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McDonald’s Corp. has just raised the price of a cheeseburger in its UK restaurants for the first time in 14 years, by a supersized 20% to £1.19 ($1.43) from 99p. Something must be done.
There will be updated estimates at this week’s quarterly economic review, which should offer a guide as to how quickly the BOE expects inflation to drop back towards its 2% target over the next three years. Just as important is whether recession is avoided. It will be a close call; the International Monetary Fund expects hardly any growth for the UK next year, albeit it is not renowned for its accuracy in predicting the British economy.
Fiscal stimulus is coming, however, as the Tory leadership campaign is turning into a competition of how much and how swiftly taxes are going to be cut. Even the formerly frugal ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak is now proposing removing the 5% sales tax on motor fuel. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, the frontrunner in the race to be prime minister, is promising a splurge worth close to £40 billion. The MPC will calibrate tweaking monetary policy to counteract inflationary impulses from more cash in pay packets. With the current cost-of-living crisis, a very high percentage of any government largesse is going to spent rather than saved.
As the burger shocker shows, day-to-day expenditures are still rising fast for Britons. To prevent inflationary expectations becoming embedded, it is evident monetary policy needs to tighten. The BOE can front-load rate hikes now, to get closer to where the economy will naturally start slowing down. It can then relax, secure in the knowledge it has more scope to react if and when the tides turn and needs to stimulate growth again. Still, the chances of the price of a cheeseburger returning to less than a pound anytime soon look mighty slim. | 2022-08-01T05:40:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Bank of England Needs a Big Mac and Fries - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/the-bank-of-england-needs-a-big-mac-and-fries/2022/08/01/9cd5366e-1157-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/the-bank-of-england-needs-a-big-mac-and-fries/2022/08/01/9cd5366e-1157-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
Masih Alinejad speaks in New York City in April 2019. (Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
A man has been arrested after he was found with an assault rifle outside the Brooklyn home of an Iranian American journalist who was previously the target of a brazen abduction plot by Iranian intelligence agents, according to court documents and the journalist.
Masih Alinejad, an exiled journalist and women’s rights advocate living in New York, has long been critical of the regime in Tehran. Last year, four Iranians were charged with conspiring to kidnap her and take her to the Middle Eastern country, possibly via a daring maritime evacuation. (Iranian officials dismissed the allegations at the time as “baseless.”)
Iranian intelligence agents plotted brazen abduction of Brooklyn dissident journalist, U.S. prosecutors say
Alinejad was not identified by prosecutors, but on Sunday she said she was the intended target in last week’s incident — posting a video on Twitter that she said showed the man outside her home. The video, in which the weapon was not visible, appeared to have been captured by a doorbell camera.
“Last year the FBI stopped the Islamic Republic from kidnapping me. My crime is giving voice to voiceless people. The US administration must be tough on terror,” she wrote on Twitter.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan on Friday, the suspect, Khalid Mehdiyev, was observed by law enforcement officials near a home in Brooklyn on Wednesday and Thursday.
He “behaved suspiciously” during that time, the complaint reads, entering and leaving a gray Subaru Forester SUV several times, ordering food to the vehicle and appearing to attempt to look inside the windows of the house.
He was arrested by New York City police officers nearby on Thursday afternoon, after he failed to stop at a stop sign and was found to be driving without a license.
During a subsequent search of the vehicle, investigators found a loaded AK-47 style assault rifle in a suitcase on the rear seat, the court document shows, along with identification for Mehdiyev showing a home address in Yonkers. The rifle’s serial number appeared to have been destroyed, but markings indicated it was made by Norinco, a Chinese state-owned manufacturer of firearms and military supplies.
The suitcase also contained $1,100 in hundred dollar bills, investigators say.
According to the criminal complaint, Mehdiyev initially said that he didn’t know about a gun and that the suitcase was not his. He told investigators he had borrowed the vehicle, and that he had placed his wallet and other personal effects in the front pocket of the suitcase for “safekeeping.”
During an interview with law enforcement officials, he said that he was in Brooklyn looking for a place to live, and that he attempted to open the door of the residence to knock on an inner door to ask if the residents would rent him a room. He told investigators he changed his mind because he thought he might wake a sleeping or sick occupant, the court document said.
But later, the complaint said, he called the investigators back and told them that the AK-47 was his and that he had been in Brooklyn because he was looking for someone.
Mehdiyev was charged with one count of possessing a firearm with a destroyed serial number and detained without bond. His attorney, Stephanie Carvlin, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday night.
Several exiled Iranian dissidents have disappeared under mysterious circumstances in recent years, although threats such as those allegedly faced by Alinejad on U.S. soil are especially rare.
Alinejad, a longtime critic of the theocratic government in Tehran, received a human rights award in Geneva in 2015 for creating a Facebook page inviting women in Iran, where hijabs are mandatory, to post pictures of themselves without their headscarves. She is a prominent figure on Farsi-language satellite channels abroad that critically view Iran.
Last month she wrote in a column for The Washington Post that Instagram restricted her account after a video she shared that was critical the Iranian government went viral; it was viewed 2.8 million times on Instagram and more than 1 million times on Twitter. An Instagram representative said at the time the restriction was placed “incorrectly because of a technical issue.”
Alinejad tweeted Sunday that she was “shocked to learn that an assassin with a loaded AK-47 came to my home in Brooklyn.” She added: “I’m grateful to federal agents but the Administration must do more to protect US citizens.” | 2022-08-01T05:41:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Man with AK-47 arrested near Iranian journalist’s Brooklyn home - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/01/iran-journalist-masih-alinejad-ak47-brooklyn/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/01/iran-journalist-masih-alinejad-ak47-brooklyn/ |
Kosovo-Serbia tensions flare; NATO peacekeepers tracking border protests
A woman holds a picture of Russian President Vladimir Putin during a protest against the Serbian authorities for voting to suspend Russia's membership in the U.N. Human Rights Council in Belgrade, Serbia, in April. (Darko Vojinovic/AP)
The NATO-led international peacekeeping force in Kosovo, known as KFOR, said in a statement it was monitoring the situation in Kosovo closely and is “prepared to intervene if stability is jeopardized.”
Ethnic Serbs in northern municipalities of Kosovo bordering Serbia blockaded roads and skirmished with police on the eve of a new law requiring them to replace their license plates with Kosovo plates.
The new rules had been due to come into effect Monday, and would also have required Serbian ID and passports holders to obtain an extra document to enter Kosovo, as is already the case for Kosovars entering Serbia.
Josep Borrell, the European Union’s top diplomat, welcomed a decision by Kosovo to delay the new measures until Sept. 1 and called for all roadblocks to be removed immediately. In a statement posted on Twitter, the E.U. special envoy, Miroslav Lajcak, expressed gratitude to the U.S. ambassador to Kosovo, Jeffrey M. Hovenier, “for strong support.”
No one was injured in Sunday’s protests, Kosovo police said, even as gunshots were heard in a number of locations, some of them directed at police units. The protesters parked trucks and other heavy machinery on roads leading to two border crossings.
The weekend unrest comes as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has stirred wider tensions in the region. Analysts say the nationalist and revisionist worldview of Russia has found a receptive audience in the region, in particular in President Aleksandar Vucic of Serbia, Bosnian Serb political leader Milorad Dodik and Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary.
Serbia, a traditional Russian ally, has rejected calls from the E.U. and the United States to join in sanctions against Moscow. Russia — along with China — still does not recognize Kosovo’s independence and decried NATO’s war against its ally. The Western military alliance launched a bombing campaign in 1999 that hit targets across what was then combined Serbia and Montenegro in a bid to halt Serbia’s onslaught against ethnic Kosovar Albanians fighting for autonomy.
Analysis: Russia’s war in Ukraine finds echoes in the Balkans
Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for Russia’s foreign ministry, on Sunday accused Kosovo of using the new licensing laws and ID documents as a step toward ousting the Serbian population.
“We call on Pristina and the United States and the European Union backing it to stop provocation and observe the Serbs’ rights in Kosovo,” she said, according to Russian news agency Tass, describing the new requirements as “discriminatory.”
“If they dare to persecute and mistreat and kill Serbs, Serbia will win,” the Serbian President Vucic said in a news conference Sunday. Kosovo’s prime minister, Albin Kurti, has accused Vucic of instigating the violence.
Ishaan Tharoor contributed to this report. | 2022-08-01T06:28:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Kosovo-Serbia tensions flare; NATO-led KFOR tracking border protests - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/01/kosovo-serbia-tension-nato-ukraine-russia/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/01/kosovo-serbia-tension-nato-ukraine-russia/ |
Watch the Data Before Falling Too Hard for This Rally
Pedestrians outside the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, on Monday, July 18, 2022. US stocks fell amid a drop in big tech as investors assessed the outlook for corporate profits and risks to economic growth as central banks hike interest rates to combat runaway inflation. (Bloomberg)
An Unillustrated Rally
Necessity is the mother of invention, so they say. And in this case, stupidity is as well.
As readers will have noticed, I was on vacation last week (renting a cabin in a bucolic spot near Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire, very pleasant, thank you). On departing, I managed to leave my Bloomberg ID cards in the cabin. That leaves me with no access to the Bloomberg Terminal, and no ability to draw or insert charts. My Vrbo hostess has already sent the ID cards, so I shouldn’t have to wait long, for which I’m very grateful. But for now, I need to review the events of the last week in a text-only format, without doing any calculations on the Bloomberg.
I hope this exercise will be useful. Here goes:
Everything that happened in the financial world while I was away fell more or less exactly in line with expectations. The Federal Reserve hiked by 75 basis points, as foreseen. The US gross domestic product number for the second quarter showed a second consecutive quarterly decline, as predicted by the Atlanta Fed’s own nowcast. That prompted a predictable and reasonable political debate over whether the US is already in a recession. Corporate earnings proceeded with few surprises of either a positive or a negative variety. The Personal Consumption Expenditure inflation print for June, an important but lagging indicator, refused to show any easing. It’s still rising, and subtler measures of core price pressures, such as the Dallas Fed’s trimmed mean PCE, confirmed that picture. June, according to the Dallas Fed, saw an increase in core prices of 6.9%. In June of last year, when the inflation scare was already under way, this number was only 2.5%
Beyond the strictly economic, there were again few surprises. The Ukraine conflict drags on, with the Russian position continuing to appear to strengthen; President Joe Biden continues to be knee-deep in political trouble, although arguably very slightly less than a few weeks ago. That’s in part because oil prices, and the all-important price of gasoline at the pump, are doing him a favor and falling for a change.
So, I didn’t miss much.
Rallies for the Ages
Except I did. Bear markets always include fierce “bear-market rallies” when it appears that all the selling is over and that it’s safe to take risks once more. They’re great ways to lure people in to losing more money. There’s a good chance that this will prove to be another one. But it’s now quite a surge. More importantly, the bond market is also rallying.
Last week was the best for the US stock market in more than two years. For the month as a whole, the S&P 500 gained 9.22%, with growth stocks beating value, while MSCI’s All-Country World index excluding the US gained 3.42%. As this would appear to show returning risk appetite, it’s odd that emerging markets didn’t join in, with MSCI’s benchmark index down slightly for the month.
As for bonds, Bloomberg’s aggregate for long Treasuries gained 2.67% last month, while 30-year US TIPS (inflation-protected) rose by 8.55%. That’s an awful lot in one month.
Longer-term trends remain intact. The S&P has shed 4.64% over the last 12 months, while the long bond index is down a stunning 19.22%. Its average return since 1926, according to the quants at AJO Vista in Philadelphia, has been a positive 5.5%.
This isn’t just about the US. In the eurozone, Italian bond yields have dropped from 3.64% to 3.01% in only six trading days. Anxiety about eurozone cohesion, rampant when the ECB announced that it was moving ahead with rate hikes, appears to have dissolved. Over the same period, German 10-year bund yields dropped from 1.395% to just below 0.8%. They’ve completed an extraordinary three-month round trip surging from 0.8% to 1.9% and back again, as the notion that inflation really could settle into Germany took hold and then dissipated.
Anyone investing on the basis of “risk parity,” aiming to balance stocks and bonds, has just had a great month, after a trying year. The US once more dominates returns elsewhere.
Why the excitement? The bond market seems to be positioned for a world in which the Fed brings down interest rates soon, while inflation also comes swiftly under control, all without damaging corporate returns enough to dent the stock market. Which brings us to the Fed.
The FOMC
What exactly happened at the Federal Open Market Committee meeting Wednesday to cause so much excitement? Here is the key paragraph from Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s statement. Emphases are mine:
Over coming months, we will be looking for compelling evidence that inflation is moving down, consistent with inflation returning to 2%. We anticipate that ongoing increases in the target range for the federal funds rate will be appropriate; the pace of those increases will continue to depend on the incoming data and the evolving outlook for the economy. Today’s increase in the target range is the second 75 basis-point increase in as many meetings. While another unusually large increase could be appropriate at our next meeting, that is a decision that will depend on the data we get between now and then. We will continue to make our decisions meeting by meeting and communicate our thinking as clearly as possible. As the stance of monetary policy tightens further, it likely will become appropriate to slow the pace of increases while we assess how our cumulative policy adjustments are affecting the economy and inflation.
Like Christine Lagarde of the European Central Bank the week before, Powell has now eschewed forward guidance in favor of following the data. As with Lagarde, this is more of an honest admission that the Fed doesn’t know what the economy is going to do next than anything else. Other than that, he set a high bar for altering policy (he wants “compelling” evidence that inflation will come all the way back down to 2%) while explicitly leaving open the possibility of another 75 basis-points hike in September.
Those who wanted an excuse for dovishness, however, could latch on to his speculation that the “pace of increases” would likely slow down. That doesn’t sound that dovish to me, as 75 basis points every meeting would soon pile up into very restrictive policy indeed. But trading on Wednesday suggests it was that line that prompted bond yields to fall and stocks to rally.
Under questioning, Powell said that “we need to get policy to at least a moderately restrictive level” (again I don’t quite see how this was the cue for buying stocks), and drew attention to the latest “dot plot” or governors’ predictions from June, which suggests the fed funds rate will reach between 3% and 3.25% by the end of this year. He added that “we think it’s necessary to have growth slowdown” and doused recession excitement about the forthcoming second-quarter report by saying, “You tend to take first GDP reports, I think, with a grain of salt.”
On the face of it, this doesn’t make a good case to buy stocks. Which brings us to earnings season.
About three quarters of the S&P 500 by market cap has now reported numbers for the second quarter. This summary from Deutsche Bank AG’s chief strategist Binky Chadha shows that there was nothing truly “positive” so far:
• Beats have been about average at best, in line for the median company but below average in the aggregate;
• Earnings growth is strong at the headline level but is down sharply below the surface. On a year-on-year basis, S&P 500 earnings are on track to rise by a robust 9.4% in aggregate. However, there are three unusually large items in the quarter to consider in gauging underlying trends in earnings, two positive and one negative, but which together are providing a big boost to headline earnings in Q2: the massive increase in Energy earnings (+10.5 percentage point boost to S&P 500 growth); the return to profitability for the pandemic-impacted companies (+2pp); and the drag from banks provisioning for loan losses (-4pp). Excluding the impact of these three items, underlying earnings growth for the rest of the S&P 500 is only at a modest 1.2% year-on-year. On a sequential basis quarter-on-quarter, underlying earnings adjusted for seasonality [the second quarter tends to be strong] are on track to fall sharply by -4.5% quarter-on-quarter, one of the steepest declines over the last decade, comparable to those seen in the early stages of the pandemic;
• Forward estimates continue to fall at a much faster pace than is typical through an earnings season, but remain elevated especially for next year.
Again the emphases are mine. There is nothing in the news emanating from Corporate America, then, to suggest that a recession can be avoided.
Of course, when you buy a stock now, you aren’t buying any right to its past earnings, but to its future cash flows. So, is there reason to think that this corner has been turned? There isn’t, unless the interaction between the corporate sector and the economy proves to be very different from previous recessions – or if there proves not to be a recession.
Savita Subramanian, equity strategist for Bank of America Corp., points out that recessions generally hurt profits, and the stock market hits bottom once forward earnings estimates have been cut to a low. This time is different:
During the last five recessions, the S&P 500 bottomed after estimates were revised down, except in 1990 when forward EPS remained flat. But estimate cuts are just starting now and even with those modest cuts, forward EPS is still up 7% since the market peak.
If the bottom for the US stock market has already been made, then, that would imply that an earnings recession will be avoided altogether. That’s conceivable. It doesn’t seem likely.
The key force behind the potent July rally was the pessimism that preceded it. Investors were positioned for imminent disaster, with sentiment about as bad as it gets. Fund managers considered themselves overweight in bonds and underweight in stocks, which suggested something like true capitulation had happened. In such circumstances, as I wrote the week before leaving, “A little good news can go a long way.”
Put differently, Chadha of Deutsche points out that the word from corporate executives on earnings calls hasn’t been particularly positive. But, “It is fair to say that this earnings season has so far revealed pockets of corporates turning cautious but not a widespread move, and the market has put in one of the strongest rallies on record.”
A little good news, or even a little absence of bad news, from earnings announcements and the Fed were enough to drive a great rally.
It’s possible to say that this is stupid. It’s more reasonable to say that free markets are working as they’re supposed to do as they assimilate new and unfamiliar information. Sentiment swings too far in one direction, and then in another, as investors try to get it right. The current position is not necessarily any less defensible than the lows from a few weeks ago. Buying the last dip worked out well.
But bear market rallies are dangerous. As it stands, the market is now positioned for a Fed that quickly reverses course, which implies a declining economy and falling inflation, while corporate earnings sail on unscathed. That’s an unlikely scenario, suggesting great confidence in the Fed. Unless something changed really dramatically during my week in the woods, confidence in the Fed is in short supply.
Therefore, the odds favor that the pendulum has moved enough to create a selling opportunity for both stocks and bonds. But these are bizarre economic circumstances and it behooves all of us, like the Fed, to watch the data as it emerges.
Perhaps my most important tip is always to make sure you’ve forgotten nothing before leaving a vacation property, but most of you were probably sensible enough to do that already.
So one song to recommend. While on vacation I was lucky enough to see Norah Jones in concert. Amazingly, it’s now 21 years since Ravi Shankar’s daughter burst on the scene with her debut album Come Away With Me. She’s still wonderful, and her laid-back music sounds so much better when performed live, by Norah and a group of improvisational musicians. Try perhaps listening to Sunrise, which I enjoyed a lot.
And finally, I was saddened as a fan of the Boston Celtics to learn of the death of their talismanic hero Bill Russell. I was also saddened to read about his terrible experiences with racism. To learn more about this, try looking at The Main Event by my great colleague Stacy-Marie Ishmael. She also tells you about what Martin Luther King once said to Nichelle Nichols, best known as Lieutenant Uhura in Star Trek. Rest in peace, Bill Russell and Nichelle Nichols.
And do have a good week, everyone.
More From Other Writers at Bloomberg:
• Is Another Evergrande Rising in Saudi Arabia?: David Fickling
• Putin Won’t Let OPEC Help Bring Down Oil Prices: Julian Lee
• Democrats Need More Senators Like Joe Manchin: Matthew Yglesias | 2022-08-01T07:07:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Watch the Data Before Falling Too Hard for This Rally - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/watch-the-data-before-falling-too-hard-for-this-rally/2022/08/01/4e92980e-115f-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/watch-the-data-before-falling-too-hard-for-this-rally/2022/08/01/4e92980e-115f-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
Social Media Can No Longer Hide Its Problems in a Black Box
Get ready for a closer look. (Photographer: Chris McGrath/Getty Images Europe)
There’s a perfectly good reason to break open the secrets of social-media giants. Over the past decade, governments have watched helplessly as their democratic processes were disrupted by misinformation and hate speech on sites like Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook, Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube and Twitter Inc. Now some governments are gearing up for a comeuppance.
In the next two years, Europe and the UK are preparing laws that will rein in the troublesome content that social-media firms have allowed to go viral. There has been much skepticism over their ability to look under the hood of companies like Facebook. Regulators, after all, lack the technical expertise, manpower and salaries that Big Tech boasts. And there’s another technical snag: The artificial-intelligence systems tech firms use are notoriously difficult to decipher.
In a lot of ways, the reputation of AI’s black box for impenetrability has been exaggerated, according to Aporia’s chief executive officer, Liran Hosan. With the right technology, you can even — potentially — unpick the ultra-complicated language models that underpin social-media firms, in part because in computing, even language can be represented by numerical code. Finding out how an algorithm might be spreading hate speech, or failing to tackle it, is certainly harder than spotting mistakes in the numerical data that represent loans, but it’s possible. And European regulators are going to try.
Manoel Ribeiro, a Ph.D. student at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland, published a study in 2019 in which he and his co-authors tracked how certain visitors to YouTube were being radicalized by far-right content. He didn’t need to access any of YouTube’s code to do this. The researchers simply looked at comments on the site to see what channels users went to over time. It was like tracking digital footprints — painstaking work, but it ultimately revealed how a fraction of YouTube users were being lured into white-supremacist channels by way of influencers who acted like a gateway drug.
Zuckerberg’s Biggest Bet Might Not Pay Off: Parmy Olson
China’s Cyber Isolationism Has Severe Security Implications: Tara Lachapelle
• No, Musk Isn’t to Blame for Twitter’s Slowdown: Martin Peers | 2022-08-01T07:08:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Social Media Can No Longer Hide Its Problems in a Black Box - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/social-media-can-no-longer-hide-its-problems-inablack-box/2022/08/01/001605a2-1160-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/social-media-can-no-longer-hide-its-problems-inablack-box/2022/08/01/001605a2-1160-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
Monkeypox is a misnomer that results from the fact that it was discovered at the Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen in 1958, when outbreaks of a pox-like disease occurred in monkeys kept for research. While monkeys are susceptible to it, just like humans are, they aren’t the source. The virus belongs to the Orthopoxvirus genus, which includes the variola virus, the cause of smallpox; the vaccinia virus, which is used in the smallpox vaccine; and cowpox virus. Monkeypox is less contagious than smallpox and the symptoms are generally milder. About 30% of smallpox patients died, while the fatality rate for monkeypox in recent years is about 3% to 6%, according to the World Health Organization.
Monkeypox doesn’t usually spread easily between people. Close contact with the virus from an infected animal, human or contaminated object is the main pathway. Most reported cases in the 2022 outbreaks have been linked to skin-to-skin contact with someone infected with this virus, such as during sex. The pathogen enters the body through broken skin, the respiratory tract or the mucous membranes in the eyes, nose, mouth, rectum and anus. Clubs, raves, saunas, sex parties and other activities where there is close contact with many people may increase the risk of exposure, especially if people are wearing less clothing. Tests on patient saliva, rectal swabs, semen, urine and fecal samples found traces of the virus that could indicate an infectious source for these bodily fluids and their potential role in disease transmission by close physical contact during sexual activity, a study from Spain found. Replication-competent virus was found in air samples collected during a bed linen change in rooms used to isolate patients, UK researchers reported in a study released in July ahead of peer-review. The finding supports the theory that monkeypox may be present in aerosols -- suspended skin particles or dust -- and not only in large respiratory droplets that fall to the ground within 1 meter (3 feet) to 1.5m of an infected individual. High concentrations of virus particles were also detected on toilets, sinks and other inanimate objects used by hospitalized patients, though it’s not yet known whether they could be a source of infection, a study from Germany found. Transmission from mother-to-unborn baby has also been documented. It can also happen indirectly through contact with contaminated clothing or linens. Common household disinfectants can kill it.
From just a handful of cases in Europe in early May, more than 22,000 cases, mostly in men, were reported across dozens of countries by late July, according to data collated by global.health. Five fatal cases have been reported in Africa and three outside the continent, in Spain and Brazil. The virus has probably been circulating undetected in Europe since at least April. In the US, caseloads tripled in July, with the virus reported in more than 40 states. Preliminary research estimates that among cases who identify as men who have sex with men, the virus has a reproduction number greater than 1, which means more than one new infection is estimated to stem from a single case. A UK study found anonymous sex has proved to be a barrier to effective contact tracing. Data from outbreaks in Canada, Spain, Portugal, and the UK suggest venues where men have sex with multiple partners are helping to drive spread.
The illness is usually mild and most patients will recover within a few weeks; treatment is mainly aimed at relieving symptoms. About 10-to-15% of cases have been hospitalized, mostly for pain and bacterial infections that can occur as a result of monkeypox lesions. The CDC says smallpox vaccine, antivirals, and vaccinia immune globulin can be used to treat monkeypox as well as control it. Tecovirimat, also known as Tpoxx, was approved by the European Medical Association for monkeypox in 2022, but isn’t yet widely available, according to the WHO. In the US, it’s available through the Strategic National Stockpile, though some physicians have said lengthy delays for test results and the “very daunting task” of completing the necessary paperwork have frustrated efforts to prescribe the medication for infected patients. The UK Health Security Agency (HSA) also lists cidofovir as an antiviral that can be used.
(Updates to add rare neurological complications in section 2, and fatal cases in section 6.) | 2022-08-01T07:08:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Understanding Monkeypox and How Outbreaks Spread - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/understanding-monkeypox-and-how-outbreaks-spread/2022/08/01/468dbf6c-115f-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/understanding-monkeypox-and-how-outbreaks-spread/2022/08/01/468dbf6c-115f-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
The McKinney Fire in Northern California’s Klamath National Forest grew to more than 51,000 acres on July 31. It has become the state's largest fire in 2022. (Video: AP)
With a heat wave hanging over the region, it took only a weekend for a wildfire raging near California’s northern border to swell into the state’s largest blaze this year.
The McKinney Fire has burned more than 51,000 acres since it was reported Friday afternoon in the eastern reaches of the Klamath National Forest, fueled by “above normal temperatures and low relative humidity,” according to fire officials.
The fire was completely uncontained as of Sunday evening, with a fire watch in effect through Monday “for abundant lightning on dry fuels” from thunderstorms that were forecast to hit the area. “Probability of ignition,” fire officials forecast, was “100%.”
1 in 6 Americans live in areas with significant wildfire risk
About 2,500 residents have been ordered to evacuate in rural Siskiyou County, said Courtney Kreider, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office. The police department in Etna, Calif., evacuated Pacific Crest Trail hikers by bus to Oregon on Sunday afternoon. Part of the popular trail was closed from Mount Etna in Northern California to Mount Ashland in southern Oregon, according to the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) declared a state of emergency for the wildfire, which “allows for more flexibility in the face of an unfolding crisis, including the suspension of regulatory statutes that may impede the emergency response and recovery efforts,” his office said in a statement.
“Overnight thunderstorms and lightning, high temperatures, extreme drought conditions, dry fuels, winds, and continued critical fire weather conditions have increased the intensity and spread of these wildfires,” the emergency declaration said.
Kreider estimated that about 100 structures had been destroyed so far, with “significant loss” along the winding Klamath River and the highway that traces alongside it, State Route 96, part of which has been closed. Included in that toll was the Klamath River community’s grocery store, post office and community hall — and the childhood home of a sheriff’s deputy, where his mother was also raised, Kreider said.
There were no confirmed fatalities or reports of injuries as of Sunday evening, she said. Sheriff’s deputies were checking on a “handful” of residents who had declined to evacuate, Kreider added.
The McKinney Fire is more than double the size of the next largest wildfire in California this year, the Oak Fire, which has burned more than 19,000 acres in Mariposa County. The Oak Fire, which started July 22, was 67 percent contained as of Sunday night.
The largest fire in the state’s history was the August Complex Fire in 2020, which scorched more than 1 million acres. Six of the seven largest wildfires in California history have happened since 2020.
The heat wave that first hit the Pacific Northwest on Friday — sending temperatures in usually brisk Seattle into the 90s — is forecast to sweep across the rest of the country this week. At least seven deaths in the Pacific Northwest are thought to have been related to the uncharacteristically high temperatures in the area.
Meanwhile, large wildfires are burning across the northern Mountain West. The Elmo Fire in northwest Montana has scorched more than 10,000 acres as the Moose Fire in central Idaho has burned more than 48,000 acres.
In western Nebraska, a wildfire that forced evacuations has burned about 13,000 acres and was about 30 percent contained, the Star Herald reported, citing emergency officials. | 2022-08-01T07:38:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | McKinney Fire is now California’s largest wildfire of 2022 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/08/01/mckinney-california-largest-wildfire/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/08/01/mckinney-california-largest-wildfire/ |
Ship awaits in the grain elevators section the port in the city of Odessa, Ukraine, 29th of July 2022. (Wojciech Grzedzinski/ For The Washington Post)
ODESSA, Ukraine — The first ship carrying grain departed a Ukrainian port under a United Nations-brokered deal to ease a global food crisis sparked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The departure of the cargo vessel loaded with corn from Odessa on Monday came despite fears the deal, inked in late July, would fall apart after a recent Russian attack on the port.
The wail of a Ukrainian tug boat’s horn marked the departure of the Razoni, a Sierra Leonian-flagged bulk carrier that began the journey at 9:30 a.m. local, departing from the port. The ship was destined for Lebanon, according to Turkey’s Defense Ministry.
A Russian missile strike less than 24 hour after the deal was reached threatened the initiative. The passage of merchant ships from Ukraine along designated maritime corridors is being supervised by a coordination center in Istanbul, staffed by delegations from Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations.
In a statement Monday, the center said that it had agreed to “specific coordinates and restrictions” along the maritime corridor, and “requested all its participants to inform their respective military” and other authorities to ensure the Razoni’s safe passage.
The ship, it added, was carrying more than 26,000 metric tonnes of corn and was expected to arrive in Turkish territorial waters on Tuesday.
Following inspection in Turkey, it would continue on to Lebanon, the statement said. | 2022-08-01T07:46:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ship carrying grain leaves Odessa, Ukraine in deal to ease food crisis - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/01/ukraine-grain-deal-odessa-shipments-resume/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/01/ukraine-grain-deal-odessa-shipments-resume/ |
BOSTON — NBA Hall-of-Famer Bill Russell died Sunday at the age of 88, with his wife, Jeannine, at his side, his family said in a statement posted on social media. No cause of death was immediately available; Russell, who had been living in the Seattle area, was not well enough to present the NBA Finals MVP trophy in June due to a long illness.
NEW YORK — A decision on discipline for Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson following accusations of sexual misconduct is coming Monday.
CHICAGO — Major League Baseball suspended Chicago White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson for three games Saturday and fined the All-Star an undisclosed amount for making contact with plate umpire Nick Mahrley during an argument.
INDIANAPOLIS — Tyler Reddick had already grabbed his first Cup career victory this month, qualified for NASCAR’s playoffs and signed a big contract with a new team. Now he’s also got a victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
INDIANAPOLIS — Alexander Rossi snapped a 49-race losing streak that dated all the way back to the 2019 IndyCar season by winning at one of his favorite tracks — ensuring he ends his Andretti Autosport career on a high note.
NEW YORK — Jake Paul’s boxing match at Madison Square Garden next week has been canceled after his promotional team said opponent Hasim Rahman Jr. did not intend to honor the contracted weight limit. | 2022-08-01T08:43:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Weekend Sports In Brief - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/weekend-sports-in-brief/2022/08/01/7a93ae9e-1168-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/weekend-sports-in-brief/2022/08/01/7a93ae9e-1168-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
What to do if sellers don’t give you all the house keys at closing
If you feel you’re missing a set of keys, you can negotiate to withhold some funds at the closing until all wayward keys and fobs have been delivered. (iStock)
Q: I found Ilyce’s book, “100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask,” to be extremely helpful. However, there was one section that I felt received short shrift, and that was the section about receiving the keys from the owner after the closing.
Specifically, what are the buyer’s options if some of the keys that he receives don’t work, or if some of the keys are missing?
I expect to have my closing this week, and I would like to know what to do if I have a problem with the keys after I had already made full payment for the home.
I would appreciate, very much, any advice you can provide regarding this issue.
A: Congratulations on almost closing on your property. Why are you concerned that you might receive keys that don’t work? Or that you will not receive all of the keys that the sellers have in their possession? Have the sellers been problematic during the home-buying process? Did you or someone you know have a previous problem with keys when you (or they) rented or purchased a home?
Here’s what many people do immediately upon closing: They rekey their locks. That way, it doesn’t matter whether you get all of the keys you’re entitled to. You can hire a locksmith to put in new locks or even electronic locks, or you can sometimes take care of that yourself, if you’re handy and know what you’re doing. You can remove the cylinders and then go to a locksmith to get new keys made.
More Matters: Options for buyers when they learn seller covered up major problem on home disclosure form
If you’re in a condo and are worried about not getting mailroom or storeroom keys, for example, you can ask for those to be delivered in time for the final walk-through, which you should be doing on the day of, after the seller has moved out, and then test them before the closing.
Usually, sellers leave at least one full set of keys for the buyer for the closing. The listing broker may have a full set in the lockbox or may have a full set at the time of the walk-through of the home. You’d expect to see keys for any front and back doors to the home, as well as keys to any other outside doors to the home.
In association developments, you might also expect to receive common area keys as well as keys to mailboxes, a fitness room, a bike room, storage lockers and garages. In addition to these keys, if you have a car to park, you should expect to get a garage door opener and fobs. You should also keep in mind that some single-family homes also have mailbox keys.
Before performing your walk-through of the property before closing, you should ask your real estate agent to make sure that all of these keys are located and available at that time. You can then check to make sure these keys work before the closing.
Sometimes sellers lose indoor keys to closets and the like. You might not see all keys at closing, but you really need to be able to get into the home and lock it to keep it safe. You also should be able to get in and out of any garage and in and out of any building. Surely, you should also be able to retrieve your mail. Lastly, after closing you should be able to get around a building or development by using the common key, key fobs or codes.
Then comes the question of what you might do if you don’t get all the keys, remotes or fobs at closing.
One option: a holdback. If you feel you’re missing a set of keys, you can negotiate to withhold some funds at the closing until all wayward keys and fobs have been delivered. Sometimes, while unpacking a box, they find an extra set here or there, and then those typically get dropped off later, either directly or through the listing agent.
This happened to us recently. We were helping a family member close on a property they had lived in for 45 years. In all that time, there were extra sets of keys made and handed out. A few days after the closing, Sam realized he still had an extra set, and immediately let the broker know. We dropped them off with the building’s doorman the next day.
Sometimes, agents have an extra set of keys. You’ll want to make sure you get those. And if there’s a key left in the lockbox (used by agents to gain access to the house while it was listed), you’ll want to make sure you get that one, too.
Finally, if you have some concerns about the seller not vacating the property before the closing, or that the seller might keep a set of keys, you’ll want to check everything carefully at the property before the closing.
More Matters: Let’s catch up with our readers
We always recommend buyers do a final walk-through after the sellers have moved out but before the closing. You need to check to be sure the sellers have taken what they were supposed to and left items that were specifically listed in the contract. Remember, the house should be in the same condition as the day you bought it. Be sure to look for any damage caused by the move out, so you can have that conversation before you close on the property.
We hope you don’t have a problem at your closing, but the best way to ward off any issues is to have a plan in place. Once you close, either hire someone to rekey your locks, buy and install new locks, or make sure your agent works with the listing agent to secure all keys to the property before the closing. And always do the walk-through after the seller has moved out.
More condo associations are installing keyless entry systems in their buildings and locking elevators, typically by floor. In these situations, associations will have new owners download an app to their phone and give them instructions as to how to use the app to get in and out of common areas in the building.
In the next few years, we think we’ll see fewer keys and more apps and codes that get reprogrammed by the building or association once a change of ownership has happened. So don’t forget to ask about any codes for keyless entry doors and how and when that switch will happen.
We hope your closing goes well. | 2022-08-01T10:14:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What to do if sellers don’t give you all the house keys at closing - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/01/what-do-if-sellers-dont-give-you-all-house-keys-closing/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/01/what-do-if-sellers-dont-give-you-all-house-keys-closing/ |
A student wearing a protective masks carries a bottle of hand sanitizer on her backpack while arriving to a public charter school in Provo, Utah, U.S., on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2020. Students and staff in Utah who dont wear a mask in K-12 schools in accordance with the Governor Gary Herberts mandate can be charged with a misdemeanor, reported the Salt Lake Tribune. George Frey/Bloomberg via Getty Images (Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg)
Give President Joe Biden’s administration credit: It listened to outraged parents (and editorialists) and decided to scrap provisions of a proposed regulation that would have made it far more difficult to open and expand public charter schools. The reversal is a victory for families nationwide, especially in urban areas where charters are most commonly found.
The original proposal, issued by the Department of Education, could have prevented public charter schools from opening in communities where existing schools are under-enrolled. Yet the very reason some schools are under-enrolled is that they are failing, forcing parents to seek other options. Some decide to home school. Some who can afford the tuition payments choose private school. But those options are off-limits to most families, leaving too many children — often in Black and Latino communities — trapped, badly damaging their career prospects and setting back the work of building a more racially equitable society.
Public charter schools offer parents choices and help put pressure on existing schools to improve. Their success has made them popular with both parents and children. Charter enrollment increased by 7% during the first year of the pandemic, while enrollment in traditional schools fell — often because parents felt that district schools were doing a bad job of managing remote learning. Today, there are nearly 50,000 students on charter school waiting lists in New York City alone, and many thousands more across the nation.
The Department of Education’s original proposal could have prevented public charter schools with long wait lists from expanding or replicating if the district schools were under-enrolled. It would have prioritized funding for public charter schools that enter into formal contracts with district schools, making charters dependent on the good will and good faith of schools that may see them as competitors. And it would have restricted public charters from receiving early implementation funding that can be crucial to the process of opening a school. The proposal was amended to prevent those outcomes.
The revised regulations aren’t perfect, but they are substantially better. The White House deserves credit for the changes, and must now ensure they are fairly implemented, given the significant political opposition charters face from teachers unions and ideological activists.
Recently, the House Appropriations Committee voted to cut funding for charter schools by about 10%, even as it moved to increase funding for district schools by $8.3 billion. Think about that for a moment. Charters are among the highest-performing and fastest-growing schools in many districts, and the communities they serve are often among the neediest. Black, Latino and low-income children, who are the majority of charter students, are the biggest beneficiaries of such schools. And many charters are reducing or eliminating achievement gaps with wealthy districts. But instead of increasing funding to support their growth, Congress is attempting to cut it.
The regulatory changes were a defensive victory that still leaves public charters facing uphill battles to secure the funding and political support they need to open and expand. To win, parents will need to continue making their voices heard at the local, state and federal level. The outrage that they rightly directed at the Biden administration should now be aimed squarely at legislators. That’s a tougher and longer fight, but the country shouldn’t shy away from it — there’s too much at stake.
The pace of national progress in the decades ahead will be determined in large part by the quality of public schools. Charters can help us move faster and farther.
Michael R. Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, and UN Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions. | 2022-08-01T10:15:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Charter-School Change Is a Victory for Children - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/charter-school-change-is-a-victory-for-children/2022/08/01/248f1324-1179-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/charter-school-change-is-a-victory-for-children/2022/08/01/248f1324-1179-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
How one of the most dangerous — and popular — types of cosmetic surgery became desirable
This month, a Bloomberg headline labeled the popular Brazilian butt lift (BBL) “one of the deadliest cosmetic surgeries,” echoing similar headlines in the New York Times and the Guardian over the past two years. A 2017 study published in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal found that two out of 6,000 BBLs resulted in death. This number largely stems from the high demand for BBLs, which has led to some unqualified or underqualified physicians and others with limited surgical training doing this work within a loosely regulated system. BBL, or Gluteal Fat Grafting procedures, removes fat tissue from around the waist and injects it into the same patient’s buttocks to form an hourglass figure.
While this figure is viewed as highly desirable across the globe today, the BBL procedure and its connection to its namesake in Brazil has a long history rooted in anti-Blackness. In fact, we can locate the fixation with the BBL and the body it promotes at least as far as back as the abolition of slavery in Latin America’s largest country. Brazil is also home to the largest population of African-descended people outside of the African continent.
After slavery’s abolition in 1888, White Brazilian elites, most of whom were descendants of Portuguese colonists, had a conundrum. They dreamed of building a White nation, shaped by a concept of progress understood as being tied directly to Whiteness. But Brazil’s population of African descent far outnumbered its White population.
White elites latched on to the growing eugenics movement, which was taking off around the globe, as a potential solution. Eugenics aimed to “improve” the population according to elite White standards. In Brazil, eugenic policies included the imprisonment and sterilization of certain groups and other measures.
White Brazilian elites hoped eugenics could help them achieve a form of what they saw as racial progress by making Brazilians of color more like White Brazilians, physiologically and culturally.
The prominent eugenicist Renato Kehl argued that plastic surgery was “the cure to ugliness.” He focused largely on women’s bodies, specifically on sagging breasts, wrinkles and especially what he and other surgeons to this day called the “Negroid nose.” His vision of improving women’s bodies involved reshaping them to conform to an elite White vision of beauty. This thinking helped create a plastic surgery industry in Brazil that had anti-Blackness embedded at its core.
There were similar pseudoscientific debates surrounding miscegenation, or interracial reproduction. During the height of the eugenics movement in the late 19th century and first half of the 20th century, eugenicists like Raimundo Nina Rodrigues viewed interracial reproduction as undesirable because they believed it corrupted Whiteness. Others, however, thought it could serve as a way of “diluting” Blackness over generations — and with it, what Whites saw as undesirable traits. Kehl and others again saw a role for plastic surgery in trying to purge these traits. Surgery could fix the aesthetic “problems” of centuries of miscegenation by reconstructing bodies to conform to White standards of beauty.
Over the first half of the 20th century, many intellectuals and politicians came not only to support miscegenation, but to celebrate it. This celebration effectively became a propaganda tool to erase racial consciousness and drive the diverse people of Brazil to see themselves as “Brazilian.” Different political regimes used this populist rhetoric for their strategic needs, as was the case with Getúlio Vargas’s dictatorship (1937-45), which made Carnival a national holiday to celebrate the country’s multiracial formation. These politicians touted race-mixing as integral to the formation of an exceptional post-racial Brazilian society.
The embodiment of this celebration of racial mixture was a new national symbol for Brazilians to embrace: a hyper-sexualized mixed-race Black woman known as the mulata. The mixed-race woman, or the White fantasy of her, became both the embodiment of the new national myth and the sexual and reproductive mechanism for race-mixing that would whiten the population by reducing or diluting the Black population.
The media and popular culture during the 1960s and 70s featured the mulata as a light-skinned Black woman possessing the body type that is marketed today as desirable throughout the world: an hourglass figure with a thin waist, wide hips and protruding buttocks. This image was popularized abroad in the 1970s and 1980s through films like “Gabriela” (1983) and even by the Brazilian tourism board, Embratur, including a nearly hour-long promotional film titled “Carnival in Rio” (1983). That film found actor Arnold Schwarzenegger traveling to Brazil “to learn about the Carnival triple-threat: “the bunda (buttocks), the mulata and the Samba.” Intellectuals, writers and others declared Brazilian women’s buttocks “the national passion” or “national preference” in terms of sexual desire and desirable body type.
This body type is ubiquitous today in the sexualization of women’s bodies in Brazil, with entire beauty pageants dedicated to the buttocks. This is the case of the annual Miss Bumbum contest, in which 27 women representing each Brazilian state compete against one another for the title of best buttocks in Brazil. They generally all possess the same hourglass figure and are White or light-skinned.
The popularization of this racialized image drove women to plastic surgery. In mainstream Brazilian television and magazines, including many dedicated to plastic surgery, surgeons rejoice in its success — not unlike eugenicists did decades ago. One noted that “the butt of the Brazilian woman is, without a doubt, the most successful in the world …[due to] that marvelous mixture of races.”
This nationalist rhetoric crystallized in the form of the buttocks becoming a marketing tool for surgeons in Brazil and around the world, lending aesthetic credibility to the surgeon and the results. Brazilian surgeon Ivo Pitanguy is credited as the pioneer of the procedure and the first to teach it to other surgeons at the training center he founded in 1960. At that point, “Brazilian” became the operative adjective in the procedure’s name.
BBL’s popularity and the body type it promises reached U.S. and global popular cultures by the late 1990s and early 2000s through the sexualization of megastars of color like Beyoncé and Jennifer Lopez, as well as those who appropriated that image in their building of stardom, such as Kim Kardashian.
Their stardom made this distinct body type a product to be attained and consumed. Many non-Black women turn to the procedure in their “blackfishing,” or their broader efforts to appropriate Blackness or pass, even temporarily, as Black, often for financial gain on social media. In the age of social media brand-building, individual users tap into these standards and cosmetic procedures to monetize large followings, also known as clout-chasing.
As such, the demand for the procedure is exceptionally high. With surgeons overburdened by demand in doctor’s offices and other medical settings, there has been an increase in procedures conducted by unlicensed “doctors” and others, including cases in which patients have been injected with unsafe and toxic materials, such as cement and caulking.
Today, as in the past, it is women of color who suffer the consequences of the culture around BBL and its anti-Black history. The confluences of racial, gender and economic marginalization render Black women more vulnerable to receiving unlicensed treatment or surgery, for example. While non-Black women often reap the benefits of the body type promised by the BBL, Black women may be socially and economically punished for it in a world that condemns Blackness and demands that Black women maintain “respectable” appearances, which often stands in for White, middle-class presentation.
The high demands for the Brazilian butt lift — and those seeking to capitalize on that demand, even if they are unqualified to offer them — have rendered it one of the most dangerous procedures. The history of the BBL reveals striking similarities in the White fantasies for controlling and consuming Black women’s bodies, both then and today. | 2022-08-01T10:15:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The hidden anti-Black history of Brazilian butt lifts - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/08/01/hidden-anti-black-history-brazilian-butt-lifts/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/08/01/hidden-anti-black-history-brazilian-butt-lifts/ |
Norman Lear remade TV, and decades later he still shapes what we watch
How one TV producer took advantage of a changing industry and shifting political landscape to transform the business
Perspective by Oscar Winberg
Oscar Winberg is a post-doc researcher at Åbo Akademi University working on the role of television in modern political history.
Norman Lear accepts the award for best comedy special for “Live in Front of a Studio Audience” at the 25th annual Critics' Choice Awards on Jan. 12, 2020, in Santa Monica, Calif. (Emma McIntyre/Getty Images)
On Wednesday, Norman Lear, one of the most successful men television has ever seen, turned 100. It is difficult to overstate the influence of the producer behind shows such as “All in the Family,” “Maude,” “Sanford and Son,” “Good Times,” “The Jeffersons” and more. In fact, in the mid-1970s, Lear produced half of the 10 highest-rated shows on the air — with one estimate putting the cumulative weekly audience at more than 120 million viewers.
Yet Lear’s influence was not just a question of popularity. He also reshaped television entertainment by fostering open conversations about segregation, racism, sexual violence and abortion. In particular, “All in the Family” — the most popular program on television for an unprecedented five seasons — made politicians, activists and advocates take note and strategize how to use the show to promote their own agendas. In short, Lear took advantage of a changing television industry and shifting political landscape to remake both realms.
Lear was not the first producer to tackle hard subjects. In the 1950s, Rod Serling, of “Playhouse 90” and “The Twilight Zone” fame, made a name for himself as television’s “angry young man.” A decade later, brothers Tom and Dick Smothers turned their “Comedy Hour” variety show into a forum for biting satire and antiwar messages. More often than not, however, networks’ standards and practices departments (the industry euphemism for censors) made sure no controversy made it onto prime-time television in the 1950s and 1960s.
During this period, Lear wrote for shows like the “Ford Star Revue,” “The Colgate Comedy Hour” and “The Martha Raye Show.” By the 1960s, he teamed up with Bud Yorkin, a respected television director and producer, to form Tandem Productions and focus on television specials and motion pictures. In 1967, Lear scored an Academy Award nomination for best original screenplay for the Yorkin-directed “Divorce American Style.”
When Lear heard about a groundbreaking television show in the United Kingdom called “Till Death Us Do Part,” about a raucous, combative household, he recognized his own experiences growing up. Lear decided to return to television comedy and pitch a sitcom that would eventually be known as “All in the Family.” ABC, the weakest of the three networks, rejected two separate pilots before Lear struck gold when CBS, the No. 1 network, decided to take a chance on the potentially divisive show.
Lear’s pitch came at a fortuitous time, because CBS was just starting to rethink the “least objectionable programming” philosophy that had long shaped television’s business strategy: Avoid offending viewers, the theory went, and a network would succeed. The result? Quiz shows, westerns and escapist comedies about talking horses, flying nuns and the small town-charm of Andy Griffith’s Mayberry.
By the dawn of the 1970s, however, advancements in audience research and a new focus on demographics made networks think not just about the largest possible audience, but about the right audience. And so they canceled popular shows with an older and more rural audience, like “The Beverly Hillbillies” and “Green Acres,” in favor of new shows with younger and more urbane viewers, including “All in the Family” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” The new shows, executives at the networks believed, would attract the consumers advertisers wanted to reach.
Government policies were also changing. Frustrated with the vast power wielded by the networks and the bland programming they aired, the Federal Communications Commission sought to level the playing field by passing two new rules in 1970: the prime-time access rule and the financial interest and syndication rules.
Previously, their oligopoly enabled the networks to demand an interest in the shows that they bought from Hollywood studios or small production companies like Lear’s. The result was the networks owning a stake in more than 90 percent of all shows. This meant that production companies carried the risk, often producing shows at a deficit in hope of making a profit in syndication, while the networks shared in any profits. The new fin-syn rules limited the networks’ right to hold an interest in the show, which paved the way for production companies — and, notably, independent ones like Lear’s — to strike it rich in the syndication market. “Without the [fin-syn] rules,” Lear acknowledged years later, “we might never have been able to build the company we built.”
The success of “All in the Family” made Tandem Productions a power player in the television business. The subsequent triumph of a variety of spinoffs, like “The Jeffersons,” strengthened Lear’s position when dealing with the networks — allowing him to push the envelope content wise. “With the first smell of success,” he recalled later, “they would watch a little more carefully how they treated me and argued with me.”
This is one of Lear’s most significant, but overlooked, legacies: his willingness to challenge the gatekeepers at the networks. From the first pilot of “All in the Family,” Lear fought executives and network censors over his vision. He then used his success — and the leverage it created — to spotlight discussions of uncomfortable and political issues that the censors were loath to see on prime-time television.
Crucially, Lear also used this power to diversify television, at the time dominated by White and male producers, writers and directors. He invited advocates for civil rights and women’s rights to collaborate in the production process and grass-roots activists to voice their concerns. He even hired Virginia Carter, the former head of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women, to ensure that his shows portrayed women, minorities and the gay and lesbian community with respect. His ever-increasing number of shows gave voice to new figures on prime-time television: Black families on “Good Times” and “The Jeffersons,” single mothers on “One Day at a Time,” middle-aged divorcées on “Maude” and gay men on “Hot L Baltimore.” When nobody wanted to touch his zany soap opera satire “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” the producer bypassed the networks and sold it directly into syndication with independent and affiliate stations across the country.
His willingness to buck the networks even extended to taking them, the National Association of Broadcasters and the FCC to court in 1975 after they adopted the prime-time censorship rule (also known as the “family viewing hour”). Under government pressure over violence and sex on television, the networks agreed to move any content not deemed suitable for a “family audience,” even the most popular show on television, to after nine o’clock. Lear challenged the rule and won.
By the 1980s, when the producer had already left the day-to-day grind of television, cable was remaking television and deregulation was in the air. Under Chairman Mark Fowler, appointed by President Ronald Reagan, the FCC viewed television not as the public airwaves that should serve the common good, but as nothing more than a “toaster with pictures.” Rules like the fairness doctrine and the financial interest and syndication rules were out of favor.
In congressional hearings in 1983, Lear defended the fin-syn rules and concluded that ending them would destroy independent production companies. He was right. It took 10 years for the FCC to rescind the rules, and, soon after, this rule change and the 1996 Telecommunications Act allowed television to move into the era of the media conglomerates.
And yet, even this new era, with little room for independents like Tandem, is still shaped by Lear. Producers behind shows like “South Park,” “Black-ish” and “Parks and Recreation” all cite his influence on their work. “Television can be broken into two parts,” Phil Rosenthal, the producer behind “Everybody Loves Raymond,” remarked. “Before Norman and after Norman.”
By challenging the networks, Lear showed the value of more daring and more diverse content. In the process, he inspired generations of aspiring writers and producers. As ABC celebrates the legendary producer with a television special, “Norman Lear: 100 Years of Music and Laughter,” in September, it is celebrating not only a man who made television history, but also a man who remade television itself. | 2022-08-01T10:15:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Norman Lear remade TV, and decades later he still shapes what we watch - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/08/01/norman-lear-remade-tv-decades-later-he-still-shapes-what-we-watch/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/08/01/norman-lear-remade-tv-decades-later-he-still-shapes-what-we-watch/ |
The D.C.-area singer helped bring house music to the masses in 1991 with ‘Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless).’ Today, her music sounds as influential as ever.
Crystal Waters works recently on new music in a Takoma Park, Md., recording studio. She first found success in the 1990s with dance-floor hits including “Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless).” (Maansi Srivastava/The Washington Post)
Her career-defining 1991 hit, “Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless),” was the result of an instantaneous, sparks-flying chemistry with Baltimore production team the Basement Boys, but as a recording artist, Waters works remotely now. Producers from around the planet submit their tracks, she writes and records her vocals, then she sends everything back to be edited and mixed — with the caveat that she gets to sign off on the final cut before anything ships to clubland. This afternoon, she’s working on a track for Milk & Sugar, a German production duo that Waters has never met in real life. Is that typical? “I’d say I’ve never met …” — she squints at an invisible abacus — “ … 80 percent of my producers.”
Anonymous or otherwise, those submissions are likely to spike this summer with the success of “Break My Soul,” the neo-house single off Beyoncé’s new album, “Renaissance.” Waters says she was “ecstatic” when she first heard the song — and as someone whose ’90s hits sound like the blueprint for it, she deserves to be. On its journey from radio gem to stone classic, “Gypsy Woman” made the connection between politics and pleasure explicit in house music, reminding citizens of the nightlife to carry the love they’ve found on the dance floor back out into this cold, hard world.
Waters is referring to a well-dressed singer she used to spot on the sidewalk outside the Mayflower Hotel in the late ’80s — the subject of a Washington City Paper article Waters had read that recounted how the woman, who had recently lost her job, chose to wear her finest clothes while busking for spare change. Waters says it changed the way she saw poverty in D.C.’s streets — especially while walking to and from her car during her days working downtown at the D.C. Parole Board. “AIDS was hitting hard,” Waters says. “I remember reading in the City Paper about how ambulances were coming and not taking people because they had AIDS. So all of that stuff was really hitting me.”
She says she feels as comfortable in her voice as she sounds, but she sometimes wishes it could do more. “I always wanted to sing like Chaka Khan, [and] when I finally got to meet her, I asked her how she gets those big notes,” Waters says. “She said, ‘Girl, I just say, ‘f--- it!’ ” Here, her happy laughter has its own kind of melody.
On his surprising new dance album, Drake steps on his own feet | 2022-08-01T10:15:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Beyoncé’s new ’90s house sound? Crystal Waters is glad to hear it. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/08/01/crystal-waters-beyonce-house-sound/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/08/01/crystal-waters-beyonce-house-sound/ |
Can the NPT fulfill its promise to eliminate nuclear weapons?
Latin American countries will push again for nuclear disarmament at this month’s review conference
Analysis by J. Luis Rodriguez
Russia's nuclear-powered Severodvinsk submarine outside St. Petersburg on July 30. (Dmitri Lovetsky/AP)
The United Nations kicks off the 10th Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) on Monday, gathering 191 treaty members in New York. It’s an NPT review that typically takes place every five years, though the pandemic pushed the date back two years.
What’s on this year’s agenda? The NPT and its advocates have largely been successful in preventing nuclear proliferation over the past five decades. However, my research explains the growing frustration some countries feel toward what they see as the slow pace of nuclear disarmament.
The nuclear powers proclaimed their commitment to disarmament in January, yet the United States, Russia and China continue to pursue ambitious nuclear modernization strategies. And the Russian invasion of Ukraine has only boosted fears of a possible use of nuclear weapons.
In this context, nuclear powers will face substantial disarmament demands. Mexico and other Latin American countries will use this review conference (RevCon) to ask, again, for nuclear powers’ commitment to nuclear disarmament. They’ll push for the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons, legally binding negative security assurances and a treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons.
The pace of disarmament is frustrating
Latin America advocated for eliminating nuclear weapons during the original NPT negotiations in the 1960s. Nuclear powers at the time expressed their opposition to total nuclear disarmament. Academics and policymakers alike argued that nuclear deterrence prevented conflict. They maintained that a certain amount of nuclear arms was necessary to ensure Cold War stability.
In response, Brazil and other countries argued that the NPT would become a “neo-colonial” tool without bold disarmament objectives. Most Latin American governments advocated for a less ambitious goal. They accepted nonproliferation obligations in exchange for nuclear powers’ commitment to reducing their nuclear arsenals over time. This compromise became Article 6 of the NPT.
But Latin American governments believe nuclear powers have emphasized preventing nuclear proliferation to other countries, rather than reducing their own arsenals. And disarmament advocates have become increasingly frustrated. As a result, during the last RevCon, in 2015, NPT members didn’t agree on a final declaration because of divergent disarmament objectives — just as they failed in the 1980, 1990, 1995 and 2005 conferences.
Nuclear powers will face increasing disarmament demands during the RevCon. If consensus falls apart yet again, doubts will rise about the viability of the NPT regime.
What do Latin American countries want?
Latin American delegates will insist that the RevCon participants pay equal attention to nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear disarmament. These countries see these two policies as necessary tools to promote international security. These are the main goals that they will focus on.
1. Banning nuclear weapons
Latin American governments see the NPT as the cornerstone of the global nuclear order. However, they have looked for alternative disarmament mechanisms, given the slow progress on disarmament among nuclear powers. Most Latin American countries support the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Ban Treaty, which entered into force in January 2021.
Latin American leaders will use the momentum generated by the Ban Treaty to demand more ambitious disarmament goals. It helps that the RevCon will take place so soon after the members of the Ban Treaty gathered in Vienna in June — a meeting that energized disarmament proponents.
2. Alternative security strategies
Latin American governments have pointed out the dangers of prioritizing nuclear arsenals in national security strategies. In their campaigns to rally support for the Ban Treaty, most Latin American countries emphasize the humanitarian and environmental consequences of nuclear weapon detonations. They have announced no change in their disarmament demands in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Governments in the region have expressed growing anxiety about the United States, Russia and China expanding and modernizing their nuclear arsenals. These dynamics make Latin American officials think that nuclear powers are backtracking and conditioning their disarmament progress on having more effective nuclear arsenals.
3. Denuclearizing the Middle East
Latin American governments created the first nuclear-weapon-free zone in a densely populated area in 1967. They forged regional compromises by bracketing out controversial issues — like banning maritime nuclear transit — to deal with in a separate negotiation.
Since then, Latin American governments have supported the creation of similar zones in other regions to gradually disarm the world. Latin American officials have favored creating a Middle Eastern nuclear-weapon-free zone to guarantee nonproliferation and disarmament since the proposal first emerged at the 1995 RevCon.
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The Conference on the Establishment of a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction took place at the United Nations in November 2021. Latin American diplomats recognize that some Middle Eastern countries might not join this effort at first. Still, they hope to encourage debates during the RevCon to lay the groundwork for good-faith negotiations to disarm the region.
Latin American governments can draw on their own experience in creating a successful nuclear-weapons-free zone. In the November meeting, for instance, the Egyptian delegate reminded participants that ratifying nations don’t have to be part of a regional zone from the outset. For example, Argentina, Chile and Brazil did not fully join the Latin American zone until 1994, decades after the treaty creating this mechanism opened for signatures.
Will this year’s RevCon bring consensus?
Nuclear and nonnuclear powers can use the 10th RevCon to find common ground and “pursue negotiations in good faith” about nuclear disarmament, following their commitments in Article 6 of the NPT. The meeting in August could be an opportunity to lay some groundwork to establish a balance between nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear disarmament — and strengthen the NPT as the cornerstone of the global nuclear order.
J. Luis Rodriguez (@luisrodaquino) is a Stanton Nuclear Security Postdoctoral Fellow in the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford University. His research focuses on how the Global South builds and maintains limits on the use of force. | 2022-08-01T10:15:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Latin American leaders want more ambitious nuclear disarmament goals - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/01/npt-nuclear-weapons-disarmament/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/01/npt-nuclear-weapons-disarmament/ |
As Putin squeezes gas supplies, Germany is falling back on coal
Vanessa Guinan-Bank
The power plant in Bexbach, Germany, is stocking up its coal depot in preparation for returning to full-time energy production. (Daniel Etter for The Washington Post)
BEXBACH, Germany — The last coal pits around Bexbach closed a decade ago, leaving the power plant puffing plumes of pollutants as a relic of a dying regional industry.
“It’s a good feeling to be hiring,” he said, as he sat down to discuss plans to transition Bexbach, in the southwestern German state of Saarland, from “reserve” status back to full capacity. By winter, Lux expects to be burning a minimum of 100,000 metric tons of coal a month, in what some in the industry have dubbed a “spring” for Germany’s coal-fired power plants.
It’s part of a pan-European dash to ditch Russian natural gas and escape President Vladimir Putin’s energy chokehold. While the war in Ukraine has simultaneously turbocharged the European Union’s race to renewables, fossil fuels still provide the quickest fix.
Amid summer heat wave, Germany worries about having enough gas for winter
That means a scramble for an industry that has been in its death throes in Germany. And some experts warn that may make it harder for the country to meet its climate goals.
Horst Haefner gestured toward the stacks of coal in Bexbach’s storage yard: “Everyone wants to get rid of it, but they can’t do without it.”
With temperatures hitting 91 degrees Fahrenheit, the day was so unusually hot for the region that the local beer garden had closed early for a “heat day.” It was a reminder of why countries have pledged to cut their carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels such as coal — and what’s at stake if they don’t.
More coal, more emissions
As Putin puts a squeeze on natural gas flows to Europe — in what E.U. officials claim is retaliation for their support of Ukraine — Germany is trying to conserve energy. It is also urgently seeking replacement sources of power. And it has few options.
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Ramping up renewables takes time. New liquid natural gas terminals are not yet finished. The government is considering keeping the last three nuclear power plants online beyond their planned end-of-year close date, but those account for a relatively small portion of the county’s power generation.
The German government, which includes Greens as part of its coalition, has described the coal revival as a painful but necessary move — and assures it will be temporary.
Germany has simultaneously committed to a new target of 80 percent of power from renewable sources by 2030 — double the current contribution. It has begun to ease the permitting process for windmills and to invigorate a renewables rollout that many analysts say stagnated under former chancellor Angela Merkel.
“If it was happening in a vacuum and we didn’t have all this other legislation paired, then I’d be worried,” said Ysanne Choksey, a policy adviser for fossil fuel transition at E3G, a climate think tank.
But some experts voice concern about the short-term increase in emissions for Germany — and about whether it will be harder for the country to meet that 2030 target: cutting emissions by at least 65 percent of 1990 levels.
To get there, emissions in the power sector need to be reduced “substantially and as soon as possible,” said Simon Müller, Germany director of Agora Energiewende, a climate-focused nonprofit.
Yet Agora estimates that the fossil fuel plants that have been revived or allowed to stay open will add between 20 million and 30 million tons of greenhouse gases annually, equivalent to about 4 percent of Germany’s total emissions.
Whether Germany will overshoot its budget of 257 million tons of carbon emissions for the power sector this year remains uncertain, Müller said.
“What is certain,” he said, “is that only a massive rollout of renewable energies and grid expansion will break our dependence on fossil energy imports and put us on track to meet Germany’s climate target for 2030.”
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In Germany last year, in part because of low winds and the already rising price of natural gas, hard coal and lignite accounted for 28 percent of electricity production — contributing to a rise of a 4.5 percent in overall emissions over the previous year.
To be sure, it’s not just Germany that is off track. Despite global commitments to reduced emissions, last year was a record year for coal globally. As the world emerged from the pandemic and demand for power surged, more coal was burned for electricity generation than at any other time in history. This year is poised to break records again.
Claudia Kemfert, head of the energy and environment department at the German Institute for Economic Research, said even with a government that has put climate policy at the forefront, red tape that has held back the country’s renewables industry has not been sufficiently stripped away.
“We will not meet climate goals in the short term,” Kemfert said.
Leaning more on coal is now a “necessary step,” she said. “We are paying the price of 10 years of failed energy policy.”
What it takes to resurrect a coal plant
It remains unclear how many of the coal plants that are now allowed to fire up fully will elect to do so this winter. Energy companies will be weighing the cost of necessary investments against potential profits.
“The responsibility is fully understood,” Lux said.
Just five years ago, power company Steag tried to shut these plants down, deeming them unprofitable as cheap gas flowed from Russia. The German government mandated they be put into “grid reserve” — so they could be called on when needed to supplement imbalances in the energy grid, with running costs paid by the government.
Bexbach was built to burn local coal, but the area’s last hard coal mine closed in 2012. Before the war in Ukraine, Russia had been supplying much of the coal imports used at German plants. Yet with an E.U. embargo on Russian coal coming into force in August, energy companies have had to look elsewhere: to South Africa, Australia and Colombia’s Cerrejón mine, also known as “the Monster” and notorious for its poor environmental and safety record.
“The whole market has expected the downturn of coal consumption: the ports, the rail operators, the barging operators,” said Stephan Riezler, head of trading at Steag.
For other plants that receive coal by barge, there’s an additional problem of low water levels on the Rhine River, a logistics artery for German industry, with boats unable to fully load.
The government has now given priority to coal cargo on its railway lines, in an attempt to expedite deliveries — which one transport alliance has warned could have a knock-on effect for public transportation.
As it ramps up, the industry is pushing for longer-term guarantees, which the country’s Green Economy Ministry is unlikely to offer.
Alex Bethe, chairman of Germany’s Association of Coal Importers, said there’s a need for a “signal” from the government that “we have a five-year perspective in order to justify the hiring of personnel, doing investments and improvements.”
“So we are saying to the government: This is a wonderful idea, we want to save the country in the winter, but what we need is a credit line,” said Riezler, as he sat down with plant managers to discuss what was needed to reenter the market.
Still, even with rising coal prices, there’s money to be made, and managers say it’s just a matter of ironing out the details.
“We’ll do everything in our power to bring all of those millions of tons to the power plants,” Bethe said.
Florian Neuhof in Berlin contributed to this report. | 2022-08-01T10:16:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Germany's coal revival may threaten its climate goals - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/01/germany-coal-energy-climate/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/01/germany-coal-energy-climate/ |
D.C. native Hailey Baptiste will face Jessica Pegula on Monday in the first round of the Citi Open. (Maansi Srivastava/The Washington Post)
It has been three years since Hailey Baptiste last played a tournament in D.C., but as her practice serves tattoo the hard court surface of Rock Creek Park Tennis Center — site of this week’s Citi Open — Baptiste feels right at home.
For the D.C. native, Rock Creek Park has been the backdrop for some of her most formative experiences — such as when Baptiste, then 4 years old, put her father, Quasim, on notice while giving him the business with an adult-sized racket. Or when family friends, who were working the event, turned a blind eye as Baptiste sneaked through the back entrance to watch some of the game’s best play in the Citi Open.
Or most notably, when Baptiste, as a 17-year-old, seemingly announced her presence in women’s tennis by upsetting then-No. 17 Madison Keys in the first round of the 2019 Citi Open.
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“I don’t really believe in magic or things like that, but it’s hard to put into words what these courts and this city have meant to me and my career,” Baptiste said. “With all of the familiar faces in the crowd, it’s like having a home-field advantage or something. Good things just always seem to happen to me here.”
With the women’s portion of the Citi Open making its return following a two-year hiatus, Baptiste hopes her home-court advantage will lead to another formative experience Monday as her first-round draw pits her against No. 7 Jessica Pegula.
Baptiste, 20, finds herself in a much different position than the previous time she played in the nation’s capital. After knocking off Keys in 2019, she seemed poised for a trip to the upper echelons of the women’s rankings. But her growth hasn’t exactly been linear.
Since becoming a full-time pro in January 2020, Baptiste has struggled to play consistently as the coronavirus pandemic has upended schedules and nagging injuries have kept her sidelined.
“It’s been a frustrating route for me, to say the least,” Baptiste said. “When you dream of being a professional tennis player as a 9-year-old, you never account for the difficult parts of that journey. You just assume that it’ll go for you like it did for Serena [Williams] or [Rafael] Nadal. But being a pro is really tough, and each day presents a new challenge.”
Baptiste’s greatest challenge is making enough money to break even. Her No. 148 ranking doesn’t equate to a large salary after accounting for expenses.
With no sponsorships, Baptiste has been forced to make some tough sacrifices, such as sharing hotel rooms with other players, flying out for tournaments at odd hours, skipping meals from time to time and going without a consistent coach.
Baptiste has earned $175,288 in 2022, before taxes, but said she has had to shell out more than $130,000 in expenses.
“Don’t get me wrong — I’m blessed to be a professional tennis player — but it’s impossible not to look at other sports and think about what life as a top-150 player would be like,” Baptiste said. “I chose this sport and I understand that you have to win to make money, so don’t think I’m out here looking for sympathy or anything. [I’m] just telling you the reality of the sport.”
Baptiste’s mother, Shari Dishman, has cashed in thousands of dollars’ worth of inherited bonds and stocks and even dipped into her retirement fund to assist in keeping her daughter’s dream afloat. At the same time, Baptiste’s father serves as her day-to-day manager.
“For me, it’s a family affair,” Dishman said. “Before I had Hailey, I planned to move to New York and work in the fashion industry. So I know what it’s like to give up on your dreams and have those nagging thoughts about what could’ve been. I will do whatever it takes to ensure that my only child never has to deal with that.”
Baptiste is not alone, said Martin Blackman, the general manager of player development for the U.S. Tennis Association. While the various tennis federations provide some players with financial assistance, making ends meet is a real concern for any player ranked outside of the top 50.
“It’s a tough go in the beginning because there’s a lot of expenses ... that tennis players must account for when navigating through the lower levels of the pro circuit,” Blackman said. “Luckily for Hailey, she has all of the talent and ability to be a regular participant in the major tournaments, which over time will lighten her financial burdens. It’s our belief that Hailey will become one of those top 50 players in the near future.”
When healthy, Baptiste has already proved capable of being a top-50 talent. In May, she won three straight qualifiers at the French Open to reach the main draw before retiring in the first round with an injury.
“If I can just get healthy and comfortable, I know that I am capable of being one of the best in this sport,” Baptiste said. “I think that being back in D.C. for the Citi Open and some home cooking is exactly what the doctor ordered.”
Venus Williams will play in the Citi Open for the first time | 2022-08-01T11:41:56Z | www.washingtonpost.com | D.C.'s Hailey Baptiste happy to be home at Citi Open - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/01/hailey-baptiste-citi-open/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/01/hailey-baptiste-citi-open/ |
A free agent after this season, Josh Bell is expected to be traded before Tuesday's 6 p.m. trade deadline. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
Josh Bell is almost 30 and doesn’t have a professional home. Sometimes he thinks about that.
“Certainly is always a plus in this game — a plus I haven’t really experienced,” Bell said in the Washington Nationals’ clubhouse on Saturday afternoon. “But as for when I’ll have a chance to dictate the next steps of my career, I have no clue what’s going to happen between now and then. It feels very far away.”
Bell is eligible to reach free agency this winter. In the meantime, he’s expected to be traded before Tuesday’s 6 p.m. deadline, sparking a bit of reflection over the weekend. True to form, though, Bell nimbly sidestepped most questions about his immediate future. He was preparing to face St. Louis Cardinals starter Dakota Hudson and his tough sinker. He doesn’t where he will play or live on Aug. 3, which is the truth. The first baseman has been the subject of rumors for weeks, leading friends and family to text him their thoughts or encouragement. In response, the first baseman is trying to stay off social media.
Maybe he will wind up with the Houston Astros, who, according to multiple people with knowledge of the Nationals’ discussions, are very interested in Bell for the last two months of this year and a playoff run. As for the return, maybe what the New York Yankees traded for outfielder Andrew Benintendi — three minor league pitchers, none in the top 10 of New York’s system — is instructive, since Bell is having a better offensive season but offers less in the field than in Benintendi. Maybe the market for Bell slims some because the Boston Red Sox are potentially shopping J.D. Martinez, a right-handed rental bat who has made back-to-back all-star appearances.
Or maybe, Bell suggested, “we can all wait until Tuesday and talk about it then.”
Even before he finished the line, Bell cracked into a smile. The switch-hitter knows what drives the conversation in late July. Yet he also knows that, down the line, he would love to be on a team that isn’t selling, resetting, rebuilding each year. Bell debuted with the Pirates in 2016 and played in part of five seasons for Pittsburgh. After the fifth, he was dealt to the Nationals for a pair of minor league arms on Christmas Eve. And in both of his summers in Washington, the Nationals will have moved farther away from winning games.
A year ago, they shipped out eight of Bell’s teammates for 12 unproven players. This week, they could move Bell and star outfielder Juan Soto if a steep, steep asking price is met. Bell is having his best year yet, entering Monday with a .305 batting average, .389 on-base percentage and .499 slugging percentage in 429 plate appearances. He has started 101 of the Nationals’ 103 contests. His glove has improved at first. He just finally wants a chance in October.
“That’s what everyone is after, right?” Bell asked. “Being on a good team is fun. If I were to have to sign a shorter-term deal to be on a winning team in the future, I would definitely weigh that."
“Think about us last year,” he continued, his eyes widening a bit. “I came in with Juan, Trea [Turner], [Kyle] Schwarber and a bunch of other guys in the lineup. We had some horses in the rotation. But we had some tough breaks in July, and if the postseason was expanded then maybe we don’t ever sell like we did. ... Or who knows, maybe if we don’t get swept by the Orioles none of his happens how it has. It was cool to be in a clubhouse that knew it could be something great. That’s just not how it panned out.”
There wasn’t regret in Bell’s voice. No, the tone sounded more like appreciation for having played with Soto, Turner and Schwarber — and then with Nelson Cruz, one of his childhood heroes, this year.
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Bell and his wife, Lia, have also talked about living in D.C. again one day. He is, as of Monday morning, the player ambassador for the Washington Nationals Youth Baseball Academy. He raised his hand so he could connect with kids from around the city and learn more about its less-privileged neighborhoods. Noa, their baby daughter, will always say Washington was her first home, no matter if her earliest memories form elsewhere.
Their first season here, they lived just a few blocks from the stadium in the Navy Yard. Then because they loved visiting Georgetown so much, they got a spot there this season, giving Bell quite the drive home from work.
“Going past the monuments all lit up at night, it’s pretty damn special," Bell said, seeming almost wistful for something lost. His last big moment with Nationals fans could be his go-ahead three-run shot in a win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday. But hours before that homer reached the seats, he was careful about getting ahead of himself.
“We’ll see what happens,” he maintained. “I can’t play GM and first base at the same time.”
The Trea Turner trade made the Nats’ future clear. So would a Juan Soto trade.
We now interrupt your angst about the trade deadline for Baby Shark Day | 2022-08-01T11:42:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | As deadline looms, Josh Bell waits to reflect too much on time with Nats - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/01/nationals-josh-bell-deadline/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/01/nationals-josh-bell-deadline/ |
Why Stocks Took a July Vacay From Fundamentals
July was an illustration of the adage that “the market is not the economy.” US stocks had their best month in two years while the economy received discouraging news about both growth and inflation. But rather than illustrating another adage — “bad news is good news” — the contrast is a reminder that economic fundamentals are one of three main drivers of asset prices, and their influence varies over time.
With a return of 12% in July alone, the Nasdaq Composite Index recovered more than a third of the loss incurred in the brutal first half of 2022. The other, less volatile indexes also had a strong month, reducing the year-to-date losses to 10% and 13% for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 Index respectively.
The good news did not extend to the economy. On the contrary in fact.
July was full of worrisome news about sky-high inflation (9.1% as measured by the consumer price index for June), negative GDP growth (-0.9% for the second quarter), a drop in real incomes and diminished household savings. Company after company warned that the damaging impact of inflation on their costs was now increasingly accompanied by worries about revenue as rising prices destroyed demand for some goods and even services, though less so for now.
Politicians, as opposed to the majority of economists who take a more holistic definition of the concept, debated loudly whether the US is in a recession. With Google “recession” searches already surging, this added to the likelihood of a more cautionary spending approach on the part of both households and businesses — this as the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation metric, the personal consumption expenditures price index, rose to a level not seen since January 1982.
It’s no wonder the Fed, scrambling to control the policy narrative and seeking to limit more harm to its already-damaged credibility, raised interest rates 75 basis points into a weakening economy — when markets increasingly priced in the likelihood of a rate U-turn in 2023 because of a Fed-induced recession.
The concerning news was not limited to the US economy. It was also global.
In its periodic update of its world economic outlook, the International Monetary Fund described the global economy’s prospects as “gloomy and more uncertain.” The IMF cut its growth projections for 2022 by 0.4 percentage points to 3.2%, a significant amount for a mid-year revision, and by 0.7 percentage points to 2.9% for 2023. It also revised up its inflation forecasts and warned of possible financial and debt problems.
Having worked at the fund for 15 years earlier in my career, I can assure you that officials there do not use words such as “gloomy” lightly. And the words are appropriate given that this weekend’s contractionary data for China’s manufacturing sector confirmed that all three systemically important regions in the world — China, the euro zone and the US — are slowing significantly at the same time.
One interpretation of the striking contrast between the economy and markets in July is that the bad economic news will lead the Fed to pause its monetary tightening early and then lower interest rates quickly and perhaps even suspend its plans for balance sheet contraction — thereby returning to a policy pattern that, for years, loosened financial conditions and drove asset prices higher. Indeed, stocks had their biggest ever post-Federal Open Market Committee rally as traders responded to Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s unscripted remark that interest rates are at “neutral” — a comment that, inconsistent with Powell’s other remarks at that press conference, contributed to a general chuckle when, later in the press conference, he said that the Fed did not want to contribute to market volatility.
A majority of economists questioned Powell’s unscripted remark. From an economic, institutional and market perspective, it would have been much better for Powell to stick to the script given to him rather than venture into a statement that Larry Summers, the former Treasury secretary, described on Bloomberg Television as “analytically indefensible” and “inexplicable.” Yet having gone unscripted, Powell’s analytical slip served as a spark for markets that have been conditioned by years of huge and predictable Fed liquidity injections.
It should come as no surprise that markets are so sensitive to any hint of a return to the uber-stimulative, liquidity-abundant policy regime. Yet high and potentially sticky core inflation greatly limits the Fed’s ability to pivot back to such a regime any time soon.
There is a better way to think about July’s contrast between the market and the economy, one based on the view that asset prices are sensitive to three general influences: fundamentals, including the economy’s impact on corporate earnings; technicals, including the amount of overall liquidity in the system, cash in investment portfolios and general level of risk-taking; and relative valuations, be they historic or intra-asset class. The latter two influences drove the July rally in the face of deteriorating fundamentals.
Given the amount of liquidity that has been injected in recent years, a lot of it is still sloshing around. The level of cash holdings by investors has been high, and the willingness to take risks is still considerable once a green light flashes on.
All this comes when equity valuations have become more attractive, with some particularly prominent individual stocks, albeit a relatively small set, trading at strikingly cheap levels. Stocks have also benefited from the widening market belief that, with the economy slowing so rapidly, bond yields had fallen in the last month and a half to levels that are notably less attractive, especially with such high inflation.
This is not to say that fundamentals will have no influence going forward. A lot will depend on the answer to two questions: How sticky will inflation be on the way down, and how deep will the possible recession be, neither of which can be answered yet with a great degree of confidence.
• The Fed Should Get Ready for Higher Unemployment: Clive Crook
• Powell Smartly Swears Off Guidance But Retreats: Jonathan Levin | 2022-08-01T11:46:23Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Why Stocks Took a July Vacay From Fundamentals - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/why-stocks-took-a-july-vacay-from-fundamentals/2022/08/01/b46e30e0-1185-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/why-stocks-took-a-july-vacay-from-fundamentals/2022/08/01/b46e30e0-1185-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
Analysis by Chris Mooney
A model of the Copper SE, an electric vehicle that is eligible for tax credit under the Inflation Reduction Act passed by Senate Democrats to support families, boost infrastructure and fight climate change. (David Zalubowski/AP)
The higher temperatures observed today across the world, implicated in everything from extreme heat to drought and worsening wildfires, are the result of many decades of rising greenhouse gas emissions that trap heat and warm the globe. And there are many more emissions to come, as people around the globe keep on living, driving cars, conducting business.
All of which explains why the economic and climate deal announced last week by Senate Democrats, which would represent America’s biggest actions ever to curb climate change, can scarcely be expected to have an immediate, measurable impact on the warming planet.
Yet, in ways Americans may not yet appreciate, the legislation could have much more direct, soon-felt effects — on what people pay to drive and power their homes, as well as the quality of the air they breathe.
The deal, announced by Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), would spend $369 billion on tax credits and other spending to transition the country away from fossil fuels.
By doing so, the Inflation Reduction Act would further lower the costs of renewable energy technologies such as wind and solar, as well as many other less glitzy but important energy-saving appliances and devices around the home. If it spurs other countries to act in concert with the United States, it would be at the cutting edge of a global coordinated effort to cut down on emissions and limit warming.
The legislation “is important symbolically and internationally,” said Rob Jackson, an expert on global greenhouse gas emissions at Stanford University. “Its biggest benefits are to provide longer-term certainty for renewables development and to promote sales of lower-cost electric vehicles. It’s critical the U.S. do something."
Yet, the bill won’t lead to a much cooler planet, at least not immediately or on its own. The climate problem is massive, which means that even when the United States takes decisive action it can appear relatively small.
For instance, new modeling from the Rhodium Group puts the U.S. emissions reductions from the new legislation at about 470 to 580 million tons of greenhouse gases in 2030, compared with where policies will take us without the bill. Princeton University’s energy modeler Jesse Jenkins appears more optimistic and initially puts the emissions reductions at between 800 million and 1 billion tons.
That’s a big chunk of the U.S. total, currently estimated by Rhodium at around 5.5 billion tons. Yet in the global context, where current emissions of greenhouse gases amount to over 50 billion tons per year, that’s just a 1 to 2 percent reduction by decade’s end from this legislation alone.
And even if other major emitters — developed countries like the United Kingdom, Japan and Germany and developing countries like China and India — follow the United States and cut emissions further, the story will be one of worse outcomes avoided — not, anytime soon, a stop to global warming.
The atmosphere holds carbon dioxide for a long time. And more keeps accumulating. That will only continue, unless a more complete transition occurs that sees the world move largely off fossil fuels, and begin sucking enormous volumes of carbon dioxide gases back out of the air. That would happen through expanded forests or carbon capture technologies (which the new bill also seeks to incentivize).
And yet, from the new legislation, some changes will be felt more quickly.
While Earth will remain stubborn, experts say that many Americans would in the coming years see their lives noticeably change because of the legislation.
Perhaps the most immediate impact would be to lower the price of using clean energy — especially for those who make use of the incentives contained in the bill to purchase electric vehicles or highly efficient energy technologies for their homes, such as heat pump-based heating and cooling systems.
One of the key points of the new legislation, for instance, is to further incentivize buying an electric vehicle, through a $7,500 tax credit for new purchases and a $4,000 one for buying a used EV. Insofar as car buyers take advantage of these offers — the sticker shock of the purchase price of an EV has been a disincentive for many — mobility itself will cost them less.
Simply put, it is generally cheaper, mile per mile, to drive an electric vehicle than it is to drive a gas-powered one. That becomes especially true at times of high gas prices, like now. But the actual cost difference also varies regionally, as it depends on the cost of electricity.
Still, the price edge for driving EVs comes across in multiple studies. The U.S. Department of Energy has calculated the cost of an eGallon — defined as how much it costs to drive an EV just as far as you’d be able to go on one gallon of gasoline. As of March 2021, the U.S. average eGallon price was just $1.16.
The influential solar investment tax credit for residences (although not businesses) would also be extended by the bill, reducing the cost of installing a home solar system by 30 percent between now and 2033, after which the reduction phases down.
Like an EV, a home solar system is fairly expensive when it comes to the initial start-up cost, which is precisely what these incentives are aiming to reduce. But for individuals who take advantage of the rebate, they can expect a steep lowering of home energy bills, since they’ll be generating a substantial portion of their own power, rather than buying it from somebody else.
To be sure, critics of the plan argue that there will be unintended side effects that cost the economy. The bill pays for many of the climate investments through greater tax enforcement and measures that Democrats label the closing of tax loopholes. And by design, the bill would incentivize investment in clean energy technology over fossil fuels.
“The Democrats are doing nothing to help solve their problems. Instead, Democrats want to raise taxes, pass more reckless government spending, and attack American energy,” Sen. John Barrasso (Wyo.), top Republican on the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, said in a statement last week.
And then there’s the air, which has been barely discussed in the wake of the bill’s release. Simply put, the fewer fossil fuels that are burning to power cars and homes, the fewer offshoots of that burning — particulates — make their way into the air.
“Getting off polluting fuels and switching to non-combustion electricity and zero emissions vehicles also has immediate air quality benefits,” said Laura Kate Bender, national assistant vice president of Healthy Air for the American Lung Association.
In a 2020 report, the association found that a full transition to zero emissions vehicles on roads, accompanied by a shift to renewables in power generation, would prevent over 100,000 premature fatalities, some 3 million asthma attacks, and 13 million lost days of work by 2050 — all by dramatically lowering air pollution.
No one is saying that the current legislation goes nearly this far, but it would capture some fraction of these improvements.
Indeed, the REPEAT Project at Princeton studied the effect of the Build Back Better bill — not the current legislation, but an ancestor of it — on premature deaths from air pollution. It found that the bill would avoid over 20,000 deaths by the year 2030.
Noelle Selin, an expert on the movements of atmospheric pollutants at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, concurs that the bill will have a major impact on air quality.
“It’s generally the case for virtually any type of CO2/fossil fuel reduction of that magnitude that there will be substantial benefits for fine particulate matter across the U.S., especially in the eastern U.S., as any shift away from fossil energy to cleaner sources generally has large benefits to air quality,” Selin said via email.
Indoor air in homes can also be bad for health, due in part to causes such as gas or oil burning appliances, which emit particulates indoors.
But Leah Stokes, an energy policy expert at the University of California at Santa Barbara who also advised Senate Democrats on the legislation, points out that incentives in the bill would help a lot of households replace these appliances, thus cleaning up the air that people — especially children — breathe.
Electric water heaters, stoves and heat pumps don’t require people to burn fossil fuels within their homes, and could ultimately make features like propane tanks and gas lines obsolete. It’s part of a larger climate-driven push to reduce our home energy use to a single fuel — electricity — which, in turn, can be generated by renewable sources and stored in batteries.
“There’s a bunch of really interesting provisions in the bill that help people electrify their homes,” Stokes said.
Making the world take notice
U.S. emissions quickly mingle in the atmosphere with emissions from all over the globe and trap infrared heat, preventing it from escaping into space, traveling wherever the winds take them.
That’s why when the planet warms and the odds of extreme weather events shift, it is difficult to blame that on any one country. And when one country reduces emissions, it is hard to discern the climatic effect amid all the other pollution from all the other countries.
And yet, the legislation will likely have at least some cooling effect on its own, and could have a far bigger one if it serves as an economic or political catalyst that gets other countries to also up their climate ambitions.
Until now, with its pledge of reducing emissions by at least 50 percent by 2030, the Biden administration has promised more climate progress than existing policies are actually capable of achieving. The result is an “implementation gap,” as Joeri Rogelj, an expert on emissions policies and trajectories at Imperial College London, puts it.
But the new legislation helps to change that. While experts generally say it would not go all the way toward reaching the Biden goal for 2030, it brings the country a lot closer than before.
But even if the United States does make its goal, the world will remain off course.
“Closing this gap is of course good, but it doesn’t address the ‘ambition gap,’ ” said Rogelj. “The latter is the gap between [countries’ promises] and the emissions reductions that should be achieved to put the world” on a path toward limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial times.
It’s possible, however, that the new U.S. actions could inspire other countries to act too. Many have been skeptical about lowering their emissions when the country that has emitted more greenhouse gases than any other, over the course of history, seemed not to be keeping its word.
The new legislation “gives the U.S. a bit more credibility with the rest of the world that we are serious about cutting our emissions,” said John Sterman, a climate policy expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “We cannot expect to influence China, India, and other large emitters to take serious action on climate change if we are not willing to do so ourselves.”
For Stokes, there’s another global benefit. If clean energy technologies become cheaper due to investments made in the United States, that means they become cheaper everywhere. Which means that emissions reductions from the legislation could impact the progress of many other countries as well.
“It reduces the technology cost, which spills over across borders,” Stokes said. | 2022-08-01T11:46:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The climate bill won’t stop global warming. But it will clean the air. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/08/01/climate-bill-wont-stop-global-warming-it-will-clean-air/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/08/01/climate-bill-wont-stop-global-warming-it-will-clean-air/ |
How musician Aeryn Goldstein would spend a perfect day in D.C.
By Rudi Greenberg
Aeryn Goldstein practically grew up in the D.C.-area DIY music scene, playing in garage bands as she came of age. Now she’s educating the next generation of musicians as an elementary school music teacher for Prince George’s County Public Schools. “I love nostalgia,” Goldstein says. “Most of my songs are about stories from when I was in high school. That’s why I teach. I’m like a big kid.”
Goldstein, who grew up in Berwyn Heights, fronts the energetic, horn-laden rock band Professor Goldstein, which just released an EP, “The Fork Universe of Funky Love,” on the local, volunteer-run nonprofit label This Could Go Boom! “This record is actually all about my experiences in the DIY scene of the DMV,” says Goldstein, who cites Weezer, Ben Gibbard and D.C. hardcore legend J. Robbins as influences.
The 26-year-old’s Hyattsville home doubles as a DIY venue, which she runs with bandmate Venkatesh Ananth Batni. The Classroom, as it’s aptly named, is equipped to record and stream shows on YouTube: Buzzy local post-rock band Spring Silver has recorded there, and Goldstein and Batni recently live-streamed a set of Linkin Park covers (which she shared with her students). Goldstein studied music education at Towson University and just wrapped her first full year teaching elementary school. “I can play every instrument up to like a sixth-grade level,” she says.
Her dream day reflects her musical inclinations, her love for Prince George’s County and her self-described “big kid” energy. “It’s a mash-up, really, of just all of the best times I’ve had,” Goldstein says.
We’re going to get on the bike and head to Greenbelt. We enter through Crescent Road, go through Buddy Attick Lake Park, and then we head on down to the Roosevelt Center and get some breakfast at the New Deal Cafe. It’s where I played my first show ever, when I was 12 or 13. I’d been playing drums for two weeks, and we played some Van Halen and Led Zeppelin covers, as you do when you’re that age. I’m getting a bagel with coffee. Nothing fancy, just black coffee and some Tofutti cream cheese on an everything bagel supplied by the co-op right across the street.
I hang out outside in the Roosevelt Center. I pretty much grew up there. What my siblings and I used to say is we live in Greenbelt but we sleep in Berwyn Heights because we all went to school in Greenbelt and we all worked in Greenbelt. I take out some manuscript paper, I start writing some stuff out. I have my guitar on my back, so I pluck out some chords and write something that will maybe form a tune.
Let’s get back on Route 1 and bike up to College Park. We swing by CDepot. That’s where I bought my first CDs. I’m a sucker for nostalgia, but I gave away all my CDs from my childhood. I actually have a spreadsheet of all the albums that I’ve gone through and done some active listening to. I’ll pull that up and see if they’ve got any of those. I’ll look for some of the first albums I ever bought, like “Minutes to Midnight” by Linkin Park, “American Saturday Night” by Brad Paisley, “American Idiot” by Green Day. Any of those first, formative albums.
We’ll keep biking north to Beltsville. We are going to go to Atomic Music. The people there are the best, love them, super helpful. When trying out instruments, they know what you’re looking for. I’m going to trade in my old guitar for something that sounds way less janky. Probably a Taylor, something with a nice warm sound. I bought my first guitar and first drum set there.
Let’s work up an appetite. I want to bike through some of the Anacostia trail system. We’re going to head back down Route 1 to the University of Maryland campus, then enter the Anacostia trail system through Lake Artemesia, all the way down to Hyattsville. Biking along the Anacostia is beautiful itself. I just love that river.
We’re getting lunch at Shagga Coffee & Restaurant. It’s an awesome Ethiopian place. Got to get a big veggie platter with some lentils, some beets and some collard greens. I’ve been going there forever.
Let’s go into the city through the West Hyattsville Metro station. We’re going to the Museum of Natural History. I love the dinosaur exhibit so much. I went there a week after they reopened. I made sure to go through it in geologic time order, and as soon as I saw that diplodocus skeleton, I just flashed back to 1999 when I first walked into that museum. I had to take a seat, and I just started crying. It’s so emotional! There’s a lot more focus on the weird animals that evolved during the Triassic period now. I loved that they brought light to those because those are some of my favorite prehistoric megafauna.
Let’s hit a bar: the Dew Drop Inn. I love that spot and have played a lot of shows there. I’ll see if they have any music. If not, there’s probably karaoke. I’ve been playing up the “I only listen to nu metal” thing, so I’ll either do “Dragula” by Rob Zombie or “Rollin’” by Limp Bizkit. Nu metal goes so hard. Rock people just don’t know how to have fun anymore. I love me some DC Brau Pilsner, so I’ll have one of those.
We’ll head back to Hyattsville and go to Franklins. I went to synagogue with the owner growing up. I go there a lot. I’ll get some mushroom tacos. Probably get a housemade lager there, too. We have to stop in their general store. You’ve got the usual general store stuff, like candy, sodas, all that stuff, but then you’ve got gag gifts, like weird socks, which is my favorite. There’s dirty fridge magnets. Everything is packed so close together that you can’t possibly get through all of it — I’ve tried.
Let’s take the homies to DC9. We’re going to see Spring Silver. Love them. We’re also going to see the Neckbeards. They’re an emo band from southern Maryland, but they come up and play here a lot. They might be my favorite band in the state of Maryland. Also Sheila: a pop-rock band from NoVa. I just love seeing bands there. I love that it’s open, there’s space to dance and I’m a sucker for a good ol’ rooftop bar. | 2022-08-01T11:46:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How musician Aeryn Goldstein would spend a perfect day in D.C. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/01/aeyrn-goldstein-dream-day/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/01/aeyrn-goldstein-dream-day/ |
Cardiomyopathy is scary. But today, the heart disease is less deadly.
Modern medical treatments are allowing more patients to enjoy longer and better lives with the ailment
Perspective by Haider J. Warraich
Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) in 2018. He suffered a stroke in May during his campaign for the U.S. Senate. Fetterman's campaign said he is being treated for cardiomyopathy. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)
Cardiomyopathy affects millions of Americans and is the leading cause of hospital admissions for those over 65 in the United States. When Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) suffered a stroke during his campaign for the U.S. Senate in May, his campaign revealed that he had been diagnosed with cardiomyopathy.
I thought I knew a lot about how to prevent heart disease. I was surprised by what I didn’t know.
Loneliness can increase risk of heart disease by 27 percent for older women
The evidence suggests that taking four core categories of medications can add between three and eight years of life, in addition to the years added by lifestyle changes. These drug categories include: beta blockers (drugs that end in “-olol,” like metoprolol), ACE inhibitors (these end in “-pril,” like lisinopril) or ARBs (that end in “-artan,” like losartan) or the brand drug Entresto, MRAs such as spironolactone and, lastly, the SGLT2 inhibitors (that end in “-flozin,” such as empagliflozin and dapagliflozin). Clinicians should explain both the many benefits and the few risks of the drugs while imparting a sense of agency and ownership to patients.
“You are the quarterback, and we are your offensive line protecting you from being hit,” I often tell people.
Sometimes, even the best efforts don’t work — or work for only so long — and patients enter a more advanced stage of heart failure characterized by recurrent admissions to the hospital, an inability to tolerate medications due to low blood pressure and in some cases a progressive failure of organs such as the kidneys and lungs. Patients experience progressive difficulty in breathing, initially only when they are exercising and eventually even at rest.
Sleep joins the list of eight key factors for heart health
When this happens, doctors may recommend surgical treatments, such as a heart transplant or implantation of mechanical pumps that are sutured into the patient’s heart to help pump blood throughout the body. Survival after heart transplantation is on average 13 years, with many patients living beyond two decades. The mechanical pumps, called left ventricular assist devices or LVADs, have also come a long way and can add years more of life.
Both heart transplant and LVADs carry significant risks: rejection of the donor heart, infections and cancers can affect heart transplant recipients; and bleeding, infections and strokes affect LVAD recipients. Because the risks often exceed the benefits, many patients are not good candidates for these therapies. At that stage, patients may turn to palliative care that focuses on maximizing quality of life and comfort-focused care rather than just length of life, although patients with heart failure may benefit from palliative care at any stage of their illness.
Haider J. Warraich is a cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, VA Boston Healthcare System and Harvard Medical School. He is the author of “State of the Heart: Exploring the History, Science and Future of Cardiac Disease” and the just-published book “The Song of Our Scars: The Untold Story of Pain.” | 2022-08-01T11:46:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Cardiomyopathy is scary. But today, the heart disease is less deadly. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/08/01/living-with-heart-failure/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/08/01/living-with-heart-failure/ |
Putin’s hubris in Ukraine recalls Russia’s disastrous war with Japan
Analysis by Gordon F. Sander
A 1904 print shows sailors from the Japanese torpedo boat, Sazanami, boarding a Russian torpedo boat during a sea battle off Port Arthur, Manchuria, during the Russo-Japanese war. (Ryōzō Tanaka/Library of Congress)
Vladimir Putin has taken to comparing himself to some of his czarist predecessors, invoking their military triumphs. In June, he praised Peter the Great for “taking back and reinforcing” territory in the Baltics in the Great Northern War in the 18th century.
But as Putin’s effort to conquer parts of Ukraine slogs into its sixth month, some historians feel he more closely resembles Nicholas II, whose 1904-1905 war against Japan was an unmitigated disaster.
Putin likens himself to Peter the Great, links imperial expansion to Ukraine war
The parallels between the two conflicts are undeniable. Just as Nicholas underestimated his Japanese adversary, so did Putin, who was convinced that his invasion of Ukraine would be a walkover.
Just as Nicholas suffered embarrassing naval defeats, so has Putin, including, most dramatically, the destruction and sinking of the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet.
And just as Russia’s atrocity-ridden performance in the Russo-Japanese War cast a pall over Nicholas’s rule and hurt the Kremlin’s international standing, the Ukraine war has badly damaged Russia’s and Putin’s reputations.
To be sure, there are significant differences between the two wars. Most notable is that it was the Japanese who initiated the Russo-Japanese War. And there was a racist component to Nicholas’s hubris: a belief that a European power had nothing to fear from an Asian country, which surely wouldn’t have the gall to attack its forces. That assumption was blown to smithereens on the night of Feb. 4, 1904, when a squadron of Japanese destroyers launched a surprise attack on the Russian fleet lying at anchor at Port Arthur on the coast of Manchuria.
The war was occasioned by both countries’ territorial aims in Manchuria, an area bordering both Russia and China. In negotiations before the conflict, which preceded World War I and has been called “World War Zero,” the Japanese had offered to recognize Manchuria as being within Russia’s sphere of influence in exchange for Russia’s recognition of the Korean Empire as being within Japan’s military-political orbit. (Korea, a monarchal state created just a few years earlier, presumably would be too weak to resist the two greater powers. It was: Japan would annex it in 1910.)
Nicholas balked and demanded the establishment of a neutral buffer zone between Russia and Korea. Encouraging Nicholas in his obstinacy was his ally Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, who persuaded his czarist confidant that he was “savior of the White race” and had little to fear from the Japanese.
That delusion was neatly punctured by the Japanese attack on Port Arthur. The physical damage caused by the Japanese attack was minor, but the damage to Russian pride was incalculable. The fact that Japan had seized the initiative while the Russian Navy idled in port was a shock to the Russian people — just as Japan’s surprise attack on the United States at Pearl Harbor four decades later would traumatize the American people.
The Japanese went on to besiege Port Arthur, capturing a key hilltop bastion from where they then used long-range artillery to pick off the ships of the blockaded imperial fleet, the same way that Ukrainians methodically knocked off hapless Russian tanks during the initial botched assault on Kyiv.
Ultimately, all six of Nicholas’s capital ships were sunk. Meanwhile, the morale of the besieged Russian soldiers ashore, who found themselves in freezing Port Arthur, thousands of miles from Russia’s major urban centers, with no ostensible reason to fight, plummeted, while their supply lines were cut.
It was not until the war moved ashore at the Battle of the Yalu River, where the Japanese defeated the Russian Eastern Detachment, that the Russians — and the world — began to take the Japanese military seriously. Despite the shock defeat, the czar’s army performed credibly, inflicting heavy casualties on the Japanese. However, whatever glory it gained was vitiated by reports of the raping and killing of the Chinese populace of Manchuria in its path — further shades of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the Russian fleet, undone by a combination of ineptitude, bad luck and superior Japanese seamanship, sailed from debacle to debacle. First, the Japanese fleet got the better of the Russian one at the Battle of the Yellow Sea in August 1904, naval history’s longest-range gunnery duel to date.
Still confident of victory, Nicholas sent his huge Baltic Fleet on an around-the-world voyage. The putative rescue mission was a fiasco. So incompetent were Nicholas’s captains that while off the coast of England, they somehow mistook a group of British fishing boats for Japanese raiders and opened fire, making the czar’s navy an international laughingstock.
Putin’s crackdown on dissent recalls brutal Soviet-era repression
Seven long months later, in May 1905, the Russian squadron finally arrived in the Far East, exhausted by its journey — and was destroyed in a matter of hours. The Russians lost all eight of their battleships and 5,000 sailors’ lives.
Shortly afterward, a combined Japanese army and navy operation occupied Sakhalin Island, forcing Nicholas to sue for peace. Both adversaries accepted U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt’s offer to mediate. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his ministrations at the peace talks at Portsmouth, N.H.
Russia recognized Japan’s sphere of influence in Korea and agreed to evacuate Manchuria. Nicholas succeeded in rebuffing demands that he pay war indemnities. But he couldn’t undo the blow to Russian prestige — or the anger of the Russian people, which eventually helped lead to the Russian Revolution and Nicholas’s ouster and death.
The parallels between the Russo-Japanese War and the Ukraine war are not exact. But it is clear that Putin grossly underestimated the Ukrainians while discounting the other strategic consequences of the invasion, including the decisions by Finland and Sweden to join NATO. Meanwhile, the country he leads has become an international pariah.
Other consequences of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, including its outcome and the impact on Putin’s own rule, remain to be seen.
“Granted, in the specifics — the belligerents, the nature of the fighting, the geography, the competing imperial ambitions, the racist element to much of the fighting — the Russo-Japanese War and the Ukraine war are quite different from each other,” said Michael O’Hanlon, a Brookings Institution military expert and author of the forthcoming book “Military History for the Modern Strategist.”
“But,” he continued, “in revealing a Russian propensity to overconfidence and carelessness in some of its major military campaigns, the parallels between the two conflicts are haunting indeed.”
Gordon F. Sander is a journalist and historian based in Riga, Latvia, and the author of “The Hundred Day Winter War,” about the 1939-1940 Russo-Finnish Winter War. | 2022-08-01T11:47:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Putin in Ukraine resembles Nicholas II in failed Russo-Japanese War - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/08/01/putin-ukraine-nicholas-russo-japanese/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/08/01/putin-ukraine-nicholas-russo-japanese/ |
Trump vs. DeVos in Michigan, and a key week for the Senate
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In today’s edition … The Senate hopes to pass the climate, health care and tax deal struck by Schumer and Manchin as well as other key bills ahead of the August recess … Why Privileged nominees are supposed to be confirmed quickly but aren't … but first …
It's Trump vs. DeVos and Kinzinger in Michigan
Three of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump last year — Reps. Peter Meijer (Mich.), Jaime Herrera Beutler (Wash.) and Dan Newhouse (Wash.) — are running against Trump-endorsed challengers.
Blake Masters, Trump’s pick in the Arizona Senate race, will take on the other Republicans vying to challenge Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.). And Trump-backed candidates for governor, state attorney general and state secretary of state — a crucial role in swing states due to the responsibility of these officeholders for running elections — are competing in Republicans primaries in several states.
Trump sought to overturn the 2020 election results in Michigan despite losing the state to Joe Biden by more than 150,000 votes, and many of Trump’s chosen candidates have embraced his falsehoods about the election and his efforts to audit the results despite no evidence of widespread fraud.
Jacky Eubanks, a Trump-backed candidate who’s running for an open state House seat northeast of Detroit, has promised to “Initiate a full forensic audit for the 2020 election” and “Pass election integrity legislation” if she wins.
And Mike Detmer, who’s challenging Republican state Sen. Lana Theis with Trump’s endorsement, has criticized Theis for participating in a state Senate investigation that found there was no widespread fraud in the 2020 election.
“There are still those that I argue with on this,” Detmer said in an interview on Friday. “And they say, ‘Well, we just need to move on.’ There’s a lot of people in this district that aren’t willing to move on. They want the truth, and they want justice.”
The DeVos connection
On the other side of Trump is Betsy DeVos, his former education secretary, and other members of her wealthy family, which has exerted enormous influence on Republican politics in Michigan for decades.
The DeVoses have contributed more than $750,000 this year to two groups backing Republican legislative candidates running against Trump-endorsed candidates, according to Michigan campaign finance filings, sparking outrage among Trump’s candidates.
“There is a war going on for the soul of the GOP in Michigan with Trump-endorsed candidates on one side and the establishment DeVos family on the other,” Detmer, Eubanks and six other state legislative candidates whom Trump has endorsed wrote in a letter to Trump on Thursday.
John Gibbs, who’s running against Meijer in the Republican congressional primary, also signed the letter, which was previously reported by the Detroit News.
Detmer and other Trump loyalists became disenchanted with Betsy DeVos after she discussed trying to use the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office after Jan. 6, 2021. She resigned the next day, writing in her resignation letter to Trump that “there is no mistaking the impact your rhetoric had” in instigating the attack on the Capitol.
“That was a nonstarter,” Detmer said of using the 25th Amendment. “In my opinion President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong.”
Still, the conflict between Trump and the DeVoses is more complicated than Betsy DeVos’ break with Trump. The DeVoses have backed a couple of legislative candidates Trump supports, and Trump on Friday endorsed the DeVoses' candidate for governor, Tudor Dixon.
“The DeVos process of vetting candidates and getting behind them is a commitment to the things that they care about,” said Jason Roe, a former executive director of the Michigan Republican Party who resigned last year after blaming Trump for losing the state. “And the Trump endorsement basically is if you 100 percent walk in lockstep with everything he says. It’s naturally not gonna fall the same way.”
Enter Kinzinger
The DeVoses aren’t the only ones working to undermine Trump’s candidates in Michigan.
Kinzinger, one of only two Republicans on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attacks, is leading an effort to encourage Democrats and independents to vote in the Republican primary on Tuesday to help defeat candidates who insist the 2020 election was stolen.
Kinzinger’s PAC, Country First Michigan, has spent more than $120,000 in nine Michigan state legislative primaries, including Detmer’s — money that goes much further in a state legislative race than it would in an expensive congressional primary.
“Stop Pro Insurrection Republicans from representing you in the State Senate,” one mailer from Kinzinger’s PAC reads. “Do not wait to stop them in the General Election. Vote in the Republican Primary and save our democracy.”
It's the opposite of the strategy that Democrats have employed in several races, including Meijer's, in which they’ve spent millions of dollars to help Republicans who’ve questioned the results of the 2020 election because they believe they’ll be easier to beat in November.
Kinzinger decried Democrats' tactics in an interview last week with a Michigan TV station.
“I have a hard time with a straight face hearing my Democratic friends say, ‘Where have all the good Republicans gone?' or saying ‘We’re here to defend democracy,' and then pulling this kind of thing,” he said.
Can Senate Democrats pull it off?
July turned out to be a very good month for Democrats in Congress. They achieved rare legislative successes so close to an election on the microchips manufacturing bill, struck an agreement on a climate-change-and-health-care bill, and the House passed legislation protecting same-sex marriage and an assault weapons ban (although the latter won't go anywhere in the Senate).
August could be even better — but everything has to go right. This is the last week the Senate is scheduled to be in session until September, creating a major time crunch for Democrats.
Climate, health care and tax deal
Senate Democrats hope to bring their climate-change-and-health-care bill — which Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) unexpectedly agreed to support last week in a deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) — to the floor late in the week. But that's an ambitious schedule. (Our colleagues Tony Romm and Jeff Stein have a behind-the-scenes look at how the deal came to be.)
Why? The bill is being moved through the budget reconciliation process, which means it can be passed with a simple majority, but the parliamentarian can rule any part of the bill is out of order and should be stripped if it doesn't have a direct impact on government spending or taxation. Democrats and Republicans will spend the first half of the week, at least, making their arguments to the Senate's referee about what should or should not stay in the bill.
But the biggest potential challenge facing the bill could be Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), who has not yet indicated if she supports the measure while she reviews the text and waits for the process with the parliamentarian to wrap.
Sinema was a key negotiator with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on a provision that allows Medicare to negotiate some prescription drug prices, and climate change has been a big priority for her. But she was not directly involved in the negotiations between Manchin and Schumer, and it's unclear if she will object to some of the tax increases included in the bill.
Time and covid are the challenges confronting Democrats' vote on the same-sex marriage bill passed by the House. Sinema and Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) have been working to get Republican support but covid absences have prevented them from holding a vote that could win the support of 60 senators.
Democrats could run out of time to bring up the bill and might have to wait until September.
After Senate Republicans last week blocked legislation to help veterans exposed to toxic burn pits, mostly in Iraq and Afghanistan, Schumer said on Sunday that he hopes to bring it up again this week.
Republicans who opposed the bill are being pilloried by Democrats and veterans groups.
The measure passed the Senate earlier this summer 84-14 but the bill had to be voted on again due to a technical problem. During that time, Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) gained support for his argument that the way the bill accounted for its $400 billion price tag would free up money for Democrats to spend elsewhere in future years.
Pelosi's trip to Asia
It's still unclear if Speaker Nancy Pelosi will stop in Taiwan on her trip to Asia, where she announced that she will visit Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan. Pelosi has mentioned nothing about Taiwan recently as the Biden administration presses her not to visit the island amid rising tensions with China.
Only Democrats joined Pelosi on the trip. They are: Reps. Gregory W. Meeks (D-N.Y.), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee; Mark Takano (D-Calif.), chair of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs; Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) and Andy Kim (D-N.J.).
Key hearings
The Senate Rules Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday on the Electoral Count Act, the law that governs how electoral college votes are counted in presidential elections. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Manchin will testify about the legislation they released nearly two weeks ago that would make changes to the law.
On Thursday, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee for an oversight hearing of the FBI where he will likely be asked any number of issues, including the status of the Justice Department's investigation into the Jan. 6 attack as well as a tax case against President Biden's son, Hunter Biden. There has also been frustration among committee members about the FBI’s communication with Congress, which he will likely be asked about as well.
Privileged nominations aren't so privileged after all
First in the Early: In an effort to speed up the interminable process of confirming presidential nominees, Congress in 2011 created a new system of “privileged nominations” for the 280 or so least controversial posts subject to Senate confirmation. These are positions such as the Agriculture Department's chief financial officer or board members of the African Development Foundation.
The problem: It's not working. Privileged nominees “take longer to confirm now than they did before this system was instituted,” according to a new report out today from the nonpartisan Center for Presidential Transition. What's more, “privileged nominees continue to take longer to confirm than nominees subject to the regular Senate confirmation process.”
How could that be the case? “The privileged calendar currently allows nominees to bypass committees but does not provide a quicker process once nominees reach the Senate floor,” according to the report. “As a result, nominees can face long delays during the final step of the confirmation process. Because most privileged calendar positions are part-time, the Senate may have less incentive to confirm these appointees when full-time Senate-confirmed positions are also awaiting confirmation.”
There are no public events on Biden's schedule today after he tested positive for covid on Saturday in a “rebound” case following his recovery last week from the disease. Biden has canceled the trip to Michigan the White House announced last week to promote the microchip manufacturing bill bill that Congress passed last week, according to a White House official.
Biden covid case highlights confusing CDC guidance on ending isolation. By The Post’s Lena H. Sun and Joel Achenbach.
In Races for Governor, Democrats See a Silver Lining. By The Times' Jonathan Martin
Major legal fights loom over abortion pills, travel out of state. By The Post’s Ann E. Marimow, Laurie McGinley and Caroline Kitchener.
A policy win, an economic hit: Turbulent week reflects Biden’s challenge. By The Post’s Yasmeen Abutaleb.
The Murdochs and Trump aligned for mutual benefit. That may be changing. By The Post’s Sarah Ellison and Jeremy Barr.
Publisher takes blame for ‘error’ in Tim Scott memoir teasing presidential run. By the Washington Examiner’s Abigail Adcox.
Bill Russell, basketball great who worked for civil rights, dies at 88. By the Post's Louie Estrada
RIP 🖖🏾 | 2022-08-01T11:47:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Trump vs. DeVos in Michigan, and a key week for the Senate - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/01/trump-vs-devos-michigan-key-week-senate/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/01/trump-vs-devos-michigan-key-week-senate/ |
By Jerome Pugmire and Samuel Petrequin | AP
PARIS — The last time Lyon won the French league title in 2008, the club’s new American owner was celebrating a prize of his own.
John Textor’s visual effects company won an Academy Award for its groundbreaking work on the making of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," a huge box office hit starring Brad Pitt. | 2022-08-01T11:47:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Lyon aiming for past glory under new American owner Textor - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/soccer/lyon-aiming-for-past-glory-under-new-american-owner-textor/2022/08/01/335d0b6e-118c-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/soccer/lyon-aiming-for-past-glory-under-new-american-owner-textor/2022/08/01/335d0b6e-118c-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
Monday briefing: Biden’s ‘rebound’ coronavirus case; Kentucky flooding; Bill Russell’s legacy; Nichelle Nichols’s Uhura; and more
President Biden has a “rebound” case of the coronavirus.
What’s that? Something that can happen to people who take Paxlovid, a covid treatment. He tested positive again Saturday after testing negative last week.
What that means: Biden is back in isolation, following CDC guidance, but he doesn’t have symptoms.
What is the guidance on ending isolation? It’s complicated (more on that here), but experts say rapid tests are a good way to measure whether you’re contagious.
The death toll from severe flooding in Kentucky rose to 28.
The latest: The victims include several children, officials said yesterday, and more deaths are expected. Storms could hit the area again today and tomorrow.
What caused this? A pair of 1-in-1,000-year rainstorms last week that scientists say will become more common as the Earth gets warmer.
In other climate news: A wildfire near California’s northern border exploded this weekend into the state’s largest of the year.
Ukraine sent out its first grain shipment in months.
The details: A ship carrying tons of corn left the port of Odessa this morning. Russia had been blockading Ukraine’s ports but agreed last month to let exports resume.
Why it matters: Ukraine is one of the world’s biggest grain suppliers, and this could help ease a global food crisis caused by Russia’s invasion.
The nation’s organ transplant network may need a complete overhaul.
How we know this: A government review obtained by The Post. It found that the tech that matches organs with patients — controlled by one nonprofit — has failed repeatedly.
The problems: Old software, which relies too much on manual data entry; programming mistakes; and more, the report said.
Why it matters: Doctors have complained about this for years. About 106,000 people are on the organ wait list, and an average of 22 people die each day waiting for one.
Bill Russell, a basketball icon, died yesterday.
How we’ll remember him: The 88-year-old was an 11-time NBA champion with the Boston Celtics, a civil rights activist and the first Black head coach in a major U.S. sports league.
He was arguably the most successful player in the history of team sports, and Michael Jordan remembered him as a “pioneer” who paved the way for every Black player who followed him.
Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura in “Star Trek,” died Saturday.
Her role was groundbreaking for the 1960s: She showed a Black woman in a position of authority, and she and co-star William Shatner shared one of the first interracial kisses on prime-time TV.
What we know: Her son announced the 89-year-old’s death in New Mexico yesterday.
Someone won the $1.3 billion Mega Millions jackpot.
The details: The winning ticket was purchased from a gas station in Des Plaines, Ill. Friday’s jackpot was one of the biggest in the lottery’s history.
Who was the winner? We may never know; they can request to stay anonymous. Whoever they are, history shows winning big doesn’t always have a happy ending.
And now … if you want to spend less time staring at your phone: Here are some tips and tools to help. | 2022-08-01T11:48:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The 7 things you need to know for Monday, Aug. 1 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/the-seven/2022/08/01/what-to-know-for-august-1/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/the-seven/2022/08/01/what-to-know-for-august-1/ |
“You can’t really hesitate or wait for someone else to come,” said Natalie Lucas, 18. "You’re the lifeguard; you’re the lifesaver.”
Natalie Lucas, 18, a lifeguard at YMCA of Northern Colorado, who helped birth a baby during her shift on July 24. (YMCA of Northern Colorado)
Tessa Rider and her husband, Matthew Jones, were visiting their local Y — about five minutes from their home in Longmont, Colo. — for a swim on July 24. Tessa was nine months pregnant with her third child, and daily swims offered a much-needed reprieve from the stifling summer heat.
“For the later part of her pregnancy she was very uncomfortable, and the only relief she had was when she was in the water and floating,” said Jones, 29.
Rider was a few days past her due date, and she had experienced some mild contractions, “but not anything very clear cut,” she said.
That plan was quickly foiled when Rider took two steps out of the pool, and “I collapsed onto all fours,” she said, explaining that her water broke after she landed on the ground. Within seconds, she felt a sensation that the baby was coming out “and there was nothing that was going to stop him,” she said.
Lucas — who was the sole lifeguard on duty at the time — sprinted over and saw Jones rubbing his wife’s back while on the phone with a 911 dispatcher.
Lucas — who had been trained to help in emergencies, though not this specific type of emergency — sprang into action, doing whatever she could to assist the couple during the frenzied delivery.
“My adrenaline kicked in right then and there,” she explained, adding that she immediately grabbed towels and an emergency first-aid kit, and she used a walkie talkie to alert other staff of the situation. She also asked a man who was swimming laps to call an ambulance.
As Rider screamed and pushed — still on all fours and with one hand holding her swimsuit to the side — about 10 bystanders watched in disbelief.
What was ironic about the emergency situation, Lucas added, was that, as a lifeguard, “you’re trained for death rather than life, so it was a very eye-opening experience.” In this case, rather than preventing death, she was helping to welcome new life. | 2022-08-01T12:38:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Lifeguard Natalie Lucas, 18, helped deliver a baby on a YMCA pool deck - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/08/01/lifeguard-ymca-deliver-baby-pool/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/08/01/lifeguard-ymca-deliver-baby-pool/ |
Marquea Braxton flips steaks on the grill at Woodholme Country Club in Pikesville, Md., where temperatures in the kitchen can exceed 100 degrees. (Amanda Andrade-Rhoades for The Washington Post)
Not counting his long hiatus during the pandemic, Arcie Walker has been cooking rib-eye and T-bone steaks at the Hoffbrau steakhouse in Austin for 40-some years. His flat top grill is set to 450 degrees, and owner Mary Gail Hamby Ray swears that the temperature in that corner of her tiny restaurant isn’t much lower given that the AC system, even on its good days, is no match against the Texas heat.
See where climate change made heat worse in America
But Walker is no hothouse flower. He has watched over the grill virtually without incident, even in those punishing years before Hamby Ray installed air conditioning in 2002. The cook can recall just one time, years ago, when he suffered something close to heat exhaustion. He had to sit in his car and blast the AC.
But Walker will turn 72 in September, and the heat affects him differently now. After an eight-hour shift, he feels depleted. “My body can’t handle it like it used to,” he says.
Which helps explain why Hamby Ray went with the nuclear option at the end of May. She decided to close the Hoffbrau for the summer. Between the rising temperatures outside, the difficulty of cooling the air inside the historic building and the age of her small staff, all of whom qualify for AARP cards, the owner couldn’t justify subjecting either employee or customer to the conditions inside the Hoffbrau.
“The last two weekends we were there in May, it was already getting so hot that I tried to keep a real close eye on him,” Hamby Ray says about her veteran cook. “I don’t want to look over there and find him passed out on the floor.”
Extreme heat, driven by climate change, has affected large parts of the United States this summer, leading to more droughts, wildfires, floods and triple-digit temperatures, all of which threaten the environment and the economy. But workers, particularly those who work outdoors or in high-heat environments inside, have seen their risks rise along with the mercury.
The seven hottest years on record, according to scientists, have occurred in the last seven years, and the number of annual heat waves has tripled since the 1960s. One recent study associated extreme heat with a higher overall death rate among adult Americans.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 344 workers died because of environmental heat exposure from 2011 to 2019, 57 of them between the ages of 55 to 64. During that same period, more than 30,000 workers became sick or were injured from heat exposure.
But the statistics don’t tell the full story, say safety experts. The numbers are based on employer surveys, and as Juley Fulcher, worker health and safety advocate for the nonprofit Public Citizen, writes in her recent report, “This data is notoriously unreliable because it relies on self-reporting, and less than half of employers even maintain the required records.” Plus, advocates say, some workers don’t report heat-related illnesses because of potential retaliation.
Whatever the actual number of fatalities related to environmental heat, they are preventable with proper monitoring and safety practices, say medical experts and advocates. Yet only a handful of states have heat stress standards for workers, including California, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, and Minnesota, though only two cover indoor workers. The federal government has never adopted heat standards, despite recommendations to do so stretching back to the 1970s. Last year, however, the Biden administration laid the groundwork to begin the process for writing rules for both indoor and outdoor workers.
As part of the rulemaking process, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has received hundreds of comments, whether from the general public or from those who would be affected by the new rules. These comments hint at both the need for standards — and the messiness of trying to create them in a country with a wide variety of climates, buildings and businesses that say they can handle the problem without government intervention.
Historically, heat stress standards have focused on outdoor workers, but as states and OSHA consider implementing new rules, or updating current ones, they’re including people who work indoors in high-heat spaces, such as the chefs, line cooks, dishwashers and others who toil in restaurant kitchens. This widening of the safety net, advocates say, recognizes not only the dangers inherent in indoor environments as temperatures rise, but also of a basic fact: Outdoor and indoor workforces may be composed largely of Latino/Hispanic or Black workers who often feel as if they can’t speak up about their conditions.
According to numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, for instance, Latino/Hispanic and Black workers combined make up more than 50 percent of both construction laborers and cooks.
Statistics for heat-related illnesses in the hospitality industry are hard to come by, largely because most restaurants don’t report these cases, says Teófilo Reyes, chief program officer for Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC) United, a restaurant worker advocacy group. Since 2005, however, ROC United has been conducting surveys of 500-plus restaurant workers in cities across the country, and each survey includes workers who say their kitchens are “unsafely hot.” The percentages vary widely depending on location: 18 percent in Maine in a 2010 survey; 40 percent in Los Angeles in 2011; and 45 percent in New York City in 2005.
ROC United has also submitted more than 100 comments to OSHA as part of the agency’s information gathering. In many instances, these workers cite the same problems mentioned in comments already submitted to OSHA from restaurant employees: Kitchens with faulty AC units. Work spaces where the temperatures soar above 100 degrees. Cooks who feel nauseous or dizzy. Owners and managers who couldn’t care less.
“I have seen kitchens get to 120 degrees with no respite.” wrote Ruth Rapp in her comment to the agency. “Have you ever gone to a restaurant with an open kitchen for dinner? Maybe you’ve even sat at the coveted Chef’s table, which is typically a front-row seat to the show. While you are sitting drinking your wine jovial and happy to be dining at such a great place, the cook can’t even urinate because he is so dehydrated from the heat and the conditions.”
In collecting comments, Reyes with ROC United was struck by a trend: Restaurant workers who started smoking as a way to create their own breaks or escape the heat of a hellish kitchen.
“One of the funniest things in the industry is you don’t get breaks, but if you smoke, you’re allowed to break to go outside and smoke,” Reyes says. “And I think that’s a reason why a lot of restaurant workers smoke.”
The line between indoors and outdoors can be a porous one for restaurant workers, and not just at barbecue joints where pit crews may drape towels soaked in ice water around their necks to keep cool as they work next to 1,000-gallon outdoor smokers. Consider executive chef Richard Beckel’s 14-member team at the Woodholme Country Club in Pikesville, Md., near Baltimore.
Over the Memorial Day weekend, Beckel and his crew had to cook and serve a multi-hour buffet on the club’s pool deck, a four-inch slab of cement that retains a lot of heat. The cooks were under tents with chafing dishes, grills and other cooking equipment. At one point, someone grabbed an infrared thermometer, a device often used to measure the heat inside an oven, and pointed it toward the cement. It registered 140 degrees.
Beckel was prepared for this. He knew he couldn’t put fans under the tents. They would blow out the flames under his chafing dishes. Instead, he packed a large cooler with water and Gatorade and encouraged his team to hydrate regularly. More important, he also understood the rhythms of the country club, when to expect a surge or a lull at the buffet. The latter would give his cooks time to recover, perhaps walk to the kitchen on the other side of the campus. In summer, the Woodholme kitchen itself may not provide much comfort, given that temperatures there can surpass 100 degrees, too, but it does offer some benefits.
“We had people standing in the freezer” during breaks, Beckel says. The chef himself pounded down more than two gallons of water and Gatorade during that Memorial Day cookout. By the end of the shift, he was wiped out — and still dehydrated. “There comes a point when no matter how much water you drink, you’re not retaining it,” Beckel says. “You’re just sweating it out as fast as you can get it in you.”
If you talk to doctors who specialize in sports medicine, they’ll tell you that there are parallels between million-dollar athletes and minimum-wage workers in the kitchen: Both are pushing their bodies under extreme heat. The difference is that professional athletes have doctors and specialists watching over them, and student-athletes have countless rules in place to protect them from heat-related illnesses. These rules may limit the amount of practice time during hot days, mandate breaks or require that athletes acclimate to the heat before undertaking strenuous exercise.
“I have seen studies that demonstrate that errors for indoor workers start going up 1 percent at every degree above 77 degrees, and that once you get higher than 92 degrees, you start losing your productivity,” said Chad Asplund, a sports medicine physician and the executive director for the U.S. Council for Athletes’ Health.
Unlike athletes, kitchen workers have very few heat standards to protect them, aside from those few states that have adopted rules. OSHA is on the path toward creating standards, but it could take years and the process could be shelved by a new administration. The standards will likely face pushback from industry, too, which may balk at the costs associated with regulations, including hiring more staff to allow for breaks, building designated cool-down rooms or even buying equipment to measure the heat and humidity inside kitchens.
But Fulcher, the worker safety advocate for Public Citizen, says restaurant owners who focus only on the costs don’t see the big picture.
“This is not the money-loser that people think it is,” Fulcher says. “Right now, workplaces are losing money because of the heat stress that they’re putting their workers through. There’s a whole host of things that are happening there: illness and injury, absenteeism, turnover, worker’s comp and on and on and on. That’s costing them money.” | 2022-08-01T12:51:29Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Rising temperatures hit restaurant workers hard. New rules could help. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2022/08/01/heat-restaurant-workers-osha/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2022/08/01/heat-restaurant-workers-osha/ |
As children’s ADHD diagnoses rise, parents discover they have it too
By Natachi Onwuamaegbu
When her son Jake was diagnosed with ADHD at age 11, it didn’t occur to Cary Colleran that she may have the condition as well. It didn’t occur to her that the appointments she forgot, the permission slips left on the kitchen table, the misremembered dates of field trips might be anything other than a symptom of her personality — she’s disorganized. That’s all.
It still didn’t occur to her when Jake began taking medication to manage his ADHD, and she noticed he wasn’t getting stuck in the ways he used to. It didn’t click when Colleran remembered how stuck and incapable she felt when she was young. She was simply relieved her son was succeeding in ways she hadn’t.
Colleran, then 45, was on the phone with her son’s doctor. Jake wasn’t doing well in college — he stopped taking his medication, forgot to attend mandatory events and sat in the wrong class for six weeks. Colleran began to joke that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. The doctor didn’t miss a beat: “He was like ‘well, you know, sometimes when the parent has ADHD, the kid does too,' ” Colleran said. “That’s when the aha moment hit.”
With an increase in children being diagnosed with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in recent years, parents who grew up in a time when such a diagnosis was rare are starting to understand that perhaps they, too, have it. That years of struggles focusing on schoolwork, being told they weren’t living up to their potential, getting bored at jobs or losing track of things, might be more than just a personality trait.
They were feeling inadequate because despite their best efforts, they didn’t get the results that they wanted.
“When you start to talk about this and symptoms of ADHD with parents, you can see it in their faces sometimes: ‘You’re talking about me. I didn’t know what that was. I didn’t know what to call it,’ ” said William Stixrud, creator of The Stixrud Group, which specializes in the evaluation of learning, attention, social and emotional difficulties. “They think about ADHD like we did 50 years ago: that it’s being hyperactive impulsive all the time. And some people think it’s over-diagnosed.”
For many parents, their own ADHD diagnosis journey begins when they bring their child to the pediatrician because things aren’t adding up: My child is smart, but he can’t complete his work. She keeps getting in trouble for daydreaming instead of working. He speaks out in the middle of class and says he doesn’t know why. She studies for hours and hours and still fails.
“That’s how it typically happens,” said Stixrud. “ADHD is really very strongly genetic so it’s extremely common for parents to say ‘I was just like this as a kid’ or ‘I see him, I see myself in him.' ”
Not long after Jake’s pediatrician provided Colleran with clarity, she forgot to drop her middle son off at the airport on time for a school field trip. She laughed about it to her friends, cried about it alone, and finally booked an appointment to get tested.
“That’s when I realized, I can’t be this person anymore. I’m failing my kids,” Colleran said. “And so that’s when I started coming to terms with my own ADHD. That’s when I came to terms with the fact that [ADHD] is what’s actually holding me back.”
After a lifetime of feeling less than, thinking they were just a disorganized mess, or just incapable, parents recognized that they have a neurological difference, just like their child. And many parents realize if their child isn’t less than — which they obviously are not — then maybe, just maybe, they can lend themselves the same grace.
“I was really focused on getting the best information out there and the best parent training and trying to advocate for him,” said Jane Indergaard, whose son was diagnosed with ADHD at 8 years old. “I was trying to do a lot of research and a lot of the research points to the importance of the mental health of the parent. If moms get treated, whether it’s for depression or anxiety or ADHD, our kids do better. That’s when I went in and got tested.”
There are several ways a child can be tested for ADHD, including expensive, detailed testing with questionnaires and computer tests with analyses. There is a 55-question “Vanderbilt Assessment” that is often given by a doctor. Children can also talk to a certified counselor through their school district (although wait times for this are often long).
Indergaard herself was referred for testing by her child’s pediatrician and did a less intensive version of the in-depth ADHD screening at a testing center. She was diagnosed, and happy about it.
“Honestly? Hearing that diagnosis was such a relief,” said the 62-year-old nurse. “Because finally, it all made sense.”
The American Psychiatric Association first recognized ADHD as a mental disorder in the 1960s. Twenty years later, the diagnosis became “attention-deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity.” ADHD diagnoses in children ages 4 to 17 increased from 6.1 percent in 1997-1998 to 10.2 percent in 2015-2016. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a 42 percent jump in ADHD diagnoses between 2003 and 2011. ADHD is typically diagnosed in children and is twice as prevalent in boys than girls — although experts point to a lack of proper diagnoses rather than fewer girls actually having the disorder.
ADHD diagnoses are harder to come by as an adult, said Stixrud. Undiagnosed adults have spent their lives adapting. When parents are diagnosed, some choose to go to therapy, some take medication, and some do nothing. Indergaard took medication and started to see a therapist, Colleran never took medication due to her high blood pressure, though she’s “sure it would have helped when I was younger.”
“They just figure out how to live with it,” said Stixrud.
Jeremy Didier, a 51-year-old ADHD counselor, said her symptoms presented as spontaneity. It wasn’t until her third child, Isaac, seemed different, that things began making sense. “I was reading the symptoms and I was like, ‘Oh wow, okay, that’s me,' ” said Didier. “Talking to my husband, he was like, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s you.’ I went into our doctor and he was like, ‘Oh, yeah. That’s you.’ ”
“She’s always been very spontaneous,” said Bryan Didier, Jeremy’s husband and one of just two members of the Didier clan without ADHD. “Her having ADHD is probably something I always kind of knew. She’s been in sales and before that broadcast journalism. I think she found ways to survive and thrive and used her competitive advantage from ADHD.”
Getting an ADHD diagnosis meant Jeremy finally had an answer. “I look forward to the day when it’s standard practice that when the kid is diagnosed with ADHD, the whole family is just evaluated,” she said.
She now understood why she’d forget her children’s friends’ names, why she had to have an emergency pack of Lunchables to drive to the school, just in case she forgot about a field trip. ADHD may also be why she was in high pressure jobs that provided a lot of stimulation.
“I’m embarrassed and ashamed to admit that I didn’t believe that ADHD was real, until I had a child with ADHD and then it was so obvious,” Didier said. “I just couldn’t deny it. ... I was able to do my own research and say, ‘Oh my gosh, not only is this real, I might have it too.’ " | 2022-08-01T12:51:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | As children's ADHD diagnoses rise, parents discover they have it too - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/parenting/2022/08/01/adhd-parent-and-child/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/parenting/2022/08/01/adhd-parent-and-child/ |
A road map to homeownership for consumers with thin credit files
Perspective by Francis Creighton
Homeownership is an important life goal and milestone for many Americans, providing meaningful benefits beyond building wealth and financial security. But today in the United States, 26 million adults are effectively blocked from achieving homeownership because they are “credit invisible,” meaning they have no record of borrowing or repaying money through loans, credit cards or other forms of consumer credit. Without a credit history or credit score, these consumers are missing key tools mortgage lenders use to help people achieve homeownership.
There are good reasons some people are credit invisible. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau more than 10 million of these consumers are younger than 25 and are likely earning an income for the first time; they’re just beginning adult life, so it stands to reason that they don’t have the long financial history that comes with time.
On the other end of the spectrum, spending tends to decline after a consumer retires, and many older Americans who might have had a strong credit score in the past can see their credit file shrink. In most cases this isn’t a problem, as they are not seeking to purchase a new home or opening other kinds of credit accounts.
More Creighton: Credit and home buying — What each generation should think about
Another group with little or no credit history is immigrants who might have had credit accounts in their former country, but that previous credit history doesn’t transition over to the U.S. system.
Regardless of the reason, consumers with limited to no credit history will find it harder to get loans, and when they do they are likely to pay more in interest and fees.
While your credit history is certainly important, lenders are also looking at whether an applicant has enough income to repay, the consumer’s total amount of debt and if they have enough cash on hand for a down payment. So establishing a strong credit file isn’t a silver bullet — but it can really help. Here are five ways consumers can become credit visible:
First, become an authorized user on a friend or family member’s credit card. As an authorized user, you get your own card and share the primary account holder’s credit limit and payment history. The important thing is to make sure both you and the primary account holder make on-time payments and don’t max out balances. With responsible management, this positive payment record will appear on your credit reports and can improve your credit score. (And make sure everyone understands that this is a joint account, meaning all users are responsible for charges even if the other person made the charge).
A second option is to leverage your personal recurring payment data. Today, consumers can report their payments for rent, utility, cellphone and streaming service bills to the three nationwide credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) and see positive impacts to their credit scores. Services like Experian Boost help you do this automatically and across payment types; there are also rent reporting services available.
Third, apply for a secured credit card. Many banks offer this option, which allows consumers to pay a cash deposit as collateral that typically becomes their credit limit. From there, consumers can charge purchases to the card and make regular, on-time monthly payments and start to build a positive payment history that is reported to the nationwide credit bureaus.
Another option is to apply for a credit-builder loan. Many credit unions offer these types of loans, and they can be great for both building a consumer’s credit file or repairing damaged credit. Consumers borrow a small amount that the lender then places in an account they cannot access. After the consumer pays off the loan through a predetermined set of payments, that loan is then turned over to the consumer. Before applying for one of these loans, however, make sure your lender reports payments to the credit bureaus.
More Creighton: First-time home buyers can benefit from having their rent reported
Finally, immigrants who are faced with building a credit score from scratch upon arriving in the United States have a fifth option. Applying for a credit card through Nova Credit converts a consumer’s international credit history into a U.S. credit score. While this service doesn’t yet work for immigrants from every country, it can help establish a U.S. credit file.
It’s important to note that once you establish a credit file, it can take up to six months of payment history for a credit score to be calculated. So adjust your home-buying and mortgage loan application timeline accordingly.
Outside of these tangible steps, credit invisible consumers should also consider working with third-party credit counseling services like Credit Builders Alliance. These counselors can provide financial advice and help consumers build their credit step by step.
Consumers thinking about buying a home should regularly be checking their credit reports long before applying for a loan. Consumers can do so for free at annualcreditreport.com (as often as weekly through the end of 2022). Make sure to use the correct link – this is the official site for free reports that federal law requires the credit bureaus to make available.
Building a healthy credit file can take time. But there are tools available to get on track.
Francis Creighton is the president and CEO of the Consumer Data Industry Association, based in Washington, D.C. | 2022-08-01T13:17:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | A road map to homeownership for consumers with thin credit files - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/01/road-map-homeownership-consumers-with-thin-credit-files/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/01/road-map-homeownership-consumers-with-thin-credit-files/ |
CORTE MADERA, CALIFORNIA - JUNE 27: An electric car charges at a mall parking lot on June 27, 2022 in Corte Madera, California. The average price for a new electric car has surged 22 percent in the past year as automakers like Tesla, GM and Ford seek to recoup commodity and logistics costs. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) (Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America)
It is good to see legislative progress in addressing the effects of climate change, as reflected in the deal announced last week between Senator Joe Manchin and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. But in some ways the proposal falls short. In particular, subsidies for the purchase of electric vehicles may not be the best way to address global climate change.
The bill specifies a maximum tax credit of $7,500 for a new electric vehicle, extended from the status quo, and a new $4,000 credit for the purchase of a used one.
The first problem should be obvious from recent experience with the stimulus and resulting higher inflation rates: When you give consumers money, it sometimes leads to higher prices. The risk is that these subsidies will lead to more expensive electric vehicles, not more electric vehicles.
Currently, the electric vehicle market is bumping into some constraints on the supply side. If you order a Tesla right now, for instance, you may have to wait months. Ford and General Motors are producing electric vehicles, but it is hardly the major emphasis of their production. At the macro level, the world does not have sufficient battery capacity to succeed with a full-scale conversion to electric vehicles.
An alternative approach might focus on the supply side rather than the demand side. If policy could make electric vehicle batteries cheaper, more efficient and more available, the prices of electric vehicles would fall and consumers would buy more of them. Furthermore, the effects would be worldwide, rather than being limited to the US.
Of course it’s possible that increasing demand for electric vehicles would help drive down battery prices and expand supply. But the simpler and perhaps more likely outcome is that, in the short run, both prices and costs for electric vehicles will go up. US consumers will bid away scarce inputs from the rest of the world. There are long lead times for establishing new lithium sources, and a subsidy that will not endure forever (under the bill, it would expire in 2032) may not be enough to give the needed push. Supporting new technologies for sourcing lithium might be a better strategy.
Another motivation for the electric vehicle subsidy might be to boost demand, encourage production, and spur auto companies to find ways to reduce costs. That might happen, but note that a country with rapidly falling per-unit costs in a particular sector is a country with a small number of dominant suppliers, perhaps only one or two. (The company that produces the most will end up with the lowest costs and hold a strong market position.) If the electric vehicle market is somewhat monopolized, more of the benefit of the subsidies will go to the businesses than the customers.
I am not bothered by that outcome myself. But it is not how the policy is being advertised. And if businesses reap most of the benefit in the form of higher profits, electric vehicles might not become so popular.
The bill also has mercantilist elements, which are not ideal from a climate standpoint. The subsidies apply to North American vehicles only, and the battery components must be increasingly American over time, not allowing Chinese components. So to the extent the policy is effective, it will slant the market in the direction of American products.
That is hardly a surprising feature of US legislation. Still, US producers may not be best situated to solve the problem of affordable, scalable electric vehicles. Is it so smart to push the critical growth in electric vehicle production into a relatively high-wage market?
Some commentators have suggested that Korean automakers Hyundai and Kia will be the leaders in electric vehicle production. But they may see their biggest innovation and productivity gains outside of North America, possibly in Europe or India.
Keep in mind that climate change is a global problem; cutting back on US emissions will do only so much. This legislation could well lead to lower emissions in the US but make them marginally harder to achieve in the rest of the world, thereby reducing its effectiveness.
It is no mystery why American legislation would have provisions that subsidize American consumers and businesses. But political expediency is an explanation, not an excuse. Climate change is a global problem that demands global solutions.
• Manchin’s Turnaround Gives Clean Tech a Jolt: Liam Denning
• Why Are Electric Vehicles Getting Bigger and Heavier?: Chris Bryant | 2022-08-01T13:17:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Buy an Electric Car, Save the Planet? Not Quite - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/buy-an-electric-car-save-the-planet-not-quite/2022/08/01/49ac3b28-1192-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/buy-an-electric-car-save-the-planet-not-quite/2022/08/01/49ac3b28-1192-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
A malnourished baby receives treatment at Boulmiougou Hospital in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on April 15. (Sophie Garcia/AP)
For many, high temperatures are a daily reality. But sultry days aren’t just uncomfortable — they can be downright unhealthy. Research has linked high temperatures with lower birth weights and higher rates of infant death.
Now, a study draws connections between high temperatures and childhood malnutrition. As temperatures continue to rise, researchers warn, malnutrition in low-income countries will, too — potentially undoing decades of progress.
The study found that for every 100 hours of exposure to a temperature above 95 degrees, the stunting rate increased by 5.9 percent. Children who had experienced 14 days of temperatures between 86 and 95 degrees within the past 90 days had 2.2 percent more wasting, which occurs due to recent malnutrition.
I covered Somalia’s last famine a decade ago. It’s about to happen again.
In the past two decades, the researchers write, stunting is 12 percent more prevalent in children with the most exposure to average temperatures over 95 degrees in West Africa.
The more time the children spent in heat, the more it affected their nutrition. And in the future, the researchers say, things may get worse. If the average global temperature rises just 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) — a likely scenario if greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced — the stunting rate is projected to nearly double, erasing recent gains in the region.
“We’re talking about children at a very young age that will have changes for the rest of their lives, so this is permanently scarring their potential,” said Ariel Ortiz-Bobea, an associate professor and applied agricultural economist at Cornell University and a study co-author, in a news release. “What we are doing to reduce global poverty is being eroded by our lack of action on climate.” | 2022-08-01T13:17:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | High temperatures linked to child malnutrition in West Africa - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/08/01/heat-malnutrition-children-west-africa/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/08/01/heat-malnutrition-children-west-africa/ |
Why would Ukraine kill its own heroes? Don’t fall for Kremlin propaganda.
The aftermath of a strike on a detention center in eastern Ukraine that killed more than 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war on July 29. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)
The moral relativism of self-consciously neutral journalism — “Jack says the moon is made of green cheese, Jill disagrees” — is bad enough when it comes to political reporting. It’s far more noxious in the case of war crimes. Yet many publications are reporting the sickening massacre of 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war on Friday with headlines like this one from The Post: “Ukraine and Russia trade blame for attack killing Mariupol prisoners.”
This might make sense for the Iran-Iraq war, but there is no moral equivalency between Ukraine and Russia. The Ukrainians are innocent victims of unprovoked aggression. They are not known to deliberately target civilians, much less their own captured soldiers. The Russians are notorious war criminals and liars who routinely blame someone else for every outrage they (or their allies) commit — including shooting down a Malaysian passenger jet over Ukraine in 2014 and slaughtering civilians in Bucha, Ukraine, this year.
Max Boot: The U.S. is a lot stronger than Russia. We should act like it.
It is, of course, possible that an errant Ukrainian artillery strike might have hit the prisoner-of-war camp near Olenivka, in eastern Ukraine. But the Ukrainians deny that they fired any artillery in the area on Friday, and the Russians aren’t claiming a “friendly fire” accident. Russian media claims that the Ukrainians deliberately slaughtered their own soldiers to discourage others from surrendering and to prevent these soldiers, who belonged to the Azov Regiment, from testifying about supposed Ukrainian war crimes.
As usual, Russian propaganda makes no sense. The Azov Regiment surrendered in Mariupol only after receiving orders to do so from Kyiv, and the only war crimes its members witnessed were committed by the Russians against the people of Mariupol. They are heroes in Ukraine, and governments — even governments far less democratic and law-abiding than the one in Kyiv — do not ordinarily kill their own heroes.
The Russians, by contrast, have plenty of reason to murder these soldiers, whose desperate resistance in the Azovstal steel plant cost the Russians dearly and prevented them from shifting forces to the east. The Russian Embassy in London actually tweeted on Friday: “Azov militants deserve execution … because they’re not real soldiers. They deserve a humiliating death.”
The way that Russians treat POWs was evident in a widely circulated video that appears to show a pro-Russian fighter castrating and executing a bound Ukrainian prisoner. The Russians — who have been accused of rape and sexual violence, in addition to killing and deporting countless Ukrainians — seem to be plumbing new depths of depravity in their genocidal war to eradicate the Ukrainian nation.
Global Opinion: Why it's so hard to track sexual violence in the Ukraine war
The invaders’ barbarism can seem atavistic and animalistic, and no doubt it is, but there is a certain logic to their cruelty. Because the Russian army lacks the requisite skill for maneuver warfare, it seeks to prevail by slaughtering civilians, instead. Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has used such scorched-earth tactics before, in Chechnya and Syria, to eradicate all opposition. Only in Ukraine, the Russian barbarism isn’t working. Rather than leading the Ukrainians to capitulate, it is uniting them in armed defense of their nation.
It is not that Ukrainians are necessarily more courageous than Chechen or Syrian rebels. The difference is that, unlike earlier victims of Russian aggression, they have the means to resist the onslaught. Armed with artillery, multiple-launch rocket systems, drones, antitank missiles, antiaircraft missiles and other weapons supplied by the West, the Ukrainians have been fighting back so effectively that the Russian offensive is at a virtual standstill.
The Ukrainians’ most effective weapons system is the U.S.-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS). That, no doubt, is why the Russians are blaming a HIMARS strike for the deaths of Ukrainian POWs in Olenivka, even though military experts argue that photos of the damage do not reveal the telltale signs of a HIMARS strike. Moreover, the prisoner camp was close to the front lines, and the Ukrainians have reserved HIMARS strikes for targets deep behind Russian lines.
There are other discrepancies, too, including a statement from a Donetsk official that no Russian guards were injured in the attack on Olenivka. How convenient. Now the Russians are refusing to let the International Committee of the Red Cross inspect the site. A senior Pentagon official is right to advise “that we apply some caution … to what the Russians are telling us, just because we know that they have made several claims in the past that have not been close to correct.”
I would go further and suggest that, unless it is proven otherwise, we should assume that every word out of the mouths of Kremlin spokespeople is a lie — including “and” and “the.” That doesn’t mean that Ukraine is always pure or always right. But its track record inspires far greater confidence than Russia’s.
The Ukrainians are trying to obey the laws of war despite the considerable provocations they confront, while the Russians routinely and brazenly flout every norm of civilized behavior. The Russians don’t deserve the benefit of the doubt — and the Ukrainians do.
Seeking belonging, in Ukraine and beyond | 2022-08-01T13:18:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Why would Ukraine kill its own heroes? Don’t fall for Kremlin propaganda. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/01/ukraine-russia-prison-strike-not-close-call/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/01/ukraine-russia-prison-strike-not-close-call/ |
Basketball great Bill Russell dies at 88: Highlights from his career
Throughout his basketball career, Bill Russell compiled a legacy of championship achievement unparalleled in any sport. As the dominant defensive player of his generation, he won an Olympic gold medal for the U.S. basketball team in 1956, then over the next 13 years led the Boston Celtics to 11 NBA championships.
As the cornerstone of the franchise’s dynasty of the 1950s and 1960s, Mr. Russell won enduring renown as the most successful player in the history of team sports. When the Celtics named him head coach in 1966, he became the first Black man to hold that role in a major professional sport in the United States.
Mr. Russell, who died July 31 at 88, was indomitable on and off the court and one of the most fascinating public figures to straddle sports and civil rights. He was intensely driven and innovative as an athlete, notably when pitted in electrifying matchups against Wilt Chamberlain, the dominant scorer of the era. Their rivalry elevated the popularity of the National Basketball Association.
Feb. 21, 1951 | Boston
Bill Russell (6) Boston Celtics, goes up against defense Charlie Share (70), St. Louis Hawks, to score a basket in the first period of their National Basketball Association game at Boston Garden.
Feb. 23, 1956 | San Francisco
University of San Francisco basketball player Bill Russell poses for a photograph.
Dec. 19, 1956 | Boston
Bill Russell, right, signs the contract with the Boston Celtics at Boston Garden. Seated at left is Celtics co-owner and president Walter Brown, and standing behind him is co-owner Lou Pieri.
April 24, 1963 | Los Angeles
Bill Russell, right, hoists teammate Bob Cousy in a victory hug in the Boston dressing room after the Celtics won their fifth consecutive NBA championship, beating the Lakers 112-109.
Ed Widdis/AP
Feb. 1, 1963 | Boston
Boston Celtics player Bill Russell (6) flies past Syracuse Nationals defender John Kerr (10) during a basketball game at Boston Garden.
Jan. 14, 1964 | Boston
Boston Celtics player Bill Russell receives "Player of the Year" award from National Basketball Association Commissioner Walter Kennedy during half time of the All-Stars game at Boston Garden.
April 11, 1966 | Boston
Boston Celtics player Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia 76ers in playoff action.
Bill Russell grins at the announcement that he had been named coach of the Boston Celtics basketball team, April 18, 1966. Russell, 32, former University of San Francisco star becomes first black coach in National Basketball Association history.
Boston Celtics' Bill Russell, left, holds a corsage sent to the dressing room as he celebrates with Celtics coach Red Auerbach after defeating the Los Angeles Lakers, 95-93, to win their eighth-straight NBA Championship.
Jan. 1, 1968 | Boston
Bill Russell (6) of the Boston Celtics shoots against Wilt Chamberlain (13) of the Philadelphia 76ers during a game at the Boston Garden.
May 2, 1968 | Los Angeles
Player-coach Bill Russell talks to newsmen after leading the Boston Celtics to an NBA title.
Harold Filan/AP
Nov. 7, 1987 | Sacramento
Sacramento Kings' new coach Bill Russell had a reason to laugh as he talked to players Michael Jackson (2) and other teammates late in the fourth quarter at Sacramento's Arco arena in the season's opener, going on to win 134-106.
Walt Zeboski/AP
Feb. 13, 2000 | Oakland, Calif.
Basketball greats Michael Jordan, left, and Bill Russell greet each other prior to the announcement that Washington, D.C., home of the Wizards, will host the 2001 All-Star Game.
Andy Kuno/AFP/Getty Images
June 6, 2008 | Boston
Former NBA players Bill Russell, left, and Bob Lanier share a laugh during the ceremonial opening of a new reading and learning center at a community center.
Feb. 14, 2009 | Phoenix, Az.
Bill Russell reacts at a news conference as he learns the most valuable player award for the NBA basketball championships has been renamed the Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award.
Feb. 15, 2011 | Washington
President Barack Obama presents Basketball Hall of Fame member and human rights advocate Bill Russell the 2010 Medal of Freedom in the East Room of the White House.
May 18, 2011 | Boston
Bill Russell speaks during a DNC fundraiser attended by President Barack Obama at the Boston Center for the Arts.
Feb. 19, 2017 | New Orleans
Former NBA players Bill Russell, left, and Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. react as they are honored during the 2017 NBA All-Star Game at Smoothie King Center.
Bill Russell, basketball great who worked for civil rights, dies at 88
Photo editing and production by Troy Witcher; Text by Louie Estrada | 2022-08-01T13:18:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Photos: Basketball great Bill Russell dies at 88 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/photography/interactive/2022/photos-bill-russell-basketball-civil-rights-celtics-dies/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/photography/interactive/2022/photos-bill-russell-basketball-civil-rights-celtics-dies/ |
Deshaun Watson speaks to reporters at a June 14 news conference at the Browns' training facility in Berea, Ohio. (Ron Schwane/AP)
Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson has been suspended for six games for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy, under a ruling Monday by the disciplinary officer jointly appointed by the league and the NFL Players Association.
The length of the suspension was confirmed by a person familiar with the ruling by Sue L. Robinson, a former U.S. district judge.
The suspension is without pay and comes after more than two dozen women filed civil lawsuits accusing Watson of sexual misconduct. Watson has denied the allegations and has not been charged with a crime. He has reached settlements in 23 of the 24 then-active lawsuits that were filed against him. Anthony Buzbee, the attorney for the women, announced the latest three settlements Monday.
Robinson made the ruling after conducting a three-day hearing in late June in Delaware. The NFL argued to Robinson for an indefinite suspension of at least one full season, requiring Watson to apply for reinstatement, according to a person familiar with the case. The NFLPA is believed to have argued for no suspension. Robinson made her ruling after each side submitted a post-hearing brief.
Either the league or the NFLPA can appeal Robinson’s ruling to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell or to a person he designates. The appeal would have to be filed in writing within three days. The NFLPA and Watson said in a joint statement Sunday night that they would abide by Robinson’s ruling and urged the NFL to do the same, without an appeal to Goodell.
The initial disciplinary action comes as a result of a process that was revised in the collective bargaining agreement between the league and the NFLPA that was completed in 2020. The case would have ended, with no appeal possible, if Robinson had ruled Watson did not violate the personal conduct policy.
Before the new procedures were put in place, Goodell had been in charge of both making initial disciplinary rulings and resolving any appeals. The system was revised via collective bargaining, at the behest of the NFLPA, after a series of clashes between the league and the union in player-disciplinary cases, some of which spilled into courtrooms through litigation filed by the NFLPA and players.
The union scored some initial court victories in disciplinary cases involving quarterback Tom Brady, then with the New England Patriots, and Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott, delaying the onsets of their suspensions. But their suspensions ultimately were upheld, and Goodell’s authority in player discipline generally was affirmed through appeals-court decisions.
Watson was represented in these proceedings by his attorney, Rusty Hardin, and the players’ union. Jeffrey Kessler, an outside attorney for the NFLPA, participated in Watson’s defense. There has been speculation that Watson and the NFLPA could file a lawsuit if Watson faces a full-season suspension when the league’s appeals process is completed.
The league is believed to have focused on five cases in its presentation to Robinson, one of which reportedly was discarded during the hearing. The NFLPA argued the evidence presented to Robinson in those cases did not warrant the lengthy suspension the league sought. The union had planned to cite the NFL’s decisions not to suspend owners Daniel Snyder of the Washington Commanders, Robert Kraft of the Patriots and Jerry Jones of the Cowboys for incidents involving them and their teams, a person on Watson’s side of the case said before the hearing.
Deshaun Watson agrees to settle 20 of the 24 civil lawsuits against him
The personal conduct policy allows for a player to be disciplined without criminal charges. In March, two grand juries in Texas declined to charge Watson with a crime.
The women’s allegations against Watson in the civil lawsuits include making inappropriate comments, exposing himself and forcing his penis on women’s hands during massage therapy sessions. One of the 25 lawsuits was withdrawn.
“After lengthy and intense negotiations, I can confirm that, late [Sunday] night, our team resolved three of the four remaining civil cases with Deshaun Watson,” Buzbee said in an email Monday. “We will continue to discuss the remaining case with Watson’s legal team, as appropriate.”
In Monday’s email, delivered before Robinson’s ruling was announced, Buzbee wrote of the NFL’s disciplinary process: “Although some of my clients do have strong feelings in that regard, I have nothing meaningful to say about that process. I’ve said in the beginning that the civil process and the NFL’s disciplinary process are very different.”
Buzbee said when he announced the previous 20 settlements with Watson that the terms would remain confidential. The NFL said when those settlements were announced that they would have “no impact” on the league’s disciplinary process. Buzbee also has announced settlements by 30 women with the Houston Texans, Watson’s former team. One of the women had filed a lawsuit against the Texans accusing the team of enabling Watson’s alleged misconduct.
Lisa Friel, the NFL’s special counsel for investigations, oversaw the league’s investigation. She is the former chief of the sex crimes prosecution unit for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. The NFL interviewed at least 11 of the women accusing Watson, according to a person familiar with the investigation, along with other women. The league’s representatives interviewed Watson over several days in Houston earlier this year.
“When it comes down to the league and their decision, we have to respect that and let them do their process and finish their investigation and report,” Watson said during a mid-June news conference at an offseason practice for the Browns. “And like I said before, I’ve talked to the league. I’ve been honest and told them truthfully of every question that they asked. So I can’t really have [any] control on that.”
The Browns completed a trade with the Texans for Watson this offseason and signed him to a new contract worth a guaranteed $230 million over five seasons. That deal included a base salary of $1.035 million for the 2022 season.
Watson did not play last season, as the Texans placed him on their game-day inactive list on a weekly basis. He was not suspended and was paid his entire salary.
Watson reported to Browns training camp and has been participating in practices. The team also added veteran quarterback Jacoby Brissett in the offseason. Coach Kevin Stefanski has said that Brissett would take over as the Browns’ starter if Watson is unavailable.
“It’s important for me, for all of us, to make sure we control what we can control,” Stefanski said at a recent training camp practice.
Quarterback Baker Mayfield, the former top selection in the NFL draft who was the Browns’ starter for the past four seasons, was traded early last month to the Carolina Panthers. Mayfield had requested a trade and issued what amounted to a public farewell to Cleveland amid the Browns’ trade pursuit of Watson in March. | 2022-08-01T13:18:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Deshaun Watson suspended six games for violating NFL's personal conduct policy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/01/deshaun-watson-suspended-nfl/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/01/deshaun-watson-suspended-nfl/ |
The Three Percenters recruiter, the first Jan. 6 defendant convicted at trial, was found guilty of leading a charge while armed that led to first break-in at the U.S. Capitol and also of threatening his son
Tom Jackman
This artist sketch depicts Guy Wesley Reffitt, with his lawyer William Welch, right, in federal court in D.C. on Feb. 28, 2022. (Dana Verkourteren/AP)
The first U.S. Capitol riot defendant convicted at trial faces sentencing Monday with prosecutors asking a judge for a 15-year-prison term, by far the longest sentence sought to date in a case related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Congress.
The request for Guy Reffitt, a recruiter for the extremist Three Percenters movement who led a mob at the Capitol, is roughly one-third longer than the nine to 11 years recommended under advisory federal guidelines. Prosecutors say the stiff punishment is warranted, following up for the first time on threats to request an enhanced terrorism sentencing penalty for defendants who reject plea deals.
Reffitt was convicted March 8 of five felony offenses, including obstruction of Congress as it met to certify the 2020 election result, interfering with police and carrying a firearm to a riot, and threatening his teenage son, who turned him in to the FBI.
The defense for Reffitt, a 49-year-old former oil industry rig manager, asked for a below-guidelines sentence of two years in prison. Attorney F. Clinton Broden said in a filing that his client committed no violence and has no criminal history, yet prosecutors are seeking far more time for him than for defendants who have pleaded guilty to assaulting police.
Citing terrorism, U.S. seeks 15-year prison sentence in Jan. 6 case
“It makes a mockery of the criminal justice system, the Sixth Amendment right to trial, and the victims assaulted by [others] to argue that Mr. Reffitt should be given a sentence greater than (let alone three times greater than) a defendant who assaulted police officers on at least two separate occasions, spent three hours on the Capitol grounds and who has a past history of violence,” Broden wrote.
But Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jeffrey Nestler and Risa Berkower said Reffitt’s case is exceptional.
Reffitt “played a central role” at the head of a vigilante mob that challenged and overran police at a key choke point, a stairway leading up from the Lower West Terrace, before the initial breach of windows near the Capitol’s Senate Wing Doors at 2:13 p.m., prosecutors said. After the riot, Reffitt warned his son and 16-year-old daughter that “if you turn me in, you’re a traitor, and traitors get shot,” his son testified at the trial.
Conventional sentencing rules are of “inadequate scope” to account for the range of Reffitt’s obstruction, witness tampering and weapon offenses, prosecutors wrote in a 58-page sentencing memo.
They called his conduct “a quintessential example of an intent to both influence and retaliate against government conduct through intimidation or coercion” and said it reflected the statutory definition of terrorist violence that is subject to harsher punishment.
A jury found that Reffitt traveled to D.C. from his home in Wylie, Tex., with an AR-style rifle and semiautomatic .40-caliber handgun and repeatedly stated his intention to come armed with a handgun and plastic handcuffs to drag lawmakers out of the building. After returning home from Washington, he threatened his children to ensure they did not to turn him in to authorities.
The request by the U.S. attorney’s office in D.C., which is overseeing prosecutions of roughly 840 Capitol siege defendants federally charged so far, is not binding on U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich, who has gone below prosecutors’ recommendation in 22 of 24 Jan. 6 sentencings to date.
The longest sentence in a Jan. 6 case so far is 63 months, given to a Florida man who pleaded guilty to attacking police with a fire extinguisher and wooden plank and a D.C. man who assaulted three officers and shattered a riot shield with a pole.
By comparison, Friedrich has sentenced only three defendants who have pleaded guilty to felonies so far, the longest to 27 months in prison, also for attacking police.
Nevertheless, prosecutors may be hoping to send a clear signal to the roughly 330 defendants still awaiting trial on felony charges and who may still be considering whether to accept a plea deal or gamble before a jury. About 70 people have pleaded guilty, and nine, including Reffitt, have been convicted at trial.
Rage met by revulsion — first Jan. 6 trial shows family, nation torn by Trump
Reffitt left home at 15, moved in with his older sister and began working as a KFC dishwasher after enduring years of physical abuse from his father, Broden wrote. After becoming a father himself, Broden said, Reffitt was devoted to his children and to creating safe spaces for others. Reffitt, his attorney said, was a self-made man who took his family abroad while he worked in places including Malaysia in charge of operations worth tens of millions of dollars, but was financially and emotionally devastated after a downturn in the oil and gas industry. He lost his job in November 2019, only a few months before the pandemic swept the United States.
Reffitt’s daughters noticed that “his mental health was declining” over that period, Broden wrote. Reffitt fell “down the rabbit hole of political news and online banter,” wrote one of his daughters, and he fell under the sway of Donald Trump “constantly feeding polarizing racial thought.”
“I could really see how my father[’]s ego and personality fell to his knees when President Trump spoke, you could tell he listened to Trump’s words as if he was really truly speaking to him,” one of Reffitt’s daughters said.
Letters from nine friends and relatives provided to the court by Reffitt’s defense “describe a depressed man who believed he was unable to adequately provide for his family (his life’s mission), and a man who felt cast aside and marginalized,” Broden wrote.
Reffitt started a security business and joined the Three Percenters in Texas. The right-wing anti-government group is named after the myth that only 3 percent of colonists fought in the American Revolution against the British.
In a letter to the judge, Reffitt outlined a string of family traumas since 2020 including medical and mental health emergencies and pleaded for leniency for the sake of his family.
“My regrets for what has happened is insurmountable. There’s not a day go by that I don’t regret how much this has affected [my wife and children],” Reffitt wrote. “Yes, what is happening to my family is all my fault, I would like to fix it, please. … I simply ask for a chance to prove myself again.” | 2022-08-01T14:05:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Guy Reffitt sentencing: U.S. seeks 15-year sentence, citing terrorism - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/01/reffitt-sentence-jan6/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/01/reffitt-sentence-jan6/ |
The FDA says trace amounts of benzene were detected in certain batches of its SPF 30 spray-on sunscreen.
The Food and Drug Administration announced that an unexpected level of the carcinogen was detected in the propellant that sprays the sunscreen out of the can, even though it isn’t an ingredient in the sunscreen itself.
The company is offering a full reimbursement for anyone who purchased the recalled products. Additional information can be found here. | 2022-08-01T14:05:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Banana Boat sunscreen recalled over carcinogen - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/01/banana-boat-sunscreen-recall/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/01/banana-boat-sunscreen-recall/ |
Kosovo police patrol a road in Zupce, Kosovo, on Aug. 1, 2022. (Stringer/Reuters)
Kosovo and Serbia — two Balkan countries that fought a bloody war in the 1990s and have been living in uneasy coexistence ever since — are once again at odds, this time over moves by Kosovo to force ethnic Serbs living in its northern regions to obtain license plates issued by Kosovar authorities.
The seemingly mundane move is anything but, as the status of ethnic Serbs living near the border between Serbia and Kosovo is at the heart of a protracted conflict between the two governments. Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in February 2008, but Serbia still considers Kosovo its province.
“The overall security situation in the Northern municipalities of Kosovo is tense,” NATO’s peacekeeping force in Kosovo said Sunday in a statement. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said, “We have never been in a more difficult situation.”
So, what is going on?
What are the tensions in Kosovo about?
Kosovo-Serbia tensions flare; NATO peacekeepers track border protests
The government in Kosovo’s capital, Pristina, has been trying for years to assert full institutional control over the ethnic Serb-majority areas of northern Kosovo, but it has faced fierce resistance from residents who still consider their communities part of Serbia.
On Sunday, ethnic Serbs blockaded roads in northern Kosovo to protest the new rules, forcing Kosovar authorities to shut down two border crossings, Jarinje and Brnjak. Kosovar police said shots were fired in their direction during the protests, although no one was hurt, Reuters reported.
Belgrade argues that the new rules violate a 2011 agreement on freedom of movement between Kosovo and Serbia.
Kosovo’s allies, including the United States and European Union, called for calm and urged Pristina to delay implementation of the new rules. Late on Sunday, Kosovo agreed to a 30-day delay if all roadblocks were removed. Albin Kurti, Kosovo’s prime minister, accused the protesters of trying to “destabilize” Kosovo and charged that Serbia was orchestrating “aggressive acts” during the protests.
Josep Borrell, the E.U.’s top diplomat, welcomed Kosovo’s decision to postpone the new measures until Sept. 1 and said he expects “all roadblocks to be removed immediately.”
How is this related to the Serbia-Kosovo conflict?
The roots of the conflict between Serbia and Kosovo go back to the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 2000s, which itself followed a drawn-out period of ethnic conflicts between the Yugoslav republics in the 1990s. Serbia and Kosovo fought a brutal war between 1998 and 1999 that ended with the involvement of NATO in a U.S.-backed bombing campaign against Serbian territory.
Serbia is a majority Orthodox Christian nation, but Kosovo — previously a province of Yugoslavia — is dominated by ethnic Albanians, who are largely Muslim, in addition to a minority of ethnic Serbs. Tensions flared between the groups, particularly over moves in 1989 by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, a nationalist Serb, to abrogate the autonomy of Kosovo enshrined in the Yugoslav constitution.
In response, Kosovar militants formed the Kosovo Liberation Army and staged attacks against Serbia in the following years as they pushed for the creation of a new state encompassing the region’s ethnic Albanian minorities. Members of the Kosovo Liberation Army were also accused of committing war crimes against ethnic Serbs in Kosovo and those they viewed as collaborators.
Authorities in Belgrade violently cracked down on the Albanian population of Kosovo, viewing them as supportive of the KLA and its separatist attacks. More than 1 million Kosovar Albanians were driven from their homes.
Western countries and NATO became involved, bringing the parties together in France in February 1999 to negotiate a truce. While the Kosovar side agreed to a truce, Yugoslavia — which by then encompassed only Serbia and Montenegro — did not. Atrocities committed against Kosovar Albanians continued in what the U.S. State Department at the time called a “systematic campaign” by “Serbian forces and paramilitaries” to “ethnically cleanse Kosovo.”
In response, NATO launched a devastating 11-week bombing campaign against Yugoslavia that ended in June 1999, when the country signed an agreement with NATO to allow a peacekeeping force into Kosovo.
NATO has had a peacekeeping force in Kosovo — Kosovo Force, or KFOR — since June 1999. The creation of the force was approved by a U.N. Security Council resolution.
KFOR’s initial goal was to prevent conflict from restarting between ethnic Serbs and Albanians after NATO and Yugoslavia signed a peace agreement allowing for the return of ethnic Albanians displaced by the war.
Since then, the force has gradually been reduced, from roughly 50,000 troops to fewer than 4,000 today. In its own words, it works to maintain security and stability in the region, support humanitarian groups and civil society, train and support the Kosovo Security Force and “support the development of a stable, democratic, multi-ethnic and peaceful Kosovo.”
In its statement about the protests in Kosovo on Sunday, KFOR said it was “monitoring” the situation and was “prepared to intervene if stability is jeopardized.”
How is this related to the Russia-Ukraine war?
The Balkans have not escaped the reverberations of the war in Ukraine.
Kosovo has supported Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, which Kurti, the prime minister, called “an attack against us all.” Ukraine has not recognized Kosovo’s independence.
Russia — a long-standing ally of Serbia — does not recognize Kosovo as an independent state, either, and has echoed Serbia’s president in blaming the government in Pristina for the renewed tensions in northern Kosovo.
Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, accused Kosovo on Sunday of using the new licensing laws and ID documents to discriminate against the Serbian population.
“We call on Pristina and the United States and the European Union backing it to stop provocation and observe the Serbs’ rights in Kosovo,” she said, according to the Russian Russia’s official Tass news agency.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has cited Kosovo to justify his recognition of two separatist provinces in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. “Very many states of the West recognized [Kosovo] as an independent state,” Putin told U.N. chief António Guterres when the two met in April. “We did the same in respect of the republics of Donbas.”
Rachel Pannett and Ishaan Tharoor contributed to this report. | 2022-08-01T14:09:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Kosovo-Serbia tensions over license plates: What to know as NATO monitors dispute - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/01/kosovo-serbia-nato-tensions-explained/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/01/kosovo-serbia-nato-tensions-explained/ |
The latest video game controller isn’t plastic. It’s your face.
By Amanda Florian
While companies like Microsoft have sought to expand accessibility through adaptive controllers and accessories, Dunn’s new device takes those efforts even further, translating users’ head movements, facial expressions, real-time speech and other nontraditional input methods into mouse clicks, key strokes and thumbstick movements. The device has users raising eyebrows — quite literally.
“Enabled Play is a device that learns to work with you — not a device you have to learn to work with,” Dunn, who lives in Boston, said via Zoom.
Dunn, 26, created Enabled Play so that everyone — including his younger brother with a disability — can interface with technology in a natural and intuitive way. At the beginning of the pandemic, the only thing he and his New Hampshire-based brother could do together, while approximately 70 miles apart, was game.
“And that's when I started to see firsthand some of the challenges that he had and the limitations that games had for people with really any type of disability,” he added.
This geographer helps video game developers avoid angering countries
At 17, Dunn dropped out of Worcester Polytechnic Institute to become a full-time software engineer. He began researching and developing Enabled Play two and a half years ago, which initially proved challenging, as most speech-recognition programs lagged in response time.
“I built some prototypes with voice commands, and then I started talking to people who were deaf and had a range of disabilities, and I found that voice commands didn’t cut it,” Dunn said.
That’s when he started thinking outside the box.
Having already built Suave Keys, a voice-powered program for gamers with disabilities, Dunn created Snap Keys — an extension that turns a user’s Snapchat lens into a controller when playing games like Call of Duty, “Fall Guys,” and “Dark Souls.” In 2020, he won two awards for his work at Snap Inc.’s Snap Kit Developer Challenge, a competition among third-party app creators to innovate Snapchat’s developer tool kit.
With Enabled Play, Dunn takes accessibility to the next level. With a wider variety of inputs, users can connect the assistive device — equipped with a robust CPU and 8 GB of RAM — to a computer, game console or other device to play games in whatever way works best for them.
Dunn also spent time making sure Enabled Play was accessible to people who are deaf, as well as people who want to use nonverbal audio input, like “ooh” or “aah,” to perform an action. Enabled Play’s vowel sound detection model is based on “The Vocal Joystick,” which engineers and linguistics experts at the University of Washington developed in 2006.
“Essentially, it looks to predict the word you are going to say based on what is in the profile, rather than trying to assume it could be any word in the dictionary,” Dunn said. “This helps cut through machine learning bias by learning more about how the individual speaks and applies it to their desired commands.”
Dunn’s AI-enabled controller takes into account a person’s natural tendencies. If a gamer wants to set up a jump command every time they open their mouth, Enabled Play would identify that person’s individual resting mouth position and set that as the baseline.
In January, Enabled Play officially launched in six countries — its user base extending from the U.S. to the U.K., Ghana and Austria. For Dunn, one of his primary goals was to fill a gap in accessibility and pricing compared to other assistive gaming devices.
“There are things like the Xbox Adaptive Controller. There are things like the HORI Flex [for Nintendo Switch]. There are things like Tobii, which does eye-tracking and stuff like that. But it still seemed like it wasn’t enough,” he said.
Compared to some devices that are only compatible with one gaming system or computer at a time, Dunn’s AI-enabled controller — priced at $249.99 — supports a combination of inputs and outputs. Speech therapists say that compared to augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices, which are medically essential for some with disabilities, Dunn’s device offers simplicity.
“This is just the start,” said Julia Franklin, a speech language pathologist at Community School of Davidson in Davidson, N.C. Franklin introduced students to Enabled Play this summer and feels it’s a better alternative to other AAC devices on the market that are often “expensive, bulky and limited” in usability. Many sophisticated AAC systems can range from $6,000 to $11,500 for high-tech devices, with low-end eye-trackers running in the thousands. A person may also download AAC apps on their mobile devices, which range from $49.99 to $299.99 for the app alone.
“For many people who have physical and cognitive differences, they often exhaust themselves to learn a complex AAC system that has limits,” she said. “The Enabled Play device allows individuals to leverage their strengths and movements that are already present.”
Internet users have applauded Dunn for his work, noting that asking for accessibility should not equate to asking for an “easy mode” — a misconception often cited by critics of making games more accessible.
“This is how you make gaming accessible,” one Reddit user wrote about Enabled Play. “Not by dumbing it down, but by creating mechanical solutions that allow users to have the same experience and accomplish the same feats as [people without disabilities].” Another user who said they regularly worked with young patients with cerebral palsy speculated that Enabled Play “would quite literally change their lives.”
But the device isn’t limited to the gaming sphere. It’s also being used in schools to make computer labs more accessible. With the rise in remote work and online learning environments brought on by the pandemic, Jaipreet Virdi, a historian, author and professor at the University of Delaware, said the device may serve as a model for “inclusive participation” in schools.
“If disabled students can learn and keep up with the expected educational rate through these [assistive] technologies, then they can thus graduate with more opportunities than their disabled ancestors ever had,” Virdi said.
In some therapy programs in the U.S., specialists use Enabled Play to track facial expressions and gamify treatment sessions. Alissa McFall, a speech language pathologist and orofacial myologist in Sacramento, said it can be used to analyze how a patient’s muscles work so that health professionals can then use that feedback to develop customized treatment plans.
“The biggest value we’ve seen so far using the Enabled Play device is that it can be programmed to read natural communication movements and connect each sound or facial expression to a function that is meaningful to an individual,” McFall said.
Since its launch in January, Enabled Play has partnered with a number of organizations in the gaming and assistive tech sphere, including Special Effect, Makers Making Change and — more recently — Microsoft with its Designed for Xbox accessibility partners program. Next Dunn hopes to soon roll out “virtual devices,” which would allow other developers to add Enabled Play’s inputs to their apps. With these additions, a person could use facial expressions and voice commands in Microsoft Word and Adobe Photoshop without buying a separate device.
“It’s a very personal mission of mine to solve these problems,” he said. “That’s the difference that I’m after, which is to build devices that change the human-computer interaction paradigm to one that’s just more inclusive.”
Amanda Florian is a journalist based between the U.S. and Shanghai. She reports on tech, culture and China’s new media scene. | 2022-08-01T14:40:25Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Enabled Play accessibility device turns faces into game controllers - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/08/01/enabled-play-accessibility-device-video-games/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/08/01/enabled-play-accessibility-device-video-games/ |
The question of whether the US economy can achieve a soft landing is one that continues to preoccupy investors. For a look at how it might be possible, consider Amazon.com, which arguably has achieved just that.
Amazon’s e-commerce business unit essentially went through a recession during the first half of 2022 as consumers shifted from buying goods online to spending on activities such as traveling and dining out. But the retailer has managed to respond to the rapid change in consumer behavior by adjusting staffing levels at its warehouses and relying on other, less volatile parts of its business empire. While there is no guarantee that the broader US economy can pare back activity without triggering a more painful slump, Amazon’s rebalancing holds useful lessons.
In earnings released last Thursday, Amazon reported slowing sales growth and its second consecutive quarterly loss, which included a write-down of the company’s stake in electric vehicle maker Rivian. Most of the weakness in the company’s core operations occurred on the e-commerce side, which earlier this year wound up with more staffing and warehouse capacity than it needed. The company had made investment decisions in 2020 based on the initial surge in demand following the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. By the time that capacity came online in early 2022, consumers had begun pulling back on purchases of certain goods.
As a result, Amazon eventually began to focus on cutting costs and increasing productivity in warehouses. Because Amazon has such high labor turnover — more than 100% a year for warehouse workers — it didn’t take very long to reduce headcount. Amazon employed about 1.5 million people by the end of June, down about 180,000 from a peak in the first quarter. On its earnings call last week, the company said that right-sizing of the labor force had been mostly completed by the early part of May.
But Amazon, like the rest of the US economy, is more than moving packages between warehouses, trucks and homes. Revenue from Amazon Prime subscriptions, advertising and the Amazon Web Services cloud-computing business all grew by double digits on a year-over-year basis in each of the first two quarters of 2022. That has shored up revenue despite the downturn in e-commerce. Amazon’s stock price surged 10% on Friday in response to the latest results.
Currently, Amazon’s staffing levels are stable but likely to grow as the e-commerce machinery gears up for another busy holiday season. And the company says it is going to shift its investment spending more toward the lucrative cloud business and content for its Prime Video product. Spending on e-commerce is likely to grow more conservatively.
Amazon’s story is a microcosm for the hope people have for a soft landing of the US economy over the next few quarters.
Parts of the US economy are currently in recession. Housing construction has turned down over the past few months as homebuyers pulled back in response to higher mortgage rates. Retailers are focused on reducing their elevated inventory levels rather than restocking their shelves. The auto industry is partly paralyzed as it waits for enough semiconductors to put into vehicles to meet consumer demand. And segments of the technology industry are cutting spending to adjust to the less-exuberant investor environment.
Yet for now, the rest of the economy has been strong enough to keep employment growing. Airlines are still trying to staff up. Consumer demand for travel and leisure remains strong. State and local governments have budget surpluses and are still trying to claw back jobs that were lost during the pandemic. A massive infrastructure bill passed by Congress will lead to hiring and investing all over the country.
The question is whether the latter categories are strong enough to offset weakness in significant areas of the economy, but not so strong that they keep inflation high. Markets have grown more optimistic about this possibility over the past month, and why not? If Amazon can shed 10% of its headcount over a few months without skipping a beat — and without that loss rippling throughout the labor market as a whole — anything seems possible.
Consumer Giants Are More Like Walmart Than They Think: Andrea Felsted
Amazon’s Private-Label Business Is a Losing Proposition: Trung Phan | 2022-08-01T14:49:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Amazon Is Showing Us What a Soft Landing Looks Like - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/amazon-is-showing-us-what-a-soft-landing-looks-like/2022/08/01/0caf0834-11a3-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/amazon-is-showing-us-what-a-soft-landing-looks-like/2022/08/01/0caf0834-11a3-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
Tudor Dixon, a Republican candidate for governor of Michigan, participates in a debate in Grand Rapids on July 6. (Michael Buck/WOOD TV8/AP)
“Real America’s Voice” is one of a number of streaming services that aims to gobble up Fox News’s audience from the right. That there was untapped demand for media that sat closer to the fringe than Fox generally traveled was made clear in the years before 2016, with organizations such as Breitbart News building substantial audiences in that space. This was Donald Trump’s campaign strategy that year, in fact: run as the voice of that further-right space, a strategy that worked well for him.
The region is now fairly crowded. There are fringier outlets competing with Fox on cable itself, notably Newsmax and (for now) One America News. On the internet, even more bespoke “channels” have been created to carve out part of the market: MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s FrankSpeech, for example, or Real America’s Voice — a “network” focused heavily on being the home to Stephen K. Bannon’s conspiratorial daily radio show.
Real America’s Voice also once employed an anchor named Tudor Dixon. And just as Real America’s Voice and networks like Newsmax use the aesthetics and tactics of cable news to mask or muddy the extent of their political activism, Dixon over the weekend demonstrated how Trump’s effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election gets sanitized for broader public consumption.
This is useful for Dixon as she seeks election as governor of Michigan.
Shortly after receiving Trump’s endorsement in that race, she appeared for an interview with anchor Bret Baier on “Fox News Sunday.” Baier — increasingly the network’s most vocal critic of Trump’s post-2020 behavior — asked Dixon whether she thought the election had been stolen.
“Well, it’s certainly a concern to a lot of folks here in Michigan because of the way the election was handled by our secretary of state,” Dixon replied. “She did things that were considered unlawful by a judge. We have to make sure our elections are secure and what happened in 2020 doesn’t happen again.”
There are three things happening here that are worth exploring.
The first is the suggestion that “a lot of folks” are concerned about the election, which serves as a rationale for suggesting that there was something to be concerned about. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) helped pioneer this bit of self-fulfilling rhetoric when he announced his plans to object to the election results prior to Jan. 6, 2021. It’s endlessly useful: stoke fears and then cite fears as a reason to stoke them further. It’s detached from the reality, which is that Trump lost Michigan by a massive margin (as Baier would soon note).
The second is the assertion that the sitting (Democratic) secretary of state did things “considered unlawful.” The implication for the casual viewer is that the election results were suspect because of some sketchy activity by partisans. The reality is that the secretary of state issued guidance to elections administrators that aimed to reduce the number of absentee ballots rejected for signature mismatches, guidance that a judge determined she offered without going through the necessary procedure. (Signature matching is a notoriously fraught exercise.) The guidance will now not be applied in future elections. This, Dixon argues, is why people are concerned about the election, which is of course not true.
A bit later, she expanded on what Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson did.
“This secretary of state made those changes,” Dixon said, “sending out absentee ballot applications to everyone in the state, bringing in Zuckerbucks, reducing the signature match.” For the uninitiated, “Zuckerbucks” is a pejorative popular on the right targeting grants provided to cities and counties to facilitate election processes. That the grants came from an organization that received funding from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg — a long-standing target of opposition on the right — has helped paint the whole endeavor as nefarious. (Here’s a list of the recipients, which includes a huge number of Republican-voting places.) An effort to contest the election funding as illegal was rejected in court.
Then, third, Dixon loops this back into the theme: making sure “what happened in 2020” doesn’t happen again. But … what? Trying to get more people to vote and have their ballots counted?
“There were definitely things in the 2020 election that have left us concerned about how it was operated,” Dixon said, suggesting that questions about the election are fundamentally procedural and follow from questions about Benson’s decisions. But neither of those things are true, as both Baier (who asked whether the election was “stolen”) and Dixon know. The gubernatorial candidate was simply offering the cleaned-up version of Trump’s fraud claims that the GOP establishment has settled upon as a way to appeal to its voter base while not alienating Trump.
Later in the interview, Baier questioned Dixon’s endorsement from former Trump Cabinet member Betsy DeVos. In the wake of the Capitol riot, DeVos resigned, criticizing Trump’s role in stoking the day’s violence.
“Do you agree with Secretary DeVos about the president’s culpability or responsibility in some way for January 6th?” Baier asked.
“The secretary knows that she and I differ on that subject,” Dixon replied. “I want to make sure that political speech is always protected because that could open a can of worms for anybody on both sides of the party.”
There it is again: whitewashed rationalization. Trump’s allies have long argued that his speech on the morning of the riot was centered on a peaceful call to action that is protected free speech. This, of course, ignores both that Trump’s speech was full of incitements, including the call to march on the Capitol, and that the riot was a function not of one day’s speech but months of dishonest claims that the election was stolen.
Part of the difference between DeVos and Dixon depends on when each is responding to the riot. DeVos was responding in the moment, to the sharp, unblurred reality of the day’s events. Dixon is responding after 18 months of evolution, a year and a half of attempts to defend Trump that have been burnished in the right’s rhetorical rock-tumbler. A swing-state Republican now has a nice little toolbox of rebuttals to questions about Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, as Dixon capably demonstrated.
Predictably, given that background in making right-wing arguments seem like normal cable-news conversation.
The latest: Biden continues to test positive for the coronavirus
2:02 PMNoted: Kristof returns to New York Times after short-lived Oregon campaign | 2022-08-01T15:15:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Tudor Dixon's Fox interview shows how Trump's effort to overturn 2020 is sanitized - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/01/trump-2020-election-michigan-tudor-dixon/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/01/trump-2020-election-michigan-tudor-dixon/ |
Assateague beach partially closed after military munition debris found
Military munitions debris was found before in the area in 2013, said the National Park Service
The North Beach Swimming area at the Maryland unit of Assateague Island National Seashore was partially closed because of the discovery of multiple pieces of military munitions debris on the beach. The beach is open north and south of the lifeguarded area. (National Park Service)
The National Park Service said it has partially closed the north end of Assateague Island in Maryland after finding multiple military munitions debris on the beach.
The North Beach swimming area at Assateague Island National Seashore is closing until further notice, but the area north and south of that portion of beach, the parking lot and beach hut will remain open, while lifeguards will be located immediately south of their normal area, the NPS said in a news release Sunday.
Seven pieces of military munitions debris were found over the past two weeks, prompting the closure, the park service said. “Most of these pieces are just metal fragments, but some may still contain residue of either explosives or propellent and thus must be considered dangerous,” it said.
During the 1940s, the U.S. Navy used the area of the island as a test range for rockets and bombs, the park service said. In the 1950s, a clean up was done, and munition debris was buried in pits on the island.
The park service said that due to the natural movement of the island and rising sea levels, some of these pits are now offshore.
“It is likely that the large Nor’easter in May disturbed the near shore seafloor and uncovered one of these pits,” resulting in pieces of ordnance coming ashore, the park service said.
This is not the first time old military ammunitions have been found in the area. In 1988 similar military ammunition washed ashore at the north end of Assateague Island, according to the Dispatch, a news site serving the region around Ocean City, Md. And in 2013, a hundred World Ward II military pieces were discovered in the Maryland area of Assateague and later detonated in prepared sites, the NPS said.
The park service asked visitors who find unidentified metal on the beach to avoid touching or handling it and to notify park staff.
“Unfortunately, there have been several instances of visitors picking up rocket fragments and carrying them to either the lifeguards or, in one instance the visitor center,” the park service said. “Please do not do this as it is potentially very dangerous.”
Bomb experts from Ocean City and Dover Air Force Base are assisting the park in dealing with these items, and park management will meet this week with explosive ordnance disposal experts to develop plan going forward. | 2022-08-01T16:11:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Assateague beach partially closed after military munition debris found - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/01/assateague-island-beach-closed-ordnance-found/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/01/assateague-island-beach-closed-ordnance-found/ |
Pat Carroll, television comic mainstay, dies at 95
Pat Carroll had a varied career, winning an Emmy in the 1950s for "Caesar's Hour," a Grammy for her recording of her one-woman show about Gertrude Stein and fame for her portrayal of Ursula in "The Little Mermaid." (Evan Agostini/AP)
Pat Carroll, a comedic television mainstay for decades, Emmy-winner for “Caesar’s Hour” and the voice of Ursula in “The Little Mermaid,” died July 30 at her home on Cape Cod, Mass. She was 95.
Her daughter Kerry Karsian, a casting agent, confirmed the death but did not provide a cause.
Ms. Carroll, a whirlwind of zany energy with a short-cropped haircut, found her place in TV, starting with a 1952 appearance on “The Red Buttons Show” and a few years later on the comedy-variety series “Caesar’s Hour,” the second of which earned her an Emmy Award for best supporting actress. She became a regular on “Make Room for Daddy” with Danny Thomas and on sketch shows of the era, performing opposite Jimmy Durante, Danny Kaye and Mickey Rooney, among others.
She played one of the wicked stepsisters in the 1965 television production of “Cinderella” starring Lesley Ann Warren and was a guest star on dozens of sitcoms through the 1990s, including “My Three Sons,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Too Close for Comfort” and “She’s the Sheriff.” In addition, she had occasional dramatic turns in anthology shows such as “Studio 57” and series including on “Police Story” and “ER.” She was a featured panelist on “Masquerade Party” and other quiz and game shows.
Ms. Carroll supplemented her screen work with frequent dinner theater appearances, and she won a Grammy Award in 1980 for the recording of her one-woman show “Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein.” She developed the idea while recuperating from knee surgery four years earlier.
“I thought, ‘Very few producers are interested in an aging, overweight actress,’ ” she told the New York Daily News. “So I decided it would be a good idea to create something for myself, something all my own.” She commissioned the playwright Marty Martin to write a show about the expatriate author Stein, recalling her life with lover Alice B. Toklas and her friendships with Ernest Hemingway and James Joyce.
Ms. Carroll toured the country and played many college campuses in the Gertrude Stein play, and her performance also garnered her a Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award. In his Village Voice review, critic Michael Feingold wrote of Ms. Carroll: "She does not waste time, hedge, dither, camp, or mysticize; she simply and matter-of-factly creates every feeling and fills every moment. Her communication with the audience is immediate and her characterization is complete.”
To a later generation, Ms. Carroll was a familiar voice of animated film, playing Ursula in Disney’s “The Little Mermaid.” Her throaty rendition of “Poor Unfortunate Souls” made her one of Disney’s most memorable villains.
Ms. Carroll would often say that Ursula was one of her favorite roles. She said she saw her as an “Ex-Shakespearean actress who now sold cars.”
“She’s a mean old thing! I think people are fascinated by mean characters,” she told an interviewer. “There’s a fatal kind of distraction about the horrible, mean characters of the world because we don’t meet too many of them in real life. So when we have a chance, theatrically, to see one and this one, she’s a biggie, it’s kind of fascinating for us.”
Patricia Ann Carroll was born in Shreveport, La., on May 5, 1927, and grew up mostly in Los Angeles, where her father worked for the city’s water and power department. Her mother worked in real estate and office management.
She began performing accordion onstage in her teens, entertaining at the local USO during World War II. She attended Immaculate Heart High School in Hollywood, where she was active in the drama club, and studied drama at Catholic University. She made her professional stage debut in 1947 in a Massachusetts summer stock production of Harold J. Kennedy’s comedy “A Goose for the Gander” starring Gloria Swanson.
She spent the next three years in an estimated 200 stock productions, she told TV Guide, while also struggling to gain a foothold in off-Broadway revues and nightclub dates in Manhattan. “I’m not offbeat enough for the little, intimate clubs,” she told the New York Herald Tribune, “and I’m too highbrow for the big clubs.”
Her marriage to Lee Karsian, a theatrical agent and manager, ended in divorce. Their son, Sean, died in 2009. In addition to her daughter Kerry, survivors include another daughter, Tara Karsian.
In film, Ms. Carroll had a supporting role in the Doris Day comedy “With Six You Get Eggroll” (1968) and was the voice of Granny in the English-language dub of Hayao Miyazaki’s animated feature “My Neighbor Totoro” (1988). She also reprised the role of Ursula in “Little Mermaid” sequels, spinoffs and theme park rides. | 2022-08-01T16:20:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Pat Carroll, television comic mainstay, dies at 95 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/08/01/pat-carroll-actress-ursula-dies/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/08/01/pat-carroll-actress-ursula-dies/ |
With inflation eroding all wage hikes, many government workers say they are facing a difficult choice: suffer or quit
SPOKANE, WA - JULY 30: Crystal Bolster grabs a dozen eggs for the next two weeks. Her son, whose reflection is seen in the door, watches and helps her by pushing the cart and discussing what is needed for the week. (Margaret Albaugh for The Washington Post)
In a red hot labor market, workers across the United States are negotiating and receiving wage increases at the fastest pace in decades. But a crucial part of the workforce who have been keeping the country running during the pandemic is being left in the dust.
Government workers — teachers, firefighters, sanitation workers, bus drivers, city government employees — who make up more than 15 percent of the U.S. workforce have seen their wages lag significantly behind those employed by private industry over the past year.
Wages in the private sector rose by 5.5 percent over the past year, the highest increase in the history of the data, but wage gains for state and local government workers have trailed behind, rising by 3.4 percent, according to data from the Department of Labor’s employment cost index released on Friday.
While wages across the board have not kept up with soaring inflation at a 40-year high, the sting of rising prices has fallen disproportionately on the workers who take trash to the landfills, keep city governments running, fight wildfires, and transport Americans to and from work and school.
“It’s really striking how much wages are trailing for public sector workers,” Guy Berger, the principal economist at LinkedIn, said. “The sector is not doing great. When you talk about sectors that are booming right now, it’s not just one of those.”
Crystal Bolster, 43, is a legal secretary for the public defender’s office in Spokane, Wash. After two decades working for the county, she makes $39,000 a year. She said the price of basic needs has increased so much this year that she has become further resigned to the idea that she may never be able to afford her own place. She lives with a roommate and her three sons in a two-bedroom.
“It’s been difficult for a while, but this year is worse,” she said. “We’re making tough choices on what we buy for groceries and whether we’re going to drive anywhere because of the gas prices. We don’t buy beef anymore. We don’t buy Captain Crunch. We don’t indulge in cold brew coffees.”
This year, Spokane County managers are offering county workers, who are represented by the AFSCME Local Union 1553, a 3 percent pay increase, followed by two years of 2 percent annual raises.
“A lot of people are angry because we’re so far behind inflation,” Bolster said. “These raises won’t make that much of a difference for most of us. A 3 percent raise is $96 more a month for me. That won’t even cover my power bill.”
The widening gap in wages between public and private workers has produced a cascade of problems for public sector workers. It exacerbated an understaffing crisis in government jobs, with public sector workers quitting in droves to take higher-paying jobs in private industry, and increased workloads for those who remain. In many parts of the country, there is a severe shortage of bus drivers, government workers and teachers.
While the private sector has more than recovered all of its pandemic job losses as of June, only 57 percent of the government jobs lost during the pandemic have been refilled, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
“It’s a huge problem,” said Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. “Inadequate pay has been a huge reason teachers and support staff in state and local government have quit. In order to attract and retain workers they need, they will have to not just hire workers but raise pay.”
Wages in government jobs have never paid as well as private industry. But they have attracted workers with the promise of pensions and strong healthcare benefits, job security, and an opportunity to serve the public. As these benefits have been eroded over the years, more workers are having more trouble justifying working in the public sector.
Interviews with a dozen public sector workers and union officials from around the country, including public school teachers, parole officers and administrative staff, suggest that the workers who perform the labor that runs the country face increasing financial duress at home while their workloads climb higher as job vacancies remain unfilled.
“My average member makes $45,000,” Small said. “Members can’t afford to buy gas. They can’t afford to buy groceries. They are getting extra jobs and unfortunately some have to borrow from other members or their pension to make ends meet.”
Even as inflation and rents soar in Newark with spillover gentrification from New York City, Small said the city is currently offering a 2 percent raise in contract negotiations.
Andee Sunderland went on an eight-day strike in April with thousands of Sacramento teachers over heavy workloads, wages that weren’t keeping up with inflation, and the prospect of 400 teacher vacancies in the coming year.
Sunderland made $225 a day as a substitute teacher, and ultimately won a 25 percent pay increase with back pay following the strike, but the city has still not come forward with her back pay.
“By the end of the school year, it was hard to afford gas to get to work,” Sunderland said. “I’m behind on my car payments. That’s true because other costs have gotten so out of control. I just can’t even imagine going on vacation.”
The Sacramento Unified School District noted that Sacramento teachers are scheduled to get back pay by Aug. 3.
“Sac City Unified substitute teachers receive some of the highest pay in the greater Sacramento region,” said Brian Heap, a spokesperson for the Sacramento Unified School District. “It had been our goal to deliver [back pay] sooner, however there were some challenges in gathering all the necessary information for processing the payments.”
Most public sector workers do not have the ability to negotiate over their individual wages and salaries after they have been hired into a role, sometimes due to legal barriers. In unionized jobs, wage increases are typically negotiated by the union and determined by the government. Wage increases often fall upon elected legislatures for public sector workers who aren’t unionized. Thirty-four percent of government employees in the United States are in unions.
Conservative policymakers blamed public sector unions for making wages lag behind the private sector, saying they lock workers into contracts that cannot easily adapt to shifting economic conditions.
“Our basic principle is you should be compensated based on the value you create in any occupation, public or private sector. Union contracts prevent that from being the case," said Akash Chougule, vice president of Americans for Prosperity, a right-wing advocacy group tied to the network run by the billionaire Koch brothers. “Sometimes poor performing employees are overpaid and over performing employees are underpaid. This makes it impossible to reward high performing employees."
AFSCME, the country’s largest public sector union representing 1.3 million workers, said that wages and conditions in non-unionized public sector jobs are worse than they are in unionized positions because workers don’t have the ability to collectively bargain, leaving wages and benefits up to elected officials who are often concerned with keeping expenditures low.
Andrew Bernier, a civil engineering technician with the U.S. Army’s Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab in Hanover, N.H., said he has had to cut back on a lot of basic expenses because of inflation, even with a salary of $82,000 a year for a family of four.
“I don’t make that bad of a salary, but it doesn’t go very far,” he said.
In recent years, his family opened their own daycare to save on child care costs, which used to run them $2,000 a month per child. But even with the daycare income, the family feels squeezed. They stopped shopping for meat at the grocery store.
“Once we receive our tax return, we get a whole cow, chickens and usually one or two pigs,” Bernier said, noting that a farm raises the livestock, sends it to a butcher to cut and package, which he then preserves in a chest freezer at home. “It’s $1,500 for a cow but you’re paying only $4 a pound.”
“The [lab] is hiring as fast as they can, but quite a few candidates have turned down positions due to pay,” said Bernier, who helps engineers build equipment for research. “In the private sector I could make a lot more, but I like my job so I haven’t considered leaving.”
Vacancies throughout the public sector mean that more remaining workers have been pushed to take on extra job duties without extra pay, potentially delaying important tasks. Worsening conditions produce a feedback cycle where more workers quit their jobs as vacancies mount.
A number of state governments including Connecticut, Florida, Missouri, Idaho, and South Dakota are running record surpluses and can afford to pay their workers more, but are hesitant to open their purse strings for permanent raises, unions leaders say.
Workers are picking up extra jobs just to pay for gas and food
"When there’s significant understaffing, that means important work doesn’t get done,” said Lee Saunders, the president of AFSCME, via email. “It leads to excessive overtime which leads to burnout, further exacerbating staffing issues,” he said, noting that ongoing shortages in patient care facilities, psychiatric hospitals, corrections facilities, and schools are creating unsafe conditions for the workers picking up the extra load.
Rayneika Robinson, a parole officer for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and the vice president of AFSCME Local 3661, which represents all parole and probation agents in Maryland, said that many of her members are leaving, even though they just received a 11.8 percent raise spread out over two years. The current starting salary for a parole officer in Maryland is $49,496.
“Members are extremely grateful for the salary bumps, but we started so far behind that we continue to struggle,” said Robinson, who works in Elkton, Md. “We have a very stressful job and it’s important to do little things for myself like get my nails done, but I had to cut that out. I’ve heard people who’ve had to cut back on different family activities because they can’t afford the price to get into an amusement park.”
As officers have quit for higher-paying jobs in other states and private industry, Robinson has found her caseload increase to 280 as well as the expectation that she take on new administrative responsibilities.
“It’s very overwhelming because theoretically how is it possible to touch every file every month while juggling playing secretary, intake, and monitoring cases? We’re not seeing administrative, clerical, and intake positions filled. You can go to other states and make more doing the same thing, or go federal. Just to be honest, I’m looking for other opportunities.” | 2022-08-01T16:20:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Government worker wages lag far behind private sector gains, as inflation rages - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/01/public-sector-wages-inflation/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/01/public-sector-wages-inflation/ |
Why Saving the Climate Requires a Tough Taxonomy: QuickTake
Floods, droughts and food shortages are just some of the effects of climate change, while exploitation and corruption drive social injustice around the world. Governments tackling these issues are realizing that to solve them, they need first to define and measure them. Some are turning to so-called taxonomies that establish which economic practices and products are harmful to the planet and which aren’t. The idea is that the price of goods and services must reflect the human and environmental cost of both production and disposal, which in turn would spur much needed change. But designing a code is fiendishly difficult. For instance, in August 2022, it was reported that a taxonomy focused on social questions had been shelved indefinitely by the Commission.
1. What are taxonomies?
They’re essentially systems for organizing information, and form the basis of codes for sustainable corporate conduct and investing. Those that already exist focus mostly on environmental risks, and are based on research by scientists backed by the United Nations. When the 2015 Paris climate accord was struck, its roughly 200 signatories acknowledged that action must be taken. The average global temperature is already 1.1 degree Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than it was before the industrial revolution. Scientists say the limit is 1.5 degrees Celsius, beyond which lies climate catastrophe. Taxonomies provide a detailed guide for which activities jeopardize climate goals and which support them.
2. Which jurisdictions have taxonomies?
The European Union has set a global benchmark with its taxonomy, on which a technical group began work back in 2018. The EU has since been followed by Colombia, China, Japan and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The UK is also working on its own version of one. Based on work by the EU and China, the International Platform on Sustainable Finance is focusing on establishing some uniformity through a “Common Ground Taxonomy,” which covers areas such as agriculture and manufacturing. If definitions diverge too much, that could hamper efforts to channel funding to sustainable businesses and meet climate goals.
3. What does the EU’s taxonomy cover?
Right now, it addresses climate change mitigation and adaptation. It covers 170 different economic activities that combined represent around 40% of the EU’s listed companies operating in industries responsible for almost 80% of direct greenhouse gas emissions. There are four more environmental objectives to go, including biodiversity, and also a social taxonomy in the works. But the difficulties in reaching agreement on the environmental taxonomy -- in many ways the simplest of the set -- appears to be putting at least some of these plans on hold.
4. What was the conflict?
For several years, there had been arguments over whether some natural gas and nuclear plants should be labeled green. The European Parliament’s vote in July to allow that at least for a while to help relieve tight energy supplies -- a situation worsened by the war in Ukraine -- was criticized by some investors and climate activists.
5. What about the other taxonomies?
Although the “E” usually gets most attention in debates around ESG taxonomies, there were plans to also include social and governance criteria in the definition of sustainable economic activities. To an extent, social and governance-related minimum safeguards have already been made part of the EU’s environmental taxonomy, which includes some fundamental conventions on human rights and good corporate governance. But to establish a standalone social taxonomy, the EU would need to define economic activities that are inherently socially beneficial, contribute to social objectives or are socially harmful under any circumstances. Social objectives include decent work for direct employees as well as workers in a company’s value change along with the well-being of consumers and contributions to inclusive societies.
6. What’s happened with this?
The task to define socially beneficial economic activities has proven even more politically contentious than establishing an environmental taxonomy. Social issues are less quantifiable than environmental goals, and they include questions on which there’s much less consensus on a need for urgent action, compared with climate change. A first European Commission report outlining the main features of a social taxonomy was supposed to be published by the end of 2021, but never came to fruition. Then in August 2022 came word that in light of the bruising fights over nuclear power and natural gas the social issues were being put on hold.
7. Who would be covered by the environmental taxonomy?
Which companies or business activities will be included and by what deadline is currently under review. Larger listed corporates are first in line in the EU, where companies including those in the financial industry will be required to identify how much of their business corresponds to the lists, so investors can direct their money to those with the highest degree of alignment. But requiring disclosure from all companies irrespective of size is at present unrealistic; it’s too complex and costly, with lack of data a constant obstacle.
8. How do you know which companies are aligned?
Calculating how much of sales, operating profit and capital expenditures are eligible to be aligned with the EU’s taxonomy is difficult. Data is tough to obtain and financial institutions, for example, can’t use estimates. To help both investors and companies, the EU is developing a central database of information, and the IPSF has created a tool to map sales that are eligible, though it warns this isn’t an indicator of environmental performance.
9. Will it work?
A recent survey by the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System found that, of two dozen financial regulators, 20% are using taxonomies and another 60% plan to use, or are considering using, one. Some trade organizations have warned regulations are so complex that there’s a risk investors will steer clear of companies, even low emitters, depriving them of financing to clean up. But organizations like the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warn failure isn’t an option.
10. How do taxonomies work elsewhere?
There are more than 20 under development around the world, according to the IPSF, and they’re starting to diverge. The EU for example has established minimum social safeguards and criteria reflecting the principle of ‘do no significant harm,’ but these aren’t universally used. | 2022-08-01T16:20:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Why Saving the Climate Requires a Tough Taxonomy: QuickTake - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/why-saving-the-climate-requires-a-tough-taxonomy-quicktake/2022/08/01/c9e2be10-11ac-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/why-saving-the-climate-requires-a-tough-taxonomy-quicktake/2022/08/01/c9e2be10-11ac-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
The end of Roe v. Wade means only more dire circumstances for Black birthing people. But there are resources to help.
Perspective by Adiba Nelson
Black maternal mortality may worsen post-Roe. This doc shows the effects.
I’m not sure whether it was the tugging and pulling of my abdomen, the delusion of what I thought new motherhood was supposed to be, or the drugs coursing through my body, but when the doctor held my daughter up over the curtain for me to see for the first time, I willed myself to cry. I felt eerily detached, and questioned (aloud) how a very brown woman could give birth to a very white baby. As they stitched me up and wheeled me into my room, all I could think was, “I don’t ever want to do this again.”
Coming home wasn’t any easier. I suffered from intense postpartum depression and an already stressful home life. As my body fought to navigate its way through mental, emotional and physical fatigue, I suffered in silence.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the maternal mortality rate for Black mothers is three times as high as that of White women. It’s only a worsening problem: Over the past 20 years, cases of severe maternal morbidity have increased by more than 200 percent, and cases disproportionately affect Black women, according to the American Journal of Managed Care. And yet two out of three pregnancy-related deaths are preventable.
Now, with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the consequences for Black birthing people look even more dire.
Adia Jamille, a full-spectrum doula based in Tucson, says that for Black women in particular, these higher maternal morbidity rates are part of the legacy of slavery and the systemic racism that came after. In addition to sharecropping and higher-paying jobs, the joy of pregnancy, birth and postpartum have been systematically stripped from Black women.
But some, including Jamille, believe that a solution lies within the very fabric of our culture. Doulas, by definition, are professional labor assistants who provide physical and emotional support to pregnant people (and their partners) during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. There are also doulas who specialize in the planning and preparation of the body for pregnancy, abortion care, lactation and extended postpartum care.
Mortality rate for Black babies is cut dramatically when Black doctors care for them after birth, researchers say
Jamille says that she went into this line of work to not only heal from the trauma she experienced at the hands of medical professionals during her own birthing experiences, but to also help others heal and undo the damage that is done by the Western approach to birth and mothering.
“A lot of cultures have a 40-day period after birth where they’re not even supposed to leave the house. So it’s not just your little family — you, your partner and your new baby … it’s you, your partner, your parents, your partner’s parents, your siblings and whoever else is there to help,” she said. “Everybody comes together and works to make sure that the birthing parent is safe and cared for. Whereas here, you’re essentially left to do everything by yourself.”
Her job, she says, is to help the birth parent create community that will help keep that person safe and supported before, during and after pregnancy — that, she says, is the lifesaving work.
Gayle Dean, an OB/GYN and chief of staff at Tucson Medical Center, says that one way we can help turn the tide for ourselves is by having a strong sense of empowerment and a personal patient advocate.
For me, anxiety was a huge part of the pregnancy and postpartum periods. So I asked experts what new or expecting parents can do if they find themselves filled with anxiety about abortion, pregnancy or abortion aftercare. They suggested writing down questions, building your village/support system, finding a spiritual practice that works for you and, most important, giving yourself grace.
Expectful: This mental health app is built specifically for before, during and after pregnancy. It has a section specifically for Black parents and meditation.
Irth: This app helps you find prenatal, birthing, postpartum and pediatric reviews of care from other Black and Brown women.
Books are great resources, too. I recommend “The Body Keeps the Score” by Sean Pratt and Bessel A. van der Kolk, “Black Girl in Love With Herself” by Trey Anthony and “The Mocha Manual to a Fabulous Pregnancy” by Kimberly Seals-Allers. | 2022-08-01T16:20:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | For me, giving birth was traumatic. Other Black moms deserve better. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/08/01/me-giving-birth-was-traumatic-other-black-moms-deserve-better/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/08/01/me-giving-birth-was-traumatic-other-black-moms-deserve-better/ |
Volunteers canvass a neighborhood in Leawood, Kan., to encourage people to vote “no” on a state constitutional amendment that could further restrict abortion access. (Christopher Smith for The Washington Post)
Kansas voters could vote this week to end a key safe haven for abortion in the Midwest.
On Tuesday, voters will decide whether to end the state’s constitutional right to an abortion. It comes in the form of a ballot measure that, if it passes, will allow the state’s conservative legislature to enact a near-total ban on abortion like several of its neighboring states.
This fight is the first of its kind post-Roe v. Wade, and analysts say it could go either way. So it’s a bellwether for whether ballot measures will help protect — or end — abortion rights across the country, when the question is taken directly to voters.
More immediately, Kansas’s ballot initiative could also end abortion access for thousands of women in the Midwest and Texas who may suddenly have nowhere in the region to go. Here’s what to know about it.
What the ballot measure says — and what it would do
Abortion rights supporters argue what the measure says and what it will do are two different things. The ballot measure asks Kansans whether they want to repeal the state’s constitutional protection for abortion.
A “yes” vote overturns Kansas’s constitutional protection for abortion. A “no” vote keeps those protections in place.
If the ballot measure passes, it would allow the Republican legislature to pass laws banning abortion. That’s a realistic outcome, given that Kansas Republicans have tried for years to do just that: They tried to ban abortion in 2013, and in 2015 became the first state to ban a common procedure for second-trimester abortions. The state’s Supreme Court knocked that down, affirming the state’s constitutional right to an abortion in the process.
But if conservatives can change the state’s Constitution, they can ban abortion. Even though Kansas has a Democratic governor, state Republicans have a supermajority in the legislature and can override her veto.
Supporters of the ballot initiative — aware that total abortion bans are unpopular, even among a sizable chunk of young Republican women — say that the amendment wouldn’t necessarily lead to a particular policy. They argue that the state shouldn’t be hemmed in by that 2019 decision by the state’s Supreme Court, which permits abortions until about 20 weeks.
In a post-Roe world, say supporters of the ballot initiative, the legislature should get to decide.
“Restore common-sense abortion limits,” an ad for the campaign says.
But opponents charge that this ballot initiative is really a gateway to banning abortion entirely in Kansas.
The ballot measure doesn’t say when abortion should be banned in Kansas, and leaders of the initiative have avoided commenting on what kinds of restrictions they’d support, in an attempt to make it appeal as widely as possible. But a Kansas state senator and former organizer for the ballot initiative blurred those lines when they told supporters that if this ballot measure were approved, they’d push to ban abortion entirely.
It’s also unusual to have a statewide ballot measure up for a vote in a primary, rather that in a general election, when more voters turn out. Traditionally, only voters affiliated with a party can vote on primary day (though unaffiliated voters can vote on this ballot initiative). Abortion rights supporters point to this timing when they argue that the other side is secretly trying to ban abortion in the state.
Polling is limited, but the available data suggests that Kansans are closely divided on whether to keep or end abortion protections.
What it would mean for abortion access in the Midwest
If this ballot initiative passes, it could soon be nearly impossible to get an abortion in the region. In the month since the Supreme Court repealed Roe, most of the states bordering Kansas have either tried to ban abortion, or succeeded: Missouri and Oklahoma almost immediately banned abortion; a third, Nebraska, is trying to severely limit abortion, too. Kansas abortion providers said they were inundated with patients from as far away as Texas after the latter’s six-week ban took effect last fall.
As other states tighten their restrictions, abortion opponents have singled out Kansas as a “sanctuary” for abortion, reports The Post’s Annie Gowen.
How did Kansas become the center of the U.S. abortion fight?
Kansas has a history of being open to abortion rights. One of the country’s few third-trimester abortion providers operated out of Wichita before he was killed in 2009, NPR notes.
Republican lawmakers have tried for decades to restrict abortion as much as possible. But in 2019, their efforts to end second-trimester abortions backfired when the state Supreme Court knocked down their law and ruled that the Kansas Constitution expressly provides a right for abortion. The state Constitution’s promise to “equal and inalienable natural rights” includes, the court said, “the ability to control one’s own body.”
With the ruling, the justices made it impossible for abortion opponents in Kansas to create new legislation ending abortion rights without first changing the Constitution. (By overturning Roe, the U.S. Supreme Court only lifted federal restrictions on abortion bans; it didn’t implement any in states.) Hence, this ballot initiative.
What the results in Kansas could mean for other fights on abortion
The post-Roe world has created a tangle of abortion laws and court fights that sometimes mean abortion restrictions change by the day.
Ballot initiatives are another part of that battle, and a relatively big one. This year, at least four other states are planning to have ballot initiatives protecting abortion rights (in Vermont and California) — or ending them (in Kentucky). Advocacy groups on both sides of the issue are collecting signatures in other states, such as Michigan and Montana, to try to define abortion rights for years to come.
More and more often, the left in particular has turned to ballot initiatives to advance policies without conservative state legislatures, on issues ranging from gun restrictions to the minimum wage to health care. In 2017, for example, voters in Maine overwhelmingly expanded Medicaid by ballot initiative, over the objection of the state’s Republican leaders.
But putting abortion laws directly to voters is a relatively new political battle, so no one’s really sure how these fights are going to turn out. National polls show that a majority of Americans want abortion protections and think total bans go too far, according to a new Washington Post-Schar School poll. Americans who support abortion rights also say they’re less motivated to vote in November
So what happens in Kansas — which managed to hang onto abortion protections immediately after Roe fell — is seen as a bellwether for future battles on abortion.
Physicians face confusion and fear in post-Roe world | 2022-08-01T16:21:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | In Kansas abortion vote, what's at stake for abortion rights - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/01/kansas-abortion-vote-ballot-initiative/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/01/kansas-abortion-vote-ballot-initiative/ |
FILE - Bill Russell grins at announcement that he had been named coach of the Boston Celtics basketball team, April 18, 1966. The NBA great Bill Russell has died at age 88. His family said on social media that Russell died on Sunday, July 31, 2022. Russell anchored a Boston Celtics dynasty that won 11 titles in 13 years. (AP Photo, File) (Uncredited/AP) | 2022-08-01T16:22:06Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Russell was a champion of activism before winning NBA titles - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nba/russell-was-a-champion-of-activism-before-winning-nba-titles/2022/08/01/8d4296e4-11aa-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nba/russell-was-a-champion-of-activism-before-winning-nba-titles/2022/08/01/8d4296e4-11aa-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
In honor of Bill Russell’s 11 titles here are 11 of his greatest moments
Boston Celtics center Bill Russell shoots over Philadelphia 76ers center Wilt Chamberlain during a game played in 1968 at the Boston Garden. (Dick Raphael/NBAE/Getty Images)
1Early glory
2Draft day
3Olympic gold
4Boston’s reign begins
5Topping Wilt
6Cleveland Summit
7Dual roles
8Going out on top
9Finals MVP
10White House honor
11Grieving Kobe Bryant
Bill Russell’s No. 6 hangs above the parquet in Boston’s TD Garden, sharing space with other Celtics greats like Tom Heinsohn and Sam Jones. The franchise’s history of winning is so rich that its retired jersey numbers are squeezed eight to a banner, thereby leaving more room in the rafters to recognize its 17 championships, 11 of which were won during Russell’s 13-year career.
Those 11 titles — the first in 1957, the last in 1969 — remain one of the NBA’s most unbreakable and unimaginable records. Russell owns as many rings as Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson combined, and more than LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant put together. Wilt Chamberlain, his chief rival, won only one on Russell’s watch and another after his retirement. To match Russell’s consistent excellence, a 2022 lottery pick like Paolo Banchero or Chet Holmgren would need to win the 2023 title as a rookie, win eight consecutive titles from 2025 to 2032 and then bank two more in 2034 and 2035 before hanging it up.
The Hall of Fame center, who died at age 88 on Sunday, never averaged over 20 points per game for a season, but he still ranks second all-time in career rebounds and is regarded as one of the sport’s premier shot-blockers and all-around defenders. “The most important measure of how good a game I played was how much better I’d made my teammates play,” Russell wrote in “Second Wind,” his 1979 memoir.
It’s appropriate, then, that Russell is most often associated with 11, the sum of his team’s achievements, rather than six, his individual identifier. In that spirit, here are 11 defining moments from Russell’s basketball journey.
Brewer: Bill Russell made America better by demanding better from America
Early glory
Born in Louisiana and raised in Oakland, Russell was a lightly-recruited high school prospect who signed with the University of San Francisco. Before Russell, USF had never won an NCAA title. With Russell, they won it all in 1955 and 1956. Since Russell’s reign, USF hasn’t won again.
In the 1955 title game, Russell knocked off La Salle, the defending champions, by posting 23 points and 25 rebounds to claim Most Outstanding Player honors. The following year, he completed an undefeated season with 26 points and 27 rebounds in a title game win over Iowa. No wonder UCLA Coach John Wooden deemed Russell “the greatest defensive man I’ve ever seen.”
Dynasties require good fortune in the draft; look no further than Johnson (coin flip), Jordan (Sam Bowie) and Stephen Curry (Jonny Flynn and Ricky Rubio). Boston’s run was no exception.
After the Rochester Royals selected Duquesne’s Si Green with the top selection in 1956, the Celtics traded Ed Macauley and Cliff Hagan to the St. Louis Hawks for the rights to select Russell with the second pick. Green posted modest averages of 9.2 points and 4.3 rebounds per game over a nine-year career, never making an All-Star Game or winning a title. Macauley, a future Hall of Famer, played just three seasons in St. Louis before retiring, while Hagan went on to join him in Springfield.
Together, Macauley and Hagan, helped the Hawks win the 1958 title before Russell’s Celtics went on to win the next eight in a row. In addition to Russell, the Celtics added two Hall of Famers, Heinsohn and K.C. Jones, in the 1956 draft, marking the greatest class in league history.
Olympic gold
Decades before the Dream Team, Russell won gold with USA Basketball at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne. With Australia as a southern hemisphere host, the “summer” games took place in November and December, causing Russell to delay the start of his NBA career. Team USA was never seriously challenged, racking up an 8-0 record and blowing out the Soviet Union in the final to claim its fourth straight gold.
Bill Russell remembered as a ‘pioneer’ on and off the court
Boston’s reign begins
The Celtics won the 1957 title to cap Russell’s rookie year, but they needed to survive two overtimes in Game 7 of the Finals to prevail over the Hawks. In the final minute of regulation, Russell, who posted 19 points and 32 rebounds, hit a sweeping left-handed layup and executed a chase-down block on a Jack Coleman transition shot to force overtime.
Heinsohn would later call that Game 7 victory “the greatest game ever.” The NBA Finals has gone into overtime in Game 7 just one other time. The Celtics won that one as well, besting Jerry West, Elgin Baylor and the Los Angeles Lakers in 1962 thanks to Russell’s 30 points and 40 rebounds.
Topping Wilt
Russell and Chamberlain were quintessential rivals, with the latter averaging a preposterous 29.9 points and 28.1 rebounds in their 94 regular season matchups, according to Basketball-Reference.com. But Russell’s Celtics went 57-37 against Chamberlain’s teams in the regular season, and 29-20 in the playoffs, including Finals victories in 1964 against the San Francisco Warriors and 1969 against the Lakers. Boston needed just five games in 1964, with Russell finishing with 14 points, 26 rebounds and six assists in the clincher.
Decades after he retired, Russell summed up his approach to the timeless matchup: “If [Chamberlain] got 62 [points] and we won, it wouldn’t mean anything. If he got 62 and they won the game, that bothered me.”
Cleveland Summit
Perhaps the most famous photograph of Russell was taken in June 1967, when he joined Jim Brown, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and other prominent Black athletes in Cleveland to express solidarity with Muhammad Ali’s decision to refuse to enter the military upon being drafted. Russell, who decried racism during and after his career, boycotted a 1961 game because a Kentucky coffee shop refused to serve Black players.
Over the years, Russell became an icon for civil rights and social justice, lending his support to Colin Kaepernick and to NBA players who protested in the wake of George Floyd’s killing. Asked once if he was worried about being killed for his beliefs during a visit to Mississippi, Russell replied: “I’d rather die for something than live for nothing.”
Feinstein: Bill Russell was the greatest winner any sport has ever seen
Russell’s reputation as an excellent leader is derived in part from his successful tenure as a player-coach of the Celtics from 1966 to 1969. Though he wasn’t Red Auerbach’s top choice to be his successor, Russell became the first Black coach in NBA history and guided Boston to the 1968 and 1969 titles.
Upon his retirement as a player, Russell also left Boston’s bench. Despite less successful coaching stints with the Seattle SuperSonics (1973-1977) and Sacramento Kings (1987-1988), Russell was elected to the Hall of Fame for the second time in recognition of his coaching achievements. His final coaching record was 341-290 (.540).
A generation before Jordan hit his famous “last shot” in the 1998 Finals, Russell capped his career with a memorable Game 7 victory over Chamberlain, West and the rival Lakers in the 1969 Finals. Los Angeles had entered the series as favorites, and West became the only player on a losing team to win Finals MVP after posting 42 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists in the finale.
Nevertheless, Russell claimed his 11th ring and preserved his perfect 10-0 record in Game 7s with 6 points, 21 rebounds and 6 assists in a 108-106 victory.
“I knew that was my last game,” Russell said later. “I was just so proud of those guys, and myself. Every minute I played for the Celtics was a joy to me. From there, I couldn’t go to heaven. Leaving there and going anywhere else was a step down.”
It’s one of the true oddities of NBA history: Russell, the NBA’s greatest winner and a five-time MVP, was never named Finals MVP. Of course, the NBA didn’t begin handing out the postseason award until 1969, Russell’s final season, and West won that year.
To fill in the historical gap, the NBA decided in 2009 to name the award in Russell’s honor. Russell then became a regular at championship ceremonies, presenting the MVP award to James and Durant, among others.
Bill Russell, an 11-time NBA champion with the Boston Celtics and the first Black head coach in a major American sports league, died July 31. He was 88. (Video: Reuters)
White House honor
Russell received a major honor of his own in 2011, when President Barack Obama presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of his social justice activism. Smiling widely as he placed the country’s highest civilian honor around Russell’s neck, Obama would later call him a “civil rights trailblazer” who “endured insults and vandalism, but never let it stop him from speaking up for what’s right.”
Grieving Kobe Bryant
Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, Russell stopped making appearances at major events like the Finals and the NBA’s 75th anniversary celebration. But in February 2020, he sat courtside at Staples Center for a game between the Celtics and Lakers to honor the memory of Kobe Bryant, who died tragically in a helicopter crash.
Putting a lifelong rivalry to the side, Russell traded in his Celtics green for a white Bryant jersey, remarking afterward that he and Bryant shared a “deeper connection” and had “much love and respect for one another.” Russell’s presence was a lasting reminder of his status as basketball’s elder statesman. | 2022-08-01T17:30:06Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Eleven defining moments from Bill Russell’s unforgettable NBA life - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/01/bill-russell-greatest-moments/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/01/bill-russell-greatest-moments/ |
Ehire Adrianza netted the Nationals a low-risk, struggling outfielder from the Atlanta Braves' system. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
Easing their way into the trade deadline, the Washington Nationals traded utility man Ehire Adrianza to the Atlanta Braves for 26-year-old outfielder Trey Harris on Monday. When the deal was announced by both clubs, there were about 30 hours left for the Nationals to stage a sell-off for the second consecutive year. That they found a landing spot for Adrianza — and that they netted a low-risk, low-cost player in the process — was an early win on the margins.
Adrianza, 32, signed a one-year, $1.5 million deal with the Nationals in March. Before that, he spent 2021 with the Braves, playing six different positions throughout their title season. With Washington, he spent most of the year recovering from a quad injury suffered toward the end of spring training. He appeared in 31 games and had a .179 batting average, .255 on-base percentage and .202 slugging percentage in 94 plate appearances. He was starting more recently, mostly for Maikel Franco at third, perhaps because the last-place Nationals wanted to showcase him ahead of Tuesday’s deadline.
To replace Adrianza on the 26- and 40-man rosters, the Nationals will recall infielder Ildemaro Vargas from the Class-AAA Rochester Red Wings, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. Vargas, 31, is a smooth defender, light hitter and bats from both sides of the plate. He has been with four major league teams and had a short stint with the Chicago Cubs in May. To clear room for Adrianza, the Braves designated Robinson Canó for assignment.
Aside from Juan Soto, and with Adrianza headed back to Atlanta, Washington still has Josh Bell, Nelson Cruz, Carl Edwards Jr., Steve Cishek and Kyle Finnegan to potentially move before 6 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday. And since Adrianza was somewhat of a surprise trade chip, it’s worth remembering that it’s hard to fully know what contenders need ahead of the stretch run. In that sense, the swap felt similar to when the Nationals sent left-handed starter Jon Lester to the St. Louis Cardinals for outfielder Lane Thomas in 2021.
The Washington Nationals may look to trade superstar outfielder Juan Soto after he turned down a 15-year, $440 million contract extension. (Video: Joshua Carroll/The Washington Post)
Harris has not played above Class-AA, meaning he’s well behind where Thomas was upon arriving in Washington — and having not debuted yet, under team control for six seasons once his service clock starts ticking. Generally, though, a depth arm is more valuable than a light-hitting utility player. The analog is that, at the last chance to get players from other clubs, the Braves have a specific role in mind for Adrianza and likely see limited upside with Harris. That made them good trading partners with the Nationals, even with General Manager Mike Rizzo’s loose rule of not shopping players within the division.
For the past two seasons, Harris has been with the Class AA Mississippi Braves. And since 2019, the right-handed hitter has tried to rediscover that landed him the Hank Aaron Award, given annually to the best offensive player in Atlanta’s system. That year, Harris finished with a .323 batting average, .389 on-base percentage and .498 slugging percentage across three levels, swatting 14 homers and 26 doubles. But a full-time leap to AA has proven difficult, as Harris had a slash line of .238/.338/.323 in 220 plate appearances with Mississippi this season.
His average and slugging percentage are a tick lower than where they ended up last year. His on-base percentage is a few ticks higher. A 32nd-round pick out of Missouri in 2018, Harris has played all three outfield positions with a share of his appearances in right. MLB Pipeline ranked him as the Braves’ 29th-best prospect.
As recently noted by De Jon Watson, the Nationals’ director of player development, the organization is short on bats and overall talent in AA. A thin, top-heavy system is highlighted by pitchers in Class-AAA Rochester and a handful of bats at the lower level. And while the gap will be addressed when Brady House, Jeremy De La Rosa and T.J. White, among others, advance in the future, there’s no harm in taking a flier on a struggling hitter such as Harris in the meantime.
The costs were extremely minimal. The next step for the Nationals, then, is to see how many deals like this they can find. | 2022-08-01T17:30:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Nationals trade Ehire Adrianza - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/01/nationals-trade-deadline-moves-ehire-adrianza/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/01/nationals-trade-deadline-moves-ehire-adrianza/ |
The Commanders will pick a new returner, ideally someone who can handle both kicks and punts, this training camp. Jequez Ezzard (84) Kyric McGowan (83) and Marken Michel (19) are all vying for the job. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post)
As Kyric McGowan tracked a punt falling through the morning sun, he ever-so-slightly extended his right arm to make the catch. To Washington Commanders special teams coordinator Nate Kaczor, that wouldn’t do.
To Kaczor, returning punts and kicks is about minutiae, doing the little things right. After that catch, he walked over to McGowan, grabbed and squared his shoulders and then patted the top of the “83” on his jersey, showing him where on his chest the ball needed to land for a perfect catch.
“The bottom line is, regardless of what it looks like, you have to catch [the ball] and secure it,” Kaczor said Friday. “But the tracking of the football gives the rest of your skill set a chance to kick in.”
At training camp, the hunt for the Commanders’ next returner is on. Last year, DeAndre Carter kept Washington among the league’s best in kickoff returns. The team ranked third in the NFL with 25.1 yards per kick return, but Carter was so-so on punt returns, averaging 8.4 yards. Now, after Carter’s departure in free agency, Kaczor believes the ideal starter would be a dual returner for punts and kickoffs, a job Washington hasn’t had locked down since Andre Roberts in 2014.
“It takes some pressure off you trying to find another guy,” Coach Ron Rivera said. “It helps you also when you’ve got to have your 48-guy list for game day.”
Though Kaczor echoed that same pragmatism, he also wants to identify multiple players with the necessary tools to return kicks and punts. So far, he has tested newly-signed veteran Alex Erickson, second-year receiver Dax Milne, undrafted rookies McGowan and Jequez Ezzard, practice squad receiver Marken Michel and even Jahan Dotson, the receiver who was the Commanders’ first-round pick in April’s draft.
‘Truly a dream come true:’ Jahan Dotson savors moment, relishes opportunity
Among the group auditioning for a shot, Erickson, a return specialist and wideout who signed with Washington this offseason, has the most experience at the pro level.
As an undrafted rookie with the Cincinnati Bengals in 2016, Erickson led the NFL in kick return yards (810) and spent three years as the Bengals’ dual returner. In 2019, he transitioned primarily to punt duties, and he has returned 20-plus punts in every season of his career.
The 29-year-old said he sees the value of having an experienced returner among a group of young candidates vying for the job.
“The guys are young, they’re hungry, they want to know the position, and so I’m just an open book,” he added. “I relied a lot on older guys when I was a rookie and the younger guy.”
Dotson is the biggest-name rookie in the mix for the job. He was an electric punt returner during his time at Penn State, and Kaczor lauded his potential to be a great punt returner and first-team wideout, but Rivera has erred on the side of caution when discussing Dotson’s chances of playing on special teams.
“Jahan has an opportunity to be an integral part of what we do already [offensively],” Rivera said Friday. “He’s shown some flashes … so we’ve got to be very, very, very diligent, very smart about [how we use him] as we go through this process.”
Milne is another option, and Rivera has complimented his dual returner potential in the past. In Ashburn, Milne has taken receiver reps with the first and second teams, and competing at returner could be another way to secure a permanent roster spot.
“I feel really comfortable going back there and catching punts and kick returns,” said Milne, who returned just 12 punts and two kicks for a total of 92 yards in three years at Brigham Young University. “Whatever the team needs me to do, I’ll do it.”
The Washington Football Team’s 18-month rebrand was extensive. Now the hard part begins.
Ezzard also presents a compelling case for return duties. The receiver earned first-team honors in the Western Athletic Conference last year as both a receiver and returner.
“It’s just my athleticism, being able to make a play whenever I can,” Ezzard said of his skills. “But I’m still out here trying to adapt to everything and make the best of my opportunities when they come.”
McGowan and Michel are longer shots at the role. McGowan went undrafted after stints at Northwestern and Georgia Tech, and Michel — brother of Dolphins running back Sony Michel — has bounced around NFL practice squads and Canadian football since 2016.
But Kaczor is watching those down-roster players who might be able to use strong returner skills to secure a spot on the team. The next starting returner is somewhere at training camp, and so are two or three guys who would do the job at a moment’s notice.
“Whenever the personnel department comes up and we start talking about making decisions, [the question becomes] how much of a chance does this guy have to make the team on offense?” Kaczor said. “Can he return? … Or, this guy doesn’t have as good of a chance to make it on [offense] or [defense], is he good enough as a returner to warrant a roster spot? That’s the secret sauce behind it all.” | 2022-08-01T17:30:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Washington Commanders searching for new kick and punt returner - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/01/washington-commanders-returner/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/01/washington-commanders-returner/ |
Rents and home prices still soaring, but at a slower pace
The cooldown coincides with an aggressive campaign by the Federal Reserve to bring inflation under control
A rental is on the market in Houston earlier this year. The average monthly payment for an apartment jumped 9.4 percent in the three-month period ended June 30, data show. That compares with more than 11 percent increases in the preceding two quarters. (Brandon Bell/Photographer: Brandon Bell/Getty)
The red-hot U.S. housing market that has enriched property-owners in recent years while draining renters and first-time home buyers is showing signs of slowing down, according to new data.
Both rents and home prices are still climbing, but at a more subdued pace, as inflation and rising mortgage rates weakened demand. In June, the average home price jumped 17.3 percent, compared with the 19.3 percent increase recorded in May, according to the data analytics firm Black Knight. That two full percent points is “the greatest single-month slowdown on record since at least the 1970s,” said Black Knight president Ben Graboske.
Rents prices followed a similar trajectory in the second quarter, with the average monthly payment for an apartment rising 9.4 percent in the three-month period ended June 30, year over year, according to the real estate data firm CoStar, cited by the Wall Street Journal. That compares with the more than 11 percent increases recorded in the preceding two quarters.
The cooling housing market reflects a weakness in the broader economy as would-be home buyers find themselves unable or unwilling to rising inflation, which stands at a 40-year high.
Mortgage rates have been steadily climbing since the Federal Reserve started raising its benchmark interest rates in March, part of its plan to put a lid on soaring costs by making borrowing more expensive. That has significantly increased the monthly payment a home buyer would pay for a given property, making everything less affordable. At the same time, a battered stock market has chipped away at many home buyers’ resources, making it hard to save for a down payment. | 2022-08-01T17:51:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Rents and home prices are climbing at a slower pace, new data show - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/01/home-prices-rent-inflation/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/01/home-prices-rent-inflation/ |
Casa Ruby founder Ruby Corado, center, in 2019. Corado “appears to have fled the country,” D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine said. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)
D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine is seeking a temporary restraining order against Casa Ruby to freeze the LGBTQ nonprofit’s financial accounts and prevent founder Ruby Corado from making further withdrawals, documents filed Monday in the D.C. Superior Court show.
Last month, a Washington Post report raised questions about possible financial mismanagement at the nonprofit. The report was based on interviews with former employees, court records, tax filings and thousands of emails to and from officials at the D.C. Department of Human Services obtained through a public records request.
Casa Ruby reported more than $4.1 million in grants and other revenue on its most recent federal tax filings, which showed that Corado earned $260,000. But employees say they have gone without pay, and at least four landlords have told city agencies that the nonprofit did not pay rent on properties that it leased across the city for its low-barrier shelter and transitional housing programs.
Corado has not responded to The Post’s phone calls or emails, but she told a Telemundo reporter last week that she was in El Salvador and had done nothing wrong. Though Corado stepped down as executive director last fall, employees have told city officials and The Post that she retained sole control over the nonprofit’s bank accounts.
“Casa Ruby’s operations suggest clear patterns of gross mismanagement and poor oversight of its programs and finances,” Racine said in a statement. “Instead of fulfilling its important mission of providing transitional housing and support to LGBTQ+ youth, Casa Ruby diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars in District grants and charitable donations from their intended purpose. Their Executive Director appears to have fled the country, withdrawn at least tens of thousands of dollars of nonprofit funds, and has failed to pay employees and vendors money they are rightfully owed. Upon hearing of the suspicious circumstances surrounding its collapse, our office immediately began investigating and is using our broad authority over District nonprofits to safeguard the organization’s assets and hold its leadership accountable.”
Since 2016, Casa Ruby has received $9.6 million in grants from city agencies to serve the needs of the Latino and LGBTQ+ youth communities in the District. Last fall, the Department of Health and Human Services declined to renew an $839,460 grant to Casa Ruby to run a low-barrier shelter. The shelter, which housed at least 10 young people at the time, shut down in September, but the nonprofit has continued to run other programs, including one for victims of crimes and another for asylum seekers.
Though the nonprofit listed a board of directors on its federal tax filings, the AG’s office found that between 2012 and 2020, the board “apparently never met, and it generated no records or minutes to document any action.”
In addition to asking the court to freeze Casa Ruby’s accounts, the attorney general’s complaint asks the court to appoint a court-supervised official to stabilize and reform the management of the nonprofit, and seeks an “equitable accounting of records” for the nonprofit’s finances, “as they’ve had no meaningful oversight for years,” Racine’s statement said. Racine also asked the court to impose a trust or other remedy to regain control of any money that Corado may have improperly obtained.
Casa Ruby, shelter for LGBTQ youth, loses D.C. government funding
According to the attorney general’s office, Corado’s control of the nonprofit’s finances was “near absolute.” It said that she is the only current signatory on the nonprofit’s bank accounts and that she has access to its PayPal account, which processes all donations made to Casa Ruby through its website. As recently as July 19, Corado made withdrawals of at least $604 from PayPal, the office found.
“Even employees with significant responsibilities over Casa Ruby’s affairs could not spend any of Casa Ruby’s funds without Corado’s express permission,” Racine’s office found.
The AG’s office also found that Corado has used and continues to spend Casa Ruby’s money without the knowledge or participation of other managers and without oversight from the board. It said that throughout 2021, Corado withdrew tens of thousands of dollars from Casa Ruby’s M&T Bank account, and she used more than $60,000 in Casa Ruby’s funds to pay bills for a charge card she controlled. The AG office found that Corado used Casa Ruby funds to pay for meals and expenses related to transportation to and in El Salvador. | 2022-08-01T17:52:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | DC AG Karl Racine seeks to block Casa Ruby access to bank accounts - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/01/casa-ruby-ruby-corado-dc-attorney-general/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/01/casa-ruby-ruby-corado-dc-attorney-general/ |
Russian President Vladimir Putin observes St. Petersburg's naval parade on Sunday. (Alexey Danichev/Sputnik Host Photo Agency / AFP via Getty Images)
Ingrid Wuerth is the Helen Strong Curry chair in international law at Vanderbilt Law School, where she also serves as director of the Branstetter Litigation and Dispute Resolution Program. She is also an editor in chief of the American Journal of International Law.
Russia has done many terrible things in Ukraine and beyond. It is thus understandable that President Volodymyr Zelensky, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, members of the Senate and many others have called on the Biden administration to designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism. That designation (currently applied only to Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Syria) may seem like a good way to further punish Russia, help the Ukrainians and give more concrete form to our outrage. But it is not.
The state sponsor of terrorism designation is not a symbolic act to chastise states that behave badly. Instead, it is a legal trigger embedded in an extremely complex statutory and regulatory framework. The effects of pulling that legal trigger are not easy to identify and untangle. In the case of Russia, some of those effects would be negative for Ukraine and for U.S. interests. They could even help Russia.
The statutes are complicated, but a state sponsor of terrorism designation affects two general areas of the law: domestic litigation and sanctions. In terms of domestic litigation, foreign states are entitled to immunity before federal and state courts in the United States. There are limited exceptions to immunity, including special exceptions for cases against state sponsors of terrorism. Proposals to designate Russia would do so based on Vladimir Putin’s conduct in the Second Chechen War and in Georgia, Libya, Syria, Sudan and Ukraine. As a result, under the statute, Russia would not be immune from suits that arise out of its conduct in those countries, dating back decades. But here is the catch: only a very limited class of plaintiffs may sue — specifically, U.S. nationals, service members and government employees. Successful plaintiffs could then execute their judgments against frozen Russian assets.
This litigation would have several pernicious effects. It would allow Americans to recover from the frozen assets, but not Ukrainians (or Libyans or Syrians or Georgians) who have suffered from Putin’s brutal conduct. It would deplete frozen Russian assets that could otherwise provide important leverage in efforts to negotiate a peace deal — one that could provide compensation to many groups of injured people.
Compensating U.S. victims of Russian aggression from frozen Russian state-owned assets might also encourage other countries to compensate their nationals from Russian assets that they have frozen, further diminishing the global pool of resources available to assist Ukraine and creating more cracks and fissures in what should be a unified global response. After all, other countries have rejected the designation, calling instead for more cooperation.
The designation would also affect sanctions. The United States has, of course, already imposed a wide range of tough sanctions on Russia, ones that have caused it to default on its sovereign debt. The overall impact of those sanctions on the Russian economy is not yet clear. More sanctions may be needed to increase the pressure. But most sanctions triggered by a state sponsor of terrorism designation — such as a prohibition on aid or military exports and financial sanctions — are already in place.
The designation would have an impact in terms of secondary sanctions. Secondary sanctions might restrict trade and drive up the global prices for grains and other essentials in ways that may in turn erode global support for pressure against Russia. The U.S. needs committed allies to isolate Russia. To the extent further sanctions against Russia are needed, they should be tailored for Russia, in particular in the energy sector and against individual officials.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken should not designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, Congress should stop pressuring him to do so, and Congress should not attempt to make the designation itself. Notably, members of Congress who are calling for this have failed to explain which specific sanctions (or other effects) would result from the designation and why those would be helpful. They ignore the implications for domestic litigation. To the extent Congress wants to impose further sanctions on Russia, it should do so with legislation tailored for that purpose — not with the blanket trigger of the “state sponsor of terrorism designation,” which would have unintended consequences. | 2022-08-01T17:52:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Why designating Russia a state sponsor of terrorism is a bad idea - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/01/why-the-us-should-not-designate-russia-state-sponsor-of-terrorism/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/01/why-the-us-should-not-designate-russia-state-sponsor-of-terrorism/ |
Democrats have joined Republicans in calling their opponents ‘enemies’
Lauren Handy, a member of Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, wears a cape as an antiabortion demonstrator and an abortion rights activist argue near the Supreme Court on June 24. (Eric Lee for The Washington Post)
The idea behind democracy is, in part, that differences get resolved through consensus. That instead of brawling over resources, we have a process for allocating power and assets that depends solely on the public will.
What occurs when that will is determined is discussed with regularity. You win more votes, your side carries the day, and we see what happens as a result. Discussed less often is what’s required of the side that loses. For democracy to work, we need not only to establish the most popular outcome but also for advocates of the losing side to view the win as legitimate. Those with fewer votes need to accept that they had fewer votes and, perhaps as important in our two-party system, to see a path toward winning more votes in the future.
Democracy isn’t simply voting once and being done; it’s a constant allocation of power based on measuring the views of the public. That, by itself, reinforces the utility of the process: If you don’t win today, you might win tomorrow.
This is exactly why recent patterns in American politics are so alarming. There’s the push, driven by former president Donald Trump, to deem any electoral loss as suspect even when it very obviously is not. But there’s also an increase in the extent to which members of either party see the other side not as opponents for constantly adjudicated political power but, instead, as enemies.
In February 2021, soon after President Biden took office, CBS News and its pollster YouGov released data showing that most Republicans viewed Democrats in precisely that way. Asked to evaluate whether Democrats were political opponents (meaning that a Democratic win simply meant not getting desired policies) or enemies — “if they win, your life or your entire way of life may be threatened” — most Republicans identified the Democrats as enemies. Democrats, on the other hand, were more likely to call Republicans political opponents.
In research conducted last month, though, that’s changed. Now most Democrats call Republicans enemies in turn. There’s been a 17-point increase in the extent to which Democrats use that term to describe Republicans. Republicans are about as likely now to describe Democrats as “enemies” as they were 17 months ago.
There are (as CNN’s Ariel Edwards-Levy points out) some interesting demographic divides, particularly in comparison to the results in February 2021. For example, older Democrats have seen a much larger surge in their identification of Republicans as “enemies” than have younger Democrats. On the Republican side, it’s also the case that younger members of the party are less likely to identify the opposition as “enemies.”
It’s also the case that liberal Democrats are more likely to identify Republicans as “enemies” than are more moderate Democrats. There are not enough moderate Republicans to break out their views, which is telling by itself.
Then there’s the overlap of education and race. Whites in the Democratic Party are about as likely to call Republicans “enemies” regardless of whether they have a college degree. That’s not true among Republicans: Whites without a degree — a key bastion of Trump’s base of support — are now more likely to use the term to describe those on the left.
It’s useful to back up for a moment and remember what’s being said here. Most Democrats and most Republicans now think that seeing the other party win means not simply that they enact unfavorable policies but that their very lives may be at stake. At the very least, that their way of life would be.
YouGov and CBS asked about that as well. A plurality of Americans think that the biggest threat to American way of life is other Americans. Among Republicans, slightly more see economic forces as the biggest threat; they’re 18 points more likely to point to economics (“like money, trade and business”) than Democrats. Democrats are 17 points more likely to point to the natural world (like viruses or climate change).
Note that the results above are among all respondents, not just those who view the other side as enemies.
The trend toward demonizing the other party is long-standing. The era in which there was a cordial jockeying for power among Americans who had a generally shared sense of patriotism and national direction has eroded, if not vanished. Now, we are forced to consider these poll results in the grimmest context: When you view opponents as enemies instead of simply competitors, when you view electoral losses as more dire than temporary setbacks — the range of responses to actions you disagree with expands. | 2022-08-01T17:52:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Democrats join Republicans in calling their opponents ‘enemies’ - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/01/democrats-republicans-elections-democracy/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/01/democrats-republicans-elections-democracy/ |
FILE - LeRoy Butler III waves while being honored for the Pro Football Hall of Fame during the first half of the NFL Super Bowl 56 football game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals, Sunday, Feb. 13, 2022, in Inglewood, Calif. After starring for the Seminoles, Butler helped recast the safety position in the NFL and restore Green Bay’s glory days during a 12-year career that featured five All-Pro selections and landed him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2022. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File) | 2022-08-01T17:53:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Mom's lessons of pluck, preparation served LeRoy Butler well - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nfl/moms-lessons-of-pluck-preparation-served-leroy-butler-well/2022/08/01/932d3fe4-11b6-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nfl/moms-lessons-of-pluck-preparation-served-leroy-butler-well/2022/08/01/932d3fe4-11b6-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
Transcript: Leadership During Crisis with Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R)
MS. CALDWELL: Hello. Welcome to Washington Post Live. My name is Leigh Ann Caldwell. I’m an anchor here at Washington Post Live but also co-author of the Early 202 newsletter. Joining us today is Republican Governor of Arkansas Asa Hutchinson. Governor Hutchinson, thanks so much for joining us today.
GOV. HUTCHINSON: Leigh Ann, it's good to be with you and looking forward to the conversation.
MS. CALDWELL: And first to our viewers, we also want to hear from you. So, if you have any questions for Governor Hutchinson, feel free to tweet us @PostLive. So, Governor, again, thanks for joining us. It's been five and a half weeks since Roe v. Wade was overturned, as our open mentioned. There was a trigger law in Arkansas that banned abortion in the state, including there are no exceptions for rape or incest. I do want to ask you in one of those clips, you say that you should think that perhaps there should be those exceptions. So, what is the state--what are you able to do to ensure that at some point in the future those exceptions do exist?
GOV. HUTCHINSON: Well, time is going to dictate states' responses and experience. And so the legislature fairly recently passed a trigger law overwhelmingly that banned abortion except in the case of the life of the mother. Now that of course went into effect after the Supreme Court decision, and that is in effect right now. At the time that was passed, I issued a letter saying I support the additional exceptions of rape and incest, and I could go through the reasons for that. But I issued that letter. People say, well, why didn't you veto the law? Well, in Arkansas, a veto can be overridden by a simple majority vote. And so it was clearly an overwhelming consensus on that in the legislature. I've always signed pro-life bills when they come to my desk.
Now that the trigger law is in effect and that we don't have abortion except in the case of the life of the mother, you're going to have to look at months and months, perhaps a year of experience before there's any consensus that that should be adjusted if that is the case. And but we're going to have experience in Arkansas that--and across the nation that's going to help shape public opinion, help shape the opinion of the legislators. And so I don't envision that being revisited during the time that I have as governor, but I can see that revisited down the road based upon experience. We'll wait and see on that.
In the interim, it is important that we make sure that we provide services that are needed. And so we've always--in Arkansas, we have--during my leadership, we've increased the foster care coverage. We've expanded healthcare in Arkansas. Arkansas is one of the southern states that have the Medicaid expansion, and so that we can have better healthcare resources in our state. And so in addition to that, we want to be able to increase our foster care assistance. We want to make sure that we have the maternal care, we have an application pending before the Biden administration now to expand maternal healthcare in our rural settings. And so those are steps that we want to take to make sure that the mom, in the event there's an unwanted pregnancy, has the resources that are needed to assist her and help her through that time.
MS. CALDWELL: Arkansas has a lot of room to do better on some of those issues and taking care of mothers, families, children. The state rates 48th in the country as far as childhood poverty is concerned. You mentioned some things that Arkansas is doing to help mothers and families now that there's probably going to be a lot more children born. What else needs to be done? Is that going to be enough?
GOV. HUTCHINSON: Well, firstly, you’ve got to separate those issues a little bit. Arkansas is a southern state. We've always had challenges in terms of healthcare. And in if--the fact that we're 48th or we have low statistics on child health, we need to improve child health. We don't need to have a response that we're going to increase taking the life of the unborn. And so you got to separate those. And we have continually tried to invest more in rural healthcare. Again, Arkansas went against the grain, and my predecessor did Medicaid expansion for the reasons that you just indicated, trying to improve our health outcomes in Arkansas. I continued that as a Republican governor, because I knew how important it was, and we shot up with access to healthcare. We're trying to do more even now, as I said, with our rural hospitals to provide wraparound services for the mom going through a pregnancy, but also to extend it after that child is born. So, we're doing all of those things. And we obviously want to increase those healthcare outcomes. But there's challenges that we have to address from eating habits to exercise. All of those have been a part of a message that we've had in Arkansas to improve healthcare.
MS. CALDWELL: Do you anticipate the Arkansas legislature legislating on issues of travel, allowing Arkansas women to travel outside the state to obtain an abortion, or perhaps order abortion pills online into Arkansas?
GOV. HUTCHINSON: Well, you have--the answer on the first part is absolutely no. I--we have the freedom of travel in America. And while we don't encourage, support traveling out of state to take the life of an unborn child, there's not any prohibition on that. There's no restrictions. And that's the freedom that we have in America. We always have or had the ability to travel for healthcare out of state or make the decision to have the healthcare in state.
In terms of the second part of the question, what was that again?
MS. CALDWELL: It was about--it was about access to abortion pills.
GOV. HUTCHINSON: Well, you know, whenever you look at--if it's a contraceptive, everybody has access to contraceptives. There's not any limitation on that. But if you're looking at abortion, again, under the trigger law that would be outlawed, whether it's, you know, a medical abortion, or whether it's a chemical abortion, and so those would be prohibited except when the life of the mother is at risk.
MS. CALDWELL: Is there a way, though, to legislate people or prohibiting people from receiving those in the mail?
GOV. HUTCHINSON: Well, you know, there, you have to look at the providers. They're the ones that are responsible. We have to understand that there's nothing that is designed to penalize or punish the woman. That's not part of our law. We don't do that. It's the restrictions are on the providers. And so obviously, it's more difficult if they're out of state providers. That's a legal enforcement issue. But there's not any effort to do any of those things in Arkansas.
Right now, we have the law in place. We expect it to be followed. It is being followed to my knowledge. There's not any police that's out there knocking on doors, trying to check out things. But we expect the law to be followed like it is in other cases. And if there's a violation of it, you go after the provider. Obviously, it's more difficult if they're out of state. But that can be investigated just like any other violation of the law.
MS. CALDWELL: Big picture, Governor, where do you see the debate on abortion access, pro-life? Where do you see this moving in the next few years, not only in Arkansas, but across the country?
GOV. HUTCHINSON: Well, it's always a matter of education first, and I think that's why the pro-life movement has had success, is that because of science and because of more knowledge as to the health of the child in the womb and their viability, that abortion has been more reduced, and you've had a greater acceptance of a pro-life viewpoint. And so now that attention has drawn to it again, I expect, you know, the education to be a very important part of it. And the experience is going to dictate any changes and exceptions. And it's interesting. We're going to learn from states. States are the laboratory of democracy. And you're seeing states approach this a different way. We're going to learn from their experiences. Legislators are going to get together and share ideas. And so I see it as something that moves in the next couple of years based upon the experience that we have.
Arkansas right now has a very restrictive abortion policy. Other states will adopt something different. I think we're going to learn from each other. And adjustments can be made. So, I think the debate will continue. I do not see it as the all in all explosive political issue that it is being made out to be right now. It's always been an important issue to many voters, but there's a broader range of issues that voters decide what candidate they want to support. And I see that continuing. Right now, I think that it's just one of many issues that will be impacting the 2022 election.
MS. CALDWELL: I want to change gears a little bit and talk about another issue that the House passed a few weeks ago, a couple of weeks ago, and the Senate could take up at some point in the next month, perhaps month and a half, and that is marriage equality, ensuring access to same sex marriage. Where do you stand on that legislation? Do you think that that should be codified at a national level?
GOV. HUTCHINSON: Well, first of all, it's been accepted because of a Supreme Court ruling that recognized same sex marriages and said the states could not prohibit that, and so I don't see that changing. And so that means there's really not a necessity of a national law on it. It's just another issue that the court has said is a constitutional privilege that individuals have in our country.
In terms of my view on this, I believe, historically, and from my own personal viewpoint, that a marriage is between one man and one woman. That is my personal viewpoint. But I accepted very quickly the Supreme Court ruling. I made it clear that we're going to issue the licenses in Arkansas to same sex couples pursuant to the Supreme Court ruling, and that I see is continuing in future. I don't see that changing. And you know, there's a fear factor as to whether the Supreme Court will reanalyze that previous ruling. I don't expect that. Actually, in the Dobbs case that they decided they made that very clear that this does not mean that those other issues are going to change. And so the--same sex marriage is the status quo in America right now. I don't see that changing any time in the near future.
MS. CALDWELL: And another issue that is--that Congress is addressing is this burn pit legislation. This is something that impacts veterans. The Senate passed and the House passed previously legislation to expand benefits and care for veterans who have been exposed to toxic burn pits, including especially in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the Senate voted again last week over a technical issue, and 25 Republicans switched their vote from supporting it to opposing it. Your two Arkansas senators, Senator Cotton and Senator Bozeman, are on opposite sides of the issue. Senator Cotton has opposed it throughout the process. It could be voted on again this week. Do you think that it should pass? Is it necessary for veterans in Arkansas to have this legislation to help them who have been exposed to these burn pits?
GOV. HUTCHINSON: Absolutely. It needs to pass the--as you described a technical challenge needs to get fixed, and they need to pass this legislation. It is really critically important for our veterans. When I was in private practice, I represented veterans with claims for the Veterans Commission. And this needs to be fixed. They need this relief.
Now, you mentioned it as a technical issue. And actually, I think it was about $400 billion that the Democrats added on at the last minute. And so it made it a much more tough vote. I would of course come out in favor of veterans' support and trying to fix that, you know, egregious spending in some other fashion. But I hope and expect the Senate to rectify this, to get this fixed. Let's keep it simple. Let's keep it straightforward. Let's help our veterans and keep everything else out there. So, I hope that's the outcome, and I'm optimistic that will be, but I certainly support it.
MS. CALDWELL: Yeah. And to be clear, it's an accounting measure, how you count the $400 billion, which is pretty much the cost of the legislation. But the technical issue is how you account for it, and if that money can be spent in the future.
You know, you mentioned the 2022, midterm elections a few questions back, so I do want to turn to that. And we'll start with a viewer question, who asked about the midterm elections. It's Christopher Morris from Ohio. And he says, "Do you believe that the recent Dobbs decision is going to energize the left and increase democratic voter turnout in most of the battleground states in November?" What do you think?
GOV. HUTCHINSON: You know, I haven't seen a great deal of indication of that. I've followed some of the polling, and right now the Republicans are more motivated to vote in November and energized than the Democrat--but there's been some increase in the Democrat intensity level. So, I don't see it as having the impact that the Democrats are hoping for. It certainly well, you know, in some circles, but they were probably already energized. And so, you know, you look--I don't see it much different in past elections, that for some, the pro-life issue or the pro-choice issue has been the defining issue for them to determine their vote. So, it will be for some, but I think the intensity level this year is going to be based upon their rising cost of food and gasoline. It's going to be about the economy. It's going to be about the recession that I'm worried about. It's actually going to start costing jobs in the coming months. Those are the worries that are going to really decide the vast majority of voters' decision, and it's going to impact the intensity level.
MS. CALDWELL: Something that has really stuck out to me in a recent spate of polling is that so many people, Republicans and Democrats both, think that the country is moving in the wrong direction. Now, Republicans will say that the reason is because of the economy. Democrats--Republican analysts, I should say, that that polling suggests that it's because the economy. Democratic analysts and poll watchers sometimes say that that is perhaps of course fears about the economy, but other issues including things like abortion, things about, you know, mass--you know, mass shootings in this country. What do you sense beyond the economy, you know, is really stressing voters out at this point?
GOV. HUTCHINSON: Well, if you look on the Democratic side, what they're upset about are some Supreme Court decisions. If you look at what's motivating Republicans, it is violent crime in our major cities. It is the border security issues. It is our respect abroad, and our support of the military. If you look at independents, I think it is the economy that drives them. I do believe the support of law enforcement--I think the Democrats realize a serious error was made in their discussion of defunding the police. And that lack of support for our law enforcement has cost us in terms of what's happening in our--in our urban areas, particularly, but violent crime increases across the country. And you know, even though you live in a rural area, we like to visit Chicago, we like to go to New York. We--this is all of America. We value the safety of those streets. And that is a highly motivating factor for Republicans and independents as we go to the polls this year. So, there's a vast range of concerns that are out there. And one of them, though, as I mentioned is the border security issues. And this is something that whenever you see the mayor of Washington, D.C., asking for National Guard support because of undocumented immigrants coming into that city and frustrating their human services that they need to provide, this is an issue that weighs on America that has to be addressed. And that's going to motivate voters in the fall.
MS. CALDWELL: You are one of the Republicans who have been critical of Donald Trump. You said that he has disqualified himself as a 2024 presidential candidate, because of January 6th. Do you still stand by that?
GOV. HUTCHINSON: I do stand by that. I don't drive that message every day. But I honestly answer questions when I'm asked. And so, yes, I stand by that. I believe that. What's important to me is that we need to talk about 2024 after the election this fall. Now I know that the timeline is accelerating, and former President Trump is a reason for that. He's out there talking about 2024 constantly. And whenever he does that, that becomes and he becomes the issue in this year's election. And it's not good for Republican candidates if Trump is the issue. We need to be talking about our solutions and our philosophy of reduce government and lower taxes, less regulation and driving our economy forward and controlling spending. Those are issues and solutions that we offer that are critically important, the rule of law and supporting law enforcement. If we get sidetracked on a personality that is as divisive as Donald Trump, then that does not bode well for the outcome in November. We're going to do well. I have no doubt about that. But we lose ground whenever Donald Trump becomes the issue.
MS. CALDWELL: Do you think that the party needs to move beyond Donald Trump?
GOV. HUTCHINSON: You know, it's hard whenever you have such a visible former president that's out there holding campaign rallies. He becomes a topic, and that's probably what he loves. But in terms of the grassroots of our party, he's got a significant following. And any candidate that wants to be president has to be able to identify with the issues that Donald Trump is able to drive. I mean, these are real concerns, ones I just articulated from a conservative message on crime and inflation. He's talking about those same things. And so we're all on the same page in terms of the major issues, but he distracts--it distracts the voters over to himself and it becomes about him versus the issues and the problem solving that we need to focus on. And that's what our candidates--if we're going to win gubernatorial races, if we're going to win Senate races and congressional races, we've got to talk about solutions, problem solving, and optimism about our future. That's what voters will respond to. It can't be about the past and dwelling about hurt feelings in the past.
MS. CADLWELL: Have you been watching the January 6th Select Committee hearings?
GOV. HUTCHINSON: I have. I’ve been tuned to the majority of it.
MS. CALDWELL: What do you think?
GOV. HUTCHINSON: Well, I think they've had an impact. You know, whenever you see Republican staffers that work in the White House that are doing the country's work, and they come in and they talk about a president that is disengaged in terms of calling out the National Guard, the lack of action in addressing the rioting at the Capitol, this is--should be a concern of every American that we had a president during that time that allowed that to go on and threatened the peaceful transfer of power. In terms of the hearings, it's just emphasizing those facts. I don't see how the January 6th hearings themselves are making the case against the president. That's a very high burden of proof. I think the attorney general's got a tough call there, but I have not seen the silver--well, I haven't seen the actual case being presented effectively in terms of criminal conduct on the president. I think they've made the case that he was irresponsible, he was derelict in his duties. But it's had an impact. We'll see where it goes from here.
MS. CALDWELL: Liz Cheney, the vice chair of that committee, could very well lose her reelection in a couple of weeks against a more conservative primary opponent, who's backed by Donald Trump. What does it say of the Republican Party if people like Liz Cheney lose because of their stance on January 6? And also, we're going to see more tests of other Republicans in the coming weeks of who voted to impeach Donald Trump because of January 6th. So same question. What does it say of the Republican Party if people like this can't win in a Republican primary?
GOV. HUTCHINSON: Well, I think you've had, you know, from the Secretary of State in Georgia that won after he took a stand against Trump's pressure to change the election results. You've seen Brian Kemp who President Trump did not support win. And so you have mixed results out there across the country. But to me, it shows that we have a Republican Party that is in transition. We have a Republican Party that's having an internal debate, and those are always painful. We also see that if we're going to have candidates that win, we can't be simply talking about the last election. And you know, Liz Cheney's done an amazing job in terms of taking a courageous stand, co-chairing or vice chair of that committee. But it's a tremendous political cost because her electorate wants her back there talking about the rising costs of fuel and the challenges that they have. And so, you know, every candidate cannot be so focused on the past that you're not addressing those issues, and I think she's paying a price for that.
MS. CALDWELL: You are term limited, so you are not able to run for reelection. You also just passed on your chairmanship of the National Governors Association to Democratic Governor Phil Murphy. So, you all have talked about bipartisanship in those roles. Would you say that it's easier as a governor to work in a bipartisan way than perhaps in Congress? I know you haven't served in Congress, but you're very involved in politics.
GOV. HUTCHINSON: Well, actually, I did serve in Congress.
MS. CALDWELL: Right, before you were governor, as a member, not a senator.
GOV. HUTCHINSON: Yes. That’s right. And so I’ve had that experience, and perhaps. But I remember in Congress, we probably had the last bipartisan training sessions and conferences when Democrats, Republicans got together. And so the partisanship has increased over the years in Congress, and it's made them less effective in terms of the ability to get things done. You know, as governors, we have the pressure of getting things done every day, of solving problems, hitting the issues, and so it forces us to find solutions. And whenever you have to find solutions and take action, that brings people together. There's plenty of differences, but I think the National Governors Association is one of the last bastions of bipartisanship that has proven to be effective. And you have to pick your issues. You know, we're not going to agree and we--on Roe vs Wade, too big of differences there. But we can share information, but we can work on infrastructure. We worked on the CHIPS Act together, some of these bipartisan bills that needed governors’ support, and our message made a difference. So it's been a great experience for me, and it reflects my view that while there's serious fights in Washington, we still need to get things done. And if that takes crossing the aisle and working together, then that's my cup of tea. That's what America needs to do. And that's what America wants to see.
MS. CALDWELL: And, Governor, last question. You have spent nearly 40 years in public service. As I mentioned before, you are term limited. So, what are your plans next? Do you have any ambitions to run for president in 2024?
GOV. HUTCHINSON: Well, as I sort of made the point, it's really critical that we save that until after November of this year. And so obviously, it's--I'm thinking about it, but not going to be--have any decision until next January. We're going to focus on this year. But 2024 is so critical in terms of shaping the Republican Party. And so whether it's as a candidate or whether it's in some other role, I certainly want to be a voice. And this is an important point. Somehow people think that if you're not 100 percent pure behind Donald Trump, then somehow, you're a moderate. My record is as conservative as anyone in the United States of America. But I am able to reach across the aisle to help and work to get things done. And so it's effective message. But I think the test in 2024, can a conservative that has a more optimistic view of America, that doesn't resort to personal grievances, can that person win, and that's what I want to be able to support in the fight for 2024.
MS. CALDWELL: Governor Hutchinson, that sounds like a definite maybe. So, we will be watching. Thank you so much for your time today. We really appreciate it.
GOV. HUTCHINSON: Thanks for the opportunity. It's great to be with you.
MS. CALDWELL: And to our viewers, thank you for watching. You can watch--find this transcript or the entire program and other Washington Post Live programs at WashingtonPostLive.com. Thank you. | 2022-08-01T17:53:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Transcript: Leadership During Crisis with Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/08/01/transcript-leadership-during-crisis-with-arkansas-gov-asa-hutchinson-r/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/08/01/transcript-leadership-during-crisis-with-arkansas-gov-asa-hutchinson-r/ |
Wisconsin has a chance to stand up for victims of sex trafficking. It must.
By Sara Kruzan
Chrystul Kizer appears for a hearing in the Kenosha County Courthouse on Nov. 15, 2019. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)
Sara Kruzan, a Stoneleigh fellow with Human Rights for Kids, is the author of “I Cried to Dream Again: Trafficking, Murder, and Deliverance — A Memoir.”
In 2008, Wisconsin lawmakers wisely tried to protect victims of child sex trafficking by passing a law saying victims who commit crimes as a “direct result” of being trafficked can use that as a defense against being convicted. But a recent murder case against a 16-year-old victim who killed her abuser raises questions about whether victims can access those protections in practice.
Wisconsin resident Chrystul Kizer was 16 when she was repeatedly sexually abused and trafficked by a child predator. Her abuser even filmed the times he raped her. She was not his only victim. He was arrested but then released without bail, despite the police finding he was sexually abusing a dozen underage Black girls in the area.
Like too many Black and Brown girls in the United States, Chrystul and the other victims were groomed, exploited, overly sexualized and sexually assaulted on numerous occasions, not only by their abuser but by other adult men as well. It is through this system of physical and sexual violence that young girls such as Chrystul are indoctrinated into modern-day slavery.
At 17, Chrystul killed her abuser. She was then prosecuted for first-degree murder, despite the 2008 law that sought to protect children in her position. The trial judge would not allow Chrystul’s attorneys to pursue the defense granted to her under state statute, declaring he believed it was not meant to extend to violent crimes.
Last month, the Wisconsin Supreme Court reversed the trial judge and ruled that Chrystul, who faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison, should have been able to at least put forth an argument that the 2008 law protects her from prosecution. During oral arguments in the case, justices admonished the attorney representing the state for downplaying the abuse Chrystul endured, with Justice Jill J. Karofsky noting “the constitution says that we need to treat victims with dignity and respect. And part of that is acknowledging what actually happened to them, and Ms. Kizer undeniably here was a victim of human trafficking.”
Chrystul’s case is personal to me because her ordeal, in many ways, mirrors my own. In the mid-1990s, I was also sexually exploited by an adult. I was an 11-year-old child when I was approached by a man I thought was safe. He exploited my innocence, and he set into motion a two-year process of grooming defined by repeated physical, psychological and sexual violence. When I turned 13, he began sex-trafficking me.
Three years later, I shot and killed my abuser while he was again attempting to rape me in a hotel room. I was only 16. I was arrested and prosecuted, and by the time I was 17, I had been sentenced to life without the possibility of parole plus four years. I was wounded by an abusive system, incarcerated for almost 20 years and relegated to the shadows of our society.
Three different California governors eventually saw the injustice of my case and acted to make things right. Govs. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown both reduced my sentence, and on July 1, Gov. Gavin Newsom granted me a full pardon. Other governors, such as former Tennessee governor Bill Haslam and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, have followed this example, defending trafficking victims when the justice system did not.
While I’m grateful for their actions, I never should have been prosecuted in the first place, let alone tried as an adult. In Chrystul’s case, officials in Wisconsin have the opportunity to right this wrong so that, unlike me, Chrystul will not spend years incarcerated.
This is why Kenosha County District Attorney Michael D. Graveley should drop the charges against Chrystul. She is a child victim, not a criminal. She was a child when she was repeatedly abused, and she was still a child when she took the actions that led to her wrongful prosecution. The state is causing Chrystul additional trauma, when she should be receiving care and services for what happened to her.
If the prosecutor refuses to do the right thing, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers should follow the lead of other governors and defend Chrystul at his earliest opportunity.
One of the most important mandates of our justice system is to protect our most vulnerable. Chrystul’s story shows a failure of this mandate and is an example of a state-sponsored human rights abuse against a child. She has suffered enough. Instead of prosecuting her, the better use of prosecutorial resources would be to fix the broken system that allowed her abuser to be let out on the streets and exploit children. Had he been kept off the streets, Chrystul never would have been in this situation to begin with.
Leaders in Wisconsin have been granted an opportunity by their state’s Supreme Court to do the right thing. By dropping charges against Chrystul, prosecutors can send the message that the lives of exploited Black girls and child sex trafficking victims matter to them. | 2022-08-01T18:39:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Wisconsin has a chance to stand up for victims of sex trafficking. It must. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/01/chrystul-kizer-wisconsin-sex-trafficking-victims/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/01/chrystul-kizer-wisconsin-sex-trafficking-victims/ |
A help-wanted sign in Mount Prospect, Ill., in 2021. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Biden’s first act as president was to pass, by a Democrats-only vote, a $1.9 trillion “pandemic relief” bill — the vast majority of which, it turned out, had nothing to do with the pandemic’s health aspects. Only 8.5 percent of the package was for direct covid-19 containment measures, such as vaccines and testing. It was massive social spending spree disguised as pandemic relief, and it helped set off the worst inflation our country has experienced in four decades.
The Post's View: Inflation, not recession, is still economic enemy no. 1
Biden then tried to follow that with a $2.65 trillion infrastructure bill (a.k.a. the “American Jobs Plan”) which, it turned out, included just $621 billion in spending on actual infrastructure — roads, bridges and the like. Just as he had used his “pandemic relief” bill as cover to pass all sorts of non-pandemic spending, Biden tried to use “infrastructure” as cover to pass trillions of dollars of left-wing social welfare spending, which he tried to rebrand as “human infrastructure.”
Now he’s doing it again. Democratic leaders have cut a deal with Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) on a $433 billion package of climate spending and tax increases disguised as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. The bill would not reduce inflation. The nonpartisan Penn-Wharton budget model estimates it would actually produce “a very small increase in inflation for the first few years, up to 0.05 percent points in 2024” (emphasis added) followed by “a 0.25 percentage point fall … by the late 2020s.” The effect either way, Penn-Wharton says, is “not statistically different than zero,” which means the legislation would not “have any impact on inflation.”
Catherine Rampell: Democrats prepare to scapegoat the Fed for their own follies
Calling this the Inflation Reduction Act is intentionally misleading. The purpose of the bill is to address climate change, not inflation. A full 85 percent of the bill’s spending — $369 billion — goes toward climate or clean energy. According to the Wall Street Journal, it would subsidize “wind, solar, critical minerals, biofuels, hydrogen, carbon capture, nuclear, ‘sustainable’ aviation fuel, lithium-ion batteries, electric-vehicle charging stations and more.” It also provides $20 billion in cheap federal loans for automobile manufacturers to build “clean vehicle” factories and removes the cap on $7,500 tax credits for affluent Americans to buy electric vehicles. The New York Times calls it “the most ambitious climate action ever taken by Congress,” while climate activists praised it as the “largest climate investment in American history by far.”
While the bill would not reduce inflation, it would raise tax revenues by $470 billion, adding a new burden on American businesses that are already struggling under the weight of inflation, supply-chain issues and a historic labor shortage. And it breaks Biden’s promise never to raise taxes on any Americans making less than $400,000 a year. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, the bill would raise taxes on Americans earning less than $200,000 to the tune of $16.7 billion in 2023 and would generate $14.1 billion from those making between $200,000 and $500,000 a year. Indeed, Biden may be the first president to announce a major tax hike the same week that the economy entered its second straight quarter of negative growth — a traditional definition of recession. As Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) put it, it makes no sense to pass “a massive tax increase in the name of climate change when our economy is in a recession.”
So why the intentionally deceptive name? Because Democrats know that, while their left-wing base thinks climate change is the most important issue facing the country, just 1 percent of Americans agree. At a time when inflation is forcing many to choose between staples such as gas and food, the Biden administration is providing taxpayer subsidies to couples making $300,000 a year who can already afford a Tesla. So, calling this legislation what it really is — a climate, tax and spending bill — would not do. Hence the false moniker, which is intended to dupe Americans into believing that the bill is designed to address their biggest concern — inflation — rather than the biggest concern of climate activists.
Americans are not stupid. They know what he is doing. There have been 10 recessions since World War II, yet Biden is less popular than any of the presidents who led us through them going all the way back to Harry S. Truman. Why is that? Because Americans know that Biden is not only failing at his job but also constantly lying to them. And the only thing Americans hate more than a failing president is a dishonest, failing one.
Trumpism makes the inflation fight urgent
Is the economy good or bad? In a word: Yes. | 2022-08-01T18:39:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The Inflation Reduction Act is anything but - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/01/inflation-reduction-act-really-climate-spending/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/01/inflation-reduction-act-really-climate-spending/ |
Monarch butterflies are pictured at the El Rosario sanctuary on March 18, 2008, in Michoacan, Mexico. (Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images)
In July, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) placed the species on its “Red List,” designating it “endangered.” Estimates suggest that the monarch population has declined between 22 percent and 72 percent in the past decade alone; the population in the west has shrunk by an estimated 99.9 percent since the 1980s.
Some variation in butterfly numbers is normal. But looking at 10-year averages, it is clear the population is fluctuating around a mean well below the range of the 1990s and 2000s. Experts attribute the decline to habitat loss and climate change. As North American farms increasingly use herbicides associated with genetically modified corn and soybeans, milkweed plants — the sole diet of monarch caterpillars — are disappearing. That, coupled with urbanization and the extreme weather events of the past few years, has imperiled monarch breeding.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spent years assessing whether it should list monarchs as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. It eventually decided that, though monarchs met the criteria for protection, many other species were at higher risk and had greater need of federal intervention. It is a sad reflection on the state of the world that so many species merit this designation, with limited resources on hand to help them.
The recent IUCN classification does not trigger any legal or regulatory responses. Still, the news should drive attention to the pressures facing monarchs — and other flora and fauna affected by deforestation, global warming and other threats to biodiversity. This includes creatures that are less recognizable and beloved. A 2019 scientific review found that a third of insect species were endangered, with a rate of extinction eight times higher than reptiles, birds and mammals. Data suggests that the total mass of insects worldwide is declining by more than 2 percent annually.
Planting more milkweed and nectar-producing flowers could help monarchs. But, as with all forms of conservation, individual efforts can only do so much. Policies that address climate change, maintain protected lands and curb cultivation on marginal land with little commercial value would have far greater impact — for butterflies and many other forms of wildlife.
Our natural world is full of marvels. We should do what we can to preserve them for future generations — and ensure our planet’s ecosystems can survive and thrive.
In tackling climate change, don’t let the perfect become the enemy of the good | 2022-08-01T18:39:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Monarch butterflies are in peril. They're not alone. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/01/monarch-butterfly-endangered-species-insects-biodiversity/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/01/monarch-butterfly-endangered-species-insects-biodiversity/ |
After flooding, a Kentucky church offers shelter alongside prayers
Cots line the sides of the sanctuary at Gospel Light Baptist Church in Hazard, Ky., as Chris Fugate, the congregation's pastor, addresses those gathered Sunday. (Arden S. Barnes for The Washington Post)
HAZARD, Ky. — For a few minutes Sunday morning, Karen Daugherty got a breath of normalcy.
Daugherty joined a group of churchgoers for a service at Gospel Light Baptist Church in Hazard, Ky. She was nearly 20 miles and a county over from where her home, in the community of Watts, had been destroyed by floodwaters that trapped her family for days.
“It was very refreshing just to be able to be there because I was raised Pentecostal and I know it was only by the grace of God that we're still here together,” Daugherty said.
Sunday morning was probably a respite for many in Hazard and surrounding areas that have been hit hard by devastating flooding. Several churches had their first services since last week’s record-breaking rains deluged eastern Kentucky.
The typically gentle streams that cut through narrow valleys between the region’s mountains turned into roaring rivers in a matter of hours late Wednesday night. Sections of some creek-side communities were swept away, leaving behind only the foundations of houses.
At least 28 people have been killed, Gov. Andy Beshear (D) said Sunday, and hundreds across the region have been displaced. Beshear said he expected the death toll to rise.
Just before the 11 a.m. service at Gospel Light Baptist on Sunday, more than a dozen rows of blue chairs were lined up for churchgoers in the center of the sanctuary. The walls of the room were lined with green cots, most of which covered in pillows, quilts and children’s toys. The few unoccupied cots bared the bright logo of the American Red Cross.
Pastor Chris Fugate stood before a wooden cross at the front of the sanctuary and led the congregants in worship, delivering a sermon that had a clear message: “If I look to Jesus in bad times, He’s there.”
After the service, Gospel Light reverted to the shelter that it has been since the flooding began. Donated hot meals were doled out and cars streamed through the parking lot, either dropping off provisions or requesting food, cleaning supplies, diapers and cases of water — a necessity in an area where the vast majority of residents have gone days without running water.
Through the first four days of the disaster, Fugate said the church took in close to 200 people, some staying overnight and some coming and going.
“They slept on the chairs the first two nights,” Fugate said. “We just got the cots last night.”
Daugherty and several of her family members arrived at the church after an arduous escape from the swirling muddy waters.
She said they lived in a small home on a single row of cinder blocks near a pair of creeks, both normally “just ankle-deep.”
“It all came so quickly,” Daugherty said of the flood. “In like a matter of 20 minutes.”
Her husband tied a rope around himself and their youngest daughter. After making it to higher ground, he returned for Daugherty and then for their animals, she said. They moved to a building on the back of the hillside and stayed in one room while the waters rose outside.
They were trapped for 2½ days, Daugherty said. Rescue helicopters swirled overhead; she said one tried to land but was unable to do so. With the water still high but somewhat receding, Daugherty felt she had no choice.
“I walked out of there,” Daugherty said, trudging through water. “Then I got a ride up [to Hazard].”
Without a charged cellphone for days, she said, she didn’t know whether other family members had survived and that shelters were open. When she finally charged her phone, the first message that rolled in was from her sister, who was staying at Gospel Light. From the church they were able to send out more help to rescue the rest of her family.
“I’m very grateful for this place,” Daugherty said. “Because without it, I don’t know.”
Two years before the flood, she said, a fire destroyed her family’s home. Now, her home is destroyed again. But part of the structure was still standing, proof enough for Daugherty that others still had it worse.
“It’s a very traumatic experience,” Daugherty said. “There are people here that are missing family members, and their homes look like nothing’s been built there.”
Fugate started Gospel Light Baptist back in 2011. At the time, he was a drug detective with the state police, but he has since retired. He is also a member of the state legislature.
“My faith in people has grown this week, because it's easy to dwell on the negative,” Fugate said. “I was a state trooper for 22 years, I saw the negative a lot.”
Fugate started the church with the help of a close friend, Richy Miller, another former state trooper. Miller was spending his nights at the church in the days following the flooding, sharing stories with survivors and growing close with them.
“I’ve seen a lot of dead people in my career. Worked suicides, worked murders, car wrecks, people with their heads cut off. I’ve seen it all,” Miller said. “I’ve never been as heartbroken as I have been with some of these people.”
Johnny Williams, another member of the church who was volunteering around the shelter, said he was confident in the resiliency of the community because of the help he has seen neighbors offer neighbors.
“That’s what we do here,” Williams said. “Everybody in the mountains is family.”
Of course, many will also heed Fugate’s sermon and lean into their faith in tough times.
“I don’t know what the next step is or where help is going to come from,” Daugherty said. “But hopefully God has a plan. He’s never failed us yet.” | 2022-08-01T18:44:06Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Eastern Kentucky flooding transforms church into shelter - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/01/eastern-kentucky-floods-church/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/01/eastern-kentucky-floods-church/ |
Biden administration officials briefed the speaker and her office on what officials saw as the possible consequences of a trip to Taiwan.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Washington on July 29, before she headed to Asia. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
The White House warned Monday that a potential visit to Taiwan by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) could prompt China to take significant inflammatory actions in response, and urged Beijing not to take advantage of the trip or see it as a pretext for provocation.
“China appears to be positioning itself to take further steps in the coming days and perhaps over longer time horizons,” White House spokesman John Kirby said. He added, “Nothing about this potential visit — which, oh, by the way, has precedent — would change the status quo.”
Kirby did not confirm that Pelosi plans to stop in Taiwan, but his extensive comments to reporters suggested the White House is positioning itself for such a visit. Biden administration officials have said privately they have deep concerns about a potential trip, but on Monday, Kirby focused on criticizing China for overreacting.
Pelosi launched her trip to Asia on Sunday without disclosing whether Taiwan is on the itinerary. Meanwhile, Beijing has warned that it would retaliate if she visits and an official Chinese statement warned the Biden administration against “playing with fire” on Taiwan.
That statement followed a more than two-hour call between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday. Biden in that call “made very clear that Congress is an independent branch of government and Speaker Pelosi makes her own decisions,” Kirby said.
Despite its deep discomfort that Pelosi’s trip could trigger a crisis in the Taiwan Strait, the White House has sought to avoid any impression that the president is pressuring Pelosi. And Kirby emphasized that if she did visit the island, that did not reflect any change in the U.S. approach to China or Taiwan.
“Nothing has changed — nothing has changed — about our Taiwan policy,” Kirby said. As for Beijing, he added, “What we would hope they infer from everything we’ve done, and everything we’ve said, including during the president’s phone call, is that we’re being consistent.”
China’s claims over Taiwan form a core part of the ideology of the ruling Communist Party. Beijing sees official visits by high-ranking foreigners as lending support to pro-independence camps and giving credence to the idea of Taiwan as a sovereign nation. Pelosi would be the first House speaker to travel to the self-governed democratic island since Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) in 1997.
The visit also would test Xi’s resolve at a time when he cannot afford to look weak, as he presides over a slowing economy and worsening relations between China and the West. And it comes ahead of a crucial party congress in the fall, when Xi is expected to break with precedent and take on a third term.
Zack Cooper, a senior fellow with the American Enterprise Institute, said Washington does not want a major confrontation, “but if the Chinese intentionally take action or if there’s some sort of accident that leads to a real clash — if ships or aircraft touch each other, or if you get a radar lock on an aircraft or a missile that flies very close over Taiwan — I think that you’d see that the United States feels it has to respond quite forcefully to that.”
And Beijing’s responses are not likely to end when Pelosi leaves Taiwan, he said, but would probably continue in the lead-up to the party congress. “I think this is not going to be an isolated incident,” Cooper said. “I think we’ll see more actions over the next several months.”
Matt Turpin, a Hoover Institution visiting fellow who served as White House China director in the Trump administration, said China’s leaders, not Pelosi, would be responsible for any escalation.
“Pelosi’s visit is not driving Beijing’s behavior,” he said. “This is what they’re choosing to do. They will use whatever pretext they need to use to accomplish their plan — the eventual annexation of Taiwan.”
In his call with Biden last week, Xi called on Washington to abide by its one-China policy, a long-standing agreement in which the United States acknowledges — without recognizing — Beijing’s claim that there is only one China.
On Monday, China’s foreign ministry reiterated that the Chinese military would “not sit idly by,” while warning of “egregious” political consequences. Pelosi is a longtime critic of Beijing and has been vilified by China’s leaders in the past. She visited Tiananmen Square in 1991 early in her career, where she unfurled a banner honoring those who died after a brutal crackdown by the Chinese government on protests there. Police chased Pelosi and the lawmakers traveling with her out of the square.
But members of both parties, including Republican members of Congress, have asserted that China has no right to dictate where U.S. officials can travel.
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex.) was invited to travel with Pelosi several weeks ago and at the time, the plan was to also visit Taiwan, said his spokeswoman Leslie Shedd. He was unable to visit due to a prior commitment, Shedd said, so his office does not know what the final plan was.
“He also believes the Speaker — or any other American official — should be able to visit Taiwan if they would like to,” Shedd said in a statement.
Pelosi announces Asia trip itinerary with no mention of Taiwan
Pelosi and the lawmakers traveling with her have been briefed on the threat possibilities related to the trip and the intelligence community’s understanding of the risks of escalation with Beijing, according to people familiar with the visit.
Pelosi began her tour of Asia on Sunday with planned visits to Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan. In a statement ahead of the trip, her office did not mention Taiwan. Pelosi had planned to lead a congressional delegation to Taiwan in April but delayed the journey after contracting the coronavirus.
For decades, China has tried to force Taiwan into diplomatic isolation by picking off its allies and launching vociferous campaigns against any semblance of recognition of Taiwan as a nation, including visits by foreign dignitaries.
Beijing has repeatedly said it will use force if necessary to “reunify” Taiwan and its 23 million people with the motherland. Taiwan, however, has never been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party and its people have shown no interest in being ruled by their authoritarian neighbor.
Biden administration officials have repeatedly cited Gingrich’s visit to Taiwan to argue that there is precedent for a trip there by a House speaker, so China should not frame Pelosi’s actions as some sort of escalation. But experts noted that the landscape has shifted significantly since then.
“This crisis is playing out with a vastly more capable Chinese military than the Taiwan crises of 1995-96 and a more confident and frustrated leadership,” said Evan Medeiros, an Asia studies professor at Georgetown University who served in the Obama administration. “So the core challenges for the United States will be crisis management and escalation control.”
Since the election of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, Beijing has ramped up its rhetoric and military threats. Last year, the Chinese air force repeatedly broke daily records for the number of fighter jets it sent near Taiwan’s airspace.
On Saturday, the People’s Liberation Army held “live-fire exercises” off the Chinese coast opposite Taiwan, near the Pingtan islands, according to a notice from the Pingtan Maritime Safety Administration. On Monday, maritime officials announced further drills in the South China Sea between Tuesday and Saturday.
Taiwan hones invasion response amid China’s threats over Pelosi trip
Last week, Taiwanese troops held military exercises to practice defending against an amphibious assault. Meanwhile, the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier and its strike group returned to the South China Sea.
The Biden administration has grown increasingly concerned about the risk of a full-blown crisis in the Taiwan Strait. U.S.-China relations are already at a low point, as the two superpowers collide over everything from economic power to human rights to military influence, and a conflict between China and Taiwan could draw in other powers, including Japan.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, an unofficial U.S. delegation of former defense and national security officials traveled to Taiwan in a show of Washington’s “rock solid” commitment to the island’s defense.
During his first tour of Asia as president in May, Biden signaled strong support for Taiwan in comments that departed from Washington’s usual policy of “strategic ambiguity.” Asked whether his country would defend Taiwan militarily if attacked by China, Biden said, “Yes, that’s the commitment we made.”
John Hudson contributed to this report. | 2022-08-01T19:18:56Z | www.washingtonpost.com | White House warns China not to overreact to potential Taiwan visit by House Speaker Pelosi - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/01/taiwan-nancy-pelosi-china-military/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/01/taiwan-nancy-pelosi-china-military/ |
W.Va. politician who apologized for Jan. 6 now writing defiant book
Derrick Evans filmed himself entering the Capitol building and urging others to do the same, while yelling at police officers who tried to control the mob
A former state lawmaker who six weeks ago apologized to a federal judge for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack is now writing a book for a right-wing publisher claiming he has been mistreated.
Derrick Evans, who was sentenced in June to three months in prison after pleading guilty to felony civil disorder, said in a statement that he had been “slandered” and wanted “to share my story with the world.”
The terms of the deal are confidential, a spokesperson for Defiance Press said.
Evans filmed himself entering the Capitol building and urging others to do the same, while yelling at police officers who tried to control the mob. At his sentencing, he told Senior U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth he felt daily regret for getting “caught up in a moment which led to me breaking the law.”
But Evans has since repeatedly downplayed the violence and destruction and his own role in the riot, as prosecutors noted in a letter to the court. In a radio interview aired the day after his sentencing, Evans said he was “never going to have regrets when it comes to standing up and doing what’s right.”
He has since described himself as a “political prisoner” and expressed a desire to run for office again. Evans was elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates in 2020 and resigned after his arrest last year. Before that, he was known as a confrontational antiabortion activist who would film staff and patients going into West Virginia clinics.
“While Evans’s sentence has already been imposed and the government is not here seeking its modification, the speed and degree of Evans’s about face warrants this notice, for the record and for the Court’s edification,” prosecutor Kathryn E. Fifield wrote in the June 30 filing.
Other Jan. 6 participants have made similarly contradictory statements about their actions. The first woman sentenced for illegally entering the Capitol, Anna Morgan-Lloyd, apologized profusely in court; the next day Fox News aired an interview with her minimizing the attack. Lamberth and other federal judges have since expressed skepticism that the remorse displayed by defendants in these cases is genuine.
Lamberth, who had given Morgan-Lloyd probation said in one filing that his “hopes have been … dashed” and subsequently imposed jail time on multiple rioters who pleaded guilty to the same crime.
At a sentencing for another rioter in front of a different judge, Morgan-Lloyd’s defense attorney said the Indiana grandmother had been “played” by Fox News and had written to Lamberth reaffirming her contrition.
Court records show that when Evans met with the FBI, he falsely claimed that police let the rioters into the building and that he was only wearing a helmet to protect himself from antifascists, assertions refuted by his own video. But prosecutors said that they believed his remorse in those same interviews to be sincere. He also told authorities he did not take the campaign to keep President Biden from power seriously; he has since contended that the election was stolen and that federal agents let rioters into the Capitol.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office for D.C. declined to comment. An attorney for Evans was not available for comment.
At Evans’s June 22 sentencing, Lamberth said he was sympathetic to the father of four but would have ordered twice as much time in prison had prosecutors requested it.
“You were egging people on and you were encouraging. It’s not like you walked through the building,” Lamberth said. “I have to send a message. I don’t want another riot after the next election.” | 2022-08-01T19:18:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Derrick Evans apologized for his actions on Jan. 6. Now he's writing a defiant book - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/01/derrick-evans-jan6-book/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/01/derrick-evans-jan6-book/ |
A long line of voters wraps around the Sedgwick County Historic Courthouse in Wichita, Kan., on the last day of early voting Aug. 1. Voters will decide on a proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution regarding the regulation of abortion in the state. (Travis Heying/The Wichita Eagle via AP)
A bipartisan group of senators has unveiled compromise legislation to guarantee federal access to abortion, an effort to codify abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. It faces an uphill battle in the Senate, where it is unlikely to gain enough Republican support.
The legislation, co-authored by Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine (Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) and Republican Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), is an attempt to create a middle ground on an issue that is largely pitting antiabortion Republicans against pro-abortion rights Democrats.
Since the Supreme Court ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in June, 17 states have either outlawed or mostly banned abortion. A handful of other states are in the process of prohibiting abortion, and on Tuesday, Kansas will be the first state where voters are set to go the polls to determine whether the state will reverse the constitutional right to an abortion.
The compromise legislation unveiled Monday ensures federal abortion rights up to viability, and allows post-viability abortion when the health of the mother is in jeopardy. The statute does not define viability or what constitutes when a mother’s health is in danger. Both issues are to be defined by the pregnant person’s medical practitioner.
The measure comes after Senate Democrats attempted to pass partisan legislation that would codify Roe. The vote in May, after a draft version of the Supreme Court decision was leaked, failed, gaining the support of 49 Democrats. One Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and all Republicans, voted against it, including Collins and Murkowksi because, they said, it went far beyond codifying Roe.
Kaine admits, however, that the proposal being unveiled Monday does not have the support of 10 Republicans needed for it to pass the Senate. Still, he said it’s an important marker in the conversation.
The bipartisan bill also ensures access to contraception, which abortion advocates fear will be outlawed in some conservative states or that Griswold v. Connecticut, the Supreme Court case that granted a personal right to contraception, would be overturned. The bill also includes a conscience clause, which allows a provider to opt out of abortion services if it violates a religious belief, an issue that was important to Collins.
“There’s a majority of the U.S. Senate that wants to codify Roe v. Wade, and to leave the impression that there’s only a minority that wants to codify Roe v. Wade, I think, is that’s a weak position to be in,” Kaine said in an interview Monday.
“For five decades, reproductive health-care decisions were centered with the individual — we cannot go back in time in limiting personal freedoms for women,” Murkowski said in a statement.
This just in: White House announces new $550 million security aid for Ukraine
5:53 PMNoted: W.Va. politician who apologized for Jan. 6 now writing defiant book | 2022-08-01T19:19:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Senators unveil bipartisan abortion access bill; measure unlikely to pass - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/01/senators-unveil-bipartisan-abortion-access-bill-unlikely-pass/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/01/senators-unveil-bipartisan-abortion-access-bill-unlikely-pass/ |
By Sally Wadyka
News stories have recently raised alarms about sunscreens. Last summer, several spray sunscreens were recalled after benzene, a known carcinogen, was detected in them. Other research has shown that some sunscreen ingredients can seep through skin into your bloodstream, and the Food and Drug Administration has asked manufacturers for more data on their safety. And Hawaii has banned certain ingredients because of concerns that they may harm ocean reefs.
With all that, you may be asking yourself whether sunscreen is still worth it.
The short answer: Absolutely. While those issues raise real concerns, at this point the risks are more theoretical than proved. Regular sunscreen use, on the other hand, clearly prevents skin cancers and saves lives. Some research suggests that it can lower the risk of melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer, by about 50 percent.
In addition, there are smart choices you can make to ensure that the sunscreens you choose for yourself and your family are safe and effective, and maybe better for the environment.
Why your sunscreen isn’t working
To help in that effort, Consumer Reports tests dozens of sunscreens, identifying those that work best and those that don’t protect you as well. We’ve also tested every spray sunscreen in our ratings for benzene: All were free of the harmful chemical. (Read “Benzene, a Known Carcinogen, Has Been Found in Some Spray Sunscreens, Deodorants, and Other Products” for more on benzene in aerosol personal care products.) We also delved into the research and talked with experts to understand the potential health and environmental health risks posed by some sunscreen ingredients. Here are answers to some important questions.
Are some of them safer?
Recent research has led to some concerns about chemical sunscreens — those that use one or more of a dozen chemical ingredients approved for use in the United States to filter the sun’s damaging ultraviolet rays.
In 2019, the FDA announced that it wanted more information on the safety of those ingredients, including whether they are absorbed systemically — through the skin into the bloodstream. That’s in part because Americans are now using a lot more sunscreen than in the past, and because today’s products contain more combinations and higher concentrations of the ingredients.
Soon after, FDA scientists published studies showing that six common chemical ingredients — avobenzone, homosalate, octinoxate, octisalate, octocrylene and oxybenzone — do indeed get into the bloodstream.
The FDA stresses that absorption doesn’t mean these ingredients are unsafe. But the amounts absorbed were higher than the levels the FDA says would exempt them from safety testing, so more research is needed.
“The key question is whether that systemic absorption actually causes harm,” says Kathleen Suozzi, assistant professor of dermatology at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn.
A lab found a carcinogen in dozens of sunscreens. Here’s what those findings really mean.
Definitive answers may be years away. “Generating the type of information the FDA desires is tough, time-consuming and very expensive,” says Mark Chandler, president of ACT Solutions, which consults with sunscreen and other cosmetic manufacturers on product formulation.
The FDA, the American Academy of Dermatology and independent researchers say there is no need for people to stop using chemical sunscreens.
“These UV filters have been used for years by millions of people, and there have not been noticeable systemic effects,” says Henry W. Lim, a leading sunscreen researcher and former chair of the department of dermatology at Henry Ford Health in Michigan, who has also consulted with sunscreen-makers. “I still feel very comfortable saying these are a safe way to prevent skin cancer and other damage from the sun.”
But some of those chemicals may be more worrisome than others. “Oxybenzone and, to a lesser extent, octinoxate have emerged as the biggest concerns,” Lim says.
That’s primarily because preliminary research in animals suggests that oxybenzone might interfere with hormone production, which theoretically could affect fertility, puberty and thyroid function. But sunscreen research that has been done in humans hasn’t raised any major concerns. For example, although a 2020 review of 29 studies that looked at the health effects of oxybenzone and octinoxate said more research was needed, it also did not identify clear links to any health problems.
Still, to play it safe, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents not use oxybenzone-containing sunscreens on children. And people of any age who want to avoid sunscreens with either of those chemicals can easily do so, because manufacturers are now using them less often. Few sunscreens in our ratings contain oxybenzone and none have octinoxate.
Use mineral sunscreen?
It’s true that sunscreens with the minerals titanium dioxide and zinc oxide — which work by creating a physical barrier on your skin — aren’t absorbed into the skin and don’t make their way into the bloodstream.
Unfortunately, those mineral sunscreens might not be as effective as products with the most efficient chemical filters, Chandler says. All the mineral sunscreens CR has tested appear near the middle or bottom of our ratings.
3.4 million Americans could be diagnosed with skin cancer in 2022
One possible reason: It takes a lot of titanium or zinc to create a product with a high SPF, Chandler says, and it’s difficult to do that without making the sunscreen thick, gloppy and hard to rub in. In addition, the minerals sometimes clump up in the product, so they don’t get evenly dispersed on skin, leaving potential gaps in protection.
Try ‘reef safe’ products?
Some research suggests that oxybenzone and octinoxate may threaten coral in ocean reefs and harm other marine life. So far, that connection has primarily been studied at high doses and in the lab, not in the real world. And in research looking at sunscreen chemicals in ocean water, the amounts detected, even at popular beaches, are far below the levels linked to damage in lab studies.
Still, the potential concern has prompted Hawaii, the U.S. Virgin Islands and some other locations to ban sunscreens with either ingredient. And some sunscreen manufacturers now label their products as “reef safe.” In most cases, the term is used when a product doesn’t have either oxybenzone or octinoxate. But the FDA does not regulate the term, so it has no defined meaning.
So if you want a product without oxybenzone or octinoxate, your best bet is to check the ingredients list.
Does a spray or lotion work better?
Used correctly, both can do a good job.
But sprays can be tricky to apply. “The droplets can disperse into the air, making it easy to miss areas on your skin,” Lim says. To avoid that, spray sunscreen onto the palm of your hand and then rub it in. Next best is to hold the nozzle just an inch from your skin, spray until you can see a film on your skin and then rub it in.
Also take care to make sure you don’t inhale the spray, because the ingredients may irritate or even harm your lungs. (For that reason, CR’s experts say it’s best not to use sprays on kids.) Spraying it into your hand also helps prevent inhalation. Never spray directly into your face, and be careful using sprays when it’s windy. The spray can blow into your face and mouth, or disperse and not adequately cover your skin.
Skip sunscreen if you cover up?
Not entirely. You still need it on exposed skin. Experts point to enormous amounts of research linking sun exposure to about 90 percent of skin cancers, and the proven effectiveness of sunscreens in blocking cancer-causing UV rays.
In rare occasions, dark-skinned people can get skin cancer. But sunscreens won’t help.
But covering up means you can use far less sunscreen. For example, if you wear a long-sleeved swim shirt or rash guard instead of a traditional bathing suit, you won’t need to apply sunscreen to your arms, back and chest. That can reduce the amount of sunscreen that you need to use on your body and that might get into your skin or into the ocean.
Dermatologists say sunscreen should never be your only defense against UV rays. Try to avoid the sun at its strongest, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. And when you are outside, especially during those hours, cover up, wear a broad-brimmed hat and seek shade when possible.
Are safer ones coming?
Concerns about sunscreen ingredients being absorbed through skin and into the bloodstream have prompted some researchers to look for alternatives, says Christopher Bunick, associate professor of dermatology at the Yale School of Medicine.
Researchers there are exploring formulas that encapsulate chemical sunscreen ingredients, which would keep them on top of the skin and provide protection without being absorbed.
It’s also possible that some of the sunscreen ingredients used in Europe and Canada will be approved for use here. A few are stuck in the FDA approval process. “So this is a glimmer of hope that we might eventually see [them] used in sunscreens in the U.S.,” Lim says. | 2022-08-01T19:23:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What you need to know about chemicals in your sunscreen - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/08/01/sunscreen-chemicals-safety/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/08/01/sunscreen-chemicals-safety/ |
A composite photo of Bill Russell, left, in 1956, and Nichelle Nichols in the late 1960s. (AP Photo; Paramount/Everett Collection).
Bill Russell was arguably the greatest and certainly the most transformational player and coach in National Basketball Association history, a man whose tremendous physical gifts were overshadowed by his fierce intelligence. Nichelle Nichols, who portrayed Lt. Uhura on the original “Star Trek,” was a Black actress in a non-racialized role who showed that African Americans, too, could “boldly go where no man has gone before.”
Russell, who died at 88, and Nichols, who was 89, both received personal support and encouragement from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Russell stood prominently — at just two inches shy of seven feet tall, that was the only way he could stand — at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where King gave the “I Have a Dream” speech. And King talked Nichols out of quitting the sci-fi series, telling her simply: “You cannot do that.”
First, consider Russell. He was my father’s favorite basketball player, and we would sit together in front of our black-and-white set and watch as Russell’s Boston Celtics won championship after championship — 11 in all, including an incredible eight in a row between 1959 and 1966.
Of course there were other towering Black stars in the NBA, among them Russell’s great rival, Wilt Chamberlain. But what set Russell apart was that he played more with his brain than with his body. He was a defensive genius, studying opponents’ tendencies so he could best neutralize them. He made rebounding into a science, anticipating how the ball would carom off the rim or backboard so he could get there first. My dad and I marveled at how he could block the taller, stronger Chamberlain’s shots — and not just swat the ball away but tip it purposefully toward a teammate.
Even more important, to a young Black kid growing up in the South, was that the Celtics were Russell’s team, period. When he was on the floor, he ran the action. And when legendary coach Red Auerbach stepped away, Russell became both the team’s most indispensable player and its head coach — the first African American coach in a major American sports league. In that dual role, he led the Celtics to two more championships.
Now consider Nichols. In her own way, she was every bit as important a pioneer. When “Star Trek” debuted in 1966, she was not the first Black actor to appear on network television. But the role of Uhura was not a “Black” role. She was just like any other well-trained, supremely competent officer on the bridge of the starship Enterprise. Americans had never before seen images of a Black woman in that context beamed into their living rooms. In my house, “Star Trek” was must-see television — not because of Captain Kirk or Mr. Spock, but because of Lt. Uhura.
Nichols had decided to leave the show after the first season to star in a Broadway play, but before making her departure final, she went to an NAACP banquet where she was told that a special fan wanted to meet her. “I looked across the way and there was the face of Dr. Martin Luther King smiling at me and walking toward me,” she told NPR in 2011.
When she told King she was quitting “Star Trek,” he forbade it. “For the first time, we are being seen the world over as we should be seen,” Nichols said King told her. “He says, do you understand that this is the only show that my wife Coretta and I will allow our little children to stay up and watch? I was speechless.”
The battles we have to fight today seem small compared to the wars Russell and Nichols waged and won. They were part of Black America’s greatest generation. We thank them for their courage. | 2022-08-01T19:23:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Bill Russell and Nichelle Nichols were part of Black America's greatest generation - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/01/bill-russell-nichelle-nichols-martin-luther-king/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/01/bill-russell-nichelle-nichols-martin-luther-king/ |
Then-Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax (D-Va.) at Virginia State University in Petersburg, Va., on April 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
“It is time to get answers to the questions that surround these troubling cases.” That is what we wrote two years ago about the sexual allegations made by two women against then-Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax (D-Va.). Mr. Fairfax, denying the allegations, had pushed federal and local law enforcement to investigate but nothing happened and questions remain unanswered. Was Mr. Fairfax a serial sexual offender? Or was he — promising political career derailed and professional life shattered — the victim of a rush to judgment or, as he contends, something more sinister, a politically-motivated attack? The FBI reportedly is now investigating the matter, which we hope will bring long-needed resolution.
The FBI, according to the Intercept, is probing the circumstances under which allegations of sexual assaults against Mr. Fairfax surfaced in February 2019. The allegations emerged when it appeared that Mr. Fairfax might soon become governor. Then-Gov. Ralph Northam (D) faced widespread calls to resign amid scandal over a blackface photo. Vanessa Tyson, a college professor, accused Mr. Fairfax of forcing her to perform oral sex in a Boston hotel room in 2004. Meredith Watson accused him of raping her while the two were students at Duke University in 2000. Mr. Fairfax acknowledged having sexual relations with the women but said the encounters were consensual.
As is its general rule, the FBI won’t confirm or deny if an investigation is underway. But Mr. Fairfax said he was interviewed by agents in early June for nearly three hours. Four other people, The Post’s Laura Vozzella reported, were contacted by the FBI. It is not clear what has now prompted the apparent interest. Mr. Fairfax told us that agents used the words “public corruption”; the Intercept reported that the FBI asked about whether money or other benefits were offered to either of the women around the time of the allegations and whether their accounts were inconsistent.
Mr. Fairfax has pointed to Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney (D) and former governor Terry McAuliffe (D) of being behind the allegations. Mr. Stoney and Mr. McAuliffe have denied the assertions. Attorneys for the two women said neither they nor their clients have heard from the FBI and that no one put them up to coming forward. “This is just the latest act of retaliation by Justin Fairfax,” the attorney for Ms. Tyson emailed us, “There is not one iota of evidence that would support his unhinged conspiracy theory.”
The women’s allegations have not been disproved but Mr. Fairfax has raised some questions and pointed out some inconsistencies. Foremost is his assertion there was a witness to the Duke incident who will corroborate his claim the sex was consensual. He has contended a criminal investigation is best equipped to get to the truth and has pushed hard to get one — unsuccessfully appealing to prosecutors in Boston and Durham, submitting to a lie-detector test and now agreeing to talk to the FBI without an attorney present. The women declined to file criminal complaints.
We can’t think of another prominent man accused of sexual assault who has gone to such lengths — practically begging — for an investigation, which would put him at some risk. That, of course, doesn’t mean he is telling the truth and the women are lying, which for far too long was the assumption when rape victims came forward. The best way to try to determine who is telling the truth is to conduct an investigation, which is why the FBI’s apparent interest is welcome.
Youngkin’s pragmatic school board picks offer hope for reform | 2022-08-01T19:23:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Justin Fairfax investigation may finally happen - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/01/justin-fairfax-fbi-investigation-sexual-allegations/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/01/justin-fairfax-fbi-investigation-sexual-allegations/ |
Deshaun Watson is likely to miss at least six games this season for violating the league's personal conduct policy. (David Dermer/AP)
Sue L. Robinson, a former U.S. district judge, on Monday ruled that Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson should be suspended for six games over allegations that he sexually assaulted a sizable number of female massage therapists between 2019 and 2021. Robinson was called in to rule on the matter after a three-day hearing in late June as “a Disciplinary Officer jointly selected and appointed” by the NFL and its players’ union, per the language in the most recent collective bargaining agreement signed in 2020. Previously, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was the sole arbiter of player discipline.
The NFL now has three days to review Robinson’s ruling. If it disagrees with the terms, the league will appeal to Goodell, who could add more games to Watson’s punishment.
Here are four takeaways from Robinson’s ruling.
1. Watson committed sexual assault against the four massage therapists included in the NFL’s investigation.
Robinson found that the NFL had proved its contention that Watson committed sexual assault against the four therapists, in violation of the league’s code of conduct. The NFL defined sexual assault in the Watson case as “unwanted sexual contact with another person,” and claimed the quarterback “committed sexual assault by allegedly ‘touching [his] penis to the women without their consent.’ ”
In the absence of a confession, Robinson said she had to weigh the circumstantial evidence in the case, and she found it sufficient “to support the NFL’s contention not only that contact occurred, but that Mr. Watson was aware that contact probably would occur, and that Mr. Watson had a sexual purpose — not just a therapeutic purpose — in making these arrangements with these particular therapists.”
Robinson also concluded Watson was aware such contact was unwanted by the therapists because one of them said she expressed her discomfort to Watson during the massage session, another ended the session early and none of the four accepted Mr. Watson’s invitations for further massage sessions.
2. Watson’s conduct posed a genuine danger to the safety and well-being of another person.
The NFL code of conduct also prohibits actions that pose a “genuine danger to the safety and well-being of another person,” and Robinson again found the NFL had proved Watson violated this rule. The four massage therapists all testified that they went through some form of anguish after their sessions with Watson, with one of them seeking counseling and another considering other lines of work as a result.
3. Watson’s behavior undermined the NFL’s integrity.
The NFL, Robinson asserts, has a nebulous definition of what defines behavior that undermines the league’s “integrity,” because it says the “matters that can affect such integrity and public confidence [in the game of professional football] change over time.” The league said Tom Brady hurt its integrity during the Deflategate incident, for instance, and claims Watson did the same here.
Robinson agreed, finding that “Mr. Watson acted with a reckless disregard for the consequences of his actions by exposing himself (and the NFL) to such public scrutiny and speculation. Mr. Watson’s predatory conduct cast ‘a negative light on the League and its players,’ sufficient proof that he violated this provision of the Policy.”
4. Nevertheless, Watson’s behavior was not considered violent conduct.
Even though she described Watson’s actions as “predatory,” Robinson found it “undisputed that Mr. Watson’s conduct does not fall into the category of violent conduct.” And because Robinson used the NFL’s past player suspensions as a guide, she said that “prior cases involving nonviolent sexual assault have resulted in discipline far less severe than what the NFL proposes here, the most severe penalty being a 3-game suspension for a player who had been previously warned about his conduct.”
The NFL wanted to suspend Watson for an entire season, but Robinson rejected that notion because of the above reason and because the league only defined what constituted Watson’s prohibited conduct after the fact, without defining it in the collective bargaining agreement, a notion she called “inherently unfair.”
In the end, Robinson recommended a six-game suspension because “Mr. Watson’s pattern of conduct is more egregious than any before reviewed by the NFL.”
Four takeaways from Deshaun Watson’s six-game suspension | 2022-08-01T19:24:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Four takeaways from Deshaun Watson's six-game suspension ruling - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/01/deshaun-watson-suspension-takeaways/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/01/deshaun-watson-suspension-takeaways/ |
The perfect beach read doesn’t always involve a beach
A man lays on a towel and reads a book at the beach during a hot day this summer in Barcelona. (Emilio Morenatti/Associated Press)
Perfect vacation plus perfect book equals perfect experience. That is the hope, anyway. As we settle into the languid part of the summer, I asked readers to share sublime book and holiday combinations that stuck with them.
Clark Silcox of the District has an unusual practice. He brings along a book he has already read to give it a second look. “Most times, I find both the book and the reading experience different from the first time,” he wrote.
Clark doesn’t typically try to match the book’s setting to the vacation’s location. But he did once, taking “The Magus” by John Fowles on a vacation to the pair of Greek Islands he visited in 2002. Clark first read the 1965 book in the early 1970s, a few years after a film based on it came out.
“Set on the coastal waters of the Peloponnesian Peninsula, it melds Greek myth and a little World War II history into a tour de force novel,” Clark wrote. “Perhaps it was the glistening waters of the Aegean around Naxos and Santorini that recalled similar visions in the scenes from the film and the book, but the novel was just as good the second time around.”
A beach was also the setting for one of the strongest reading memories of Marti Anderson. “I got totally fried on Waikiki reading ‘The Silence of the Lambs,’” wrote Marti, who lives in Portland, Ore. “I kept saying, ‘20 more minutes.’ But I think I wouldn’t have been able to put it down anywhere. For me, a peak experience.”
Lee Solter of Urbana, Ill., just spent two weeks with her husband, Phil, in a paddle-in cabin in northern Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. There were lots of rainy days, perfect for hunkering down with a good book.
Lee read “How to Catch a Mole” by Marc Hamer, which she said is “a lovely memoir about loving nature.” And Phil brought “Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art” by Rebecca Wragg Sykes, sometimes reading it aloud to Lee during marathon jigsaw puzzle sessions.
Wrote Lee: “Reading about our (partial) Neanderthal ancestors and their hunter-gatherer lifestyle was perfect, and complemented muffins and cobblers made with wild berries we gathered.”
Before embarking on a family trip to Barcelona, Dennis Van Derlaske of Woodbridge, Md., handed out some homework. He bought multiple paperback copies of “The Shadow of the Wind” by Carlos Ruiz Zafón — a book about books and Barcelona — for all to read. “It was a wonderful way to ease into an unfamiliar city,” Dennis wrote.
Judy Lacourciere of St. Petersburg, Fla., would fill a paper bag with books during childhood car rides. “The longer the book, the better,” she wrote. “I loved rereading the ‘Mary Poppins’ series or a bunch” of books by Ray Bradbury. Now her main criterion for a trip is that the book is long, especially if she flies, so she has something to read going and coming.
Wrote Judy: “The last book I brought with me was ‘Cloud Cuckoo Land,’ which was marvelous and absorbing, and every once in a while I’d look out the window at the clouds all around me and the world below, which added to my enjoyment,” referring to the book by Anthony Doerr.
During a trip to Israel, Stuart Lewis of Leesburg, Va., read “The Source” by James Michener. “It really was a great read, as it was about the biblical history of Israel,” Stuart wrote. “It was a great read by itself, but even greater in conjunction with my trip.”
Tina Rhea of Greenbelt, Md., counsels: “Whatever books you choose to take on your travels, if you have a companion, check with them. You may want to swap books partway through the trip.”
She added, “During a rainy week in the mountains of Puerto Rico, my husband sighed when he took up my copy of ‘Outlander’ by Diana Gabaldon, but he was surprised to find that the time-travel romance had enough adventure to keep his interest.” Tina thinks her husband brought “The Lord of the Rings” on that trip. She was happy to read it again.
During a vacation in Spain and France, Alice Ma of Durham, N.C., read 11 of the “Bruno, Chief of Police” mysteries by Martin Walker, who will soon publish the 15th in his series about a police officer in a part of southern France called the Perigord.
“I was transfixed, and my next vacation will absolutely be there,” she said. “The mysteries were secondary to scenes in the farmers markets, the rivers, the castles, the stables, and the descriptions of the food and wine.”
Wrote Alice: “Nothing like planning your next vacation while enjoying your current one. I came back super relaxed and anticipating my next holiday.”
Doesn’t it sometimes seem that the thing we need after a vacation is … another vacation? | 2022-08-01T20:11:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | These books made for sublime vacation experiences - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/01/vacation-books-beach/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/01/vacation-books-beach/ |
MLB trade deadline tracker: Closer Josh Hader moves to the Padres
Milwaukee Brewers closer Josh Hader was traded to the San Diego Padres on Monday. (Kenny Yoo/AP)
Padres trade for Brewers’ Josh Hader
Yankees strengthen bullpen
The Seattle Mariners got a jump-start on Major League Baseball’s trade deadline when they dealt four prospects to the Cincinnati Reds for ace Luis Castillo last week.
Several more players are expected to have new homes come Tuesday at 6 p.m.
Will the biggest name on the market, Washington Nationals outfielder Juan Soto, be among them?
Follow along for updates.
In a surprising move, the National League Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers traded four-time all-star closer Josh Hader to the San Diego Padres on Monday. The 28-year-old Hader has been one of baseball’s best closers over the past five years and leads the league with 29 saves, but he was shaky in July and is due to become a free agent after the 2023 season.
The #Padres have acquired LHP Josh Hader from the Milwaukee Brewers. Details: https://t.co/E55DWXQY9m pic.twitter.com/twHwIMSKE0
In return, the Brewers will receive fellow left-handed reliever Taylor Rogers, right-handed pitcher Dinelson Lamet, outfielder Esteury Ruiz and left-handed pitching prospect Robert Gasser. None of the Padres players involved in the trade are the top prospects who have been rumored as part of a potential deadline package for Soto. San Diego, which entered Monday 12 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West and in sole possession of the NL’s second wild-card spot, may not be done dealing.
The 31-year-old Rogers had 28 saves for the Padres before he was removed from the closer’s role by manager Bob Melvin last week. Ruiz, 23, made his major league debut last month after stealing 60 bases across two minor league levels. The 30-year-old Lamet was dominant during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, when he finished fourth in NL Cy Young voting, but has been hampered by elbow injuries since.
Milwaukee setup man Devin Williams could step into the Brewers’ closer role. The first-time all-star has a streak of 30 consecutive scoreless outings dating back to mid-May. Williams missed last year’s playoffs after punching a wall and fracturing his pitching hand the night Milwaukee clinched the division title.
The New York Yankees traded right-handed pitching prospect Hayden Wesneski to the Chicago Cubs on Monday in exchange for right-handed reliever Scott Effross.
Effross has a 2.66 ERA and 1.07 WHIP in 47 appearances this season, and the 28-year-old is under team control through 2027. The Yankees, who entered Monday with a league-best 69 wins, were in need of bullpen help after losing right-handed relievers Chad Green and Michael King to season-ending elbow injuries.
Wesneski, the Yankees’ seventh-best prospect according to MLB.com, was 6-7 with a 3.51 ERA for Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Mike Trout addresses alarm over back injury: ‘My career isn’t over’
The Orioles, with moxie and magic, are in an unfamiliar spot: On the rise | 2022-08-01T20:19:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | MLB trade deadline tracker 2022: Top prospects, moves for all 30 teams - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/01/mlb-trade-deadline-tracker-updates/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/01/mlb-trade-deadline-tracker-updates/ |
It’s time to retire the ‘third’ party conceit
An attendee wears a U.S. flag button during the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit held at the Tampa Convention Center on July 23 in Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
There is a 62-year-old woman in Baltimore County, Md., who has an unusual distinction: She is the only registered member of the Grass Roots Party in the United States.
Maryland is also home to the only registered member of the Natural Party and the only registered member of the Tax Party. It has three members of the Bull Moose Party, though there are more than 50 across the United States. It also has three members of the political party that is my personal favorite: the Anarchist Party. Like being a member of the Destroy All Clubs Club.
Most Anarchists (that is, party members, not actual anarchists) live in Pennsylvania. In that state, there are 44 Anarchist Party voters, out of more than 7 million third-party voters in general. There are more than 30 political parties with which Pennsylvanians have registered, from the American Party to the Whigs. (Amazingly, only three of the state’s 42 Whig Party members are older than 65.)
The point is simple. All the discussion in this country about the need for a third party — that is, an alternative to the Democratic and Republican parties — ignores that we already have a lot of political parties. In fact, in the states that report voter registration by party, 1 out of every 42 voters is already registered with a third party. (This is according to Washington Post analysis of voter data from the firm L2.) The 3.3 million third-party members in the reporting states make up 1 in 64 voters nationally.
The state with the highest density of third-party registrants is Alaska, with 1 in 11 voters
This is actual party members, mind you; not just “decline to state” or “independent.” It does, however, include members of the American Independent Party, a right-wing party that appears to benefit from voters mistakenly thinking that it’s the proper choice to register as an independent.
This is also just voter registration. There’s a whole other set of parties that have filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission but may not have registered voters anywhere. Parties like United Change (which may be limited in membership by the typo in its URL), the National Cannabis Party and Black Lives Matter. There are plenty of “unity” themed ones, too, from Iowa Patriots United to the United America Party to the Unity Party.
I included those in that list because they have actual domains. A number of FEC-registered political parties do not, including:
The American Party of 1776
Apple Party
Colours Christian Political Party
Jeffersonian Party
Liberty4Life
Patriots Rising
Rebels of Freedom
The Rising Tide Party
The Welcome Party
There are also several more “unity” parties, including United Change, the Global Unification Party and Messiah United, which honestly sounds more like an oft-relegated Welsh soccer team.
Should one choose, a voter might seek to be affiliated with one of two parties founded by a gentleman in Modesto, Calif., the Order of the Dracul or Societas Signum Draconis — the Order of the Dragon. The policy platforms of these parties is unclear, but I would assume that they are diametrically opposed to the Homo Sapiens Americanus Party, also registered with the FEC.
I am also unclear on the political focus of the Intergalactical Global And Local Religious Government and Political Party, which you may know better as IGALRGAPP. Or perhaps not.
As I noted last week when a cadre of former politicians and elected officials announced a new “third” party — Forward! — what people are demanding when they seek a new “third” party isn’t really a third party, as such. It’s a party that can serve as a viable counterweight to the two most dominant parties in the United States. It’s not a call for a third party; it’s a call for the end to a system dominated by only two parties. Being more direct about that aim would probably go a lot further toward diminishing the sense of failure that often accompanies these declarations that a new party has been willed into existence.
A newspaper in Delaware documents the views of two of the Forward Party’s candidates on one of the party’s points of focus. The “evils” of racial injustice “can only be ended by such abolition of oppressive privilege as is set forth in our platform,” the candidates wrote in a questionnaire, “in organizing the Forward Party in Delaware as a part of the nationwide movement for a new national political party.”
This statement was published in October of ’22 — 1922. The Forward Party one century ago failed to establish a new national political party of any significance.
History does not record what became of any prior political organizations centered on the needs of dragons. | 2022-08-01T20:41:38Z | www.washingtonpost.com | It’s time to retire the ‘third’ party conceit - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/01/elections-third-party-democrats-republicans/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/01/elections-third-party-democrats-republicans/ |
Perspective by David Betancourt
Nichelle Nichols in “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.” (Moviestore/Shutterstock)
Nichelle Nichols boldly went where no Black woman had gone before — and gave sci-fi fans of color a bridge to the stars.
The actress, who died Saturday at the age of 89, gave us many layers of inspiration during her three immortalized seasons as Lt. Nyota Uhura on the original “Star Trek” television series, and later in movies inspired by it. She was the gorgeous one. She was the Black one. A translator. A marvel with technology. In the 1960s, when civil rights activism in the real world blanketed a divided country, she was a fictional, in-color look at the future Black people and so many other minorities in America strive for: an era where we can just be.
The light shone from Nichols’s star helped create a world where Black women have been everything from an actual first lady to a lightsaber-wielding henchwoman for Darth Vader in another sci-fi galaxy far, far away. Even Martin Luther King Jr. saw the power in Nichols’s position. When she was thinking about leaving “Star Trek” for other opportunities in show business, King pleaded with her to stay. Why? Because he knew the world needed to see Black people in roles of equal status before it could believe in such a thing. And Nichols, sitting confidently in her chair on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, basking in Black beauty Hollywood wasn’t yet truly ready to embrace, with an earpiece that made Bluetooth look cool before Bluetooth was even a thing, was an agent of that change, even if she didn’t realize it yet.
Actress Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura in the Star Trek franchise and helped pave the way for Black actresses in Hollywood, died on July 30. (Video: Allie Caren/The Washington Post)
Nichols’s Uhura spent a lot of time in her seat, sometimes not doing more than just taking calls. But that didn’t mean she was relegated to servitude — she was responsible for communications, as the expert on languages both alien and human. She could be supportive and authoritative, a team player and a problem solver. She got to sing every so often, plus she shared a strong chemistry on-screen with Leonard Nimoy’s Spock and was a part of one of television’s first interracial kisses, with William Shatner’s Capt. James T. Kirk.
Nichols is also responsible for multiple Black actresses energizing rebooted versions of Star Trek over the years. Zoe Saldana played Uhura in the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie trilogy and Celia Rose Gooding now plays Uhura in “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” streaming on Paramount Plus. When Whoopi Goldberg first saw Nichols on television when she was a child, she screamed for her family to come gather around the screen, enamored by seeing a Black woman who wasn’t a maid. Goldberg set her sights on deep space at that exact moment and has since been an integral part of Star Trek lore as Guinan both on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “Picard.”
Obituary: Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura in Star Trek franchise, dies at 89
She also paved the path for Black actors: the futuristic eye visor-wearing LeVar Burton as Geordi La Forge, Michael Dorn under all that Klingon makeup as Worf, Tim Russ as a Black Vulcan on “Star Trek: Voyager.” All are Star Trek icons.
Then there are the Black captains: Avery Brooks’s Benjamin Sisko on “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” and, most recently, Sonequa Martin-Green’s Michael Burnham on “Star Trek: Discovery.” Nichols played someone on the bridge of a starship, but she probably never imagined, even in a world of make-believe, that Hollywood would place a Black woman like her in the chair reserved for Shatner. Martin-Green’s Burnham took command of the stars, saving the universe in the process, because of the possibility and believability that was forged the moment Nichols took her seat.
That was what Nichols gave so many: the ability to believe. Believing you deserve a seat. Believing the universe is everyone’s playground. And believing you have a right to be there. Where? Anywhere in the galaxy.
Within every Black sci-fi fan is a dreamer. It could be Ta-Nehisi Coates creating galactic adventures for the Black Panther for Marvel Comics, or N.K. Jemisin and Jamal Campbell creating a Black female Green Lantern in the image of Janelle Monáe. The far-out dream for so many of us is to see ourselves in another world where our Blackness hasn’t been defined for us by outsiders. The dream is to believe that somewhere in the vastness of space, there exists someone like yourself, living up to a potential without limits. | 2022-08-01T20:54:42Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Nichelle Nichols made Black sci-fi fans believe they could reach for the stars - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/08/01/nichelle-nichols-star-trek/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/08/01/nichelle-nichols-star-trek/ |
Bill Russell in Boston in April 1966, when he was named the first black coach in NBA history. (AP)
Obituary: Bill Russell, basketball great who worked for civil rights, dies at 88
He didn’t care just about his dignity, he cared about yours. Someone would come up and ask for his autograph and he’d spend five minutes telling them why he wasn’t going to give it to them. He thought it was impersonal. “Would you like to shake my hand instead?” he’d ask.
He was first a lot. He was the first athlete I ever knew who called himself “Black” instead of “Negro.” The first to visit Africa (1959). First to play in a goatee. At a 1961 exhibition game in Lexington, Ky., a restaurant refused to serve him and his Black teammates, so he told the coach it was time to pack up and leave town, without playing the game. They did.
Eleven!
Eugene Robinson: Farewell to two members of Black America’s greatest generation
He had reason. He openly fought white supremacy and suffered for it. One night, he and his family came back to their Reading, Mass., home to find “NIGGA” spray-painted on their walls and feces in their bed. Police didn’t do much about it. Later on, Russell got hold of his FBI file. It described him as “an arrogant Negro who won’t sign autographs for white children.” No wonder he refused to have his jersey retired in front of Boston fans.
“Sure but … why?” Bill asked her.
Perhaps the Nationals should try for AAA | 2022-08-01T20:55:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Bill Russell was a basketball giant who cared about all his teammates - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/01/bill-russell-basketball-giant-cared-about-dignity/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/01/bill-russell-basketball-giant-cared-about-dignity/ |
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema on Capitol Hill in February. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Senate Democrats have overcome obstacle after obstacle in their push to pass a reconciliation package, and this week they’re close to the finish. Unless a final something — or someone — stands in their way.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) reportedly wasn’t included in talks between Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) as they hammered out the details of the surprise Inflation Reduction Act announced last week. The deal, nonetheless, is largely in line with the preferences she laid out in past negotiations: from its relatively modest reforms to prescription drug pricing to action on climate to the 15 percent corporate minimum tax rate estimated to raise $313 billion. Indeed, that the legislation neglects broader hikes on the highest income Americans is itself a form of concession. There is, however, a big exception. The closure of the carried interest loophole has been a boogeyman for Ms. Sinema from the beginning. But it is in the bill before her today — and for good reason.
The carried interest loophole is essentially a way for fund managers to make a lot of money and pay the government very little back because the share of the fund’s profits they receive for their work is taxed at a top rate of just under 24 percent — dramatically less than the 37 percent top rate for ordinary income. This giveaway is so valuable that many have it to thank for the bulk of their fortunes. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Blackstone Inc. CEO Stephen Schwarzman received somewhere around $150 million in carried interest compensation last year; two other executives at the company received close to $92 million and $77 million. There’s simply no excuse for any lawmaker who purports to care about economic justice or equality to oppose eliminating the carried interest loophole.
Henry Olsen: Kyrsten Sinema has all the power right now. She should use it.
Yet all the same, Congress — many of whose members benefit from the donations of the deep-pocketed — could allow this scandal to persist, especially if Ms. Sinema demands it. She shouldn’t. Republicans have been making hay in recent days of an analysis by the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, claiming that the reconciliation would raise rates on those earning less than $400,000 per year, contrary to President Biden’s pledges. This is mostly meaningless. The theory that some of the new 15 percent minimum tax on corporations would be passed on to employees and to shareholders doesn’t change the reality that the bulk of the burden would fall on the richest and the bulk of the benefit would redound to those worse off: whether it comes as help affording medicine or health care or as an investment in slowing global warming.
Ms. Sinema shouldn’t sink this bill, most of whose contents she has indicated in the past that she supports. And she shouldn’t sink it because she opposes closing the carried interest loophole. That provision unambiguously aids those who need help most, at the expense only of those who need it not at all. | 2022-08-01T20:55:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Kyrsten Sinema shouldn't sink the Inflation Reduction Act - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/01/kyrsten-sinema-should-support-inflation-reduction-act/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/01/kyrsten-sinema-should-support-inflation-reduction-act/ |
The deal would also approve a West Virginia gas pipeline. The West Virginia senator and Democratic leaders forged a separate deal to expand energy infrastructure that would have to be voted on outside the party’s energy package
WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 21: Sen. Joe Manchin(D-WV) faces reporters as he arrives at a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee at the Dirksen S.O.B. at the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, DC. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
A side agreement reached between Democratic leadership and Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) as part of their broader deal on an economic package would overhaul the nation’s process for approving new energy projects, aiming to significantly expedite building across the country by removing bureaucratic obstacles, according to a one-page summary obtained by The Washington Post.
To win Manchin’s support for the climate, energy, and health care package, Democratic leaders agreed to attempt to advance separate legislation on expediting energy projects. These changes would fall outside the bounds of the Senate budget procedure the party is using to pass its budget bill, making it impossible for Democrats to approve that as part of their reconciliation bill. The new agreement would need GOP support before it could be signed into law.
The Democrats’ agreement would set new two-year limits, or maximum timelines, for environmental reviews for “major” projects, the summary says. It would also aim to streamline the government process for deciding approvals by centralizing decision-making with one lead agency, the summary adds. The bill would also approve the Mountain Valley pipeline, which would transport Appalachian shale gas about 300 miles from West Virginia to Virginia and is a key priority of Manchin’s.
Manchin had voiced concerns about approving hundreds of billions in government subsidies for fossil fuel projects that could be defeated by red tape or climate lawsuits. Climate groups are likely to resist the changes in the bill, as they would likely expedite fossil fuel projects sought by Manchin and oil and gas companies. But climate groups have also said the deal is worth making because the upside of the new clean energy tax credits outweighs the downside of the new fossil fuel projects.
How the Schumer-Manchin climate deal might impact you and change the U.S. | 2022-08-01T20:57:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Manchin-Schumer side agreement would overhaul environmental review - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/08/01/manchin-pipeline-drilling-permit/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/08/01/manchin-pipeline-drilling-permit/ |
Two key members of Congress on their mental health legislation
Their bipartisan legislation is focused on helping the millions of Americans suffering from mental health issues and forms of addiction. Join Washington Post Live on Wednesday, Aug. 10 at 1:00 p.m. ET as Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Rep. Ann Kuster (D-N.H.) talk about their effort to simplify access to mental health insurance coverage and opioid treatment prescriptions.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick
(R-Pa.)
Rep. Ann Kuster
(D-N.H.) | 2022-08-01T20:57:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Two key members of Congress on their mental health legislation - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/08/10/two-key-members-congress-their-mental-health-legislation/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/08/10/two-key-members-congress-their-mental-health-legislation/ |
PM Update: Temperatures rise to around 90 Tuesday
Sunflowers growing along the Anacostia River over the weekend. (Jeannie in D.C./Flickr)
Not a bad start to August. I like to think of the month as already having turned the corner from summer’s heat. Whether or not that’s true — it is based on averages but not always on weather — the thought helps. Today’s highs in the mid- and upper 80s were pretty close to average for the date. Humidity was enough to be felt but not too much of a bother.
Through Tonight: Skies are mainly clear through the night, although a patch or two of fog may develop in the typically foggiest locales like a nook or cranny near water. Lows range from near 70 to the mid-70s. Winds are light from the south-southwest.
Tomorrow (Tuesday): It’s another day filled with lots of sun. In early August, that usually means it’s going to be hot. Temperatures rising to highs near 90 are a little above average. Nothing notable, though. Winds are out of the southwest around 10 mph, with occasionally higher gusts. Humidity makes it feel a few degrees warmer than it is but is not exceptionally high.
Pollen update: Mold spores are high. The other main allergens are low.
Flood rescue: During the summertime monsoon in the Desert Southwest, intense flooding can seemingly come from nowhere. Last week offered up a number of flood events in the region. A police rescue was perhaps the most intense. It was caught on body cam last Friday in Arizona. | 2022-08-01T20:57:17Z | www.washingtonpost.com | PM Update: Temperatures rise to around 90 Tuesday - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/08/01/dc-area-forecast-near-90-tuesday/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/08/01/dc-area-forecast-near-90-tuesday/ |
Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador speaks during his morning news conference at the National Palace in Mexico City on July 28. (Mario Guzman/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
The United States and Mexico have plenty of tough issues to deal with, from the lingering coronavirus pandemic to inflation to the continuing surge of migrants through their mutual border. It would be best for both countries if they could address them in an atmosphere of calm and mutual cooperation, with no gratuitous irritations to this vital bilateral relationship.
Unfortunately, such irritation is all too likely as long as Andrés Manuel López Obrador occupies the Mexican presidency. A quirky populist whose worldview centers on restoring what he misperceives as the lost glory of Mexico’s nationalized oil industry, Mr. López Obrador inherited a modified version of the North American Free Trade Agreement that his predecessor had negotiated with President Donald Trump; it took effect on July 1, 2020. And yet Mr. López Obrador has continued to press for greater control over Mexico’s energy markets, to the point where his policies now arguably violate the terms of the revised trade pact, known as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). The Biden administration has no choice but to push back.
At issue is a new Mexican law that awards a state-run producer, which relies heavily on coal, a greater share of the electric power market, to the detriment of private U.S.-owned firms, which include wind and solar companies. In addition, a 2019 regulation awarded Pemex, the state-owned oil company, extra time to reduce the amount of sulfur in automotive diesel fuel, an advantage over U.S.-supplied diesel. The Biden administration also accuses Mexico of discriminating against U.S. firms in licensing and permitting. This is the rare complaint that blends environmental issues — Mr. López Obrador’s tilting of the playing field in favor of Mexican fossil fuels — with traditional free-trade concerns. A bipartisan coalition in Congress opposes Mr. López Obrador’s policy, as do industry groups from the American Petroleum Institute and the American Clean Power Association. The government of Canada has also supported the U.S. position.
As called for under USMCA, the United States has requested “consultations” with Mexico over the issue; if that does not bear fruit within 75 days, the parties will move to a formal dispute resolution, with punitive tariffs awaiting Mexico if it is found to be at fault. This is especially pointless and regrettable given the main victims of Mr. López Obrador’s policies are likely to be Mexican consumers and business, who will have to pay more for energy. Mr. López Obrador should be more concerned than he seems to be about the damage to Mexico’s international prestige caused by the contradictions between his energy policy and the country’s international climate commitments.
For now, though, Mr. López Obrador is enjoying a nationalistic sugar rush, mocking the United States’s request for consultations in a recent newsconference. This was especially inappropriate — and ominous — in the context of other recent outbursts in which the Mexican president has labeled domestic critics “traitors.” By telling Mr. López Obrador, in effect, “we’ll see you in court,” the United States is standing up for its own interests and, in a real sense, the best interests of Mexico’s people, too. | 2022-08-01T21:25:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Mexico’s energy policy gives the U.S. no choice but to push back - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/01/mexico-us-energy-disagreement/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/01/mexico-us-energy-disagreement/ |
The Egyptian-born physician took over the terrorist group after the death of Osama bin Laden
Americans knew him as al-Qaeda’s No. 2 leader, the bespectacled, bushy-bearded deputy to Osama bin Laden. But in reality, it was Ayman al-Zawahiri’s brains and blood-drenched hands that guided the world’s most notorious terrorist movement.
Zawahiri, 71, was killed by the United States, U.S. officials familiar with the matter said Aug. 1. No other details were immediately made public.
Zawahiri led his own militant group and pioneered a brand of terrorism that prized spectacular attacks and the indiscriminate slaughter of civilians. When he formally merged his group with al-Qaeda in the 1990s, he brought along those tactics as well as an expanded vision for attacking the West.
It was Zawahiri who postulated that defeating the “far enemy” — the United States — was an essential precursor to taking on al-Qaeda’s “near enemy,” the pro-Western Arab regimes that stood in the way of the group’s dream of uniting all Muslims under a global caliphate.
“To kill Americans and their allies — civilian and military — is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in every country in which it is possible to do it,” Zawahiri wrote in a 1998 manifesto. Three years later, he would put words into action by helping to plan the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Though lacking bin Laden’s personal charisma, Zawahiri became the intellectual force behind many of al-Qaeda’s grandest ambitions, including its apparently unsuccessful efforts to acquire nuclear and biological weapons. And, after the group’s forced retreat from its base in Afghanistan in early 2002, it was largely Zawahiri who led al-Qaeda’s resurgence in the lawless tribal region across the border in Pakistan, according to longtime observers of the terrorist group.
“Zawahiri is the ideologue of al-Qaeda, a man of thought rather than a man of action,” Bruce Riedel, a former CIA counterterrorism expert and adviser to four U.S. presidents, said in a September interview. “His writings are ponderous and sometimes unbelievably boring.”
As the second decade after 9/11 neared its end, Zawahiri’s ability to shape events or exert leadership within the widely scattered jihadist movement looked increasingly in doubt, Riedel said. “He is not the charismatic figure that al-Qaeda needs,” he said, “and I don’t see anyone else on the horizon who would be.”
Path to terrorism
Zawahiri’s path to becoming one of the world’s most recognized terrorists had an unlikely beginning in an upper-middle-class, religiously diverse Cairo suburb that was home to many of Egypt’s most accomplished families.
Zawahiri’s father, Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri, was a professor of pharmacology, and his maternal grandfather was a president of Cairo University. At the time of Zawahiri’s birth on June 19, 1951, his hometown of Maadi had a large Jewish population and boasted more churches than mosques.
According to an account by Lawrence Wright in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book “The Looming Tower,” it was the execution of Qutb by Egypt’s government in 1966 that inspired Zawahiri, then 15, to organize a group of young friends into an underground cell devoted to the overthrow of Egypt’s government and the establishment of an Islamic theocracy. Zawahiri’s small band of followers eventually grew into an organization known as Jamaat al-Jihad, or the Jihad Group.
Even as his political views hardened, Zawahiri was pursuing a career in the healing arts, earning a degree in medicine from Cairo University and serving briefly as an army surgeon. He eventually opened a practice in a duplex owned by his parents, and he occasionally tended patients at a Cairo clinic sponsored by the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni Islamist political opposition group. He married Azza Nowair, the daughter of a wealthy, politically connected Egyptian family, and the couple eventually would have a son and five daughters.
At the time, however, Zawahiri was preoccupied with managing his own revolutionary movement. His Jihad Group initiated a series of plots in the early 1980s to assassinate Egyptian leaders and played a role in the slaying of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat on Oct. 6, 1981.
The massive government crackdown that followed landed Zawahiri in prison, along with hundreds of his followers. Zawahiri was released after serving a three-year sentence, but he would later claim in a memoir that he was tortured during his imprisonment, an experience that he said left him more determined to destroy Egypt’s government through force.
During his nomadic years after prison, Zawahiri traveled frequently to South Asia and increasingly found common cause with the mujahideen and with bin Laden himself, who came to rely on the Egyptian as his personal physician. The Saudi suffered from low blood pressure and other chronic ailments and required frequent glucose infusions. Zawahiri’s steadiness in rendering aid in the face of Soviet bombardment in Afghanistan cemented the doctor’s reputation among the mujahideen, as well as a lifelong friendship with bin Laden.
Zawahiri made at least one visit to the United States in the 1990s, a brief tour of California mosques under an assumed name to raise money for Muslim charities providing support for Afghan refugees. At the same time, he continued to press his Egyptian followers toward larger and more spectacular attacks at home, believing that such shockingly brutal tactics would command media attention and drown out more-moderate voices that advocated negotiation and compromise.
While living in Afghanistan in 1997, Zawahiri helped plan a savage attack on foreign tourists at Egypt’s famous Luxor ruins, a 45-minute killing rampage that claimed the lives of 62 people, including Japanese tourists, a 5-year-old British girl and four Egyptian tour guides.
Luxor’s repercussions
Ordinary Egyptians were repelled by the slaughter, and support for Zawahiri and his Jihad Group evaporated. Soon afterward, Zawahiri told followers that operations in Egypt were no longer possible and that the battle was shifting to Israel and its chief ally, the United States. The Jihad Group officially merged with bin Laden’s larger and better-financed al-Qaeda, or “The Base.”
Zawahiri was a senior adviser to bin Laden at the time of al-Qaeda’s first high-profile terrorist attacks, the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in the capitals of Kenya and Tanzania that killed hundreds of people. Three years later, working from al-Qaeda’s base in Afghanistan, he helped oversee the planning of what would become one of history’s most audacious terrorist attacks: the Sept. 11 strikes in New York and Washington.
As the Sept. 11 hijackers were dispatched to begin training in U.S. cities, Zawahiri was put in charge of planning follow-on waves of terrorist attacks intended to further weaken America’s economy and resolve. He launched an ambitious biological weapons program, establishing a laboratory in Afghanistan and dispatching disciples to search for sympathetic scientists as well as lethal strains of anthrax bacteria.
U.S. intelligence officials believe that Zawahiri’s efforts might well have succeeded, had he not run out of time. Within weeks of the collapse of New York’s World Trade Center towers, a U.S.-backed military campaign drove al-Qaeda’s Taliban allies out of power in Afghanistan and forced Zawahiri to abandon his bioweapons lab.
U.S. bomber aircraft targeted al-Qaeda leaders’ offices and homes, including the compound where Zawahiri lived. His wife was trapped in rubble after the roof collapsed, but she reportedly refused to be rescued out of fear that men would see her without her veil. She was later found dead of hypothermia.
Escape to Pakistan
Zawahiri fled with bin Laden to Pakistan’s tribal region, where both men — now with bounties of $25 million on their heads — went into hiding to avoid capture. Though there were no confirmed sightings of either man in the following decade, the CIA launched at least two missile strikes inside Pakistan, in 2006 and 2008, that reportedly targeted buildings recently occupied by the Egyptian.
Despite the intense manhunt, Zawahiri continued to make regular appearances in videos posted on al-Qaeda-friendly websites. U.S. officials believe he also continued to direct numerous terrorist operations, including the 2007 siege of the Red Mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan, that resulted in more than 100 deaths.
The death of bin Laden in May 2o11 thrust Zawahiri into the No. 1 position, a role for which, in hindsight, he may not have been ideally suited. The Egyptian, with his dry, cerebral style, failed to inspire jihadists as powerfully as bin Laden or younger leaders such as Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, founder of the Iraqi insurgency that would later become the Islamic State.
After the start of the Arab Spring uprisings, Zawahiri sought to assert command over the patchwork of locally led Islamist groups fighting for dominance in Syria, Iraq and Libya. His effort would ultimately fail.
The leading al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, known initially as the al-Nusra Front, eventually chose to distance itself from the parent organization, refusing to formally accept the al-Qaeda brand. The other major faction, the Islamic State, broke with Zawahiri entirely and drew a public denunciation from him.
In the decade that followed, partisans within both groups would duel over strategy, tactics and even basic beliefs, but rarely, if ever, looked to Zawahiri for guidance or resolution of their disputes.
By 2020, Zawahiri had become increasingly distant, contenting himself to write books and essays and only rarely appearing on video. In September 2021, a pro-al-Qaeda website released a new video in which the aging Zawahiri spoke for an hour and, as if to push back on rumors of his death, made pointed references to recent news events.
But Zawahiri made no mention of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, nor did he address the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August, just a month before the video surfaced. He did, however, use the occasion to resurrect his fiery rhetoric from the past, calling once again for a renewal of al-Qaeda’s violent campaigns against enemies everywhere.
Julie Tate contributed to this report. | 2022-08-01T21:59:59Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Who was Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda leader and Osama bin Laden successor - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/08/01/ayman-al-zawahiri-al-qaeda-dead/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/08/01/ayman-al-zawahiri-al-qaeda-dead/ |
The child’s mother was found critically ill in hotel room
(Peter Byrne/PA Wire/PA Images)
A woman who D.C. police said fled the District with her 2-year-old daughter was found early Monday critically ill in a hotel room in Virginia Beach, along with the child, who was dead, according to authorities.
A police spokeswoman in Virginia Beach said the circumstances of the death are being investigated as suspicious, but a cause and manner were not immediately available. Police also did not provide details about how the woman became ill.
No criminal charges had been filed as of Monday afternoon and the case remains under investigation, police said. The identities of the woman and child have not been made public.
Police in D.C. said the mother left the District with her daughter after losing a custody case in court last week. A police spokesman said they were last seen in the District on Friday.
Police in Virginia said the woman and dead child were found in the hotel room about 3:30 a.m. Monday. No other details about the case have been made public. | 2022-08-01T22:17:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Police in Virginia Beach investigate death of D.C. infant - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/01/child-death-dc-va/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/01/child-death-dc-va/ |
Pulling victory out of the bag at the North American Scrabble championship
Orry Swift, the No. 2-rated Scrabble player in North America, stares at the board after losing to Michael Fagen in the fourth game of the best-of-five series. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)
Orry Swift, the No. 2-rated Scrabble player in North America, had laid down the word “fer,” and in doing so — as the more than 100 spectators watching the live stream in an adjacent room noticed — left the room for opponent Michael Fagen to play “levirates.”
Buoyed by the support of an impassioned Maryland state senator, Scrabble enthusiasts from 42 states and nine countries recently descended on Baltimore for the board game’s North American championships. The two finalists competed in a best-of-five series Wednesday at the Marriott Inner Harbor for a $10,000 prize and bragging rights as the continent’s top word nerd.
Swift, a 35-year-old accounting professor at Lamar University in Texas and a nationally ranked “Magic: The Gathering” card player, spent roughly eight hours a day for the past month preparing for the tournament, studying a list of more than 100,000 approved words. “This is definitely the biggest event in Scrabble all year, period,” he said.
State Sen. Cheryl C. Kagan (D-Montgomery) is an avid fan of the crossword-style board game in which competitors form words with lettered pieces. She plays online daily.
When she attended the North American championship in 2019 in Reno, Nev., she lobbied the leadership of the North American Scrabble Players Association to bring the tournament to Maryland.
In coordination with Visit Baltimore, the association scheduled the next year’s event in Baltimore, but it canceled in 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic. This year, nearly 300 competitors, who each paid an entry fee, played in Charm City.
The rules are the same as the ones for a casual game — in which players draw tiles from a bag, then form words that fit the grid — with a few exceptions, including: Competitors must lift the bag of letters above their line of sight when drawing; challenges to words that may not be legitimate are checked using an official database, not a dictionary; and each player is granted a timed 25 minutes of play per game.
After dozens of preliminary matches, the finalists faced off for the title.
Fagen, 27, topped Swift three games to one, winning the final game in an exceptional manner. With only seven tiles in each player’s possession per turn, using them all is a strong move. When such a “bingo” happens, players get not only points for each letter they use, but also a bonus for using all their tiles. Creating an eight-letter word (by building off a letter already on the board) is difficult, and creating a nine-letter word is so rare that players can go dozens of games without doing so.
Fagen played two nine-letter words, “coequates” and “levirates,” in the match to clinch the championship. The latter means “the custom of marrying the widow of one’s brother,” according to Merriam-Webster’s Scrabble Word Finder.
“I never thought I’d make it to the finals,” Fagen said.
Shortly after his sensational victory at about 4 p.m. Wednesday, Fagen had to catch a 5:30 p.m. train. When he had bought his tickets, the prospect of competing for the title seemed so slim that he didn’t consider that he would play so late into the day. He really only thought about whether he’d get to watch all of the championship games.
At one point, Fagen’s mother had even suggested that he skip the tournament after his direct flight from his native Montreal was canceled. He told her that wasn’t an option, especially after the event’s two-year hiatus, and booked about a 10-hour ride with Greyhound to New York City, followed by a three-hour train ride to Baltimore.
He won the $10,000 grand prize while Swift, who said winning the championship is on his “bucket list,” earned $4,000 for second place.
It’s hardly about the money, though, because few competitors profit off the venture. The event’s attraction is more about the competition, the challenge and the camaraderie.
“It’s like a braid, a beautiful tapestry, and it’s all of those things together,” said Robin Pollock Daniel of Toronto, who has competed for 35 years and remains one of the top players. “To untwine it to one aspect of it diminishes the other, and I don’t want to do that. It’s the totality of it. It’s the gestalt of it.”
Scrabble was invented in 1938 and, by the late 1970s, competitive play picked up steam. In 1980, Joe Edley won the North American championship, and he did so again in 1992 and 2000. This year, he flew from San Francisco to compete at age 74, placing fifth overall.
Along the way, Scrabble became a spectator sport, albeit with a limited audience. As Fagen and Swift battled in the finals, more than 100 players watched the match’s feed — complete with two commentators and five camera angles — and hung on every word. Another few hundred watched the stream online.
Although some at the tournament still play relaxed games elsewhere, those like Swift, who is ultracompetitive, find it to be impossible. His rating is above 2,000, ranking him among the best, and his approach is too premeditated to be compatible with a more casual setting. His only opponents are other elite contenders.
The big-time competitors are that zealous: One top player whose name starts with J wore a T-shirt with the image of a J tile on it. Another top player whose name also starts with J had the image of a J tile tattooed on his shoulder.
Many described the game’s challenge as its allure: It’s up to the individual to make sense of a row of random letters. The enjoyment lies in the satisfaction, and there are numerous lessons to be learned, several players said. Edley pointed to life’s parallels: You might not draw the tiles you’d hoped to, but it’s up to you to choose what to do with them.
“It’s such a beautiful microcosm of life, this game,” Pollock Daniel said.
To hear Scrabble enthusiasts discuss strategy — which they often do after a match — is to hear jargon about opening or closing the board and playing offensively or defensively, as well as chatter about swings in probability.
Although it’s a word game, Swift said, Scrabble is more mathematical than literary. He does not read books for pleasure, yet he studies words daily and has memorized thousands of words — he confidently played “gyttja” in the final — without knowing their definitions. (Scrabble Word Finder says it’s “an organically rich mud.”)
“It is intellectual,” Kagan said of the game, “it is mathematic, it is logic, it is strategy, it is word knowledge, it is anagramming and it’s luck.”
As the nearly week-long event came to a close and the prizes were awarded, those gathered clapped to show their support for the winners of the game they love.
And in the very back of the room, two people set up a board, even as they celebrated the winners. | 2022-08-01T22:17:25Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Pulling victory out of the bag at the North American Scrabble championship - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/scrabble-baltimore-championship/2022/08/01/0f4b59f4-0f36-11ed-9b03-dbb994d49c4e_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/scrabble-baltimore-championship/2022/08/01/0f4b59f4-0f36-11ed-9b03-dbb994d49c4e_story.html |
A man in Beijing uses a magnifying glass on July 31 to read a newspaper about U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Asia visit. (Andy Wong/AP)
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is set to arrive in Taiwan on Tuesday in the highest-level official U.S. visit to the self-governing island in decades.
She is expected to visit the island, but the plan could change last minute, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.
Pelosi launched her trip to Asia on Sunday without disclosing whether Taiwan was on the itinerary. But China, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory, has already reacted to the reports of a potential visit with fury, with state media warning it could respond using military force.
Washington and Taipei behaved like allies — yet neither maintains an official embassy in the other’s capital. U.S. presidents have long avoided interacting with their Taiwanese counterparts, even over the phone, to avoid angering Beijing.
This all meant that while support for Taiwan became an important rallying cry in Washington, senior U.S. officials rarely — if ever — visited. The last high-ranking U.S. official to visit Taiwan was then-speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) in 1997.
Why don’t the United States and Taiwan have diplomatic relations?
What does the relationship look like in practice?
Have U.S. lawmakers visited Taiwan in the past?
Are Taiwan and the United States getting closer?
How has Beijing reacted to reports of Pelosi’s trip? | 2022-08-01T22:21:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | If Nancy Pelosi goes to Taiwan, it will be a shift for U.S. policy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/01/nancy-pelosi-taiwan-china/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/01/nancy-pelosi-taiwan-china/ |
In general, they’re not big fans. Many say that it would be much simpler to raise the corporate tax rate or eliminate tax breaks that many lawmakers consider too generous. Another major critique is that the bill would mean that some companies wouldn’t be able to claim all the deductions allowed under the tax code, notably tax benefits known as depreciation for investments in equipment and buildings. Many of those tax benefits have bipartisan support, though some are favored more by Republicans because they are part of President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cut law.
It would raise about $313 billion over a decade, according to Congress’s non-partisan scorekeeper, the Joint Committee on Taxation. It’s the biggest tax increase in the bill, which in total has $739 billion of revenue offsets, including new taxes and savings from a prescription drug pricing proposal.
6. Which companies would pay more?
The manufacturing industry, which includes some technology and pharmaceutical companies, will bear the brunt of the additional tax burden from this levy, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. Manufacturers would pay nearly half of the additional taxes owed. That’s led Republicans to call it a tax on domestic manufacturing and have said that it could lead to more outsourcing and job losses. In total, about 150 companies would owe the tax in any given year, according to the committee’s estimates. | 2022-08-01T22:26:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How the 15% US Minimum Corporate Tax Would Work - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-the-15percent-us-minimum-corporate-tax-would-work/2022/08/01/ad84ca2a-11dd-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-the-15percent-us-minimum-corporate-tax-would-work/2022/08/01/ad84ca2a-11dd-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
Abortion bans violate religious freedom, clergy say in new legal campaign
The Rev. Tom Capo of the Universalist Unitarian Church, who supports abortion rights, sits inside the chapel of his church in Miami. (Taimy Alvarez for The Washington Post)
When the Rev. Laurie Hafner ministers to her Florida congregants about abortion, she looks to the founding values of the United Church of Christ, her lifelong denomination: religious freedom and freedom of thought. She taps into her reading of Genesis, which says “man became a living being” when God breathed “the breath of life” into Adam. She thinks of Jesus promising believers full and abundant life.
“I am pro-choice not in spite of my faith, but because of my faith,” Hafner says.
“I think the religious right has had the resources and the voices politically and socially to be so loud, and frankly, they don’t represent the Christian faith,” Hafner told The Washington Post. “Those of us on the other side, with maybe a more inclusive voice, need to be strong and more faithful and say: ‘There is another very important voice.’
“Look biblically; Jesus says nothing about abortion. He talks about loving your neighbor and living abundantly and fully. He says: ‘I come that you might have full life.’ Does that mean for a 10-year-old to bear the child of her molester? That you cut your life short because you aren’t able to rid your body of a fetus?”
Antiabortion advocate worked for years to overturn Roe, but worries over next steps
The five lawsuits seek to invalidate the Florida law, which went info effect July 1 and bans abortions after 15 weeks, except in cases when the mother could face serious injury or death or if the fetus has a fatal abnormality. It also makes it a felony to “participate” in an abortion, which the suit charges could include counseling someone to have one.
“Since time immemorial, the questions of when a potential fetus or fetus becomes a life and how to value maternal life during pregnancy have been answered according to religious beliefs and creeds,” say the suits, which use identical language except when describing each plaintiff’s faith.
The new law, the suits read, sets “a pernicious elevation of the legal rights of fetuses while at the same time it devalues the quality of life and the health of the woman or girl who is pregnant. It is in direct conflict with Plaintiff’s clerical obligations and faith and imposes severe barriers and substantial burdens to their religious belief, speech and conduct.”
The cases are unusual in that they frame major liberal values through the lens of religious-liberty law. For years, religious conservatives have successfully argued in high-profile Supreme Court cases that their beliefs should allow them to open churches during a global pandemic, discriminate against LGBTQ people and decline to give employees contraception, among other cases.
A lawsuit similar to the clergy members’ was filed in June by a Florida rabbi, who argued the abortion law violates his practice of Judaism. Jewish views on abortion are complex across the ideological spectrum, but law and tradition do not ban it, sometimes appear to require it and do not recognize an unborn fetus as a full legal person. According to that lawsuit, filed last month in Leon County Circuit Court, Congregation L’Dor Va-Dor of Boynton Beach argues that the new law “prohibits Jewish women from practicing their faith free of government intrusion and … violates their privacy rights and religious freedom.”
Abortion patients and health-care providers who support abortion access have made similar arguments in Indiana, where they are challenging that state’s requirement that fetal tissue from abortions and miscarriages be buried or cremated. That suit, which was filed in 2020, said a group of 2016 laws, signed by then-Gov. Mike Pence (R), compel women “to act in accordance with the State’s view of personhood irrespective of their own beliefs about the status of developing human life” and violate freedom of speech, the separation of church and state, and the requirement for equal protection under the law.
At the federal level, the U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has ruled more than 81 percent of the time in favor of “religion,” compared with about 50 percent for all previous eras since 1953, according to a study published in April. Still, given the court’s conservative view on abortion, some religious-liberty experts are skeptical that the court will support faith-based arguments for reproductive access.
Douglas Laycock, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law and an authority on religious-freedom law, said states and the Supreme Court could curtail the efforts among faith leaders who support abortion rights by arguing that there is a “compelling government interest” in protecting fetal life. And the right kind of compelling government interest can be an exception to most constitutional rights, he explained.
“For better or worse, a compelling government interest is whatever five justices say it is,” Laycock said. “It’s a matter of judicial interpretation, not legislative enactment. And pretty clearly, we have six justices who would happily say that the state’s interest in fetal life is compelling” and outweighs the free exercise of religion.
Plus, Laycock said, the justices wouldn’t have taken the monumental step of overturning Roe v. Wade only to turn around and allow “an alternate route to choice, an enormous loophole, or even a small loophole.”
“They may like free exercise, but they oppose abortion more,” he said.
In a statement to The Post, Kelly Stevenson, a spokeswoman for Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita (R), pointed to the fact that the burial law is neutral and applies equally to everyone. The attorney general said the law “enforces respect for human life” and noted that the Supreme Court in previous cases has said regulations on abortion aren’t necessarily violations of religious liberty.
Asma Uddin, a religious-liberty attorney who worked for the Becket Fund and has written books on religious freedom, said an antiabortion state legislature might back up its “compelling interest” by citing scientific descriptions of young fetuses. Thus far, since states haven’t established what status fetal life has because when Roe was in place, antiabortion arguments could go only so far, Uddin wrote to The Post.
Now that Roe is gone, she said, “we’ll see how this plays out.”
Marci Hamilton, a constitutional law scholar and one of the attorneys for the Florida clergy, said these cases are just a “test” that she will soon take around the country. The Florida Constitution has a broadly worded right to privacy that the state Supreme Court has found to include the right to abortion. The state also has an “RFRA,” or Religious Freedom Restoration Act, that strongly limits when the government can restrict someone’s religious liberty.
“I think every single American should be able to make these arguments,” Hamilton said. Courts have given considerable deference, she noted, to people who invoke faith for a wide range of things.
“It has to be what you believe,” she said. “It may not be part of anyone else’s belief. We want this on the table: You’re violating millions of people’s religious liberty.”
Hamilton said about two-thirds of states that have strongly limited abortion access or will soon do so also have RFRA laws. Those 15 or so states, she said, are where she expects to take her strategy.
Rabbi Barry Silver, who filed the earlier Florida suit, said he thinks he has a “tremendous case — legally, morally, factually.”
“We have a right in Florida to privacy, and they announce this thing in church. It was like a church service,” Silver said of DeSantis’s signing ceremony.
Polling on abortion is complex and can seem contradictory at times. Nearly 60 percent of Americans support a federal law establishing the right to an abortion before a fetus can survive outside the womb.
The Rev. Tom Capo, one of the plaintiffs in the new case and a leader at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Miami, said he left the Catholic Church in his teenage years over the issue of abortion. He and his wife, both children of alcoholics, made a decision to wait 10 years before having children to be sure “we had the emotional resources to care for a child,” Capo said.
Before becoming a minister 15 years ago, Capo was a therapist for 30, and in both positions, he has counseled women and families about issues including marriage and childbearing. He said his perspectives are spiritually informed.
“It has to do with the belief in the inherent worth and dignity of every human being,” Capo said. “When I look at a woman who has changes going on within her body because a sperm and an egg have come together, I still think that it’s her body and continues to be her body throughout the pregnancy and that worth and dignity needs to be respected. It has to be her conscience that decides whether that child becomes a person, to have say over her own body and how she chooses to use it.”
It is not yet clear what the states’ arguments might be. The significant religious diversity on the topic of abortion has never been tested in this way.
Rupali Sharma, director of the Lawyering Project, which represents abortion patients, a nurse and an abortion clinic suing Indiana over its fetal burial law, said there has always been a wide diversity of beliefs about when spiritually significant life begins, but that there is a minority intent on “erasing that diversity” that “believes that their conception is the only conception and the only religious conception.”
John Inazu, a professor of law and religion at Washington University in St. Louis, said that even if the courts rule in favor of government interest over religious liberty in these cases, it’s important that judges and Americans see and accept that people who hold views unlike theirs do so sincerely.
When it comes to religious liberty and abortion, Inazu said, “can a pro-life person see the possibility of the pro-choice view?” | 2022-08-01T22:26:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Religious leaders sue over Florida abortion law signed by Ron DeSantis - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/01/florida-abortion-law-religion-desantis/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/01/florida-abortion-law-religion-desantis/ |
U.S. kills al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, officials say
Olivier Knox
Osama bin Laden sits with Ayman al-Zawahiri, the deputy who succeeded him as leader of al-Qaeda in a Nov. 10, 2001 file photo. (Visual News/Getty Images)
The White House said on Monday that President Biden would give remarks in the evening about “a successful counterterrorism operation,” but did not mention Zawahiri.
This is a developing story and will be updated. Ellen Nakashima and Devlin Barrett contributed to this report. | 2022-08-01T22:26:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | U.S. kills al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/01/zawahiri-al-qaeda-killed/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/01/zawahiri-al-qaeda-killed/ |
The Electoral Count Act must be fixed. A new proposal doesn’t go far enough.
An electoral college ballot box is carried through Statuary Hall en route to the Senate on Jan. 6, 2021. (Amanda Voisard for The Washington Post)
President Donald Trump’s craven attempt to stay in power after his 2020 defeat exposed the frailties of the 1887 Electoral Count Act. The improved Electoral Count Reform Act, introduced in the Senate on July 20, is the product of herculean, months-long efforts led by Republican Susan Collins (Maine) and Democrat Joe Manchin III (W.Va.) to find common ground. As the Senate Rules Committee hears testimony on the measure Wednesday, it should correct some remaining flaws:
· Governor as “conclusive” certifying authority. The proposal addresses 2020’s “fake elector” scheme by identifying the state’s governor as the sole official with power to certify the electoral slate and making clear that any slate not certified by the governor is void. But the proposal creates the potential for chaos when it states that a governor’s certification is “conclusive,” and then, in seeming contradiction, provides for judicial review and congressional objections. A governor’s certification helps, but to deal with the danger of rogue governors, such certification should be clearly subject to challenge if it undermines the people’s vote.
· Period for judicial review. The six-day period provided for judicial review of disputes over certification is so short as to make meaningful review a mirage. That problem can be easily addressed by having Congress push the date for final state certification of electors — the “safe harbor” date — from mid- to late-December and have the electoral college meet closer to the Jan. 6 date on which the certified votes are formally counted in Congress.
· Number of necessary objectors. Under the 1887 law, it takes only one objector in the House and one in the Senate to bring the counting process to a halt and require congressional deliberation. The proposal moves the threshold from a single objector in each chamber to 20 percent. But recall that 139 Republican House members, nearly one-third, objected to certifying Joe Biden’s election. Twenty percent is not enough to avoid needless debate and should be increased to at least 33 percent.
· Basis for objections. Whatever the necessary percentage, the proposal also falls short in allowing members of Congress to object on the basis that a state elector’s vote is not “regularly given,” a phrase carried over from the 1887 law. What it means for a vote to be “irregularly” given is not defined and remains mysterious. At the very least, Congress must scrap any objection mechanism that allows “election-denying” members, however numerous, to cause politically motivated confusion.
· Role of vice president. Because the Constitution assigns the vice president, presiding over the joint meeting of Congress, a purely ceremonial role, the proposal specifies that the vice president has no authority to “solely determine, accept, reject, or otherwise adjudicate or resolve disputes” over electors. But this language curiously fails to exclude an imagined authority by a rogue vice president to “delay” certification. Delay was, after all, Trump’s final unlawful pitch to his vice president, Mike Pence.
· Reason for postponing election day. Under the proposal, only “extraordinary and catastrophic” events will allow a state to extend election day. This leaves too much latitude to state officials. There should at least be an illustrative list of examples such as hurricanes or cyberattacks.
· Timing of changes in state law. The biggest potential loophole might be the seemingly innocuous provision that “the laws of the State enacted prior to election day” are decisive when it comes to the legality of a state’s certification of electors.
This is a well-intended effort to prevent any state legislature from changing the rules after voting concludes — exactly what Trump, his lawyers and their allies sought to do by meeting with state legislators after the election was over. But as drafted, the bill’s apparent intent would be easy to circumvent. An election-denying majority in a battleground state could adopt a law before November 2024 that might empower the legislature or secretary of state to award electors in a manner inconsistent with the popular vote. Eliminating that way of defying the people’s will is imperative. | 2022-08-01T22:27:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The proposed Electoral Count Reform Act is a good start. It needs some tweaks. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/01/electoral-count-reform-act-suggested-changes/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/01/electoral-count-reform-act-suggested-changes/ |
It might not be possible to deter Trump from a 2024 run
Former president Donald Trump on July 26 in D.C. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Speculation abounds regarding the 2024 Republican Party presidential nomination: former president Donald Trump vs. the field, especially Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Although, it might be in the interest of the party to select someone other than Mr. Trump, as Megan McArdle opined in her July 29 op-ed, “Trump 2024 is in no one’s interest — even Democrats’,”Mr. Trump might hold the high card. With his level of popular support within the party and his large megaphone, he could convincingly threaten to run as a third-party candidate if not nominated by Republicans. With words alone, he has managed to bully Republican leaders both as president and as former president. A third-party threat might quell alternative considerations.
If he wants to run in 2024, blocking his desire would be difficult, unless the Justice Department or another jurisdiction clears a path, a course of action from which Republican leaders have cowered.
William McCauley, Charlottesville
I used to be optimistic about America’s future. Not anymore. | 2022-08-01T22:27:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | It might not be possible to deter Trump from a 2024 run - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/01/it-might-not-be-possible-deter-trump-2024-run/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/01/it-might-not-be-possible-deter-trump-2024-run/ |
Voting changes ignore glaring errors
Election workers hand-check ballots for hanging, pregnant or dimpled chads on Nov. 20, 2000, at the Miami-Dade County Government Center. (Marc Serota/Reuters)
The July 21 news article “Bipartisan group of senators offers bill to clarify rules in presidential vote” stated that “a state can appoint just one set of presidential electors, and only the governor — or an official designated in the state’s constitution — could submit the electors to Congress.” Republicans have laid the groundwork for this for years, from when they realized they couldn’t win elections on a popular vote. I suspect the “official designated in the state’s constitution” might well be the secretary of state, who, along with the governor, might have been selected and financed by the Republican Party. Is there a definition that determines which list is the one to be given to Congress? Can there be a few drafts before the final one is presented?
Ignoring the glaring errors (1) of not addressing voting rights and (2) that disputes might well end up in the Supreme Court, which gutted the Voting Rights Act in the first place, this is a recipe for another disaster.
The best way to help free and fair elections is paying for them with public money. It’s the biggest bang the public could get for its buck.
Another is doing away with the electoral college altogether. If that had been the case in 2000, the Supreme Court couldn’t have decided that the candidate who received fewer votes got the job. Maybe it’s the Supreme Court we should reform.
Cynthia La Covey, Arlington | 2022-08-01T22:27:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Voting changes ignore glaring errors - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/01/plan-disaster/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/01/plan-disaster/ |
The embryo developed for eight days, with a beating heart, a rudimentary brain and a gut tube
Stem cell scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel created a synthetic mouse embryo without sperm or eggs. (courtesy of Weizmann Institute of Science)
Stem cell researchers in Israel have created synthetic mouse embryos without using a sperm or egg, then grown them in an artificial womb for eight days, a development that opens a window into a fascinating, potentially fraught realm of science that could one day be used to create replacement organs for humans.
The objective, scientists involved with the research said, is not to create mice or babies outside the womb, but to jump-start the understanding of how organs develop in embryos and to use that knowledge to develop new ways to heal people.
From a clump of embryonic stem cells, scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science created synthetic embryos that closely resembled real mouse embryos, with rudimentary beating hearts, blood circulation, folded brain tissue and intestinal tracts. The mouse embryos grew in an artificial womb and stopped developing after eight days, about a third of a mouse pregnancy.
The advance, a decade in the making, arrives in a field crowded with efforts to develop embryo models from human and mouse cells. Scientists can use such models to peer into the earliest stages of embryonic development and to study how organs form.
But as the models grow closer in resemblance to the real thing, they also open ethically murky territory. At what point do synthetic embryos become so similar to the real thing that they are subject to protections akin to those applied to real embryos?
“This is an important landmark in our understanding of how embryos build themselves,” Alfonso Martinez Arias, a developmental biologist at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona who is not involved in the research, said in an email. He called the experiment a “game changer.”
The research, published Monday in the journal Cell, is far from growing a mouse, much less a human, outside the womb. It was a proof of concept that a complete synthetic embryo could be assembled from embryonic stem cells, and while the researchers were successful, it was a highly error-prone process, with only a small fraction of embryos going on to develop the beginnings of a beating heart and other organs.
Although the synthetic mouse embryos bore a close resemblance to natural mouse embryos, they were not exactly the same and did not implant or result in pregnancies in real mice, according to Jacob Hanna, the stem cell scientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science who led the work.
“It’s an interesting next step, not shocking, but one that makes more plausible in the long run a proposition with broad implications: the possibility of turning any mouse cell into a living mouse,” said Henry T. Greely, a bioethicist at Stanford Law School.
The research, like other recent studies, puts the possibility of a complete human synthetic embryo on the horizon, several researchers said, making it necessary to continue a societal discussion about how these entities should be handled. Last year, the International Society for Stem Cell Research relaxed a historical “14-day rule” that said researchers could grow natural embryos for only 14 days in the laboratory, allowing researchers to seek approval for longer studies. Human embryo models are banned from being implanted into a uterus.
“The mouse is a starting point for thinking about how one wants to approach this in humans,” said Alex Meissner, a stem cell biologist at Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics. “It’s not necessary to be alarmed or raise any panic, but … as we learn, it’s important to have in parallel the discussion: How far do we want to take it?”
Hanna said his hope is that the technology could be used not as a replacement for reproduction but as a way to create synthetic human embryo models that could result in precursors of organs that could be studied and potentially used therapeutically.
For decades, the major hope for stem cell therapy has been as a repair for the body’s own tissues. Stem cells can develop into any tissue or organ, so the potential to use those cells to fix spinal cord injuries, patch damaged hearts or cure diabetes has been alluring. But turning those cells into complex, functioning tissue has been a challenge. Hanna’s hope is that watching this process unfold during early development will provide important clues.
“Our goal is not making pregnancy outside the uterus, whether it’s mice or any species,” Hanna said. “We are really facing difficulties making organs — and in order to make stem cells become organs, we need to learn how the embryo does that. We started with this because the uterus is a black box — it is not transparent.”
Hanna has founded a company, Renewal Bio, that plans to use the technology therapeutically. One possible use would be to take skin cells from a woman with fertility problems, reprogram those cells to create stem cells and then grow synthetic embryo models that could be used to produce eggs. | 2022-08-01T22:28:29Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Scientists create synthetic mouse embryos, a potential key to healing humans - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2022/08/01/synthetic-mouse-embryo/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2022/08/01/synthetic-mouse-embryo/ |
Jessica Pegula is measured with her fist pumps during her matches. (Rob Carr/Getty Images)
Warming up before her first match as the top seed and defending champion at the 2022 Citi Open on Monday, Jessica Pegula, the highest-ranked American woman in professional tennis, looked the consummate pro — composed on the court and gregarious off it.
It all showed during her 6-2, 6-2 first-round victory over D.C.'s own Hailey Baptiste. Though Baptiste, in her first match back since injuring her ankle at the French Open, pushed the world No. 7 hard in the beginning of each set, Pegula calmly demonstrated her smooth serve, powerful return and longevity, picking Baptiste apart as the games got longer and the sun got hotter.
“I put on a lot of pressure and elongated a lot of her service games, and I know from personal experience that it’s really tough to hold,” Pegula said after the match. “It can definitely take a toll, physically and mentally, and as it got a little hot out there, I was able to move a little better.”
Three years ago, there was a different Pegula vying to contend in D.C. In 2019, the last time the Citi Open held a WTA event, Pegula’s first and only WTA Tour singles win came at Rock Creek Park and helped define her burgeoning career.
That year looked to be a mixed bag for the Buffalo native. Her first entrance into the WTA top 100 led to a top 75 berth when she upset then-No. 12 Anastasija Sevastova at the Charleston Open, but those highs were soured by consecutive first-round exits at the French Open and Wimbledon — her first main-draw appearances at either Grand Slam.
And on the court, Pegula was dealing with an identity crisis. She recalled the criticisms she received back then, of appearing negative or “like she didn’t want to be there” during matches, so she tried to counteract that by artificially infusing fist pumps, wild maneuvers and other unnatural bursts of energy into her game.
By her own admission, she wasn’t playing how she wanted to.
“I would be too energetic or try to be too much, then I would be exhausted because I'd be wasting all this energy, doing all this stuff,” Pegula said. “And naturally, I'm not really like that.”
Pegula decided to take full control of her career. She hired a new coach, David Witt, who was fresh off a long stint coaching Venus Williams. She began planning her own training regimens and booking her own trainers. For a time, she was even her own agent, booking her own travel and registering herself into tournaments.
In the midst of that process, Pegula had a realization — whether she was returning a serve or booking a flight to France, she was still Jessica Pegula.
“That [process] let me not think about who I am on court,” Pegula explained, “because now I was like, ‘Oh, I'm responsible for my own career.’ And that's, I think, how I always wanted it to be.”
The 2019 Citi Open was her first week and first tournament with Witt as her new coach. During a routine practice leading up to the event, Witt said something that stuck with Pegula.
“There’s no reason you can’t win this tournament,” Witt told her.
With a fresh outlook on her career and a new coach in her corner, Witt was right — there was no reason Pegula couldn’t claim her first WTA title. And with a straight-sets defeat of Camila Giorgi in the final, that’s exactly what she did.
During her trophy ceremony, her miniature Australian shepherd Maddie dashed onto the court and embraced her, creating an enduring image of the turn Pegula’s career was taking.
Singles champ Jessica Pegula, a true champion, knows we all want to end this week with a dog pic.twitter.com/1yUPlsOdEz
— Ava Wallace (@avarwallace) August 4, 2019
“It kind of changed starting that week, trying to get better every day, but also being like, there’s no reason you can’t be at the top of the game,” she reflected. “And now here we are, a few years later, and I’m at my highest ranking — top 10 in the world.”
It’s the renewed Pegula that arrived in D.C. this past weekend as the defending Citi Open champion — making three Grand Slam quarterfinals in the last two years and reaching the apex of American tennis at the relatively-senior playing age of 28. And though Pegula said her dog wouldn’t be making the trip to the capital, the changes of the past three years were on full display Monday.
Criticisms about her supposed negativity and nonchalance have taken, in her experience, a complete 180.
“People come up to me, they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re so calm and you’re so confident and you have such a great attitude about you,’” she said. “And I just laugh because it was so the opposite for so long and it was so frustrating to hear.”
And it showed on the court. In the face of a hostile crowd rooting for a hometown hero, Pegula never looked flustered or overwhelmed against Baptiste, but kept her form tight and face measured. She only seemed to improve as the match wore on, using each long deuce and break point as a way to gain the advantage.
“It was tough [for Baptiste], coming back from injury” said Frances Tiafoe, a Hyattsville, Md., native and No. 27 in the ATP rankings, who was watching the match from the stands. “Pegula’s a great friend of mine, top 10 in the world, and is playing some of the best tennis of her life. It was always going to be a tough contest.”
Pegula issued only the lightest of fist pumps after each hard-won point, and only in victory did the world’s best American let a soft smile creep onto her face. | 2022-08-01T22:28:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Defending Citi Open champ Jessica Pegula rolls in first round - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/01/jessica-pegula-citi-open/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/01/jessica-pegula-citi-open/ |
Fall is when you want to travel, experts say
With record gas prices and skyrocketing airfare, the traditionally busy summer travel season was a budget-busting one.
Relief, however, is on the way with the arrival of the slower travel season — known as shoulder season — as kids return to school. But travelers should still expect to pay more than they did in recent years.
Even as bigger price drops await in the fall, superheated summer prices are already starting to cool.
The national average for a gallon of gas on Monday was $4.21, a 14-cent drop compared with a week ago and a 63-cent plunge from a month ago, according to AAA. That’s still more than $1 a gallon higher than it was a year ago.
After months of increases, consumer price data showed that airfare dropped 1.8 percent in June from the month before, and lodging rates fell 3.3 percent, according to the U.S. Travel Association’s travel price index.
In a pricing forecast released Monday, travel-booking app Hopper said domestic airfare would drop to an average of $286 round-trip this month, down 25 percent from the peak cost in May.
A drop from summer to fall is normal, but this big of a decline isn’t, said Hopper’s lead economist, Hayley Berg.
“Typically, we would see maybe a 10 to 15 percent price drop,” she said. “And it really has more to do with how high prices were this summer and less to do with what’s going on this fall.”
Airfare prices peaked higher than expected in May and June, she said, thanks to spiking jet fuel prices, high demand and limited capacity.
How to set price alerts to find the cheapest flights
Hopper said Monday that there’s some good news for hotel guests as well: The average cost of a night’s stay has dropped slightly from a high of $199 in mid-June to $185 now. The company expects hotel rates to keep dropping this month before ticking back up in September and October.
Travel analyst Henry Harteveldt, president of Atmosphere Research Group, said a slowing economy will typically lead travel companies — cruise lines, hotels, airlines, rental car companies — to cut prices if demand drops. But he warned that travelers shouldn’t expect pre-pandemic prices.
“Unless the bottom falls out of the economy, which it doesn’t appear it is going to do right now, I don’t think that we will see travel prices fall to levels below those seen in 2019 or before, at least within the U.S.,” he said.
He said that if the dollar remains strong against the euro, leisure travelers in Europe may pay relatively less than they did in 2019 for hotels, food and entertainment.
Should you fly or drive this summer? Here’s how to decide.
Scott Keyes, founder of Scott’s Cheap Flights, recommends traveling in late summer or early fall even for reasons beyond lower prices. The travel chaos of earlier this summer, for example, is likely to be less of an issue with fewer crowds.
“That’s just because there’s far less strain on the system in the fall,” he said.
Keyes said the weather is still generally good in the Northern Hemisphere in September and October (although hurricane season might throw a wrench in plans) and the experience of exploring new places, or revisiting favorites, can be more enjoyable.
“The number of other tourists drops to a fraction because of the academic calendar, so you’re going to have much more breathing room, much less competition when it comes to not just airfares, but hotels, car rentals, activities,” he said. | 2022-08-01T22:29:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Cheap travel is finally arriving after a pricey summer - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/08/01/cheap-flights-fall-travel/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/08/01/cheap-flights-fall-travel/ |
What’s at stake with a Pelosi visit to Taiwan
Maybe by the time you read this, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will have landed in Taiwan. Or maybe not. The will-she, won’t-she drama over whether Pelosi and a delegation of Democratic lawmakers will visit the self-governing island during a longer trip to Asia looked to be settled Monday, with reports from Taiwan suggesting Pelosi could arrive as soon as Tuesday evening.
Whatever the case, the prospect of the third-most senior figure in U.S. government visiting the world’s only Chinese-speaking democracy has roiled Asia’s already choppy geopolitical waters. Ever since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, attention in Washington has also centered on the risk of war over Taiwan. China views the island as part of its sovereign territory and Chinese President Xi Jinping has cast reunification with the mainland as an inevitability, the crowning ambition of his rule.
The United States, meanwhile, has in practice shifted steadily away from its official policy of “strategic ambiguity” over whether it would come to Taiwan’s defense. President Biden and a host of lawmakers in Congress all explicitly believe the United States should help Taiwan fight off a Chinese attack. Amid growing bipartisan support for a tighter U.S. embrace of Taiwan, Pelosi’s arrival would mark the most significant visit of a U.S. official to Taiwan in a quarter-century. But in Beijing’s eyes, it’s a dangerous provocation and an infringement of its “territorial integrity.”
“We once again sternly warn the U.S. side that China stands at the ready and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army will never sit idly by,” Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, warned at a briefing Monday, adding that “China will take resolute and vigorous countermeasures.”
Experts have a rough sense of what those countermeasures may be. “The response will almost certainly include a military component, most likely with a show of force in the first instance — live fire exercises, a much greater military presence within the Taiwan Strait and … even missile tests,” tweeted Taylor Fravel, director of the Security Studies Program at MIT.
But the show of force will have to come with a demonstration of restraint.
“The goal will be to underscore resolve without sparking escalation, but the likely prominence to the military component will include the potential for miscalculation,” Fravel said. “There are also significant U.S. naval assets in the region at the moment.”
China’s state media organs have been careful in their warnings to the United States, a sign, perhaps, of Beijing’s own wariness of an unintended escalation.
“I don’t think that up to now there have been any signs that China will launch major military operations,” said Kuo Yujen, a political science professor at the National Sun Yat-sen University in southern Taiwan, to the New York Times. “If China overreacts, bringing countermeasures from the U.S. or Japan, for Xi Jinping, the losses would outweigh the gains.”
Ahead of a major Communist Party Congress later this year, and beset by myriad other problems, including lingering coronavirus lockdowns and a slowing economy, Xi and his allies may not want to rock the boat.
“There is little reason that China will want to shoot itself in the foot by initiating major military confrontation, and undermine the very stability that it craves,” Wen-Ti Sung, political scientist at Australian National University’s Taiwan Studies Program, told my colleague Karina Tsui.
It’s also unclear how much the United States gains with Pelosi showing up in Taiwan. Her presence will constitute a statement of support for Taiwan’s democracy and perhaps even its aspirations for formal independence, though the United States generally avoids commenting on the latter. The most enthusiastic U.S. supporters of a Pelosi visit to Taiwan include hawkish former Trump administration officials.
“A symbolic show of support by the head of U.S.’s legislative branch could give reassurance, while still retaining enough plausible deniability, and not overtly crossing Beijing’s red lines, as her decision does not represent U.S. policy,” Sung said.
But that’s not how China will interpret the occasion. White House officials, including Biden himself, suggested to reporters they would rather Pelosi not visit, given the delicacy of the moment. Taiwan was at the heart of a testy phone call between Biden and Xi at the end of last week.
One reading of Pelosi’s determination to stop in Taipei may be that she is wary of the optics of backing out after it emerged she may go. That, skeptics contend, is not justification enough.
“Had Pelosi not said she was going to Taiwan in the first place, no one would be suggesting she needed to go in order bolster American credibility in Asia,” left-leaning commentator Peter Beinart wrote. “The argument that she can’t back down now resembles the argument that the U.S. couldn’t leave Vietnam because the war had become a test of U.S. resolve.”
On Monday, the White House changed tune, casting a possible Pelosi visit to Taiwan as a reflection of continuing U.S. commitments to the island nation.
“There is no reason,” a National Security Council spokesman told reporters, “for Beijing to turn a potential visit consistent with long-standing U.S. policy into some sort of crisis.”
Wary of China threat, Taiwanese join Ukraine’s fight against Russia
Yet analysts on both sides see a crisis on the horizon. “Each of the main players — China, Taiwan, and the United States — believe it is acting prudently to protect its interests in the face of escalatory actions from the other side of the Strait,” wrote Ryan Hass, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, in a preface to a new report on U.S.-Taiwan policy. “Officials and analysts increasingly are competing to forecast when conflict could break out, not whether it will occur.”
“The Biden administration has continued the Trump administration’s strategy of ‘using Taiwan to contain China,’ ” wrote Cao Qun, a researcher at the state-run China Institute of International Studies. “The chances of a clash between China and the United States in the Taiwan Strait are growing.” | 2022-08-01T23:48:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What’s at stake with a Pelosi visit to Taiwan - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/01/stakes-pelosi-taiwan/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/01/stakes-pelosi-taiwan/ |
Middle Eastern and African countries that rely heavily on Black Sea grains are about to see some respite
The bulk carrier Razoni leaves the port of Odessa in Ukraine. (For The Washington Post)
On Monday, the Razoni, laden with 26,000 tons of corn, was the first ship to head out of the port of Odessa in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion. It was the beginning of a 120-day deal brokered by Turkey and the United Nations to transport Ukraine’s grains from behind a Russian naval blockage. Ukraine, one of the world’s largest grain exporters, will begin shipping an estimated 18 million metric tons of grains that have been trapped in the country since Russia’s invasion in February.
The revived shipments have the potential to alleviate what experts have been calling a global food crisis in the making. There are 16 more full ships lined up to depart from Ukraine carrying corn, wheat, and sunflower seed and oil. As a huge development for Ukrainian farmers and the domestic economy, grain experts weigh in on what it means for the rest of the world.
How much grain could be made available by this development?
How quickly can it get out to those who need it?
What could impede the flow of grain?
What will this deal do to global grain prices? | 2022-08-01T23:48:55Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ukraine is exporting wheat again. Will it head off a global food crisis? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/01/ukraine-grain-hunger-faq/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/01/ukraine-grain-hunger-faq/ |
Judge sentences Stellantis unit to pay $300 million in emissions test cheating case
Stellantis unit ordered to pay in cheating case
A federal judge on Monday sentenced the U.S. division of Stellantis to pay $300 million in penalties and forfeitures for cheating on government emissions testing on “clean EcoDiesel” for Jeep Grand Cherokee SUVs and Ram 1500 pickup trucks.
FCA U.S. pleaded guilty to the criminal conspiracy charge in June. It was the second guilty plea for federal criminal conduct by the company in as many years for actions taken before parent Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ merger with French automaker Groupe PSA, which created Stellantis last year.
As federal standards have become more stringent, automakers face the pressure of reducing emissions of internal combustion engine vehicles and transitioning to zero-emission vehicles or else pay millions of dollars in fines or for credits from competitors like electric vehicle maker Tesla. Stellantis in the first half of 2022 paid $678 million in penalties following an adjustment to Corporate Average Fuel Economy regulations earlier this year.
FCA’s settlement for the emissions cheating includes a nearly $204 million forfeiture from the sold models on which it had cheated on the tests and an additional penalty of more than $96 million. The company also is subject to three years of probation and is required to cooperate in the government’s further investigation into the matter.
“The company accepts responsibility and regrets the conduct that resulted in this plea agreement,” said Christopher Pardi, general counsel for FCA in North America.
— Detroit News
W.Va. governments settle opioid claims
West Virginia’s cities and counties reached a $400 million opioid settlement with drug distributors McKesson, AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey (R) said Monday.
The settlement resolves allegations by more than 100 cities and counties that the three drug distributors fueled an opioid crisis by oversupplying West Virginia with pain medication, and builds on the companies’ previous settlements with the state attorney general’s office.
“I’m happy to see the judicial system work as it should by benefiting West Virginia communities that have been hit hard by opioid abuse,” Morrisey said in a statement. “This settlement, along with other settlements from other cases, will provide significant help to those affected the most by the opioid crisis in West Virginia.”
Cardinal Health said in a statement that the settlement will provide money to West Virginia communities in need, and that it remains committed to being “a part of the solution to the opioid epidemic.”
U.S. manufacturing activity slowed less than expected last month and there were signs that supply constraints are easing, with a measure of prices paid for inputs by factories falling to a two-year low, suggesting inflation has probably peaked. While the Institute for Supply Management survey on Monday showed a measure of factory employment contracting for a third month, the ISM noted that "companies continue to hire at strong rates."
Amazon has started delivering items from brick-and-mortar stores in a dozen U.S. metro areas, the e-commerce giant's latest effort to make more products available for speedy delivery. The company's initial partners are Diesel, PacSun, GNC and SuperDry, Amazon said Monday. Bloomberg News in May reported that Amazon was testing the service, which uses the company's gig-economy Flex drivers to retrieve and deliver orders. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.) Amazon Prime members in parts of select cities, including Atlanta, Chicago, Seattle and Washington, will see items from participating retailers listed on the Amazon website and app.
Valvoline is selling its unit that makes lubricants, coolants and other automotive products to state-owned Saudi Aramco for $2.65 billion in cash to sharpen focus on its retail services business. The deal announced Monday builds on the company's plan to separate the two units, with the sale proceeds set to fuel an expansion of the vehicle service center business Valvoline operates across the United States. For Aramco, it deepens a bet on the long-term demand for petrochemicals. | 2022-08-01T23:57:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Judge sentences Stellantis unit to pay $300 million in emissions test cheating case - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/judge-sentences-stellantis-unit-to-pay-300-million-in-emissions-test-cheating-case/2022/08/01/7c35da00-1187-11ed-a642-b9be12ce0b34_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/judge-sentences-stellantis-unit-to-pay-300-million-in-emissions-test-cheating-case/2022/08/01/7c35da00-1187-11ed-a642-b9be12ce0b34_story.html |
A worker carries bundles of harvested wheat on a farm in Rahma Village, Fayoum, Egypt, on Thursday, May 19, 2022. One of the world’s biggest wheat importers, Egypt is wrestling with the impact of Russias invasion on Ukraine on supplies. (Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg)
Few of the world’s hungry, for instance, are paying for their food in U.S. dollars. That means that currency fluctuations can be every bit as important as shifts in commodity price benchmarks in determining the price paid on the ground.
The rise in commodity prices since the end of 2021 has pushed the price of U.S. dollar wheat up about 23% — but the devaluation in the Egyptian pound has been even more damaging, adding another 25% to local currency prices. In Turkey, the third-biggest wheat buyer, the collapsing lira has added about 171% to costs. In Pakistan, the rupee’s slump has made it 53% more expensive.
Those currency effects can be long lasting. Import-dependent emerging economies often subsidize food sourced from abroad, putting strain on the government budget whenever commodity prices rise. Most countries’ public finances are already under unprecedented strain now thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, so there’s little room for further deterioration. Should shrinking government budgets and foreign exchange reserves cause a currency crisis a year or two down the line, even falling dollar food prices won’t be enough to stop the local cost of imported produce climbing further.
That’s not the only way that Covid is causing long-standing aftereffects for the food sector. The number of people employed globally dropped in 2020 for the first time in at least a generation, as more than 100 million were laid off or stayed home to cope with the effects of the pandemic. A similar number, 97 million, have been driven below the global poverty line of $1.90 a day. Incomes for the bottom 40% of the world’s population were down 6.7% last year from levels expected before the pandemic, compared to a 2.8% drop for the wealthiest 40%.
Falling food prices, should they be sustained, may at least provide some relief for the world’s 768 million undernourished people. They won’t be enough to turn the tide on four years of rising food insecurity. To do that, the world needs to address deeper-seated problems, from the long-run impact of Covid, to the persistent effects of inequality, war and conflict.
• Putin Shows Food Is Becoming the Ultimate Weapon: Hal Brands
• World’s Food Baskets Need a Better Safety Net: David Fickling
• A Global Famine Is a Still-Avoidable Disaster: Leonid Bershidsky | 2022-08-01T23:57:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Food Prices Are Falling. Why Is There Still a Hunger Crisis? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/food-prices-are-falling-why-is-there-still-a-hunger-crisis/2022/08/01/7b45f550-11ee-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/food-prices-are-falling-why-is-there-still-a-hunger-crisis/2022/08/01/7b45f550-11ee-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
Arian Taherzadeh, 40, admitted to ingratiating himself with members of the U.S. Secret Service.
The affidavit to support the arrest of Arian Taherzadeh and Haider Ali. (Jon Elswick/AP)
A man accused of posing as federal law enforcement and cozying up to U.S. Secret Service agents inside luxury high-rises in Washington pleaded guilty Monday to a federal conspiracy charge.
Arian Taherzadeh, 40, also pleaded guilty to voyeurism and unlawful possession of a large-capacity ammunition feeding device in a scheme that unfolded between December 2018 and April 2022. The voyeurism charge, revealed Monday, was connected to security cameras that Taherzadeh admitted to using to covertly record women.
He faces up to 46 months in prison on the conspiracy charge and additional time on the other offenses.
In reading the plea U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said in court Monday that Taherzadeh orchestrated the scheme to ingratiate himself with “federal law enforcement and the defense community” as well as “defraud apartment complexes” into granting him leases he could not afford.
Guns, drones, luxury apartments: Motive of accused police posers still unclear
On Monday, Taherzadeh admitted for the first time to a series of allegations associated with the ruse. He said he had created an entity called the United States Special Police to represent himself as a federal official even though the company was in no way associated with the U.S. government. He also acknowledged that he had lavished gifts onto real members of the U.S. Secret Service — like a rent-free penthouse apartment and a gun locker — in order to “deepen [his] relationships with them.” It was still unclear to what end Taherzadeh pursued friendships with law enforcement, including officials assigned to protect the White House and first lady Jill Biden.
As part of the scheme, Taherzadeh admitted to setting up surveillance cameras inside and outside of his apartment unit to secretly record women engaged in sexual activity.
The guilty plea was the latest step in a months-long investigation that became public one afternoon in April when a squad of heavily armed federal agents stormed into the Crossing, a luxury apartment building in the Navy Yard area. Taherzadeh and a 36-year-old man named Haidar Ali, who were living in the building the time, were charged with impersonating federal law enforcement.
A subsequent investigation uncovered a trail of deception alleged in court documents and lawsuits that spanned multiple apartment buildings and multiple years. In each complex, Taherzadeh pretended to be a federal law enforcement officer by obtaining equipment like police badges and tactical gear and, in one case, an unlicensed gun with 61 rounds of ammunition, he admitted in his plea.
He fabricated stories about his background and made up covert task forces to recruit others and defraud owners of apartment complexes into providing him with apartment units and parking spaces for his fake law enforcement operations.
The Crossing, Carver and Sonnet apartment complexes together lost more than $800,000 in unpaid apartments, parking spaces and other fees, according to prosecutors.
Case of duped Secret Service agents called an alarming agency breach
At one point, Taherzadeh set up a fake “recruiting process” for Homeland Security and Investigations where he shot a recruit with an air rifle to “verify him,” he admitted in court filings.
“We shot each other for fun,” he said in court Monday. “It was something we did as a drinking game.”
He also admitted in court to visiting a Secret Service employee while he was on duty near the White House complex by tracking him through his iPhone location.
Taherzadeh and Ali pleaded not guilty before Taherzadeh signaled last month that he had changed his mind. Ali’s attorney has argued that he believed he was working for a legitimate security company.
Taherzadeh is on home release with travel restrictions. A status hearing is scheduled for Nov. 2. A sentencing date has not yet been set. | 2022-08-01T23:58:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Arian Taherzadeh admits to posing as federal law enforcement officer - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/01/man-pleads-guilty-posing-fake-federal-law-enforcement-agent/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/01/man-pleads-guilty-posing-fake-federal-law-enforcement-agent/ |
2 bodies found in case in wildfire zone
2 bodies found in car in wildfire zone
Two bodies were found inside a charred vehicle in a driveway in the wildfire zone of a raging California blaze that was among several menacing thousands of homes Monday in the western United States, officials said. Hot and gusty weather and lightning storms threatened to boost the danger that the fires will keep growing.
The McKinney Fire in Northern California near the state line with Oregon exploded in size to nearly 87 square miles after erupting Friday in the Klamath National Forest, firefighting officials said. It is California’s largest wildfire of the year so far, and officials have not determined the cause.
The vehicle and the bodies were found Sunday morning in the driveway of a residence near the remote community of Klamath River, the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office said.
A smaller second fire in the region that was sparked by dry lightning Saturday threatened the tiny California community of Seiad.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) declared a state of emergency Saturday, allowing him more flexibility to make emergency response and recovery effort decisions and to tap federal aid.
City, states settle with USPS over cigarettes
In a statement, the Postal Service said while it “considers that it has always been in full compliance with federal law regarding the handling of cigarette packages in international mail, we do support the goals of the settlement agreement, and for that reason we have decided to resolve this lawsuit.”
In the suit filed in federal court in Brooklyn, the plaintiffs said the Postal Service wasn’t doing enough to enforce the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking law of 2010. The law prohibits the mailing of cigarettes in most cases.
Plaintiffs said tens of thousands of packages sent from other countries instead made it through the postal system for delivery, and said when packages were found, the agency would return them to senders instead of destroying them. | 2022-08-01T23:58:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 2 bodies found in case in wildfire zone - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/2-bodies-found-in-car-in-wildfire-zone/2022/08/01/e17d4080-0fb4-11ed-ab50-5d9e73892397_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/2-bodies-found-in-car-in-wildfire-zone/2022/08/01/e17d4080-0fb4-11ed-ab50-5d9e73892397_story.html |
FILE - Rapper Mystikal performs during the Legends of Southern Hip Hop Tour at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, March 19, 2016. Mystikal was jailed in Louisiana on Monday, Aug. 1, 2022, accused of rape more than a year after prosecutors dropped charges that had kept him jailed for 18 months in another part of the state. (Robb D. Cohen/Invision/AP, File) | 2022-08-01T23:58:25Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Rapper Mystikal again accused of rape; held without bond - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/rapper-mystikal-again-accused-of-rape-held-without-bond/2022/08/01/620817ec-11eb-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/rapper-mystikal-again-accused-of-rape-held-without-bond/2022/08/01/620817ec-11eb-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
What might help Democrats’ prospects? A focus on workers’ dignity.
This summer, two of the most engaging and important leaders of the center left — political philosopher Michael Sandel and Sen. Michael F. Bennet (D-Colo.), who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 — had a conversation on the topic “Reimagining the Future of the Democratic Party,” at the Aspen Institute’s Ideas Festival.
Opinion: 5 reasons Democrats could defy history in the midterms
But very grim still isn’t great. And the Democrats’ likely loss of the House will throw a wrench in any hope they might have of reimagining their ideological future. Republicans’ ascendancy will almost certainly cause a dam break of committee investigations and impeachment proceedings — which will occupy and exhaust Biden administration officials, complicate the president’s campaign message relaunch and inject a lot of chaos, blame and desperation into Democratic strategizing.
Both Republican and Democratic presidents until Donald Trump employed what Sandel calls “the rhetoric of rising.” They described the country as a meritocracy, in which hard work, self-reliance and education could reliably deliver the American Dream. Sandel has summarized the empty promises of the era: “What you earn will depend on what you learn; you can make it if you try.” That is, it’s not the economy’s fault if you’re struggling — it’s a problem of self-motivation.
Elites welcomed this view of the economy in part because it was value neutral. If your only goal is to maximize consumer welfare, then you don’t have to talk about the common good or what constitutes human flourishing.
Sandel and Bennet’s argument — that the dignity of production is more important than the level of consumption — hearkens to the speeches of Robert F. Kennedy. He argued that the most important things in our lives do not come from “just buying and consuming goods together.” What people need is “dignified employment at decent pay, the kind of employment that lets a person say to his community, to his family, to his country, and most important, to himself, ‘I helped to build this country.’”
The cupboard of policy ideas that serve such a social good is not entirely empty. Both speakers were inclined to shift the tax burden away from work and toward consumption and financial speculation. One of Sandel’s ideas — eliminating the payroll tax and replacing it with taxes on consumption, wealth and financial transactions — might be revolutionary in a good way. It would certainly symbolize a shift in our country’s attitude toward labor.
He might consider the question: Is it possible to assemble a winning, center-left coalition without peeling off center-right voters who are pro-life — people who think the protection of nascent life is a matter of human rights? | 2022-08-01T23:58:38Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | What might help Democrats’ prospects? A focus on workers’ dignity. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/01/democratic-party-future-michael-sandel-bennet-common-good/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/01/democratic-party-future-michael-sandel-bennet-common-good/ |
Sen. Joe Manchin III chats with reporters before a hearing least month. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
Most media coverage of the surprise agreement between Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) has focused on its spending and social policy programs. Understandably: The legislation would represent the biggest investment in fighting climate change in U.S. history. Its health provisions would also make care more affordable.
The bill’s weak spot, at least politically, lies in how it will raise revenue to pay for everything. Republicans are trying to peel off the inscrutable Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), who wields a critical vote in the 50-50 Senate, by falsely claiming that middle-class taxpayers will foot the bill. Or that the economy will collapse.
Both of these things bring in more money — especially from the ultrarich and large corporations, whose audit rates have plummeted in recent years as Congress starved the IRS of resources.
The bill’s second key tax measure would narrow the carried interest loophole. Under current law, managers of private equity and other investment funds can pay taxes on some of their earnings at capital gains rates, rather than at the higher rates at which ordinary labor income is taxed.
Right now some megacompanies pay zero in corporate income taxes, despite telling shareholders they brought in big bucks, because there are different rules for how profits are calculated for financial markets vs. for tax purposes. Under this bill, companies that report at least $1 billion in profits to shareholders must pay at least 15 percent of that amount in taxes (with some carveouts and other adjustments).
Unfortunately, Sinema has already ruled out rate hikes. And Congress is notoriously bad at rescinding specific tax deductions and credits. “Congress gives out tax breaks like candy,” says Kimberly Clausing, a former Biden Treasury official. “It becomes hard to say ‘no lollipop for you, no Skittles for you,’ even as everyone’s teeth are rotting.” | 2022-08-01T23:58:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Ignore GOP scaremongering about Dems’ tax plans. They’re worth doing. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/01/ignore-republican-fearmongering-democrat-spending-deal/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/01/ignore-republican-fearmongering-democrat-spending-deal/ |
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