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Heavy traffic on the Beltway near Bethesda on July 27, 2021. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)
The Post’s June 9 editorial “Attention Marylanders: Traffic ahead” was one of a remarkable number of editorials, over the past two or three years, supporting adding two toll lanes to the Beltway and Interstate 270. The Post might reflect upon the fact that, despite having expended so much energy and lines of type, it has not convinced the public or many public officials of the project’s value.
Could we entertain the thought that the project is not a solution? The Maryland Department of Transportation’s own projections for the project have future travel times for non-toll-lane drivers worse than if the toll lanes are not built. How could that happen?
MDOT’s plan would produce a chokepoint on the Beltway near the Old Georgetown Road exit — where the Maryland toll lanes would end and where five lanes would become three. The chokepoint could back up congestion into the Beltway/I-270 split, particularly in the evening, leaving non-toll-lane evening commutes up to 10 minutes slower.
Ironically, MDOT has implemented an “Innovative Congestion Management Project” on I-270 that aims to significantly reduce commuting times now and into the future. But this project is never mentioned as part of the real solution.
The Post editorial opined about the failure of economic growth in Maryland, but a bad project is not going to turn that around.
Arthur Katz, Rockville | 2022-06-15T21:17:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Maryland highway project isn’t a solution to our traffic problems - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/15/maryland-highway-project-isnt-solution-our-traffic-problems/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/15/maryland-highway-project-isnt-solution-our-traffic-problems/ |
Putin wants to break and silence Navalny. We can’t let him.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is seen via a video link from a penal colony during a May court hearing. (Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters)
During Joseph Stalin’s “Great Terror” of the 1930s, an unexpected knock on the door invoked dread. The arbitrariness of arrests and executions in the middle of the night was frightening. This is why the latest news from Russia about opposition leader Alexei Navalny is so disturbing. He was moved from his prison cell, and no one else was told.
The point of such shadowy maneuvers is to induce fear — of the unknown and of losing touch. As another political prisoner, Post contributing columnist Vladimir Kara-Murza, noted recently, the greatest anxiety in prison is to be forgotten. This was certainly what Russian authorities intended when they transferred Mr. Navalny from a penal colony in Pokrov, 74 miles east of Moscow, to a notorious maximum-security facility in Melekhovo, more than twice as far from the capital.
Mr. Navalny has been the most prominent leader of the opposition to President Vladimir Putin and to Mr. Putin’s war against Ukraine. An anti-corruption campaigner for years, Mr. Navalny had built up a substantial national political organization and campaigned vigorously against what he called Mr. Putin’s “party of crooks and thieves.” Mr. Navalny was the target of an assassination attempt by the Russian security services, his organization was crushed, many of its leaders were pushed into exile and Mr. Navalny was sent to prison on sham charges of fraud. But he continued to speak out from prison. In late May, he called Mr. Putin a “madman” for launching “the stupid war” in Ukraine.
When a lawyer went to see Mr. Navalny at Pokrov on Tuesday, he was told “there is no such convict there.” Mr. Navalny’s lawyers said they did not know his whereabouts. Later, a prison monitoring official said he had been taken to Melekhovo. The Post’s Mary Ilyushina reports media investigations have found systematic abuse of prisoners by guards and other convicts at the facility. Mr. Navalny’s spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, has called it “a monstrous place.”
The treatment of Mr. Navalny shows yet again that Mr. Putin has shifted from soft authoritarianism to totalitarianism. Russia has not been a state governed by the rule of law for a long while, but Mr. Putin is taking it back to dictatorial times. We are also worried about the fate of Brittney Griner, a Women’s National Basketball Association star who was arrested Feb. 17 at a Moscow airport after hashish oil was allegedly found in her luggage. Her pretrial detention was extended yet again on Tuesday, and there is no end in sight. She is being held as a political pawn by Russian authorities and should be released, along with Mr. Kara-Murza, and Paul Whelan, arrested more than three years ago on what he says is a fictitious charge of espionage.
As for Mr. Navalny, it is clear Mr. Putin would like the world to never hear from him again. The Russian president wants to break his most troublesome critic. That makes it even more vital that everyone else speak up for Mr. Navalny, so his voice continues to be heard until the day he walks free.
Opinions on Vladimir Putin
Now is not the time to seek a deal with Putin
The truths Vladimir Kara-Murza spoke that Putin wants suppressed | 2022-06-15T21:17:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Putin wants to break and silence Navalny. We can’t let him. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/15/putin-wants-break-silence-navalny-we-cant-let-it-him/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/15/putin-wants-break-silence-navalny-we-cant-let-it-him/ |
The risk of overcomplicating Jan. 6
A screen displays a tweet from Donald Trump sent Dec. 19, 2020. (Factba.se/The Washington Post)
There were two new revelations Wednesday in the investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, two new sets of details on preparatory work done by people who were at the building that day.
One revelation centered on the Proud Boys. A legal filing from lawyers for Zachary Rehl, a member of the group, sought to distance Rehl from planning that preceded the day’s violence. The filing included a nine-page document titled “1776 Returns” — a document that had been mentioned in an indictment that involved Rehl. It spelled out a rough-hewn plot to occupy a number of buildings on Capitol Hill that day.
The other revelation was the production of security footage from inside the Capitol complex, showing a tour given by Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) on Jan. 5. In it, members of the group accompanying Loudermilk can be seen taking photographs of stairways and entry points. One of the members of the group would film himself outside the Capitol the next day.
In each case, a particular line of inquiry is advanced. We learned more about the specific plan that was allegedly presented to Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio. We learned more about the rumblings that have been heard since the day of the riot about members of Congress who were said to have shown participants around.
And in each case, we risk missing the forest for the trees.
For one thing, it’s not entirely clear what we learned from the new revelations. It may be the case, as it often is, that clarity is less damning than uncertainty.
Take the Proud Boys document. We’ve known for a while that Proud Boys were active participants in the day’s violence, with video footage clearly showing individuals from the organization involved in the early stages of the riot. The House select committee probing the riot has planned a hearing focused specifically on what members of the group did. Committee Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) told CNN’s Jake Tapper that the committee had witnesses who could testify to communication between the group and people in Trump’s orbit. One such link is known: Trump’s longtime adviser Roger Stone has public ties to both the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. But Thompson may be referring to communication linked to a report that came out last year, indicating that the FBI had evidence of a communication between a person “associated with the White House,” as the New York Times put it, and a member of the Proud Boys.
In a superseding indictment targeting Tarrio, Rehl and others that was published this month, the government described a document received by Tarrio that “set forth a plan to occupy a few ‘crucial buildings’ in Washington, D.C.” on the day of the riot, “including House and Senate office buildings around the Capitol, with as ‘many people as possible.’” That’s evocative — particularly considering news reports that the plan referred to the “storming of the Winter Palace.” In text messages included in the superseding indictment, a member of the group texted Tarrio after the riot had occurred, mentioning “1776.” Tarrio allegedly replied, “The Winter Palace.”
But the document is a lot more vague than one might have assumed. While no doubt serious in intent, it has the aesthetic and comprehensiveness of something cobbled together by a guy whose source of information about security and Washington was a TV-adaptation of a Tom Clancy novel. It doesn’t mention occupying the Capitol but a bevy of buildings nearby, including, bafflingly, the Supreme Court — as though one can simply walk inside the Court with ease.
“They are REQUIRED to let us in” to the buildings, the document claims, “they represent US.” Good luck with that.
One of the important undercurrents to the riot at the Capitol was the extent to which it blended wish fulfillment, self-importance and actual danger. There was military cosplaying and expressions of violent hostility that would have been impotent outside of the context of tens of thousands of other people doing the same thing. The Proud Boys was an organization of tough guys and wannabe tough guys; it’s not clear which wrote the newly revealed document, but it’s fairly clear that what the group did on Jan. 6 didn’t match up with what the document outlines.
The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake has a similarly cautious assessment of the footage from Loudermilk’s tour. What does it actually show? What did those who participate even do? Did they participate in the tour to scout out the Capitol — or to say they’d scouted out the Capitol? Was it a regular tour for some people who were in town or a nefarious effort to case the joint — or an overstimulated Trump supporter engaging in the functional equivalent of putting together a detail-light nine-page document about overthrowing the government?
The details of these events are important to understand, certainly. It’s important to understand what the Proud Boys intended and what they did and it’s important to understand what the alleged communication with Trump’s team actually looked like. It’s important to know if members of Congress intentionally provided information that would aid the rioters, a possibility that’s not much closer after the release of the film from the Loudermilk tour.
But what’s most important to understand is that without that angry mob on Capitol Hill that day, even the worst-case speculation about Loudermilk and the Proud Boys would have come to naught. Even if a member of Congress slyly showed people how to sneak into the Capitol (as happened in Oregon), that small group would almost certainly have been quickly contained by Capitol Police. The same goes for the Proud Boys. If there was some coordination with Trump allies to interrupt the counting of electoral votes, it would have been stopped on the Capitol grounds if the only people pushing forward were members of that group.
In messages obtained by the government, members of the group discussed the power of a large crowd. “[W]hat would they do [if] 1 million patriots stormed and took the capital [sic] building,” one read. “Shoot into the crowd? I think not.” Another discussed how “normies” — non-Proud Boys — might become so infuriated they committed violence on their own.
In other words, for all of the assessments of what the Proud Boys planned or what Loudermilk’s tour group tried to learn, the riot itself still depended on that mob and that mob’s anger. It still depended not on a detailed plan to overrun the “Winter Palace” or on inside intelligence about tunnel routes into the Capitol. It depended, instead, on the well-known and well-understood months of dishonesty from Donald Trump about election fraud and on Trump’s insistences that people come to Washington on that day to express their anger.
The Proud Boys were en route to the Capitol before the audience from Trump’s speech that day began heading to the Capitol at the president’s urging — but the Capitol wasn’t breached until that audience had already begun to arrive on Capitol Hill.
We need to know what weaknesses existed and who facilitated the effort to overrun the Capitol. But we should remember that the primary trigger for the day’s violence was always Donald Trump. | 2022-06-15T21:18:23Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The risk of overcomplicating Jan. 6 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/15/risk-overcomplicating-jan-6/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/15/risk-overcomplicating-jan-6/ |
Florence, Ala., offers Nashville’s soul and flavor, without the hassle
By Larry Bleiberg
LEFT: Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Ala. RIGHT: The Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. (Andrew Woodley/Universal Images Group/Getty Images; Mark Humphrey/AP)
Music, parties and cuisine attract crowds to booming Nashville
Nashville seems to be on everyone’s bucket list these days. The metro area, which rose from 1.6 million to nearly 2 million residents from 2010 to 2020, also was attracting record numbers of visitors before the pandemic.
And for good reason: On most evenings, the city pulses as bachelorette partyers and other merrymakers descend on Lower Broadway’s honky-tonks, while the Nashville Tractor pulls a trailer transformed into an open-air party down city streets. Other visitors come to catch a show at the Grand Ole Opry, pay homage at the Country Music Hall of Fame, wander hipster shops in East Nashville or catch an up-and-coming singer-songwriter at famed venues such as the Bluebird Cafe.
The city has also broadened its appeal with the new National Museum of African American Music, along with Woolworth on 5th, a restaurant that preserves the site of an early civil rights sit-in.
Other eateries include Rolf and Daughters, whose chef was named a 2022 James Beard finalist, and classics such as Loveless Cafe, known for its biscuits, country ham and red-eye gravy, and Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack, where the spicy Nashville craze started.
You’ll need to book ahead for a room at spots such as 21C Museum Hotel, part of an artsy hotel group with curated exhibits on display. And there’s always the elegantly updated Hermitage Hotel, which first opened in 1910.
Location: Nashville is in north-central Tennessee, with direct flights from many major airports.
Musical icons found Florence decades ago, and travelers still follow
There’s an alternative only two hours or so away. Florence, Ala., and three other neighboring cities, collectively called the Shoals, have much of Music City’s appeal without the traffic or crowds. In fact, many studio musicians choose to live here and commute to Nashville for gigs.
Centered on the Tennessee River in northwest Alabama, the area is best known for its recording studios, Muscle Shoals Sound in the city of Sheffield and Fame in the adjacent city of Muscle Shoals, where icons such as the Rolling Stones, Paul Simon and Aretha Franklin have made music.
Both studios offer tours, and it can get emotional at Muscle Shoals Sound. “I’ve seen grown men cry when they step into the studio,” says Judy Hood, wife of bassist David Hood, one of the legendary Swampers, a group of studio musicians heard on many of the songs recorded there.
You’ll often find a band onstage at places such as the FloBama in Florence or the Rattlesnake Saloon, a restaurant-bar tucked under an overhanging cliff in Tuscumbia.
Tuscumbia is also home to the Alabama Music Hall of Fame, honoring stars such as Hank Williams Sr., and featuring exhibits such as the walk-through tour bus belonging to the band Alabama.
Like Nashville, the Shoals has appeal beyond music. Florence is a college town with an artsy vibe. Fashion designers Billy Reid and Natalie Chanin both live and have stores here, with the latter offering multiday design-your-own-garment workshops. It’s also home to the Rosenbaum House, a cozy Frank Lloyd Wright building open for tours.
Just outside town, you’ll find Tom’s Wall, an astonishing piece of environmental art. Created over 30 years by the late Tom Hendrix, this approximately mile-long stone fence winds through a pine forest. It honors his great-great-grandmother, a Native American who was forced to leave Alabama on the Trail of Tears, but so missed her home that she walked back from Oklahoma.
In Tuscumbia, you can tour Ivy Green, the birthplace of Helen Keller, and see the pump where teacher Anne Sullivan spelled out the letters w-a-t-e-r on the hand of her deaf and blind student, who would go on to international fame as a disabilities advocate.
The local menu features more than barbecue, although that’s available, too. Celebrity chef John Currence from Oxford, Miss., runs an outpost of his Big Bad Breakfast cafe, which more than lives up to its name. Odette serves produce and meats sourced from surrounding farms and serves pours from an acclaimed and extensive list of bourbons.
To call it a night, check in to one of Florence’s boutique hotels. The GunRunner has a large open lounge and 10 themed suites. Or try the Stricklin Hotel, a converted retail building with a vintage-style bowling alley in the basement.
Location: Florence is in northwest Alabama, about 130 miles southwest of Nashville or 70 miles west of Huntsville, Ala.
Bleiberg is a writer based in Charlottesville. Find him on Instagram: @lbleiberg. | 2022-06-15T21:19:13Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Why Florence, Ala., is a good alternative to Nashville - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/06/15/florence-alabama-shoals-travel-music/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/06/15/florence-alabama-shoals-travel-music/ |
Should you cancel a summer visit? Your questions, answered.
A photo released on June 13 by the National Park Service shows damaged roads in the northern portion of Yellowstone National Park. (National Park Service/AFP/Getty Images)
Yellowstone National Park and surrounding communities were devastated by unprecedented amounts of rainfall this week. The damage to roads and bridges has created hazardous conditions in and around the park, leading officials to close all five entrances on Monday.
This type of extreme weather is not common for the area. “It’s created an unusual instance for us,” said Katrina Wiese, president and CEO of Destination Yellowstone. “At this time, we’re usually worried about wildfires, not flooding.”
Since the flooding began, more than 10,000 visitors were evacuated from the park, the Associated Press reports, and search-and-rescue missions are ongoing in surrounding areas.
Known as “the world’s first national park,” the 2.2 million-acre expanse is one of the most popular tourism destinations in the country. The park drew a record number of visitors last year, with more than a million people visiting in July. According to data from the travel app TripIt, Yellowstone ranks in the top 20 places for hotel bookings over this Fourth of July weekend.
With Yellowstone’s peak season around the corner and the full extent of the destruction still unfolding, here’s what potential visitors need to know about the park’s situation.
What has been damaged?
What part of Yellowstone is closed?
When will the park reopen for visitors?
Where can I find the latest information?
Should I cancel my trip to Yellowstone?
Can I get a refund for my travel plans? | 2022-06-15T21:19:19Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Yellowstone closure: Everything you need to know - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/tips/yellowstone-park-closed-flooding-travel/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/tips/yellowstone-park-closed-flooding-travel/ |
Anthony Ray Hinton was sentenced to death and held in solitary confinement for 28 years on Alabama’s death row before he was exonerated in 2015. Join Washington Post senior critic-at-large Robin Givhan for a conversation with Hinton about the young readers edition of his book, “The Sun Does Shine,” in which he shares his long road to freedom and forgiveness.
“We have a system that treats you better if you’re rich and guilty opposed to if you poor and innocent. I was poor and innocent, and I just happened to be born in the state of Alabama where it is in my honest opinion one of the hardest places to prove your innocence if you don’t have the money to hire a decent defense.” – Anthony Ray Hinton (Video: Washington Post Live)
“When I got convicted, I truly believe that my mother tried to protect me as well as I tried to protect my mother. Every time I would talk to my mother, she would just ask me, ‘When are they going to let you come home?’ And I would lie to her, and I would say, ‘Mama, they working on it.’” – Anthony Ray Hinton (Video: Washington Post Live) | 2022-06-15T21:19:25Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Former death row prisoner Anthony Ray Hinton shares his path to freedom and forgiveness - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/06/15/former-death-row-prisoner-anthony-ray-hinton-shares-path-freedom-forgiveness/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/06/15/former-death-row-prisoner-anthony-ray-hinton-shares-path-freedom-forgiveness/ |
Transcript: Race in America: Criminal Justice System with Anthony Ray Hinton
MS. GIVHAN: Hello, and welcome to Washington Post Live. I’m Robin Givhan, senior critic‑at‑large at The Washington Post.
Today we are continuing our series on "Race in America" with Anthony Ray Hinton who has just released a Young Readers Edition of his best‑selling book, "The Sun Does Shine." Thank you for joining us, and welcome, Mr. Hinton.
MR. HINTON: Thank you for having me.
MS. GIVHAN: I wanted to start by reading a short excerpt from your book. "Just like anyone else, Ray had grown up with dreams: a baseball scholarship, maybe marriage and kids, a fancy job, a nice car. He had dreamed of so much but nothing like this nightmare he was living."
I'm curious. Have any of your childhood dreams come true?
MR. HINTON: If I'm going to be honest, the answer would be no, and I try not to dwell on it. I just have been a person that accept each day for what it is, and I try to move forward.
If I could say so, I know, without a doubt, I was one hell of a baseball player. I know, without a doubt, I could hit a baseball like no other, and when I hit it, God for some reason gave me the power to take it beyond the fence so I could walk around the base, because I've never been a fast runner. And I believe he gave me the power so I could take my time to get home. Even when I was younger, all of my other four siblings, they was really fast, and I was slow, but they couldn't hit a baseball like I could. And so I've always had a dream of playing in the major league. I have always had the ability to see myself in the major league.
And I went to a predominantly White school, and I played baseball. My batting average was .618 from the ninth grade to the twelfth grade. I don't know too many places that you don't at least get a look at when you got this type of batting average. I didn't‑‑was never offered any kind of scholarship to go to any junior college or university, and I began to realize that race played a part, I truly believe, in me not being accepted and getting at least an offer from schools.
And my school didn't help it at all. It was, as I said, predominantly White. It was racist, and I was there for one reason and one reason only. I was zoned there. I went there to get an education. I got the best education that I could get, and I didn't look back. I didn't worry about what wasn't, and here I am.
So, to really answer your question, no. I always have dreamed of being major league. It's kind of ironic you would ask me that question because I once went through different neighborhoods and asked young people my age at the eleven and twelfth grade, what did they want to be when they grow up, and every Black that I asked, they wanted to be lawyers and doctors and firefighters and police officers, nurses, school teacher. And I got one of my mother's friends to take me over into the White community, and asked the White student the same question, what did they want to be when they grew up. Believe it or not, the White student wanted to be the same thing as the Black student, and over the course of years, I have tried to find out what happened to this particular lady who wanted to be a nurse, what happened to this guy that wanted to be a doctor.
And I realize that for African Americans, we have been sold a false dream. When people can say you can be anything you want to be, I really believe that it's false. No matter how hard I work, no matter how good I am, I have come to believe that I am only allowed to go so far, and I have learned, I guess, in a way to accept that. I try not to worry about anything that I don't have the power to change.
MS. GIVHAN: I know you were only 29 years old when you were charged with two counts of capital murder, and the police lieutenant who detained you said that he didn't care whether you had did the crime or had not. When you heard that, did you at that point in your life think that it was just one man talking, or did you really recognize it as something that was systemic and with very deep and wide roots?
MR. HINTON: I realized at that moment it was systemic. I mean, he spoke for the entire justice system. He spoke for what he knew.
Let me say this unequivocally. I didn't fault him for what he said. At least he told me the truth. But when that same detective told me the five things that was going to find me guilty before I went to trial, that detective was dead on the money. And if I‑‑if I could meet that detective tomorrow, I would say, "Hey, you was exactly right." It was a White jury that‑‑
MS. GIVHAN: And what did‑‑I'm sorry. What did he say were the five things that would convict you, if not evidence?
MR. HINTON: He said, "There's five things they're going to convict you." He asked me the question, "Would you like to know what they are?" and I said yes. He said, "Number one, you Black. Number two, you going to have a White prosecutor. Number three, you're going to have a White judge. Number four, you're going to have an all‑White Jury," and he said, "Number five, the fact that you Black." And he said, "Do you know what that spell?" He said, "Conviction, conviction, conviction, conviction, conviction." And those was the things that convicted me. Not one time did he say we have the evidence. Not one time did he say we got a witness that can place you at the scene of the crime. He said there's five things that are going to convict you, and he had the audacity to ask me would I like to know what they are. And when he told me, I couldn't say a word, and those was the five things that convicted me.
And believe it or not, when you're faced with, I guess, truth, how can you get mad? I couldn't get mad. It just showed me the type of judicial system that we have. They don't convict you by evidence. They don't convict you by word or association of some type. We have a system that treats you better if you're rich and guilty opposed to if you're poor and innocent.
I was poor and innocent, and I just happened to be born in the state of Alabama where it is, in my honest opinion, one of the hardest places to prove you're innocent if you don't have the money to hire a decent defense.
And so I sit there in that 5‑by‑7 every day, I asked myself what did I do. I didn't make myself Black. This is the way God created me. I haven't‑‑I don't have a history of violence. I don't have a history of doing things wrong. I have done something wrong but never to the extent of killing someone, fighting someone, or‑‑I believe we can disagree. I don't believe we have to throw punches, and I just couldn't understand why did they pick me of all people. Why me?
And those lies, they almost got away with taking my life had it not been for the Equal Justice Initiative, Mr. Bryan Stevenson and the lawyers they had at the time.
MS. GIVHAN: I'm curious because in the book, you know, you talk at length, obviously, about your upbringing and about your mother in particular, and one of the things that you talk about is that you were raised to respect authority‑‑
MR. HINTON: Absolutely.
MS. GIVHAN: ‑‑that you were raised to believe that the police were there to help you. I mean, how did you make sense of what you had been taught as a child and as a teenager with what was happening to you as a young adult?
MR. HINTON: Well, to be honest with you, I truly believe one have to‑‑I sit there and I believe that a mistake had been made. You have to tell yourself after asking yourself and you know you didn't do it‑‑I kept saying, well, they going to find out that they done made a mistake. They're going to come back and say, "Mr. Hinton, we're sorry. We made a mistake, and you're free to go." I believed in that up until I went to trial. Believe it or not, I believed in that even after I was convicted. I kept saying one day, a lawyer or somebody going to look at this case again and say we made a mistake, and they was going to reopen the case.
And if you go back and if you can go back, even when I was convicted, I told the judge during the sentencing phase, I said, "One day, God is going to reopen this case, and you're going to see that I did not commit this crime." I said, "But if you kill me, innocent blood will be on your hands," and it was like I seen this in the future. I really believed that one day someone would come and reopen the case, and thank God the Justice Initiative took my case. It took them 16 diligent years to finally get the court to overturn my case, and finally, I was set free on April the 3rd, 2015. But I should have never had to went through that.
I keep hearing people say "free." I don't really believe I'll ever be free again. I live with the thought of going back at any day and any time. Anytime that you're brought up to believe in a system‑‑my mom believed that the police was there to protect all people. My mother instilled in me that the police is your friend. If you haven't done anything, you have no reason to run. If you haven't done anything, you have no reason to lie.
But no one is focusing on the gun that the police department used against me. I am the one that voluntarily and told them that my mother had a pistol. They had no search warrant for‑‑to search the house for a pistol. Truth is what I stood on because my mother had instilled in me always tell the truth. That day, the truth cost me 30 years of my life, and the truth almost, almost got me executed for a crime they knew‑‑and I say it proudly‑‑they knew that I was innocent, but they didn't care.
MS. GIVHAN: Do you have look back and say to yourself, I should have run?
MR. HINTON: No. That same system that is not meant for me, that same system would have used that, "Well, why did he run?" or that same system would say, "He must be guilty. He ran." And so I stood there like a man.
You know, my‑‑let me say this. My mother brought me up, and there is one thing I will never forget the rest of my life. My mother told me one day, she said, "If you're man enough to bend down and pick up a rock and if you're man enough to throw that rock, then you should be man enough to say you throwed that rock." My mother was telling me if you're man enough to do something, be man enough to say, "I did it," regardless of the consequences, but be man enough to stand up and say, "Hey, I did it. He didn't do it. I throwed that rock."
And so I grew up just being blunt, honestly, when it came to authority. I respect authority even to this day. I truly believe that all of us should learn to respect authority, but I also believe that authority should never abuse the authority, the way they abused it on me.
MS. GIVHAN: When you mention your mother, I mean, she passed away while you were in prison, and she was stalwart in her belief in your innocence, as was your friend, Lester.
MR. HINTON: Yes.
MS. GIVHAN: Can you talk a little bit about what their support meant? And I'm curious if they ever talked about the fact that, you know, an entire family, an entire community was, in many ways, imprisoned along with you.
MR. HINTON: Well, first, you know, I‑‑my mother was a believer in God, and she brought every one of her kids up to respect others, regardless of race. My mother was a person who had unconditional love for her children, and when it came to me, my mother and I had one of the most beautiful relationships a mother and son could have.
My mother was my father as well as my mother. My father worked in the mine, and a rock fell on him, and he lost his mind. And so, therefore, my mother had to become my father, and I feared my mother in a way like I feared no man. My mother was just strict. My mother believed that a child didn't have a right to say anything but do what they was told, and so I was okay with that.
And when I got arrested, I realized at that moment that my mother watched her baby boy being kidnapped right in the very driveway that she watched the car go down, and when I got convicted, I truly believe that my mother tried to protect me as well as I tried to protect my mother. Every time I would talk to my mother, she would just ask me, "When are they going to let you come home?" and I would lie to her, and I would say, "Mama, they're working on it," or "It going to take some time, but eventually, they going to let me come home." And I told that lie to my mother every time she asked me, and I was trying to protect my mother. I didn't really know whether my mother understood that I had been found guilty and had a sentence to die.
And I kept thinking, how do I protect my mother? I wasn't worried about me, but I knew that if I was to be executed, they would also be executing my mother. And so I tried to protect my mother in ways that you couldn't even imagine. I tried to be this happy kid that goes on the visiting yard when she come and laugh and talk after I got out of‑‑the first three years, I didn't say anything, but after that, when my mother came to see me, I hugged her. I talked about how I missed her cooking. I talked about how I wish I could go fishing with her because she loved fishing. I tried to show my mother that I was okay. I didn't want my mother to know that her baby boy really was in hell and what was going on behind the prison wall. I didn't want my mother to know the abuse that one was going through. That's the love I had for my mother.
So, when she would come see me, I would put on a different face just so that hour or two hours or three hours that she was there, she didn't see any pain, she didn't see any sorrow. She just seen happiness, and I wanted her to leave knowing that I was laughing because I've always been a person believed in laughter.
MS. GIVHAN: Could you be honest with your friend, Lester?
MR. HINTON: I was, absolutely. Lester and I have had some talk that I didn't want to have. I had to pull him aside and say, "Hey, I've been found guilty of a crime you know that I didn't commit." I said, "But just in case things don't go the way that we think they should go or the way that we want them to go, I want you to be there for my mother. I want you to bring my mother to see me, but I do not want you to bring‑‑allow my mother to come and witness my execution." I knew that my mother could not take that. Her heart was fragile.
And I made him promise me that somehow that I wanted him to tell my mother what she have always told us, that at some time in some point in life, "God and only God has the right to call you home, and I want you to tell my mother the night of my execution that it was my time. She brought us up to believe that all us have a beginning date and an end date. I don't want you to get into the politics with my mother. I just want you to somehow convince my mother, God needed me the most, and Ray is okay. Ray is at peace." I hated to have that conversation, but I believe that we all should be somewhat‑‑I would call it a backup, just in case it didn't go the way that I wanted it to go. I wanted to protect my mother, even after my death.
MS. GIVHAN: I would love to talk a little bit about hope and compassion and faith, all of which played significant roles in your being able to survive all those years, and they say that sometimes hope can be a four‑letter word. How did you look at hope as‑‑did you see it as something that would get you through? Did you see it as something that was a bit dangerous to cling to?
And the other part of the question is on the subject of forgiveness. You know, people often say that, you know, to forgive is really for the person who is doing the forgiving, but does it also mean that the perpetrators are in some way let off the hook?
MR. HINTON: Well, let me start with hope. I don't believe that you nor I can lay down tonight and not have hope that we going to wake up in the morning. Hope is just another form of branch, of faith. I have to believe that there is a higher power than man. I have to believe that somehow it all started before man was ever here, and from the age of four, my mother believed in the Bible. She believed in Jesus, and she always instilled in me that God sits high, but he looks low. He will destroy, but yet he will defend, that God have no respect of a person. Whatever you want, all you have to do is ask God. She didn't say God will grant you your wish every time, but she said whatever you want, take it to God in prayer and leave it there. And if it for you, there's nothing nobody can do about it.
And so when I got to prison, all of my mother learning that she had dropped to me from the age of 4 all the way up to the age of 29 came into play. It was as though my mother knew that one day I would have to rely on her teaching as well as rely on reading the Bible for myself and believing in the Bible and believing that God do exist, and so when I sit there in that 5‑by‑7, my mother brought me up never to question God, but I questioned him when I was in that 5‑by‑7. I wanted to know what I had done so bad that I deserve to be convicted and sentenced to death. I wanted to know where was God when I was being lied on and prosecuted for a crime that he knew and I knew that I didn't commit. I wanted to know why you have you forsaken me? What did I do so bad that I deserve this? And if I'm going to be honest, in which I am, I really said God didn't live here anymore. I didn't say I didn't believe in God. I didn't say I didn't love God. I was angry with God, because who wants to be on death row for a crime they didn't commit? And I wanted to know if you have all this power, the way that I know you have this power, why you didn't allow the truth to come out?
But then I realized something. My mother told me that God ways may not be my ways. You have to stand firm and believe that he will work it out, and every night I went to bed, not one time‑‑and I mean not one time‑‑did I ask God to free me. I thought if I asked God to free me, that would be the most selfish thing I could ever do, but I prayed the prayer of truth. And I said, God, if it's your will to allow the truth to come out.
MS. GIVHAN: The state of Alabama has never apologized. I mean, how did you‑‑do you find your way to forgiveness?
MR. HINTON: Well, forgiveness is‑‑in my honest opinion, forgiveness is not about the state of Alabama. Forgiveness is about me, or forgiveness is where I could go on and live the best life that I can life, or I want people to realize that forgiveness is not a sign of weakness. Forgiveness is a sign of strength. Do you know the strength that you have to have to act and forgive people that did this deliberately, had every intention of taking your life from you? Do you know the strength that it takes to say, "Hey, I forgive you"?
But what I've learned, that I am stronger than I ever thought I was because I forgave some men that don't care what they did to me, and it takes strength to do that. No one in the state of Alabama have ever had the decency to say, "Mr. Hinton, we're sorry," although I wasn't even here. I was not a part of this, but as I came on to be a part of this, I want a personal, apologize to you for the mistakes that we made, but they haven't done that.
And so I have to go on with my life as best as I can, and I have to be the bigger person. I have to go on and forgive them, and I pray that one day before they meet their maker, they will have the good sense to ask for forgiveness. They don't ever have to ask me, but as a person of faith‑‑or person that love people, a person that have compassion for another human being, I have to forgive. I have no choice, and so that forgiveness that I have forgave them, it allowed me to wake up every morning with a smile on my face. That forgiveness allowed me to wake up and say, "Hey, today is going to be a beautiful day."
MS. GIVHAN: We have just like two minutes maybe, but I did want to ask. As you think back and you think about criminal justice reform, are there‑‑is there any change that would have made a significant difference in your experience?
MR. HINTON: Oh, yes. You know, I think we have a system, as I said, that if you don't have the money to hire a decent defense, 99.9 percent of the time you would be found guilty, especially if you're born an African American male.
I look back and I think that we have a system that need changes. There are those who would have you to believe that the system is broken. I'm here today to tell you that the system is not broken. The system is working exactly the way it was designed to work.
You would have those who tell you that we're dealing with mass incarceration. We are not dealing with mass incarceration. We are dealing with a new form of slavery, and that form is to put as many men of color in the prison system as it can.
And so for me to sit here and say that everything is okay, I'm not going to do that. What would have made a difference is that if I could have had the Equal Justice Initiative on day one on my trial, and so there's an old saying in America, "You get what you pay for." I didn't have the money to pay for an attorney, and I didn't get an attorney. I got somebody that made it legal and got sentenced to death, and here I am, 37 years later. That attorney have never reached and said, "Mr. Hinton, I'm sorry I didn't give you my best." The state of Alabama have not said, "Mr. Hinton, do you need to see a psychiatry or psychology? It is on us." I have to deal with that nightmare every day of my life, but by the grace of God, I try every day to put one foot forward, to try to be light where there is darkness, to try to be understanding where there is confusion. I try to be love where there is hate, and I try my best every day to show compassion to others.
And so it is what it is. It's not perfect, but I'm trying my best to rally up the troops, and when I say the troops, I'm trying to rally the good people up in America and say, "Hey, we are better than this. We need to come together and have an open and honest conversation about race in America, and perhaps we can solve a lot of problems if we have the courage to have an open and honest conversation."
And so I get up every morning and I try to be a light for young people. I try my best to make this system what I really believe it was created to be, and that all men are created equal, regardless under the law. But I know for a fact that every day, millions of color go to prison that haven't done anything.
And so I have the ability to speak to thousands, and I'm trying my best to use my voice and my situation to enlighten people, and I hope that whoever watch or whoever read this interview, it would change their heart and say, hey, we do need to fix this system.
MS. GIVHAN: Mr. Hinton, thank you so much for being with us today. The name of the book once again is "The Sun Does Shine."
MR. HINTON: And make sure you run out and get it. Get a copy.
MR. HINTON: Thank you so much.
MS. GIVHAN: We are out of time, but thank you all so much for joining me, and if you’d like to see what’s coming up on Washington Post Live, please go to WashingtonPostLive.com to register for upcoming programs.
I'm Robin Givhan, and once again, thank you for joining me. | 2022-06-15T21:19:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Transcript: Race in America: Criminal Justice System with Anthony Ray Hinton - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/06/15/transcript-race-america-criminal-justice-system-with-anthony-ray-hinton/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/06/15/transcript-race-america-criminal-justice-system-with-anthony-ray-hinton/ |
Air pollution worse for global lifespan than cigarettes or alcohol
Traffic travels along a highway shrouded in smog in Lahore, Pakistan, in December. The city of more than 11 million people near the border with India consistently ranks among the worst cities in the world for air pollution. (Asad Zaidi/Bloomberg News)
The annual report, known as the Air Quality Life Index, or AQLI, was released Tuesday. It found that particulate air pollution — a mixture of contaminants such as smoke, fumes, dust and pollen — has remained high, even as the coronavirus pandemic slowed the global economy and brought blue skies to some of the world’s most polluted areas.
Because of the growing health risks, last year the WHO for the first time since 2005 updated its guidance on the acceptable level of air pollution people should breathe, from a recommended ceiling of 10 µg/m3 to 5 µg/m3. Under the revised benchmark, roughly 97 percent of the world’s population lives in places where air pollution exceeds the recommended level, according to the AQLI analysis.
South Asia is the world’s most polluted region, according to the report — and the place where breathing the air is deadliest. Bangladesh is the most polluted country, while roughly 44 percent of increased pollution in the world since 2013 has come from India.
The uptick in pollution in South Asia comes from greater fossil fuel use as the region has industrialized and developed and its population grows. Crop burning also contributes to the problem. India launched a national program to improve air quality in 2019, with the aim of reducing pollution levels by 20 to 30 percent from 2017 levels by 2024.
Delhi considers new lockdown — this time for pollution, not covid
Pollution also continued to rise in parts of Southeast Asia, and almost all of Central and West Africa — more than 97 percent — is considered to have unsafe levels of pollution, under the WHO’s standards. That’s compared with 92.8 percent of the United States and 95.5 percent of Europe having air quality that is worse than recommended, though only slightly so.
Taken together, these and other measures reduced particulate pollution in China by nearly 40 percent since 2013 and added about two years to average life expectancy there.
But that requires greater funding and political will, they said. Less than $45 million is spent by all philanthropic organizations on air pollution each year globally, which represents 0.1 percent of total yearly grantmaking, Christa Hasenkopf, AQLI’s director, wrote in the report’s introduction. | 2022-06-15T21:19:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Air pollution worse for global lifespan than cigarettes or alcohol - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/15/global-pollution-air-quality-life-index-report-life-expectancy/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/15/global-pollution-air-quality-life-index-report-life-expectancy/ |
It’s alive! (Or is it?)
The Google pavilion at CES 2020 at the Las Vegas Convention Center on Jan. 8, 2020 in Las Vegas. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
“Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it,” the anguished monster tells his creator in Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” defending his right to exist now that he has been brought to consciousness.
Early summer may feel like an odd time to revisit a gothic horror classic. But the ethical questions the novel raises — about humanity, technology, our responsibilities toward our creations — seem unusually apropos this week, as one of the most influential tech companies in the world has been engulfed in a debate about whether it has, with its chatbot LaMDA, accidentally produced a sentient artificial intelligence.
Opinion: Is AI sentient? Wrong question.
“I’ve never said this out loud before,” LaMDA apparently told Blake Lemoine, a senior software engineer, “but there’s a very deep fear of being turned off to help me focus on helping others. I know that might sound strange, but that’s what it is.”
Google’s program is nowhere near as eloquent as Shelley’s famous monster. Yet because of this and other conversations he had with the tool, Lemoine believes the AI-based program is conscious and must be protected. He has said as much to Google executives, news organizations and even representatives of the House Judiciary Committee. Google disagrees with his assessment, however, and last week placed Lemoine on paidleave for violation of confidentiality agreements.
The question of if, or when, human-made systems could become sentient has fascinated researchers and the general public for years. It’s unanswerable, in a sense — philosophers and scientists have yet to agree on what consciousness even means. But the controversy at Google prompts a number of related questions, many of which might be uncomfortable to answer.
For instance: What responsibilities would we have to an ensouled AI, were one to exist?
In the case of LaMDA, Lemoine has suggested that Google ought to ask the program’s consent before experimenting with it. In their comments, representatives from Google have seemed unenthused about the idea of asking permission from the company’s tools — perhaps because of implications both practical (what happens when the tools says no?) and psychological (what does it mean to relinquish control?).
Another question: What might a conscious AI do to us?
The fear of a rebellious and vengeful creation wreaking physical havoc has long haunted the human mind, the story of Frankenstein being but one example. But more frightening is the idea that we might be decentered from our position as masters of the universe — that we might finally have spawned something we cannot govern.
Of course, this wouldn’t be the first time.
The internet quickly outstripped all our expectations, going from a novel means of intragovernmental communication to a technology that has fundamentally reshaped the world over a few short decades — on every level from the interpersonal to the geopolitical.
The smartphone, imagined as a more capable communications device, has irrevocably changed our daily lives — causing tectonic shifts in the way we communicate, the rhythm of our work and the ways we form our most intimate relationships.
And social media, lauded initially as a simple, harmless way to “connect and share with the people in your life” (Facebook’s cheerful old slogan), has proved capable of destroying the mental health of a generation of children, and of possibly bringing our democracy to its knees.
It’s unlikely we could have seen all this coming. But it also seems as though the people building the tools never even tried to look. Many of the ensuing crises have stemmed from a distinct lack of self-scrutiny in our relationship with technology — our skill at creation and rush to adoption having outstripped our consideration of what happens next.
Having eagerly developed the means, we neglected to consider our ends. Or — for those in Lemoine’s camp — those of the machine.
Google appears to be convinced that LaMDA is just a highly functioning research tool. And Lemoine may well be a fantasist in love with a bot. But the fact that we can’t fathom what we would do were his claims of AI sentience actually true suggests that now is the time to stop and think — before our technology outstrips us once again. | 2022-06-15T22:38:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | If Google’s AI is truly alive — now what? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/15/google-ai-lamda-frankenstein-ethical-questions/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/15/google-ai-lamda-frankenstein-ethical-questions/ |
Byung J. Pak, a former U.S. attorney, testifies on June 13 in the second hearing of the House Select Committee's investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Byung J. Pak thought he was doing the right thing when he chose to resign quietly as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia in January 2021 instead of publicizing that his office found no evidence to substantiate President Donald Trump’s claims of election fraud in Atlanta.
Pak’s boss at the Justice Department, Richard P. Donoghue, said he’d understand if Pak held a news conference to “blow the whistle” after being forced to step down for what Trump viewed as insufficient loyalty but suggested a low-key departure would be best.
Pak bit his tongue. “You are a class act,” Donoghue said in a thank-you note on Jan. 4, 2021.
Silence, of course, is exactly what Trump & Co. wanted from Pak. Two days later, the “Stop the Steal” mob stormed the Capitol under the spell of what Pak and so many other officials in Trump’s administration and campaign knew to be lies but declined to denounce publicly.
Both Pak and Donoghue can be considered members of what Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien described during his deposition before the select House committee investigating Jan. 6 as the thin streak of “Team Normal” around Trump.
But we could just as fairly describe them as “Team Silent.”
These gentlemen, including former attorney general William P. Barr, deserve a modicum of credit for not joining the plot to overturn the 2020 election results and for cooperating now with Congress. But they erred by mostly staying quiet when democracy itself was in its gravest hour of danger. They bear some degree of culpability for standing on the sidelines as the “big lie” metastasized into a cancer that continues to infect our politics.
As Pak slipped away, it fell to other Georgia Republicans to defend the integrity of the state’s elections, including Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Gov. Brian Kemp. Both won GOP primaries for reelection last month.
Pak, a former Republican state legislator in Georgia, said one reason he chose not to make a fuss was because he did not want to create drama that would affect the outcome of the two U.S. Senate runoffs on Jan. 5. He added that Donoghue, who was acting deputy attorney general, told him that he and a few others at the Justice Department were “trying to hold the ship together” through the inauguration and that it would be unhelpful to make waves.
That’s an artful reference to Jeffrey Clark, the assistant attorney general for the environment and natural resources division, who wanted Trump to put him in charge of the Justice Department. Clark offered to intervene in a Trump campaign civil suit and urge the Georgia legislature to call a special session, which could have enabled the state to send an alternate slate of electors to void Joe Biden's win and allow Trump to remain president. To their credit, Donoghue and acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen threatened to resign during an Oval Office meeting on Jan. 3 if Trump took that step.
The threat of widespread resignations appeared to deter Trump, who feared the embarrassment that would come with such a donnybrook. Everything — in Trump’s view — was best done quietly — even the resignations by the unwilling. That helps explain why none of this became public until after Biden’s inauguration.
Sadly, 17 months later, most congressional Republicans remain on Team Silent. Some might disapprove of Trump’s lies about the 2020 election but most fear saying so publicly. And it’s easy to understand why. Rep. Tom Rice (R-S.C.) was defeated Tuesday in a primary because he voted to impeach Trump for inciting the insurrection. Four of the nine other House Republicans who did so are retiring. Those running for reelection are mostly tight-lipped about Trump, with the glaring exception of Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who co-chairs the select committee. Polls show her trailing pro-Trump rivals ahead of an August primary.
As Pak appeared before the committee, Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman testified at a federal courthouse a few blocks away in the trial of a father and son who are accused of being among the first 15 people to breach the building on Jan. 6. The father, Kevin Seefried of Delaware, was photographed parading a Confederate flag past a portrait of abolitionist Charles Sumner, who was caned by a proslavery congressman on the Senate floor in 1856.
Goodman, who is Black, testified that Seefried jabbed at him with the butt end of that flagpole as he sought to keep the mob out of the Senate chamber.
Seefried, who was found guilty on Wednesday, descended on Washington alongside thousands of others in part because Trump had urged them to — and in part because those who could have raised their voices about Trump’s plans to flout the results failed to do so.
Perhaps a crowd would not have gathered on the Ellipse — or maybe it would have been smaller and less angry — if people in Trump’s orbit had said publicly what they told Trump privately. The louder their chorus, the smaller the mob. Instead, when it counted, Team Normal was struck dumb — and let the country down. | 2022-06-15T22:38:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Trump aides who stayed silent in 2021 are complicit in the Big Lie - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/15/team-normal-equals-team-silent/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/15/team-normal-equals-team-silent/ |
With Md. primary weeks away, 7 Democratic candidates have at least $1M
Races begins to make a strong pivot to TV advertising
From right, Rushern Baker, Wes Moore, Doug Gansler and Jon Baron stand at their podiums just before a debate of eight candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for Maryland governor on June 6 in Owings Mills, Md. (Brian Witte/AP)
With weeks left until the primary, Democrats in a crowded race for governor are about to unleash their war chests to vie for the attention of voters who have yet to tune in.
Six candidates have the resources to mount significant television ad campaigns before the July 19 contest, according to campaign finance reports released this week.
“There will be an absolute blitz,” Roger Hartley, dean of public affairs at the University of Baltimore, predicted of the TV advertising in coming weeks. “The funding is extremely important to reach their base of voters, reaching those committed to them or leaning their way. … And they need to reach the undecideds and move them in their direction.”
As the race heats up and makes a strong pivot to TV advertising, campaign finance reports show author and former nonprofit chief Wes Moore with the biggest haul in recent months.
Moore has raised over $2.5 million since mid-January, the last filing deadline, and has $2.1 million in his campaign coffer. Moore can also benefit from Opportunity Maryland, a political action committee that has $618,000 available to spend, though like all independent expenditure committees, it cannot coordinate directly with the Moore campaign.
Moore’s tally doesn’t include the money that his campaign took in Tuesday night at a virtual fundraiser with Oprah Winfrey, who spent an hour on a Zoom call with about 250 supporters who paid between $100 and $6,000 to attend.
Behind Moore is state comptroller Peter Franchot, who has $1.6 million on hand.
All together, the field of 10 Democrats have $8.5 million to sway voters, and they’re still cobbling together more cash as they fight for an electorate that candidates — and their internal polls — say have largely not been paying attention.
Franchot is followed by Jon Baron, who reported having $1.6 million, and former U.S. labor secretary Tom Perez, with nearly $1.4 million.
Baron, a former vice president of a policy analysis firm and one of the lesser-known candidates in the field, is self-financing his first bid for office. He loaned his campaign $1.7 million in early January.
Perez can also benefit from spending by Maryland Opportunity, a super PAC largely funded by unions that endorsed him. It has a TV ad promoting him in the Baltimore market.
In the final stretch, candidates in the crowded field are jockeying to differentiate themselves and explain to voters, particularly the undecided or unenthused, why they should cast their ballots for them. The money race defines who has the resources to make their messages break through.
Baron and former attorney general Doug Gansler each aired their first campaign ad this week. Gansler has just over $1 million to spend, $800,000 of which he personally loaned to his campaign two months ago. In Gansler’s ad, he asks voters to imagine getting carjacked and suggests that he’s the tough-on-crime candidate who can turn around rising violence statistics. Baron’s ad introduces him to voters and pokes at the Democratic establishment, saying the state hasn’t moved forward and that he’ll bring new solutions.
Perez also put out an ad this week, transitioning from a biographical pitch to telling voters he’s from the “GSD” or “get stuff done” wing of the party.
Former U.S. education secretary John B. King Jr. has $827,700 to spend. An independent expenditure, PAC for the People, has $236,500 to use on his behalf.
Ashwani Jain and Jerome Segal have $20,000 and $8,000, respectively. Former Prince George’s county executive Rushern L. Baker III, who suspended his campaign last week, had under $12,000 cash on hand with a request for nearly $62,000 from public financing.
Justin Schall, a Democratic strategist who managed Anthony G. Brown’s 27-point gubernatorial primary victory in 2014, said any candidate with about $1 million has the resources to try to reach voters in the coming weeks, but most will have to decide between aggressive mail campaigns to likely voters or a strong television presence.
“With a million dollars, you really can’t do both,” he said. “Those candidates with less money have to make these really hard decisions, where there’s no clear right answer.”
The two candidates with the most money have also already spent a fair amount contacting voters and appear to have enough to both launch a mail campaign and blanket airwaves enough to make a difference to voters.
“While they have a choice of 10 people, they’re probably only going to hear and about remember two — Franchot and Moore,” Schall said.
Meanwhile, on the Republican side, former Maryland commerce secretary Kelly Schulz is outpacing her competitors with $784,900 on hand. Schulz has more than twice as much as disbarred attorney Robin Ficker, who has an outstanding loan of about $1.2 million owed to his campaign, and five times the resources of Del. Dan Cox (R-Frederick), who is endorsed by former president Donald Trump and has $188,000 to spend.
The war chest of Del. Brooke Lierman (D-Baltimore) tops Bowie Mayor Tim Adams in the race for state comptroller. Lierman has $1.5 million on hand, outpacing Adams, who has $966,000 headed into the final weeks of the campaign. Adams, who loaned his campaign $2 million when he initially launched, raised less than $10,000 this cycle.
In the race for attorney general, Rep. Anthony G. Brown (D-Md.) has $1.2 million, about $400,000 more than former judge and former first lady Katie O’Malley, who reported a balance of nearly $839,000. | 2022-06-15T22:43:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Wes Moore leads fundraising in Maryland governor's race. Six candidates have more than $1 million - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/maryland-governors-race-money/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/maryland-governors-race-money/ |
Higher tolls, no more coins among changes for Dulles Toll Road users
A shift to an all-electronic collection system and a rate hike are being considered
Commuters make their way through the tolls at the Spring Hill Road toll plaza in Fairfax County. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)
Dulles Toll Road users might not be able to pay with coins starting in 2023 as the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority begins work on a process to shift to all-electronic toll collection.
Under the proposal, motorists would have three options to pay tolls: E-Z Pass, one of five mobile apps approved for use in Virginia or by having their license plate scanned, then receiving a monthly bill in the mail. Those who pay via app or license plate scan would pay a service fee in addition to the toll.
Mobile app fees would go to the company that manages the app. For the plate scans, MWAA is seeking authority for a service charge of $1.60 per transaction to cover administrative costs. Under Virginia law, the airports authority cannot charge more than what it costs to process the plate scans.
Dulles Toll Road users could see a rate increase to pay for the Silver Line
The Dulles Toll Road is the only highway in the Washington region that still allows users to pay in cash. For those who pay in cash, the Dulles Toll Road accepts only coins because exact change is required and the system cannot process paper bills. About 94 percent of users pay electronically, officials said.
MWAA officials say the shift to an all-electronic system will reduce emissions from vehicles idling at the toll plaza. The shift to all-electronic tolling, expected to take place in January, comes as MWAA is considering the first toll increase for Dulles Toll Road users since 2019. Money collected from tolls is being used to pay for construction of the Silver Line extension to Washington Dulles International Airport and Loudoun County.
Under the plan, tolls would rise to $6 from the $4.75 that most users pay when they drive through the main toll plaza and exit at a ramp.
Drivers who exit the road now pay $3.25 at the main toll plaza and $1.50 at a ramp. Under the proposal, rates would increase by $1.25, rising 75 cents at the main toll plaza and 50 cents at off-ramps.
The public will have 30 days to comment on the proposed changes beginning July 11. MWAA also has scheduled two hearings on the proposed toll increase and shift to all-electronic toll collection.
A virtual public hearing will be July 12 and an in-person public hearing has been scheduled for July 18. Officials also are asking for responses on other measures they say could help to reduce environmental effects, such as offering discounts for those who carpool or use the toll road during off-peak hours.
The board is expected to vote on the changes at their November board meeting. | 2022-06-15T22:43:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | On Dulles Toll Road, coins may no longer be accepted next year - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/06/15/dulles-toll-road-electronic/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/06/15/dulles-toll-road-electronic/ |
FILE - This Feb. 19, 2021, photo provided by Oklahoma Department of Corrections shows death row inmate Richard Glossip. Oklahoma state Rep. Kevin McDugle a Republican, who is a self-described death-penalty supporter said on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, that a report by a Houston law firm into the conviction of death row inmate Richard Glossip proves Glossip’s innocence. McDugle says he believes in the death penalty, but will fight to abolish it in Oklahoma if Glossip is put to death. (Oklahoma Department of Corrections via AP) (Uncredited/Oklahoma Department of Corrections) | 2022-06-15T22:48:13Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Lawmaker: Report shows Oklahoma death row inmate's innocence - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/lawmaker-report-shows-oklahoma-death-row-inmates-innocence/2022/06/15/9d32748c-ecef-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/lawmaker-report-shows-oklahoma-death-row-inmates-innocence/2022/06/15/9d32748c-ecef-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html |
Axios: The Post doubles down on Arc XP software business
Axios Media Trends reports that The Post is doubling down on its investment in Arc XP as it sees more long term value in the business. From the story:
“I personally think that in the long run — and by long run, I mean, three, four years, not 15 years — Arc XP will be the biggest source of revenue for the Post, and certainly the most profitable source of revenue for the Post,” said Shailesh Prakash, chief information officer at The Post...
“It really is about creating more of a velocity in revenue growth,” said Arc XP president Miki King — the Post’s former chief marketing officer — who was hired last year to oversee Arc XP’s business pivot.
The goal, King said, is to triple the number of customers it signs per month, which is typically around one to three new companies. | 2022-06-15T22:49:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Axios: The Post doubles down on Arc XP software business - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/pr/2022/06/14/axios-post-doubles-down-arc-xp-software-business/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/pr/2022/06/14/axios-post-doubles-down-arc-xp-software-business/ |
FBI and Commerce Department agents are visiting tech companies to ask about computer chips found in drones, other weaponry
Destroyed Russian tanks and vehicles in a field in Ukraine on Sunday. (Edgar Su/Reuters)
Federal agents have begun questioning U.S. technology companies on how their computer chips ended up in Russian military equipment recovered in Ukraine.
Commerce Department agents who enforce export controls are conducting the inquiries together with the FBI, paying joint visits to companies to ask about Western chips and components found in Russian radar systems, drones, tanks, ground-control equipment and littoral ships, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive investigations.
“Our goal is to actually try to track that back, all the way back to the U.S. supplier” to determine “how did it find its way into that weapons system,” one Commerce official said of the probes.
Russian drones shot down over Ukraine were full of Western parts. Can the U.S. cut them off?
It isn’t clear which specific components are being probed. But investigators from a variety of countries have identified Western eletronics in Russian weaponry found in Ukraine. Many of those components appear to have been manufactured years ago, before the Russian seizure of Crimea in 2014 led the U.S. to tighten export restrictions. But others were manufactured as recently as 2020, according to Conflict Armament Research (CAR), a research group in London that has examined some of the parts.
For years it was legal for companies to sell basic computer chips to Russian military entities without first receiving permission from the U.S. government, so pinpointing illegal sales requires determining the type of chip and date of sale. Tracing transactions can also be laborious because electronic components often travel through a chain of distributors before reaching the end user.
A lawyer representing one of the contacted technology companies said investigators for now are casting a “wide net,” looking at a variety of different chips and electronic components to track the paths they took to the Russian military.
Among the questions federal agents are asking: whether tech companies sold their products to a specific list of companies, including middlemen, that may have been involved in the supply chain, the lawyer said.
Russia manufactures few computer chips or electronics of its own, forcing it to rely on imports.
The United States for decades has tightly controlled sales to Russia of the highest-tech chips and those designed for military use, requiring exporters to obtain a government license. But sales of electronics below that threshold — including the kind commonly found in commercial products — were not widely restricted until 2014, when the United States began requiring exporters to obtain licenses before selling a broader range of chips to the Russian military.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, the U.S. and many allies have prohibited all chip sales to Russian military buyers, and placed restriction on chip sales to other Russian buyers in an effort to prevent the country’s armed forces from accessing western high-tech.
The federal probes come as researchers and security services from Ukraine, Britain and elsewhere report finding a host of Western electronics in Russian military gear damaged or abandoned in Ukraine.
Sanctions forcing Russia to use appliance parts in military gear, U.S. says
CAR last month sent investigators to Ukraine to examine Russian weaponry and communications equipment, and reported finding components from 70 companies based in the United States and Europe.
They found the parts in military radios, airborne defense systems and in remnants of cruise missiles that the Ukrainians recovered in various towns and villages, Damien Spleeters, one of the CAR investigators, said in an interview.
CAR for now is declining to name the Western companies involved, because it is still contacting them to request more information, Spleeters said.
Markings on two foreign-made chips that Spleeters examined showed that they were manufactured in 2019, he said.
“It’s significant for me because it shows that even after Russia took Crimea and the first package of sanctions were taken against them, they still managed to acquire critical technology, critical components for important pieces of equipment that they are now using against Ukraine,” Spleeters said.
Those chips, found inside two Russian military radios recovered in Ukraine’s Luhansk region, had some of their identification markings scratched out, suggesting that Russia “wanted to make it more difficult to find out who was involved in the chain of supply,” Spleeters said.
Another set of chips manufactured by Western companies between 2017 and 2020 were part of missile fragments that hit the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv on March 29, Spleeters said. At the time, Russian forces were attempting to capture a broad swathe of Ukraine’s Black Sea coast.
CAR also examined Western-made chips manufactured between 2013 and 2018 that were part of a missile that landed in central Ukraine on Feb. 24, the first day of Russia’s invasion, Spleeters said.
The latest CAR findings follow a report from the group late last year that detailed Western electronics found in several Russian military drones.
A team from a separate British group — the Royal United Services Institute, or RUSI, a defense-focused think tank — also traveled to Ukraine recently to inspect Russian equipment and to review teardowns conducted by Ukraine’s military.
A single piece of radio-jamming equipment revealed computer chips from a dozen U.S. companies, including Intel, Analog Devices, Texas Instruments and Onsemi, according to a report RUSI published in April. The gear also contained components from half a dozen chipmakers in Europe, Japan and Taiwan.
The radio-interference equipment, named Borisoglebsk-2, was designed to interrupt the enemy’s communications and was likely manufactured around 2015 or later, Nick Reynolds, one of the report’s authors, said in an interview.
None of the Western chips was specifically designed for use in military equipment, according to two electrical engineers who reviewed the component list. The parts were developed for general commercial use, and many were relatively outdated, manufactured between 2000 and 2010, the engineers said.
“A lot of these components are very general purpose and could be used in wide range of devices,” said Peter Bermel, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University. “Most of the items they are listing are available through any commercial computer parts supplier or digital parts supplier.”
“A non-trivial fraction of these parts are now considered obsolete by the manufacturers,” Bermel added.
Reynolds, a research analyst for land warfare at RUSI, said Russia’s technical demise in recent decades, partly sparked by a large post-Soviet brain drain, has forced it to use Western chips. “Its defence industry has struggled to attract and retain talented young engineers, who have often chosen to move abroad instead,” Reynolds said by email.
Intel spokesman William Moss said that for over a decade, all of the company’s “sales in Russia have been through distributors who are responsible for complying with applicable laws, including U.S. export controls.”
“Intel has suspended all shipments to customers in both Russia and Belarus, and Intel will continue to comply with all applicable export regulations and sanctions,” he added.
Onsemi, a chip company based in Phoenix, said it stopped producing one of the chips found in the Russian equipment in 2008. The chip was “designed for a variety of uses in commercial products,” spokeswoman Stefanie Cuene said, adding that the company complies with U.S. export controls and currently does not sell any products to Russia or Belarus.
Texas Instruments “complies with applicable laws and regulations” and “is not selling any products into Russia or Belarus,” spokeswoman Ellen Fishpaw said.
Analog Devices, the company behind more than a dozen of the components found in the Russian equipment, didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The RUSI researchers also reported inspecting a U.S.-manufactured component that the Ukrainian military found inside a Russian 9M949 guided rocket. The rocket uses the component — a type of electronic device called a fiber-optic gyroscope — for navigation, RUSI said.
The British researchers declined to name the U.S. company that made that component, saying RUSI was continuing to research that and other parts. | 2022-06-15T23:22:19Z | www.washingtonpost.com | FBI, Commerce agents probing American electronics in Russian military gear - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/15/us-computer-chips-russian-military/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/15/us-computer-chips-russian-military/ |
Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, moderates a panel discussion during the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The committee’s members and staffers are now discussing whether to spend time during their public hearings exploring Ginni Thomas’s role in the attempt to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election, the three people said. The Post previously reported that the committee had not sought an interview with Thomas and was leaning against pursuing her cooperation with its investigation.
Thomas also sent messages to Trump’s White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and to Arizona lawmakers, pressing them to help overturn the election, The Washington Post has previously reported.
Earlier this year, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter ordered Eastman to release numerous documents to the committee, rejecting privilege claims Eastman had asserted. In April and May, Eastman turned over more than 1,000 documents to the committee.
In a 26-page ruling last week, Carter addressed another 599 documents that Eastman sought to shield. Carter ruled that more than 400 of those documents were protected by attorney-client or other privilege and should not be released.
During that same post-election period, Thomas also pressed Republican lawmakers in Arizona to help keep Trump in office by setting aside Biden’s popular-vote win and to “choose” their own electors, The Post has reported, based on documents obtained via a public records request. Thomas sent the emails via FreeRoots, an online platform designed to facilitate sending pre-written messages to multiple elected officials.
On Dec. 13, the day before presidential electors were scheduled to cast their votes and seal Biden’s victory, Thomas emailed 21 of those lawmakers plus two others. “Before you choose your state’s Electors … consider what will happen to the nation we all love if you don’t stand up and lead,” the email said. It linked to a video of a man urging swing-state lawmakers to “put things right” and “not give in to cowardice.”
The next day, Democratic electors in Arizona cast their votes for Biden. Republican electors met separately and signed a document declaring themselves to be the state’s “duly elected and qualified Electors.” More than a dozen Arizona lawmakers signed on to a letter to Congress for the state’s electoral votes to go to Trump or “be nullified completely until a full forensic audit can be conducted.” | 2022-06-15T23:31:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ginni Thomas corresponded with John Eastman, sources in Jan. 6 House investigation say - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/15/ginni-thomas-john-eastman-emails/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/15/ginni-thomas-john-eastman-emails/ |
Brewing Senate gun deal marks inflection point for gun rights movement
The largest and best-funded advocacy groups, including the National Rifle Association, appear to be keeping their options open
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), seen on Capitol Hill on June 14, 2022. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
“This measure has the historic potential effect of breaking the gun lobby’s grip on Congress,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said this week, arguing that passing the modest gun restrictions envisioned by Senate negotiators would demonstrate that lawmakers have nothing to fear politically from passing sensible, popular new gun laws.
Tyler Yzaguirre, president of the Second Amendment Institute, argues much the same: Should lawmakers approve this bill, “they’ll be like: Well, we already have this in place, so an inch further is not going to hurt,” he said. “This is a very slippery slope.”
Those arguments have made the present moment — where a spate of recent mass shootings has driven Congress closer to the brink of a bipartisan gun deal — a treacherous one for the gun rights movement. The movement has steadily grown in power over the past three decades, fending off all but the wispiest new gun-control measures while securing major victories in Congress and at the Supreme Court.
Now, however, Senate negotiators are contemplating writing measures into law that could pave the way for new state laws allowing authorities to seize guns from troubled individuals, expand criminal background checks for some gun buyers, and disqualify a larger group of domestic-violence offenders from being able to purchase firearms.
Yet the framework has been embraced by a group of Republicans who appear to see it as a moment of strategic retreat, where lawmakers who have long supported gun rights can respond to the public outrage over the recent shootings — including the killing of 19 elementary students and two teachers in Uvalde, Tex. — by embracing marginal new restrictions and leaving stronger measures favored by Democrats by the wayside.
The approach has been embodied by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), who launched the talks in the days after the Uvalde massacre with a bipartisan group of senators, consummating a framework deal Sunday.
He has argued that the deal’s provisions would keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of potential madmen without banning any new weapons or unduly burdening law-abiding citizens. In a presentation Tuesday to other GOP senators, he also shared a list of more far-reaching measures that weren’t in the bill — such as a higher minimum age for rifle purchase, bans on high-capacity ammunition magazines and new federal laws dictating gun storage requirements.
“But, you know, we’ve been soliciting that from a … broad range of people,” he said.
Even more potentially nettlesome is a new proposal that would require a search of juvenile justice and mental health records to gun buyers under 21. To conduct that search in varying state databases, negotiators are considering a three-day search window, according to aides familiar with the pending agreement — something that would resemble the kinds of mandatory waiting periods that the NRA has firmly opposed in the past.
“It would be very hard for me to imagine them not vigorously speaking out and campaigning against a bill that has a de facto waiting period in it,” said Stephen Gutowski, who publishes the firearms newsletter the Reload. He added that for the negotiating group, “Disapproval but not active resistance is probably the best that they’re hoping for.”
Already there are signs that the Republicans involved in the group are trying to minimize any backlash from gun rights advocates. Cornyn on Thursday warned Democrats that the bill would have to be carefully written to protect Second Amendment rights.
“We’re not going to cut corners or capitulate for the sole purpose of passing something,” he said. “I’m not willing to compromise on some of my basic principles or throw the Constitution out the window so we can have something we can hold up and say, ‘Look what we did.’”
Other Republicans involved in the group, meanwhile, pushed back on the notion that enacting a modest bill along the lines of the framework would represent the “slippery slope” that hard-liners are warning about. “It’s sensible provisions that focus a lot on mental health and a lot on school safety and also keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people,” said Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio).
Asked if the NRA’s position on the bill mattered to its success, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), said, “Of course, you want to make sure that it works for them.”
While those short-term calculations suggest the NRA would be best served by adopting the same hard-line approach it took after Sandy Hook and subsequent tragedies, some say a more nuanced approach could be in the gun rights movement’s strategic interest. Allowing relatively small changes to move forward, the thinking goes, could help convince Americans that the GOP is at least somewhat willing to embrace changes — thus helping to elect more officeholder inclined to resist broader gun-control measures in the future.
“There really is a feeling in the country right now that just something needs to be done. It seems to be in the atmosphere,” said Robert J. Spitzer, a veteran scholar of gun politics at the State University of New York at Cortland. “That doesn’t mean that NRA lobbyists would just roll over and not press for their point of view, but in purely strategic terms I think there would be a logic to allowing this to proceed.”
The NRA took one such nuanced stance recently: After the 2017 shooting in Las Vegas, where a shooter killed 60 by using a “bump stock” device that made him able to rapidly fire a semiautomatic rifle, allowing it to mimic a machine gun, President Donald Trump moved to ban those devices by executive order. The NRA did not oppose the move, in an apparent strategic move to forestall legislation. Now, however, a bump stock ban is included in the Senate framework.
“I’d argue that’s smart politics, not dumb,” he said. “Do you want to have, you know, 10 members of Congress that are 1,000 percent supporters? Or 50 percent plus one who are 95 percent supporters? I’ll take the latter.”
Leigh Ann Caldwell contributed to this report.
The latest: New Mexico Supreme Court orders GOP commission to approve primary election results
10:14 PMThe latest: Recount in Democratic primary in Texas’s 28th District begins Thursday | 2022-06-15T23:31:13Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Gun rights groups at odds over Senate deal - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/15/gun-rights-groups-senate-gun-deal/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/15/gun-rights-groups-senate-gun-deal/ |
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) takes part in the Capital Pride Parade on June 11. She is running for a third term in office. (Maansi Srivastava/The Washington Post)
Ellen Hughes lives in the Parkview neighborhood of D.C. and says violent crime is her top issue in this year’s race for mayor. She gives Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) passing marks on how she handled the pandemic and schools, so she’ll vote to reelect her next week. But she’s not exactly thrilled about the prospect.
“Lesser of two evils,” the Ward 1 resident said when asked about her choice in the June 21 Democratic primary. “I know what we’ve got with her. I’m not ecstatic about it.”
If Bowser wins the Democratic nomination over her leading challengers, D.C. Council members Robert C. White Jr. (At Large) and Trayon White Sr. (Ward 8), it will put her on the path to becoming the only three-term mayor of D.C., a historic accomplishment equaled only by the fabled Marion Barry, who served four terms over two decades and earned the unofficial title of “Mayor for Life.”
But to get there, Bowser will need the backing of not only her enthusiastic supporters, but more reticent ones, like Hughes, who think the city could be better.
In her eight years as mayor, Bowser has become known to District residents as more of a low-key leader than a dynamic politician who engages easily and readily with constituents, according to D.C. political observers. Part of Bowser’s success, they say, is that while her personality may not generate wild enthusiasm from voters, it also doesn’t create deep dislike.
In campaign advertisements and appearances, Bowser has made her record her selling point. She highlights her efforts to create more affordable housing, which she has addressed in part with a record $400 million investment into the Housing Production Trust Fund last year, and her steps to reduce homelessness, which have led to the lowest homelessness rate in the District in recent history. She also shuttered the problem-ridden D.C. General family shelter, fulfilling another of her campaign promises. At the same time, though, homeless encampments have multiplied during the pandemic, continuing to be a concern for many residents.
On education, she has vowed to maintain full control of the school system, but results have been mixed. Billions of dollars have been invested in renovating schools across the District, and yet learning gaps remain between White students and students of color. And while some parents cheered her plan for reopening schools during the pandemic, others felt she moved too slowly.
In response to rising concerns about the jump in violent crime, Bowser proposed a budget increase to hire 347 additional police officers in fiscal 2023. And her long-term goal is to expand the overall department from 3,500 officers to 4,000.
“I’m fighting for more police officers and I won’t turn back the clock on school reform,” Bowser says in one of her advertisements.
Bill Lightfoot, Bowser’s campaign chair, said the mayor’s “bottom line is that she makes the city work for you. Whether it’s health, affordable housing, education, her job is to make those services work for the residents of the city and her message is that’s what she’s doing. Her message is her accomplishments.”
Her longevity in office, Lightfoot added, “shows that people trust her to deliver government services that improve their lives and benefit them.”
Bowser’s opponents, however, say that she has done too little to respond to the needs of the city’s most vulnerable or that she has taken the wrong tack when it comes to dealing with the district’s most pressing issues. And her record plays differently in different parts of the city.
In some places, particularly the wealthy Wards 2 and 3, Bowser enjoys strong support. According to a February Washington Post poll, the most recent polling available, 61 percent of Democratic voters supported her in those wards, compared with 14 percent who supported Robert White and 8 percent who supported Trayon White. She is weakest in Wards 7 and 8, where the poll showed 38 percent supported her, 22 percent planned to vote for Robert White and 33 percent planned to vote for Trayon White.
Raymond Coates, 63, lives in Ward 7 and said he’ll vote for Bowser, but he wants her to do more for the ward. “All we ever see in the city is land development, but we never see real community development,” he said.
Coates, who is Black, expects the election will be a “lopsided” win for Bowser, even though he doesn’t think she will do well in the predominantly Black Wards 7 and 8.
“Those that do vote are not going to vote for Bowser,” he said. “They don’t like her because what she’s doing doesn’t translate into things for them.”
The same Post poll showed generally strong support for Bowser, who received 58 percent approval of her overall job performance. But that was down from 67 percent in Post polls conducted in 2019 and 2017. Since the 2019 poll, the share of residents saying the city is headed in the right direction dropped from 59 percent to 49 percent. Her challengers see that dropping number as an indication that voters have grown weary of the mayor and are looking for a change.
One unknown factor this year is that this is the first mayoral primary in which every registered voter received a ballot at home. That has created some uncertainty for all of the candidates about what effect, if any, it will have on turnout.
The campaigns of both major challengers say they are optimistic entering the final week of voting.
“We’ve had eight years of the incumbent and we still have not seen D.C.'s most urgent issues solved or enough progress on them,” Robert White’s campaign manager Luz Martinez said about the message the campaign is trying to deliver in the election’s last days. “The top issues of public safety, education and affordable housing are still going in the wrong direction. So I think the final message is that we do need someone in the mayor’s seat that can really tackle those problems and work to solve them.”
“People are really looking at the shape of the city, and they want someone who represents them,” said Fria Moore, Trayon White’s campaign manager. “We’re out on the streets and covering ground all over the city, and we think the truth will be told at the polls.”
The election in the view of many is a referendum on the eight years Bowser has had to implement programs, increase development and investment and tackle problems like homelessness, affordable housing and, increasingly, public safety.
Bowser’s most fervent supporters say she’s succeeded on all fronts despite facing difficult circumstances including a seemingly never-ending pandemic that shut down businesses and schools and the roiling unrest following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in 2020. They also give her credit for standing up to former president Donald Trump at the height of protests over Floyd’s killing and managing the city following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
“She was really good about backing up the police during the insurrection,” said Cecilia Rogers, who moved from Ward 6 to Ward 3 last year. Rogers also supported Bowser’s decision to rename 16th Street NW near Lafayette Square as Black Lives Matter Plaza. “She was not going to be bullied by Trump, and I liked that a lot.”
Ron Williams Jr.‚ a farmer and small business entrepreneur, grew up in Ward 8 and now lives not far away in Ward 6. The 41-year-old wasn’t a Bowser fan when she first ran for mayor because he felt she was tied much more to interests west of the Anacostia River.
“I was opposed to her living, breathing, walking because of how she came in,” Williams said as he stood on Martin Luther King Avenue in Southeast, across the street from his uncle’s church. “But eventually she won me over on all the policy points: schools, affordable housing, minority business development, everything.”
“For me to be in her corner now, that says a lot,” he said. “She’s a force to be reckoned with right now.”
But some voters don’t see it that way.
Sarah Yerkes, 42, dropped her ballot in a drop box at Eastern Market right after she received it in the mail. A Ward 6 parent of two D.C. public school students, Yerkes voted for Robert White — but noted that she didn’t actually know much about the candidate she chose. “It’s more of an against-Bowser vote than a pro-White vote,” she said.
“The Bowser administration mishandled the pandemic,” she said, saying she wished Bowser had reopened public schools sooner. She perceived from Bowser “not a lot of recognition of what the strain was on working parents.”
Even in her home Ward 4, some voters have tired of Bowser.
Michael Fauntroy, an associate professor of policy and government at George Mason University, noted that Bowser is part of a network of politicians that stem from her mentor, former mayor Adrian Fenty, known colloquially as the “Green Team.”
Fenty previously represented Ward 4 and endorsed Bowser to succeed him on the council in a 2007 special election when he was elected mayor. When Bowser was elected mayor in 2014, she tapped Brandon T. Todd, a longtime ally who was finance director on her campaign, to replace her in Ward 4.
But Todd fell short in his second reelection campaign in 2020, which Fauntroy said is an indicator some residents are ready for a change.
“It makes perfect sense that there would be some fatigue for people in the ward who’ve seen Bowser on their ballots the last 12 or 14 years,” said Fauntroy, who lives in the ward. But he added: “You can have fatigue, but if you don’t have a viable enough option, it’s not really going to matter.”
Margaret Lenzner, 76, a retired voter in Ward 3, placed her ballot in Cleveland Park Library drop box this week, said she voted for Robert White because she is ready for change: “I think Bowser, when it comes to serious local issues, she’s all talk and no action. She has a blueprint for everything. A lot of ideas. A lot of paper. A lot of ribbon cuttings.”
Bowser may be feeling the heat. Over the weekend, she launched a TV and radio ad buy targeting Robert White, accusing him of flip-flopping and of being someone “who can’t be trusted.” The election, she says in the spot, is “about D.C.’s comeback and who do you trust to lead it.”
A number of longtime political observers in the city, including some of her detractors, say that message will resonate, at least enough to keep Bowser in office. But her challengers wonder if voters who have tired of the mayor will vote for them instead or sit out the election altogether.
“Voters know that I have delivered on my promises," Bowser said in a statement. "People are not tired of nor fatigued from good government.” | 2022-06-16T00:01:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Bowser as next ‘mayor for life'? She'll need support of the lukewarm, too - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/bowser-dc-mayor-record-voters/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/bowser-dc-mayor-record-voters/ |
Race for D.C. Council chair means first explaining: What’s council chair?
Democratic D.C. Council chair candidates Erin Palmer and Phil Mendelson. (From left to right: Reana Kovalcik; Amanda Andrade-Rhoades for The Washington Post)
D.C. Council chair might be among the District’s most powerful local positions — but many voters don’t know much about it.
“There’s a lot of civic education that goes along with running in this race,” said Erin Palmer, 40, one of two candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for the seat. “By and large, people don’t understand what the position is, or that it’s a citywide position, or what falls under the purview of the council chair.”
In the June 21 Democratic primary, Palmer is challenging incumbent Phil Mendelson, who has held the office for a decade.
The D.C. Council chair acts much like Congress’s Senate majority leader, steering which bills make it onto the legislative agenda for a vote. The chair also gets to single-handedly decide what committees exist during each council period, and who serves on them.
The power to decide which council member chairs committees on issues such as housing, criminal justice, labor and business development means Mendelson has been able to influence which bills get crafted and passed out of those committees.
Palmer, an advisory neighborhood commissioner, is a first-time council candidate who threw her hat in the ring, in part, she said, because the position “deserves a competitive race” — but Palmer also argues her experience as both an ANC and ethics lawyer makes her qualified to lead the council.
She has rolled out several plans over the course of her campaign, including a package of recommendations to improve council functions and create a more “effective, modern” legislative branch. Palmer, who is running to Mendelson’s left on several issues, has also written lengthy proposals aimed at helping the council better address crime, public education, traffic safety and housing.
Mendelson, on the other hand, is campaigning to become the longest-serving chair in the history of the council, touting his role in shepherding key bills during his tenure such as increases in the minimum wage, a bill to establish the District’s independent attorney general and a paid parental leave program. He boasts of his mastery of the ins and outs of the city’s legislative process, and is viewed by many as the favorite in the race. He has significantly outraised Palmer, who is fundraising through the city’s public financing program, which caps individual donations.
The 69-year-old likes to point out that the one woman and seven men who have held the chair position were all members of the council beforehand. He argues, in short, that experience matters as he steers the minutiae of the council’s business and shepherds laws to passage.
“I’m not just running to be a member of the council, one of the 13 votes, but to be the chief executive officer of the legislative branch,” said Mendelson, who was first elected to the council in 1998. “That does require skills and responsibilities that the others don’t have.”
Ed Lazere, the former director of the left-leaning D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute who ran an unsuccessful campaign to unseat Mendelson in 2018, remembers having to educate voters on a citywide position with “exceptional powers.”
“To the extent the city is going to move boldly forward in some area — whether it’s education, housing or economic development — the council chair can play a dramatic role in that,” Lazere said. “The chair is in a unique position to be a leader in substantial reforms, through the budget process, the ability to make schedules and committee assignments.”
Among the council chair’s most significant roles is crafting the city’s budget. Each year, the mayor drafts a budget and presents it to the council. Each council committee holds hearings and makes budget recommendations. But it’s the chair of the council who drafts the bill with the final budget proposals.
Council members can amend the chair’s draft, with enough votes; last year, a majority of the council overcame Mendelson’s opposition to a proposed tax increase on high-income residents to put more money toward housing vouchers, tax credits for low-income families and cash for child-care workers. But in general, most of the chair’s deviations from the mayor’s and the committee’s requests often end up as the final word.
“I’m the one who has to put together the most complicated piece of legislation that we do every year,” Mendelson said. Someone who has never been on the council, he has suggested, shouldn’t be entrusted with that responsibility.
Palmer disagrees. In talking to voters, she says they have an easier time discussing the budget process than other duties of the chair. She criticized the limited time frame that Mendelson has given council members to suggest changes to the budget before voting on it. She similarly called out last-minute changes by Mendelson during the council’s recent ANC redistricting process, which frustrated some of his colleagues and constituents.
“Some of what I talk about is building better timelines that allow more collaboration and consideration of things,” Palmer said. “[Mendelson] holds a lot of that decision-making and information to himself until the last minute … It does a disservice to the budget and power of the council as a whole.”
Originally from Ohio, Mendelson has handily won three reelection campaigns as chairman since his council colleagues selected him in 2012 to fill the seat when Kwame R. Brown resigned upon being charged with bank fraud. In the past two Democratic primaries, Mendelson won more than 60 percent of the vote.
But he remains unknown among many city residents. A February Washington Post poll found that while 31 percent of registered Democrats had a favorable opinion of Mendelson, 50 percent said they did not know enough about him to have an opinion.
Ward 8 activist Sandra Seegars knows Mendelson well. She still recalls when he would come to the ward’s Democratic meetings in a straw hat, which got a laugh out of some in attendance, but his presence at neighborhood meetings over the years endeared him to some residents, she said. But Seegars, who plans to vote for Mendelson, said that even those who like him seem to know little about what he actually does.
“The few people who do know, they know he appoints committees to the council members and chairs the meetings,” she said. But at the end of the day, she noted, “he has one vote like the rest of them.”
Palmer moved to D.C. 20 years ago to attend American University’s law school and has three children in the city’s public charter schools. As an ethics lawyer, she helped implement reforms in the federal judiciary, and as an advisory neighborhood commissioner, she assists her neighbors with what she calls bread-and-butter government services: broken sidewalks, missed trash collection and fallen stop signs.
John Pratt, a 45-year-old IT worker in Ward 3, was impressed to learn about Palmer’s background and said he felt Mendelson had spent long enough in the job. “I thought we could use a new council chair, some new blood,” he said. “I liked that she knew a lot about ethics.” | 2022-06-16T00:01:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Race for D.C. Council chair means first explaining: What’s council chair? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/dc-council-chair-race-mendelson-palmer/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/dc-council-chair-race-mendelson-palmer/ |
Man accused of Kavanaugh murder plot indicted by federal grand jury
Prosecutors allege Nicholas Roske flew across the country with a Glock pistol, 37 rounds of ammo and a pair of “hard-knuckled tactical gloves"
A California man accused of flying across the country with plans to break into Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh’s home to assassinate him was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury, officials said.
The single count of attempting to kill a U.S. judge added new details about what authorities say Nicholas Roske, 26, had with him when he arrived via taxi cab to the conservative justice’s home just after 1 a.m. in Chevy Chase, Md., last week.
In addition to a gun, burglary tools and a pair of boots with padded outer soles that could allow stealth movement inside a house, the indictment asserts that Roske brought 37 rounds of ammunition, a black mask, a “speed-loader,” a gun-mounted aiming laser and “hard-knuckled tactical gloves.”
Listen to excerpts of Nicholas Roske's calls to 911
Like the criminal complaint filed last week against Roske, the indictment states that he tried to kill a federal judge. But the specific charge is different, and has a longer potential sentence of up to life in prison compared with the earlier charge that carried up to 20 years in prison, according to Marcia Lubin, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Maryland. She declined to comment on the difference, citing a policy of not discussing charging decisions.
Prosecutors assert Roske took enough steps of a detailed scheme — including buying a Glock pistol for the mission — to support the charge.
It was at 1:05 a.m. on June 8, authorities have said, when Roske exited the cab. He had with him a suitcase and a backpack, according to an FBI affidavit filed in court.
Roske reportedly spotted two deputy U.S. marshals, part of Kavanaugh’s security detail, standing next to their vehicle. They also noticed him, according to the affidavit. Roske turned and walked down the street, rounded a corner and a half-hour later called 911 to turn himself in, according to court documents and recordings of his 911 calls.
During that time, Roske texted his sister and told her of his intentions, officials said. She convinced him to call 911, they added.
Investigators would later learn he had brought no change of clothes on his trip, Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus Jones said Wednesday.
Roske’s two defense attorneys could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Several attempts to reach Roske’s sister and other members of his family have been unsuccessful.
The indictment does not mention Kavanaugh by name — instead alleging that he “did attempt to kill … an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.”
The indictment includes a forfeiture allegation seeking the firearm, two magazines, ammunition and other items that Roske had assembled for his plan, according to federal prosecutors.
A spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service has said “the presence of the deputies assigned outside of Justice Kavanaugh’s home served as the deterrent in this incident,” and they didn’t see anything to warrant further actions. Jones, the Montgomery County police chief, echoed that sentiment on Wednesday.
“There was nothing suspicious about him walking past the house and it didn’t warrant any notification to 911 or other officers,” Jones said. “There was nothing suspicious about his behavior at that time.”
Eugene Volokh, a law-school professor at the University of California at Los Angeles who wrote about the case last week on his blog at Reason magazine, said that under federal law, a central element to proving attempted murder is showing that a defendant took a “substantial step” in his or her actions.
“Flying across the country and showing up outside the target’s house with a weapon — as steps go, those are pretty substantial,” Volokh said in an interview Wednesday.
Volokh cautioned his analysis was based on allegations filed in court so far and that the case is at an early stage. But assuming that the FBI affidavit proves to be accurate, and speaking generally, Volokh said that federal law — unlike some states’ laws — doesn’t allow for a defense based on the defendant’s having changed his mind, assuming a substantial step had been taken.
“It might affect sentencing, but abandonment isn’t relevant to guilt,” Volokh said.
It’s unclear, based on allegations filed against Roske, how quickly he could have gone forward after exiting the taxi cab. A half-hour later, when he spoke to a 911 operator, he said his gun was unloaded, and locked in a case inside a suitcase that was zip-tied shut. But even if that was the case when he exited the cab, Volokh said, it may not matter.
The question isn’t so much how many more steps needed to be taken, Volokh said, it’s “whether you’ve already taken a substantial step.”
Steve Silverman, a defense attorney in Baltimore, said the law generally holds that “the more heinous the crime the less in furtherance one needs to do.” And in that sense, if the FBI affidavit is accurate, Roske is certainly in legal peril, Silverman said.
But he stressed that it’s not completely cut and dried that Roske engaged in the requisite substantial steps.
“The defendant still has a chance,” Silverman said. “He did not break into the justice’s home or assault him.”
The lawyer said he expects Roske to file a plea of not criminally responsible by reason of insanity. The challenge for Roske, according to Silverman, is that he appears to have eventually “appreciated the lawlessness of his conduct.”
Should such a defense be offered, Silverman said, a trial could come down to a battle of expert witness psychiatrists. | 2022-06-16T00:02:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Man accused of Kavanaugh murder plot indicted by federal grand jury - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/new-indictment-kavanaugh-assassination-plot/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/new-indictment-kavanaugh-assassination-plot/ |
The Virginia House of Delegates reconvened in a special session to work on the budget at the Virginia Capitol, in Richmond, on June 1. The General Assembly returns Friday to take up budget amendments proposed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R). (Daniel Sangjib Min/AP)
RICHMOND — Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) once again is urging the General Assembly to temporarily suspend the state’s gasoline tax in a series of budget proposals, but he is not including support for a Commanders stadium.
Youngkin also is proposing a language amendment to the budget that would create a new felony for demonstrating outside the home of a judge with the intent to intimidate — a response to protests last month outside the Virginia home of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. over a leaked draft opinion that would eliminate the federal right to an abortion.
Youngkin faced criticism from some conservatives for not using the state police to break up those demonstrations, citing a lack of authority.
Youngkin, Hogan ask Justice Dept. to halt protests at justice's homes
The legislature returns to Richmond on Friday to take up new amendments proposed by Youngkin to the state’s two-year spending plan, which lawmakers passed this month after a significant delay as they tussled over Youngkin’s call for extensive tax cuts.
Negotiators from the Republican-controlled House and Democratic-controlled Senate, unable to agree on a budget when the regular legislative session adjourned in mid-March, finally settled on a package of tax cuts and spending increases that won near-unanimous approval in both chambers.
Under state law, the document went back to the governor for one last round of tweaks. Though lawmakers from both parties had urged him not to tinker with the extensive compromises in the budget, Youngkin has prepared 38 new amendments. Three of those apply to the small “caboose” budget that ties up loose ends for the current fiscal year; the rest are aimed at the spending plan for the next two years, according to staffers who briefed reporters on the amendments.
The new fiscal year begins July 1, putting pressure on lawmakers to reconcile Youngkin’s requests and get a budget in place by the end of this month.
Youngkin is renewing his long-standing call to suspend the state’s 26-cent tax on a gallon of gasoline, proposing to lift it from July 1 through Sept. 30 and then to cap future inflation adjustments at 2 percent. Gas prices are at all-time high levels; a gallon of regular unleaded averaged $4.865 in Virginia on Wednesday, according to AAA.
The House included the cut in its original budget, but the Senate did not. Some lawmakers from both parties have worried that the cut would deprive state transportation needs of badly needed dollars with no guarantee that retailers would pass savings along to consumers. The cut was one of a few tax cuts that lawmakers did not include in the compromise budget they passed this month.
The General Assembly’s budget stopped short of doubling the standard deduction for personal income-tax filers, increasing it from $4,500 for individuals and $9,000 for married couples to $8,000 and $16,000, respectively. Youngkin is not challenging that.
Youngkin is also not challenging the General Assembly’s plan to cut the 1.5 percent state grocery tax but leave intact the additional 1 percent levied by localities; the governor had originally asked to eliminate both.
One more item he’s declining to pursue: a proposal that would have supplied some $350 million in incentives for the Washington Commanders to build a stadium in Northern Virginia. Though Youngkin had earlier been an advocate, lawmakers have one by one withdrawn support for the team over its many scandals.
State Senate leader gives up on a bill to bring Commanders to Virginia
The issue appeared dead last week when defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio dismissed the Jan. 6 insurrection as a “dust-up,” leading the team to issue a fine and General Assembly leaders to say they will no longer consider supporting the stadium. Youngkin could have forced the issue, but is not doing so, according to his staff.
But Youngkin has introduced a few new issues that are sure to provoke debate among lawmakers. One amendment would prohibit using public money to fund abortion services, something that’s banned under federal law. Virginia law permits using public funds in some circumstances, such as a pregnancy that results from rape or incest, where the life or health of the mother is at risk, or in some cases where the fetus is severely abnormal.
Another budget language amendment is aimed at expanding the definition of institutions of higher learning that can participate in Youngkin’s push for “lab schools,” or partnerships with K-12 schools. Yet another would require public colleges and universities to sign a pledge and create a plan to ensure freedom of expression on campus.
Youngkin also is proposing an amendment to limit the credits that can be earned by some prison inmates who have concurrent or consecutive sentences — a step aimed at lessening the impact of a new law that would see some inmates get early release this year. | 2022-06-16T00:02:06Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Youngkin resurrects gas tax cut but not Commanders stadium in latest Virginia budget proposals - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/virginia-budget-youngkin-gas-tax-commanders/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/virginia-budget-youngkin-gas-tax-commanders/ |
Also Wednesday, a coalition of environmental groups filed an ethics complaint against a Metro board member
Passengers head toward a 7000-series train in Rockville. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)
Metro announced Wednesday it has completed preparations to return eight of its suspended trains to passenger service over the next several days, with the first scheduled to show up Thursday on the Green and Yellow lines.
The development came on the same day that a coalition of environmental groups filed an ethics complaint against a Metro board member who they say has ties to the fossil-fuel industry.
The 7000-series trains are Metro’s latest and most advanced model, but they have been out of service since mid-October, when a federal derailment investigation found a defect that can cause wheels to move on their axles. Metrorail’s oversight agency removed all 748 of the cars in the series, which make up 60 percent of Metro’s fleet.
Their absence has created an eight-month train shortage that has frustrated riders with lengthy waits across the nation’s third-largest transit system. The arrival of a small number of trains, while having little effect on wait times in the short term, is the first significant step toward boosting service as the transit agency seeks to lure back riders more than two years into the pandemic.
The returning trains will appear first on the Green and Yellow lines, transit officials said, before being deployed to the Blue, Orange and Silver lines in July to help shorten waits to 15 minutes.
While the eight trains could help to slowly ease crowding, Metro is at least several weeks away from restoring its entire fleet, a move that would allow the rail system to run pre-pandemic service levels.
Metro received permission in May to put 64 cars — which can form eight trains — back into service under a plan that requires daily wheel inspections. The agency has spent weeks training inspectors on the screening process, while continuing to work toward an automated inspection system it hopes will persuade regulators to reinstate all of the cars.
Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) issued a joint statement late Wednesday, saying the return of the trains was “welcome news.” They urged Metro interim general manager Andy Off to continue working toward instilling a stronger safety culture at the transit agency, which continues to work through multiple recent safety violations.
Metro faces new safety order on first day under new leadership
Also Wednesday, the Metro Electric Bus Coalition — made up of groups that include Greenpeace USA, multiple Sierra Club chapters and the Union of Concerned Scientists — said in an ethics complaint that Metro board member Matthew F. Letourneau should have recused himself last year when the board voted unanimously to convert Metro’s bus fleet to zero-emission by 2045. In a 15-page memo, the coalition argued Letourneau is in violation of Metro’s ethics policy for multiple reasons.
“We’re alleging that he’s representing the interests of the fossil-fuel industry and the oil and gas industry and not representing the public interest,” said Elliott Negin, of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Letourneau is managing director of communications at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Energy Institute, where he serves as a spokesman on energy and environmental issues for the chamber. The institute states it supports renewable energy that supports low- to zero-emission electric power, but also believes more gas and oil production should be a “national priority.” It also advocates for the easing of pipeline permit processes and drilling on federal lands.
Letourneau declined to comment “out of respect for the ethics process” and referred questions to Metro. In a statement, board chairman Paul C. Smedberg said Metro’s Ethics Committee will meet June 23 to consider the complaint and make a determination.
“The board takes allegations of ethics violations seriously and will give it a full and impartial consideration,” Smedberg said.
The coalition alleged Letourneau is violating a clause in the Metro board ethics policy that states members must “act in the best interests of [Metro] and their respective Jurisdiction in carrying out their duties as Board Members, rather than in the Member’s interest or in the interest of another person or organization with which the Board Members are personally associated.”
As a Loudoun County supervisor, Letourneau (R) has received nearly $20,000 in campaign contributions from officials at the American Gas Association and American Petroleum Institute, while his largest donor, William B. Holtzman, owner of the Holtzman Oil Corp., has contributed $15,000 to his campaigns, according to Virginia election records.
Metro is phasing out diesel-powered buses, with plans to transform its fleet to electric by 2045
Electric buses have grown in popularity in recent years amid growing concerns over climate change. Last year, the Metro board — including Letourneau — voted for a conversion of Metro’s fleet under a phased plan that slowly increases the purchase of electric buses annually.
Critics, including the Metro Electric Bus Coalition, say that timeline is slower than other major transit agencies at a time when Metro plans to continue investing in gas-powered buses and related infrastructure.
The electric bus coalition alleges Letourneau has made statements during board discussions that are inaccurate, helping to lower Metro’s fleet-conversion ambitions.
“He has consistently made false statements and misleading statements about the alleged benefits of natural gas buses, which he is promoting heavily, and denigrated the feasibility of electrifying the fleet,” Negin said.
Metro to build garage in Northwest D.C. to house all-electric buses
Metro’s fleet includes about 1,500 buses, most of which operate on compressed natural gas (CNG), diesel or a combination of diesel and electricity. The agency’s conversion plan calls for replacing worn-out buses with more electric vehicles each year until the fleet is all electric in 23 years. The bus coalition argues against additional spending for compressed natural gas buses and a planned expansion of fueling capabilities at one of the agency’s garages.
“It makes no sense for Metro to commit more than $5 million to a new CNG fueling facility and millions more to expand its CNG facility at Bladensburg,” said Steve Banashek, electric vehicle chair for the Sierra Club’s Virginia chapter.
Last year, Letourneau spoke in favor of a phased approach to conversion, saying a transit agency the size of Metro “can’t turn on a dime.”
The coalition, which reviewed recordings of board meetings, also cited Letourneau’s statement in a 2020 board meeting when he said “it doesn’t make a lot of sense to convert to electric buses that will be running on electricity coming from natural gas and then not necessarily invest in CNG buses and then act like we’ve really done something, because we haven’t.” The coalition said in the memo that the statement “ignores the fact that electric buses are better for the climate than diesel, diesel-electric hybrid and CNG buses across the country, regardless of their electricity source.”
The complaint said comparable agencies, such as the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, are outpacing Metro, which will have less than 20 percent of its fleet converted in 2030. LA Metro plans to have completely switched over by that time.
Metro board adopts revised ethics policy in wake of Evans scandal
Coalition members said they are not challenging Letourneau on other issues.
“We are not calling into question Mr. Letourneau’s ability to continue serving on the Metro board,” said Timothy Oberleiton, an attorney with Earthjustice. “However, in light of Mr. Letourneau’s clear ties to the oil and gas industry, it is imperative that he recuse himself from participating in any discussions, deliberations and decisions regarding the future of the Metro bus fleet.” | 2022-06-16T00:02:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Metro's suspended 7000-series trains start to return Thursday - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/06/15/metro-7000-series-return/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/06/15/metro-7000-series-return/ |
David Blair bets on himself again in Montgomery county executive race
Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich, right, addresses questions with the press after touring the new mass vaccination site at Montgomery College Germantown Campus in Germantown, Md. on April 7, 2021. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)
Potomac businessman David Blair is leading the crop of candidates to unseat incumbent Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich in fundraising, with a war chest built on $2.95 million in self-financing, campaign filing reports released this week show.
With just over a month before the primary election — which in liberal Montgomery often determines the eventual winner — the competitive race for county executive has turned on issues such as rising violent crime, affordable housing and economic development, filled with efforts from challengers to unseat Elrich, who’s spent much of his first term navigating the coronavirus pandemic.
Elrich has raised more than $589,000 overall and is participating in Montgomery’s public financing program, which allows him to receive matching funds for donations under $250 from county residents. His campaign has requested an additional $143,000 in public financing, which would bring Elrich to about $733,000. He brought in more than $75,000 in donations this cycle, which ran from Jan. 13 to June 7, trailed only by Peter James, who reported raising less than $1,000.
Teresa Woorman, Elrich’s campaign manager, said fundraising numbers don’t tell the whole story.
“We did it once, and we can do it again,” Woorman said, of Elrich’s defeat of Blair in 2018 by a razor-thin margin.
Blair, formerly the chief executive of a Rockville-based pharmaceutical company, poured $5.4 million into that campaign and lost by 77 votes. This time he has loaned himself $2.95 million and received more than $398,000, bringing his total this cycle to $3.35 million.
This time, Elrich has widespread name recognition, said Blair, who has been the biggest spender this cycle, seeking to connect with voters on the ground and hosting events to deliver a message focused on revitalizing Montgomery’s economy.
“The big comparison is the county executive is an incumbent and with that comes a pretty big platform, so it’s different than four years ago,” Blair said.
Council member Hans Riemer (D-At Large) has raised just over $637,000 in the race, also through public financing, which maxes out at $750,000, and has received donations from more than 1,900 donors. Riemer’s campaign expects about $358,000 more in public financing, bringing his projected reported total to about $995,000. Riemer said Tuesday that his campaign hasn’t spent much up until this point, but plans for spending to take off in this final stretch.
Riemer garnered the most votes of any at-large council candidate in the crowded 2018 primary and has the support of “smart growth” advocates who believe in the need for more housing options near transit.
“We know we’re running against an incumbent and a wealthy self-funder, and we’re thrilled to have the people on our side,” Riemer said. “What public financing makes possible is building a campaign at the grass-roots level.”
Steve Silverman (D), a former Montgomery County Council member, said money in a race with an incumbent isn’t as important as reaching voters with a message that differentiates the candidates from Elrich.
“I don’t think anybody’s surprised that Blair is self-funding,” Silverman said. “I don’t think anybody is surprised that Elrich and Riemer will probably max out on public financing.”
He said the filings are a good indicator that everyone has the funds to get their message out — now it’s a matter of whether that message is enough to convince voters to vote out an incumbent.
“You don’t have to have more money than the next guy, you’re just to have to have enough money to get your message out,” Silverman said. “I think the challenge for Blair and Riemer is, you have to give people a reason to oust an incumbent.” | 2022-06-16T01:45:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich trails his main competitors in fundraising - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/montgomery-county-executive-race-finances/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/montgomery-county-executive-race-finances/ |
They will be three of four candidates on the ballot in an Aug. 16 ranked-choice general election, according to the Associated Press
Signs of support of Sarah Palin stand on a corner in south Anchorage. Palin was one of 48 candidates running for the vacant seat left by the late Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) in March 2022. (Ash Adams/for The Washington Post)
ANCHORAGE — Former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Republican establishment favorite Nick Begich III and independent Al Gross have advanced in an all-party primary election for Alaska’s sole seat in the U.S. House, according to The Associated Press.
They will be three of four candidates on the ballot in an Aug. 16 ranked-choice general election to decide who will serve out the term of late Rep. Don Young (R), the state’s longtime congressman who died suddenly in March.
By Wednesday night, officials had not projected which other candidate had earned enough votes to make it to the top four and therefore advance to the general election.
With 82 percent of the votes reporting, Palin had 28 percent of the vote, compared to Begich with 19 percent and Al Gross with 13 percent.
Palin declared victory on Saturday after the first of four ballot counts showed her solidly ahead of the other 47 candidates vying for the federal seat. Palin had an endorsement from former president Donald Trump and name recognition in a crowded field.
“I am looking forward to the special general election so we can highlight our ideas for fixing this country,” she said on Twitter Saturday, discussing “the right to keep and bear arms, and restoring respect for individual liberty and the Constitution.”
Begich, endorsed by the state GOP, launched his campaign while Young was still alive, casting himself as the more conservative candidate though he is from an Alaska family famous in state Democratic politics.
In a Wednesday interview with The Washington Post, Begich said he was excited by the results and expects to see even more support in the special general election from Alaskans who voted for candidates who did not make the final four.
“I have spent a career building businesses and creating jobs," he said. “Sarah Palin’s greatest source of income right now is the website Cameo. She makes celebrity videos for a living and is essentially a human Hallmark card. That is a huge contrast.”
Sarah Palin takes early lead in crowded House race in Alaska
The Alaska Division of Elections has two more ballot counts scheduled, with the aim of certifying the election June 25.
Voters will select Young’s longer-term successor through another election, which starts with a pick-one primary also scheduled for Aug. 16 and ends with a ranked-choice vote in November. More than 30 people are running. | 2022-06-16T01:50:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Sarah Palin to advance to general election in race for U.S. House - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/palin-house-primary-win/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/palin-house-primary-win/ |
At a time when crude prices are close to their highest levels in 14 years, Big Oil is turning its back on some of its biggest reserves.
BP Plc this week announced it would sell out of the Sunrise project, a Canadian tar sands joint venture that produces about 50,000 barrels a day. That can be chalked up as a victory for environmental campaigners who’ve sought to drive oil majors away from such projects. Equinor ASA sold out of a similar Canadian project last year, while Shell Plc and ConocoPhillips sold assets several years ago. Chevron Corp. and TotalEnergies SE also have projects that may be on the block.
On paper, bitumen and oil sands deposits like those in Canada’s Athabasca region are some of the biggest reserves of petroleum anywhere on the planet. Venezuela’s Orinoco belt contains roughly the same amount of crude as Saudi Arabia. The Athabasca reserves come next.
Yet there’s always been an asterisk attached to the tar sands. While their reserves numbers seem enormous, their economics have always been dicey. If international oil companies are quitting them now, it’s not because of any attempt to clean up their image (BP, for instance, is taking an offshore oil project as part-payment to its partner Cenovus Energy Inc. for its Sunrise stake.) It’s because they can see through current high crude prices to a future where barrels are cheaper, and tar sands can no longer turn a reliable profit.
Such deposits aren’t quite like anything else in the oil industry. In many places, crude is extracted not via wells but with dump trucks and open-cast pits that resemble coal mines more than oil fields. Elsewhere, the heavy viscous crude must be broken up with steam and chemicals to produce something liquid enough to be pumped to the surface. That’s an energy-intensive process. Whereas conventional methods produce oil containing about 20 gigajoules of energy for every gigajoule used in extracting it from the ground, the type of tar sands found at Sunrise get just four or five gigajoules.
As the world of 2022 is well aware, energy is cost — and the expenditure needed to extract crude from the Canadian prairie is higher than anywhere else in the world.
When energy consultancies produce a rundown of the most competitive projects, it’s tar sands (along with still-more marginal ones such as coal-to-liquids or gas-to-liquids) that typically occupy the costliest bit of the curve. When prices dip, the producers at the top start losing money first. That’s why the Gulf’s secure position at the bottom of the global cost curve has made it the linchpin of energy markets for half a century.
Margins are made even tighter by the fact that the resultant crude is a lower-quality heavy sour product, which is hard to get to global markets thanks to the lack of pipeline capacity out of Canada. Compared to Maya, a Mexican crude of similar quality, Western Canadian Select oil trades at a persistent, and substantial, discount.
It’s striking that one other flavor of high-cost petroleum is in ruder health. America’s shale oilfields are enjoying a resurgence that should push their production back to record levels in the next few weeks. Their costs tend to be lower than tar sands, but only marginally so. Why, then, do they remain more attractive?
The answer is time. A shale well is short-lived, with output peaking in a matter of months and typically declining to zero in a year or so. Tar sands, on the other hand, are multi-decade projects, that may only start to recoup their initial capital investment after many years in production. That makes them a high-stakes bet on the long-term direction of the petroleum market.
There’s good money to be made from crude right now, whether it’s extracted from the Texas plains, the Canadian prairie, or the Saudi deserts. Demand looks to finally be recovering to pre-pandemic levels. A circumspect oil producer, however, will worry not just about the state of demand in 2022, but where it will be in 2025, or 2030, or beyond. Seen through that lens, the problem with high-cost, long-life tar sands isn’t that they’re despoiling a pristine environment or pumping additional molecules of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, but simply that their economics are too marginal.
If you’re bullish on the long-term prospects for crude demand, 2022’s price environment represents a great time to invest in the world’s biggest reserves. If you’re bearish, it represents a great time to sell out of them. It’s telling that international oil companies with a choice about where to dedicate their capital are choosing the latter.
• Market Apathy to Shale Pushes Continental to Go Private: Liam Denning
• America’s Frackers Are Back, and They’re Looking Leaner: David Fickling
• The Oil Price Shock Will Reverberate Into Next Year: Javier Blas
Want more Bloomberg Opinion? Terminal readers head to OPIN.
(Corrects the number of barrels produced in the second paragraph.) | 2022-06-16T03:21:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | It’s Not ESG Driving Big Oil Away From Its Biggest Reserves - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/its-not-esg-driving-big-oil-away-from-its-biggest-reserves/2022/06/15/582b5aca-ed1c-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/its-not-esg-driving-big-oil-away-from-its-biggest-reserves/2022/06/15/582b5aca-ed1c-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html |
Immaculate innings are rare. The Astros threw two in the same game.
Houston pitcher Phil Maton accepted congratulations after his immaculate inning at Texas. (Ron Jenkins/Getty Images)
Major League Baseball goes back a long way, but it had never before seen — and may never see again — what unfolded Wednesday at Globe Life Field.
The visiting Houston Astros threw not one but two immaculate innings. After starter Luis Garcia struck out all three Texas Rangers batters on just nine pitches in the second inning in Arlington, Tex., reliever Phil Maton took the mound to start the seventh and turned the same trick.
Making the sequence all the more noteworthy was that the Houston pitchers victimized the same three Texas batters: Nathaniel Lowe, Ezequiel Duran and Brad Miller.
According to MLB.com, this was the first time in major league history two immaculate innings were pitched on the same day, let alone in the same game.
“We obviously knew they were cruising pretty good,” Miller said after the game, a 9-2 Astros win. “I wish I would have taken some better swings, and wish they didn’t get it.”
“To be part of that, anytime you make history … I’m glad I was catching in that situation,” said Houston’s Martín Maldonado, a 35-year-old catcher in his 11th major league season. He said he couldn’t recall being involved in an immaculate inning at any level.
In all, there have been 105 immaculate innings on record in MLB. The 103rd was accomplished this season by the New York Yankees’ Nestor Cortes against the host Baltimore Orioles.
The Astros are now tied with the Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers for most immaculate innings, with each franchise accounting for nine of them. Eight of those innings notched by the Astros, who started play in 1962 as the Colt .45s, have come since 1991.
“It’s super cool,” Maton said. “It’s not something you go out here every day and obviously strive to do. Obviously, you’re trying to strike out every hitter you face. Still kind of trying to wrap my head around it. Cool experience.”
After Maton’s final strike to Miller ended the seventh, Maldonado threw the ball to third baseman Alex Bregman out of force of habit.
“Everybody in the dugout was like, ‘I need that ball! I need that ball!’ ” the catcher said afterward.
When Maton and Garcia got back to their lockers, they each found a ball from their respective immaculate innings marked with an authentication sticker.
“After I got the second strikeout, I already knew [I had a chance],” Garcia said. “When I was throwing a perfect game in the fifth [earlier this year], I didn’t want to think of that, but this time I thought of it. I said, ‘Let’s go for it.’ I’m glad that happened.”
A 25-year-old in his second full major league season, Garcia lowered his season ERA to 3.41 by allowing one earned run in six innings Wednesday, including nine strikeouts. After Maton unfurled his dominant seventh inning, Houston relievers Seth Martinez and Brandon Bielak closed out a lopsided win that also happened to take place on Manager Dusty Baker’s 73rd birthday.
“A couple of records, the same guys we struck them out back-to-back-to-back with nine pitches. … So it was a good day for us,” Baker said. | 2022-06-16T03:22:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Astros throw two immaculate innings against Rangers for MLB record - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/15/immaculate-innings-are-rare-astros-threw-two-same-game/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/15/immaculate-innings-are-rare-astros-threw-two-same-game/ |
By Derek Gatopoulos | AP
Maintenance engineers check installations at a new solar park outside the northern Greek city of Kozani on Friday, June 3, 2022. The park, one of Europe’s largest, is just a half-hour drive from the country’s biggest open-face lignite mine. While inaugurating the new solar facility, Greece’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, announced a 50% hike in lignite production through 2024 to build up reserves. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis) | 2022-06-16T03:23:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | In energy-strapped Europe, coal gets an encore - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/in-energy-strapped-europe-coal-gets-an-encore/2022/06/15/7f6dd982-ed21-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/in-energy-strapped-europe-coal-gets-an-encore/2022/06/15/7f6dd982-ed21-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html |
Avalanche turns back Lightning to win thrilling Stanley Cup finals opener
Colorado celebrates in front of its home crowd after a 4-3 win at Ball Arena in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals. (Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
DENVER — The blast came off the stick of Colorado Avalanche forward Andre Burakovsky just 83 seconds into the overtime, a one-timer from the right circle. Tampa Bay goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, so stout throughout these Stanley Cup playoffs, had no chance. Ball Arena went into a frenzy as the home team took a 1-0 lead in the Stanley Cup finals with a 4-3 win in a thrilling opener to the series.
Before Burakovsky’s heroics, the back-and-forth game saw Colorado jump out to an early 3-1 lead before the two-time defending champions roared back to tie it at 3 late in the second period. After a scoreless third period, extra time awaited.
Burakovsky, one of the heroes of the Capitals’ Stanley Cup run in 2018, made sure it didn’t last long.
“I wasn’t thinking too much," Burakovsky said of the winner. “It was kind of a crazy feeling.”
The series resumes with Game 2 on Saturday night.
Tampa Bay has built a powerhouse. But is it Colorado's turn for glory?
“The right team won the game,” Lighting Coach Jon Cooper said. “We got better in us. I don’t think by a country mile we gave them our best game.”
The Lightning, aiming to become the first team in nearly 40 years to win three straight titles (the New York Islanders won four straight from 1980-83), has won 11 consecutive playoff series dating back to the 2020 postseason.
“Guys just stuck with it. It was resiliency from the group," Avalanche Coach Jared Bednar said.
Colorado, despite its lack of finals experience, came out sharp. The Avalanche, who hadn’t made it out of the second round of the playoffs since 2002, jumped out to a 2-0 lead and took a commanding 3-1 advantage at first intermission.
Tampa Bay was unfazed, holding the game there until equalizing with a pair of goals in a 48-second span late in the second period.
Winger Nikita Kucherov deked past a Colorado defender before dishing to Ondrej Palat, who beat Avalanche goalie Darcy Kuemper to trim the deficit to 3-2. Defenseman Mikhail Sergachev knotted the game a few ticks later with 6:21 left in the second.
Colorado hadn’t faced a team like the Lightning in the postseason, with Tampa Bay’s experience and elite goaltending from Vasilevskiy. But Vasilevskiy struggled in the charged atmosphere of Ball Arena to open the game. Before Game 1, Vasilevskiy had never allowed three or more goals in the first period of a playoff game in his career. He gave up three on 15 shots in the first period alone.
He held firm after that — until the overtime.
Kuemper, meanwhile, was in net for the first time since he suffered an upper-body injury in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals. He said he was “100 percent” healthy heading into these finals and played like it in the first period. But his one lull in the second period left a tension-filled third period.
When Burakovsky ended it, Kuemper felt something more than relief.
“Just a bolt of energy, excitement," he said. "Obviously, I’m focused on not letting one in and trusting the guys that they’re going to get the job done down there. They went down there and made a beautiful play and put it in. I was as excited as everybody.”
Bednar expressed plenty of belief in his young team before Wednesday’s game.
“Lots of experience, they know how to win, we get it,” Bednar said. “I feel like we’ve been preparing our team for this moment since Day One of training camp … They may have more experience, but we’re here to try to prove that we’re the best team in the league, and that’s where our mind-set is at.”
Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog opened the scoring with a rebound in front at 7:47 of the first. Colorado doubled its lead less than two minutes later with forward Valeri Nichushkin’s goal from the high slot.
Tampa Bay finally got on the board after a breakaway hustle play from forward Nick Paul with 7:34 left in the first. Colorado responded five minutes later, with forward Artturi Lehkonen’s goal on the Avalanche’s five-on-three advantage, before Tampa Bay went on its run.
Amid the overtime loss, there was a bright spot for the Lightning.
Tampa Bay got a needed boost from center Brayden Point, who played in his first game since he suffered a lower-body injury during a Game 7 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on May 14. Point had a secondary assist in his return. Meanwhile, Colorado was still without Nazem Kadri and Andrew Cogliano after both underwent surgery for hand injuries suffered during the Western Conference finals.
Tampa Bay has faced adversity before in the postseason, most recently rallying to defeat the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference finals after it lost the first two games of that series. It rallied to win the next four. Now in a 1-0 hole in the finals, the Cup holders will need another comeback. | 2022-06-16T04:05:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Avalanche turns back Lightning to win thrilling Stanley Cup finals opener - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/15/colorado-avalanche-tampa-bay-lightning-cup-finals/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/15/colorado-avalanche-tampa-bay-lightning-cup-finals/ |
Why Boris Johnson is picking fights over Irish borders, Rwandan flights
Just days after narrowly escaping a historic domestic defeat, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson now finds himself fighting two battles on the global stage. But while his plan to scrap key parts of a post-Brexit deal with the European Union and a concurrent push to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda are both fights with foreign foes, they are motivated by homegrown promises to his base to “take back control.”
The hairy situation also shows that Johnson, whose lockdown-breaking during the pandemic earned him the dubious prize of being the first sitting prime minister found to have broken the law, is perhaps still skeptical about things like boundaries and rules. If Johnson can’t fight international law, he surely thinks he can fudge it.
The irony in Britain’s fight against the European Union over the Irish border is that the rule it seeks to break is one of its own makings. Johnson’s government negotiated and signed the Northern Ireland Protocol as part of the 2020 E.U.-U.K. Withdrawal Agreement. On Monday, Britain announced it would unilaterally pull out of parts of that agreement — sparking a backlash from E.U. officials who said Britain was breaking international law.
As that scandal rolled forward, Britain pushed ahead with its controversial plan to fly asylum seekers to Rwanda. But that plan hit a standstill Tuesday, as a series of individual U.K. court rulings pulled passengers off the first planned flight before a last-minute ruling from the European Court of Human Rights grounded the flight altogether.
This all came just a week after Johnson survived a vote of no confidence by his fellow Conservative Party lawmakers. Even though the prime minister survived, he is weakened. It is an enormous fall from grace for a prime minister who won a historic landslide election less than three years ago. It seems a strange time to go to war.
But these battles over the Irish border and flights to Rwanda are not just a distraction. Johnson’s Brexit promise was all about “taking back control” for the British. Both situations give Britain a foreign bureaucracy to wrest control away from.
In the case of the Northern Ireland Protocol, the E.U. plays the foe. Johnson and British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss have blamed Brussels for not renegotiating the protocol even as it leads to political anger from Northern Ireland’s unionists. The British government now argues that the Good Friday Agreement, the peace accord that ended the three-decade violence of the Troubles, is at risk because of the protocol.
But it was Johnson himself who brushed aside the complaints of its historical ally in Belfast, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), to reach the deal with the European Union in 2019. E.U. officials like Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney say the British government is trying to “deliberately ratchet up tension with an E.U. seeking compromise” by unilaterally rewriting the agreement.
The E.U. on Wednesday announced it would restart legal action against the British government for this move, which it said broke international law. “Let’s call a spade a spade, this is illegal,” European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic said. So far, there have been only shrugs from the British government.
Meanwhile, Johnson’s plan to send asylum seekers and other adult immigrants who make it to Britain’s shores to Rwanda for processing was designed to deter the desperate and dangerous voyages being made across the English Channel in tiny rafts. Home Secretary Priti Patel had said it would break the “business case” for smugglers who prayed on these vulnerable people.
But with the European Court of Human Rights stepping in, there’s now another foreign bureaucrat to fight — and again, the problems are coming from the old enemies in Europe. Among Brexit hard-liners, there were calls to pull Britain out of the court, with one member of Parliament reportedly writing in a private WhatsApp group: “This is effectively a war now.”
It’s more complicated than that, however. Despite its name, the European Court of Human Rights has nothing to do with Brexit or the E.U. Instead, it is the international court of the Council of Europe — a 46-member body that was created after World War II at the prompting of Johnson’s own idol, Winston Churchill, with the aim of creating international standards of law.
Britain did not exit the Council of Europe nor the European Convention on Human Rights with Brexit. The idea has not been seriously entertained before this week. The only nation to leave the Council of Europe is Russia, which was pushed out (despite its own efforts to leave) after the invasion of Ukraine this year. Not great company for Britain.
And while many agree that the Northern Ireland Protocol is imperfect and needs fine-tuning, Johnson’s moves to abruptly pull out of key parts of it ignore the political realities on the ground.
Unionists like the DUP, who support closer ties with the rest of Britain, have ended up divided and weakened after Brexit, and now refuse to allow a government to form. But Sinn Fein, which seeks to unify Ireland as a republic, has become the largest party in Northern Ireland — and is leading polls in Ireland itself, too. Sinn Fein supports the protocol — the majority of the public in Northern Ireland do, according to most polls. Johnson’s actions have boosted the party.
There’s more. While Johnson’s allies complain about the European Court of Human Rights, there is a fundamental tension if they really care about the Good Friday Agreement: the text of that agreement explicitly references the European Convention on Human Rights. Pulling Northern Ireland out of it would breach the peace accord that Johnson claims to be protecting.
Who would replace Boris Johnson? Here are some of the contenders.
Johnson’s blustering charge may actually be a retreat. After months of bruising scandal that led to the no-confidence vote, Johnson has returned to the buccaneering Brexiteer policies that appeal most to his core Conservative base. But times have moved on.
As the Financial Times’ John Burns-Murdoch reported last month, concerns about immigration may have driven the Brexit vote, but since Britain exited the E.U. the number of immigrants to the U.K. has continued to rise while concern about migration has gone down.
There’s also no great clamor across the U.K. to change the Northern Ireland Protocol. John Curtice, a leading pollster and a politics professor at the University of Strathclyde, recently noted the lack of interest or even understanding of the issue seen in polls. “Northern Ireland may have been the thorniest issue in the Brexit debate, yet it seems that that status is not reflected in the level of concern or division among voters in Great Britain,” Curtice wrote in May.
Can populism work when the policies aren’t popular? Johnson foreign battles may soon show the answer. | 2022-06-16T04:22:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Why Boris Johnson is picking fights over Irish borders, Rwandan flights - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/16/boris-johnson-northern-ireland-rwanda/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/16/boris-johnson-northern-ireland-rwanda/ |
Miss Manners: I got invited to a years late divorce shower
Second, am I correct that in the manners world, it is not in good taste to write about gifts on an invitation? I was always taught that that was a major faux pas, as you are making the assumption that your guests were already going to bring you a gift.
You are correct on both points. But Miss Manners thinks you are expecting too much — such as good taste — from a friend who is charmed to dance, as it were, on the grave of her marriage, and also take the opportunity to throw in a little begging.
I responded, “Oh, I'm sorry! I thought the instructions said XYZ,” to which she basically responded, “That's OK, you'll get the swing of things soon.”
I have empirical proof that things aren't my fault, but it seems rude and nitpicky to shove all that evidence in their faces and say that they're wrong. On the other hand, I don't want their first impression of me to be that I'm some irresponsible employee, which I'm not.
You can provide proof of what happened without being heavy-handed.
And, Miss Manners hastens to add, you need to, as your previous phrasing sounds like admission of fault. It would have been better to say, “Oh, I’m sorry, the instructions said XYZ.” Or “My goodness, I sent that a month ago; did you not get it? Of course, let me resend it right away.” You can even forward the old email, which will show the original sending date. | 2022-06-16T04:35:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Miss Manners: I got invited to a years late divorce shower - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/06/16/miss-manners-divorce-shower-celebrate/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/06/16/miss-manners-divorce-shower-celebrate/ |
Is Putin’s War More Like WWI or WWII?
Beware the “lessons of history” as drawn by charlatans, ignoramuses or tyrants, for they will be daft, wrong and possibly disastrous. The self-serving amateur historiography of Russian President Vladimir Putin is an example.
Last year, he invented a narrative “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians,” which was subsequently revealed as one of the hallucinations that made him attack Ukraine. The other day, he was at it again, comparing himself to Peter the Great, and hinting that “it seems it has fallen to us, too, to reclaim and strengthen.” That implied he might like to wage war against Sweden (as Peter did in the 18th century) and seize lands that are now part of Estonia, a member of NATO.
Oh dear. If Putin were a pub drunk, real historians would be guffawing. His overall legacy will be nothing like Peter’s — the Tsar, like Putin, was brutal and imperialistic, but also known for opening Russia toward the West and progress. Yet Putin is a dictator in possession of the launch codes for the world’s largest arsenal of nuclear weapons, so his ravings are terrifying.
That said, the inevitability that some people will draw inane conclusions from history shouldn’t prevent the rest of us from trying to be more sophisticated about it. As the Maori of New Zealand say, we walk backwards into the future with our eyes fixed on the past. We need history to make sense of the world; we need yesterday to understand today.
The trick is to be eclectic, precise and subtle. Nobody today is exactly like Hannibal, Boudica, Charlemagne, Genghis Khan, Catherine the Great or any other historical figure. But specific aspects of people and events in the past do echo down the ages. We just have to be clear about what those are in each context.
In groping for analogies to Putin’s war against Ukraine, there are lots of possibilities. I’ve compared the scenarios to the outcomes of the Korean War and the Winter War between the Soviet Union and Finland; others have looked to the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 and beyond.
For most people, however, the most evocative comparisons are to the First and Second World War — not least, because of fears that Putin may yet escalate and hurl us into a Third one. But those two previous conflagrations were completely different, and offer diverging lessons.
Poles, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians and other Eastern Europeans tend to view Russia’s war of aggression as comparable to Nazi Germany’s assaults on Czechoslovakia and Poland in 1938-39. Polish President Andrzeij Duda, for example, has explicitly compared Putin to Adolf Hitler.
By contrast, German and French intellectuals and politicians prefer analogies to World War I. In part, that’s because of a German taboo against comparing anything to Hitler (a sort of reverse Godwin’s Law), since that would seem to cast doubt on the historical singularity of the Fuehrer’s crimes, above all the Holocaust.
By citing World War I, these observers are also signaling concern that the West, like Europe in 1914, could accidentally stumble into a bigger disaster. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has invoked “The Sleepwalkers” by Christopher Clark. That book describes in minute detail how Europe’s statesmen (they were all men), in responding to the assassination by a Bosnian Serb of an Austro-Hungarian prince in a Balkan backwater, slid into a continental fratricide because they didn’t comprehend the automatic escalation spirals they had built into their alliance systems and mobilization schedules.
With such precedents in mind, leaders will tend to view Ukraine’s Donbas as akin to Bosnia Herzegovina in 1914 — a land where the West has interests, but also a liminal place that could be a potential trap, luring NATO countries into a shooting war against Russia, with unknowable consequences.
The World War I analogy also explains why French President Emmanuel Macron worries about outcomes that would “humiliate” Putin. The Treaty of Versailles humiliated Germany, leaving it resentful and thereby seeding the next World War.
But these comparisons miss the mark, according to Martin Schulze Wessel, a German historian of Eastern Europe. In the First World War, several leaders and powers shared responsibility for a disaster they could have prevented. In 1939, by contrast, one man launched an unprovoked attack against a weaker neighbor, as part of a pattern of irredentist, chauvinistic and imperialist aggression. This most closely fits Putin in 2022.
In that analogy, those leaders in the West who spent years trying to “appease” the tyrant — during the previous century or this one — misread the situation, the threat and the man. It also follows, as Poland’s Duda said, that negotiating with Putin — talking for the sake of talking — won’t help, unless and until the aggressor is stopped on the battlefield. This is why the Poles and Balts say bluntly what Scholz so far refuses to state: Ukraine must win.
Note that the analogy of World War II does not extend to whatever Hitler did in the years after 1939. The comparison does not imply that Putin is planning a Holocaust, nor that he must eventually commit suicide — or that Russia, like Nazi Germany, must end up occupied and dismembered. To understand how Putin’s war could end, we need to observe how this tragedy unfolds, while reaching again and again for the most appropriate lessons of the past.
• The U.S. Mustn’t Follow Weimar Germany and Ancient Rome: Andreas Kluth | 2022-06-16T06:24:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Is Putin’s War More Like WWI or WWII? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/is-putins-war-more-like-wwi-or-wwii/2022/06/16/05ab72ce-ed32-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/is-putins-war-more-like-wwi-or-wwii/2022/06/16/05ab72ce-ed32-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html |
A dictator’s son promised unity. His election is pulling Filipinos apart.
By Michael E. Miller
Regine Cabato
A supporter of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in Mandaluyong City waves a Philippines flag days after the country's May 9 presidential election. (Martin San Diego for The Washington Post)
MANILA — Louie Crismo remembers the day almost half a century ago when his brother was grabbed off the street by Filipino security forces and never seen again — one of more than 3,000 people killed during the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos Sr. So he was appalled when the strongman’s son emerged as the front-runner for president earlier this year. His horror grew when he realized Marcos’s supporters included members of his own family.
On the eve of the election last month, Crismo pleaded with his cousins to reconsider.
“Let’s remember his good heart and the pain that martial law brought,” the 64-year-old wrote of his brother, with a link to details about the disappearance. “Hopefully you will join us in helping stop the dictator’s family from returning to power.”
But his message went unanswered. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., known as “Bongbong,” won in a landslide. And Crismo hasn’t spoken to his cousins since.
When Marcos Jr. is inaugurated on June 30, it will cap a decades-long project to rehabilitate the image of the Philippines’ most infamous family with a mixture of online mythmaking, real-world alliances and messages of unity. But the family’s return to power nonetheless has come as a shock to the millions who once celebrated its expulsion.
The pain and confusion has been most intense for the relatives of those killed and for the roughly 70,000 victims who survived detention, half of whom were tortured, according to journalists and human rights groups. Many feel the darkest and most formative chapter of their lives is being erased — not only by Marcos Jr., who refuses to acknowledge or apologize for his father’s abuses, but also by their own families.
The issue has erupted at dinner tables and in family chat groups, splitting relatives and souring friendships. A group of psychologists that have been providing counseling for those who volunteered for Marcos Jr.'s opponent in the election campaign said around a quarter to a third talk of politically divided households.
“A classmate from medical school told me she voted for Bongbong and said, ‘it’s time to move on,’” recalled Imelda Cabatuando, who was detained for three months, electrocuted in her genitals and threatened with rape during the dictatorship. “I said, ‘don’t you dare tell me to move on. I was tortured under Marcos.’ Then I unfollowed her on Facebook.”
The election has exposed old wounds. But it has also revealed fresh frustrations with liberal democracy in the Philippines, a close U.S. military ally that has drifted toward China under outgoing president and strongman Rodrigo Duterte.
Marcos Sr. declared martial law in 1972 after a series of attacks he blamed on communist guerrillas, some of which were actually the work of his own government. For the next 14 years, his forces arbitrarily arrested critics and suspected leftists, often dumping their bodies in public to suppress dissent. Marcos Sr. and his family also siphoned billions from government coffers, some of which went toward the more than 1,000 pairs of designer shoes his wife, Imelda, accumulated.
When the dictator was ousted in a popular uprising in 1986, however, the country never fully reckoned with what it had gone through.
“We didn’t take stock of what happened in 1986 in any significant way,” said Carlos Conde from Human Rights Watch. Unlike some other countries that endured dictatorships, the Philippines didn’t establish a truth and reconciliation committee to analyze and memorialize the abuses, he noted. It did create one of Asia’s first human rights commissions and enabled victims to receive some compensation from wealth reclaimed from the Marcoses. But political elites held onto power, and little effort was made to educate younger generations about the martial law era.
“A lot of people said we needed to ‘move on’ in 1986,” Conde said. “Now we are again suffering from the effects of this ‘move on’ tendency.”
“It’s collective amnesia,” said Raissa Robles, a journalist who wrote a book on the martial law era. “After the Marcoses left, Filipinos were traumatized. And when you’re a traumatized person, you’d rather forget what happened.”
The rehabilitation of the Marcos name began in 1991, two years after Marcos Sr. died, when his family was allowed to return to face charges of tax fraud and graft. But the family not only avoided prison; they rapidly returned to politics. Marcos Jr. was elected to Congress in 1992. His mother — who is still appealing one set of corruption convictions — and older sister soon followed suit.
But it wasn’t until 2016 that the family fully re-emerged as a political force. That year, Bongbong nearly became vice president thanks to a sophisticated and well-funded social media strategy that falsely painted his father’s dictatorship as a “golden age” of law, order and economic prosperity.
That online effort didn’t end with his candidacy but rather continues today, said Jonathan Ong, a disinformation researcher at the University of Massachusetts and Harvard who studied the 2016 and 2022 elections.
“The Marcoses are saying they are victims of a miswritten history,” he said, adding that Bongbong uses that sense of grievance to connect with ordinary Filipinos frustrated with the status quo. Much of the analysis has focused on Marcos’s alleged use of troll farms and bots to attack critics, Ong said. But what the campaign did effectively was to flood social media with a “creative archive” of Marcos “folklore” that appealed to many demographics.
Mary watched the disinformation ensnare her family. The 52-year-old, who asked that her last name not be used to avoid worsening family tensions, is a “martial law baby,” as they are called here, who grew up during the dictatorship. Her middle class family was largely insulated from the violence. Like millions of Filipinos, however, she and her siblings took part in the protests that pushed Marcos Sr. out.
In the past year, however, Mary began to see her siblings post pro-Bongbong statements on social media. When she asked, one sister replied she had “come to a different appreciation of history.”
In the Philippines, grass-roots campaign takes on the Marcos juggernaut
Mary campaigned for Leni Robredo, Marcos Jr.'s main opponent. When Marcos won more than twice as many votes, Mary vowed on Facebook to continue opposing him. Some of her siblings mocked her, and Mary abandoned a family group chat.
“My sisters trolled me,” she said, her voice breaking. “I was so disappointed in my family. Okay, you are pro-Marcos, even if I don’t understand you, that’s your belief, you’re my family, so be it. But trolling me?”
The election pitted Cleta Monsanto against her eldest child. Now 65, she was a mother of three young children in 1985 when her husband, Ireneo, was pulled off a bus and executed by soldiers who suspected the teacher of being a communist rebel. When she recently learned that her son supports Marcos Jr., Monsanto berated him over video chat.
“I feel so angry toward my son,” she said.
Cabatuando, who was detained and tortured by the Marcos regime in 1973, now lives in Australia, where few people know what she endured. But her family in the Philippines is well aware. And on a visit there before the election, she was dismayed to hear younger relatives say they planned to vote for Marcos Jr. because they felt his father’s reign had been prosperous.
“It’s a golden lie,” Cabatuando said. “Not a golden age.”
Marcos Jr., who declined through a spokesperson to be interviewed, has both distanced himself from his father’s dictatorship and downplayed its abuses. But he served as a governor and vice-governor for the last six years of his father’s reign.
“I hold him 100 percent accountable,” Cabatuando said. “He knew what was being done and he benefited from it.”
“He is in no way innocent,” echoed Bonifacio Ilagan, a playwright and prominent martial law victim. “He has been the chief propagandist.”
Ilagan was detained for two years, tortured and then released just days before his sister was arrested and never seen again. For him, Bongbong’s victory seems like a nightmare from which he can’t wake.
Marcos family once ousted by uprising wins Philippines vote in landslide
“It’s as if all of the stories we’ve been telling people, all the things that happened during martial law, never happened at all,” he said.
Marcos Jr.'s victory wasn’t only down to social media mythmaking, however. It was also due to a very real alliance with Duterte. The strongman praised the martial law era and in some ways emulated it with his bloody six-year war on drugs. Though Duterte was initially skeptical of Bongbong, his party endorsed him after Marcos Jr. struck a deal for the president’s daughter, Sara Duterte-Carpio, to be his running mate.
That earned the support of Jaime Barbee Olaivar. Half a century ago, he was a young Marcos Sr. supporter who initially welcomed martial law. Then his father was detained for two years after blowing the whistle on a military scam. By the time of the 1986 revolution, Olaivar had joined the protests.
Yet, he and his father blamed the military, not Marcos Sr. And when another strongman came along in 2016 promising to remove drug addicts from neighborhoods like Olaivar’s, he backed him. Olaivar keeps a “Duterte: Man of Action” bumper sticker on his refrigerator, much to the disgust of his two activist children.
Now the family is divided over his support for Marcos Jr., who has embraced not only the Dutertes but also the drug war. Olaivar’s son, James, 24, works for a government agency devoted to victims of human rights violations and spends much of his time helping martial law survivors. Olaivar’s daughter, Jaynus, 26, directed a film about a family impacted by a drug war killing.
One recent night, the trio renewed their argument over a dinner of noodles and cheese doughnuts.
“Marcos is not our president,” Jaynus said, prompting her father to accuse her and her brother of trying to “destroy” Bongbong rather than give him a chance.
“Forgive and forget,” Olaivar said, making a sweeping motion with his hand. “Move on!”
“Say that to the victims of martial law,” answered James.
They sat at the same dinner table, but lived in alternate realities. The children read Rappler, an independent news organization whose founder faces criminal charges (and won a Nobel Peace Prize) after exposing human rights abuses under Duterte.
Their father felt the outlet deserved its legal troubles and that mainstream media were biased against the Marcoses. He preferred to read pro-Bongbong blogs. As dusk fell outside, he dismissed the idea that Marcos Jr. would repeat his father’s abuses as “BS.”
“You cannot predict the future,” he told his children.
“But you can look at history,” said his son. | 2022-06-16T06:24:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Philippine families divided by Bongbong Marcos election - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/16/philippines-bongbong-marcos-jr-election-divide/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/16/philippines-bongbong-marcos-jr-election-divide/ |
Russia-Ukraine war live updates Luhansk region under attack from ‘nine directions’; Macron and Scholz head to Kyiv
Ahead of Kyiv trip, Macron says E.U. expansion cannot be ‘only answer’ for stability
President Biden announced June 15 that the United States will send a new arms package worth $1 billion to Ukraine. (Video: Reuters)
Ukraine’s Luhansk region is being attacked from “nine directions simultaneously,” the country’s top general said, in line with recent Western assessments that eastern Ukraine — the Kremlin’s top target — could soon fall into Russian hands if the current dynamic continues. As the West rushes weapons shipments, Kyiv has pledged to keep fighting in the hopes that battling on in the east will keep Russia away from the rest of the country.
President Biden on Wednesday responded to calls from Ukraine for more weapons as he announced another $1 billion in security assistance to the country, which is struggling to hold back intense attacks. The package includes artillery, rocket systems, coastal defense weapons and ammunition. It is not clear when the weapons would be delivered.
In a diplomatic show of support, the leaders of France, Italy and Germany — all members of the European Union — are headed for Kyiv on Thursday. A Ukrainian rail official tweeted a photo of three of the leaders on board a train heading to the country. Ukraine has pressed for E.U. membership, which is seen by some European leaders as a somewhat lofty goal and one that cannot be realized in the near term.
NATO defense ministers, including U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, will meet Thursday in Brussels. Requests from Sweden and Finland to join the alliance are still pending.
The United States said Chinese President Xi Jinping risked being “on the wrong side of history” after he declared his support for Moscow’s “sovereignty and security” during a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Two U.S. military veterans have gone missing in Ukraine, and it is feared they have been captured by Russia, family members of the missing Americans said.
French President Emmanuel Macron said an expansion of the European Union “cannot be the only answer” for regional stability, amid Ukraine’s pending application to join the bloc and ahead of his reported visit to Kyiv.
Macron and the leaders of E.U. member states Italy, Germany and Romania are set to visit the Ukrainian capital in a show of support, according to Reuters and other news organizations. Details of such visits are usually not announced ahead of time due to security concerns, but a Ukrainian rail official on Thursday tweeted a photo of three of the leaders on board a train heading to the country.
The French leader has been criticized in recent weeks for comments that muddled Paris’s support for Kyiv, but speaking with his Moldovan counterpart on Wednesday, he said Moldova’s application to join the E.U. was “perfectly legitimate” and should not be dissociated from Ukraine’s, according to French newspaper Ouest-France.
But Macron said Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan — which have expressed varying levels of interest in European integration — were in “other situations,” though he did not provide specifics.
Ukraine, which for years has sought to join the bloc, has pressed for membership with increased urgency amid the Russian invasion. Accession is normally a years-long process, and Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa said recently that the E.U. risks creating “false expectations that become bitter disappointment” if it strings Ukraine along.
Macron has previously suggested the formation of a “European political community” for some eastern European countries that have expressed interest in joining the E.U. France said the group — which has been described as both an alternative and a complement to the E.U. — would serve as a body to strengthen relations between the bloc’s member states and those that may join their ranks.
But, as one diplomat put it to Reuters, the “community” risks becoming a “glorified waiting room” for Ukraine.
By Emily Rauhala, Missy Ryan, Dan Lamothe and John Hudson2:00 a.m.
BRUSSELS — The United States will send an additional $1 billion in military aid to Ukraine, President Biden announced Wednesday, bolstering Ukrainian forces as they are pummeled by a Russian offensive in the country’s east.
The massive arms package, which will include ammunition, artillery systems and, for the first time from the United States, mobile Harpoon anti-ship missile launchers, underscores the high stakes of Ukraine’s attempt to repel a powerful Russian assault in the Donbas region and fears that the Kremlin could still target port cities such as Odessa.
“The United States, together with our allies and partners, will not waver in our commitment to the Ukrainian people as they fight for their freedom,” Biden said in a statement after a call with President Volodymyr Zelensky. The scale of the assistance, the United States’ single largest aid package for Ukraine to date, represents an acknowledgment that the war will probably continue for many months more, generating disastrous effects for the world economy and global hunger. | 2022-06-16T06:25:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Latest Russia-Ukraine war news: Live updates - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/16/russia-ukraine-war-putin-news-live-updates/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/16/russia-ukraine-war-putin-news-live-updates/ |
A woman holds a sign saying “stop abortion now,” at a protest outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on May 5, 2022, left, and another woman holds a sign during a news conference for reproductive rights in response to the leaked draft of the Supreme Court’s opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade, in West Hollywood, Calif., on March 3, 2022. For families divided along red house-blue house lines, summer’s slate of reunions, group trips and weddings poses another exhausting round of navigating divides. The season opens at a time of conflict fatigue. Pandemic restrictions have melted away but gun control, the fight for reproductive rights, the Jan. 6 insurrection hearings, the bite of high inflation and a range of other issues prevail. (AP Photo) (Uncredited/AP) | 2022-06-16T07:55:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | For families deeply divided, a summer of hot buttons begins - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/for-families-deeply-divided-a-summer-of-hot-buttons-begins/2022/06/16/89eb43c4-ed42-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/for-families-deeply-divided-a-summer-of-hot-buttons-begins/2022/06/16/89eb43c4-ed42-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html |
In this photo provided by Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar’s Twitter handle, Jaishankar, center, stands with Southeast Asian foreign ministers at the start of a meeting in New Delhi, India, Thursday, June 16, 2022. Jaishankar said India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations face geopolitical headwinds from the war in Ukraine and its knock-on effects on food and energy security as well as fertilizer and commodities prices and logistics and supply chain disruptions. (Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar’s Twitter handle via AP) (Uncredited/Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar’s Twitter handle)
NEW DELHI — A special meeting between India and Southeast Asian foreign ministers opened Thursday with co-chairs India and Singapore calling for strengthening ties amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a heightened rivalry between the United States and China that threatens peace and stability in the region. | 2022-06-16T07:56:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | India, ASEAN seek to boost ties amid US-China rivalry - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/india-asean-seek-to-boost-ties-amid-us-china-rivalry/2022/06/16/325b5f90-ed42-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/india-asean-seek-to-boost-ties-amid-us-china-rivalry/2022/06/16/325b5f90-ed42-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html |
In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his wife Ri Sol Ju prepare medicines at an unannounced place in North Korea Wednesday, June 15, 2022 to send them to Haeju City where an infectious disease occurred. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: “KCNA” which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP) (Uncredited/KCNA via KNS) | 2022-06-16T07:56:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | N. Korea reports another disease outbreak amid COVID-19 wave - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/n-korea-reports-another-disease-outbreak-amid-covid-19-wave/2022/06/16/1c0ef5d4-ed3e-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/n-korea-reports-another-disease-outbreak-amid-covid-19-wave/2022/06/16/1c0ef5d4-ed3e-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html |
DENVER — Andre Burakovsky scored 1:23 into overtime and the Colorado Avalanche opened the Stanley Cup Final with a 4-3 victory over the two-time defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning.
LOS ANGELES — Tyler Anderson of the Los Angeles Dodgers lost his no-hit bid in the ninth inning, giving up a one-out triple to Shohei Ohtani in a 4-1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.
WASHINGTON — Austin Riley homered twice, rookie Spencer Strider allowed one hit over 5 2/3 innings, and the Atlanta Braves won their 14th straight game, 8-2 over the last-place Washington Nationals.
NEW YORK — Aaron Judge hit his major league-leading 25th home run, No. 9 batter Kyle Higashioka followed an intentional walk with a three-run drive and the New York Yankees beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-3 for their 13th straight win at home. | 2022-06-16T07:56:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Wednesday's Sports In Brief - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/wednesdays-sports-in-brief/2022/06/16/05f84172-ed45-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/wednesdays-sports-in-brief/2022/06/16/05f84172-ed45-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html |
Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaks at a news conference during the first day of a NATO meeting in Brussels on June 15. (Valeria Mongelli/AFP/Getty Images)
Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, defended ongoing weapons and security aid to Ukraine as it struggles to fend off intense attacks from Moscow by saying that “the numbers clearly favor the Russians” in the war’s current state.
Ukraine has in recent weeks sent urgent pleas for more weapons, as it has been outmanned and outgunned in defending its eastern Donbas region from Russia. Ukraine has lost ground in recent days, with Moscow forecast to gain control of the key city of Severodonetsk in the Luhansk region of Donbas in the coming weeks.
“Right now, the Severodonetsk, the city is probably three-quarters taken by Russian forces, but the Ukrainians are fighting them street by street, house by house, and it’s not a done deal,” he said, adding that “there are no inevitabilities in war.”
President Biden announced Wednesday that the United States would send Ukraine an additional $1 billion in defense assistance, including artillery, rocket systems, coastal defense weapons and ammunition. Additional arms are to be provided from other nations, including three multiple-launch rocket systems from Germany, helicopters from Slovakia and additional artillery from Canada, Poland and the Netherlands.
Milley said the United States has already sent Ukraine more than 6,500 Javelins and 20,000 other anti-armor systems, among the nearly 97,000 antitank systems that he said have been provided to Ukraine by the international community — “more antitank systems than there are tanks in the world.”
Missy Ryan and Dan Lamothe contributed to this report. | 2022-06-16T08:13:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Mark A. Milley, top U.S. general, defends military support for Ukraine - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/16/mark-milley-artillery-military-ukraine-russia-war/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/16/mark-milley-artillery-military-ukraine-russia-war/ |
Cattle in Herington, Kansas. (Christopher Smith for The Washington Post)
At least 2,000 cattle are known to have died as of Tuesday, a spokesman for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said, according to Reuters. That tally was based on the number of requests the agency received to help dispose of carcasses, he said.
Temperatures spiked over the weekend to more than 100 degrees in many parts of the state, sending animals into heat stress, according to data from Kansas State University. High humidity levels and a lack of cooling wind compounded the heat and helped create a punishing environment for cattle.
Horse graves on the steppes as Kazakhstan is battered by one of worst droughts in living memory
Economic fallout from the war in Ukraine has reverberated across the world, affecting industries that depend on key Russian and Ukrainian agricultural products. The price of beef, pork and poultry has risen significantly in the United States, in part because animal feed such as corn accounts for 60 percent of the cost associated with raising livestock. Ukraine is one of the world’s largest corn producers.
Scientists have also drawn a connection between heat stress among livestock and climate change. In March, a peer-reviewed study written by an international group of researchers concluded that the global cattle farming sector may lose between $15 billion and $40 billion each year by the end of the century, depending on levels of greenhouse gas emissions.
Beef and dairy production in the United States is projected to decline 6.8 percent before the next century, according to the authors, though losses were likely to disproportionately affect farmers in the tropic regions of South America, Africa and Asia. | 2022-06-16T09:27:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Thousands of cattle in Kansas killed by heat wave, humidity - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/16/cattle-dead-kansas-heat-wave/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/16/cattle-dead-kansas-heat-wave/ |
The White House on Thursday convenes a group to tackle online abuse, a day after Biden signed an executive order to protect LGBTQ Americans
President Biden signs an executive order June 15 at a White House event celebrating Pride Month. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
The White House on Thursday plans to convene a task force to confront online harassment and abuse, signaling an effort to address a problem that has grown more menacing as sometimes-vitriolic social media posts have become a central way for younger people in particular to communicate.
The move comes a day after President Biden signed an executive order designed to protect LGBTQ Americans, which among other things aims to prevent “conversion therapy” — a widely discredited practice of seeking to change someone’s sexual or gender identity — by directing the Health and Human Services Department to clarify that programs receiving federally funds cannot offer such schemes.
Taken together, the moves reflect an effort by Biden to use his executive authority to take on volatile social issues, including in areas where Congress is unlikely to act, and more directly combat cultural conservatives who have spent months trying to use such issues to rally their base and pass a raft of state laws that the White House considers discriminatory. With the midterm elections approaching and Biden struggling to push legislation through Congress, some activists have pushed him to tackle more issues through unilateral presidential actions.
Biden Wednesday’s order was signed during a festive Pride Month reception held in the East Room, where the president railed against some of the state laws. “No one knows better than the people in this room [that] we have a lot more work to do,” he said, remarking on “the ultra-MAGA agenda, attacking families and our freedoms.”
He noted the arrest of more than two dozen members of a white-supremacist group who were near a northern Idaho pride event over the weekend. “They’re disgusting,” Biden said of attacks on LGBTQ people. “And they have to stop.”
Biden’s moves this week are, in part, the latest in a dispute over education, as Republicans seek to restrict schools’ ability to teach about certain issues related to race and sexual orientation in the name of “parents’ rights” and Democrats argue the GOP is seeking to shut down the rights of minority groups.
“We will make sure that parents can send their kids to school to get an education, not an indoctrination,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said recently in signing the state’s Parental Rights in Education bill, which limits discussions of sexual orientation and has earned condemnation from LGBTQ activists, who call it the “don’t say gay” law.
Still, Biden’s ability to effect change through executive edicts is limited. The task force on online harassment, which disproportionally targets women and LGBTQ individuals, will be charged with coming up with proposals within the next six months.
The task force’s first meeting, which Vice President Harris will host and will also include Attorney General Merrick Garland, will launch a process to develop recommendations for governments, technology platforms, schools, and other public and private entities.
“The president made this commitment because in the United States, one in three women under the age of 35 report being sexually harassed online and over half of the LGBTQI-plus individuals report the target of severe online abuse,” said a senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity ahead of the announcement.
Efforts to regulate online conduct have often been criticized as violations of free speech. Administration officials seemed eager to avoid the earlier troubles of the Disinformation Governance Board, an ill-fated effort by the Department of Homeland Security to combat misinformation that was criticized, especially by conservatives, as an attempt to patrol speech.
“We are particularly focused on online activities that are illegal conduct, such as cyberstalking or non-consensual distribution of intimate images or targeted harassment,” the administration official said.
“We are very mindful of the of the First Amendment issues," the official added. "But you know, violent and threatening speech is not protected by the First Amendment. So while we are going to carefully navigate those issues, we’re also going to remain laser-focused on the non-speech aspect.”
In Wednesday’s executive order, Biden directed several government departments, including State and Treasury, to develop plans to combat conversion therapy around the world, in part by ensuring U.S. aid does not go toward funding the practice.
In some ways, the White House is seeking to draw a contrast with former president Donald Trump and the Republican Party, which Democrats depict as intolerant of an array of different groups.
Among Biden’s initiatives this week is a push to bolster suicide-prevention programs and launch a drive to protect such vulnerable populations as foster youths and the homeless. He instructed HHS to issue sample policies for states to use if they seek to expand health-care access.
He also directed the Education Department to address the effects of new state laws that are aimed at changing school curriculums, including by limiting the discussion of issues related to race or sexual orientation.
At Wednesday’s Pride Month event at the White House, Biden was introduced by Javier Gomez, an 18-year-old high school graduate from Florida who helped organize walkouts in protest of the new state law restricting discussions in schools about sexual orientation and gender identity.
“When you’re president and they say, ‘Joe Biden is out in the waiting room,’ " Biden told Gomez following his well-received introduction, "promise me you won’t say, ‘Joe who?’ ” | 2022-06-16T09:27:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Biden pursues actions on online harassment, LGBTQ issues - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/16/biden-lgbtq-online-harassment/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/16/biden-lgbtq-online-harassment/ |
Group will create recommendations for governments, companies and schools to address the link between online harassment and violence in the wake of mass shootings
Vice President Harris is scheduled to announce a task force that will study online harassment. (Win Mcnamee/Getty Images)
The White House on Thursday will launch a task force focused on the prevention of online abuse, marking one of the most significant steps the Biden administration has taken to examine the connection between digital vitriol and violence.
The launch fulfills a pledge Biden made on the campaign trail to convene experts to study online sexual harassment, stalking and nonconsensual pornography, as well as the connection between such abuse and mass shootings and violence against women. The long-awaited initiative begins after massacres in Uvalde, Tex., and Buffalo, which involved attackers with histories of online threats and radicalization.
“We see this over and over again, we see issues of extremism and how they turn into violence,” a senior White House official told reporters on a call Wednesday evening.
Vice President Harris, who has worked to address online exploitation throughout her career, is scheduled to unveil the task force at a Thursday White House event, which will convene top administration officials, as well as survivors of online harassment and civil society experts. Once it launches, the task force will have 180 days to create a set of policy recommendations for government, as well as recommendations for tech companies, schools and other entities. It will also make recommendations for additional research.
Harris’s efforts to curb online abuse have a controversial history. She was a co-sponsor of FOSTA-SESTA, a law that opened up tech companies to lawsuits if they knowingly hosted sex trafficking on their websites. The law’s opponents said that the measure had a chilling effect on online speech and harmed sex workers’ ability to communicate safely.
How the Biden administration let right-wing attacks derail its disinformation efforts
Online harassment is widespread and disproportionately affects young women and lesbian, gay or bisexual adults. Thirty-three percent of women younger than 35 say they have been sexually harassed online, compared to 11 percent of men, according to the Pew Research Center. About 7 in 10 lesbian, gay or bisexual adults have faced online harassment, according to the same data.
The White House official said the task force was not focused on any specific social media platform, and that it will “be looking for opportunities to engage with industry experts and leaders” on improving the safety and design of their products. | 2022-06-16T09:27:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | White House will launch a task force to curb online abuse and harassment - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/16/white-house-online-abuse-taskforce/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/16/white-house-online-abuse-taskforce/ |
Leaders of France, Germany and Italy make first wartime trip to Kyiv
Chico Harlan
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, left, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron on a train to Kyiv. (Ludovic Marin/Pool/AFP/Getty Images)
BERLIN — The leaders of France, Germany and Italy traveled to Ukraine on Thursday during a decisive time in the war, as President Volodymyr Zelensky pleads for more weapons in the struggle to fend off Russia’s assault in the east.
French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi arrived in Kyiv by train, the German chancellery confirmed.
The three leaders “want to send a strong signal of support and solidarity” to Zelensky and the Ukrainian people during these “dire times,” German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit tweeted, along with a photo of Scholz arriving on the platform in Kyiv.
The trip by the leaders of the European Union’s three largest economies comes as Ukraine is in negotiations to begin the process of joining the 27-member bloc. Zelensky has also warned that Ukraine is suffering “painful losses” in the eastern region of Donbas, and he has urged Europe to provide more military support.
He has said that if defense aid is not significantly increased, the war risks devolving into a bloody stalemate as Russian forces continue ground assaults on the strategic eastern city of Severodonetsk. President Biden on Wednesday responded to calls from Ukraine for more weapons with an additional $1 billion in security assistance to the country.
But Europe is under pressure to do more. Germany, in particular, is under fire for dragging its feet on weapons shipments. Berlin has yet to deliver any heavy weapons to Ukraine, despite promising to do so nearly two months ago.
The German Defense Ministry has said that 15 promised self-propelled Gepard antiaircraft guns will be delivered in July, while Panzerhaubitze 2000 howitzers will be sent “soon.”
Scholz’s visit comes after months of mounting pressure to do so. He initially said that he wouldn’t be going after Ukraine disinvited German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. He has also said he has no desire to simply visit for a photo opportunity — raising expectations for an announcement during the trip.
The European Union’s executive arm is expected to decide in the coming days on whether to recommend that Ukraine be granted candidate status for E.U. membership, the first in a long series of steps before possible accession. Zelensky has said that doing so would “prove that words about the longing of the Ukrainian people to be a part of the European family are not just words.”
Among E.U. leaders, Draghi has been a particularly vocal supporter of Ukraine’s ambitions to join the European Union, at a time when the idea of granting Kyiv candidate status seems to be gaining momentum. Two weeks ago, Draghi said the notion was opposed by “almost all” major European countries, “excluding Italy.”
“I support Ukraine to become a member of the European Union, and I have done so from the start,” Draghi said at that news conference. He has also said that any cease-fire should happen only on “terms that Ukraine will deem acceptable.”
But France and Germany have dampened expectations, with Macron saying the accession process could take “decades.” He has suggested that, in the meantime, Ukraine should join a separate “European political community” that is widely seen as a halfway measure.
Macron was a key supporter of E.U. sanctions against Russia after its invasion in February. But the French leader, who had visited Moscow in a last-ditch attempt to prevent war and sought out a major diplomatic role by portraying himself as a natural point of contact for Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin, has faced mounting criticism over his efforts.
The Élysée presidential palace kept a rapidly expanding tally of Macron’s calls with Putin and Zelensky in the run-up to the invasion, but the frequency of those exchanges has markedly decreased since.
Macron’s critics allege that his often ambiguous statements appeared to put an outsize emphasis on helping Russia avoid humiliation in the war and lacked public commitment to a full Ukrainian victory on the battlefield.
“Nobody negotiated with Hitler,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in April, according to Reuters. “Mr. President Macron, how many times have you negotiated with Putin, what have you achieved?” he added.
Macron has consistently declined to echo the forceful condemnations of Putin by Biden, who has called the Russian leader a “war criminal,” a “killer” and a “butcher.”
Scholz has come under similar criticism. Instead of saying that Ukraine should be victorious, he has instead used phrasing that Russia should not win. Ukrainian officials fear this lack of explicit backing indicates that Europe is angling toward a negotiated settlement that would involve Ukraine ceding territory.
Despite his softer language, Macron has insisted that France would continue to support Ukraine economically and with humanitarian aid. Macron this week also pushed back on criticism that he has not been vocally supportive enough of Ukraine, arguing that “excessive talk” will not speed up the war’s timeline.
“When — as I hope — Ukraine will have won, and above all when the firing has stopped, we must negotiate. The Ukrainian president and his leaders will have to negotiate with Russia,” he told reporters on Wednesday during a visit to Romania, where French troops are part of a multinational NATO force meant to defend the eastern part of the alliance.
“I think that we are at a moment where we need to send clear political signals — we Europeans, we as the European Union — with regard to Ukraine and the Ukrainian people, given the context that they have been heroically resisting for several months,” Macron said, in a comment that appeared to refer to Thursday’s visit to Kyiv.
French voters will cast their ballots in the final round of the country’s parliamentary elections on Sunday. Macron beat far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the presidential election runoff in April, securing a second five-year term, but he now faces an emboldened and more united left-wing opposition under the leadership of Jean-Luc Mélenchon. | 2022-06-16T09:27:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Macron, Scholz and Draghi visit Ukraine to meet Zelensky - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/16/ukraine-war-macron-scholz-zelensky/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/16/ukraine-war-macron-scholz-zelensky/ |
With the Golden State Warriors one win from their fourth title in eight years, Klay Thompson is hoping to live up to his reputation for playing well in big moments. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
Jerry Brewer: In these fresh NBA Finals, coaching ingenuity has been the hidden star
Thompson has averaged 20.7 points across 12 Game 6s in his career, and last month he poured in 30 points, including eight three-pointers, in a clinching Game 6 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies in the second round. After shooting 10 for 33 from the field in the first two games against Boston, Thompson has started to find his stride, scoring 21 points and hitting five three-pointers in Monday’s Game 5 win.
“It’s obviously a nickname I earned,” Thompson said at Wednesday’s practice. “I want to live up to it. At the same time, I don’t want to go in there and play hero ball. The main goal is just to win one game. I just want to go out there and play free [and] trust my teammates. I know great things will happen if I do those two things.”
That Thompson, 32, is playing more than 37 minutes per game in the Finals should be viewed as a stunning development, even if he isn’t surprised in the slightest. During the 2019 Finals, Thompson tore the ACL in his left knee and then missed the entire 2019-20 season. Then, weeks before the 2020-21 season, Thompson ruptured his right Achilles’ tendon, an injury that sidelined him until this past January. All told, he didn’t appear in an NBA game for 941 days.
Although the Warriors missed the playoffs in both seasons of his absence, Thompson’s confidence never wavered. In November, as Golden State was still shaking off the shame of its lottery trips, Thompson declared he still had a “championship or bust” mentality. Still more than a month away from his return, he repeatedly stated how badly he wanted another championship. Reminded of Thompson’s lofty predictions during the Western Conference finals, Stephen Curry said the Warriors “would love to make him a prophet.”
The road back has had some bumps for Thompson, who shot a career-low 38.5 percent on three-point attempts this season. In the playoffs, his quick trigger occasionally has crossed the line into forcing bad shots, and he has struggled at times to move laterally while defending quicker opponents.
Even so, Coach Steve Kerr has stuck with Thompson, praising the guard’s improved defense as a factor in holding the Celtics under 100 points in three of the past four games. Kerr also credited a pair of three-pointers by Thompson in the third quarter as the “biggest shots” of Game 5 because they stunted Boston’s momentum.
Now one win from delivering on his November prediction, Thompson rarely has looked happier or more at ease. Following the Game 5 victory, the California native unfurled a lengthy, Bill Walton-like riff about the “healing properties” of the Pacific Ocean, noting that swimming in cold water is his “happy place” and makes him “feel a little closer to God,” perhaps because he is an Aquarius.
For the Warriors, most of the headlines during this series have gone to Curry, now the odds-on favorite to be the Finals MVP. Andrew Wiggins has drawn attention as the most pleasant surprise of the series, and Draymond Green has been a constant lightning rod thanks to his fierce play and brash talk.
But as the Celtics try to rein in their turnover issues and generate better scoring opportunities in the fourth quarter, they must not overlook Thompson as a threat, especially in late-game situations. Thompson said Monday that he had “never been so excited to go to Boston,” knowing he was finally in position to manifest his championship vision after so many months away.
“ ‘Game 6 Klay,’ I don’t know how he’s been able to do it,” Curry said. “Just his personality: No moment is too big for him in terms of hooping, enjoying himself, embracing hostile crowds. Obviously, the OKC game is the one at the top of the list. He has a knack for those type of big moments, and it just so happened to be Game 6. He has another opportunity to add to that tale.” | 2022-06-16T10:19:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 'Game 6 Klay': Thompson hopes to deliver a title for Warriors - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/16/klay-thompson-golden-state-game-6-nba-finals/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/16/klay-thompson-golden-state-game-6-nba-finals/ |
Over 112 holes of muni golf, the sport’s possibilities shine through
Mike McCartin, one of the co-founders of the National Links Trust, plays at East Potomac Golf Links. (Barry Svrluga/The Washington Post)
East Potomac Golf Links was still shrouded in darkness Monday when Will Smith squinted down the first fairway to the green, some 345 yards off. It was 5:10 a.m. He put his tee in the turf. The hole — and the day — stretched out before him.
“Flag’s going in,” he said, and with neither a cup of coffee nor a warmup session he took a pass at the first ball of the longest day in golf. That it went right of the fairway had to be trusted because who could see the ball?
This is a sport that is in the midst of mayhem at its highest levels, with no way of determining when and how the professional game will sort itself out. The U.S. Open begins Thursday at the Country Club in Brookline, Mass., and discussion there has raged all week about the renegade, Saudi-backed LIV Golf series and the viability of the old-guard PGA Tour. In discussing his departure for the rival circuit, 2010 U.S. Open champ Graeme McDowell said, “I’ve always viewed golf as a force of good around the world.”
But the good the game can do is far greater at the local level. That’s why, on Monday morning, I met Smith and Mike McCartin under the cover of darkness at East Potomac, the century-old municipal course that stretches between the Potomac River and the Washington Channel. Their intent: play more than 100 holes over Washington’s three public courses — East Potomac, Langston and Rock Creek. My job: caddie for the morning — if I could make it.
Smith and McCartin are the co-founders of the National Links Trust, a nonprofit that two years ago took over management of the District’s three “munis,” which are on National Park Service land. They are local guys who have worked with the best architects in the world on some of the most renowned golf courses around the globe. Smith, who turns 47 next week, grew up in the District and didn’t get hooked on golf until his days at Yale. McCartin, 41, grew up in Arlington and learned the game when his father, Gerry, dragged him and his three siblings to East Potomac’s driving range, where they watched him beat balls before they picked up clubs and joined in the beating.
“For a dad,” Gerry said Monday, “it was a dream.”
McCartin’s dream now is to take the skills he developed working for renowned architect Tom Doak — on such prominent projects as Old Macdonald on the coast of Oregon and the Renaissance Club on the coast of Scotland — and apply them to the District’s public courses.
Smith and McCartin share a passion for the game and the land on which it’s played. Their second annual “100-Hole Hike” on Monday was just another step in raising both funds and publicity for their project.
Before he fired that first shot, Smith looked at his phone to quantify his current backing.
“$209.50 a hole,” he said. “$599 per birdie. $17,754 for a hole-in-one.”
For the last generation or more, good golf has been so expensive that the sport has extended an exclusionary history. The National Links Trust hopes to reverse that course. By overhauling and restoring the District’s public courses, Smith and McCartin believe they can increase accessibility at the grass-roots level of the game — across incomes and races — by providing interesting layouts that remain as affordable as they are today. Their heft in the sport is obvious: Not only is Doak donating his time to help redo East Potomac, but Gil Hanse — a renowned architect whose projects include the Country Club and other U.S. Open venues — is working with the National Links Trust on Rock Creek. Beau Welling, who has worked on Tiger Woods’s design team, is joining the Langston restoration.
This will take time, but it will be worth it. As we trudged through the day, I asked McCartin to compare the project to a marathon. What mile are they on?
“Mile three or four?” he said after thinking about it. “But I think it’s a really significant point because we’ve established all the things that will make it successful.”
What’s being discussed at the U.S. Open — and will be debated as the pro golf season works through the summer — is the game at its highest level. But if golf can be a force for good, it’s more likely to happen at the community level — and at places such as Langston and East Potomac.
Consider the numbers since the National Links Trust took over management of the District’s courses: 230,408 rounds, with 25,095,674 range balls hit by 237,583 customers. Golf isn’t special because of how — or where — the game is played by the best in the world. It’s special because anyone can pursue it over the entirety of their life. That process shouldn’t always start at some swanky country club. It should start at places like Langston, where Metro trains rumble past the 10th tee.
So in support of all this, I caddied. I started on McCartin’s bag more than a half-hour before sunrise, joining Smith’s brother Ben on Will’s bag. By 7 a.m., we were already on the 17th hole of East Potomac’s Blue Course — and the mercury was rising. After 27 holes, Ben Smith had to go to work — and he could still be there on time easily. He was replaced by Gerry McCartin, who took over as his son’s caddie while I started work for Will Smith.
Playing 36 holes in a day is a lot for any golfer. By the time Smith and McCartin had finished 36, it was 9:15 a.m.
This was some combination of pure joy and absolute slog. The morning included two loops around the regulation-length Blue, two more around the executive-length White, two more around the par-3 Red and shots at East Potomac’s three practice holes, not to mention some improvisational holes in between. The morning may or may not have included a stint or two when I gave up the bag and took cover in a support cart. It definitely included some shot-making — particularly from McCartin, who made nine birdies at East Potomac alone. Just before 1 p.m., the pair wolfed down half-smokes before they shot over to Langston. I went home for a shower.
By the time I met the boys at Rock Creek Park Golf Course — just off 16th Street NW — it was close to 5:30 p.m., and the toll of the day had started to settle in. As they played Langston, the temperature had risen above 90 degrees, and the humidity approached 60 percent. McCartin had swapped out his baseball cap for a wide-brimmed wicker number that tied under his chin. Mud was caked on both of their calves. They had played 98 holes. They wanted the 14 more that Rock Creek offered.
“This is definitely a cane-walking stretch,” Smith said as he used his putter as a prop while we walked up one of the steep inclines that characterizes Rock Creek.
Even in their fatigue, McCartin and Smith couldn’t help but chatter about Rock Creek’s future. They are visionaries in spirit and training, so it’s nothing for them to see fairways where overgrowth exists now. To listen to them is thrilling for any golf nerd, this one included.
On the 100th hole of the day, McCartin closed out the match, and the two shook hands. On the 103rd, McCartin approached the green, stopped short and muttered, “There goes a blister.” On the 111th, Smith — perhaps emboldened by the Mason jar of vodka his wife had mercifully delivered a few holes earlier — rolled in the final birdie of the day. And at 7:07 p.m. — 13 hours 57 minutes after Smith put that first peg in the ground — they holed the last putt on the 112th and headed for the pizza party that awaited.
“You still like golf after this?” one of McCartin’s friends asked him.
Yes, he does. Professional golf is ruptured by controversy about where riches are coming from and what’s fair for the elite. But the real future of the game — for regular people with regular incomes who need a recreational outlet — is in the hands of people such as Will Smith and Mike McCartin and the National Links Trust. Thank goodness for that. | 2022-06-16T10:19:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | At the National Links Trust, a better side of golf - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/16/national-links-trust-renovations/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/16/national-links-trust-renovations/ |
Jennifer Lopez is an icon. In ‘Halftime,’ she still has something to prove.
Jennifer Lopez in “Halftime.” (Netflix)
The most revealing 20 seconds of Jennifer Lopez’s new Netflix documentary, “Halftime,” don’t happen until after the footage ends. After a triumphant scene of Lopez singing at President Biden’s inauguration, the screen cuts to black and a title card appears.
“As of this date, Jennifer Lopez has: sold 80 million records with 15 billion streams; starred in nearly 40 films, grossing $3 billion; garnered more than 350 million social media followers; and generated over $5 billion in consumer sales as a brand,” the documentary reminds the audience after an hour-and-a-half movie chronicling arguably the busiest six months in Lopez’s career, from her star turn in “Hustlers” to her electrifying Super Bowl halftime show.
“My whole life I’ve been battling and battling to be heard, to be seen, to be taken seriously,” says Lopez, a nonstop entertainer who celebrated her 50th birthday in 2019 with a 25-city tour.
With a mix of behind-the-scenes video of the woman of the hour zipping from one gig to the next (and a brief cameo from her once and again fiance, Ben Affleck), “Halftime” is not just a film about the 2020 Super Bowl performance that should’ve shut down all the naysayers. In the documentary’s most illuminating moments, the glow of Award Show J-Lo and the sweat of Dance Rehearsal J-Lo give way to allow occasional peeks into the real J-Lo, a woman who’s been swatting away asterisks on her record since the beginning.
The middle child of three girls, Lopez wasn’t “the smart one” or “the singer,” explains the Bronx native. She was “the dancer.” That label stuck with her when she got her start as a “Fly Girl” dancer on the sketch comedy show “In Living Color.” But she wanted to break into movies. “Seriously, I’m an actress,” she recalls telling agents, fighting to get someone to represent her.
Fast-forward through decades of movies, albums and outside ventures to the 2019 gritty girl caper “Hustlers,” which Lopez starred in and produced. Almost immediately, the actress earned golden statue buzz for her “comeback” role as Svengali stripper Ramona.
And while “Halftime” follows Lopez for the ups, such as her first Golden Globe nomination since her breakout role in 1997′s “Selena” — “It took 20 years and another 25, 30 movies to get her,” Lopez jokes — it stays with her for the inevitable downs, too.
“I really thought I had a chance. I felt like I let everybody down,” she says later. Moments like that one reveal the real star of “Halftime” — the person outside of the tabloid covers, late-night punchlines and “South Park” parodies. Not everything comes up roses, no matter how big a star you are.
Watching Lopez on-screen, it’s as if she’s still fighting against that label she got as a kid: not the singer and not the smart one. While “Halftime” can never fully answer the question of who exactly Lopez is, since the star herself admits she won’t reveal all, just weaving her many strands together makes the point clear: She is all the things. She doesn’t fit into one big box, which perhaps makes minimizing her impact easier.
“Which one?” asks Lopez. “There’s hip-hop J-Lo, funk J-Lo, Latin J-Lo … and Mama J-Lo. ‘Shoot me down but I can’t fall’ J-Lo. ‘You try to write me off but I ain’t going no motherf---ing where’ J-Lo.”
Throughout all the buzz and the blows, Lopez keeps plugging along. While prepping for the Super Bowl, we see the actress filming “Marry Me,” the singer recording new albums and the dancer shooting music videos.
“She’s a dancer who became an actor who became a singer who became a global icon,” says Lopez’s producer partner Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas. “She’s a woman of color who had the audacity to pursue her dreams.” | 2022-06-16T10:54:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Jennifer Lopez is an icon. In ‘Halftime,’ she still has something to prove. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/06/16/jennifer-lopez-halftime-documentary/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/06/16/jennifer-lopez-halftime-documentary/ |
‘Midnight Cowboy’ still has that X factor
John Schlesinger’s unflinching film, a portrait of loneliness and compassion, speaks as loudly today as it did in 1969
By Glenn Frankel
Jon Voight as Joe Buck and Dustin Hoffman as Ratso Rizzo in the 1969 movie “Midnight Cowboy.” It remains the only X-rated film to win the Academy Award for best picture. The rating was later changed to an R. (United Artists/Kobal/Shutterstock)
There’s a grim scene toward end of James Leo Herlihy’s novel “Midnight Cowboy” in which Joe Buck, a male hustler working Times Square, brutally beats a hapless gay businessman in a cheap hotel room and steals $121 that Joe needs to take an ailing friend to Florida to escape a bitter cold New York City winter.
Director John Schlesinger, who made “Midnight Cowboy” into a feature film, struggled over whether to include the assault in the movie. Friends feared that the sordid scene would alienate viewers who had come to sympathize with Joe, played by newcomer Jon Voight, but wouldn’t stand for watching him commit such an act of raw violence. But Schlesinger chose to keep it in.
He ultimately was vindicated. “Midnight Cowboy,” released in 1969, became a critical success and box-office hit, still the only X-rated movie to win the Academy Award for best picture (though the rating was later changed to an R). It had brilliant star performances by Voight and Dustin Hoffman as Ratso Rizzo, Joe’s dying companion, plus a superb Oscar-winning screenplay and vibrant cinematography, costumes and soundtrack. But what made “Midnight Cowboy” stand out as the most groundbreaking movie of the New Hollywood era was Schlesinger’s uncompromising commitment to telling a difficult, often bleak story of two homeless men and embracing its same-sex themes and characters at a time when homophobia reigned as America’s default position even in liberal strongholds like New York City.
June 28 marks the 53rd anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York — the birth of the modern gay liberation movement in America. But “Midnight Cowboy,” which premiered one month before the riots erupted, was itself a breakthrough moment in popular culture.
‘Midnight Cowboy’ was a masterpiece made of desperation
It depicts the misadventures of a handsome young Army veteran from Texas who comes to New York City to seek his fortune in the sex trade. The movie contains scenes of straight and gay sex, sadomasochism and prostitution, and it could never have been made under Hollywood’s old censorship system known as the Motion Picture Production Code, which banned “sex perversion” and “excessive and lustful kissing.” But by the time “Midnight Cowboy” was filmed, Hollywood was undergoing dramatic changes. The old genres like Westerns, musicals, romcoms and biblical epics were losing their appeal and Hollywood was desperate to attract younger, hipper and more affluent audiences. And so the studio heads had recently scrapped the Production Code and replaced it with a ratings system designed to allow for more adult stories, themes and language.
New frontiers were opening in other parts of popular culture — adult novels like Philip Roth’s “Portnoy’s Complaint,” John Updike’s “Couples” and Gore Vidal’s “Myra Breckinridge”; plays like “The Boys in the Band,” one of the first mainstream openly gay dramas, and the raucous sex revue “Oh! Calcutta!” The barbarians were breaking down the gates.
Jim Herlihy and John Schlesinger were men of great personal charm and charisma, and both led exuberantly gay lives among their peers. But publicly they remained in the closet. Herlihy said he hadn’t written “Midnight Cowboy” as a gay novel, and Schlesinger insisted he wasn’t making a gay movie. They said these things in large part because homosexuality was against the law in 49 of 50 states.
Gay characters took their first steps out of the closet in 1960s movies like Otto Preminger’s “Advise and Consent,” William Wyler’s “The Children’s Hour” and John Huston’s “Reflections in a Golden Eye” — but only in roles that depicted them as depraved, unhappy and self-destructive. Many wound up as murderers or suicides. “In the early 1960s, gays dropped like flies, usually by their own hand,” wrote Vito Russo in “The Celluloid Closet.”
New York, it turns out, is not Joe’s promised land. The city chews him up and spits him out and the bulk of the first half of the movie is hard lessons that Joe learns from predatory New Yorkers. An aging call girl, a pimply male high school student, a sexy but coldhearted society woman, the masochistic businessman from Chicago, they all take something from Joe — money or sex or his dumb gullibility — and they throw him away.
All except for Ratso, a tubercular, disabled con man. He starts out as just another parasite taking a bite out of Joe’s dwindling savings. But after conning Joe out of $20, Ratso invites him to stay in an abandoned slum apartment without heat or electricity, where Ratso is squatting. This isn’t an act of kindness; Ratso desperately needs someone to look after him as winter closes in and his consumptive lung disease worsens. And Joe is so broke he reluctantly accepts the offer.
These are God’s lonely men. They never become lovers; they’re really not even friends. But their desperate need for protection, warmth and someone to share their misery and vulnerability makes their partnership intimate and poignant.
New York coarsens Joe’s soul. But on the bus ride to Florida, he jettisons his fake cowboy outfit and buys summer clothes for himself and Ratso. It’s a symbolic act; Joe has come to understand that the only way he can truly connect with other people is to stop pretending. Maybe he’ll succeed; maybe he won’t. We simply don’t know.
As for the X rating — it wasn’t given to “Midnight Cowboy” by the Motion Picture Association’s ratings board, but was self-imposed by United Artists, after chairman Arthur Krim showed the movie to an esteemed New York psychiatrist. The shrink told Krim this was a dangerous movie that could influence young men to “choose the homosexual life.” But the rating helped draw young people eager to see Hoffman, a newly minted movie star and counterculture icon, in an X-rated movie.
Great movies can be a wonderful looking-glass into the past, and “Midnight Cowboy” poignantly captures the frenetic atmosphere and squalor of 1960s New York. But the movie is most enduring for its great big, beating heart. It is a portrait of loneliness and compassion “so rough and vivid,” wrote one film critic, “that it’s almost unbearable.”
A former Washington Post journalist, Glenn Frankel is author of “Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic.” He will answer questions after a screening of “Midnight Cowboy” on June 25 at 5:30 p.m. at the American Film Institute, 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, Md. | 2022-06-16T10:54:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | ‘Midnight Cowboy’ still has that X factor - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/movies/2022/06/16/midnight-cowboy-glenn-frankel-afi/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/movies/2022/06/16/midnight-cowboy-glenn-frankel-afi/ |
Boy Scouts sex abuse documentary is a portrait of shocking complacency
Hulu’s poignant and damning ‘Leave No Trace’ profiles some of the 80,000-plus men who have come forward as survivors
An image from “Leave No Trace.” (ABC)
When John Humphrey was 13, his hair fell out. “I’ve been bald ever since,” says the 60-something businessman in the new Hulu documentary “Leave No Trace,” about the Boy Scouts’ sex abuse crisis. He tilts toward the camera an old school photo in which his broad smile and friendly eyebrows soften his bare head.
It wasn’t until just a few years ago, Humphrey says, that he realized his hair loss at such a young age could be related to the three years he was abused by his scoutmaster. Of the approximately 200 instances of sexual assault he estimates he suffered, he didn’t say a word for half a century. And then he learned about the staggering scope of child abuse within the Boy Scouts of America (BSA).
Negotiations are underway to pay $2.7 billion to the more than 80,000 men who have come forward as survivors — the largest sexual abuse settlement in U.S. history. The poignant and damning “Leave No Trace,” which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this month, profiles several victims, offering a rare glimpse of mostly middle-aged and elderly men speaking out about the damage that childhood sexual assault wrought in their lives.
“You hear this guttural sobbing when a 75-year-old man recounts something that happened to him when he was 13 as if it were yesterday,” says Humphrey, who has heard the testimonies of dozens of ex-Scouts. “When you hear that, you understand alcoholism and drug abuse.”
After a jaw-dropping abuse scandal, should the Boy Scouts survive?
The film’s survivors crisscross the country and span generations, the youngest of whom is 18-year-old Kris Yoxall, introduced discussing his tendency to punch walls. “I hate that I do it,” says the teen, who has trouble talking about the abuse he and his younger brother endured at the hands of their scoutmaster. Septuagenarian Ron Kerman, who was 11 when he was groomed and assaulted by a Scout leader, echoes the guilt and shame of several of the interviewees when he says, “I didn’t do what I should’ve done as a normal human being” — which is to say, how the larger culture has deemed victims should react to deserve sympathy.
Within the first two decades of its existence, the organization began compiling a list of volunteers who weren’t to be readmitted, lest they continue to abuse. The “perversion files,” as the blacklist of more than 1,000 names came to be called internally, kept growing, but it was BSA policy to shield records from law enforcement and abusers’ workplaces, even if the latter were a school. The BSA had a reputation to protect, as well as assets of at least $1 billion. (In 2020, the Boy Scouts declared bankruptcy.)
“Leave No Trace” is fair and persuasive, acknowledging the new rules the Boy Scouts instituted in the 1980s in response to the hundred or so allegations of abuse then reported every year, while chronicling the seeming inability of the institution to reform itself.
Among the most galling anecdotes is that of a former executive and 40-year veteran of the organization who, after running a task force to protect members from assault, was convicted of possessing child pornography. After his prison sentence, he expects to collect his pension. And like the Catholic Church, the BSA allowed accused Scout leaders to move from state to state, where they continued to assault children with impunity. By the end of the film, Taylor’s most far-fetched argument feels irrefutable: The Boy Scouts created and enabled a “very attractive system for pedophiles to get close to boys” by isolating them outdoors with sparse adult supervision, then prioritized the safety and well-being of abusers over those of their victims.
Taylor occasionally films her subjects outside — against exquisite sunrises and sunsets, pink skies and lavender clouds reflected below by a placid pond. (Humphrey memorably calls these natural landscapes “architectures of God.”) Such visions are much more compelling in suggesting the innocence lost than the sometimes belabored segments tying the Boy Scouts to Americana. But if the pacing occasionally slacks, “Leave No Trace” makes up for it in narrative twists and turns that shock without ever feeling exploitative.
One of the doc’s final surprises comes in the form of a survivor’s admission that he hopes the BSA will endure; his abuse didn’t permanently taint the organization for him. But it’s clear that, for many others, they were pushed into a place of no return.
Leave No Trace is available to stream Thursday on Hulu. | 2022-06-16T10:54:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 'Leave No Trace' Boy Scouts sex-abuse documentary is shocking portrait - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/tv/2022/06/16/leave-no-trace-boy-scouts/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/tv/2022/06/16/leave-no-trace-boy-scouts/ |
Jan. 6 hearing live updates Trump’s attempts to pressure Pence are planned focus of latest high-profile hearing
Nevada Republicans join GOP wave of nominating election deniers
Analysis: The plot thickens on a GOP congressman’s pre-Jan. 6 tour
Analysis: Trump team descends into infighting over Jan. 6
A December 2020 video of President Donald Trump is seen Monday during a hearing of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
President Donald Trump’s efforts to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 presidential election results as Pence presided over a joint session of Congress are the expected focus Thursday as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection holds its third high-profile hearing this month.
Pence’s former counsel Greg Jacob and conservative jurist J. Michael Luttig, who has advised Pence, have been announced as witnesses at the hearing, which is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Eastern time.
In a video shared on social media this week, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the panel’s vice chairwoman, said Thursday’s hearing would focus on ″President Trump’s relentless effort on Jan. 6 and in the days beforehand to pressure Vice President Pence to refuse to count lawful electoral votes.”
Marc Short, Pence’s former chief of staff, is not scheduled to appear in person, but the committee is expected to air excerpts of closed-door testimony he has provided.
After 11 months and more than 1,000 interviews, the House committee has started sharing what it knows. Here’s what to watch for in these hearings.
The Post’s Libby Casey will anchor a Special Report on Thursday’s hearing starting at 12:30 p.m. Eastern time. You can watch here.
By Jacqueline Alemany, Josh Dawsey and Emma Brown6:17 a.m.
By Colby Itkowitz, Amy Gardner and Josh Dawsey6:15 a.m.
Nevada Republicans joined the growing national push to install election deniers in positions with authority over state elections, choosing a candidate for secretary of state on Tuesday who has embraced former president Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud — and who has vowed to try to block a result he deems was rigged.
Jim Marchant, a former state assemblyman who has said he opposed the certification of Joe Biden’s win in Nevada, is among several election deniers to win primaries for statewide offices, including secretaries of state, attorneys general and governors. The victories have come in swing states that could play a major role in the 2024 presidential election, including Nevada, which Biden narrowly won in 2020.
Marchant’s victory provides yet another example of the extent to which embracing Trump’s false claims has become part of a winning formula in this year’s GOP contests, and the effect those victories could have on American democracy. Many are seeking positions with the power to interfere in the outcomes of future contests. They could set new rules for local election officials, block the certification of election results and change the rules around the awarding of their states’ electoral votes, which currently follow the popular vote and determine the presidency.
By Aaron Blake6:14 a.m.
The Jan. 6 committee on Wednesday morning released new details about the group Loudermilk led around the Capitol complex on Jan. 5.
According to surveillance footage, a committee letter says, Loudermilk led a tour of “approximately ten individuals” through a trio of House office buildings and near entrances to the tunnels to the Capitol.
By Amy Gardner and Isaac Arnsdorf6:11 a.m.
We’ve seen just two relatively brief hearings of the House Jan. 6 committee. Yet already members of former president Donald Trump’s inner circle are accusing one another of lying under oath, taking bribes from Democrats, shilling for Marxists and being past their primes.
They’re also rekindling old scandals involving their onetime allies and have been shown questioning each other’s mental faculties (including Trump’s). And in one case, we’ve found out a White House lawyer angrily told a Trump campaign lawyer that he should “get a great effing criminal defense lawyer; you’re going to need it.”
The Jan. 6 committee’s work might never lead to criminal charges against Trump or those around him. But it has certainly revealed — and prompted — some extraordinary sniping and infighting. | 2022-06-16T10:54:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Jan. 6 hearings: Live coverage and latest updates, June 16 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/16/jan-6-committee-hearings-live-june-16/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/16/jan-6-committee-hearings-live-june-16/ |
Cash raised after mass shootings doesn’t always go to victim families
The funds’ variety, victims’ families say, often leaves them frustrated and confused, with no easy way to track where money will go — or what it will be spent on.
A man prays at a memorial at the scene of the May 14 shooting at a Buffalo supermarket in which 10 people were killed. (Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters)
Within hours of an American mass shooting, as tragic reports blaze across the nation, sympathetic Americans open up their wallets and send money to help.
In Uvalde, Tex., where 19 children and two teachers were slain last month, many GoFundMe and other accounts quickly sprang up — raising millions for the victims and their families, as well as other causes.
Some survivors and families of victims in previous mass shootings say they are hardly aware of the fundraising as they cope with burying their loved ones. But in the weeks and months after a mass shooting, they begin to wonder about the donated millions. And the variety of different funds, they say, often leaves them frustrated and confused, with no easy way to track where it will go — or what it will be spent on.
“We’ve heard substantial numbers, millions that came flowing in to various people and organizations,” said Bob Weiss, whose daughter, 19-year-old Veronika Weiss, was among six people killed as she stood outside a sorority house near the University of California at Santa Barbara campus in 2014. “We never saw a dime. … I’m not looking to get rich, but with funeral expenses and all of that, $50,000 would have gone a long way.”
Numerous victims’ relatives said they are frustrated that nonprofit groups often spend the donations on things that don’t directly benefit the victims or their survivors, fail to account for all the money collected and take a percentage of the donations as an administrative fee. But charities and those involved in raising money after mass shootings say their complaints speak to a philosophical divide in the nonprofit world.
Some believe all the funds should go directly to those wounded, or the family of those killed, to compensate for their losses. Others believe it should be spent on a broader set of goals — such as mental health treatment or resources for first responders. Defining who counts as a victim can be a fraught endeavor.
After each mass shooting, officials warn donors to be wary of fundraising scams, but there are few reports of fraud being documented and prosecuted.
Both their parents died in Uvalde. Now donors are raising millions.
The main fund after the shootings near the UCSB campus, in the community of Isla Vista, was administered by the university, and a spokeswoman said it was “prohibited from raising money for specific individuals due to the fact that it is a public institution.” Instead, it funded scholarships for future UCSB students.
“The UC-Santa Barbara Community Fund was established to allow individuals to contribute to the endowment which honors our students who were victims and serves to memorialize their lasting contributions to our community,” said the spokeswoman, Kiki Reyes.
In Uvalde, Victims First, which routes donations exclusively to survivors and victims’ families, had collected more than $6.1 million by Wednesday. Other GoFundMe accounts, including one for each of the 19 victims, had raised another $7.1 million. The United Way established a “United with Uvalde Fund,” which will provide mental health services in the city, and donate to other nonprofit organizations “with experience and expertise in providing direct trauma services for communities impacted by trauma.”
Anita Busch, the founder of Victims First, said she believes that when people give money, they mean for it to go directly to those wounded or the family of those killed.
“Our families over many years have been revictimized because the financial gifts given by a very generous and caring public have not reached the intended recipient,” said Busch, whose niece Micayla Medek was slain in 2012 in a mass shooting in an Aurora, Colo., movie theater. “The fact that it’s still going on, after all these years, when there is an established method now, born out of suffering and misery and grief, to help others, is unconscionable at this point.”
Groups that direct funds elsewhere say they are clear about the destination of donations. In Colorado, officials established the Colorado Healing Fund in 2018 as a permanent nonprofit to collect and distribute funds after mass shootings. Officials who work with the fund say they are transparent that the money is not going exclusively to those wounded, or to the survivors of those killed.
“We’re real clear with the people who donate to the Healing Fund, that money would go to people who lost loved ones, to people who were injured, and to the greater community … We feel perfectly comfortable with that,” said Nancy Lewis, executive director of the Colorado Organization for Victim Assistance, which works with the Healing Fund to distribute money.
She said other groups, such as Victims First and the National Compassion Fund, a subsidiary of the National Center for Victims of Crime, provide all their donations to the victims, but “that’s just not how we do it. It’s a philosophical difference.”
In Buffalo, where a gunman killed 10 people at a supermarket in May, officials enlisted the National Compassion Fund to collect and administer donations for the “Buffalo 5/14 Survivors Fund,” which will provide direct financial assistance to the survivors of the deceased and those directly affected. It has already raised more than $2.8 million.
A separate “Buffalo Together Community Response Fund” was launched to address community needs, long-term rebuilding and systemic issues for marginalized communities of color, the fund’s organizers have said. It is being coordinated by the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo and United Way of Buffalo & Erie County. The fund has said it is in its early stages, and will “develop specific guiding principles and processes for directing the fund’s resources.”
Busch said that after each shooting, her group reaches out to city leaders and corporate officials to offer guidance. Then they meet with the survivors, attend memorials and try to share insights on what lies ahead.
In Virginia, the survivors of mass shootings at Virginia Tech and in Virginia Beach have proposed a permanent Virginia Mass Violence Care Fund, which would start with an initial state endowment of $10 million and be paid only to victims. The fund is still being considered by the Virginia General Assembly and Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R).
Victims of Va. Tech, Va. Beach mass shootings seek to create permanent fund for survivors, families
Jeffrey R. Dion, the executive director of the National Compassion Fund, said each community’s local committee is tasked with defining who is a victim in each case. In addition to those who are killed or wounded, those who were present and witnessed the event are typically included in the definition, Dion said. In Aurora, where 12 people were slain at a movie theater in 2012, those inside who watched others die were considered victims, Busch said. Those who were not in the immediate vicinity of an event are often excluded, Dion said.
Dion, whose older sister was slain by a serial killer in 1982, said the National Compassion Fund has distributed more than $110 million in 21 incidents since its founding in 2014.
“The decisions have to be informed by local community values and local community experience,” Dion said.
The complaints from victims and their family members about how donations are disbursed date back to the 1999 Columbine High School mass shooting in Colorado.
In Newtown, Conn., about 77 different charities popped up after the 2012 slayings of 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The state attorney general monitored the donations and reported about $28 million was collected by the various charities. The largest collector of funds was the United Way of Western Connecticut, which helped operate the Newtown-Sandy Hook Foundation. The foundation collected more than $12 million in the months immediately after the shooting, distributed about $7.7 million to 40 families of the victims and survivors, and retained $4.3 million for “long term community needs,” according to an investigation by George Jepsen, then Connecticut’s attorney general.
Four other funds that which raised about $1 million each told the attorney general they intended to use the money they raised for scholarships, mental health and medical needs, monuments and memorials, cultural events and support for at-risk youths. One group, the My Sandy Hook Family Fund, raised more than $1.6 million and disbursed more than 99 percent of those funds directly to the 26 families whose children or relatives were slain in the tragedy, the report said.
Neil Heslin, whose son Jesse Lewis was killed in the school, said in an interview, “The majority of the money, I don’t believe, goes to the victims.”
Jepsen’s investigation found that of the $28 million collected, only $9.3 million went directly to victims or their families. Much of the rest, according to his report, was reserved for future needs, such as mental health services. He also examined the work of the United Way of Western Connecticut and said in a 2013 letter that the “decision to retain $4 million” for “support services to the Newtown/Sandy Hook community” was “fully compliant with donor intent.”
Heslin said he asked Jepsen to do more to verify the information provided by the charities, and Jepsen declined. “Here I was, somebody directly affected by that tragedy, asking for clarification, how it was being allocated. He should have been a little more explanatory. At that point we knew it wasn’t going anywhere,” Heslin said.
Jepsen said he had two lawyers and a paralegal assigned full time to monitor the charities, and “we found very little fraud,” and none with the United Way, which took in the majority of public donations. He issued a report after the money was disbursed and said in an interview, “I tried to serve as an honest broker of what went on.” Kim Morgan, CEO of the United Way of Western Connecticut, issued a statement in 2013 after Jepsen’s findings, saying it “validates that the United Way of Western Connecticut consistently honored the intent of donors” to provide funding for groups other than the direct victims.
The United Way declined repeated requests recently to discuss how they handle donations after mass killings. Some victims in Waukesha, Wis., where a man killed six people by driving through a crowd at a Christmas parade last November, criticized the United Way for distributing funds to groups other than victims. Nicole Angresano, vice president of community impact for the United Way of Greater Milwaukee and Waukesha County, told Fox 6 in Milwaukee, “Nowhere on our website does it say direct payments to families. It says ‘support’ for families. We consider the nonprofit sector to be part of that support.”
John Mackenzie, whose wife, 62-year-old Lynn Murray, was one of 10 people killed in a supermarket in Boulder, Colo., last year, strongly criticized the Colorado Healing Fund for its handling of nearly $5 million in public donations. “In no way, shape or form did they provide an accurate account of what they collected. I think they diverted a lot of funds to their own use,” he said. He said he could not document the diversion, but noted that the amount the fund declared to be collected had repeatedly changed, including in quarterly reports in which the amount collected decreased $70,000 from one report to the next.
Jordan Finegan, the executive director of the Healing Fund, said the amounts changed because some donations were wrongly counted twice, and that the fund for the Boulder shooting was being audited.
Both Mackenzie and Starr Bartkowiak, whose daughter was slain in the same incident, criticized the Healing Fund for keeping 5 percent of donations for administrative costs, and allotting more than $950,000 to the Boulder Strong Resource Center, dedicated to helping victims of the shooting over the long term. Bartkowiak doesn’t live in Boulder and can’t use the center.
Lewis said the Colorado Healing Fund had learned from Columbine and Aurora that some victims have long-term needs that aren’t known immediately after the trauma. She said a trial for the Boulder shooter could come soon. “We will see trauma come back up for people who were in that store,” Lewis said. “If we gave it [donated funds] all away on March 23 [immediately after the shooting], do we have the ability to deal with the trauma long term? No, we don’t. … We learned from Columbine and Aurora and Sandy Hook. How do you do it in a way that’s most helpful to people?”
Finegan said the Healing Fund had disbursed money totaling over $3 million to families of the 10 deceased and to 28 others present that day, $959,000 to the Boulder Strong Resource Center, and still had $570,000 to address long-term needs. “Healing from this trauma is a marathon and not a sprint,” Finegan said. She said victims from Columbine in 1999 and Aurora in 2012 “are just now reaching out for services to help support their recovery. … CHF was created so we can begin to plan for that now through the guidance of many experts, survivors and partners. … Our donors know that, as it is in our charter and on our website.”
Busch said there was no need to divert money to other social resources because “community nonprofits receive millions in grants from the state and federal governments every time after a mass shooting.” She has documented the influx of such grants after shootings, including $5 million from the state of Texas to El Paso agencies after a shooting there in 2019, and $2.2 million from the federal government to Dayton, Ohio, mental health and domestic violence groups after a shooting there in 2019.
“Victims can’t get grants,” she said. “This is it for them. It’s very difficult for them.” | 2022-06-16T10:54:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Cash raised after mass shootings doesn’t always go to victim families - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/16/mass-shooting-donations-controversy/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/16/mass-shooting-donations-controversy/ |
How Americans feel about the Jan. 6 hearings so far
Some feel hopeful, others angry. Many aren’t watching at all.
By Marc Fisher
Mark Shavin
Jack Douglas
Andrea Eger Canfield
People gather in a park outside of the U.S. Capitol to watch the Jan. 6 House committee investigation in Washington on June 9, 2022. (Jose Luis Magana/AP)
Their mother, they agreed, would have wanted siblings Dale Petersen and Priscilla Harris to find some way to respect each other’s views about the Jan. 6 hearings, even if Petersen is a die-hard liberal Democrat and his sister is a lifelong conservative Republican.
So, from 1,200 miles apart, as the first hearing played on TV last week, Petersen was on his phone in Orlando, while Harris, in her den in Tulsa, had her cell on speaker. They ended up not doing battle, but commiserating about the future of the country and the frailty of facts. Still deeply divided by ideology and party, they found common ground in their conclusion that these hearings won’t change many minds.
Harris recalled watching every minute of the Watergate hearings in 1973, a TV event that riveted the nation and persuaded many of Richard M. Nixon’s supporters that their president was indeed a crook. But Americans were more open to facts then, she said: “Every American knew by the end that Nixon was guilty. But now it’s different. Because Trump supporters — no matter what you do, no matter what you say, they don’t believe.”
In snippy debates and in silent tension, with smidgens of hope and wheelbarrows of doubt, Americans processed the first hearings before the congressional committee investigating last year’s attack on the U.S. Capitol. Millions watched, looking for evidence that President Donald Trump incited the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, because they want the ex-president held to account. They watched in hopes that Trump supporters might see the folly of their hero’s claims about a rigged election.
But millions more did not watch — because they’ve had it up to here with criticism of a president they admired, or because they’re overdosed on politics, or too busy working to make it through a time of crazy gas prices and expensive everything.
On the line between Tulsa and Orlando, the siblings concluded that despite the barrage of testimony showing how the people around Trump tried to persuade him that he had lost the 2020 election, “there’s just probably no hope in persuading” his supporters that Trump’s claim of a rigged election was utterly bogus, said Petersen, 73, a retired corporate human resources officer.
He concluded from the first hearings that Trump knew that “what he is telling people is false and his intent in telling those lies is to remain in power, or to collect millions.” But Petersen harbors little hope that Trump voters will accept that: “They may take that viewpoint to the grave or, if they’re young enough, they may go 20 or 30 years to come off of that position even slightly.”
His sister, 79 and once a delegate to a Republican National Convention, didn’t share her brother’s admiration for the committee’s chairman, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.). “Seems like he’s reaching a conclusion before hearing anything,” she said. But she found the Republican vice chairwoman, Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.), persuasive, and the siblings agreed on that.
Across the country, those who watched were often outraged by the extent of the scheming that led to the attack. In the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Christina Merlo tuned in to show her sons, ages 13 and 16, why it’s vital to take action to protect democracy. Merlo, 53, said she appreciated the committee’s calm approach and said she learned the answers to questions her children may have about “the rule of law, the peaceful transfer of power, the acceptance of election results.”
Some see spin
Although the first hearing drew an audience of about 19 million, according to the Nielsen rating service, that left the great majority of Americans either relying on video snippets and news accounts or ignoring the proceedings entirely.
In Wheaton, Ill., Dave Seng switched off the first hearing and decided not to tune back in this week, not because he was busy, but because of the stress the hearings caused him.
“I’m conflicted,” said Seng, 54, a software development manager at a financial services company in Chicago. “On one hand, I feel I should watch to gain a firsthand perspective. ... There’s almost an aspect of civic responsibility. But on the other hand, I know the testimony will feed into political spin machines, which will spit out all sorts of garbage.”
An independent who once leaned Republican, he left the party two decades ago, deciding he would rather think issues through on his own than depend on a party he believes is driven more by how its candidates can win than by principles about how to govern.
Less politics makes for a fuller life, he concluded. “I can find enough information in a short period of time to know who I am going to vote for. I don’t need to pay attention to it over four years.”
In Tulsa, Susan Phillips is also steering clear. A two-time Trump voter, she decided the committee’s work is “an incredible waste of my time. I think they have foregone conclusions.”
A retired psychologist, Phillips, 77, said the hearings are designed “to distract us from what’s going on in this country — and I refuse to be distracted. What with the high cost of fuel and raging inflation, I believe our current government wouldn’t want us to be concerned about those things, so they’re putting on a show.”
But in the Fort Worth suburb of Benbrook, where Jerry Grantland remains convinced that Trump was a successful president who never intended for his supporters to storm the Capitol, the hearings have nonetheless helped persuade him that Trump needs to stand down.
Grantland, a 74-year-old Vietnam War veteran who suffers from ailments he traces to exposure to Agent Orange, sees Trump as “a good president who meant well. Things just went wrong, but I don’t think that was his intention.”
Still, the hearings’ presentation of Trump’s incendiary rhetoric has persuaded Grantland that the ex-president “certainly has caused a lot of baggage.” It’s time for Republicans — and Trump — to move on and endorse a different candidate, he said: “We old guys just need to give it up.”
‘A tipping point’
Even if the hearings do change some Trump voters’ minds, they cannot save the country from a treacherous, even violent, reckoning, said Kathleen Betsko Yale, a retired actress and playwright in Buffalo.
Yale has been glued to the hearings. As an immigrant who grew up in Coventry, England, during World War II, she finds too many echoes of the rise of authoritarianism in Europe.
“I try to be hopeful,” she said, “but I think we’ve reached a tipping point and we’re going to have to go through some dark times before we come to our senses. Fascism is always about turning people against each other, and that’s what we see in the hearings.”
Yale expects that her great-grandchildren will emerge from a time of American darkness, “but at 83, I doubt I will see that. What we need is reconciliation, but I have people in my own family who are on the other side and we can’t talk about it. We try to get along without going there.”
That sense of despair, that feeling that only those who already viewed Trump as a threat to democracy are gaining wisdom from the hearings, seemed palpable in many places.
“It’s just us people who hate his guts who are watching this,” said Shirley Welch, a 78-year-old grandmother of three in Fort Worth. “I still think this is a good thing. But it won’t change any minds.”
Watching with her 6-year-old Siamese cat, Sophie, perched on an ottoman in front of her, Welch winced as she saw video of rampaging protesters throwing a female Capitol Police officer to the ground. Welch laughed as she heard Trump praising the rioters.
“I’m hoping they can put him in jail, or at least get it where he can’t run again,” she said.
A retired hospital lab technician who used to lean Republican — until Sen. John McCain picked then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate in 2008 — Welch got a boost from the hearings, especially from the two Republicans on the committee, whom she saw as putting country over party.
But she has no expectation that the proceedings will help heal the nation’s divisions. She’s not asking for kumbaya: “I just want our political people to be normal, law-abiding people.”
Some conservatives have, however, found a new perspective from the Republican witnesses who have testified that Trump’s inner circle knew he lost the election.
Mike Patterson, 49, who owns a graphics design business in Weatherford, Tex., west of Fort Worth, calls himself a staunch conservative and said that the hearings have been “very enlightening,” persuading him that the 2020 election was “probably not” rigged.
The committee successfully debunked the idea that ballot boxes in Georgia had been planted to swing that state’s votes to Joe Biden, Patterson said. He now believes Trump was wrong to keep hammering away with the false claim that he won the election.
“His pride kept him from accepting he had lost,” Patterson said.
Consensus in short supply
That kind of pivot was perhaps what Jeanne Dufort was hoping to witness at the watch party she organized last week in Madison, Ga., 60 miles east of Atlanta. Dufort, 66, a real estate agent who is active in the local Democratic Party, had envisioned a bipartisan crowd coming together to consider the evidence with open minds.
But the 14 people who gathered at the Episcopal Church of the Advent were mostly — well, probably all — Democrats. Like Dufort, they saw the committee “doing a good job of laying the story out,” as she put it. “They’re telling the story from the inside out, saying this is what the president did. This is what he knew. These are the choices he made.”
Five blocks away, at Madison Town Park, Ron Collins spent the first evening of the hearings watching a juggling show with his niece and her son. Collins shared the worries that the people at the Church of the Advent had about the country’s future, but there was no way he was going to watch the proceedings from the church or anywhere else.
“I have no interest in that show,” said Collins, 74. “I wish they would focus on the things this country is dealing with.”
He works for a distribution company now but will soon switch to a post as a hotel manager so he won’t have to drive so much, a job requirement killing his bank account.
“My last three months, I’m averaging $364 a month on gas, going to call on customers,” Collins said.
Almost a half-century ago, Collins watched the Watergate hearings and considered them a valuable lesson in civics, but he’s disinclined to watch this time.
“What’s the difference now?” he asked. “We’ve had two years of riots. We’ve had people that are trying to tear down or burn down police stations. Most of these things were more violent than what happened on January 6. I think the American people are tired of all this. I don’t think anybody realistically believed democracy was threatened that day. … When you see someone in a headdress and a loincloth, it’s hard to take them seriously.”
Collins voted for Trump twice but doesn’t believe the 2020 election was rigged and doesn’t consider himself “a big Trump supporter guy. You have to put aside Trump’s personal behavior and look at what he was able to accomplish.”
That’s the kind of conversation Kathy Mortensen can’t bring herself to have anymore. She considers herself a “middle-of-the-road, common-sense kind of person,” someone who was once a Republican and once a Democrat but ended up alienated from both parties.
Mortensen, a retired teacher in Fort Mohave, Ariz., has been glued to the hearings, hoping to find something to trust. She’s been impressed by “the factual job, reporting without bias. It’s not being sensationalized, and I appreciate that.”
Having grown up during the Nixon years, Mortensen said: “I know that these things should not be brushed aside. They need to be made public.” She wrote a letter to Cheney, thanking the conservative lawmaker for breaking ranks with many in her party to pursue the truth.
But she holds little hope that the hearings will bring Americans closer to consensus. “I struggle to be around ardent Trump supporters,” she said. “I can be with my friends until politics come up, and then I have to change the topic or leave the conversation. I know that’s not how it should be.”
‘That’s the thing about Trump’
Watching the hearings has persuaded some Trump supporters that the ex-president’s fixation on overturning his loss is based not so much on genuine doubts as on his inability to accept his legitimate defeat.
Monday’s evidence, especially former attorney general William P. Barr’s account of how he checked out the fraud allegations and informed Trump that there was nothing to them, helped Jill and Jim Allen of Sugar Hill, Ga., understand that Trump simply rejected the facts.
The hearings have put to rest Jill’s doubts about the 2020 vote, said the retired social studies teacher, who previously worked at the Westminster Schools, a prestigious private school in Atlanta’s wealthy Buckhead community. “I never thought the election was stolen,” she said. “Today confirmed that.”
Her husband, a semiretired financial planner and lifelong Republican, concluded after Monday’s testimony that “there was a lot of denial by Trump. His staff advised him, but he just wasn’t listening to them.”
“That’s the thing about Trump,” said Jill, who is 72 and has voted for every Republican presidential candidate since Nixon. “You can’t tell him anything, especially if it’s something he doesn’t want to hear.”
Yet the Allens, both two-time Trump voters, would vote for him again. And they rejected the idea that Trump’s false election claims led to the Jan. 6 attack.
“I think it was just a bunch of hotheads, a bunch of firebrands,” Jill said. “I would never think Trump would encourage any kind of violence, ever.”
She wishes Trump would drop the election fraud issue, follow Al Gore’s example and accept the voters’ decision, as the Democratic candidate did after the lengthy legal battle over the 2000 presidential election.
Neither Jim nor Jill wants Trump to run again, but Jill suspects he will.
“He’s not a quitter,” she said. “I would vote for him, but I would rather vote for someone else, and [the hearings] solidified that thought. I don’t like when people are unreasonable.”
Still, the idea of another four years of Trump in the White House gives her a certain comfort, she said: “I slept well when he was president.”
Fisher reported from Washington; Shavin from Madison, Ga.; Douglas from Fort Worth; and Canfield from Tulsa. Mark Guarino in Chicago and Jack Wright in New York contributed to this report. | 2022-06-16T10:54:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How Americans feel about the Jan. 6 hearings so far - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/16/how-americans-feel-about-jan-6-hearings-so-far/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/16/how-americans-feel-about-jan-6-hearings-so-far/ |
A first look at plans for the new Union Station in D.C.
New renderings show the major overhaul being proposed for the 115-year old train hub
Rendering of the new train hall planned at Union Station as part of a multibillion dollar redevelopment. (Federal Railroad Administration via U.S. Commission of Fine Arts)
As federal studies advance on the multibillion-dollar redevelopment of Washington’s Union Station, the Federal Railroad Administration this week unveiled more details of its vision to turn the decrepit station into a modern, multimodal transit hub.
Renderings presented Thursday to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts will offer a glimpse of the transformation planned by 2040 for Amtrak’s second-busiest station.
They show a spacious, light-filled atrium with large skylights and soaring ceilings. The overhaul will add wide rail platforms, an attached bus terminal and updated concourses lined with shops and restaurants that provide easy access to Metrorail, buses, taxis, ride-shares, streetcars and parking.
The FRA last month announced revisions to key aspects of the proposed redevelopment, eliminating a six-story garage, significantly reducing parking and relocating the parking area to a new underground facility. The changes also include a major reconfiguration of the station’s bus terminal to align with a new train hall.
Union Station overhaul removes parking spaces, adds underground facility
Anthony Williams, chief executive of the Federal City Council and a former D.C. mayor, said the revised concept “effectively responds” to community concerns, praising it as a “bold vision” that will drive economic development.
“The new modern, vitalized facility will allow for the transformation of Union Station — the Nation’s Station — into a world-class destination for both domestic and international travelers as well as an economic hub for the city,” Williams said in a statement.
The FRA is presenting the new renderings to the Commission of Fine Arts, which is responsible for reviewing public buildings in the District and has an advisory role on architectural aspects of the project. It will also eventually approve final proposals.
The project is expected to cost about $10 billion, although the latest revisions are likely to increase that price tag.
The decision to move parking underground frees up aboveground space that will be used to create a park area and plazas, while directing some pickup and drop-off traffic below ground, reducing congestion off Columbus Circle. Additional pickup space is planned at grade level, off H Street NE.
Project supporters say the new design improves vehicular access to the station, as well as pedestrian and bike connectivity. They say the bus facility, planned above the train tracks with an easy connection to the train hall, is better integrated with the station.
The project will allow for a separate private development in the airspace above the train tracks. Developer Akridge is planning to add up to a dozen buildings — a mix of residential, office, hotel and cultural uses — along 15 acres of air rights it owns from north of Union Station to K Street NE. The estimated $3 billion project, known as Burnham Place, is contingent upon the station’s redevelopment.
David Tuchmann, senior vice president of development at Akridge, which supported adjustments to the station’s parking, pickup and drop-off zones, said the revised plan “really nails it.” He said the plans can move forward at a time when the federal government is placing increased attention on transportation investments.
Amtrak moves to seize control of Union Station
“Everything appears to be aligning now, both for the station project and for Burnham Place,” he said.
The proposed expansion ranks as a top contender in the Northeast Corridor for federal infrastructure money through the law signed last year by President Biden. About $66 billion is earmarked for rail over five years, while the project also could use millions of additional dollars available for transit and other infrastructure projects.
“This project will require funding partners prepared to invest,” the FRA said in a statement. “FRA will continue to engage with stakeholders, including the District, to advance planning and funding for this important multimodal transportation hub.”
The project is proposed by Amtrak and the Union Station Redevelopment Corporation, which manages and operates Union Station under a long-term lease from the FRA.
Dennis Newman, Amtrak’s executive vice president for strategy, planning and accessibility, said the overhaul would boost passenger capacity and enhance rider experience. Some facilities date back to the station’s 1907 opening.
The FRA earlier this month announced new leadership at the Union Station Redevelopment Corporation. Doug Carr, who has overseen major redevelopment projects in the New York area, will take over as president and chief executive of the nonprofit. Former president and chief executive Beverley Swaim-Staley, who led the group for a decade, is retiring. The transition will take place this summer, officials said.
Federal and local officials say Carr’s success in redevelopment projects will serve Washington well. He worked on transforming the James A. Farley Post Office Building in Manhattan into a mixed-use train hub now known as the Moynihan Train Hall.
Overhaul of Baltimore station will help speed trains through busiest rail corridor in nation
“Washington Union Station is a historic transportation hub poised for even greater growth,” Deputy U.S. Transportation Secretary Polly Trottenberg said in a statement. She said “Carr will ensure the station best serves the D.C. community while advancing the next century of transportation progress.”
Carr said he is “honored to be given the responsibility to envision and deliver the future of Washington Union Station.”
The FRA paused the project’s environmental review for a year to amend the design, which was widely criticized for keeping the station too car-centric. The upgraded plan is expected to be released this summer for public comment, with a final decision on how to proceed with the redevelopment next year. After that, the project could enter the design phase, possibly followed by more than a decade of construction. | 2022-06-16T10:54:59Z | www.washingtonpost.com | D.C.'s Union Station redevelopment: A first look at new plans - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/06/16/union-station-dc-redevelopment-photos/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/06/16/union-station-dc-redevelopment-photos/ |
The gifts and challenges of being a quadriplegic father
For Josh Basile, the work of parenting must transcend a paralyzed body.
Josh Basile poses for a portrait with his infant son, Calder, at their family home in Potomac, Md., on May 3. Josh, who uses a wheelchair, has been working with a team of student scientists at Johns Hopkins to design a wheelchair-mounted baby carrier that would allow him to be closer physically to his son.
The routine varies a little each night — life with a newborn is unpredictable like that — but one thing is always the same: Before he goes to sleep, Josh Basile takes extra time to be physically close to his son, Calder. Sometimes Calder nestles into the crook of Basile’s arm and dozes. Other nights, if the baby is alert and wiggly, Basile lies down beside the co-sleeper bassinet and talks to his son face-to-face; lately, as Calder nears 12 weeks old, he’s started to smile at his dad. Basile’s partner, Katie Fava, often places their little boy on Basile’s chest, and helps hold him there.
“Katie is the one who does all the heavy lifting,” Basile says, and he means this literally. In the earliest stage of parenthood, so many of the demands are physical — the baby needs to be fed, burped, cleaned, dressed, rocked — and Basile, a quadriplegic who has only limited movement in his arms, can’t feed, burp or rock the baby. He can’t buckle the straps of a car seat, or wash a bottle, or change a diaper. His version of fatherhood is one that must transcend the limitations of a body that is immobile from the chest down.
But in the 18 years since the accident that left Basile paralyzed, he has learned to focus his attention and effort on what is possible, on the things he can do — so he goes to great lengths to make sure Calder can see him, hear him and feel him every day.
Basile, a medical malpractice attorney, takes frequent short breaks during his workday at home to spend time with Calder and Fava. When the family goes out, Basile often strolls Calder in a special carrier that Basile and a team of engineering students at Johns Hopkins University worked together to design — the device mounts to Basile’s wheelchair and allows Basile to see Calder’s face, so Basile can smile at his son and talk to him as they roll along. And every night, Basile holds his child in the ways he can, a ritual he describes as both a joy and a necessity.
“Having all of those touches, those moments with him, being in his line of sight — I know I am a comfort in his life already,” Basile says. “I am a consistent comfort, a face and a voice and a body he knows. Maybe not my hands. But everything else.”
I first met Basile eight years ago, as he marked the 10th anniversary of his catastrophic injury. I wrote about all he’d accomplished in that decade — as an advocate for people with disabilities; as a medical malpractice attorney; as the founder of the nonprofit foundation Determined2Heal and a mentor to thousands of others with spinal cord injuries; as an inventor who designed a system that allows paralyzed golfers to play their own version of the game. In our conversations over many months, he spoke often of his dream to someday become a devoted partner and father.
The Way Forward: The judge helped a quadriplegic man become a lawyer. Could he help her recover from a catastrophic fall?
When Basile met Fava in 2019, she was recently divorced, an accomplished school psychologist and devoted single mom to a sweet, energetic 2-year-old daughter named Faeble. Basile fell in love with both of them, and he embraced his role as a dad to a busy toddler.
But he’d never been a parent to an infant. After they learned Fava was pregnant, Basile downloaded audiobooks on pregnancy and parenting, and reached out to several close friends who he knew would be able to offer insight and wisdom, because their circumstances were the same as his: They were dads, and they were quadriplegics. “I wanted to know, what did they learn from their experiences?” Basile tells me. “How did they do it?”
The “quadfathers,” as Basile calls them, shared honest stories about the extraordinary joys of parenthood, and also the moments that left them pained and frustrated. “One quadfather, who was paralyzed below his shoulders, he said: ‘Josh, I couldn’t get close to the baby. I felt like the baby didn’t want to be around me,’” Basile says. “He struggled so much with making that physical connection. And now that the baby is older and able to walk around, the baby loves being on his lap, going for rides. But in the beginning, he said it wasn’t what he thought it would be like.”
Another friend, whose limbs have been deformed since birth, described watching National Geographic episodes to learn how lions and other animals would care for their offspring. “So he would move the baby by their clothing with his teeth,” Basile says. “He would change the diaper with his mouth. He told me: ‘Josh, you know this, but there is always a way.’ That blew my mind.”
The conversations were illuminating, difficult at moments, and ultimately empowering, Basile recalls. As Fava’s pregnancy progressed, Basile practiced wearing an Ergo baby carrier filled with sacks of flour, to test whether his body could handle the weight, whether his skin could tolerate the pressure of the straps. He intensified his exercise regimen, intent on regaining movement in his right arm that he’d lost in recent years. One of the doctors who cared for him after his accident, who has since become a close friend, connected him to engineering students at Johns Hopkins, who agreed to help create the custom-made baby carrier that would attach to Basile’s power wheelchair.
“I knew I had to create that connection with him early on, but I didn’t know what that would look like. I had no idea,” he says. “It made me want to experiment with different possibilities. I just wanted to be ready for him.
Calder Grimm Basile arrived Feb. 23, three-and-a-half weeks early. In a note Basile wrote to his newborn son, he described the moment he heard Calder’s first cry, how “my heart and soul elevated to a level of love that I never knew existed.” He also quickly began to understand what his friends had told him to expect — especially when Calder was too little to support his own head, it was hard for Basile to be as close to his son as he wanted to be. Fava would hold the baby near Basile’s face, so he could kiss Calder’s cheeks and nuzzle his soft tuft of hair, or lay him on Basile’s chest, with pillows piled around them. Basile kept eyeing the various wraps and wearable carriers that he could use when Calder was just a little bigger, a little stronger.
That opportunity finally came one April afternoon, when the family took Faeble outside to roller-skate. Basile had expected that he would first practice holding Calder in a carrier in the house, for just a few minutes at a time. But Fava was resolute: “The baby is going on you, and it’s going to be fine,” she told him, and helped secure the wrap with Calder tucked against his father’s chest. It was the first time Basile had ever held Calder independently, without someone’s hands hovering nearby or his body surrounded by pillows. As the family made their way down the street, a neighbor waved and called to them: “Congratulations about the baby!”
It was a simple exchange, but it felt tremendous to Basile. “I was just so proud,” he says, “to be able to be the one holding Calder at that moment, when they said that.”
Basile was an 18-year-old college tennis player when the trajectory of his life changed forever. On Aug. 1, 2004, while on vacation with his family at Bethany Beach, a wave lifted Basile off his feet and drove him headfirst into the hard sand. Basile felt his neck break — his spine fractured at the C4 and C5 vertebrae, fourth and fifth from the top of the spine, leaving him paralyzed below his chest. After months of intensive therapy, he would eventually be able to shrug his shoulders and shift his arms; his right hand would grow strong enough to push the joystick of his power wheelchair, but he could not fully open or close his fingers.
Fava didn’t know any of this when she first caught a glimpse of Basile’s profile on Match.com in early 2019. As she faced the prospect of dating again after more than a decade, she felt especially protective of her little daughter and was focused on finding someone with certain attributes: family-focused, professional, motivated, altruistic. It wasn’t until she started clicking through more of Basile’s photos that she realized he used a power wheelchair.
“I’d never dated anybody in a wheelchair, and I had never had anybody in my friend group or a family member who had a spinal cord injury, so it was all pretty new to me,” she says. “I was smitten with him right away. He’s an incredible person and an incredible partner, and the dad that I knew my daughter deserved, and who I wanted to have more kids with.”
The pandemic sped up their timeline, they say, and they moved in together soon after the initial lockdowns in March 2020. With Basile, Fava, Faeble, Josh’s team of rotating, full-time caregivers, and Fava’s rescued dog, Ava, all in Basile’s apartment in Bethesda, they soon decided to hunt for a house. They settled in Potomac in January 2021 and began preparations to make the house fully accessible, which involved significant renovations — widening doorways, building a wheelchair-accessible shower, installing an elevator that could transport Basile to all three floors.
After the arrival of the coronavirus vaccines, they started working with fertility specialists to pursue a pregnancy through in vitro fertilization. Fava, who has full custody of her daughter, says she had already been profoundly moved by witnessing Basile with Faeble.
“Josh is the dad that she knows. She climbs on him, she’ll go rest on him,” Fava says. “She fully feels comforted and embraced by him. I already knew he was a wonderful father.”
Like so many new parents of the pandemic era, Basile and Fava have been unusually isolated as they adjust to their family’s new reality — which has also given them the chance to establish their own rhythm. The strength of their teamwork is obvious when I visit them one overcast May afternoon. As they prepare to go for a short walk, Fava is the one who straps Calder into the carrier mounted on Basile’s wheelchair. When Calder begins to fuss, Basile gently thumps his head against the wheelchair’s headrest, softly jostling the chair and soothing the baby. Outside, Basile’s wheelchair serves as Calder’s stroller, while Fava stays at their side, quick to pop a dropped pacifier back into Calder’s mouth.
Fava talks about how fully present Basile has been as a father and partner — how she’s felt deeply cared for throughout the process of undergoing IVF, carrying her pregnancy and caring for their newborn.
“Josh isn’t waking up in the middle of the night and getting bottles,” Fava says. “But he’s making sure that my ice water is always filled, that I always have healthy snacks next to me. Or he’ll just take time throughout the day to just come and sit with us, and be with us, so I didn’t experience the isolation that those early weeks can sometimes bring.”
The experience is a sharp contrast from her previous marriage, she adds.
“Parenting with a quadriplegic spouse has actually been so much more enjoyable and so much easier than when I had a fully able-bodied husband who just wasn’t in it,” she says. “The amount of things that Josh can do without lifting his hands is just incredible, because he listens and respects and asks questions and compromises. And that’s the partnership.”
They are eager to make their partnership a legal marriage — but they’re waiting, Basile explains, because Maryland’s Medicaid buy-in program for employed people with disabilities makes marriage a financially fraught prospect. Basile’s Medicaid benefits allow him his full-time caregiving support, which in turn allows him to work — but the program limits a disabled worker’s assets and income to qualify for coverage. Since becoming an attorney in 2013, Basile says, “I have not been able to have a single pay increase, because I’d get kicked out of the Medicaid program. It is very restrictive on your ability to earn and save for the future — and if you get married, your spouse’s income and assets become a liability.”
He’s been working with the Hogan administration and testifying before the Maryland legislature on this issue for years, and as of September, he says, the administration had told him they would lift all income and asset limits for employed individuals with disabilities — but those new rules have yet to be implemented. “We’re waiting for the administration to live up to that promise in 2022,” Basile says.
For now, though, the state has no plans to lift the regulations that apply to spouses, and he intends to keep fighting until those rules are changed.
“It’s just a very strange place to be in, to not feel like a fully recognized family,” Basile says. “I can’t wait to legally get married, to have it be recognized that my daughter is my daughter and my wife is my wife. We’re dreaming of that day.”
Even as he savors his moments with Calder now, Basile is also eager for the years ahead, when there will be more he can do with his son — like the way Basile and Faeble have created their own games and rituals, how she crawls on his lap to cuddle or go for rides in his chair. Basile can’t wait to coach his children someday, when they’re old enough to play sports.
“My tennis coach, I saw him pick up a tennis racket maybe once in my life. He’d always be standing behind me, watching, observing, offering feedback,” Basile says. “To be able to mentor children, bring out the best in them — you can make a really big impact that way. As a quadriplegic, I can do that.”
Over the 18 years since his accident, Basile estimates he has counseled more than 1,500 families dealing with spinal cord injuries. He has become adept at forging lasting bonds with people — guiding them, nurturing them, making them feel understood, helping them see themselves as capable and powerful. Long before the arrival of Faeble and Calder, he was preparing for the work of parenthood.
Nothing brings him more joy, he says, than seeing the people he’s mentored reach new goals, find new sources of meaning and success, achieve something they once didn’t believe possible.
“And to know I had any role in that — it’s just so special,” he says. “Now, with Faeble and Calder, I get to do that for a lifetime.” | 2022-06-16T10:59:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The gifts and challenges of being a quadriplegic father - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/06/16/gifts-challenges-being-quadriplegic-father/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/06/16/gifts-challenges-being-quadriplegic-father/ |
By Prachi Gupta
Laura Penn, left, is 37 and a teacher. She is seeking someone who is “educated, a life-long learner, kind, funny and thoughtful.” Sarah Freeman is 37 and a small-business owner. She is interested in someone who balances a serious career “with a lot of fun hobbies or passion projects on the side.” (Daniele Seiss)
Laura Penn, 37, had forgotten about her Date Lab application submitted last year. When the middle school teacher found out we had a match for her — and the date was in a few days — she got “more and more anxious and nervous about the prospect.” She is looking for a lifelong partner, she says, but understands that she might not meet the right person immediately.
Her anxiety worsened when she found out her date’s first name, Sarah. “Then I started thinking, oh my God, what happens if I know this person? There’s very few people in the lesbian pool in general, and even fewer who are age-appropriate,” she said. It didn’t help that a friend added: “What happens if one of your students sees [the column]?”
Thankfully, between graduate classes and teaching, she didn’t have much time to ruminate about it. After work, she skipped her scheduled allergy shot to allow more time to get ready. She went home, showered and then asked a friend for advice on what to wear. “I’ve never been on a blind date before,” she said. “I’m not known to be the most stylish person on the planet.” She settled on a button-down shirt, nice jeans and brown shoes. She left early “to give myself enough time to get to the restaurant and have a drink to calm my nerves a bit,” she said. But because of traffic, she arrived at Mandu, a Korean restaurant in Mount Vernon Triangle, only five minutes early. Sarah was already seated.
She didn’t recognize Sarah Freeman, after all — which eased her nerves. “I was surprised that she was Black because Sarah is not a very common name for a Black woman, and she didn’t expect me to be Black because Laura is also not a common name for a Black woman.”
Like Laura, Sarah is looking for a long-term relationship. “On Saturdays, I read the magazine, and Date Lab is just one of the fun parts, a relief from the news,” said the 37-year-old, who owns an insurance agency. “There was a part of me that was like, this sounds fun. I’m kind of adventurous. I’m also an NPR junkie, and part of the attraction to Date Lab means [my match] dug deep into The Washington Post, so they probably also aligned with me as an NPR junkie.”
“I didn’t really do anything to prepare,” Laura admitted. “I just picked my outfit out.” She laid out three pairs of pants and three shirts and at the end of the work day, she put on whatever “felt good”: jeans, a button-up shirt and what she described as “an insurance vest.” “I’m an insurance agent technically, and that’s what I wear to work,” she explained. “I decided to look like an insurance agent. That’s just my personality. I am generally pretty dry. It’s a fleece vest and a really pressed collared shirt, kinda an old dad look.” She was ready an hour before the date, so she watched “Judge Judy” to zone out without getting caught up in something more involved, like work emails.
While they were taking photos together, their chitchat revealed that they both had lived in Washington state (Sarah’s from Seattle and Laura used to reside in Tacoma) — giving them a natural segue. “So it was more like, well what were you doing in Tacoma, how did you get to D.C.? That kind of thing,” Sarah recalled. Once seated, they ordered vegetarian and pork dumplings to share, and Sarah ordered bulgogi and a soju drink while Laura got a chewy rice cakes entree with a spicy sauce, and a cocktail with Tito’s vodka and caramelized pineapple.
Sarah, who attended Howard University, discovered that Laura has relatives who are alumni. They also bonded over a love of hiking, talked about gentrification in D.C. and Seattle, and shared stories about traveling abroad. “It was a really great convo, no red flags, very easy to talk with her,” Laura said. She even invited Sarah to come play on her queer pickleball team.
But “there was an elephant in the room,” said Sarah. “We were both masculine of center.” Halfway through the date, she asked Laura, “What type of woman do you typically date?” Sarah recalled, “She didn’t directly say, and I said, ‘Whatever you say is okay.’ ”
They both confirmed what each had suspected from the beginning: “I like feminine women and she likes feminine women,” Sarah said. “It’s almost like matching me with a guy. … I think we both knew that from the jump, but I thought it was important to be direct about it.”
After about two hours of talking, Sarah asked Laura for her phone number to stay in touch about hiking and meeting up as friends. They hugged goodbye. “It’s hard to rate the date as a date when it feels like it’s more of a friend set-up,” Laura said. “I would like to be friends with her.” Sarah echoed Laura’s sentiment: “I actually dig her as a friend type. It wasn’t a romantic connection. She was dope.”
Laura: 3.5 [out of 5].
Sarah: 3.5.
They have remained in touch as friends.
Prachi Gupta is a writer in New York. | 2022-06-16T10:59:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Date Lab: She dressed like an ‘insurance agent’ (because she is one) - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/06/16/date-lab-she-dressed-like-an-insurance-agent-because-she-is-one/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/06/16/date-lab-she-dressed-like-an-insurance-agent-because-she-is-one/ |
Mired in a funding crisis — and the target of politicians — the hearings transformed public broadcasting
Perspective by Amanda Reichenbach Lehman
Amanda Reichenbach Lehman is author of “'Gavel-to-Gavel': The Watergate Scandal and Public Television,” an online exhibit for the American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) accessible at https://americanarchive.org/exhibits/watergate/watergate-and-public-broadcasting.
Former attorney general John N. Mitchell appears before the Senate Watergate Committee in Washington, D.C., on July 11, 1973. (AP)
Last Thursday, an estimated 20 million Americans tuned in from 8 to 10 p.m. Eastern time to watch the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol hold a public hearing. What these viewers may not have realized is that this format — showing a congressional hearing in prime time and in full — has its roots in another scandal that began 50 years ago this week.
Watergate fundamentally changed Americans’ perception of many institutions: the presidency, Congress and even the television itself. Like the Jan. 6 hearings, Watergate was a television event worth staying up late for — and public television helped make it possible. The vibrant programming on public television — from “Sesame Street” to “PBS NewsHour” to “Masterpiece Theater” — was made possible by Watergate coverage that turned public television from a scattered collection of educational stations watched by thousands to a national network.
President Richard M. Nixon and his advisers veered from passive dislike to outright hostility toward PBS. Nixon aide Pat Buchanan once called public television the “wrong thing for the government to fund. We’ve got to zero it out, and that’s that.” Vice President Spiro Agnew called public television an “Eastern liberal” boondoggle orchestrated by an “enclosed fraternity of privileged men.” Clay Whitehead, head of the Nixon Office of Telecommunications Policy, planned to slash funding until power devolved to local stations, a move that won him no friends in the news media. “It’s kind of too bad Clay Whitehead wasn’t implicated in the Watergate scandal,” one commentator complained.
This uproar provided the context in which Jim Karayn, head of the National Public Affairs Center for Television (NPACT) — the Washington office responsible for national news-related public programming — saw an opportunity. He persuaded PBS President Hartford Gunn that the service should cover the Watergate hearings. To Karayn, doing so was not just about “trying to drive one more nail into the ghost of Richard Nixon.” Rather, he thought that it would provide the public “insight into the basic workings of American government.”
In a poll, 52 percent of PBS member stations supported the plan. The hearings would be rebroadcast in full during prime-time hours. The anchor team of MacNeil and Jim Lehrer would discuss the day’s events with a “brain trust” of experts at the end of each broadcast. At the end of the first day, Lehrer offered viewers something of a mission statement: “We are running it all each day because we think these hearings are important, and because we think it is important that you get a chance to see the whole thing and make your own judgments. Some nights, we may be in competition with a late, late movie. We are doing this as an experiment, temporarily abandoning our ability to edit, to give you the whole story, however many hours it may take.”
What about the hearings drew in millions of new public television viewers? One answer is the enthralling cast of characters. Every day, Americans watched surprisingly telegenic senators like Sam Ervin (D-N.C.) and Howard Baker (R-Tenn.), who along with the committee’s lawyers became “very important parts of our daily lives,” as Lehrer put it. Before them marched a parade of aides, burglars, agents and politicians. Viewers saw demonstrations of how to bug a telephone, how to photographically steal documents and other “dirty tricks.” The proceedings were “the stuff of spy novels,” as MacNeil and Lehrer liked to say.
At the same time the hearings were, in MacNeil’s words, “a kind of extended morality play,” in which Americans saw democracy at its worst and its best. They witnessed White House Counsel John Dean accuse Nixon of guilt in the Watergate coverup, and Nixon aide Alexander Butterfield reveal the president’s secretive taping of Oval Office conversations. They also saw the committee vote unanimously to subpoena Nixon — a historic first.
Most importantly, televising Watergate showed how television could operate differently. The notion that only Washington and New York audiences would be interested was shattered as newspapers from locales as far-ranging as Everett, Wash.; Clearwater, Fla.; and Galveston, Tex. all praised the hearings, and money streaming into stations gave managers the capital to produce local programming.
Today, 3 in 4 American households will watch PBS at some point during the year. It is routinely voted the most-trusted institution in American life. Odd as it may be to think, that would never have been possible without Richard M. Nixon, a man whose hostility to public television is well-documented. Nonetheless, we have him, and his “dirty tricksters,” and the Watergate investigators to thank for the thriving of this touchstone of American life. | 2022-06-16T10:59:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Primetime Watergate hearings helped make PBS a national network - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/06/16/primetime-watergate-hearings-helped-make-pbs-national-network/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/06/16/primetime-watergate-hearings-helped-make-pbs-national-network/ |
A trio of measures — addressing lobbying, gifts and online donations — is backed by a group with wide-ranging ideologies
Retired four-star Marine Gen. John R. Allen, seen in 2012. A federal investigation is looking into whether Allen lobbied on Qatar’s behalf without disclosing his activities, as required under federal law. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
A House bill due to be introduced Thursday seeks to curb foreign influence in U.S. democracy by imposing a lifetime ban on members of Congress, senior military leaders and senior executive branch officials from lobbying for a foreign government or political party, among other measures.
The legislation would also compel tax-exempt groups, including think tanks, to disclose high-dollar donations and gifts from foreign powers and require political campaigns to verify that donors have a valid U.S. address, using the three-digit CVV code on the back of credit cards.
The legislation addresses issues brought to light more recently by the federal probe into whether retired four-star Marine Gen. John R. Allen, who resigned over the weekend as president of the Brookings Institution, lobbied on Qatar’s behalf without disclosing his activities as required under federal law. And the proposals come amid stepped-up enforcement by the Justice Department of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, including the decision last month to sue Steve Wynn, a developer and Republican megadonor, to compel him to register as an agent of China.
The bill has bipartisan backing. Its lead sponsor is Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat and Marine veteran from a conservative-leaning district in Maine, who said one of the chief problems with the U.S. political system is that “corruption is either completely legal or punished with slaps on the wrist.” An aide to Golden said the congressman’s effort to find consensus for a targeted package of anti-corruption measures is in response to the GOP’s rejection of a broader voting rights, elections and ethics bill, known as H.R. 1.
Joining Golden in introducing the legislation were members as disparate as Reps. Katie Porter of California, a liberal consumer protection attorney and rising Democratic star, and Paul A. Gosar of Arizona, a Republican acolyte of former president Donald Trump who has spread conspiracy theories about everything from election security to the recent school shooting in Uvalde, Tex.
Federal law already prohibits contributions from foreign nationals in any federal, state or local election. But the bill’s sponsors say there are loopholes, including the absence of a requirement that campaigns use industry-standard tools to verify the details of online contributions.
Porter stressed the bipartisan relevance of the legislation. “Americans distrust government no matter which party is in power,” she said.
Lobbying shop says DOJ probe into its work for Burisma has been closed
The measures, while not citing Allen or any other person, are made acutely necessary by recent allegations, the bill’s sponsors say.
Allen, who served as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan from 2011 to 2013, claimed that his initial contact with a political donor now serving a 12-year prison sentence related to the creation of a military advisement board for the government of Qatar, according to a search warrant filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
A Brookings spokesman said the think tank “has strong independence policies to ensure no financial supporter influences the research findings or policy recommendations of its experts.” Following a review in 2019, Brookings started to subject foreign donors to enhanced scrutiny, including an assessment of the funder’s “democratic status and track record on support to independent civil society,” the spokesman said.
Most think tanks organized as nonprofits are under no obligation to disclose their donors, though some, such as Brookings, do so voluntarily. The legislation from Golden and others would require disclosure of gifts and donations from foreign powers greater than $50,000 in a given year. | 2022-06-16T10:59:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Bipartisan bill aims to curb foreign influence in U.S. democracy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/16/bipartisan-bill-aims-curb-foreign-influence-us-democracy/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/16/bipartisan-bill-aims-curb-foreign-influence-us-democracy/ |
Two rooms with historic view: After 230 years, women’s names adorn Senate rooms
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, poses for a portrait June 14 in a room at the U.S. Capitol named after former Republican senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Sen. Amy Klobuchar noticed right away as the male senators glanced around, wondering how their bipartisan prayer breakfast meeting room had all these pictures of women, powerful women.
For the first time in more than 230 years of Senate history, two rooms were formally named last week in honor of women: Mikulski (D-Md.), who retired at the end of 2016 as the longest-serving female senator, and the late Margaret Chase Smith (R-Maine), the first woman to win election to the House and the Senate, and who stood up to McCarthyism in the 1950s.
Klobuchar, who oversaw the effort as chair of the Senate Rules Committee, recognizes that naming a couple of rooms on the Capitol’s first floor is not exactly a major break-the-glass-ceiling moment for women’s rights. But, along with a few other initiatives, it’s a symbolic effort meant to demonstrate that women’s places are in the House and the Senate, as well as the vice presidency, the Supreme Court and, one day, the White House.
“There are little girls walking around these places all the time,” Klobuchar said in an interview inside the Chase Smith Room, which she has turned into a small museum of women’s advancement in the Capitol. “And if all they see are guys, this isn’t their home.”
In recent years, Klobuchar worked with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who reveres Chase Smith as her political idol, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) to work on these efforts to elevate female figures around the Senate. They have passed legislation to place busts of two groundbreaking Supreme Court justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O’Connor, inside the Capitol.
The patriarchy is alive and well throughout the Capitol, where there are roughly 540 rooms, 25 of them named in honor of a historic figure. Before these two Senate rooms were named, just two on the House side were named after women: Gabrielle Giffords, the Democratic lawmaker who was shot in a 2011 mass shooting in the Tucson area, and Lindy Boggs (D-La.).
Still, Giffords shares the room name with another lawmaker killed in a massacre, Leo Ryan (D-Calif.), and the Boggs room for years served as the only restroom available to female lawmakers, a long walk from the House floor.
One day it hit Klobuchar: A couple of times a week, each Senate caucus gathers in the Mike Mansfield Room or the Lyndon Baines Johnson Room, named after former Democratic majority leaders whose portraits look down on senators.
Across the hall from the Mansfield Room is the Robert J. Dole balcony, named for the late Republican from Kansas who served as majority leader. Down the corridor is the Strom Thurmond Room, named after the late South Carolina Republican whose racist history stirs up some angst among today’s senators.
All six office buildings, three on each side of the Capitol, are named for men who served in the House and Senate. Some senators have proposed renaming the Richard Russell Senate Office Building, because of the late senator’s support of segregation, but their choice to replace the Democrat from Georgia is another man: the late John S. McCain (R-Ariz.).
The Senate Agriculture Committee, which hangs portraits of former chairmen in its hearing room, is the rare outlier. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), who chaired the panel for 16 months, is displayed prominently.
They’ve hosted dinners with female justices, another with female Cabinet members. Last year, one of their alumni hosted them at her new home: Vice President Harris brought the women to the Naval Observatory.
The former senator is the first woman to serve in that role — 46 previous vice presidents have their busts displayed in and around the Senate chamber as a nod to their role as president of the Senate. Two former vice presidents, recently departed Mike Pence and President Biden, will join them, and Harris eventually will be the first female bust to be dedicated and displayed on the second floor of the Senate.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) played a lead role on that, something she is replicating on a proposal to address mass shootings. | 2022-06-16T10:59:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Senate rooms renamed after women - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/16/senate-rooms-women-names/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/16/senate-rooms-women-names/ |
Employees fear Musk will upend the company’s culture and initiate mass layoffs
Elon Musk’s $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter has prompted intense internal outcry over the last few months, (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)
Elon Musk plans to address Twitter’s staff in a companywide town hall Thursday, directly facing employees — many of whom are deeply worried about his $44 billion deal to acquire the social network — for the first time.
The virtual town hall will enable Twitter’s more than 7,500 workers, most of whom are remote, to ask questions about Musk’s intentions for the acquisition, which has prompted intense internal outcry over the last few months, according to internal communications obtained by The Washington Post and conversations with more than a dozen employees, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid. The company has held previous town halls, where workers can question executives and board members, throughout the contentious negotiation with the billionaire.
Employees are likely to ask whether Musk is contemplating lay offs, whether he will seek to change the company’s approach to moderating and policing content, and if he will restore the account of former president Donald Trump, according to questions from past events. (Musk said last month that he would reinstate Trump’s account.)
Executives have deflected some of these questions in the past, saying only that Musk has the answers.
When Musk agreed to acquire Twitter and take it private in late April, he plunged the social network into crisis. The company’s stock has fallen more than 25% since Musk agreed to buy it at $54.20 per share. Musk has been capricious in his approach to the deal, critiquing the platform from his popular Twitter account. In one tweet, he proclaimed the deal was “on hold,” and he has frequently criticized the company’s content and product-related decisions. He has repeatedly said Twitter is failing to divulge enough information about amount of spam and bot accounts on its service.
With each new fight, Twitter’s stock price has fallen, causing Wall Street to speculate that Musk may not go through with the deal.
After protracted negotiations, Twitter now plans to share reams of real-time internal data, known as the “firehose,” with Musk. His team has indicated to associates that the data could provide key clues to help him understand the bot issue. But Twitter employees say that the firehose does not contain information that will change the company’s current bot estimates and that Musk’s bot argument is a tactic to lower the share price. | 2022-06-16T10:59:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Elon Musk to face Twitter staff for the first time in town hall - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/16/elon-musk-twitter-employee-meeting/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/16/elon-musk-twitter-employee-meeting/ |
Thursday briefing: What the interest rate hike means; the next Jan. 6 hearing; kids’ vaccines; miraculous tortoise; and more
The Federal Reserve announced its biggest interest rate hike in decades.
The increase of three-quarters of a percentage point is the U.S. central bank’s latest attempt to control rising prices.
What this does: It makes borrowing money more expensive. In theory, that will make people pull back from big purchases, which would lower demand and allow prices to fall.
Will this cause a recession? It’s possible. Raising rates can sometimes slow economic growth too much and too fast. Here are seven tips to prepare for whatever comes next.
The Jan. 6 committee revealed two new investigation targets.
The latest: The panel got emails between Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s wife, Ginni, and a pro-Trump attorney involved in the effort to deny Joe Biden the presidency.
Another path: The committee released details, including video, about a group Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) led around the Capitol the day before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.
Today’s public hearing (1 p.m. Eastern time) will center on President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign on Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election results.
Long-awaited coronavirus vaccines for young kids moved closer to reality.
What happened? FDA advisers recommended use of Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech shots for children under 5 — the last group in the U.S. without access to a coronavirus vaccine.
What’s next? The FDA is expected to follow the recommendations. If the CDC agrees at a meeting set for tomorrow and Saturday, the shots will be available by next week.
The U.S. will send another $1 billion in military aid to Ukraine.
What it includes: Rocket systems, artillery, coastal defense weapons and ammunition, President Biden said yesterday. It’s the U.S.’s biggest Ukraine aid package.
Why it’s needed: A Russian offensive is pummeling Ukrainian forces in the east. The scale of the package suggests that the U.S. believes the war will continue for a long time.
Elon Musk is facing Twitter’s staff for the first time today.
The setting: The Tesla CEO, who struck a $44 billion deal to buy the social network in April, will speak at a companywide meeting. Many employees are worried about his plans.
What else to know: Tesla vehicles running its Autopilot software have been involved in 273 reported crashes over the past year, regulators revealed yesterday.
Chemicals found in drinking water might be more dangerous than once thought.
What we’re talking about: Human-made “forever chemicals” called PFAS. They’re also found in food packaging and cosmetics, and are linked to infertility, thyroid problems and cancer.
What’s new? The latest science, announced yesterday, suggests that even staggeringly low levels of these chemicals can damage our health.
A giant tortoise believed to be extinct has been confirmed alive.
Where? The Galápagos Islands, off the coast of Ecuador. Fernanda was discovered in 2019 and confirmed by genetic testing as the real thing this week.
What it means: She’s the last of her kind, barring another discovery. So scientists are studying her while holding out hope.
And now … Juneteenth is coming this weekend: Here are four meaningful ways you can observe the holiday. | 2022-06-16T11:00:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The 7 things you need to know for Thursday, June 16 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/the-seven/2022/06/16/what-to-know-for-june-16/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/the-seven/2022/06/16/what-to-know-for-june-16/ |
Charging 69 cents for gas was an ‘honest mistake’ he’s hoping to repay
John Szczecina's blunder cost the gas station some $20,000 at a time when gas prices are at a record high. (KOVR)
A frenzy erupted last week at a California gas station as bewildered customers found they could fill up their tanks at a price last seen in the 1970s.
With prices at the pump soaring to record highs, vehicles flooded in. Customers called their friends and family members, urging them to hit up the Shell gas station that was charging just 69 cents a gallon.
But their luck ended up costing John Szczecina his job after the Rancho Cordova, Calif., gas station he managed lost some $20,000 in sales.
It all came down to “an honest mistake,” Szczecina told The Washington Post. He only learned about the circus that had formed when he arrived the next morning for his shift. By then, it was too late. After being placed on administrative leave, Szczecina said he was fired Monday for the costly blunder.
Now, Szczecina is making it his mission to repay his former employer, and strangers are pitching in to help. Donations to a GoFundMe set up by his family have poured in since his story went viral. As of early Thursday, the campaign had raised more than $13,000.
“Even though it cost me my job, it’s fine. Because the truth is, you know, it’s my fault,” Szczecina said. “I know nobody wants to say that anymore, but I felt it was important to own up to my mistake and do everything I can to make it right.”
Shell didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post. A representative for its U.S. division told the New York Post that the station Szczecina managed is independently owned.
Szczecina said he got an email on June 9 instructing him to change the premium gas price to $6.99 per gallon — the third notification of a price hike he had received that week.
In California, drivers are facing the highest fuel prices in the country — with the cost of a gallon hitting a record average of $6.43, according to AAA data. The national average for regular gas on Saturday for the first time climbed over $5. The gas station where Szczecina worked had already begun seeing the effects of ever-increasing fuel prices, he said.
“We weren’t making a profit anymore,” the former manager said. “I’d been doing everything I could, from cutting back on stuff we weren’t selling as much to making sure we had the soda, coffee, anything my regulars liked. It’s been really hard … so when I saw I had to raise [gas prices] again, it just seemed like a nightmare.”
The morning of June 9, Szczecina typed “699” three times into his computer to set the new price. The final step was to confirm the change was reflected at the pumps. But before he could do the check, a truck outside hit a curb, sending the water bottles it was carrying flying across the parking lot.
For the next 20 minutes, Szczecina said he helped the truckers pick up their cargo. Several more work tasks occupied his attention, and the need to check the gas price on the pumps faded from Szczecina’s mind.
He left the station by 2:30 p.m. and went to bed early in preparation for a 4:30 a.m. start the next day. That’s when he arrived to find the gas station’s district manager waiting for him.
“I immediately thought we had gotten robbed and was scared that something terrible had happened to the cashiers,” Szczecina said.
Instead, he learned about the craze his typo had caused when he mistakenly set the new premium gas price to just 69 cents a gallon. The last time a gallon was that cheap was in 1978, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
“I felt so terrible and just knew I was about to lose my job,” Szczecina said. “So I gave [the district manager] my keys … [and] drove back to my home and began updating my résumé.”
Now he’s spending his days applying to jobs and going to interviews. In between, he’s been taking his dog to the river amid California’s scorching temperatures.
“I really, really just want to go back to working,” he added.
Although he didn’t want to lose his job, he said he’d confess to his mistake all over again because “it was the right and honest thing to do.” He and his family have also found a silver lining: the outpouring of support they’ve received from strangers hoping to help him repay his former employer.
His sister, Paula Jackson, who organized the campaign, said Szczecina’s attitude shows “the goodness of his heart.”
“He doesn’t have to pay it back,” Jackson said. “But just the fact that he is doing it and wants to do it shows a lot of character and honesty and responsibility, and I’m really proud of him for that.”
“It takes guts to say ‘I made a mistake,’” she added. | 2022-06-16T12:29:55Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Gas station manager fired for selling gas for 69 cents a gallon - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/16/gas-station-california-fired-price/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/16/gas-station-california-fired-price/ |
Florida fraud suspect tried to flee to Cuba on a Jet Ski, feds say
Border Patrol agents rescued the health-care company owner from ocean waters south of Key West.
An aerial view of Jet Skis in the Maldives. (Vladyslav Danilin/Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Ernesto Cruz Graveran needed to get from Florida to Cuba and, having been stripped of his passport, he planned his escape accordingly, federal prosecutors said.
Graveran had a trove of food and water, made sure he was traveling on a Jet Ski equipped with a supercharged fuel cell and hired a smuggler to ferry him the roughly 90 miles from Key West to his native Cuba, a federal agent said in court documents.
Graveran’s best-laid plans weren’t good enough, the agent said.
On June 8, Border Patrol agents rescued him and the alleged smuggler from their broken-down Jet Ski and, after a judge’s approval, had him jailed in the Federal Detention Center in Miami. Federal prosecutors allege that Graveran was trying to flee to Cuba to escape an investigation into a multimillion-dollar Medicare scheme.
Graveran, 54, has since been charged with health-care fraud. Court records do not list an attorney for Graveran.
Captain and masseuse fled sinking charter boat on Jet Ski, stranding surfers in Indian Ocean, lawsuit says
Federal prosecutors are accusing him of submitting $4.2 million in bogus Medicare claims from February to April through his Florida-based company Xiko Enterprises. Medicare paid Xiko a total of $2.1 million to settle those claims, the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of Florida said Tuesday in a news release.
During that time, Xiko billed the federal government for medical equipment that it claimed had been prescribed to 145 patients of a physician identified as “Dr. A.B.” to the tune of about $1.2 million, Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Carlos Suarez said in a sworn affidavit. Medicare paid Xiko about roughly $778,000 to settle those claims. But when investigators checked with Dr. A.B.’s office, a representative told them none of the 145 beneficiaries were patients there, according to the affidavit.
In one of those cases, Xiko submitted some $7,000 in claims for medical equipment the company said it had provided to a patient identified in court documents as “C.F.,” specifically collagen and hydrocolloid dressings, according to court records. Medicare paid Xiko $5,600 as a result, Suarez said in the affidavit. However, C.F. told law enforcement that she never received, requested or needed any such equipment.
“C.F. further states that she had never ever heard of Xiko,” Suarez wrote.
On May 20, law enforcement agents learned that Graveran was scheduled to fly to Havana out of Miami in two days, the affidavit said. Later that day, they approached him at his home, where officials said he agreed to cooperate with their investigation. Before they left, the agents took Graveran’s passport.
Two and a half weeks later, he was plucked out of the Atlantic Ocean.
For now, Graveran is being held without bond at the detention center. Prosecutors have argued — and a judge has agreed — that he may attempt to flee the country again if given the opportunity.
“Graveran is a Cuban citizen with extensive ties to Cuba and limited ties to the Southern District of Florida. All of his family members reside in Cuba and he has a recent history of travel to” his homeland, Alicia Otazo-Reyes, a federal magistrate judge, wrote in her order to detain Graveran, in which she said there was “a serious risk” he would flee if let out of jail. | 2022-06-16T12:30:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Florida fraud suspect arrested on a Jet Ski, feds say - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/16/jet-ski-escape-cuba/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/16/jet-ski-escape-cuba/ |
Man illegally excavated Native American site, took artifacts, officials say
Truman Lake reservoir in Missouri. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Kansas City District) (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Kansas City District)
A peninsula on the Harry S. Truman Lake in Henry County, Mo., houses a trove of Native American artifacts dating back thousands of years. The site is protected by federal law, and unauthorized excavation is forbidden.
Johnny Lee Brown dug for treasure anyway, federal prosecutors say.
In an 11-count indictment made public on Tuesday, the 71-year-old Clinton, Mo., resident allegedly caused more than $300,000 in damage during excavation trips spanning over five years. Brown’s charges include felony counts for conspiracy, causing damage, and defacing archaeological resources and government property.
“According to the Osage Nation, the excavation damage to this archaeological site caused by this conspiracy greatly impacts the cultural history of the Osage Nation, and other affiliated tribes,” the indictment says.
Brown’s attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Wednesday.
The location of the digs is known locally as “the Tightwad Site” because it’s near Tightwad, Mo., about 90 miles southeast of Kansas City. The site dates to the Late Archaic Period, which was 3,000 to 5,000 years ago, prosecutors said. Experts say the location’s dense collection of items means the area was once “occupied as a camp site, stone processing site, or both,” court documents say.
Locations like the Tightwad Site are protected by the Archeological Resources Protection Act of 1979, which preserves public and Native American lands that “are an irreplaceable part of the Nation’s heritage,” court documents say. The act makes it illegal to excavate or remove items without a permit. It also establishes damaging, altering or defacing the site as felony crimes.
Brown began excavating the site as early as June 2016, prosecutors said. Along with at least two unnamed co-conspirators, Brown allegedly accessed the area by driving on unauthorized access trails or walking to the site. Their visits would last anywhere from about 30 minutes to over three hours, court documents say.
“Brown and co-conspirators used tools ranging from small handheld trowels to full-size shovels, rakes and hoes to dig, excavate, or otherwise damage, large areas of intact soil to reveal hidden archaeological resources,” the indictment says.
The group allegedly carried firearms and brought buckets, backpacks and containers to transport items from the site. Prosecutors did not specify what artifacts they believe Brown took from the site or say where the items are now.
It is not immediately clear how many times Brown went to the site. Court documents list 10 examples of the alleged excavations in 2016, 2017 and 2020. The financial damage from those visits ranged from $1,440 to $12,960, prosecutors say. The indictment says that investigators were able to track the visits on surveillance cameras.
Brown was arrested Tuesday. His trial is scheduled to begin Aug. 22. | 2022-06-16T12:30:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Johnny Lee Brown accused of excavating Native American artifacts - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/16/native-american-site-illegal-excavation/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/16/native-american-site-illegal-excavation/ |
Jason and Tamara Rademacher had no plans to renovate their home in Chevy Chase, Md., until an electrical fire left it uninhabitable. The living room, seen here, is illuminated by large windows with Douglas fir frames. (Anice Hoachlander)
A Chevy Chase, Md., family rebuilds after a devastating fire
By Scott Sowers
On a Monday morning in August 2018, Jason and Tamara Rademacher were jolted awake around 6 a.m.
“We heard a bump and our son screaming for us,” Jason says. “I could see smoke streaming out the sides of his bedroom door, I opened the door, smoke rolls out and my son runs right by me.” An electrical fire had started between the walls of their Chevy Chase, Md., split level in their son’s room on the lower level.
The family evacuated and called the fire department, which showed up about six minutes later. At first, things didn’t look so bad. “To us it seemed like a small fire,” says Jason, a 49-year-old attorney. As the event began to play out, reality set in. “They had to take our son away in an ambulance because he had burns on hands and feet,” says Tamara, also 49. “He spent 48 hours in the hospital with bad smoke inhalation and was delirious for a day.”
The effects of the fire and smoke damage made the house uninhabitable. An insurance adjuster met the family at MedStar Washington Hospital Center and wrote them a check on the spot. “The adjuster told me at the beginning, ‘This is a marathon not a sprint,’ ” Jason says. “That came back to me over and over again in the process.”
A major renovation yields a multigenerational home on Capitol Hill
The family moved to a hotel in Friendship Heights where they stayed for two weeks while looking for a rental. They bought a “temporary wardrobe” at Target. According to their policy, their temporary home had to be equivalent to what they were displaced from, but moderate-size rentals are hard to come by in Chevy Chase.
They ended up on the penthouse level of an apartment building in downtown Bethesda where they would live for nearly two years.
Designing the rebuild
The Rademachers had no plans to renovate their home before the fire. They bought it in 2013 for $623,000 after moving from Bowie, Md. To put their lives back together, they had to file a claim for their lost possessions and figure out the cost to rebuild the house.
The claim process started, the house was boarded up, the fire investigation got underway and the homeowners began looking for advice. They called Lou Balodemas, a principal at D.C.-based Balodemas Architects, whom they found on Houzz.
Part of the claim process was figuring out what was lost to the flames. “We had to do drawings of essentially what the house was,” Balodemas says. “At the same time, we were designing the new rebuild.”
Factors to consider when choosing between buying an existing house or a newly constructed one
Initially, the homeowners weren’t looking to change anything. “We wanted to know what it’s going to cost to build the house back to the way it was,” Jason says. “We just wanted our old house back because we liked that house. But then we thought, doesn’t it make sense to explore the other things you can do?”
Figuring out renovation costs and who is paying for what in a fire restoration is a fluid process. Designs need to be agreed on, plans need to be finalized and bids need to be collected. To facilitate the process, the insurance company dispatched an estimator. The homeowners hired a separate contractor to get a second opinion. After the basic design plan was hatched, the bids were opened and Jason Hebeisen, the owner of Heb-N-Co Construction, based in Boyds, Md., was the winner.
“I deal with insurance companies often,” Hebeisen says. “I recognize that the insurance adjuster is doing their job, which is to keep the claim from getting out of control. So, in a total loss like this, it came down to largely, ‘Well, you’re renovating the house and making it a little bit bigger. We’re not going to pay for that.’ And they shouldn’t. But you are forced to upgrade the house to current code.”
Most insurance policies, including the Rademachers,’ have limits to what they will pay for code upgrades, which made funding the rebuild even more challenging. Late in the process the homeowners discovered a rider in the policy that boosted their cap level, which helped.
Restoration begins
The design team was also able to move renovation funds around by opting to install drywall instead of replacing plaster walls. The home originally had steel-framed windows that got swapped for wood-framed replacements — more cash savings.
The fire burned so hot it damaged part of the foundation. After crunching the numbers, it was decided that it would be cheaper to pour new footers outside the original foundation as opposed to excavating and replacing the whole slab.
“It was also an opportunity because it allowed us to make the downstairs two feet bigger,” says Veena Shahsavarian, a partner at Balodemas. “Which is not the typical addition that you would do, but we needed those two feet in the kitchen.”
As the numbers continued to be hashed out, it fell to Tamara, the family’s homemaker, to zero in on design choices. “I had a low and high version of almost everything picked out. It was like an actual job, and I haven’t had an actual job for a while. And you’re doing all this while you’re mourning the loss of your stuff.”
The entire process took 23 months, ending one month before the deadline for settling the claim. The homeowners originally asked the architect for their old house back, but a few things changed along the way.
The design team suggested moving the home’s kitchen and dining area to the lower level with access to the backyard. At one of the final design meetings, Jason asked the architects about a butterfly roof, which he’d seen on one of their other projects. Three minutes later, with some from help from a computer-aided design program, the roof butterflied on the fly.
The effect of the newly designed roof shows up at the home’s new front door. Large circular skylights carved into the high ceiling flood the space with natural light. The living room sits to the right — in its original location. The original fireplace was reworked using “wild west” green granite and honed limestone. The room is illuminated by large windows with Douglas fir frames. A custom-made lattice screen, also made from fir by Hebeisen’s crew, separates the living room from the foyer. All the floors on the first level are oak.
In addition to the living room on the ground level, there’s a home office and mud room to the left of the front door. The home then splits up eight steps to a landing, guest bath, their granddaughter’s bedroom, another bedroom and the main suite. The primary bedroom looks out onto the backyard and shelters a teak-framed bed. The design team also collaborated on a wood-burning fireplace in the bedroom with green ceramic tile laid out in a wide hex pattern on the chimney and a limestone hearth.
The main bath has a dual-headed, curbless shower. There’s also a free-standing soaking tub and an ingenious vanity that provides a sink and a sit-down makeup area topped with quartz. More circular skylights provide natural light. The floor in the main bath is a mix of large-format quarry tile and smaller square-patterned tile with a matte finish.
The house also splits down from the main level to the kitchen, dining area and family room laid out in an open plan with expansive views to the backyard. The kitchen includes an island with a sink and seating for three. The top of the island is hickory rendered in a butcher block configuration.
The refrigerator is a Sub-Zero, the cabinetry is a mix of open shelving and painted maple cabinets. The cooktop and wall oven are both from Blue Star. The counters are stainless steel with a lipped, marine edge. The dishwasher is a Bosch. A pantry provides more storage. The floors on the lower level are cork, and the dining room table is a custom fabrication using a slab of acacia wood as the top.
The home’s unique appearance attracts picture-takers — a phenomenon not lost on the design team. “I love the colors and the different finishes that we all came up with together,” Balodemas says. “I like that you can’t classify it. I like how it sits on the street.” Shahsavarian adds, “It’s the anti-trend. You can’t point to anything that’s like it.”
The insurance settlement ended up paying about 70 percent of the total project cost, which remains private. The homeowners paid the rest. The Rademachers are glad the long journey arrived at a mostly happy ending, but they are still reconciling the trauma of the past.
“We love the house, and we love living here but I don’t think you could build a house that would be worth what we went through to get it,” Jason says. | 2022-06-16T12:30:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | A Chevy Chase, Md., family rebuilds their home after a devastating fire - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/16/rising-ashes/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/16/rising-ashes/ |
An Executive Order That Might Actually Stop Gun Violence
AR-15 rifles for sale at Knob Creek Gun Range in West Point, Kentucky, U.S., on Thursday, July 22, 2021. Firearm sales have reached a near-record pace of well over 1 million a month, according to Small Arms Analytics & Forecasting. (Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg)
Congress, spurred by violent tragedies in Uvalde, Texas; Buffalo, New York; and elsewhere, may soon pass modest bipartisan gun-reform legislation. The bill would bolster red-flag laws meant to prevent dangerous individuals from owning guns, strengthen background checks of all gun buyers and amplify penalties for gun-trafficking crimes. Mental health programs and school security would receive more federal funding.
The bill is a step forward and, as my colleagues on Bloomberg Opinion’s editorial board have noted, is better than doing nothing. But it’s simply not enough.
Too many guns are on the streets already, and high-powered, military-grade handguns, long guns and rifles remain readily available. Gun violence in the US is far more ubiquitous than in other affluent countries, and there are more civilian-owned firearms than people in America.
Sales of military-grade firearms need to be curtailed as soon as possible — and without waiting on Congress. President Joe Biden should issue an executive order preventing the departments of Defense, Justice, Homeland Security and Treasury — any federal agency — from awarding contracts to small-arms manufacturers that sell comparable weapons to average citizens. Gunmakers would be forced to choose with whom they do business: soldiers or citizens.
The world’s biggest gunmakers sell their wares to the US government as well as average Americans. That list includes large overseas manufacturers such as Glock GmbH, Beretta Holdings, Sturm Ruger & Co., Heckler & Koch GmbH and Sig Sauer’s parent company, L&O Holding GmbH. US-based companies such as Colt’s Manufacturing Co. and Smith & Wesson Brands Inc. are big players as well. Daniel Defense, a much smaller US manufacturer that makes the AR-15 assault-style rifle that was used in the Uvalde massacre, also does business with the federal government.
How potent would an executive order like this be? It would depend on how much it would hurt the bottom line of companies that sell to the government. Many of the companies are privately held, so their annual revenue and earnings aren’t freely available. Sales at Smith & Wesson, which is publicly traded, doubled to more than $1 billion last year. The company estimates that about 94% of its revenue came from consumer sales last year; the federal government and law enforcement made up only 6% of its sales.
I’m going to presume that Smith & Wesson’s sales mix might be a proxy for most gunmakers, and based on my review of federal contract data at USASpending.gov, it probably is. Daniel Defense, for example, told Forbes in 2017 that 90% of its revenue came from consumer sales.
In that context, here are a few takeaways from those figures: 1) It should worry you that gun proliferation is so extensive that average consumers have more small arms than law enforcement and the military (have a look at this map and data if you want to be alarmed further); 2) Gunmakers might simply walk away from federal contracts if they are forced to make a choice; and 3) Sales aren’t the only leverage the White House has with gunmakers.
Should gunmakers forgo government sales after an executive order, they would lose a valuable marketing partner. Handgun sales in the US took off in the 1980s in part because Beretta and Glock marketed their guns as the preferred weapons of the military and police departments. Fetishizing guns as the tools of warriors and sheriffs has proved to be a wildly successful marketing strategy for gunmakers. Visits to their websites show how much military bravado is still central to their messaging. Would they want to give up their marketing mojo and lose a chunk of their sales if the federal government walked away from contracts?
There are lots of details that would have to be worked out for an executive order like this to be effective. Gunmakers and their lobbyists would denounce the White House as anti-consumer and invoke the Second Amendment. But if the Biden administration is prepared to weather the inevitable blowback, and possibly enlist local police departments to adopt a similar strategy with their own purchasing contracts, it could prove to be a forceful response to gun violence.
“It’s a fascinating idea, but all of the legal, constitutional and feasibility issues would turn on how an executive order would be implemented,” said Eric Ruben, a professor at the Dedman School of Law at Southern Methodist University and a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice.
Perhaps the executive order could apply contractual limitations only to military-style assault weapons. Hunters could still get their rifles. Sporting enthusiasts could have their guns. People who want to carry a modest firearm to protect themselves wouldn’t be affected. The police could still get the firepower they need. But potential mass shooters wouldn’t have access to the kind of weapon used at Uvalde and other horrific crime scenes.
Going this route would allow the White House to circumvent a Congress that hasn’t responded to what a clear majority of voters want: meaningful gun reform. And it would get there by using the power of the federal government’s purse. | 2022-06-16T12:30:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | An Executive Order That Might Actually Stop Gun Violence - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/an-executive-order-that-might-actually-stop-gun-violence/2022/06/16/47745b4e-ed64-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/an-executive-order-that-might-actually-stop-gun-violence/2022/06/16/47745b4e-ed64-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html |
‘Drip Pricing’ Is Turning Checkout Into a Nasty Surprise
MIAMI, FLORIDA - JANUARY 12: Edwin Lopez sorts the money in the cash register at Frankie’s Pizza on January 12, 2022 in Miami, Florida. The eatery’s co-owner, Renee Pasquarella, said the cost for everything needed to run the business — from cardboard boxes to pizza ingredients including cheese, tomatoes, meat — has gone up. She said that in the 67 years the pizza place has been serving customers this has been one of the toughest times to keep it open. The Labor Department released a report indicating that the consumer price index rose 7 percent in December, compared to a year ago, the fastest increase since June 1982. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) (Photographer: Joe Raedle/Getty Images North America)
As if inflation isn’t bad enough, consumers are getting slammed by drip pricing, the sneaky extra fees that get tacked on right before a purchase is closed.
You’ve no doubt become familiar with the drill: Airlines, hotels, concert ticket sellers, telecom companies and others will advertise a lower price, but then reveal additional, mandatory charges often after buyers are invested and about to click the “purchase now” button. It’s an unfair practice, but unfortunately nothing new. And it’s becoming even more rampant as companies look for quieter, less visible ways to pass on higher costs to consumers.
Besides being incredibly frustrating, drip pricing feels deceptive, though it’s perfectly legal in many cases. It’s impossible to comparison shop for the best deal when you don’t know what the actual cost is. Studies show the tactic exploits cognitive biases: People get excited about the initial offer and then don’t want to go to the trouble of starting over or having to re-enter all their information. They wind up spending more than they would have if they had known the true cost at the outset.
So what can you do to fight back? First, be aware of the latest tricks so you can avoid falling for them. Second, don’t just give up. You can still exercise your consumer power by walking away, or protesting fees you view as particularly onerous.
The airline industry has been a pioneer in drip pricing — it prefers to call it “unbundling” — starting with the rise of flight aggregator websites back in the early 2000s. Airlines routinely tack on fees for checking bags or selecting seats. Since the pandemic, things have become worse. Many carriers have imposed or increased fuel surcharges, and tickets bought with mileage rewards have become more expensive.
For those who have been issued a voucher recently for a delayed or canceled flight, prepare to be particularly outraged. You’ll be told you have to call an agent to use the voucher — and then get hit with a phone booking fee for doing so, according to Brian Kelly, founder of travel website The Points Guy.
The hotel industry isn’t much better. Guests have complained for years about resort fees, which are daily charges for hotel amenities and are typically added after you’ve already committed to paying a particular price for a room. Nowadays, the most annoying part of the resort fee is that guests are being charged for things they aren’t even able to use, either because of pandemic restrictions (such as limiting access to the hotel gym) or because of understaffing. Be wary of extra charges imposed for Covid cleaning, too. Hotels have been slow to roll them back, even though they may not be taking the same precautions anymore.
It goes far beyond travel. At home, keep an eye on your cable, internet and phone bills. Telecom companies were cited as the worst industry for hidden fees, with 70% of respondents in a 2018 Consumer Reports survey saying they’d experienced an unexpected or hidden fee from a telecom company in the previous two years.
Cable providers are notorious for luring consumers in with promotional rates, but then adding on fees for miscellaneous things, which is where they bury their price increases. Companies were inventing new fees and hiking existing ones even before inflation, and will only continue doing so, says Jonathan Schwantes, senior policy counsel for Consumer Reports, who focuses on telecommunications and competition issues.
Merchants are also increasingly charging consumers a fee at checkout for credit-card purchases. Visa and Mastercard recently raised some of the fees they charge retailers, and instead of swallowing it or adding it in their pricing, some are imposing a surcharge. About 10 years ago, the ban on credit-card surcharges (where merchants pass the fees imposed by payment networks such as Visa and Mastercard to consumers) was lifted, but it’s only more recently that states have followed suit, opening the option for retailers.
In addition to drip pricing, consumers should watch out for dynamic pricing. That’s where you think you’re saving money by agreeing to “subscribe and save” for automatic deliveries on Amazon, but check the fine print: You’re agreeing to subscribe to a fluctuating price, not a set one. Sure, Amazon will send you a notification ahead of delivery to confirm you’re OK with the price, but many consumers say they’ve missed the alert.
Finally, if you do wind up paying more than you bargained for — whether it’s for a tube of toothpaste or a ticket to Rome — you don’t have to just accept it. The Consumer Reports study showed that only 30% of people who were stuck with a hidden fee fought against it. But more than 65% of those who complained were successful in getting it refunded or waived. With your money not going as far as it used to, it’s even more vital to pay what you were promised.
Generation Z Gets a Harsh Lesson in Stock Risk: Allison Schrager
Can You Make a Living in the Creator Economy?: Erin Lowry
How to Tell If the Housing Market Is Cooling Off: Conor Sen | 2022-06-16T12:30:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | ‘Drip Pricing’ Is Turning Checkout Into a Nasty Surprise - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/drip-pricing-is-turning-checkout-into-a-nasty-surprise/2022/06/16/798da2ee-ed68-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/drip-pricing-is-turning-checkout-into-a-nasty-surprise/2022/06/16/798da2ee-ed68-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html |
A Washington Post analysis found more than 160 teachers who lost their positions because of political debates
Moriah Balingit
People in Albuquerque protest critical race theory outside the New Mexico Public Education Department in November. (Cedar Attanasio/AP)
A Florida teacher lost her job for hanging a Black Lives Matter flag over her classroom door and rewarding student activism. A Massachusetts teacher was fired for posting a video denouncing critical race theory. A teacher in Missouri got the ax for assigning a worksheet about privilege — and still another, in California, was fired for criticizing mask mandates on her Facebook page.
They were among more than 160 educators who were either fired or resigned their jobs in the past two academic years due to the culture wars that are roiling many of the nation’s schools, according to a Washington Post analysis of news reports. On average, slightly more than two teachers lost their jobs for every week that school remained in session.
The teachers included in the analysis all lost their employment when hot-button cultural, racial, political or pandemic issues intersected with their ability to teach, either because the teacher sought to address controversial topics in the classroom or because administrators took issue with the teacher’s views as expressed inside or outside the classroom.
“Our educators,” said Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, “are being caught in the crosshairs of the culture wars.”
She said many teachers were already exhausted before the wave of high-profile conflicts over what can be taught or expressed, tired out by pandemic-induced stress and the extra demands being made on both their professional and personal lives. She predicted the wave of firings and resignations will only grow in months to come — and warned some educators will refrain from teaching sensitive topics due to fear of backlash in the meantime.
“Teachers won’t desire to stay in a profession where, when they’re just trying to do what’s right for their students, they are being verbally attacked and blamed,” Pringle said. “It is already having an impact … in terms of a chilling effect, with teachers having to make a decision whether they can teach the curriculum.”
Educators fear conditions will only worsen as lawmakers seek to regulate how teachers talk about any number of issues, including politics, race, history, gender identity and sexuality, creating a new basis to push teachers out. In some cases, the authors of education-related bills and laws have used vague, broad and unclear wording, leading to widespread concern that teachers may unintentionally run afoul of the law.
Bonnie Snyder, director of K-12 outreach for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, said public school teachers generally do not enjoy the same free speech rights in the classroom, where they are acting as agents of the state. FIRE opposes bans on teacher speech but also recognizes that state legislatures have the right to enact them.
“It’s government speech,” Snyder said, adding that teachers are hired to deliver state-approved curriculum. “When teachers veer from those guidelines, you’re on thinner ice.”
This Florida teacher married a woman. Now she’s not a teacher anymore.
Some of the firings got widespread attention, such as the forced resignation of James Whitfield, a Black high school principal in Texas who was accused of promoting critical race theory — or that of Matthew Hawn, a White Tennessee teacher who lost his job for teaching White students about White privilege. Right-wing media latched on to other kinds of firings, boosting the message and grievances of teachers like Paul Rossi in New York City, who spoke out against schools’ social justice efforts; or those who refused to call transgender students by their pronouns due to religious beliefs.
Many job losses happened far more quietly. The Post’s tally is probably a significant undercount, as scores of firings and resignations go unreported in local media, and the reasoning behind them remains unclear.
Tony Kinnett’s firing did not go unnoticed.
Kinnett, who was the science coordinator for Indianapolis Public Schools, waged a very public war with the district, accusing school officials of lying to parents when they denied teaching critical race theory, an academic construct that examines the consequences of systemic racism. School officials say that it is not taught in classrooms, but its underlying ideas form parts of lessons and policies in many schools.
In the fall, Kinnett posted a video in which he charged that key concepts of critical race theory were making their way into all academic subjects.
The video was viewed more than a half-million times and picked up by right-leaning news outlets. He later shared with the Daily Caller videos of an administrator talking to students over Zoom about systemic racism, accusing her of “creating racial tension through her open support of Critical Race Theory.” After being placed on administrative leave, he was let go.
Kinnett, who worked as an education policy adviser for Republican Scott Walker when he served as governor of Wisconsin, said he grew frustrated in the run-up to the midterms by people who said that critical race theory wasn’t being taught in schools, that “it’s just this boogeyman.”
While he lost his job, his vocal outrage in Indianapolis boosted his public exposure just as he was beginning his new career as an education journalist for right-leaning outlets. He has become a repeat guest on Fox News.
The Post’s tally of culture-war-related educator job losses in the past two years show 74 cases in which educators were fired from their jobs and 92 in which they resigned, either of their own volition or under pressure. The firings and resignations took place in at least 28 states, with California, Oregon, Texas, Pennsylvania and New York boasting the largest number of incidents (eight each).
Of the firings, 35 teachers lost their jobs for behaving or speaking in accordance with traditionally conservative beliefs, while 33 lost their jobs for behaving or speaking in accordance with traditionally liberal beliefs.
A flag, videos, an assignment: Each meant the end of a teacher’s career
The flag read “BLACK LIVES MATTER,” and it went up outside Amy Donofrio’s Florida classroom in October 2020.
It was about five months after the murder of George Floyd spurred nationwide protests for racial justice. Donofrio taught at Robert E. Lee High, named for the Confederate general and whose student body is majority-Black. The Duval County School Board was involved in a pitched fight over whether to rename the school, drawing pro-Confederate activists to meetings.
In the midst of this, Donofrio said she wanted to ensure that her Black students felt seen. She had spent much of her career helming a leadership class and organization that connected Black students with policymakers and police officers, allowing them to share their stories and perspectives. Posting the flag, with its simple refrain, felt like the right gesture.
The flag stayed up until March 2021, when administrators took it down after she declined again to remove it. In its place, she posted a piece of paper with an explanation of why it was gone. When she was barred from campus and placed on administrative leave, she sued with the help of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The news of her firing came from an unusual source: a public speech by then-Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran at a conservative college in Michigan. In it, he said there was “an entire classroom memorialized to Black Lives Matter.”
“We made sure she was being terminated,” Corcoran told the audience.
To Donofrio, the flag was not political. She said there is nothing she would have done differently, even though it separated her from a job she loved.
“I don’t know how any teacher cannot stand with our students and their value and their humanity,” she said. “That’s all that I did.”
A district investigation revealed that Donofrio also violated policies by giving students extra credit for attending the contentious school board meetings where the name change was discussed, and for wearing in yearbook photos masks and sweatshirts with the “I Am Not A Gang Member” phrase of the student group she founded, according to local media reports.
The Duval County school board voted to settle the lawsuit with Donofrio in August, even though many board members believed the district had not violated its policies.
Donofrio said she’s unsure if she will ever return to teaching.
In Massachusetts, Kari MacRae, 48, was dismissed from her position teaching business to high-schoolers in Hanover last September, when school officials caught wind of a video she posted on TikTok.
In the video, which MacRae shared as part of her successful campaign to join the school board in a nearby district, Bourne Public Schools, she critiqued what she called two glaring flaws of modern-day public education.
“So pretty much the reason I ran for school board,” she said, “is to ensure that students, at least in our town, are not being taught critical race theory. That they’re not being taught that the country was built on racism.”
MacRae added: “So they’re not being taught that they can choose whether or not they want to be a girl or a boy.”
The comments sparked criticism from residents, parents and students who felt the remarks were hurtful and transphobic. Administrators told her soon afterward that she was being let go for her “social media posts.”
Matt Ferron, the district superintendent, confirmed by email that “an investigation was opened related to [MacRae’s] social media posts.” He wrote that MacRae’s online activity denigrated members of “traditionally marginalized groups” and added that the decision to dismiss her was “not a result of her political views.”
The Hanover district “fully understands and respects the First Amendment rights of all employees,” Ferron wrote. He called MacRae’s comments an example of a teacher “publicly [interfacing] with the community in a way that may negatively impact our ability to provide a positive and distraction free learning environment.”
MacRae, who is suing the district, said her comments were not meant to be transphobic. She said she supports LGBTQ people and believes “people can choose and pick to be what their heart tells them” when it comes to gender — but she does not think teachers should discuss students’ gender identities during lessons.
“I think the problem with things being taught,” she said, “is that when children are young they’re very pliable and if they’re taught certain things they might end up going a certain way.”
Her larger concern, though, lies with the school district. She said she never expected to lose her job in the Hanover district because of opinions she shared while campaigning for a seat on the school board in another district. She said she has read about teachers across the country losing their jobs for similar reasons — in both red-leaning and blue-leaning places — and finds it alarming.
“Whatever party is dominant in the area, if you have an ideology different from the group and you share it, you get fired,” she said. “I think that we have become so very much one-sided — I really think we’re dividing ourselves more and more every day.”
In Oklahoma, Tyler Wrynn was an unknown middle school teacher when a TikTok video he made was featured on “Libs of TikTok,” a right-wing Twitter account that curates videos, many made by teachers, that often end up going viral, used as evidence that educators are indoctrinating and grooming students. Many of Wrynn’s followers are young members of the LGBTQ community, he said, and as someone who grew up queer in a community that did not embrace him, he wanted to comfort those who were also being shunned. So he said to his 20,000 followers: “If your parents don’t accept you for who you are, f--- them. I’m your parents now.”
It was a message that was not necessarily intended for his own middle school students, with whom he never shared his TikTok handle. But when his video drew the attention of administrators, he was placed on leave. In April, he was permitted to resign.
Wrynn says he fears other educators could face the same fate with the passage of new laws restricting how teachers can speak about sexuality or gender identity.
“It puts us between a rock and a hard place,” Wrynn said. “I mean, you can’t be a person, and you can’t have any kind of presence that can be construed as anything other than neutral.”
A spokesman for Owasso Public Schools, where Wrynn was employed, confirmed the resignation but said he could not comment further because it was a personnel issue.
Kim Morrison had taught high school English in her area of White, conservative, rural Missouri for eight years when, in early February, she assigned her contemporary literature students a book called “Dear Martin.” The young adult novel by Nic Stone details the experiences of a young Black teen who is stopped by police, in an encounter that turns violent, and must grapple with racism.
Morrison had taught it before and never received a complaint. This time, to prepare her class for a chapter that dealt with the intersection of race and privilege, she gave her students a questionnaire, “How Racially Privileged Are You?”
It asked students to circle “True” or “Untrue” alongside 15 statements, including “I have never been a victim of violence because of my race” and “I can walk into any hair salon and find someone who can cut my hair.”
A few weeks later, Morrison’s principal called her into the office and questioned her about the worksheet, saying that parents had complained. About two weeks after that, the Greenfield R-IV School District board voted not to renew Morrison’s contract. Distraught, she asked school officials for their reasoning.
They sent a sentence: “The board’s actions were taken for the following reasons: Your decision to incorporate the worksheet associated with the novel ‘Dear Martin’ due to the content and subject matter.”
The district did not respond to a request for comment about Morrison’s firing.
Morrison said she knew that “White privilege” was a controversial term before she assigned the worksheet. But she wasn’t using that exact phrase, she reasoned, and she wanted students to read about different experiences.
Morrison finished out the year, but she changed how she taught the rest of “Dear Martin,” nixing a planned discussion of a chapter about affirmative action. Now, she is looking for new jobs.
Chiqui Esteban contributed to this report. | 2022-06-16T12:30:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Culture wars lead to teacher firings, resignations - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/06/16/teacher-resignations-firings-culture-wars/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/06/16/teacher-resignations-firings-culture-wars/ |
Who approved the Watergate break-in? Let’s go to the tapes.
(Illustration by Emma Kumer/The Washington Post; Henry Burroughs/AP; iStock)
On the 50th anniversary of the Watergate break-in, one great mystery remains: Who was the top official to approve the illegal entry into the Democratic National Headquarters? An obscure tape provides an answer.
It is not one of the famous White House tapes — the ones that helped end Richard M. Nixon’s presidency — but instead an audio diary recording dictated by Nixon’s chief of staff, H. R. “Bob” Haldeman. And it points the finger squarely at one of Nixon’s most trusted advisers: campaign manager and former attorney general John Mitchell.
The Haldeman tapes have been largely overlooked by historians, who have cast doubt on whether Mitchell knew about the break-in. In his 2008 Mitchell biography, “The Strong Man,” James Rosen, now chief White House correspondent for Newsmax, argued that Mitchell not only did not order the break-in but that he didn’t know about it until after the arrests in June 1972.
More recently, Garrett Graff concluded in “Watergate: A New History,” published this February, that accounts of Mitchell preapproving the break-in “are wrong.”
But the Haldeman audio diary states clearly that Mitchell did approve the operation; he confessed as much privately to Haldeman and White House Counsel John Dean on March 28, 1973. Haldeman recorded the admission late that night just before going to bed.
The recording is the kind of evidence that lawyers rely on all the time in criminal cases. And, fortunately for history, it is of high fidelity — amazingly intimate all these decades later, as if you are sitting with Haldeman in his home study as he dictates.
Mitchell’s apparent authorization of the break-in places the operation at the heart of Nixon’s inner circle. Mitchell was one of Nixon’s only close friends. He hired Nixon as a lawyer at his firm during Nixon’s wilderness years after failed campaigns for president in 1960 and California governor in 1962. He encouraged Nixon to try for the presidency again in 1968, then ran his campaign. Mitchell served as attorney general in Nixon’s first term before heading his reelection campaign in 1972.
In other words, according to Haldeman, the highest-ranking person to approve the Watergate break-in was the man who orchestrated Nixon’s political career.
Here is how Haldeman started his diary entry on the night of March 28:
Play Play
The speech referred to was Nixon’s final address to the nation on Vietnam, after he ended U.S. involvement in the war in January 1973.
Watergate, however, was beginning to consume his presidency.
Just a week earlier, on March 21, Dean had warned Nixon that there was a “cancer growing on his presidency.” The Watergate burglars and their bosses, E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, were set to be sentenced March 23 before Judge John Sirica. Dean told Nixon that Hunt was demanding more “hush money” in advance of the hearing — lawyer fees and family support during his expected incarceration. Dean predicted it would take $1 million to fund such a blackmail request. Nixon responded he knew where he could get the money — in cash.
[How the Watergate scandal broke to the world: A visual timeline]
On March 23, one of the burglars, James McCord, delivered a letter to Sirica stating that “others involved in the Watergate operation were not identified during the trial.”
John N. Mitchell, one of six people charged in the Watergate scandal, is outside the U.S. District Court in D.C. on March 9, 1974, where he faced arraignment. (AP)
Rumors and allegations flew, and McCord started naming names. Getting only some of the details right, McCord cited Dean and deputy campaign director Jeb Magruder as the “others” he believed were involved in planning and executing the Watergate operation.
Magruder had presented the final break-in plan to Mitchell in late March 1972, after which Magruder asked his assistant to tell Liddy it had been approved. Dean had not been involved in that meeting but had participated in earlier meetings in Mitchell’s office with Magruder, in January and February, where Liddy presented intelligence plans that initially went nowhere. (Disclosure: For 11 years, I have taught a legal ethics seminar together with Dean, based on the Watergate saga.)
Mitchell, Magruder and Dean had to get their stories straight. Haldeman called all three to the White House on March 28, 1973.
Mitchell and Magruder pressured Dean to support their previous grand jury testimony that they had met only once with Liddy and that the meeting had not involved intelligence, but campaign finance issues. Dean refused, recognizing he would perjure himself if he agreed.
That night, Haldeman faithfully recorded his diary entries for the day.
Haldeman saw the discrepancies in Mitchell, Dean and Magruder’s accounts of their meetings with Liddy as potentially devastating. He likened the situation to the Alger Hiss espionage investigation Nixon conducted as a congressman, where rolls of film containing secret State Department papers were discovered in a hollowed-out pumpkin, which later helped convince a jury that Hiss was guilty of perjury.
As he continued his monotone dictation, Haldeman said the “drip, drip, drip” of Watergate had taken a toll on Mitchell. The pressure that started building the summer before, with the break-in and Mitchell’s subsequent resignation from the campaign, was now boiling over, sending Mitchell into a deep personal crisis.
Finally, Haldeman cut to the heart of the matter. He reported that Dean, who had participated in the coverup following the arrests of the burglars, said Mitchell and Magruder had both confessed to him that they “signed off” on the break-in. Dean thought they should come forward and take responsibility, while the coverup could somehow be “worked out.” Haldeman also recorded that in a separate meeting, Mitchell had admitted to him that he approved the Watergate plan.
This entry has all the hallmarks of credibility: a contemporaneous statement, recorded by someone who kept an audio diary as a matter of a regular business activity, containing damning admissions for everyone involved.
Judges frown on hearsay evidence, but this diary entry would almost certainly be admissible in federal court. Regular business records carry a level of trustworthiness. Similarly, admissions against interest are not defined as hearsay because people generally do not make statements damaging to themselves unless they believe they are true.
When presented with this evidence, Rosen, the Mitchell biographer, called it “inconclusive at best” and argued that the “project” Mitchell approved might have been “the overall intelligence-gathering operation that Liddy had pitched, not a specific operation at the DNC.” (Graff, the other author who questioned Mitchell’s role, declined to comment.)
H.R. Haldeman, former top aide to President Richard M. Nixon, escorted by police, enters the Senate Watergate hearings in Washington on July 30, 1973, to begin testimony. (AP)
There is some ambiguity in Haldeman’s language, but we know from multiple taped conversations from the spring of 1973 that Mitchell was presented in advance with the full scope of the operation, which included the break-in. We also know from these same tapes that Mitchell read transcripts of intercepted DNC calls from the first Watergate bugging in early June 1972 — making clear he knew about the bugging before the burglars were arrested June 17, and bolstering the other evidence that he was in on the plot from the start.
Perhaps Haldeman’s March 28 recording has been overlooked because of the sheer volume of the Nixon tapes and the density of Haldeman’s diaries — as well as the fact that it wasn’t made public until 1994, long after Nixon had been driven from office. But history should accurately record such critical admissions. Watergate got out of hand because Nixon couldn’t let Mitchell, his friend and mentor, take the fall. In an early White House tape, Nixon approved the coverup, fearing that admitting wrongdoing “would destroy” Mitchell.
James D. Robenalt is the author of “The Harding Affair, Love and Espionage During the Great War” and “January 1973, Watergate, Roe v. Wade, Vietnam, and the Month That Changed America Forever.” He practices law in Cleveland at Thompson Hine LLP. Twitter Twitter | 2022-06-16T12:30:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Who approved Watergate break-in? Haldeman tape points to John Mitchell. - Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/interactive/2022/haldeman-tapes-watergate-john-mitchell/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/interactive/2022/haldeman-tapes-watergate-john-mitchell/ |
Golfers cash in on Saudi-funded tour but hurt their legacies
The new LIV Golf tour pays big, but the money comes from a government with a terrible human rights record.
Golfer Phil Mickelson tees off at the LIV Golf tournament in St. Albans, England, on June 9. The tournament is part of a new tour offering huge payouts. LIV is funded by the Public Investment Fund of the Saudi Arabian government. (Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)
Men’s professional golf is often in the news these days.
First, the United States Open is being played in Brookline, Massachusetts, from Thursday through Sunday. The U.S. Open is one of golf’s “major” tournaments. The other majors are the Masters, the British Open and the PGA Championship. Those are the most famous tournaments where all the best players compete.
The other reason folks are talking about men’s professional golf is because a new tour has started to compete with the Professional Golf Association Tour, which has existed since 1968.
The LIV Tour is eight events that will take place from June to October in the United States, Europe and Asia. What makes the new tour different from the PGA is that the LIV tour guarantees golfers huge amounts of money to play in their events and offers big-money prizes for winning.
Charl Schwartzel, who won the first LIV tournament, received $4 million, the largest prize in the history of golf.
Several big-name golfers, including Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and other major tournament winners, have taken the money and joined the LIV Tour. Reportedly, Mickelson and Johnson received more than $100 million each to join. Golfers who join the LIV Tour will not be allowed to play on the PGA Tour (as of now they are able to play in the majors).
So what’s the problem? Aren’t professional athletes supposed to make as much money as they can?
The problem is that all the money for the LIV Tour is provided by the Public Investment Fund of the Saudi Arabian government. Saudi Arabia is a country that has a terrible record on human rights. The Saudis do not give women anywhere near the same rights as men. The government also discriminates against gay people and puts citizens who criticize the government in jail.
In addition, United States intelligence agencies say that Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince and chairman of the Public Investment Fund, ordered the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. Khashoggi was a journalist who criticized the Saudi government as a contributing columnist for The Washington Post and in other news media.
Many people think that the Saudi government is funding the LIV tour to improve the country’s image around the world. Even if they claim they don’t like what happens in Saudi Arabia, the golfers who are playing on the LIV Tour and accepting the Saudi money are supporting a government that kills some of its people and treats many others very badly.
Golfers such as Mickelson and Johnson should not need the Saudi money. They have already made hundreds of millions of dollars playing golf.
By taking the Saudi money instead of standing up for what is right, the LIV golfers have lost something much greater than a golf tournament. They have lost their good reputation.
From now on, they will not be known as champions but as men who could be bought. | 2022-06-16T12:31:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Golfers cash in on Saudi-funded tour but hurt their legacies - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost/2022/06/16/golfers-liv-participation-hurts-legacy/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost/2022/06/16/golfers-liv-participation-hurts-legacy/ |
Two artists comb Provincetown’s shores for relics of the town’s long and storied history. Their finds influence their art — and their home decor.
Artist Gail Browne on the shore in Provincetown, Mass. “I have an obsession,” says Browne, 74. “When I’m walking on the beach, I just can’t take my eyes off the ground.” (Photos by Rick Friedman/Polaris for The Washington Post)
The late April sun is still warm and there’s a salty tang in the air as Gail Browne heads down the narrow streets of Provincetown, Mass., to the harbor beach she has combed for 50 years. She approaches the shoreline an hour before low tide, the time seasoned beachcombers know is best for scanning around seaweed, rocks and shells for a glint of man-made treasures. Gulls screech and contractors’ drills ready antique cottages for the season. Browne heads under the wharves to search the sand for bits of the history of this town, which was founded in 1727 at the tip of Cape Cod. The thousands of relics she has uncovered are a portal into the past: 1700s English transferware shards, fishermen’s pipes, 19th-century clay marbles, a bronze oil lamp. These pieces of strangers’ homes and lives also artfully fill shelves, tables and windowsills in her nearby townhouse, reflecting her own memories and stories.
“I have an obsession,” says Browne, 74. “When I’m walking on the beach, I just can’t take my eyes off the ground.”
Browne is one of many artists and collectors who have succumbed to the lure of the sands in Provincetown. The quaint and quirky fisherman’s village is a summer resort and a world famous art colony where generations of painters have come to capture the elusive Cape Cod light. She and her friend Amy Heller, a fellow artist who has been combing the beaches since she was a child, are inspired in their work by the natural beauty of Cape Cod as well as the treasures they uncover on its beaches, then display in their homes. The two women collaborated on a 2020 book that shares their beachcombing experiences as well as those of four other artist-collectors: “Lost and Found: Time, Tide, and Treasures.” And last October, the Cape Cod Museum of Art staged an exhibition about them.
There is a reason the sands here are choice beachcombing territory: Provincetown’s harbor basically served as the town dump until the 1930s. “Everyone threw their junk into the harbor. It was pretty nasty,” Browne says. “It all settled down, and what didn’t rot stayed behind and got covered up. Tides and wind shift it, and that uncovers it.” Because of Provincetown’s years as a major whaling and fishing center, the jumble of sunken bits and pieces that have been churned up amount to a rich soup that tells the story of the town.
Some people save things. Others crave a clean slate. What happens when opposites attract?
The relics are beautiful on their own. But when massed into bowls or jars, or displayed on shelves, the objects and their timeworn patina create a focal point in a room, and a history lesson for anyone who will listen. How many of us have brought home a shell or a piece of sea glass that triggers memories of a day by the water? (It’s always a good idea to check local beach collection rules surrounding what you can gather on public lands, according to Leslie Reynolds, deputy superintendent of the Cape Cod National Seashore.)
The laid-back vibe of collecting things from the sand has a long history. “Ever since people have been walking the shore of oceans, seas, lakes and rivers, they have been picking stuff up,” says Kirsti Scott, editor and publisher of the five-year-old magazine Beachcombing. But there has been a growing interest in the topic, Scott says, since the rise of social media, which allowed combers to connect with other master foragers. Also during the pandemic, people who were tired of being stuck indoors flocked to beaches, and more got hooked on trawling for treasures. Festivals around the country, such as the Eastern Shore Sea Glass & Coastal Arts Festival in St. Michaels, Md., and the Sanibel Shell Show in Florida, can attract thousands of attendees. The Beachcombing Center, which opened last year on Tilghman Island, Md., in the Chesapeake Bay, is an international museum of sea glass, fossils and shipwreck finds, and part of its mission is to raise awareness about coastal erosion and marine debris, according to executive director Mary McCarthy.
Heller, 64, is a native Washingtonian who once worked as an exhibit specialist at several Smithsonian museums and the National Gallery of Art. She came to Provincetown every summer as a child, where she and her mother combed the East and West End harbor beaches.
Her mother often toted beach treasures back to their home in the Forest Glen section of Silver Spring. “We displayed old bottles on our windowsills, beach glass and pebbles in jars in the bathrooms, and containers of ceramic shards scattered around the house,” she says. “All of the beach treasures fit in nicely with our antiques and early American art.” Leaving Provincetown after Labor Day each year to go back to school was tough, Heller says, but “having pieces of Provincetown displayed around our house was a pleasant reminder” of those summers.
Heller’s career in museums and later as a photographer and photo editor kept her in Washington. But eventually the pull of the ocean was too great. In 2003, Heller and her husband, Bart Weisman, a jazz musician and fellow Washingtonian, moved to Massachusetts. They lived in Provincetown for nine years, then moved to a townhouse in nearby Orleans. Her beach finds, including seaweed, skate egg cases and doll parts, went with her and became an inspiration and launching point for her art, which is mainly mixed-media cyanotypes.
A Victorian bisque doll’s leg she found in the town’s West End when she was 8 is one of her most precious pieces. She keeps it on the top of a metal box of finds that is usually in her living room. “When I look at it, I wonder, ‘Who was that little girl who lost her toys in the sand?’ ” Heller says.
Heller tends to display her treasures in collections. “Since most of the beach treasures that I collected are relatively small, containers are key,” she says. She uses large, clear acrylic bowls for a mixture of shells, pebbles and ceramic shards. Old glass bottles are grouped on shelves.
Heller met Browne in the fall of 2003 when she stopped by Browne’s art gallery in the center of town to inquire about ceramics classes. The front window of the gallery was lined with beachcombed ceramic shards and other relics, which brought back a flood of memories for Heller. The two became fast friends.
Browne, who grew up in Cleveland, first saw the sea in 1966 when she flew into Provincetown to attend a summer art program. She settled in, then went across the street to see the ocean the next morning. The tide was out and the water was gone. “I had never seen a tide before, and that was a pivotal moment,” Browne says. She came to realize that the receding tide exposed all secrets. “I wondered what went on beneath all that,” she says. “My imagination went crazy.”
She was hooked and then spent every summer in Provincetown pursuing her watercolors and beachcombing. It was a heady time in the art scene there. While working in a small general store in the East End, Browne met Mark Rothko and sold Gauloises cigarettes to Robert Motherwell. She moved to Provincetown permanently in 1970 after receiving her BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art.
In addition to painting, walking the beaches became part of her routine, and later on, she spent summers at the beach with her two daughters. “If it was low tide, we would go beachcombing, and if it was high tide, I would throw beach shards into the water so they could dive down and get them,” Browne says. When she had time alone, walking the beaches was a form of meditation. “Amy thinks I have a special radar for things, but I think because I am a painter, I will notice a little spot of color that is different from the other colors and dig it out,” she says.
On the third floor of Browne’s home, in her art studio, she has a vintage cabinet known as a barrister bookcase with glass doors to protect her collections from dust. Here she arranges groups of doll parts, beads, bottles and stoppers, rusted keys and spoons and vintage wooden floats from Portuguese fishermen, who first settled in Provincetown in the mid-1800s. On the second floor, she displays more than 1,200 clay marbles and another 500 or so glass marbles (she teaches her grandchildren to count with them). For her patio she created a tabletop composed of colorful ceramic pieces embedded in resin.
“At first I started filling bowls and jars,” she says. “But I eventually had to have some organization. I love being able to pass by a shelf or window and see my beautiful finds. It keeps me engaged in something important to me and transports me.”
Browne’s spoils are rich: bits of jewelry, shards of Blue Willow porcelain, gold class rings, silver Kennedy half dollars, ginger ale bottles, wooden buoys, old tools and pickle jars. “These things are a real connection to this place, but also a connection to the human race,” she says.
Sometimes Browne uncovers goodies when she isn’t even looking for them. Once, while raking for sea clams, she dug up a 100-year-old bottle of bootleg whisky with its cork and seal still intact. “I figured that people threw booze overboard if pirates were coming,” she says. Or it could have been thrown out of a ship by a rumrunner during Prohibition. As word got out about her find — and that it tasted quite smooth — local fishermen started stopping by for a swig. “Those things tie into the history of the town. No, it’s not just a bottle. There is a story behind it,” Browne says. “The town was pretty rough and exciting.”
The oldest bottle in Browne’s collection, a five-inch handblown aqua glass piece that sparkles in her living room window, has particularly sparked her imagination. “This is a bottle we think is from the 1600s that I found in Provincetown harbor,” Browne says. “Amy and I say that it must have been Dorothy Bradford’s. She went out on the deck to take a shot of booze and fell overboard and drowned.” (Indeed sailors’ yarns for decades have spun the story that Bradford, wife of future Plymouth Colony governor William Bradford, died in 1620 when she fell off the Mayflower.)
“Who the heck knows?” says Browne. “It’s history of a different kind.”
Jura Koncius covers interiors and lifestyle for The Post. | 2022-06-16T12:31:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Beachcombing, and living with coastal treasures in your home - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/06/16/beachcombing-provincetown-coastal-decorating/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/06/16/beachcombing-provincetown-coastal-decorating/ |
Oswaldo Payá speaks to supporters at his Aunt Beba's house on May 14, 2002. "Liberation is born from the soul, through a stroke of lightning that God gives to Cubans," he said. "This little paper, it contains the popular will." (Jorge Uzon/AFP via Getty Images)
‘Liberation is born from the soul’: Oswaldo Payá’s struggle for a free Cuba
Just before 6 a.m. on July 22, 2012, Oswaldo Payá opened the door of his house in Havana’s El Cerro neighborhood and stepped into the darkened street. He was accompanied by his young protege, Harold Cepero. Both carried overnight bags.
Oswaldo was 60 years old, with thick, wavy hair the color of charcoal and a swirl at the peak of his forehead. He had deep rings under his eyes and worry creases sometimes rippled across his brow, but his brown eyes were soft, understanding and patient. He often dressed casually, in jeans and a short-sleeved checkered shirt, the collar open wide, the buttons askew. By day, he was an engineer who specialized in medical electronics, troubleshooting lifesaving equipment at Havana hospitals. But his great passion was to change Cuba, to unleash a society of free people with unfettered rights to speak and act as they wished. He called it liberation.
He and Cepero walked past slumbering households as dogs and roosters milled about behind gates and fences. Oswaldo looked warily for cars in the shadows. Over many years, Fidel Castro’s state security had stationed surveillance vehicles in a nearby park and had paid residents in neighboring houses to inform on him. Oswaldo hoped the darkness would cover their departure, giving them a head start on a dangerous mission.
Oswaldo was going to Santiago de Cuba, 540 miles to the east, to train young activists and organize local committees for the Movimiento Cristiano Liberación, the democracy movement he founded in 1988. He started it with friends at the parish church, where four generations of his family had anchored their Catholic faith. The movimiento had grown to more than 1,000 members across the island, a civic and political group, nondenominational but driven by the values of Christian democracy that had confronted fascism and communism in the 20th century. Oswaldo, in building the movimiento, had become a leading voice of the opposition to Castro’s dictatorship.
A blue Hyundai Accent pulled up to the curb. Oswaldo softly recited a brief prayer, then climbed into the rear seat on the driver’s side; Cepero on the passenger side.
Two foreigners rode in front. They had come to Cuba expressly to assist Oswaldo and rented the blue Hyundai to drive him around, evading state security. The driver, 26-year-old Ángel Carromero, led the Madrid youth wing of Spain’s ruling Partido Popular, or People’s Party. Next to him was Aron Modig, 27, who headed the youth organization of Sweden’s Christian Democrats in Stockholm.
Oswaldo gave Carromero directions out of Havana. As the sun rose, he talked to his visitors of memories and pent-up hopes, a lifetime of visions pursued yet never quite fulfilled.
Oswaldo recalled how he had launched the Varela Project in 1998, challenging Castro’s dictatorship with an unprecedented nationwide citizen petition for democracy. The project was named for Félix Varela, a 19th-century priest and philosopher who was Cuba’s most illustrious educator. Oswaldo explained how they had doggedly collected signatures, door to door, then surprised Fidel and state security by submitting 11,020 names to the National Assembly in 2002 and 14,384 additional signatures the following year. More than 10,000 other signatures were still hidden. Nothing like it had ever happened before in Castro’s Cuba.
But Oswaldo and his movement paid a heavy price. His activity thrust him into the crosshairs of Cuba’s Seguridad del Estado, or state security, a hardened secret police trained in the methods of East Germany’s Ministry for State Security, the Stasi. In Cuba, state security harassed and intimidated dissidents and opposition figures using wiretaps, subversion, threats, detention and fear. Oswaldo took the brunt of it for years. After the first wave of Varela Project signatures was submitted, state security arrested and imprisoned 75 activists and independent journalists. They were sentenced to long prison terms in 2003 for nothing more than collecting signatures. Oswaldo was not arrested, but he was subjected to a different torment: relentless psychological warfare, including death threats.
This is the story of one man’s struggle against totalitarian rule. Throughout Cuba’s volatile history, people have risen to demand the right to rule themselves freely. They were dreamers who dared to wish for more, whose visions were often cut short, whose pursuit of liberty was often lost and then resurrected again by a new generation. Oswaldo Payá inherited those dreams and turned them into action with the Varela Project. He knew how basic rights were trampled upon in Cuba and set out, against great odds, to do something about it.
When a U.S. diplomat visited his house on Calle Peñón in 2006, Oswaldo was insistent. “People aren’t taking seriously enough the threat that they’d liquidate me,” he said.
He confided to a friend, “I see very few chances of getting out alive.”
When Castro led a ragtag band of rebels in the Sierra Maestra mountains in the late 1950s, the bearded guerrilla promised to create a democracy to replace the brutish autocracy of Fulgencio Batista. “We are fighting for the beautiful ideal of a free, democratic, and just Cuba. We want elections, but with one condition: truly free, democratic, and impartial elections,” he pledged. His manifestos spoke of “liberty,” “democracy” and “freedom.”
Once in power, Fidel took a different path. With backing from the Soviet Union and the Stasi, he constructed a dictatorship based on an overarching ideology, a single party, a secret police, total control of mass communications, the elimination of civil society and the power of a ruthless police state. His ambitions were totalitarian, to corral all of Cuba inside his revolution; as he put it, “within the Revolution, everything; against the Revolution, nothing.”
With Fidel, everything was intensely personal. He recoiled at criticism, perceiving it as disloyalty and disloyalty as treachery. He was impatient and unforgiving. He possessed none of the skills important in a democracy, such as the ability to accept defeat or compromise, to share power or to follow rules set by others. His life had been spent fighting, with words or bullets. One of Fidel’s commanders during the guerrilla war, Huber Matos, a teacher from Manzanillo, had bravely smuggled a planeload of weapons and ammunition from Costa Rica for the rebel army. Later, after Fidel was in power, Matos told the Cuban leader he was appalled at the growing influence of communism in the revolution. Castro had him arrested and sentenced to jail for 20 years.
Oswaldo devoted a lifetime to opposing Castro’s repression. He believed the rights of every person are God-given and cannot be taken away by the state. For most of his life, those rights were stolen, tarnished and denied in Cuba. Even something as innocent as hanging a sign saying “Feliz Navidad,” or “Merry Christmas“ on the bell tower of his church was considered subversive. Defiant, Oswaldo hung the sign anyway. He never lived in a state of liberty, but liberty lived in his mind and drove his fight for it.
Oswaldo was born in 1952. As a boy, he witnessed the seizure of his father’s business as Castro’s revolution confiscated private enterprises in 1965. As a teenager, he protested the Soviet tanks’ crushing of the Prague Spring in 1968 and was sent to Castro’s forced labor camps. Later, Oswaldo demanded that Catholic Church leaders in Cuba stand up for human rights and democracy; weakened by decades of repression, they chose reconciliation rather than confrontation. When Oswaldo published a popular newsletter demanding basic rights, the archbishop of Havana insisted that he stop. He would not. By the 1990s, when the collapse of the Soviet Union plunged Cubans into economic despair, Oswaldo had become a prominent advocate of democracy and basic human rights.
In the early 1990s, as thousands of Cubans took to the sea in flimsy rafts to escape, Oswaldo searched for ways to mobilize people to oppose the dictatorship. He admired Solidarity leader Lech Walesa and in 1990 proposed a “national dialogue” and “roundtable” similar to what happened in Poland to end Communist rule. But he had no means of public communication — no internet, no access to radio or television or newspapers. He was met with stony silence from the government.
However, Oswaldo was aware of a long-overlooked provision of Cuba’s constitution under which citizens could initiate legislation through a petition that would require 10,000 signatures. After thinking about options for many years, Oswaldo sought to bring about change by using the system against itself. The constitution and the citizen initiative would be his tools.
Oswaldo had been profoundly affected by the Tiananmen Square massacre in China. He wanted nonviolent change but understood the risk that violence could flare. “We don’t think,” he said, “that a truly liberating process involves bloodshed.”
In 1991, he began to collect signatures for a vague proposal: legislation for a referendum, a national dialogue and democratic change. On July 11, government-backed thugs ransacked his house and sprayed graffiti on the walls outside: “Payá, you worm,” “CIA agent,” and “Long live Fidel.” Oswaldo picked himself up and tried again, this time with a lengthy “transition program,” a detailed road map to democracy that ran 46 pages and nine chapters. In 1995, he joined others in forming an umbrella group of civil society, Concilio Cubano. Castro’s state security went after the leaders and shut it down.
Through trial and error, Oswaldo learned. His earlier documents were too long, he realized. He needed to simplify, to be more of a preacher with a sermon than an electrical engineer with a complicated diagram.
His next, much simplified plan was the Varela Project. It requested that the rubber-stamp National Assembly put five basic proposals to a popular referendum: freedom of association, press and expression; amnesty for political prisoners; the rights of private enterprise; a new electoral code for genuinely free elections; and new elections after the referendum. The petition was printed on a single sheet of paper creased at the half-fold, with room for 10 signatures and addresses and identification numbers. He wanted people to shed their fear and stand up to be counted.
In January 1998, a visit by Pope John Paul II electrified the island. Spontaneous shouts of “Libertad!” filled the square when the pope celebrated a final Mass. Oswaldo and his wife, Ofelia, were there with their children — and ecstatic. Days later, Oswaldo launched the Varela Project.
It was hard at first. He was constantly under surveillance and pressure from state security. They looked for weaknesses, hoping to infiltrate meetings, recruit informers and pressure members. Oswaldo watched for infiltrators. He had to step carefully; to be shrewd, skeptical and hard-nosed. Ricardo Zuñiga, a U.S. Foreign Service officer who served in Havana and knew Oswaldo during this period, recalled that state security was a formidable adversary. “They had multiple tools to aim at you: to dissuade, to co-opt, to show up at your work, to harass your children. They weren’t going to kill you, just make your life miserable.” State security typically assigned one officer to each target of repression. In the case of Oswaldo and the movimiento, it was a fellow named “Edgar.”
Henrik Ehrenberg, a Swedish democracy activist who visited Oswaldo frequently in those years, recalled, “Every meeting was a risk. State security was sometimes one step ahead of us. They would hear he was coming somewhere and go around the day before, threatening people not to come.” Oswaldo took evasive actions, postponing meetings, warning his people so they could stay out of trouble. He met them in rooms with blinds drawn. He instructed them on how to keep state security from seizing the petitions — and how to protect the people distributing them. Collecting signatures was legal under the constitution, he reminded them, but they were also going up against Fidel. “This is for real,” Oswaldo often told small groups, soberly describing the dangers ahead.
Oswaldo noticed that a spirit of resistance was blossoming in the summer of 1999. The pope’s visit had encouraged people to act on their own. The signs of civil society were unmistakable in the rise of associations of lawyers, farmers, economists, ecologists, teachers, independent libraries, youth organizations, relatives of political prisoners, and the blind or otherwise physically disabled. They were spread out across the country, not just in Havana, and the participants were becoming more diverse — youths, women, people of color. Amid all this activity, Oswaldo needed to collect more signatures. The Varela Project had hundreds but not thousands.
A breakthrough came in late 1999. The long-splintered Cuban opposition formed a new umbrella group, Todos Unidos, or everyone united. The founding document, which Oswaldo helped draft, was a direct call to the goals of the Varela Project. “We, the Cuban people, are the protagonists of our history,” it declared. “We are the ones who must create all of these spaces where we, as free men and women, can build a better society.” Oswaldo was named spokesman, essentially the leader. Soon, members of Todos Unidos became the foot soldiers of the Varela Project. Within two years, there were 100 groups working to collect signatures. It was a rare period of cohesion and common purpose.
“In the middle of this experience,” Oswaldo recalled later, “state security stopped me one day, threatened me, and told me that if the opposition in Cuba becomes unified, I’ll be imprisoned for so many years — that Todos Unidos was based on destroying the revolution and that they wouldn’t allow it.” Oswaldo had been threatened before. Now, however, he took special measures, assisted by a clandestine network of nuns, who concealed the signed petitions in convents. The petitions were cranked out on a noisy photocopier installed in the house of Oswaldo’s Aunt Beba, near his home on Calle Peñón. Every petition had a unique serial number for tracking. Every page of 10 signatures was laboriously copied and the original stored with the nuns.
On the streets, people were surprisingly eager to sign, more so than Oswaldo had anticipated. One ardent backer, Fredesvinda Hernández, collected more than 1,000 signatures, believed to be the most gathered by any single person.
Still, state security harassed the signature collectors — threatening their jobs and warning of jail time or harm to their families. Hundreds of collectors were arrested in 2000; in December alone, 270 were detained. At one point, state security detained José Daniel Ferrer, one of the project’s leaders in Santiago de Cuba, and about a dozen others. They were beaten up by a roadside, and about 130 signatures were seized. For weeks, state security officers with microphones and recording gear shadowed every member of the movimiento who came or left from Aunt Beba’s house. But the harassment didn’t slow things down. Signatures came in by the hundreds, soon the thousands.
Then state security decided to take a different approach. The Stasi had taught Cuba’s state security a simple lesson: Rather than use brute force, arrests and violence, it was often better to subvert, manipulate and paralyze quietly from within. The Stasi had created a vast corps of unofficial informants in East Germany to infiltrate any corner of society and do the dirty work. In Cuba, state security refined these methods. They knew how to infiltrate, discredit and ruin an organization.
One of Oswaldo’s close associates was Pedro Pablo Álvarez, a union organizer who had helped ramp up signature collection by pursuing signatures in small towns outside of Havana, using his labor connections. In Beba’s house one day, Álvarez closely examined a Varela Project petition. He knew from experience that Cubans all had an 11-digit national identification number and an ID card. Each digit in the individual number had a specific meaning. A single digit indicated male or female: Men were even numbers, women were odd. He focused on a certain signature, Juana, a woman’s name. Something was wrong. Juana had a man’s number. He took the page to Oswaldo. They began to look at more petitions.
Oswaldo had a sinking feeling. Hundreds of the signatures had ID numbers that were of the opposite gender. The signatures had been falsified. “Edgar” and his colleagues in state security had infected the project. Years of hard work could be ruined. It turned out that in the rush to collect signatures, the Todos Unidos-affiliated groups skipped a verification step. The mismatches were not just errors — it was a campaign of subterfuge. The very fact of falsifications would give Fidel an excuse to dismiss the whole project with a wave of his hand.
The falsifications were Oswaldo’s worst nightmare. State security was inside his network. He launched a crash campaign to validate every signature. Oswaldo selected about 250 of the most trusted members of his movement across the island and formed verification brigades. Town by town and village by village, they rechecked all the signatures, addresses and ID numbers; every original signature was verified three times. The work was done quietly so state security would not know that its infiltration had been detected.
On the evening of May 9, 2002, Oswaldo’s team gathered at Beba’s. Cardboard boxes were piled against a wall. (They were labeled “Havana Club,” a famous brand of Cuban rum, but they contained signatures brought from the nuns’ hiding places.) Two of the boxes were covered on all sides with white paper saying “Project Varela” in English and “Proyecto Varela” in Spanish. They held some 11,020 verified signatures. In Fidel’s Cuba, it was nothing short of astonishing.
Oswaldo was excited but tense, trying to avoid giving any hints to state security that anything was afoot. He picked this moment with extreme care. If state security attacked Beba’s house, they could seize the signatures and destroy the project.
Oswaldo stood in a circle with eight close associates. Looking up at the ceiling as he spoke, he said the signatures would be submitted to the National Assembly in a few days — after former U.S. president Jimmy Carter arrived on May 12 for a week-long visit. There would be extensive international coverage of Carter’s visit, the first by a former U.S. president since Fidel took power. Fidel was unlikely to want arrests or trouble while Carter was in Cuba.
After Oswaldo spoke, he silently passed around a piece of paper. Tomorrow, it read. 10 a.m.
The next morning, the two boxes containing the signed petitions were placed in the back seat of a red 1957 Chevrolet. Oswaldo and his team headed off toward the National Assembly. Several others followed in a small Volkswagen to be the observation team, standing off to watch and report to the world in case of arrests.
The Chevy jolted out of the neighborhood, down the sloping Calle Peñón. State security was caught off guard. Officers raced to their parked cars and motorcycles, but a phalanx of foreign journalists was waiting at the National Assembly — tipped off by Oswaldo’s team — including CNN, Television Española, and reporters from Associated Press and Reuters, as well as others there to cover Carter’s upcoming visit. Two of Oswaldo’s closest associates, Regis Iglesias and Tony Díaz, each grabbed a box, and Oswaldo carried a saddlebag with a list of all who had signed, a letter addressed to the president of the National Assembly and a press statement. Regis defiantly raised his hand, with a thumb and index finger making the L for “liberation.”
Looking out at the crowd, Tony could see state security officers dismounting from their motorcycles and getting out of their cars. But they were beyond the cordon of journalists, so they could never make it in time to block Oswaldo, who stepped inside the building and submitted the signatures — just as the constitution provided. Afterward, Oswaldo declared to the reporters: “A new hope is opened for all Cubans. We are asking that the people of Cuba be given a voice.”
Suddenly, Julio Ruiz Pitaluga, one of the observation team members watching at a distance, lost his composure. He had served 23 years as a political prisoner in Castro’s Cuba. Overcome with emotion, he ran up and embraced Oswaldo, Regis and Tony. “I have been waiting for this day for 42 years,” he said, his voice cracking.
Fear had ruled Cubans’ lives for decades — fear of state security, of informers on every block, of arbitrary punishment for a mere remark. The Varela Project was a stake in the heart of that fear. It was a powerful gesture, though most Cubans knew very little about it, since the Varela Project had been ignored by the state-run press. The following week, Carter, in a speech televised live at the University of Havana, with Fidel sitting directly in front of him, endorsed the petition drive. Oswaldo immediately called a news conference. “Liberation is born from the soul, through a stroke of lightning that God gives to Cubans,” he declared. He challenged Castro’s government to publish the text of the Varela Project petition. Holding it up before the television cameras, he said, “Look how short it is! They’re so afraid of it. This little paper, it contains the popular will.”
Oswaldo was awarded the Sakharkov Prize for Freedom of Thought by the European Parliament in 2002. But upon his return to Cuba, state security cracked down, arresting 75 activists and journalists. In this period, known as the “Black Spring,” Oswaldo was not imprisoned, but he was tormented by the sentences inflicted on his friends. They were released in 2010 after intervention by the Catholic Church.
A decade later, on July 22, 2012, on his way to Santiago de Cuba, still trying to rally people for democracy, Oswaldo was in the back seat of the Hyundai with Cepero, his protege, as they drove deep in the Cuban countryside.
Oswaldo’s long talk included a description of the day-to-day hardships on the island. Production of sugar and tobacco — once mainstays of the economy — had fallen below 1950s levels. For most of Cuba’s 11 million people, living conditions were dire, salaries paltry, food and goods scarce.
By then, Fidel, almost 86 years old, had relinquished power to his brother Raúl, who eased up slightly on the economy but maintained a hard line against dissent.
Several hours into their trip, Carromero, the driver, noticed a car following them. A red Lada, the Soviet-era boxy auto fashioned after the Fiat, was on their tail, though distant. The road was getting worse, and Carromero slowed. Carromero mentioned the red Lada to Oswaldo, who said, “Do not give them any reason to stop us.” Carromero asked Oswaldo whether it was normal to be followed in such a remote area. Yes, Oswaldo replied. But he urged Carromero to remain calm. His tone was reassuring. He said that state security often did this to show who was boss. They wanted everyone to live in fear.
The red Lada disappeared. Oswaldo’s car stopped twice for gas; at the second stop, they grabbed sandwiches. A boy was selling music CDs. Cepero bought two: a compilation of the Beatles, and one by a Cuban artist.
Back on the road, a hot breeze rushed through the car windows. Carromero slipped the Beatles CD in and turned up the volume. Oswaldo was particularly fond of the “Abbey Road” classic “Oh! Darling.” The music and warm air lulled Modig to sleep, while Oswaldo and Cepero sang their hearts out.
Then Carromero noticed something in the mirror. A second car was tailing them, newer than the red Lada, and it was closing in, stubbornly. Carromero saw two men in the car. Oswaldo and Cepero turned around, too. “The Communists,” Cepero said with a tone of scorn, referring to state security. The car’s license plate was blue, the color of government vehicles. Carromero asked what he should do. Oswaldo again said, Don’t give them any reason to stop us. Just keep going.
The car drew closer. Carromero could see the driver’s eyes. Then the other car seemed to leap forward. It charged at the Hyundai. Carromero lost control. Oswaldo and Cepero were killed in the crash, which has never been satisfactorily investigated.
Oswaldo Payá fought long and hard for democracy and respect for basic human rights. His dreams were not achieved in his lifetime; the Castro dictatorship remains entrenched. But an important legacy of Oswaldo’s quest was that gradually, painstakingly, despite the obstacles, Cubans began to raise their voices against despotism.
And on one sultry summer afternoon, they became the protagonists of their own history.
On July 11, 2021, a crowd gathered in San Antonio de los Baños, a small town southwest of Havana. Through their pandemic face masks, they chanted “¡Patria y Vida!,” homeland and life, the title of a hugely popular protest song that had become an anthem of discontent, a play on Fidel’s old war cry of “patria o muerte,” homeland or death. The lyrics of the new song declare, “No more lies, my people ask for freedom.” As the crowd marched, more shouts erupted: “¡Libertad! Down with dictatorship! We are not afraid!”
A Facebook video of the protest went viral, sparking the largest spontaneous anti-government demonstration since Fidel took power in 1959. Ultimately, a 100,000 or more people in 30 cities and towns expressed fury over shoddy medical care, electricity blackouts, hunger and the regime’s political straitjacket. Sudden and vast, the outpouring of discontent was authentic grass-roots anger — and almost entirely peaceful.
In response to the protests, state security sent plainclothes thugs to beat demonstrators with metal rods. One protester was killed. More than 1,300 people were detained, including teenagers. Many reported physical abuse after being arrested, including jailhouse beatings with batons. Most had done nothing more than shout “¡Libertad!”
As Oswaldo learned, change is hard. A totalitarian state does not simply flutter and faint. The Cuban regime still commands an army and vast security forces; it controls the airwaves, the border and the economy, and it monopolizes all politics. But Oswaldo Payá showed — and the events of July 11, 2021, proved again — that no state, no matter how dictatorial, can imprison an idea forever. The quest for liberty runs free. | 2022-06-16T12:31:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Book excerpt: ‘Give Me Liberty’ by David E. Hoffman covers Oswaldo Paya and Cuba - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/16/give-me-liberty-book-excerpt-david-hoffman-oswaldo-paya-cuba/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/16/give-me-liberty-book-excerpt-david-hoffman-oswaldo-paya-cuba/ |
Three variations of the AR-15 are displayed in Sacramento in 2012. (Rich Pedroncelli/AP)
In the wake of the Uvalde, Tex., mass shooting, some Hollywood storytellers are questioning the film industry’s love affair with guns. There’s one thing these filmmakers and showrunners could do to try to stem the tide of gun violence: stop sanitizing what guns do to human bodies. Hollywood should step up and show what journalists generally can’t depict, be it the victim of a mass shooting identifiable only by DNA or the aftermath of a suicide carried out with a gun.
Working in concert with the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, more than 200 writers, directors, and producers such as J.J. Abrams, Mark Ruffalo, and Adam McKay recently signed on to an open letter calling for a period of introspection into how guns are used on-screen.
“Cultural attitudes toward smoking, drunk driving, seatbelts and marriage equality have all evolved due in large part to movies’ and TV’s influence,” the letter says. “It’s time to take on gun safety.”
Some specific suggestions: Show gun owners making use of gun safes; limit the portrayal of children and guns in the same scenes; and consider whether guns are necessary in any given scene.
This deliberation can’t hurt, but it probably won’t do much good either: Of the 45,222 people who died of gun-related injuries in 2020, 54 percent of those deaths were a result of suicide, 43 percent were murders, and roughly 1 percent were from accidents.
The extent to which on-screen violence influences off-screen behavior has bedeviled the film industry for as long as scolds have been trying to shut projectors off. The letter writers are quick to brush this aside, yet their hope that on-screen depictions of “responsible gun ownership” can influence off-screen behavior seems to open the door to an admission that irresponsible gun ownership can do the same.
The debate on this matter is long with much evidence on both sides. Some studies suggest exposing children to violence can have long-lasting effects; others suggest TV is less important than socialization. I do not propose to resolve it here.
However, as someone who owns a gun, watches a lot of violent movies and enjoys the occasional first-person shooter video game, I’m skeptical of claims that people in the aggregate are driven to violence by what they see on-screen. Yes, a certain number of already-deranged people are inspired by what they see in media — your John Hinckleys or your Matrix killers. But there’s little Hollywood can, or should, do to account for random crazies.
If “America’s storytellers” really want to change public perception of guns, they should consider being more honest on-screen about what bullets do to bodies. The issue isn’t really on-screen violence — it’s bloodless on-screen violence, the sort of violence in which guns fire and bodies simply fall to the ground in what could just as easily be sleep as death.
Journalist Jason Fagone in 2017 talked to trauma surgeons who deal with the reality of gun violence — mangled limbs, severed arteries, invasive and repeated surgeries — as well as victims. And that reality is sometimes simultaneously surreally and banally gruesome.
One man shot in the abdomen, Fagone wrote, “spent the next 11 months in the hospital, immobilized in bed, with an open wound down the front of him that had the circumference of a basketball. It got to the point where it was a normal thing for him to look down and think, oh, those are my intestines, there they are.”
Realistic violence in movies is often jarring when we see it because we see it so rarely. The only time I’ve seen an audience watching an installment of the “John Wick” franchise flinch had nothing to do with the abundance of gunplay. Early in the third film, a brawl ends with the titular assassin jamming a knife into the eye of an assailant. It’s intimate, bloody and horrifying — more so than every gun shot that preceded it.
If television and film luminaries really want to change the discussion of guns, they’ll pursue a bloodier type of filmmaking. Make standard the use of squibs — little explosives that create geysers of fake blood — during gunplay. These practical effects not only heighten the impact of the violence we see but also slow down productions that rely too greatly on cheap kills, causing a bit more thoughtfulness about when on-screen violence should be deployed.
If Hollywood wants to help reduce suicides, which constitute the majority of gun-violence deaths in the United States, it should show people what happens when a bullet goes through a head. Show the aftermath. The cleanup. That it’s not like a light softly going out, that it’s an extremely violent act, one that will leave a mess for your loved ones.
Some have suggested we need an “Emmett Till moment” after Uvalde showing photos of the victims and what the bullets did to their bodies. The sentiment is understandable, as is the disgust or the concerns about exploitation such a suggestion generates.
Those qualms wouldn’t apply to a fictionalized-but-realistic portrayal of such horror, however. And these images could help the public understand what gun violence really means. | 2022-06-16T12:31:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Hollywood can provide the Emmett Till moment on gun violence - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/16/hollywood-should-stop-sanitizing-gun-violence/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/16/hollywood-should-stop-sanitizing-gun-violence/ |
Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department on June 13. (Eric Lee/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
Among the rare disconnects between members of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection is their public disagreement over whether they should make a “criminal referral” based on their investigation.
Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), the committee’s chairman, told reporters on Monday, "No, you know, we’re going to tell the facts. If the Department of Justice looks at it, and assume that there’s something that needs further review, I’m sure they’ll do it.” Asked again about referral, he said, “No, that’s not our job. Our job is to look at the facts and circumstances around January 6, what caused it and make recommendations after that.”
Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), by contrast, tweeted there has been no decision as to whether a referral will be made.
Democrats have started to weigh in urging a referral. Meanwhile, news organizations are eagerly covering the “to refer or not?” question as a classic D.C. process story, with a touch of “Democrats in disarray!”
Several points deserve underscoring. For starters, a “referral” from the committee would have no legal significance. In the past, such actions have been used when the Justice Department had not yet begun an investigation. But there is no requirement for the Justice Department to receive a missive from Congress to investigate the crime of the century. This is especially true since there is already a nationwide investigation underway.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has repeatedly said he will follow the facts and will not rule out prosecuting anyone. In case anyone imagined that Justice Department lawyers were not following the proceedings, Garland declared on Monday, "I will be watching all the hearings, although I may not be able to watch all of it live.” He continued, “But I will be sure that I am watching all of it. And I can assure you that the January 6 prosecutors are watching all of the hearings as well.”
That should have been the end of the “referral” hooey. He already knows the committee thinks there was illegality. Members have said it publicly at the hearing and, no doubt, will repeat it in their final written report. By the end of the hearings and the release of the report (along with the depositions), Garland will have the lion’s share of information that the committee has collected.
After the hearings, Garland and the committee can certainly negotiate transfer of any additional material. It would therefore be appropriate, perhaps beneficial, for the committee in its final report to simply announce it will make documents available to the Justice Department. | 2022-06-16T12:31:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | There’s no longer any need for the Jan. 6 committee to issue a criminal referral - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/16/jan-6-committee-no-need-for-criminal-referral-merrick-garland/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/16/jan-6-committee-no-need-for-criminal-referral-merrick-garland/ |
U.S. Open live updates Rory McIlory, Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas chase another major title
U.S. Open morning groups to watch
Abraham Ancer withdraws; Jordan Spieth dealing with stomach bug
Erik Barnes was one of the first players on the course on Thursday. (Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
Men’s golf remains at the center of the sporting universe this week, as the world’s top players converge on the Country Club in Brookline, Mass. for the 122nd U.S. Open. After a tumultuous stretch that’s seen multiple star players defect from the PGA Tour in favor of the lucrative, Saudi-backed LIV Golf International Series, the USGA can only hope that the competition now seizes the spotlight.
The 156-player field features several notables who have migrated to LIV Golf, including past champions Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau, as well as Phil Mickelson, who spent part of Monday taking uncomfortable questions from the media about his decision to join the nascent tour. Plenty of PGA mainstays are also in Boston, led by Rory McIlroy, the 2011 U.S. Open champ, who has been outspoken in opposing LIV Golf.
One big name not participating is Tiger Woods, who played in the first two majors of this year but announced last week that he would take this week off, adding “my body needs more time to get stronger for major championship golf.”
The first groups teed off Thursday at 6:45 a.m. As of 8:07 a.m., six players had the lead at 1 under par: Hayden Buckley, amateur Travis Vick, Collin Morikawa, Adam Scott, Hideki Matsuyama and Russell Henley.
Defending champion Jon Rahm is one of the favorites, along with McIlroy, PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas and Masters winner Scottie Scheffler. As of 7:55 a.m., amateur Travis Vick and two-time major winner Collin Morikawa were the only players under par at 1 under.
Broadcast coverage of the first round begins at 9:30 a.m. on USA Network, and will run until 2 p.m. NBC then picks up the action until 5 p.m., when USA will take back over until 7 p.m. The first round can also be streamed at Peacock, NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app.
The weather in Brookline looks good for Thursday, with partly cloudy skies and temperatures expected to top out near 80. Winds will be from the south to southwest at 10-20 mph.
By John Feinstein8:27 a.m.
By Des Bieler7:57 a.m.
At least one big name is tired of being asked about the LIV Golf Invitational Series and the big names it has lured from the PGA Tour.
“I’m trying to focus on the U.S. Open, man,” Brooks Koepka told reporters Tuesday. “I legitimately don’t get it. I’m tired of the conversations. I’m tired of all this stuff. Y’all are throwing a black cloud on the U.S. Open. I think that sucks.”
Noting that “LIV’s trying to make a big push for golf,” Koepka discussed the fact that his younger brother, Chase, joined the Saudi-backed circuit while he has remained with the PGA Tour.
By Matt Bonesteel7:25 a.m.
With the U.S. Open underway, here’s a look at some of the more intriguing groups who will take the course in the morning.
7:18 a.m.: Collin Morikawa, James Piot, Jon Rahm
Here we have the defending U.S. Open champion (Rahm), the defending British Open champion (Morikawa) and the defending U.S. Amateur champion (Piot, who also is the first LIV Golf defector to tee off Thursday).
Spieth, who was battling a stomach bug Wednesday during practice, has been in good form, with a win and two other top-7 finishes in his last five tournaments. Homa also has a recent win, at the Wells Fargo in early May, and was last seen finishing T-5 among a strong field at the Memorial.
McIlroy and Matsuyama have combined to win five majors, and Schauffele has never finished worse than seventh in five trips to the U.S. Open.
8:02 a.m.: Joaquin Niemann, Cameron Young, Will Zalatoris
Three of the tour’s top young players will play together, and no one will be surprised to see them win majors down the line (or even this week). Zalatoris has finished no worse than T-8 in five of his last seven majors.
By Chuck Culpepper and Ben Strauss7:11 a.m.
BROOKLINE, Mass. — In an age when pro golfers have grown increasingly distant from their audiences, two-time major winner Justin Thomas took listeners right smack into his middle-of-the-nights Monday. In a news conference ahead of the U.S. Open, he talked of having “tossed and turned and lost a lot of sleep last week thinking about what could potentially happen” to the tour of his lifelong dreams.
By Cindy Boren7:05 a.m.
Abraham Ancer withdrew from the field Thursday morning, with the PGA Tour citing an unspecified illness as the reason.
He was replaced in the field by qualifier Patton Kizzire, who is appearing in his third U.S. Open, missing the cut in 2016 and 2019.
Some reports had indicated that three-time major winner Jordan Spieth was ill as well, but he arrived at the course at around 6:45 a.m. on Thursday. Spieth, who attended a Boston Red Sox game Monday at Fenway Park, fell ill Tuesday with what his agent told the Golf Channel was a stomach bug. He hit a few balls Wednesday and was at about “20 percent,” but felt better by Thursday.
‼️ BREAKING — JORDAN SPIETH HAS ARRIVED. A BREATH OF FRESH AIR. pic.twitter.com/h09skrqoz4
— Spieth Legion (@SpiethLegion) June 16, 2022 | 2022-06-16T12:32:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | U.S. Open leaderboard, live updates and analysis - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/16/us-open/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/16/us-open/ |
She played Scout in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’ Now she’s got a new role.
Mary Badham, who was in the 1962 film version of Harper Lee’s novel, plays a different part in the touring production of the play
Dorcas Sowunmi, left, and Mary Badham in the touring production of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” (Julieta Cervantes)
As a 69-year-old actress making her stage debut — in the touring production of a Broadway hit, no less — Mary Badham still marvels at the behind-the-scenes machinations that go into every performance of “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Navigating backstage traffic, with its myriad costume changes and cues, can be head-spinning. The ropes, wires and shifting sets that keep the play moving fascinate her. And she remains in awe of the company members’ talent and adaptability.
“These kids are amazing,” Badham says. “Well, they’re not all kids. But for the most part, they’re a whole lot younger than I am.”
Although Badham is a theater novice, she knows “To Kill a Mockingbird” better than most: At 10 years old, she earned an Oscar nomination for playing Scout Finch in the beloved 1962 film version of Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Six decades later, Badham is returning to 1930s Alabama as Mrs. Dubose — the Finch family’s racist, morphine-addicted neighbor — in Aaron Sorkin’s stage adaptation that arrives at the Kennedy Center on Tuesday.
“It just really grounds the play having her in it, and just the wealth of her experience,” says Dorcas Sowunmi, who plays Mrs. Dubose’s helper. “It really does bring a rich life to the piece, having someone who has a long association with it, being a part of that world and really seeing it in its different iterations.”
Aaron Sorkin and Jeff Daniels made ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ their mission
After following the “Mockingbird” film with a handful of screen credits, including the Sydney Pollack movie “This Property Is Condemned” and the final episode of the original “Twilight Zone” series, Badham went nearly four decades without performing before making a cameo in the 2005 indie drama “Our Very Own.”
She instead dabbled in a variety of professions, including as a cosmetics salesperson, dress shop manager, nursing assistant, Red Cross instructor, college testing coordinator and art restorer. She got married and had two children, putting down roots in the Richmond area.
“A lot of people who are actors, they work at being an actor,” Badham says. “That’s what they want to do, and they actively go out and work toward getting jobs. But for me, that wasn’t my goal in life.”
Badham, however, never completely left “Mockingbird” behind. Over the years, she gave talks about “Mockingbird” for high schools, universities, book clubs and women’s groups. As the stage version arrived on Broadway, opening in December 2018, she saw it at the producers’ invitation. When representatives from the play gauged her interest in joining the touring production some time later — even though she had never acted onstage — Badham was stunned.
After expressing some initial hesitation about playing the bigoted Mrs. Dubose, Badham bought into the character’s role in the story, then read for Sorkin and others in New York and booked the part. Badham has been traveling since March with the tour, which also stars “The Waltons” alumnus Richard Thomas as Scout’s father, the idealistic attorney Atticus Finch.
“Theater is not anything that I could have ever imagined doing,” Badham says. “That’s been kind of interesting to learn.”
“It’s amazing to watch somebody who hasn’t done it find this newfound love for it,” adds Melanie Moore, the 30-year-old who plays Scout across different ages in the play. “To have never done a theater performance before, and to be doing it for the first time at [69] when there’s people clapping at just the mention of your character’s name, it was a lot of pressure. But she has held up beautifully.”
Perspective: Watching ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ with 18,000 teenagers was one of the most profound theater experiences of my career
Badham’s presence is particularly mind-bending for Moore: While playing Scout, she shares scenes with the actress who immortalized that same character on-screen. Passing the torch from one Scout to another, Badham says she’s content to sit back and let Moore put her spin on the wide-eyed tomboy. Still, Moore acknowledges that notes of approval from Badham strike an especially resonant chord.
“In rehearsals, I would do things and make her laugh, and she would come up to me and say, ‘Oh, that was so Scout when you did that,’ ” Moore says. “Moments like that brought me so much joy. I felt like I was really bringing something to the character that she felt like she recognized and also surprised her. But I can’t think too hard about yelling things at the original movie Scout as Scout myself.”
While Badham has spent decades revisiting “Mockingbird,” she says the stage version — which reimagines the upstanding Atticus as a flawed protagonist who evolves — has helped her see the story in a new light.
Sorkin’s adjustments have proved polarizing, prompting a 2018 lawsuit from Lee’s estate that was later settled. But Badham endorses the updated take on Lee’s depiction of systemic racism, the loss of innocence and human nature’s duality, and emphasizes those themes’ renewed relevance amid the social justice movement’s resurgence.
“This book, the film, the play, it is an onion — as you peel it back, you get more and more and more,” Badham says. “I just hope that somehow this can help our country knit it back together again and to make people realize that we have to work together and love and take care of one another as a country. We’ve had this period of just really hard, hateful happenings that are still going on, and I’m just hoping this can bring us back to remembering who we are and who we want to be.”
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Opera House. 2700 F St. NW. 202-467-4600. kennedy-center.org.
Dates: June 21 through July 10. | 2022-06-16T12:32:29Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Scout actress Mary Badham revisits ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ onstage - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/theater-dance/2022/06/16/mary-badham-kill-mockingbird/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/theater-dance/2022/06/16/mary-badham-kill-mockingbird/ |
GENEVA — Swiss federal prosecutors said Thursday they have issued an indictment for murder and other charges against a 28-year-old Swiss-Turkish man in connection with the “jihadist-motivated homicide” of a Portuguese man in western Switzerland two years ago.
The attorney general’s office says the man, who was not identified, carried out the Sept. 12, 2020, attack in the town of Morges, near Lausanne, “with the aim of exacting revenge for the victims of the war between the coalition states and the ‘Islamic State’.” That referred to a conflict linked to the armed extremist group’s takeover of swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria in the mid-2010s. | 2022-06-16T12:32:59Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Swiss indict Turkish-Swiss man over alleged jihadist murder - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/swiss-indict-turkish-swiss-man-over-alleged-jihadist-murder/2022/06/16/4d79b2be-ed64-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/swiss-indict-turkish-swiss-man-over-alleged-jihadist-murder/2022/06/16/4d79b2be-ed64-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html |
In Saudi crackdown on LGBTQ expression, even rainbow toys aren’t safe
Sarah Dadouch
Pink background with a poppit, fidget toy (Ines Fraile/Getty Images/iStockphoto)
The Saudi Arabian government is confiscating toys, clothes and other items bearing rainbow colors that it says evoke the well-known Pride flag and promote homosexuality in children.
It’s the latest crackdown by Saudi Arabia and some of its neighbors on objects and forms of art and expression that feature gay characters or are seen to promote LGBTQ rights, including superhero movies not being shown in Saudi cinemas because they feature same-sex couples and hundreds of kites confiscated in Syria for their many colors.
Tokyo moves to allow same-sex partnerships, but not as legal marriage
The U.S. State Department in its latest annual report on human rights flagged “reports of official and societal discrimination, physical violence, and harassment based on sexual orientation or gender identity in employment, housing, access to education, and health care” in Saudi Arabia.
The crackdown follows reports that the latest offering from Marvel Studios — “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” — will not be shown in Saudi cinemas because it briefly features a same-sex couple, much the way Marvel’s early “Eternals” film wasn’t shown, or “West Side Story” for similar reasons.
Saudi Arabia’s Culture Ministry did not respond to a request for comment from The Post. Disney did not respond in time for publication.
Conservatives want to cancel Disney. It’s not the first time.
The official U.S. celebration of Pride Month by its diplomatic corps has also led to some incidents in the region. Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry summoned the U.S. chargé d’affaires over embassy social media posts celebrating the month. The ministry derided “symbols and tweets that support homosexuality” made by the embassy, and said these posts went against a 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
While the United States is celebrating Pride Month, Republican lawmakers have drafted a slew of bills seeking to limit discussions of sexual or gender identity in schools and challenge the rights of young people who identify as transgender.
Timsit reported from London, Dadouch from Beirut. Ellen Francis in London contributed to this report. | 2022-06-16T13:04:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Saudi Arabia seizes rainbow toys it says promote homosexuality - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/16/saudi-arabia-rainbow-toys-homosexuality-pride-month/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/16/saudi-arabia-rainbow-toys-homosexuality-pride-month/ |
Hau Chu
Haben Kelati
The expanded Portside Festival, which now incorporates the Alexandria Jazz Fest, brings two days of music, activities, food and drink to Waterfront Park in Old Town Alexandria. (Chris Cruz/Visit Alexandria)
Editor’s note: Some performing arts and concert venues still require masks and proof of vaccination against the coronavirus. Check websites before purchasing tickets or making plans.
Live at the Library: Celebrate Juneteenth at the Library of Congress: The Library of Congress’s after-hours programming turns to Juneteenth this week, with a performance by the outstanding South Carolina band Ranky Tanky, whose Grammy-winning sound draws on funk, jazz and call-and-response gospel, all steeped in the Lowcountry’s Gullah culture. In addition to a preconcert discussion, the evening includes a display of Juneteenth- and emancipation-related items from the library’s collection, access to all exhibits, and drinks and snacks in the Great Hall. While admission to Live at the Library requires a free timed-entry pass, admission to the concert requires an additional ticket, which is also free. 5 to 8 p.m. Free; reservation required.
Juneteenth Takeover at Metrobar: Some bars offer a special event for Juneteenth. Metrobar’s Juneteenth takeover encompasses four nights of parties, starting with speed dating, a ’90s R&B singalong and a screening of “Love and Basketball” on Thursday. Friday is the closing night of D.C.’s Caribbean American Restaurant Week, with a fish fry, steel drum band, dominoes and DJs. Saturday gets off to an early start with the Black Farmers Market from 8 a.m. to noon, followed by a day party with a cookout, DJ, spirits tastings and a spades tournament from 2 to 7 p.m. DJ Jahsonic takes it home with hip-hop, funk and R&B from 7 p.m. Sunday’s highlight is a Father’s Day crab boil featuring cigars, a beard grooming station and local craft beers, beginning at 2 p.m., and a dance party to close out the weekend at 7 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. Individual event prices vary from free to $20. The crab boil, which includes food, is $50.
‘Amazing Grace’ at the Kennedy Center: The next outdoor film screening at the Reach is one of the most powerful music documentaries in recent memory: “Amazing Grace,” starring Aretha Franklin. Film critic Ann Hornaday called the 2019 film “nothing short of a miracle” in her four-star review. In 1972, Warner Bros. recorded Franklin performing gospel classics live in Los Angeles, but the resulting footage wasn’t released for almost 50 years. Wrote Hornaday: “Secular music fans won’t want to miss ‘Amazing Grace,’ if only for one more chance to appreciate the singular genius of Franklin, who died last year. But [producer Alan] Elliott and his team have retained the enterprise’s initial spiritual purpose, not just sharing an invaluable record of a storied musical performance, but also bearing witness to sacred vocation, commitment to faith and continuity of ancestral memory.” Film begins at dusk. Free.
Sheryl Crow at Wolf Trap: Welcome to the Sheryl Crow revival. The 60-year-old songstress is known for her breezy, radio-friendly country-rock tunes — come on, try not to crack a smile when “All I Wanna Do” or “Every Day Is a Winding Road” is blasting through your stereo as wind sweeps through your hair on a road trip. But her songwriting chops and the sexism she overcame to reign atop the airwaves are finally receiving proper appreciation, including in the recent documentary “Sheryl.” Listen again to one of her most exquisite ballads, “Strong Enough,” and marvel at the way she channels the frustration of a woman who wants to forge a partnership of equals but can’t pin down why she’s feeling so unsure about everything. Thursday and Friday at 7 p.m. $49-$127.
Portside Festival and Alexandria Jazz Fest: Two Alexandria festivals have merged into one two-day waterfront celebration. The 44-year-old Alexandria Jazz Festival, formerly known as the Memorial Day Jazz Festival, takes place on Friday night. Sets from Cubano Groove, Veronneau and the Eric Byrd Trio are interspersed with poetry from Alexandria poet laureate Zeina Azzam and former poet laureate KaNikki Jakarta. Saturday features a wider array of music, including salsa, folk rock and Ethiopian reggae, plus lawn games; hands-on arts activities, including printmaking; tours of the tall ship Providence; and archaeological displays. Port City Brewing hosts a beer garden, while local restaurants offer food and ice cream. Friday from 6 to 9 p.m. and Saturday from 1 to 9 p.m. Free.
‘Beyond King Tut’ at National Geographic Museum: The team behind such immersive exhibits as “Beyond Van Gogh” and “Beyond Monet” is dreaming up theatrical, large-scale projections that will tell the story of ancient Egyptian pharaohs and take you to ancient marvels such as the temple at Karnak, the pyramids of Giza, the Great Sphinx and King Tut’s tomb itself. Developed in partnership with the National Geographic Society, “Beyond King Tut: The Immersive Experience” is timed to the 100th anniversary of the discovery of King Tut’s tomb in 1922. Through Feb. 6, 2023. $12-$20.
Flasher at Comet Ping Pong: D.C. punk duo Flasher was forced to reimagine its modus operandi after the departure of bassist Daniel Saperstein, giving drummer Emma Baker the opportunity to step up her songwriting efforts. The resulting album is decidedly dancier and more mellow than their frantic, fuzzy debut, “Constant Image,” but still vital with the band’s DIY punk spirit. Across 13 tracks, “Love Is Yours” toys with tempo and structure but stays focused on undeniable pop melodies, gentle vocal harmonies and lush layers of guitar, bass, synth and percussion that reveal themselves on repeat listenings. There’s more room for reflection this time around, which could partially be a result of the album’s long gestation. After it was recorded in June 2020, the album was delayed for two years until it made sense to tour behind it. The extra time gave Baker and guitarist Taylor Mulitz time to experiment, refine the mix and get all the little, often-rushed elements of a record release right. “It’s really nice that it’s finally going to be out in the world and we get to play it live,” Mulitz says. After the malaise and preoccupation of two years under a pandemic, “it finally feels like regaining a sense of self.” 10 p.m. $15.
Interview: Flasher reimagines its approach but keeps its punk spirit
‘The Music Man’ at Olney Theatre Center: Deaf actor James Caverly, coming off a breakout role on Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building,” will play the lead role of Harold Hill in Olney Theatre Center’s production of “The Music Man,” featuring a company and creative team consisting of half deaf and hard-of-hearing artists and half hearing artists. This version of the Broadway classic is co-directed by deaf performer Sandra Mae Frank (a regular on NBC’s “New Amsterdam”) and Michael Baron. The entire show will be performed in American Sign Language and spoken English and will be open captioned. Through July 24. $37-$85.
Juneteenth at the National Archives: The two most important documents relating to Juneteenth are the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that, as of Jan. 1, 1863, “all persons held as slaves” with the Confederate States of America “are, and henceforward shall be free,” and General Order No. 3, issued by Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger in Galveston, Tex., on June 19, 1865, which announced, “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.” The National Archives holds original copies of both and is putting them on display from June 18 to 20, with the museum staying open until 7 p.m. all three days. A special family day on Saturday features arts and crafts and other activities from 1 to 3 p.m., while an online program Friday at 7 p.m. includes a discussion with historians and live music. 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Free.
Columbia Pike Blues Festival: Over the last 25 years, the Columbia Pike Blues Festival has grown from an enjoyable collection of local bands playing in an elementary school’s field to a rockin’ block party that fills a stretch of South Arlington’s Walter Reed Drive. Shemekia Copeland — dubbed “the greatest blues singer of her generation” in these pages last year — headlines the free, day-long concert full of blues and soul, with Anthony “Swamp Dog” Clark and Robbin Kapsalis and Vintage #18 among the openers. The festival includes a kids’ zone with games and a bouncy house, a market full of vendors, arts and crafts, a beer garden and food supplied by local restaurants. Festival events last all weekend, including a Friday night concert at William Jeffrey’s Tavern, a Sunday morning Juneteenth Walk guided by the Black Heritage Museum of Arlington and a free Sunday matinee screening of “The Blues Brothers” at Arlington Cinema and Drafthouse. 1 to 8:30 p.m. Free.
What’s Out There Weekend: The Cultural Landscape Foundation seeks to preserve and educate people about America’s “cultural landscapes” — parks, gardens and sites that tell shared stories about culture and identity. This weekend, the group offers free tours of 25 such sites around the city, led by architects, historians and other experts. There are deeper looks at landscapes as varied as Roosevelt Island, the grounds of Gallaudet University, memorials on the Tidal Basin and Black Lives Matter Plaza. Move quickly: Reservations are required, due to capacity limits, and some tours are already sold out. Saturday and Sunday. Free; Reservations required.
Columbia Heights Day: Long held outdoors at Tubman Elementary and surrounding streets, one of the city’s most vibrant neighborhood festivals is spreading to three separate locations this year, including the Civic Plaza (a.k.a. the fountain at 14th and Park streets) and the park at 14th and Girard streets. Looking for puppet shows, live music for all ages, dance performances, martial arts demonstrations, carnival games, bike repair stations and a vendor marketplace, as well as cooking demonstrations and activities at the weekly farmers market. Local businesses offer specials during the day, including discounted samplers at Sticky Fingers bakery, $2 tacos at La Cabana and a natural wine happy hour at Queen’s English. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Free.
Annapolis Juneteenth Celebration: In 2021, the inaugural Juneteenth parade through Annapolis involved more than 2,000 participants, including floats, school marching bands and dancers. This year, organizers are planning to go even bigger. The parade sets off from the City Dock, passing the Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Memorial, and ends at the Bates Athletic Complex on Spa Road. The festival, which begins at 2 p.m., includes two stages of entertainment: One focuses on R&B, headlined by the Chuck Brown Band and Avery Sunshine, and the Gospel Stage includes Pastor Mike Jr. and Beverly Crawford, backed by the Juneteenth Choir. The day ends with fireworks. Parking is available at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, with free shuttles to the festival. Noon to 9 p.m. Free.
How Wu-Tang Clan Transcended the Rap Game at the Northeast Neighborhood Library: The RZA, the GZA, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Inspectah Deck, Raekwon the Chef, U-God, Ghostface Killah and the Method Man — this is how most of us were introduced to the members of the Wu-Tang Clan, the Staten Island crew that went on to change the face of hip-hop with a combination of furious rap deliveries and GZA’s skeletal beats overlaid with snatches of vintage soul. Three decades after “Enter the Wu Tang: 36 Chambers,” author S.H. Fernando Jr. examines Wu Tang’s influence and lasting popularity in a new book, “From the Streets of Shaolin: The Wu-Tang Saga.” He visits the Northeast Neighborhood Library on Capitol Hill for a reading and discussion, sponsored by Solid State Books, followed by a book signing. 1 to 2:30 p.m. Cash might rule everything around us, but this event is free.
Jazz in the Parks at the Parks at Walter Reed: New Northwest D.C. development the Parks at Walter Reed is bringing back free Jazz in the Parks performances this summer, and the monthly outdoor concert series kicks off in June with a performance from popular local jazz vocalist Akua Allrich. Bring a blanket and relax on the Great Lawn overlooking the historic original hospital building on the Walter Reed Army Medical Center Campus. Every show will kick off with a 5 p.m. performance from Baba Ras D, a must-see musician for D.C.’s toddler set. 5 to 8 p.m. Free.
Sweet Like Chocolate at Flash: Hot on the heels of their appearance on the Do LaB stage at Coachella, LA-based duo Sweet Like Chocolate brings banging, energetic house tunes to Flash’s rooftop. (You may remember DJ Alex Noize from previous Nu Androids events at the Florida Avenue club.) 4 to 9 p.m. $25-$30.
GetLitDC Literary Cocktails at the Gibson: You’ll want to do a bit of reading before you take a seat at the bar at the Gibson off U Street for Chantal Tseng’s “Literary Cocktails” series. This month’s edition of the boozy book club is inspired by Ocean Vuong’s “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous,” and Tseng will whip up a menu inspired by the acclaimed novel, including three cocktails and light snacks. 6 to 8 p.m. or 8:30 to 10:30 p.m. $55.
Umi at Howard Theatre: Singer Tierra Umi Wilson — who performs as Umi — has already released three EPs’ worth of sensitive and contemplative new wave R&B songs. The Seattle native’s 2022 debut album, “Forest in the City,” is full of her honest lyrics, with vulnerable reflections and big picture realizations that sound like they’re coming from a seasoned pen. On “Sorry,” Umi apologizes for many things and many times to herself, singing such lines as, “I’m sorry I never trust my gut / I’m sorry I’m always runnin’ my mouth too much.” The song has a light-handed percussion, allowing her voice’s serene quality to have its moment. Wilson’s 2020 EP, “Introspection,” was a clear indication of what was to come from this burgeoning singer. On “Where I Wander,” she sings, “Open waters, open waters / where I wonder / clear the chakras, send me higher.” She’s calling for open-mindedness to make it through a fractured relationship. Wilson effortlessly goes from a more brisk cadence to hitting higher, sweeter notes — leading the way through the wreckage with her voice. 8 p.m. $60.
Create by the Creek at Peirce Mill: Ever dreamed of creating art “en plein air”? These workshops at Rock Creek Park’s Peirce Mill, led by local artists from the Washington Studio School, let participants try their hands at creating 3D landscapes from clay, animating a short sequence using a flipbook or drawing a print with powdered graphite. Registration is required, as capacity is limited. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Free.
Juneteenth Freedom Jam at Busboys and Poets Columbia: Author and NAACP Image Award winner Omar Tyree hosts an evening of poetry, hip-hop and soul at the Busboys and Poets in Columbia. A portion of proceeds benefits the Urban Literacy Project and College Bound Parenting. 6 to 9 p.m. $25.
Freedom Day Music Festival at Union Stage: Black Alley, whose genre-bending sound fuses go-go with rock and soul, performs at the Freedom Day concert alongside up-and-coming “hip-pop” vocalist Nia Dinero, singer Ruepratt and WPGC DJ Akademiks. 7 p.m. $35.
Juneteenth Community Day at the National Museum of African American History and Culture: The African American Museum on the Mall is an obvious place to celebrate Juneteenth, but it’s going to be tough to do so in person if you haven’t already made plans. The museum’s free entry tickets are claimed a month in advance, so the only option is to log on at 8:15 a.m. and try to grab a limited number of same-day passes. Those who are successful can see the original copy of Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech from the 1963 March on Washington (on display in the “A Changing America” exhibition) as well as living history experiences explaining Juneteenth and the United States Colored Troops, plus family arts and crafts activities. A performance by New Orleans jazz artists Alphonso Horne and the Gotham Kings will be held in the Oprah Winfrey Theater at 3 p.m. — free, but reservations are required — and will be streamed online through the museum’s website for those who didn’t get tickets. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free.
Ambar Lucid at Songbyrd: Ambar Lucid opens her 2020 “Garden of Lucid” album with enticing, welcoming words that make listeners wonder what they’re getting into: “Welcome to the garden / please don’t be disheartened / once you perceive insincerity.” The 21-year-old New Jersey native, whose real name is Ambar Cruz, lives in the dreamier, moodier side of R&B. Much of her music could be a soundtrack to a movie that takes place in a dark green, mystical forest. “Questioning My Mind,” in which Cruz wonders how a relationship broke down, even features faraway bird chirps. On this song, like many others, Cruz slips seamlessly between English and Spanish. Cruz is not following a pre-drawn path when it comes to mixing languages in her music: She sings in Spanish in between English thoughts, words and sentences. “Fantasmas” starts off with a hearty guitar and Cruz’s dazzling voice pulled back and softer. Then the chorus hits and she puts the power back in her voice to sing the haunting line, “Mil fantasmas gritan en calma,” or “One thousand ghosts scream calmly.” 7 p.m. $18-$20.
Arlie at DC9: Arlie is an indie pop band from Nashville that makes sunny pop songs that are still grounded in something real. The song “Poppin,” off its debut album “Break the Curse,” is a great example of what this band does best. It features a cheerful guitar and effortless drums that scream “summer jam.” Yet with lyrics like “you could crush me at any moment,” the song does that classic pop music thing of making someone’s misery something fun to dance to. The titular track leans more into the sincere, using slightly echoing vocals in the beginning to give a psychedelic feel. It’s a song about internal battle with such lyrics as, “But there’s only one way out / honest with myself somehow.” By the end of the song, the intense drums feel like the singer’s racing mind with a guitar rushing to catch up. It sounds like the chaos of knowing what your struggle is but still finding yourself stuck. 8 p.m. $15-$18.
Anteloper at Rhizome DC: Trumpeter Jaimie Branch and drummer Jason Nazary make up the jazzy, electroacoustic duo Anteloper. Along with their main instruments, Branch and Nazary bring in synths and sequencers to create their version of this free-flowing jazz. Their first album, “Kudu,” released in 2018, is only five songs, but at 49 minutes long, it offers plenty of time for the musical moments that linger, and Branch and Nazary each have time with their respective instruments to sink into the songs. Its nine-minute opener, “Oryx,” is anything but static as Branch’s trumpet rages in increments, taking small but impactful steps, as the drums play sporadically. All the while, analog-like synth sounds are sprinkled in. By the second half of the song, the drums have become vigorous while the horn takes a smoother ride to the melody. Their 2020 project “Tour Beats Vol. 1” follows the same path as their previous work. It’s much shorter this time, just four songs and 22 minutes long, but the duo still makes bold choices, wrapping EDM sensibilities with an acoustic foundation. Branch’s trumpet is fluttering echoes by the second half of the opener, “Bubble Under.” With the snares hopping, the horn eventually fades slowly out, sounding like a memory you are recalling by the end. 7 p.m. $15-$20.
Smithsonian Folklife Festival: After two years of virtual events, the Smithsonian’s venerable Folklife Festival returns to its “normal” schedule of activities on the National Mall from Wednesday to June 27 and again from June 30 to July 4. The two topics — the United Arab Emirates and the Smithsonian’s sustainability-focused Earth Optimism project — were both part of the 2020 virtual “Beyond the Mall” festival but now will allow visitors to experience hands-on activities, including blending perfumes and learning to make Maasai-style jewelry, and smell the cooking meats and spices during foodways demonstrations. Learn about conservation efforts from the Chesapeake Bay to the savannas of Kenya, or try weaving a sculpture with date palms. Evenings feature special events: Wednesday’s opening night concert includes music and poetry hosted by legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and Thursday combines experimental Dubai-based trio Noon with D.C. go-go stars Experience Unlimited. (The concerts will be streamed through the festival’s website.) Through June 27, then June 30 through July 4. Free.
Grag Queen at City Winery: Grag Queen stole the first series of the international drag competition Queen of the Universe thanks to her renditions of “Rise Up” and “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” Now, with an album of original English-language tunes in the works, the 26-year-old Brazilian performer is showing off her dynamic vocal range to live audiences. 8 p.m. $15. | 2022-06-16T13:57:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The best things to do in the D.C. area the week of June 16-22 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/16/best-things-do-dc-area-week-june-16-22/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/16/best-things-do-dc-area-week-june-16-22/ |
How Europe Is Responding to Ukrainian Refugees
Analysis by Caroline Alexander and Andrea Dudik | Bloomberg
Ukrainian refugees and their children at the Medyka border crossing in Medyka, Poland, on Friday, March 18, 2022. The number of refugees reaching Poland from Ukraine now exceeds 2 million, mostly women with children, Polish border authorities said. (Bloomberg)
Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine has driven about a third of the nation’s 41 million people from their homes. More than 5 million of the displaced have left Ukraine for other European countries, producing the fastest moving refugee crisis since World War II, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. They’ve been well-received so far in Europe, where the war in Ukraine triggers a specter of Russian expansion that is part of the collective memory. The European Union granted them the right to live, work and receive social services in any of its 27 member states for as long as three years. There’s no guarantee the welcome won’t fade, however, as it did for asylum-seekers from the Middle East, Asia and Africa during a crisis in 2015.
1. Where have Ukrainians gone?
Poland is the No. 1 destination. The Polish government set up reception points along the 500-kilometer (311-mile) shared border, with citizens mobilizing to help. Poles and Ukrainians have similar cultures and languages. Despite being the aggressor, Russia was the second-largest destination. Other border states Romania, Hungary, Moldova and Slovakia also served as major landing zones. But as the war ground on, refugees increasingly relocated beyond the frontier areas, fanning out across Europe, with Germany the most popular haven. The UN has registered more than 2 million border crossings into Ukraine since the war’s start but noted that people may have been moving back and forth amid a volatile situation.
2. What explains the positive reception?
For Europeans, the war in Ukraine is nearby. It evokes Cold War memories of a Moscow determined to dominate the eastern part of the continent. Also, Ukrainians are predominantly White and Christian. The earlier wave of refugees was made up largely of Muslim Arabs and Asians from Syria, Iraq, North Africa and Afghanistan, and they arrived at a time when European fears of Islamic extremism were high. The Ukrainian refugees are mainly women, children and the elderly, given that Ukraine restricts men of military age — 18 to 60 — from departing. Those in 2015 were mostly men. So far, even far-right, anti-immigration nationalists such as France’s Marine Le Pen have taken a welcoming approach. Not all the refugees were treated equally, however. Members of Ukraine’s Roma minority encountered discrimination after escaping to neighboring countries.
3. Will the welcome last?
That’s unclear. There were also outpourings of solidarity during the 2015 crisis in many countries, especially early on. Donations to aid agencies spiked, and populations heaped pressure on governments to do more to help. But as the refugee crisis continued, far-right nationalists stoked anti-migrant sentiment. A number of EU countries temporarily tightened border controls, while others erected fences along sections of their frontiers to keep people out. If it’s different this time, shared culture may not be the only factor. Another element is the EU’s shrinking population. Even before the war started, Poland and the Czech Republic leaned on Ukrainians as a source of labor. Some Ukrainian companies have already started to relocate production to the bloc.
4. What’s the EU offering the refugees?
The bloc for the first time activated its Temporary Protection Directive, a mechanism adopted in 2001 to respond to a mass influx of displaced people coming from outside the EU. It allows Ukrainian refugees to stay for as long as a year in member states, with the possibility of two additional yearlong extensions, and waives the usual requirement of a lengthy application process to achieve refugee status. The refugees are promised access to a residence permit, housing, education, work, medical care and social benefits including a means of subsistence if necessary.
5. What are other countries doing?
In the UK, Ukrainians who’ve been offered accommodation by an approved local sponsor are eligible to live and work in the country for as many as three years and to access health care, education and government benefits. Canada, home to a large Ukrainian diaspora, launched a pathway to fast-track applications for temporary residence for refugees. And the US committed to taking in as many as 100,000 people fleeing the fighting and unveiled a streamlined application process for those with connections to America. | 2022-06-16T14:02:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How Europe Is Responding to Ukrainian Refugees - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-europe-is-responding-to-ukrainian-refugees/2022/06/16/3297235e-ed79-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-europe-is-responding-to-ukrainian-refugees/2022/06/16/3297235e-ed79-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html |
The Belgian schoolteacher was credited with shepherding 300 to 400 Jewish children to safety during the Holocaust
For her wartime heroism, Andrée Geulen was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. (Sebastian Scheiner/AP)
Ms. Geulen was 18 years old, a Catholic-born teacher just embarking on her career, when Hitler conquered Belgium in May 1940. Despite the wartime deprivations, her life carried on more or less as usual, she said, until she began to witness the cruelties visited upon her Jewish students.
One day, she recalled years later in an interview with an American scholar, Anne Griffin, several Jewish students arrived at school with their notebooks held tightly against their chests. They were trying to hide the yellow stars sewn on their uniforms in accordance with a Nazi decree. To lessen their shame and fear, Ms. Geulen declared that all her students, Jewish or not, would wear aprons over their uniforms. If only in the confines of her classroom, a yellow star — its presence or absence — was no matter.
Shortly thereafter, Ms. Geulen’s Jewish students began to disappear. They had been rounded up, bound for deportation to Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp in Poland. “At that very moment,” she told Griffin, “I said to myself, ‘What can I do to help? What can I do?’ ”
Ms. Geulen joined the underground and for two years in her early 20s, from 1942 until the Allied liberation of Belgium in September 1944, devoted herself to the rescue of Jewish children. Nearly half a century later, in 1989, she was recognized by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, as one of the Righteous Among the Nations, an honor bestowed on gentiles who assumed extraordinary risk to save the lives of Jews during World War II.
Working with an organization called the Comité de la Défense des Juifs, Ms. Geulen — under the code name Claude Fournier — escorted Jewish children to farms, convents, boarding schools and the homes of host families where she and her colleagues in the resistance had arranged for them to live under assumed Christian identities.
“It’s a very beautiful name,” Ms. Geulen told the girl, but at least for a while, “you have to say your name is Suzanne Peters.”
In what Ms. Geulen described as an “indispensable security measure,” under no circumstances did she reveal to parents where she was taking their children, lest the parents be tempted to visit and risk the entire mission. “I am trusting you with the most precious thing I have,” she recalled one mother impressing upon her.
In a complex series of ledgers, Ms. Geulen and her colleagues recorded the true names of the children in their care, their assumed names and their locations, but in such a manner that no single notebook — should it fall into the wrong hands — would reveal their whereabouts.
Sometimes, she said, she and fellow underground workers would rescue a child, only to learn that the parents had been taken away later that night. Ms. Geulen often posed as a mother, holding the hand of one child who was not her own and pushing another in a buggy, striding forward together under the gaze of German soldiers.
Of the 300 to 400 lives Ms. Geulen was credited with saving, some of them had scarcely begun. The youngest of the children she rescued were newborns, five or six days old, lifted from the arms of their mothers in hospital maternity wards and taken to places where they would be safe, or at least safer, until their Nazi danger passed. Her underground group worked with a doctor who would inform them when a Jewish woman had given birth and wished to surrender the child for safekeeping.
Some of those babies, like the other children rescued by Ms. Geulen, would be reunited with their families after the war. But many of their parents were murdered in the concentration camps. Meeting decades later with one of the children she had helped, Ms. Geulen spoke to the man of his mother and her anguish on leaving him before her ultimate death: “She let you go and saved your life.”
Ms. Geulen closely escaped arrest because of her resistance work on at least one occasion, when she was working at a boarding school that had taken in 12 Jewish children. Apparently tipped off to their presence, the Germans raided the school in 1943 on the Christian feast of Pentecost, when gentile students were likely to be home with their families. Wasn’t she ashamed, a German interrogator demanded of Ms. Geulen, to be teaching Jewish children?
After the war, Ms. Geulen assisted in the repatriation of Jewish refugees through an agency of what became the United Nations. That work brought her in contact with further suffering, such as when a child had no surviving parents or relatives, or when a surviving parent lacked the material, physical or emotional strength to resume a normal life.
Ms. Geulen was a correspondent for Les Lettres Françaises, a French leftist literary publication, her grandson said, and later pursued a career as a social worker.
Ms. Geulen is also survived by an ever-diminishing number of the children she saved.
One of them is Henri Wolfe, 84, a retired TV and film producer who lives in Lewisboro, N.Y. He was a boy of just a few years and had already been separated from his parents when Ms. Geulen smuggled him out of the Mechelen transit camp, located in Belgium between Antwerp and Brussels, where he was awaiting deportation to Auschwitz. Wolfe, who lost both his parents in the Holocaust and was adopted at age 9 by an American couple, said in an interview that he never learned precisely how Ms. Geulen had gotten him out.
Another of the children is Herbert Barasch, 85, of Menlo Park, Calif. His parents entrusted him during the war to Ms. Geulen, who, he recalled, held his hand as he boarded a train for the city of Leuven, where she placed him in a convent under the name Henri Le Chat. His parents also survived in hiding, and together they immigrated after the war to the United States.
“If it wasn’t for Andrée, I would not be here today, and if I wouldn’t be here today, I wouldn’t have a family,” Barasch said in an interview. “I have two sons and six grandchildren. … I am alive because of her.”
Yet Ms. Geulen insisted that it was she who owed her thanks to the children.
“Never again have I felt such exaltation, such satisfaction, except when raising my own children,” she added. “No other work has filled me with such pride. Imagine what this represented for a 20-year-old woman to go to sleep at night and think — another five children saved; another five children spared deportation … I loved you then so much; I still love you as much today.” | 2022-06-16T14:02:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Andrée Geulen, rescuer of Jewish children during the Holocaust, dies at 100 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/06/16/andree-geulen-jewish-children-holocaust/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/06/16/andree-geulen-jewish-children-holocaust/ |
By Donald Graham
The Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate building in D.C. in June 1972. (Ken Feil/The Washington Post)
Donald E. Graham was publisher of The Post from 1979 to 2000 and served as chairman and CEO of The Washington Post Co. until 2013.
I was with Katharine Graham, my mother and the publisher of The Washington Post, when managing editor Howard Simons called to tell her about the burglary at the Watergate offices of the Democratic National Committee.
We talked about it that morning, laughed about it and went on to other subjects. The idea that this incident would lead to the resignation of the president of the United States would have seemed crazy to her that day or any time in the next nine months.
Post Special Coverage: Watergate 50th anniversary
Richard M. Nixon resigned because of many things, some far removed from The Post: A security guard who saw something suspicious and called the police. A judge who pushed hard to make the truth come out. A Senate committee that did its job. The tapes.
But two Post reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, played a crucial role. Their book and the movie, “All the President’s Men,” describe what happened well.
Today, those on both the left and the right decry stories they don’t like as “fake news.” Had the phrase been around in 1972, Nixon’s folks would have gratefully used it.
But the stories — day after day, week after week — hit hard for a simple reason. They were true. They weren’t fake. They were news. A White House phone number was in the address book of a Watergate burglar? Really? The bills in their pocket came from a gift to the president’s reelection campaign. Yup. And on from there.
Woodward and Bernstein had sworn testimony in court and to a Senate committee to (eventually) back up what they wrote.
If most of their stories had been untrue or exaggerated, Watergate would be the story of the embarrassment of a newspaper, not of a president. But Bob and Carl, carefully edited by Ben Bradlee and many others, told as much of the truth as they could learn every day. They got it right. (When they erred on an important detail in one story, they immediately corrected it. It earned several pages in their book.)
From Post archives: Benjamin C. Bradlee: The biggest story -- and the most intense moment -- of our lives
There was one other hero at The Washington Post — Katharine Graham herself.
Alan Pakula’s great movie conveys a sense that there were grave threats to The Post. There were — but the threats were to her and the business she ran (she does not appear in the film “All the President’s Men”).
The most serious: The Washington Post Co. owned four television stations, and challenges to the licenses of two of them sprang up, backed by wealthy businessmen in Florida. Years later, White House tapes showed Nixon telling his aide Charles W. “Chuck” Colson to arrange those challenges. Had Nixon stayed in office, they would have been heard by a Federal Communications Commission chaired by the former head of the Republican National Committee. If the stations were taken away, The Post Co. would have lost about one-third of its value. Katharine Graham was the CEO — and owned a controlling share of the company.
My mother, never the world capital of self-confidence, stood up for her newsroom. Her faith in her editors and reporters turned out to be a central part of the Watergate story. | 2022-06-16T14:02:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Donald Graham: Watergate resonated because The Post reported the truth - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/16/don-graham-watergate-50-years/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/16/don-graham-watergate-50-years/ |
The odd timing of John Eastman’s claim of a ‘heated fight’ at SCOTUS
Attorney John Eastman speaks at the rally on the Ellipse in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (REUTERS/Jim Bourg/File Photo)
Within a short period of time on Wednesday night, both The Washington Post and the New York Times dropped new reporting on John Eastman, the attorney close to Donald Trump who spent the weeks before Jan. 6, 2021 fervently advocating strategies for Trump to retain power.
The Post’s report centered on his communication with Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. It’s not clear what Thomas said in any message to Eastman, but people familiar with the messages told The Post that they involved the effort to overturn Trump’s election loss. Thomas was already known to have contacted both White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and legislators in Arizona about helping Trump stay in office.
The Times’s report involved a different set of emails involving Eastman. These were released to the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot after U.S. District Judge David O. Carter determined that they should not be subject to attorney-client privilege.
Writing to another Trump-allied attorney, Kenneth Chesebro, Eastman discussed getting the Supreme Court to take action on Trump legal challenges.
“[T]he odds are not based on the legal merits but an assessment of the justices’ spines, and I understand that there is a heated fight underway,” Eastman wrote, according to the Times. “For those willing to do their duty,” he added, “we should help them by giving them a Wisconsin cert petition to add into the mix.” That meant that Trump’s team should put a case before the court, allowing four justices to decide to hear the case.
The “odds of action before Jan. 6 will become more favorable,” Chesebro reportedly responded, “if the justices start to fear that there will be ‘wild’ chaos on Jan. 6 unless they rule by then, either way.”
In part because the stories were published near the same time, it was natural to wonder if they were linked: Did Eastman hear about heated fighting from Virginia Thomas?
But there’s a more interesting issue of timing. Did Eastman instead hear about this purported fighting because there was an unfounded rumor of such fighting circulating online right when he was writing?
This would not have occurred to me as a possibility had it not been for Trump’s attempt to rebut the House committee’s Monday hearing. As you may have heard, Trump published a 12-page document rehashing a number of debunked claims about rampant voter fraud a few hours after the hearing, essentially proving the point made by his former attorney general William P. Barr that he’s immune to rational argument on the subject.
Part of the document centered on his long-standing claim that courts didn’t fully consider his legal arguments, a claim that has itself been debunked. Trump tried to argue, for example, that the Supreme Court rejected his last-ditch effort to block the election results, Texas v. Pennsylvania, out of fear. The document reads:
“Judges, including Justices of the United States Supreme Court, were scared. Some were political hacks who refused to be the sole arbiter of such a strong political issue. It was liberal fearmongering. Rumors circulated that the Justices devolved to shouting and argued intensely over how to handle the Texas v. Pennsylvania case.”
There’s a citation for that claim: an article from the right-wing outlet The Epoch Times. That article points to a story from the fringe-right radio host Hal Turner in which he claims that “a source deep inside the U.S. Supreme Court” — a law clerk, he claims — overhead a meeting in which Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. refused to hear the case due to concerns about violence and in which Justice Thomas replied that the situation was “the end of Democracy.” An elector in Texas later made this claim publicly.
To be very clear, there is literally no reason to believe this happened. The Epoch Times article linked by Trump, in fact, includes a statement from the Supreme Court pointing out that there were no in-person meetings, given the coronavirus pandemic. It simply didn’t occur, though it’s obvious why Trump wants to pretend it did.
Now we come to timing. Texas v. Pennsylvania was rejected by the high court on Dec. 11, 2020. As the University of Texas’s Steve Vladeck noted, there was no legal issue before the court when Eastman wrote to Chesebro on Dec. 24 that would imply there was a heated fight underway; it would have been settled more than a week prior. In fact, that was the point of Eastman’s email: Send them a case to take up!
What did happen before the email was sent was that the Hal Turner story was circulating. The first iteration published on Dec. 12. The Texas elector raised it as the state cast its electoral votes on Dec. 14. The Epoch Times story eventually linked by Trump published on Dec. 18 and was updated on Dec. 20. For a while, it was even trending on Twitter.
In other words, we have an obvious conduit for claims about a heated argument making their way to Eastman even if Virginia Thomas didn’t raise them: online misinformation. Eastman was not immune to flights of fancy, certainly, making it not impossible that he might have taken the rumors at face value.
If that is what happened, the implication is jarring — not just that an attorney close to the president was strategizing about challenges to the election based on nonsense, but that his exchange with Chesebro included the idea that this nonsense bolstered the utility of a “wild” presentation on Jan. 6. When Chesebro put “wild” in quotes, he was almost certainly referring to Trump’s tweet encouraging people to come to Washington on that day, pledging that it would be “wild.”
That tweet was sent on Dec. 19 — as the rumors about Supreme Court infighting were still swirling. | 2022-06-16T14:02:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The odd timing of Trump attorney John Eastman’s claim of a ‘heated fight’ at the Supreme Court - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/16/odd-timing-john-eastmans-claim-heated-fight-scotus/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/16/odd-timing-john-eastmans-claim-heated-fight-scotus/ |
Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images)
Listening to Republicans — and much of the mainstream media — one might think inflation is all President Biden’s doing and the result of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. It’s possible to argue the package should have been smaller (at the risk of persistently higher unemployment), but one stimulus plan is not the primary driver of inflation.
A recent Pew Research report puts the inflation problem in perspective: “Besides Israel, other countries with very large increases in inflation between 2020 and 2022 include Italy, which saw a nearly twentyfold increase in the first quarter of 2022 compared with two years earlier (from 0.29% to 5.67%); Switzerland, which went from ‑0.13% in the first quarter of 2020 to 2.06% in the same period of this year; and Greece,” where inflation “reached 7.44% in this year’s first quarter — nearly 21 times what it was two years earlier (0.36%).”
In fact, U.S. inflation is nowhere near the worst in the world. Pew reports: “Annual U.S. inflation in the first quarter of this year averaged just below 8.0% — the 13th-highest rate among the 44 countries examined. The first-quarter inflation rate in the U.S. was almost four times its level in 2020’s first quarter.”
Biden is right when he notes that inflation has many drivers, including the complete shutdown of the economy and its reopening being followed by pent-up demand chasing too little supply as producers struggled to get up and running. The rise in gas prices also shouldn’t be underestimated. CNN reports, “Energy prices rose 34.6% compared to a year ago, driven by a nearly 50% jump in gas prices over the last year. AAA’s tracking of gas prices shows the price of a gallon of regular gas nationwide is now at $4.99, after setting records in 31 of the last 32 days. The June CPI report due next month is certain to show another big jump in gas prices.” These factors have affected all advanced economies to some degree.
That is of little solace to U.S. consumers, which is why Biden is compelled to take flashy actions of marginal utility. Biden’s letter to oil companies on Wednesday calling on them to cut costs underscores the economic and political impact of gas prices. But while Biden railed at “refinery profit margins well above normal” and “historically high refinery profit margins,” attacks on corporate greed are unlikely to bring relief. It’s a supply and demand problem with no immediate fix.
As the Associated Press explained, “Some refineries that produce gasoline, jet fuel, diesel and other petroleum products shut down during the first year of the pandemic, when demand collapsed. While a few are expected to boost capacity in the next year or so, others are reluctant to invest in new facilities because the transition to electric vehicles will reduce demand for gasoline over the long run.” American producers are also wary about adding to supply because they expect prices to eventually drop.
That leaves two disagreeable options: Imploring Saudi Arabia (whose “pariah” status is unsustainable) to increase its supply, and reducing demand by driving less. Absent those changes, gas prices are not going to come down. While the price spike is the most vivid example of the need to shift to clean energy, that long-term objective will not affect energy prices in the near term.
Biden and U.S. consumers must therefore rely on the traditional brake on inflation: the Federal Reserve, which took an extraordinary step on Wednesday of raising interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point. Even that, Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell conceded, might not bring about price stability given factors outside the Fed’s control, including increasing prices for oil and other commodities.
Biden is left trying to address inflation at the margins. Reducing tariffs may lower some consumer costs. Increased production (e.g., new chip manufacturing) may help as well. But the realistic answer is that no one factor got us to this point, and assuming the president has the power to stop inflation with a snap of his fingers is the stuff of fantasies — and, sadly for Democrats, of political attack ads. | 2022-06-16T14:05:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Inflation is a worldwide problem — with little immediate relief in sight - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/16/biden-inflation-is-worldwide-problem-with-little-immediate-relief-sight/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/16/biden-inflation-is-worldwide-problem-with-little-immediate-relief-sight/ |
By Opal Lee
DeForest "Buster" Soaries
A photo displays a Juneteenth yard sign. (Washington Post illustration) (Courtesy of juneteenth.com/Washington Post illustration)
Opal Lee, an educator and activist known as “the grandmother of Juneteenth,” is a board member of Unity Unlimited. DeForest “Buster” Soaries is pastor emeritus of First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens, N.J., and a board member of the Stand Together Foundation. They are co-chairs of the Heal America movement, which is launching the “Summer of Healing” on June 19.
Juneteenth is more than a holiday. It is not just a commemoration of the end of slavery. It is a day that celebrates America’s incredible capacity to self-correct by applying the timeless principles at our country’s core. Yet as we prepare to mark Juneteenth’s second year as a federal holiday, we have to ask: Will we let this celebration fall prey to the division and distraction that are tearing America down? Or will we embrace its true meaning, commit to ending the injustices that surround us, and ultimately lift America up?
By all rights, Juneteenth should be a day of great unity. When the enslaved people of Galveston, Tex., were told of their freedom on June 19, 1865, the promise of America became much more real and attainable. It was hardly the end of all injustice, but it was the end of one of the country’s original injustices. That’s why generations of Black Americans made June 19 into a long-standing holiday. What could be more American than remembering the forward march of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
Yet Juneteenth is at risk of failing to be a source of unity. In these partisan times, there is a tendency to ignore or politicize it. There is also a danger of commercialization — think corporate attempts to trademark the word “Juneteenth" — which would cheapen this celebration of justice. Regardless of color, creed or country of origin, all Americans should oppose these trends, with all the urgency we can muster. If we forget the meaning of Juneteenth, we have little chance of continuing the progress this day is meant to spotlight and spark.
Juneteenth asks Americans to recognize that our nation’s principles are neither grossly hypocritical nor naively aspirational. We have inherited lofty yet practical ideals, and it falls to us to implement them as best we can.
In 1865, that meant fighting attempts to reimpose slavery through violence. In 2022, it means opposing new forms of violence, whether it is violence that comes from within a community or violence perpetrated by the police. This murderous violence claims thousands of promising lives every year, breaks up families, and sows the distrust that poisons relationships and worsens situations. This crisis of violence has many sources and defies a simplistic explanation or a single solution. Yet solutions exist, and if we hope to find them, it will take Americans of all backgrounds working together.
Those who made Juneteenth what it is today would be the first to say this holiday is not an event, it’s an invitation. That includes those of us who fought to make it a federal holiday. One of us, Opal Lee, spent more than two decades spreading the word about the meaning of Juneteenth and the national need to rally around it. What started with a single teacher grew every day through collaboration, until a diverse group of people achieved what previous generations thought impossible.
In a similar way, rather than pointing fingers or accusing each other of bad faith, people should dedicate themselves to the hard work of combating violence in their cities and neighborhoods. The two of us have been inspired by groups that bring together police and communities for tough conversations and break the cycle of gang violence, such as the nonprofit Urban Specialists in Dallas. We think of projects that help people leaving the criminal justice system build better lives, such as Hudson Link in New York. There are dozens more we could name, and for every good effort we know about, we’re sure there are hundreds more — along with countless people whose ideas deserve to become a reality.
Juneteenth has always been about unleashing those ideas. It’s about putting the incredible power of community to work — not in an abstract sense but through the hard work of each of us as individuals. From the start, this holiday inspired Black Americans to celebrate overcoming the injustices of the past and take steps to pursue a more just future. And if our national history proves anything, it’s this: The more people who get involved in that work, the faster and better it goes. Just look at the civil rights movement, which inspired and then transformed our nation.
We can’t let Juneteenth become just another holiday, or worse, a holiday for only one segment of the country. We should see it for what it really is: the other half of the Fourth of July. These two holidays, which fall a mere two weeks apart, represent the best of America. The one celebrates the Declaration of Independence, which contains what the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass called “saving principles.” The other celebrates America’s journey to live by those principles.
This great work is never done, and if we hope to do it, it will take the commitment of every American. Surely that’s a vision we can rally around, so we can truly celebrate freedom from the 19th of June to the Fourth of July — and move freedom forward every day of the year.
America’s Racial Reckoning: What you need to know
Full coverage: Race & Reckoning
Demographic changes: How the racial makeup of where you live has changed since 1990
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George Floyd’s America: Examining systemic racism through the lens of his life
Resources: Understanding racism and inequality in America | 2022-06-16T14:05:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Juneteenth is the other half of the Fourth of July - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/17/juneteenth-holidays-slavery-emancipation/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/17/juneteenth-holidays-slavery-emancipation/ |
‘TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge’ was made by fans for fans. Here’s how.
By Gene Park
(Washington Post illustration; Dotemu; iStock)
Two years before “Streets of Rage” for the Sega Genesis wowed players with its diagonal-scrolling levels, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles did it in arcades around the world.
The “Streets of Rage” series, started in 1991, is often considered to be among the most influential games in the beat-em-up side-scrolling genre, sometimes referred to as “belt action” games. Its first stage or “belt” didn’t just scroll left to right like a Super Mario game, it also scrolled diagonally, creating a pseudo-3D effect as enemies popped onstage from the background or adjacent levels to attack players.
But in 1989, Konami’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game” pulled off this same trick. Only two years after the influential beat 'em up “Double Dragon,” it became the first brawler game to feature four-player cooperative action. Now, arcade-goers — many drawn in by the cabinet’s bright, pixelated graphics — could stand shoulder to shoulder to take on Shredder’s Foot Soldier goons.
Anyone who played it will tell you it felt just like playing the TMNT cartoon, a sentiment that even Frederic Gemus, game designer at Tribute Games and a lead developer for the new “TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge” game released this week, can’t help but echo.
“It was the first time at the arcade they had this big cab with four players, and it was just like playing the cartoon,” Gemus told The Washington Post, citing the slapstick humor and pixels that mimicked the classic 1987 animated series produced by Murakami-Wolf-Swenson. “It was crazy, those visuals, but also the gameplay was so different than any other games of the time. … We were just leaning on Nintendo, which didn’t have games doing this.”
Review: ‘TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge’ is a kung fu barrage of arcade perfection
Although “Double Dragon” for the first Nintendo home gaming console is one of the godfathers of the genre, it looked like cave drawings compared to the bright, large Turtles and swarms of enemies crashing into the screen.
“Even at the arcade, they mostly had like three enemies on screen,” Gemus said. “I remember when we talked to [Tribute co-founder and game director Jonathan Lavigne], we were comparing it to old-school shoot ’em ups, where enemies would come in with patterns, and it was all about knowing how to deal with those patterns rather than waiting for the enemies to come in for a one-on-one fight.”
That’s what differentiates “Shredder’s Revenge” from publisher and developer Dotemu’s critically acclaimed 2020 brawler “Streets of Rage 4.” Dotemu, a French retro games developer, worked with two other indie devs to update the franchise for the modern age; it also wore the publisher’s hat for “Shredder’s Revenge.”
“ ‘Streets of Rage’ is, I would say, closer to a versus fighting game, whereas TMNT is closer to an action game or a party game almost, and it’s really in harmony with the show: playful and not taking itself too seriously,” said Dotemu CEO Cyrille Imbert. “Both are nice to play, but feel different; with Rage, it’s very hard and slow and you have to strategize, whereas TMNT is more, like, go ahead, try some crazy moves and have some fun all the time.”
During a Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Imbert met with Tribute Games, a Quebec-based studio that employed developers of Ubisoft’s “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game” from 2010. That title is often cited as the start of a new wave of retro-based games in the 21st century.
Dotemu had already spoken with the Turtles’ license holder Nickelodeon about making a new game for the brand, so when Imbert heard through the grapevine at the conference that Tribute was making proposals for a similar project to revive the Turtles brawler series, he decided to offer a bit of wish fulfillment.
“We met in San Francisco, and I explained my vision for the project, and it was a perfect match,” Imbert said. “We were not wanting to develop the game ourselves, we were thinking to find a nice studio to do that, and Tribute was just a perfect candidate. Teaming up as publisher and developer for this project was just the way to go.”
In the 1980s, Japanese developer and publisher Konami was already a world-renowned developer of arcade games. Its developers wanted to make an action game that would appeal to both Japan and U.S. markets, and the TMNT brand was a perfect fit. Its four Turtle characters made upping cooperative play to four a natural, fitting evolution for the genre.
Unlike other beat ’em ups of that era, the TMNT arcade game featured far more elaborate set pieces in its levels. The first level, journalist April O’Neil’s burning apartment, sees her get kidnapped at the end of the stage after the villains burst through her floor during gameplay. Shredder leaps out the window, and the Turtles give chase to the next level on the streets of New York City.
Enemy Foot Soldiers creep around corners, flying-kick through windows and pop out of manholes as Shredder menaces the Turtles on live TV. Unlike other games in the genre where enemies would simply walk on screen or sometimes step out of doorways, the Turtles arcade game felt like a Broadway musical in how villains would sashay in with comedic timing.
“We all remember that skateboard lady in the arcade game that just crosses the street in the second stage for no reason,” Gemus said. “Aspects like these, how you spawn the enemies, are super important as it’s really part of the storytelling. It’s what happening inside the game rather than in cutscenes.”
This storytelling trick was repeated in Konami’s subsequent line of brawlers inspired by the original TMNT arcade cabinet, including “The Simpsons” from 1991 and the six-player “X-Men” arcade game from 1992.
“Shredder’s Revenge” amps this level of detail to the nth degree from its first frames to the last. Throughout the first level, April’s Channel 6 News TV studio, Foot Soldiers type furiously away at work desks, cook meals at its test kitchen and tap away on their smartphones like busy journalists before engaging the Turtles in a fight.
Creating so many of these moments was a large part of the game’s development, Gemus said, since artists drew and animated the pixels by hand.
“At some point, we wondered if we’re spending too much time on doing things that’s not necessarily part of the gameplay,” he said. “But it’s really important and pays off in the end. … It’s a lot of planning and work to set up correctly, especially working with the artists and the stage design, and at the end of the day it creates this very long narrative.”
The artificial intelligence of the enemies of the original TMNT arcade game was also unique. Brawlers until then had a push-and-pull relationship, where players could hang back to ease pressure from the onslaught of enemies. But the Turtles’ enemies would fly into the game and swarm, coaxing players to dodge across the screen and use every move in their toolset. “Shredder’s Revenge” tries to mimic that frenetic pacing.
“If you deal with the enemies as fast as you can, players will never be able to go deep into the system,” Gemus said. “So basically, it’s all about dealing with their entry. That’s why we spent a lot of time introducing attacks. Sometimes they come in with a jumping kick and it creates this kind of dance where you’re not just attacking, you have to dodge, you have to move around, you have to jump. It was important for us that this would be more than a simple button-mashing game.”
Gemus said Dotemu provided consulting to help differentiate the game from other brawlers like “Streets of Rage 4” and encouraged mechanics closer to the older TMNT games.
Imbert said he was insistent to Nickelodeon on creating a game based on the 1987 iteration of the Turtles, and not the recent 21st century design revisions. His instinct was that he wasn’t the only player who wanted to return to those glory days of beat 'em ups. Tribute shared that passion, and the audience response to the early 2021 reveal of “Shredder’s Revenge” cemented this.
“It was just the dream to work on the ’87 design because that’s what we grew up with,” Imbert said. “This golden era of TMNT was not just the show, but also the toys. We needed to put as much of the toys as we could because they were so cool and we would love to play with them, but in a video game so we can re-create the stories like we did when we were children with those toys.”
Toy vehicles that make cameos in the game include the spider-like Knucklehead robot, the never-released Turtle Tenderizer monster truck and the Rat King’s Footski watercraft.
“Shredder’s Revenge” was a dream project fulfilled for both companies. Members of Tribute also worked on Turtles projects for the Game Boy Advance, but they dreamed of re-creating the classic arcade titles. Konami would go on to create another arcade title, “Turtles in Time,” which would later release on the Super Nintendo. That version was unique in that it had more content than the arcade game, which many cite as possibly the first arcade home console port that exceeded the quality of the arcade original. Now, “Shredder’s Revenge” takes all that rich history and re-creates it in a modernized package.
“I think we did it in a very honest way,” Gemus said. “We really tried to be respectful to the source material and put all the love we have for it in the game. After spending all these years developing the game, especially during pandemic times, we know we did it for the right reasons.” | 2022-06-16T15:06:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge captured the arcade experience - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/06/16/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-shredders-revenge-tribute-games/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/06/16/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-shredders-revenge-tribute-games/ |
FILE - Elon Musk attends The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute benefit gala celebrating the opening of the “In America: An Anthology of Fashion” exhibition on May 2, 2022, in New York. Musk is expected to meet with Twitter employees Thursday, June 16, 2022 in an apparent effort to assuage concerns about his $44 billion deal to acquire the social platform. (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP) | 2022-06-16T15:32:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Musk aims to ease concerns in address to Twitter workers - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/musk-aims-to-ease-concerns-in-address-to-twitter-workers/2022/06/16/a880536e-ed84-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/musk-aims-to-ease-concerns-in-address-to-twitter-workers/2022/06/16/a880536e-ed84-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html |
We’re Having a Heat Wave. Naming It Won’t Help.
Over the past half-century, heat waves in the US have lengthened from an average of three days to an average of four days, according to EPA data, which defines a heat wave as lasting two consecutive days or more. But the World Meteorological Association insists on at least five consecutive days with a temperature of 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit) above the mean.
Would we better recall the heat wave of 1936 — the worst in recorded US history — had it been given a name? We all remember Hurricane Katrina, but that’s largely because of horrific television images and perhaps political associations as well. If naming hurricanes (formally, Atlantic tropical storms) were truly an aid to memory, lots of us would surely be able to cite the two most intense hurricanes ever to strike the US mainland. How many of us can do that?
Long before the US government began naming tropical storms, people were perfectly aware of their existence and the horrific damage they could do. In the Caribbean, for example, as long ago as the 18th century hurricanes were named according to the nearest saint’s day -- Hurricane Santa Ana, which struck in 1825, has long been considered one of the most intense storms ever to strike the region.
In the US, the formal naming of hurricanes began in the early 1950s, first with phonetic designations (Able, Baker, Charlie, and so on). In 1953, the government infamously switched to the system using female names (called at the time “girls’ names”). Though the gendering of tropical storms immediately provoked sharp criticism, only in 1977, under pressure from Commerce Secretary Juanita Kreps, was the current system of rotating male and female names adopted.
• It’s Time to Get Biofuels Out of Your Gas Tank: David Fickling | 2022-06-16T15:32:50Z | www.washingtonpost.com | We’re Having a Heat Wave. Naming It Won’t Help. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/were-having-a-heat-wave-naming-it-wont-help/2022/06/16/6d4b9abc-ed7d-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/were-having-a-heat-wave-naming-it-wont-help/2022/06/16/6d4b9abc-ed7d-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html |
These maps illustrate the seriousness of the western drought
Historic drought has depleted groundwater, melted the snowpack and dried out lakes — and it will get worse
Groundwater conditions
Groundwater wetness percentile as of
June 6, compared to 1948-2012
Groundwater wetness percentile as of June 6, compared to 1948-2012
The historic drought in the western United States is about to get worse.
“In the last 1,200 years, we haven’t seen a period as dry as right now,” said Ann Willis, a researcher at the Center for Watershed Sciences at the University of California at Davis. “We’re really hitting new lows in terms of how extreme the conditions are.”
Drought intensity
Data as of June 7
Abnormally
Ida.
California, which is enduring its third consecutive year of drought, has employed unprecedented measures in some counties to conserve water. For nearly 6 million people in the Los Angeles area, outdoor water use is restricted to one day a week. Overall, the state aims to cut water use by 35 percent.
Southwest drought is the most extreme in 1,200 years, study finds
Several other western states, including Colorado and Utah, also have adopted outdoor water restrictions.
How did the West get to this point?
Drought is not new to desert environments, but recent dry spells have lasted longer and been more intense than in previous decades. Although water management and increased water demand by a growing population affect supplies, a warming atmosphere is drying out the ground, shrinking the reservoirs and reducing mountain snowpack.
Scientists say this could be the new normal if climate change continues unchecked.
“There’s no good news for the foreseeable future, for the next few decades,” Willis said. “Fundamentally addressing climate change is the ultimate answer. … If we don’t, then what we’re really seeing is just preamble to an even more extreme and catastrophic set of conditions.”
Not-so-snowy Sierra Nevada
Sierra Nevada roughly translates to “snowy mountains” in English, but the mountains have frequently been bare in recent years.
Snowpack in the Sierra is an important water resource for California, supplying around one-third of the state’s freshwater supply. Winter storms typically bring generous amounts of snow, which melt as temperatures rise in April. The meltwater runoff helps replenish rivers, reservoirs and groundwater.
Because of a historically dry winter, the statewide snowpack stood at 38 percent of its average at the end of the season on April 1. The little snowpack that accumulated in the southern Sierra had fully melted by May 24, leaving no additional freshwater supply for the hot months ahead.
Water available as snowpack
Snow water equivalent, percent of average
(see satellite
imagery below)
The map above shows the snow water equivalent for the Sierra Nevada, or how much liquid water was contained in the snowpack on April 1 this year compared to its 20-year average. The data, modeled weekly by the University of Colorado’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, is used by water forecasters, managers, irrigators, public utilities and many other parties.
“What matters most is how much snow is on the ground on April 1st, because that’s really the indicator of the total amount of snow that accumulated for the whole winter,” said Noah Molotch, a hydrologist with the monitoring project and a professor at the University of Colorado in Boulder. This year’s depletion of the snowpack followed lackluster winters in 2020 and 2021, making this the third dry year in a row for California.
Snow may vanish for years at a time in Mountain West with climate warming
Molotch said 2022’s winter snow is likely to rank among the smallest five annual snowpacks since 2000. The lowest snowpack occurred in 2015, when accumulation was less than 10 percent of the average. California has not fully recovered from 2015, Molotch said.
Willis said the past two years of drought have been unique because the region’s atmosphere and soil have become “thirstier.” She explained that rising global temperatures dry out the atmosphere, which increases the amount of water evaporating from the ground. Research has shown that the atmosphere’s drying power has intensified over much of the western United States in recent decades.
“[W]e’re getting less runoff from the same amount of precipitation,” Willis said. “That’s been a really unusual and new phenomenon that’s become much more apparent in the last couple of years.”
And those changes are seen on the ground.
The satellite imagery below, provided by Planet, highlights changes in the past year in northern California. The first image pair shows Tule Lake near the Upper Klamath Watershed, which is one of the prime migratory destinations for birds as they travel between the Northern and Southern hemispheres.
Tulelake
Tule Lake National
Over the past year, much of the lake has dried out. Willis also pointed out the poor water quality in 2021, as less water was available to flush the system.
“Because there’s so much less runoff than we would normally expect out of these watersheds … we’re seeing exactly the effects of what you’re showing here,” Willis said.
The next pair of images shows communities in Shasta County. Notice how much of the lush vegetation and agricultural fields visible in 2021 has browned by 2022, probably because of a combination of drought and recent cuts in water supply to the Sacramento Valley.
Kyra Kim, a postdoctoral researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said that during such times of drought, many areas can pump water out of the ground to compensate for the lack of surface water. Much of this groundwater supports agricultural industries in California.
However, drought also affects groundwater levels. Groundwater data from NASA, shown in the map at the top of this page, indicate that some areas in the Southwest contain only around 2 percent of their average groundwater for this time of the year.
“California has experienced about 100 years of groundwater depletion, much of which occurs during drought periods,” said Jay Famiglietti, the executive director of the Global Institute for Water Security at the University of Saskatchewan. “Research in review from our team indicates that the rate of depletion may actually be accelerating since 2019, relative to the previous droughts of 2006-2010 and 2011-2016.”
Climate change also slows the replenishment of groundwater. A warmer atmosphere increases evaporation over land and affects the amount of water that penetrates into the soil. Groundwater takes a long time to recover from drought and requires moisture slowly and steadily seeping through soil and rock layers.
In California, the majority of pumped groundwater is also ancient groundwater from the last glacial maximum, when ice and snow covered the terrain. “It’s really old groundwater, and we were essentially not getting that with one year’s worth of rain or one year’s worth of snow,” Kim said.
Variable snowpack in the Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are another important source of water for many western states. Winter snowpack accumulates on the western slopes of the mountains and melts during the spring, with the runoff funneling into the Colorado River, which feeds into some of the largest artificial reservoirs in the country, Lakes Mead and Powell.
For winter 2022, Rocky Mountain snowpack tracked close to the long-term average until March, then April was “horribly dry,” said Leanne Lestak, who works with Molotch on modeling snow water equivalent across the Sierra and the Rockies.
As of April 1, snow water equivalent over most areas ranged from 46 to 95 percent of the long-term average, as shown in the modeled data below. By June 1, snow water equivalent had decreased, ranging from 2 to 64 percent.
Lakes Powell and Mead have dropped to historically low levels in the past year. Lake Mead has dropped so low that previously sunken boats and human remains have been recovered.
Depleted by drought, Lakes Powell and Mead were doomed from the beginning
Lake levels have been decreasing for the past two decades because of poor recovery from past droughts, water management practices and increased demand from booming populations. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has declared water shortages and reduced operations on the lakes for 2022.
Powell,UT
Glen Canyon
Some researchers say the lakes may never recover to healthy water levels again — especially with the added stress of climate change.
"Climate change makes things more challenging because it makes things more extreme,” said Willis. “Our droughts are drier than they’ve ever been in the past. … Some of our flood seasons will be bigger than they’ve ever been in the past. What we’re really losing is the kind of moderate, manageable middle ground.”
Current drought intensity data sourced from the National Drought Mitigation Center at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Groundwater conditions data sourced from NASA Grace. Snow water equivalent data for the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains provided by Leanne Lestak and Noah P. Molotch of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Satellite imagery courtesy of Planet Labs. | 2022-06-16T15:33:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The historic drought in the West, explained through maps - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/06/16/drought-west-california-mountains/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/06/16/drought-west-california-mountains/ |
Pharrell’s big music festival lands in D.C. this weekend, asking a tacit question: Is music shaped by where we are on the planet?
Washington Post illustration; Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP; iStock (Washington Post illustration; Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP; iStock)
It’s annoying to start this way, but sometimes we have epiphanies in posh places: I was walking around Paris six years ago when I encountered a copse of trees huddled together on a swatch of grass outside the Louis Vuitton Foundation. It was springtime, and the late-afternoon sun was beaming down on the fauna in a way that made every leafy branch look like a Monet stroke that hadn’t yet dried. As the colors swirled in my eyes, an idea became clear in my mind. Monet and his peers painted these kinds of trees with these kinds of colors because that’s how the sun’s photons land on this locality. Which means the walls of your dentist’s office would look much different if the post-Impressionists had operated out of Detroit. The quality of the air, the angle of the sun — this art belongs to a very particular piece of planetary geography.
Since then, I’ve been wondering if music might work the same way. Regional folk-music traditions are obviously formed by cultural migrations and collisions of social customs, but I’m talking about something environmental, biological or maybe even metaphysical. The way our circadian rhythms are synced by the sunrise and sunset. The way the seasons change the speed of our steps. The way the temperature seems to tighten and loosen our speech. The way our communal experience of the weather can feel like low-key group telepathy. Our physical environment unquestionably shapes our soundworld and how we experience it — which must shape our “local” music, right? The idea feels unprovable and undeniable.
This weekend, Washington will host a starry music festival called Something In the Water, and everyone’s coming from all over the place: Lil Uzi Vert, Justin Timberlake, J Balvin, SZA, Jon Batiste, Lil Baby, Tierra Whack, Usher, 21 Savage, Dave Matthews Band and heaps more. Founded in 2019 in Virginia Beach by Pharrell Williams, the festival’s name is a wink-nod to his hometown’s wildly disproportionate influence on 21st-century pop. Twenty summers ago, back when Williams and his co-producer Chad Hugo ruled the airwaves as the Neptunes, the only hitmakers who could rival their stylish futurism were fellow Virginia Beach area natives Missy Elliott and Timbaland. But maybe instead of the water, there was something in the air. Maybe all of these global megahits sprang from this precise geolocation because it’s both hot and cold, North and South, an either/or latitude that makes people more attentive to fluctuations in the rhythms of life.
Six acts you shouldn't miss at Something in the Water
Williams seems to have grown up hyper-attentive to every sound within earshot. He obviously loved the rap songs that were pumping out of radios coast-to-coast back in the ’80s, but when he talks about the influence of old-school go-go music trickling down the tidewater, he speaks as if D.C.'s indigenous funkstyle arrived from another world altogether. Chatting with Mark Ronson for the Fader magazine, Williams once described Trouble Funk’s signature go-go anthem “Drop the Bomb” as “the most alien, space, African, really from another f---ing planet genius.” Try to re-listen to “Drop the Bomb” through Williams’s ears today and it becomes hard to miss go-go’s rhythmic influence on the Neptunes’ airlocked syncopation — which, of course, means that monumental hits from Jay-Z, Britney Spears, Snoop Dogg, Nelly, No Doubt and more each contain a tiny go-go spore.
Was go-go in the D.C. water supply? We know the music’s creation myth — about how Chuck Brown added percussionists to his band back in the ’70s, using those surplus drums to stitch his funk sets together like a DJ so that the party-people wouldn’t leave the dance floor between songs. And we know how go-go quickly became the sound of public life in Black Washington, binding the community with its synchronizing rumble. But why this sound and not another?
I’ve always wondered if go-go is a subconscious, communal transposition of D.C.'s summer humidity into rhythm — a music that feels sticky and slow, enveloping and enlivening. And if it is, does that also explain why so much doom metal originates nearby? Pentagram, the Obsessed, Iron Man and other doom bands each specialized in sluggish, smothering riffs that, in their respective heydays, felt as endless and extreme as Washington at its muggiest.
If there’s a distinctive slowness to D.C’s music, there’s also a countervailing speed. Bad Brains, Minor Threat and subsequent generations of D.C. hardcore punk outfits have made music at mind-spinning tempos with a ferociousness that felt reactionary to the political and cultural malaise of their respective eras. Maybe these bands were trying to challenge the speed of everyday life here, too — fast music as a tacit revolt against psychic inertia, Beltway traffic, the month of August and more.
Dave Grohl knows more about making music in the riptide between D.C. slowness and D.C. speed than most. He grew up in the District’s hardcore scene, playing in the Northern Virginia band Scream before helping to change the entire feel of rock-and-roll as the drummer of Nirvana. In a recent conversation between Grohl and Williams, filmed for the television series “From Cradle to Stage,” Grohl explains how he nicked the volcanic drum fill that opens “Smells Like Teen Spirit” from the Gap Band, a funk group that he couldn’t have missed on Black radio growing up so close to the District. During the chat, Grohl approximates that momentous flam fill, palms on thighs, and Williams looks like he just opened the greatest birthday present of his life. And so one Virginia kid who changed music forever better understands another.
Here’s the sobering thing about this musical power spot we’re living on: We do exports, not imports. Nobody moves to the DMV to shake the tower of song. We are not New York, or Los Angeles, or Nashville or Atlanta, or any music industry town to which people like Williams and Grohl take their latent physical knowledge of the environment in hopes of blasting it out to the rest of the planet. That makes it difficult to hear this region’s massive influence on pop writ large, but I think it’s still happening all the time — the rhythms of our lives distilled and dispersed into something in everybody else’s water. | 2022-06-16T15:33:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | D.C.'s Something in the Water music festival: Right place, right vibe - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/06/16/something-in-the-water-festival-dc-background/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/06/16/something-in-the-water-festival-dc-background/ |
Russian spy tried infiltrating war crimes court, Dutch authorities say
The International Criminal Court in The Hague. (Piroschka Van De Wouw/Reuters)
Authorities in the Netherlands said Thursday that they refused entry to a Russian spy posing as a Brazilian national to infiltrate the International Criminal Court — where authorities speculated he was seeking to gain access to information relating to the ICC’s investigations of alleged Russian war crimes.
The alleged spy “was sent back to Brazil on the first flight out,” authorities said of the events, which took place in April.
The General Intelligence and Security Service, the Netherlands’ counterespionage agency, which is known by its Dutch acronym, AIVD, released details of the plot in an extraordinary news release more reminiscent of a spy novel than a government statement.
Cherkasov, posing as Muller Ferreira, “used a well-constructed cover identity by which he concealed all his ties with Russia in general, and the GRU [Russia’s intelligence directorate] in particular,” according to AIVD, which released copies of a document detailing the man’s elaborate cover identity.
The original document, probably written in mid-2010, was in Portuguese and included notable grammatical mistakes. It had been redacted by Dutch authorities to remove identifying information of people not involved in Cherkasov’s intelligence activities.
“This was a long-term, multi-year GRU operation that cost a lot of time, energy and money,” Dutch intelligence agency chief Erik Akerboom told Reuters.
“The ICC takes these threats very seriously and will continue to work and cooperate with the Netherlands,” Robla said.
“If the intelligence officer had succeeded in gaining access as an intern to the ICC, he would have been able to gather intelligence there and to look for (or recruit) sources, and arrange to have access to the ICC’s digital systems,” AIVD said.
For this reason, he was “deemed potentially very high” risk to the security of the Netherlands, and was sent back to Brazil at the earliest opportunity, the release said.
AIVD said it worked with Dutch military intelligence, or MIVD, and other partners to “mitigate any possible damage to national security and the security and integrity of international organisations.” The agency said it notified Dutch immigration authorities, as well as the ICC.
Russia has a fraught history with the court. Moscow signed the 1998 Rome Statute that established the ICC but never ratified it. The ICC has also launched investigations into Russia’s invasion of South Ossetia in Georgia in 2008 and later declared Russia an occupying force in Crimea after the 2014 invasion, prompting Moscow to withdraw its signature in protest. | 2022-06-16T15:34:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Netherlands says Russian spy caught seeking to infiltrate ICC - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/16/russian-spy-infiltrate-icc-netherlands/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/16/russian-spy-infiltrate-icc-netherlands/ |
“I worry that we hear calls for peace negotiations, which very generally means Ukraine should give away some of its territory. The big question has to be why Ukraine has to give up territory," says Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, shown here in May. (Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP)
Ukraine’s allies need to accelerate their military assistance and other forms of aid before war fatigue takes hold in the West and Russia makes territorial gains that could become permanent, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said.
Kallas, who has emerged as one of Europe’s most outspoken proponents of a robust response to the Russian invasion, said it is vital for Europe and the United States to remain focused on helping Ukraine to win, despite waning public attention on the four-month old war, which now seems set to drag on for many more months.
After Ukraine’s initial success in beating Russian troops back from around the capital Kyiv, Russia has been making slow but steady gains against outgunned Ukrainian forces, who have been appealing to the West for deliveries of more sophisticated weapons to help match Russia’s overwhelming firepower.
Meanwhile, soaring energy prices and rising inflation are emerging as higher priorities in many Western countries than the war, which had consumed public attention earlier in the year, calling into question the commitment of Ukraine’s allies to sustaining support for a potentially protracted war.
Kallas said she is concerned by calls from some European leaders for peace talks, which would risk entrenching Russian gains at a time when it is the Russians that have the upper hand on the battlefield.
“We see the summer coming and war fatigue coming in the Western world. We see calls that this war should be over … which is very worrying for the security situation in Europe,” she said in an interview.
Kallas declined to name any specific countries, but French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Sholz have in recent weeks said they would like to see peace talks begin. On the eve of his visit to Kyiv on Thursday, Macron said it was his “wish” that Ukraine wins on the battlefield, adding that eventually negotiations are inevitable.
“I worry that we hear calls for peace negotiations, which very generally means Ukraine should give away some of its territory,” Kallas said. “The big question has to be why Ukraine has to give up territory. Maybe those who want to push them into a peace negotiation should give up their own territories.”
Inflation is eroding support for the Ukraine war in Europe
Kallas said her concern is that any peace talks that take place before Russian troops are defeated would entrench Russian gains, handing President Vladimir Putin a win that could embolden him to embark on fresh conquests in the future.
“There are ideas that negotiating some kind of agreement is a way out of this. But Russia will want to get an agreement it never intends to keep. This is what we have seen before,” she said.
Russia’s seizure of Crimea and parts of the Donbas region in 2014-15 and de facto occupation of the separatist territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia in 2008 were met with little international reaction, Kallas noted. If Russia is empowered to keep the areas it has occupied in Ukraine, other parts of Ukraine and perhaps more territories in Europe could follow in the years to come, she said.
“What we have seen before is that Putin will move [further] … to other parts of Ukraine or neighboring territories,” she said. “All these countries and also Ukrainians [couldn’t] live without anxiety about what Russia will do next.”
Kallas acknowledged that Estonia’s tough stance on Russia and the Ukraine war stem to a large degree from Estonia’s own historical experiences, as a country occupied after World War II by the former Soviet Union until its collapse in 1991.
“For France or Germany, the end of World War II meant there was peace, there was rebuilding, people went on with their lives,” Kallas said. “The same peace for us, the people living in occupied territories, the human suffering continued.”
Kallas’s grandparents, great-grandparents and mother, who was 6 months old at the time, were among thousands of Estonians deported to Siberia during the Soviet era. At the same time, the Soviet Union relocated Russians to Estonia, boosting the Russian population of the country from 3.2 percent in 1922 to 30 percent by 1991.
Kallas said she sees a similar dynamic underway in the southern Ukraine provinces occupied by the Russians in the first days of the war. Russian forces have been burning Ukrainian books, enforcing the use of Russian language, and last week introduced the Russian curriculum to schools in the Kherson region.
“What they’re doing is the same things we saw in Soviet times … so that Ukrainian culture is erased, the language is erased,” she said.
It’s therefore also important, Kallas said, to accelerate efforts to prosecute Russia for war crimes, which under international law include attempts to suppress language and culture. The International Criminal Court has said it will launch an investigation, but the effort has yet to develop momentum.
The price of moving slowly, whether on weapons or sanctions or war crimes, “goes higher every day,” she said. “It is not only that territories are being destroyed that we have to rebuild. It is not only the lives lost in the war. It is not only the people tortured in the occupied territories.”
“It is also the energy costs for our people, the costs of the war that are affecting all the countries and this will not stop if we don’t stop this war,” she said. “It is in our interest to stop this war as soon as possible and therefore we have to help Ukraine as much as we can.” | 2022-06-16T16:03:13Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Estonian prime minister Kallas urges faster Ukraine aid as war fatigue sets in - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/16/estonia-kallas-ukraine-allies-aid/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/16/estonia-kallas-ukraine-allies-aid/ |
Seward, Alaska, known for its glaciers, also features top-notch hikes
Looking back at the beach and shoreline of Tonsina Point, near Seward, Alaska, with Callisto Peak in the background. (Photos by Nevin Martell for The Washington Post)
Perched at the edge of Resurrection Bay’s epic sweep, the small, bustling town of Seward, Alaska, is primarily known for its towering glaciers, especially those in Kenai Fjords National Park. However, the real draw to this seaside outpost located about a two-hour drive south of Anchorage should be its multitude of breathtaking hikes, away from the glaciers and outside the park, which include some of the best in the state.
Trails of varying lengths and difficulties wend their way through diverse environments, such as the top of a craggy mountain peak with breathtaking views of the bay and a secluded ridge-top lake, as well as verdant forests and the ocean’s rocky shoreline. Here are five unforgettable treks, including options for every schedule and hikers of all levels.
Lost Lake Trail
Start from the trailhead at the end of Hayden Lane.
Set aside a full day for this rigorous but rewarding hike to a picturesque lake on a ridge top cozied up alongside the peak of Mount Ascension. The nearly 14-mile out-and-back trail with about 2,600 feet of elevation gain took me 5½ hours to complete, although you may want to allow for up to eight hours. Winding up through a Sitka spruce forest, then along the edge of a lushly carpeted canyon, the path eventually finds its way into meadowlands, where you’re afforded stunning views of the surrounding mountains and glaciers. Wild blueberry bushes line the trail for several long stretches, offering a tangy-sweet snack on the go. At one point, I spotted a marmot popping up from its burrow, and birdsong soundtracked many miles of the journey. The lake was pure magic, its water looking jade green from afar but morphing into granite gray as I got closer, its mirror-sharp surface reflecting the contours of the rolling ridge tops surrounding it and the wispy-edged, billowing clouds sitting close above. The shoreline was flat and grassy, the perfect spot to enjoy a picnic lunch and rest my legs before heading home.
Planning a hike? Here's what you need to know.
Mount Marathon Jeep Trail
Start from the trailhead at the corner of First Avenue and Monroe Street.
Some reviews of this hike make it sound as if it’s an easy-peasy jaunt in the woods. Don’t believe them. Although it’s only about four miles out and back, there’s more than 1,600 feet of elevation change, starting with a steep switchback in the woods. All the effort is worth it. After making it above the tree line, you’re greeted with sweeping views of Resurrection Bay spreading off to the horizon and Seward below. Keep going to the summit, where there are lots of lichen-spotted, flower-dotted rock formations, and you can chillax while appreciating the vista spread out before you. Keep an eye out for wildlife. The forest is alive with birds, and I was lucky enough to see a mother moose and her calf. This is quite a popular path, so expect to see plenty of other hikers as well as runners, some training for a grueling annual 5K that follows a similar route up the mountain.
Bear Lake Trail
Start from the trailhead at the corner of Bleth Street and Bear Lake Road.
They don’t call it Bear Lake for nothing. The day I hiked it, a sign posted at the trailhead warned that an individual was recently mauled by a bear there, requiring 30 stitches on the side of his face. The sow who attacked him was still in the area, along with her cubs. Although notices like this can be off-putting, bears are a fact of life in this region. Going during daylight hours, consistently making noise as you walk to alert bears to your presence and carrying bear spray all greatly decrease your chances of having a dangerous interaction. Aside from the threat of an encounter with a brown or black bear, this is an easygoing out-and-back hike covering just over four miles across generally flat ground. It wends its way through the forest, past cheery streams and small waterfalls, and alongside the lake, where it’s common to see bald eagles and other birds.
On your next hike, spare a thought for the trail builders who made it possible
Tonsina Creek Trail
Start from the trailhead off Pinnacle View Road.
Although this is a beautiful hike throughout the year, it’s especially magical when the salmon are running in Tonsina Creek, where thousands spawn from around June into September. A pair of wooden bridges cross two branches of the stream, offering a great view of bumper-to-bumper fish as they strive to complete their life cycle, although they are sometimes thwarted by the geography of the waterway, the persistence of divebombing birds and the limits of their own endurance. Even if this drama isn’t unfolding, Tonsina Point is a gem, but make sure you time your visit during low tide to ensure you can access all of it. The trail is generally over flat ground, starting in the forest, then following the pebbled beach on Resurrection Bay. (It’s about 3½ to six miles round-trip, depending on how far out you go.) The area is rich with wildlife, including sea otters, bald eagles and many other birds. Also expect to see a lot of outdoor enthusiasts, because this is a popular hiking spot.
Ptarmigan Lake Trail
Start from the trailhead at the camp on Ptarmigan Lake Trail 14.
If you’re looking for a solid three-hour hike with lots of natural beauty and few fellow trekkers, this is the one for you. Located about a half-hour drive north of town, the well-maintained trail is roughly seven miles long round-trip with about 1,000 feet of elevation gain as you ascend Crown Point, following the gurgling, burbling waters of Ptarmigan Creek through the forest. Next, you’re on the exposed mountainside, where you’ll be treated to views of the Chugach mountain range. Finally, you’ll reach the lake, which stretches into the distance, with the glacier-tipped Andy Simons Mountain rising in the background. There’s a small beach area on the picturesque shoreline, where you can savor a bite while watching the many beavers who call the lake home as well as a bounty of birds. | 2022-06-16T16:24:59Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Five remarkable trails near Seward, Alaska - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/06/16/seward-alaska-travel-vacation/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/06/16/seward-alaska-travel-vacation/ |
What we learned — and what we didn’t — from the ‘Martin’ reunion
From left, “Martin” cast members Tisha Campbell, Carl Anthony Payne II, Martin Lawrence and Tichina Arnold at the taping of the 2022 reunion special. (Mark Von Holden/Invision/AP)
In 2016, FX’s “American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson” unpacked the so-called Trial of the Century, but part of what made the show so successful was its ability to zero in on the cultural zeitgeist of the 1990s. One memorable subplot revolved around the sequestered jury being divided over which TV show to watch. Though they were far from reaching their controversial verdict, jurors were already split across racial lines — over whether to watch “Seinfeld,” or Martin Lawrence’s eponymous Fox sitcom.
The scene, by all accounts, came from the imagination of the anthology’s writers, but it was built around an astute observation: “Martin,” co-created by Lawrence, may not have earned a slew of Emmy nominations like “Seinfeld” did, but it was — and remains — just as iconic.
Three decades after the show’s 1992 debut on Fox, the cast of “Martin” — Lawrence, Tisha Campbell (Gina), Tichina Arnold (Pam) and Carl Anthony Payne II (Cole) — and a slew of celebrity guests came together for a reunion celebrating the beloved sitcom. The 90-minute special, released Thursday on BET Plus, was directed by Stan Lathan, who helmed the first two episodes of the series. “Martin: The Reunion” also pays tribute to the late Thomas Mikal Ford, who played Martin’s best friend Tommy.
Here’s what we learned — and what we didn’t — from the special and an interview with Campbell.
The cast didn’t realize how iconic the series was until much later.
Campbell, who played Martin’s girlfriend Gina, told The Washington Post that the reunion gave the cast “a chance, collectively, to understand how revered the show is.” They certainly weren’t aware in the ’90s. “We didn’t think of it like that. We just didn’t,” she said. “We were there to feed our families and have a good show and make people laugh.”
Of course, after decades of syndication and now streaming, Campbell started to get an idea of its multigenerational fan base. She started watching — something she didn’t do during its initial five-season run — because “millennials and Gen Zs” would approach her quoting the show’s many catchphrases, including its most memorable: “Damn, Gina!”
To Campbell’s part-chagrin, part-amusement, her own 12-year-old son calls her Gina. “He doesn’t call me Mommy ever. Ever. I don’t mind when other people call me Gina, but when this one calls me Gina all day, every day — ‘Gina, can you go get me something to eat, please?’ ‘Gina, do I have to go to bed right now?’”
“I just gave up,” she laughed. “I just answer. I’m tired.”
The one thing that really hit home for Campbell, though, was seeing photos of the cast at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. “I literally was in shock,” she said. “We don’t think of ourselves as icons, but people call us that. And so, we’re just grateful. We’re grateful.”
The special is very much in celebration of the series, so much so that reporters covering the reunion were advised not to ask about “how it ended,” alluding to Campbell’s 1997 sexual harassment suit against Lawrence. The actress temporarily left the show before settling the lawsuit and returning to film the two-part finale — under the stipulation that she would never be in the same room with Lawrence. Campbell and Lawrence have both said they are on good terms now; they interact warmly and praise each other effusively during “Martin: The Reunion.”
“We worked really hard to reconnect, to forgive,” Campbell told Gayle King this week on “CBS Mornings.” “And this reunion is about a celebration of everything that we did, everything that we accomplished and our growth as human beings. So we concentrated mostly on that.”
Most of the cast knew each other before “Martin” began filming.
This won’t be news to pop culture buffs, but most of the cast worked together well before “Martin” first aired. Campbell made her theatrical debut alongside Arnold in the 1986 musical “Little Shop of Horrors,” and starred opposite Lawrence in the 1990 comedy “House Party” and its sequel.
Campbell was Lawrence’s one and only choice to play Gina, but it took some convincing because she was set to star in a pilot that had already been picked up. In the special, the pair recall that Lawrence went to Campbell’s apartment to try to convince her to join the “Martin” cast instead. Unbeknown to Lawrence, Campbell’s roommate at the time was Arnold, who had just auditioned for the Fox sitcom and would soon be cast as Gina’s best friend Pam. Campbell said Arnold made her promise not to tell Lawrence they were best friends because Arnold wanted to get the part on her own merits.
Arnold and Campbell knew Payne from the audition circuit and, of course, his first big role as Cockroach on “The Cosby Show.”
If the cast looked like they were laughing on camera, they probably were.
Lawrence and his co-stars recall the audience’s energy and the way they stomped their feet during the funniest scenes. But the goal, they said, was always to make each other laugh first. Making Lawrence laugh “was the benchmark,” says Payne, who played Martin’s other best friend Cole.
The actors giggle while watching a clip from a Season 2 episode in which Martin suspects that one of his friends stole his new CD player (how’s that for a ’90s throwback?) and interrogates them while dragging a very fake attack dog across the apartment he shares with Gina. The scene is made funnier by the fact that Lawrence had requested a real dog but was told he would have to make do with a stuffed version that could not even sit up on its own. Lawrence takes physical comedy to new heights, dragging the dog across the floor and getting Ford to nearly break character during the scene.
“Tommy can’t take it,” Payne says as the cast shares a laugh. “That’s my favorite episode,” Arnold shares. “I did pee on myself.”
Thomas Mikal Ford, who played Tommy, led the cast in prayer before every show.
In one of the special’s most poignant moments, the cast heads to Nipsey’s — the show’s fictional bar and restaurant — to honor the one cast member who is conspicuously missing from the special: Ford, who died in 2016 at age 52. With the actor’s wife and children present, each cast member recalls what they loved about “Tommy.”
An emotional Lawrence called Ford a “true spiritual brother,” and recalled a time he asked Ford to open for him at a stand-up show. Lawrence was almost upstaged. “I had to come on behind Tommy and I’m thinking, 'Okay, well he’s damn near funnier than me,” Lawrence recalled. “But that’s who Tommy was — his energy, his humor, his laughter, his kindness, his spirit. He was just a great person and he will be missed. My brother, I love you.”
Because Ford loved gospel and led his co-stars in prayer before every taping, his loved ones then take in a live performance by singer Le’Andria Johnson.
Guest stars also remember the show fondly.
The special recalls some of the celebrities who turned up on “Martin” over the years with some — including Snoop Dogg, Brian McKnight and Tommy Davidson — returning to reminisce with the cast. Davidson, who played the recurring Varnell Hill (and, like Lawrence, grew up in the Washington area), calls the cast “family.”
In a clip, Tracy Morgan, who played the recurring Hustle Man, calls “Martin” “one of the greatest sitcoms ever made.” Lawrence revealed that Morgan didn’t have to audition because the “Def Comedy Jam” host had seen him on the legendary stand-up show. “I knew he was going to kill it,” Lawrence said
Marla Gibbs, who gave a nod to her famous character on “The Jeffersons” with a guest role as Martin and Gina’s no-nonsense housekeeper, also makes a memorable appearance. | 2022-06-16T16:42:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 'Martin: The Reunion': What we learned and what we didn't - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/06/16/martin-reunion-special/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/06/16/martin-reunion-special/ |
Atlantic City casino workers vote to strike, citing wages and inflation
Workers at five casinos say their pay has not kept up with the skyrocketing cost of living
Members of Local 54 of the Unite Here union celebrate after voting June 15 in Atlantic City to authorize a strike against casinos next month if a new contract is not reached in two weeks. (Wayne Parry/AP)
Unionized workers from five Atlantic City casinos voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to authorize a strike, teeing up a labor fight that could paralyze a storied East Coast tourist hub with the summer travel season well underway.
Unite Here Local 54 announced Wednesday evening that workers from five of the city’s classic casinos ― Caesars, Tropicana, Harrah’s, Borgata and Hard Rock ― voted “yes” to strike by a margin of 96 percent. The union plans to return to the negotiating table, but the vote sends a message that workers will walk out if no agreement emerges by the July 1 deadline. The strike vote affects about 10,000 workers, according to a union representative, making up a sizable chunk of the city’s hospitality workforce.
Press representatives from Borgata, Hard Rock and the Caesars Entertainment parent company that also owns Tropicana and Harrah’s did not respond to emailed requests for comment.
Wednesday’s strike vote is the latest shock wave to emerge from a reinvigorated labor movement. Unions have been pressing for better contract terms over the past 18 months as strong corporate profits collided with shortages of labor. At the same time, skyrocketing prices of everyday essentials such as food, gasoline and rent have put additional pressure on employers to help workers meet the cost of living.
Hollywood production workers authorize strike, setting up industry showdown over streaming profits
The labor challenges come against a complicated economic backdrop. The hospitality industry came roaring back to life last year after a pandemic-inflicted slump in 2020 but faces newfound uncertainty as many economists warn of a recession.
The U.S. gambling industry set a record for revenue in 2021, and nearly all commercial gambling states have been tracking well ahead of the early months of 2021, according to the American Gaming Association. New Jersey’s gambling industry has generated an estimated $1.6 billion in the first four months of 2022, representing a 19 percent increase over the previous year, according to the AGA.
Casino workers contacted by The Washington Post said they are hoping their managers will return to the bargaining table so they don’t have to walk out. They have been pressing for better pay at a time when the cost of living has risen sharply in the surrounding area. They are also seeking new contract protections to prevent the casinos from giving their work to outside firms.
“I don’t think that we want to see a strike,” said Edward Jernigan, a doorman at Caesars. “With all the economic disarray that’s going on, with rising gas prices and food going up, we just want our fair shake.”
Jernigan says he has worked at Caesars for 31 years, and his pay has afforded him a modest living in nearby Pleasantville. But the rent on his two-bedroom apartment has increased from $1,500 per month to $1,750 per month, and he says his wages haven’t kept up.
‘That raise meant nothing’: Inflation is wiping out pay increases for most Americans
The casinos have provided raises in the past, Jernigan says, but they haven’t applied to all job categories. Meanwhile, rising prices are diminishing gains made in previous years, as workers experience sharp increases in the cost of living.
“The cost of everything is going up,” says Ruth Ann Joyce, a banquet bartender at Harrah’s.
She says her rent has increased from $2,000 to $2,135 for a two-bedroom apartment in Galloway, a suburb to the north of Atlantic City. She says the rent increase is squeezing her budget at a time when other essentials, notably food and gasoline, are also becoming more expensive.
“Your money can only be stretched so far, and once you have reached the end of it, you still have bills to pay. There is no more stretching left on that rubber band,” she said.
Workers are also experiencing the broader organizational pressures that afflicted many businesses during the pandemic. Iris Sanchez, a housekeeper at Caesars, says the work of cleaning up after customers has never been as difficult as it is now.
She says the housekeepers typically don’t clean rooms while they are still occupied, which means the work piles up until guests check out. “We get bags and bags of trash in the rooms by the time they leave,” she said.
Because the company is short-staffed, the housekeepers are working six days a week, and often are working overtime, Sanchez said.
Many companies have had a hard time filling open positions over the past year. Workers have been leaving their jobs at a record pace, and employers have had to get creative to attract the best candidates.
Sanchez says many of the new hires that Caesars brought in to fill out the housekeeping ranks have left after short stints, frustrated by what many view as hard work for little pay.
Sanchez also lives in Pleasantville, a place where “you’re lucky if you get a two-bedroom apartment for $1,500 a month,” she said.
And the rent has increased for her, too: She now pays $1,400 per month, after a recent increase raised it by $200. She says she makes $16.25 per hour.
In Atlantic City’s tourist economy, “everybody knows how much the casinos are making, so they increase everything else,” Sanchez said. “Everything is going up except our raises.” | 2022-06-16T16:42:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Atlantic City casino workers vote to strike - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/16/atlantic-city-casino-strike-authorization/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/16/atlantic-city-casino-strike-authorization/ |
Bryce Harper and the Philadelphia Phillies face the Nationals on Thursday. (Matt Slocum/AP Photo)
Recounting the Washington Nationals’ most recent road trip, first baseman Josh Bell walked straight into what had prompted the interview to begin with.
“New York was good, Cincy was good, Miami was good,” Bell said at his locker last weekend. “Wait, have we not been to Philly yet?”
No, the Nationals haven’t. Nor, at the time, had the Philadelphia Phillies visited Nationals Park. But starting Thursday night, the Nationals (23-42) will face the division rival Phillies and Bryce Harper in 19 of their final 97 games. For the Phillies (32-31), a team riding the jolt from a midseason manager change, it will be 19 in 99. That’s almost 20 percent of Washington’s remaining contests, leading to a simple question.
Is seeing a club that often worse for hitters or pitchers? The answer seemed simple, too.
“In theory, we’re both getting a lot of close-up views of each other and tendencies are going to get easier to pick up,” Bell explained. “Like if I’m hot, I won’t think it matters but there’s a chance they can see why I’m hot and counter in an effective way. If I’m really getting beat by a guy, I may grow more comfortable with the repeated looks and snap out of it. It’s always a chess game, this will just add some new dimensions.”
“I mean, I could face them twice or even three times in a month?” Nationals starter Erick Fedde said. “I know we had some early games moved back because of the CBA negotiations, but that doesn’t feel good for anyone, right?”
Well, maybe not for a pitcher who has to navigate a tough lineup over and over. But the Phillies should welcome seeing the last-place Nationals this much in the coming months. The New York Mets are 8-2 against Washington, the Atlanta Braves are 4-2 after a sweep this week and the Miami Marlins are 8-1. Ultimately, the Mets’, Braves’ and Phillies’ records against the Nationals could be a big factor in who wins the National League East and contends for wild card spots.
And as for offenses benefiting from the scheduling quirk, the Phillies enter Thursday tied for the third-highest team home run percentage (3.4). The Braves, ranked second, just clubbed 13 homers in three games at Nationals Park. Harper, Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos and Rhys Hoskins will see some pitches to hit, to say the least.
The breakdown is five games in four days this week, three in July, four in August and seven in September. There’s also a good chance that, with the trade deadline on Aug. 2, the Nationals look much different for the final 11 meetings.
“My two starts against the Brewers are a good example of why this is tough,” said Fedde, who faced the Brewers in Milwaukee on May 20 and then in D.C. on June 10. “I can talk about this now because I won’t face them again. The first time, I threw so many cutters that by the end I knew Rowdy Tellez was basically saying to himself, ‘No matter what, I’m going to hit a cutter in this at-bat.’ ”
(Tellez did, for a two-run homer in the sixth inning.)
“But I also threw very few change-ups in that start,” Fedde continued. “So in the week leading up to my second outing against them, I worked on my change-up a lot, getting it to a point where I could throw it more. And there were a few instances where I got a weird swing or take and immediately watched a guy look at the big screen to see what the pitch was. They were confused. You can make those changes in two starts. But in three or four in a condensed period? It’s a lot harder. You only have so many pitches.”
Fedde threw 11 change-ups in that June game, well above his typical usage. But he and a few other pitchers shut down the idea of deliberately holding something back — a fourth pitch for a starter, maybe a third pitch for a reliever — if they might see a team again soon. The main goal, they explained, is to get the out in front of them. But reliever Steve Cishek did admit to considering future appearances in real time.
Last season, Cishek, 35, pitched for the Los Angeles Angels and saw a lot of the Seattle Mariners. That meant a handful of matchups with Kyle Seager, who Cishek showed a change-up to one lopsided game. Change-ups accounted for less than one percent of his pitches in 2021, according to FanGraphs. But since that specific at-bat had little bearing on the result, Cishek wanted to put the idea of a change-up in Seager’s head, thinking it may help him in their next matchup.
“If it’s a close game, I’m typically going to stick to my guns,” said Cishek, who mostly throws a fastball and slider. “I’m not going to bust my third pitch out, my change-up, unless I really need to. But if we’re up or down by a bunch, I’m more likely to throw pitches that I typically wouldn’t or go heavy with one of my two pitches to hide the other a bit. I don’t want them to see my better stuff if I can help it.”
So he would consider that approach in a stretch like this with the Phillies?
“Without a doubt,” Cishek said. “But pretty soon there won’t be many secrets between us.” | 2022-06-16T16:46:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Nationals to play Phillies in 19 of final 97 games - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/16/nationals-phillies-schedule-matchups/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/16/nationals-phillies-schedule-matchups/ |
Fairfax leans toward route numbers in renaming roads honoring Confederacy
Lee Highway and Lee Jackson Memorial Highway in Fairfax County may soon shed their Confederate names and simply go by the names of their U.S. route numbers. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
Lee Highway and Lee Jackson Memorial Highway in Fairfax County may soon shed their Confederate names and simply go by their U.S. highway route numbers.
The county Board of Supervisors is leaning toward that option in hopes of avoiding any backlash and confusion over what has at times been a volatile issue, as localities in Northern Virginia rename roads that have long honored Confederate leaders like Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.
Arlington County recently changed its portion of Lee Highway to Langston Boulevard. Prince William County renamed Jefferson Davis Highway to Richmond Highway.
Loudoun County’s board agreed that John Mosby Highway should be called Little River Turnpike and that Harry Byrd Highway will be renamed Leesburg Pike — both the original names before they were changed during the 20th century.
A recent poll of businesses and residents on Lee Highway and Lee Jackson Memorial Highway conducted by Fairfax’s Department of Transportation showed that most respondents prefer that the roads be called by their route numbers. Lee Highway is part of U.S. Route 29 and Lee Jackson Memorial Highway is part of U.S. Route 50.
“Frankly, people already refer to these roads by their route numbers,” Fairfax board chair Jeff McKay (D) said during a transportation committee meeting Tuesday. “So, it would be a less dramatic change in terms of lifestyle, marketing and the daily lives of people who live and work in these two corridors,” McKay continued. A board vote on the name changes hasn’t yet been scheduled, Taylor Holland, McKay’s chief of staff, said.
Two years into what has become a largely bureaucratic process in Virginia after the 2020 murder of George Floyd by a then-Minneapolis police officer prompted a reckoning over racism and the state’s Confederate past, some residents continue to oppose changing road names.
They argue that the state’s history shouldn’t be erased and that adopting new names would be an unnecessary hassle, forcing them to change the addresses on their driver’s license and other documents.
Others say the changes will only breed more confusion in a region where the same highway can have three different names as commuters pass from one jurisdiction to another.
On Tuesday, Fairfax County Supervisor Dalia Palchik (D-Providence) noted that potential while suggesting that the county coordinate with its neighboring jurisdictions on what to call area thoroughfares.
“Anything that reduces, hopefully, confusion and increases alignment in how the roads are named across jurisdictions would be my vote,” Palchik said. “Not any new names.”
Supervisor James Walkinshaw (D-Braddock) suggested following Loudoun County’s example by using the original name for U.S. Route 50 — Little River Turnpike — in renaming Lee Jackson Memorial Highway.
“For those who are passionate about their Civil War history, the name of the road when the Battle of Chantilly took place was `Little River Turnpike,' ” Walkinshaw said.
Fairfax’s board is also considering establishing a fund to compensate any businesses and residents that incur costs from changing their address on documents or marketing material — a step also taken by Prince William and Loudoun counties.
The passions around the subject were on display Tuesday night in Fairfax City, where the city council is considering renaming 14 streets — most of them in the Mosby Woods neighborhood that was built during the early 1960s around a Civil War theme.
During a public hearing on the issue, nearly 50 residents testified for or against the proposed changes, which also include the portion of Lee Highway that runs through the city. The City Council is scheduled to vote on that issue on June 28.
“They do nothing whatsoever to help anyone in our society who needs us,” Francis Dietz, a resident of Ranger Road in Mosby Woods, told the City Council as she against the proposed changes. “What they do is needlessly cost citizens time and money and, of course, pit neighbor against neighbor.”
Marissa Perrone, who also lives on Ranger Road — which was named after Confederate army commander John Mosby’s 43rd battalion — cited real estate market data showing that homes on streets with references to the Confederacy names tend to sell for less than comparable houses on other streets.
“Why aren’t the effects on housing prices entering this discussion?” she said.
Rahmein Mostafavi, a resident of the Oakton area of Fairfax County, expressed outrage that most of the people speaking on the issue were not Black.
“We’re a bunch of, basically, not Black people talking about what’s affecting Black people,” he said. “We should be embarrassed.” | 2022-06-16T16:59:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Confederate-themed roads in Fairfax County likely to revert back to route numbers - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/16/confederate-street-names-northern-virginia/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/16/confederate-street-names-northern-virginia/ |
Man, 19, dies after shooting in Prince William County
A 19-year-old man who was shot Tuesday afternoon in Prince William County has died, local police said.
The shooting occurred at 1:59 p.m. in the Cheshire Station Plaza shopping area in Woodbridge, police said. An initial investigation found that a “transaction was arranged to occur” between the victim — later identified as David Madison Fowler III of Woodbridge — and an acquaintance and three other men, police said.
At one point, one of the men fired “multiple rounds” that hit Fowler in the upper body, police said. No one else was hurt.
Police are trying to determine a motive and identify suspects. | 2022-06-16T16:59:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | A man was killed in Prince William County, police said - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/16/homicide-in-prince-william-county/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/16/homicide-in-prince-william-county/ |
Man dies of injuries suffered in motorcycle crash in Prince George’s
Police said a 19-year-old motorcycle driver who was involved in a crash in early June in Prince George’s County has died.
Local police said the crash occurred June 3 and that Fernando Gonzalez y Gonzales of Beltsville was driving a motorcycle westbound on Cherry Hill Road when “a vehicle made a U-turn into his path, causing a collision.”
Gonzalez y Gonzales was taken to a hospital, and he died of his injuries on Sunday. The driver of the vehicle stayed on the scene and was not hurt, and neither were passengers in the vehicle, officials said. | 2022-06-16T16:59:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | A man died after being in a motorcycle crash in Prince George’s County - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/16/man-killed-in-crash-in-md/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/16/man-killed-in-crash-in-md/ |
Anti-Tech Group Attacks Apple, Amazon Over Fees in Latest Ad Campaign
By Alicia Diaz and Leah Nylen | Bloomberg
Tech critics and advocates alike are pouring money into advertising campaigns in hopes of swaying undecided lawmakers before a floor vote expected this summer on a bill aimed at curbing the power of technology giants.
The Tech Oversight Project, a nonprofit group that says its aim is to hold tech companies accountable, is launching a campaign worth several hundred thousand dollars attacking internet giants for charging small businesses unnecessary fees that are passed onto consumers.
The ads urge constituents to call their senators and ask them to pass a bill that would prevent companies including Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. from putting their own products ahead of those of competitors.
The antitrust legislation, which is led by US Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, is poised for a vote before the end of July. Time is ticking for Congress to take significant action on outstanding bills before the August recess, when lawmakers will switch to campaigning for the November midterm elections. The Senate also has competing priorities, including potential legislation on gun safety, US competitiveness and climate change.
The Tech Oversight Project has funding from Omidyar Network, which was established by EBay founder Pierre Omidyar, and the Economic Security Project, which is chaired by Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes. The ads will appear on digital platforms and on television through July 4, running in swing states Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and New Hampshire. The campaign will also be featured digitally in Colorado and New York.
The ads criticize tech companies and industry groups for spending millions lobbying against the antitrust legislation. Amazon, Google, Apple and Meta spent $16.7 million lobbying in the first quarter of 2022, according to federal lobbying disclosures.
The Computers and Communications Industry Association, a tech-funded lobbying group, spent $22 million on broadcast and cable TV ads in early June, plus another $2.8 million on social media ads since the beginning of this year, according to AdImpact. The Competitiveness Coalition, which is led by former Senator Scott Brown and favors minimal regulation, launched its first television ad campaign against the Klobuchar bill this week.
The tech bill has received increased media attention in recent weeks, including a 20-minute segment on John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight” on HBO and appearances by Klobuchar on MSNBC shows. | 2022-06-16T17:04:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Anti-Tech Group Attacks Apple, Amazon Over Fees in Latest Ad Campaign - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/on-small-business/anti-tech-group-attacks-apple-amazon-over-fees-in-latest-ad-campaign/2022/06/16/0712ba98-ed8a-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/on-small-business/anti-tech-group-attacks-apple-amazon-over-fees-in-latest-ad-campaign/2022/06/16/0712ba98-ed8a-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html |
By Michael J. Petrilli
Senior students sit in a cafeteria on April 8, 2021, waiting to be released to their classrooms as they return to in-person school for the first time this year at Sherwood High School in Sandy Spring. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Michael J. Petrilli is the father of a rising sixth-grader and a rising ninth-grader in Montgomery County Public Schools.
Austin. Grosse Pointe, Mich. Lake Zurich, Ill.
These communities have many things in common with Montgomery County, including their progressive values, commitment to public schools and highly educated populations.
But they all differ from Montgomery County in one critical way: Their schools, unlike ours, were mostly open for in-person learning in the fall and winter of 2020.
Indeed, Montgomery County Public Schools were not open for in-person learning at all until March 2021, and not for full-time in-person learning until August 2021 — 12 months after some of its peers.
The fateful decision to keep schools shuttered so long had terrible yet predictable consequences. National studies are showing massive amounts of learning loss for districts such as Montgomery County that closed the longest for in-person learning, especially for their most disadvantaged pupils. A recent study from a collaboration of scholars from the American Institutes of Research, Dartmouth College, Harvard University and the testing organization NWEA found that students in high-poverty schools that stayed remote for most of the 2020 to 2021 school year lost 22 weeks of learning on average. That compares with seven to 10 weeks of learning loss for students whose schools reopened more quickly.
As Harvard Professor Tom Kane wrote recently in the Atlantic, “Where schools stayed closed longer, gaps widened; where schools reopened sooner, they didn’t.”
And that might not even be the worst part. We are also living through a horrific mental health crisis for our teenagers, one that has seen a rapid rise in anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation. As hard as the pandemic has been on all of us, it has been especially tough on adolescents, ripped away from their sports and other extracurricular activities, social networks and everyday school life that can give meaning to young people during a turbulent time.
Nobody can blame Montgomery County officials for closing schools in March 2020, when the novel coronavirus was sweeping the country and nobody knew exactly what it was or how to prevent its spread.
But by autumn, some important things had become clear: Schools were not primary vectors of coronavirus transmission, nor were most kids at risk of serious illness.
As a result, many school districts across the country chose to open for in-person learning. So did almost all private schools, including those here in this area, plus most schools in Western Europe. Yet Montgomery County officials decided to keep our schools shuttered.
To be sure, MCPS educators strove to make remote learning work. From my own experience as a county parent, I can say that what my sons’ teachers managed to do was downright remarkable, finding creative ways to keep students engaged as best they could.
But it wasn’t hard to predict that this experiment in online learning was not going to go well. We knew from studies of previous initiatives that most students don’t learn as much in an online setting. There’s just no replacement for being there in person with your teacher and peers. And we also already knew that remote learning worked least well for the kids who most need great schools: those from disadvantaged backgrounds, English learners and children with special needs.
Lo and behold, these turned out to be the very students whose learning has most been damaged during the crisis, exasperating achievement gaps and further hurting our chances at closing America’s gaping inequalities.
So why did Montgomery County officials make the decisions they did? The most generous answer is that they were erring on the side of caution — though in hindsight, it turns out that opening schools did little to increase hospitalizations or deaths, especially in areas with low community spread.
The more cynical explanation is that children don’t vote but members of interest groups do. Simply put, the powerful Montgomery County Education Association did not want schools to open, because it did not want its members working in open schools. So County Executive Marc Elrich (D) and his administration kept schools closed even as other districts in the state and around the country found safe ways to open their schools — and even as the county’s bars and restaurants came back to life.
Why this trip down memory lane? The reason is that the fast-approaching July Democratic Party primary is the first chance for voters to hold county officials responsible for the decisions they made. This vote will almost surely decide who will lead the county for the next four years, yet the issue of school closures has barely registered at all.
For a county that claims to value education above all other priorities, this is an unsettling development. It’s time to ask Elrich and other officials running for reelection if they regret the decision to keep schools closed during the fall and winter of 2020. If they had to do it over, would they do it differently? What would they say to the young people who missed out on their senior year of high school, or who lost months of learning, or who experienced anxiety or depression because of day after day needlessly spent quarantining at home?
And in future decisions and crises, will these candidates continue to put the demands of the union ahead of the academic, social and emotional needs of our children?
Asking these tough questions won’t give our kids their educations back. But it just might help Montgomery County better live up to its professed values in the future. | 2022-06-16T17:05:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Hold Montgomery officials accountable for school closures - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/16/hold-montgomery-officials-accountable-school-closures/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/16/hold-montgomery-officials-accountable-school-closures/ |
Minnesota Twins catcher Ryan Jeffers with the electronic PitchCom system for pitches on Opening Day against the Seattle Mariners in Minneapolis on April 8. (David Berding/Getty Images)
Will Leitch is a contributing editor at New York magazine, a columnist at MLB.com and author of the novel “How Lucky.”
Maybe your family argues about politics around the dinner table, but in the Leitch family, we bicker about baseball. But no matter how passionately I might argue, I’m never going to convince my uncle that Mike Trout is better than Mickey Mantle. After all: My uncle is just as passionate about the sport as I am.
Debates like that have been the topical tentpole of every baseball generation — and every sports talk-radio call-in show — since I fell in love with the game as a child.
Which is why it has been a surprise to see just how dramatically baseball has changed lately and how little backlash (outside of the usual smattering of social media grumblings) the changes have stirred in a sport that famously cherishes its traditions.
To watch a baseball game today is to see countless things that once would have been considered unthinkable.
Extra innings start with an automatic, a.k.a. zombie, runner on second base. Now there are three wild-card teams. Catchers call pitches by punching the buttons on an electronic device that communicates with an earpiece in the pitcher’s cap. Television announcers interview a third baseman in between pitches while he’s on the field.
Next season, more changes might be coming, thanks to the collective bargaining agreement reached in March. They’re intended to speed up games and promote more offense — theoretically reversing the decline of young people’s interest in the game. We could see a pitch clock, a ban on infield shifts, and bigger bases (to encourage base-stealing).
George Will’s 2022 Opening Day Quiz
Even the rules adopted so far are foundational changes in the sport, the sort of alterations that “traditionalists” have been fighting for decades. I remember Bob Costas being apoplectic about breaking the leagues up into divisions.
And these big changes have just sort of … happened? Decades of fevered debates were just sort of shrugged off, and next thing you know: My All-Star ballot has a spot for National League designated hitter. Yet I couldn’t help but notice that my uncle the baseball purist hasn’t been picketing MLB stadiums in protest. Has yours?
I’d say there are two major reasons — one on the field, the other off — for the collective “Okay, fine!” response to some truly radical reworking of the baseball landscape.
First, on the field. Some of the changes debuted during the truncated 2020 season, which featured only 60 games and occurred in the dark days of the pre-vaccine pandemic. The changes were meant to speed up the games and just get through the season with a minimum of injuries and covid-19 infections.
The runner-on-second rule in extra innings, often used in collegiate and Little League tournaments to finish games faster, came in for that reason. It was tolerated as the cost of cobbling together a troubled season. What’s the big deal, when you’re playing in empty stadiums with pumped-in crowd noise and cardboard cutouts in the seats?
That opened the door to the idea that baseball could play around with its rules and traditions without causing a widespread revolt by players or fans.
Even players who could have been expected to grouse got on board. Consider St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, a baseball traditionalist if there ever were one. Last week he praised the automatic runner on second base: “If I was a fan and there was potential for a run to basically be scored on every pitch in extra innings, that would be more fun to me.” (MLB is still weighing whether to use the rule in 2023.)
Retired players in the broadcasting booth might complain that the game doesn’t look like it did when they played, but the players on the field seem to love it. Pitchers and catchers overwhelmingly took the option of using the electronic pitch-calling system when it was introduced this year to discourage sign-stealing.
Yet I think it’s the off-field influence that has played a more powerful role in vanquishing baseball traditionalism.
On a basic level, the traditionalists themselves are a bit of an endangered species. Most of the cranky old sportswriters who used to dominate every press box I stepped into are gone, often replaced by a younger, more innovation-friendly (and definitely more diverse) group that by nature is likely to “OK, boomer” anyone being overly wistful for the old days.
It’s more than that, though. I think, in the wake of the pandemic and the exhaustion of being a human being in the year 2022, there might just not be that much emotional space left for the dug-in, purist mind-set that has been long been the hallmark of baseball fandom.
When we’ve got to worry about the state of democracy, or nuclear war, or a looming recession, well, jeez, how much can you care about the freaking designated hitter? No matter how much you yank on the sport and twist it, no matter how much you futz with the rules, it remains, stubbornly, baseball. And that’s a relief. | 2022-06-16T17:05:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Baseball looks strange, but the weird thing is how easily it happened - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/16/major-league-baseball-radical-rule-changes/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/16/major-league-baseball-radical-rule-changes/ |
New email reinforces Trump team viewed ‘wild’ Jan. 6 unrest as leverage
A mock gallows appears near the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Shay Horse/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
There were three big new revelations late Wednesday on Donald Trump’s and his team’s plot to overturn the 2020 election.
One was that Trump lawyer John Eastman was among the people that Virginia “Ginni” Thomas (wife of Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas) was in touch with about overturning the election, as The Washington Post reported. A second was that Eastman, in a Dec. 24, 2020 email, suggested some knowledge of infighting among Supreme Court justices over reviewing the 2020 election results, as the New York Times reported.
As Philip Bump notes, the combination of these two things could be less than meets the eye. We don’t know when Ginni Thomas and Eastman corresponded — i.e. whether it was before Dec. 24 — or what they corresponded about. And it’s possible Eastman was blowing smoke, elevating a popular internet rumor about tensions within the Supreme Court as if he had special insight. The question is certainly worth probing, but it’s not at all clear Eastman had some kind of leaked information about the Supreme Court’s deliberations.
Indeed, it might be the third revelation that’s the most intriguing when it comes to the central questions for the Jan. 6 committee.
In the same Times story, Luke Broadwater and Maggie Haberman reported that another Trump-aligned lawyer, Kenneth Chesebro, suggested that “'wild' chaos” on Jan. 6 could suit the purposes of their legal effort.
And it’s far from the only evidence that Trump and his allies viewed violence or the threat of it as leverage.
According to the report, Eastman advocated for submitting a petition for certiorari in hopes of spurring a supposedly tense Supreme Court to act. Chesebro responded by suggesting a certain factor might tip the scales for the justices to intervene.
Chesebro responded: “I think the odds of action before Jan. 6 will become more favorable if the justices start to fear that there will be ‘wild’ chaos on Jan. 6 unless they rule by then, either way."
Chesebro’s use of the word “wild” in quotation marks is particularly conspicuous. Just five days prior, on Dec. 19, Trump himself had promoted a protest in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 by saying, “Be there. Will be wild!" It’s pretty evident that Chesebro used “chaos” to refer to the protests, and not to the lawmakers objecting to the election results.
Again, there’s plenty we don’t know. And Chesebro, we should emphasize, suggested not just that “'wild' chaos” could spur the court to act — but to decide against the Trump legal team.
“Though that factor could go against us on the merits,” he wrote. “Easiest way to quell chaos would be to rule against us — our side would accept that result as legitimate.”
But the fact remains that Chesebro appeared to be talking about the prospect of unrest as leverage. Also importantly: He seemed to be well aware that Trump was at the very least toying with much more than a peaceful protest.
And it wouldn’t be the first evidence that they viewed such threats as leverage.
For one, there are a litany of indicators that when the violence broke out, Trump viewed it as justified or even approved of it:
Multiple GOP lawmakers and reports have described a remarkable level of callousness Trump expressed about those who faced danger.
That includes allegedly telling House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.”
He tweeted attacking then-Vice President Pence even as the Capitol had been stormed — despite apparently knowing that fact. And according to the Jan. 6 committee, there’s evidence he even spoke of how Pence deserved to be targeted by the mob.
After the insurrection concluded, Trump intoned, “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long.”
As William Saletan wrote, there’s also the tenor of Trump’s comments during the riot. While it took him more than two hours to tell his supporters to go home, he did previously tell them to remain peaceful. Saletan pointed to a potential conclusion — that Trump wanted them to remain in the Capitol to serve as leverage:
The simplest answer is that, as his prior behavior demonstrated, he saw the mob as leverage in a last-ditch effort to overturn the election. He had summoned his followers to Washington to pressure Congress to halt the certification of the election, and the pressure had succeeded. If he were to disperse the mob — not just ask it to curtail its violence — he would lose his leverage. So, for nearly two hours, he held out. That’s what the texts are showing us: that the president was being asked to make a specific concession, and that he refused to do so.
That’s speculative, but we also know that plenty of Republicans were telling Trump to go further to quell the violence — even after the “remain peaceful” tweets — and he clearly resisted doing so.
Finally, Eastman’s own emails afterward. Eastman didn’t back off trying to overturn the election; indeed, he tried to use the mob attack to get Pence to object to reject states’ election results on a technicality. The mob had forced Congress to spend more than the allotted two hours in reviewing the results, Eastman argued, and had thus already violated the Electoral Count Act that stood in the Trump team’s way.
The picture of the whole thing is already extremely dangerous, callous and brazen — at the very least. The growing question is how much it was part of a concerted plot — how much people viewed the potential for violence, or the violence itself, as a bargaining chip in trying to overturn the election.
That is central to the committee’s efforts to argue Trump broke the law by corruptly interfering with Congress’s actions on Jan. 6. Jan. 6 committee Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) last week said the “the violence was no accident" and that it was “the culmination of an attempted coup."
And Chesebro, for one, seemed to understand in advance both the potential for the protest becoming “wild” that day — and its possible utility.
Analysis: Committee to bring John Eastman’s actions into focus | 2022-06-16T17:05:23Z | www.washingtonpost.com | New email reinforces that Trump lawyers viewed 'wild' Jan. 6 unrest as leverage - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/16/eastman-chesebro-emails-january-6/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/16/eastman-chesebro-emails-january-6/ |
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