then.” | 2022-06-11T10:33:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | High gas prices: Drivers adjust routines to cut fuel costs - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/06/11/gas-prices-commuting-travel/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/06/11/gas-prices-commuting-travel/ |
Students this year need summer school. Some districts can’t staff it.
After a year of teacher burnout, schools are raising teacher pay — or cutting back.
Iyanna Hutcherson,18, left, and teacher-intern Catherine Wilkerson, 27, at a summer program at the Phillips School in Annandale, Va., in 2018. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)
“We’re not sure we can fully staff them,” Redlinger said, as she also sympathized with depleted educators who need time off to recharge.
As school systems open for summer sessions, some are seeing the fallout of a punishing pandemic school year. Many would argue that the 2021-2022 school year was among the toughest they’ve experienced — with extreme staffing shortages, clashes over masking and quarantines, political tumult nationally, widespread exhaustion, students who needed extra support, and, as one school leader put it, “uncertainty around every corner.”
Dan Domenech, executive director of the AASA, the School Superintendents Association, said summer programs have not been spared from some of the same problems. Federal pandemic relief funds have helped school systems, but they are being used on a wide range of efforts.
“The push to get children caught up is not going to be realized fully because the staff isn’t there to do it,” he said. School districts “are offering whatever they can offer."
The principal is cleaning the bathroom: Schools reel with staffing shortages
Summer school classes, once viewed as remedial, have evolved over the years. Students attend to gain credits, catch up academically, ward off learning losses, explore new topics or participate in enrichment activities. Many are low-cost or free, especially intended for vulnerable students. Community organizations and other groups also offer summer camps, activities and learning programs.
In Madison, Wis., the school system’s “Summer Semester” included seats for 3,520 students — but not for hundreds of others who wanted or needed it. Emails went out June 1 saying there was no more space.
“We have received a tremendous amount of interest from families looking to participate,” school officials wrote. “Although this is great news, we are unfortunately experiencing unanticipated staffing challenges.”
The 26,500-student Madison Metropolitan School District is paying less this summer than it did last, when it used federal pandemic relief funds to bump teacher pay to $40 an hour, said spokesman Tim LeMonds. Teachers get $28 an hour this summer — with federal money steered elsewhere.
Still, this year’s $28-an-hour base pay reflects a 12 percent increase from the previous base pay of $25-an-hour, LeMonds noted. The school system is continuing to recruit teachers and has recently been able to re-enroll 100 of the 700 students who were turned away. “We are working really hard to continue in that direction,” he said. They are also connecting families with community programs, he said.
Elsewhere, eye-catching pay hikes or bonuses have succeeded in attracting staff — or officials are finding other creative ways to offer well-staffed programs. St. Louis Public Schools are paying teachers $40-an-hour this year, from roughly $25-an-hour last year. Support-staff pay jumped $10-an-hour above the usual rate.
“This is the first time we’ve had a waiting list to teach summer school,” said Charles Burton, the school system’s chief human resources officer.
To spark student interest, summer classes in St. Louis are being framed as “summer camp,” with hands-on experiential learning for all and Friday field trips for younger kids. More than 6,000 students signed on, bigger than last year — and about 30 percent of the 20,000-student district.
Others took different paths. Los Angeles officials said they focused on hiring teachers throughout the academic year, adding nearly 2,500; they do not expect summer school shortages. “We’re very confident we’ll have enough teachers to do the work,” said Ileana Davalos, chief human resources officer.
Davalos said working during summer months still allows educators time to catch their breath; the hours are shorter and programs don’t start immediately. “There is time to refresh yourself,” she said.
Pay increases are not without trade-offs. Pushing up hourly pay rates in one area can mean that nearby school systems struggle to hire staff, said Ronn Nozoe, chief executive of the National Association of Secondary School Principals. “Neighboring districts suffer,” he said.
The 2021-2022 school year was once thought to mark a return to normalcy. Instead, in-person school coincided with staffing shortages that left many teachers covering extra classes during their planning periods. Other employees stepped up for cleaning and cafeteria duty. In several areas, National Guard troops pitched in to drive school buses.
At the same time, schools contended with coronavirus surges and heated debate about masking and quarantine policies. Parents argued about whether schools were really safe. And political issues intensified, amid book bans and uproars about critical race theory and the teaching of gender identity and sexual orientation.
Maryland teacher Leslie Appino, who works in the state’s largest school system, in Montgomery County, said the stressors of 2021-2022 were like nothing else in her two-decade career. Usually she teaches in the summer, but this year the constant demands and pressure — the “sheer exhaustion" of it all — made summer work a bigger decision.
"I debated back and forth,” she said — persuaded in the end by the extra income and in-person classes. “I’m looking forward to it,” she said.
Educators support summer school and summer camps, said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. “They know the programs are incredibly important to kids,” she said. Any shortages for the summer likely reflect year-end burnout and the ongoing national teacher shortage, Weingarten said.
High schools in Independence, Mo., have made summer school more appealing this year by moving to four-day school weeks — so there are three-day weekends throughout the summer. “It helped with the recruiting,” said Randy Oliver, assistant principal at Van Horn High School.
School systems pay for summer school with a mix of federal, state or local funds, because in all but three states there is no dedicated funding stream, said Jennifer McCombs, research director at the Learning Policy Institute, a national education think tank. In lean budget years, some strapped districts don’t offer summer school, she said. But the pandemic has increased attention on expanded summer learning — and billions of federal dollars have been steered to schools, some of which can be used in the summer. Research has shown that the cost of a district-run five-week program, for six hours a day (including academic instruction and enrichment activities) was on average roughly $1,500 per student in 2020, McCombs said.
In the North Marion School District in Oregon — about 40 minutes from Portland — Superintendent Redlinger said the rural district of 1,670 students expects a smaller program than last year, partly because many older students are worn out.
Still, Redlinger figures she needs to hire 11 more teachers and seven more assistants to cover a variety of summer offerings, including a program for migrant children and a high school session in August. Teachers receive pandemic pay of $65-an-hour this year, though Redlinger wants to make sure educators have time to recover after a difficult two years. “They need it, and they deserve it,” she said.
In Virginia, Arlington is faring better than last year — when it had to notify parents that its program for 5,000 students was shrinking by 40 percent for lack of teachers. This year, nearly 4,900 students are enrolled, said spokesman Frank Bellavia, with 25 teaching spots left to fill, he said.
D.C.-area school systems recruit exhausted teachers for summer instruction — with varying success
One change: Bonuses have been doubled this year — $2,000 for teachers and $1,000 for instructional assistants.
But it did not go as well for a residential summer program focused on medicine and health sciences, offered by the Governor’s Schools in Virginia. State officials canceled the program, for high school students, for lack of staff, said Charles Pyle, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Education. They are hoping to find places in their other summer programs for the 26 students who were affected.
Before this year, Pyle said, programs were canceled because of the pandemic, but “this is the first time a program has been canceled due to a lack of personnel." | 2022-06-11T10:38:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Teacher shortages plague summer school - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/06/11/summer-school-teacher-learning-loss/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/06/11/summer-school-teacher-learning-loss/ |
Will Estrada runs a “parental rights” group in Purcellville, Va. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)
Will Estrada was lobbying to get “parental rights” enshrined in the U.S. Constitution in 2009 when he held a breakout session on home-schooling at a conference in Mississippi.
Estrada, 39, who grew up in a conservative Christian home-schooling family, believed it is parents’ fundamental right to make choices for their children. But that day, he recalled, just six people showed up — armed with questions about Obamacare.
“We’ve been speaking into the void,” he said. Now, “suddenly everyone cares about parental rights.”
Over the past year, parental rights have become a popular cause as Republicans have assailed coronavirus measures and the teaching of gender and race in schools. Last year in Virginia, where Estrada now lives, former business executive Glenn Youngkin rode a wave of frustration over mask mandates and anxiety over critical race theory to the Governor’s Mansion. Legislators across the country have also produced a stream of parental-rights-related bills. For Christian home-school advocates like Estrada, it’s a long-awaited payoff.
“There are those people who in some cases have dedicated their life’s work to this,” he said. “Now their diligence and toiling behind the scenes have been vindicated with the rise of interest.”
Parental rights have not always been a partisan issue. “The parental right argument is as old as public schools,” said Adam Laats, a professor of education at Binghamton University State University of New York. “Parental rights is used by every group when you feel like you’ve lost control of the schools.”
Laats says it dates to the late 1800s when Catholic parents wanted their version of the Bible to be read in schools instead of the King James Version favored by Protestants.
In the 1960s, it became popular among conservative Christians, after the Supreme Court ruled that devotional prayer, sponsored Bible reading and the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer in public schools was unconstitutional.
“Since the 1960s, parental rights have been a rallying cry for conservative evangelicals who felt repeatedly usurped in their ability to control schools,” Laats said. “It was a shock to think public schools could possibly function without religion guiding them.”
In the ’80s, conservative Christians, encouraged by figures such as James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, embraced home-schooling as an alternative to what Dobson has called the “godless and immoral” curriculum in public schools.
In 1983, a lawyer named Michael Farris founded a Virginia-based group called the Home School Legal Defense Association, a group designed to protect home-schooling families from government regulations it saw as unnecessary. HSLDA has gone to great lengths since to prevent legal protections for home-schooled children across the country. ProPublica has reported that the organization successfully killed proposed regulations and changed existing laws in states across the nation on visitation rights from grandparents, mandatory high school attendance, and kindergarten programs at public schools. (Farris, who has long been one of the country’s most prominent conservative lawyers, also reportedly helped work on legal efforts to overturn the 2020 election. According to the New York Times, he drafted a lawsuit to help former president Trump remain in office. Farris declined to comment on his alleged election work.)
Farris launched ParentalRights.org in 2007, and in 2013 he worked on a Virginia parental rights law that Youngkin went on to cite in his 2021 executive order to eliminate mask mandates in public schools.
Besides laying a foundation for the current wave of parental rights-related policies, conservative Christian home-school advocates are also taking an active role in making these policies law.
In 2021, Estrada, who home-schools his two children with his wife in Loudoun County, left his federal government job to become president of ParentalRights.org. He has since testified on the issue in states such as South Dakota, Colorado and New Hampshire. Fifteen states currently have something about “parental rights” encoded in their state laws, Estrada said, and since he started in his role at parentalrights.org, he’s been involved in related legislation in Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.
Estrada partly credits the pandemic for helping spread interest in parental rights beyond conservative Christians, who don’t necessarily share the same underlying beliefs. His organization tries to stick to areas of consensus. It doesn’t take a stance on specific issues, but promotes the idea more broadly that parents should be the ones driving educational choices, not government workers, including teachers.
“We’re here for the simple point that parents should be making decisions,” he said.
Estrada said his organization did not get involved in legislation signed in March by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, described by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, that outlines what educators can teach on sexuality. But Estrada said parents are especially animated when they feel teachers are doing things behind parents’ backs.
“When home-schoolers were fighting for freedom, it united [people on the right and the left]. You just wanted to be left alone by the government,” he said. “The interesting point right now is that there isn’t unanimity about what should be the solution.”
Polls have shown slightly different opinions on policies like the “Don’t Say Gay” bill depending on how the question is worded. A March UChicago Harris/AP-NORC poll found 53 percent of U.S. adults opposed “prohibiting teachers from teaching about sex and sexuality in schools,” and a March ABC/Ipsos poll found 62 percent of adults opposed “legislation that would prohibit classroom lessons about sexual orientation or gender identity in elementary school.” Opinion was more divided in an April YouGov poll that found 44 percent of Americans supported “banning public school teachers from providing classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity to children in kindergarten through third grade,” while 41 percent opposed such a ban.
Lainna Callentine became a home-school mother of three after she attended a conference in 2007 where Farris was speaking about parental rights. As a pediatrician who worked in the emergency room, she resonated with the idea that parents could have their rights taken from them if the state deemed necessary because she had seen it happen. Callentine, who is Black, was invited to be on the ParentalRights.org board, where she spent seven years meeting with all White men, including former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. She resigned in 2014 because it became too partisan, she said, favoring Republican politics above all.
“I really supported the idea that parents should have the ability to raise their kids in a pure, organic way,” she said. “I kept watching, and I thought, ‘Peace out. I can’t be a brown stamp on that.’ ”
Now, Callentine says, she has seen the cause of parental rights glob onto issues she thinks have been blown out of proportion. She has attended local school board meetings in Wheaton, Ill., where she said parents threatened board members over mask mandates and how educators taught about racial issues.
“I came in with a perspective that was naive, that what people say is what they stand for,” she said. “There’s a lot of drumming up of threat.”
The Coalition for Responsible Home Education, an organization that advocates for home-schooled children, warns that “parental rights extremism” can end up harming children, especially in cases of abuse and neglect.
Leaders in the group believe that extreme “parental rights” advocacy has often been elevated to the exclusion of the rights and protections of children. Carmen Longoria-Green, a Washington-based lawyer who chairs the CRHE board, said that whenever you create an imbalance where the parents are the only ones with rights, people will inevitably misuse those laws.
“Parental rights extremism has uniquely affected home-school children, and that way of thinking and prioritizing parental rights will harm children at large,” she said. “It affects the ability of children to get out of bad situations. I think it’s only going to continue to ramp up.”
Robert Kunzman, a professor of curriculum studies and philosophy of education at Indiana University, said U.S. courts have historically held that if you send your child to a public school, you have less say in things like curriculum, that parents can work through school boards and committees to get changes passed. Recent legislation, however, has taken teacher oversight to a new level with proposals like the need to submit lesson plans and having cameras in the classroom.
That level of official surveillance runs separate to a core goal of many Christian home-schoolers, which is to keep government out of education entirely. But what parents in both communities have in common, Kunzman said, is an impulse that is anti-authority and anti-institutional.
“This idea didn’t originate with home schooling, but [that’s where] it gained traction and momentum,” Kunzman said.
Farris, who is now CEO of the major religious freedom advocacy firm Alliance Defending Freedom and has built out a parental rights division there, hopes to revive the effort Estrada had once advocated for: adding a parental-rights amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“There’s been a major societal shift, and I think it’s going to last a long time,” he said. Farris noted how voters in San Francisco in February tossed three school board members seen as too focused on racial justice.
“The elections we saw in San Francisco — not exactly the Bible Belt — where parents rose up and threw school board members out, should tell everyone this is a major issue,” he said. “And parents are awake, and they’re not going back to sleep.” | 2022-06-11T10:38:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How Christian home-schoolers laid the groundwork for ‘parental rights’ - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2022/06/11/parent-rights-home-schooling/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2022/06/11/parent-rights-home-schooling/ |
Silicon Valley braces for tech pullback after a decade of decadence
Veteran venture capitalists and CEOs are predicting an economy-wide recession.
Falling stock prices are displayed at the Tokyo Stock Exchange on June 7. (Akio Kon/Bloomberg News)
After a decade of exuberance, Silicon Valley start-ups, venture capitalists and established tech companies alike are cutting investment and firing workers, prompting some in the tech world to openly predict a U.S. recession is on the way.
Facebook and Amazon have slowed their frantic hiring paces, while highflying newer companies including scooter company Bird and email client Superhuman have laid off workers. Tesla chief executive Elon Musk recently told employees he has a “super bad feeling” about the economy, and venture capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners warned in a blog post that “the boom times of the last decade are unambiguously over.”
On Thursday, fashion tech company Stitch Fix said it was cutting about 15 percent of salaried positions, or a total of 330 roles, sending its stock price sinking. The people losing their jobs were told that morning, chief executive Elizabeth Spaulding wrote in a memo to employees.
“In light of our recent business momentum and an uncertain macroeconomic environment, we’ve taken a renewed look at our business and what is required to build our future,” Spaulding wrote.
The broader industry slump worsened on Friday, when the tech-heavy Nasdaq index fell 3.5 percent. It is now down 28 percent for the year.
The sudden shift is giving many in the sector whiplash. Uncertainty has settled over Silicon Valley as venture capitalists, tech founders and regular employees debate whether the pessimism is overblown or if tech really is the canary in the coal mine, already suggesting a broader downturn in the U.S. economy.
Tech start-ups do serve as a “leading indicator” for the economy, said Till von Wachter, a professor of economics at UCLA. Higher interest rates can mean it’s more difficult to raise money to fund new ventures — which typically take a while to turn a profit.
“They are one of the sectors that are the most sensitive to interest rate changes,” von Wachter said. “They are very dependent on what we believe the future to be.”
Tech has benefited immensely from the roaring bull market of the past decade, with soaring valuations enriching not just owners and investors but hundreds of thousands of employees who were paid in stock on top of their regular salaries. The pension plans and 401(k)s of millions of Americans have benefited from companies like Apple, Amazon, Google and Microsoft breaking through the trillion-dollar mark and becoming as valuable as the annual output of entire economies such as Italy or Brazil.
Year after year of rising valuations has created a pervasive feeling that there is nowhere to go but up. An entire generation of tech workers and founders have never worked in an industry without long lists of open jobs, new projects getting approved easily and employers throwing a stream of perks such as free meals and unlimited vacation at them.
Money has poured into smaller tech companies, too, as investors, including traditional venture capitalists all the way up to government-run sovereign wealth funds, have looked for ways to get in on the tech boom that never seemed to end.
Tech has faced shaky moments in the recent past. At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, millions of Americans lost their jobs, and tech stocks, along with the rest of the market, fell quickly. But it bounced back almost immediately, and many grew even stronger during the pandemic as government spending boosted the economy and people spent more of their money on e-commerce and digital services.
To some prominent tech luminaries, this moment feels different.
“We do not believe that this is going to be another steep correction followed by an equally swift V-shaped recovery like we saw at the outset of the pandemic,” the leaders of blue-chip Silicon Valley venture capital firm Sequoia Capital wrote in a May presentation to its portfolio companies that was published by tech news organization the Information. “We expect the market downturn to impact consumer behavior, labor markets, supply chains and more.”
That follows early warning signs, including pandemic darlings feeling the squeeze: Exercise company Peloton’s shares slumped and celebrity video app Cameo laid off staff. Amazon also said it had overextended its warehouse space, and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi warned of tougher times to come. Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Tesla and Google have all lost at least 20 percent of their market value since the beginning of the year.
Even Twitter, which is in talks to be bought by Musk, has been pulled below the price he’s willing to pay by a market that’s pessimistic about whether the deal will go through, as well as the company’s business prospects.
A fresh wave of economic uncertainty has washed over the world as Russia’s war against Ukraine grinds on, China’s economy wobbles because of fresh pandemic restrictions and the U.S. Federal Reserve raises interest rates to try to tame inflation. That uncertainty hit Silicon Valley early, with share prices beginning a steep decline in January.
Amid global chaos, the tech industry takes a rare tumble
The lack of investor confidence has quickly moved down to start-ups, too.
For years, investors had been pouring money into start-ups in the hope they could go public and net a big return, but that path doesn’t seem as reliably profitable anymore. Venture capitalists whose money is tied up in not-yet-profitable tech companies are telling them to cut their spending and prepare to hold on longer without as much money.
Those companies, in turn, are starting to react to the market downturn with layoffs and hiring freezes.
And many companies are paying extra close attention to costs. Bird, the electric scooter and bike company, said this week it had to let go of about 23 percent of employees as it cut costs.
“While the need for and access to micro-electric vehicle transportation has never been greater, macro economic trends impacting everyone have resulted in an acceleration of our path to profitability,” Chief Communications Officer Rebecca Hahn said in a statement.
Global venture capital funding fell to $39 billion in May, its lowest level since November 2020, according to Crunchbase, which noted that later-stage rounds were more heavily hit than early-stage start-up funding.
“We’re just seeing a lot more caution from investors because of what’s happened in the public markets,” said Gené Teare, senior data editor for Crunchbase News.
Seattle-based investor Greg Gottesman said he and other investors are advising companies to be careful, but he noted that many tech start-ups still succeed during economic downturns.
“There is more of a focus on growing smartly,” said Gottesman, managing director of Pioneer Square Labs. “Putting the right amount of people in the right spots and trying to grow smartly as opposed to just aggressively.”
The broader economic concerns are real, but cutting investment and spending across the board may create new issues, said Antoine Nivard, co-founder and general partner at Blank Ventures. Many start-ups sell software to other tech companies, making them especially vulnerable when the industry in general slows its pace of spending.
“There’s also a self-fulfilling prophecy there. The first demand that evaporates is start-ups selling to each other,” Nivard said. “I wish there was a bit less panic and bit more thinking about the nuance.”
Whether the slowdown means a broader recession is coming to other industries is still an open question. Not everyone sees tech as a bellwether for the whole economy. Instead, the tech industry may have further to fall than other sectors simply because it received more funding, pumping up valuations to levels that the companies didn’t deserve.
“People are going back and realizing, ‘Maybe we shouldn’t have been pricing at amounts we were doing,’” said Jake Hare, founder of start-up incubator Launchpeer.
A pullback in investment in start-ups is an example of the kind of thing the Federal Reserve is trying to trigger as it works to cool off the economy and lower inflation, said James Wilcox, an economics professor at the University of California at Berkeley. That doesn’t mean a recession.
“That party is over,” Wilcox said. “It’s not necessarily that there’s going to be a terrible hangover from it.”
The doom and gloom from senior venture capitalists may also be part of an effort to educate the younger generation and encourage them to curtail spending in case of a downturn.
“If you’re funding some 28-year-olds, they don’t know a roller coaster, all they know is a rocket ship,” Wilcox said. “They haven’t seen what a financial winter looks like. They haven’t even seen a cold spring.” | 2022-06-11T10:38:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Job cuts in Silicon Valley add to recession worries - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/11/silicon-valley-cuts/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/11/silicon-valley-cuts/ |
Surging gas prices are squeezing the U.S. economy — and the White House
The upward march of fuel costs has emerged as one of the chief domestic political threats to the Biden administration ahead of the midterm elections.
As the average price of gas nationwide topped $5/gallon early Saturday, surging fuel prices across the United States are creating new strains for millions of consumers and businesses, while compounding intractable political challenges for the Biden administration.
Energy costs rose by 3.9 percent from April to May, while energy prices overall have spiked by 35 percent since last year, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report released Friday. Inflation overall reached 8.6 percent in May, the government reported Friday, the highest rate in 40 years.
The unrelenting upward march of gas prices has emerged as one of the chief domestic political threats to the Biden administration ahead of this fall’s midterm elections, and the White House has few obvious solutions to reverse the trend despite an intensive push by top aides and the president himself. The White House is now caught between liberals allies in Congress who are pushing for escalating a populist attack on oil and gas firms, and the views of some of their trusted economic experts who believe those efforts could prove counterproductive.
A poll released Thursday by The Washington Post and George Mason University’s Schar School found that Americans were broadly concerned both with inflation generally and rising gas prices in particular. About 44 percent of drivers said they have only partially filled their car’s gas tank as a result of higher prices, with 61 percent of those earning under $50,000 a year doing so. Roughly two-thirds of drivers reported making fewer trips to the grocery store because of rising gas prices.
Americans are not accustomed to seeing energy prices as high as they have been over the last several months. The average price for a gallon of gas in the U.S. hit $5.004 on Saturday, according to AAA. Already, at least 19 states have average gas prices of $5 or more, with California above $6 a gallon. Some analysts think America could near a nationwide average of $6 a gallon by the end of the summer. Diesel prices, particularly important to the trucking and construction industries, have jumped nationally from $3.21 last year to $5.74 on Friday, a record, according to GasBuddy, which tracks fuel prices.
These higher energy prices seep into almost every major part of the economy. They drive up the costs for electricity, transportation, shipping, logistics, air travel, agriculture, fertilizer and the production of other commodities. They cut into corporate earnings: Walmart recently pointed to fuel and storage spikes as hurting its profits. Demand for natural gas is soaring globally to make up for Russian energy, and as a result so is demand for U.S. natural gas, creating new financial strains for domestic manufacturers and the nation’s power grid — just as more and more Americans start to run their air conditioner this summer.
But the post-covid economy has repeatedly defied experts’ expectations, and there is ample reason to believe strong growth could survive higher energy prices. Gasoline purchases accounted for roughly 3 percent of consumers’ annual spending before the pandemic began, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unlike the 1970s, America is now a significant producer of global energy supply — meaning high prices benefit U.S. energy producers, rather than simply strain domestic household costs, as firms can increase hiring and spending with their higher revenues. Businesses are also less vulnerable to volatility in gas and oil prices than they once were, due in part to improved efficiency over the last several decades, according to Matthew J. Slaughter, an economist at Dartmouth College.
White House studies options on gas prices as Sanders pushes profits tax
The Post-Schar School poll found 72 percent of Americans blamed corporations for trying to increase profits for rising gas prices, including 86 percent of Democrats, 52 percent of Republicans and 76 percent of independents. The overall figure blaming corporations was higher than the share who blamed Biden or disruptions caused by the pandemic (both 58 percent) and about the same share who blamed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (69 percent).
Biden has stopped short of embracing some of the actions pushed by Democratic allies in Congress to target oil producers. Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) have pushed a tax on the profits of oil and gas firms that would return revenue to consumers, with similar measures already enacted by the United Kingdom, Italy and some other European countries. | 2022-06-11T10:38:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | $5 gas: Rising fuel costs are squeezing the U.S. economy and the White House - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/06/11/gas-prices-biden-economy/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/06/11/gas-prices-biden-economy/ |
Fans of Must See TV need this must-read memoir
Review by Donald Liebenson
James Burrows. (Luke Fontana)
James Burrows is a man of many monikers. He has been called the Sitcom Sorcerer, the Willie Mays of Directing and the Obi-Wan Kenobi of Sitcoms, to name a few. The credit of “Directed by James Burrows” is about the surest bet there is in entertainment. He has shepherded some of television’s best series, including “Taxi,” “Cheers,” “Frasier,” “Friends” and “Will & Grace” to iconic status. A staggering 75 of the series pilots he directed, including “The Big Bang Theory” and “Two and a Half Men,” advanced to series.
It is a measure of his standing in popular culture that in 2016, NBC broadcast “An All-Star Tribute to James Burrows.” When Steven Spielberg heard that Burrows was described as the Steven Spielberg of Sitcoms, the Academy Award winner called Burrows and told him that he wanted to be known as the James Burrows of Movies.
Burrows’s memoir, “Directed by James Burrows,” co-written with Eddy Friedfeld, makes great binge reading for comedy buffs and aficionados of Must See TV. It’s as difficult to put down as a “Friends” marathon is to turn off.
Burrows has directed more than 1,000 episodes of television, but who’s counting? He is. “Four episodes of ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show,’ ” he writes, “11 episodes of ‘The Bob Newhart Show,’ eight of ‘Laverne & Shirley,’ 19 of ‘Phyllis,’ 75 of ‘Taxi,’ 243 of ‘Cheers,’ 32 of ‘Frasier,’ 15 of ‘Friends,’ 49 of ‘Mike & Molly,’ and 246 of ‘Will & Grace.’ ” Check out his IMDB page for a complete rundown of this Promethean director’s credits.
Not that they were all hits, or that some classic series didn’t get away. “I passed on both ‘Seinfeld’ and ‘Designing Women,’ ” he writes. “I didn’t see the potential of either at the time. It happens.” He also moved on from “Friends” after the second season. “One of my few regrets in my career is that I didn’t stay with those six kids,” he writes.
The TV hit isn’t just dying — it may already be dead
“Directed by James Burrows” is enlivened by script excerpts of memorable moments from Burrows’s oeuvre. The reader’s ability to visualize the scenes is a testament not only to the writers and actors who brought to life these indelible characters, but to Burrows’s genius for finding the grace notes that get what he calls “the best, smartest, character-driven laughs.”
The book is brimming with great behind-the-scenes stories about some of television’s most beloved series and the artists who created and starred in them. But it is especially valuable as a primer on what a comedy director does. “When I read a pilot script,” Burrows writes, “I want to think, ‘This is funny, I can add to this.' ”
A case in point is the pilot episode of “Frasier,” which introduced David Hyde Pierce in his multi-Emmy Award-winning role as Frasier Crane’s even more supercilious and neurotic brother, Niles. In his first scene, he and Frasier (Kelsey Grammar) await a table at their favorite coffeehouse. The banter between them sets the series’ rarefied comic tone (“When was the last time you had an unexpressed thought?” an annoyed Frasier asks. “I’m having one now,” Niles grins to his pompous brother.)
It’s a funny scene, but as Burrows relates, he suggested that before Niles and Frasier sit down at their table, Pierce take out his handkerchief, wipe off his seat and offer the handkerchief to his brother to do likewise. It became a character-defining trait.
The shows on which Burrows put his inimitable stamp share heart, humor and humanity. The chapter on “Will & Grace,” the Peabody Award-winning series about the friendship between a gay man and a straight woman, is a reminder, he writes, of how at its best, “television is one of the most important platforms for creating awareness and advancing understanding between people, race, gender, and culture.”
That show, in particular, benefited from the chemistry of its core ensemble. Chemistry, Burrows states, is as important as the comedy. “When I direct a television show,” he writes, “I try to reach that sweet spot where the best script meets the best performance and the best chemistry between performers.”
Sometimes this can be challenging. Of English actress Helen Baxendale, who portrayed Ross’s eventual fiancee on “Friends,” he writes, “She was nice but not particularly funny. [David] Schwimmer had no one to bounce off. It was like clapping with one hand.” (I respectfully disagree; I found her character charming and funny, proving once again that comedy is subjective and that I am a sucker for a British accent.)
Speaking of chemistry, Burrows does reveal that there was one actor he flat-out hated: Marcel, the monkey on “Friends.” “I told everyone who would listen, ‘When I come back to direct another episode, please, no monkey,' ” he writes.
Burrows was born to the breed. His father was Abe Burrows, the celebrated comedy writer for radio and Broadway whose stage credits include “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” “Guys & Dolls” and “Cactus Flower.” He feels the same way about sitcoms as his father felt about his plays. Burrows relates that someone once asked his father, “Abe, why don’t you direct drama?” Abe responded, “I do direct drama — they just happen to be funny.”
Perhaps the most valuable lesson Burrows learned from his father about comedy was one about perspective. “He once pointed to his glasses and said to me, ‘Most people look at the world this way,’ ” he writes. “He then skewed his glasses on his face and said, ‘I look at the world this way.’ I wound up developing the same philosophy, even though I’ve never worn glasses.”
Donald Liebenson is an entertainment writer. His work has been published in the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, VanityFair.com and New York Magazine’s Vulture website.
Directed by James Burrows
Five Decades of Stories From the Legendary Director of Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace and More
By James Burrows with Eddy Friedfeld
Ballantine. 368 pp. $28.99 | 2022-06-11T12:09:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Directed by James Burrows book review - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/06/11/james-burrows-cheers-friends-television-memoir/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/06/11/james-burrows-cheers-friends-television-memoir/ |
The South Carolina Republican faces a strong challenge from a Trump-backed opponent in Tuesday’s primary.
Rep. Tom Rice (R-S.C.) talks with constituents during a community coffee event in Loris, S.C., on June 9, 2021. (Madeline Gray/For The Washington Post)
Of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach former president Donald Trump last January, Rep. Tom Rice seemed to be in the deepest political peril.
The Myrtle Beach Republican lawyer with a country club demeanor and a southern drawl sailed into four terms with a conservative voting record, even winning by 24 points in 2020. But his impeachment vote was roundly jeered in his ruby-red district on the South Carolina coast. His Facebook was inundated with thousands of vitriolic messages and still is. Friendships frayed, he said. Multiple challengers jumped in the race against him, fueled by Trump’s call for his ouster. His doom was widely predicted.
As he traverses country music festivals and barbecues in the final days of the heated Republican primary here, the 64-year-old lawyer and country club Republican is making a different bet: That being against Trump in the future is the way to go, even in a district Trump won by almost 20 points in the 2020 election and in a state where his approval is still sky high among Republicans, according to public polls.
In a recent interview, he excoriated the former president and said he was a “diminished” figure who lost the election and did not need to lead the Republican Party, ticking off a series of others who could instead.
“I absolutely believe that we’ve got to get back to our principles of defending the Constitution — not just loyalty to one very divisive man, because that is a horribly destructive path for the Republican Party to head down,” he said. “It’s one of the reasons I want to fight as hard as I’m fighting, to prove that we’re not just about loyalty to a would-be tyrant.”
The 10 House Republicans who voted for impeachment — who keep in touch via group text, according to Rice — have faced wildly different outcomes since Trump’s wrath made them pariahs in their own party. Some are not running for reelection after facing difficult GOP primaries. Several others are fighting uphill battles. Two of them, Reps. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) and Liz Cheney (Wyo.), have turned into constant Trump critics, while others, such as Rep. Jamie Herrera Butler (Wash.) have tried to moderate their criticisms as they attempt to stay in office against primary challengers.
The group has dined with former American Enterprise Institute president Arthur Brooks twice, Rice said, and “we comment on the news of the day, we encourage each other, we talk. … We’ve all become friends.” He declined to get into detail about the precise conversations but said the group had talked about Trump’s attacks on them and how to overcome them.
The House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump
Some declined interviews because they said they didn’t want to make their campaigns about being against Trump, who has endorsed a challenger in each of their races. An aide to one said, “There is no benefit whatsoever to talking about Trump.”
Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio) decided not to run for reelection last year, citing the “toxic dynamics” that exist within the GOP toward those who do not toe the party line.
Gonzalez said he was “not really thinking” about elections when asked about the nine other pro-impeachment Republicans who are facing tough primaries. But he did acknowledge that their vote has bonded the group.
“It’s been fun to get to know people that otherwise I didn’t know,” he said. “To become close and tightknit with all of them has been really rewarding and something that I frankly treasure.”
In a recent interview, Trump said he took particular pride in his efforts to beat the 10 members, and advisers said it was his highest priority in 2022. “You had people drop out of races that they had no intention of dropping out of, and the other ones are losing, like Rice in South Carolina,” he said.
Taylor Budowich, a Trump spokesman, said in a statement that the former president “pays careful attention to every race and endorses candidates who will be champions for his America First agenda, especially in races where weak, dishonest RINOs have abandoned their constituents and instead embraced the Woke Mob.”
There has been no reliable public polling of the race, but Rice allies believe the Trump-backed challenger, Russell Fry, is their strongest opponent and hope to keep him under 50 percent to force a runoff. A Winthrop University poll earlier this year showed Trump has an 89 percent approval rating among Republicans in the state, higher than any other GOP political figure.
One reason Trump’s endorsement has not necessarily halted Rice, according to some South Carolina political observers, is that he only held one rally in the state, which attracted a few thousand people, and one tele-rally, but has not spent any money in the state.
Trump is also campaigning against Rep. Nancy Mace, another South Carolina Republican he has endorsed against — even though she did not vote for impeachment. Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and former U.N. ambassador under Trump, has campaigned for Mace, angering Trump.
“If the Trump organization was willing to spend as much money as they are political capital, they may have won a lot more races,” said Tim Pearson, a longtime South Carolina operative who was a top Haley adviser.
In Rice’s deeply religious district, pro-Trump flags and signs dot Highway 501, and evangelical voters helped propel Trump to a wide victory. It has seen a population boom in recent years fueled by a promise of lower property taxes and proximity to the beach. Many of the retirees have come from the north, residents say, with subdivisions sprouting all over rural towns like Aynor and Conway.
The local Republican Party has changed, according to Rice and South Carolina political consultants. Some leaders in the local party have agreed with Trump’s false claims the election was stolen, and the party has deliberately left Rice out of at least one prominent event. In Horry County, the local Republican Party’s website touts a recent speech from former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and an AR-15 that Flynn signed for a raffle.
“The local county party was having meetings where some were telling people not to get vaccinated,” Rice said, adding that he opposed that advice.
Rice had always been popular — never facing much of a Republican challenge, campaigning for Trump and touting his conservative record — until now. He has lived in South Carolina his whole life and runs a law firm that has his name attached.
He vigorously campaigned for Trump throughout the 2020 presidential election season and defended some of Trump’s most controversial moves in office. He rarely voted against the Republican Party and did not vote to certify the election, even after the Capitol was ransacked — a vote he says he now regrets.
In a recent interview, Rice said he didn’t regret supporting Trump either time, called his presidency “consequential” and said the country would be better off had Trump won over Joe Biden.
“I thought he hit the wrong button,” Walter Whetsell, Rice’s campaign consultant, said of his impeachment vote. Rice said many people called him to make sure he’d voted correctly that day on the floor, but he voted and immediately left Washington, expecting some opprobrium.
Rice said the vote was obvious to him after he studied what Trump did that day — attacking and not calling former vice president Mike Pence, not calling other officials or not doing anything to show remorse.
“When you throw a temper tantrum after the election that culminates with a lie and the sacking of the Capitol of the United States, and you sit there and watch the Capitol get ransacked and the Capitol Police get beaten for three hours, and you don’t lift a finger to stop it, it’s indefensible,” he said. “To sic that crowd on Mike Pence and his wife and his daughter is just an unhinged direct attack on our Constitution.”
Rice said the impeachment vote made his race undoubtedly much harder, but that he would not change it. In the beginning, Rice said he was frequently confronted in the district for his vote, but that he also received considerable support after explaining it at town halls. The comments on his social media pages suggest that, at least among Republican activists, he remains deeply unpopular. Hundreds still attack him weekly for his vote, and local activists have rallied support against him.
Since then, Rice said, more “random people” send him contributions, but support from the official GOP has all but dried up — and others have come into the district to campaign against him. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), he said, has not helped him even though he is an incumbent.
“They are very afraid of and deferential to the president. They feel like if they alienate him, then their prospects are diminished,” he said.
Rice said he has defended his impeachment decision repeatedly to his constituents, but that most now ask him about inflation, gas prices, President Biden or Afghanistan. While the impeachment vote once came up repeatedly, he says “now maybe I get asked about it once at every event.”
In a recent debate, Fry and the other challengers repeatedly eviscerated Rice for his impeachment vote, leaving him alone on the stage to defend himself.
Rice said his main opponent, Fry, had made his entire campaign about a “litmus test” on Trump and impeachment while he wanted to talk about projects he’d gotten funded in his district and other national issues.
“He doesn’t know who Russell Fry is,” Rice said of Trump. “It’s just desperate revenge and spite.”
“When’s the last time you had a president, any president in your lifetime, come and play in a primary election for revenge? I can’t name a single time in my life,” he continued. “He’s absolutely been diminished. There is no doubt he has. There is no path for him to be president again in terms of winning an election. He wants attention, and he’s afraid he’s going to lose it.” | 2022-06-11T12:09:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Tom Rice tries to survive his Trump impeachment vote — and stay in the House - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2022/06/11/tom-rice-trump-impeachment/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2022/06/11/tom-rice-trump-impeachment/ |
Several of those who sought the procedure say they got pushback — and outright denial — from their doctors when they brought it up
During her training as a breast surgeon, Deanna Attai, an associate professor at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, read studies and heard mentors say that women who opted against breast reconstruction after a mastectomy generally had a lower quality of life.
But Attai found that didn’t jibe with what she was had been seeing online in the past few years: Facebook groups with names such as “Not Putting on a Shirt” and “Flat and Fabulous” that included many hundreds of women’s happy stories — and photos — about their choice to have an “aesthetic flat closure,’’ the term used by the National Cancer Institute starting in 2020, and forgo breast reconstruction.
So Attai did her own survey of close to 1,000 women who’d had a single or double mastectomy without reconstruction. Published last year in Annals of Surgical Oncology, it found that close to three-quarters of the women said they were satisfied with the outcome.
No government or organization tracks the number of flat closures each year. According to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, close to 277,000 cases occurred of invasive breast cancer in 2020 in the United States. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons, reported that about 140,000 mastectomies were done that year, about half of which Involved further reconstructive surgery.
Flat closure has always been an option, but Anne Marie Champagne, a PhD student at Yale whose research is focused on this issue, says there was a change in attitudes about flat closures in online conversation beginning in 2012. Champagne, 53, who opted for flat closure after a 2009 mastectomy, says before 2012 there were only two posts about flat closure on the Breastcancer.org message board. “That year I saw a post by the founder of the advocacy group Flat Closure NOW! that read: I want to see you. I want to form a union. I wish it was acceptable to be flat … if that is your choice, I do hope that women who see me, flat as can be, see that reconstruction isn’t par for the course.”
What struck Champagne wasn’t just the post’s content, but the number of people who read it. “At most, Breastancer.org messages got a couple of thousand views,” Champagne says. “[That] message had 79,000 views and 3,500 comments within six months of posting.”
My double mastectomy made me reevaluate: What do my breasts mean to me?
List of reasons
While many women still opt for breast reconstruction, as the numbers from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons make clear, Champagne and others engaged with the issue of flat closure tick off a list of reasons, including increased awareness of the option, for what cancer doctors and surgeons say is a growing interest in going flat.
“I definitely have seen more patients requesting to go flat after mastectomy, likely as they feel more empowered to make this decision,” says Roshni Rao, chief of breast surgery at Columbia University Medical Center in New York.
“A breast cancer diagnosis can be particularly overwhelming because there are so many decisions to be made in a short period of time including choices of doctors, a treatment plan and the woman’s post-mastectomy chest,” says Attai, in an email. There’s more awareness now that the process of reconstruction has risks. “Women who opt for reconstruction, whether a breast implant or their own tissue (called autologous reconstruction) could face multiple surgeries, post-surgery recovery, a 10 percent risk of infection which can get in the way of a chemotherapy or radiation schedule, and, occasionally, implant recalls and removals.”
For women who want to do reconstruction, Attai says, they often feel the effort and risk is worth it. “But for others, it isn’t.”
It wasn’t for Pepper Segal, of North Carolina, who was diagnosed with breast cancer three years ago, while pregnant, at age 31. She was induced to deliver her baby at 36 weeks, and started chemotherapy two weeks after that. But soon after, she felt a pain in her armpit that turned out to be the cancer spreading. Segal had an emergency mastectomy and decided to remove both breasts — and have a flat closure.
“I was told that if I wanted to have reconstruction I should wait two years, because my form of cancer has a high rate of recurrence and detecting it can be harder with implants or an autologous reconstruction,” she says. “But I decided on the flat closure. I didn’t want to put my body through anything else.”
Segal says she “thanks God for Billie Eilish” and her signature baggy clothes. “I can dress in baggy clothes, and it looks cool now.”
Expectations have changed
Sagit Meshulam-Derazon, a plastic surgeon at Rabin Medical Center in Tel Aviv who specializes in breast reconstruction, says she and her medical partner, also a plastic surgeon, recently talked about the choice they would each make if they were diagnosed with breast cancer. Both agreed they’d opt for flat closure, noting that the expectations of how a woman should look as changed a lot.
“Look at Andie MacDowell, the actress, who is now playing roles without coloring her gray hair,” Meshulam-Derazon says. “What women look like these days is more often what they choose to look like, rather than an idealized image.”
A transgender woman is challenging Chicago’s definition of the female breast
Champagne also says she thinks that the online photos from transitioning transgender men’s post-mastectomy flat chests has played a role.
“I had several friends who transitioned in the years leading up to my diagnosis and surgery, and saw what their flat chests looked like, which made me feel like I had more options,” she says. “Societally we’ve become more open to a wider array of body expressions.”
The women in Attai’s survey, however, as well as postings on the social media pages of flat closure advocacy groups, find that some women get pushback, and outright denial, from their doctors when they bring up the idea of flat closure or say that’s want they want.
Some 22 percent of the women who responded to Attai said a flat closure option was either not initially offered by their surgeon, or was not supported by the surgeon, or the surgeon intentionally left additional skin in case the patient changed her mind. That extra skin would require further removal surgery if the woman did not change her mind about the flat closure.
“I did you a favor,” is what Champagne’s doctor told her when he walked into her hospital room post-mastectomy to explain he’d left extra skin for reconstruction.
“Even though I went into surgery thinking we were in agreement on the closure,” Champagne says. “I had made my wishes clear. To this he replied that in his experience all breast cancer survivors reconstruct within six months. When I heard his words I felt profound grief, a combination of heartache and anger. I couldn’t believe that my surgeon would make a decision for me while I was under anesthesia that went against everything we had discussed — what I had consented to.”
She Is not currently contemplating revision surgery to remove the excess skin.
Kim Bowles, 41, of Pittsburgh, says her surgeon’s decision to ignore her stated decision to have a flat closure is what galvanized her into starting the advocacy group Not Putting on a Shirt. “As the anesthesia started taking effect, I heard the surgeon say he was going to leave some skin, in case I change my mind, and it was too late for me to protest. I woke up with a look I didn’t want,” she said.
Now, the organization’s website includes a list of plastic surgeons who do aesthetic flat closures and provides talking points for patients to help them discuss the procedure with their doctors. Bowles had revision surgery three years after her original operation.
Not an option for everyone
Not everyone can have or wants to have a flat closure. Kelsey Larson, head of breast surgery at the University of Kansas Health System, says it’s important for patients to consider first and foremost how any surgical choice may affect their cancer treatment and cancer outcomes.
“It’s very important for patients to keep in mind that they are having a mastectomy for a medical purpose, as part of cancer prevention or treatment,” she says. Larson says she would “encourage any patient receiving cancer care to ask questions” specifically about those issues.
Years ago when my twin got breast cancer I took drastic action and am grateful I did
Elizabeth Mittendorf, chair of surgical oncology at Harvard’s Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, and a Susan G. Komen Foundation scholar, says heavier patients especially need to talk to a plastic surgeon, rather than a general surgeon, before opting for a flat closure procedure, and be prepared that the look might not be the smooth, flat one you hope for.
Excess tissue in women who carry more weight often means it’s not possible to achieve a sleek, flat look, Mittendorf says. And it might be necessary to do more than one surgery to allow sections of the woman’s body to heal before completing the procedure.
Larson says that while she welcomes the increased attention to flat closure so that women can choose the option they want, she worries that women who do want breast reconstruction after mastectomy might now feel hesitant.
“I’ve had patients, in recent years, whisper to me about wanting reconstruction,” she says, “They worry they’ll be judged poorly for choosing breasts.”
As a sign of the growing interest in flat closure, sessions on how to communicate about it with patients are popping up at medical breast cancer meetings. Both Attai and advocates such as Bowles have been asked to give presentations.
That’s important, says Scott Kurtzman, head of surgery at Waterbury Hospital in Connecticut and chair of the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers (NAPBC), a program of the American College of Surgeons.
“I’m sure there are many surgeons who have their own idea of what the female aesthetic should be, and they have a difficult time releasing that and accommodating people who don’t share the same view,” Kurtzman says.
The NAPBC is now asking breast centers to report back to the board about how they do share decision-making on post-mastectomy choices and show evidence that they are accepting patients’ requests for whatever aesthetic a patient chooses. | 2022-06-11T12:09:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | After mastectomy some women don’t want to replace their breasts - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/06/11/cancer-flat-breasts-mastectomy/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/06/11/cancer-flat-breasts-mastectomy/ |
A 1955 book on right-wing extremists predicted the Jan. 6 attack
By Theo Zenou
Roughly 12,000 supporters of Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy (R-Wis.) attend a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York on Nov. 29, 1954. (AP)
The year was 1954, and the Cold War was in full swing. Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.) was seeing Soviet spies in every corner of the government. And a young sociologist at Columbia University, Daniel Bell, convened a seminar to come to grips with the menace of McCarthyism.
Bell enlisted an academic dream team that included historian Richard Hofstadter and sociologist Seymour Martin Lipset. A year later, the group of seven intellectuals published their findings as an essay collection, edited by Bell. “The New American Right” argued that McCarthy’s conspiratorial anti-communism was here to stay.
By then, the Senate had censured McCarthy, and McCarthyism had collapsed. The book looked dead on arrival.
But nearly 70 years later, as a congressional committee investigates the far-right attack on the U.S. government on Jan. 6, 2021, the forgotten text has never looked more prescient.
The authors wrote that far-right activists who wrapped themselves in the American flag actually posed a grave threat to the country’s core principles. In the name of protecting U.S. democracy, they warned, the radical right would employ the language and methods of authoritarianism.
If “The New American Right” seemed obsolete when it was first published, that changed quickly. By the early ’60s, it was obvious McCarthy had spawned a movement with real staying power made up of anti-communist organizations.
Take the John Birch Society, which in 1962 counted about 60,000 members and an estimated 9.5 million sympathizers. Its founder, a candy tycoon named Robert Welch, thought “traitors inside the U.S. government would betray the country’s sovereignty to the United Nations for a collectivist New World Order, managed by a ‘one-world socialist government.’”
Or take the lesser-known Liberty Lobby, founded by an avowed admirer of Nazi Germany. This white supremacist group prophesied an apocalyptic struggle “between the white and the colored world, of which Russia is the Lord.”
Bell’s team of academics revised “The New American Right” and rereleased it in 1963 as “The Radical Right.” It would become a must-read for students of modern American history.
The intellectuals held that the radical right not only loathed communism but also liberal democracy and the basic tenets of the U.S. Constitution. As Bell noted wryly, its partisans stood ready “to jettison constitutional processes and to suspend liberties, to condone Communist methods in the fighting of Communism.” They blasted free elections and the peaceful transfer of power, lamented the independence of the judiciary and opposed civil rights.
If the Soviets wanted to destabilize the republic, they could hardly have found keener agents than the radical right.
Hofstadter called these activists “pseudo-conservatives” (a term borrowed from philosopher Theodor W. Adorno). They posed as conservatives but in truth were authoritarians with a nihilistic urge to watch the world burn. “Followers of a movement like the John Birch Society,” Hofstadter wrote in one of the book’s essays, “are in our world but not exactly of it.” They lived amid what their successors would come to call “alternative facts.”
Adherents of the movement preached imminent doomsday. In 1963, following the ratification of a nuclear treaty with the Soviet Union, the Liberty Lobby declared that “the United States has, at best, only a few more years.” In a speech denouncing the radical right, Sen. Thomas Kuchel (R-Calif.) labeled them “fright peddlers.” It became the ’60s equivalent of Hillary Clinton’s “deplorables,” a term of derision worn as a badge of honor by the derided.
Bell argued that pseudo-conservatives were driven by a fear of modernity. The United States was starting to shift to a knowledge economy dominated by a “technical and professional intelligentsia.” This rattled pseudo-conservatives, who felt, in Bell’s words, the “disquiet of the dispossessed.”
This sounds more than a little like the forces that helped elect Donald Trump, spark the QAnon extremist ideology and launch the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
The radical right of the 1960s, by contrast, never found its Trump — a leader who could unite the movement and give it real political power. Barry Goldwater, the Republican firebrand who ran for the presidency in 1964, was crushed in a landslide, and subsequent Republican presidents did not embrace pseudo-conservatism.
When the radical right first gained strength, it fell to a Democratic president to formulate a counterattack — just as President Biden and his allies in Congress are now attempting. In 1961, John F. Kennedy deplored those who “call for a ‘man on horseback’ because they do not trust the people.” His brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, deemed the John Birch Society “a tremendous danger” and excoriated “those, who, in the name of fighting communism, sow the seeds of suspicion … against the foundations of our government — Congress, the Supreme Court, and even the presidency itself.”
To stave off the threat, the Kennedys had the IRS audit extremist groups and the Federal Communications Commission regulate right-wing radio. But these efforts failed to make a dent in the groups’ appeal.
Pseudo-conservatism only lost relevance in the mid-1960s, after conservatives such as Ronald Reagan disavowed the John Birch Society. Today’s Republicans have yet to follow suit with Trump, QAnon and the Jan. 6 attack. In February, the Republican National Committee declared the insurrection “legitimate political discourse.”
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack began a series of highly anticipated hearings Thursday. The committee, composed of seven Democrats and two Republicans, has so far stood united in its pledge to uncover the truth about what Biden has called “the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.”
But the ideology behind the attack is nothing new. Bell’s team of academics was already sounding the alarm 67 years ago. | 2022-06-11T12:09:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 'Radical Right' book warned of extremists before Jan. 6 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/06/11/radical-right-extremism-bell-hofstadter/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/06/11/radical-right-extremism-bell-hofstadter/ |
Del. Brooke E. Lierman (D-Baltimore City) in Baltimore in December 2016. (Astrid Riecken for The Washington Post)
In Maryland, two highly regarded Democrats are vying to become their party’s nominee for state comptroller, a job that oversees critical services including tax collection and revenue estimates and also comes with a seat on the powerful Board of Public Works, which vets key public contracts. The July 19 primary pits Del. Brooke E. Lierman against Bowie Mayor Tim Adams to run in the first open-seat contest for the position in more than 20 years.
Our choice is Ms. Lierman, whose diligent, detail-oriented work as a legislator in Annapolis, and as a civic activist in Baltimore, which she represents, has earned her respect as a serious, substantive candidate.
Both are competent and intelligent. Our preference for Ms. Lierman is grounded in the fact that her no-nonsense, nose-to-the-grindstone legislative work has given her a much deeper familiarity with the state’s challenges, finances and the comptroller’s office, as well as relationships with an array of lawmakers and others with whom she would need to work as comptroller. When she discusses the challenges that the comptroller’s office faces, she talks in concrete specifics. When Mr. Adams discusses them, he does not get beyond platitudes.
The winner of the primary will face Republican Harford County Executive Barry Glassman, who has no primary opponent, in the November general election.
Ms. Lierman, elected to the House of Delegates eight years ago, has been an extraordinarily proactive lawmaker. She has championed bills to shield children who are sexually trafficked from being prosecuted for prostitution; empower college athletes, often exploited, by giving them to the right to unionize and bargain over health, safety and compensation; and, during the pandemic, prioritize the goal of universal, affordable broadband internet service. She has also taken leading roles to enact measures expanding transit, fair housing and gun violence prevention.
Ms. Lierman and Mr. Adams do not differ markedly on their overall visions for the comptroller’s office, whose roughly 1,100 employees work in 12 offices around the state. She would focus on easing procedures for low-income individuals to claim tax credits. He would seek to close loopholes that enable some corporations to evade taxes. Both want tighter procedures to encourage more competition for state contracts and more muscular rules to help minority firms vie for public contracts. Each understands the primacy of safeguarding Maryland’s coveted AAA bond rating, which saves taxpayers money when the state borrows to finance major projects.
Disappointingly, neither would seem likely to advance term-limited Republican Gov. Larry Hogan’s goal of expanding the Beltway and Interstate 270 with toll roads built with a public-private partnership — the main long-term means of preventing terrible traffic on the Mid-Atlantic’s most congested highways from getting dramatically worse. With a seat on the Board of Public Works, they could effectively veto the plan.
Mr. Adams founded and runs a successful defense contracting firm, and is the first African American elected as mayor of Bowie, a city of 58,000. He is a resourceful executive and, having been born into poverty in rural Louisiana, has a compelling personal story. Now wealthy, he says he has spent $2 million, so far, on his campaign. Still, Ms. Lierman’s breadth of expertise and command of policy on relevant issues makes her the better choice. | 2022-06-11T12:09:55Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Washington Post primary endorsement for Maryland comptroller: Brooke Lierman - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/11/brooke-lierman-maryland-comptroller-primary-endorsement-2022/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/11/brooke-lierman-maryland-comptroller-primary-endorsement-2022/ |
Jehovah's Witnesses discuss the Bible during a meeting in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, in 2015. (Alexander Aksakov/For The Washington Post).
The headlines are full of stories about threats to democracy around the world and in the United States. Despots are on the rise, endangering freedom of speech, assembly and religion. But what is it really like to live under such conditions? A new decision by the European Court of Human Rights paints a depressing picture of the experiences of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia, who have been severely punished for their beliefs.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses are a Christian religion in which believers submit to the authority of a single God and eschew military service. They have existed in Russia since 1891 and were criminally prosecuted for practicing their faith in Soviet times. After the Soviet collapse, they worshiped openly and were registered under Russia’s laws, growing to approximately 400 local congregations and 175,000 members. Russia’s 1993 Constitution guaranteed freedom of religion.
In 2007, a shadow began to fall over them. A deputy prosecutor general sent out a circular letter to regional prosecutors identifying the Jehovah’s Witnesses as one of several foreign religious groups that “quite often contribute to the escalation of tensions in society” and “carry out activities harmful to the moral, mental, and physical health of their members.” A cascade of persecution, interrogation, disruption, surveillance, arrests and sham legal proceedings followed. Most of the pressure on the Jehovah’s Witnesses was based on a broad law approved in 2002 against extremism. Hundreds of believers have been sentenced to pretrial detention or imprisonment under the charge of “extremism,” and as of May 24, 88 are imprisoned. In 2017, Russia’s Supreme Court banned the group. After losing many court appeals in Russia, the Jehovah’s Witnesses turned to the European court, part of the Council of Europe, a human rights organization that Russia had joined in 1996.
The court’s 194-page decision, handed down June 7, is filled with egregious examples of unjust persecution using the anti-extremism law. In an early case in Taganrog, Russia, the European court found that a banned Jehovah’s Witnesses text “did not insult, hold up to ridicule or slander” those outside the religion, nor promote violence, hatred or intolerance. The European court ruled that “it is highly significant that no evidence of violence, hatred or coercion was adduced” in the government’s case against the Taganrog congregation. Their religious activity and publications “appear to have been peaceful in line with their professed doctrine of nonviolence.” Throughout, the Jehovah’s Witnesses faced a legal process stacked against them. For example, the Russian Supreme Court did not allow them to submit arguments in their defense; in other cases, congregations were not even informed of the cases against them.
The European court’s ruling will probably have only symbolic impact; Russia has been ejected from the council in the wake of the Ukraine invasion, although it remains bound by the European Convention on Human Rights until Sept. 16. The Russian parliament has passed legislation ending the court’s jurisdiction. But the ruling is a testament to what happens when innocent people are stripped of their rights and dignity by a police state. | 2022-06-11T12:10:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Russia punishes Jehovah’s Witnesses over and over again - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/11/russia-punish-jehovah-witnesses/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/11/russia-punish-jehovah-witnesses/ |
“If I didn’t know exactly what it was, which is this computer program we built recently, I’d think it was a 7-year-old, 8-year-kid kid that happens to know physics,” said Lemoine, 41.
Large language model technology is already widely used, for example in Google’s conversational search queries or auto-complete emails. When CEO Sundar Pichai first introduced LaMDA at Google’s developer conference in 2021, he said the company planned to embed it in everything from Search to Google Assistant. And there is already a tendency to talk to Siri to Alexa like a person. After backlash against a human-sounding AI feature for Google Assistant in 2018, the company promised to add a disclosure. | 2022-06-11T12:10:38Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Google engineer Blake Lemoine thinks its LaMDA AI has come to life - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/11/google-ai-lamda-blake-lemoine/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/11/google-ai-lamda-blake-lemoine/ |
Elon Musk sent out an email to Tesla employees last week informing them that “remote work is no longer acceptable.” He’s not alone: A growing number of companies have put workers on notice that the work-at-home habits born of the pandemic will no longer cut it.
But many employees are pushing back, arguing that they get more done at home. Some have won reprieves, or limited the number of days they’re required to come into the office. Others have simply quit, raising the question of whether remote work — which has long been called telecommuting — has finally arrived.
In 1963, an urban planner named Frederick Memmott published an article that imagined how certain activities that “presently require transportation might be adequately served by communications.” The workday commute was an obvious place to start. What if employees communicated with the office instead of commuting to it?
For the most part, no surprise, this remained a far-fetched idea. The technology simply wasn’t there. Though it was possible to hold conference calls by phone, the practice remained rare, particularly if it entailed expensive long-distance calls.
The closest thing to a tech-driven solution to Memmott’s proposition emerged from the Apollo moon-landing program, which relied on a government-funded teleconferencing network connecting far-flung groups of scientists, engineers, managers and contractors.
This system consisted of 11 different “Apollo Action Centers” located around the country. These large conference rooms, each linked to the others via speaker phones, could also transmit information at 50 kilobytes per second (current transmission speeds are nearly a thousand times faster).
Though these centers lacked videoconferencing technology, they could “share” overhead transparencies, or “viewgraphs,” using a technology akin to a fax machine. Top transmission speed was 40 seconds an image, though most took four minutes to transmit.
The implications of this experiment wouldn’t become relevant to a wider audience until the 1970s. The individual who arguably did the most to turn remote work into something realistic was the engineer Jack Nilles, who is generally credited with coining the word “telecommuting.”
A self-described “rocket scientist,” Nilles had worked for NASA and other government agencies in the 1960s before landing at the University of Southern California in 1970. He joined an interdisciplinary research team that eventually put the lessons of the space program into practice.
In their most famous experiment, Nilles and his team launched a pilot program with an insurance company that repurposed the Apollo Action Centers. Rather than have all the employees report to an office in the central business district, the program created a network of regional offices, with employees expected to “report to the center nearest their homes.”
Several years later, an assessment of the program came to many of the same conclusions that NASA did: Telecommuting saved money. It also reduced traffic congestion and energy use.
This last point might have attracted little notice the previous decade. But after OPEC launched the oil embargo in 1973, the US was desperate to reduce gas consumption, and Nilles had a solution. By decade’s end, telecommuting had become a popular buzzword in public-policy circles.
Moreover, several technical developments made the idea increasingly feasible. These included the advent of computer networks, with the forerunner of the Internet operational by 1971; the related rise of email; the growing use of the modulator/demodulator, or modem; and the advent of networked word-processing programs.
By the late 1970s, a small but growing cohort of white-collar employees worked from home on portable terminals linked to central offices. A manufacturer of these terminals — Digital Equipment Corporation, most prominently — launched work-at-home programs for employees. One company spokesperson confidently declared:
“As prices of computer hardware come down, it becomes ever more practical to install work equipment at home when desired.”
The futurist Alvin Toffler’s best-selling book, “The Third Wave,” published in 1980, pushed the idea into the mainstream. In characteristically breathless prose, Toffler hailed the rise of the “electronic cottage,” as workers harried by the long commutes dialed into the office from home.
All these developments seemed to suggest that everyone would soon be telecommuting, putting an end to pesky commutes. The arrival of the personal computer, which obviated the need for bringing home big bulky terminals from work, made it seem, as Toffler confidently predicted, that much of the nation’s workforce would never leave their electronic cottages.
Things turned out a bit differently. For starters, the end of the energy crisis undercut one of the primary reasons telecommuting had been so appealing in the first place. Critics of the practice also threw cold water on many companies’ plans. These included unions like the AFL-CIO, which argued that it was next to impossible to enforce wage laws and safety codes at home.
Far more significant opposition came from managers. Though telecommuting became more commonplace through the 1980s and 1990s, bosses were skeptical that workers would use their time effectively. Stories of their paying surprise visits to employees at home — only to find that they were running a daycare business on the side — made the rounds during this era.
Still, it was inevitable that telecommuting would become increasingly common with the advent of the Internet, and after 2000 it did. Before the pandemic, 51 million full-time workers — approximately a third of the nation’s workforce — reported telecommuting for at least part of their jobs. That said, the number working more than half the time from home was much smaller: 3% to 4%.
Perhaps the pandemic will finally turn remote work into a permanent reality. But the decades-long campaign to turn our homes into electronic cottages (or sweatshops, depending on your perspective) suggests that change will come slowly, if steadily. Recent research highlighting losses in productivity during the pandemic may also blunt enthusiasm. And the pendulum that has favored workers in the current tight job market is bound to swing back to the bosses’ side sooner or later, giving managers more power to set the rules.
More on Remote Work From Bloomberg Opinion:
• Return to the Office? Managers Shouldn’t Overstate the Benefits: Sarah Green Carmichael
• Five Days a Week in the Office? It’s Better for Everyone: Allison Schrager | 2022-06-11T13:40:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Elon Musk’s Futurist Bookshelf Needs Alvin Toffler - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/elon-musks-futurist-bookshelf-needs-alvin-toffler/2022/06/11/36d320bc-e987-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/elon-musks-futurist-bookshelf-needs-alvin-toffler/2022/06/11/36d320bc-e987-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
Have Public Health Officials Just Given Up on Covid-19?
2022 looks a lot like 2019, except that it’s not. (Photographer: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)
We’re now in a very weird pandemic phase. On Twitter, doctors such as Eric Topol sound five-alarm warnings about the latest subvariants of omicron. Offline, even in blue states, people are back to parties, bars and restaurants — and will soon be flying around the world with no testing requirements to return to the US. Things feel as if they’ve lost any coherence. There’s no discernible strategy or guidance on what Covid precautions we should still be taking.
Danish social scientist Michael Bang Petersen, of Aarhus University, told me that familiarity with Covid is changing people’s attitudes. Many stopped fearing the virus once they contracted it and recovered. In Denmark, he said, studies show 80% of the population has been infected. Here in the US, a similar study showed about 60% had had Covid as of last February — before the latest wave started.
And people are taking cues from those around them. Social signals are really important, he said, so it’s very difficult to keep your guard up when others are going back to normal. Behavior can change in a cascading way. People wonder why they should bother if nobody else is. “That’s straight out of basic psychology of collective action,” said Bang Petersen.
Of course, some people are still being cautious and still have not caught Covid, such as epidemiologist Michael Osterholm of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.
He wears an N95 mask in public, limits his social contacts, sometimes asks guests to test first, and avoids restaurants. “There’s probably more transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in the last 30 days than there had been in any 30-day period in the entire pandemic,” he said.
He admits this is based on his own anecdotal observations. The important point is that nobody has a good idea how many cases are occurring out there because we’re seeing only a fraction of the tests that have been done. Many people are testing at home, and others may not be testing at all.
And that means it’s hard to adapt our behavior to the situation — the way public health officials urged us to do during previous waves. Osterholm added that compared with previous surges, there are relatively few deaths this time, so the death rate is getting closer to something people are used to seeing with flu. “We don’t really know for certain how to act,” Osterholm said. We’ve never been expected to change our everyday lives because of influenza. But that might all change again if the next variant is more dangerous.
Reporters at a Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health press briefing this week wanted to know whether the pandemic was over. The answer, given by Tom Inglesby, MD, director of the Center for Health Security, was no. The other critical question was whether it still made sense to try to curb cases. Inglesby said it did — but stopped short of recommending universal masking or social distancing. He did stress ventilation, which could suppress superspreading events, as well as making sure high-quality masks are available for those who want them.
Bang Petersen said that, going forward, public health authorities need to acknowledge that those and other pandemic restrictions were costly, and not just in economic or educational terms. “We know from research that social isolation is something that has a number of costs in terms of well-being.” It’s bad for our mental and physical health. And constant mask-wearing is isolating. It’s hard to hear, to connect, to communicate with others.
That’s a point that often gets lost on scientists and public health experts. The fact that people are socializing again, without masks, doesn’t mean they’ve stopped caring about their health or the health of older, more vulnerable people. Socializing for many people isn’t something frivolous. It’s vital for their mental health.
So there’s hope for a more coherent future, Bang Petersen said, as long as public health officials take the social and emotional costs into account, and impose only rules or recommendations that have a substantial, science-backed benefit. That means pushing for better ventilation in buildings, creating more compelling booster campaigns, and issuing clearer guidelines to help older and more vulnerable people avoid unnecessary risks. And be prepared for future variants — by continuing to do the genetic sequencing needed to find them and planning for action if something more deadly crops up.
The pandemic’s end is not playing out in the jubilant way it was supposed to last year when the White House had planned to declare independence from Covid on July 4.
“I think people are just psychologically done with Covid,” Osterhom said. “If you look back at the 1918 experience … In 1918 and 1919, there were multiple waves, it wasn’t just 1918. And people were quite compliant with public health recommendations, limiting public gatherings, etc. By the spring of 1920 when it got just past a second year, people said, “Ah, forget it, you know, we’re going to move on.” | 2022-06-11T13:40:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Have Public Health Officials Just Given Up on Covid-19? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/have-public-health-officials-just-given-up-on-covid-19/2022/06/11/3788cc50-e987-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/have-public-health-officials-just-given-up-on-covid-19/2022/06/11/3788cc50-e987-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
What Watching ‘All the President’s Men’ Won’t Tell You
Critics and historians have long nitpicked “All the President’s Men,” Alan J. Pakula’s splendid 1976 thriller about how the Washington Post’s reporting on the Watergate break-in helped topple a president. Now, with the 50th anniversary of the June 1972 burglary looming, a new concern is being raised: that by failing to mention the late Barry Sussman, the editor who led the Post’s investigation, the film helped create in the public mind a misunderstanding of the history.
“That Sussman was omitted from the story” — writes media critic Tom Jones at Poynter — is the movie’s “one flaw.” As a result of the omission, the Atlantic points out, the journalists who were called at the time “the Watergate Three” have gone down in history as “the Watergate Two.”
It is a tragedy that Sussman, who died earlier this month, has been forgotten. But as a sometime historical novelist, I wonder whether blaming the movie is entirely fair. Films will never get history right in the same way that we expect scholars to get history right. The genre will necessarily trim away some characters and events, emphasize others, and add imagined scenes and dialogue, all to meet the standards of the genre.
There might be reason to worry when a film’s version of events is more memorable — even when it is wrong. But concerns about how movies re-imagine the past are hardly new. In 1935, Louis Gottschalk, a historian at the University of Chicago, sent a letter to the head of MGM begging for accuracy: “If the cinema art is going to draw its subjects so generously from history, it owes it to its patrons and its own higher ideals to achieve greater accuracy.”
Fair enough. But there’s no one answer to the question of how faithful to the past a movie must be, and in what way.
Consider a film’s appearance. If what’s onscreen claims to be historical drama, the look and feel matter. The best epics have long been lauded for their attention to detail. In 1939, the Boston Globe praised Cecil B. DeMille for engaging experts while making “Union Pacific” to ensure that the film be accurate “in everything seen on screen from the biggest set to the merest shoe button.”
Still, looks aren’t everything. That same year, “Gone With the Wind” was praised for its close attention to historical detail, but about the only thing the film got right about actual events was that the South did indeed lose the Civil War. Its vision of race was particularly pernicious. The error matters. The “historical” film “Birth of a Nation” has been shown to harden anti-Black prejudice. One suspects that a contemporaneous study of “Gone With the Wind” — which still holds the record for the highest box office gross, adjusted for inflation — would have produced a similar result.
True, the film reflects a view shared by many a scholar of the day. But that was part of the problem. Writes the historian Kathryn M. Silva: “[I]f ‘accuracy’ is taken to mean fidelity to a widely accepted narrative of history, then prejudices that are part of that narrative can be perpetuated uncritically.”
In better hands, a movie can use a fictional point of view to illuminate a larger history. No one imagines that a real Captain John H. Miller ever led a small detachment on a 1944 mission to locate a Private James Francis Ryan in wartime France. Yet Steven Spielberg’s brilliant film about the search has been described by scholars and veterans alike as bringing home the reality of D-Day in a way that nothing else ever quite has.
Spielberg’s oeuvre also illustrates a second way that a fictionalized story can be good history. His masterful “Lincoln,” released in 2012, was criticized by some in the academy, probably too much. Whatever the project’s flaws, as historian Louis Masur points out, it provides a vital corrective to years of portrayals of the 16th president as vacillating ineffectually on the central issue of slavery. The abolitionist Lincoln onscreen is the Lincoln on which modern scholarship has converged.
And of course, a movie’s pretensions matter too. Nobody comes away from “Forrest Gump” persuaded that the Watergate burglars were caught because the eponymous everyman happened to call building security.
All of which brings us back to “All the President’s Men.” It’s sad that the film’s success helped erase Sussman from history. Yet it’s hardly the fault of Pakula’s film if half a century after the Watergate break-in, errors have crept into collective memory. Instead, we should perhaps blame ourselves, for not honoring our shared civil obligation to get history right. Even today, sometimes the only way to do that is to pick up a book.
• Jan 6. Panel Made the Case Against Donald Trump: Jonathan Bernstein | 2022-06-11T13:41:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What Watching ‘All the President’s Men’ Won’t Tell You - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/what-watching-all-the-presidents-men-wont-tell-you/2022/06/11/372b4698-e987-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/what-watching-all-the-presidents-men-wont-tell-you/2022/06/11/372b4698-e987-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
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